Darcy v. The Pressure Cooker, Round Three

It had me against the ropes, doubting my abilities as a cook, wondering if I had wasted all that money buying the Fagor instead of something cheaper, but then after a long round that started Sunday night I finally claimed victory in the pressure cooking beans battle. This time it was chickpeas.

After a mushy round two a few weeks ago I sat down with Google for a few minutes and learned that America’s Test Kitchen (producers of Cooks Illustrated magazine as well as a great public television show) recommend brining the beans. That’s right. Going against all conventional wisdom that beans and salt should not touch until after the beans are cooking they recommend soaking dried beans in salt water (3/4 Tbsp. of salt per quart of water) prior to cooking the beans. I gave it a try and the results were beautiful.

I got the beans soaking Sunday night in four quarts of water with three tablespoons of sea salt. When I drained off the soaking liquid yesterday evening there was not a split skin in the entire pound of chickpeas. I exaggerate not. I rinsed them thoroughly to remove all of the salty water then dumped them in the pressure cooker as usual with fresh, unsalty water and cooked as I had been all those other times. The results were stunning. Every single chickpea remained whole and intact. Not a speck of mush was to be seen, and they are the best tasting chickpeas I have ever put in my mouth though I say it myself. I see chickpea tabouleh, hummus, and all sorts of beautiful curries in my future.

I can’t wait to try it again with another batch of black beans. Yippee!

How Many More Have to Die?

This week another person died from the new e. coli strain. First beans and then cucumbers were blamed. Then “they” said, “Maybe not.” It could very well be that cucumbers are the vehicle by which nearly three thousand people were sickened by the virus, but they can’t be the cause. That would be a biological impossibility, and I’m stunned that anyone connected with investigations into this new e. coli would suggest such a thing.

E. Coli is an intestinal pathogen, meaning it infects animals. Cucumbers are not animals. Cucumbers can be contaminated by e. coli certainly, but that would mean coming into contact with a substance that had come from an infected animal. The most likely culprit would be an irrigation water supply that has been contaminated by factory farm waste.

Factory farmers, in their quest to fulfill our insatiable hunger for cheap meat, routinely pump their animals full of antibiotics just to keep them alive long enough to make it to market because they live in such cramped and unsanitary conditions. These feces-filled farms are breeding grounds for all sorts of bacteria and other dangerous microbes. Long-term use of broad spectrum antibiotics, as any medical doctor will tell you, eventually renders the antibiotics ineffective. Viruses and bacteria are adept at mutating new strains that are resistant to standard treatments. These new strains are present by the trillions in waste matter from these animals, which not only contaminate the meat the farms produce, but also surrounding water supplies which are used to irrigate crops.

Tragically children are especially vulnerable to these diseases. Is your beloved meat really worth risking your life or the lives of your family? How long will it be before we realize that we are doing this to ourselves because of our desire for a mere food product? It would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad.

Darcy vs. The Pressure Cooker, Round Two

Once again I pulled the pressure cooker out of my pantry and set about cooking up beans: black, kidney, Great Northern. I had soaked all three varieties overnight and got to work early Saturday afternoon. And once again I had beans that smooshed everywhere, only they didn’t taste overcooked this time. I was starting to get frustrated until I realized the reason for all the smooshiness wasn’t overcooking, but that several beans had split while soaking. Without intact skins to hold the bean together the split beans smooshed all over the whole beans making a bit of a mess, tasty mess though it was.

 

So back to the drawing board. The next attempt will include garbanzo beans and a brining technique. I have read that soaking the beans in salty water will prevent splitting. No split skins will hopefully mean no pressure cooker with a layer of smoosh on the bottom. We shall see. The next round will take place in a week or two and of course I’ll give you the blow by blow here.

Tricolor Veggie Whole Wheat Pasta

Last week I was reading The Italian Issue of Bon Appetit magazine and was inspired by the article "How to Make Perfect Pasta" and the technique they used. Rather than make one of their recipes I wanted to try creating a dish on my own and turned to the Italian flag for inspiration. I pulled red bell pepper, zucchini, half an onion, and some fresh basil from the fridge and got to work. Here’s what I came up with:

Tricolor Veggie Whole Wheat Pasta

2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

½ red bell pepper, thinly sliced

½ medium zucchini, very thinly sliced

½ small onion, thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup whole wheat fusili, penne, or other short pasta, uncooked

¼ tsp red pepper flakes (or to taste)

2 tbs chopped fresh basil

1 tsp nutritional yeast

Salt to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Add the veggies and garlic, sprinkle with a little salt and sauté until the veggies are tender and there is some color on them. Meanwhile bring two quarts of water to boil in a large saucepan. Add a small palmful of salt to the water and then add the pasta. Cook until about two minutes from al dente. Drain the pasta, saving about ½ cup of the pasta water, and set aside.

