The Second Food You Should Be Eating

Number two on the list of top foods that you're not eating (but should be!) is cabbage. Marrying into a Ukrainian family has allowed me to experience WAY more cabbage in the past 10 years of my life than the 18 before then, and I have to say that I really enjoy cabbage.

Cabbage rolls, soup, sauerkraut, you name it - I love them all!! Before marrying Mike, my cabbage eating experience was pretty much limited to coleslaw. Now, I'm happy to say that we regularly eat this off the Foods You Should Be Eating list.

So, why cabbage? you may be wondering. Here it is, courtesy of WiseGeek:

A cup of cabbage (approximately 150 grams) has only 33 calories. Yet it is packed with vitamins and provides an excellent source of dietary fiber. Some of the health benefits of cabbage are its high levels of vitamins C and K. It’s also a good source of many of the B vitamins, folate, vitamin A, and omega 3 fatty acids. Vitamin C alone makes cabbage rich in antioxidants that may help protect cells and deliver anti-aging benefits.

There are other documented benefits of cabbage. For instance, cabbage may be a helpful food when dealing with peptic ulcers. Red cabbage in particular has been shown in a few studies to have the potential to reduce risk of Alzheimer’s disease. A certain type of protein called amyloid beta may damage brain cells, and some cells in red cabbage, called anthocyanins, may act to prevent this damage.

Several studies have assessed the benefits of cabbage as a cancer preventative, and some of these are very encouraging. Many of these studies look not only at eating cabbage but other cruciferous veggies too. In research done in the Netherlands, people who ate cruciferous vegetables reduced risk of colo-rectal cancers nearly in half. Another study in Texas evaluated how these veggies could reduce bladder risk by nearly 30%.

There are quite a few published articles that suggest lung cancer risk may be lower for people who eat cabbage or cruciferous vegetables of other types. Even smokers may be able to reduce risk of lung cancer, though eating cabbage should not be seen as a way to avoid cancer for smokers. Benefits of cabbage for nonsmokers who are exposed to second hand smoke are high too, and might be significant in lowering risk for lung cancer due to exposure to smoke.

Another of the interesting benefits of cabbage is its potential to help reduce breast cancer incidence. Research into this suggests that adolescent girls who eat 3-5 to servings of cabbage per week may be less likely to develop breast cancer as adults. Adult women shouldn’t give up on eating the vegetable either, as regular consumption of cabbage may help provide continued protection against breast cancer.

Though there are many benefits of cabbage, there are a few people who should avoid it. Its high levels of vitamin K mean that those who take anticoagulants like warfarin (Coumadin®) should not consume cabbage. This may interfere with levels of this medication. Additionally, those with low thyroid hormone levels may want to skip cabbage because it can interfere with the thyroid gland’s ability to produce thyroid hormone.


Are you feeling adventurous and want to add some cabbage into your family's diet? Here are some of our stand-by recipes:



Cabbage Rolls (created by me in an attempt to reproduce Baba's.....not quite, but still yummy!!)

Ingredients

1 head of cabbage
cooked brown rice, 2 cups
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 8 oz can of tomato sauce
2 tsp brown sugar, packed
2 tbsp ketchup
thyme
oregano
salt
pepper



Directions
Cook brown rice according to directions.

Sautee bell peppers, onions, and beef until beef is browned and veggies are soft and translucent. Add spices as you cook, to taste. Add can of tomatoes near the very end, undrained.

Drop a head of cabbage in a large pot of boiling water. Boil for a few minutes, pull out and remove the outer leaves. Put the head of the cabbage back into the boiling water, and repeat the process until you have 8 leaves.

In a large bowl, mix meat mixture with cooked rice. Use this rice/meat mixture to "stuff" the cabbage rolls. Divide mixture evenly, and then roll up the cabbage, burrito style. Place, seam side down, in a casserole dish. Continue until the casserole dish is full.

In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, tomato sauce, and ketchup. Whisk together, and then pour over the cabbage rolls.

Bake, covered, for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve with sour cream, if desired.

Number of Servings: 8







Sweet Russian Cabbage Soup (one of our favourite recipes!!)


