Helpful Real Food Cooking Tips

In the past few months I have been reading more and more cookbooks and books about food in general. Some of these books have been duds (The Taste Thesaurus? Blah) but others have been gems. You might be wondering if I have become obsessed with food and you might be onto something. I do like food, A LOT, but cooking? Not so much. Being on the GAPS Diet, also known as the "no processed anything diet" requires me to spend a lot of time cooking. You might think that having been on this diet for 16 months! now I would have acquired a love of cooking given the many hours each day I spend in the kitchen but you would be sadly wrong. If nothing else I probably dislike it more. In my quest to make cooking less painful I have stumbled upon a few very fabulous tips that help me spend less time in the kitchen and help me save money to boot.

The first tip comes from a cookbook that I haven't even read yet and probably won't unless the price goes down:

The author of Well Fed offers a thirty-page teaser preview on her website which was so awesome that I was almost willing to pay $30 for the cookbook; almost. What is magical about this cookbook besides its delicious recipes which include, amongst others, chocolate chili? Melissa Joulwan comes from a family of restauranteurs which means she knows how to cook food FAST. Once a week Joulwan does the majority of her food prep for the week, usually within a day of her shopping trip. In two hours she browns ground beef, cooks chicken breasts and sausages,  roasts sweet potatoes and spaghetti squash, steams broccoli and cabbage, chops up raw veggies for snacks, boils a dozen eggs and much more.

As I read this idea it astounded me. In years past I had subscribed to a menu mailer that advocated such weekly prep as this but it didn't really work for me because I didn't like all the recipes included in each weeks mailers. Joulwan, however, doesn't worry about such things as "recipes". She only makes 2-3 real recipes every week. The rest of the time she makes what she calls "hot plates." Basically, she takes what prepared items she has an assembles them into a meal. She decides what flavor she wants (Mexican, Indian, Asian etc.) and then what protein and throws it all together into a skillet and voila! Dinner. The example she gave for a Mexican dinner was to throw together in a skillet a pound of the precooked ground beef, steamed chopped peppers and cabbage and while that was warming up make some "South Western Cumin Lime Dressing" and she had dinner ready in less than ten minutes. This way you get lots of variety and you aren't stuck with the Chicken curry you had planned to make when what you really crave is Mexican.

I have done this a few times and it has worked famously. I wish I was better at doing it but as with every new skill learned, it takes time to change habits and fit something new into the routine. The chopping and steaming vegetables has been genius. I wash and cut up lettuce as soon as I get it so that I can make an easy salad, grate and steam cauliflower rice, and slice a head of cabbage for "noodles." It is so easy just to steam the already wet from washing sliced vegetables until just soft and put in a container in the fridge until I need it. I also like to make up the week's salad dressing so I have no excuse not to eat my greens.

As for working on those flavor combinations to mix together those hot plates? The Flavor Bible is essential! I cannot say enough about how great this book is. The way it is organized is so perfectly aligned with how my brains works. The only thing that I didn't like about this book is its omission of Sherry for cooking.

An Everlasting Meal: Cooking With Economy and Grace had such a lovely little gem of a not-quite-cookbook title that I bought it, not even waiting for it to come to the library. I don't exactly regret my purchase but I since I am not eating grains currently, her grain heavy and Italian influenced cooking tips really did not quite hit home with me. She also has a mysterious "thing" with beets which I cannot comprehend. It wasn't that this was a useless books, on the contrary, her tips for stretching your culinary budget are sound and tasty, but Adler definitely needed to endear herself to me with her unflinching praise of fat to keep me reading until the end. The most useful tip that I found in her book was to use EVERY part of the vegetable. The core and leaves of that head of cauliflower? Edible. Yup. Not every part of plant is edible (carrot tops?) but when you are paying for those throwaway bits it is nice to be able to put them to use. I now use the extra leaves and cores of cabbage and cauliflower to make blended French-style potage soups.

Another trick that Adler taught is to use the cooking liquid from cooking vegetables as a base for soups. Yes! Duh, I don't know why it took me this long to figure that one out. For a while now I have always saved the drippings from roasts to use for soups and they really amp up the flavor; using the veggie "drippings" is much same. 

My favorite kitchen tip I have actually been doing for years: boil the bones but what I didn't know is that you can boil the snot, erm nutrients, right out of them for a week before throwing them out. Perpetual Broth has become my new best friend and the very best way to stretch that expensive pastured chicken carcass. It is so nice in the winter to be able to have broth for soup available for meals throughout the week and even with a 1/4 tsp. sea salt, a cup of broth is both nourishing, soothing and delicious after a long day. I very highly recommend doing this.

