All About Avocado

Avocados: their properties, tips to use them to their full potential, in your dishes… and a little, good old myth busting. “Superfood”? Not totally.

Avocado here, avocado there, avocado everywhere. For a few years, especially in certain food trend scenes, the western world and Italians have “discovered” avocados and seem like they can’t get enough of them!

Put this way, you might think that I detest them. It’s actually the complete opposite!

I appreciate avocados too and use them frequently in my dishes and recipes, as I’ll tell you about soon. I think I should start this conversation by busting a widely- circulated myth, that has no basis in truth.

The avocado is a delicious and really culinarily useful fruit, it has a bright, greenish-yellow color, that makes it visually attractive and even “cute” in appearance and it has many interesting properties to its name, but… it’s not a “superfood”.

There, I said it.

In reality, the whole category of superfoods, is mostly invented for marketing purposes and doesn’t really have any scientific basis to back it up, so, when somebody uses this term, especially when trying to sell you a product, speaking about how good it is for your body and maybe even, for your mind… I’d say to take it with a grain of salt.

Now that this little myth is out of the way (busted!), we can come back to talking about all the reasons and things, that really make avocados so great, that if used properly, can really lend an exceptional touch to your dishes, making them good, tasty, “diverse”, colorful and completely healthy.

Asking them to do more would be a little too much, don’t you think?

Nice to meet you, my name’s Avocado.

Avocados are fruits, originating from tropical places, like Mexico (which is their top producer in the world), Brazil and Colombia. This also means that, having locally produced and 0 km avocados, while being in Italy, is a little hard to do (even though, there are some cultivations of them in southern Italy).

Its name, probably originates from the Aztec word for “testicle”. Because, really looking at one, that’s exactly what it looks like. What? That’s all nature for ya’!

Besides this anatomic curiosity, what makes avocados such interesting fruits, is their characteristic pulp: succulent, thick and creamy, it lends itself really well as an ingredient, that can be used in an infinite number of avocado-based recipes, be it sliced, cubed or blended!

Watch out though: avocado pulp, while having all of these characteristics, is not to be considered as a “lite” ingredient! Actually, just take a glance at the nutritional values (Which I suggest to be consulted always, to inform oneself, but not to harp and be hung up on) and take them into account.

100g of ripe avocado pulp, in fact, contains: 15g of fat (of which, 13g are unsaturated), 9g of carbs (of which 7g are fiber) and 2g of protein.

So, avocados definitely can’t be chalked up to being called “proteic” fruits (with only 2g!), or even “lite”. However, it’s exactly this last characteristic, that makes it interesting: used in the right way, avocados can, in fact, give our dishes that right balance of “good” fats (alternatively to animal and “industrially” produced, fats), that are necessary, not only to make foods taste better, but also, contribute to a healthy and balanced diet.

Pay attention though: the key words are “used in the right way”.

And here, we come to some weak points…

Avocados Desperados

As much as they might look alike, avocados are not pears (notable for being a noble fruit, for it’s goodness and simplicity “of heart”). Knowing how to use and get the most out of it, takes a little more understanding.

First and foremost, please, never peel an avocado like a pear! You know that bad feeling that you get when you see people putting ketchup on cold and gluey pasta, in American films? That’s the feeling I’m trying to describe.

The right way to “go about” using an avocado is to cut it in half and then, dig out the pulp, with a spoon. Be careful though, as the pulp, when unprotected, can tend to get dark. This isn’t a problem: just remove the thinnest veil of skin and the “heart” of the pulp will be as good, as if the avocado were just opened!

Understanding when an avocado has reached its full ripeness (to know which ones to buy and when to use them), is really important too! The pulp of a well matured avocado must be soft and thick, but, sometimes, the external skin/peel can feel a little hard, so it can be tough to judge what’s gong on on the inside, once in a while.

