Simple Stir Fry: The Technique

Random veggie bits and pieces for stir fry.

 One of my resolutions was to waste less. Nine days in, I'm feeling pretty great about this goal. The last two weekends I've picked up most of our veggies from the farmer's market; the others hail from our dwindling backyard garden.

Having these beautiful, organic, locally grown vegetables on hand makes me feel like they're more special than average grocery store produce which encourages me to avoid wasting any bite. Since I know they're organic, too (and enjoy reading Johnson's Backyard Garden blog about this local produce), I tend to use more of the plant. Funny how that works, isn't it? Regard something as precious and you treat it better and use it more wisely. To me, this means, "Don't waste it!"

Kind of by accident, I happened upon a new tactic in the kitchen this week: I turned my stir fry into tacos. Which meant that with one basic prep night, I made two completely different meals (and enough for lunch leftovers, too). Beginning on Sunday night, I chopped a slew of seasonal veggies for a simple stir fry. Shredded cabbage, carrots, green onion, broccoli, and leftover minced purple cauliflower made it into the stir fry. At its best, stir fry is out-of-this-world unbelievable; I'll save that for the chefs. Because everyday stir fry can be so very simple to whip up on a weeknight; I learned my basics from Mark Bittman, and have found that this is more of an approach than a recipe.

Simple Stir Fry Technique 

4 to 5 cups vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, bok choi, snap peas, carrots, and celery work well)
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons canola oil or other neutral oil
1/4 to 1/2 cup water
2 to 3 cups cooked long-grain brown rice or other grain of your choice

If you're cooking rice, prepare it first. You can make the entire stir fry (including veggie chopping) while the rice takes 30-40 minutes to cook. If you're using a quick-cook grain like quinoa, go ahead and prepare it and set it aside.

Get out your chopping board and set to work, chopping your vegetables into similar sizes. If I'm adding peas, I cut everything down to size; about half-inch pieces are the largest you want to go here. Keep in mind that carrots and broccoli take a little longer to cook. Generally, my mix includes carrots, celery, and broccoli as a base. But almost anything goes (maybe not potatoes or tomatoes) .

Put a heavy pan (I like to use my 10-inch skillet with tall sides) over medium heat and warm it up for about 30 seconds. Add the oil, and immediately throw in the onions and garlic. Saute these until they become almost translucent, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add in the veggies that will take longest to cook: carrots, broccoli, etc., and cook about 10 minutes, stirring and adding water as necessary to prevent browning.

When the tougher vegetables are almost done, add the tender veggies (peas, greens, etc.). I like mine to steam a bit, so I add about 1/4 cup of water and cover the entire thing for about 5 minutes. Cook until everything is fork-tender or wilted.

Keep an eye on it so that nothing browns too much in the pan; you'll want all the liquid to cook out, but nothing to be crispy. At this point, you can add any sauce you like, but I leave it blank.*

Put a serving of rice in a bowl and top with a heaping serving of vegetables. We dress our stir-fry/steamed veggies and rice at the table with hot mustard, chile garlic paste, and tamari. Store leftover rice and vegetables separately, and you have more variety with your leftovers.

*There are two three reasons I don't make any kind of sauce for stir-fry night:
1. The two of us generally disagree on our favorite sauces (I like the peanut variety, he likes garlicky). 2. Having a huge batch of vegetables cooked without any spices or sauces means the leftover vegetables can be turned into something entirely different the next day—like quiche, omelet, enchiladas, tacos, or even lasagna. 3. Oh, and it means less to prepare/clean up.

Leftovers transforming into a new meal.

The next night... I threw the vegetable leftovers, a can of black beans, and some spinach into a saute pan until everything was heated through. I added a dash of cumin, a little season salt, and voila! Taco filling.

Multi-grain tortillas topped with the veg and bean mix, with a bit of avocado, Greek yogurt (I like 2%), and a good splash of Cholula for kick: dinner is served. I had plenty for a healthy, satisfying lunch the next day.

I marveled at how easy it was to make these two meals—and how cheap.

How do you do stir fry in your house?

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Quinoa: A Love Story

Quinoa, lettuce, arugula, avocado, and two snap peas. Tossed in dijon vinaigrette.

I know, I'm totally late to the party. But I love quinoa!

Quinoa is a grain that is extremely easy to make and will become a favorite of yours in the kitchen in no time. The flavor is slightly nutty, and the texture is fluffy and just a tad chewy; think tiny grains of soft rice, but better. It's rich in all sorts of minerals (manganese, iron, magnesium, copper, and phosphorous)—not to mention it's a super protein that boasts all the essential amino acids.

Shop in the bulk bins: a pound of organic quinoa will run you around $4, and that'll go a long way.