Once the veggies are tender, reduce the heat to medium and add a little of the reserved pasta water to the pan. Simmer for a couple of minutes to make a pan sauce. Add the pasta and red pepper flakes, stirring the pasta constantly for about two minutes, until the pasta is al dente and coated in the sauce. If necessary add a little more of the pasta water to loosen up the sauce. Remove the pasta pan from the heat. Stir in the nutritional yeast and basil and stir until the yeast is incorporated and basil is wilted. Add a little more salt if necessary, drizzle with a little more olive oil and serve.

Makes two small-ish servings or one pasta lover’s size serving. :-)

 
Thanks to Bon Appetit for the fabulous article and techniques that inspired this dish.

It’s Farmer’s Market Time!

The weather is warming up and that can mean only one thing: summer is coming and with it farmer’s markets will be popping up all over the landscape. Farmer’s markets are a great opportunity for communities to bring consumers together with local growers, bakers, beekeepers, ranchers, and more. Buying at your farmer’s market supports the local economy, promotes a health environment (by purchasing those blueberries and peaches from a local farm rather than those trucked to Walmart from 1500 miles away), and gives you the opportunity to meet the person who grows your food. Concerned about pesticides and chemical fertilizers? Just ask. More and more growers are following organic growing practices, but cannot afford the fees for USDA organic certification, allowing them to use the familiar organic logo.

There are at least two summer markets near my home and last Saturday I visited one of them. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much there in the way of produce, but I found a local baker who makes excellent bread. I will definitely be buying from her again.

If you don’t have a farmer’s market in your area, you can still buy local seasonal produce at your natural foods market. My Whole Foods hosts a farmer’s market once a week during the summer, and year round they clearly mark local produce and other products in the store. Prominent signage also keeps customers informed about what produce is in season at the moment.

 
What about you? Do you shop at farmer’s markets?

One Year . . . And Counting

Today marks one year since I started eating vegetarian, and what an interesting year it has been. I’ve tried foods I had never tried before, recipes I had never made before, and I’ve loved every meal of it. I can’t imagine ever going back to a meat-eating lifestyle.

Making a conscious decision to leave behind eating animals is one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. From it I have gleaned an awareness of how important food choices are for one’s overall health. When I purchase food that is good for me, good for the environment, and reduces the demand for meat it does more for me than contribute to my physical health. Making a compassionate decision with my wallet is also good for my spirit. At the risk of sounding new age-y or mystical, being connected to my food in such a good way just makes me feel better all around.

I cannot imagine that the Lord ever intended for His creation to be used and abused in the way it has been over the last several decades. Once confronted with the evidence of factory farming, I knew I had a decision to make. I could continue to provide money to companies who exploit animals (and even people) for profit or I could spend my food budget dollars more wisely. It is a question of stewardship, and I have made the choice to distance myself from factory farming, from pain and misery, and from poor health.

It’s not always easy and sometimes it’s downright inconvenient, but doing a good thing isn’t always convenient. Sometimes it means eating peanut butter or salad more often than I would wish, or having a small snack and delaying a meal, but it’s worth it. Lord willing, I look forward to many years of vegetarianism ahead of me.

Darcy vs. The Pressure Cooker, Round 1

Several months ago an acupuncturist and expert in Eastern medicine recommended that I buy a pressure cooker. Since I eat so many beans she thought I could save money and eat better even if I only used it as a bean/rice cooker. She said I could cook beans in mere minutes with no added sodium and they would taste better too since they wouldn’t be swimming in canning liquid for who knows how long. They also store well in the freezer. Potentially I could have the equivalent of a pantry full of beans for a fraction of the price of canned. I filed away this information until a week and a half ago when I finally bought that pressure cooker.

While doing some research, I learned that Macy’s carries Fagor pressure cookers, a great brand (no affiliation), and I decided that if I wanted a cooker that would last me for years with no trouble then I needed to invest in a good one. I couldn’t be happier with my purchase though I was rather intimidated by it at first. I took it home, opened the box, flipped through the instruction booklet and cookbook and then put it away. It looked even more complicated than I had originally thought. Also I had not a dry bean in the house. OK, I was really just trying to work up my courage to try it out.

The next time I was at Whole Foods I bought one pound of black beans to experiment with and set them to soak over Friday night. Bright and early Saturday morning I was in the kitchen ready to attempt to trust what Fagor was telling me: that I could get fully cooked black beans in only 8-10 minutes. I had read all the instructions (yes, I’m that type of person) and even watched the demo DVD. It seemed pretty straight forward.

