Cauliflower with Orange Sauce

By http://www.flickr.com/photos/calliope (http://www.flickr.com/photos/calliope/54833239) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0) or CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Cauliflower is one of my favorite vegetables. Unlike green vegetables, it's nearly impossible to overcook. You have to intentionally cook it to death to even make it mashable, which has become a popular preparation of late. That bullet-proof cook-ability  makes it the perfect vegetable for new cooks. You overcook broccoli and it's gross. You overcook cauliflower? It still tastes just fine.

This recipe is a riff on a richer orange sauce. That sauce contains lots of butter and it's thickened with a roux*, which explains all that butter. This is lighter, which is fine for most of us. We don't need quite that much butter - there is still some for flavor but I used a cornstarch slurry for thickening. Chinese stir fries are thickened with cornstarch, and it's a great technique for thickening sauces without a lot of fat (in fact, you could use no fat).

Though there are folks who believe that we should all eat our vegetables unadorned by fat, I find this is rather spartan. My philosophy is a little bit of tasty fat, like butter, goes a long way to making our vegetables more tasty. If that small bit of richness gets you to your vegetables, I'm all for it!

Cauliflower prices vary a bit. This week, I can get a pound for 88¢. Last week, I couldn't find it for less than $1.59/pound. The recipe cost reflects the higher price.

Cauliflower with Orange Sauce
(serves 4-6, costs $3.50)

1 head of cauliflower (about 2 pounds), cored and cut into florets
juice of 1 orange (should yield about ¼ cup juice)
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
¼ cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tablespoon cold water
½ Tablespoon butter
salt and black pepper

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the cauliflower for 8-10 minutes, until tender.

Meanwhile, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened. Add the garlic and coriander. Cook for another minute. Drain the cauliflower and add to the pan. Raise the heat to medium high and add the orange juice. When the juice comes to a boil, add the cornstarch+water. Boil until the sauce thickens and coats the cauliflower. Add butter, season with salt and pepper, and serve.

*Roux: flour cooked in a fat, often butter. Used as a thickener in sauces and soups like chowders and gumbos.

Guest Post: Maintaining Healthy Eating While on Vacation

Today, a guest post from Cole Millen, an avid traveler with some useful tips on sticking to healthy eating while on vacation (or any time you find yourself away from home). If you are like me, you like to splurge a little while you are on vacation. There is nothing wrong with a little splurge now and then but don't use your next vacation as an excuse to throw all caution to the wind, eating-wise. When I travel, I love to experience new food (hey, if you don't try the gelato when you are in Italy, you are definitely missing something), but I try to balance the splurges by really sticking to a more healthy eating pattern most of the time. Don't forget that trying new food extends to preparations for local fruits, vegetables and fish, all part of a healthy eating plan. Last summer, I traveled to Provence. The fruit there in summer is so sensational that it needs no embellishment, and I felt no need to indulge in rich sweets.

Maintaining a Healthy Eating Plan While on Vacation

Taking the time to unwind while on vacation is a necessity and can help you relax from the daily stresses of job and everyday life. However, it shouldn’t be an excuse to ditch your healthy lifestyle by consuming junk food and skipping your workouts. The following tips will help you have a memorable and exciting vacation without the added pounds.

Pack Your Own Snacks

Whether you’re flying, driving or taking another mode of transportation, you can stay ahead of the game by packing your own snacks. Portable healthy options can include fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, string cheese, whole grain crackers, and trail mix and granola bars. Peanut butter and hummus are other healthy alternatives that satisfy cravings and keep hunger at bay. If you’re at an airport terminal, you can walk around and check out the various café items until you find something that is both pleasing to the palate and good for you. 

Planning Ahead

The most important aspect of staying true to your healthy lifestyle is ensuring the area and hotel you are staying in has the options available to allow you to do so. Doing a little research before hand can go a long way in this aspect. In my extensive research I have found online reviews to be extremely helpful. I recently found a site that bundled information on restaurants, hotels, things to do, and even a travel guide for the area. With this help I was looking through the list of hotels in Las Vegas and managed to find one that had not only the amenities I desired, but a gluten free restaurant in its lobby. With a little research and the help of reviews, you will find eating healthy on vacation easier than ever.

Ordering Room Service

Just because you’re ordering room service doesn’t mean you have to make unwise choices. There are a number of safe items on the menu such as salads, turkey breast sandwiches and baked chicken breast. You can also ask for low-fat dressing and condiments to be placed on the side. When you check in, leave the min-bar key at the front desk since fattening treats will only tempt you. If you have doubts about the nutritional content on a particular meal or food item, you can ask. Most hotels have the information at the ready for their guests. 

Prepare Your Own Meals

Dining out can be costly on your pocketbook and waistline, so you don’t have to eat out for every meal. Ask for a room with a microwave and refrigerator, so you can keep groceries on hand. When you first check in, you can head to the local grocery store and stock up on some healthy necessities. This makes it easy to take healthy treats when you’re on the go too, so you won’t be tempted by fast food. 