Fortunately, there’s a little trick to solve this. To know if an avocado is mature enough, try to remove the stem: if it comes off without too much resistance, this is a good sign! Then, if the pulp under the stem is a bright green color, the fruit will be at the right ripeness to be used and enjoyed in your recipes! A brown color, on the other hand, means that it’s past its maturation point.

In case your avocado is trying to keep its stem (and is not yet ripe), to accelerate its ripening, just put the fruit into a paper bag with an apple or a banana: two or three days are usually sufficient.

Avowhat??

“Ok Alice, but, once my avocado is ripe, opened and correctly dug out, with that beautiful and tasty green pulp… what should I do with it?”

The response is: a bunch of things!

I, for example, use them on my Avocado Toast: on a crunchy base, of whole wheat, rye bread (made with my sourdough), they add that fantastic softness and creamy-ness, that in every bite, melt away and link so perfectly with the flavors of the other ingredients, whether they be salmon, eggs or even citrus fruits.

Even when blended and transformed into sauces, avocados can enrich and cause cravings in many different kinds of dishes, like a delicious and fragrant Bowl, in which it brings the right concentrations of vegetable fats, or even, in a Smoothie, to which it gives a special consistency and an intense and irresistible color.

Lastly, obviously, avocados are the base for the famous, guacamole dip which belongs to traditional Mexican cuisine and has been exported the whole world over and is the perfect accompaniment, to many different kinds of foods and snacks.

When speaking about sauces and dips, it’s worth mentioning that, many times, these avocado-based condiments, frequently have, other added fats (in Italy, we usually use olive oil). This isn’t a problem, if everything has been evaluated and all it means, is that there isn’t only one source of fats in the foods, but two!

Not only avocado

There are so many ways and reasons to enjoy eating avocados, this great and widely-appreciated table top “revolutionary”.

But my name wouldn’t be Alice Fazi, if I didn’t invite you, as always, to not get “hung up and stuck on” only one ingredient. Avocados are delicious, but not un-interchangeable. In fact, in Italy, we have another source of “good” fats, one of the most special and appreciated in the whole world: extra virgin olive oil.

Using avocados in its place is ok, works really well and can be fun and tasty, especially if it pushes you to experiment with new ideas and find new solutions, but from a health standpoint, there’s no need to prefer them to using good old olive oil.

You can, however, feel completely free to choose to use whichever one you want, always, depending on your personal tastes and how “exotic” or “mediterranean” you want to feel like.

This is my philosophy and the philosophy a the base and core of, FreshEnergy!

Alice

Follow me on Instagram and Facebook.

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L'articolo All About Avocado proviene da FreshEnergy.

“Mysterious” Kefir

“Good and Healthy” for five thousand years: what is Kefir, how do you prepare it, how is it used and what are its (real) benefits.

Let’s talk about Kefir! If something is considered “good and healthy” , for millennia, maybe even before writing was around, there must be some truthful basis to it, don’t you think?

It’s for this reason that Kefir , the delicious beverage, derived from the fermentation of milk (but not only: we’ll check this out too), is still here,with us today… and I’m here talking about it to you.

Because, even though most things about Kefir have already been disclosed, so much that it seems like a mythological creation, like Bigfoot… in reality, I can’t hide the fact that I’m really fascinated by it too and recognize its awesome qualities, beyond using it in my private life!

But let’s not let ourselves get carried away and let’s start from the basics. Those being: what is Kefir … and how is it made?

“Yoghurt” who?

Kefir is a probiotic beverage, obtained by using “Kefir granules” : a particular mixture of microorganisms, that look, kind of like cauliflower, that when submerged in milk, transform it’s sugars, and begin the fermentation process.

The result is a beverage, with a consistency, similar to that of “drinkable” yoghurt, with a slightly acidic flavor, even “pungent”, when left to ferment for a longer period of time.

“I understand Alice, thank you so much! So, it’d be easier for me to just buy some yoghurt from the supermarket, right?”— some would say.

