#AKTSummer Healthy Lunch with Anna Kaiser

Another fun segment with Anna Kaiser of AKT #AKTsummer, here is one of our Foodtrainers favorite salads that you can make in 5 minutes or less.



What's your favorite summer salad?

Kale is sort of a cliche', 5 other greens that compete

pretty micros via Good Water Farms

Fitbit asked me for 5 greens for kale-ed out folks. I actually love to eat kale (shocker) but I am sick of hearing about it. There are other attention-worthy greens. I love micrograms from Good Water Farms and throw them on everything, they're so delicate I find my kids dig them too. I also love flavor and arugula never disappoints. Bare Burger's collard wrap option sort of changed my life. For some reason this is infinitely more exciting than a burger on a salad. With the collard wrap you are in the handheld, utensil free party.

 And when I say omega 3, you think...salmon? Most people do (if they think about omegas) how about bok choy? Now maybe BC will get a little "green-spect. Anyway you'll find the full post here.
I'm curious- are you sick of kale? What are you fave greens? 

The World's Healthiest Food, Are You Eating It?

Clients often mention in their sessions that they need “new foods”. I’m the first to suggest a new recipe, or interesting combination but remind them there aren’t necessarily new fruits and vegetables. Except when there are. Six months ago I didn’t know about microgreens, they were new to me and I was hearing about them everywhere. On one hand, I  was excited and wanted to try them immediately but then there's always that inner cynic wondering could they live up to the hype? Turns out they do.

Microgreens are harvested less than two weeks after germination. When it comes to greens, immaturity is a virtue as research (yes actual research, in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, take that)  has shown they are four to forty times more nutritious than mature greens.  Do not insult microgreens confusing them with sprouts, they are grown differently and taste differently. My CSA, Rustic Roots, started offering microgreens from Good Water Farms.  Good Water Farms is in East Hampton and is and operated by Brendan Davison, and Marsha and Nick LaTessa. I asked Emer from Rustic Root if she’d answer a few burning microgreen questions for me.

Where did micro greens come from/why are we suddenly hearing about them? 

Microgreeens are quickly becoming a go to food for many health conscious people. Because of the intense process of farming them, they are expensive but many higher-end food outlets have begun supplying them. The reason you are hearing about them is because they are a powerful source of nutrients with a tremendous amount of flavor.

Do all greens come "micro"?

You can grow all greens micro but some have more flavor than others. We are loving the Kale, Arugula, Purple Basil, Sunflower, Pea Tendril, Radish and Broccoli micros.

My son asked, "can you do a whole salad micro"? I had salmon burger with micro kale and avocado; the boys used them as their burger topping. They loved that they were the healthiest vegetable to eat.

Lauren, I let Brendan from Good Water Farms answer this question. He said “of course you can do a whole salad of micros, we do every night. You hardly need dressing, a little balsamic and a touch of feta makes an awesome salad that is tasty and super nutritious. Your boys using them on burgers is great. Try to see if they will take to them being added to their sandwiches too. Kids love them, and think they are "cool".  My daughter is like a little cow, she just grazes all day on them. Microgreens are the answer to get your kids to eat their veggies, period!"

Is it worth it to juice microgreens?

Some NYC juicing stores are using radish and kale in their microgreen elixirs.  They can also used best in smoothies.

Do they spoil faster/are they more perishable?

They have a solid 10-day shelf life once they are cut. Surprisingly, a small 4oz container will last you a few meals too.

Thank you Emer, other "micro" ideas I found, a microgreen pesto, a micro salad with a curry vinaigrette, I can see adding some microgreens to soup at the end of cooking or since the flavor is mild even baking with them. I'm excited to tell my clients about this new superfood. 
Have you heard of microgreens? Seen them in stores? Or on menus? If these are new to you are you excited to try or skeptical? What is your favorite "new" food or food you're enjoying more lately?

Is Your Eating Gay Or Straight?

I am normally quite critical of those without nutrition training writing nutrition books or telling people what to eat. I’ll make exceptions when the advice is smart, funny or, naturally, when its something I agree with. In Wednesday’s Dining Times I read an article about Simon Doonan’s new book “Gay Men Don’t Get Fat”.  Immediately, the fact that Mr Doonan is the creative ambassador at Barneys went out the beautiful window, I was drawn in and laughing out loud.

Jeff Gordinier, the author states, “one of the tongue-in-cheek propositions of Mr. Doonan’s book is that the vast range of the world’s culinary options can be boiled down to two core categories: gay food and straight food.”

Some examples of gay food are:

Baby Arugula

Baked Chips

Sushi

Figs and Dates

Food that's“lighter and brighter, it feels art-directed”

Straight Food:

Meat

Cheese

Stews

Fried Food

Mexican Food

Black Angus meatloaf on a menu is described as “the Burt Reynolds of foods.”

Lest you think gay food is healthy and straight food is not macarons, the French cookie, are gay. Mr. Doonan says, “I can’t believe any red-blooded straight guy can even walk into a macaron shop. If you want to ruin a politician’s career, just publish a picture of him shopping for macarons.” 

When I finished the article I stopped for a moment and thought something I never have before…according to Simon Doonan’s criteria I may very well be a gay male or eat like one anyway. So if, as a straight woman, I identify more with gay male food, is the converse true too?  Nope, according to Mr Doonan, lesbian food is “earthy and healthful”. Examples are organic olive oil, thick porridge and heaping helpings of wheat germ. But in the Venn diagram of sexual orientation stereotypes and eating “whole grain bread is both ferociously lesbian and wildly heterosexual.”

My graphic design skills are severely limited but observe some groups overlap

While I contemplated arugula and googled Gay Men Don’t Get Fat I found all different theories on the subject, have fun and try to guess “the real reason gay men don’t get fat” according to Gawker. It’s much saucier than my one (grass-fed organic) beef with Mr Doonan. You see, Mr Doonan is anti-avocado. The distinction between straight female eating and gay male eating may be a lack of fat phobia among straight females. Or maybe avocados are “earthy and healthy” and a lesbian food. My friend, upon reading this article declared “I think I’m bisexual as I love sushi and Mexican.  So there are exceptions to every generalization.

As fate would have it at 2:16 yesterday, while I was writing this post, Barney’s sent an email informing me of a signing for Gay Men Don’t Get Fat tomorrow (Saturday) from 3-5pm at the New York Madison Avenue store.  I’ll be in Vermont eating what Doonan would call “hetero” food but maybe you can go.

Do you find poking fun at stereotypes offensive or fun? Is your eating gay or straight? Did you guess the real reason gay men don’t get fat without clicking on the link?