Daily Menu for September 7

We've been eating up the frozen meals this week - eggplant and pork, moussaka, and bean soup - and tonight we're having meatloaf from the freezer. I'm grateful that I made these in advance! Still trying to get in all the 8 good health guidelines but it's more of a struggle right now, since I don't want to be in the hot kitchen any more than I have to, and I'm too tired to cook!

Daily Menu

Breakast (a OneLocalSummer meal)
Eggs with zucchini, bell peppers, and onion
Honeydew melon

Eggs from Sonoma, zucchini and peppers from the front yard, onion and melon from Full Belly Farm

Lunch
Veggie burger with 2 slices whole wheat toast (2 pts), 1/2 oz. smoked cheddar (1.5 pts.)
Tomato slices, lettuce, onion, pickles
Apple
1 c. milk

Dinner
Meatloaf
Sliced cucumbers
bulgur, corn and pepper salad
2 c. milk

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 3.5
WPA points available: 33.5
Activity points today: 2 (Walk Away the Pounds)
Activity points this week: 2

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies (8) - 8
2. Whole grains - bulgur
3. Milk (3) - 3
4. Healthy oil (3) - 3
5. Protein - yes
6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes
7. Water - 8+
8. Multivitamin - yes

Back in the Saddle

I returned to my Weight Watchers meeting yesterday and was pleasantly surprised by my weigh in, just .2 lb. above my last weigh in weight. After a modest gain during pregnancy, I wasn't expecting to be so close to my starting weight so soon. Very encouraging, especially since I've not been as consistent on my plan the past few weeks. I'm hopeful that with a closer eye toward what I'm eating, I'll continue to lose.

Dinner tonight is a One Local Summer meal, with all ingredients grown locally. The beans, Dapple Gray, were grown at Phipps Country Store in Pescadero. Onion, shallot, garlic (lots of it!), and sweet peppers are from Full Belly Farm. Home grown herbs (oregano and thyme) round out the flavor - cumin, salt and pepper are the only non-local ingredients. It's in the crockpot for a very simple and healthy dinner. Corn on the cob is from Full Belly, and the green salad with cucumbers are from our garden as well. Olive oil and vinegar both are from Hare Hollow in Healdsburg, and Clover milk is from Sonoma/Mendocino.

Breakfast:
Oatmeal
2 c. milk
1 c. cherries
multivitamin

Lunch:
Salmon salad (2 Points for 2 t. mayo)
bulgur
Tomato wedges, 1 t. olive oil

Dinner:
Bean soup
Corn on the cob
Green salad with cucumbers, 2 t. olive oil and vinegar
1 c. milk

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 2
WPA points available: 35
Activity points today: 2 (Walk Away the Pounds)
Activity points this week: 2

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies (8) - 8
2. Whole grains - oatmeal, bulgur
3. Milk (3) - 3
4. Healthy oil (3) - 3
5. Protein - yes
6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes
7. Water - 8+
8. Multivitamin - yes

One Local Summer: Week 11, part 2 - Cherry Oats

I have whole oats in my pantry from the grain CSA and have not known quite what to do with them. Rolled oats are familiar; even steel cut oats have their found crockpot love from me. But the whole grain, well, I wasn't sure where to start. I found the liquid:grain ratio and cooking time on the pressure cooker and figured I'd make them like I would steel cut oats - milk, fruit, cinnamon, vanilla - and see how that works.

Well let me tell you, they smell fantastic and taste even better! With local oats, cherries, and milk, this is another local meal this week. This makes a HUGE batch - I wanted to have it available for quick breakfasts this week.

Whole Oats with Cherries

2 c. whole oats, rinsed and drained
6 c. water or milk, or a combination of the two
2 c. frozen cherries (ours were frozen earlier in the year from a local cherry orchard)
1 t. each cinnamon and ground ginger
1/2 t. nutmeg
2 t. vanilla
1/2 c. brown sugar (optional)

Pour all the ingredients into pressure cooker and stir to combine. Cook over high pressure for 18 minutes or until grains are tender and liquid absorbed.

The baby's still cooking and so am I - One Local Summer: Week 11

Despite a due date that has come and gone, and with every effort made on my part to bring this baby on, she has still not made her appearance into the world. I'm hopeful that it will happen in the next few days, since I'm so darned uncomfortable, but in the meantime I'm cooking away!

I've got a pot of soup on the stove that smells fantastic. Using tomatoes, corn, onions, garlic, and basil from my CSA box, zucchini from the front yard garden, barley from our grain CSA, and some of the meatballs that I froze from our Chileno Ranch beef, this is a very local soup.

