At Adventures in Good Company we believe that eating good food replenishes the spirit as well as the body! And there is nothing like an active vacation to stimulate the appetite. We've been told that we should create a recipe book, and we think that's a great idea. Unfortunately we haven't had time to do it yet. So in the meantime we'll be posting a new recipe here on an occasional basis. If you've been on one of our trips and you're interested in seeing a recipe you liked posted here, please let us know. And if you have a recipe to share, send it in and we'll share it with everyone else.
For previous months recipes see our Recipe archive.
Going Nuts- on adding nuts to your diet
After years of being shunned because of their high fat content, nuts are once again being recognized for their health value. Part of this is due to the general re-evaluation of the role of fat in our diet and the new understanding that there are good (mono- and unsaturated) and bad (saturated) fats. Part of it is due to new research that shows that people who eat nuts have fewer heart attacks. Personally I've been delighted to be able to welcome nuts back into my diet. One word of caution: nuts are still high in calories, so if you start chugging down the nuts without changing anything else in your diet, you will gain weight. But if you have a small handful of nuts instead of that bag of chips or bowl of ice cream, you're doing your heart a favor.
Below are some of the ways we add nuts to meals on our trips.
Breakfast ideas: add a couple of tablespoons of almonds or cashews to your hot cereal. Not only are the nuts good for you, the fat will make your breakfast "stick to your ribs" longer than if you just eat carbohydrates. One of our favorite breakfasts is to saute pecans in a little margarine (soft margarine is lower in trans fats - also bad- than stick margarine) and brown sugar and then mix into couscous along with some craisins.
Lunch ideas: toast nuts in your oven and then add them to your salad. Have a peanut butter sandwich. The peanut butter should be the "natural" kind, one where there are no added hydrogenated oils. Try pooh butter (2 parts peanut butter, 2 parts tahini, and one part honey) on bread or crackers. Instead of peanut butter, try cashew or almond butter.
Snack ideas: instead of buying pre-made trail mix (or gorp) which is often high in sugar or salt and always more expensive, make your own with almonds, cashews, peanuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, raisins and chocolate (which of course is one of the essential food groups).
Dinner ideas: we've already posted our favorite dinner that contain nuts, African Ground Nut Soup. Try adding pine nuts or walnuts to Alpine Pesto Pasta. Make a spicy peanut sauce out of ginger, brown sugar, vinegar and peanut butter to have with vegetables or rice.
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