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3 Easy Beet Recipes to try with your family

Feb 28, 20243 min read

Beets are the superfood you've been missing out on!

Studies show that the nutrients in beets (especially the antioxidants and phytonutrients) can help prevent cancer and heart disease (1,2,3,4).

One half cup of beets provides 50% of a toddler's folate needs for the day (1). Folate is important for healthy red blood cells and toddler growth and development.

Beets are also a good source of magensium, B-6 and iron, which help with muscle and blood formation.

Many people dislike beets. I often hear people say "this tastes like dirt," which makes me laugh. They do have a very earthy flavor, especially when freshly harvested!

I really love the earthly beet flavor and because I've been serving my kids beets since they were babies, they also love beets.

Start feeding your baby and toddler beets while they are young and they will love them too! Here's a photo of my daughter with fresh picked beets in our backyard. She's a teenager now but still likes beets.

Here's 3 easy ways I feed beets to my family:

#1 Canned Beets

Canned beets are just so much easier than cooking raw beets. They are relatively inexpensive and make a fun addition to any lunch. Just open up a can and serve them up with your mac and cheese.

(image credit: https://eat-move-save.extension.illinois.edu/eat/recipes/canned-beets-spices)

You can buy pickled beets or regular beets. If your family loves pickles, I'd start with pickled beets, the added sweetness might win your family over.

If you are feeling creative you can easily cut them into shapes with cookie cutters. That's too much effort for me, I just open up a can and plop them in a bowl. People gobble them up as a side dish or on top of salads.

Can you find the beets on this beautiful veggie plate? They look like canned beets to me.

Another fun way to eat canned beets is to blend them into a smoothie. My kids don't even know they are there in this recipe from the Oregon State Extension: https://kidspirit.oregonstate.edu/recipes/berry-beet-smoothie.

#2 Shredded Raw Beets

I love to serve shredded beets on top of tacos.

Raw beets are also delicious shredded into a green salad.

They do taste a bit more "like dirt" if you eat them raw, so I wouldn't recommend raw beets for your first tasting if you don't like earthy flavors.

#3 Roasted fresh beets.

This is the most delicious way to serve beets. Hands down.

Roasting them brings out their natural sweeten because as you heat them up, the sugars inside caramelize.

Look at this beautiful roasted beet salad from cookieandkate.com (one of the best vegetarian blogs out there).

I make roasted beets a lot in the fall after I harvest my beets. I always follow this recipe from cookie and kate: https://cookieandkate.com/perfect-roasted-beets/

Check it out!

That's the last red vegetable I'm highlighting for the month of February! I hope you were able to try red grapefruit, bell peppers and beets this month!

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/169966/nutrients
Ninfali P, Antonini E, Frati A, Scarpa ES. C-Glycosyl Flavonoids from Beta vulgaris Cicla and Betalains from Beta vulgaris rubra: Antioxidant, Anticancer and Antiinflammatory Activities-A Review. Phytother Res. 2017 Jun;31(6):871-884. doi: 10.1002/ptr.5819. Epub 2017 May 2. PMID: 28464411.
de Oliveira SPA, do Nascimento HMA, Sampaio KB, de Souza EL. A review on bioactive compounds of beet (Beta vulgaris L. subsp. vulgaris) with special emphasis on their beneficial effects on gut microbiota and gastrointestinal health. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2021;61(12):2022-2033. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2020.1768510. Epub 2020 May 25. PMID: 32449379.
Silva DVTD, Baião DDS, Ferreira VF, Paschoalin VMF. Betanin as a multipath oxidative stress and inflammation modulator: a beetroot pigment with protective effects on cardiovascular disease pathogenesis. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2022;62(2):539-554. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2020.1822277. Epub 2020 Sep 30. PMID: 32997545.

Mastering the Art of Cutting Grapefruit and Why it Should Be a Regular Part of Your Diet

Feb 22, 20242 min read

Pink grapefruit is the princess of winter fruits. It's sweet & pink, which makes it a perfect treat for the month of love.

