Thursday, March 25, 2010

Pumpkin Muffins!!!

My daughter LOVES these pumpkin muffins. I usually make a batch and freeze 1/2 of the batter in a zip lock bag. When you thaw it, just cut a corner off the bag, and squeeze directly into your muffin pans--kinda like a pastry bag. Very simple, no clean up.

2 c. canned pumpkin (or 1, 15 oz can)
2/3 c. water
2/3 c. unsweetened applesauce
2 tsp vanilla
3 c. whole wheat flour (pastry flour is best)
2 c. maple syrup OR 2 c. sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Oven preheated to 350*
Spray 24 muffin cups w/ nonstick spray, or line the muffin tins with paper liners (sprayed with nonstick spray).

Mix together your pumpkin, water, applesauce, and vanilla at high speed. I just throw mine in the blender. Stir in maple syrup. If you are using sugar, do NOT add here.

Mix all your dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Stir in your pumpkin mixture at low speed or with a large spoon. The secret to muffins is that you do not want to overmix your batter. Just mix until all ingredients are combined.
Throw the mixture into your muffin tins. You can sprinkle the tops with sugar, cinnamon, or add a few chocolate chips.
Bake 32-35 minutes, until a toothpick or knife inserted into center muffin comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 min, then flip over and pop 'em out. Make sure you cool completely before storing in a ziplock bag, or else they will get a bit over-soft.

You can store fully cooked muffins in the freezer if you wrap each one in plastic wrap, and then put them in a ziplock.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Smoothies and Green Drinks

That's right, I said "Green Drinks."

I'm hooked on green drinks! Ever since I got my Vita Mix blender, I just can't stop making them. I am now up to 2 a day, which equals over 1 pound of raw leafy greens + 1 pound of fruit. Leafy greens are the most nutritious foods in the world. But I won't get into that, you can read all about it here or even better, here. I make a green drink for breakfast, and one about an hour before dinner.

After many many mistakes, I have come up with a couple of yummy, basic green smoothie recipes. Many of the ones I find online are (in my opinion) too sweet, or have too many things added to them (also adding in the calorie count). I want to keep it simple, so here are my top recipes:

2 cups water + 2 romaine hearts (or 1 head) + 1 apple (cored and sliced) + 1 lb frozen pineapple

2 cups water + 2 romaine hearts (or 1 head) + 1 lb frozen mango

1 cup soymilk + 1 cup water + 10 oz baby spinach (one Ready Pac bag) + 1 banana + 1 lb frozen blueberries

1 cup soymilk + 1 cup water + 6 oz greens (I mix 2 of the following: kale, mustard, turnip, & beet) + 1 banana + 1 lb frozen strawberres + 1 pitted date

Put in the blender in the order given above. I usually put my liquid and greens in first, blend, then add my frozen fruit slowly. The above recipes are enough to fill 2 big glasses (about 16 oz each).

I chose the above greens because they are the most affordable. My WFM sells a 6 pack of romaine hearts for $5. Ready Pac baby spinach is $1.99, and a 12 oz bag of mixed greens is $4. But when something else is on sale, hey--I buy it. In the summer, I can buy fresh fruit and greens from the farmer's market as well. Also, it's easy to grow spinach and chard in your garden!

Frozen fruit is great. It is picked when the fruit is at it ripest, and even if you choose not to buy organic, the fruit is not sprayed with fungisides (like fresh conventional fruit might be). It is so much cheaper than fresh, and it eliminates the need to add ice. Remember that if you have fresh fruit laying around that is getting over ripe, just throw it in a baggie in the freezer and use it for smoothies (bananas too!)

I know it sounds expensive, but remember that when you eat this stuff regularly, you are less hungry and don't need to snack as much. I was sure that my grocery bill was going to go up when I started drinking these twice daily, but it has not at all. I just replaced some of the other food I was eating with this stuff.

ORGANICS 101

ORGANICS 101

As I move through my day-to-day duties working in a natural foods store, it has come to my attention that many people are adamant about buying organic food, and don’t really have a good understanding of what the USDA legal definition of “Organic” means. I would like to help de-mystify this.

Organic Food, by USDA definition, must meet certain qualifications and be certified by 3rd party accredited certifier to be sold under the term “organic.”

Here are the standards that food must meet in the US for it to be certified Organic:
Crops grown without the use of residual pesticides, fungisides, or herbicides, and no chemical/synthetic fertilizers.

No GMO (genetically modified organisms) seeds or ingredients

No sewage sludge used on crops.

Farming/ranches practices that are sustainable.

Animals fed organic feed.

Animals raised without the use of synthetic growth hormones & antibiotics, with humane treatment. (additional standards for animals will be put in place in 2011)

Farm/ranch/facility must keep records and logs, and have an Organic Plan.

Must be certified annually.

For more specific info, check out the USDA’s website here: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/Organic/

People buy organic for various reasons. Some do not want pesticides on their food, while others are concerned about the environmental impact from conventional farming. Some folks just feel organic food “tastes better.” I am pretty creeped out by GMO’s, so that is my main reason, combined with environmental impact.

But getting certified to be organic can be a huge cost burden on a small farm or ranch, so some alternatives are popping up. Check out Certified Naturally Grown , “a non-profit alternative certification program tailored for small-scale, direct-market farmers using natural methods.”

