10/1/12 blog post
going orange
I love the color orange. It is bright, cheery and yummy. This season, orange is one of those colors I enjoy spotting on the trees during my commute.
Yummy orange…I don’t mean citrus oranges, candy corns or circus peanuts. I mean those other yummy orange foods: carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, butternut squash, acorn squash, nectarines, peaches and cantaloupe.
Why orange? They provide our diet with Vitamin A, antioxidants and fiber.
Why are these important in our diet? Improves our eyesight, assists with decreasing our risks of certain cancers, feeds our gut, improves immunity!
How to choose? Choose seasonal orange fruits and vegetables. Avoid blemishes and bruising. Choose firm. The deeper the orange, the better! Frozen orange fruits and vegetables over canned will provide more nutrition.
Ways to eat/cook: consider baking, broiling, braising, roasting and even grilling these foods
| Carrots | Carrot sticks with low fat dip; grated for soups, casseroles, muffins; my favorite are roasted in beef broth or with olive oil and salt and pepper |
| Sweet potatoes | Enjoy baked without the sugar and marshmallow. They are sweet on their own! Dice the potato and pan fry or oven bake with olive oil and salt and pepper. |
| Pumpkin | A friend got me hooked on pumpkin soup: Cook fresh or canned pumpkin in chicken stock with sautéed onions and cinnamon.A family favorite: Add pumpkin to pancake batter with pumpkin pie spices and cinnamon. Freeze leftovers. |
| Butternut squash | Cook an apple with butternut squash with chicken stock and make soup.After peeling the squash, slice it and bake with salt for a French Squash Fry treat! |
| Acorn squash | My mother would cut this in half, scrape out the seeds and bake with butter and brown sugar. Little did I know it was a real healthy meal. |
| Nectarines and peaches | Besides eating these fresh, consider blending these with milk, Greek yogurt or ice cream for a smoothie snack. Grilling these fruits makes them extra sweet. |
| Cantaloupe | In season June through August. Make sure to wash the fruit before cutting it open. One can cut open this fruit, spoon out the seeds and dice and refrigerate for hours to days, lasting up to 6 days in the refrigerator! Pureed cantaloupe with peaches can make for a delicious cold soup, too! |
How can you add orange to your meals? I look forward to your responses!
Update! I told the boys Tuesday at dinner that the Orange blog was out and told them which picture was used. I then asked, “Do we have any orange at this meal?” Lovely Matthew says, “If you take ketchup and mustard and mix them, you will have orange!” Yes…I was looking for something different…though he was right!
