Homemaking Made Easy

Black Eyed Peas

2009-01-09T14:27:00.000-08:00

I know this comes a little late, but rumor (or legend or perhaps superstition) has it that eating black eyed peas on New Year's Day will bring you good luck all year. Additionally, it's a great way to use the left over ham from Christmas dinner. It's healthy, cheap, delicious and freezes well.

In a large stock pot, saute

1 large diced onion
1 diced green bell pepper
1 or 2 diced anaheim pepper
1 or 2 cups diced ham
a few cloves of minced garlic (it goes without saying that any form of garlic may be used here)

(You can omit the peppers and ham to save on cost and it will still taste pretty good)

Meanwhile, sort and rinse a lb of black eyed peas.

Once mixture is browned, add one giant can of crushed tomatoes (if whole or diced tomatoes are cheaper, "crush" yourself in blender) rinsed black eyed peas and enough water to fill to roughly 6 inches deep. Bring to boil. Stir in about a tsp of ham base (this can also be omitted due to budget constraints but it definitely improves the flavor). Turn to low and simmer until peas are done (1-2 hours; I really can't remember!)

Curried Lentil Soup

2008-12-02T13:59:00.001-08:00

I found this recipe in Good Housekeeping Dec 2008 as an idea for a gift. It's cheap, healthy, super easy, uses your food storage AND you can layer all the ingredients in a jar for holiday distribution should you desire. My family didn't love it but they definitely liked it (2 yr old had seconds). As far as cooking with lentils goes, this is an EXCELLENT recipe.

1 lb lentils (recipe calls for half and half red and green; any lentil works and I successfully used half split peas)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp curry powder
3 Tbsp minced dried onion
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 c dried apples cut into 1/2 in. chunks
1 Tbsp dried parsley

Add all ingredients to 7 c water in a 3 qt pot and bring to boil on high heat. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Makes 8 cups.

Laundering the Infamous "Blowout"

2008-11-11T13:32:00.001-08:00

This post is in honor of my friend Wendi who is finally expecting her first little monkey and will soon be acquainted with the wonders of explosive fecal matter. One of the top reasons I swear by cloth diapers is that they PREVENT blowouts. It is my experience (but then I have gassy babies) that I'm going to be dealing with poop one way or the other. I can scrub it out of their clothes or toss it into the washing machine (in the case of BABIES at any rate). Unfortunately, because of extensive traveling, I am VERY experienced with taking care of blowout aftermath (darn disposables).

Wet poopy area of clothing with cold water.
Rub a BAR OF SOAP on the poopy area.
(Any BAR of soap should do although I recommend a cheap one since your using it to rub poop.)
Scrub soap into cloth fibers.
(Just grip the clothing on either side of the poop and scrub it against itself.)
Rinse with cold water while scrubbing until the water runs clearish.
Repeat rub and scrub but do not rinse again.
Let soapy clothing soak in cold water for at least 1/2 hour (or up to several days if stain is stubborn).
Launder as you usually do.

If you cannot (or don't want to) scrub clothes immediately, let them dry (this is critical; tying them up in a bag will cause mold and mold DOES NOT come out). Then you can either go on a poop cleaning spree or wait until you have enough clothes to do a load. If doing a load, scrub all blowout clothing and toss in washing machine to soak, then wash.

BAR SOAP and SOAKING are absolutely key. I once tried stain remover and washed immediately. The poop stayed and I wasn't ever able to get that stain out (and I'm usually pretty good at stains).

Also, drying clothes sets in stains so always check previously poopy clothes BEFORE putting them in the dryer or hang dry.

Apologies for 2008...

2008-11-11T13:24:00.000-08:00

Aside from my good pal Cindy Hale (aka momtothree), 2008 has not seen an entry. In my defense, my husband was deployed to Okinawa for the first six months of the year, during which I was pregnant and taking care of a 2 1/2 year old and one year old. He came home to find me on bed rest, then I had a baby, then he went to Yuma, AZ and well, we're all back home and post-partum so I'm making a genuine effort to get things going again.

