Recipe: Pan-roasted swordfish steak with creamed kale

I always try to cook a spectacular meal right before my weekly 32 hour fast starts! Just today I was walking through the local grocery store when I saw a managers special for 2 swordfish steaks for $4.25. I'm all for saving money and cooking something delicious at the same time. I grabbed this and added some mushrooms to my basket for good measure.

The original recipe I decided to use for my swordfish steak can be found here: swordfish steak

Now I know people always get a bad vibe from using butter. However generally speaking if it is a grass-fed butter it actually has a good amount of healthy fats (and flavor!). I plan to expand on what I mean by healthy fats in the future but if anyone is really curious check out what Mark has to say about using butter or animal fat to cook here: Animal Fats

While I was cooking the swordfish I quickly thought of a delicious side of veggies that would go perfect with it. Kale has become one of my favorite greens, easy wilted and soaks up flavors of creams very well. It also has potential health effects including phytonutrients believed to lower the risk of cancer and promote enzymes in your body that help the livers detoxifying process. Mushrooms are one of my favorites, especially when I am having anything creamy. I also thought the purple cabbage would really accent the meal with its crunch and powerful color.

Creamed kale, mushrooms and purple cabbage:

Ingredients:

2/3 cup chopped mushrooms

1/2 cup chopped red cabbage

1 cup chopped kale

1/2 cup goats milk yogurt or greek style yogurt

1.5 ounces extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1) Heat oil over medium heat

2) Saute mushrooms and purple cabbage for one minute

3) Add the kale and mix with other vegetables and cook another 2-3 minutes until kale starts to wilt

4) Reduce heat to medium-low and pour in goats milk yogurt or greek yogurt

5) Cook another few minutes, stirring occasionally until the yogurt has set well with the ingredients

6) salt and pepper to taste then serve and enjoy!

I threw some oregano on the top of the steak with the lemon zest for the aroma and voila: 

Combined I spent a total of 5 dollars on all the ingredients. That's two 6oz swordfish steaks both with a bit more than a cup of veggies. Such a great meal at 2.50 a piece is a steal! Whoever says eating healthy isn't delicious or cheap is fooling themselves!

Funding A Nutritional Debt

How do you pay for things you like?

In college I thought the answer was credit cards. Making a call to my bank, I soon received my first credit card in the mail. I still remember the moment; tearing the envelope open and pealing the plastic away from the congratulatory letter. Carefully signing my name in the small white rectangle on the back, all the while feeling as if I had become somewhat more responsible. This card was my key to seemingly limetless possibilities!

I, like many Americans, had started down one of our society's most dangerous roads towards financial debt. One day you're buying one piece of swag a month, but the next thing you know you're in the hole 600 dollars thinking: "where did I spend it all!?" It's almost an absurdity to think of buying a car these days and paying cash for it. According to the federal reserve each U.S. card holder has an average credit card debt of over 5,100 dollars. (Consumer Debt) Savings on the other hand haven't been lower in a while. We peaked at saving around 12,000 dollars a year in the mid-1940's. That was over 60 years ago! In 2008 the average savings per household was a mere 392 dollars. American Way of Debt. 

                                                   How My Credit Card Company Sees Me

To me, our perception of financial credit and debt has become a catalyst in the corruption of our health and wellness. In a way we have found ways to live on a nutritional debt.When it comes to eating habits and financial habits they are similar to each other. Unhealthy eating, like compulsive shopping, is something that we oftentimes foresee being an issue before giving into it. Letting ourselves splurge on a super size butterfinger blizzard at Dairy Queen or purchasing a $120 pair of jeans when we've had 'a really rough day.' These are heat of the moment decisions in which our emotions get the best of us.

We treat our bodies often like we do our credit cards. It seems like we are in control of our bodies in the short term. "A few french fries here, a yoo-hoo there, it's only one time whats the big deal? I want to enjoy my life!" However, like a credit card, it's that one extra swipe once a month that adds up in the end. Weight gain "may have been caused by consuming, say, 250 calories more than were used each day..." which equates to "— the amount in a small bar or chocolate or half a cup of premium ice cream —" (NYT) Remember, those baby steps can be as much of a hinder as a benefit to our health.