So if you're not already a fan, jump aboard the quinoa train. Oh, and since I struggled with this: it's pronounced keen-WAH. I called it kee-NOAH for quite a while before standing (gently) corrected.

One of my favorite ways to eat quinoa is with kale, goat cheese, and roasted sweet potatoes. But last night I served it alongside herbed salmon and a garden salad, a spot that normally would be reserved for brown rice.

Today's lunch was surprisingly delicious. Our lettuce in the garden is beginning to flourish and I tossed it with arugula, parsley, avocado, and the leftover quinoa from last night, in a homemade dijon vinaigrette. The textures and flavors came together beautifully, and my lunch was packed with superfoods: healthy fats from the avocado, good proteins from the quinoa, and vitamins from the leafy greens. Simply delicious and deliciously simple.

If you're ready to try quinoa, I highly recommend this how-to from The Kitchn. It works every time!

This glowing endorsement of quinoa was not paid for by any kind of super pac. 

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Bread That Doesn't Taste Bad

Homemade multigrain bread with homemade peach preserves (Texas-grown, of course!).

"So, where did you find a recipe for healthy bread that doesn't taste bad?" Ah, just another glowing review from my husband to make my morning!

But truly, this was a special loaf of bread. It was (it's all gone now) fluffy and soft on the inside with a warm, nutty flavor and just enough tooth in the crust to make for perfect slicing. It toasted up great and made for a tasty sandwich bread that held together impressively well. All my previous multigrain attempts fell into piles of crumbs upon first slice, or didn't rise enough to qualify as sandwich worthy.

Admittedly, baking is not my strong suit, and I know exactly why. It's because baking is a science, and you can't just haphazardly substitute ingredients as if they were herbs, spices, or protein sources. Bread recipes are crafted because of the way a specific type of flour interacts with a specific kind of yeast; timing is important, patience is important, and following the rules is important. All things I struggle with.

Oh yes, baking bread is a great metaphor for my life that's not lost on me.

But I may have had a breakthrough this week, with my very first edible and healthy made-from-scratch loaf of bread. I didn't even use the bread maker (which was gifted to me by my husband a few Christmases ago, as a sort of polite way of telling me I needed help in the homemade bread department and would I please stop making him eat those dense whole wheat bricks that kept coming out of the oven).

Though I can't tell you how much discipline it took me to wait for the dough to rise; it involved forcing myself to watch some bad TV and I got up many times to see if it was rising faster than the recipe anticipated. Patience, patience.

Thanks to Cook's Illustrated, Pinterest, and one night at home alone with a pantry full of all the right ingredients, I had on my hands the perfect recipe for a good loaf of bread.

Here's where I found the recipe, which is from the always-wonderful Cook's Illustrated. But true to form, I made three very minor alterations to the recipe that did not seem to have an adverse effect on the outcome:

• Instead of whole wheat flour, I used whole grain spelt flour (personally I just like the flavor better). 
• Instead of 7-grain cereal, I used 5-grain cereal (which was readily available in the bulk bins). 
• And since I only have one loaf pan, I cut the recipe in half. 

A few more things I learned:

• Check the doneness with an instant-read thermometer. Turns out 200 F is juuuuust right! 
• Let the bread cool on the counter, uncovered, overnight. This helps the loaf develop a crunchy crust, cool completely, and remain soft on the inside. The next morning I was able to easily slice perfect pieces for toast. 
• It took the two of us about two days to go through one loaf of bread; breakfast two days, and lunch for me two days. It remained soft and delicious until the last crumb.
• If you're not going to eat this bread within two days, let it cool and then wrap it in two layers of plastic wrap and one layer of foil. It can then be frozen, for up to a month.

Overall, this was a wonderful experience and I can't wait to make another loaf. Not to mention, I'm working on the nutritional aspect of this bread; I hope to find out that it's significantly lower in sodium than its grocery-store counterparts (which come in at around 140 mg of sodium per slice!). 

Do you have a favorite bread recipe? Are you as impatient as me?

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Easy Caprese

Green tomatoes, red tomatoes, jalapenos, and banana peppers—all picked this week!

 Yesterday I made it sound like our garden was kaput, and some of you might have thought, "Wow, she's in a bit of a funk."

So to those of you who may have stopped by for the first time after seeing my Zucchini Enchilada recipe over on Whole Foods' blog, I want to say welcome to the Sustainable Diet Kitchen and Garden! Please stick around—there's plenty of cookin' and growin' going on.

This morning, I picked about a pound of perfectly ripe tomatoes (Romas, Black Cherry, and one lovely Purple Cherokee), almost two pounds of peppers, and one muskmelon. Full disclosure, I've been Googling, "When to harvest cantaloupe" for about a week now, trying to figure out when to pick the durned thing. Fingers crossed I made the right decision.

Black cherry tomatoes ripened on the vine. They have more of a purple tint in real (non-Instagram) life.