Nope! Because its similarities with yoghurt, pretty much end here. In fact, Kefir boasts a bunch of really interesting properties.

The first one? It’s naturally poor in lactose.

This is because, during the fermentation process, the Kefir granules (that from here on, we’ll call little Kefirs ) require nutrients from lactose— a sugar— and they consume it and therefore, “eliminate” it, almost completely, from the final beverage.

This one’s for you lactose intolerant or allergic, friends: finally, a milk-based drink that you can enjoy without any problems, without going up against that dreaded “ballooning” feeling!

But, in being a probiotic drink, that’s rich in fermented probiotics , Kefir also has other qualities: for example, it aids in helping to balance your gut flora (the famous “human microbiome”), making digestion easier… and all of the other mechanisms that come into play “afterwards”.

Not only this, but it also stimulates the production of antibodies.. From a nutritional viewpoint, it retains, pretty much the same values as the milk you used to prepare it before.

Finally, according to a few highly regarded studies, ( quoted by Harvard Medical School), it seems that Kefir could have a role in preventing cardiovascular diseases.

Not bad for a “mere” beverage, right?

Who makes Kefir?

“Ok Alice, but where can I find this Kefir? I’ve never seen places that sell it! ”

The answer: you can make it yourself! 🙂 🙂

Prepare Kefir at home , even without using special appliances or tools, it’s completely simple!

Take about 2 teaspoons of little Kefirs and submerge them in 500ml of milk, in a glass container: you can use cow, goat, or long preservation time, milk , whatever you prefer and like! If you want, you can even use drinks like coconut or soy-based milks , that, even though they aren’t really “milks”… still work really well too!

Once you’ve submerged the granules, close the container, with a tea towel, securing it with an elastic band and leaving it all to ferment for 12-48 hours, at room temperature (20-25°C, ideally). You don’t need to do anything else!

At the end of this process, you’ll have some delicious homemade Kefir! Please, remember to drain your little kefirs, to salvage them and immediately re-submerge them, in fresh milk: so that you can have, even more Kefir production. Or, if for any reason, you just want to keep your granules, for another time, you can put them in a small quantity of milk and freeze them!

Trust me, you’ll come to love your little Kefirs , as if they were alive…and actually, they are! You’ll see: you’ll treat them well and take care of them, they’ll remain strong and will reproduce themselves, really quickly, so that you can share them with all of your friends too (at least they’ll stop trying to steal your Kefir all the time, and can make their own !)

Remember that they don’t like being in contact with metal, so you’ll need to preserve them in plastic or glass containers.. Even when handling the granules and mixing your Kefir, always use wood, silicone or other, non-metallic spatulas or spoons.

When it comes to your Kefir, once it’s ready, it can completely be stored and kept in the fridge : it’ll stay good and fresh for about a week!

Kefir, what strength!

Besides traditionally milk made Kefir, another variation exists, water Kefir, that is obtained by using different kinds of granules, (bigger and transparent ones), putting them in coconut, or in any case, sweetened, water (don’t worry: the sugars won’t add to your circumference, but they’ll provide the necessary food for the microorganisms to live and thrive, allowing, sub-sequentially, for fermentation to occur).

It goes without saying that, water Kefir has different nutritional values to the milk variation: it mostly contains carbohydrates and is lacking in proteins and fats, but still remains rich in probiotics. For this reason, it represents a really interesting choice for vegan beverages and can be enjoyed in any moment, even as an, out of the ordinary, aperitif, as a cool substitute for typical, carbonated, fizzy drinks, like coca-cola and others similar to it.

A tip: to make your water Kefir even better tasting, after the fermentation process, drain and remove the granules and add some pieces pieces of fruit (fresh or dried), or some fruit juice. Close it with a lid and let it rest, again, at room temperature, and after one day, put it in the fridge… and you’ll get a delicious, fruity, fresh and effervescent, drink, that above all, is good to your intestine!

