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Today’s Healthy Monday tip: Get cooking!

There’s no better way to be sustainable in your food life than making use of your own kitchen! Getting your meats, veggies and herbs at a farmers market, your local co-op, or neighborhood health food store and cooking it at home is much healthier than going out to eat, and often cheaper to boot. Unfortunately, eating out at a restaurant leaves you with portions are much larger than necessary. In fact, a typical restaurant meal has at least sixty percent more calories than the average meal made at home, according to a USA Today article about the topic. It’s a good tidbit to keep in mind when you do go out to eat- take note of the size of your plate and eat accordingly.

Intimidated by cooking? Simple and delicious recipes can help to overcome this common fear. Men’s Health magazine recently passed along a few healthy recipes from their July/August issue, which provided readers with helpful tips on greening their forks. Among these were a few organic recipes from New York Chef Tom Colicchio that call for fresh, local ingredients.

I gave their Vegetable Ragout recipe a try last week. While it calls for many different types of vegetables, I used the ones from my CSA share – summer squash, eggplant, string beans, cherry tomatoes, fresh genovese basil and thyme. I used organic butter and I also cut down on the amount- I used half a stick instead of a whole stick. The vegetables still had a nice coating, and while olive oil may be a healthier option, I don’t think it would work to hold the ragout together as well as butter can. Try for yourself and see!

Summer Vegetable Ragout
Ingredients: Asparagus, snap peas, green beans fava beans, wax beans, peas, Bok choy, Swiss chard (leaves and stems cooked separately), celery, shallots, leeks (white parts only), zucchini, yellow squash, pattypan Squash and carrots.
½ cup unsalted butter
2 oz prosciutto (optional), cut into 4 pieces
1-2 Tbsp chopped mixed fresh herbs (such as tarragon, chervil thyme
Parsley and chives)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 radishes, thinly sliced
¼ cup vegetable sprouts (such as broccoli, radish, or alfalfa)

1. Clean, trim and cut vegetables into bite-sized pieces

2. Cook each vegetable separately in boiling, salted water until tender. Then refresh in cold water and drain. Combine them in a bowl.

3. Boil half an inch of water in a medium pan. Reduce heat to medium low and whisk in the butter a little a time. Mix in the prosciutto and the cooked vegetables, coating with butter. Add the herbs, salt and pepper, cherry tomatoes and radishes, and simmer until the vegetables are just heated through. Divide among four bowls.