And oh, the tomatoes. We have so many! It's wonderful! This weekend's plans involve canning a couple of jars of Romas from our one plant. Last weekend, I watched my 8-year-old niece snack on cherry tomatoes and found myself thinking how awesome it was that she'd just sit there and plop them in her mouth, no Ranch dressing required. Ah, the little things in life.

We aren't growing any lettuce right now—it's way too hot for leafy greens in our yard, though my mom has been able to keep some growing well in the shade—but that doesn't mean we're salad-less.

Easy Caprese salad and some zucchini-arugula tortilla pizzas for a quick weeknight meal.

A quick Caprese salad is a great way to use some of our fresh tomatoes and basil. It's fantastic, even without mozarella on hand. A little shaved parmesan, a spritz of lemon, some ground pepper and sea salt, and voila! A garden-fresh salad.

For my next trick.... might I suggest a Caprese tortilla pizza. Maybe we can just call it a tortilla margherita pizza? Not to be confused with the other kind of tortillas and margaritas... Just a tortilla, topped with diced tomatoes, julienned basil, a little bit of cheese (I'm going to try goat cheese for a new kick), drizzled with olive oil and baked at 450 until the cheese is melted and the mini pizza crust is nice and crisp. I do believe I just came up with our dinner plans.

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Zucchini Enchiladas Verdes

If you had told me I'd have tried a dozen completely different zucchini recipes before June because the summer crop would be that prolific, I never would've believed you.

But it's the truth. I feel like the Bubba Blue of zucchini: zucchini salad, zucchini salsa, zucchini bread, zucchini brownies, zucchini pickles, zucchini pasta, zucchini tacos... You get the point. (And just to clarify... I am not complaining about my surplus of zucchini. It's finding its way to friends and colleagues almost daily so it's not going to waste, which makes me oh-so-happy.)

Here's a recipe to really drive home the zucchini madness: zucchini enchiladas verdes. They're both stuffed AND covered with fresh zucchini.

I made this as part of a vegetarian and gluten-free dinner party; despite its multi-special-diet appeal, it was wonderfully received by the omnivores. In fact, I'd planned on having leftovers for lunch the next day, but that wasn't in the cards since we polished 'em off. If you'd like to add cooked chicken to the filling or wrap the enchiladas with flour tortillas, be my guest!

This may look complicated, but it comes together fairly quickly. Pass the time while they're baking to enjoy some chips and zucchini salsa, and maybe a zucchini margarita or two.

Home-grown veggies featured in this dish: jalapenos, bell pepper, pattypan squash, and zucchini.

Zucchini Enchiladas Verdes

For the filling:
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 medium squash, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 cup chopped onion
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

To assemble:
10 to 12 corn tortillas
1 1/2 cups Zucchini Salsa*
1/3 cup water or vegetable broth
1 cup shredded cheddar or monterrey jack cheese

Chop all the vegetables and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and bell pepper, and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped zucchini and squash and saute until the vegetables are softened just a bit, about 5 to 10 more minutes. Add the drained black beans and the spices, and cook until heated through. Taste and season as you see fit. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Mix the zucchini salsa with the water or vegetable broth. In the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish, pour about one third of the salsa/broth mixture—just enough to barely cover the bottom of the pan. Assemble the enchiladas: in each tortilla, put a good sprinkle of cheese (about 1 tablespoon) and about 2 tablespoons of the zucchini/bean filling. Roll tightly, careful not to crack the corn tortillas, and pack tightly into the baking dish.

Top the enchiladas with a handful of shredded cheese, and pour the rest of the salsa/broth mixture over the enchiladas. Sprinkle one more time with shredded cheese, for good measure, and pop them in the oven for about 25 minutes. Or until they smell amazing, the cheese is lightly browned, and you can no longer stand it.

Let cool and serve with brown rice and fresh salad. Serves 4-6.

*Any salsa verde will do, but the zucchini salsa really is tasty and cooks very well.

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Dining Alone: Tortilla Pizzas

Dining al fresco; this pizza is topped with pattypan squash and arugula.

Things are busy these days. While my hubs and I normally dine together, the last few weeks have hosted an unusual number of solo dinners. Ryan is taking some evening classes (for fun things, not school-related), and when I'm left to "fend for myself" for dinner, things in the kitchen can get a little strange.

And by strange, of course I mean delicious. 

When I'm cooking for myself, I tend to take risks. With no one but me to impress (or let down), the pressure's off. This usually involves curry, or eggs, and always the mandoline. Something about paper-thin vegetables lends itself to a feeling of upscale dining. 

Everything is nice and crispy and delicious!

The words "tortilla pizza" don't normally conjure ideas of fresh vegetables and good cheese. They're a quick and unfancy way to shovel food in your mouth, right?

