Lunch Time!

Over the last 20 years, because of the way that I eat and especially in the last few months since I switched to all plant-based meal planning, I have been the target of two particular questions...  "what on earth do you eat?" and "where do you get your protein from?".  The first question has always kind of irritated me, because it usually accompanies a screwed up face and an incredulous kind of attitude that insinuates only someone who is completely off balance would not eat "like everybody else". However, now I use the questions as a spring board to perhaps educate the one who is asking.

So how about if I answer those two questions, by way of example, in sharing with you what I had for lunch today.

I began by mixing together in a large bowl, a few cubed potatoes and yam, sliced onions and finely chopped spinach.  A good drizzling of  olive oil and a quick toss to blend it all together then dumped out onto my stoneware sheet and sprinkled on top with sea salt and into the oven for 45 minutes.

 

While that was cooking I chopped up some kabocha squash and beets, tossed them into a casserole dish and put them in for baking as well. By the way, I always peel my squash with a potatoe peeler and then cube it because I like it to have the drier texture and I like it to remain sweet!  When it is cut in half and baked with the skin on, the moisture becomes trapped in the bowl of the shell and the squash becomes wet and has a bitter taste to it... plus, your arms get a really good work out when you peel a squash, it's not for sissies, and it's a whole lot cheaper than the gym!

I always make sure that I prepare my legumes and rice at the beginning of each week so that they are always at hand in the fridge for a quick grab.  Today I chose chick peas and lima beans.

I placed a handful of each on my plate, over a bed of fresh baby spinach, then added a sprinkling of black wild rice. I warmed all this up because I like my spinach wilted and then topped it all with the yummy, hot dishes straight from the oven.


By the way, Black Wild Rice stands out among other grains when it

comes to amounts of protein, minerals, B vitamins and folic acid.  The protein content of 1/2 cup of cooked wild rice measures 3.3 grams, that same quantity of long grain brown rice contains only 2 grams. The bonus is that wild rice has only 83 calories for 1/2 cup cooked!

Using that same 1/2 cup measurement, folic acid soars over brown rice with 21.3 mcg for wild rice and 3.9 mcg for brown rice. According to the University of California Berkeley Wellness Encyclopedia of Food and Nutrition, 1/2 cup dry wild rice provides 95 mcg or 48% of the RDA (200 mcg) of folacin for men and 53% for women.

The niacin content of wild rice is also exceptional, l.06 mg for 1/2 cup cooked. Potassium 83 mg, and zinc, which is usually available in only trace amounts, comes in at 1.1 mg. and that same 1/2 cup cooked wild rice offers 1.5 grams of fiber, contains 26 mg of magnesium, a healthy balance of B vitamins along with some calcium and iron.

My beverage of choice, to go along with all this nutritional bounty, was a glass of cool, refreshing, spring water.

Yum!

And at the risk of sounding cheeky... what on earth did you eat for lunch?

Here's to your Health!

love,