If we want to live a positive, productive and powerful life we must invest in our health as well as we do in any other area. We have to remember that our bodies are not easily replicated, replaced or restored to their original status. It's one nightmare to default on a mortgage and face your debt problems, it's another mess all together when our bodies turn bankrupt. 

The heat of happiness

Ever since I was younger I have always been a fan of Greek mythology. I still remember the countless times my backside fell asleep as I sat on the toilet for hours reading my favorite myths. My despair and pity for Kore; forced to walk between the living and the dead, all because of some measly persimmon seeds! The courage and cunning of the Spartans in the unforgettable battle of troy! The epic tragedy of King Aegeus's fate as he threw himself to be dashed on the rocks, all for naught! It was all too exciting to even consider moving to a more comfortable chair.

One of my favorites is the tale of Icarus and Daedalus as they try to escape their imprisonment from the Island of Crete. Daedalus, a master craftsman, fashioned two pairs of wings out of feathers and wax. Together, flying through the skies, father and son are able to make out over the open seas! Icarus, overcome by the shear glee of flight, soars higher, higher and higher still. His father had warned of the danger of flying too high, for the suns heat could melt the wax holding the wings together.

Daedalus watches in horror, as Icarus climbs to the clouds, only able to shout his warning. The wax, having slowly melted as Icarus climbed inch by inch, finally gives way. A tongue of gravity constricts itself tightly around Icarus, pulling him to the awaiting jaws of the open sea below. Daedalus, making his way to the nearest coast, has won his freedom, but at the cost of his only son.

Grim as it is I think the story of Icarus is, it is a powerful allegory for our obsession with happiness. As Americans we have a great deal of freedoms that we enjoy day to day. We can express our freedom of speech, right to bare arms and freedom of religion. American's struggle for the dream of 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' But I wonder if oftentimes we go to far?

There are many areas in society that I could breach as examples of Americans pursuing happiness to a fault. However, this is a blog about eating and food. Therefore I want to specifically target the way pursuing happiness, above all other things, has impacted our health.

I've talked to many different people who are struggling with their diets in different ways. Some are underweight, scared of what they are becoming. Yet these individuals seem unable to break the gaze of the omnipotent goddesses of cosmo. It's no surprise what the underlying reason for young adults to want to chase after a skinny models figure. Those who are skinny are supposedly happy, ergo the skinnier a person becomes the happier they will eventually be.

Others, much in the same boat, are worried about their diets having made them much too plump to make it to their 60's. However most Hansels would rather chance that the gingerbread witch never cooks them than making the effort to escape their cage. I've heard a straightforward response to my curiousity regarding what makes them continue eating this way.

"James, to be honest I do care about my health, but I just like the food I eat too much. I could never give it up! I've never been someone who 'eat's to live.' Can I help it that I'm more of a 'live to eat' kind of person?" *I'll be tackling this idea in a later post, stay tuned!*

In  our food culture we over emphasize the happiness that we get from eating. We need to learn to understand our motivations for eating and understand how our over consumption, or under consumption, of certain things really effects our bodies. We need to understand societies influence on our consumption habits.

Is it worth the risk of losing everything or winding up in a terrible vice? Like Icarus most of us are flying too close to a sun of happiness, without heading the information and warnings that science and nature around us are trying to communicate. Also like Icarus we can't notice that the wax is, ever so slowly, melting away.

I'm not saying you can't enjoy your favorite foods and become healthier. Healthy people LOVE food as much as the next person! I'm happy to say that since I started eating the foods that I consider healthy the benefits that outweigh the disadvantages are astounding. I sleep better, I have an immense storage of natural energy and I no longer worry about heartburn, indigestion, diarrhea or any other congestive difficulties. That's just scraping the surface!

I'm also not advocating that everyone is in trouble of eminent death or disease. Don't stop eating your favorite foods all together! We have to remember that Daedalus flew with Icarus. Yet he remembered that you have to be cautious of how high you're flying. The purpose of this post is not to stop people from flying at all! It's only a cautious reminder to seek and find a safe medium, to be careful of the elusive warmth and heat of happiness.

