Daily Menu for January 21

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It's also the meal I'm having the hardest time eating these days because of morning sickness. Most mornings, toast or crackers are the only thing that I'm finding appealing, and it's hard to get enough calories throughout the day because of the nausea. So I'm trying to bulk up breakfast to get a solid start to the day and get enough calories throughout the day, but I'm not following Core to do it. Peanut butter sandwiches are working to get in the calories and keep nausea at bay, so I'm eating them and appreciating that they make my tummy happy.

I'm also finding exercise difficult, since I'm tired all the time and still have a lingering cough. I need to just push myself to do at least 20 minutes a day of walking to keep myself from becoming a complete couch potato, so I'm going to do the Walk Away the Pounds 1 mile video this afternoon. Then I'm going to take a nap!

Tonight, I'm making bean soup for dinner using Dessert Pebble Beans from Phipps Country Store. They're all from the same plant, but a variety of colors from creamy white to speckled tan to dark chocolate brown. I'm hopeful that they'll retain their pretty colors after cooking!

Daily Menu

Breakfast

Natural peanut butter sandwich on sprouted wheat bread from Alvarado Bakery

Homemade applesauce

2 c. soy milk

2 clementines

Lunch

Hard boiled egg

Steamed broccoli and cauliflower with 1 oz. lowfat cheese

Brown rice with olive oil

Dinner

Desert Pebble beans

Polenta

Turnip greens sauteed in olive oil

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines

1. Fruits and veggies, 5-9 servings a day - yes

2. Whole grains - yes (whole grain bread, brown rice, polenta)

3. Milk, 3 servings a day - yes

4. Healthy oil, 3 teaspoons a day - yes

5. Protein - yes

6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes

7. Water - 8+ cups

8. (Prenatal) Multivitamin - yes

A whole lot more than a hill of beans!

Today, my mother in law, Jax, and I drove out to the coast for beans and quality family time. I haven't been to Phipps Country Store since my birthday in July, and we'd eaten through our supply of lovely heirloom, organic beans so it was about time to make another trip. I picked up quite a variety of lovely beans with such fun names like Buckskin, Desert Pebble, Cranberry, Adzuki, and Gigantes. And who but fellow foodies would appreciate rows of beans in their recycled glass homes? (The glass jars were a Freecycle find - four boxes full of large mason jars, perfect for storing grains and beans, free to me and kept out of the landfill. Hooray for Freecycle!)

I also cleared out their bin of organic yellow popcorn, since Mr.M has been making popcorn on the stove most nights for a snack. I'd never made popcorn outside of the microwave, which is a sad confession, and it is so much tastier from the stove! With fewer unpopped kernels and no fake chemical butter flavoring, it's a better value all around. He makes it with 2 teaspoons of Canola or Olive oil and we split a batch, so each serving has one of the healthy oils we need for the day.

We had lunch at Duarte's Tavern, a family owned business since 1894 and James Beard "American Classic" award winner. I had locally caught sole and a Mexican cabbage salad made with cabbage grown on site. The Mexican cabbage salad was the highlight of my meal, with a tangy lime and cilantro dressing, jalapeno, and olive oil. My mother in law had their famous artichoke soup, and Jax had a fit, upset about being restrained in a high chair and not allowed to eat his crayons, followed by a quarter of Grandma's soup, half a tuna fish sandwich and most of my broccoli, a piece of crusty sourdough bread, a few bites of my mashed potatoes, a pat of butter that I couldn't pry away from him, and a fork-full of the cabbage salad! I think it's more food than he's eaten in the past week, combined, and he'd had an orange and raisins to snack on in the car and half a cucumber that he snitched in Phipps (we paid for the cucumber, of course.)

We picked up a jar of the Quince-Rhubarb jelly at Duarte's, and Strawberry-Rhubarb jelly at Phipps. Since cranberries aren't grown locally, I'm putting sweet-tart jellies and pomegranate seeds on the table to quell the sweet-tart-with-turkey needs of my cranberry loving diners at Thanksgiving. As cranberries are one of the few foods that I just don't like, it's not too much of a sacrifice for me. I'll be sure to report back if the jellies and pomegranates don't pass the turkey test!

