Cooking and Eating with the Seasons

Homemade Marinara--Simple yet Elegant

There’s not much to a basic marinara sauce: Tomatoes cooked down with onion and garlic, then seasoned with salt, pepper and herbs.  In summer, a fresh tomato sauce doesn’t go much beyond that.  Moreover, it’s kept light by cooking only briefly and using sweet onions, fresh garlic and fresh basil.

Colder weather calls for a heartier sauce, not to mention that sweet onions and fresh basil are long gone.  Hence my idea for a more savory, longer simmered sauce with regular winter storage onions, roasted garlic, a little red wine, some sausage meatballs and mushrooms, all topped off by hardier herbs like fresh thyme, oregano and parsley.

A Note About Time: Making a long-cooking savory marinara is more akin to ritual than fast everyday meal making.  As probably any good Italian grandma will tell you, there’s no rushing a good marinara.  So I allow it to be an evening or weekend project, something done piecemeal, while cooking a different dinner or puttering around the house.  The fact that it may not be done for dinner is a good thing.  Tomato sauces always taste better the second day.

Serves 6-8 (since of course you’ll want leftovers)

Step 1: Puree and Cook the Tomatoes

Cut and puree enough tomatoes to make about 10 cups of puree. When fresh tomatoes are gone, use 2-3 large (28 oz.) cans of Muir Glen or a similarly high-quality canned tomatoes with their juices.

It all starts with the tomatoes.  No matter how skilled a cook you are, a marinara will be only as flavorful as the tomatoes that  go into it.  So start with the best, which generally means heading to the garden or farmers market.

Fresh tomato marinara takes a lot of tomatoes, about 6 to 8 pounds.  Don’t be surprised at how many tomatoes that comes out to.  Remember, once the water is cooked out, there’s not much left.

Scoop out stems, cut roughly into halves or quarters, then process in the food processor until pretty smooth.  Save time and don’t bother peeling; the skins just get chopped up, too.

The big surface area of this saute pan allows for faster evaporation of the tomato juices.

Cook the puree in a BIG, flared side sauté pan until it is no longer runny, but thick and rich.  This may take as long as 2 or 3 hours; which is why this is a good evening or weekend project.  Go ahead and fix a different dinner and prepare all the other ingredients while the puree cooks.

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Step 2:  Roast the Garlic

Roast 1-2 heads of garlic, depending on your taste for it, bearing in mind that roasting turns it sweet and mild.

Garlic is easy to roast.  Just dribble a little olive oil (about 1/2 Tbsp.)  over each head, rub it all over, then pop in a small, lidded baking dish and bake at 350 (F) for 45-60 minutes.

While a small terra cotta garlic roaster is nice, I often use a small baking dish so I can roast 3-4 heads at a time.   Roasted garlic keeps for a week or so in the frig, so why not keep some extra on hand for the wonderful flavor it adds to most dishes.

FYI, this particular variety of garlic has a purple hue; roasting didn't turn it purple!

You’ll know the garlic is done when it feels squishy and spongy when squeezed lightly.  I throw in a head or two whenever I have the oven on.

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Step 3:  Cook and Puree Carrots

It doesn't take many carrots to work a mellowing magic, just 2-3 large ones.

Pureed carrots are a Mary Addition to classic marinara.  I like how their sweetness mellows the acidic taste of the tomatoes while adding valuable nutritional depth.

Cut carrots into 1/4″ thick half moons, then microwave with about 2 Tbsp. Imagine Vegetable Broth for 8 minutes (stirring twice during the cooking time.)  Once cooked, puree in the food processor and stir into the sauce.

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Step 4:  Saute Onions

Use 2 medium onions, diced to about 1/2"

As always, warm about 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a saute pan before adding the diced onion.  Cook and stir about 10 minutes, until they are nicely browned.  Then reserve them in a bowl until the tomatoes are cooked down.  This way, they don’t get cooked to death while the tomatoes simmer away their juices.

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Step 5:  Saute the Mushrooms

Use 1/2 to 3/4 lb. Cremini are a favorite, but white button are fine, as are portobellos if sliced thinly

The same goes for the mushrooms.  After sauteing, I reserved in a bowl until the tomato sauce is cooked down.

From the picture to the right, it may look like I’ve used two different kinds of mushrooms, but they are all cremini.  The darker ones on the far right were just a couple weeks old when I finally found them in the frig.  Although they were on the verge of rotting, my waste-not, want-not conscience made me use them up.  Good thing.  They were actually much richer-tasting than the pretty, light-colored mushrooms on the left that I had purchased that day.