Organic food is typically more expensive than conventional, because it is much more labor intensive for the grower. The cost of certification also increases the price as well.
If you are passionate about buying organic, but are concerned about the price, it might benefit you to find a local farmer’s market in your area and shop there. The prices are lower because the farmer is selling directly to the consumer. If you can get out of the city a bit and go to a more rural farmer's market or farmstand, the prices will be even lower. Transportation is a huge cost to farmers trekking into the city to sell food.

You may also be interested in joining a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture. CSA's work in several ways, but basically you purchase a "share" of food from a farm (or collective of farms) that is delievered to a pick up area near you. Some CSA's let you choose what you want to buy, and with others you get whatever they have available. In my experience, most CSA's can be pretty costly, and I find farmer's markets to be cheaper. But I know plenty of folks who LOVE CSA's, so check it out.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Rice & More Portable Food

I made a great lunch today to take to work. It's funny that the more effort I put into making my lunches, the more excited I am to eat them at work (and the more satisfying they seem)...
And one basic rule I'm learning about healthy eating is this:

Make your rice at the beginning of the week!!!

Every sunday I make a big container of rice to keep in the fridge for the week. (Don't forget to sprinkle it with a few spoonfulls of water each day to keep it from drying out) There's so much you can do with a big container of brown rice:
* add a few spoonfulls to soup to help thicken it
* make rice pudding
* spoon into a tortilla with beans & veggies to make a burrito (portable food!)
* mix with sauteed onions, mushrooms, and herbs then stuff in bell peppers and bake
* open a can of beans, drain, season, and pour over the rice
* rice + avacado + diced tomato + black beans
* rice + lentil soup + jack cheese
* rice + green peas + cheesy sauce (real or vegan)
* rice + broccoli + cheesy sauce
* rice + baked tofu + sauteed bok choy + teriyaki sauce
* INARI!!!

This sunday I spent the morning in Chinatown here in Philly. I went with no plan other than just to peek around at all the great food. While there, I picked up some aburage in an Asian grocery store. Aburage are seasoned fried tofu skins that you can stuff to make inari sushi. If you are not a fan of sushi, you might still enjoy inari, because you can really make it your own (no raw fish). Here's a basic recipe for inari. I use brown rice, which is not nearly as yummy or sweet as white rice, but I'm use to it. I know there is such a thing as sweet brown rice, and at some point I will experiment with it. The aburage I found was frozen (it also comes canned), and came with the rice seasoning packet--very convenient!
Making the inari isn't very time consuming if you take a few steps to prepare things the night before (like make your rice). Thaw the packets in the fridge overnight, and have a vision of what you want your entire meal to include. Inari can also be eaten as a snack, but I like to take it to work for lunch because it is PORTABLE FOOD!!

My delicious lunch today contained:
* 4 inari (made with brown rice, grated carrot, a little bragg's liquid aminos, and sesame seeds)
* Quick pickles (from an earlier post)
* Lentil ginger soup (canned lentil soup, pureed in the blender w/ fresh ginger, cumin, and corriander)

(Keep the inari at room temp for the morning at your office, and throw the rest in the fridge till you're ready to eat)

And I love that the inari is pocket-like, keeping with my accidental theme this week!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Spinach & Bean Pockets

Who doesn't love portable food? I don't have a regular routine for lunch. Sometimes I eat at my desk, other times I am in the middle of teaching, and sometimes I am in my car on a trip. I've been thinking about portable food, and trying to figure out what I can bring that will be healthy. For inspiration, check out veganlunchbox.com. It's an amazing blog that has been turned into a cookbook! I appreciate the author's love of lunchboxes, and this has inspired me to really put some thought into what I am bringing for lunch, and how I am packing it.
Here is my recipe for spinach & white bean pockets. These are so much fun to eat, and they freeze really well. I make a big batch, cool them, and freeze them in foil. Then I take one out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge overnight, and toss it into my lunchbag in the morning. You can heat them up in the microwave for 1 minute on high. Drizzle with tahini and hot sauce (of course) and you are good to go. Eating in the car? Just eat straight out of the foil!

Spinach & Bean Pockets
1 recipe whole wheat pizza dough (in earlier post)
1/2 lb frozen baby spinach
1 can white beans, drained (your choice of bean variety!)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
paprika
about 1 cup veggie broth

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat for a few minutes. Toss the garlic and onion in the pan, stirring continuously so it browns, but doesn't burn. (You could use olive oil here if you want, but I am trying to go low-fat.) Cook till the onions are soft and fairly translucent. Add about 1/4 cup of the broth and stir, scraping any browned bits off the pan.

Add the white beans and a few pinches paprika, and stir to incorporate flavors. Add the spinach, straight out of the freezer. Now, at this point, you want to stir and stir, preventing any of the food from sticking or burning. Add broth as needed to steam the spinach a bit, but you want to make sure you cook away all the liquid. Add a few pinches of salt. Remove from heat and cool completely.

Take your pizza dough and divide into about 4 equal parts. Kneed each part, and roll out to about a 7" circle. When the spinach/bean filling is totally cool, spoon some into the center of the dough circle, leaving about 1/2 diameter from the edge. Fold over the circle to make a little pocket, and press the edges to make a seal. Sometimes I turn the edges to make a cool "braid" like look.

Heat in a 400* oven for about 18-20 minutes.
Yay!!!