Leftover soup and cornbread

One tip for success with this diet on the cheap is to always have some type of bean soaking overnight. That way you won't find yourself without any options. I like to have several things stored in the fridge, like cooked brown rice or black/pinto beans. One recipe I have been making a lot lately uses "leftovers" and it's really good!

I stole the idea from a Rachael Ray cookbook and have modified it, usually based on whatever leftovers I have. She called it a 'stoup', but I think it's more like vegetable soup.

Ingredients:

1/2-1 chopped onion

2-3 cloves chopped garlic

red pepper flakes

handful or two of carrots, sliced (I use baby carrots because they're usually in the fridge)

handful or two of green beans, cut up

2-3 c of cooked beans, pinto, black, whatever... (you can use canned if you prefer)

1-2 tomatoes or can/box of tomatoes (I like to keep a box of Pomi tomatoes on the shelf. They don't have any preservatives or salt and they're in a box rather than a can)

1-2 c vegetable stock if you've got it, otherwise water will work fine

salt, pepper, paprika, basil... whatever suits your fancy

Start cooking the onions, garlic, red pepper flake in the pot with a little bit of olive oil. After about a minute, throw in the carrots too and cook until the onions are translucent. Then add the veg stock and water, or just water. Just enough to cover the ingredients and then some. You can always add more as you go, depending on how 'soupy' you want it to be. Then add the green beans, tomatoes and cooked beans, as well as the seasonings. If I use fresh tomatoes, I usually throw in a bit of marinara too--maybe a half a cup? I cook it on med/low until the green beans aren't crispy anymore. The whole thing takes probably 20 minutes to cook. When I serve it, if I have extra penne pasta in the fridge, I'll throw that in too.

It's really good with a side of cornbread. Here's the recipe I've been using:

1 c cornmeal, 1 c unbleached flour, 1T baking powder, 1/2T sugar (or honey), 1t salt, 2T oil, 1c water, 2 "eggs" (2T flaxseed meal with 6T water--let it sit for a few minutes by itself before adding it into a recipe).

Mix this all together and pour into a greased 8x8 pan. Bake at 425F for 20 minutes (until the toothpick comes out clean).

Book and tamale pie

I just started the best book! Thank you Sarah A. I love it so far! I really like how it bridges what I had chosen to do already based on instinct and research in ethnopediatrics with my faith.

I have a new recipe recommendation. Tamale pie! (You have to scroll down for this one). I left out the corn since I didn't have any, as well as the cumin since my husband can sniff that stuff out a mile away and refuses to eat anything that contains it. I also substituted fresh tomato for canned since I had some and didn't put any cheese on it. My only recommendation is that I think it needs salsa. I had some tomatillo salsa lying around and it went well with it, though DH didn't put any on and he liked it plain. Enjoy-it's a cheap and tasty recipe!

Faith and greens...?

The other night I made beans, rice and rainbow chard for dinner. I had this recipe for marinated kale and I thought I would try it with the chard. I don't think I did it right because it turned out... not so great. I thought it was at least edible; my husband, not so much. He ended up forcing it down but it definitely sparked conversation. Greens are definitely an acquired taste. When you grow up eating only mainstream vegetables that have large amounts of cheese or cream or sugar on them, changing to steamed or only lightly salted/seasoned dark leafy greens is a challenge. I was forced to eat things like asparagus and brussel sprouts growing up so it's a TINY bit easier for me than it is for him... but for a person like myself that has always hated eating veggies, switching to a plant based diet is hard at times. I fully believe that eventually I will grow to love them and will be able to eat them plain, without blending them up in a smoothie, disguised by fruit and ice.

This whole discussion got me thinking about faith in a way. First, because I think there are things in our faith that are an 'acquired taste'. There are teachings that seem unappealing and hard to swallow, but then once you start following them, you grow to love them and realize that they're good for you... and that some of the things you 'ate' beforehand were just junk that tasted good going down but then made you fat/sick/unhealthy.

Following this metaphor (which, like all metaphors are imperfect), I think it's important to know the WHY behind what you're doing. Me, I've read the books behind our new diet. I've watched the videos. I'm convinced that I'm doing the right thing overall and it's not so challenging to eat the healthy food and avoid the things I used to eat for the most part. But my husband hasn't read the books yet or watched the videos. While he's on board most of the time, there are some days when he really just wants a Duane Purvis burger, followed by a huge milkshake. It's harder for him to love this diet plan when he just thinks about comfort food and sees the diet as something that's imposed upon him. (For the record--we're not totalitarian about this diet thing and still include those things on occasion...!!)

How often does that happen with our faith? While we don't necessarily need to question everything--I'm not supporting cafeteria ideology here-- I think it's important to know WHY we do what we do in order to do it better, with love and conviction. Why and how do we genuflect? Why is it important to go to Mass on Sunday? What really happens at consecration? Why does the Church hold certain teachings about life and love? Etc., etc....