Summer Vegetable and Barley Soup with meatballs

1 T olive oil
1 red onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 medium zucchinis, diced
5-6 LARGE tomatoes, diced, seeded and drained or 10-12 medium
2 c. fresh corn
2 quarts vegetable stock
1 t salt
1/2 t crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 c basil, bay leaf, and a sprig of thyme (I did this like a bouquet garni, tied up to be removed from the pot)
2 c. barley, soaked and drained
1 lb. cooked meatballs
Basil and parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top of the finished soup

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil. Add zucchini, tomatoes, salt, pepper, herbs, and barley. Bring to a boil and reduce heat; simmer for 1 hr. 15 minutes or until barley is tender. Add meatballs and simmer until they're just heated through. Remove bouquet garni and serve with basil and parmesan cheese on top.

One Local Summer: Week 10 - Steak, corn, and cucumbers

Tonight's dinner was very simple and very tasty! Grilled steaks from Chileno Valley Ranch, red corn on the cob from our veggie box, and cucumber slices out of our garden. I'd never had red corn before - it tasted just the same as white sweet corn, very nice on the grill.

I got huge heirloom tomatoes in this week's veggie box this week and I'm the only one in the house that likes them. The tomatoes have been lovely for raw salads the past few days, and I made a salmon salad with canned wild salmon to stuff in one of the huge beefsteak tomatoes for lunch today. It was another simple, delicious meal.

With the eggplants in this week's box, I'm making chickpeas with eggplant-tahini sauce in the pressure cooker. I have chickpeas from the grain CSA and the recipe, from a Lorna Sass cookbook, was a favorite last summer. Chickpeas are soaking now for dinner tomorrow night, another One Local Summer meal - unless I go into labor before then!

One for dinner, one more for the freezer

Tonight we're having another of my endless variations on beans and grains, Spanish-style barley with Scarlett Runners, and with that mixture I'm stuffing bell peppers for another freezer-friendly post-baby dinner.

The barley is from our grain CSA, beans from Phipps, and various vegetables from Full Belly. Served tonight with green beans from our CSA box, we've got a local dinner for now, and stuffed into peppers from Happy Quail, topped with a little cheese from Spring hill, we've got a local meal later. This recipe makes a HUGE batch of the barley and beans, but they freeze well and would make a great lunch.

Spanish-style barley with Scarlett Runner beans

1 T olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 zucchini, diced
1 T chili powder
1 1/2 t cumin
1 t oregano
1 t salt
1 t paprika
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1 canned chipotle chile pepper and 1 t. adobo sauce
2 c. whole barley
2 c. crushed tomatoes (I used the tomato sauce that I made earlier in the week)
4 c. vegetable broth
2 c. Scarlett Runner beans, soaked overnight and drained
1 T oil
2 c. corn (fresh, frozen, or canned)
2 tomatoes, diced
1 big handful of green beans, cut into 1/2" pieces
1-2 scallions, diced

Saute onion, celery, carrot, zucchini, and garlic in olive oil. Add spices and saute another minute. Add barley and stir to coat with the onion and spice mixture. Add crushed tomatoes and vegetable broth. Cover, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 1 hr. 15 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed.

Meanwhile, cook soaked beans in the pressure cooker. Cover the beans by 2 inches with water and add 1 T oil to prevent foaming. Cook under high pressure for 12-14 minutes.

Once the barley is cooked, add the beans, corn, green beans, tomatoes, and scallions; stir gently to combine.

***

I now have a moussaka, tamale pie, 3 quarts of tomato sauce, 1 quart of tomato-bean soup made from the tomato sauce, and the stuffed peppers in the freezer. I'll be doing my big batch of meatballs later in the week and the turkey early next week, baby willing, and hopefully will have 15-20 dinners ready to go.

One Local Summer: Week 8 - Moussaka

Tonight's meal, Moussaka, is Core except for the bechamel on top, and at just 2 points per serving the bechamel doesn't make this too extravagent for as indulgent as it tastes. Jax ate a full serving and asked for seconds, and he's usually not an eggplant fan!

It's also completely local except for the cheese and spices. The vegetables are from Full Belly Farm, beef is from Chileno in Petaluma, milk and butter are from Clover in Mendocino, and flour is from our grain share. The recipe below has it baked in a 9"x13" pan, but I made it in two 8"x8" pans with one frozen for after the baby arrives. One more meal ready for the freezer, and one very tasty meal for this evening!

