Are you planning a family or friend get-together to watch the big game? Are you a Patriots or Falcons fan? Whether you watch football or not, Super Bowl Sunday is a big day for food preparers. Make your game-watching healthy and serve vegetables in an appetizer and a soup.
Soup is a great way to get your veggies. For the average adult, we need to eat two and one-half cups of vegetables every day. The US Dietary Guidelines goes one-step further and places vegetables into various groups, according to their nutrients. Over one week,we should eat 1 ½ cups of dark green leafy greens, 5 ½ cups of red and orange colored vegetables, 1 ½ cups of legumes, 5 cups of starchy and 4 cups of other vegetables.
It’s tough to keep track of everyday happenings, not to mention the types and amounts of vegetables we eat. Keeping a food pattern might help. For example, serve soup twice a week and include legumes and carrots in the soup. Make two dinners a week which contain tomatoes or tomato sauce. Serve a salad with dark green lettuce like romaine and or spinach three times a week. And, include potatoes or corn for three of your weekly meals. Fill in with the other categories like cabbage and cauliflower.
Using a meal pattern on a weekly basis can help simplify getting the amount and variety of vegetables. Let’s look at the
Super Bowl line up and see if we can serve foods with vegetables.
First, the Falcons. Peach salsa contains both dark green peppers and orange red tomatoes. Salsa can be served as an appetizer along with cucumbers or whole wheat pita triangles.
Peach Salsa
2 cups roma tomatoes chopped or 1 can diced tomatoes- undrained
¾ cup diced onions
¾ cup chopped green pepper
3 cups or 22 oz can of drained diced peaches
¾ cup chopped apples
1 cup brown sugar
¾ cup vinegar
1 tsp red pepper flakes.
Place vegetables and fruits in mixing bowl. Mix together sugar, vinegar and pepper flakes. Pour over vegetables and fruits. Let stand in refrigerator for 4 hours. Enjoy on top of sliced cucumbers. Slice whole wheat pita into pie shaped pieces.
Now for the Patriots. Everyone in New England has their own recipe for New England clam chowder. This recipe is lower in sodium. It also has a bit more calcium because it contains milk. It only contains the starchy vegetable corn, so serve it with a dark green salad.
New England Clam Chowder
1 ½ cup uncooked medium pasta shells
2 cups skim milk
½ cup flour
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1 16 oz can of cream style corn
2 – 6 ½ ounce can minced or baby clams
Cook pasta, drain. Combine milk, flour and seasoning. Wisk together until smooth. Add to soup pot. Stir in clams and corn. Heat on medium until simmer, stirring constantly. Reduce heat, stir until thickened. Stir in cooked pasta. Heat through. Serves 4.
