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Posts Tagged ‘holidays’

Restorative Eating AKA Comfort Food

Tuesday, November 24th, 2015
Comfort Food Spotlight: Lentil soup is a nutritious comfort food that is packed with Vitamin C, fiber, zinc, iron, and protein. (Photo Credit: the kitchn)

Comfort Food Spotlight: Lentil soup is a nutritious meal that is packed with Vitamin C, fiber, zinc, iron, and protein. (Photo Credit: the kitchn)

By Dagmar Alayash

It’s this time of year again, and the Foodie Team at e-Management is asking how did we get here so soon? Many of us are reflecting on the past year, and with evenings drawing closer and cooler now, our thoughts turn to the holidays, family, and of course, an array of endless culinary delights.

Food that comforts us…

Speaking of amazing food, we’re taking a look at dishes that are considered comfort food and ask why they are comfort foods? Wikipedia says comfort foods are traditional staples that bring feelings of nostalgia. These foods usually have a “high carbohydrate level” and are simple to prepare. Think chili, soup, and stew dishes. Why do we love these foods so much? Well, the long slow cooking of these dishes intensifies the melding of ingredients, enhances the flavors, and makes for overall delicious satisfying meals.

Soups for the soul…

Becoming more popular are soups and dishes that include ingredients from the ‘Superfood’ category, resulting in not only nutritious, but also very tasty hearty meals. For example , , and . All of these soups are very flavorful and filling. Yes, it can be a lot of chopping, but they are so easy to create, and once you taste the foods, you’ll know it was worth every minute making them. The spinach soup is described as ‘restorative’ in the recipe, which is perhaps what we are looking for in comfort food, something that will give us a lift, make us feel good, and essentially help to restore our energy reserve, which around the holidays can feel depleted at times!

More comforting…

, a comfort food if there ever was one; and one of the best recipes that always receive rave reviews from the Food Network. Like one of the kings of comfort foods Macaroni cheese? Try this cholesterol-free and unimaginable tasty – described as luxurious, savory, mega satisfying and altogether dreamy. Do these words capture most of what we’re looking for when we seek out comfort foods? Sweets and desserts also count as essential in the comfort food arena. Hot chocolate comes to mind and warm cinnamon rolls with the must-have sweet and creamy icing…. the list of comfort sweets is endless.

Morning comfort…

Hearty breakfasts can also be a truly comforting way to start your day, especially at this time of the year. FoodNetwork.com recently listed ‘50 States 50 Breakfasts’, that includes an found in Boise Idaho, Red Feather Lounge, so popular that they frequently sell out within a couple of hours of opening – perhaps 2016 is the year of a foodie vacation planned around visiting Boise Idaho.  :-)

Your favorite…

All of a sudden we are hungry. Why is that? :-) Now, we invite you to join us with your own thoughts: (1) How do you define the meaning of comfort foods? (2) What are your favorite comfort foods? (3) What comfort foods will make it to your holiday dinners?

Demystifying Paleo

Tuesday, November 18th, 2014
These Paleo-friendly pumpkins muffins are gluten-free, refined sugar-free (sweetened with maple syrup), and delicious. They are great additions to your Holiday dessert menu. (Photo credit: leelalicious.com)

These Paleo-friendly pumpkins muffins are gluten-free, refined sugar-free (sweetened with maple syrup), and delicious. They are great additions to your Holiday dessert menu. (Photo credit: leelalicious.com)

By Dagmar Alayash, e-Management

As the holiday season approaches, the e-Management Foodie Blog Team welcomes you in joining us in taking a look at an increasingly popular eating lifestyle called Paleo—add this to the endless list of eating lifestyles such as Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, the South Beach Diet, Macrobiotic Diet, and the DASH Diet, to name a few, all of which help to fuel the $60.5 billion weight loss industry in the USA. Call them fads or simply an increased interest in different eating lifestyles, we have so much to choose from now and as our eating habits evolve, we begin by looking at Paleo.

What Is This New Caveman Diet Anyway?
The Paleo lifestyle, also known as the “caveman” diet, emphasizes eating vegetables, a lot of grass-fed meat, and no grain, beans, or gluten, which means no cakes, rice, bread, or pasta. Did we hear a sigh or two? :-) Our ancestors ate food that was not processed, refined, cooked with oils, or loaded with sugar. The Paleo lifestyle is intended to primarily be a healthier way to eat and not a weight-loss program.