Now, that Kefir is in style, there are no shortages of industrially produced options.. If you’re not home and are out and about, or in a rush, you can definitely grab one from a supermarket and have it on the spot, but if you can, I’d recommend making it for yourself as much as possible: it’ll be more flavorful and richer in probiotics, than a commercially sold one, which also, usually have some added sugar and flavoring in them, that are completely unnecessary.

To drink, but not only

Kefir can, of course, be drunk and enjoyed as is, but there are also many other ways that it can be used!

For example, you can use it as the liquid component in your smoothies , or as a delicious dressing for your salads, or you can even put it over your cereal for a really good breakfast, that really exudes the “pros” in the word “probiotic”!

Finally, some people use Kefir, as an ingredient in cakes and other cooked, or baked goods and foods: in this case, it certainly gives a fuller flavor to the dishes, but be aware that, by cooking it, it tends to lose a few of its qualities and properties, that make it so good and interesting.

It’s completely up to you!

Have some good Kefir 😉

Alice

Follow me on Instagram and Facebook.

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L'articolo “Mysterious” Kefir proviene da FreshEnergy.

Today, we’ll go over a really important subject, for those who want to reap the benefits of following a healthy diet and support an active and positive lifestyle, that is spoken about very, too little. This being how can we create a “balanced dish”?

If you’re among those who hear the word “balanced”, when speaking about nutrition and run away in terror, thinking about weighing every ingredient, down to the gram, following complicated, mathematical formulas and logging all of it in a weary notebook… Have no fear: I feel you!!

In fact, my philosophy is that nutrition is a completely natural thing and for this reason, living it in an “artificial” way, made of measurements and calculations is just another weight and struggle, that is often times, counterproductive. Because it risks, turning something that, before anything else, should always continue to be pleasurable, into something “forced”.

This is why, today, we won’t talk about grams, calories or other “numeric” things: this is unnecessary!

Instead, I’ll pass some practical tips to you (big and small), to help you build your balanced dishes, simply and naturally, while being full of flavor and nutrients and without imbalances …including excessive and unnecessary limitations!

Are you ready?

GROCERY SHOPPING…HOW WHOPPING!

The first secret to creating and bringing fourth simplicity, in your delicious and balanced dishes, is… beginning from the groceries!

Realizing any dish, without having the right ingredients in your home, becomes almost an impossible feat: but, having a wide variety of fresh, well-chosen and thought out components, at your disposal, beforehand, makes all of the difference in the world..

This is why, I’d recommend shopping in a“smart way”. Here are some tips:

• Think about your menu a little bit in advance and avoid going shopping while being hungry, so that you don’t fill your cart with elements that you don’t need— or that you won’t want to admit to buying— and you’ll always know what you need. This is fundamental, especially when using fresh ingredients!
• Write a list of what you need to buy and bring it with you: you can write in a notebook or a ledger, or, if you’re more technological, there are lots of different kinds of colorful and fun apps, all there to help you out.
• If somebody else is going shopping for you, your trusty app will be really useful: you can share your list in real time, with so much detail… this way, you also won’t receive 10 phone calls, where you need to explain everything over and over again!

Now that you have everything necessary to make your dishes good and healthy… half of the ”work” is already done!

The other half lays in knowing how to put them all together, in a balanced way, so that they contain the right nutrients, are irresistible to the palate and there is no giving up of fragrance or aesthetic satisfaction, two components, fundamental to maintaining the goodness of food, that are, all too often, neglected !

“But Alice, aren’t these too many things all put together?”

I can assure you that they are not!

In reality, if we always keep a few simple notions in mind and don’t go forwards “blindly”, making good and healthy dishes, is a lot easier than most people think!

