Colorful Plates

Here's a picture of the best tasting and healthiest dinner we've made at home in a long time. All because my son had an assignment for his high school Health class. He had to plan and help prepare a colorful meal with no meat (fish, eggs and cheese were ok) and complete proteins, servings of vegetables and fruit. Well we did it up right here didn't we. And I'm proud to say that we didn't use any recipes, I made most of it all up as we went along. Both boys were there in the kitchen with me, learning how to improvise. Just to be clear, we usually will eat one thing like this, but not a whole complete meal.

The colorful salad on the right was a mixture of chopped jicama, red cabbage, green onions and cooked beets tossed with a Thai salad dressing. It was my favorite because look at that color! The white jicama turned that gorgeous fuschia because of the beet juice.

We tried mung beans for the first time, that's right in the center front, and they will now be added to our usual dinnertime rotation. Such a different flavor, they cook up quickly like lentils but taste really different.

On the left in the front is the usual Teriyaki tofu that I make with an egg coating, one of our favorites for eating tofu.

The bright yellow circles are polenta, the kind you can buy prepared in a tube, sliced and topped with pepper jack cheese.

In the back there is a quick rye bread and we topped that with some hummus.

All that plus a glass of orange juice to cover the fruit serving and we were all set.
Everything was gobbled up and there was a lot of great discussion about what we were eating and how it made us feel good after we ate it. Very energizing. We had to write reviews about the meal for Alex to turn in as part of the assignment.

Alex said that his meal was the most colorful in his class and that several of his fellow students prepared HotPockets and steamed broccoli. Most kids had trouble with the no meat part of the assignment too. sigh. I despair that so many kids just don't get exposed to fresh vegetables and fruits. It really is a shame and I wish I could be the Vegie Fairy and drop into all their houses and leave them some yummy food like the plateful above.

Making this excellent meal was a lot of work, but it was worth it. I should do it more often, or my kids should, now that they know how to make all this good stuff.

And for those of you wondering what this has to do with anything, this blog is called High Fiber Content after all. :-)