Yummy Arugula and English Pea Salad

One of my favorite things to do is eat. You know this already though. I take great pleasure, however, in eating delicious food out and about and then coming home and recreating those yummy dishes. The other day I was perusing the deli at my local health food store, New Frontiers, and tried a salad that piqued my interest. It was an arugula and english pea salad. I figured I could tweak the ingredients a bit to work with my new eating preferences(no dairy, the salad had parmesan in it). This is what I came up with and it was too good not to share.

Throw together in a bowl:

~2 cups arugala

~about an eighth of a red onion diced

~about 1/2 to 1 cup of frozen sweet or english peas (set out on the counter for a while to defrost- yea, a while... this isn't science)

~I had already shredded carrots so I just thew a hand full of those in there too

~I used a sheep's milk cheese that has a flavor somewhat similar to parmesan(shredded of course)...I think I used about a quarter cup grated.

Toss all of that together and then add dressing (below)

~EVOO - 2 parts

~Rice Wine Vinegar - 1 part

These below add to taste

~Salt

~Pepper

~Red Pepper Flakes or Cayenne

~Garlic Powder or Fresh Garlic
~Maybe a little agave or maple syrup for a slight sweetness(not a lot)

Then smile and send me a message letting me know what you think of it!

B Nut and a Busy Girl

It rained yesterday and today in San Luis Obispo which drew this busy student to the cozy confines of her apartment. I was going to settle for some left over chili(not really settling, but you know) and corn bread for dinner when this beautiful butternut squash was screaming from my counter top "EAT ME". Have you ever been yelled at by a squash? It's an unnerving, unexpected occurrence. Who was I to forbid this squash from a timely roasting?  So I set off upon the task of making soup out of what I had "laying" around.

 I cut the top and bottom of the squash off and then peeled the skin. With a spoon I scooped the grainy, seedy bits from the center. Then I placed in a pan with some salt, pepper, and a little EVOO(thank you Racheal Ray) and placed it in the oven for about 30 minutes at 425 degrees(that's my best guess- I didn't really  notice what the temperature I had turned it on to was).

 The b nut squash after about 10 minutes (below).

 So I melted about 2 Tbsp of butter in a heavy pan and cut up a sweet yellow onion. I put it in the pan and let it turn translucent. I sprinkled salt, pepper, cayenne, nutmeg and some ginger on it.

 Once the butternut squash was brown, soft, kind of caramelized and sweet to the taste I pulled it out of the oven and tossed into the sauce pan.

 I let the onion and bnut get brown and the bottom of the pan to get "sticky". Then I poured in chicken broth to just cover the mixture.

 After boiling for about 5 minutes I put in my magic bullet(yea you read that right) and blended the heck out of it. Then I tasted it. I could have stopped there... but I didn't. 

 A can of light coconut milk.

 Then I added two different kinds of curry powder, coriander, black pepper, more ginger, cayenne pepper and a dash of maple syrup.

 As soon as I was convinced it was savory, sweet, and superbly spicy I served in my favorite mug, with a dash of goat cheese, cilantro and cayenne pepper on top! Voila!!! It was  brilliant. I was so bummed that I didn't have someone to share it with until I then realized I would have to share it. So as much as I love you all... I am glad to have had this pot of wonder all to myself!

Here's to a spectacular night of studying, being cozy inside, and reading a great book.

Orange Juice and pH

I have heard many times people say that they have had a glass of orange juice and now their stomach is more acidic than before the glass of OJ.

This is an interesting explanation of whatever it is that they think is going on.

Your stomach has a pH level of at or around 2. That is very acidic! More acidic than battery acid. (don't go drink battery acid now) As a note, the lower a number has a pH, the actually more acidic it is. So 2 is much more acidic than say a pH of 4.

The pH of an orange is at or around 5 and so is that of the juice of an orange. When you drink the juice of an orange it travels down your esophagus and through the lower esophageal sphincter(this is the lever, if you will between the esophagus and stomach). When that pH of about 5 liquid hits the stomach at a pH of about 2 do you think it makes the stomach go down to 1.5? No if anything it would raise the pH of the stomach. But interestingly enough, it doesn't. 

The stomach adjusts immediately to maintain a pH within the range it must to effectively digest the juice and other food items ingested.  But think about it. This makes sense. If you eat bread... at a pH of closer to 7 and it enters the stomach, again at pH 2, does it stand to reason that the bread would raise the pH of the stomach? No. The stomach must maintain a low pH in order to do the processing which it does. 