Those are my tips for now. Any that you are willing to share with me?

The Progress of a Garden: Late September

The Brussels are getting HUGE!

On the Right a Brussel has fallen over. Basil is ready to be harvested and frozen before the first frost

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Still getting a lot of tomatoes and peppers and the winter crops of peas and radishes are in.

If you are interested in seeing how much produce we picked from our two small gardens in September head on over here.

The Progress of a Garden: Early August

 I pulled out the tomato plant that wasn't producing and we have started putting in our winter crops. The trellis is covered in green apple cucumber and spaghetti squash vines.

The Tomatoes are Taking Over!!! (This is after I pruned them back)

The Progress of a Garden: The End of May

From our gardens in May we harvested: strawberries (4 lbs!), radishes, lettuce, spinach, green onions, bok choi and swiss chard. It has been a really hot week so the spinach and bok choi are bolting. Next spring I plan on planting the bok choi MUCH earlier. I also read on a forum that spouting the seeds indoors on coffee filters and then planting the sprouts gives the seeds a head start on growing, so I may try that. The cold weather crops are definitely slowing down although I think we have a little while longer on the lettuce.

Everything is in the garden now! For our big summer producers we have a grand total of 6 tomato plants, 3 bush cucumbers, 1 vining cucumber, 2 zucchini, a rotation of 20 bush beans, and seven pepper plants.

Check out my peas on the trellis! They just started flowering

 

 The daikon radishes in the pot in the foreground are getting huge but no root development yet. I am afraid they will bolt before they do.

 In the front the bed is really full but I am still waiting on some green beans to germinate for the next rotation.

 The dill is flowering and it is beautiful. Behind it you can see the nearly ready Kohlrabi.

This is what green onions look like when they go to flower

Up for June: Kohlrabi, lettuce, carrots, chard, kale, green beans, zucchini, basil, snow peas, and maybe cucumbers at the end of the month.

Garden(s) At The End of April

At the end of April, the first harvest: A dozen French Breakfast Radishes

The new backyard garden space: A 3X8 foot raised bed, pea trellis, a perennial herb bed and deep mulching to get rid of grass.

Currant and daikon radishes in pots. Plants being hardened off (they are now in the ground).

AND...the front garden: More strawberry plants; last years plants going crazy with berry production and a somewhat empty bed waiting for seedlings to grow.

Changing The Way We Eat

A moment of Ravenna for those who read this blog only to see her

Now, for everyone else...

Everyone has their own ideas of what is "healthy" eating or on the other side of the spectrum don't really care what they eat; whatever is cheapest and easiest. Some people follow the fad diets, others are religiously low fat, or high protein. Over the years since my diagnosis with insulin resistance/pre-diabetes DrewCarrie tried many a different diet plan in an effort to stay healthy and feel great.

The first post-diagnosis diet was the diabetes recommended "low fat/sugar; high fiber/protein" diet which meant that I was basically allowed to eat beans and vegetables. I felt miserable and that diet lasted only about a month. When I got pregnant we went on the "fast food/cereal/ice cream diet. This was probably not the best food for a fetus, but I am sure many pregnant women will understand. After Ravenna was born and I found myself as a stay-at-home mom in the lonely state of Wyoming we began the "Mormon Mommy" diet which was based around low-cost meals and jello salads. This was a good learning time for me as I learned to plan menu's and make meals from scratch. I also developed the skill of making bread from a starter culture which was a precursor to my life-changing discovery, but more on that later.

After we moved to Pennsylvania I started experimenting a bit with vegetarian cooking, unfortunately for my Father-in-law. No offense to vegetarians, but most vegetarian meals lack a satisfying flavor and texture and my cooking self-esteem took a huge hit. Then at 15 months Ravenna developed some nasty digestive issues and so began the "elimination diet" saga. We went dairy-free, soy-free, and any other free you can think of until we found gluten-free. While I am not sure being gluten-free made a big difference for Ravenna, it sure did for me and that discovery is what led me to our final destination:  Traditional Foods.

Through the blogosphere I discovered that many gluten-free bloggers also followed a diet based around a cookbook called Nourishing Traditions which lays the foundation for a Traditional Foods diet. Most simply this book says that the way your ancestors ate is the way you should eat and that diet will enable our bodies to function best. That idea really struck a chord with me and given my recent readings of In Defense of Food and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I embraced the idea wholeheartedly. I felt that in all my culinary wanderings, I had finally found my home. With Andrew's blessing, DrewCarrie once again radically changed our diet.