Pressure cookers work best with gas ranges, where adjustments to heat respond more quickly than with electric ranges. Alas, since I have an electric range I had to choose between one of two methods for cooking. With the two-burner method you turn one burner to high (for building up pressure in the cooker) and another burner to low (to maintain pressure for the actual cooking). You can also use a one-burner method with which you set the burner to medium (for building up pressure) and then turn it down to low for the cooking. I decided to try the two-burner method.

Into the pot went the beans, water, and vegetable oil (to prevent the beans from building up foam in the pressure cooker). I locked the lid in place turned the burner up to high and waited. Sure enough after several minutes the water started to boil, building up steam pressure within the cooker. The pressure indicator popped up and a blast of steam shot out of the operating valve. I set the timer, moved the cooker to the second burner and watched and waited.

Here’s where I started to lose confidence. The instruction booklet said there should be a steady, gentle flow of steam from the valve. Hmmmm. My idea of “steady and gentle” might be a “trickle” to Fagor or vice versa. I still wasn’t trusting that beans could cook completely in only 8 minutes so I opted to keep the heat up a little higher than what my range considers low and waited for the timer to go off. As soon as it did I moved the cooker to an unused burner and waited for the pressure to drop naturally (per Fagor’s recommendation). Once the little pressure indicator retracted I unlocked the lid and found half a pound of quite overcooked beans. Wow. I was disappointed that I had overcooked them but was delighted to discover for myself how well this pressure cooker works.

The beans were usable anyway. Some went into a pot of soup that night, and another bunch went into a pureed black bean dip for a party. I can’t wait to try it out again. My shopping list already includes kidney, garbanzo, great northern, and of course more black beans. Now I just need to find more room in my freezer.

My Favorite Granola

People are always asking me: “Darcy, what do you eat for breakfast? How can I make it to lunch without eating an enormous amount of cholesterol –laden, fatty foods?” OK. So they don’t actually phrase it that way, but I do frequently get asked what I eat, so I thought I would share with you all my favorite weekday breakfast: granola. I love it, love it, love it.

I began playing around with this recipe about a year ago, tweaking things here and there to get it to where I think it is perfect for me; not too sweet, and with far less fat than other recipes. One of the great things about granola is that it is so forgiving. You can add and take away and play to your heart’s content. So please, take this recipe and make it your own.

Darcy’s Granola

4 cups old fashioned rolled oats

2 T whole flax seeds

¼ cup raw sunflower or pumpkin seeds

½ - 1 cup raw nuts (my general rule of thumb is ½ cup for chopped or sliced nuts, 1 cup for whole nuts)

½ cup raisins or dried berries

¼ cup vegetable oil such as sunflower

¼ cup honey (or other liquid sweetener)

1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Stir well to make sure everything is coated with the oil and honey. Transfer oat mixture to a large baking sheet or jelly roll sheet and spread evenly. Bake granola for 15-20 minutes, stirring well every five minutes or so. For a darker granola bake longer, but check on it every two or three minutes. Once the granola gets past 20 minutes in the oven it begins to darken rapidly. Cool granola in the pan, continuing to stir every few minutes. Store cooled granola in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Also freezes well. Makes approximately seven 2/3 cup servings.

Book Review: Veganist by Kathy Freston

If you ever were interested in exploring reasons to transition to a vegan diet (or even a partial vegan diet), this is the book for you. It, of course, covers the common anti-cruelty reasons, but Freston also pulls in experts in the area of nutrition, medicine, and the environment to explore myriad other reasons to leave behind eating animal products. The tone is non-judgmental and encouraging. The point, she says, and the reason she calls herself a veganist rather than a vegan, is the attitude. It’s not about being preachy, dogmatic, or self righteous, but making a positive change in your life and influencing those around you.

The book is organized into chapters Freston calls “promises.” Her promise is that switching to a vegan diet will change your life. Having eaten mostly vegan for nearly a year, I can personally attest to what she is saying. There is something to be said for making conscious and conscientious food choices every day. It connects you to your life, your body, your health in a way that not even physical exercise does. You will feel lighter and more energized, healthier. That is a promise.

Freston does not recommend making a drastic switch from a junk food, fast food filled diet to vegan all at once, but transitioning, one animal or animal product at a time. Soon, she says, you will find that you want to make more changes and by giving your taste buds a chance to transform themselves, you will desire real, whole foods even more than the cholesterol and saturated fat laden things you had been eating.

Veganist demonstrates that there is no down side to eating vegan. It improves your health, helps the environment, diminishes the demand for meat, thereby diminishing the public health risks associated with factory farms, and even can save you money. For example, the price of a pound of organic black beans at Whole Foods is $1.69. One pound of chicken breast at Walmart would cost me $2.99, and doesn’t feed nearly as many people as a pound of beans. And what about the environment? Freston argues that if every American ate vegetarian only one day a week it would have the environmental impact of removing half a million cars from the road.  