ONCE UPON A TIME, EVERYTHING HERE WAS GREENERY

Obviously, all of our individual, nutritional needs, depend on many factors, like age, gender and physical activity, but, there are some very simple, general rules, that can help guide us in the right direction, instinctually, without ever having to count grams, calories and measuring every ingredient, like a nutty alchemist.

The first rule is really simple: “green is better”! In reality, the ingredients don’t even need to be “green”, because, fruit and vegetables, are every color of the rainbow, but you understand me… The important thing is eating as much of them as possible! (Excluding potatoes for the moment, we’ll come back to them.)

In any case, about half of your meal should always be made up by our “green friends”, mainly vegetables (⅔) and slightly less fruit (⅓). Obviously, I’m not saying that you should put some cut up pieces of apple in your pasta with tomato sauce…Fruit can also add a really good, sweet conclusion to a meal or a snack.

Remember that eating many different kinds of fruits and vegetables, of different shapes, colors, textures and flavors, is really important, along with their respective seasonalities and if they come straight from your garden, (or from a local farmer and without losing your mind over foods with a “bio” label on them, in supermarkets), you’ve hit the jackpot!

In this way, your dishes won’t only always be beautiful and interesting, but you won’t have to worry about which types of phytonutrients and micronutrients compose your produce: you’ll consume everything you need, naturally! (Unless you have certain deficiencies that need to be compensated for, in which case, they would require a little bit of special thought, care and attention.)

I recommend that you don’t cook your vegetables for too long: in most cases, sautéing and steaming, for about 5-10 minutes, is ideal, in order to highlight the natural flavors found in your food and preserve the majority of of the nutrients!

INVINCIBLE CEREALS AND HOW TO TAME THEM

Now, let’s go on to talk about “cereals and pseudo-cereals” that should represent ⅓, of the composition of your dish.

We’re talking about foods like barley, emmer, wheat flour derivatives, rice, millet, potatoes (there they are!), quinoa, buckwheat, rye or sorghum bread, amaranth and many others. All to be preferably whole wheat.

Let’s understand each other: there is no need to throw your loaf of white bread , that you have at home, out of the window, as if it were about to explode, from one moment to the next, but, it would be better to not exclusively eat refined flours, 3 times a day, 7 times a week (how many do). ).

“Ok Alice, cereals are good, but they take ages to cook! I don’t have a ton of time!”

You’re right… but only partly. Some cereals are exclusively “tough as bones”, but with a dash of organization you’ll be able to tame them, even in your day to day life.

Before anything else, I recommend that you always soak them, to prep them for use, it takes a moment and you can do it whenever you want and this’ll cut down significantly on cooking time!

This important step down, you can cook them while doing other things at home (but remember to put on a timer!), or make them in larger quantities, whenever you have the chance,keep them in the fridge and then eat them throughout the week, in your cold dishes, like bowls and salads, but also, in your hot dishes, finishing them off in the pan or, however you like.

Ok, this is a good time to talk a little bit about that friend, that’s always at and talking about, the gym ((I know you have and love them too!), that are convinced that eating even one gram of carbohydrates at night, outweighs all of the hard work and time they put in, with exercise and discipline, during the day…

This here, is. a false myth to bust.. Or, better, a misunderstanding: if we really talk about fitness” professionals”, people who live in search of obtaining the lowest possible, body fat concentration, this “rule” could have something to back it up. But, just because their lifestyle regiment is so “ extreme” and this creates a need for them to develop an extreme nutrition plan. I don’t recommend living like this and find it completely unhealthy.

For regular people like you and me, for a nutritional system that’s healthy and balanced, it doesn’t really matter what time you consume your macronutrients. You can free your mind from that thought and relax: a dish that’s balanced and healthy, remains so, whether you eat it for lunch or dinner.

The important thing is to maintain balance in your nutrition, throughout the day: if you only had pasta for lunch, you can balance that out, in the evening with having more protein and vegetables. But you could switch it up and do the opposite if you wanted to too, without worrying about it very much.

There you go… one less problem!

