Wife Like Me

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My last post inspired me to write about artichokes.  I LOVE artichokes.  They are immensely healthy and filling and very yummy.  They're also easy to cook and fun to eat.  When I was pregnant with Maggie and had gestational diabetes I noticed that artichokes helped lower my blood sugar.  I'm talking about fresh artichokes here, not bottled ones or pickled ones, though they have their place. 

Having gestational diabetes is tricky because you're supposed to reduce your carb intake so your blood sugar level doesn't spike, but you can't start losing weight or it can hurt the baby.  So they have you do a test that tells you whether you're releasing ketones (if you are, your body doesn't have enough carbs to maintain current weight) every morning when you first wake up.  I noticed that every time I ate an artichoke at night before I went to bed I tested that I was releasing ketones the next morning.  Of course, that was a problem when I was pregnant, but when you're not pregnant it's a great thing!

Artichokes are exceedingly easy to make for dinner.  Here's how it's done:

Take a knife and cut off most of the stem, then cut about an inch off the top of the artichoke to make a flat surface.  I also like to take some kitchen shears and cut off the tips of the leaves because sometimes they have pokey things on them, but it's totally optional.  Rinse the artichoke in some water to get any dirt off.  Then steam the artichoke in a saucepan with a little bit of water and one of those little steaming baskets that fold up until the leaves come off with a gentle tug (it usually takes around 30-45 minutes).  That's it!  It's a super easy dinner.

I usually like to dip my artichoke leaves in a bit of mayonnaise, but I've also had success with a simple tuna salad or melted butter or lemon juice.  You just peel off a leaf (outside-in works easiest for obvious reasons) and dip the stem end of the leaf into your favorite dip, then scrape the inside part of the stem end of the leaf against your bottom teeth to get the "meat" off, then chew the "meat" and swallow.  The leaves get more tender as you get closer to the center, so don't give up on the first couple of rounds if they're a little tough. 

The best part of the artichoke is the heart–the part in the middle after you've taken off all the leaves (includes a little bit of the stem).  You don't want to eat all the little pokey things in the middle of the heart, so you take a spoon and scrape it out like you're scooping seeds out of the middle of a cantaloupe.  Then you break it into bite-size pieces and dip those (or not) in your dip and eat the whole thing up! 

In the end you have a bowl of fully-scraped leaves to throw away.  Cleanup is easy with just a saucepan of water and used leaves to dump.  Yay artichokes!   

Tags: artichoke, artichokes, leaf, leaves, pokey, pregnant, releasing, stem