All About Mangoes!

I didn't acquire a taste for mangoes until well into my adult years - and only after sampling them more often with Indian cuisine. But I already knew there were special benefits from the mango fruit, which made it worthwhile getting to like. This article by Ocean Robbins, from Food Revolution Network, is a great overview of a fruit to come to know and enjoy!

Best Black Beans Yet

Sometimes ad-hoc recipes are the best. I brought this together without following a recipe and it was yummy! Makes enough to serve two people or for one person with left-overs.

Because the recipe starts with dried beans, it will take two days - hydrate the beans the first day and put the recipe together the second. If you want to speed it up, use canned black beans that are rinsed as a short-cut and reduce the cooking time.

Ingredients

Basics

• 1/2 cup dried organic black beans
• Juice of 1/2 fresh lemon
• 1 Tbs. butter
• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth (Pacific Foods brand works well, regular or low-salt)

Veggies

• 1 small carrot, peeled & chopped
• 1 shallot, chopped

Spices

• Six leaves fresh sage, chopped
• One tsp. fresh ginger, chopped
• The leaves from three fresh thyme sprigs
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/8 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/8 tsp ground allspice
• Salt & ground pepper to taste (approx. 1/4 tsp each)

Directions

Using a colander, rinse the dried beans with water. Place the beans in a medium-sized plastic container, cover with two cups water and the juice of 1/2 lemon. Let the beans hydrate over-night.

Next day, in a deep pan with the butter and olive oil over medium heat, sauté the chopped carrot, ginger, and shallot.

Drain the hydrated beans in a colander and rinse with fresh water. Add them to the pan.

Add the veggie broth and bring up the heat until the liquid is simmering (but not to a rolling boil.)

Add the spices, stir, and lightly simmer covered over low heat for 45 min to one hour. Stir the mixture occasionally, and watch that the pan doesn't dry out!

When the time is done, if the mixture is too watery, leave it simmer without the top on until the liquid is reduced to where you prefer. Watch that it doesn't dry out and burn!

That's it! Enjoy as a side dish, as the base for burritos or veggie tacos, or emulsify in a blender and thin with a little veggie broth if necessary to make a black bean soup.

Turmeric rice

I wanted to cook some saffron rice but I didn't have saffron on-hand. So, I decided to "get creative" and try with turmeric instead. What resulted was a simple and tasty rice that you may want to try, too. Here's the recipe (yields enough cooked rice for 2 - 3 healthy servings).

Ingredients:

• 1 cup basmati rice
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t sugar
• 1/4 t turmeric
• 1/4 t ground cloves
• 1 T EVOO

Instructions:

• Wash the basmati rice in warm water and drain. Repeat, until the water is clear.
• Put the basmati rice in a rice-cooker and add two cups water.
• Add the salt, sugar, turmeric and cloves.
• Add the EVOO.
• Cook on the "Quick cook" setting.

After the cooking cycle completes then open, let stand for a few minutes, stir, and serve or save for later. Tasty!

Best organic poultry brands

If you eat poultry, then take a little time to check out Cornucopia.org's scorecard on the brands. While the emphasis is on Organic, there's good information here for everyone to be aware of!

Bob Quinn - Organic Farmer & American Hero - Grain By Grain

Bob Quinn is one of my heroes and he should be one of yours, too! He's an awesome agricultural scientist, organic farmer, and nutritional advocate who's making a major impact on global food production.

Check out his recent book, "Grain by Grain" for his inspiring story and forward-thinking perspectives for U.S. and global organic farming. A totally inspiring discussion; let's DO IT!

What "stuff" is in your toothpaste?

Check out the toothpaste ratings from Cornucopia.org. Although most people probably don't care if their toothpaste is certified Organic or Not, the list still gives good guidance on which brands include questionable ingredients like Triclosan (for example, Colgate does 👎; Crest doesn't 👍) and others.

Natural alternatives to DEET-based insect repellents

When I was up in Alaska in the 1990s, my very survival depended on liberal applications of DEET-based insect repellent, as it was high-season for mosquitoes and they were BIG, plentiful, and constantly present! However, the stuff is quite gnarly to your body and tough on synthetic fibers, too! There are more natural-based alternatives available, per this article from Sierra Club. Check it out and perhaps you will experience effective results without the DEET nastiness and issues!

Neti Pot best practice

Using a neti pot for sinus rinsing has some benefit for people who routinely suffer from allergies or other congestive conditions. However, while rare, there have been fatal infections reported when using even filtered tap water with the neti pot. Therefore, pay attention to the CDC's recommendations and use distilled water - or cooled, boiled water - for proper safety. Most over-the-counter kits advise such precautions as well, so "pay attention".

Comparing Meat & Legumes

Here's an interesting article from SF Gate comparing Meat and Legumes. Basically, legumes are "heart healthy" although some amino acids aren't present in legumes alone, so including other vegetable sources such as nuts and grains are important to make up for it.

The Holy Grail of Sweeteners

Stepping back and taking a look at the big picture, it appears that all sweeteners have upsides and downsides. For some time, like many others, I believed that agave syrup was a healthy, low glycemic alternative to sucrose / white table sugar. However, recent discussions indicate that agave has a bothersome issue, because it substitutes glucose / sucrose with high levels of fructose, which aren't digestible by the body and end up being removed by the liver. Therefore, completely replacing sucrose with agave likely isn't a good dietary strategy. And like the Holy Grail, "The Perfect Sweetener" may be unattainable. So, we have to understand the advantages and disadvantages of any sweeteners we use and maintain an intake level and variety that works best for us. 😉