Happy Healthy Long Life

10-Minute Quick-to-Fix Vegan Dinner. The Healthy Librarian's Arugula Pear "Steak" Salad with Dried Cranberries and Walnuts

Super Fast Arugula Pear "Steak" Salad with Walnuts and Cranberries

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Back when I was eating meat, a favorite quick-to-fix dinner was sliced grilled flank steak with roasted vegetables over mesclun greens--with a little sprinkle of chopped nuts, and maybe some goat cheese.  But that was almost 2 years ago.

Last Saturday night Joyce and Ron whipped up an "Arugula and Pear Salad with Maple Vinaigrette" in about 10 minutes.  It was fabulous, and I became an instant arugula fan. 

On Sunday I stopped at Trader Joe's and picked up 2 bags of organic arugula--where they had purchased theirs.  I brought an arugula salad to work on Monday, and made this one for dinner on Tuesday night.

Good-bye mesclun greens.  Hello arugula.  I always thought of it as a seasonal snooty fancy shmancy salad green.  But there it was at Trader Joe's, reasonably priced, organic, and looking beautiful. 

Now that I know it's in that super-healthy family of chicory greens it's got even more credibility.  Don't forget about the 3-new-to-me super foods I wrote about last week:  black raspberries, broccoli sprouts, & chicory-family greens!  Click here if you want a refresher.

Why Does Shari Lieberman, Ph.D., D.N.S, F.A.C.N. Have Arugula on Her Top Ten List of Favorite Foods?

• It's loaded with minerals and antioxidants
• It's a delicious cruciferous vegetable that helps to protect us against toxins like xenohormones--the hormone disruptors in pesticides, plastics, and pollution.
• It protects against cancer because its loaded with the anticarcinogenic indole-3-carbinol. (click here for: Sarkar, FH, Li, Y. "Harnessing the fruits of nature for the development of multi-targeted cancer therapeutics"  Cancer Treatment Reviews, 2009 Nov;35(7):597-607. Epub 2009 Aug 5---just one of many articles on the benefits of the indole-3-carbinols.

Why Does Jonny Bowden Ph.D., C.N.S. Have Arugula on His List of the 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth?

• For only 5 calories a cup you get a generous amount of eye-healthy carotenoids, like lutein and zeaxanthin, plus folate, and vitamin A.
• It's also loaded with calcium and Vitamin K--essential for building strong bones--and 1 cup of arugula has 62 mcg of vitamin K.  The recommended daily intake is: 90 mcg for women and 120 mcg for men.
• What's the calcium/vitamin K connection?  Vitamin K helps the body transport calcium and metabolize it into our bones.  Several studies (including the very large Nurses' Health Study) have found that high intake of Vitamin K (at least 110 mcg a day) boosts bone mineral density in postmenopausal women and reduces hip fractures by 30%.  Click here and here to read more.
• It has glucosinolates--the same cancer-fighter as found in broccoli sprouts--that neutralizes cancer cells, and also inhibits cancer cell growth.

Dr. Joel Fuhrman ranks arugula 11th on his ANDI Scale (aggregate nutrient density index)--right under greens like kale, watercress, Swiss Chard, and broccoli sprouts.

 

Super Fast Arugula Pear "Steak" Salad with Walnuts and Cranberries

You'll have this on the the table in less than 10 minutes!

Serving size: 1 salad 

Ingredients:

2 cups of arugula

1/3 thinly sliced pear

1 TBS. chopped walnuts or pecans

1 TBS. dried cranberries

9 slices of either Trader Joe's Beef-Less Strips (aka Gardein)  If you don't have a Trader Joe's nearby,  use Morningstar Farms "Beef" Meal-Starters found in your grocer's freezer.  Note: *TJ's Beef-Less Strips come in 3 serving packages.

A couple of shakes of Durkee Grill Creations Kansas City Style Steak Seasoning

I drizzled this on as salad dressing:

1 tsp. Olive Tap Blood Orange Fusion Olive Oil  click here 

2 tsp. Olive Tap Tangerine Balsamic Vinegar  click here

Directions:

Quickly brown 1 Package of Trader Joe's Beef-Less Strips in a frying pan.  Sprinkle strips with the Grill Creations Steak Seasoning.  One package of strips makes 3 servings. 

Rinse arugula.  Pile a dinner plate with the greens.  Top with the olive oil and flavored vinegar--or the dressing of your choice--see Joyce & Ron's Maple Vinaigrette below.

Top with the sliced pears.  Sprinkle on the chopped nuts & cranberries, and enjoy.

