My Own Personal Food Sustainability Series: Episode 7

This post is with regards to the highly anticipated thick, creamy, gooey, delicious, mushroom cream sauce I made last week. I will try to get right down to business because I feel that most people are really just interested in the recipe.

So, this came about because I had some mushroom filled tortellini, and some fresh mushrooms, and this is what I wanted for dinner. I had no tomatoes, no pre-made sauce, and I didn't want to go to the store. So, I thought about what I did have to work with, which was basically a variety of dairy products, and decided that a cream sauce would go very well with mushrooms!

Ingredients:

- 4 oz butter - yes, I did use butter for this instead of olive oil. Olive oil would have been a better choice health-wise, but I did make sacrifices elsewhere...

-4 oz cream cheese (or neufchatel) - I would suggest cubing this

-4 oz plain yogurt - mine was not greek; regular plain is just what I had although Greek would work great!

-3 cloves garlic - however I tend to over-garlic my food... I really like garlic, plus compounds in garlic, like allicin, provide a lot of benefits, including to the immune system!

-2 Cups milk

-~6 oz cheese - I used an Italian cheese blend that had Parmesan, Romano, etc... Most recipes call for plain Parmesan, but I used what I had and it worked well!

-Mushrooms - as many as you like, I used ~1 C - chopped

-Black pepper

Instructions:

1. Melt butter over medium heat.

2. Add cream cheese and stir it in as best you can... I kind of squished it with the back of my spoon some to help the heat break it down (I'm sure "squishing" is the technical culinary term of course!).

3. Add the yogurt and garlic, keep stirring until smooth, at this point I also whisked it some to get lumps out.

4. Stir in milk.

5. Stir in cheese, it will start getting thicker at this point, which is what you want.

6. Add mushrooms and black pepper - at this point, the longer you keep it on the stove the stronger the mushroom flavor will be, so if you want it strong, let it all meld for awhile, it will also continue to thicken some over the heat, so you can leave it on if you want it thicker too.

Voila! Magnifico!!... So good, and makes a ton of sauce!!

In the sense of all things sauce, another one of my favorite white sauce recipes comes from the Boost your Metabolism Cookbook, written by Chef Susan Irby in collaboration with dietitian Rachel Laffierere MS, RD. While I like a lot of the recipes in the cookbook, this one specifically is the sauce that goes with the walnut and blue cheese pasta, and it is an awesome white sauce too!

Stay tuned as next time we will discuss the somewhat controversial topic of ramen noodles!

#foodcreativity

My Own Personal Food Sustainability Series: Episode 6

There is something supremely satisfying and motivating to me about noticing all the whole foods I eat throughout the day. As a culture we typically don't eat just an onion, or just a pepper, or sometimes maybe even just fruit. They tend to be mixed in dishes, like casseroles, burrito bowls, or smoothies. While we all motivate differently than other people in our quest to choose the "best" food, whatever that may mean to each of us, and then within ourselves we motivate differently depending on what we're dealing with, at the end of the day being able to say to yourself, "Today I ate a whole onion, a cucumber, 2 jalepenos, 1/2 a bell pepper, 1 Cup of spinach, and 1/2 Cup of carrots" can make you feel like you really accomplished something, and inspire you to see what you can do the next day! 

I practiced this theory with my dinner tonight: a stuffed bell pepper:

I ate 1/2 an onion, a couple cloves of garlic, 1 bell pepper, and 1 jalepeno (not pictured are cheese, ground beef... you know, "the fixin's"). I knew I needed to cook that bell pepper, because it's a little wrinkly, as you can see from the photo, and cooking will cover the fact that it was getting a little more ripe than desired. Remember, take this recipe as more of a guideline, and use what YOU have! For the rice, I used leftover rice I had from a restaurant. It saved me a ton of time!

Recipe:

Ingredients:

-Ground beef, as much or as little as you'd like

-1/2 small onion, white or yellow

-1 jalepeno

-Garlic to taste, minced

-Rice

-1 Bell pepper, top cut off and innards removed

-Cheese

Instructions:

1. Saute ground beef on medium heat, adding veggies to pan when no more pink in beef (don't want to overcook veggies, or maybe you do, maybe YOU like them super soft and want to add them earlier!)

