Rainbow Chard!

Our last vegetable share brought us a foreign vegetable...rainbow chard.  When I saw it, I thought, wow that's pretty.  I wish I knew what to do with it!

It looks like a cross between celery and spinach, except the celery part is yellow, purple, and orange!  These colors bleed up into the leaves, giving them a unique hue as well.

After some brief research, I found out that this leafy root vegetable is full of vitamins A, K, and C.  Also, you can thank iron for the brightly colored stalks!

I read that you can basically treat it like spinach and asparagus.  Mr. PT and I were late diners tonight, so I was in a hurry to throw something together fast.  What's the best way to cook a bunch of veggies in a short amount of time?

Rainbow stir fry!

To cook with chard, first rinse the leaves and stalks.  Separate the leaves from the stalks with a sharp knife.

In a hot frying pan, I combined:

-2-3 tbs. olive oil

-chopped chard stalks (1 inch pieces)

-sliced yellow bell pepper

-sliced mushrooms

-chopped sweet onions

-sliced zucchini squash

-salt/red and black pepper

-fresh dill and fresh parsley

-chard leaves cut into slices

Cook all veggies, except chard leaves, until soft.  Meanwhile, prepare 2 servings of fast-cooking brown rice.  Add leaves to veggies and cook until leaves are soft.  Add rice and toss until all ingredients have combined.  Add seasonings to taste.  Top with freshly grated cheese of choice!

Mmm...I am hoping to spend some more time with chard to discover more unique ways to serve it.  In the meantime, rice and veggies makes a pretty good meal!

Combine with some HIIT...which stands for high intensity interval training.  SELF magazine reports that "HIIT supercharges your body on a microscopic level, meaning you burn fat more efficiently. In fact, doing 10 one-minute sprints, each followed by 75 seconds of recovery, three times a week, appears to do as much for your muscles as 10 straight hours of steady running."

Try this routine!

Sprint for 8 seconds. On a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is the effort it takes to run water and 10 is the effort it takes to run a race, aim for 8. Recover for 12 seconds at level 5. Repeat for 15 minutes.