What about you? Would you be willing to cut back on your animal consumption if it meant a healthier you, a healthier wallet, and a healthier planet?

Just Substitute Tofu

Lately I’ve been trying more Asian cooking, primarily a little basic Chinese and Indian-style food. Nothing too fancy or complicated. Once I started this culinary ball rolling I began thinking of favorite Chinese take-out dishes, especially kung pao chicken. I love the spicy sauce, the crunch of the peanuts, the green onions. Could I, I wondered, recreate this favorite in my own kitchen using tofu instead of chicken?

A simple Google search for “kung pao tofu” brought up thousands of results through which I began slogging looking for recipes that didn’t require an unreasonable amount of ingredients or those that would require a trip to an Asian market. I settled on this recipe, substituting a red bell pepper (my favorite veggie) for the water chestnuts and celery. The result was delicious if just a little salty, though I think that was my fault. When salting the sautéing vegetables I forgot to account for the soy sauce and salted peanuts I would be adding later. Woops.

I also had a little trouble with my tofu. I had read that freezing the tofu, even just over night, would change its texture, making it a little chewier, and more like chicken. The only catch was that it needed to be well-drained before going into the freezer to keep water crystals from forming all throughout. Guess who didn’t drain her tofu thoroughly enough? The tofu ended up being a little more spongy than chewy, but still tasted good. Again, my fault.

One of my favorite things about cooking is finding a recipe I want to try again and again to tweak it until it’s exactly what I want. This kung pao tofu recipe will definitely be showing up on my menu again in the pretty near future.

Chaco Canyon Organic Cafe

I love food. Wait. Strike that. I LOVE food. And no trip home to the fam is complete without shopping for it, cooking it, ordering it, and eating food. Lots of food. On my recent trip to Seattle my mother introduced me to Chaco Canyon Organic Café. Located on the corner of 12^th Avenue and 50^th Street in Seattle’s university district this café represents the best of the Seattle lifestyle in food form. As the name states, the ingredients are organic (the restaurant itself is USDA certified organic), and the menu is vegan (the exceptions being dairy milk as an option for smoothies and coffee drinks). They even offer raw vegan dishes, such as the blueberry cheesecake I sampled (okay, I ate half of a slice, but to me that’s a sample).

Sustainability and responsibility are also hallmarks of Chaco Canyon. They use stainless steel beverage cups instead of breakable glass or plastic. Their dishes and furniture are second hand. The walls are filled with denim, repurposed as insulation. As I sat there eating my pesto melt sandwich (cilantro and pumpkin seed pesto, alfalfa sprouts, tomato, vegan mozzarella, and marinated red onion on ciabatta) I wondered if my corner of South Carolina offers any restaurants with a similar menu or philosophy. I simply have to find out. Downtown perhaps? If I find anything I will certainly try it out.

 
As I mentioned, I ordered the pesto melt sandwich. I also sampled the hummus and cucumber sandwich, the Tai peanut grain bowl, and (ahem) a few desserts. They also offer freshly made juices. I tried the Belly Rub, made with apple juice, lemon, mint, ginger and fennel. Everything I ate was wonderful. Those of you living in the Seattle area owe it to yourselves to try Chaco Canyon. The food is great, the desserts are scrumptious (and that is not a word I use in everyday conversation), the atmosphere is relaxed, and you can be happy knowing that your money is supporting a local business that cares about more than the bottom line.

Seattle VegFest 2011

Last week I made a trip out to the great Northwest to visit family and my vacation just happened to coincide with Vegetarians of Washington VegFest in Seattle. What a great event! We arrived and went straight to a cooking demo class sponsored by Pacific Coast Co-op, a chain of natural food stores out west. The first recipe was Braised Kale with Chickpeas and Smoked Paprika. Not only did we get a good view of her making this recipe but we also got some good information in general on cooking greens. I’ll be the first to admit that greens are not my favorite vegetables and I need to do a better job at incorporating them into my diet, so I was the tiniest bit nervous about trying this dish, but it was delicious. Seriously. I added the ingredients to my Whole Foods list as soon as I made it home to South Carolina. I cannot wait to try it.

The second recipe was Spicy and Sweet Caramel Corn. This also was delicious. You know you have a cook recipe when you can taste all of the different ingredients and when I tried this caramel corn I could taste the spice of the cinnamon, the heat from the cayenne, the sweetness of the brown sugar . . . yum. 

After the class we wandered through the exhibit hall visiting vendor booths and tried all sorts of vegetarian and vegan food products, everything from Coconut Bliss non-dairy ice cream to Gardein “beef tips,” from cultured almond milk to Field Roast “sausage.” It was a great way to try new products without having to buy an entire package in a store. There were also samples to take away such as mini Lara Bars and Odwalla energy bars.

