31 Days of Menus: Dishes

You might be wondering what this has to do with our menus theme, or maybe you know all to well. I’m referring to the execution in the subtitle, because if I get too behind on the dishes it can be overwhelming to add to the pile. And that makes cooking dinner seem like an impossible challenge to overcome, menu or no menu.

So, my recommendations (which I am not necessarily the best at following through with) are:

*However you do it, just make sure everything is washed up before you go to bed.

*Starting with a sink of soapy water can be helpful.

*Wash and clean up everything possible while dinner is cooking, this limits the mess staring you in the face after you’ve eaten.

*Try to finish the cleanup as soon after dinner as possible.

*Use a sticker chart – Cassandra talks about that here on her blog.

*If you do go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink, do them in the morning.

Is it just me, or is this an issue for you too?

C

31 Days of Menus: Inspiration

Not just inspiration for menu planning, but cooking in general.

(don’t worry, I have more )

Personally I gain a lot of inspiration from reading cookbooks, but I know not everyone lists that as one of their favorite pastimes.

Watching cooking shows can be helpful, even if they aren’t quite in line with our dietary standards. Here’s one that’s available online, and focuses on whole grains, just look at it as inspiration rather than a how to – at least for many of the recipes. However, some of them like the sweet rice cereal for breakfast (which I’ve been inspired to try) are right up my alley.

Cooking blogs are also great, and sometimes I come across an idea I just have to try!

What inspires you?

C

31 Days of Menus: To plan breakfast and lunch, or not?

(Sunday’s lunch: Cabbage Salad with Asian Style Dressing)

I know a lot of people, probably most people don’t bother with planning these meals. And if that works for you, go with it. However, I’ve noticed that I do better with some type of plan. Even if it is Green Smoothies 5 or 6 days out of the week and only two breakfast menus I actually need a “menu” for.
Lunch is the bigger deal for me. Leftovers and sandwiches are great options, and I do use those a lot, but sometimes I forget to have lunch if I haven’t made a plan. So, sometimes the menu will say “leftover _____ ” from dinner the night before, if I think there will be extra. Or, I’ll pick sandwiches that sound good for the week, TLT’s (tempeh, lettuce, and tomato) or Chickpea salad sandwiches. Those are usually good for 2 or 3 days out of the week. And, by planning them into the menus I can make sure I’ve purchased what I need for lunches too, without buying a lot of extras.

What about you? Do you plan for lunch and breakfast?

C

Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Dip

A.k.a the best Nacho ‘cheeze’ sauce ever. Seriously though, I think I’m on to something – in a reminiscent of processed cheese spreads kind of way.
The basic recipe has a mild cheddar cheese flavor with a bit of a smokey undertone (due to the roasted red peppers).
Try it and let me know what you think.

Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Dip

1 cup soaked cashews (soak for 2 to 4 hours in filtered water)
1 large roasted red pepper ( I used the canned/jarred variety)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon brown rice vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon powdered cumin
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon sea salt (Redmond’s)

Add all ingredients to the blender and process until smooth, really smooth (In the Blendtec I process this on speed 9 for 1 cycle). I think this is wet enough between the soaked cashews and the water to blend well in most blenders and if not a food processor should work well, but you’ll have to let me know how it works for you.

When my son saw this he said, “we should have that on pasta, but not the long skinny kind, the swirly kind.” Which would have been good, but instead we opted for macaroni. Which elicited this comment, “This isn’t good, it’s great!”
Keeping in mind that he might not recognize the boxed version in a blind taste test, it’s still some pretty high praise coming from a seven year old!

We’ve also tried this on pizza, and it adds a great flavor dimension. Swirl it on over the tomato sauce, rather than on top off the veggies (toppings).

Other options include adding it to baked potatoes topped with chili, as one of the fillings for burritos, or adding it to a southwest style wrap (delicious!), and of course topping off a plate of nachos.

C

Kitchen Mishaps

You know how you feel when you buy a new gadget for the kitchen that is going to save you time and money? I purchased a soymilk maker a while ago and eagerly began reading the manual, putting it together, soaking beans, and making soymilk. I couldn’t wait to taste homemade soymilk on homemade granola. This was a step forward toward eating (and drinking) less processed foods. However, when I strained the milk, it was much thicker than I expected it to be and it didn’t taste very good. I asked Cherie about it the next time I talked to her on the phone and we figured out that I should add the water first before the beans (I had somehow reversed those steps from the manual) and maybe add a little sweetener. I tried it. Again, it was too thick and didn’t taste very good. I sadly put away my soymilk maker and focused on other ways to eat healthy. Months later, while quilting with Cherie, she asked how my soymilk making was going. When I told her it wasn’t, she started walking me through each step to see if she could figure out what was wrong. She pulled open her cupboards and, as a side note, pointed to her soybeans. I suddenly realized that was not the kind of bean I was using! I had mislabeled my jars of beans and had been using garbanzo beans (chickpeas) instead of soybeans. : ) Once I started using the right kind of beans, my soymilk maker worked great.

