VEGETABLE LADY NEWSLETTER
Volume I * Number 3
July 2001
Dedicated to helping provide healthy information for those of you who
desire to be the best you can be! "Knowledge
is the food for the soul." Plato
Welcome to the July issue of the VEGETABLE LADY NEWSLETTER. This month we will be discussing:
I.
THE TRUTH ABOUT VEGGIES
II. GOOD REPORT ON ALLERGIES
III. NEWS FROM THE HOME FRONT
IV. RITA'S BEST RECIPES…EASY, YUMMY, AND GOOD FOR YOU!!!
I. THE TRUTH ABOUT VEGGIES
I think it fitting as the Vegetable Lady to remind you that vegetables
are of utmost importance to our health. I am alarmed at how few vegetables
most people get on a daily basis. Many people today talk about juicing
or even taking their vegetables in a capsule. Let me remind you that
the prime reason vegetables benefit us is not only because of the vitamins
and minerals but also because of the fiber. If you are indeed taking
your veggies in juice form or capsule form what happens to that fiber?
Is it there? Check it out. By the way, Life Plus Veggie Caps and my
favorite, Life Plus Daily Biobasics both have the beneficial fiber in
them. www.vegetablelady.com
Recently I read in one of my favorite magazines (Natural Health) a little
blurb that was called "The Long, Strange Trip of Supermarket Produce."
The article talked about fresh fruits and vegetables and what they go
through to get to the grocery bag. It is indeed a trip when you consider
what the food goes through before it ends up on the plate. The article
goes on to state, " For instance, take spinach. Grown in the southern
parts of the United States or Mexico, this crop is heavily treated with
pesticides in the field, then picked, washed in chlorinated water, and
dried in a factory size salad spinner. Sometimes that funny taste is
the chlorine residue. Spinach is usually sent off quickly but the shipping
and handling delays can mean that a bunch on your store shelf is already
one week old. Those greens don't have a lot of fresh time left, especially
if they're left out at room temperature." Add the trip to your home
and the amount of time the produce then waits in the refrigerator before
prepared (where it is cooked to death) and then put on the plate and
we have the whole story.
Many of you have read the following about spinach:
In 1948 a cup of spinach contained 158 mg of iron per 100 grams
In 1965 a cup of spinach contained 27 mg of iron per 100 grams
In 1998 a cup of spinach contained 2 mg of iron per 100 grams
Today, you would have to eat 75 cups of spinach to get the same amount
of nutrition available 50 years ago.
Have you had your 5-9 servings of vegetable today? (The American Cancer Society recommends this). I am not talking about jam on toast or catsup with French fries. I am talking about fresh green and orange vegetables such as broccoli, collard greens, or turnip greens or kale and Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, carrots, rudabagas and on and on. The problem many people face is that they don't know how to prepare vegetables in a tasty manner. Let me remind you of my recipes on my website. You will find delicious ways to prepare even collard greens. So check my cookbook out again and go vegetable shopping, cooking and eating! www.vegetablelady.com
Since we are
not getting what we need in the vegetables we eat (and don't eat) today
then I always go back to starting the day with the Biobasics. Many of
you have tried this wonderful product. If you haven't then go to my
website and check out what I have to say about it. (www.vegetablelady.com
) When we get the nutrients we need on a daily basis our
bodies can do amazing things. Starting this month the Daily Biobasics
has a new "no taste" to it. We never minded the old taste, which was
somewhat bitter, but welcome the new improved "no taste" to the same
wonderful product.
II. GOOD REPORT ON ALLERGIES
I would like to say a word about allergies. I have had another allergy
free spring and I am grateful. I have spent a lifetime of suffering
and looking for answers and so you can imagine how happy I am. Even
after being off dairy (15 years) and sugar (24 years) I had horrible
allergies. Read about my story on my website www.vegetablelady.com
III. NEWS FROM THE HOME FRONT
Our family took a trip to Spain in June to see our daughter who
had been studying there as an exchange student. (She is now happy to
be back at Texas Tech where she graduates in December with a degree
in Spanish)
We flew in to London and on to Madrid where we spent the night. From
there we rented cars (yes, cars, we had 4 of our children and my mother
along with Randy and I) where we drove to a resort outside of Malaga
which was right on the Mediterranean. We did day trips all around the
area before we moved on to another resort in Marbella. From there we
did more day trips (a highlight was seeing the Ala Hambra in Granada)
and spent time on the beach. We found eating out to be reasonable in
the resort areas, yet enjoyed shopping and preparing our own food in
our condo. We all got so hungry just for fresh vegetables and we thrilled
with the local produce.
Traveling can be hard for those wanting to eat healthy; we have found there are some things that make it easier like staying in a condo with a kitchen! We also ordered vegetarian meals ahead of time for the international flight and they were really pretty good. We are happy and healthy back home. Because it is so easy to pick up parasites while traveling we just finished doing the Paratox (www.vegetablelady.com ) Click on What Can I Take? And then look under cleansing and you can click on to information on parasite cleansing.
IV. RITA'S
BEST RECIPES…EASY, YUMMY, AND GOOD FOR YOU!!!
TILAPIA FILLETS * a delicious dinner in a flash *
4 small Tilapia fillets (for 4 people)
juice of one orange
½ cup of olive oil (or less)
¼ cup of tamari or soy sauce
½ cup of dried onion flakes
cooked millet (recipe below)* can substitute brown rice (cooked)
Directions:
Spread cooked millet over the bottom of an oiled Pyrex dish. Lay filets
on top of the millet skin side down.
Mix with a fork the juice, oil, and tamari and pour over the filets
and sprinkle dried onion flakes on top.
Tightly cover top of dish with foil and bake in preheated 350-degree
oven for 30- 35 minutes.
*Millet
Add 2 cups of rinsed millet to 4 cups of boiling water in a heavy saucepan
with a tight fitting lid. Add a pinch of salt and cook on simmer for
20 minutes.
This meal can
be prepared and ready in 30 minutes if the grain is cooked ahead of
time. I like to cook up grain and have it ready in my refrigerator.
While the fish is cooking there is just enough time to snap and cook
some fresh green beans. I wash my green beans and put them in a large
stainless steel skillet with a small amount of salted boiling water.
I then turn the burner down to simmer and cook them for 15 or 20 minutes.
I add dill to my green beans for a really nice taste. A quick salad
with leafy green vegetables is a nice addition to this meal.
When I do the fish this way it always turns out delicious. The grain
under the fish is so tasty and moist. This dish really is easy, anyone
can do it. If you haven't tried millet this is a good introduction.
Our peach trees are loaded so every night we have a fresh crop of peaches come in. My mother has been peeling away and freezing the slices in zip lock bags. They will taste so good after the fresh peaches are long gone. Meanwhile I have made more than a few peach cobblers. This is how I do it:
Rita's Peach Cobbler
Mix: 2 cups
of whole-wheat pastry flour
2 cups of quick oats
¼ t salt
1 ½ t aluminum free baking powder
Then add:
½ cup of good quality light oil (like canola oil) stirring until mixture
is moist.
2/3rds cup of soymilk stirring until well mixed.
It should be like a cookie dough mixture. Oil a Pyrex dish and press
the mixture into the bottom of it.
Mix together:
15 medium peaches peeled and sliced
1/3 cup of apple juice
1 ½ T of whole-wheat flour
pinch of salt
¼ cup of maple syrup (optional)
Pour the peach mixture on top of the dough mixture and bake uncovered
for 20 minutes in a moderate (350) oven.
Thanks for all the feed back on the newsletter. I love hearing from
you. Until next month, let me end by saying, "Eat Your Vegetables!"
The Vegetablelady