To the rest of you fellow slackers-
Rebecca is in the middle of remodeling a fixer upper and must be brimming with tips.
Cindy cans food, makes incredible sets of matching nursery bedding and who knows what else these days.
Krista sews clothes for her girls from her own patterns.
Feel free to post your secrets! (Or questions in the case of Krista who keeps lists...)

Wheat Pasta

2008-03-18T11:09:00.000-07:00

K I have a suggestion for the blog that would be cool. After you cook the dinner take a picture. I'm having trouble trying to picture some of these meals but they sound really cool. I've started using wheat noodles a lot lately, but I'm not super fond of them if they taste too wheaty. To me it tastes like cardboard. I made spaghetti with wheat spaghetti noodles and then mixed the sauce in and put mozzerella cheese over it and baked it until the cheese melted all over. It was so yummy! I had my brother over and he totally couldn't even tell that it had whole wheat noodles in it. The next week though I made a casserole with some wheat egg noodles and canned clams and diced tomatoes and it was totally overwhelming on the wheat. It probably didn't help that I used crushed up wheat chex as the topping lol. Does anyone know other good ways to hide the heavy wheat taste? My kids and I totally are getting to where we can't tolerate white flour anymore because of digestive problems and the more fiber we can get the better. I have to say it's definately helping us to eat much more healthy.

Another Saturated Fat Article

2007-12-12T10:51:00.000-08:00

MensHealth.com
Saturated Fat
Stop Blaming Saturated Fat
The research is clear: Carbohydrates, not fats, are the foe in America's battle against heart disease and obesity
By: Adam Campbell & Jeff Volek, Ph.D., R.D.

The recent news that the Atkins low-carb diet works well and improves health has some people scratching their heads.

--We typically eat more than a dozen kinds of saturated fat. Some have zero effect on cholesterol. Some raise bad (LDL) cholesterol, but all of them raise good (HDL) cholesterol to a greater extent. That’s a net gain in heart health.

--The nation's top health organizations have for decades called saturated fat one of the main culprits for diet-related diseases, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Problem is, this blame stems from research that is now seen as incomplete. For instance, a famous 1953 study took data from six countries, overlooking 16 countries whose numbers provide contradictory evidence. (Like France, for instance, or native cultures in Africa and Canada where high amounts of fat and saturated fat are eaten but heart disease is practically unknown.)

--Since the 1970s, American men have decreased their saturated fat intake by 14 percent and increased their carbohydrate intake by 23 percent--yet rates of obesity and heart disease are increasing. You might say that carbohydrates make people fat, which leads to heart disease. Or that more carbohydrates you eat, the greater your risk for a heart attack.

--But these simple numbers only suggest a cause. To prove something, you need a controlled experiment. There have been many such clinical trials, and not one has shown has shown that cutting back on saturated fat reduces heart disease risk.

--When you look at the effect of saturated fat on health, you must also look at the intake of carbohydrates. Many studies have shown that if you replace carbs with fat, your triglycerides levels go down and your good cholesterol goes up. And your bad (LDL) cholesterol particles get bigger, which means they're less harmful.

--Here's a paradox for you: A high saturated fat intake decreases blood levels of saturated fat. How can this be? Here's how: The saturated fat in your blood comes from both the food you eat and from your liver, which produces saturated fat. The more carbs you eat, the higher your insulin levels climb, which signals your liver to produce saturated fat. If you go on a low-carb diet, your insulin levels drop, and so does production of saturated fat.