When I was child living at home, my mother bought non-instant powdered milk from cheese factories. She would whisk it with water in gallon sized pitchers. One Thanksgiving she pulled a pitcher out of the refrigerator to add milk to the mashed potatoes. She held the hand mixer in the potatoes with one hand and poured the pitcher with the other hand. To her horror, the potatoes were turning purple! She had grabbed the pitcher of grape juice instead of milk. Thankfully, she quickly realized her mistake and switched pitchers before the potatoes were ruined. We still laugh about that story every Thanksgiving when making mashed potatoes.

M

Do you have any kitchen mishaps you’d like to share? We’d love to hear about them.

The New Four Food Groups and Veggie Nutrition

Most of us grew up with the Four Food Groups. They were relentlessly drilled into us at school, courtesy of the meat and dairy industries who paid/pay for all of that literature. So, having cut out two of the original four food groups, where do we go from there? Another easy way to remember where we really ought to be getting our nutrition from has been mapped out by the folks over at the PRCM website. Their new four food groups – vegetables, fruit, grains, and legumes. I would put seeds in with the grains, and nuts into the legume category. And here’s a lovely food pyramid for those of you who prefer to look at that.
As far as specific nutritional concerns, I find it interesting that most of the potentially problematic nutrients are an issue regardless of how you eat. Even B-12 deficiencies (which is always touted as the missing component in a diet which excludes animal products) also occur among people who do eat food from animal sources. However, that doesn’t mean these nutrients aren’t still worthy of extra attention to ensure that we are getting enough of them in our diets.
Some nutrients to pay attention to include:
B-12, Essential Fatty Acids, Vitamin D, Calcium, and Iodine.
Here’s a link to a helpful site with more in depth information on this topic.

Now, what I’m wondering is, is anyone interested in this type of nutritional information? Or is it just me ?
Let me know, either way. Do you want more? If so, what do you want to know about? And if not, mention that too.

C

What to do with your sweet tooth

Unfortunately having it pulled is not an option. However, cravings diminish as time goes on. If fact it seems that the higher in nutrients your diet is, the less you will crave sweets. So, if you’re having a really difficult time try adding a lot of greens to your diet.

For me the real challenge was cookies. Having decided that living without them was not an option, I set out to find something I could eat that still resembled a cookie. If you decide to include sucanat in your diet then it’s easy. It works just like refined sugar, it just tastes a bit more like molasses. One of the options I’ve been happiest with is my Chocolate Chip cookie recipe (and variations on this theme). I hope you enjoy it too.

Which dessert really tempts you and makes it difficult to stick to your dietary goals? Have you been able to find a suitable substitute? Let us know.

C

Let us know what you think

We would love some feedback. What do you think? What kind of posts would you like to see? What questions do you have? What information do you wish you had about this type of diet?
Let us know, we love to hear from you.

C

Instead of unhealthy treats, what to give neighbors?

Before I switched to a healthier eating lifestyle, I made lots of cookies to give away during the holidays. A plate of cookies is a fairly easy, inexpensive gift for neighbors, church friends, coworkers and so on. Now that I don’t have the ingredients to make those kind of cookies in my house, I struggle with what to give. Do I purchase those ingredients, make the cookies, and give them away knowing that I’m contributing to their health problems and that they will be getting plenty of other treats during the holidays? Do I make my healthier desserts knowing that many people don’t like whole wheat flour or the lack of sweet since their taste buds are attuned to white sugar? Do I give away something else entirely and if so, how do I keep the cost down? If you’re struggling with the same dilemma, here are some ideas I’ve come up with. If you have ideas to add, please let me know.

• cellophane bag of unshelled nuts (if you have the money, attach a simple nutcracker with ribbon or give shelled nuts)
• small jar of just fruit homemade jam
• use your creative (crochet, scrapbooking, photography, drawing, etc.) talent to make a simple homemade gift (be sure that what you choose to do isn’t so time consuming that you don’t have time to enjoy the holidays)
• dry soup, pancake, or muffin mix packaged festively with directions attached
• write down fun shared memories and why you’re grateful they are in your life
• make a Christmas tree ornament or other decoration (Again, not too time consuming.)
• basket of a variety of homemade muffins and juice. (This works well for workplace.)
• Tray of veggies and dip (My coworkers liked having a healthy alternative to all the treats being brought in. Many of them were trying to lose weight like myself.)

M