My Top 5 Foods

I've been listening to the Compassionate Cooks podcast lately and one episode is on Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's top 5 foods. I thought I'd share mine.

This is my CURRENT top 5, as in the foods I use most and like the most (this list is always in flux).

1. Brown Rice

There are several types of brown rice: short, medium, and long grain as well as basmati. I have to admit, my brown rice turns out fluffy, not crunchy or heavy, but that's only because I have an excellent rice cooker.

I love brown rice for a number of reasons:

• It's versatile. You can eat it for breakfast (add non-dairy milk, sweetener, cinnamon, you've got hot cereal), lunch & dinner (just add cooked veggies and/or legumes!) with a very minimum amount of effort. It's tasty plain but with a little flavor can be made to fit any taste: curry rice, Spanish/Mexican rice, sticky rice....You can make ice cream, milk, and pudding with it.
• It's nutrient dense, while filling (unlike vegetables which ARE nutrient dense but are very low in calories, great for weight loss, but you've gotta get calories from somewhere).
• Great for picky eaters. Who doesn't like rice? I mean, come on.
• Gluten-free and extremely hypo-allergenic. I've never heard of someone allergic to rice.

Note: It doesn't store as well as white rice, so if you keep a long-term food storage, white rice is a better option (if stored well can last for 30+ years, brown rice, on the other hand lasts 6-12 months).

2. Grapes

Several common varieties. I go through phases. I think I typically prefer red over green grapes but I had some green grapes today and they were perfectly sweet and not too sour, tasted like candy to me. I love to eat frozen red grapes, a wonderful treat any time of the day. I throw them salad, in smoothies, and they make a lovely snack. Not to mention they are chock-full of all the good stuff your body craves (phytochemicals, anti-oxidants, fiber)--what every woman needs for glowing, ageless skin :).

3. Sweet Potatoes

If I had to pick just one food to live on, it would be this one. No salt, spices, or condiment of any sort to make these beauties palatable. They are delicious without anything at all. Steamed, broiled, baked; mashed, chopped, sauteed. Anyway you cook it it's wonderful. Virtually fat free, this certainly tops the list of nutrient dense foods. I would eat this every day, but alas, my family aren't big fans, so I eat them when I can and I'm grateful for it.

4. Kale

I love, love love kale. It's easy to chop into small pieces and throw into a soup. Sauteed with a bit of stone-ground mustard, basalmic vinegar, and green onions (sometimes I also add a dolop of plain soy yogurt) is absolutely fantastic (one time I told my husband this dish tasted like an Arby-Q roast beef sandwich, and he just laughed his head off...I was sincerely serious). I also love to put in my green smoothies. My favorite combination is 1 c. frozen raspeberries, 4 leaves of kale, 2-3 bosc pears, ice & water with a pinch of green stevia=delightful.

5. Tortillas

Corn, wheat, amaranth (I've made these once), sprouted wheat, sprouted corn, big, small...any way you roll it, I like it. Again, the versitality of foods is what I really like. And the tortilla is extremely versatile and easy to make or rather inexpensive to buy. So much can be done with a tortilla: eat it on the side and use it like a fork (a trick true Mexicans do, like my mother-in-law), bake them crispy into a tostada, make oil-free corn-chips by baking cut up strips or triangles, enchiladas, tacos, burritos. I like most of my grain/legume dishes to be accompanied by tortillas. It makes the meal feel complete. I have to share a funny story about tortillas. When I was first married I brought home some store-bought flour tortillas. My husband picked them up and in disgust said, "What is this?"

"I thought you loved tortillas."

"I do, but you don't buy tortillas. You make them." There's no room in my husband's head for the idea of store-bought tortillas. He grew up with freshly homemade tortillas with nearly every meal so the very thought of the store-bought stuff is insulting, to say the least.