Wrong. My impromptu tortilla pizzas that were inspired by the garden and an arugula craving are quick, healthy, and even a little gourmet. They are bright and fresh and even totally worthy of a dinner party—for one, two, or twenty!

I made a couple of versions; some with zucchini, some with squash, some without arugula... But my favorite by far was the zucchini and arugula. Feel free to experiment!

Arugula, Zucchini, and Goat Cheese Tortilla Pizza

Serves 1* 

2 whole wheat tortillas**

1 small zucchini, sliced paper-thin on a mandoline

2 cups (or handfulls) fresh arugula

1-2 ounces goat cheese

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

parmesan, salt, and pepper to taste

1-2 lemon wedges

Prep the veggies. Place the tortillas on a baking sheet and top with a generous layer of the paper-thin zucchini slices. Add one cup or one handfull of arugula for each pizza. Drizzle the olive oil on top and evenly disperse the goat cheese. Top with a little shaved parmesan, salt, and pepper, and spritz with a squeeze of lemon. Pop in the oven for about 10 minutes at 400, or until the cheese is melted and the edges are crisp but not burnt. Alternately, this is very easy to bake in the toaster oven!

A word of caution: tortillas can sometimes puff up with steam when they are heated. Just keep an eye on it; I learned the hard way when I made mine in the toaster oven and toppings wound up falling onto the heating element. And of course, be careful of the tortilla bubble; it's full of steam and that will be very hot should you puncture it!

*I found that two of these little tortilla pizzas made for a perfect meal; they're just like arugula tacos. If you're enjoying them with a side dish or decide to add a cooked protein (grilled shrimp or chicken would make a nice fit), you might find that one fills you up. And if you're cooking for more folks, just make extras! These come together so quickly and require so little oven time that you'll find they're perfect for summer nights.

**The whole wheat tortillas offer a nice nutty flavor that compliments the arugula. They're also healthy. Win-win, but you can use white flour tortillas if you prefer and I won't be too embarrassed. 

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Summer Squash Tacos on Whole Wheat Tortillas

It's a good day when Ryan walks in as I'm cooking dinner and says, "Oooh, smells good."

Now, this may lead you to believe that every time it smells good, it tastes good. But I generally take it one step too far in the healthy direction: "You were doing so good with this recipe until you busted out the soba noodles." "Why'd you have to add flax seeds to this?" "I think it's good, just... dense. Did you sub whole wheat flour again?" "Are you sure you should've made this without any oil at all?" "How many vegetables did you put in there?"

Cast iron makes this so much better; I also like to use my invisible hand to stir.

This, however, is a meal that manages both the delicious and healthy factors. For real. This is like, have your cake and eat it too. Or, have your tacos and eat them too. You get the point.

Tiny bowl of spices.

Last night's harvest: two zucchini, two pattypan squash, one bell pepper, one jalapeno, and one banana pepper. Add to that a little store-bought supplements (onion, baby portabellas, and tortillas), and you've got a meal. In attempting to stay ahead of the zucchini and pattypan harvest, I've used a combination of them here. But you can use one or the other if you like.

Summer Squash Tacos on Whole Wheat Tortillas
1 medium zucchini, chopped
2 medium pattypan squash (or two small yellow squash), chopped
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, diced
5 baby portabella mushrooms (or one large portabella), chopped 
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons white wine, vegetable stock, or water
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
6 to 8 whole wheat tortillas*
non-fat plain Greek yogurt, shredded cheese, chopped fresh spinach or lettuce, and salsa for garnish

Prep the vegetables. Mix the dry spices together in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat for about two minutes. Add one tablespoon of the canola oil, and after about 15 to 20 seconds, add the onions. Saute the onions until they become golden brown, stirring frequently. Toss in a pinch of salt. Add the bell pepper and jalapeno and saute for a couple of minutes, just until the peppers have color.

Next, add the mushrooms to the pan. They will release some of their own liquids; once the mushrooms have cooked down, add the second tablespoon of canola oil and the white wine. Stir everything well.

Add the zucchini, squash, and spice mix and cook, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes or until the squash are very tender. The liquid should all cook out and you'll be left with a nice taco filling.

Fill the tortillas with the sauteed vegetables and top with garnishes of your choice. (Pictured: arugula, spinach, non-fat plain Greek yogurt, shredded monterey jack, salsa verde.)

*This recipe will make enough for 6 super-stuffed tacos or 8 normally-stuffed tacos. If you want to make it 8 super-stuffed tacos, add a can of drained black beans just before the squash.

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Lemons and Parsley and Capers, Oh My!

Parsley pesto with lemon and walnuts.

This may come as a surprise, but I daydream about my garden all the time.

Shocked, aren't you?

