Summer Wheatberry Salad. My Favorite!

The finished product!

It’s hard to say what I like best about this wheatberry salad. I love the chewiness of the wheat berries and dried fruit, combined with the crunch of the celery and the pecans. There’s the sweetness from the orange juice, dried cranberries and drizzle of honey, that’s just sweet enough, countered by the vinaigrette and zing of the orange zest.

And then there’s the fact that it’s easy to make, and can serve as a side dish with dinner, or stand alone as the main dish at lunch. And did I mention that everyone loves it? It’s also a great source of fiber (about 6 grams per serving).

This is one of my favorite salads for the warm weather season. And yes, I realize it’s still springtime, but this recipe so reminds me of summer!

Enjoy!

Summer Wheatberry Salad Recipe

Serves approximately 12 (just about 1 cup per serving)

This is more scallion than you'll need!

Ingredients

2 cups dry wheatberries (also called hard red wheat berries) (will make 6 cups cooked wheat berries)
3 Tbsps. olive oil
1 cup orange juice
1 large tart apple, chopped, skin on (such as Granny Smith)
1 cup fresh mint (spearmint), chopped
4 celery sticks, diced
4 scallions (green onion), green and white parts, chopped
¾ cup pecans
1 cup craisins (sweetened dried cranberries)
¼ cup vinegar (red wine or apple cider)
1 tsp salt
1- 1 1/2 Tbsp honey (to taste)
orange zest from one whole orange

Fresh mint from my garden. The only thing I manage to grow well!

Consider adding chopped red peppers, red onion or additional celery for more crunch and larger volume per serving.

1. Cook the wheatberries. Place the wheatberries into 6 cups of boiling water. Cook, uncovered, over low heat for 45 minutes, until soft and chewy. Drain.
2. Place drained wheatberries in a large bowl. 
3. Add all ingredients and mix thoroughly.
4. Refrigerate. Serve cold or at room temperature.

How do I count this on an exchange plan? For a full cup this satisfies 2 grains and 2 fats. Toss in some grilled chicken to help round off the meal.

Time to Clear My Plate. Before You Get Triggered by My Plate, Read This.

Oh, Michelle, I so appreciate your honest and passionate concern for improving the health of our nation, particularly our kids. Really I do! But quite frankly, the subtle messages conveyed through the new USDA My Plate set us way back in our progress.

That’s not to say that I find nothing favorable about it. I do like the bright colors (they make me feel like a kid again), and the concept of half the plate as fruits and vegetables is truly a helpful, and reasonable teaching visual. And, a message I can support. But here’s where we part.

Where are the fats?

Ok, I realize that in the written food group description fats get mentioned, but not encouraged. And let’s face it—it’s the visual image that makes the biggest impact. And in that regard, fats are absent. Yes, in spite of the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans summarizing the enormous body of research and declaring that increasing (unsaturated) fats should be a goal, comprising up to 30% of all our calories, this message is lost in My Plate.

In fact, in the description accompanying the image, it even sheds a negative light, saying “oils are not a food group”. And by oils they really mean fats, because avocado, for instance is not oil. Funny, in past pyramids, such as 2005, fats were a distinct part of the pyramid and were scattered around as a component of the other food groups. And if fats are not a food group, why is protein? If I remember my basic nutrition way back the three macronutritent groups making up all foods are protein, fats and carbohydrate. Yet My Plate places the nutrient protein on the plate, a component of foods, as if it’s a food, yet states that fats have no place? I don’t get it.

Where’s my favorite food group?

But perhaps the biggest problem I have is the omission of those “empty calorie” villains, the “sweets”. Past health messages from the American Dietetics Association and the recent aforementioned Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 instructs us to “find balance between food and physical activity.” At no point do they suggest we should eliminate sweets to prevent obesity.

And speaking of those additional calories, why make such an overreaching statement like “Enjoy your food, but eat less”? Should I suggest this to my normal weight sons? To the healthy growing kids I see? To the many I work with struggling with trusting their hunger, many of whom are working hard to increase their calories by appropriately eating more? Should I be eating less as I’m training for a biking event this month? Such an unnecessary and detrimental generalization! Would it take an eating disordered child for Michelle to be more sensitive to such absurd health recommendations?

This dietitian endorses a health-promoting message to include junk food!

Here’s the scoop. Black and white messages about good foods to eat and bad foods to avoid are damaging. They contribute to society being misinformed about weight management, and about eating in a healthy, balanced and pleasurable way. In life kids and adults are going to eat cupcakes and chocolate and ice cream in all flavors. The problem won’t be that we’re eating these foods. It’s that we view them as bad, feel guilty, and end up overeating them, because we have been convinced that we have done wrong by consuming them—in any amount. Rigid rules and clear omissions teach us nothing. They reinforce the wrong messages. It’s time to get with the times.

Why the beef about dairy?

And to the critics of inclusion of a dairy serving, like Walter Willet at Harvard (who says there’s no evidence to support including a dairy requirement), I’d like to ask you this—are you thinking we’re going to meet our requirement for calcium and Vitamin D from sardines, canned salmon, almonds and broccoli? I don’t think so. Perhaps the USDA could have done better by broadening that category to say “milk and fortified soy milk”; no other non-dairy alternative provides as much protein as well as calcium and Vit D. Yes, there is evidence that we need an adequate intake of these two nutrients, and practical, economical, acceptable sources are few and far between outside of dairy products.

As for the interactive resources, I would love to share my thoughts. But after signing in, the program failed to work when I tried to explore the physical activity section.

Time to go eat. 

My plate will include some homemade waffles this morning, fruit, yogurt, and real Vermont, full sugar maple syrup. And I just might decide to include a piece of pastry for my afternoon snack. And in spite of what My Plate urges, I have no intentions of reducing my portions from their usual level!

Thanks for reading! Enjoy your sweets today.

Are You Pretty? Appreciating Your Body and All You Are Worth

Ok, I admit it. My last post was hardly uplifting. Frightening? Sure. Honest and to the point? Definitely. Necessary? Absolutely! It's my hope that it gave those of you who needed it a giant kick in the butt; that it helped you to recognize your own risk, by looking at Andrea's story. That perhaps it got you thinking about increasing your accountability and moving toward better self-care.

But it certainly didn’t leave you empowered to think more positively about your self, I suspect. So I'll try to remedy that with a couple of fabulous videos brought to my attention by the very same Doris Smeltzer, MA from Andrea's Voice http://www.andreasvoice.org. She brought me to tears (in her presentation about her daughter's life, and then death, from bulimia), but left me smiling in the end, empowered by these two awesome clips.

Please take the time to view them and share them with everyone you know. The first is of Eve Ensler, of Vagina Monologue fame, entitled Love Your Tree. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEUsbLNAfW0

I simply loved this perspective on viewing your body.

The second is of Kate Makkai, a poetry slammer doing Pretty . http://youtu.be/M6wJl37N9C0

It's powerful in both its content and its delivery. I love the messages. 

Share these messages with your friends, your daughters, and most importantly, make them your own and take them to heart. And let me know what you think!