***

Mr.M and I spent Sunday at the Green Festival in San Francisco, and I had lunch at Cafe Gratitude's booth. Their menu is organic, raw, and vegan, and the meals have names like, "I am Honored," "I am Fabulous," and "I am Passionate." Ordering there was fun, and while I was skeptical that raw and vegan would be bland and boring, I was pleasantly surprised to find my meal flavorful, filling, and fun to eat! (I had "I am Honored," a nacho-esque meal of carrot-flax chips, fresh salsa and guacamole, and a salad that had grains and sunflower seeds.)

***

Our grain CSA shares should be ready this week, and I'm looking forward to trying teff for the first time. We'll also be getting more pancake mix, rye flour, and wheat flour, so I need to do more baking. Does anyone have a good rye bread or whole wheat bread recipe that doesn't call for all purpose flour?

Chickpeas: They're What's For Dinner

Curried chickpeas, melon, and cucumber, originally uploaded by momaste.

Tonight was a use-up-the-veggies night. I had a head of cauliflower, an eggplant, several tomatoes, and a ton of carrots that were all about to give up the ghost, so I cooked them in the pressure cooker with chickpeas, onions, garlic, and curry in veggie broth, adding whole wheat couscous in the last five minutes to thicken it up. Sprinkled with lime juice and cilantro, it was a yummy, hearty dinner that the whole family enjoyed. I served the stew with slices of melon and cucumber. Yum!

Curried Chickpea Stew

1 T olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 carrots, peeled and diced
1 head cauliflower, cored and chopped into florets
1 1/2 c. dry chickpeas, soaked overnight
2 t. cumin
1 t. garam masala
1 t. turmuric
1/2 t. cardamom
1/2 t. red pepper flakes (more to taste)
4 c. vegetable stock
2 tomatoes, diced
1 eggplant, peeled and diced
1 c. uncooked whole wheat couscous
cilantro and lime wedges to garnish

In the pressure cooker over medium-high heat, saute the onions and garlic in olive oil. Add carrots, cauliflower, chickpeas, spices, and stock. Stir well to combine. Add tomatoes and eggplant on top but do not stir in. Cook under pressure for 20 minutes, quick pressure release. Using a potato masher, mush the tomatoes and eggplant into the sauce and break up carrots and cauliflower. Add couscous, recover, and let sit off heat for five minutes. Serve spritzed with lime juice and topped with cilantro.

Meatball Chili with Pumpkin recipe

Meatball chili with pumpkin
This is really tasty and creamy with a bit of back-heat from the chipotle. The pumpkin is a mild flavor and you wouldn't necessarily be able to identify it if you didn't know it was there. You could substitute canned beans and eliminate the beef broth, or maybe reduce it to 1 cup.

Ingredients:
about 1/2 lb. small meatballs, whatever recipe you like
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 chopped red bell peppers
3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 c. dry black beans, soaked overnight
4 cups beef broth
3-5 diced medium tomatoes and their juices
1 lb. roasted pumpkin or canned pumpkin (just pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling!)
1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce
4-6 oz. diced Green Chiles
1 cup whole kernel corn
1-2 chipotles in adobo, diced fine (this is spicy but has a wonderful smoky flavor. We're wussy and use 1 chipotle and 1 t. adobo, but if you like it spicier, add more.)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3-4 sprigs fresh cilantro
salt and pepper to taste
(I added a few dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg.)

Directions:
Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper and garlic; cook, stirring frequently, for 5 to 7 minutes or until tender. Put the vegetable mixture into the crockpot and add all the other ingredients. Stir to combine. Cook on low for 8 hours.

Three Bean Soup with Potatoes

It's been a busy weekend! I'm taking all day classes on Saturdays in September, so Mr.M picked up out CSA box this week and I didn't make it to any farmer's markets. This will be it for the week!

Included in this week's box:
Corn
Eggplant
Edamame
Melon
Onion
Tomatoes
Sweet peppers
Peaches

Yum!

***

For Meatless Monday, we're having Three Bean Soup with Potatoes. I made it early in the day to give it more time to simmer, but it would be easy to make in about an hour without a whole lot of hands on time, and makes a huge pot that will freeze well and be super tasty reheated.

