My whole life, I ate rice pudding that required a knife to cut and was served on a plate. Never really thought to ask my mom why it was called “pudding.” Anyway, the answer would have been that this is how my great grandmother made it. So there.
My great grandmother didn’t speak English, and she didn’t have anything written down when it came to recipes. My mom often told me the story of how she’d watch her bake and step in to measure the handfuls of ingredients, pinches of spices. My mom wrote it all down. Now here I am, sharing it digitally.
My husband would tell you that worry too much. I overreact. I’m a bit of a perfectionist.
He’s right.
I dunno, that’s just how I am. But I’ll admit that sometimes it gets me nowhere. I plan to buy chia seeds because I’ve read how healthy they are. Do I really need another bag of seeds or nuts in the house? Yes. Because these are SO good for me and I’m sure the omega-3′s are good for baby Danny. I wait and wait to finally make a trip to the store that sells ‘em. I consider ordering online, weighing the pros and cons of paying shipping. Etcetera. I finally get them. A whole bag! On sale!
I break out in hives from the chia seeds.
See? All the research and commitment in the world can just turn around on you.
Sometimes my husband is right about chilling out.
Now if you’ve been following my blog for awhile and remember me eating and enjoying chia seeds in the past, you’re right! They were organic, and a different brand. This recipe quickly became a favorite of my 21 Day Detox participants (there’s still time to join us this spring, btw!)
Are you a vegetarian? Vegan? Carnivore? Omnivore? Raw Foodist? Macrobiotic?
Good.
As long as you’re eating real, whole food, I don’t have much of an opinion about whether or not you should eat meat. It’s really, truly, up to you. And I have more news: you don’t have to stick by your diet the way you do a religion. You can change! Every day if you want. It’s ok. What is your body telling you today?
Here’s my meat story.
I always ate meat of all kinds growing up. My mom made a great meatloaf, paprika-sprinkled chicken legs and thighs, and breaded pork chops. (For awhile in 3rd grade we were studying dinosaurs and I began to regard my mother’s steak dinners as “Stegosaurus” dinners, which ruined me on steak for a brief period. But that’s neither here nor there.)
Fast forward 10 years. In college I ate meat and lots of it. It kind of goes hand-in-hand with eating out, because when your food comes from restaurants you won’t find many vegetarian dishes. I ate a lot of chicken fingers, hamburgers, etc. You get it. I also ate a lot of Italian meats because my boyfriend at the time had a mother with a fridge full of gobbagool. God did my stomach hurt.
It was post-college that I started getting dizzy spells and feeling extremely exhausted. I don’t blame meat, but my diet certainly left something to be desired. Living alone, I sometimes cooked up my mom’s meatloaf recipe and ate it for a week as leftovers, and sometimes dinner was a pear and a piece of gorgonzola cheese.
I started doing yoga, finally. Why did I wait so long?? My yoga teacher talked about his raw vegan diet and the Italian grandmother in me thought, “No wonder he’s so skinny.”
But I started reading and thinking about my diet. Jessica Porter’s The Hip Chick’s Guide to Macrobiotics got me onto whole grains and off dairy. Then John Robbins’ The Food Revolution got me off meat with its account of factory farm conditions. The China Study nudged me even further from animal product. It was simple. I did not want to contribute to my own poor health, I didn’t want to support this crazy meat factory industry, and heck – brown rice is a lot cheaper than steak!
That lasted for awhile and my health greatly improved. But here’s the thing. I don’t think it was because I stopped eating animal products – it was because I started eating real, whole, organic food.! Had I substituted my hamburgers with Boca Burgers and my ice cream with Soy Delicious, I don’t think I’d have had the recovery I did. Instead it was whole grains, dark leafy green vegetables, sweet root veggies and the like that brought me back to life, quite literally.
After learning about Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions I started reincorporating some meat into my diet. Sometimes it was with great intention – a small piece of grass fed beef purchased from a local farmer. Sometimes it was completely random, like bacon wrapped scallops hors d’oeuvres at an office party. Because they are SO good.
Basically, the pendulum swung back to center. It felt good to be able to enjoy food with my friends and not order the special vegetarian meal all the time. It felt good to enjoy meat again. And, well, I felt good. So here I am. I eat a little meat. And I try to make it the best quality, grass-fed or pastured stuff I can afford. That’s where I’m at.
Where are you?