Save the left-over strips--one package contains enough for 3 salads.  Note:  Tal Ronnen uses these strips for a "Steak Sandwich" served on a ciabatta or focaccia square, layered with watercress, red pepper, sliced red onion, and horseradish mayo.

NOTE: Want to cut calories & fat?  1 TBS. of walnuts=4.8 g of fat/52 calories; 1 tsp. olive oil=4.6 g of fat/40 calories.   Cut 92 calories & 9.4 gr of fat when you leave them out!

Nutrition Facts Healthy Librarian's Arugula, Pear, "Steak" Salad wt Cranberries & Walnuts
Serving Size: 1 recipe
Amount Per Serving
Calories	345
Total Fat	11.5g
Saturated Fat	1.2g
Trans Fat	0g
Cholesterol	0mg
Sodium	346mg
Carbohydrate	37.9g
Dietary Fiber	5.4g
Sugars	26.5g
Protein	23.3g
Vitamin A 42% Vitamin C 26% Calcium    20% Iron 38%

What's in Trader Joe's Beef-Less Strips?

These are vegan, but, alas, not gluten free.  I don't like to use faux meats very often--but occasionally--why not?

Ingredients: water, vital wheat gluten, isolated soy protein, natural flavors, barley malt, expeller pressed canola oil, garlic powder, yeast extract, onion powder, organic evaporated cane juice, red bell pepper flakes, sea salt, citric acid, spices, pea protein, carrot fiber, organic beet root fiber, sunflower oil.

Nutritional info for 9 strips.  Calories: 120; Total Fat 2g;  Sat Fat & Trans Fat 0g; Cholesterol 0g; Sodium 310 mg; Total Carbs 5 g; Fiber 1g; Sugars 1g; Protein 20g.

Joyce & Ron's Arugula and Pear Salad with Maple Vinaigrette  (from Real Simple Magazine)

Serves 4

Hands-on Time: 20 minutes.  (they made the dressing ahead of time, and it took 10 minutes to assemble)
Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
    •    1 tablespoon maple syrup
    •    1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
    •    1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
    •    1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
    •    1/8 teaspoon black pepper
    •    2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil  (consider lowering this amount to 4 tsp.)
    •    8 cups arugula leaves
    •    1  pear, unpeeled, thinly sliced
    •    1/2 cup (3 ounces) blue cheese, crumbled  (optional--leave out for the vegan version)

Directions

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, mustard, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Whisking constantly, slowly add the oil; set aside.
2. Arrange the arugula on individual plates and top with the pear and cheese. Drizzle with the vinaigrette.

Tip

For a warm salad, heat the vinaigrette in a small saucepan over medium heat for 1 minute, and substitute spinach for the arugula.

Nutritional Information
Calcium 185.47mg; Calories 183.58; Calories From Fat 65%; Carbohydrate 11.91g; Cholesterol 15.95mg; Fat 13.3g; Fiber 1.96g; Iron 0.88mg; Protein 5.83mg; Sat Sat Fat 4.92g; Sodium 410.06mg

NOTE: The higher fat and sat fat in this recipe is from the blue cheese and olive oil.

*Source of information about Shari Lieberman & Jonny Bowden:  The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth.  by Jonny Bowden.  Gloucester, MA:  Fair Winds Press, 2007.

Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You! You May Be Surprised

"If you're anything like me, you do more than passively observe the surroundings when you enter someone's living space for the first time.  My research focuses on how people's possessions can tell us even more about their personalities than face-to-face meetings or, sometimes, what their best friends say about them."

 -Dr. Sam Gosling, author of Snoop, psychology professor, University of Texas/Austin-

                                                                                
Dr. Gosling has been looking under beds, peering into closets & rifling through music collections, all in the name of research, for almost 10 years.  He claims he can figure out a lot about you, especially by looking at your bedroom. 

At first this made me kind of uneasy. Uh, what would the piles of books and magazines all over my house say about me?  And what about my choice of pictures on my book shelves, the open bottle of wine, the bowls of fruit and vegetables, the bottles of vitamins, receipts, and other junk on top of my kitchen counters?

I heard Sam on NPR on the way home from Chicago & yesterday I read all I could about his research.  His new book, Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You, is about to hit the bookstore shelves.  I'm a sucker for personality profiles, so I had to know more.

The good news, at least for me:  Clutter isn't so bad!  It can mean you're creative & open to new ideas & experiences!

Sam can typecast you by your taste in music, what your office looks like, what's in your bedroom, what's on your walls, and what kind of junk just happens to be lying around your house.

"My research team went into bedrooms and offices and recorded their impressions in standard personality tests. We then compared what they thought about the occupants with what the occupants thought about themselves and what their friends thought about them."

