Now We're Cooking - December 2010

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE FOOD
  December 2010
Chew Your Rope
GOOD HEALTH IS AS CLOSE AS YOUR NEXT MEAL!



Now We're Cooking!

Okay so you've picked the recipes that you want to make, made a complete grocery list, purchased all the food you need (all organic of course!) and you're ready to start cooking. Now what?

In the cold weather months I like to spend one weekend day cooking the foods that taste better after they sit for a while, namely soups, stew and sauces. I prepare whatever I can so that during the week when I arrive home at the end of the day, with the family circling like wild coyotes looking for dinner, I'm ready.

I cook the rice or whatever grain I'll be using for the week at the same time. As long as they are able to cool and dry a little bit they will keep without a problem. I create dressings and marinades at the same time. These will keep for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator if properly stored. In the summer months when we eat a lot of salads I have a huge plastic bowl with a snap down top that I'll fill with a ton of mixed greens, carrots, onions, celery and grape tomatoes. This keeps for 4 or 5 days depending on the greens used. Anything that will spoil faster or get mushy I add when we're ready to eat.

Today I prepared three soups that we'll have for lunches throughout the week. I've packaged them in individual storage containers. This makes them easier to heat up, and if my husband needs to take one with him it's ready to go. Anything that won’t be eaten within the next few days is placed in the freezer so it will be fresh and delicious when the time is right.

The greatest part of bulk preparing and freezing is that every three or four weeks I have enough meals in the freezer that I don’t need to cook - talk about a time-saver!

I make my own granola and whole oat groats hot cereal for the week and also package it in single serving containers. I create snack packs that are filled with healthy snacks for one so that when we pack our lunch in the morning all we need to do is grab a little container and we have a tasty treat for later. This goes a long way to keeping one away from vending machines and junk food.

I usually make a few desserts for the week, something healthy and usually raw. If you want to make healthy muffins, scones or wonderful biscotti, like a friend of mine, you can freeze these so you have a great breakfast ready when you get up. The best part is that you know what's in these foods. No hidden ingredients or chemicals.

The grocery store offers so many convenient time-saving prepared veggies to make food preparation even easier. You can buy minced garlic, chopped onions and peppers, broccoli florets and shredded carrots. Remember though, the longer a vegetable sits after it has been cut the more it loses its taste and nutritional value. I love the boxes of greens. Rinsing and spinning and removing all the bad parts of the lettuce took too much time. If you find that dicing vegetables is actually therapy for you like me, I will dice up a large quantity of onions or carrots or celery and store them in the frig. This makes stir fries and salads easy to throw together during the week.

I don’t like to make everything ahead of time as I'm a fickle eater and never know what I'll be in the mood for on any given day, but on the nights you don’t have time, coming home to a ready-made meal is a pleasure. I change my menus each week because I get bored easily, but if your family likes to eat certain foods on a rotating basis then this whole process is even easier. Save your grocery list or create a master on your computer.

The best thing you can do for yourself and your family is to sit down, turn off the television and eat home cooked meals together at your kitchen table. Not only is the food made with love and very nourishing but the conversation and company will also feed the heart.

Enjoy!


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Moroccan-Style Chicken and Vegetable Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
12 ounces chicken breast, halved and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon cumin powder
1 stick cinnamon
2 cups sweet potato, peeled and diced into 1/2" pieces
2 cups parsnip, peeled and diced into 1/2" pieces
2 cups turnip, peeled and diced into 1/2" pieces
1 cup rutabaga, peeled and diced into 1/2" pieces
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup raisins or currants
1 can canned tomatoes, drained and diced
cilantro, diced

1.   Heat oil in a heavy large pot over medium-heat.  Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.  Add chicken to pot and saute until light golden but not cooked through, about 1 minutes.  Transfer chicken to a bowl.

2.    Add onion to pot and saute until golden, about 4 minutes.  Add garlic and stir 1 minute.  Add curry powder, cumin and cinnamon stick and stir 30 seconds.  Add sweet potatoes, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga. broth and currants.  Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.  Add tomatoes and chicken with any accumulated juices to pot.  Simmer until chicken is cooled through and flavors blend, about 5  minutes longer.
Sprinkle with cilantro.
Vegetable Cooking Methods

Steaming
  Steaming is one way to prepare simple, clean-tasting vegetables, without salt, oil or seasoning. It is especially helpful to get to know how vegetables taste in their most simple, pure form. Steaming takes 5-10 minutes for green leafy vegetables, and 10-25 minutes for roots. All you need is a steaming basket and a pot with a lid filled with about two inches of water.