--A bonus: with low insulin levels, your body can burn more fat for energy, decreasing your sat-fat levels even more.

http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do
?site=MensHealth&channel=nutrition&category=food.for.fitness
&conitem=b675909829731110VgnVCM10000013281eac____&page=0
2007 RODALE INC. ALL rights reserved

3 Sister Casserole

2007-12-02T14:38:00.000-08:00

I haven't quite figured out this blog thing so I don't know if this is in the right spot, but it's about beans...
We've tried this recipe and the family likes it, I love it. My husband does love it when someone adds meat to it. It makes more than you think it will so use a HUGE skillet and enjoy!
3 Sisters Casserole
1.5 tsp cumin seed
2tbsp olive oil
2 lg onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots
1 jalapeno pepper
28oz of canned tomatoes (don't drain)
1.5 c corn
3 zucchini
8oz penne, cooked
16oz cooked kidney beans
4oz cheddar, shredded

heat cumin until aromatic
add oil, onion, garlic until onion is soft
add carrots, jalapeno and tomatoes - boil
reduce to simmer (15min)
add corn and zucchini (5 min)
add beans+pasta, cover with cheese and bake until melted.
**I like the veggies a bit softer so I add the zucchini in at the beginning and I ignore the cooking times. In the spirit of water conservation and reduced dish loads I don't bake it; instead I add the cheese to the top and serve from the skillet.

Extremely Fascinating Article

2007-11-06T10:33:00.000-08:00

Men's Health

Saturated Fat
What if Bad Fat is Actually Good for You?
For decades, Americans have been told that saturated fat clogs arteries and causes heart disease. But there's just one problem: No one's ever proved it
By: Nina Teicholz, Photographs by: Nikolai Golovanoff

Suppose you were forced to live on a diet of red meat and whole milk. A diet that, all told, was at least 60 percent fat -- about half of it saturated. If your first thoughts are of statins and stents, you may want to consider the curious case of the
Masai, a nomadic tribe in Kenya and Tanzania.

In the 1960s, a Vanderbilt University scientist named George Mann, M.D., found that Masai men consumed this very diet (supplemented with blood from the cattle they herded). Yet these nomads, who were also very lean, had some of the lowest levels of cholesterol ever measured and were virtually free of heart disease.

Scientists, confused by the finding, argued that the tribe must have certain genetic protections against developing high cholesterol. But when British researchers monitored a group of Masai men who moved to Nairobi and began consuming a more modern diet, they discovered that the men's cholesterol subsequently skyrocketed.

Similar observations were made of the Samburu -- another Kenyan tribe -- as well as the Fulani of Nigeria. While the findings from these cultures seem to contradict the fact that eating saturated fat leads to heart disease, it may surprise you to know that this "fact" isn't a fact at all. It is, more accurately, a hypothesis from the 1950s that's never been proved.

The first scientific indictment of saturated fat came in 1953. That's the year a physiologist named Ancel Keys, Ph.D., published a highly influential paper titled "Atherosclerosis, a Problem in Newer Public Health." Keys wrote that while the total death rate in the United States was declining, the number of deaths due to heart disease was steadily climbing. And to explain why, he presented a comparison of fat intake and heart disease mortality in six countries: the United States, Canada, Australia, England, Italy, and Japan.

The Americans ate the most fat and had the greatest number of deaths from heart disease; the Japanese ate the least fat and had the fewest deaths from heart disease. The other countries fell neatly in between. The higher the fat intake, according to national diet surveys, the higher the rate of heart disease. And vice versa. Keys called this correlation a "remarkable relationship" and began to publicly hypothesize that consumption of fat- causes heart disease. This became known as the diet-heart hypothesis.

At the time, plenty of scientists were skeptical of Keys's assertions. One such critic was Jacob Yerushalmy, Ph.D., founder of the biostatistics graduate program at the University of California at Berkeley. In a 1957 paper, Yerushalmy pointed out that while data from the six countries Keys examined seemed to support the diet-heart hypothesis, statistics were actually available for 22 countries. And when all 22 were analyzed, the apparent link between fat consumption and heart disease disappeared. For example, the death rate from heart disease in Finland was 24 times that of Mexico, even though fat-consumption rates in the two nations were similar.

