Turnips and fennel, two under-utilized and under-appreciated vegetables in season now. Photo by Jennifer Baldwin

By Michelle Beck

It’s resolution time and, once again, I am resolving to watch my sugar intake. If I don’t pay attention, I have definite Cookie Monster tendencies. This year, however, I may have to swear off Turkish Delight as well. If you are familiar with the “Narnia” books, you have heard of Turkish Delight. It is the sweet loved by Edmund, the selfish brother.

Turkish Delight (also called lokum) is a sugar/starch confection that comes in many flavors, and can include nuts. I had the fortune to find several brands of Turkish Delight, including Liberty Orchard’s fruit delights and the Ginger People’s ginger delights, during the holidays. Some brands were from Turkey, some from the U.S. and some from Greece, and I felt obligated to sample them. Thus, a resolution was born!

It was interesting to note the differences in flavor and texture among the brands and countries. The worst I tried was actually from Turkey – very dry and tasteless. Thankfully, I love vegetables and enjoy including them in my diet, so I didn’t have an entirely cookie and Turkish Delight-filled December!

One resolution people often make is to eat more healthfully. But many people abandon it because the reality is that food companies make it so much easier to eat junk. It does take effort to eat healthfully, but the improvement in physical and mental well-being is worth it. Here are a few suggestions to make healthy eating easier.

• Shop the edges of the store. They contain the foods that should make up most of your diet: fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy items and meats (or meat substitutes). Processed foods are mostly in the aisles in the center of the store.
• Look on the top and bottom shelves. Food companies position their biggest money-makers at eye level – just look at the cereal section and note where the sugar cereal is placed.
• Read labels. We try to avoid high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in my house because no matter what the corn lobby says in their advertising, we don’t believe it is healthy. It is surprisingly hard to find yogurt without HFCS or artificial sweeteners. Vons has their organic brand (only a few flavors lost in the sea of Yoplait), Winco’s Tillamook brand is HFCS-free and Trader Joe’s has a good selection of HFCS-free yogurts. The Tillamook brand is also made with milk from cows not treated with the bovine growth hormone linked to cancer (rBHT) which is an additional plus. My favorite yogurt is actually Trader Joe’s plain Greek yogurt, but my husband and daughter like the flavored kind, which necessitates the search.
• If you haven’t already, I also strongly encourage you to read Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food and his new book, Food Rules. Both are short, easy reads that give much information about food.

Meal Planning

I also want to mention Everyday Food magazine again. I have subscribed for four years now and get many meal ideas every month. The magazine features seasonal food, so I save all of my magazines. This week, I pulled out all of the January/February issues to get ideas for next week’s menu.

Meal planning is also very helpful in the quest to eat more healthfully. I originally started planning my meals to help with the frustration caused by my food allergies, but planning ahead also makes dinner preparation easier and keeps me from impulsively buying food at the store, thus lowering our food bill. Once a week, I make a list for the next week’s meals, then buy the food needed. I keep the week’s menu and a running grocery list (as we run out of staples) on a white board inside the pantry door. If something comes up, meals can be shifted or moved to the next week, but it is very helpful not to have to come up with ideas when I am hungry.

Another thing I started several years ago is a snack list. Left to my own hungry devices, I will not make the best snack choices at 3 p.m., but with a snack list for reference, I find I do better. I even made one for my elementary-school-aged daughter. I taped it inside the pantry door at her eye level and when she asks for a snack, she knows it has to be from the list. This has helped eliminate many cookie-related battles at my house, because cookies are not on the snack list, they are a “sometimes food.”

This is also a good time for a reminder about sources for fresh fruits and vegetables in Bakersfield. Please see my past article here for a list.

Fennel

Fennel, sometimes called anise, is a white bulb with feathery leaves, somewhat reminiscent of celery. It has a light licorice flavor and can be used in many ways, both raw and cooked. It is frequently used in Italian and Mediterranean cooking. The licorice flavor mellows as it cooks. It is in season right now, but beware of flabby, limp grocery store fennel, and only buy it if it looks fresh and crisp. Fennel is an underutilized and under-appreciated vegetable, so the grocery stock is not always as fresh as it should be. It really is best to buy it at the farmer’s market, if possible.

Here are a few recipes using fennel:

Spicy Thai vegetable soup

Braised fennel with parmesan

Fennel salad with toasted walnuts

Tomato-fennel soup: This soup is simple and good, but I would add a little more fennel. I pureed it some, but it is brothy, not creamy. It reminds me of the tomato soup served at Big Sky Cafe in San Luis Obispo. It is not as sweet as most tomato soups, which I enjoyed, but a little evaporated milk could be added if a creamier texture is desired.

Turnips

This appears to have turned into under-appreciated vegetable week. Turnips are a root vegetable with a PR problem. I am not sure why, as they are very good. They taste a little like radishes, but with a milder peppery flavor. I love baby turnips raw with other veggies and dip. Baby turnips are better for this because they are more tender than mature turnips. Turnips can be mashed with butter like mashed potatoes, roasted, added to soup or pickled. The delicious purple pickles at Flame and Skewer are turnip pickles. This cabbage-turnip coleslaw with jalapeno dressing would make a nice side dish, and this turnip and roasted garlic soup is very good. It also freezes well.

“Evil Deli Chicken”

Evil Deli Chicken is the name coined by one of the members of the Betsy-Tacy listserv to which I belong who said it is evil because she couldn’t stop eating it. It is basically home rotisserie chicken. It is made in a slow cooker and has the ease of rotisserie chicken combined with the health benefits of organic chicken. Both Trader Joe’s and Abundant Harvest Organics sell organic and/or sustainably raised whole chickens.

To make Evil Deli Chickin, crumple some foil or parchment paper in the bottom of the slow cooker to lift the chicken and keep it from stewing in its own juices. Season the chicken with the herbs of your choice (I like herbes de Provence), put it on top of the foil or parchment, turn the slow cooker on low and leave it alone for several hours. (Cooking time depends on your cooker.) Chicken should cook to an internal temperature of 180 degrees, according to the USDA. This is an easy main dish, and is great with a side of roasted vegetables.

Resolution breaker

If your resolutions did not involve reducing your treat consumption, or you just feel like a break, here are a couple of great treat recipes, one gluten-free, one not. I actually think the espresso cookies would convert well to gluten-free, but I have been afraid to find out because they are delicious.

Espresso-double chocolate chunk cookies

Gluten-free monkey bread