Getting ahead

Are you a meal planner?  Do you make a grocery list on the weekend and coolly and calmly get dinner on the table each night?  I wish.  Every few months, I start out with the best of intentions, poring over my cookbooks and bookmarked web pages, listing everything that I want to make, eliminating the things that my husband and kids probably won't touch, then making a week's menu.  Even with the menu and grocery list, I rarely feel less stressed out about mealtime, and often, I don't follow the plan.

This weekend, I tried a different strategy.  Rather than make a menu and grocery list, I thought of some key ingredients that take a lot of prep time or benefit from pre-cooking.  With a few shortcuts in the refrigerator, I hope to have a better cache of ingredients with which to pull together quick meals or to add to recipes I've bookmarked for "sometime."  I washed and dried a few bags of greens.  I made a batch of dal.  I roasted one huge butternut squash and froze chunks of another.  I made a mushroom stroganoff and boiled noodles for vegetarian lunches this week.

The butternut squash might turn into coconut curry pumpkin soup (http://www.loveandlemons.com/2012/11/19/coconut-curry-pumpkin-soup/) or get tossed with fusilli and goat cheese.  The pre-washed chard might be added to smoothies or sauteed for a vegetable side at dinner.  I may add some leftover short ribs to the dal to make it more appealing to the kids and husband or keep it vegetarian and serve it with brown rice.  It did feel like I spent hours in the kitchen this weekend, but I was able to talk to my family while washing greens, show my middle daughter how to peel a humongous squash safely, and enjoy my time over the stove instead of feeling resentful about another chore to get through after a long day at my paying job.  Just knowing that so much of the grunt work was done while I was relaxed and spending semi-quality time with my family will almost motivate me to try it again.  Maybe even before Spring.

What do you do keep ahead of the "What's for dinner?" conundrum?  Do you subscribe to a meal planning service like the Six O'Clock Scramble?  Do you the Dinner A Love Story food diary method?  Or is more ad hoc at your house, like it usually is at mine?  

Meatless Mondays: Mushrooms

Better late than never.....

I'm really trying to resist calling them "magical," but mushrooms really are a nutrient powerhouse.  These fungi are low calorie, low fat, low salt, yet high in fiber.  Mushrooms have even more potassium than bananas and are rich in copper, selenium, riboflavin, and niacin.  Mushrooms are purported to be vegetarian sources of vitamin B12, usually found only in animal-based foods, and vitamin D, which is found naturally in very few foods.  The USDA nutrient database indicates that mushrooms don't contain the active form of B12, and contain only inactive vitamin D.  Some of these inactive vitamin forms might convert to active forms, but vegetarians shouldn't rely on mushrooms to meet these nutrient needs.

Do you wash your mushrooms or do you wipe them clean?  The fear has always been that mushrooms will absorb washing water, which will alter how they cook and dilute their flavor.  I've always been firmly in the washing camp.  Alton Brown, of Good Eats fame, did an episode in which he compared the weight of washed and wiped mushrooms.  There was no weight difference between the two batches, yet the washed mushrooms looked cleaner.  I feel validated.  

Cooking mushrooms in water will leach out the riboflavin and niacin, water-soluble B vitamins.  To retain the nutrients, either incorporate the cooking liquid into your meal or eat them raw. 

Most recently, I took advantage of mushrooms' high levels of glutamic acid (the natural form of MSG) to bring umami to Smitten Kitchen's mushroom bourguignon.  Are you a Smitten Kitchen http://smittenkitchen.com/ fan?  Her blog and cookbook are beautifully photographed examples of what a curious and adventurous home cook can create.  Deb Perelman, the author, used to be vegetarian, so she always includes rich, complex vegetarian mains and side dishes.  The two pounds of portobello mushrooms quickly cooked down to a luscious, rich meal that even my steak-loving husband enjoyed.

The only change I made to her recipe was to add some swiss chard at the end of the cooking period to beef up the nutrition.  (Sorry, I can never resist a good pun.)  Those are the sort of sad green bits in the picture above, which added vitamin K, vitamin C, and even more fiber to the dish. 

In the summer, I know it's cliched, but I enjoy grilled mushrooms, both the enormous portobellos and the smaller button or criminis on a shish kebab.  Although I'm not as much of a fan of raw mushrooms, a spinach salad just seems incomplete without them.  How do you use mushrooms?  Are you a washer or a wiper?

