Sauteed Okra

Okra, a green (and sometimes reddish) vegetable with starchy, slimy seeds on the inside, is one of the most adored and hated of all vegetables in the United States.  It has a true cult following.  Those that love okra really LOVE okra.  When I lived in Colorado, few growers produced it and it was rarely if ever available at supermarkets.  It was a dogfight to get the okra every farmer's market Wednesday between me and a handful of other people in the area that knew what the heck okra was and what to do with it.

Anyway, I'm in the okra love category.  Others can't stand the funky texture, which is great.  More okra for me. 

Traditional ways to cook okra are in cajun gumbo or any kind of seafood or fish stew.  Okra, because of its starchiness, makes any broth it is cooked in thicker and almost gelatinous.  I can't get enough of it in such a format.  It gives broth an incredible silky mouthfeel like nothing else can.  Aside from pickling, it is rolled in cornmeal and deep fried, the most common way you'll see okra served up in the Southern U.S. where okra is most popular. 

But even just sauteed up with a little spring onion and some salt and red pepper flakes like shown in the video is enough to made a really tasty vegetable side dish.  It's also great with breakfast potatoes and scrambled with eggs and tortillas - the preparation that made me really fall in love with okra (see the "Chilaquiles" recipe in the 180 Kitchen eBook).  Anyway, I hope my redneck voice impresses Johnny Lawrence.  Impressing him is all I really care about. 

Simple Fish Stew

You guys know I like food on the gourmet side of things.  In fact, I did several videos making homemade meatballs from scratch and using it for Italian wedding soup, lasagna, and all kinds of stuff that I totally botched and unfortunately will not be able to post :( 

But I'm no stranger to the absurdly simple, quick, painless, and foolproof - and that's also typically what most people in today's day and age need to make simple, healthy, home-cooked food a practical possibility.  And well, that's what today's dish - a simple fish stew made with frozen fish fillets and some store-bought salsa, is all about. 

Enhance this dish with all kinds of added goodies - like fresh corn, spinach, mussels, shrimp, clams, okra, saffron, herbs like cilantro or oregano, or whatever floats your boat.  Dump it all over some rice or slurp it up with bread if you are one of those gluten-eating daredevils like me! 

180 Kitchen 2nd Edition

Okay, I've slacked a little bit, relatively speaking, but the updated version of 180 Kitchen: 180 Tips, Recipes, and More is complete. 

Nearly half a year has passed while I have been left mortified at some of the low-carb one-liners lingering in 180 Kitchen.  Well, no more "golfball-sized" portions of starch, dumb recipes for things like a "cream shake" to drink with meals as a fat supplement, and so on.

That's not to say that I went all low-fat on you guys.  Actually, most of the recipes and fundamentals remain with little to no alteration.  At the end of the day, what I feel is by far the most important factor in maintaining good health long-term is being able to make satisfying whole foods-based dishes in your own home - without the addition of ingredients that inevitably turn up when dinner turns all commercial (like vegetable oil, chemical flavor enhancers, refined sugar, and who knows what else). 

I still believe, with unshakable solidarity, that the ultimate long-term key to success with any health pursuit is making enjoyable food in your own home from unadulterated ingredients in the most quick, simple, and time-efficient way possible.  This is even more true for those that are in charge of feeding not just themselves, but an entire family of hungry mouths of all shapes and sizes.

For that reason, 180 Kitchen didn't get the type of major overhaul that 180 Metabolism did earlier this year.

But there were some changes, most notably with the menu plans.  The most major changes are:

• A 7-day menu plan to accompany the FREE eBOOK, with a starch emphasis
• A discussion and brief menu plan for Maximum Nutrient Partitioning (MNP) for gaining the most muscle possible with the least amount of body fat
• A discussion and brief sample menu for 6 popular ways for fat loss discussed in 180 Metabolism and in recent times - including everything from carbohydrate cycling, calorie cycling or "cheat" dieting as discussed in THIS POST, Intermittent fasting, Weight loss for the morbidly obese, and a starch-based approach to fat loss that has been the subject of late
• A section dedicated entirely to Resistant starch, a substance I hope to write about soon that has numerous implications for weight loss, increased metabolism/mitochondrial activity, increased insulin sensitivity, etc.  
• And a handful of other updates, including several minor adjustments to old classics like "Creamy Grits."    

*Original 180 Members can login to the Members area HERE to receive discounts on the new 180 Kitchen and other 180DegreeHealth products. 

*To receive a $5 discount towards the purchase of the entire 180 Collection, which includes all the latest versions of the eBooks including the New 180 Kitchen and more, add the Collection to your cart HERE, enter the discount code "blogdork" and press "update cart."  This discount code will be good through this Friday.

Those that have already purchased the eBook as is or part of the 180 Collection can use the same 180 Kitchen url to access the new version.