So what you ask happens when you have OJ and your stomach feels more acidic than normal?

I guess it could be a lot of thinks. Perhaps you ate 2 pancakes, 3 slices of bacon, an omelette, hash-browns, a cup of coffee, and OJ. Look at the picture of the stomach above, it will fill and even before it reaches maximum capacity the liquid/food stuffs could be leaked back up through the lower esophageal sphincter before it even touches the top of your tummy. There could also be other things going on. But suffice it to say that the pH of your stomach must be maintained to do it's job. No matter what you put in there, provided your pancreas is doing it's job properly of making the digestive enzymes, the pH of the stomach will remain relatively the same. 

Blood

 So if I didn't scare you off by the title of the post and by my handy-dandy iPhone photo then you are in for some fun facts!

First of all, you should know, that is MY blood in the cuvette shown above. In fact, from the bottom to the top of the yellow-clearish looking fluid you are looking at my blood.

The bottom portion is the formed elements of my blood. This includes all of the "heavier pieces of the blood". So that would be the red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets(or little pieces of blood cells that are no longer whole cells). The yellowish colored fluid is my blood plasma. You have this too(actually you have all of these parts in your blood). But the yellow portions is basically the liquid portion of blood.

You may be wondering how I was able to get my blood in this cuvette and separate it out as I have. The short answer is in my anatomy and physiology class. Last night I had my first lab portion of the class for the quarter. We pricked our own fingers and drew our own blood and did a number of tests on it.

Since you are dying to know I have O negative blood type(more on blood types to follow in a different post).

In this picture you have illustrated for you a simple way to determine your hematocrit level. You literally draw blood in a cuvette as shown above. Then you put it in a machine called a centrifuge... this is similar to a ride you may have been on at the local fair where it spins you around and around and gravity pulls you against the wall as you spin(remember that Patch?)... this just spins all of the heavier parts to the bottom. You could also just hit the cuvette against a hard surface for a long time until it separates that way. The centrifuge is faster. 

What is hematocrit you ask? It is the percentage of formed elements(the actual cell parts of blood) divided by the total volume of blood.

amount of formed elements       x 100

amount of liquid

This is important because it helps indicate a number of health risks...If you have elevated hematocrit levels you might have an infection or if you have lower levels you might be hemorrhaging somewhere in your body. A normal range for most people is in between 38% and 46%. In men it is generally closer to 45% and women it is closer to 40%. A lot of factors influence this but one main factor is monthly menses of woman(in layman's terms- a girl's period).  

We also measured the amount of hemoglobin in our blood. That was cool!

More on this stuff later.  Just trying to be better at updating.  Eventually I'll relate this stuff to nutrition... for now just the raw facts. :)

~Reality Check~

Welcome to the world of blogging! I may have been a bit over excited about blogging all the fun and useful information I am learning in school. Optimistic may be a better word for it actually. While I would love to give you weekly updates(I AM striving for it), the fact of the matter is you might just end up getting a summary of what I learned big picture from each class that I took. My hope is that my posts will still be interesting and helpful; perhaps it will even be a little glimpse into what my life is like on the central coast(which was one of my goals with blogging in the first place-since most of my friends and loved ones live no where near me!)

In the next week I hope to at least give you an update on useful information and recaps of my classes last quarter:

Child and Maternal Nutrition

Nutrition in Aging (yep, that's right... for you old folks)

BioChemistry (I know you are thinking "yikes!")

You'll be happy to know I made the Dean's list and received  an A in both my Nutrition classes(with over 100% in my Child and Maternal Nutrition class) and I made a B+ in Biochem. I was not very happy about the B + but you probably will say you are proud. Thank you for that.

Okay so look back this week for the class updates and info on the classes that I'm taking this quarter.

Just for a treat: Here is a picture of Christmas dinner my mom and I made.

Eggplant Parmesan

Yummy Beans and Bell Peppers

Arugula Salad with Pomegranate seeds, Strawberries, Strawberry Dressing(homemade) and Pecans.

Okay... stay tuned.

Also just as an aside and yet most importantly: you should know that God continues to bless and prosper my efforts here. I am continually amazed by how much He has helped and provided for me. Prayer really works... and God really cares for me. I am thankful and blessed.

Signing out for now,

~Caitlin