Moussaka
Serves 12

1 large eggplant, diced, salted for 30 minutes, and rinsed thoroughly
about 2 lb. potatoes, diced and boiled to al dente (not quite soft - they'll finish cooking in the oven)
1 T olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 medium zucchinis, diced
1 lb. lean ground beef (lamb would also be good)
salt and pepper to taste
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
1 T dry oregano
5 ripe tomatoes, diced

Bechamel Sauce
3 T butter
3 T flour
1 1/2 c. milk, heated
salt and pepper
1 c. parmesan cheese, divided

In a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, saute onion, garlic, bell pepper, and zucchinis until softened. Remove from the pan and cook ground beef until browned. Add the vegetables, spices, and tomatoes to the beef and simmer for 10 minutes or so for the flavors to combine.

While the beef mixture simmers, melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the paste cooks and bubbles a bit, but don't let it brown — about 2 minutes. Add the hot milk, continuing to stir as the sauce thickens. Bring it to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste, lower the heat, and cook, stirring for 2 to 3 minutes more. Remove from the heat. Add 1/2 c. parmesan cheese and stir to combine.

In an oiled 9"x13" pan, layer eggplant, potatoes, beef mixture, and bechamel. Top with remaining parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until the top is golden. Rest for 5-10 minutes and serve.

One Local Summer: Week 7 (a tad bit late) and Week 8

Last night we enjoyed another local dinner, fresh from the farmer's market and absolutely delicious. I grilled eggplant slices and topped them with goat's milk brie from Spring Hill Cheese, grilled red onion, fresh tomato slices, and basil, all from our CSA veggie box, and sprinkled with olive oil and blackberry fig balsamic vinegar from Hare Hollow. Corn on the cob on the side completed the meal. So colorful and flavorful! It was a different take on the eggplant stacks that I made last summer out of Cooking Light magazine, with brie instead of goat cheese and more of a salad than a stack. Both versions are delicious with fresh summer vegetables.

This morning, for my 30th birthday (!!) Mr.M made me breakfast in bed and it is a local meal as well, the first for week 8. He made omelettes with Glaum eggs, Spring Hill cheese, and peppers from Happy Quail Farm in E. Palo Alto; bacon from TLC Ranch in Watsonville; and slices of watermelon from Full Belly.

One Local Summer: Week 6 - Daily Menu

I've really been slacking on the blog lately! I've got to get back in the daily menu habit before the baby gets here so it's not so hard to switch gears back into Weight Watchers. Plus, it was all over the news yesterday that people who keep a food diary lose more than those who don't. I'm surprised that this is news - I've been hearing this for ages - but it is as good a reason as any to start tracking or keep it up if you're trying to lose weight.

So here's a One Local Summer daily menu. Everything on here has been locally grown except for the smoked trout at lunch.

Breakfast
Purslane omelette - purslane from Full Belly Farm, eggs from Glaum, and a bit of smoked sharp cheddar cheese* (my favorite!) from Spring Hill Cheese
1 c. apple juice* from Sonoma

Lunch
Kamut-barley berry slaw with smoked trout (recipe from "Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way" by Lorna Sass)
Kamut and barley from Windborne Farm CSA, cabbage and carrot from Full Belly farm, dressing from a neighborhood lemon and Hare Hollow olive oil

Snack
Yogurt-peach-plum smoothie - yogurt from Wallaby in Napa, peaches and plums from a neighborhood tree (with permission)

Dinner
Chicken in apricot-plum sauce - chicken thighs from Soul Food Farm in Vacaville (not much left of those chickens), apricots and plums from neighbors' trees (with permission), apples from our tree, balsamic vinegar from Hare Hollow in Healdsburg (omitting butter, using olive oil)
Roasted new potatoes with rosemary - potatoes from Full Belly, rosemary from a neighbor's bush (with permission)
Steamed green beans


* Points for those on Core

One Local Summer: Week 4 - Carrot Potato Soup

I've been slacking on the blog lately! I'm catching up with housework, laundry, getting stuff ready for the new baby (just 5 more weeks!), spending time with Jax, and napping, and blogging has just taken a back seat lately. I'm still eating, but I'm not paying nearly as much attention to writing it down right now.

