Good morning friends!

I hope you’re having a wonderful day so far. Thanks for all of your great comments on yesterday’s Food from Home post. It’s so interesting to hear about the cultural dishes you and your families enjoy. I’ve got a great lineup of new things to tell you about from this week’s Try Something New Tuesday, so let’s hop to it, shall we?

1. Recipe of the Week: Lately I’ve been experimenting with salads that meet the following criteria:

  • Quick and easy to make
  • High in protein
  • Contains healthy fats
  • Reasonably cheap
  • Can be made in large batches for weekday lunches
  • …and of course, delicious!

Today’s recipe of the week meets all 5 of those criteria.

That would be Edamame Salmon Salad on rice cakes, one of my recent lunchbox favourites. The salmon is canned, making it a much cheaper option than using fresh fish or another protein source like chicken which I seem to be eating less and less of these days. Salmon (fresh or canned) also provides a good dose of omega-3 healthy fats, and when paired with a some veggies and edamame makes a great topping for greens or rice cakes, or a tasty sandwich filling. I actually happen to have this packed in my lunch bag for work today!

2. Tamarillo. Just when I thought I was running out of exotic produce to try, I found a few new items on the shelves of Whole Foods. Up first is this fruit which comes from Central and South America. Not to be confused with a tomatillo, tamarillos grow on trees and are related (don’t ask me how) to the potato, tomato, bell pepper, and eggplant.

Tamarillos are grown in Colombia, Ecuador, New Zealand, Australia, California, Africa and Asia. There are 3 main varieties – red, gold (larger, medium sweetness), and amber (sweetest, smaller).

Nutritionally speaking, this fruit is low in calories (only about 20 per fruit) and fat, but high in vitamins A, B6, and C. They’re incredibly versatile too, and can be used in everything from smoothies and desserts to toppings on pizza (yes, this sounds strange to me too… but this source confirms it. Tamarillos can be eaten raw just like you would a kiwi or other fruit, or baked, grilled, poached, or fried.

After checking out a bunch of ideas on Tamarillo.com (yes, the fruit has its own website), I decided that peeling and cutting up the tamarillo, then mixing it in with cottage cheese would make a good snack.

Check out those colours!! I was so excited to bite into this fruit, and tried my hardest to cut away as little of the skin as possible because I didn’t want to waste any of the flesh. The inky dark purple bits in the middle are little seeds, but from what I’ve read, they’re totally ok to eat (and I’m not dead yet, so that must be true.)

Oh my goodness… this thing was fantastic! It was bursting with juice and flavour – quite tart with just the right amount of sweetness. if I had to compare it to other fruits, I’d say it was a bit like a cross between a pineapple and a mango, both taste and texture-wise. Absolutely unreal, and now I really wish I’d purchased some more of them because I devoured this one in about 2 minutes!

3. Gin-gins Ginger Hard Candies from The Ginger People. Since the beginning of this month, I’ve been doing some experimenting with foods to figure out which ones leave me feeling great afterwards, and which ones seem to have a bit of trouble digesting. This was a decision I made after spending a long long time last year feeling uncomfortable and bloated. (There is an entire post coming up on this soon!) I don’t even want to begin to think about how many Tums and Rolaids I consumed. After a month of experimentation, I’ve identified a few things that still make my stomach feel a little off and have been avoiding them as best as I can. However, there are still those times when my stomach just doesn’t feel right, and my new approach (which does not involve Tums) is to consume foods that promote easy digestion. These include peppermint, cinnamon, camomile, herbal and pu’reh teas, and ginger.

That’s where these little candies by The Ginger People come in. I found them recently at a local health food store and although I was skeptical at first (the thought of sucking on ginger…. hmmm), they gave me a very pleasant surprise.

They’re not just for indigestion though – these sweeties are multi-taskers. They settle stomachs (including during long travel journeys like on airplanes and boats), freshen breath, and soothe throats. Although I felt fine digestion-wise yesterday, I tried one after lunch as a breath freshener and really enjoyed it.

Since Gin-gins (or ginger sweets in general) are supposed to help with travel sickness, I figure I’ll bring a box of these on my flight to Australia in April. If no motion sickness occurs, at least I’ll have fresh breath!

So tell me…

  • Have you ever tried a tamarillo? What sort of dish was it in?
  • What are your go-to cures for an upset stomach?
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