Weekly Menu

Sundays are my big day to cook and we started it off right this morning! Here is a picture of breakfast

Simple and Delish - it is my take on perhaps a hash equivalent except cleanse style (meaning no potatoes). We took some ground turkey yesterday and mixed it with some thyme, salt, pepper, cayenne, onion powder, and garlic powder. We usually just bake or pan fry with a bit of olive oil into little sausage patties to be able to make a tasty breakfast on busy days.

So the mock hash is 3 sausage patties chopped up, sauteed with 1 artichoke heart (leftover from this week), 1 tomato and 1/4 roasted red onion. Then fry 2 eggs and serve on top. Delicious way to start the day with good vegetables and protein.

Lunch was also tasty and the leftovers will be lunch for the next few days for each of us. It was a delicious roast chicken which we brined before roasting this time, with a HUGE medley of veg roasted along side it (brussel sprouts, cauliflower, carrots, onion, garlic and summer squash). We had an arugula salad with avocado and balsamic vinegar on the side.

Here is the menu for this dinners this week:

Monday: Ground turkey kebabs with stewed okra in tomatoes and onion and grilled radicchio

Tuesday: Quinoa salad with basil, baked chicken, tomatoes, and zucchini

Wednesday: Roast chicken with brown rice, salad and roasted cauliflower

Thursday: Meatball soup with kale

Friday: Lentil soup with kale, tomatoes and zucchini

Quick Chicken Soup

This is a great recipe for weeknights when you need something nutritious but don't want to spend an hour and a half making chicken soup. It is also a good way to clear out the fridge which I love. More than a recipe it is a technique - so feel free to swap any of the ingredients. This has been a cleanse staple for us this past week. Enjoy!
Serves 2
4 cups homemade chicken broth
1 cup roast chicken chopped up
1 cup brown rice already cooked
1/2 cup each chopped of onion, celery and carrots
2 tbls olive oil
1 cup large pieces of chopped napa cabbage

In a pot saute the onion, celery and carrots with the olive oil over med-high heat until just softened. Put the broth in and bring to a boil. Add the chicken and rice. After 3 minutes add the cabbage. Serve in large bowls and savor.

Easy Does It

I was working out at the gym today and this commercial came on for some dieting product where you 'eat 35% less without even trying' by eating their supplements with your meals or something. The tag line at the end was 'dieting is hard and our product is easy!'. Nevermind that the whole thing was animated and showed this cartoon who was a little pudgy going to impossible and unhealthy skinny.
It reminded me of two things:
1 - I don't advocate 'dieting'. Atkins, South Beach are all good in their own way, but none are sustainable and none advocate a wide spectrum of wholesome and nutritious foods that work for your body (because remember, we are all unique in how we digest our food based on genetics, toxic exposure, tastes and physiology). A well balanced diet is what helps maintain weight, good health, immunity and happiness. Not to mention, depriving yourself of a fabulous glass of wine, or a piece of cake to celebrate with friends is just plain wrong and will drive you nuts to the point where you binge and ruin your mindset and weight management goals.
2 - Food should be about more than just key words like 'easy'. Eating is something that keeps you alive and healthy and energetic. You do it at least 2-3 times a day, EVERY DAY! I really feel that on the whole, our culture has lost sight of how much of a direct impact food has on your health, your skin, your mood, your hormones, my list goes on. I will talk a lot about food quality and that is part of it, but really what I am trying to address here is that it is not always about getting a meal done in under 30 minutes, or picking up to go food - you have to feed yourself properly! And don't get me wrong, I love the 30 minute meal uprising in the last few years, but I also have a significant appreciation for a slow cooked roast, or stews that cook for hours and I love to shop for that meal, plan it out and feed myself and those around me with it.

Some people don't share this same opinion, and I admit, food and food quality are very high on my priority list in life. I have some core values about food, and I just simply stick to it.

The next three weeks are going to be interesting. We are doing a cleanse (a program through Standard Process (a vitamin company) ) and it basically does not allow sugar, alcohol, dairy, and caffeine. Vegetables are unlimited, fruit is ok (twice as much veg as fruit though), meat and eggs are ok but no more than 8 oz a day and the only grains allowed are brown rice and lentils and quinoa (the non glutinous ones for their properties of being easily digested). Good fats are allowed so flax, olive oil, grapeseed and coconut - in moderation. There are shakes and supplements along with this program to aid in the cleansing and re-mineralizing process. Great program. Cleansing is something good to do seasonally, and at least once or twice a year. It gives our drainage organs (kidneys, liver, etc) a break, lets our digestive system regenerate, and gives us an opportunity to add back to our mineral and vitamin reserves.

Monday - Baked chicken bites tossed with heirloom tomato, quinoa, zucchini sauteed with leeks

Tuesday - Roast chicken with roasted brussel sprouts, zucchini, carrots and red onion

Wednesday - Chicken soup with veggies and a salad and a steamed artichoke

Thursday - baked salmon or halibut (plan to go to fish market that day) with sauteed brussel sprouts and leeks and quinoa

Friday - roasted eggplant with onion marinated (grate the onions) baked chicken kebabs with quinoa tabbouleh

Kombucha and Coconut Kefir!