For the omnivores out there, especially those who have found a grass-fed beef source, I encourage you to try this Beef Burgundy recipe. It’s so perfect for this time of year. If you haven’t had red meat in awhile, you’ll be shocked by how good grass-fed beef tastes. It’s better for you, better for the animals, better for the environment, and better for your local economy. So if you’re gonna do beef, do it right! It’s worth it. And if you don’t want to do beef, don’t. I have plenty of vegetarian recipes too. Every body is different!
Beef Burgundy Recipe from The Nourished Kitchen
I used whole wheat flour instead of sprouted grain flour, and I doubled this recipe in a gigantic pot. It was great. Thanks Jenny!
My best and craziest memories of college are of living with 7 roommates in a gigantic apartment just a block away from campus. We were something like 42 steps to our favorite bar – yes, we counted. (Those were black strappy heeled steps, by the way.)
We drank a lot, hosted a lot of parties, and when we were hungry we went to Pizzeria Uno’s. Unless it was one of those quiet nights…the kind where we all tried to use the stove at once and fit on our black pleather wraparound couch to watch a movie.
A favorite dish? Lean chicken breast pan-cooked in balsamic vinegar. No fat. Man, did that make for a tough pan to wash!
I don’t know why. I guess because it was easy and ‘healthy.’ Mostly I noticed then, and I still notice now, that people don’t like to handle raw chicken parts.
Well, we talk a lot about eating ‘whole foods.’ Is chicken a whole food? Yes. But not when you remove the skin, the fat, and only eat the breast. That’s a partial food. It’s like eating white rice or white bread. It’s missing something. When we eat animals, if we eat animals, it is a good idea to try and eat all the edible parts. Not to mention, you’ll get much more nourishment for your dollar. Boneless skinless chicken breast costs maybe $4.99/lb. but a whole chicken is something like $1.99/lb. Worried about the fat? It actually helps your digestion. There are plenty of scary, industrialized fats out there to avoid, but this isn’t one of them.
So here’s a meal that uses a whole food. 1 whole chicken. That’s right. A whole chicken, skin and all. The good news is that you don’t have to cut it up or dance around the kitchen with it – you just toss it in a pot. Can you do that? Good. Because it’s really worth getting the healing minerals and nutrients of time-tested homemade chicken soup every now and then.
And the pot will be a lot easier to clean than a pan with burnt balsamic vinegar. Trust me.
One last word on chicken. The industry is, in a word, vile. Supermarket chickens grow in cages crammed full of birds who have their beaks ripped off to avoid pecking each other to death. It’s disgusting. I implore of you to look into these practices if you are not already familiar. And when you buy animal products, look for those which were raised with some respect. That might mean you buy from a local farmer, or maybe you just choose Whole Foods over a conventional supermarket. Do what you can. Remember – you are what you eat. A healthy bird makes for a healthy you!
Chicken In A Pot This is more like a rustic stew than pure chicken soup. The beauty is that you can toss in whatever you like and not spend hours preparing ingredients.
1 whole chicken (3-4 lbs.), rinsed
10 cups water
1 bay leaf
10 peppercorns
1 Tbl. sea salt
3 onions, peeled and quartered
4 carrots, unpeeled, cut into large chunks
Optional ingredients: celery, leeks, corn, fresh herbs, rice, etc.
Inside your whole chicken there should be a bag containing the neck and organ meats. Take these parts out and combine with water, salt, bay leaf and peppercorns in a large stock pot. Simmer for about 30 minutes, then remove the chicken parts.
Add the whole chicken and veggies that require long cooking. (For instance, you can wait to add corn or spinach) Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Using tongs, carefully remove chicken and veggies from pot and place in a baking dish. Keep warm in the oven while you strain the remaining broth into a large bowl, discarding the peppercorns and bay leaf.
Pour broth back into pot. Add quick-cooking vegetables now, and any pre-cooked ingredients (like leftover rice.) While this simmers, take your chicken out of the oven and use a fork and knife to separate the wings, legs, thighs and breast meat. You can keep the wings and legs intact, but discard all other bones. For more about carving a chicken, see these steps.
Place chicken meat and veggies back into the pot, stir, adjust seasoning, and serve piping hot.
How’s everyone’s week going? I feel like it’s been a mighty productive one so far. In addition to my usual blogging, yoga teaching and health counseling clients I have been preparing for this weekend’s workshop, The Yoga of Food. If you live in the Boston area please come so we can meet face to face. It’s gonna be awesome!
