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!