Last night I made a pot of delicious soup - carrots, potatoes, and chipotle peppers, with a little cheese and plain yogurt mixed in to mellow the peppers and give it a fuller flavor. I wish I'd written down the exact recipe, but I kind of made it up as I went along, adding things to taste as I thought they were needed. I thought there would be leftovers, but even Jax ate secodns

I did use all local ingredients, though, so it fits our One Local Summer plan. Onion, garlic, carrot, and potato all came from Full Belly Farm. I used sharp smoked cheddar from Spring Hill Cheese in Petaluma and Wallaby yogurt from Napa. The only non-local ingredients were the spices.

One Local Summer: Week 3 - and Meatless Monday, and a recipe too!

For yet another One Local Summer menu, and a Meatless Monday one at that, I made a delicious bean and potato soup. This was one of those dinners that just hit the right balance of hearty and soul satisfying without being too heavy. I served it with cabbage and tomatoes.

Gigantes bean soup with potatoes
1-2 T olive oil
1 onion, coarsely chopped (again from Full Belly)
2-3 carrots, coarsely chopped (Full Belly, of course!)
1-2 celery stalks, coarsely chopped (from the farmer's market)
5-6 cloves garlic, crushed and coarsely chopped (from Gilroy)
4 c. cooked Gigantes beans (any mild white beans would work here; mine were left over from the polenta lasagna and were cooked with onion, garlic, bay leaf, oregano, and thyme)
6 starchy potatoes, like Yukon Gold, chopped coarsely (mine were from Full Belly Farm)
4 c. vegetable or chicken stock (homemade chicken stock from Vacaville chickens)
2 t. thyme
1/2 t. marjoram
1/2 t. sage
1-2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
water to cover potatoes if needed

In a large Dutch oven, saute the onion, carrots, celery until the onion is translucent. Add garlic and saute another minute or two, or until fragrant. Add beans, potatoes, spices, and stock. If the stock doesn't cover the vegetables, add water so that everything is covered. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes or until the vegetables are softened. Remove the bay leaves. Puree to a smooth consistency, adjust seasonings to taste, and serve with chopped parsley on top.


***

Yesterday, Mr.M, his mom, Jax and I drove out to Half Moon Bay and Pescadero to celebrate Father's Day with fresh, locally caught fish and a trip to Phipp's Country Store for beans. At Half Moon Bay Brewing Company, I ordered a halibut entree with halibut caught not 100 yards from the table (yum!)

Phipp's was busier than usual with U-Pick olallieberries, baby chickens in the farm area, and my favorite, the beans! I stocked up on five varieties of beans and you'll be sure to see them featured here over the next few months. Overall, a lovely day by the coast!

One Local Summer: Week 2 - Polenta Lasagna, and Daily Menu for June 13

We had Polenta lasagna for dinner tonight, and although it has quite a few ingredients, they're all local! I'm using a recipe I found on the web with a few adjustments; namely, I'm adding beans to make it a higher protein meal. I love Gigantes beans - they're huge as the name might suggest, but smooth and creamy, almost like potatoes, but with a delicious mellow flavor. They blended right in with the polenta, vegetables, and feta cheese. (I used just the feta cheese and skipped romano. I didn't have any rosemary so I skipped that.)

Cornmeal from my grain CSA has been cooked and chilled in the fridge in preparation of tonight's lasagna. I'm using the tomato sauce that I made and froze last fall from farmer's market tomatoes, and Gigantes beans from Phipps Country Store in Pescadero. Onion, garlic, carrot, and kale are all from Full Belly Farm, and Feta cheese is from Spring Hill Cheese.

This recipe was FANTASTIC! It didn't come out pretty so I won't be posting a photo, but it was delicious. The polenta and beans were creamy together and I didn't miss the extra cheese. Kale and olives gave it a bit more texture and interesting flavors. I'll definitely make this one again.

Breakfast
2 slices toast, 1 t. butter
2 eggs

Snack
Yogurt and berry smoothie with 1 t. flaxseed oil

Lunch
Carrot sticks and pita bread with Gigantes bean puree (like hummus made with Gigantes beans and olive oil)
1 c. vegetable juice

Snack
Cottage cheese and pineapple

Dinner
Polenta lasagna with Gigantes beans
zucchini

One Local Summer: Week 2 - Grilled Snapper

I made a delicious and very simple (and colorful!) dinner last night: grilled snapper, corn on the cob, steamed carrots, and strawberries. The snapper was dressed very, very lightly with lime juice, chili powder, salt and pepper, and grilled on aluminum foil "boats" because we don't have a fish grill pan. It worked out very nicely - the fish was cooked through and had the smoky flavor, and it didn't fall through the grates. Topped with cilantro and served with a lime wedge, this was light and fresh, perfect for a hot day.

