Top Fav's This Week!

Avocado and Mango Salad!
You must try this recipe. It is fresh, flavorful, and perfect for summer.

1 Avocado
1 Mango
Red leaf lettuce or (Your favorite green)

Dressing:
1 part lime juice
2 parts olive oil
1 tsp. of honey
Dash of cinnamon, salt, and pepper

Slice the avocado and mango in half and dice into cubes. Rinse and tear lettuce and place in bowl with avocado and mango. Make dressing and mix well then toss with salad. Serve as a side for dinner or enjoy this for lunch like me!

I ate this twice for lunch this week. It was a great selection to spice up my montonous lunches!


Mexican Stuffed Peppers!
I made this for dinner one night and it was a hit! Hunter and I loved it and even had some of the "stuffing" mixture left and used it for burritos.

2 Bell peppers
1 tomato
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 bag of 10 minute whole wheat rice
1 can of black beans (rinsed and drained)
2 cups of mexican blend cheese (shredded)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Slice the top of the pepper off and set aside. Place whole tomato, unpeeled fresh garlic, and peeled and halved onion into a hot ungreased pan. Turn every few minutes so all sides are roasting. Let the ingredients blackend and roast on top of the stove. While they are roasting, boil water and cook rice. Once the tomato is blackened(the skin starts to peel) and the onion and garlic are blackened, turn off heat. Now peel the garlic.

If you have a food processor, place roasted tomato, onion, and peeled garlic inside and puree. This will create a salsa/sauce consistency. Once rice is finished, place cooked rice, black beans, puree mixture, and cheese into a bowl and mix well. This is your "stuffing". Season lightly with salt and pepper. Add stuffing inside of bell peppers and fill to the top. Place in an oven safe pan and cook until pepper starts to blackened and get tender, around 25 minutes. You can cook with or without the bell pepper top on.

You should have a lot of left over mixture unless you make more than 2 stuffed peppers. It would make around 4 or 5 medium peppers.

This is a great summer dinner and you can use ingredients that are in season and fresh right now.

Hope you enjoy these as much as I have this week!

~Little Chef-titian

Growing and Ripening

These little tomatoes have taken over a month to sprout, grow, and ripen. I fed and watered them daily, pruned them and STILL they were to slow to ripen. These little tomatoes and cuccumbers (which still aren't even close to full size), remind me of myself sometimes. I think about how the Lord must think of me in a similar light. He provides for me daily, prunes me when needed, and yet I am still slow to ripen.

Watching my plants grow reminded of the process of life. It is a beautiful thing and one I am fascinated with. As each season of life changes and challenges me, I realize yet that I am slowly but surely evolving into the woman God has created me to be.

This scripture has always encouraged my heart, hopefully it will yours!

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." John 15:1-4

Hopefully you will see the Lord in the little details of your life. He is ever present and waiting for you to notice.

Little Chef-titian

Food In the News!

For all of you interested in the latest news regarding food and nutrition. Check out this article that was posted on the reflector.com regarding a the term Nutritarian. It is focused on phytonutrients and the ANDI scale which ranks fruits and vegetables by the amounts of phytonutrients. 1,000 is the highest. Check out the list of foods that rank 1,000!

Mustard greens, cooked (1,000)
Watercress, raw (1,000)
Kale, cooked (1,000)
Turnip greens, cooked (1,000)
Collard greens, cooked (1,000)
Bok choy, cooked (824)
Spinach, raw (739)
Spinach, cooked (697)
Brussels sprouts (672)
Swiss chard (670)

The top 10 fruits and their ANDI scores:

Strawberries (212)
Pomegranate juice (193)
Plums (158)
Raspberries (145)
Blueberries (130)
Oranges (109)
Grapefruit (102)
Cantaloupe (100)
Kiwi (97)
Watermelon (91)

Phytonutrients or phytochemicals are non-nutritive plant chemicals that have protective or disease fighting properties. Some of the known phytochemicals consist of: Lycopene found in tomotoes and watermelons and Anthrocyanins that are found in blueberries. Some other phytochemicals are Beta-caratene, Folic acid, and Vitamin E.

If you eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains you can obtain plenty of phytochemicals and disease fighting properties.

Article on reflector.com
http://reflector.com/features/nutritarian-diet-easy-just-try-eat-rainbow-39292

For more information on phytochemicals, check out this website below:
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_5_3X_Phytochemicals.asp

Happy Eating!

~Little Chef-titian

Basil and Chives!! These are inexpensive to grow and
maintain. The best part is being able to have them fresh at
your fingertips when cooking.




The first two tomatoes of the season! Excited to taste the
fruits of my labor :)

Taste & See With Me

After many months of opting not to join the blogging scene, I have now surrendered! Writing creatively about things I love has always been a passion of mine. Anything to do with food, nutrition, cooking, and agriculture consumes my attention these days. After finishing my dream degree, Nutrition, I still crave new knowledge and information on these topics. Soo...if you're like me and the rest of America, you LOVE food! Hopefully this blog will be a source of tasty recipes, nutrition tips, and useful information on all of the above. Please share your thoughts and interest as I divulge mine.

~Little Chef-titian

By the way, Little is my last name and Chef-titian is combination of my interests (Chef/Dietitian).