(If You Haven’t Already)
This post was inspired by Dr. Tanya at her blog, Salted Caramel. It was not difficult to think of five fad foods that I like (as I like a lot of different foods.) Let’s see if we can narrow it down to five.
1.) Roasted Vegetables
I’d like to think that I would have eaten more veggies as a child if roasting veggies was as common then as it is now. I’d much rather eat a veggie roasted than boiled which was the most common way I ate them (or didn’t eat them) as a child. It just sweetens them up a bit, sometimes almost caramelizing them. I could eat them every day. I’ll always remember my trip to Whole Foods where an employee at the hot foods counter persuaded me to try a roasted Brussels sprout. “I wish every veggie could taste like this,” he told me. I agree.
2.) Sheet pan dinners
Sheet pan dinners seem almost indistinguishable from roasted veggies at times. The sheet pan dinner incorporates the other but includes your proteins too. Salmon is pictured above — one of my favorite things in the world. Often sheet pan dinners include sausage — one of my other favorite things in the world. They are fairly easy to prepare. Everything goes into one pan and cooks together, and if you line your pan with foil, the clean up may just be simple too.
3.) Quinoa
Quinoa is a grain that is considered a superfood. It really has an incredible amount of nutrition in it such as manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, folate, copper, iron, zinc and potassium. It is also really high in dietary fiber and in protein. I do like the tricolor kind as pictured above. It doesn’t taste different than the ordinary kind, but I find it more visually appealing.
I did not know what I was doing when I first tried quinoa. I just cooked some and added some fruit on top — cherries. I was not impressed. Rice, cooked the same way with no seasoning, would be equally unimpressive. Quinoa is great mixed with herbs, lemon juice and olive oil and other seasonings. You can add veggies and make a salad. It’s very versatile.
4.) Grain Bowls
Grain bowls have a grain base like maybe quinoa or rice or farro. Your veggies or any protein along with sauces or dressing are added on top. It’s like a healthier version of a casserole without loads of cheese and creamy soups. There’s something very nice about having a complete meal in a bowl, and the flavor combinations can be very interesting and varied.
5.) Sriracha
Yes, I like that hot stuff with the rooster on the bottle. I still like Tabasco. I’d still probably prefer a Tabasco taste on things that traditionally have it … like hot wings. I would say that the difference is sriracha has more sweetness than Tabasco, and Tabasco has more tang than sriracha. Someone who is not accustomed to hot spices might not detect the sweetness exactly. They are both about equally hot. It is also a thicker sauce than Tabasco which might be helpful in some recipes or applications.
What do you think? Do you like any of these fad foods? Would you try them if you haven’t tried them yet?