Just saw this trick in The Wall Street Journal, of all places! It does a good job displaying full-sheet recipes, which recipe card and cookbook holders can’t accommodate very well.

Survivor Chives and Garlic. We love the spring herbs because they arrive with their bright flavors despite wild weather fluctuations. These chives and the garlic below just survived a surprise storm that dumped 14″ of snow and dropped temperatures to 9 degrees!

What a wonderfully versatile sauce!  Use it over baked potatoes; to top chicken, fish or pork; over pasta with vegetables; as a condiment to perk up soup; as a salad dressing; or as a sauce for cooked vegetables (like carrots.)  

Spring Garlic-Chive Sauce

Combine in the cup of an immersion blender and process a minute to combine:

• 2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. apple juice concentrate (or other fruit puree, like pear or peach)
• 2 Tbsp. high quality olive oil
• 1 Tbsp. honey mustard
• 1-2 shakes cayenne pepper, more or less to taste
• ¼ tsp. sea salt, more or less, to taste
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Add to lemon-oil mixture and process again to make a thick dressing with a little texture:

• 1/2 to 1 cup roughly sliced chives (about 3/4 to 1½ oz.), more or less to taste
• ¼ to ½ cup roughly sliced green garlic shoots (from about 4-5 medium shoots), more or less to taste.

Green Garlics rising up from the last year’s fallen leaves.

Use as is for a tangy, sharp flavor.  For a milder flavor, use the smaller amounts of herbs, simmer in a small saucepan for a couple minutes, and/or add a little more apple juice concentrate.

Go one better than a breakfast burrito with this fast, breakfast quiche that is easily transportable.  Double the recipe and cook in separate dish for a time-free breakfast the next day.

Breakfast burritos are everywhere.  While they are a lot healthier than donuts to be sure, it’s always wise to step back from a craze and evaluate the common wisdom, especially for foods that “everybody” assumes to be healthy.  Taking an objective view of the standard breakfast burrito, what I see is:

• a tortilla that is white, rather than whole grain, and
• makes up the largest part of a take-out burrito,
• leaving very little space for good protein, like eggs and beans
• but incorporating a significant amount of high-fat cheese
• yet lacking completely in vegetables
• or including them in negligible amounts;
• in other words, a breakfast option that is a step in the right direction, but leaves plenty of room for improvement.

Microwave quiches are a quick option that takes no longer than stopping to buy a ready-made burrito.  If you have time, be sure to use some of the beautiful spinach coming into season now.  Otherwise, packaged or frozen work as well.  Because red peppers are nowhere near in season, I use strips that I froze last autumn, also a timesaver, as is ready made pesto.  For a GF option, use Food for Life’s brown rice tortillas (they work surprisingly well.)

Step 1:  Saute Vegetables  In 1-2 tsp. butter or olive oil, saute 1/2 to 3/4 cup red peppers diced to 1/2.”  Once they are lightly browned, add a couple good sized handfuls of fresh chopped spinach and cook just until it begins to wilt, stirring frequently. (Timesaver:  use about 1 cup frozen chopped spinach and cook until completely thawed.)  For flavor stir in 1-2 Tbsp. of your favorite pesto or 2 tsp. dried leaf basil, 1 tsp. Italian Herbs and a pinch of chili flakes.

Step 2:  Prepare “Crust”  Lightly butter a small casserole dish.  Tear a whole grain tortilla into 5-6 pieces and lay enough pieces over bottom of dish to cover.  Top with cooked vegetables and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Step 3:  Add Cheese If desired, sprinkle vegetables with a high-impact (i.e., a-little-goes-a-long-way) cheese like Parmesan or a goat chevre.

Step 4:  Make Egg Mixture  In a small mixing bowl, beat together 2 eggs and 3/4 cup milk or soy milk.  Pour gently over the vegetables.

Step 5:  Microwave  Cover and cook in 2-minute intervals at 50% power, stirring gently between intervals to bring uncooked interior parts to outside of dish.  Cook until entire quiche is done to taste.

