Quick Tip Tuesday-A Pot of Beans

Ever since we made the change to more plant-based meals, I find myself using a lot of beans. Canned beans are convenient, but wow, do they have a lot of sodium! Even the low sodium cans have about 10% of your suggested sodium for the day in one serving.  In addition, most have some unnecessary added ingredients (firming and coloring agents). I still think they are a good choice, and use them often. However, I set out to see if I could make one big pot at once and freeze them for later. My attempt was successful and now it is quite easy to keep some cooked, frozen beans on hand for any recipe. You can even use them to make your own "refried" beans. Here is how I do it:

Crock Pot Beans

Soak 3 cups dried beans (I usually use a combination of pinto and black) in about 8 cups of water overnight or for 8 hours.

Drain and rinse the beans. Add them to the crock pot with 12 cups of water. Cook on HIGH for about 10 hours.

Drain off most of the liquid. This makes about 8 cups of cooked beans. I generally measure about 2-3 cups into freezer bags and freeze with a bit of the liquid. Then they are ready for any recipe that asks for canned beans.

You may have to adjust the seasonings somewhat for a recipe that asks for canned beans because your beans are unsalted.

Quick Tip Tuesday-An Easy Breakfast

Sorry about the week long blogging hiatus. School is almost out, so there has been a constant stream of musical programs, recitals, school plays, and field trips to attend. I will be glad to have the kids home for the summer. I hope to share some good food for picnics and outdoor meals. But for now, how about a quick, healthy breakfast for the end of the school year. Strawberries have been inexpensive and good, so I intend to eat this as often as possible. The original recipe calls for all fresh berries, but the others are still very expensive here, and I find that if I take the frozen berries out first, by the time I have the strawberries washed and cut, and the topping made, the frozen berries are just about defrosted. When I find cheap, local berries, I will use fresh ones. Everyone in my family enjoyed this breakfast.

 

Raw Triple Berry Crisp

Adapted from: Oh She Glows
Yield: 6-8 servings
Berries:

• 1.5 containers strawberries
• About 3 cups frozen mixed berries (I use raspberry, blackberry, blueberry)
• 1 Tablespoon maple syrup

Topping:

• 2 cups raw, mixed nuts (I like almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans. I just use whatever I have.)
• 1/4 cup uncooked rolled oats
• 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
1.  Measure the frozen berries into a large bowl. Wash and slice all strawberries into bite sized pieces.Toss with the other berries and maple syrup.
2. Prepare the topping in a food processor by pulsing all ingredients until just mixed. You want to leave this mixture a bit chunky, so be sure not to over process.
3. In a 2 quart casserole dish or a 9"x13" baking dish, add most of the berry mixture. Spread evenly, then add most of the topping over the berries. Sprinkle on the remaining berries, and then the rest of the topping. Serve immediately over vanilla yogurt.

This gets very watery so does not store well. If you have leftovers, eat them for lunch :)

Green Smoothies for Summer

I remember two times as a kid being forced by cruel and unusual means to eat my vegetables. Disclaimer: My memory is that of a child, so I can't be held responsible for the accuracy of my recollection. The two vegetables in question (on separate occasions) were squash and brussels sprouts. The means of torture was making me sit at the table until I had taken one bite. I don't remember if I gave in before my parents, but I do remember that sitting there while my brothers and sister had gone outside to play (I could hear them with the other neighbor kids through the window, taunting me) was better than taking even one bite of those vegetables. In my memory, I sat there for at least two hours (see disclaimer above). Needless to say, my history with vegetables is not stellar. It has been a huge conflict for me, given my interest in nutrition. I have tried every way possible to get vegetables into my diet without triggering my gag reflexes.  In my college nutrition class, the teacher would joke and say if we were required to name a food that is a good source of any vitamins or minerals, we could just guess spinach and be right most of the time. I wanted desperately to try to work spinach into my diet, but it proved extremely difficult due to the fact that I thought it tasted like swamp water. Luckily, the swamp flavor is rather easy to mask. Anyone who knows me now will probably be surprised by my disdain of vegetables because I have come a long way since my childhood. I have long-since found ways to incorporate most vegetables into my diet.

So, if you are not a vegetable lover, stay tuned. There is hope for you, too. One of my favorite ways to use spinach and other leafy greens that have an outstanding nutritional profile but less than outstanding flavor, is in a green smoothie. I shared a recipe for the "Green Mango Madness" smoothie here. Now, I want to teach you how to make green smoothies a regular part of your life. I have one almost every day. It is a painless way to get about 2 servings of fruit and 1 serving of leafy greens in every day. The key is to experiment with the basic recipe until you find variations that you like. Will they be the best smoothies you've ever tasted? Probably not, but even to a hesitant vegetable eater, they are good (without even a hint of swamp taste). I think I could even eat brussels sprouts in a smoothie. Here is an easy, basic recipe to get you started. Adjust it until you find something that works for you:

Basic Green Smoothie (makes 22-26 oz.)

• 8 oz liquid (I use water, but you could use any kind of milk too.)
• 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt (I usually omit unless I am making it for the kids)
• 1 heaping cup frozen fruit (I almost always use cherries and/or mixed berries for their antioxidants)
• 1/2 banana (usually frozen, see this post about how to always have bananas on hand)
• 2 hand fulls of dark, leafy greens (I rotate between spinach, kale, and swiss chard) 
• Optional additions: chia seeds, flax seeds, nuts, nut butter, unsweetened coconut, granola

Now is the perfect time to plant your own leafy greens. They are one of the easiest vegetables to grow, and a few plants will keep you supplied all summer and into the fall. They grow quickly, take up very little space, and can be grown successfully in a container if you don't have a garden.