Optional Step:  Deglaze with Wine

Use about 1/2 cup good quality wine to deglaze

For a gourmet touch, deglaze the onion and mushroom sauteing pan with 1/2 cup good quality red wine.  After scraping any bits and coatings from the bottom of pan, cook the wine a few minutes to reduce slightly, then  add directly to the sauce.

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To keep our meat consumption moderate, I used just 3/4 lb. of Italian sausage rather than a full pound. I mixed it with 1/4 cup gluten-free breadcrumbs, 1 egg, salt and pepper and 2 tsp. of dried leaf basil, since there wouldn't be any fresh basil in the sauce.

Step 6: Basic Meatballs

Like a basic tomato sauce, it’s good to know a basic meatball recipe.  And like a basic tomato sauce, there isn’t much to basic meatballs:  Meat, whole grain breadcrumbs, onion, egg, herbs and salt and pepper.

For this dish, I saved time and skipped the onion since I was using sausage which has plenty of flavor.  Also, the sauce already contained a lot of onion.

The best way to mix meatballs?  Knead everything together with your hands.  It’s messy, but go ahead and form the meatballs while you’re at it.  I size the meatballs small (about 1 1/2″), both to spread the meat further and so they cook through without burning.

Because my sausage was so lean, I had to fry the meatballs in a little olive oil

Once formed, fry the meatballs in the same pan used to cook the onion and mushrooms.  No need to wash in between.  The flavors just keep piling up.

I found a large soup spoon does the best job of turning each meatball without destroying its neighbor.  Once done, I just turned off the heat and reserved until the sauce was done.

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Cut off the "hairy" end of the head.

Step 7:  Mash the Garlic

Once roasted, garlic turns soft and silky.  Cut off the ends of the cloves and the pulp can be easily squeezed into a small bowl.  Start mashing with a fork, then gradually add a little broth (2-4 Tbsp.) to thin so it can be stirred easily into the sauce.

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Squeeze the soft pulp from its skins, either clove by clover or several cloves at a time.

I used a little Imagine's Vegetable Broth for a flavorful thinning agent.

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Just a teaspoon of sugar takes off the acidic edge of the tomatoes.

Step 8: Season

Stir in sea salt (I used Celtic salt) and freshly ground pepper, to taste.  If in doubt, start small.  More can be added at the end, after all the other ingredients are added.  This is also one of the few times when I use white sugar, just a teaspoon, to further “smooth out excess acidity,” as Joy of Cooking puts it.

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The herbs rescued before the big storm come to my aid now. About 1/4 cup of thyme leaves, 1/3 cup of oregano leaves and a handful of flat-leafed parsley will add magnificent flavor to the sauce.

Step 9:  Prepare the Herbs

Fresh herbs take a little more time than dried, but the flavor is worth it.  Hold the top end of each stem with one hand and with the other hand, strip the leaves from the bottom part with the thumb and index finger.  The idea is to eliminate the tough parts of the stem.  The small thin tops of each stem aren’t a problem.  Chop everything until fairly small.

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Step 10:  Put It All Together!

Now comes the fun part.  By the time you’ve cooked dinner and prepared the other ingredients, the tomatoes should be cooked down to a thick, rich sauce—like the stuff you buy in jars.  Now dump in the onion, mushrooms, meatballs and roasted garlic.  (The pureed carrots and wine, if using, should already be in there.)  Stir everything together well, and continue simmering for about 5-10 minutes.

Not until now, when you turn off the heat, should you stir in the fresh herbs.  They shouldn’t be cooked much to better preserve their bright, fresh flavor.

By now, you’re surely tired!  So put the lid on your sauce and put it in a cold place.  I have an outdoor shed that makes a perfect winter refrigerator.  Of course the sauce can also be stored in a regular refrigerator, but cool it completely first.  It’s hard on a refrigerator—and uses a lot of energy–to cool a hot dish.

The hard work will pay off.  As the sauce sits all night, the flavors will meld and you’ll be set for a super easy, super delicious seasonal meal the next night.  Enjoy the passing of the season.

Pair pasta and marinara with a simple salad made with the last of the lettuces and yellow and purple peppers of the season.