Step 6:  Top with Tomatoes  Also optional, top with high quality chopped canned tomatoes for color and flavor, especially if not using cheese.  Microwave 30 more seconds to warm tomatoes.

Enjoy a 100% healthful breakfast.

Suspended Judgment:  There’s a secret for happy and healthful eating, but can you first even imagine that eating well is a lot easier than you think?  Could you believe that it doesn’t have to be really hard, guilt-laden or worrisome?

Seasonal Bounty. Limiting our produce choices to what’s in season has the curious consequence of making it easier to cook meals that are healthy and delicious.

Seasonal Eating:  The key to eating well, happily and easily, without worry or guilt.  Let me make the case, beginning with a definition of “seasonal eating.”  Seasonal eating is really place-based eating, i.e., for the place where you find yourself, eating what the earth provides, when the earth provides it, in the amounts provided by the earth.

“Place” is a critical to seasonal eating.  The term is otherwise meaningless since at any one point in time, a produce item is “in season” somewhere in the world and can be found in the produce aisle of your local grocery store.  Only when eating is tied to place do we reap the many benefits of a true seasonal approach.  In an interesting paradox, it is the limiting aspects of place-based eating that are the source of its many advantages.

Read on to discover the many benefits–health and otherwise–of seasonal eating. . . .  I’ve discovered at least a dozen.

In the meantime, if you’re ready to start the seasonal eating journey, join us for one of our Healthy, Seasonal Meal Making Classes.

I’ve been transitioning to place-based eating for close to a decade (see the previous post).  With each passing year, I discover more and more amazing benefits–a whole dozen now:

1. Nutritional Depth  Nutrition experts continually exhort us to eat a wide variety of vegetables, in other words, a lot more than the broccoli, spinach, carrots and green salads that form the vegetable backbone of our harried lives.  Happily, eating a rainbow of vegetables is automatic when the seasons dictate our vegetable choices.  Without even worrying about it, we’ll eat the entire, stunning array of fruits and vegetables produced over the course of a year, from spring’s radishes, sorrel and green garlics to winter’s collards, parsnips and beets.
2. 

   Why am I so excited by green garlics? Because I haven’t seen them for 10 months, just like the spring clothes that have been stuck in the back of my closet for months! But hurry and enjoy their mild, fresh garlic flavor; they last only a few weeks before disappearing til next year.

   Creative Depth  Bored cooks are cooks highly susceptible to ditching the stovetop, leaving few options other than less-than-healthy readymade foods.  Engaged cooks, on the other hand, have the best chance of getting real, whole foods meals on the table.  Fortunately, interest and engagement are additional automatic by-products of seasonal eating, since local produce is constantly changing, season to season and even month to month.  Just when tomatoes and zucchini become tiring, the winter squashes appear, adding fresh new appeal to menus.  Kind of like getting out your spring clothes after a long winter.

3. Connection  Good health is, of course, bigger than what we eat.  Among a variety of other contributors is mental comfort.  Place-based eating connects us to the place we live, creating a sense of nurture, comfort and security–a good foundation for good health.
4. Comforting Boundaries  Speaking of comfort, many shoppers feel just the opposite  as they head into a typical produce aisle.  Towering stacks of produce from every corner of the globe are more likely to provoke overwhelm than comfort (proof that sheer abundance is not a sure fire solution to mealtime boredom.)   Seasonal produce “limitations,” on the other hand, provide comfortable boundaries.  With only 10 to 20 produce items to consider at any one time, venturing beyond our usual produce standbys is a manageable proposition.
5. 

   From whatever is in season, simply create a pleasing color combination and pleasing flavor is practically guaranteed.

   Simplicity   Everyone wants easy–and seasonal eating delivers here, too.  Don’t ask me how the magic works, but in almost every case, whatever is in season pairs well with whatever else is in season.  Winter squash and the last of the red peppers, spinach and strawberries, tomatoes and basil–great color and flavor combinations present themselves with nary a thought.