2. Since my rice was already cooked, when my veggies were just becoming soft, I added my rice to the pan with the beef and veggies for just a couple of minutes to let the flavors meld and heat the rice a bit

3. Stuff that pepper baby!!

And... I put my stuffed bell peppers in cupcake tins so they stand straight up. Just a little trick of the trade!! well, in the Kitchen of Mollie at least ☺

I'll stop getting jalepeno business now, hehe... Buenas noches!

My Own Personal Food Sustainability Series: Episode 5

This episode is with regards to aging fruit. Fruit that has seen younger days, and prettier days. Now it has wrinkles, and the human equivalent to "liver spots". It is nearing the end of it's life, and, if you don't use it soon, it will start to stink. And then come the obnoxious fruit flies...

So, the first question is, is fruit ok to eat if it is just a little discolored, and maybe a little softer than it should be?... Sure, as long as it hasn't become fuzzy (assuming it's not a naturally fuzzy fruit). Will it taste as good?... Possibly not, hard to say. But, eventually it will reach a point when there is a whole new, colorful type of universe growing on the fruit itself, and at this point, when it becomes downright rancid, it is obviously past the point of return. But, say you are in a situation where you have 10 more oranges (or apples, or whatever... Use your imagination!), they are obviously starting to age, and you know there's no way you can finish them all before they contain their own ecosystems, and they're doomed for the landfill. What can you do?

Well, I recently experimented with a new concept (to me) that may help answer this question: HOMEMADE FRUIT LEATHER!!! it is essentially a process of drying out the fruit until it is basically a healthy fruit roll up. Removing the moisture greatly decreases the likelihood of any type of growth therefore increasing the shelf life of whatever fruit you are working with, and drying fruit always concentrates the nutrients, meaning a serving size is smaller.

Ingredients:

-At least 3 Cups of any type of fruit.

-A little sugar: I just did about a tsp to a tbsp, and when you consider that for the amount of fruit and your final number of servings, that is a minuscule amount per serving. It doesn't take much, however... You know food, cooking, baking, how it all comes together, it's really a science, and I really think the sugar will help form your final product a little better. You could try it without any, taste wise you don't need it, but I do think a little sugar is likely to help the process along.

-A little water: I probably put about 1/4 C in the pot, you just want to make sure you have some extra moisture than just the fruit.

Steps:

-Put fruit in pot (my fruit leather was "banana berry": banana's, kiwi, and blueberries)

-Very good! now add a little bit of water and the sugar, and cook on medium heat until fruit is simmering, most of the juices have come out, and it's a nice pot of fruit mush!

-Let your "fruit mush" cool, and then give it a spin in the blender, or food processor until it is completely smooth

-Next, I laid a sheet of parchment paper* across a pan, and poured some of my blended "fruit mush" over the parchment paper; use the back of a spoon to evenly distribute it and make it fairly thin

*I say "I laid a sheet of parchment paper", because there are various ways to do this. Some websites recommend just non-stick pans, some recommend aluminum foil. Can't say what it best, but I can say that parchment paper worked fine for me.

-Cook in oven on low heat (I did 200 degrees) until dry and you can peel it off the paper (3-6 hours; time depends on a combination of how thick your layer is, if you use parchment paper v. foil, etc. That's the catch, it can take a long time! but, basically the thinner your layer, the quicker it will go).

Final Product:

A few strips of my completed fruit leather

Bon Appetit!

 

My Own Personal Food Sustainability Series: Episode 4

If you are new to this series, check out "Episode 1" to get a better idea of the purpose, but long story short, we waste... A LOT. And it is not necessary and there are a variety of repercussions to that. I want to help people realize that, if they don't have an ingredient in a recipe, they don't have to scrap it! they can use something they DO have, allow it to be slightly different, and realize that it can still be good and nutritious. We're too 'Type A' with regards to nutrition, cooking, and meal planning. Bend the rules. Don't meal plan and go shopping for 15 new ingredients when you have a pantry and fridge full of food, just to match a recipe. Use what you do have to create something awesome, and nutritious! 

This particular post is regarding 7-layer dip (exciting, right?). So, my 7-layer dip is below. It looks great, and it was amazing!