P.S. Gluten Free?  No Problem

Fresh Pasta is now available in a gluten-free form

In addition to the many brands of dry gluten-free pasta (Tinkyada being my favorite), Longmont-based Villa Bozza now makes fresh, gluten-free pasta for a special treat.  Find it in the Denver metro area at select Whole Foods and King Soopers stores, and at several farmers markets.

Small, round sugar pie pumpkins pack a lot more flavor than the big Jack-O-Lantern varieties

Picture Recipe:  Pumpkin Red Bean Tostadas

About now, there are likely a lot of pumpkins sitting around having the post-Halloween blues.   While most are the big Jack-O-Lantern variety with little flavor (and many of those are coated in candle wax), you may have a couple of the small, round sugar pumpkins left over from the day of the pumpkin.  Roast them and you have a good start on this easy recipe.

This recipe is a skillet recipe–the best kind in my mind.  Just throw everything in one pan, cook a while and voila! you have a complete meal.  It’s shared here in picture format.  See how you like that:

Substitutions and Variations:

Squash: Roasted acorn could be substituted for pumpkins

Tomatoes: A 28-oz. can of diced Muir Glen (or comparable quality) tomatoes could be substituted for fresh.  Include the juices.

Jalapeno: Canned diced chiles could be substituted, mild or hot and in an amount that suits your spice tolerance.

Tortillas: Use hard shell tostadas; warm on a pancake griddle or in the microwave.

4 Tricks for Taking the Sting Out of Bitter Vegetables

There’s a reason grocery store displays of broccoli rabe, rutabagas and turnips go

Does my "waste not-want not" motto really extend to cabbage cores?

untouched for hours at a time.  Some members of the vegetable kingdom are just a little harder to like than others.  But we still want the flavor and nutrient diversity they offer.  Happily, there are ways of preparing these difficult specimens that make them more palatable.  Although the following article focuses on cabbage cores, a particularly challenging vegetable, its tricks can be used to form a good working relationship with any of the harsher vegetables.

Here’s an honest admission:  I have a “waste-not-want-not” thing going on. My Twitter column is filled with vegetable dishes fast enough for breakfast and lunch—a good many made with stems, stalks, cores and leaves that normal cooks would pitch.  But not me.  I have this thing about waste, so I set myself a personal goal of starving my compost pile as much as possible.

To date, things have been going pretty well.  I’ve been turning kale stems, cauliflower leaves, broccoli stalks and other such “refuse” into tasty dishes—boosting my vegetable intake and stretching my vegetable dollars.  But then came yesterday’s cabbage core.  Couldn’t I safely pitch that without violating my self-inflicted waste code?

Tasting a piece of it triggered deep, gastronomic memories of everything bad about cabbage.  I now knew why the cabbage itself was unbelievably sweet and light:  Every bit of the head’s strong, musky, sour and harsh taste had been sucked into the core!  And that foul taste is what I got upon testing a bite.

I immediately started to scrape the whole thing towards the compost bin.  Not until the last

The compost bin got the moldy end of the core, but the rest got chopped for a higher purpose.

second did my better self rise to the occasion.  The compost bin got the moldy end of the core (I do have some limits!), but the rest got chopped as I decided how to transform it into something I could stomach.  Working with vegetable parts that are frequently discarded, I’ve learned a few tricks to render them not only palatable but pretty decent-tasting.  This core was about to be my biggest challenge to date.

Trick 1:  Cook It Cooking is the best way to extract the bitterness from a vegetable.  In this case, I didn’t even consider steaming or sauteing but went straight to boiling, which is the preferred cooking method for really tough vegetable characters.

I know that boiling has lost favor over the years, probably because we get vegetables shipped in year round that are tender enough for just a light steaming or sautéing, which is generally better taste wise and nutritionally.  But imagine a pioneer farm wife faced with some garden remnant in November—it may be tough and gnarly, but it’s the closest thing to fresh that she will have for four months.  She is going to make those stalks or stems taste good no matter what, and boiling is the tool for the job.

Note, however, that boiling isn’t limited to throwing vegetables in a huge pot of water, cooking the vegetables to death and then pitching the water.  On the contrary, I simmer rather than boil my vegetables in a tiny, not a potful, of liquid.  This means any leached out vitamins and minerals get concentrated in an amount of liquid small enough that it can be fully incorporated into the finished dish, minimizing nutrient and flavor loss.  Also, I only simmer until the vegetables have lost their bitter or harsh taste, which is often when they are still crisp-tender.  My cabbage core had to be cooked beyond crisp-tender, but still far short of mush, before losing its harsh taste.