6. Super Taste  Speaking of flavor, it goes without saying that produce is tastiest when it’s in season and picked fresh–which is what happens with place-based eating.
7. Time Savings  Superior-tasting produce is produce that doesn’t need a lot of time-consuming preparation.  Often, simple (and quick) is best.
8. 

   Cookbooks often direct home cooks to peel and salt eggplant before using. This is done partially to combat bitterness, something that happens when eggplant has been around for too long, e.g., when it is shipped long distances. When using fresh-picked eggplant, however, I have never needed these time-consuming steps.

   Affordability  Common wisdom often repeats the line about produce being prohibitively expensive.  But buy in season and it can be enjoyed in affordable abundance.  In fact, buy in such abundance that you can preserve some and you’ll reap the benefits of healthy produce consumption year round.

9. Just What We Crave and Need  On my seasonal eating journey, I’ve found it interesting, but not surprising, that the foods provided by my place fit my needs perfectly.  On cold winter days, I crave energy-dense roots, potatoes and squash; I’m happy to oven roast them and heat the kitchen at the same time; I don’t mind taking time to make soups and stews and braises.  Things like cucumbers and watermelon have no appeal until the hot days of summer, when they are like electrolyte-filled “sports drinks” for me.  And hardly do I want to heat an oven or spend much time cooking indoors, so the ease of just quickly sauteeing zucchini, slicing a tomato and boiling corn a couple minutes suits me just fine.
10. 

    We all know how prolific zucchini can be–and cheap–but only in August and September. So freeze some and enjoy affordable nutrition in March and April–in a quick skillet dish like this, for instance.

    Grateful Miracles  More and more research is showing the powerful health benefits of simply being grateful.  Seasonal eating is an easy pathway to a grateful life.  Gradually, we get attuned to what our place is providing us now.  And lo and behold, even in cold Colorado, you can’t help but notice how considerate nature is!  Not only does she provide a raucous cornucopia of produce in the summer months, but as the weather cools, she delivers a huge array of winter squashes, storage fruits and root vegetables that can be stored until spring.  With just a little work installing an unheated cold frame, we can grow winter greens and fresh herbs to perk up the storage vegetables.  And of course, we can dry, freeze and can all sorts of fruits vegetables to last through the cold months.  Even with all this abundance, however, there comes a point, around early April, when we’re about to die of boredom.  And then, in a small miracle, along comes asparagus.  Could you ask for more?

11. Environmental Health In the quest for good health, it’s easy to get self-absorbed and forget that we can only be as healthy as the place where we live, i.e, the earth that provides the very ingredients we need for good health.  Happily, plant-based eating can reverse a lot of the damage to the earth inflicted by a globalized food industry that has become singularly profit-driven.  The most notable benefit of place-based eating is an enormous reduction in food miles and associated carbon costs.  But localized eating also allows us to source directly and choose products grown sustainably and to support the production of vanishing plant varieties for increased biodiversity, among many other things.
12. Economic Health In a similar vein, place-based eating allows us to support a diverse range of growers, from micro to medium-sized operations that not only strengthen the fabric of our economy.  The diversity and distribution they bring to the country also serve as a vital–but surprisingly overlooked component of true national security.

With so many advantages and benefits, why would we possibly opt for a limited repertoire of subpar, over-priced produce requiring extra preparation?  Interesting question with definitely doable solutions.  Read the next post. .  .

Resisting Peer Pressure  If seasonal, place-based eating yields so many helpful benefits, why do we tolerate the many downsides of the global food system?  In a nutshell, most of us don’t really decide what we eat.  Food marketers largely decide what our hand reaches for at the grocery store.  So if this is your year to begin joining the wonderful convergence of good that comes with seasonal eating, begin by re-gaining the decision-making power over your food choices.  It often takes eating in a way that others view as strange and weird. So get comfortable making food choices free of the peer pressure generated by food marketing experts.