Rainbow Challenge: 1/23/13

From here on out, just a picture of my produce rainbow.  Please share your rainbows or suggestions for completing mine in the comments.

Meatless Mondays: Cranberry bean salad

There's a tiny grocery store a block from the hospital where I work that sells produce at amazing prices.  Like $1 for more than a pound of green beans or 4 large red peppers.  Their selection is constantly changing, and every visit is an education in Caribbean and Latin foods.  I'm still working up the courage to ask the staff or my fellow shoppers how best to cook batatas and chayote, but I'm better able to identify what my patients tell me they eat.  It's where I tell all of my patients to go to get affordable vegetables.  Last week, I stopped in to see what was in stock and was surprised and delighted to see fresh cranberry beans.  I have no idea where they came from since the last time I saw  cranberry beans at my farmers market was in October.  Have you seen these gorgeous legumes?  I would buy them just for the shells, which are a mottled fuschia that could be the inspiration for the end papers of fancy hardcover books of yore.

The beans themselves are creamy white speckled with burgundy or hot pink.  Unlike fava beans, cranberry beans only need to be peeled once, and they cook in half an hour.  Unfortunately, the beans lose their fabulousness in the cooking process to turn a disappointing grayish mauve.  Check out the before:

and the after:

I had tried a Smitten Kitchen (http://smittenkitchen.com/) cranberry bean salad (from her amazing cookbook) a few weeks ago with some dried cranberry beans, but I wanted to try something different with these fresh beans.  The beans were simmered in just plain water then drained.  I made a vinaigrette with dijon mustard, plain olive oil, lime juice (we're out of lemons following a party), salt, and pepper.  The still warm beans soaked up the vinaigrette nicely.  I diced one stalk of celery and about a quarter cup of leftover red onion, minced the celery leaves, and halved a cup of rainbow cherry tomatoes.  This morning, I added half of a small avocado for more creaminess and also because I have four ripe avocados that need to be used up.  It was delicious.  The vinaigrette highlighted but didn't overpower the gentle flavor of the beans.  The contrast of the toothsome beans, juicy tomatoes, crunchy cucumber and onion was perfect.  I don't even think it needs a cheese to improve it. 

From a nutritional standpoint, legumes are a fantastic addition to your diet, whether you're vegetarian or just trying to eat a little more healthfully.  Cranberry beans contain most of the essential amino acids, missing only methionine and phenylalanine, which can be provided in many grains to create a complete protein.  Legumes are seeds, so cranberry beans are very high in carbohydrates and calories.  Many of the carbohydrates are dietary fiber, which can promote GI health, lower cholesterol, and moderate blood sugar levels.  Cranberry beans are also rich in iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and folate.  They contain hardly any fat or sodium (if you cook them yourself) and are naturally cholesterol-free.

How do you use legumes?  Is there another fresh bean like cranberry or fava beans that I need to go looking for?

Rainbow Challenge: How'd you do?

This week I have the whole rainbow:

Red:  apples, cherry tomatoes
Orange:  clementine, persimmon, baby carrots
Yellow:  pear, ginger
Green:  celery, broccoli, kale, avocado
Blue:  blueberries
Purple:  beets

Not pictured:  red onions, cooked spinach, sugar snap peas, and ruby red grapefruit.

How'd you do?

Meatless Mondays: Beets

Winter is a great time to get acquainted with root vegetables.  This week, I'll highlight beets.  These low-calorie jewels are fabulous cooked or raw, in juices or salads.  With beets, you get two! two! two vegetables for the price of one.  The beet tops are mild greens that taste like swiss chard.  The root is rich in potassium, which can help regulate blood pressure, as well as some of the B vitamins.  Raw beet roots are good sources of folic acid, which is needed for DNA synthesis.  Cooking beets to death can destroy the folic acid.  The deep burgundy color in standard beets is courtesy of the antioxidants betacyanin and betaxanthin, which may reduce inflammation and help prevent cancers and heart disease.  The greens are surprisingly high in vitamin C as well as vitamin A.  When you buy your beets, separate the greens from the roots and store them separately.  The greens keep only a few days in the refrigerator, but the roots can last for weeks (or even months).