Trick 2:  Inject Flavor While water certainly works as a cooking liquid, experiment with

This broth has plenty of flavor, so little additional salt was needed.

different broths.  They can inject flavor into the spaces left by the extraction of the vegetable’s bitterness.  I used Imagine’s Vegetable Broth, which has plenty of flavor to spare.

Third:  Salt Salt is also good at both drawing out bitterness and imparting flavor.  Your broth might be salty enough as is, but if using a low-sodium variety or water, try adding a little (maybe 1/4 tsp. to 1/2 tsp.) of good sea salt.  I used about 1/4 tsp. of Celtic salt in my simmer water.

Fourth:  Combine with Other Flavorful Ingredients.

I always say that sausage is a miracle ingredient.  Add just a little and the entire dish tastes great—no work, little cost and no cooking knowledge required.  Sausage was the primary tastemaker I added to my simmered cabbage core.

We just received a shipment of sausage from pasture-fed pigs. It I had no fat, so I had to add olive oil to saute the onion. Less than 1/4 lb. is all I needed for a great-flavored dish.

I also added sweetly browned onions and sweet snap pea shoots (I rescued a few from thegarden before last week’s snow.)  Their sweetness balanced the trace amounts of bitterness left in the cooked core pieces, as would other sweet vegetables (red peppers, corn, etc.) or sautéed fruits (like pears and apples), or just rice, chicken, tofu or some kind of sauce with a little sweetness.

The end result?  I think I met the challenge with a delicious for lunch that wasn’t just another sandwich–not by a long shot!

For a little color, I added vivid green pea shoots at the end.

Hold the celebration

These labels are a lot more common now than 20 years ago

Not long ago, a news article reported on a conference to support those of us who must live without gluten.  In a food world dominated by gluten products, lord knows we need support, as well as information on all the new gluten-free products coming to market.

One aspect of this gathering gave me cause for concern, however:  the celebration of newly created substances that better mimic white bread products.  The news report quoted one of the speakers gushing over new white flour substitutes–things that had a lot of “modified,” “refined,” and “white” in their names.  These modern miracles, she bubbled, could make soft, tender baked goods, just like white flour.

But does this miss the point?

Sure, we’re getting the technical part of the gluten free diet by eliminating the specific protein called gluten.  But are we missing the bigger call to action:  Eating a more healthful, whole, vividly varied diet.

As the conference speaker pointed out so enthusiastically, we can now go gluten free without having to change anything:

• No need to cultivate a taste for other grains and whole grains.
• No need to expand our food horizons to include lentils, leeks, Bosc pears, eggplant, cashews, tofu and the myriad other non-gluten vegetables, nuts, fruits, meats and oils in the food kingdom.
• No need to give pause and question the quality of our meals, the sources of our food and the sanity of our eating lives.

Just substitute white, gluten free pizza, bagels, French bread and cookies for their white gluten cousins.

So what’s the problem?  Why ruin the party?

Because there’s so much to be gained from moments of crisis! And believe it or not, moments of dietary crisis are as valuable as near-death experiences, divorces and job losses for propelling us off dead center and on to the better lives we deserve.

It’s a widely and well-known fact that we are killing ourselves at the dinner table, and this despite the fact that we come in contact with healthy eating information on a daily basis.  It’s an ironic joke among healthy eating professionals that there’s only one sure way a client will make serious dietary change:  by having a heart attack.

What if gluten problems are meant as teachable moments not just a medical diagnosis?  Gluten intolerance could be a life-changing catalyst, rather than just an inconvenience to be worked around as expeditiously as possible.

This idea is not just theoretical musing.  Twenty years ago, we received a wheat-free, diary-free diagnosis, long before “gluten” was a household world and when the number of non-wheat food products could be counted on my right hand.  With two small children and a full-time business, a transition of this magnitude seemed impossible, and I would have given my right hand for a gluten-free Betty Crocker cake mix at birthday time.  Yet in the way that our biggest challenges bring the greatest rewards, being forced from our comfort zone without a life vest brought unimaginable rewards:

Boring Alert I would never have guessed we were so boring—from a culinary standpoint.  Fully 75 percent of our diet involved some combination of white flour and cheese or milk:  Grilled cheese sandwiches, pizza, PB&Js, mac ‘n cheese, pasta & more pasta, pancakes, quesadillas, burritos . . .  need I say more?  While I was astounded at our monotony, my body was astounded at all the nutrients we had missed out on with such a limited food intake.