Start a Learning Adventure  If seasonal eating doesn’t generate immediate interest, it’s often because we have such a limited repertoire of meal ideas.  When spinach comes into season, for example, we eat it steamed with lemon juice every other day!  Actually, there are so many things that can be done with each vegetable besides piling it on the side of the plate.  So many flavor partners, produce companions, entrees to be brightened with their colors!  If you have trouble imagining spinach 15 different ways, then join one of our Whole Kitchen seasonal meal making classes and begin developing the valuable skill of weaving produce into meals every which way.

Enjoy a Non-Seasonal Food Budget  Seasonal eating is a choice we get to make.  Unlike our ancestors, we  don’t have to go hungry when the food landscape is barren, and no one is watching that you buy only seasonal at the grocery store.  Over the years, I’ve developed a “budget approach,” happily enjoying things like citrus, ginger, chocolate (of course), olive oil, fish sauce and so on, but being mindful to limit reliance on long-haul items to a dozen or so at a time.

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” a sentiment that applies as readily to produce as the human heart. With no fresh strawberries in Colorado after September, imagine how extraordinarily gorgeous they look and taste when they reappear in June–a surprise that is lost in the global marketplace where strawberries are available anytime, any place.

There’s a way that good eating can be a natural, easeful part of our lives.  Can you believe that making and enjoying healthful meals can be just another part of life, no more or less issue-laden than going through our morning and evening routines, getting to work, finding time to meet with friends, getting to appointments and so on.

Ready to begin transitioning to this kind of eating?  Ready to make the joyful discovery that less is more:  less in the way of selections actually brings more interesting variety and nutritional depth to mealtimes.  Come join one of our classes and start the journey.

Bar Debate

We were featured in a Daily Camera article last week that raised interesting questions like those above.  I got to talk with one of the athletes interviewed for the article, who had some good insights:  “Makers of athletic food products have brought science to bear in promoting their products.  Since athletic training is focused on science-based research, it’s only natural that athletes will respond favorably to scientific-type research on the superiority of manufactured energy products.”

Indeed, look at any sports site, flip through sports magazines or talk to fitness folks and you’ll discover a wellspring of enthusiastic banter about energy foods and drinks–and it is all “based on science.”

What Science Really Says

It’s curious how marketers can claim the mantel of scientific sanctity for products that often list “corn syrup” as the first ingredient.  What’s more, if we’re talking real “scientific research,” there are at least a few studies confirming the powerful benefits of food–numbering maybe in the thousands!  Why don’t these studies carry much weight in fitness circles and gyms?  Maybe because there’s a lot more money poured into advertising energy bars than what’s spent to promote broccoli florets and butter beans!

A Real Balance

Balance is such a key concept in every walk of life.  How do we profit ourselves with incredible fitness if the body is robbed of nature-given nutrients needed for true health?  That’s why I liked the title of Sarah Kuta’s Camera article: “Keeping it Real.”  Good motto for a new year.

The Real Problem:  Time, priorities and inspiration

Why can’t athletes just eat vegetables, fruit, meat, beans, etc. i.e., food?  As athlete Corey Steimel pointed out, “I struggle finding creative recipes that are not only healthy, but you can make in a timely manner.”  He and his friends get tired of eating the same things over and over.

The Real Solution

Join one of our classes and learn to cook healthful, tasty meals.  It’s easy.  You’ll be amazed at how skillful you become, even after just two or three classes.  Sports nutritionist Curt Thompson put it this way: “When people say I don’t have time to eat well, what that tells me is you’ve got your priorities wrong.”

It’s a new year, and a perfect time to work on the good eating part of your fitness equation.  We have three sessions to choose from.  Come join us, learn a few key skills–and have some fun!

What athletes are saying about our classes:

“Great hands on class!  Very informative.  Yummy healthy meals without the complications.  Thank you so much.”  –Corey Steimel:  Triathlete

“Great class!  Excellent hands on experience as well as visual experience.  Answered all questions perfectly and helped us learn in a way we understood.  Amazing class!  — Meghann Castillo:   Triathlete

Happy athletes after a class learning to make kale salad, eggplant with tomatoes, and Japanese tofu.