Dining Out

Eating out can often sabotage the healthiest of eaters. Try doing a bit of research before heading out and find restaurants that offer better choices on their menu. You may also want to check out an establishment that provides nutritional information, so you can plan accordingly. Starting your meal with a salad or soup will help curb your appetite. Since restaurant portions are large enough for two or more, you can offer to split a meal with another diner at your table. The breadbasket is another area that can pack on the pounds, so you can tell your waiter ahead of time that you would like to skip it. When ordering, look for items listed as broiled and baked instead of smothered and fried. You can also trim carbs by asking for a side of streamed broccoli instead of french fries. Everyone enjoys something sweet at the end of a meal, and you can still indulge. Instead of cake loaded with a side of ice cream, you can opt for sorbet or a fresh fruit and cheese platter.

Cole Millen is an avid traveler and foodie who never forgets that life's best memories are made through real life appreciation of legitimate "experiences." You can read about health and his travels at his personal blog.

What is Real Food?

As part of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, we bring you recipes for real food. But, what is real food? Food in the 21st century includes a whole lot of strange stuff: yogurt in a tube, bread with two dozen ingredients, or spaghetti sauce with as much added sugar per serving as a sugar cookie. Are these real food?

The best definition of not "real," that is, processed food I've found comes from Melanie Warner, the author of Pandora's Lunchbox. You can see her appearance on the PBS News Hour: Seven Foods You Think are Healthy but Aren't. Her definition: if you can't make it at home with those same ingredients, it's processed food. Processed food is made with industrial processes and it uses ingredients that you have no access to (nor do you even know what they are).

This definition can help you figure out what is real in your local supermarket. Once upon a time, we said, "stick to the perimeter of your supermarket, and you'll find the real food." But, that's not true anymore. You can find yogurt in a tube in the dairy section, chicken and pork plumped up with salt solutions in the meat department, and cottony highly refined white bread in the bakery, all departments on the perimeter of the store.

This begs the question: what is wrong with processed food? Plenty!

• Processing removes nutrients. This is usually done to improve shelf life. Processing strips out anything that can spoil and takes with it nutrients. 
• Processed food utilizes sugar, fat, and salt to make it hyper-palatable. That makes it very hard for many people to stop eating it so they over-consume calories and get little nutrition.
• Processed food emphasizes flavor over nutrients. Processed foods contain a lot of calories from sugar, starch, and fat but little nutrition. Unlike real food, processed foods are not nutrient dense.
• Many processed foods tout the little bit of nutrition they do contain, trying to convince you that they are healthy. Drinks with lots of added sugar and some vitamins added. Cereal with lots of added sugar and bit of whole grains. This is about marketing, not healthy eating.

Back to the three foods mentioned at the start - are they real?

Go-Gurt, the best known yogurt in a tube, is thickened with modified food starch, gelatin, and carrageenan. (Real yogurt thickens naturally through the action of the beneficial bacteria.) It's artificially flavored and contains extra sugar to make it hyper-palatable. How much sugar? Your average strawberry yogurt, which is plenty sweet, contains 25 g of sugar in 8 oz., 12 g of that is added to sweeten the yogurt while the rest occurs naturally in milk. An equivalent amount of Go-Gurt has 35 g of sugar. That's an extra 2 ½ teaspoons of sugar. Yes, this stuff is sweet!

A popular brand of manufactured white bread contains 29 ingredients. Take out the 4 that are vitamins used to enrich the seriously processed wheat, and that leaves 25. Things like  calcium sulfate and calcium propionate that act as preservatives. Because, really, bread is supposed to last a month without molding, isn't it? Things like DATEM, a dough conditioner and azodicarbonamide, a bleaching agent (incidentally, that one is banned in Europe). Are these things edible? Well, sure - people eat them everyday! But, they are an indicator that this product is heavily, heavily processed.

How about the jarred spaghetti sauce? Again, there's that sugar in the form of high-fructose corn syrup. Anything with high-fructose corn syrup immediately gets the processed label. It is sweeter than white sugar, it has certain properties that make it very useful in manufactured foods, and it's really cheap. Why is there so much sugar in a serving of spaghetti sauce anyway? Some brands contain up to 3 teaspoons of sugar per serving.

Melanie Warner doesn't say you should eat NO processed food. But, when the average American eats a diet that is 70% processed, we have a problem - an obesity problem, a diabetes problem, a very serious health problem. Awareness is key - know what is processed and choose something else for most of your food. Take control of your diet. Read labels. Learn to cook simple yet tasty food - we have lots of recipes for that here at School of Eating Good. Yes, processed food tastes so damn good. It's engineered to be that way. But, it's not engineered to keep you healthy.