 The "Fermentation Station"

Fermenting Sauerkraut and Water Kefir

To give you a basic idea,  this is what eating a Traditional Foods diet entails for us: 

• Sprouting, fermenting, and soaking foods to make them more nutrient dense and digestible.
• Very liberally using good, natural fats in our diets such as butter, EVOO, palm shortening, extra-virgin coconut oil and even lard (read this enjoyable article if you don't believe me).
• No processed or artificial ingredients especially MSG, high-fructose corn syrup and sugar substitutes
• Buy as many locally sourced, pasture-raised animal products as possible. I learned in my four years in the FFA that the way that you treat animals raised for meat/dairy/eggs does matter very much in the quality of the product. It makes sense to me that it is safer and more nutritious to eat products produced by animals that eat a natural diet and that are cared for in a humane fashion. Food safety is a HUGE problem in the US, mainly because of the way factory farms raise their animals/crops. Yes, I pay more for what we eat but I do so with the assurance that if I have a concern, I can go straight to the source.
• No refined sugar and using natural sugars sparingly. We use Sucanat/Rapadura, honey, maple and date sugars.

This is a very general picture of what we do. If you were to classify this diet into a group I would call this a "whole foods" diet. After gradually easing into this diet for a number of months I am finding my stride. There is a lot to learn (hello! Eating like a Pioneer, people!) but there have been so many rewards so far. I have found that eating a TF diet helps me to feel the best, Andrew loves it and Ravenna's digestive issues have gone away. This is the diet that works best for OUR family. While I believe that most, if not all, people could benefit from aspects of eating a traditional foods diet, I don't believe that it is right for everyone. This works for us and we are very happy!

Broth vs. Stock

Look at that broth!
This is from the bones of a whole chicken and a turkey breast.

Do you know the difference? The terms are used pretty much interchangeably, but there is a difference. Stock is made by boiling meat, vegetables and/or herbs and broth is made by boiling only the bones, usually slowly at low temperatures. Nutritionally, broth is the way to go because by boiling only the bones you can access the marrow, which according to the Weston A. Price Foundation:

...contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily—not just calcium but also magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals. It contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons--stuff like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, now sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain.

I learned how to make my own bone broths from my friend, MommyBee who has a great tutorial on how to do this. The only thing that I might add from my own research is that if you want to cook chicken bones for more than 2 hours you need to do it at a super low temperature, as in a slow cooker. It is also important to skim off the fat to get rid of impurities and toxins.

Making a stock is pretty similar to making a broth, but you don't simmer it for as long; usually less than two hours. It is really easy to make a vegetable stock, and just as you save the bones from meat, you can save your vegetable scraps/peels and even less-than-fresh produce for a great stock. The best veggies to use for your stock are:

...onions, garlic, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, celery, mushrooms, peas, corn (empty corn cobs can also add lots of flavor to veg. stock), parsley, green beans, beets, bell peppers, scallions, green onions, shallots, fresh basil or other herbs, etc., etc.

I will usually just save my scraps in a plastic bag in the freezer and when I get a bag full, I cover them with water, throw in some whole spices (like a bay leaf), cover and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour. Then strain and you have a lovely stock to use in any recipe calling for it or broth. Easy! Be careful to use any scraps from the cabbage family, such as broccoli, very sparingly because they have an intense flavor. Apparently you can also can stock/broth if you have a pressure cooker.

Oh, ho ho, my CSA is lovely!

I am ever so delighted by my CSA farm. Going there is always so much fun and it is really neat to know that all the proceeds are going to a really great cause. This week is week 7 out of 20ish and I am really starting to love the variety of organic goodness that we are getting.

CSA Week 7:
2 large walla walla sweet onions
1 1/2 lbs. Red Norland potatoes
2 beets, red and white
1/3 lb. Swiss chard
1 lb. beans, green and yellow wax
1/4 pint of mixed red raspberries and blueberries (it is a transition time; blueberries are going out and raspberries are coming in)
1 clove garlic
3 HUGE scallions (seriously! How do these things get so big?!)
2 cucumbers
1 eggplant
1 handful of basil

I love bringing home my share from the farm and trying to figure out what to do with it. Tonight I am going to make spaghetti with a pasta sauce made with tomatoes, eggplant, garlic, zucchini and onions, all organic and almost all local! Even the pasta is organic, now that I come to think about it. With the Swiss chard I think that I am going to take the advice of the farmer at the CSA and make a curry out of it and put it over rice.

