For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

Lots of interesting health and nutrition stories this week. I particularly love the piece about how exercise impacts cognitive performance, and the bits about the health benefits of grains. I’m not in the mood to focus on any BS this week, but if I did it would have certainly been the Monsanto court decision.

I read many more wonderful articles than I post here each week. If you’d like to see more or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For a complete reading list join me on the new Digg or StumbleUpon. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you.

Links of the week

• Cooking Is As Easy As Being a DungeonMaster <<The ultimate geek cooking lesson. If you’ve ever mastered anything, you can conquer your kitchen. (Geek’s Dream Girl)
• Phys Ed: Your Brain on Exercise <<Really cool new research explaining how exercise makes you smarter. My goal, of course, is to turn you all into a bunch of super geniuses (wahahahaha). (New York Times)
• Low acid diet may not prevent bone loss <<I’m always confused when I hear people mention the health benefits of “alkaline diets,” since there is almost no science backing those bogus claims. As usual, Marion Nestle does an awesome job explaining why. (SFGate)
• Who’s Behind Those Trader Joe’s Generics? You’d Be Surprised <<I must admit, I’ve always wondered how Trader Joe’s private label put out such awesome products. Turns out, they are awesome products I already knew about. (SFoodie)
• How do you know you’re on a “good” diet? <<I love Yoni’s answer to this: “Simple. You like it.” He really nails what it means to find your own healthstyle with this article. (Weighty Matters)
• Add onion and garlic to “unlock” the nutrients in grains <<Somehow I doubt Atkins or paleo dieters will pay any attention to this, but it’s interesting news for the rest of us. (Nutrition Data)
• Experts Believe Many Birth Defects Are Preventable <<I like the title of this article because it makes me sound like an expert. Turns out you should try to be healthy before you even start thinking about maybe getting pregnant. (Medline)
• Wine for Tomato Season: Grechetto <<Don’t know that I’ve ever tried Grechetto, but it has skyrocketed to the top of my summer to-do list. (Good Wine Under $20)
• High-fibre breakfast enhances fat burning during exercise <<Cereal burns fat? Only when you exercise, which of course you do regularly because you’re a super genius. This article also provides a good excuse to laugh at the way Canadians spell fiber. (kidding!) (Obesity Panacea)
• Strawberries. Balsamic. Cacao Nibs. <<Uber healthy seasonal dessert FTW!! (Vanilla Garlic)

What inspired you this week?

A couple weeks ago I was visiting friends and family down in Southern California (Orange County & Inland Empire) and on the first night found myself without my farmers market, without my Whole Foods and without a decent (or healthy) restaurant for miles and miles and miles. And miles.

The evening was getting late, so the only respectable option on the horizon was my beloved Trader Joe’s. But I have to admit, TJ’s is not exactly my first choice when it comes to produce. While they do have a small produce section with moderate variety, the stuff they carry is always pre-packaged and a little, well, let’s call it *off-fresh*. Not bad or old, but not exactly the pinnacle of freshness either.

I do not mind their bagged salad greens, however. Even at Whole Foods I buy the boxed kind because it always seems a little cleaner than the bulk bin. I don’t mind farmers market dust, but back-of-a-grocery-store-loading-dock dirt? I’ll pass.

So salad it was. I bought their herb salad mix, which has a nice assortment of interesting flavors. Salad is tough in the winter though. For starters, tomatoes are inedible. The Persian cucumbers looked okay, so I bought those and a bag of avocados.

What really takes the meal to the next level though is a sausage, onion, red pepper and mushroom sauté. The heat from the pan wilts your greens, adding a warmness to your fresh green salad. Eureka!

The secret is to use a sweet onion. Trader Joe’s always has several different onion varieties in little bags, so just read the labels and you’ll be fine.

Trader Joe’s also has a fantastic cooked sausage selection and I like them all. This time we went with Cilantro Chicken, but follow your heart when you are picking a flavor for your own salad.

If you are vegetarian you can substitute tofu or just skip the sausage.

A perfect any-season healthy meal in about 15 minutes.

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Warm Sausage Salad à la TJ’s

(serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 2 Trader Joe’s cooked sausages (any flavor)
• 1 bag of salad greens
• 1 small (or 1/2 medium) sweet onion
• 1 small red bell pepper (optional)
• 6-8 brown crimini mushrooms
• 1 small avocado
• 2 Persian or Japanese (small) cucumbers
• Good quality olive oil
• Good quality vinegar
• Salt and pepper

Slice onion and bell pepper into slivers about 1 inch long. Clean mushrooms and slice into desired thickness. Dice the cucumber and avocado. Cut sausages into thin slices.

Heat olive oil in a large pan on medium-high heat until it swirls easily. Add onions and peppers and cook until translucent, 1-2 minutes.

While the onions and peppers are cooking, empty salad bag into a large bowl add and the cucumber and avocado. In the summer, tomatoes are a nice addition too. Who doesn’t love summer tomatoes?

Dress the greens with olive oil and vinegar (balsamic is my favorite), and season liberally with sea salt and cracked pepper. Toss with tongs and set aside.

Don’t forget to monitor your vegetables while you are tending to your greens.

When ready, add mushrooms to the pan and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Cook until mixture starts to slightly brown then add sausage, making sure the cut ends touch the surface of the pan. Continue to cook until the edges of the sausage start to brown, 4-6 minutes.

Scrape contents of the pan on top of the greens and mix well with tongs. This salad serves well with a chunk of baguette and even a bowl of TJ’s boxed Tomato and Red Pepper soup.

Enjoy!