I'm using Red Calypso, Black, and Cannelini beans from Phipps Country Store, and am due for another trip out as I'm down to just one little bag of beans! The veggies all came from Full Belly Farm, except for the jalapeno growing in my front yard and cilantro from C. Farm.

Three Bean Soup with Potatoes
Beans
1 c. dry, picked over Red Calypso Beans (can be substituted for any medium-sized firm bean, like pintos)
1 c. dry, picked over Black Beans
1 c. dry, picked over Cannelini Beans
8 c. vegetable broth
1 onion, peeled and quartered
1 T. canola oil (to keep beans from foaming)

In the pressure cooker, cook on high for 25 minutes. Let pressure come down naturally. Drain beans, reserving broth for another use. You could also soak the beans overnight and use a stove top method to cook them.

Soup
1 onion, diced
2 sweet peppers, diced (I used one red, one orange)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, seeded and membranes removed, diced fine
1 T. olive oil
Cooked beans
3-4 sprigs fresh cilantro
1 T. chili powder
3-4 c. tomatoes, diced with juices
2 or more cups reserved broth, depending on how soupy you want it
4 large potatoes, diced
2 c. corn, fresh or frozen
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion, peppers, garlic, and jalapeno in olive oil. When onions are translucent, add beans, cilantro, chili powder, tomatoes, potatoes, and broth. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add corn and salt and pepper and simmer 10 minutes more.

This makes a huge pot of soup. If you want it thicker, you could puree half of the soup in batches. Very tasty!

***

I weighed in on Friday and was down .4 lb., not bad considering the extravagent (for me) meal on Wednesday night. My total is now 29.6. My goal is 31 lb. by September 23, and I should be able to reach it!

Lentils and beans and whole wheat, oh my

I love lentils. They're quick-cooking, high in protein, fiber, and iron, listed by Health Magazine as one of the five healthiest foods, and are a go-to staple in my kitchen. There are a number of lentil varieties, and I usually have two or three on hand. Green, red, and brown lentils all have their place in my pantry, and in the past two days, I've made two lentil dishes with two varieties of the hearty legumes. Last night, we had dhal, an Indian curried brown lentil, with summer squash and rice. For lunch today, I made a quick Greek-style red lentil soup with mint and oregano with fat free plain yogurt stirred in at the end. Delicious, and ready in 30 minutes.

***
Greek-style Red Lentil Soup
serves 8
1 T. olive oil
1 diced onion
1 diced carrot
1 diced celery stalk
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 lb. red lentils, rinsed
2 quarts vegetable stock
1 1/2 t. dried mint
1 t. dried oregano
1 t. dried parsley
1 bay leaf
1 t. paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the veggies and garlic in 1 T olive oil in a Dutch oven or stockpot. Add the lentils to the pot and stir for a few minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for about 25 minutes or until the lentils are soft. Remove the bay leaf and puree with a stick blender. Serve with a dollop of fat free plain yogurt.

I've had no luck finding local sources for the lentil, and if anyone knows of California lentil growers, please let me know! I'm currently purchasing organic lentils in the bulk bins at Country Sun, but they're not grown locally. Beans, legumes, and grains have been the hardest part of my diet to find locally grown, but I'm making headway.

Phipps Country Store in Pescadero grows some of their own heirloom beans (and has a U-Pick berry farm) and a field trip to the coast is in the works, both for beans and berries, which I intend to can and freeze.

Rancho Gordo in Napa also grows heirloom dry beans, as well as corn, masa, and chilis. They're available at the Ferry Plaza farmer's market in San Francisco and a storefront in Napa, and are served at a number of really wonderful restaurants all over the Bay Area and beyond.

Wheat and wheatberries are available from Full Belly Farm, where I get my CSA box of wonderful produce each week. Lundberg Family Farms sustainably grows brown rice (I buy it in bulk at Country Sun.)

I'm still looking for locally, organically grown:
bulgur
oatmeal, especially steel cut oats
quinoa (I don't think I'll find this locally, but a girl can dream!)
whole wheat pasta and couscous
cornmeal

The photo comes from the Wikipedia entry for lentils.)