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Nutrition

Zucchini asparagus dill and feta quiche 

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What do you make when you have one little zucchini, a couple stalks of asparagus and a few sprigs of dill? Well, not much at first. But with a few eggs, a splash of milk and a bit of cheese you have the makings of a great looking quiche!

Olea Nutrition | zucchini dill asparagus quiche  

I happened to have a frozen pie crust in my freezer or else this would have turned into a frittata. Yes, a frittata is literally a quiche with no crust, so if you’re looking for a low carb version of this (although I don’t know why you would), just omit the crust and you have a tasty frittata!

Now, quiche is one of those dishes that I feel most people think that it is a dish reserved for tiny cute French bistros but it is so easy! Providing you use my pie crust cheat of course.

Onwards!

Olea Nutrition | zucchini dill asparagus quiche
So I needed to use up a couple leftover veggies before they headed to the compost so seeing as though quiche/frittata is one of the best “pantry” dishes, where you can literally throw whatever your crisper contains and it will be amazing, I thought, yes, quiche! With a little dill, a little feta (always makes it betta 🤣), should be a solid dish!

First, chop up your veg and sauté to take the rawness out and set aside.

Olea Nutrition | zucchini dill asparagus quiche
In a separate bowl, whisk up 3 eggs and 1 cup milk. Shred 1 cup of cheddar cheese (I also added 1/4 cup feta on top). Take out your pie crust from the freezer to thaw a touch. Sprinkle half your cheese in the bottom of pie crust and add cooked veggies on top of cheese.

Olea Nutrition | zucchini dill asparagus quiche
Sprinkle the rest of your cheese on top and pour egg/milk mixture into pie crust.

Olea Nutrition | zucchini dill asparagus quiche
Place quiche on a baking sheet and bake in an oven preheated to 425F for 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 350F and cook for another 30-35 minutes until egg mixture is set. You can test doneness by poking a toothpick in the center and if it comes out clean it’s all done!


The beauty of this recipe is that you can keep the egg/milk/cheese mixture the same and change up the veggies for anything! I’ve done wild mushroom, turkey bacon and Swiss; for a Mediterranean flava, sundried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, Kalamata olives and feta or this beauty with zucchini and asparagus. Experiment with whatever you have!

ENJOY!

Greek bulgur stuffed vegetables. Delicious and easy!

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Greek bulgur stuffed vegetables.

Greek bulgur stuffed vegetables | Olea Nutrition
It’s something I crave every summer when the temperature is hot, the sun is out late into the evening and the vegetables are plentiful. Plus it takes me back to Greece. It’s definitely a nostalgic dish for me.

My little guy loves it because it is filled with his favourite; tomatoes and rice, but when you add in bulgur or quinoa or other whole grains, they get added nutrition but with a familiar food. Moms are experts at hiding nutrition in foods aren’t we!?

This dish is great because it’s super satisfying, nutrient dense of course and looks like a fancy dish but it really is easier than it looks!

My Theia Kiki taught me some tricks to bring the flavours of the vegetables out even more, specifically the tomatoes and peppers…sprinkle a dash of sugar in the hollow tomato and a dash of salt in the peppers. Whether it does enhance them or not is up to you but all I know is “don’t mess with the original recipe!”. ☺️

Now, this recipe is intended to be modifiable, meaning, the veggies can be whatever you have or whatever looks good at the market; tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, eggplant, but it has to be something that can be hollowed out and stuffed. Also, the grain can be what you have on hand also; rice, quinoa, bulgur, lentils, basmati rice, brown rice, freekeh, wheat berries, etc, etc.  This is where I DO mess with the recipe! The idea is to make it and make it often but to change it up so to keep it interesting!

I serve my stuffed veggies with a side salad and feta because yes, I eat feta with everything. Tzatziki on the side is also delish!

Greek bulgur stuffed vegetables | Olea Nutrition

 

Greek bulgur stuffed vegetables
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Entree
Cuisine: Greek
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • ½ lb, ground beef (sub out beef for 1 cup chickpeas or 1 cup cooked lentils for veg option)
  • ½ cup bulgur wheat, coarse
  • ½ cup brown rice
  • 2 cup water
  • 2 cup tomato puree
  • 3 lbs assorted vegetables,tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini or peppers
Instructions
  1. Heat olive oil in dutch oven or large saute pan.
  2. Add chopped onion and cook over medium heat until translucent and fragrant.
  3. Add ground beef and cook until brown. *skip for veg option
  4. Rinse bulgur and rice until cold water until water runs clear, drain.
  5. Add bulgur and rice to pan and add 1 cup water and 1 cup tomato puree to pan and stir.
  6. Season with salt and pepper.
  7. Simmer until rice is cooked through.
  8. *Add in cooked chickpeas or lentils for veg option
  9. Hollow out vegetables with a tablespoon.
  10. Fill veggies with rice and beef mixture and top with their own lid (see picture).
  11. Place stuffed vegetables in a shallow casserole dish and fill bottom of dish halfway with remaining water and tomato sauce (helps cook the veggies quicker).
  12. Cover and bake in a oven preheated to 350F for 30-45 min.
  13. Test doneness of veggies by pricking with a knife.
  14. ENJOY
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Nutrition: Meat option

Nutrition: Vegetarian option

Boost the nutrition of your veggies with eggs!