 

It was a good time, good event, brushing shoulders (sometimes literally) with other people who have embraced the vegetarian lifestyle. If there are similar events in your area do yourself a favor and check it out!

Now that you have the information what are you going to do with it?

Everyday we encounter bits of information. Some we ignore, some we file away for future reference (either figuratively or literally), and some information requires us to make a decision. Oprah Winfrey recently aired an episode of her talk show that I know many of you saw. It included video footage from a beef slaughterhouse. Interestingly, the knocking and sticking (rendering unconscious and bloodletting) were not allowed to be taped.

Outside of “What do you eat?” the most common question I get is: “Why did you become a vegetarian?” The reason is twofold: first, I believe eating a meatless diet is healthier than one that includes meat. The second reason is that I could no longer justify giving my money to a segment of the economy in which cruelty to animals is an industry standard. Groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Mercy for Animals have spent years documenting the horrors of slaughterhouses, pig farms, feed lots, layer hatcheries and more. Whenever I tell someone my second reason for being a vegetarian I never cease to be amazed by the response. I always expect an argument, but instead what I get are nods of agreement, tongues clucking in sympathy, and furrowed brows. They know just as well as I do what happened to the pig that suffered for their morning bacon, but they are happier not dealing with the information they have. They prefer to live in ignorance, they say. The only problem with that is they are not ignorant. They know what goes one and yet they still choose to partake.

I posted the video embedded below in my opening post on this blog. It is not pleasant, but I urge you to watch it.

If you understand the horrors of the meat industry and are okay with it, then fine, by all means keep sending them your money.

I Don’t Do . . . (Fill in the Blank)

First off I want to thank my co-workers for providing me with what is turning out to be a nearly endless supply of blog post ideas. I recently had a conversation in the lunch room with a teller that led to a discussion on food. It started out the way my workplace food conversations normally start: “So, I heard you’re a vegetarian?” After the requisite questions, including “What do you eat then?” the conversation turned to healthier eating in general. She had recently watched Oprah (there’s another future post idea) and now was thinking more about what she was eating.

The conversation was actually very enjoyable as she seemed to be open to making some changes and learning about new foods, but then she stopped me cold when she said, “I don’t do fruit.” Don’t do fruit? What does that even mean? It was a solid declaration like, “I don’t do drugs.” End of story. She said she’ll eat an occasional apple, but that’s about it. She hates bananas, strawberries, etc., etc., etc. I still don’t know what to make of this. And truth be told, she is not the first person to say this exact same statement to me. I’ve also heard variations such as, “I don’t do vegetables” and “I don’t do whole grains.”

 

We all have specific foods we don’t like. I recently saw a TV ad for Miracle Whip that asked people to pick a side. I chose to side with the man who says he’d rather lick a boot than eat Miracle Whip. But to disregard an entire food category? Before you jump in and say, “That’s what you’ve done!” keep in mind that vegetarians make a conscious decision to remove meat from their diet, which they are careful to replace with other protein-rich foods. It is not a casual dismissal without regard to the diet as a whole, which is what the “I don’t do . . .” people seem to, well, do. Why don’t I ever hear someone say, “I don’t do artificial sweeteners,” or “I don’t do fast food”?

What I’m Eating for Dessert

Over the last few months I’ve had occasion to share some baked goods with others. The holidays provide many opportunities to bake with pumpkin, which I did, and since I still have a large quantity of blueberries in my freezer I thought I’d trot them out in the middle of winter as a nice treat. Of course, chocolate is welcome any time of the year, at least in my home.

Pumpkin Walnut Bread: This recipe represented my first attempt at baking for others with the oven in my new apartment. I was a bit nervous about how it would turn out, but this recipe did really well, and made a delicious loaf.

Blueberry Banana Bread: This recipe is from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. It’s a nice twist on traditional banana bread that’s not too sweet and works well with whole grain flours. Be careful not to over bake as it dries out easily without the large amount of fat found in most quick breads.   

Chocolate-Blueberry Cake: This is also from FFVK. It is delicious and I can’t wait to try it again. I used a 60/40 whole wheat to white flour mix, which tasted just fine. This is not as sweet as a typical layer cake so I made some Martha Stewart blueberry cheesecake topping to go with it. It meant the cake was no longer 144 calories per serving, but it tasted great, and who wants a lo-cal dessert on a Friday night with your girlfriends?

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (see Recipes page): My favorite for simply keeping in the freezer for those times when I need a cookie . . . NOW! This recipe is from Bethenny Frankel. It is dairy free (if you use vegan chocolate chips), very low fat, and also works well with whole grain flours.

The next time you need to make a dessert for a party or just for a treat at home give one of these a try. There’s no reason dessert can’t be delicious and cruelty free.