But... to be honest, it is not quite what it appears. And, I am not sure it was quite 7 layers actually... When I think about it, it was more like 5... But first of all, let's start with the guacamole! I made layer dip in the first place because I had avocados I needed to use, but I was tired of plain guacamole. I also didn't have everything I needed for plain guacamole. Here is what I combined:

-Avocados

-Juice from a jar of jalapenos (I did not have lemon juice, which I would typically use, but you need acidic moisture for guacamole)

-Minced fresh garlic

-Diced onion

-Lighthouse guacamole seasoning blend

I would have loved to have added fresh cilantro, did not have that.

I spread the guac out, that was my first layer. Next, a layer of canned re-fried beans. Now, for the third layer, I did not have sour cream or greek yogurt, so I used a thick, greek yogurt based ranch dressing that I had in the fridge. Ranch actually went extraordinarily well with the other flavors in the layers. I made an entire layer just of spinach leaves - and use these liberally; they will obviously shrink a bit when cooked. Then a layer of cheese with sliced jalapenos on top. So in summary, that was:

-Guacamole

-Beans

-Ranch dressing

-Spinach leaves

-Cheese and sliced jalapenos 

Another way I ended up re-vamping the layer dip as the week went on, was by putting it in a tortilla in the mornings and having breakfast burritos out of it. Layer dips can really carry people a long way in a crunch. For a last minute get together, if you have hummus, olives, peppers, goat cheese, anything like that, layer it, bake it, and call it a Mediterranean layer dip; people will love it! If you did a layer of tortillas (corn or high fiber would be great!) on the bottom and top, it would be more like a Tex-Mex casserole. Lots of ways to use ingredients you already have, and enjoy yourself with layer dips!  

Also, below is a link to a good webinar more in depth about the Nutrition and Sustainability connection: 

https://ce.todaysdietitian.com/node/68425#group-tabs-node-course-default4

Hope someone enjoys!

My Own Personal Food Sustainability Series: Episode 3

Life rule # 233956: EVERYTHING, tastes good on a baked potato with cheese; as is true when eating more "sustainably".

Potatoes are something I tend to just.... have around. May not be true for everyone, I'm not sure, but it tends to be true for me. Potatoes, yea, they're fairly starchy, but they are a really great source of potassium, which is good for most people (as long as your kidneys are in fine working condition), and eating the skin too provides a lot of fiber which will slow the absorption of some of that starch (which is tolerable... with cheese!). The other thing about eating a potato, which automatically helps account for all that starch, is to listen to your own body. For instance, sometimes I am ravenous and can eat an entire baking potato, and in those cases that is fine. But sometimes, I am stuffed when I have only eaten half of it, and that is fine too! I don't force myself to eat the rest, I try and be mindful; listen to the natural signals my body sends as I go, and I will have the other half for breakfast the next morning (I'm not that into actual "breakfast foods", I just eat at breakfast), or dinner the next night. The latter scenario is almost better because I get two meals out of one potato!

Potatoes are great carriers for left-overs, or whatever you have lying around (although... I would advise you not to put pasta on a potato). You have barbecue potatoes, classic potatoes, pizza potatoes, the list goes on! How do I like my potatoes?... BROCCOLI AND CHEESE POTATOES!

Ingredients:

-Broccoli

-Cheese

-Potato

1. Bake potato - I typically do mine in the microwave because it's so much faster, but some people think oven tastes better

2. If using frozen broccoli, just  microwave it a couple minutes - it will taste steamed, and the nutrients will actually be preserved quite well, if using fresh, sautee it a minute, or put it in the oven for a minute or two once the potato is done

3. However you go about your broccoli, in the end, once the potato is done you should open it up and put the broccoli and cheese inside it, and heat it for another couple of minutes until the cheese is melt-ey

FYI, if you keep potato flakes around, this will also work with that! just cook the flakes the way you normally would, and put the broccoli and cheese on them at the end. You can also add onion; that goes very well with this. Peppers would be good. Use what YOU have, and make it your own!

My Own Personal Food Sustainability Series: Episode 2

So, to better understand the purpose of this series, please see last week's post. This week's post is going to be short and sweet, and is regarding roasting veggies. This technique I started to not waste veggies has also managed to increase the amount of veggie in my diet, and it is very simple.

For a long time now I have taken a zip-lock baggy with raw vegetables in my lunch; usually a combination, sometimes just carrots... Just whatever I have, and I typically take a small container of some dressing or hummus with it, but how I eat it at lunch is really beside the point! what matters most is how I handle the left-overs later...