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 A big, fresh, colorful salad is a perfect meal or side dish for your picnic or bbq during the heat of the summer, but are we getting all the nutrition out of our salads that we think we are?

Most salads are full of a variety of greens and mixed with an assortment of veggies such as red, green or yellow peppers, carrots, red cabbage and the more color we add the prettier and tastier our salads are – but are they more nutritious too?  In short, yes, the more color we add to our meals means we are eating more carotenoids, a fat-soluble vitamin shown to be a powerful antioxidant and helpful at reducing inflammation, and they’re in all colorful foods from blueberries to beets.  


However, without a source of fat eaten together with these veggies, the absorption of carotenoids into our body is much lower than it could be, meaning those beautiful salads may not be as healthful as we think.  Although most salads are topped with a variety of oil-based salad dressings, more people are choosing “low-fat” or “fat-free” dressings, inadvertently removing the important element that boosts the nutrition of salads and veggies on our tables.  ​​


Why eggs you may be wondering?  The fat in the yolk of whole eggs enhances the absorption of all carotenoids, boosting the nutritive value of whatever vegetable you may enjoy.  Although oil in salad dressings also increase absorption of these vitamins, it’s easy to overpour and mistakenly add mega calories whereas adding a single egg is only 70 calories and 6 grams of protein, making portion control simple while adding extra protein and nutrition in one easy step.

So next time you’re in the mood for a big salad, give it an extra boost of nutrition with the perfect whole food – eggs!

Source: Kim et al. 2015. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

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Cook your fish in olive oil for a nutritional powerpunch

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We all know that olive oil is good for our health as is eating fish on a regular basis, but now there’s new research showing that consuming them together has remarkable effects on our cholesterol and ups our free radical fighting power – read cancer-fighter in a meal.

Extra-virgin olive oil and fish alone have powerful nutritive benefits, both having cholesterol-lowering and antioxidant effects, however, researchers from the University of Londrina in Parana, Brazil found that fish oil combined with extra-virgin olive oil worked together to significantly lower cholesterol in patients with metabolic syndrome when compared to fish oil or olive oil alone.  
The fish/olive oil combo also acted to decrease markers of oxidative stress and up the antioxidant activity more than fish oil, marking the two oils powerful against free radicals when consumed together.

Some easy ways to incorporate this research in our daily lives is simply to cook your fish in olive oil, finish your cooked fish with a nice drizzle of high quality extra-virgin olive oil or poach a fillet of your favorite fish in an olive oil bath.  Whichever way you choose to mix the two, you’ll be elevating the flavour of your meal along with protecting yourself from disease with good nutrition through good food.

Source: Venturini, D et al. Journal of Nutrition, 2015.

 Fish and olive oil | Olea Nutrition

Strengthen your mind with the Mediterranean diet.

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Feeling forgetful? Adding olive oil or nuts while following a Mediterranean diet lifestyle may help to strengthen your mind, suggests new research published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA).
 Olive oil Mediterranean diet

It is now fairly well known that the Mediterranean diet is protective against heart disease and cancers, but new research is constantly showing that the Mediterranean diet is helpful for preventing and protecting against many conditions, providing an all-encompassing way of eating that nourishes and protects, but you’ll be eating this way because it’s delicious, trust me.  


The Mediterranean diet is coined after the foodways of the countries and cultures lining the Mediterranean Sea, from Spain and southern France all the way to Lebanon and Egypt back to Morocco.  These cuisines are characterized by a heavy consumption of fruits and vegetables, grains and legumes and olive oil but light on the dairy and even less on the meat. 

Olive oil Mediterranean diet

Vegetable vendor in Heraklion, Crete, Greece


Oxidative stress is also one of the culprits behind age-related cognitive decline, or dementia, and population studies have reported that the Mediterranean antioxidant-rich pattern of eating slows the onset and progression of dementia.  


To confirm these observations, a group of researchers from Barcelona, Spain heading the PREDIMED study, or Prevención con Dieta Mediterránea, aimed to investigate whether consuming a Mediterranean diet with antioxidant-rich foods would influence cognitive function when compared to a non-Mediterranean style diet.  
A group of 447 participants, healthy but with high risk of heart disease, and an average age of 67 years, were fed either a Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts (30 grams/day), olive oil (1 litre/week) or a control diet (reduced-fat), over the course of 6 years, where they were then tested on 3 main cognitive measures: memory, attention and executive function, and global cognitive function.  

