Who said that healthy eating means boring same-old-same-old eating? No! 

Here’s a great way to eat healthy without piling on extra fat or calories: steam your fish in banana leaves!

Wait… you’ve never heard of cooking with banana leaves? In many parts of Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America, food is wrapped in banana leaves and then barbecued, baked or steamed. The leaves add a subtle, exotic flavor, unlike parchment paper or foil. Banana leaves are also known as plantain leaves.

Banana leaves are particularly handy when it comes to steaming fish because fillets often fall apart in a steamer. Using the banana leaves not only helps the fillets keep their shape, but if you add vegetables, you’ve got a meal in a packet. Handy-dandy, wouldn’t you say? Click here for the recipe.

You can find banana leaves in ethnic markets or large supermarkets and they are usually frozen. You can also  order online here.

Ginger Garlic Fish in Banana Leaves is a great “first recipe” if  you’ve never cooked with banana leaves. Get creative! Substitute chopped chicken, beef or pork for the fish and add whatever veggies you have on hand. The cooking time will change, so adjust the recipe as needed.

Chermoula is the most delicious sauce you’ve never tasted.

Born in Morocco, this somewhat spicy, lemony sauce goes well with everything: fish, chicken, grilled meats… even veggies. Learn more about this delicious condiment and, of course, how to make Chermoula. Click here to get the recipe!

Whenever I make steak, I always make extra so that with the leftovers I can prepare my favorite summer dish: Thai Beef Salad.

The beauty of this salad is that you don’t have to include all of the ingredients. If you don’t have fish sauce, use soy sauce. Don’t like jalapeños… leave them out. You can add what you do have… like red or green peppers, cooked zucchini, broccoli or green beans. This is pretty much a “clean the fridge” type of salad with a whole lot of flavor.

       Print this recipe.    

I’ve never visited a country that smells this good.

Grenada, a tiny island nation tucked away in the eastern corner of the Caribbean, has the heady scent of cloves, bay leaves, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg, especially nutmeg, the leading export.

It’s like nose-diving into eggnog.

It’s an intoxicating mix, especially inside the Grenada Spice Market in St. George, Grenada’s capitol. The market sweeps up from the Caribbean sea and is wedged between impossibly narrow streets that wind steeply past bright red-tiled rooftops and up into the hills.

Enter Grenada’s Spice Market and your senses get whacked. Wooden tables sag under the weight of exotic vegetables. Vendors shout out their offerings. The nubby green football-sized breadfruit begs to be touched. The air is heavy with the bittersweet perfume of spices, herbs and fruit.

Nutmeg is everywhere in the market and in every incarnation. Nutmeg jam. Nutmeg syrup. Nutmeg ketchup. Nutmeg aromatherapy oil. Nutmeg toothpowder. Nutmeg sports cream. Nutmeg lotion. Nutmeg soap. (I sound like Bubba in Forest Gump.) Manila-colored nutmeg is a fruit with a hard stone-like seed in the middle, like a peach. The seed is really the nutmeg. Bright scarlet mace delicately wraps around the dark brown kernel, like a lacey web. When dried, both nutmeg and mace are used in cooking, but mace is used in cosmetics, as a preservative and to color food. I’ll let my pal, Roger R. Augustine, take you on a tour

:

Wander around the market and you’ll find strange fruits and vegetables that’ll make you do a double take. Those aren’t grub worms, but piles of turmeric (which Grenadians call saffron because the color is similar to the real thing). That huge green hedgehog-looking thing is really soursop fruit (which makes a deliciously sweet fruit drink). You’ll also see a big leafy green vegetable called callaloo. It’s a lot like spinach or kale in the nutrient department… but you have to cook it before eating. Callaloo’s root, taro, is also an excellent source of potassium.

Love coconut water? Here’s the real thing (and the Grenadians have been drinking it for centuries!):

Grenada, lies at the southernmost tip of the Windward Islands, just 100 miles north of Venezuela. The island feels remote and removed from the rest of the world, even though it’s visited by international flights and cruise ships every day. But mention Grenada, and most people think of long ago coups, revolts and rescue missions, or 2004’s Hurricane Ivan that damaged almost every home and building on the island. They don’t think of the lush, tropical green paradise that Grenada is today.

Which is exactly why this is the Caribbean’s best kept secret. I’ll write more about what I discovered on this charming island in the coming weeks!