Another great thing about the CSA, that I haven't really taken advantage of yet, is the Pick Your Own patch. There they have a variety of herbs and flowers that you can pick in moderation. This last week we had the choice of zinnias, snapdragons, basil, cherry tomatoes, hot peppers and some others. I just haven't gotten the courage to go for it other than picking some mint for iced tea. Next week I think I will just have to go for it!

Before I forget...

Today was a crazy day. I got lost taking Ravenna to her appointment for her birthday portraits (better late than never, right?) which I arrived 20 minutes late for so what was supposed to take an hour ended up taking twice that. Darn you Lancaster with your weird street names and illogical city planning!

When I arrived home with my grumpy toddler who refused to nap, I remembered that I was making the evening meal, and it was something that required a significant amount of prep time. Needless to say the rest of my afternoon and evening was spent in meal preparation. The food was good, but next time I will skip the lettuce wraps and just put it over brown rice. I also made a Napa Cabbage salad and a side of fresh pineapple.

The rest of the evening was a bit more relaxed. For Family Home Evening, Ravenna had the lesson, but was asleep, so I showed everyone the Baby Signing Time video so that we can all be on board with helping her learn signs. I really like the program; Jeff thinks that the narrators cheerfulness put Nettie to shame, if that is even possible. We finished with caramel popcorn and a game of 10,000.

Without further ado...CSA Week 4:

1 head of Napa Cabbage
1 head of green leaf lettuce
1/2 pint blueberries (oh so super delicious!)
1/2 pint black raspberries (ditto the above)
1 box of winter peas
1/3 lb. mix of collard greens and colorful swiss chard
2 red beets
3 HUGE green onions (these were like 3 feet tall, no joke)
1 head of bok choi
3 garlic scapes
1 beautiful head of broccoli

Quite a plentiful harvest this week and we have already gone through the onions, cabbage, lettuce, broccoli and the berries! Oh, and this last weekend we started our first harvest from our backyard garden: zucchini, and soon some cucumbers and in a few more weeks TOMATOES!!! I just love the summer.

Why Eat Organic?

Lately I have had a number of people ask us why we think it is important to eat organic/whole food products versus conventionally grown/processed food, and I don't think that I was able to give them a satisfactory answer. Having recently read two amazing, well-researched books related to the subject, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, by Michael Pollan, and Animal, Vegetable Miracle: A Year in Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver, I feel that I am better equipped to answer those questions.

We started eating organically grown produce when I was pregnant with Ravenna. There is something about creating life within you that makes you value what you put into your body so much more. Here are some of the reasons why we choose organic:

1) Organically grown produce is higher in nutrients than conventionally grown produce

"...USDA figures show a decline in the nutrient content of the forty-three crops it has tracked since the 1950's. In one recent analysis, vitamin C decline by 20 percent, iron by 15 percent, riboflavin by 38 percent, calcium by 16 percent. [...] To put this in more concrete terms, you now have to eat three apples to get the same amount of iron as you would have gotten from a single 1940 apple, and you'd have to eat several more slices of bread to get your recommended daily allowance of zinc than you would have a century ago." (Pollan, 118)

What this means is that the majority of calories that we eat are getting emptier year after year. Add to this the fact that the majority of American diets are composed of processed carbohydrates that are high in calories but little else, and it is little wonder that obesity, diabetes, coronary heart disease and cancer rates are rising.

Where does eating organic come in? Organic produce grows slower (because it is not genetically modified or bred to grow fast) allowing more nutrients to accumulate before harvest. Slower growing allows plants to produce deeper root systems enabling them to access more minerals. Additionally scientists have posited that the "biological activity in the soil [decomposition, earth worms and other insects, and even soil fungi] almost certainly plays a role as well [...]." (Pollan, 120).

Another plug for buying locally grown produce in season: Unless you live in California, most likely your produce is being shipped hundreds of miles to get to you and in the process, losing much of its freshness and nutrients.

2) Organic produce is grown without pesticides

Continuing with the nutritional discussion, "[...] organically grown crops have also been found to contain more phytochemicals [10-50% more than conventionally grown plants]--the various secondary compounds (including carotenoids and polyphenols) that plants produce in order to defend themselves from pests and diseases, many of which turn out to have important antioxidant, anti inflammatory, and other beneficial effects on humans." (Pollan, 120).

