Menu Swap: August 18th

I just ate a pound of strawberries..whew..at least they aren’t fattening!

Anyway, Mary Frances, the host of this week’s gluten free menu swap, has powers of the future - seriously. I mean considering I’m moving this Sunday when I didn’t even realize it was that close, I’m raiding the freezer. So far, I’ve nearly finished all my bags of opened frozen vegetables, stock up on some stuff I won’t be able to find anymore and savor hem for the last, and bought a bunch of shelf-stable goods that are also questionable to attain in Virginia. My darlin’ played detective for me to the local Asian stop near him and he said they have a ton of GF flours! Not a lot of frozen or fresh produce, but my flours are there. I figured I can try my luck at growing kabocha and Japanese sweet potatoes in my brand spankin new yard that has gardening potential. Oh I’m one happy gal now. I was born to be in an opened air vicinity - coincidentally in the south.

I’m unfortunately eating out twice this week, much to my dismay. I hate it because I know somewhere along the lines I’m going to be bit in the butt for it. Eating out, as with all celiac’s, is frightening. The food looks so tempting, so daring, so innocent when possibly moments later you’re curled up in bed crying due to pain..or that’s what I do. The last time that happened, Phil was there to console me and that helped. What could I do without him? Nothing. He’s my life.

Back to the menu, tomorrow happens to be national potato day so I’m going potato crazy. For a while, I was in fear of getting fat on potatoes since I found myself craving potatoes like an Irishman during the potato famine. One medium potato is composed of approximately 26 grams of carbohydrates in starch and the longer it sits after cooking, its percentage of resistant starch - that which isn’t digested - remains intact. Upon further investigation, I discovered that potatoes aren’t bad at all unless you’re the topping addict that smothers it in high artery clogging cheese sauce with teeny tiny traces of broccoli as see in pre-prepared frozen foods like some people I know. I like it too but I’d opt for more green, less cheese or in this case rice cheese but rice cheese actually has more protein and nutrients than an ounce of regular cheddar so in the long run you’re essentially better off eating rice cheese and drinking rice milk than regular low fat and light cheese. I saw almond cheese as well but gosh its expensive! Anything regarding nuts is expensive.

Back to my case in point, potatoes are good for the general public unless one has an intolerance to the nightshade family - potatoes, tomatoes, and eggplants - so it isn‘t expected that one is able to eat it. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia on the nutritional facts about a normal, regular spud:
“Potatoes contain a number of important vitamins and minerals. A medium potato (150g/5.3 oz) with the skin provides 27 mg vitamin C (45% of the Daily Value (DV)), 620 mg of potassium (18% of DV), 0.2 mg vitamin B6 (10% of DV) and trace amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, foliate, niacin, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, and zinc. Moreover, the fiber content of a potato with skin (2 grams) equals that of many whole grain breads, pastas, and cereals. Potatoes also contain an assortment of phytochemicals, such as carotenoids and polyphenols. The notion that “all of the potato’s nutrients” are found in the skin is an urban legend. While the skin does contain approximately half of the total dietary fiber, more than 50% of the nutrients are found within the potato itself. The cooking method used can significantly impact the nutrient availability of the potato.”

Now, as for the sweet potato, part of the morning glory family and is very sparsely related to the actual potato. The sweet potato is a tubular while the potato is actually a vegetable. No, that doesn’t mean you should eat potatoes and state, “Well I’m eating vegetables; I had a baked potato with it last night..” A prime example of this situation was in a phone call last night - but I’m not going to be mentioning names. Sweet potatoes are not yams which is why when you go to the supermarket, there is a yam section and a sweet potato section. Yams are vines. Yes, I said vines; yams are actually a starchy tubular vine cultivated for dietary consumption. The differences would be apparent if one was to cook a yam and a sweet potato and eat them both. Yams tend to be more yellow while sweet potatoes, having a high carotene (the pigment important in photosynthesis which creates an orange hue in vegetables and plants) level, are more orange.

Of course - there are exceptions! Yay! Many, many, many - wait - many varieties of sweet potatoes, potatoes, and yams exist in addition to the possible accidental crossbred and mutations which phenomenally occur. There are various references to these types of starchy edibles such as batata, ube, Satsuma-imo, yamaimo, pappas, kumara, kamote, nyama, yamyam, etc. The varities of potatoes are more known to us: new potatoes, fingerlings, red skinned, white potatoes, yellow potatoes, and so forth.
So have a spud or two; they’re good for you.

Next week I probably won’t have a menu set up since I’ll be in transition. So, have fun! I’ll still post but I doubt I’ll be in full swing until I’m settled and then some.)


Menu Swap August 18th

Monday - National Potato Day
- Breakfast - Caribbean Hash
- Lunch - Rocky Mountain Blue Ranch Potato Salad (wait till you see this one)
- Dinner - Moussaka

Tuesday - Southern
- Breakfast - Fried Green Tomatoes (I FOUND THEM)
- Lunch - Corn Pudding
- Dinner - Country Captain Curry

Wednesday
Lunch - Out
Dinner - Hummus & Veggies

Thursday - Japanese
- Lunch - Goya Chanpuru (Bitter Gourd Stir-Fry - I was actually craving this; now, you tell me why) & satsumaimo no nimono (simmered sweet potato)
- Dinner - Banshou no Kinoko-zume (Stuffed Chili Pepper with mushrooms), homemade kimchi (yeah baby), ume-topped rice, & corn

Friday
- Lunch - Chickpea Salad
- Dinner - Out