THE “PROS” OF PROTEIN

Finally, less than ¼ of your dish should be made up of a protein, of animal or vegetable origins, with preferences for ingredients like fish, white meats, eggs, dairy, legumes andnuts.

The only thing I’d sayis don’t overdo it with red meats and aged cheeses: a well- known and true notion (they’re not all false myths!), that is all too often ignored.

Obviously I’m not telling you to never enjoy that meat dish again, or to say no to a picnic with your friends because all they have are prosciutto and cheese sandwiches… Both would be choices that go against the idea of maintaining the “balance” that we’re talking about! Simply put, I recommend that you don’t make these foods daily staples is all.

Let’s go over the chapter of “fats”, that even though, they have a terrible reputation, play a fundamental role in our nutrition and therefore, the right dose, of the good kinds, needs to be omnipresent.

For example, you can incorporate them into your meals as condiments: 1 or 2 spoonfuls of extra virgin olive oil (or other, unrefined oil), can surely add fragrance and flavor to a dish and there’s no reason to go without it!

If you want, you can use different sources of fat, like avocados, for example (100g of its pulp equals, more or less, 1 spoon of oil: here you can find my tips on this!), or seeds, like flax seeds — and many other kinds— and even nuts.

Let’s finish with the one, fundamental “ingredient” of any balanced dish, otherwise known …water!

I recommend that you drink lots of it and to have it more than any other beverage (surely before sugary, carbonated ones) or even alcohol. When you want something a little bit “different”, a complementary alternative, are probiotic drinks, like the “mysterious” Kefir.

Here we go! Now you really know everything that you require, to create your dishes in a balanced, simple and “natural” way, without using any mathematic tables and extremisms.

There’s nothing left for me to do but invite you to experiment and to say… buon appetito!

Alice

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L'articolo Balance in a Dish proviene da FreshEnergy.

“Super” Bowl!

The guide to the good and healthy “bowl”, that is captivating Italians

Let’s talk about Bowls! The great thing about stereotypes, is that it’s really easy to disprove and dismantle them.

For example: if some (especially those looking in from the outside), think that “Italian” cuisine is only made up of spaghetti, pizza and lasagna, well, I’d tell them, that what I see on a daily bases, looking closely, is the complete opposite!

In fact, there’s an explosion of new ideas, innovative dishes and reinterpretations of recipes that belong to diverse cultures, going on, as you read. A real “revolution” is happening at the table, due to an ever-growing interest, by people, towards healthy food. 

All of this culinary excitement, that all this time has been brewing, without most hearing, or knowing about it, but that today, begins to circulate, and tomorrow, I’m sure, will go on to become some of the “best friends” of many of the “Boot’s” homes and their kitchens. 

Bowls Galore

You might have come across, for example, certain names like, “Buddah or Nourish Bowls”. Many other, similar names too, such as: “Pokè”, “Salad ”, “Smoothie”… and every bowl, you can possible think of. 

Literally! In being that the word “bowl”, in English, is a direct translation of the Italian “ciotola”, any dish (even, a little unhealthy ones) can be made into a “bowl”: If you put french fries into a bowl, they become a “french fry bowl”.. If you decided to put some pasta, with egg, pork cheek , in a bowl, you’d have a “carbonara bowl”.. I’m only joking, but I think you caught my drift.

In reality, the identity of bowls, is strongly linked to the tradition of health food, because they’re made, with the objective in mind, of creating a nutritionally balanced dish following the tips, that I spoke about with you before  here. 

For this reason, bowls are frequently vegetable based, with complex carbohydrate and protein rich components, all accompanied by delicious, healthy and non-out of balance, condiments and dressings.

“Awesome Alice! But…what about all of those different names that you told me before?”

Because, even though they all follow these shared “rules”, there are so many different kinds of bowls!

