's motd Sat Sept 4, 2010

[Guest guest]

COLORFUL MEALS

Saturday, 04 September 2010

You know, so many Americans eat

beige and white foods. They eat a lot of foods like

white rice, white potatoes, beige gravy and white

bread. Now I like some of those foods myself but, I

have to say, there's not a lot of nutrition in them.

You should make an effort to colorize

your your meals. I keep fresh produce and fruits in

wooden bowls around my kitchen all the time. Bright

colored fresh foods, fruits and vegetables, contain

lots of vitamins and nutrients your body really

needs. And like I said, you should add more color to

the foods you eat everyday.

For instance, the color orange,

it's such a happy color. We've gotta start with

oranges, of course. They're so good for you. So

are carrots and butternut squash. Then there're

delicious orange beets. Have you tried them? And

don't forget mangoes and papaya. What about orange

bell peppers? (Hmmm, now that I'm thinking about

it, I think I'll stuff some this weekend with brown

rice and ground turkey.) Orange foods are good for

you because they're loaded with Vitamin A.

How about the color yellow?

Is there anything prettier than freshly picked

yellow corn? Or how about yellow squash? I told

you last week about cooking spaghetti squash and how

much I love it. And let me tell ya...I just love my

pineapple, too. Did you ever cook sliced pineapple

on the grill? Oh, what a flavor! Yellow foods are

good for your vision, by the way.

Then there's

the color purple. (No, not like the

movie.) There're not a lot of purple foods but I'd

include blueberries on my list. They're one of my

favorite berries and I like the splash of color

they leave on my tongue! Gotta talk about that

delicious purple cabbage, too. Hey, it's not just

for cole slaw! I love purple cabbage in just about

any salad because it adds great color and a crunch I

just love. I also like to steam my purple cabbage

adding caraway seeds and sugar snaps.

Purple-colored foods are beneficial because they're

really good for your circulation.

How about the color scarlet?

That's the deep crimson color of beets. I love to

cook beets. In fact, I made some last week. I

placed them in a pot of boiling water for about 40

minutes. After letting them cool, I peeled then

sliced them and topped my beets with red wine

vinegar. Beets contain antioxidants that have an

anti-anemic benefit which means they're good for

that blood running through your veins.

And of

course, let's not forget the color green. You

get so many benefits from vegetables of that color.

These veggies include spinach, broccoli, collard

greens, string beans and asparagus. Green foods

are loaded with fiber which help keep you regular

and risk the reduce of colon cancer. Plus, they

make you feel full faster and less likely to

overinduldge on other not-so-good-for-you foods.

Okay, I want you to pretend you're an artist the next

time you're preparing a meal. Think of the plate as

your canvas. Use the richest colored foods to fill

your plate as you "paint" healthy meals onto your

canvas, I mean plate....for you and your

family.

So what color foods will you be having today?

Love,