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!!!

Healthy "Pizza"

So I already told you that I've been following Joel Furhman's "Eat to Live." Just to set the record straight, I do this 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time I eat what I want. An example of my typical week looks like this:
Monday thru Friday: fresh fruits and veggies; beans & nuts; and tofu; 1-2 servings of whole grains a day; green tea & water. Saturday night: pizza and beer (or some other yummy meal indulgence).

I have had to get creative in finding fast meals to make M-F for me and my family. One of my favorites is healthy "pizza." I am quite fond of all pizzas, healthy or not, so I find any excuse to eat it. Here is one of my standby meals for when I get home late and don't have much time to cook:
1 ball whole wheat pizza dough
tomato sauce (recipe in another posting)
1 can artichoke hearts, drained
oregano & parsley.

Preheat the oven to 475*. Roll out your dough & place on a pizza pan. Roll up the edges of the pizza to make a crust (this prevents the edges from burning). Lightly spray with pure olive oil cooking spray. Cover pie with tomato sauce. Now chop up those artichoke hearts very fine. It's almost like you are making an artichoke spread. Spread the hearts across the entire pizza. Sprinkle with oregano & parsley. Now, if you are ignoring Dr. Fuhrman, you can sprinkle some parmasean across the top of the pizza here. It will get brown and yummy after baked. Lightly spray the top with more olive oil. Throw it in the oven, and bake till the crust begins to brown. Congrats, you just ate an entire pound of green vegetables!

Quick Winter Notes

Not much time, so here are some notes for winter that I can expand on later:
* Pizzas continue to be the #1 food at our house. Now I am making the crust w/ part whole wheat flour. Breakfast pizzas are my favorite: sauce, light on cheese, 1 strip of cut up bacon, and crack some raw eggs on top before baking.
* Overnight oatmeal. Just throw some rolled oats and water (ratio is 1 part oats to 4 parts water) into the crockpot before you go to bed at night. Add some dried fruit: apricots, cherries, dates, cranberries, rasins, etc. and some flax meal, then put the crock pot on "low." In the morning you have this super-chewy yummy hot breakfast. I am going to experiment w/ corn grits this week.
* Mac & cheese with add-ins. Sorry, but its a childhood favorite. I tried making my own, but frankly I like the boxed kind better. I use Annie's Whole Wheat Shells & Cheese. Add-in's include: sliced tomatoes & green peas (throw frozen green peas in with the cooking pasta 3 minutes before its done); pureed butternut squash (the kids will never know!); turkey bacon & mushrooms (sauteed together first); and of course, plain w/ a side of fish sticks & ketchup.
* Ham & Swiss on a baguette. Or if you are feeling fancy--hot ham & cheese on a potato roll.
* Saurcraut & weiners cooked all day together in the crock pot. Use a can of beer for your cooking liquid.
* Sides: sweet potato fries, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, romaine & avacado salad, raw baby carrots, spinach & hard boiled egg salad, deviled eggs, sliced apples & pears, baby arugula w/ lemon juice and olive oil.
* Smoothie: pineapple/coconut juice w/ 1 banana, protein powder, & 2 leaves of raw kale. Just whizz it up and ignore the texture of the kale :)

Aaron's picks:
Aaron has continued roasting various meats, of course. Favorites this winter include: boston butt (pork shoulder--one of the cheapest meats per pound sold out of the case), whole chicken or turkey, pork loin roast, brisket, and chicken drumsticks. He roasts them slowly usually after marinating for 12-24 hours or applying a dry rub. The meat keeps great in the fridge for up to a week and makes an excellent cold lunch served with cheese, bread, broth, and fruit.

More Fall Favorites

Ok, just some notes to make on fall dinners to archive.

Homemade Pizzas
We are having them 2-3 times a week now! Aaron makes a big batch of dough that keeps in the fridge for 3-4 days with no problem. He makes the crust in one of 2 ways:
* Very very thin, pressed into an 8 or 9" cake pan (sprinkle bottom w/ cornmeal so it won't stick).
* Fried first. This method can be found in Jamie Oliver's latest cookbook Jamie at Home. You basically take the dough, press it round, then throw it into a frying pan with heated olive oil till the dough puffs up. Then you add your toppings and place it under the broiler for just a few minutes. Keep the toppings very light and vegetable-y because the fried dough makes the pizza a bit heavier than you might be use to.

Toppings have included the following: cut up, canned artichoke hearts that I have marinated in olive oil and red wine vinegar. Just cut them up and put them in a tupperware in the fridge w/ oil & vinegar. They'll keep for at least 2 weeks that way. Olives, sausage, and roasted red pepper/eggplant spread.