Fish are Animals, Beans are Not

The other day I had the pleasure of using my vegetarianism as an excuse to keep from trying pickled herring on a saltine. The wielder of the herring said to me: “But if you’re a vegetarian you eat fish.” Um, not the last time I checked, I thought. My actual response was more polite. I simply said, “No, I don’t eat fish.”

Once the herring experiment was complete and I was breathing through my nose again, the herring man turned to me and said, “You really don’t eat fish?” I replied: “No, I don’t eat any animals.” His response? “I guess I never thought of fish as animals.” I admit here that my next statement was a little less polite. I said to him: “They’re not plants.” Well, I mean come on. Fish have blood, a brain, eyes . . . they’re animals! They may not be furry, cuddly, or cute, but they’re animals. Any semi-functioning biologist would put them in the kingdom animalia. The only other options, according to the game 20 Questions, would be vegetable or mineral and fish are certainly neither of those.

I tried explaining that pescatarians eat fish, but not vegetarians. That got me nowhere. This confusion about the animal kingdom ranks up there, in my mind, with the girl who told me she thought beans were meat (as Davey Barry would say, I swear I am not making this up). It took every ounce of self-control I have not to burst out laughing or screaming. Beans come from plants. They do not have blood, a brain or eyes. Beans are not animals (kingdom=plantae).

Sometimes I hardly know whether to laugh or weep.

More Government Regs are not the Answer

First Lady Michelle Obama is asking restaurants to reduce the serving sizes in kid’s meals and include healthier side dish options such as carrot sticks and apple slices. I applaud Mrs. Obama’s desire to eliminate childhood obesity, and I would even consider supporting stronger government regulations . . . if I thought it would fix the problem. American children are not obese because their only options when eating out are a cheeseburger with fries or a grilled cheese sandwich with fries. It’s an entire cultural mindset that needs to change.

Americans have somehow managed to create a mental disconnect between what they eat and their health. And yes, excess weight is a health issue, not a cosmetic one, especially when it is spreading through the population so broadly it can only be categorized as pandemic. No one would suggest that the occasional trip to McDonald’s is what’s hurting our children, but rather the constant flow of junk foods into their bodies. Even at home they are surrounded by fruit snacks, chips, candy, and sodas. Even healthier foods, such as yogurt, are filled with processed sweeteners and petroleum-based food coloring, not to mention the brand that offers a cup of M&Ms on the side.

It is time for Americans to begin paying attention to what they are actually eating. Read those labels. Get to know the ingredients and how many calories are contained in the foods you eat, what a serving size actually is, what foods trigger cravings you can’t control, and what foods should never cross your threshold. I might be able to keep a bag of tortilla chips in my pantry and never over eat, but I could never keep a bag of chocolates without consuming half the bag in one sitting. I’m learning how my mind and body respond to the foods I eat. I’m learning how to take responsibility.

Fast food restaurants and junk foods didn’t come out of nowhere and take us by surprise, making us all fat against our will. Over several decades Americans have ceded the primary responsibility for our own food to those who are willing to manufacture it for us, hoping we will be back again and again begging for more; paying them our hard-earned dollars for the privilege of making us sick and fat.

So They Say

I have heard it all my life. I probably even heard it on Sesame Street. I can just imagine Kermit the Frog telling Cookie Monster that he should think about cutting down on the cookies and exercise more. I have a vague memory of the Count wearing a John McEnroe-style sweatband around his head. Was Richard Simmons ever on Sesame Street? Probably.

If the eat-better-and-exercise-more drum was beating when I was a child in the early ‘80s it is pounding even louder now. As I write this approximately 60% of the American population is overweight. A full 30% is obese. The message is virtually everywhere we go. Even Barnes & Noble has their front display table devoted to healthy eating, dieting, and exercise books.

They say if you eat better and exercise more you will feel better. You will have energy like you never had before. I didn’t think they were lying. I mean, eating better and exercising certainly couldn’t make you feel worse, unless you pulled a hamstring or something, right? If I had known exactly how great eating better and exercising would make me feel I would have started sooner. But, it wasn’t until I needed to do something about my weight gain that I started paying far more attention to what I was eating. I added exercise in the form of jogging, pilates, and then yoga to supplement the diet. Jogging has since gone by the wayside; my knees couldn’t take the several miles a week I was running. But I still do pilates and yoga regularly.

And I feel great. But even better? On the occasions when I do let my eating slide back into old habits or allow laziness to win out over the muscle-burning yoga practice, I feel far less than great. And the difference is so noticeable it motivates me to get back into that warrior pose.

Eating Healthy Food = Gag!