What’s a Whole Grain? Nor could I believe how ignorant I was.  Despite 21 years of schooling, I didn’t know what a whole grain from a peanut, why whole grains are important, that wheat is just one grain, that wheat is in practically everything we eat, and that there are lots of other grains that millions of people eat in other parts of the world.  When I was growing up, Wonder Bread and Twinkies were the extent of our exposure to grains.  Now I know that dietary knowledge is power—power to shape and direct my health.

Cheers to the Colorful Plate Forced out of my comfortable bread and cheese cocoon, my taste buds were stretched to the breaking point.  But they were a lot tougher than I could have guessed.  Polenta, bok choy, papaya, cannellini, lamb, buckwheat, kale and dozens of other strange-sounding foods became fast friends, adding color, flavor and delight to our meals.

No Picky Eaters Here Not only did my taste buds rise to the gluten free challenge.  My kids’ taste buds did, too.  As they got older, I never had to short-order cook, I could be as creative as I wanted, we could go out to interesting restaurants, and even to this day, our kids treasure family meal times, wholesomely interesting dishes and vegetable-rich meals.

So in a crazy way, it was good we weren’t able to simply swap white for white.  We were forced to take advantage of a big learnable moment, and instead of just simple substitution we got a complete gastronomic transformation!  Meal making is now an adventure.  Eating and wellness are intimately integrated.  New foods and cooking techniques continually beckon and keep life interesting.  And as we learn more about strengthening our diet, we learn how to eat in a way that feels more right environmentally and socially.

Hooray for teachable moments, even if inconvenient.

We love slow cookers, but sometimes they they can be a little too slow (or we can be a little too late!)  Yesterday, for example, I was presenting “How Can You Tell If You’re Eating Well.”  It’s a fun talk about “eating close to the earth” and how that simple approach makes it easy to know if you’re eating well.

Anyway, at the end of the talk I planned to demo a fast, “eating close to the earth” dish using slow cooker black beans.  But while fixing my morning cup of tea, I realized that I’d forgotten to soak the beans the night before, so they could slow cook all day, and be done just in time for my evening class.  As I poured the water over my Earl Grey leaves, I watched my carefully laid plans collapse.  What do I do now?

Innovate.   Fortunately, a bolt of inspiration struck and left behind a formula for  “Accelerated Slow Cooker Beans:”

8:48 a.m.  Put quart of water on to boil on biggest burner on highest heat (with the lid on because that makes it boil faster, too)

8:49 a.m.  Measure out 1  1/2 cups black beans, pour on a plate and pick out dirt clods and bad beans (my beans come straight from a local farm, so they take a couple extra prep minutes, but the taste is well worth it.)

Sorting Black Beans: Pour into a pile on left side of plate. Working in small batches, push to right side of plate, pulling out bad beans, small stones or dirt clods like the one in center of plate.

8:52 a.m.  Pour cleaned beans in slow cooker.  Water is now boiling so pour it in.  Cover and turn to high heat.

1:00 p.m.  Beans have already begun to soften, the same as if they had soaked all night, so I drain them, return them to pot and put another quart of water on to boil.

1:05 p.m.  Second round of water is boiling.  Pour over drained beans in slow cooker, cover and return heat to high.

5:00 p.m.  Return from appointment to find that beans are perfectly cooked–just a little on the soft side, how I love them.

Moral of the Story:  “Slow” cooker beans are possible in just 8 hours instead of 24.

Add salt at the end and that easily (and cheaply) you’ve got a dish fit for a healthy-eating king.

I’m always amazed at how good beans taste when cooked from scratch in a slow cooker.  Canned beans are perfectly fine, but I’m always nagging people to experiment with fresh-cooked–just once (’cause you’ll be hooked).  Experiment with this accelerated method or, if your brain works at night use the more leisurely method and put the beans on to soak the night before.  You can read more about the leisurely method in a previous post:  “How to Cook Dried Beans?“

. . .  and why we need to stay steady on the vegetable eating.

I learned something new about vegetables this week.  We’ve known they provide mega doses of antioxidants.  But research now shows that those antioxidants don’t stick around forever.  In fact, they don’t stick around very long at all.  So if we want to benefit continuously from the disease-fighting benefits of antioxidants (and who doesn’t as flu season descends upon us), then our vegetable-eating needs to be continuous.  Kind of like an IV drip, you need to be filling the antioxidant pipeline continuously by eating a steady stream vegetables.

