Time for Some Vitamin A

Have you ever thought about all of the things surrounding us daily which were made expressly to save us time? Probably the largest time saver is a car. (Picture walking to the grocery store nearest your house and carrying back a few bags every few days!) Clothes on the hanger save you from hunching over a sewing machine, and electricity greatly increases the amount of time you can act like the sun is still out illuminating your activities. Though we have lots of things to help us save time, there just never seems to be enough of it to finish our check list, so more of it is what I want to help you save today in the kitchen.

CUTTING VEGETABLES TAKES TIME
You already have a great advantage in your kitchen..things like electric or gas ovens, a few cook books, running water.  These are great modern time savers, but when it comes to actually putting a recipe together, good ol’ fashioned cutting fresh vegetables is the part I dread the most because it takes so much time. So to make my life easier and keep me cooking fresh vegetables, I found a way to cut and cook vegetables once for two separate dinners, and I call the two recipes a pair. 

PAIRED RECIPES SAVE TIME
This week the Black Bean Burritos filling of onion, garlic, beans and bell peppers seasoned with chili powder is purposefully made in a greater proportion so that there will be plenty of leftovers for its recipe partner “Tasty Turkey Chili”.  On chili night I simply rinsed off the cutting board and knife after chopping some fresh kale, and everything else was quickly dumped into the pot from the refrigerator or a can. We had it tonight and my husband said it is the best chili he has ever had.

VITAMIN A IS WORTH YOUR TIME
You might wonder why I bother to throw in the kale since its taste disappears in the chili, or why I’ve included a recipe for sweet potato pie.  The answer is that the dark green and orange colors of these vegetables indicate they are rich in beta carotene, a powerful antioxidant. When metabolized it is converted into vitamin A, which in turn acts like a knight on a shiny white horse swooping down with its sword to annihilate the freedom of free radicals. In other words, it stops destructive atoms (free radicals) before they can damage the DNA of healthy cells and cause internal inflammation.  Including vitamin A rich ingredients is definitely worth our time!
Beef live is another fantastic source of vitamin A, but I prefer dark colored vegetables or fruit like butternut squash, carrots, red bell peppers, cantaloupe, and the dark green leafy vegetables like kale and collard greens.

HOW TO SPEND YOUR EXTRA TIME?
That spider you see above spends a great deal of her time spinning an elaborate web and catching insects on the back porch outside of my kitchen. Is there something you would like to make or do this week that having extra time would allow you to accomplish? I’d love to hear about it!

Molly

PS-  Did you see my blog about making Leftover Surprise with the leftovers from last week’s entrees? Tonight I used leftover burrito filling to make chili, but I also had enough to make some extra burritos which were sent in tin foil for lunches today.  I simply heated a tortilla in a pan, melted some cheese on top, then loaded it with the black bean filling, leftover Citrus Chicken Salad chopped fine with the meat tossed in, and some salsa. MORE TIME SAVED AND HEALTHY FOOD EATEN.

For further reading on Vitamin A:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vitamin-a/ns_patient-vitamina 
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4452