I've also changed pasta sauces for the pizza. This one is more of a light marinara and is more suitable for pizza rather than pasta. Here are the easy instructions:

Throw some olive oil in a pan, and add 1 chopped garlic clove, dried red pepper flakes, & dried oregano. Slowly fry till the garlic starts to turn golden. Add one 24 oz. can of either diced or whole peeled tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then turn all the way down to a tiny tiny simmer for about 45 min-1 hour, stirring occasionally. If you are using whole peeled tomatoes, don't break them up till the very end. After 1 hour, add 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper. Get out that immersion blender and whizz it all smooth. Check your seasonings and that's it. Freezes beautifully.

Chicken/Goose/Turkey Broth
Aaron likes to roast whatever kind of bird is on sale at the store about once a week. It's a very economical & convenient thing to do, because he can just eat the meat all week during lunch (for those of you who are stay at home parents, you know how hard it is to remember to feed yourself sometimes when you are focusing on the kid) with a small salad, slice of bread, and some cheese or fruit. Anyway, we are now taking the carcus at the end of the week and making a nice broth to freeze. It's a sure-fire way to get rid of an oncoming cold.

Take your carcus and throw in into a pot full of water. Add a couple of carrots, celery, an onion, and a few cloves of garlic. Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Cool, then strain the broth completely--you don't want any chunks of anything in there. Season with salt and pepper and freeze.

To Serve: This comes from an irish recipe called Michaelmas Broth that I found on the internet. Just take your broth, add 2 tablespoons long grain rice, and simmer for about 20 minutes. The rice will kinda thicken the broth a bit. Serve in bowls with some finely cut up pieces of meat and slivers of green onion. I suppose you could throw some other veggies in there as well--baby spinach would be great, and probably mushrooms too.

Extras:
I've also been making quick breads: pumpkin, banana, and applesauce. And breakfast has been either oatmeal, or swiss style museli with heated soymilk and honey. Yum.

Overflow Tomato Pasta Sauce

Ok, this pasta sauce is meant to be a base sauce to freeze, when you thaw a portion out, you add the finishing touches. This recipe is perfect at the end of the summer when you realize you've got a million tomatoes and they are getting soft faster than you can eat them. What I love about this recipe is that you don't have to peel or seed the tomatoes, so the prep time is pretty quick. The down side to this is that you will need to be able to cook them down all day long so they loose their bitterness. I'm talking a minimum of 6 hours here. If you've got a food processer use it to dice the onion and carrot to save time. I've adapted this recipe from my mother-in-law's basic pasta sauce, which she adapted from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Italian Cooking.

* 1 medium onion, diced (I like vidalia or a sweet onion myself.)
* 1 carrot, diced
* 1 clove garlic, chopped (add another if you are a garlic freak)
* 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (if you've got fresh oregano, omit the dried and use the fresh at the end of the cooking process)
* Tomatoes, roughly chopped, as many as you can fit in the pot (use up the ones that are bruised and overripe)
* olive oil
* salt & pepper
* red wine vinegar

Coat the bottom of a large enamel pot with olive oil, just enough to where it can swish around a little. Add onion, carrot, garlic, and oregano, then sautee over medium heat till onions are transparent. While this is happening, I usually start chopping up my tomatoes.

Add the hacked up tomatoes to the pot, stirring as you add to coat in oil. I mean it when I say add as many as your enamel pot can hold. Add the juices from the cutting board, seeds, and all. Cut, add, and stir, till your pot is full.
Reduce heat to a tiny little simmer. Now we wait. Continue to cook at lowest heat all day long while tomatoes break down. Stir occasionally.
After 6-7 hours, add salt, pepper, (and fresh oregano if you are using it instead of dried) and 1 teaspoon of vinegar.
Now get out that immersion blender and puree the sauce, leaving a few chunks if you like. If you don't have an immersion blender, get one. They are only $14.99 at Target. If you refuse, do it the hard way and transfer your sauce to the food processor or normal blender in batches, pureeing as you go.

Cool the sauce completely, and freeze in whatever portions make sense to you. Keeps in the freezer hapily for 6 months. Remember this is a BASE SAUCE only. When you thaw it out you will add fresh basil, cheese, meat, or whatever the heck you like to put in your pasta sauce. It will be a bit thin when you thaw it, so plan on re-heating it for at least 15 minutes to cook down a bit.

Note:
I like to add 2 carrots instead. I don't know why, but it makes it very yummy and interesting. Try it both ways and see what you think.

Using canned tomatoes: This recipe works great in the winter when all you can get is canned tomatoes. Use 2 large cans (I think they are 24 ounce) per every 1/2 onion and 1 carrot. You will only need to cook down for 1 hour, so you can use it right away. Still freezes well!

My additions: I always add a handfull of fresh basil and some shaved parmesan cheese before serving.