It’s not enough to eat a big salad on Sunday and think you’re covered ’til Tuesday.  Nor is it ideal to cram in all your daily vegetables at dinner.  Experiment with spreading your veggie intake over more hours of the day.

Interestingly, I’ve been eating vegetables for breakfast, lunch and dinner for many years, simply because I feel better in terms of energy and lightness.  Now I see there are even more benefits.

One of the many ideas in the Veggie Diaries: A no-chemicals store-bought sauce plus frozen green beans and sweet potatoes makes this a super simple breakfast or lunch option. Make enough for two meals at a time and you can have it for both! Of course if feature whole grain, brown rice pasta.

Eating a continuous flow of vegetables has also prepared me for the inevitable question that arises whenever vegetables and meals are mentioned in the same sentence:  “But don’t vegetables take too much time?”  I can now say, based on lots of experience, “No, fixing vegetable-based meals doesn’t take any longer than driving to pick up an Egg McMuffin or a bucket of Kentucky Fried.  The key lies in know fast vegetable combos.  That’s what you learn from my Tweets.  Join me on Twitter and you’ll be first in line for all the ideas I come up with.

The previous post offered some theories about why it’s so hard to get the white out of our diets.  While that’s being resolved (BTW, please be sure to leave a comment with your thoughts), here’s an idea if you feel yourself getting sucked into a 4:00 p.m. “White Snack” attack.

As the saying goes, the best defense is a good offense.  In this case, that means having a ready, handy, really tasty substitute for the pretzels, crackers, cookies and Goldfish that call to us from the vending machine.  One great option:  Wild Thyme’s Black Bean & Fresh Lime Hummus with Jicima Sticks.

• Find the hummus at Vitamin Cottage or Whole Foods.  It’s got a little kick which is good for making you feel full.  (Wild Thyme’s will have a website soon, but in the meantime call 303.447.2133 for news of additional outlets in your area.)

• Jicima is a big, roundish, tan vegetable that resembles a way-overgrown potato.  Peel
  

  Many people think jicima tastes like a cross between an apple and potato. They certainly get large like a potato and some get even bigger. If I can't use a whole one, the grocer has always been happy to cut one in half.

  off the tough skin with a paring knife, then cut into dipping sticks with a chefs knife.

• 4 oz. Tupperware Snack Cups are perfect to carry dip to work.  Sandwich containers are good for jicima sticks.  Call toll free to order:  1.877.394.1258.

• For some pretty color, throw in a few carrot sticks (or mini-carrots if you haven’t yet overdosed on them.)

Want to know more about jicima?  I found the image above on Mark’s Daily Apple, by Mark Sisson, author of The  Primal Diet.  Find out more about jicima and some additional ways to use up these behemoth vegetables at his blog.   While you’re there, check out his website for a critical look at the role of carbs in the mainstream American diet–and think twice before digging into that plate of white pasta!

. . . and Why Is It So Hard Saying Good-Bye to White?

I’ve been noticing a strange thing:  Magazines and cookbooks in the “health” category frequently feature recipes calling for refined white grains rather than whole grains.

Here’s an example from just last week.  A well-known health magazine has four cooking features.  In three of the four, the carb of choice is a white one:

• “Banana Walnut Muffins” sound pretty healthy but they’re made with all white flour and sugar.
• There’s a section on using won ton wrappers.  Clever, but won ton wrappers’ main ingredient is white flour.
• And then there’s a quick-cook dish made with pearled barley, another refined grain.  At least it’s more nutritious than most refined grains but the fact remains that whole barley can be cooked with no greater time investment by using a slow cooker.

Why this half-hearted embrace of whole grains?  Eating quality grains is no less than one of the four main pillars of healthy eating.  How can it be so routinely ignored?

It’s not like we don’t need help getting whole grains into our diets.  Women aged 31-50 would need to increase whole grain consumption by over 250% and decrease refined grain consumption by 50% to meet the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for whole grains, which only require that three of our six daily grain servings be whole.  (Men have even more work to do!)

In real life, these statistics play out like this:  A super fit body builder buys boxes of white flour crackers at Costco, even though she is a model of healthy eating in every other way.  An energetic mom serves her family only lean beef, chicken and fish but rounds out the weekly meal lineup with a couple big white pasta dishes.  Or a trim 50-something guy likes to go light at night, so he orders a virtuous vegetarian sandwich–on a white baguette.