Admit it. Many of you think healthy foods are yucky. You grew up in an era when so called “health foods” tasted like cardboard and looked like rabbit food. In fact, you might still refer to vegetables and the like as rabbit food on rare occasions you speak of such things (and then only to make fun of the people around you who can recognize celeriac). You have visions of your parents or grandparents eating that high fiber cereal that looks like twigs yet doesn’t taste quite as good as what you image a twig would taste like. If this is what you think healthy eating is like then you are dead wrong. In fact, you’ve never been wronger.

I’m going to confess something that I am not proud of. I was an extraordinarily picky eater as a child. I was so picky that the thought of eating a sandwich made with whole wheat bread would make me want to cry. I exaggerate not. The only fruits I liked were apples, bananas, and green grapes. Everything else was out. The only vegetables I liked were iceberg lettuce, carrots (only raw), celery, and corn. Everything else was totally grodey. Then, guess what? I grew up! Over the course of several years I retried the things I used to despise: whole grain breads, squash, Brussels sprouts, spinach, peaches, strawberries, and much more and found that not only did they not trigger my well-exercised gag reflex, but I actually enjoyed eating them. Nay, I LOVED them. There are things that I still don’t care for (brown rice comes to mind), but I incorporate them into my diet because I’m an adult.

"Health” foods have come a long way in only the last few years. Vegetarianism and its variants are taking off. Organic foods are more popular than ever. Organic grocers like Whole Foods make it possible to try amazing foods like quinoa, fiddleheads, gruyere, and lentils de puy anytime you want. The choices are almost endless. Don’t like soy milk? Try almond, rice, hemp, or coconut. Don’t care for Brussels sprouts? Try preparing them in a different way. Add garlic or red pepper flakes. Stop denying yourself the experience of benefiting from eating well because you think you won’t like it. Grow up.

I Hate it When That Happens

If you read Tuesday’s blog post you know that Mediterranean White Bean Soup is my new favorite, and all day Monday I had been planning on making a pot when I got home from work. It takes close to an hour and a half to make so I wasn’t going to eat it for dinner that night, but would certainly be having it for lunch Tuesday and then there would be the spoonfuls while finishing to make sure there was enough salt, pepper, and vinegar, not to mention the lovely aroma of olive oil and rosemary floating through the apartment.

I had purchased enough navy beans on my last trip to Whole Foods to make a double batch of the soup, which of course requires adding more water to the soup (duh). Unfortunately though, I forgot that in my previous attempt at a double batch I had cut down on the water a bit (so it would fit in my Dutch oven better) and then partially covered the pot to prevent too much reduction. The consistency and flavor were perfect.

This time, for some inconceivable reason, other than a temporary loss of sanity, I used the full amount of water AND partially covered the pot. I didn’t realize my error until the beans were done and I had pureed several cups of the soup. It was a watery mess. The flavor was fine, but the consistency was totally off. I sank into despair. My only hope was that it would thicken as it cooled. I set some aside for lunch the next day, left the remainder in the pot, covered it, and put it in the refrigerator until I could come up with some way to redeem my error.

I ate the lunch portion dutifully the next day, and though thinner than I would like, it had thickened up a bit and tasted great. As I contemplated the soup before me an idea hit me: add brown basmati to the soup to take up some room in the “extra” broth. It was the perfect solution; it bulked up the soup and added more whole grain to my meal. I made a few cups of the rice that night, added some to the soup, froze the rest, and then cleaned up my kitchen feeling proud of myself. I had turned a culinary disappointment into a victory.

What I’m Eating for Dinner

It’s been a while since I did a post about the newest recipes I’ve tried, and I’ve recently tried a few great ones. They are listed below with links so you can try them yourself.

Mediterranean White Bean Soup (see Recipes page): This recipe comes from The Joy of Cooking. It’s called “pantry soup” in the Mediterranean region because it is made with pantry staples such as dried beans, olive oil, and canned diced tomatoes. This simple soup is absolutely my favorite thing right now. It’s super cheap, and making a double batch is just as easy as a single batch. It freezes well, which means you can have delicious, hot lunches all through the winter.

Red Lentil Sweet Potato Curry: I found this recipe after I bought a couple of sweet potatoes because they were on sale for almost nothing. I’m not a huge fan of sweet potatoes, so I went looking for a recipe I could add them to rather than eat them on their own. This recipe is so good I made it again the next week with some green lentils I had on hand (since I had used all the red I bought for the first batch). The green were just as good, however, because they take longer to cook the pieces of sweet potato completely disintegrated. This dish is even better served with warmed pitas.

Quick and Easy Potato Soup: This recipe comes via my favorite food blog, Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. I’ve only tried it with soy milk, which makes the soup come out kind of frothy, but the flavor is wonderful and mild. I’m not sure if other non-dairy milks will have the same frothy effect once blended. Make it in small batches you can eat within a few days, because it does not freeze well. The milk turns grainy and the potatoes lose the nice texture they developed while baking. This makes a very quick soup if you microwave the potatoes, but I think it’s worth the time to bake them. Add 1 cup of canned great northern beans for a protein boost.

