Veggies are a Healthy Snack: Turnips over Massaged Kale

Last weekend (Friday) I picked up turnips at the farmers’ market. I have never bought turnips because my dad hates them and I always assumed they were gross. It turns out they are only gross if you steam them too long and don’t season them (not what I did; I am assuming this is how he had them).

Turnips are a root (starch) but only have a third the calories of potatoes (36 calories in 1 cup – 130 grams). They have a ton of nutrients – vitamin C, fiber, folic acid, manganese, pantothenic acid, copper, thiamine, potassium, niacin, magnesium, vitamin B6 and E, and riboflavin.

These turnips happened to be pink! The farmer said they taste about the same as the white ones. She suggested I saute them in oil. So I did.

(For my original massaged kale recipe click here.)

Sauteed Turnips over Massaged Kale

Ingredients (serves 1)

  • 1 large turnip
  • peanut oil (<1 tablespoon)
  • kale
  • olive oil, salt, lemon juice, soy sauce, honey
  • nooch (nutritional yeast)

Method

  1. Chop the turnip into bite sized pieces. Heat the peanut oil over high heat; add the turnips. Cook (stirring) for 4-5 minutes or until the turnips are tender.
  2. Massage your kale with olive oil and salt. Add lemon juice, soy sauce, and honey, to taste.
  3. Top the kale with the turnips and add a sprinkling of nutritional yeast.

While not big enough for a full meal, this was a perfect late afternoon snack. Voluminous and yummy.

Exercise of the day: Self’s Slim and Sleek, Fast! with Ellen Barrett (my favorite instructor). This is free from Netflix streaming. Ellen takes you through a quick warmup (3 minutes or so), then a ballet sequence, cardio, weights, and finally a cool down. It’s about 35 minutes total. When we started the ballet sequence I though that it would not be a good workout, but by the time we finished cardio I was sweating. Will definitely do this again. I also plan on walking home (1.4 miles) if it’s not raining.

Have you eaten turnips? How do you like to cook them?

Seasonal Organizing

I took the day off from work today. I didn’t have much to do, so it was a little bit silly for me to go into the office to do an hour’s worth of work! Instead I stayed in bed reading (Lipstick Jungle), did an exercise video, and organized my inbox. Now it’s a 4-day weekend.

Exercise of the day: Dance Off the Inches: Fat Burning Jam via Netflix free streaming (I think they should pay me for how much I promote them). It’s a 35 minute routine – a warmup, 3 different dances (“Shake Those Hips”, “Latin Spice”, and “Jazz it Up”), and a cooldown. I wasn’t super-sweaty but it was worth my 35 minutes. I’ve done it a few times before and I’m not bored of it yet. Stella, one of the backup dancers, is cute and funny. (I also just like the name Stella.)

Source.

After the video I worked on my inbox for almost 2 solid hours. Google has this great new feature in “Labs” called Nested Labels. Apparently it came out in April and I didn’t know until now! I have been waiting so long for this. I had wanted Gmail folders, but this is so much better (you can still have emails categorized under multiple labels). It looks like this:

So I completely redid my labeling system and went through finding things without labels and so on. I feel very satisfied now.

Instructions for using Nested Labels: just go to the “Labs” tab in your Gmail settings and enable it. You create subfolders using “/” in the name of a label – like “Health/Yoga” and “Recipes/Vegetarian”.

I also signed up for Evernote, a site that helps you save things that you want to remember/organize. I think it might be like Springpad (which I signed up for and then never used). I’m hoping to compare the two and pick the one I like better.

Source.

And now I am headed down to the Union Square farmers’ market to do some seasonal grocery shopping and maybe hit up Whole Foods which is right next door. I came up with this great way to menu plan that will please both me and Bobby (I hope). I’m going to have different types of dinners – salad, sandwich, pasta, seafood, pizza, and breakfast (plus one “going out” night). Each week we’ll have a new dish for each type – so like for salad this week we can have Asian chicken salad, then the next week Cobb salad, the next caesar, etc… I’ll do a post on it if it works out 🙂

Source.

What did you get at the farmers’ market this week?