Meatless Mondays - The Saga Continues

The big news this week, as reported on treehugger.com and in the LA Times, is that a group called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is suing the US Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services for emphasizing meat and dairy products in their My Pyramid set of dietary recommendations. This is the same group that successfully sued the Dairy Council for false advertising in their ad campaign which claimed that drinking lots of milk helps you lose weight.

I don't think they'll be successful in overturning the dietary recommendations, but they will at least have begun the conversation. Why should a government agency whose mission is "expanding markets for agricultural products" also set the dietary guidelines for an entire country? Canada's food guide is not perfect, either, but at least it's administered by Health Canada and not the Ministry for Agriculture. It will be interesting to see where the conversation leads.

Our conversation today is about delicious food that everybody's food guides would promote. The vegetable of the week is fruit. Yes, if you're playing Twenty Questions, berries (the fruit in question) aren't a Mineral, they aren't an Animal, so they're a Vegetable and I win. Berries are full of tasty antioxidants and have been linked to reductions in risk of diabetes and some cancers, as well as heart health benefits such as reduction of LDL cholesterol and blood pressure levels. And is there anything better in a smoothie than frozen berries? Hello. Eating lots of these little multivitamins is no hardship. 

When I first saw today's recipe of the week in a monthly newsletter to which I subscribe, my first thought was, Hominy? That's a funny word. I had heard of "hominy grits," but I didn't realize that hominy got out much on its own. Well, it does, and it was delicious in this stew. Because we have such a high class of intelligence and worldliness and overall great style sense in the readership of this blog, I don't need to tell you that hominy is a kind of soggy corn. But lest you think that is a bad thing, let me assure you that it turns the corner from bad to beyond good in a hurry, and its consistency becomes more like a grain or pasta, which really soaks up the flavours you add to it. 

Because one funny new word is never enough here in the Young Household, we have listed seitan as an ingredient, but you can substitute tempeh or tofu if you can find any of those things in your grocery store. One recipe with four silly words... you won't find that in any other blog post this week. Hope you enjoy it!