Lately I have not been finishing my whole zip-lock bag at lunch (in my defense, I do pack a lot). So, whatever vegetables I have left at the end of the day, I bring home, and mix in with whatever vegetables I am having with dinner! if it is a simple salad, I cut them up also and add them. In the picture below, I was roasting green beans, and just added them to the pan (brown thing on the other side is tilapia... JUST in case you were wondering...). 

If you find yourself saying something like, "oh, I can't do that because I don't have anything to add them to at dinner", it sounds like assessing balance in the diet may be an option.

So, anyways, that's it! I have been re-vamping un-used lunch to make me a healthier me :)

Bon appetite!

My Own Personal Food Sustainability Series: Episode 1

I am starting this series for a very particular reason, and I will give a brief introduction, but I think anyone who reads this will better understand it as we go.

Do you know people who spout a lot of rhetoric, "the environment is in trouble!"... "more people need to take the state of the earth seriously!"... "I have eight million opinions about food and distribution..." (or anything else for that matter; pick your cause related to the earth, food, sustainability, etc... in our country), and then throw away 75% of their lunch every day, for instance (I figure a lot of people could related to a work or school environment). Well, I sure have, and... it really gets under my skin. The reason being, everyone has a lot of ideas and opinions about how we should all be living our lives, but most people don't actually want to take responsibility for what they spout, or if they think they do, if you observe them closely, are very hypocritical. Not that mistakes can't be made, from the previous example I am not encouraging you to eat a steak that has gone bad for the sake of not throwing it away. No, not at all what I'm saying, by all means if you have food that smells bad or looks like this, throw it away and don't eat it! (see exhibit A below).

What I am saying, is it is all very interconnected. What I call "eating sustainably" can be very nutritious, save a lot of money both in your pocket, and in the whole business that is food, and cause a more even distribution of food to all people, in theory.

So, what I want to do in these posts is unlike other dietitians. I am not going to give you a recipe and encourage you to meal plan. I am going to share with you ways and ideas that I am using, in my every day life, to try and eat more sustainably, and you can take that and apply it to what you have in your fridge and cupboard right now. 

Spicy Chicken Taco Macaroni

Two days ago I needed to cook something for dinner, not unlike every single other adult currently living. I looked in my fridge and real quick in my mind took inventory of what I had, how long it had been sitting there, and what I needed to use. Some left over chicken had been in there a while, still good right now, but probably didn't have a whole lot longer. I had had burritos, quesadillas, some of the basic things, I needed to re-vamp it, I needed something new. I also had some sweet mini-peppers, and onion that I needed to use, and I had a package of boxed macaroni and cheese.

I am going to get off topic for a second, but I want to talk about boxed macaroni and cheese because some people are like, seriously? AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A DIETITIAN... But I'll try and be brief. Is it healthy? No... Not really. The pasta has some vitamins, but mostly not very healthy. HOWEVER... We can make it better! If I had carrots I needed to use, I would have put them in the water while I boiled the pasta. The pasta will absorb nutrients from the carrots, and the orange will give your pasta, and sauce, a nice, rich color. What I did, was add chopped veggies to the boxed macaroni, which helps too.

Ingredients:

- Boxed macaroni and cheese

- Chopped or shredded chicken

- Sweet mini peppers (diced or chopped - as many as you want)

- 1/2 Onion (diced)

-Chili Powder

-Garlic Powder

-Onion Powder

Notes: Cilantro would have been great, I just didn't have that. Diced jalepenos also would have been good, or some of the liquid from the can or jar of jalepenos would give it more kick. Instead of the various seasonings, you could use taco seasoning, however even low-sodium taco seasoning is going to contribute a decent amount of salt to your meal, and I personally did not want that.

Directions:

-Mix pasta as directed on box

-Add in everything else after pasta is strained and cheese is added

-Seasonings to taste - I would estimated that I used a little more than a tbsp of each, but I like spicy foods. You could probably follow that rule for garlic and onion powder, but definitely add the chili powder to YOUR liking.

Get it a little now? It's about analyzing what you already have, and working with it to create nutritious meals. So fast, so easy, tasted like... well... spicy chicken taco macaroni! and no extra money in ingredients I didn't have.

See you next week!