Anyway, I’ve been meaning to post about how we stumbled on Land’s Sake farm last week in Weston, MA. I fell in love with their freshly picked organic veggies, including baby white and purple potatoes. But what on earth was I going to do with them? I haven’t cooked much with potatoes recently. (By the way, have you had purple potatoes? They have such an awesome, rich, deep color. Foodies and artists alike go bananas for ‘em, I’m guessing.)
I suppose I could have splurged for some grass-fed beef but, hey, this was a last minute thing and we were having company. $20/lb. for grass-fed meat is cool sometimes, but I’m no millionaire. So off to a veggie solution my mind went….hmmmm….what to do with potatoes?
How would you use purple potatoes to create a gorgeous summer meal?
I remembered a comment by Heidi saying that sometimes her summer dinners include steamed potatoes and green beans tossed with…something. I couldn’t remember what so I had to come up with something on my own. Pesto! A-ha! And then I one-upped myself. MINT Pesto!
Is this starting to sound good? It sounded good to me. Mint feels like a good way to perk up potatoes for a summer meal, doesn’t it?
Of course I still needed something else and since meat wasn’t happening I found a good veggie burger recipe and modified the heck out of it. Came out awesome with a smear of white miso and collard chiffonade. Fancy!
So I guess what I’m saying is…it’s definitely possible to impress your family and guests with an easy vegetarian meal. You probably knew that already. But I’m just sayin’.
Chickpea Miso Burgers
4 cups cooked chickpeas (I used canned, sue me!)
2 medium onions, chopped
1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
2 Tbl. chili powder
1 cup clover sprouts (or other green veg)
2 eggs
2 Tbl. tahini
S+P
white miso
Combine all ingredients in food processor. Shape handfuls into patties and place on a dish, not touching. Refrigerate while you prepare the rest of the meal. When ready to cook, heat butter or oil in a skillet on medium heat. Cook patties on each side for about 5 minutes. Top with white miso.
Mint Pesto Potatoes
2 lbs. potatoes, cut into 1″ pieces
4 cups fresh mint
1 cup olive oil
1 cup walnuts, pan toasted
1 garlic clove, crushed
2-3 Tbl. lime juice, lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
S+P
Steam potatoes until tender. Rinse under cool water so they don’t over cook and set aside. In blender, combine all other ingredients except oil. While blending, pour oil slowly in via the feed tube. Toss pesto with potatoes to coat.
The last three books I read were: Nourishing Traditions, In Defense of Food, and Real Food. But I’m a nerd like that! This video, The Meatrix, does a fantastic job of bringing the same message to folks who otherwise not get it. So please, share it with your friends and family, email it to your partner, post it on your Facebook wall, whatever.
It’s about darn time Americans learned where that $1.99/lb. ground beef is coming from!
This past weekend at IIN (The Institute for Integrative Nutrition) we spoke quite a bit about factory farming and the cruel, unsafe and inexplicable system that has come to be. If The Meatrix resonates with you, you might like John Robbin’s The Food Revolution–this was the first book I read that really opened my eyes to the US food system.
Or, go to YouTube for more videos about factory farming. But fair warning–many will be too graphic for most people to handle. I was practically in tears this weekend watching some of this stuff! It’s just horrible and I’m not even a hardcore PETA person or anything.
What do you think about factory farming and the price of cheap food?
So now that everyone is probably thinking “oh crap, I don’t want to eat chicken for dinner anymore” I want to share the winners of my Massa Organics brown rice giveaway! And even if you didn’t win, check out that post for excellent dinner options you can turn to instead of chicken tonight.
I assigned each entry a number based on the order of the comments and winners were chosen via Random.org:
Congratulations to Michaela, Lydia, Jen and Janet! Please email me with your mailing address so I can get your rice to you asap!
#1 Yesterday I spent the afternoon at the Medford, MA Farmer’s Market where I’m lucky enough to have my own table this year! I got to mingle with the locals and spread the Real Food love. In coming weeks I think I’m even going to get the chance to teach yoga for a midday class, right in Medford Square at the market. Sweet, huh?
#2 I also earned myself a magnificent farmer’s tan while sitting at the market. Oops.
#3 Today I’m heading down to NYC for another weekend at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and when I get there I’m heading straight for the Union Square Farmer’s Market.
And #4, today I have a recipe for you that I made using fresh goose eggs from a farm in Western Massachusetts. (But you can use chicken eggs!) This is a great way to use up any herbs you have leftover from other recipes, or maybe fresh gorgeous herbs from your garden (lucky you!)
No-flip omelette with loadsa herbs
1 goose egg (Or 2 chicken eggs, preferably from pastured, local chickens)
1 Tbl. water or milk
2 big handfuls of fresh herbs (basil, parsley, oregano, etc.)