When I noticed the first fruits on the vines, a wave of joy came over me. It's another season, and these plants are beginning to feed us. A few weeks ago when I readied the soil and lovingly set each one in the dirt, eating their fruit seemed so far away.

The zucchini and squash plants, which I purchased as young transplants from a local nursery, have taken off and grown so quickly. The leaves on the zucchini plants are extraordinary—I'd forgotten how big they get, and how the stems are covered in tiny little hairs that prickle my fingers when I reach in. The tomatoes are reaching the heights of their cages and green fruits are appearing amid the blooms. It is simply amazing.

Each bed was readied with organic pest treatment, extra compost, pine straw, and organic seaweed-based fertilizer, and the care we took in this step might be what's contributing to the early success of the summer garden. That and the rain, which hit our plants when they were really young and vulnerable. A little rain goes a long way. I am happy to take joy in these plants before summer really hits us; we've already seen 90 degrees this week and that doesn't bode well for the upcoming months.

Part of me still feels like it's spring, and all the recipes that people up north are putting on Pinterest—asparagus tarts, quiches with leeks, parsley and lemon this and that—had me craving something bright and green.

By the time I got home, I found one more zucchini ready for picking on the vine, and decided to put together an entirely green meal. We still have curly leaf parsley in the garden, which I think is so much more fragrant than its flat leaf cousin, so I cut as much as I could for a pesto. This is one of my favorite tricks; rarely do we have pine nuts and basil in the house, but I do love a good herb pasta sauce. Swapping out the basil for parsley and the pine nuts for walnuts (or pecans) makes for a very springy dinner.

Our first zucchini of the season were prepared so simply: I sliced them into quarter-inch-thick rounds and steamed them, then served them with salt, pepper, and butter for a dish that reminded both Ryan and I of summers on our grandparents' farms.

Steamed zucchini with butter. Welcome to summer!

Pasta with Parsley Pesto, Lemons, and Capers

1 cup fresh parsley (curly or flat leaf will work fine)
1/2 cup walnuts
juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup grated parmesan (don't skimp here—use the good stuff)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
8 ounces (half a package) whole wheat angel hair pasta
1-2 tablespoons capers
2-4 lemon wedges
extra parmesan for grating

Set a large pot of salted water to boil for the pasta.

In a blender or food processor, blend or pulse the walnuts, parsley, parmesan, lemon juice and zest, and salt until combined. Pour the olive oil in slowly, and blend or pulse. Keep an eye on the consistency of the pesto. If it's a little too dry, thin with more olive oil until it reaches the consistency you like.

By now the water is boiling. Add your pasta and cook until al dente, about four or five minutes. Drain the pasta and toss with the pesto. Serve the pasta and garnish each plate with a spoonful of capers, a little grated parmesan, and a squeeze of lemon.

(This was just right for our dinner; the whole grains go a long way toward filling us up. But if you'd like to add a meat component, this dish would be great with some simply baked chicken or fish.)

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Busy? Healthy Food is Quick!

Last week was a bit wild. There were bikes to pick up, donations to finalize, travel plans to be made, softball games, and more. We were running around like mad—how on earth would dinner ever make it to the table?

One of my favorite ways to deal with a busy weeknight and still get a healthy meal on the books is to turn to frozen vegetables. I toss frozen veggies together with anything fresh we have on hand to make a stir fry (more like steamed vegetables) and serve it with brown rice. Last week, I sauteed garlic and green onions, then added fresh mushrooms, carrots, frozen peas, and frozen broccoli.

I take no shame in my frozen vegetable obsession; it's an easy and economical way to get organic foods into any meal. And let's not forget the time I save in prepping these foods: there's no washing or chopping required. Easy-peasy!

Frozen fruits are great, too; I find the prices on frozen organic berries fit better into my food budget. A favorite snack of mine is 3/4 cup organic Greek yogurt topped with chia seeds and frozen organic blueberries. I bring it to work, put it in the fridge, and by the afternoon when I'm ready to enjoy, I drizzle it with honey. The chia seeds absorb the extra moisture from the now-thawed berries and it all mixes together perfectly. 

What do you use frozen fruits and vegetables for?

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Crossing the Finish Line

Rolling through Fayetteville; grateful for all these awesome supporters!

Sorry for the lack of blogging last week—Ryan and I were revving up for the BPMS150, a bike ride over two days from Houston to Austin. Since last fall, we have been fundraising and riding toward a cure for multiple sclerosis as a part of Team Amy. There were 18 of us riders on the team this year. We ride in honor of my cousin, Amy, and yesterday we rolled into Austin after 131* miles to greet her at the finish line. (And if you're so inclined, you can still donate here!)

It's been an amazing experience, albeit a wild ride, and we are so very happy to have had the opportunity. Saturday was a brutal ride; 67 miles with gusty headwinds. But yesterday was a gift of a day! It was cool and sunny and just a little bit breezy, which translated to perfect riding weather. 

