For salad, Michelle shared an Arugula and Egg Salad in the South Arm Older Adults Cooking Club.

According to Doctoroz.com, the bitter the greens, the better it is for health. Here is an excerpt from Doctoroz.com.

Eating your greens is always detox-friendly. But even better are bitter greens, which must taste bitter in order to get the benefits. And that’s because when you taste bitter foods, like arugula, watercress and dandelion greens, they stimulate the liver to more effectively cleanse and detox the body.

Here’s why; Your taste bids signal what’s coming, and when you eat bitter greens, your gastrointestinal system gets the message to release hormones and digestive enzymes that increase bile flow, metabolize fats, and keep elimination moving smoothly. This helps your body carry the toxins out faster.

Bonus; Practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine also say that eating more bitter greens can help ease sugar cravings. That’s a detox win-win.

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Michelle also included the nutritional yeast in this B Vital Salad Dressing prepared in the South Arm Older Adults Cooking Club session. This B Vital Salad Dressing can be used on spring salad mix, chopped up romaine or on steamed vegetables.

Michelle shared some ways to add more vegetables and fruit in our diet:

• try to start meals with a salad
• add at least one or two vegetables to every meal
• add cooked or leftover vegetables to your pasta dishes, either blend into the sauce (e.g. shredded carrot) or add to the pasta itself
• choose more fruit-based desserts; either a piece of fruit, fruit salad or a baked dessert treat with fruit as a component

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons nutritional flake yeast
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or other vinegar
• 1 tablespoon crushed garlic (1 to 2 cloves)
• 1/2 cup neutral oil (grapeseed, canola, etc)

Vegetables of your preference

P/S: the cucumber is harvested from the senior garden

Source: Mintgreenapron.blogspot.com

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The South Arm Older Adults Cooking Club met again for another fun cooking session.

Michelle picked this Endive, Arugula and Orange Salad to introduce a vegetable which we seldom use which is endive. Endive has a slight bitter taste which is nicely balanced by the sweet orange and peppery flavor of arugula.

Michelle also pointed out that endive is great to be used as a vessel to serve food.

Ingredients

• 2 medium-size seedless oranges
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons walnut oil or olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel
• 4 medium-size heads Belgian endive
• 1 large bunch arugula, ends trimmed
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Source: this recipe is from Bon Appetit; April 1996

Serves 6

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Spring is just a week away and we were facing a few days of gloomy and wet weather. So, Michelle hoped to bring some sun shine to the South Arm Older Adults…

The theme for this South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors Kitchen is Fall Vegetarian Meal featuring some superfoods.

The first superfood is nutritional yeast. I have not heard of nutritional yeast until today.

Here are some facts about nutritional yeast extracted from wikepedia.org which Michelle shared in the kitchen:

• nutritional yeast is deactivated yeast
• source of protein
• usually fortified with B vitamins
• can be used as a cheese substitute in mashed or fried potatoes, tofu
• tasty topping for popcorn
• often used as nutritional support for vegetarians and vegans
• best flavour from Red Star brand

This nutritional yeast dressing is creamy, cheesy and nutty. This dressing is great on spinach or mixed green salad. It lasts for about a week in the refrigerator.

Dressing:

• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar or fruit vinegar
• 2 to 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 cup neutral vegetable oil (grapeseed, sunflower or canola)

Salad:

• 1 to 2 heads lettuce, chopped and washed
• 2 to 3 carrots, grated
• handful cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 long cucumber, diced
• seeds or nuts, optional

Source: mintgreenapron.blogspot.ca

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