Ingredients

* 1 1/2 pounds ground lean beef
* 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
* 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
* 4 cubes beef bouillon
* 2 medium carrots, shredded
* 1 onion, chopped
* 2 tablespoons white vinegar
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 2 quarts water, divided
* 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
* 1 head cabbage, cored and cut into wedges

1. Crumble the ground beef into a large pot. Add the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, beef bouillon cubes, carrots, onion, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Pour in 1 quart of water, and bring to a boil. Stir to break up the beef while heating. Once the soup comes to a boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes over low heat.
2. Pour in another quart of water, and return to a slow boil. Add garlic and cabbage. Simmer for 25 minutes, until cabbage is tender. Ladle into soup bowls to serve.



This one we have never made before, but we're going to soon - I think we'd love it!!

Braised Red Cabbage

Braised Red Cabbage

1 red cabbage, sliced
3 onions, sliced thinly
2 tbsp. butter
4 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
4 cloves
1/2 c. red wine vinegar
1/2 bottle dry red wine
1/2 tsp. sugar
Dash salt

Melt butter in large saucepan. Saute onions, then add cabbage, apples, sugar and salt, cloves. Mix well . Add vinegar and wine. Cover and cook over low heat until cabbage is soft and liquid has absorbed, stirring occasionally (approximately 1 1/2 hours).




What do you think? Ready to eat some cabbage? :)

Cookie alert!

Well, I did it. I baked cookies last night. Surprised?


I am proud to say that I only ate two of the cookies last night. I packaged up 3 dozen of them and sent them into work with Mike today, and kept about a dozen for us (to use in the boys' lunches, primarily). I am incredibly happy with myself and my willpower last night - AND I think I enjoyed the two cookies that I did have more than I enjoyed the 10 of them that I ate the last time I made this recipe.

As I was taking a tray of cookies out of the oven, I experienced what some may say is an epiphany, or a moment of clarity or enlightenment. The cookies that I was making have to rest on the hot cookie sheet for a minute before you transfer them to a cool plate or cooling rack to finish cooling. When you take them off of the pan after that first minute, they're soft - VERY soft.

I transferred over the first dozen from the pan to a plate just fine - it was during the transfer of the second dozen that the moment occurred. About 3 cookies into the process, I broke one. It just ripped right in half as I slid the spatula under the cookie. As my hand automatically reached for it, to grab it and pop into my mouth (after all, when you break a cookie, you have to eat it, right?), I found myself feeling like I was hovering over my body, watching myself like you'd watch a movie.

You know that moment in the horror film where the poor girl runs UP the stairs instead of out of the house and you just know that she's going to be dead in a few more minutes because now she's trapped upstairs? Your mind knows what she's going to do, but every fiber of your being is yelling at her to "Don't go upstairs!!!!!" That's how I felt last night when the cookie broke.

My body's response was purely automatic - I even found that I opened my mouth slightly in response to my hand reaching for the cookie. Like I was in a trance, I felt like I had no actual control over my actions. My mind was screaming, "NO!!! DO NOT EAT THAT COOKIE!!!" even as my hand was reaching for it.

And then somehow......my hand faltered. My mind had managed to grasp control again. Feeling like I'd just narrowly escaped some sort of bodily harm, I watched my hand re-form the cookie and transfer it (whole!) to the plate to cool. Even now, as the cookies sit in the container on the counter, I can't tell which one it was.

I realized last night that, even three weeks into this journey, I have a lot of habits that I need to break. Sneaking a bite of my son's mac and cheese as I clear his plate, having something sweet after dinner...I mean, every meal, not getting out of bed in the morning to work out, sitting on the couch watching rerun after rerun of Criminal Minds on TV instead of working out while watching those reruns, eating a snack before bed EVEN when I'm not hungry. All of those things I seem to do without thinking - it's automatic.

My challenge for myself this week (since I forgot to set one the other day) is to try and be more conscious of what I'm doing, whether it be regarding my eating habits or my working out habits. I need to notice what I'm doing before I can change the behaviour.

I've made such a big improvement in my life since Christmas day - and it's up to me to keep that forward momentum going. It's only going to get harder as I get closer and closer to my weight loss goal. All of these little changes are going to end up mattering.

I want to master them now - how about you?