Additionally, children are especially susceptible to pesticide residue which as a mother makes me feel even more anxious about the food my child eats. While the amounts of pesticides used on conventionally grown food is regulated by government agencies, there have been far too many cases of unacceptable accumulations of pesticide residue found on food. For example: Potatoes.

"Potatoes in the United States commonly contain chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides and sometimes even residues of DDT, dieldrin, and chlordane, extremely hazardous chemicals that have been banned since 1978 but linger in the soil. Conventionally grown potatoes are so contaminated, the Environmental Working Group warns parents not to feed them to infants and toddlers unless they're thoroughly peeled and boiled" (Kingsolver, 273).

So much for baked potatoes.

3) Organically grown produce is sustainable

Industrial/conventional farming practices whose goal is for bigger, faster growing commodity crops (i.e. soy and corn) also "promote soil erosion, salinization, desertification, and loss of soil fertility," with studies showing that "over 25 percent of arable land int he world is already compromised by one or more of these problems." Can you say, "Dust bowl"? However, many studies have demonstrated that organic farming practices can sustainably produce the same yields as conventionally run farms but without the problems. "By using cover crops or animal manures for fertilizer, these practices improve soil fertility and moisture-holding capacity over seasons, with cumulative benefits." (Kingsolver, 18) Not only that, but you don't need any special chemicals or equipment to grow sustainably, just ask the Amish.

One thing that I do have to mention here is that often when you buy packaged organically grown produce at your grocery store it is not necessarily grown sustainably. Large corporate farms only need to meet USDA requirements for organically grown produce which are that their products are not genetically modified, no pesticides or herbicides are used in the production, and for animals, no hormones or antibiotics. This is another reason to buy locally: Not only do you support your local economy, but you help keep small, sustainable, farms in business.

While it is nice to be able to know for sure that the food you are buying at your grocery store is safer to eat, especially if you live in place like Wyoming where you can't get much local produce, it is still better to buy local, or even better, grow it yourself!

I might go on forever with this post, but I think I have said my say. This year Andrew and I have bought a share in a Community Supported Agriculture program in Lancaster and will be enjoying the bounty throughout the growing season. I will blog about it weekly to let you know what I got and what I think of being involved in a CSA. Of course I would love to have my own garden, but I think this is a great idea to try while we wait. This is our CSA and we are anxiously awaiting for the first harvest which is scheduled for the first weekend in June!

Check out Local Harvest to find out where you closest farmers markets and CSA's are. If you missed it, last year I wrote a post about going organic which lists some of the foods that you absolutely should buy organic and some that are OK to eat conventionally grown.

Going Organic

I have been pondering the benefits of eating organic produce. Unfortunately the premium on organic produce has kept me away for the most part, so I have been researching ways to buy organic but not break the bank. Here are my ideas:

1) Grow it yourself: If I didn't live in Wymount I would probably do this, even in containers, but silly Wymount has banned container gardens as well.

2) Farmers Markets. Pros: This is a great way to support your community as well as buy fresh and healthy produce. Plus you can talk to the farmers as well. Cons: Seasonal and you will probably still pay more for the produce than at the grocery store. To find your local farmers market: http://www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets

3) Community Supported Agriculture: This is one of my newest finds! Basically you buy a share of a farmers crop in the early spring and come summer you get a variety of seasonal produce weekly. This usually runs from June-October and costs between $300-500 to feed a family of four. Pros: Cheaper, SUPER fresh produce and you get to support your community. Cons: Only seasonal, although many recommend buying two shares so that you can preserve the other half for the winter. To find your local CSA farm: http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/csa/csa.shtml

4) Selectively buy organic: According to the Consumers Union these are the foods that contain the most pesticides and are best to buy (or grow yourself), organic. Winter Squash, Wheat, Strawberries, Green Beans, Celery, Apples, Peaches, Grapes, Spinach, Lettuce, Pears.

5) Eat more "safe" produce: These are fruits and vegetables that if washed thoroughly have less pesticide residue than most. Asparagus, Avocados, Bananas, Broccoli, Cabbage, Kiwi, Mango, Onion, Papaya, and Pineapple. http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Save-on-Sustainable-Gallery-44032808

Now if you are really concerned about what you eat here is a long list of foods that this company says to buy organic. http://www.deliciousorganics.com/controversies/toptobuyorg.htm Costco is also becoming a good place to find organic foods, especially fruit. If you have any other ideas not included here please post and let me know!