Ratatouille
Portion Size: 1 1/2 C
Servings: 2
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of seasonal squash or zucchini
- 1 cup of eggplant
- 1/2 C onions & garlic
- 1 C tomatoes, blanched and diced
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
- Sautée onions and garlic in a medium saucepan
- Add tomatoes and stir until mixed.
- Add squash, eggplant, salt and pepper. Cover until veggies are cooked, about 10-15 minutes.
- Uncover and cook down if needed to thicken the consistency.
Purple Potato Pizza
Portion Size: 2 slices
Services: 2
Ingredients:
- 1 C quinoa, cooked
- 1 C steamed purple potato or yam (purple or orange)
- 1 Tbsp avocado oil
- 1 garlic clove
- salt and pepper
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 oF. While oven is preheating,, steam purple potato into a mushy consistency (-15-20 min medium heat), smash in a large mixing bowl, and add 1 cup of quinoa. Salt, pepper, and mix well.
- Line a tray with parchment paper and spread the mixture until flat crust is formed. Lower oven temperature to 275oF and bake 1.5 hrs.
- Turn up oven to 300oF and brown crust 10-20 minutes
- Let cool and season toppings and bake 10-15 minutes at 300oF.
Frozen Nutty Banana Snack
Servings: 1
Ingredients:
- 1 small banana
- 2 Tbsp peanut butter (or favorite nut butter)
- 1 tsp hemp seed
Directions:
Layer banana slices with your favorite nut butter in freezer safe container. I usually do 5 layers with the bananas on the top followed by 1 1/2 t of peanut butter, another layer of bananas, 1 1/2 T peanut butter, a final layer of bananas toped with hemp seeds. I will put it in the freezer until ready to eat. Let it sit out 10-15 minutes before eating.
Yogurt Parfait
Servings: 1
Ingredients:
- 1 C grass-fed yogurt
- 1/2-1 C seasonal fruit
- 1-2 T honey, maple, or agave nectar
- 1/2 C oats, nuts, granola and/or chia seeds for a more hearty breakfast
Directions:
Mix the honey with yogurt until well blended. Put a spoonful in the bottom of the parfait cup, add fruit, granola if desired, yogurt, fruit and top with yogurt and a sprinkle of granola.
Or for a simple quick breakfast:
Mix the honey with yogurt until well blended, add fruit and stir gently.
Kale Salad
Portion size: 1 C Servings: 4-5Ingredients:
- 1 bunch of Kale
- 1 small Lemon
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2-3 T Extra Virgin cold pressed olive oil
- ½ -3/4 C Seasonal fruit (apple, strawberries, blueberries, pear…)
- ½ C Goat Cheese (or feta)
- 1/4 C Almond slivers
Directions:
Remove the stem from the kale and cut into bite size pieces. Squeeze lemon and pour juice over kale. Add 1 tsp of salt and mix well. Refrigerate the kale and marinate overnight in lemon juice to soften the leaves. When ready to serve, toss with olive oil, salt, almonds, fruit and feta cheese.
Below you will find the Color Chart!
I often hear that the more colors on your plate, the healthier and more appetizing it is. The colors are not from dyes, but from the food’s natural pigments. Looks can be deceiving when eating out, such as in dessert places if they overdo the aesthetic of foods by adding unnecessary coloring to attract more customers. It is better to prepare your own food so you know what exactly your body is consuming. The Rainbow Game video explained how eating a variety of naturally colored food gives more nutrients, and showed different dishes using fresh ingredients of all colors. I thought this was interesting because I learned new methods to incorporate more colors in a healthier way instead of eating plain, bland meals. I do not see a lot of blue or purple foods, so it was helpful to learn about what I can use, such as purple potatoes mixed with quinoa as a pizza crust. Eating more colorful foods would be a fun way to experiment with new dishes and broaden my taste buds, while achieving a full, nutrient-dense meal.
ReplyDeleteYou had my attention at “game”! I loved this video post because it makes having a well balanced diet into something fun. What stood out to me most in this video is the amount of creativity that went into filling out the rainbow chart. The way you used purple potatoes and quinoa as a pizza crust was so inventive and a perfect way to fill that difficult purple portion of the chart. I also loved the idea of making a ratatouille with all those different vegetables because it looked simple to make but helped cover 4 colors in our diet. This blog helped open my eyes to the importance of a well balanced and colorful diet but also made it into a fun game. I look forward to getting creative and attempting to fill my rainbow each week.
ReplyDelete-Claire Kirksey
Madison Wilt
ReplyDeleteI have watched another one of Libby's kitchen videos about repurposed leftovers, and I love seeing how she creatively cooks simple and nutritious meals. I wasn't previously aware how much the color of food can tell you in nutrients. This video fully embodies how variety gives us more resilience, for our bodies and it promotes more biodiversity. Eating a rainbow is such an efficient way to manage diets, no calorie counting necessary and fruits and vegetables leave you feeling more satiated and craving less food. This method will also help me personally in staying away from packaged foods and try to cook more when I can. In the U.S., 80% of packaged food contains genetically modified organisms which is just another incentive to "eat a rainbow." Additionally, I was surprised to learn that a lot of orange and yellow foods are less water soluble, motivating me to eat more greens. This method also reminds me of the Westin price principles of a healthy diet. A few of these principles include but are not limited: nutrient density, high level of enzymes, no refined or denatured foods. Eating a rainbow will help you have a healthier diet, push you to cook at home more, and is a fun way to engage with what you are eating.