Let’s jump right into discovering them all, together…

 

Bowl, bowl, on the wall

1 – Let’s start from the Buddha Bowl: a single, usually vegan, or in any case, vegetarian, cold dish. It’s base is normally, leafy, green vegetables, together with a whole wheat grain, lots of other, colorful vegetables (both raw and cooked) and sometimes, fruit or berries. To this base, a vegan source of protein is usually added, like legumes, tofu, tempeh or hummus and it’s all accompanied by a condiment, that can be nut, or seed-based or, very frequently, made with avocado. 

All of these fantastic ingredients can be mixed together, like you would in your run of the mill salad, but the real “pros” of making the Buddha Bowl, choose to arrange them with an artistic touch, making the dish not only inviting, but also beautiful to behold! I assure you that a Buddha Bowl, made with care, will be able to completely satisfy your eyes and palate, send your hunger for a hike and never weigh you down.

2 – A variation of this is the Nourish Bowl, that is built in a similar way, to the Buddha Bowl, but doesn’t need to be vegetarian or vegan: here, you can use meat or fish for the protein and chicken, turkey, tuna, salmon or eggs are the usual choices.

3 – Much appreciated, for it’s easy use, quick preparation and versatility, is thePokè Bowl, that we could place into a particular and, at first glance, contradictory category: that of healthy fast food”. Yup, you read that correctly, because “eating healthily” doesn’t necessarily require spending tons of time to prepare dishes… it’s time it’s said! The Pokè Bowl is a dish from Hawaiian tradition, originally made with a base of rice, raw fish and algae.

Now, “Pokè dishes” also offer diversely made bowls, with different grains, instead of rice and cooked fish, instead of raw, or tofu and chicken, even fried! In any case, you can use whatever you like, creating a simple and delicious dish! I’d say to pay attention and be careful, because this liberty of choice, can make way for coming up with bowls that aren’t really “healthy”. To put it simply, I don’t think I’d cover a Pokè Bowl with mayonnaise, is all!

4 – A Smoothie Bowl is another one still: it’s not usually used for main meals, but they’re great for breakfast, snack or dessert. In fact, we’re talking about a fruit smoothie, with plant based milk, that remains dense and cold and is eaten with a spoon (not to be drunk with a straw, like a regular smoothie).

A smoothie bowl can be vegan— adding various seeds, nuts, peanut butter or other kinds of spreads— it can be vegetarian, when made with yoghurt, for example. If made well, it will be balanced, full of the three macronutrients, rich in fiber, omega 3 and micronutrients! As a base, I’d suggest using home-frozen, fresh fruit: you can find pre-frozen mixes of fruit, with “smoothie” written on them, in supermarkets, but they’ll surely be less balanced than the Smoothie Bowl that has your homemade touch: with a little bit of imagination, it won’t just be delicious, but beautifully colorful and photogenic…Instagram ready!

Really unique

The last thing to consider, is that they are all “single plate meals”and usually take the form of an unaccompanied, whole meal.

This is a little different from Italian tradition, that sees us dividing out meals into different courses, from the starter, to the ending coffee. Which is great for a beautiful dinner with friends, where we spend even 2 or 3 hours eating and talking happily. I love it!

But, when we want, or need to have a quick lunch, that gives up nothing in the way of health and nutrition (because maybe we want to go out and take a walk afterwards)? These are the moments and occasions, when Bowls lend themselves at their best: needing to choose between a “first” or “second” Italian style course, while still maintaining balance in a dish, with many vegetables, can sometimes be difficult. A single dish meal, like a good, colorful, fragrant and easily made, bowl is ideal!

Awesome, now that you know all there is to know about Bowls: there’s nothing left to do but… experiment with and try them!

Follow me on Instagram and Facebook.

You might also like:

All About Avocado

Read »

“Mysterious” Kefir

Read »

Balance in a Dish

Read »

“Super” Bowl!

Read »

L'articolo “Super” Bowl! proviene da FreshEnergy.