No Coffee? Really?
Removing gluten from our diet has been reported time and time again to make many feel really good and have much more energy. Paleo experts and advocates talk about the “caveman” diet supporting many of its benefits with scientific studies. Though it’s hard to digest the fact that legumes and grains really are not good for us, and the biggest challenge of all for many,  is perhaps the fact that Paleo expert Dr. Lorain Cordain states that coffee should be excluded by anyone seeking to achieve the most out of their Paleo lifestyle. :-(

Food for Humans?
On the other end of the spectrum, authors Melanie Tam and Henry Fong portray the Paleo lifestyle in a fun relaxed way that also help to demystify the concept of the diet.  In other words, it’s not an attempt to replicate a Caveman diet, and the Paleo style doesn’t mean you become an insufferable bacon-eating carnivore. Check out their best-selling book Nom Nom Paleo – Food for Humans for recipes and tips.

Will I Stay Hungry Eating the Paleo Way?
Not at all. Check out these recipe ideas.

  1. Paleo Friendly Cookies – coconut flour, oil, butter, and sugar make great cookies. Coconut flour is rich in protein, fiber, and fat; is a source of good saturated fat, vitamins, and minerals; and is gluten-free. Find tips on cooking with coconut flour and oil at Nourished Kitchen. Just a note here,  coconut flour cookies don’t always rise, and some of them come out of the oven looking like caveman cookies, but still tasting really good :-) …and healthy.
  2. Chocolate Truffles – one word, DE-LI-CIOUS!
  3. Pumpkin Muffins – easy to make and good.
  4. Chili – a tasty vegetarian chili dish, bursting with flavor. The addition of sweet potatoes is a nice balance to the heat of the chilies. Recommend adding ½ the quantity of sweet potatoes in recipe.

What Are Your Foodie Thoughts?
We welcome your feedback and comments. (1) What are your thoughts on the Paleo or other diets/lifestyles?  (2) Are we becoming more aware of the foods we eat, where they come from, and how they make us feel? (3) With Thanksgiving approaching, do you have any amazing holiday recipes to share?

Cronuts, Doughnuts, and Kale…Oh My!

Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013

By Dagmar Alayash, e-Management

Tired of rice or stuffing? Try a delicious quinoa salad this Holiday Season. Quinoa is high in fiber, protein-rich, and packed with nutrients.

Tired of rice or stuffing? Try a delicious quinoa salad this Holiday Season. Quinoa is high in fiber, protein-rich, and packed with nutrients.

The holiday season is upon us, and for many the focus is on the upcoming festivities: Family and friends getting together, food choices to make, and how to balance things out with healthy options.  Here at e-Management, the foodie team is taking a moment to reflect on the food trends of the past year. We’ve pulled together a list of new and exciting foods that emerged recently.

Let’s jump right in…

  1. Cronuts Anyone? Introduced in mid-May of this year by a bakery in New York, you may have heard of this hybrid between a croissant and part cream-filled doughnut. The first day the Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York sold Cronuts, customers started lining up at 5:30am in the morning and the bakery was sold out by 9:00am. The store continues to sell out quickly every morning. Re-creations of Cronuts have popped up all over the nation, and are even found in some grocery chain stores in the Washington DC area, and in as many as 11 other countries. Try doing a web search to see if there is a bakery that provides “Cronuts” style desserts in your area. Could be a great addition for your holiday breakfasts!
  2. The 21st Century Doughnut. Warm, comforting, and increasingly popular in 2013…new flavors of doughnuts continue to be developed, and amongst the most popular are apple cider; maple bacon; peanut butter and bacon; vanilla custard; and crème brûlée. Did you know you can bake doughnuts as well as fry them? Healthier doughnuts? Maybe just a little bit, and they taste equally delicious as fried doughnuts.  If you want to try baking some, doughnut pans are easy to find. The following are some baked doughnut recipes.
  3. Not exactly Cronuts or Doughnuts. Moving on to more nutritious items, kale continues to shine in the vegetable world.  Known for its high antioxidant content, kale has been described as one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet. Perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea, due to its tough fibrous leaves, kale can be chopped and transformed into a smooth lettuce-like texture, combined with other ingredients and flavorings it would be a perfect side for holiday meals. Check out this excellent recipe courtesy of The Food Network.
  4. Tired of rice or stuffing? Try quinoa. Quinoa also gets a mention here. Continuing to abound in a never-ending popularity, it’s a great healthy alternative for rice. Known as an ancient superfood, native to Peru and Bolivia, we usually think of quinoa as a grain, but it is actually the seed of a plant related to beets, chard, and spinach.  Try out quinoa with your holiday lunches or suppers. Not sure what to do with quinoa? Check out grab-and-go meals in a jar or try this great tasting quinoa recipe. Great for holiday breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Holiday Feast 2013
These are just a few foods that got our attention, managed to stir our taste buds, filled us with excitement and anticipation at the thought of trying something new, and perhaps in some cases even made us re-think the way we eat and changed the course of our eating habits.  As we make our way into the holiday season, we’d love to hear your thoughts on food trends in 2013. (1) What new food trends are likely to make on your holiday menu? (2) What are your favorite holiday foods?  (3) Do you have any food trend prediction for 2014?