Braising With Wine, and Being a Food Detective

Can you believe I had never braised meat prior to about three weeks ago? I was looking through my Clean Eating Magazine and saw a picture of my Le Creuset cast iron braiser (or dutch oven) and realized that I have had it for almost a year now and have never used it for its main purpose....braising! Literally that same day I drove to the store and picked up some braising meat, with a mission of creating the best darn braised meat a girl could make, without onion and garlic (that's quite a mission, I must say).

Wine-Braised Beef With Carrots, Mushrooms, and Broccoli


Ingredients

16 ounces braising meat

2 tsp. sea salt

1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper

1 T olive oil

2 cups red wine (I used Malbec )

1.5 cups water

1.5 cups fresh carrots (or parsnips)

1.5 cups fresh broccoli

1.5 cups fresh mushrooms

**If you want to use onion, you can, but I did not **

Parsley for garnish


Directions

1. Season beef with salt and pepper. Place the beef in your braiser (or dutch oven) and heat on medium-high. Brown the beef well on both sides for about 8 minutes. Once heated, take out the meat and place it on a separate plate for the time being.


2. Reduce heat to low, add onion (if you are using onion) and cook for about 15-20 minutes until caramelized. Stir in 1/2 cup of wine and increase heat to bring to boil, scraping the brown bits from the braiser with a spoon.

3. Stir in carrots, broccoli, and mushrooms, along with the remaining 1.5 cups of wine and the 1.5 cups of water. Return to a boil, reduce heat

( This photo is very steamy, and perhaps not so pretty, but it's as pretty as I could make it! I tell you, this meal was delicious, despite the looks of it.)

The house started smelling pretty darn good about an hour into the cooking process. Nick made his way upstairs from his downstairs "man cave" and said he could smell the amazing dinner I was preparing (or...waiting around for).

Nutrition Facts
(Serving Size: 1/4th of recipe, or about 4 ounces meat, with veggies)

As most of you know, I'm not one to take a lot of time making dinner. This recipe may sound like a lot of work, but the Le Creuset braiser did all the work really. I just waited around for a couple hours and worked on other stuff. In other words, this was super easy! I didn't even have to chop anything because I used baby carrots (already small enough to go in the braiser), sliced mushrooms, and fresh broccoli that I just ripped off the stem and threw into the pan. Easy. And the end product was delicious. The only problem was......

An hour after eating this meal, I was in PAIN!

Source: iStock Photo

Sometimes I have to play food detective to find out what I may have eaten that caused me pain. In this case, it was the wine in which my meal bathed for two hours. Wine is something I need to limit on my low FODMAPs diet (about 1 4-ounce glass max, at a time). I know I'm not supposed to drink a lot of wine, but I wasn't thinking about that when I was using wine for braising! Oh man, what a mistake.  I'm pretty sure the braising just concentrated the sugars more and caused me some major malabsorption issues (maybe??).  Oops!  Although, to be honest, the mushrooms and broccoli probably didn't help either!  They both contain FODMAPs as well.

Two weeks earlier I had done something similar. I drank a popular natural diet pop/soda (I can't indicate the name brand, but I bet you could guess it) and about an hour later I was more bloated and uncomfortable than I had been in a long time. I soon realized the diet pop had erythritol, a "natural sugar alcohol" that causes me (and many people) GI issues. A couple days prior to that I realized I had consumed the drink below, which also contains erythritol PLUS fructose (toxic combination for me!).

I think (and hope) I've learned my lesson. No more diet sodas with erythritol or excess fructose added, and no more braising in wine. The next time I braise I'm using low sodium chicken stock (without garlic or onion).

QUESTION: What's your favorite food to braise? What do you use as your braising liquid? On another note, does erythritol cause you stomach pain, like me??

This Week's Nutrition and Health News

Here are a few of my favorite nutrition and health articles from the week;

Lancet Paper Blasts Cochrane Salt Study

(Several weeks ago there was some research that surfaced about how reducing salt levels doesn't actually lower heart disease risk. Well, as it turns out, the results were false. Go figure.)

Source: iStockPhotos



Risk Factors For Heart Disease Increase By Fructose Consumption

(ALERT! AWFUL RESEARCH HERE!! They tested fructose, HFCS, and glucose. Umm, hello, why not sucrose?! We don't typically eat glucose, we eat it in combination with glucose in a 1:1 ratio as a disaccharide called sucrose, or table sugar. Anyone else with me on this one?! I do have to agree with one thing, however, and that is that the Dietary Guideline's upper limit for added sugar is too high.)




Really? The Claim: A Normal Heart Rate is 60 to 100 Beats Per Minute
(Don't believe everything you hear! You could be at risk for a stroke if your heart rate is actually greater than 80.)




Position of The American Dietetic Association; Nutrition Intervention in the Treatment of Eating Disorders

(While my own experience with anorexia proved that an RD can actually be harmful, not helpful, I think I just had a bad experience because I was not seeing a dietitian who was trained in the area of eating disorders. I think dietitians play an integral role in ED intervention, but they need to be trained in working with eating disorders and they need to be a part of a multidisciplinary team of experts.)

Source: iStockPhoto



TV Product Placements Are a Junk Food Ad Loophole!

(Food companies have pledged not to market unhealthy foods and beverages to children, but instead they are turning to product placements in TV shows. I mean, seriously?! I'd rather they go back to making the ads. I think product placements are more subliminal and effective. Ugh)



The Problem With Serving Sizes

(Sorry, I have to disagree with this article. I think that the fact that our nation is 66 percent overweight or obese just goes to show us that while we may typically eat more than the average serving size, we shouldn't! Why would we make the serving sizes larger just because most people eat more than a serving? That just sends a message that it's ok to eat six cookies instead of three. So dumb. What they really need to do is work on making serving sizes more understandable, "3 ounces"...umm, what does that mean?! We don't all own food scales.)

Enjoy your weekend everyone!! Starting tonight I'm on "stay-cation" for a whole week! :) Any fun plans for the evening??