A Balanced Diet is Important. Veg-It-Up With This Caribbean Style Veggie-Heavy Recipe
NEW YORK, NY - The importance of eating a balanced meal cannot be over emphasized. A balanced meal is considered a meal with protein (animal or plant), carbohydrate and vegetables.
Often times, as Caribbean and Caribbean Americans, we do not put a fair portion of vegetables on our plates as we do with protein and carbohydrates.
A balance ensures that you will get your daily intake of fiber, which is essential for digestion, the removal of waste and toxins from the body and provides you with the necessary minerals and vitamins for a healthy body.
To help achieve this I will suggest we start what I want to call a ‘Veg-It-Up’ cooking habit when we do your meal planning through to meal preparation.
So today for the start of our Veg-It-Up cooking, we are going to plan a meal and “veg it up “.
Recommended:
Rice and Peas
Stewed Turkey
Steamed cabbage, carrots and okra medley
The trick to creating the steam vegetable medley is to steam all your vegetables in one pot.
Steam them together by stacking your hard vegetables at the bottom of the pot and then place the softer vegetables at the top.
Add salt, butter, pepper flakes, garlic, onions etc.
Steam until tender.
Cook enough of the vegetable medley to last for two or three days , especially if you have a busy lifestyle.
Other vegetable medleys I like are cauliflower, Celery and carrots; Choyote , red, green, yellow sweet peppers and carrots; Calaloo, eggplant, okra; Tomatoes, zucchini, cabbage and Pak Choy, cabbage and spinach.
Bon Appetite and Veg-It-Up!
Minna LaFortune is a trained Caribbean caterer and also president, Society for the Advancement of the Caribbean Diaspora (SACD).