Overall, the Mediterranean diet with olive oil and nuts scored significantly better in all follow-up cognitive tests than the non-Mediterranean diet.  


Bottom line: consuming a Mediterranean diet supplemented with olive oil and nuts may improve cognitive function and delay the onset or progression of dementia in older adults.

Now, don’t think that the Mediterranean diet is only good for aging minds, adopting a Mediterranean diet way of eating is beneficial at all ages, just think of it as you’re getting a head start on health!

Source: Valls-Pedret, C et al. 2015. JAMA.

Olive oil Mediterranean diet

Fruit vendor, Istanbul, Turkey

Heart healthy beans with garlic sauce

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Beans with garlic sauce

Beans with garlic sauce - Fasolia me skordalia
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Side Dish
Cuisine: Greek
Serves: 2 cups
Ingredients
  • 5 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 2 pinches sea salt
  • 1 cup almond flour/meal or 1 cup crushed blanched almonds
  • water
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp white vinegar
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 tbsp garlic sauce, or how much you like
  • Juice of ¼ lemon
Instructions
  1. For the garlic sauce:
  2. In a mortar and pestle, crush 5 peeled garlic cloves with a couple pinches of sea salt.
  3. Add garlic sauce base (whether it is almond flour, crushed almonds or walnuts, rehydrated stale white bread, or boiled, cooled, mashed potatoes) in small batches, about ¼ cup at a time, always adding a bit of water to loosen.
  4. When consistency is to your liking, whether you like it a bit more chunky or more fluid, add the olive oil for extra flavor and the vinegar to brighten it up.
  5. Always taste and season and adjust to what tastes best for you.
  6. Now eat to your heart's content!
  7. Beans:
  8. In a skillet, heat a couple swigs of olive oil and pour in your choice of drained, rinsed beans. When heated through, add the skordalia, how much you desire, and cook for 30 seconds, you don't want to burn the garlic.
  9. Tip your beans in garlic sauce into a dish and squeeze the juice of ¼ lemon over the beans. See..super quick! Enjoy!
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 1 of 4 Calories: 537 Fat: 25.5 Saturated fat: 3.4 Trans fat: 0 Carbohydrates: 59.2 Sugar: 2.3 Sodium: 129 Fiber: 14.8 Protein: 22.5 Cholesterol: 0
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Eating yogurt linked with reduced diabetes risk

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Love your yogurt? Now you have another reason to love it even more! New research shows that consumption of yogurt over other dairy sources is consistently linked with a reduced risk for type 2 diabetes, as shown in BMC Medicine.

yogurt

 

As if you needed another reason to love yogurt even more – it’s creamy, tangy, protein and probiotic-packed, a perfect breakfast or snack food and now research is showing that it also protects you from developing type 2 diabetes (T2D).

On top of its deliciousness, yogurt is a natural superfood, with its high levels of calcium, protein, vitamin D and probiotics, yogurt is a perfect food source for bone health and gut health and is an ideal dairy source for those with lactose intolerance. Now we can add that eating yogurt protects against type 2 diabetes to the list as well!

New research published in the journal of BMC Medicine from a group of researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health aimed to investigate whether total dairy intake as well as individual dairy sources were linked to incidence of type 2 diabetes. They followed a total of just under 195,000 people over the course of 30 years from 3 large prospective cohort studies, of which 15,156 cases of type 2 diabetes were documented. Total diet and dairy consumption was reported via food frequency diet questionnaires and was compared to overall type 2 diabetes incidence.

It was found that although total dairy consumption, which includes skim or whole milk, ice cream, cheeses, cream and yogurt, was not linked to a risk of T2D, when yogurt alone was tested, it was significantly associated with a lower risk of T2D.

The lowered incidence of T2D with yogurt consumption reported may be explained by the presence of probiotic bacteria in yogurt, as it as been shown that probiotic bacteria improves lipid and cholesterol levels and antioxidant status in T2D patients. This in conjunction with the bioactive components in all dairy products, such as calcium, vitamin D, magnesium and milk proteins, may contribute collectively to the improved blood glucose control observed in this study over other dairy products.

Now, you may be wondering what other ways can I incorporate yogurt in my diet besides the typical snack or breakfast food? Yogurt is an easy and healthy substitute for other typical high-fat dairy products that you may not have thought of before, without sacrificing flavor or texture. I like to keep a good stock of plain Greek yogurt on hand, since it’s so versatile and can be easily sweetened with natural honey versus those other processed, artifically sweetened pods!

Use plain yogurt instead of:

-Sour cream (for dips, tacos, chili, etc)
-Mayo (for dips)
-Heavy cream (when you want to add creaminess to recipes)
-Oil (in baking)
-Flavored fruit-bottom yogurt (sweeten with honey and add your own fruit!)
-Experiment and enjoy! You can’t go wrong!

Bottom line: Higher consumption of yogurt is associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.

Source: Chen, M et al. BMC Medicine. 2014.