Eating in terms of color is a concept I never really thought about. It makes sense that diversifying the different foods you eat. I didn’t really grow up eating that many vegetables so I’m not used to having a variety of colorful foods at home. I mainly grew up with a portion of meat and a carb with maybe beans or a side of corn depending on whatever we’re eating. Foods I have always loved are avocados and olives and I can see now how important it is to branch out and maybe try a bunch of different colored foods. I personally love greek yoghurt and get the flavored kind that doesn’t add sugar and just add some organic granola. I will definitely be needing to add more vegetables in my diet but I think I would rather juice them. I generally only like to eat bell peppers, broccoli, and carrots but I definitely don’t eat them as much as I should. I do love adding spinach to my smoothies and learning how important buying organic is from class has made me start to buy as much things as I can afford organic.
ReplyDeleteI instantly clicked on this video because the title caught my attention. The title appealed very fun and inviting, I am glad I did, I enjoyed how many options were given for each meal of the day and again so many different options of colors that I never even realized we can use for these recipes. We learn very quickly that all these colors that different fruits and vegetables offer make our meals so much more appetizing because of course we eat sometimes with our eyes first. Today when we think of colors in our food, most times we think of candy, juices, desserts, etc. but most times the colors in those items comes from artificial dyes and sweeteners that are not great for our health. Libby does a great job of explaining and breaking down how the game enables us and challenges us to look at how mnay foods and ingredients we can eat rather than what we can’t eat. The breakdown of each color and what kinds of nutrients and vitamins are carried by each color can definitely motivate people to “eat the rainbow” to not only have a colorful plate but to know that each of those colors are bringing in so many great things into our bodies. This is a great game also to know and feel equipped that our bodies are on the right track to getting what they need.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with focusing on the quality of our intake as opposed to calorie limitation as a means of healthy consumption. The mindset of what we can eat allows us to form healthier relationships with food as opposed to viewing foods or food groups as what we can’t eat.
ReplyDeleteA diverse plate with a decent range of colors give us important micronutrients, vitamins and minerals, that we may not get from just eating a meat protein, starchy carb, and single vegetable. Increasing the variety in our diet can help us improve the efficiency of our energy expenditure.
These recipes are fantastic! I’ve found with my limited free time as a student I tend to meal prep food for 2-3 days at a time and include things like a salad of dark greens, roasted vegetables with variety whether it’s bell peppers, carrots, squash, or starches like purple or red sweet potatoes, black rice, red quinoa, and proteins like chicken or fish. I tend to use multiple small things for variety to be mixed throughout my days. I definitely agree that an easy and sufficient morning meal is yogurt bowls! I’ve always used Greek yogurt with fresh fruits or berries, granola, nuts, or hemp seeds. These kinds of meals are so satisfying and energizing, I’d highly recommend adapting to this method of eating!
Zhiqing Jiang - Eating different colors of fruits and vegetables more frequently can increase the intake of essential micronutrients and phytochemicals to meet our nutritional needs and beneficial to our health and even good for the environment, it is considered sustainable. I agree that we don’t have to count the calories basically from fruit and vegetables because they are high nutrient dense. I also like to eat “colors” and I think it is fun and enjoyable. I also engage to have more green leafy vegetables because they are high in folate that can protect DNA and lower cell abnormal. I think the rainbow game is fun and suitable for helping the children stay away from picky eating as possible. The recipes look very good, healthy, and the dishes look very tasty.
ReplyDeleteKayla Melville - What a fantastic episode! The title really caught my attention because it reminded me of the colorful diet that healthy living supports, and the video upheld that exact guideline! I think it is so important for people to recognize that calories are not the enemy, and focus on increasing nutritional intake instead of decreasing overall energy consumption. Nature makes it so easy for us humans to get the vitamins and nutrients we need through colored coded fruits and vegetables that serve other purposes beyond those factors too, like how sweet potatoes serve as both a color and a carbohydrate! With so many colors to choose from the episode makes a fun game out of creating different color combinations for people to follow when meal prepping, I am so excited to try out these recipes! I especially like that the recipes are kept simple and include ingredients that can be sourced organically, with hardly any processed ingredients. I actually had no idea that the daily serving of fruits and vegetables totals to five cups, knowing this will make meal prepping for the week and dividing out portion sizes will add more structure to my cooking agenda! Also the way Libby made pizza crust out of only sweet potatoes, quinoa, and avocado oil is so amazing, and I agree that it is impossible to fully trust flavored yogurts without knowing specific sugars or artificial flavors or preservatives added. This is why I already buy organic plain Greek yogurt and add my own fresh fruit to it, which takes care of the sweetness and nutritional value. I feel my greatest takeaway from this episode was that to eat a balanced nutritional diet it really comes down to education and awareness, which I feel is a privilege. Having access to resources such as Libby’s Kitchen and organic whole food options may not be realistic for some, but I believe that if children can be exposed to educational videos that serve to help them understand the importance of making nutritional and colorful meals, they will grow to try and pursue it.
ReplyDeleteHM 370 Response:
ReplyDeleteThe Rainbow Game episode promoted eating a colorful variety of fruits and vegetables for optimal nutrition. I loved the playful approach, emphasizing both fun and health. Each color represents different nutrients, and the episode made it easy to remember how to build balanced, nutrient-dense meals.
I’ve started incorporating this concept into my own cooking, aiming for vibrant plates that satisfy both visual appeal and nutritional value. The episode reinforced the principle that variety is key for health, and that mindful choices can make eating both exciting and sustainable. It was a perfect blend of education, inspiration, and practicality.