| Two Healthy Meals for March Dinners |
|
|
|
advertisement
|
By Joyce Rosencrans
Scripps Howard News Service March has long been designated as National Nutrition Month, the month for all Americans to concentrate on healthful eating choices. It's an important public-health challenge, this business of adults taking responsibility for food choices and healthful lifestyles for themselves and their children. However, designated months to celebrate anything, especially food wisdom and moderation, are wasted efforts if the public doesn't take up the challenge all year long. To do that without bogging down in charts, grams and conflicting nutrition studies, people need to do one thing: Cook more meals from scratch. It's that simple. Processed foods and restaurant meals generally add excess calories, fat and sodium to our diets. Alternately, using basic foods in the home kitchen gives people a better shot at controlling what goes in their mouths. Another general principle of good eating is that smart shopping comes first. If you don't buy packaged cookies, salty snacks, ice cream and empty-calorie soft drinks in the first place, you can't grab them at home to stuff your face in a moment of weakness. It's the same for people who are trying to stop smoking. They can't have cigarettes in the house. The third general principle for achieving a better diet is to stop whining about nutrition confusion. That's an excuse. You know what you have to do: Eat more fruits and vegetables, a wide variety of each. With those bulking up your diet, there may be room, finally, for some occasional sweet treats. Welcome to March meal planning and beyond. Happy Nutrition "Months." The recipes for cabbage rolls and sesame brown rice salad are good examples of delicious, healthful food combinations. Each calls for a variety of vegetables presented in an appealing manner. The cabbage rolls, for instance, are not the usual greasy bundles stuffed with ground beef, then buried in sweetened tomato sauce. These are vegetarian cabbage rolls steamed without sauce, stuffed with fresh bread crumbs, grated Jack cheese and toasted walnuts. Served at room temperature, the green bundles may be pick-up snacks or a mini-meal. They're ideal for packed office lunches, too. March menu-planners face a seasonal transition in that soups and stews seem tired by now, but it's not yet salad season either. A hearty brown rice salad is one answer; this one's flavored with sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds, "lite" soy sauce and fresh ginger. Crunch is added via a collection of salad-bar vegetables (radishes, bell pepper, green onions, carrots julienne), so that you're not left with partially used vegetables wasting away in the hydrator. The one vegetable you must purchase whole for the rice salad is jicama (HEE-kah-mah), a brown tuber favored in Mexico. Eaten raw, jicama is crunchy, white and juicy. If you can't find jicama on any given supermarket foray, substitute canned water chestnuts.
Cheese and Walnut Cabbage Rolls Ingredients: 1 head green cabbage, about 2 lbs.
2/3 cup vegetable or chicken stock
1/3 cup golden raisins
1 small tomato, seeded and finely chopped
2-1/2 cups fresh white bread crumbs
1-1/4 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
3/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1 extra-large egg or 1/4 cup low-cholesterol egg product
1 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed thoroughly
Salt and pepper, as desired Preparation: Bring a large pot of water to boiling. Cut out the white cabbage core. Drop whole cabbage into boiling water and cook 10-12 minutes. Remove from water and let cabbage stand until cool enough to handle. Carefully peel away the outer layer of leaves with coarse ribs, and then select 12 of the next-to-outer leaves, keeping them as whole as possible. Set those aside for stuffing. Chop enough of the remaining cabbage to make 1-1/2 cups and place in a large bowl. Reserve all cabbage to use later. To the bowl of chopped cabbage, add the stock, golden raisins, tomato and the freshly made bread crumbs (not packaged ones; sourdough white bread slices were whirled in a food processor bowl to test recipe). Add grated cheese. Toast walnuts in a small, dry skillet over medium heat until nuts are fragrant. Cool quickly on a plate and add to the crumb mixture with the egg. Toss well. Crush rosemary, practically grinding it, as in a mortar and pestle if you have a small one. These sharp needles, if left whole, are uncomfortable in the mouth. Stir vigorously to combine stuffing, seasoning it with salt and pepper. You will have about 3 cups. Assembly: Have oven heating to 375 degrees. Get out a 9-inch square baking dish. Lay whole cabbage leaves on work surface. Place 1/4 cup stuffing near base of each leaf. Fold in sides to cover filling, then roll each to make a neat bundle. (Cut out center stem if necessary to roll tightly.) Place rolls seam-side down and close together in the baking dish. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons water to bottom of baking dish, distributing it among rolls. Separate the leaves on what remains of the whole cabbage and overlap them on top of the rolls. Bake for 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes, then discard leaves from top. Serve cabbage rolls warm or at room temperature as a pick-up snack, mini-meal, hors d'oeuvre or side dish. Serves: 6, 2 rolls each
Sesame Brown Rice Salad Ingredients: 3/4 cup uncooked brown rice Ingredients for Dressing: 2 Tbs. canola oil
1 Tbs. sesame oil
2 Tbs. vinegar
2 Tbs. "lite" soy sauce
2 Tbs. minced fresh ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
Dash of cayenne pepper Ingredients for Salad: 1 cup peeled jicama strips
1/4 cup julienned carrots (from salad bar)
1/4 cup thinly sliced radishes
1/4 cup bell pepper matchsticks, any color
3 green onions, sliced with most of tops
2 Tbs. sesame seeds, toasted Preparation: Cook the brown rice (regular or quick-cooking) according to package directions but with no butter and only half the salt. Turn into a large bowl to cool. Meanwhile, whisk together the dressing ingredients: the vegetable oil and sesame oil, vinegar (white or cider), soy sauce, garlic, ginger and cayenne pepper. Let stand while preparing vegetables: Add to rice the jicama, carrots, radishes (stack round slices and cut into thirds), bell pepper matchsticks and sliced green onion. Mix lightly with a large kitchen fork. Toast sesame seeds in a small, dry skillet, not greased. Shake pan over medium heat until seeds are fragrant. Add dressing and toasted seeds to rice-vegetable mixture and toss well. Serve at room temperature or cover and chill. Serves: 6
(Joyce Rosencrans is home editor of the Cincinnati Post.)
| 