When we start to look into these things... really look and study, with an open mind rather than our cultural mindset and what's popular... then perhaps we'll learn something. And be convinced. And not be resentful to the one (One) who is imposing this upon me and 'forcing' me to 'eat healthy', but rather thankful that I'm becoming healthier--whether that be in body, mind or spirit.
 

PS. On a side note, I went to the dentist yesterday and they took my blood pressure. (Has anyone ever had their BP taken at a dentist office? I thought it was strange...) It was interesting because it had dropped fairly significantly. I've usually always had decent BP--around 100-110/70-80... but it's now 97/66. I was excited to see a physical change from the new diet....!

Dairy and MISO

What about dairy? One criticism I've received about my new diet plan is that I won't get enough calcium... and after all, isn't milk like the best thing for you? This is a good article to that end... and it has an embedded article in it that is good too. Only if you're interested in a different perspective from 'got milk'! ;)

One concern I did have was missing my probiotics by not eating my plain yogurt anymore. But I am slowly discovering the art of making miso soup. Mind you, I had never even eaten miso soup before a few weeks ago (though had seen it on menus in restaurants). And now I'm making it at home! I actually had to google miso soup to see what it was exactly. So for those of you who are like me and completely ignorant... I'll share what limited knowledge I've gained thus far.

So basically, miso soup is just the following: boil water with some veggies added in. Supposedly you need some kind of seaweed or mushroom in the water to make the 'broth'. I haven't ventured into buying the seaweed YET but I did try dried shiitake mushrooms for my first go at it. I think this will be an acquired taste. The other time, I only put scallions in the water and it seemed fine. I don't know if I committed a miso soup crime by doing this, but I'll keep you posted as I learn.

Anyway, you boil the water with things like mushrooms or kale or carrots or whatever... and then after it has boiled for a little while, you take out some of that water and mix it with some miso paste. You can buy miso paste in a tub at your local health food store. There are different kinds of this paste but I've only tried the barley miso so far. The miso is made out of fun things like koji spores and other things that I'm glad I don't see before it turns into this paste. Then you add the water/miso paste mix back into the veggie water... making sure that you don't boil the miso. That is the one major error I know that you can commit and I was sure not to! And that's it!

I haven't gotten my husband to try it yet, but my son likes it! I might try putting it in a cup with a straw to get him to drink more than just one spoonful... we shall see. That is my adventures with miso thus far. I am open to any suggestions from those of you who are more skilled in the art of miso soup making!!!

This one is for you Laura! I LOVE this recipe for tomato eggplant couscous and have made it for company way too many times already. For me it has been hard trying to "prove" myself (to myself really) diet wise and so I use this as my fall-back recipe to serve to meat lovers.... and pretty much anyone else who comes over--it's my new no fail recipe! My only change to it is that I add a tomato or two rather than following the tomato guidelines, and add maybe a 1/4c of whatever marinara sauce is in my fridge already. I've also made it without the green pepper when I didn't have any and it turned out just as good. You can serve it over spaghetti as well and it works just fine too if you don't have couscous!

New Beginnings

I decided to "restart" my blog. I like having a blog but thought that perhaps there was too much personal info out there in the blogosphere, so in a moment of 'cleansing', I deleted everything and started at zero again!

I hope to have a place to share ideas, especially those that have to do with my daily work: raising my son, being a wife, household management and cooking... as well as any other personal interests that may pop up here and there.

One recent interest, which happens to coincide with work, is that of diet and nutrition. While visiting my sister this summer, I happened upon a book of hers called the Kind Diet. It's written by "Cher" from Clueless (okay, so she has a real name, but I can't get past that character when I see her) and gave me some food for thought. While I'm not an animal hugger (maybe just a little bit), I liked what she had to say about being in tune with one's body and what you consume. I decided to try to go vegan for 40 days for an experiment.

What I found is that I like it and that it's much easier than I had expected.

Along the way, I've read other books like The China Study which gave me the scientific element behind a plant based diet that I hadn't found in the other book. So now this 40 day experiment has turned into a more permanent nutrition plan. While I still occasionally eat cheese while out and fish when I get a chance at good, freshly caught fish... and am not opposed to eating what people make at their own house for me... our house doesn't have any animal products in our fridge or cupboard.

That said, I hope to share a few recipes and things I've learned along the way. Sort of like Plant Based Diet 101 for dummies since I'm still figuring this all out. It has been interesting to re-learn how to cook since I've always based my meals around meat or cheese!

The first recipe I have to share is currently my husband's favorite. It comes from the KD book and is black-eyed pea "croquettes".

I start by soaking the BEP (black-eyed peas) the night before. Then the next day, I take the soaked (but not cooked) BEP--2 cups--and put them in my food processor. I pour in a bit of shoyu (or soy sauce, same thing)--about 1T and some basil--a sprinkling. I blend it all up until it's moldable, but not completely ground up. Then I mold them into little cylinders and then fry them in some veggie oil. (The unhealthy part).

For a glaze, I heat 1c brown rice syrup mixed with 1T dijon mustard over low/med heat until it's able to be poured over the croquettes and/or in a dipping dish.

These are best eaten hot/fresh, though can be saved for leftovers. So there you go!