I briefly mention in my profile that I could not eat dairy (more specifically the milk protein, casein) for about 8 years. And with some changes in my diet including better food combining, and cultured foods, I was able to turn my digestive wellness around and can now eat dairy again. It was a sweet day when I figured that out.
The key to the whole thing I am convinced, were the cultured foods. I made cultured vegetables out of cabbages, kale, carrots. They are good, and I still make them occasionally, but they are not really convenient for bringing into work (and actually, don't do this if you make it - it can be mistaken for sewage or something totally rotten). And you may ask why eat these things that smell so bad - but I tell you, they taste great and when you eat anything that has been cultured you feel amazing. It takes away sweet cravings, aids digestion and just balances you out. Truly, truly amazing stuff.
The other thing I cultured was young coconut juice and the meat inside. I got this from The Body Ecology Diet www.bodyecology.com. This book changed my life (Thank you Donna Gates!). Now this stuff is amazing for you, and tastes fantastic. It does not have a strong coconut flavor, but has a light essence. And because it is fermented, it has a bubbly champagne like mouthfeel.
Culturing I think is a job best done with a group. First of all, it is a bit cumbersome so it is nice to split the duties. Second, food and health are about community and I have found a great group of friends to share in this culturing exercise with me about every 6-8 weeks.
This weekend was all about culturing. We always do coconuts, and then one new thing. And I finally found a kombucha mother to make our own kombucha (You read my posting about limiting the budget to no more than $120 - and $2.50 bottles of kombucha are not in the budget but I love it dearly and so does the hubby!).
So many people have asked me 'what is kombucha'. I looked it up and it is a 'SCOBY' - Symbiotic Colony of Bacterial Yeast. It is so, so simple to make. Really the hardest part is getting a mother from someone (the mother is the starter - kind of like what you do with sourdough bread). And I found someone in Alameda (thank you again Melissa).
Basically what you do is boil some water, dump some sugar in and brew tea (pure black tea or green tea - no herbal, oils, flavors, etc). Let it cool and then add the kombucha mother. This should be done in a glass container. Cover with a paper towel and let sit for a week in a dark, 70 degree-ish area. After a week, the mother will have split and created 'babies' and the babies can be made for a new batch, composted, or shared with a friend. You drain the liquid out, put it in the fridge and brew a new batch with the mother or babies.
So every week you can continue to make your own kombucha, and the mother just keeps regenerating. Makes for some interesting symbolism.
It seems odd. But let me tell you, it is only in the last 50-75 years that we as a society stopped culturing our food. We have lost this part of our relationship with food and it is sad because cultured foods are so amazing for you - vitamins, digestive aids, probiotics.......the list goes on. It takes a little bit of work, but this is your health and well being - take the time to invest a little extra in it.

McObession

Friday night we had just sat in a reasonable amount of traffic on the Bay Bridge and were driving along 80E - preparing to sit in more traffic in Sacramento on our way to our favorite lake. I was sitting in the passenger seat - zoning out and getting to a happy place. Then out of nowhere, comes what I will call the McObsession car. It was a late 80's ish sedan with McD red, and McD yellow stripes, Ronald dolls hanging inside and "Supersize" me stickers on the outside.
Seriously?
It fired me up and made me yell "I have to write about this on the blog!".
So here I am. What the heck is the obsession?!! Just two days before I was sitting in the lunch room at my regular office job the other day and overheard two co workers talking about breakfast the next morning.
Co worker 1: Ooooo before I come in do you want me to get you a McD breakfast sango?
Co worker 2: hmm yeah that might be a good option
Co worker 1: OMG yay?! They are so good, like the best breakfast ever.

And there was no sarcasm there. It was a serious conversation. I don't really know the point of this posting other than to point out that real food, made with love, real ingredients and with a conscious in mind not only make sense and make for good health, but they just down right taste better.
I get the idea that it is convenient. I get that it is cheap. But for Pete's sake it takes less than 5 minutes to assemble a sandwich, or pour a bowl of cereal and scramble an egg!

Like any habit it takes time to break. So if you have a McObsession (or something similar), try spending an extra 5 minutes a day or 20 minutes a week preparing your own food. I imagine you will feel better about the mindful choice and have more energy!

Meal Planning and Vacation

We went up to the lake this weekend and I am always reminded when I go away for a weekend how well my meal planning works to make sure I eat food I make, and that we eat balanced meals. However, weekend getaways always muck that schedule up because I do everything on Sundays. Keeping a well stocked pantry and freezer helps when we get back, but I am now determined to figure out a more improved plan for when we go away - perhaps cook a few meals on Thursday or Friday before we go (that doesn't really sound appetizing or realistic), make fully frozen meals (more chili, stew, etc), stop at the store on the way home for just a bit of produce to hold us over until we can catch up. I don't know yet.
What do you do to make sure you eat wholesome meals when you get back from vacation?