Falling for Autumn
As fall settles in Alberta, you'll be looking for more seasonally-appealing meals. Grilled salmon on the BBQ with fresh herbs is delicious, but the slow cooker may be a better (and warmer) option!
Here are some food choices, cooking tips, and nutrition advice to keep in mind over the next couple of months!
What cooking methods to use?
If you want to bundle up and head outside to BBQ, you're braver than we are! Around here, we love bringing out the slow cooker! Pro tip: If you’re like some of our AlbertaGrocery.ca team members who prep everything the night before, but always forget to turn on the slow cooker in the morning, there are tons of 2-ish hour recipes online that you can begin when you get home from work and still have a delicious slow cooker meal by dinner time!
And there's always the tried-and-true one pan roasted meals to turn to!
What's in season?
Apples and pears for jelly and tarts are wonderful, in-season fruits to seek out in the early fall. For something a bit more savoury, squashes and pumpkins are in abundance, too.
As we head closer to November, keep your eye out for fresh cranberries. Root vegetables are available all year round but are particularly fabulous when added to soups, stews, or in your one pan roasted meals, and root vegetables like carrots and beets are known to become a bit sweeter at this time of year.
How to keep it healthy?
Lots of the flavours you're looking for in cooler months have many health benefits, as well as vitamins and nutrients your body needs.
Root vegetables are packed with fibre, vitamin A & C, potassium, and magnesium. Herbs and spices can make you feel cozy and warm, including black pepper, ginger, cayenne, cinnamon, garlic, and cardamom. Some of these spices can also help fight inflammation, boost metabolism, and is good for cholesterol.
Don't forget the vitamin D! We get vitamin D from sunlight, and living in Alberta means we don't get much of that right now. There are foods enriched with vitamin D (like milk, yogurt, orange juice, or tofu), and you can find it naturally in fish, crimini mushrooms, and eggs.