Quick Tip Tuesday-Fueling For Exercise

There are a lot of sport energy products out there. There are drinks, gels, goos, bars, chews, and many others. We all like to think of ourselves as athletes, and the and the sport energy companies like us to think we need their products. So, what do we really need? I took a sports nutrition class about a year ago, and got all of the information necessary to make an informed decision. I will present it to you in condensed form, assuming that you work out on average for less than 2 hours per day. If you exercise more than that, you can contact me for more specific information.

If your workout is going to be 60 minutes or less, it's simple. All you need during your workout is water.  Make sure you are properly fueled and hydrated before and after your workout. This is a matter of experimentation to see what works best for you. If I am working out first thing in the morning, I eat nothing. I exercise on an empty stomach and feel great. There is some inconclusive evidence that this trains your body to use fat as a source of fuel more efficiently (The science behind it does seem to make sense.). However, if I start my workout any later than 7:00 AM, it doesn't work. I don't know why. Anyway, the general guideline is the closer to a workout you get, the less solid your fuel should be. Three hours out should be your last real protein. After that, it should be mostly carbohydrates.

If your workout is longer than 60 minutes, you should start looking into something that has some energy and electrolytes. For the most part, products are formulated to be used either before, during, or after exercise, as the recommendations are different for each. Make sure you are choosing something that is meant to be consumed during exercise. The more liquid it is, the more likely it is formulated for use during exercise. Really, if you are doing anything less than a full marathon, all you need is a sports drink. They don't always contain the best quality ingredients, so if you want to make your own, it is quite simple. Most 100% fruit juices contain the correct concentration of carbohydrates for ideal absorption when they are diluted: 1/2 water, 1/2 fruit juice. Then all you have to do is throw in half a pinch of salt (you don't taste it, I promise), and you have your own sports drink made from real food, not chemicals. My favorite is a Naked Pomegranate Blueberry juice diluted with salt added.

So, don't spend money on sports products when all you really need is water, and if you do need more than water, make sure you are buying (or making) something that is formulated for use during exercise.

My Plant-Based Journey

In all of the years I have been following the twisty road of nutrition news, I have seen many quick-fix diet schemes come and go. There are more ways to lose weight fast than there are people in this world! Most of these methods work for a time, even if they aren't at all healthy. They work for one reason-they all force calorie restriction in one way or another. Then, once you go back to your old habits (you have to because there is no way you can maintain most of the fad diets for long and still live), the weight creeps back up with a vengeance! My focus throughout life has never been weight loss, but rather ideal health. Weight control generally follows, but physique alone is not a good indicator of overall health. My reading tends to hone in on disease prevention and vitality. Among books and studies about preventing disease and maintaining good health, there are always a few things in common. These things are the ones I have tried to incorporate into my lifestyle. I am always a slow adopter of new health trends. I like to give them time to prove to me that they are worth working in to my life. My journey to a more plant-based diet is no exception. In my many years of accumulated education about health and nutrition, these are the things that come up no matter what it is you are trying to prevent, cure, or encourage: regular exercise, decreasing consumption of red meats, and increasing the amounts of vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains in our diets. Along with this, most of our foods should be as minimally processed as possible.

Over the last two years, I have been adapting our favorite dinner recipes to be more plant based. For the most part I have accomplished this by cutting the amount of meat in half and replacing it with vegetables, beans, or grains. We never ate much meat to begin with, but I thought this would be a worthwhile change for my family. No one noticed the gradual change, and by the end of the first year, I was feeding my family of eight (we had two exchange students at the time) with one chicken breast. At one point, I decided to do an experiment on my family (is that ethical?). I decided to make meat-free meals and see how long it would take for anyone to notice. On day 4, James looked over the dinner I served and simply said, "Not an ounce of animal protein in sight." Some of our meat heavy meals I just stopped making, and the only one that has been requested since the change was, Meatball Sandwiches, which I gladly made.

My personal belief, after studying nutrition and vitamin and mineral absorption, is that the ideal diet contains small amounts of animal protein. I think going totally vegan is taking a good idea too far. Of special concern with a vegan diet are the minerals calcium and iron, and vitamin B12. It doesn't take much animal protein to increase the absorption of calcium and iron and get an adequate amount of  B12 and the essential fatty acids that are found mostly in animal products. Limiting, but not eliminating animal products greatly increases the convenience as well. It gives you the freedom to use the ingredient that is best suited to the recipe and not use a plant-based food when it isn't the best choice. In order to reap the benefits of a plant-based diet, you have to replace the meat with vegetable, beans, or whole grains. The meat substitutions on the market are not healthier than the meat itself. They are heavily processed and full of strange ingredients. It is best to avoid them if you are making the change for better health. You can find more information about my views by studying the diets of the world's healthiest populations. I am sure you have heard about the Mediterranean Diet. It includes an abundance of fresh fruits, vegetables, and legumes, a moderate amount of fresh fish, and very small amounts of red meat, dairy, and processed foods. A great book on the topic is,  The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell. 

There really is so much to discuss in further detail, but to avoid writing a novel, I would like to share a recipe I have been making for a few years that my family loves.

Three Bean Tacos
Recipe adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients-this makes enough for about 24 tacos. I always freeze half for another meal. It stays good in a freezer bag for at least a month.

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
• 2 T chili powder
• 4 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp cumin
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
• 12 tortillas
• toppings of choice: diced tomatoes, avocado, salsa, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, etc.

Directions

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot. Add onion and next 6 ingredients (onion through garlic), and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add beans and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes or until thick.

Put the mixture into a food processor or blender and process until it is about the consistency of ground meat.

Warm tortillas and top with 1/4 cup bean mixture and desired toppings.