Like all citrus fruits, grapefruit is high in vitamin C.

1/2 cup of grapefruit = 42mg vitamin C (1).

Toddlers age 1-3 need 15 mg per day (2).

1/2 cup grapefruit = 500% of what a toddler needs!

Vitamin C is important for:

healthy skin

a robust immune system

chronic disease prevention

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is a powerful antioxidant. Antioxidants get rid of bad chemicals (oxidants) that float around in your blood and cells (3).

Vitamin C and other nutrients like furanocoumarins and lycopene in grapefruit are also thought to prevent cancer and other chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes (4).

Simply put: Grapefruit is good for you, eat it while it is in season!!!

What's more important to me is that Grapefruit tastes good and looks pretty!

My second grader loooooves grapefruit. He eats one in his lunch almost every day from December through March, and often has one for an after school snack too.

I section grapefruit with a knife for him because the membrane between the juicy pulp is very tough and fibrous. It's very difficult to chew and can be a choking hazard for babies and toddlers.

To solve that problem, I've become adept at sectioning grapefruit with a knife.

I highly recommend practicing this skill if you love grapefruit and want your kids to love it too. Check out this video to see how:

I don't have any recipes for grapefruit, usually we eat them up plain (usually before they can even be gathered up into a bowl).

Enjoy this beautiful delicious fruit before they get expensive and dry. Grapefruit taste best and cost less when purchased between December and April.

I'll be back next week with tips for eating one of my favorite red foods: beets!

References:

USDA Nutrient Database. FoodData Search. Grapefruit, raw, pink and red, florida. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/174675/nutrients
Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs): Recommended Dietary Allowances and Adequate Intakes, Vitamins Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine, National Academies https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK56068/table/summarytables.t2/?report=objectonly
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2000. Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Selenium, and Carotenoids. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/9810.
Hung WL, Suh JH, Wang Y. Chemistry and health effects of furanocoumarins in grapefruit. J Food Drug Anal. 2017 Jan;25(1):71-83. doi: 10.1016/j.jfda.2016.11.008. Epub 2016 Dec 6. PMID: 28911545; PMCID: PMC9333421.

Celebrate Valentines with Red and Pink Foods!

Feb 7, 20242 min read

I have never been out to dinner on Valentines day. We don't exchange romantic gifts or get "lovey-dovey" on February 14th.

But we do still celebrate!

We make food in the shape of hearts (toast, pancakes, pizza).

We make heart shaped crafts.

We talk about what we love about eachother.

and

We eat a lot of red, pink and purple foods throughout the month: Bell Peppers, Grapefruit, Beets, Tomatoes, Strawberries, Grapes, Cabbage and Radishes!

On the blog this month, I'm going to highlight my favorite red and pink foods.

Starting with BELL PEPPERS.

I couldn't live without bell peppers. They are one of my top 10 favorite foods. Not only are they sweet and crunchy, but they are also super nutritious.

One bell pepper has about 150mg vitamin C, which is 160% of your daily need for vitamin C.

Vitamin C is important for you immune system, getting enough vitamin C can keep you healthy!

Bell peppers are also loaded with antioxidants that help prevent chronic disease like cancer. Eating a diet full of vegetables like bell peppers can keep your body healthy!

I'll often slice up a bell pepper and eat it raw. Bell peppers are sweet and crunchy, like apples, and make a perfect snack. Hummus, ranch or cream cheese dips go well with bell peppers.

This video shows the fastest way to cut a bell pepper (and a fun way to cut them into hearts for valentines day).

We usually eat bell peppers chopped up into salads. Bell peppers make a good substitution for raw tomatoes if you have tomato-haters at your house (my husband hates raw tomatoes). So when a recipe calls for tomatoes, I'll use bell peppers instead to make my family happy. Here are my favorite salad recipes that feature bell peppers:

RICE AND BEAN SALAD

https://www.ddinutrition.com/recipes-2/rice-and-bean-salad