It was an amazing weekend full of inspirational moments. Being in a sea of 13,000 riders who have all raised hundreds and thousands of dollars (each!) for a wonderful cause... As we came across the finish line in Austin yesterday, I found myself getting misty-eyed. 

What an experience, and what a way to celebrate Earth Day! Riding home on my bicycle 66 miles from LaGrange! And deciding to continue part of my training—commuting by bike to work a few days each week, riding the bus the other days. Sustainable changes all around.

*What happened to those extra 19 miles that would've made it a full MS150? Saturday's winds were so brutal that we started in Waller instead of Katy, trimming off a little more than an hour of riding. To compare routes: Saturday was 67 miles long and took us almost 5 hours of riding time. Sunday's was more up-hill, but even at 66 miles long we only spent 3 hours and 38 minutes riding. What a difference the wind makes!

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What's Healthy, Anyway?

It's not always spelt muffins, home-grown veggies, and green smoothies at our house. We know how to cut loose and enjoy the finer things in life, too. See? Meet the Great Northern ale, made by the brewers at the Draught House in Austin. Ryan was a huge fan—normally, I shy away from hoppier beers. That sunny afternoon, I enjoyed a pint of Alteration from Hops & Grain.

There are things in life, like finely-crafted beers, that are always worth it. But how do you keep the way you eat in check?

Part of having a sustainable diet is making provisions for things you really enjoy. We both love beer, chocolate, cheese, and salsa; all of which we enjoy in moderation. (Except the salsa, which we can both eat buckets of in a single sitting. It's ridiculous. At our favorite Tex-Mex place nearby, the waitstaff know to bring two bowls to the table.)

Many times, people ask me how I do it, how I deprive myself of certain things (meat, Cheetos, eating out during lunch, etc.). But the secret is, I truly don't feel deprived of anything. Instead, I feel grateful that I am able to eat the things I want to eat, knowing they're good for me (9 times of 10). And despite the occasional veggie burger and fries or cheesy plate of enchiladas, I feel like my overall diet—as in the way I eat, not a means of losing weight—is healthy. 

Ryan and I both try to encourage people we know to eat more sustainably, which to me, translates to healthy. It's easy in a place like Austin, where grocery stores are packed with organics and minimally processed foods, and restaurants offer a bevy of options, many of which are locally sourced and seasonal. Even our favorite beer hangouts boast sustainably crafted ales and locally made cheese plates!

We stay healthy by eating wholesome, clean foods. Nothing processed makes its way into our home, and we think twice before eating out.  

But in smaller towns, that kind of selection is not the norm. It's often a choice between two chain restaurants that serve many processed items, or going to the grocery store that's devoid of organic choices and offers minimal whole grain options. 

In that kind of situation, what is best? How do you eat sustainably and healthfully if your options are so dismal?

Here is what we encourage our family in small towns to try to do; in fact, these are the same rules we follow when traveling:

• Follow the sage advice from Michael Pollan: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." 

• Purchase organics, shop at the farmers' market, or grow your own vegetables whenever possible. 

• Eat only free-range, grass-fed beef and cage-free chicken, and sustainably raised/harvested pork, fish, and other meats. Choosing meat wisely is especially important.

• In the absence of an organic option, be sure to wash your fruits and vegetables thoroughly; try a vinegar spray to knock out any lingering yucky stuff.

• When eating out, choose a mom-and-pop restaurant over a chain. Try to order real food, not processed food.

• It's ok to cave once in a while. Let yourself off the hook and understand that, despite your best efforts, eating whole and sustainable foods is not always possible day in, day out.

What does healthy mean to you?

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Freshworthy Friday: More Pink Slime!

It's been a big week for food news, and while these first two links are important, the last—about our favorite, PINK SLIME, is the most important.

Are Food Blogs Over?
The Amateur Gourmet
First things first: please tell me food blogs aren't over. I really, really like writing this one.The gist of this article is this: food blogs that offer new recipes aren't enough—we food bloggers have to push the envelope, offering readers something fresh and different. For me, this means honing in on a very specific way of eating, and offering more than just recipes on my site (I profess in my bio to be a novice cook, anyway).



The last few months I've resolved to bring more to Sustainable Diet, by way of photos and more posts, and touching on news (Freshworthy is still in its infancy).

So I have to ask: what brings you here, what keeps you here, and what makes you come back for more?

The Chocolate Diet?
New York Times
Let's all take a moment to rejoice, yet again, in the health benefits of chocolate. This new study shows that people who ate more chocolate had lower BMIs (body mass index). It's the antioxidants, purportedly, that make this possible.

For the most sustainable chocolate enjoyment, purchase fair trade and organic chocolate bars. While they tend to cost a fair bit more than conventional, you can feel doubly good about helping those who harvest this superfood.