What our "stuff" is telling the world:

• Gosling says that the more he peers into people's personal spaces -their homes & offices-  "The more  I've come to believe that what's going on outside the mind, reflects what's going on inside the mind."

• Our living spaces shout to the world who we are.  They're an IDENTITY STATEMENT. We decorate to please ourselves.  We pick colors, pictures, and memorabilia that give our space the "Stamp of Us". Our stuff shows what we value and how we view ourselves.  What we hang on our walls, what books we prominently display,  reflects how we want others to view us.  We leave out what we don't want to show people.  We hide the stuff we want hidden in our closets & drawers.

• Our "stuff" tells the world what we do in our homes.  Whether we listen to folk music, garden, watch lots of TV, drink single malt Scotch, collect Israeli stamps, read World War II history or entertain others--it's in our "stuff".

• Our "stuff" also tells the world what we do outside of our homes.  Check out the receipts for plane tickets, sports or concert programs, athletic shoes, garage sale finds, or the invitations & appointments hanging on the refrigerator.

• And then there's our character.  Our "stuff" gives big clues as to how we rate in the "BIG FIVE" personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability.  But, in the final analysis, our "stuff" says more about how open we are to new experiences and how conscientious & organized we are, than it does about the other traits.

•  Are you organized or on the messy side? This doesn't mean exactly what you might think it means.  According to Gosling, "You may want your lawyer to be very organized and have a clean desk, but if you are meeting with someone in advertising, you would want their desk to be covered in papers and ideas that represent their ability to be creative." 

• Are you open to new experiences or are you reserved and conventional?  A diverse collection of books & magazines, original art, and souvenirs reflects someone who's open to new things.  It's not the quantity that's important, but the diversity!  Does your CD collection have rock, jazz & classical, or are you just collecting Country?  Openness was correlated with curiosity, imagination, being unconventional and having a wide variety of interests.

• A labeled CD collection, books arranged by subject, & nothing on flat surfaces---of course this means organization, but it also means conscientiousness.  To have an organized living space it's not sufficient to just organize it one time.  It means consistently putting the phone book back on the shelf,  throwing away the newspapers, and hanging up the clothes. Interestingly, the conscientious folks did not make particularly good use of the space in their offices.  Go figure? Conscientiousness=order=efficiency=self-discipline.

• Are you an extrovert or an introvert?  This trait is easiest to determine in an office, rather than a home.  The extrovert wants to lure people into her office to chat & schmooze.  She'll have a comfortable chair, an open door, maybe a jar of jelly beans, and the office will be decorated with pictures and lamps. The introvert's office will have subtle "no visitors please" clues.  A hard chair, and no decorating to speak of. Forget about the candy.

• For the most part, our stuff will not show whether we are agreeable, good-natured, emotionally stable, neurotic or bad-tempered. But, some research indicates that agreeableness is associated with rooms that are cheerful, colorful, clean, organized, neat, comfortable, inviting, with no clothes strewn about! Folk wisdom holds that pleasant people occupy pleasant rooms,  and agreeable people are concerned with the aesthetic comfort of their visitors.  Sounds like the house of someone I'd want to visit!

• Lots of color, brightness and a well-lit room reflects someone who is kind, open and sympathetic.

• Lots of souvenirs & memorabilia?  You're sentimental.  

• Are you a collector or a hoarder?  Hoarders collect everything, can't throw anything away, and this causes them much anxiety.  Collectors, on the other hand, take much pleasure from what they collect.  They also are much higher in the BIG FIVE TRAIT of conscientiousness.  They're orderly, organized & on the ball!

• We are not very good judges of how organized we are.  Everyone has different standards for organization & neatness.  Did a friend ever tell you to please excuse the huge mess in her house, only to walk into a pristine showplace?  For some people a glass in the sink is a mess.  For another a mess looks like something "a cyclone just hit".  Dr. Gosling suggests you ask your friends how organized you are, to learn the truth.  "They know if you're someone who has a spare stamp, or if your someone that they need to preschedule 30 minutes ahead for a movie, because they're tired of always waiting for you.

What your music says about you:

• Jazz, classical or other "complex sounds"?  They typically have a high IQ
• Country, Top 40, "easy listening"?  They're conventional, honest, & conservative.

So what does all this have to do with being happy, healthy, and living a long life?  Heck if I know.  It's just fun & interesting to play detective, both in other people's houses and our own.  I think we're all a little blind-sided about how we look to the world. A couple of months ago I was surprised to hear a friend describe me as someone who lives pretty modestly. Yes, I guess it's true, but I never thought it was noticeable.