I didn't grow up eating beets, at least not that I recall.  When I was an exchange student in France, we eat beets with a mustardy vinaigrette over rice or cold potatoes weekly.  The beets would leak turn everything around them a gorgeous pink, and their sweetness contrasted wonderfully with the tangy vinaigrette.  They seemed as exotic to me as the thin, nearly bloody steaks we got from the butcher in the small town.  The beets my host mother served were pre-peeled and cooked beets sold in vacuum-packed bags off the shelf.  Now, you can find them in most supermarkets in the US, but at the time, I had never heard of anything but canned beets. 

These days, I buy golden, candy cane-pink, and red beets.  In the summer, when I can't bear to turn on the oven, I grate them raw, toss them with vinaigrette, shredded raw beet greens, walnuts, and whatever cheese is in the fridge for a portable filling salad. 

Yesterday I roasted the last of the beets from my tiny roof-top garden.  The beets are from a mid-summer second planting, and they never got very big: the largest is walnut-sized.  The greens were eaten months ago, steamed with some olive oil.  Usually, I peel and quarter larger beets, toss them with olive oil, salt, pepper, thyme, then roast them on a sheet pan for 30-40 minutes at 400 degrees.  Because these beets were so wee and the thought of peeling those tiny things so horrifying, I tried steaming them unpeeled in a foil-covered pan with a few ounces of water.  According to my research, the skins were supposed to just slip off easily.  It worked for the red beets, but the pink ones clung tightly to their skins.  These beets don't have the same richness that roasted beets have, so I think I'll recreate my French host mother's beet salad or toss them with some cooked farro, parsley, and feta cheese for lunch later this week.  Do you have any suggestions? 

Aren't they pretty?  The light pink ones are Chioggia beets.  When you slice them across their centers, you see a pink and white bullseye pattern. 

Attack of the flu

I think I've finally recovered from my third stomach flu in as many weeks.  I suspect that my most recent episode was a norovirus or Norwalk family of viruses.  According to my old microbiology texts, these single-stranded RNA viruses have a 1- to 2-day incubation period (multiplying inside your body but not yet causing symptoms), after which they cause nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and vomiting for one to three days.  That sounds about right.  I believe the New York Times more vividly described it as "projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea."  Good times. 

Unfortunately, there is very limited immunity to norovirus and other viruses that cause gastroenteritis (a fancy term for the above-mentioned tummy unpleasantness).  What can the average person do to prevent falling victim to the epidemic of stomach or regular flu?  Wash your hands.  Wash your food.  Cover your mouth with your elbow or shirt when you sneeze.  Wash your hands.  If you have a housemate or family member with the flu, use a paper towel to turn off the sink after you Wash Your Hands.  Don't share utensils or eat off each other's plates.  Stay as hydrated as possible.  Wash your hands.

As with most illnesses, I like to blame everything on my kids.  Their less-than-stellar handwashing habits, exuberant hugs and kisses, and unfortunate habits of putting their hands in everything makes it all too easy for the flu to attach every family member.  I do believe that if I had been more careful about sanitizing handles, remote controls, door knobs, etc. when the youngest daughter vomited nine times during one night, I might have spared my oldest daughter, husband, and myself from this latest and worst stomach flu. 

What does this have to do with nutrition?  It's really hard to train for a half marathon when you can't keep food in your body and your appetite is zilch.  This is not the way that I wanted to lose 5 pounds to start the new year.  Also, kids can get dehydrated pretty quickly if they are constantly expelling their stomach contents. 

It even looks deadly, huh?

Picture from http://deadlymicrobes.com/norovirus-causes-symptoms-and-treatment

Rainbow Challenge

One way to make your diet healthier is to try to eat the rainbow each week.  A variety of colors on the plate ensures that you're getting a good balance of nutrients.  Generally, the more vibrantly colored a fruit is, the more nutrients it has.  Each week, I'll arrange as artfully as I can the produce in my house that match the rainbow.

How many colors are in your refrigerator?

Meatless Mondays: Lettuces and salad greens

Every Monday, I'll highlight a nutritious way to incorporate more plants into your diet.  For my first Meatless Monday, I'll start with the very epitome of diet food:  lettuce. 