Amarillo 'pink slime' facility closing, employs 200
Amarillo Globe-News via TM Daily Post
An Amarillo plant that produced 200,000 pounds of pink slime every day has stopped its operation, along with similar plants in other states. While it is truly unfortunate that the people who worked there will have to find new means of employment, this is certainly good news for our food supply—especially since so much of these ammonia-washed beef trimmings were sent to schools for children's lunches.

This whole story has really blown up. Even Jon Stewart is talking about "Bovine Velvet." Governors of the states where the beef factories are shutting down (Perry included) have been trying to endorse "lean beef trimmings" left and right, urging consumers that ammonia-washed beef particles are healthy.

Don't buy it! Literally OR figuratively!

That said, any type of processed meat is essentially the same thing. If you and your household are omnivores, you can take small steps to cut processed meats out of your diet.

For the average home shopper, it's important to turn to grass-fed, organic beef products. Ask your local butcher to grind meat in-house for you, and purchase beef and other meat products from local farmers whenever possible!

Granted, these organic products are more expensive. DO buy them, but buy less than you normally would. Fill the empty space left in your diet with more vegetables, fresh fruits, and whole grains.

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Two Meals of Greens and Sweet Potatoes

Last week, we treated ourselves to a little stay-cation. While it involved one car breaking down, a 20-foot limb falling in the yard after a storm, and days upon days of hard work around the house, we surely ate like kings, going out for every meal. There were fancy drinks, tacos, queso, two separate tuna fish sandwich situations, multiple beers, veggie burgers, and more. 

So this week, our goal has been to eat clean. See that colorful bowl of dinner above? Clean, wholesome food never felt so good. 

While most of our winter gardens are gone, we have one bed still producing mounds of kale and collard greens. Snails have infiltrated enemy camp, but I've let them have go to town on some of the bigger leaves and have made a point to harvest every other day, so that new growth can have a chance to thrive. Stubbornly, I've resisted the urge to put out shallow pans of Lone Star.

After our week of pizza, we were craving beta carotene-rich foods and dark, leafy greens, and by golly that's what I made two nights in a row. In fact, they were two nearly identical dinners; one was met with gusto and praise by my dear husband, and the other was given a shrug and the aside, "It's tasty, but I won't be willfully requesting it."

That said, I loved both of the similar meals for different reasons. 

Sunday night, inspired by Smitten Kitchen's roasted sweet potato stacks, I sliced the sweet potatoes into half-inch-thick rounds with the peel, and roasted them at 425 for about 40 minutes (I flipped them once, halfway through). They were melt-in-your-mouth tender, and the peel was crisp and flavorful. I served them with a huge batch of kale chips—one of our new favorite foods. Kale chips are so easy to make and so healthy. They satisfy a salty craving while filling you full of vitamins and nutrients.

Monday evening, in an attempt to use up the rest of the sweet potatoes and finally eat some non-snail-slimed collards, I turned to this recipe from Whole Foods for Sweet Potatoes With Collards.

Happily, I had green onions from the garden and organic peppers from another grocery run still in the fridge; we lacked aduki beans but the can of kidney beans in the pantry stood in just fine. I loved this recipe because it was chock-full of nutrients and protein, low in fat, and had an interesting twist at the end with the lime juice. Better yet, it reheated perfectly for leftovers the next day at lunch. I didn't have sunflower seeds, but that extra crunch would've been fantastic.

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Have Your Cornbread and Eat it Too

Texas never can make up her mighty mind. One minute, we're all frolicking around at kite festivals in shorts and flip-flops. The next, rain rolls in and the temperature drops 18 degrees in one hour, and we suddenly regretting wearing sandals to work today.

But the cold weather that blew in last week enticed me to the kitchen, where I had white beans soaking, a head of home-grown cabbage waiting for its debut, and a clean cast iron skillet beckoning from the countertop. Big night. Biiiiiig night.

I did what any sensible 20-something hipster would do: I threw on my PJs, texted the Hubcap our low-key dinner plans, and started making a meal steeped in my German heritage: Boiled cabbage and onions, white beans, and cornbread.

Healthy cornbread. With flaxseed.

I'll wait for a moment while you consider clicking on that ad over there instead of reading the rest of this post.

Let me tell you something: This cornbread will surprise you. It looks like a dry boring puck in the oven and it lacks the lovely golden color one normally associates with cornbread. But it's made in a cast-iron skillet, it's nutty, it's packed with ancient grains, and despite its aptitude for health, it is quite delicious.

So this cornbread is awesome because it's unconventional.

This recipe is based on Whole Foods' Flax and Pumpkin Seed Cornbread. I took the liberty of un-veganizing it, omitting the pumpkin seeds, and swapping the whole wheat for spelt. Here's how I did it, and if you want to ease in to the "healthy cornbread world," I'd say this is the way to do it.