What makes it so darn hard to eat whole grains?  It’s not like we’re being asked to eat alien-sounding stuff like kohlrabi, kale or rutabegas.  Nor are we being asked to stop eating carbs altogether.  We’re simply being asked to eat whole grain versions of our white favorites.

Here are some theories about what makes the whole grain shift so challenging:

1. Lack of Knowledge? Maybe we don’t know that there is such a thing as whole grains and that they are nutritionally superior to refined grains.  Maybe we never knew that things like tortillas, hamburger buns, cakes and French toast are all grain products that can be made from whole grains.
2. Confusion? Maybe we don’t know where to look for whole grain products.  Maybe we don’t know how to tell if a product is whole grain or not.
3. Taste: Maybe we’re afraid of what whole grains taste like (which might be warranted if your first exposure was whole wheat lasagna ten years ago; it resembled lead in many ways.)
4. Uncertainty? Maybe we don’t know how to use whole grains.  Can you just substitute whole wheat flour for white in your favorite muffins?  What kind of whole grain noodles would taste good with pesto sauce?
5. Comfort Or could our whole grain reluctance come simply from a deep, underlying sense that whole grains just don’t cut it when it comes to comfort?

While all five theories are helpful, to my mind, the comfort one gets to the real heart of the problem.   Think about it:  White foods and comfort go together like grilled cheese sandwiches and Campbell’s Tomato Soup.  The star of every birthday party:  A white flour cake.  The highlight of practically every great kid get-together:  Hot, fragrant, white flour pizza.  The sure fire remedy for all that ails:  Chicken noodle soup or mac ‘n cheese, your choice.

Searching back through my fondest childhood memories, I invariably melt into visions of the fluffy white pancakes my mother made us every Friday morning before school.  No doubt most of us would find many of our fondest memories inextricably wrapped in white stuff, from Thanksgiving pumpkin pies, Christmas strudels and the Sabbath’s challah to graduation cakes, wedding cakes and mom’s lasagna.

So it’s no surprise when some health nut wants to put your grandma’s marinara on whole wheat noodles and you reply, “No way!”  My Jewish neighbor put it this way when asked about whole wheat challah.  “It can be done,” she said, “but . . . well, you know. . . .”  I think we probably all know that it’s tough to wedge whole wheat into our comforting food memories.

Mess with comfort foods and memories and you mess in dangerous territory.

If there’s truth in this theory, then it might not matter whether we know the importance of whole grains, or feel perfectly knowledgeable about where to buy whole wheat flour and how to use it.  Our desire for comfort is going to trump any whole grain virtue we can muster.

What do you think?  Do you struggle to get three out of six whole grain servings each day?  Have you thought about what makes it so challenging?  Share your ideas and I’ll share them in the next newsletter.

The last post shared a valuable cost-saving tip:  always keep a pot of inexpensive brown rice handy in the frig.  Then you always have the beginnings for a fast, filling, satisfying and nutritious meal.  That post’s recipe for Brown Rice Pizza was a perfect example of those four qualities plus one more:  versatile.

There are an endless number of toppings for a brown rice crust.  Have fun coming up with your own combination or here’s one of my favorite tricks:  Imitate the combination from a favorite restaurant.  Don’t worry if you don’t have an exact recipe.  Just go slow with any hot or really strong flavors.  Pizza is a forgiving dish–it’s so good that it’s almost impossible to ruin!

To get started on the creative process, here’s one combo we love:

Pesto Pizza with Caramelized Onions and Mushrooms

• Spread the bottom of crust with prepared pesto (or save money and make your own)
• Top with caramelized red onions and mushrooms,
• sliced artichoke hearts and
• sun-dried tomatoes (softened in a little water if they’re too hard).
• Bake then top with crumbled feta cheese.

Note:  Since onions are less expensive, consider using a large one to provide most of the bulk for this pizza.  Then the remaining ingredients, although more expensive, can be used in small amounts, as accents.  Buy them in bulk so you aren’t forced to buy more than needed.  For the artichokes that come in cans, use just half and save the remainder for gussying up a green salad the next day.  The pesto can be used to dress up chicken, potatoes, sandwiches, sauteed zucchini . . .  the list goes on.  If you can’t get to it right away, just pop it in the freezer.

Saving Money at the Grocery Store Begins with a Pot of Rice

Tomorrow I’m presenting a class at Erie Community Library:  “How to Cut Costs at the Grocery Store. . . but not Flavor, Nutrition or Fun.”   One key strategy: scouting out opportunities where you could do for yourself and save money–without too much extra effort.  Brown rice is a perfect example.