Corn on the cob is great grilled, and I served that with lime wedges and dusted them dusted with chili powder. I read the idea on a blog about Indian food and thought it would be a nice change of pace from the standard butter, salt and pepper - boy is it! Tangy, spicy, and sweet, with a smoky grilled background flavor, this was a fantastic way to enjoy fresh sweet corn.

The fish was caught around Half Moon Bay, about 25 miles away. Corn on the cob came from Brentwood, 65 miles away. Carrots and strawberries were grown by my faithful CSA, Full Belly Farm, 128 miles away. And the lime was picked off a neighbor's tree (with permission, of course.) Only the chili powder, salt and pepper were not locally grown.

***

Adjustments to My Diet

I met with a dietitian this morning to go over the adjustments I need to make for my not-quite-diabetes elevated blood sugar levels. The biggest change for me is that I'll need to count, weigh, and measure all of my food until the end of my pregnancy (10 more weeks!) I'll also need to eat on a schedule - every 3 hours, and no longer than 10 hours between an evening snack and breakfast.

Since discovering Core, I've learned how to pay attention my body's hunger cues, eating mindfully when hungry and stopping when satisfied. For whatever reason, I am unable to do this while counting Points, carbs, calories, whatever. The mindset is just different for me in a way that I am not sure how to explain. I have worked hard to revoke my Clean Plate Club membership, and counting puts me right back into the mindset of "must eat what's counted" whether or not I'm physically hungry. I'm concerned that eating a prescribed amount on a schedule will not be a positive habit for me to reacquire, but I want to do what is healthiest for the baby, so I'll have to work with these rules to find a balance that works for me.

One Local Summer: end of Week 1

This week's veggie box:

Apricots
Carrots
Red Russian Kale
Salad Mix
New Potatoes
Summer Squash
Strawberries

Strawberries and apricots - Yum! This is the first of the summer squash, too, which is always tasty. We ate the half flat of strawberries in no time last week so I'm thinking I'll get a whole flat this week and freeze some for winter berry smoothies. Mmm, smoothies.

Mr.M wants to grill tonight, so I'm defrosting some pork (from TLC Ranch in Watsonville) to make kabobs for dinner. I'll grill those with squash (Full Belly), mushrooms from the farmer's market, and one of the fresh onions from last week's Full Belly box. I'm making barley (from Fort Scott) and a green salad (greens from Full Belly, oil and vinegar from Hare Hollow in Healdsburg) on the side and this will be another all local meal for our One Local Summer challenge.

I might grill peaches for dessert - if you haven't tried this, definitely give it a shot. The sugars in the peaches caramelize and they get warm and extra sweet. Delicious!

One Local Summer: Week 1

For our first all local meal of the One Local Summer challenge, we had grilled steak, baby new potatoes, glazed carrots, asparagus, and strawberries. The steak (just lightly salted and peppered) was from Chileno Valley Ranch in Petaluma and all of the veggies were from Full Belly Farm in Guinda. I used olive oil and balsamic vinegar from Hare Hollow Ranch in Healdsburg for a light dressing on the asparagus, and Hare Hollow olive oil with parsley on the potatoes, and an orange squeezed over the carrots for a simple glaze. All in all, a very simple supper, but wonderfully flavorful and satisfying.

I'm going in tomorrow morning for a glucose test to see if I have gestational diabetes. I failed the one hour test and am going back for the fasting three hour test tomorrow. It is a bit ironic that with my last pregnancy, I ate junk and had fine glucose levels, and this time I'm eating much healthier, a variety of fresh vegetables and lots of whole grains, and this time there is a chance that I might have gestational diabetes! That orange glucose drink is really awful, and spending the morning in the lab having blood drawn every hour just isn't my idea of a great time. Wish me luck tomorrow.

One Local Summer

I'll be participating in this year's One Local Summer challenge and encourage you to join me! The official challenge can be found here, and the rules are simple:

The challenge will begin on Sunday, June 1 and run until Sunday, August
31. Your challenge: prepare one meal each week using only locally grown
ingredients - the exceptions are oil, salt and pepper, and spices.

This shouldn't be too difficult given the abundance of fantastic local foods this time of year. The farmer's market is full of fantastic fruits and vegetables; the grain CSA is providing a plethora of new and interesting grain options; we still have frozen beef, pork, turkey, and chickens, and fresh fish (except for salmon) are readily available. Delicious menus of fresh all summer long? Sure!

Please join me in making one local meal a week and tell me about it!