Food of the week: Peas

When trying to come up with a food of the week, a friend of mine suggested peas. The reason for this; her 4 year old loves peas. This boggled my mind. A young child likes peas? How can that be? It is a matter of fact that ALL children hate peas and have to go through the agony of being made to eat all of the peas on their plate. Thus, peas as this week's food of the week came to be.

For this post I am focusing on the Green Pea family, which includes garden peas, snow peas and snap peas, among others. No Black Eyed Peas here (sorry Fergie! ... no, no, no, no, don't funk with my heart...).

Benefits:

• Good source of vitamins K, C, A, Niacin, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine, Mangonese, Folate, Fiber, and Phosphorus, just to name a few. (Yowza!) Therefore peas are good for bones, heart, preventing cancer and increasing energy.
• Low in fat and calories.
• Although we may not enjoy eating them as children, peas are fun to play with when our parents make us sit at the table until we eat all of them. A pea pyramid, anyone?

Drawbacks:

• Peas contain purines, that may cause the gout or kidney stones in people who are sensitive to the substance.
• Peas are commonly used to torture young children in the U.S. Pleas of "but Mo-om" are useless in the battle. Also, completely drowning the peas in ketchup is not helpful.
  

Ways to eat peas:

• A healthy addition to a casserole, pasta or soup.
• Snap peas are tasty in a stir fry.
• Excellent in fried rice.
  

Little known facts:

• Peas are legumes, just like beans and peanuts.
• Frozen peas tend to retain flavor better than canned peas. They also tend to have less sodium.
• An Austrian monk, Gregor Mendel, is credited for basic genetics (aka Mendelian Genetics) based on his experiments with peas. His research showed dominant and recessive traits in the legumes.

Photo courtesy of bub.blicio.us.