A couple recent posts delved into affordability and how to make quality meat affordable.  One solution to the high price of meat, of course, lies in making vegetarian meals once or twice each week (or more.)  It’s no secret that beans are cheaper than meat, but they are also a good source of protein and substance, making them a good center-of-the-plate substitute.

Cooking Your Own Beans

Hands-down, I recommend the slow cooker for cooking beans, like these pretty variegated beans from Monroe Organics. Be sure to save the juice for use like a broth (see suggestions in article.)

For even greater affordability, cook your own beans.  Then you can enjoy high-grade organic beans for just pennies per serving.  And it’s easy. Contact us for a reference sheet that you can keep handy in your cooking files.  Alternatively, check out a previous post on cooking beans, and one on an accelerated method.  I have found the slow cooker to be the best method for cooking dried beans; it eliminates many of the problems people associate with the operation.  And if time is an issue, here’s some good news.  Yesterday, I needed some beans quickly to take pictures for this series of blog posts, so I discovered an even faster, slow cooker method:

Super Accelerated Slow Cooker Beans–No Soaking Required

• Step 1: Boil for 5 Minutes  (In a large saucepan, combine 1-2 cups dried beans  with about a quart of water.  Bring to a boil for cook for 5 minutes.)
• Step 2:  Drain  (Drain beans into a colander–but save the juices for watering plants–then put drained beans into the slow cooker)
• Step 3:  Boil More Water (Fill the large saucepan with another quart of water and bring to a boil)
• Step 4:  Combine and Cook (Pour the boiling water over beans waiting in the slow cooker.  Cover and cook on HIGH heat until tender to your tastes–which can be a s little as 3 to 4 hours.  Keep an eye on them as they cook more quickly than expected.)
• Step 5:  Add Salt (Wait until beans are cooked to the desired tenderness then stir in 1/4 to 1 tsp. good sea salt, to taste.)
• Step 6:  Eat and Enjoy (Freshly cooked beans are good enough to serve as a side dish, on their own.)

Cooking Classes Using Beans

If you want to learn more about cooking with beans, check out our classes which very often include a bean dish or two.

Waste Not-Want Not:   Bean Juice

Speaking of affordability, there’s no need to throw out the liquid from cooking beans.  Maximize food dollars, flavor and nutrition:  Drain the juice into a jar.  Refrigerate and use for cooking rice, thinning soups, cooking harder vegetables, deglazing pans or anywhere else that you’d use a broth.  It keeps for several days, or freeze it in small portions for later use.

Note:  Higher quality beans will have better juice.  For instance, Eden Organic beans are cooked with kombu, a sea vegetable that adds nutrients and reduces or eliminates the need for salt.  Conversely, lower quality beans may be cooked with a lot of salt to mask a flavor deficit.  In all dishes where you add bean juice , but especially those with higher sodium juice, be sure to taste before adding more salt.

Convenience and Freezing

You certainly can’t beat beans’ convenience.  Just open a can and you’re ready to go!  “But what if I can’t eat the whole can?” you might be wondering.  Or what if you cook a batch of beans from scratch, which tends to make a lot!  No problem.  Beans store in the frig for several days and extras can also be frozen in single serving sizes.

Nutrition  While beans are packed with nutrients and protein, I try not to focus unduly on nutrition facts, like how Food G has XYZ nutrients while Food S has ABC nutrients.  This approach turns healthy eating into an arithmetic problem, and most of us never liked arithmetic to begin with.

See the great color black beans add to this Pepper and Potato Scramble; better nutrition is automatic!

