Tubers for dinner!

Pumpkin oatmeal with sunflower seeds and a banana

As I was doing some work at work today (go figure), I came upon a little--or should I say rather large--fact.  Do you know which county in Florida has the highest obesity rate?  Clay?  No, Clay's good.  Alachua?  Too many students.  Union?  You never know...  Putnam?  Maybe!  Bradford?  DING DING DING!  Yes.  Bradford's obesity rate is close to 50%.  That is insane.  All the other counties I mentioned hover around 20-25%, but 50%?  Oh my lanta!  The second highest rate at 42% is little ol' Liberty county (did you know there was a Liberty county in Florida?  Cause I didn't until I started my job.) in the Panhandle.  Seriously though, Bradford, you people need to get it together.  I was going to post this on Facebook but I have quite a few non-obese friends and family members who live in Bradford.  Actually, one of the most naturally skinny people I know, Kaitlin, lives in Lawtey.

KK is the skinny one on the end (next to me--LOOK at my wedding hair!).  Love her.

Moving on...

Ew.  It was nice and juicy though.

So, for dinner I used a new ingredient.  I was in Publix the other day and spotted this in the produce section:

Sunchokes!  Jerusalem Artichokes!  TUBER ROOTS!  I've seen sunchoke recipes in several of my cookbooks, but I had never had them myself.  Shoot, I didn't even know what they looked like until I spotted them in the grocery store.  Well let me show you:

Pretty, eh?  It looks like a big nub of ginger.  I decided to use this recipe since it used quinoa, chickpeas and green peas.  I figured if the sunchokes ended up tasting bad, at least the other ingredients would still be tasty.

It turned out really good!  I actually made it last night and I had it for dinner tonight as well.  I've been trying to think of the words to describe its taste, but I simply can't.  It's not overly powerful at all, but complemented the pilaf quite nicely.  It reminds me somewhat of a potato, but not as starchy if that makes any since sense.

Sunchokes, or Jerusalem artichokes, are a spring vegetable so I'm glad I was finally able to try them.  I give 'em 2 thumbs up.

Speaking of spring, I think something new must be blooming because my allergies have gone haywire today.  I can barely keep my eyes open right now, so I'm going to bed!  I'm such a weeny.