Making rice from the bulk aisle requires no more prep time than a box of rice mix or instant rice.  (The longer cooking time is easily remedied by cooking it the one or two nights in advance–or by freezing extra portions for nights when you’re in a hurry.)  However, as a previous post revealed, we pay a threefold markup when someone else precooks, seasons and boxes up our rice in single meal portions.  (It could even be closer to fourfold, because home made brown rice is so much denser and nutrient packed than instant–which makes it stretch further.)

A lot of good these money-savings are, however, if you have no idea what to do with rice.   Over the years, I’ve found dozens and dozens of uses for brown rice, to the point where I always keep a pot of cooked rice in the frig.  It easily lasts a week and provides an excellent launching pad for fast, healthy and delicious meals, like Rice Crust Pizza.

A brown rice crust is far healthier than the usual refined white-flour crust–and it’s quite easy to make, taking about 5 minutes.  It can then be topped with anything you’d put on a flour crust.  For a unique twist, this recipe uses Ciolo Foods‘ Roasted Red Pepper Pesto instead of regular pizza sauce, demonstrating another cost saver:  Buy a couple, high-impact specialty foods and use them to jazz up a meal made with inexpensive ingredients like rice, chard and onions.  Because they are feature strong flavors, only small amounts are needed.  My $5.49 tub seemed expensive–until I saw how its concentrated flavors stretched across three meals!  A great investment for fast, flavorful meals that made us feel like we were eating at a chic bistro!

Rice Crust Pizza with Roasted Red Pepper Pesto, Chard and Caramelized Onions

Make the “Crust”

• 1 lrg. egg
• 1/4 cup milk or soy milk
• 1 1/2 tsp. dried leaf basil
• 1/4 tsp. each, sea salt and freshly ground pepper, or to taste
• 2 cups lightly packed, cooked brown rice

Crack egg into a medium-sized bowl and beat lightly, then beat in milk, basil, salt and pepper.  Add rice and stir gently to combine everything thoroughly, being sure to break up any clumps of rice.

Lightly oil a 9″ pie pan.  Pour in rice mixture and use a large spoon to spread evenly across bottom of pan and up sides of pan a half inch or so.  Preheat oven to 350 (F), then bake crust about 10-12 minutes, until eggs are cooked through (a sharp knife inserted into the middle will come out clean when done.)

While oven is preheating and crust is cooking, prepare topping:

• 1 large  red or yellow onion, sliced 1/4″ thick, then cut into 2″ strips
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 lrg. bunch chard
• 1/2 lb. ground chicken or turkey (omit for vegetarian option)

Ina large saute pan, heat oil over medium heat until an onion sizzles when added.  Add onions and cook, stirring occassionally, until lightly browned.  While onions cook, pull stems from chard, slice 1/4″ thick, then stir in and cook with onions.

Once onions are browned, add chicken or turkey, breaking it up into small pieces with the end of spatula as it cooks.  While meat cooks, pile up chard leaves and cut roughtly into 2″ squares.  Wash and spin dry in salad spinner to minimize moisture.  When meat is almost done, stir in chard leaves and cook, stirring every minute or so, until chard is wilted through and any water has evaporated.

Assemble the Pizza

• 1/3 to 1/2 cup Ciolo Foods Roasted Red Pepper Pesto (more or less, to taste)
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese or 1-2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese

Remove cooked crust from oven and spread pesto evenly over top.  Spread cooked onion, chard and chicken mixture evenly over pesto.  Bake 5-7 minutes, then remove, top with cheese and bake another 3-5 minutes to meld flavors and melt cheese.  Serve immediately.

Serves:  4

Notes:

1. Ciolo Foods” Pesto  Sold exclusively at Whole Foods, they can be found in a number of states.  However, if you are not in the vicinity of a Whole Foods, there is likely a good substitute in your area, although you may have to visit a gourmet or helath foods store.  Ciolo’s are in the refrigerated section, but also check out the canned section for bottled varieties.

2.  Great for Leftovers It takes almost no extra time to double the crust.  You can then vary the topping and have an easy meal the second night.

3.  Meal Ideas Since this dish has a good balance of vegetables, proteins and starch, it can stand alone.  If you want something more, consider a simple salad, plate of sliced cantaloup, or just crunchy sugar snap peas.