1 Tbl. organic butter
S+P, to taste
1. In bowl, whisk egg with water or milk. Heat butter in small pan over medium heat. Make sure you have a tight fitting lid for this pan.
2. Coat pan with melted butter, then add egg. Evenly distribute 1 handful of herbs across the top. Add S+P.
3. Cook for 2-3 minutes until bottom of egg is somewhat firm. Using spatula, lift edge and allow uncooked egg to run underneath.
4. When only a small pool of uncooked egg remains on top, cover with lid to finish cooking. Before serving, top with the other handful of fresh herbs and more S+P.
My earliest memories of brown rice are from my mom’s kitchen, served as a healthier alternative to white rice. She said she LIKED it better. I didn’t believe her. All I wanted was Rice-a-Roni the San Francisco treat I saw advertised on TV with that cute little jingle!
But brown rice it was.
Most people don’t have particularly gourmet ideas surrounding the humble whole grains of brown rice. But I’m going to change that for you today! Oh heck yes I am. Not just with some outstanding recipes, but with a review of the finest brown rice you could be lucky enough to taste. And not just one of you, but FOUR of you are going to win a bag of this fantastic organic product. At the end of this post I’ll tell you how.
Excited yet?
I ran into Greg Massa on Twitter. One of my foodie friends (looking at you, Heidi Robb) mentioned the company and I had to see what it was all about. Here’s the coolest thing about Greg Massa and his wife Raquel: they are biologists turned farmers who Twitter and keep a blog! That’s my kind of farmer! Just kidding, all organic farmers are my kind of farmer but I have a harder time meeting or having a conversation with them from my urban dwelling.
So, onto the rice.
This is good stuff, folks. It’s been written up in Saveur Magazine and a whole boatload of newspapers in California. Here’s why: it’s delicious. And the sustainable farming practices in place at Massa are equally as appealing.
Massa Organics has a hard rule against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and does everything possible to positively impact the air, water and soil. They capture and recirculate the irrigation water and instead of burning crop residue built their own house out of rice straw. These folks are the real deal! So let’s applaud Greg and Raquel for doing the right thing – which we can assume may not always be the easiest thing!
When I was barely old enough to hold a pencil my mom would give me one and let me draw endlessly on a pad of paper. Such a simple thing held so much wonder, so much potential for creativity and expression. I felt much the same way when Greg Massa offered to send me a sample of his brown rice! It’s is the perfect food to create so many meals around. I could eat it every day and never run out of awesome recipes to try.
Why not start your week with a big pot of brown rice? Soak it for at least a few hours or overnight. This technique makes any whole grain easier to digest and gets rid of phytic acid, which can prevent mineral absorption in your body. Simply soak in a bowl of water with a splash of lemon juice or vinegar, then drain and add fresh water to cook. I love this cooking method, which treats rice more like pasta.
Then, serve it differently every day for a time-saving menu plan. Here are some recipes I enjoyed with Massa rice, and at the end of this post is your chance to win your own bag of Massa Organics brown rice.
Brown Rice Fritters
These are easy as pie, just mix rice with egg, fresh oregano and a few other things and fry ‘em up! Totally delicious. Serve with mixed greens for an easy meal. Since this recipe came from Saveur, go check it out there!
Veggie Fried Rice
1 Tbl. organic butter
1 onion, peeled and diced
4 scallions, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
(Other veggies to add: brocolli, peppers, sliced cabbage or bok choy, bean sprouts or whatever you have on hand)
4 cups cold cooked rice
2 eggs, whisked
2 Tbl. soy sauce
1 Tbl. mirin
This recipe cooks up fast so have all your vegetables washed and prepared ahead of time. Heat butter in a large skillet or wok over medium high heat. Whisk mirin into eggs and pour into wok. Scramble until cooked but still loose. Add onions and any other raw veggies that need time to cook. Keep mixing for about 5 minutes as veggies soften and onions brown. Add cooked rice and veggies you want to keep crisp like bean sprouts. Continue to stirfry. When heated through, add soy sauce and serve.
Brown Rice Pudding
3 cups leftover brown rice
1 can organic coconut milk (or milk, soymilk, almond milk, etc.)
1/2 cup raisins
4 Tbl. maple syrup
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 Tbl. dried coconut
2 Tbl. tahini
Mix all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Stir over heat until most of the liquid is absorbed and everything is well mixed and warm.