Cornbread with Flaxseed and Spelt
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1 3/4 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup stone ground corn meal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup nonfat or 1% milk
1/4 cup canola oil
4 teaspoons maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray a cast iron skillet with non-stick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flaxseeds through salt). In a small bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients (egg through oil). Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the wet mixture, and stir until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared skillet and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the bread comes out clean. The bread will just pull away from the sides of the skillet.

Serve warm, with butter if you must. Go ahead and put some honey on it, too, would ya?

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Healthy Homemade Larabars with Nutella

I'm not one for packaged foods. Most of the time, anything in a package contains so many processed ingredients, it's hard to refer to it as "real" food.

I'm also not one for health food bars because, no offense to anyone out there who makes/loves/occasionally dabbles in health food bars, many times they taste like birdseed.

But I do like Larabars, which offer simple and natural ingredients. The only drawback? They're expensive, and then you've got the whole package problem to deal with (who needs trash?).

I noticed a trend for homemade Larabars on Pinterest and my interest was, of course, piqued. Impulse shopping at the grocery store led me to pick up a bag of dates. The rest, my friends, are what we call "pantry staples" 'round these parts.

My first attempt at homemade energy bars made the husband ask for more. These are easy to make and give just enough of a natural sugar and protein boost to get me through the next meal.

Nutella Peanut Date Bars
2 cups whole, pitted dates
1 cup unsalted peanuts
2-4 ounces dark chocolate
2 tablespoons Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread
sea salt for sprinkling

Line an 8x8 square baking dish with parchment paper so that flaps hang off over either side. In a food processor, pulse the peanuts and chocolate until finely chopped up, like coarse cornmeal. Set aside in a mixing bowl. Put the dates in the food processor and pulse until they're finely chopped. Add the Nutella and process until it's fully incorporated. Finally, add the chocolate and peanuts back to the food processor. Pulse or process until a dough forms; it won't totally stick together, but that's just fine.

Dump the hunk into the prepared baking pan, and use the parchment flaps to press it down. Make it nice and smooth. Sprinkle the top lightly with sea salt. Refrigerate for two hours or freeze for one hour before slicing.

Variations on the theme:
Add cranberries, shredded unsweetened coconut, cocoa, or cinnamon. For a vegan version, omit the chocolate and use peanut butter or almond butter instead of the Nutella. Swap out peanuts for almonds or cashews.

Read more and find other adaptations around the web...
Girl Scout Cookie Larabars, Chocolate Covered Katie
Homemade Larabars, Foodie With Family
Homemade Larabar Recipes, Oh She Glows

The possibilities are endless!

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Fish Tacos with Cabbage Salsa

Fish Tacos with Cabbage Salsa and Black Beans

Opening up the meat and fish door again has led me to some surprisingly tasty fish recipes. Before my two-year stint as a strict vegetarian, I rarely cooked fish at home. For the last two years, I cooked meat at home twice, both times as part of recipe testing for a publication.

So it's been interesting for me to re-learn how to cook things. We're being careful to purchase sustainably harvested fish—if I'm bringing meat back into my kitchen, it's definitely going to be on my own terms, after all.

I have cabbage and cilantro begging to be used up from the garden, and this recipe was perfect for our tiny head of organic cabbage. My mom suggested this dinner plan, and I somewhat winged it. A bit of Googling, a little bit of Mark Bittman's advice, and an hour later, I had served up a fresh fish taco meal.

Cabbage Salsa

Fish Tacos with Cabbage Salsa

For the salsa:
1 small head cabbage, shredded or cut into thin ribbons (think slaw)
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
2 large jalapenos, seeded and diced
1/2 large red onion, diced
2 medium tomatoes, diced
juice of 2 limes
salt and pepper to taste

Prep all your ingredients and mix together in a large mixing bowl. Refrigerate until you're ready to serve.

For the tacos (adapted from Mark Bittman's instructions on how to pan-fry white fish fillets):
2 large tilapia filleta (or other white fish; the fillet must be less than 1 inch thick)
2 tablespoons blackening or Cajun seasoning
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil for each fillet

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat for a few minutes. Meanwhile, combine the flour and seasoning together and dredge the fillet, shaking off the excess. Add the olive oil to the heated pan, and place the dredged fish fillet in the pan. Cook on the first side for about 4 minutes; carefully flip with a spatula and cook until the fillet is opaque and flakes apart easily. Wipe the pan out before cooking the second fillet.

Flake the fish apart and divide into corn tortillas. Top with the cabbage salsa and garnish with Greek yogurt, avocado, Cholula, and cilantro; serve with black beans to round out the meal.

This recipe makes about eight fish tacos on corn, or six on flour tortillas.

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