HEALTHY WINTER FOODS

Nutritional habits are vary from season to season in countries that experience seasonal differences. Turkey is one of the countries which has four different seasons. Following the prolonged fall, winter began to show itself. But winter is not as exciting as summer. Preperations for winter are limited to getting our clothes, house, cars but we don't pay attention to our nutritional needs.

After the development of industrial production of food, people fail to adapt their nutritional needs to the season. Because urban dwellers now can find every kind of food in any season as packaged, freezed or canned. So people eat monotonously the same food throughout the year. This habbit cause ''seasonal depression'' during transitions from season to season.

 As i'm emphasizing the importance of vegetable nutrition, people complain about the lack of vegetables in winter. However , in our early culture, people begin for preparations for winter in May-June and the various products grown from May to October are preserved naturally and without additives by methods such as drying, salting, smoking, and canning. By combining these foods with winter fruits and vegetables, winter's cold, dark days transforming into vibrant, warm, light-filled environments. This is the reason of why ''Seasonal Depression'' was never mentioned in ancient times.

Some recipes to make your dark winter days more colourful...

RED TARHANA SOUP

Ingredients:1/2 cup red tarhana , 4 tsp butter,

3 cups water or meat stock, 1 tsp salt,

1/4 tsp black pepper,1/8 tsp ground red pepper,

1 onion, chopped fine, 2 cloves garlic, crushed

Preparation:Melt the butter in a pot and add the chopped onion and crushed garlic. Sauté until they begin to color. Add the meat stock, salt and pepper and let simmer. Mix the dried red tarhana with 1 cup of water in a bowl, then strain. Add to the boiling mixture and skim off the foam.

Let simmer for 4-5 minutes. Melt the butter in a skillet, add the red pepper and then pour into the boiling soup.

Serve piping hot.

STUFFED CARROT AND LEAK

Ingredients:4 large leeks, 4 large carrots,100 gr minced lamb,

100 gr minced veal,1 onion, chopped fine, 3 tomatoes, chopped fine, 3 tbsp rice,1/4 bunch fresh mint leaves, chopped fine,1/4 bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped fine,

1 tsp black pepper,1 tsp salt, 2 tbsp butter

Preparation:Pick over and clean the leeks and cut into 35-cm lengths with a knife. Plunge into boiling water for 2-3 minutes, then strain. Cut open lengthwise,

fill with the stuffing and roll up in triangles.

When all the filling has been wrapped, arrange them on a baking sheet.

Cut the carrots in half lengthwise. Plunge into hot water, remove immediately and strain. Fill each carrot with stuffing and roll up into a triangle. When all the carrots are rolled up, arrange them on top of the leeks.

Dot with two tbsp butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cover with the chopped tomatoes. Finally pour the water or meat stock over and let cook for about 25 minutes.

MEATBALLS WITH QUINCE

Ingredients:

100 gr minced lamb, 250 gr ground beef sparerib meat, 1 onion, chopped fine, 1/4 bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped fine ,3 cloves garlic, crush, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 large quince, 2 tomatoes, 1 long green chilli, 2 tbsp molasses, 4 tbsp butter.

Preparation:First mix the ground lamb and beef together. Then add the onion, salt, garlic, pepper and parsley and knead well. Shape into flat meatballs.

Cut the quince into quarters and clean out the seeds with a knife. Cut in round slices, pour the molasses over the top and mix. Melt the butter in a skillet and brown the quince slices on both sides. Then add the meatballs and brown on both sides. Arrange in a serving vessel with one meatball on top of each quince slice. Melt the remaining butter in a skillet, add the ‘sivri’ pepper and chopped, peeled tomatoes and cook 4-5 minutes. Add salt and pepper and pour in one cup of water or meat stock. When the sauce comes to a boil, pour it over the meatballs. Bake in a 170°C oven for 15-20 minutes.

PUMPKIN DESSERT

Ingredients:1 pumpkin, 300 gr granulated sugar, 2 cloves, 4 tbsp tahina,

4 tbsp walnut meats, 4 tbsp clotted cream

Preparation:First peel the pumpkin. Cut as desired and place in a pot. Sprinkle with the sugar and the cloves and cook slowly over low heat.

This will take approximately 20-25 minutes. When the pumpkin is done, remove it to a baking sheet. Pour its own juice over it and let it stand in a 170°C oven for 15 minutes until the juices are absorbed. Let cool. Serve with the walnuts, clotted cream and tahina.

                                        by BURCU TUNC, Nutritionist

ONE STEP CLOSER

There is this one day of the week in every diet program called ''Weigh-in'' day. We basicly see how we did during the week. Sometimes we might all feel a little reluctant to step on the scale, especially when it got kind of hard sticking to the plan during the week.


Emotions play a huge role on our appetite. Some people feel like they cant take a bite when they feel down , and some just cant stop eating. If you are from the second group, it gets harder and harder to reach your goal. So you might need to actually get a pen and paper and start planning how to carry out with your plan by yourself.
Nobody knows you better than yourself, so being honest with yourself and finding out your limits is important.


Dont forget the fact that you gained the extra pounds and bad eating habits over many years, so dont be too hard  on yourself and dont put too radical goals, but never give up on discipline. Remember your first day at school, you didnt expect to know everything, you learned it day-by-day.


Here are some tips you might want to start with...
 Find out what leads you to sabotage your diet. It might be bad mood or bad food or maybe you skipped a meal that leaded you to eat more later on... When you find out the reason it will be a lot easier to overcome it.
You can put weekly goals as '' I will cook healthy meals this week and keep my fridge full with vegetables and fruits'' or '' I wont let no junk food enter my closet this week'' or '' I will walk 30 minutes everyday'' , '' I ll drink more water'' ect. Whatever you think is stopping you at the first place.


You can start with accomplishing one goal everyweek and you can go up to 2-3 or more in time. As long as you write down what you want to do, it will be easier and easier to do it. Put that piece of paper where you can see it, and next time you get on that scale the results will be alot better.
                                                                                                        
                                        by BURCU MIMS, Nutritionist.