Instead, I like to focus on fun things like textures, colors and complimentary tastes.  And guess what?  Great nutritional content automatically follows.  That’s why I push beans.  They add incredible color and texture to a dish that might otherwise be pretty bland (think a cheese quesadilla.)  Add colorful beans and you’ve not only painted a more beautiful plate, but your nutritional density has just soared.  Now, just add some green peppers. . . and a few sauteed red radishes. . . .you get the picture!

Planning for More Beans  Attend any of my classes or work with me one-on-one and you know I can’t say enough about meal planning.  It saves time, saves money, ensures healthier and more interesting meals–and is the best known method for working new foods into your diet.  “Plan it and it will happen.”

So if you’re ready to start enjoying more beans in your diet, get out a sheet of paper and write in a couple ideas from this series of posts. Here are a few more ideas to get you going:

• Vegetable Soup with Beans (you can even just add canned beans to canned vegetable soup.  Easy.)
• Bean Soups:  Black Bean, Tortilla, White Bean and Kale
• Bean Burgers (with black beans, garbanzo beans, red beans)
• Mexican Food (of course)
• Squash and Beans (in a quick mix or a casserole)
• Pasta and Beans (aka Pasta y Fagioli)
• Chili (with or without meat; combine different bean varieties for fun)
• Chard of Kale and White Beans
• Beans and Rice with Salsa
• Spreads (hummus, white bean, etc.)
• Brownies (indeed, black bean brownies are awesome!)

You’ll note that I’m only giving you general ideas, since recipes are all over the internet–and in the three dozen cookbooks languishing in your kitchen!   If you can just narrow your options so the task is manageable, then finding a recipe is easy.  So pick one, just one, idea from this post series then find a recipe to match.  Once you get going, ideas will snowball.

Butter Beans in the pantry, ready for adventure.

Play  Go on a treasure hunt at the grocery store.  It only takes a couple minutes to find a bit of inspiration, but it will lighten your daily meal making routine immeasurably.  On my last shopping trip, for instance, I ran across a can of Butter Beans that will serve as a springboard for inspiration in the coming week.

Troublesome Issues of the Gaseous Variety  The downside of beans, of course, is the intestinal havoc they can cause.  Surely you’ve seen the many possible solutions in various articles.  Here’s my best advice:  Avoid eating sugar when eating a meal featuring beans.  I have no scientific study to back me up, but the sugar seems to ferment the beans with all the explosive consequences of fermentation in a tight spot.  Give it a try and see if this helps.

The last post on cooking tips for beans got me going on a bean theme.  So you’ll be seeing several quick posts on beans.  The timing is actually quite good, as it’s winter here in Colorado and the cold always stirs a desire for comfort food. While most people consider things like mashed potatoes and mac ‘n cheese to be the ultimate comfort foods, beans are right up there in terms of a food that soothes, warms and comforts.

Beans add delightful contrast dishes. Here, a plain asparagus puree gets highlighted with black beans.

Granted, many view beans as “desert island” food, as in, something reserved for when they are stranded on a desert island.  But those in the know see gold in a batch of colorful beans.  In case you’ve yet to discover this treasure, read through this series for know-how and insights to help unlock the incredible, comforting goodness hidden within the humble bean.

Practical Tips

Willing to try?  Then to begin with, don’t look at beans as a substitute for meat, especially if you’re a meat lover.  They are two completely different foods and aren’t meant for comparison.

Ditto for this butternut squash and potato hash. It tasted fine without beans, but why not add a little color and extra nutrition?

Next, get to know beans gradually–good advice whenever you’re getting to know a new food.  You wouldn’t get to know a new friend by climbing in the car for a 5-day road trip.  You’d chat at a party, go on a group hike, meet at the movies.  Similarly, don’t make a big bean casserole as your first foray into the wonderful world of beans.  Start instead by just throwing a few into already-familiar dishes, enhancing them with the color, texture and substance of beans.  See the pictures for some examples.

Finally, beans don’t have to preclude a steak or any other meat.  Go ahead and have it, but maybe not quite as big a piece.  This hearty salad (see recipe) on the side will make up for a smaller portion.