How to Make Plain Steamed Vegetables More Exciting
These can be applied to all vegetables that you wish to use for steaming:
 * add 1 tablespoon olive oil or toasted sesame oil to every 2 cups of greens
* add 2 bay leaves or 1 teaspoon cumin seeds to the water
* sprinkle greens with toasted pumpkin, sesame, flax, or sunflower seeds, almonds, or walnuts
* sprinkle greens with fresh herbs: mint, dill, basil, parsley, cilantro, scallions
* use tamari soy sauce or umeboshi vinegar to add extra flavor
* squeeze fresh lemon juice over them
* after steaming them, quickly stir-fry in olive oil, with a pinch of sea salt and garlic

Blanching
Blanching, or quick boiling, is another way to prepare vegetables quickly and "cleanly." Blanching helps to quickly break down the fiber of raw vegetables more than steaming does, which aids digestion. Blanching vegetables also removes the raw flavor and brightens up their color.

Stir-Frying
Stir-frying is another quick and nutritious way to prepare vegetables. You can stir-fry in oil or in water. Stir-frying in oil makes a tastier dish since the hot oil seals in the flavor. You can use any kind of vegetables. The softer vegetables like Chinese cabbage, bok choy, thinly sliced carrots, mushrooms and onions will only take a few minutes to cook. Before you start, have all of the vegetables cut into pieces—thinner slices and smaller pieces will cook faster and more evenly.If you choose to use oil, heat a wok or a frying pan and add a small amount of oil (like peanut, sesame, or coconut oil). If you are making a small amount of vegetables, brushing the wok or pan with oil is usually enough. Start with the harder vegetables like roots. Add one variety at a time and cook them until they become shiny before adding the next ones. Sprinkling a pinch of sea salt over the vegetables draws just enough moisture to prevent sticking and makes them taste sweeter. You can also sprinkle water over your vegetables to gain extra steam and heat.At the end of cooking you can make a nice sauce, thickened with arrowroot or kudzu and seasoned with soy sauce, ginger or garlic.

Here are Some Great Colorful and Tasty Combinations for Stir-frying:
onions, carrots and snow peas
Chinese cabbage, mung bean sprouts and scallions
leeks, carrots and red peppers
onions, mushrooms and zucchini with dried basil
yellow patty pan squash and mixed greens with garlic

Roasting
Many vegetables taste best baked. Baking brings out the very essence of the vegetables, especially squashes and roots. Place vegetables in a baking pan, roast for 45-60 minutes at about 400 degrees.roots and squashes
carrot, parsnip, turnip, rutabaga, burdock, celery root
burdock root, acorn squash, kabocha squash, butternut squash
the fat burners - daikon radish, leek, scallion, turnip,onion, celery
cabbage family -broccoli, cauliflower, all cabbages
Brussels sprouts




According to a 2006 article by L. Joan Allen of the Baltimore Sun, Claudia Peters, vice president of communications at the Food Marketing Institute reports that “67 percent of adults living alone have a home-cooked meal just once a week.”
The article also adds that Thomas F. Coleman, executive director of Unmarried America, an information service for singles, says that singles that live alone make up nearly 27 percent of American households, up from 13 percent in 1960.
With the convenience of fast food places such as McDonalds and Burger King, as well as microwave dinners such as lean cuisines and hot pockets, singles can find it tempting to skip home-cooking all together.
“Does a lean cuisine count as a home-cooked meal?” Billman asked.
The American Institute of Cancer Research (AICR) encourages singles to “take meal preparation into their own hands more often. Preparing more meals at home with healthful ingredients allows people greater control over their body weight and health.” In a 2004 article by the AICR, it stated that according to a U.S. Department of Energy study, more than 42 percent of all singles do not cook even one meal per day at home. Figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that singles spend 47 percent of their food dollar on food prepared away from home compared to 42 percent for households of two or more and 37 percent for households of five or more.
According to the article by L. Joan Allen, the current health concerns affiliated with fast food are bringing some singles back to the kitchen.
“I try not to eat fast food because I know it’s bad for you and I want something more nutritional, but if I make something for myself it’s normally something small, not something that covers all the food groups or anything,” said 21 year old Rebecca Vondrell of Cincinnati, Ohio.
 A typical lean cuisine meal, which for some composes an entire lunch or dinner, includes just one serving of vegetables and no fruits. With the high carb and protein diet commercialized by fast food restaurants, nutritious foods that should be consumed daily such as fruits and vegetables can fall far below the well-balanced-meal radar of both singles and families alike, even for those who attempt to be healthy.