Collard Sausage Wraps: Balancing PH -- an Anti-inflammatory Breakfast that Promotes Bone Health

Collard Sausage Wrap

Eating an acidic diet high in protein without the accompanying vegetable/fruit neutralizers, may in many people, weaken bones.

Collard Sausage Wraps


Anyone keeping up with health news knows that experts suggest that eating between five and nine fruits and vegetables every day will ward off chronic disease. Add to that recent evidence that vegetable protein not only lowers blood pressure and reduces inflammation, but vegetables' alkaline compounds are proving an important connection to bone health.

New York Times health writer, Jane E. Brody reveals this bone connection (Exploring a low-acid diet for bone health, 11/23/09), when she describes bones as “storage tanks” for calcium compounds that regulate blood acidity. Bones help keep this acidity neutralized by releasing alkaline calcium into the blood as needed. However, too much neutralizing can deplete the bones’ store of calcium, weakening them in the process. This recipe not only follows the dietary recommendations for blood type O, but combines chicken sausage with collards and a side of yellow squash for a healthy, neutralizing balance of food groups. Collards are high in calcium and cooked, are strongly anti-inflammatory. This is a one-pan dish, the chicken sausage is all-natural and pre-cooked, and the vegetables, added to the pan and covered when the sausage is hot and nearly ready to eat, take only a few minutes to steam.

See the recipe below:

Preparation:

One washed collard leaf for each sausage

*Chicken broth ice cubes

All natural, gluten-free chicken or lamb sausages

½ cup sliced, organic yellow squash

Directions:

Drop one chicken broth ice cube into a hot pan

Add sausage(s), turning as they heat. Cover.

As the sausages heat, add sliced squash and if necessary, another chicken broth ice cube

When squash is nearly tender, remove tough stem from bottom of collard leaf, place leaf on top of vegetables and sausage and cover.

The collard leaf should be wilted, yet colorful when placed on a plate. Center a sausage on the leaf, then wrap. Serve with vegetables on the side. Beautiful!

* For ready, healthy sauteing, use chicken broth cubes from poaching rotisserie chicken bones or chicken tenders in water; when cool, pour liquid into ice cube trays. Store chicken broth cubes in a zip lock bag in the freezer.