Post recipes or links in the comments section below to share with others what you’ve been cooking.

I'm Trying

Last week a group of my co-workers got together to order a few pizzas for lunch. They kindly asked if I would like to participate. I thanked them for asking me, but said no. One of the women then said to me, “You’re so healthy.” All I could think of to say back was, “I try to be.” Now, I hadn’t given a reason for not going in with them to get the pizza. This woman jumped to the conclusion that the reason was because of all the fat and calories in pizza. In fact that was only part of the reason. I really just didn’t want to buy lunch when I had already brought one with me. Don’t get me wrong. I love pizza. And I do eat it . . . from time to time.

At the risk of getting all psychoanalytical I wondered if she was projecting onto me her own thoughts about what she was about to eat. Bear with me here. While I have developed a reputation at work for eating healthy, these women also know that I don’t eat well every minute of every day. This particular co-worker has brought in cupcakes on two occasions. On both of those occasions I took a cupcake. In other words, she knows that I occasionally eat something unhealthy. Why then assume that was my reason for turning them down?

I frequently see people at work sitting down to eat lunch and then saying, sometimes to me, sometimes to no one in particular, “I know this is really bad for me, but . . .” To whom are they justifying their lunch and why?

Somehow I’ve Gained a Reputation

Somehow I’ve gained a reputation with my co-workers for being “the healthy one.” I’m not displeased with this moniker, but it did puzzle me the first time I heard it. I don’t prance around the bank telling everyone what I’m eating or not eating (though now I frequently get asked). I don’t berate those who eat fast food every day. I am, however, not particularly good at masking my feelings. It is very possible that when someone near me is drinking Mountain Dew at 9 a.m. or eating 2,000 calories worth of fried food for lunch again I might curl a lip in disgust. This is unintentional, because I know how I eat. And while, yes, I might be the only one in the bank who brings homemade lentil or baked potato soup (made with organic soy milk) for lunch I know that I sat on the couch last Saturday and ate an entire pint of mocha almond fudge soy ice cream while I watched Inception. I do not wish to cast stones. I know it is sometimes easier and more pleasurable to have a bowl of cereal for dinner rather than cook a balanced meal, and I sometimes do this, but it is far from the norm.

 

Perhaps then my reputation has come about not from preaching against unhealthy eating, but from simply eating healthy myself. My work week lunch never comes from KFC, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Bojangles, or Carolina Fine Foods (please help me). It is also never made by Campbell’s, Progresso, Weight Watchers, Healthy Choice, or Kraft. It doesn’t include anything from Coca-Cola or PepsiCo. I eat real food prepared predominantly by myself alongside fresh fruits and vegetables. My meals include, apparently, unfamiliar and unusual ingredients such as lentils, quinoa, and chickpeas. These things, unfortunately, are enough to make me stick out amongst my colleagues like a single raisin in a bowl of oatmeal (thanks to Thomas Sowell for the word picture). Are being fit and eating good, unprocessed foods such an anomaly now that I am an oddball? Apparently so. How sad. 

Question: What's your food rep?

I Think I Spend Too Much Time Thinking About Food

I don’t just think about food from time to time, say, at meal times. I’m not one of those people who suddenly realize they are hungry and then wonder what to eat. Oh no. I plan out my eating days in advance. I go over it in my head every morning. Each day’s menu is specially crafted around the day’s activities, meal times, and the amount of time that will lapse between meals. This is serious stuff.

Each week I plan seven daily menus from which I make a weekly shopping list, but I also need to think ahead to the next week’s meals in case there is a little money left in the budget with which I can buy an ingredient or two I might need the following week.

I watch Top Chef faithfully each week, whether it is the original version, Top Chef Masters, or Top Chef Just Desserts. I love them all, and they all make me equally hungry.

I love grocery shopping, especially at Whole Foods. I love standing in front of the pastry case trying to decide which freshly-baked vegan cookie to try next. I love wandering through the produce department to see what’s on sale or what new vegetable I might want to try. I get a high out of squeezing the most food out of my small-ish budget. I get a thrill when something on my shopping list is on sale or when I discover a coupon for something I wanted to try, but didn’t think I could afford.

I love talking about food. I dine out vicariously through my family members who do it more often than I can. If there is a PDF of the menu available they e-mail it to me so I can drool over the options, and then I decide what I would order if I could eat there. I am not making this up.

The best meal of my life was eaten at Craft New York. I still think about the gnocchi and the espresso ice cream that came with my sister’s dessert. That was 14 months ago.

I’m trying two new recipes this weekend and I can’t wait to see how they both turn out. I think I spend too much time thinking about food, but I love it.