So, do you want to win a free bag of Massa Organics rice? Leave a comment below this post for your entry! For extra chances to win you can do the following:
1. Sign up for my RSS feed
2. Sign up for my newsletter
3. Follow me @MPfennighaus on Twitter and retweet this post
4. Follow Greg Massa @MassaOrganics on Twitter and retweet this post
5. Stumble this post
Let me know in the comments how many entries you’re completing. Contest closes on June 4th at 8am EST. Winners must provide a US address to receive their rice!
Finally, last weekend Max and I took our first trip to a local farm! So awesome. It felt like another world. I mean, I didn’t have any cell phone coverage out there. Crazy, right? It was worth it though. Even when buying the most expensive eggs at Whole Foods I wonder…gee…does this company debeak their chickens? Am I eating eggs from chickens who are stuffed 10 to a cage and never see the light of day? What about the milk I’m buying? Has this cow been fed hormones and antibiotics to keep her producing milk constantly, even while preganant? Is that the kind of business I want to support?
I digress. But seriously, this is what I think about when I shop. That, or I’m thinking damn I forgot my reusable bags again!
So we’re driving down a dirt road past a sportsman club and lots of trees, wondering where this farm is…then, well, we saw the cows! Big, brown, furry looking things. Cows are furry? Did you know that? I did not. They were all hanging out, eating grass, covered in mud. Everything smelled kind of…good. Earthen, sort of. Max assured me that this was only because it’s still cold in Massachusetts. In the summer, the smell would probably shoot past “earthen” to downright “stinky. Ah, well.
Inside the barn everything was on the honor system. We bought fresh eggs and milk, beef and pork and left a check in the jar. Simple stuff. They also had yogurt, duck eggs and goose eggs! Maybe next time. I’ll admit the prices were a bit higher than at the store, but not by much and the freshness can’t be beat. This is quality food that I can feel good about. When was the last time you thought THAT about a Subway $5 Footlong?
Ok, ok I can hear what you’re thinking: “Go to a farm, is she crazy? i don’t even have time to go to the bathroom!”
So for you folks, you’re in luck! It’s time to join your local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for summer shares! Joining a CSA allows you to experience farm fresh foods without ever seeing a dirt road. They truck it in, and everyone subscribed goes and picks up their share once a week at the local dropoff point. For anyone in Boston interested in a CSA, please email me and I’ll give you the deets about one in Central Square or one in Medford. For all my lovely readers outside of the Boston area, check out LocalHarvest.org to find a CSA near you.
Finally, if farm-hopping sounds crazy and a CSA is too much commitment, I urge you to look for your local Farmer’s Market. This summer I’ll be spending a lot of time at the Medford Farmer’s Market but there are markets all over the place. Go look. Seriously. Prices at the market are always good and the food is fresher than the stuff that travels on planes, trains and automobiles to get to the supermarket.
As if all apples are created equal! Please. I think we all know a thing or two about organic produce vs. conventionally grown stuff.
For starters, pesticides and chemical fertilizers. These are no good for us or for the environment. Here’s something interesting: google “umbilical pesticides.” Scary, no? What else…hmmm…what about genetically modified foods? The most common GMOs are corn and soybeans but GM versions of other foods exist for sure. Check out this handy chart.
In response to CulinaryWannabe’s recent comment on this post I am very intrigued by The Environmental Working Group’s new guide to buying fruits and veggies. Here is a downloadable PDF you can keep in your purse to remind you of what produce is best bought organic, and which are ok to buy conventional if you have to. Thanks to Marion Nestle at Food Politics for this link!
I am going to print this puppy out and take it with me next time to the store. It’s a great way to know where to cut a few pennies, like maybe go ahead and buy the cheaper, conventionally grown broccoli if it makes sense for you.
Related to saving money, I am happy to share that I will soon be spending a lot more time focusing on health counseling, cooking and yoga because I was laid off from my job in advertising yesterday. It’s never easy to lose a job but in this case I think it’s a blessing. There’s so much I want to do in this field…I’m off to the kitchen right now to start a new recipe…! And now’s as good a time as any to announce that I will soon be moving this blog over to a wordpress platform and new business site. This is just a warning that’s it’s coming soon but when it’s ready I will make it abundantly clear to change your RSS and email subscriptions. I LOVE the community that has begun to grow here, so I hope you all join me for the next leg of the journey
I help busy people find balance in their over-worked, over-stressed lives. Trust me, it's not an all-or-nothing situation! A few shifts in diet and lifestyle can rock your world like they did mine. Read on