Picture from http://www.kitchenspice.com/tastefultimes/great_greens.htm

There's a reason that salads are the stereotypical diet food:  lettuces and salad greens are low in fat, protein, and sodium but high in fiber and nutrients.  This doesn't mean that only waist-watchers should be enjoying salads.  Eating a salad can be an easy way to reach your recommend 3 cups of veggies per day. 

Most people think that only orange foods are high in vitamin A, but lettuces can be a good to excellent source of this nutrient.  The yellow carotenes (vitamin A precursors) are simply hidden under the green chlorophyll.  The darker the leaf, the higher the vitamin A content.  100 grams (about 2-3 cups raw) of most lettuces will supply almost a day's worth of vitamin A (necessary for cell division in the body) and vitamin K (helps your blood to clot when you are injured) as well as nearly a quarter of your vitamin C (anti-oxidant, scurvy-preventor) and folate (prevents neural tube defects).  If you are taking blood thinners such as coumadin, talk to your doctor or registered dietitian before you go on a greens-eating binge.  The lettuces' high vitamin K content can interfere with how the blood thinners work, so it's important to let your medical team know if you'll be eating more greens than you usually do.

To help your body absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A and K, dress your salads with a bit of oil.  This is a great use of the fancy extra-virgin olive oils so prevalent today.  You can also gently and quickly saute or stir-fry the greens with a bit of oil or butter.  Gently cooked greens can be a great addition to fritattas, stratas, omelettes, meatloafs, or hamburgers.  You can also enhance the nutrition and beauty of pasta dishes by tossing just drained pasta with washed greens torn into small pieces.  The heat from the pasta will gently wilt the greens.  Some of the sturdier greens such as radicchio and bok choy can also be grilled, which creates a smoky yet delicate flavor.  Slice the heads in half, toss with a bit of oil and seasonings, then grill for just a few minutes until the vegetables take on some color.  Grilled greens make an interesting salad or slaw when drizzled with some vinaigrette. 

Do you have a favorite salad recipe to share?  Do you use lettuces in things besides salads?  

Gold Star Resolutions

The New Year is a great time to initiate healthy changes, but too often we lose our resolve before Valentines Day.  Are you trying to lose a few pounds, decrease the amount of medication you take for high cholesterol or hypertension?  People who are most likely to succeed at their resolutions create what I like to call "gold star" resolutions.  They focus on discrete objectives that have a definite timeline.  Think back to when you were in elementary school or had a sticker reward chart at home.  If you read your 5 books per week or made your bed every day, you got a gold star.  When you choose your New Years resolutions, they should be just as specific.  You should be able to track your progress with a sticker chart.  Instead of saying "I want to lose weight," say "I want to lose 10% of my body weight by Memorial Day" or "I want to get back to what I weighed before I had children by the end of the school year."

Once you've picked a specific objective with a timeline, think about whether it's realistic.  Lots of people resolve to go to the gym every day after work, but inevitably life gets in the way, they miss a day, and they discard the entire resolution.  A better strategy is to set yourself up to succeed.  Creating healthy habits is not an all or nothing proposition.  You don't have to go from being a couch potato to being a professional athlete.  Is going to the gym 3 days a week or 4 more likely to happen?  Is it a little bit more than what you're doing now?

Think, too, about why you're not already doing the New Years resolutions.  What's stopping you right now?  Identifying potential obstacles and coming up with strategies to overcome them also improves your changes of keeping your resolutions.  Do you want to eat more vegetables but don't because they take too much time to prepare?  Try hitting the deli salad bar or take advantage of pre-cut vegetables at the grocery store.  Build in some vegetable prep time on Sunday, so you'll have a refrigerator full of vegetables ready to cook during the week.  If you can brainstorm solutions in advance, you're more likely to reach your goal.

Just like when you were a kid, you should build in rewards for achieving certain milestones.  For example, if your goal is to exercise 4 days per week, treat yourself to a massage when you've gotten 20 gold stars for exercising 20 times.  If you've cut back your soda habit to one a day for two months, use the money you've saved on the soda to take yourself and a friend ice skating. 

Keep checking back for more tips to keep you healthy.  Full disclosure:  my 2013 resolution is to post three times per week (not every day, which is completely unrealistic for me).