Recipe: Almond crusted salmon w/ dijon glazed mushrooms

Afternoon Everyone!

I'm still working on my next addition to this months goal of mapping out some of Americas social and psychological issues interfering with health. Seeing as I'm also vacationing in the Bay Area for the next week  time is spread a bit thin. :-/

I decided to keep the salad fresh I'd throw in a new recipe. So here it is, Enjoy!

Almond Crusted Salmon came to me in an instant after reading this recipe:

Baked dijon salmon

I removed the bread crumbs, slashed the honey a bit and added some ginger. My revised idea was as follows:

• 1/4 cup butter (unsalted), melted
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger
• 1/4 cup finely crushed almonds
• 4 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
• 2 (4 ounce) fillets salmon
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 lemon, for garnish

1. In a small bowl, stir together butter, mustard, ginger and honey. Set aside. Crush almonds with a malot or kitchen hammer and mix together almonds and parsley. 
   
2. Brush each salmon fillet lightly with honey mustard mixture, and sprinkle the tops of the fillets with the almond mixture.

Now Almond Crusted Salmon sounded good, but lets face it, is there anything better than some broiled mushrooms to accompany such a delicious meal? This part was really easy:

3 cups Shiitake or brown mushrooms, cubed.

I felt that the above sauce was more than enough to lightly glaze 1-2 fillets and have enough left over to dunk the mushrooms in. The best way to do this is to throw the mushrooms in a bowl and then add the glaze. Otherwise when dunking the mushrooms another way they may fall apart.

While neither recipe demands a marinade time leaving the Salmon and the mushrooms in the fridge for about two hours will really let the juices fuse together. To bake:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Place salmon on top of a tinfoil layered 4-6 inch square or rectangle baking pan. Bake salmon 6 - 7 minutes then place mushrooms in and around salmon and cook another 6 to 9 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork. Season with salt and pepper, and garnish with a wedge of lemon.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. :)

Simple Education

Kids seem to be learning faster than ever these days. The list of kids that I know who can sit down with an i-pad or android phone to play games, text message or read books grows longer every day. It's fascinating to see how 'in the know' kids can get when given the opportunity. But i-pad toting kindergardners aren't the norm. So how well are the average american children being educated?

Let's be honest. When our K-12 program has statistics like these: American K-12 Statistics, it's hard not to worry about children around the nation heading towards disaster. I would like to point out however that I do not blame the teachers of America. I support the teachers and want to thank them for the great sacrifice they have made to try and better our countries growing children. I think the largest problem comes from the school system itself.

It's also interesting to me to learn what it is that our schools aren't teaching. When I think about what children, ages 4-10, should be taught, it seems that learning about all the basic life skills are truly important. So then why where we never educated on how to make our own food? Why is it that I didn't ever learn about how sugar, salt, fruit, vegetables and all the other things affects my body until I was 22 years old, on my own volition? Shouldn't children be exposed to these things far before they graduate elementary school, let alone high school or college?

I was lucky to have a mother that had time on her hands to teach my sisters and I the basics of cooking. She would force us to come into the kitchen from time to time to bake a cake or help with dinner. But what about the children who's parents bring them home fast food every other day? Or who have the idea of a family dinner as one of sitting round at Denny's or McDonalds. Where the only communication is done through cell phones or liking someones Facebook status? Growing up without the knowledge of cooking, how to read a recipe or a nutrition label and how to enjoy the community of food is a nightmare on your own.

Learning how to take care of your own body is really one of the simplest things to teach children in order to fuel their lives for a better future. Thankfully there are people from all different walks of life that are coming together and realizing the importance of this simple education. 

One of those is Jamie Oliver. This is one of his talks performed at TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) in 2010 about his plan and movement to teach every child about food.

Learning to take care of yourself isn't an easy thing to do. However the simple education of what food is and how to eat it properly is a significant baby step in the right direction.