The other salient criticism of Keys's study was that he had observed only a correlation between two phenomena, not a clear causative link. So this left open the possibility that something else -- unmeasured or unimagined -- was leading to heart disease. After all, Americans did eat more fat than the Japanese, but perhaps they also consumed more sugar and white bread, and watched more television.

Despite the apparent flaws in Keys's argument, the diet-heart hypothesis was compelling, and it was soon heavily promoted by the American Heart Association (AHA) and the media. It offered the worried public a highly educated guess as to why the country was in the midst of a heart-disease epidemic. "People should know the facts," Keys said in a 1961 interview with Time magazine, for which he appeared on the cover. "Then if they want to eat themselves to death, let them."

The seven-countries study, published in 1970, is considered Ancel Keys's landmark achievement. It seemed to lend further credence to the diet-heart hypothesis. In this study, Keys reported that in the seven countries he selected -- the United States, Japan, Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia, Finland, and the Netherlands -- animal-fat intake was a strong predictor of heart attacks over a 5-year period. Just as important, he noted an association between total cholesterol and heart-disease mortality. This prompted him to conclude that the saturated fats in animal foods -- and not other types of fat -- raise cholesterol and ultimately lead to heart disease.

Naturally, proponents of the diet-heart hypothesis hailed the study as proof that eating saturated fat leads to heart attacks. But the data was far from rock solid. That's because in three countries (Finland, Greece, and Yugoslavia), the correlation wasn't seen. For example, eastern Finland had five times as many heart-attack fatalities and twice as much heart disease as western Finland, despite only small differences between the two regions in animal-fat intake and cholesterol levels. And while Keys provided that raw data in his report, he glossed over it as a finding. Perhaps a larger problem, though, was his assumption that saturated fat has an unhealthy effect on cholesterol levels.

Although more than a dozen types of saturated fat exist, humans predominantly consume three: stearic acid, palmitic acid, and lauric acid. This trio comprises almost 95 percent of the saturated fat in a hunk of prime rib, a slice of bacon, or a piece of chicken skin, and nearly 70 percent of that in butter and whole milk.

Today, it's well established that stearic acid has no effect on cholesterol levels. In fact, stearic acid -- which is found in high amounts in cocoa as well as animal fat --i s converted to a monounsaturated fat called oleic acid in your liver. This is the same heart-healthy fat found in olive oil. As a result, scientists generally regard this saturated fatty acid as either benign or potentially beneficial to your health.

Palmitic and lauric acid, however, are known to raise total cholesterol. But here's what's rarely reported: Research shows that although both of these saturated fatty acids increase LDL ("bad") cholesterol, they raise HDL ("good") cholesterol just as much, if not more. And this lowers your risk of heart disease. That's because it's commonly believed that LDL cholesterol lays down plaque on your artery walls, while HDL removes it. So increasing both actually reduces the proportion of bad cholesterol in your blood to the good kind. This may explain why numerous studies have reported that this HDL/LDL ratio is a better predictor of future heart disease than LDL alone.

All of this muddies Keys's claim of a clear connection between saturated-fat intake, cholesterol, and heart disease. If saturated fat doesn't raise cholesterol in such a way that it increases heart-disease risk, then according to the scientific method, the diet-heart hypothesis must be rejected. However, in 1977 it was still a promising idea.

That was the year Congress made it government policy to recommend a low-fat diet, based primarily on the opinions of health experts who supported the diet-heart hypothesis. It was a decision met with much criticism from the scientific community, including the American Medical Association. After all, officially endorsing a low-fat diet could change the eating habits of millions of Americans, and the potential effects of this strategy were widely debated and certainly unproved.

We've spent billions of our tax dollars trying to prove the diet-heart hypothesis. Yet study after study has failed to provide definitive evidence that saturated-fat intake leads to heart disease. The most recent example is the Women's Health Initiative, the government's largest and most expensive ($725 million) diet study yet. The results, published last year, show that a diet low in total fat and saturated fat had no impact in reducing heart-disease and stroke rates in some 20,000 women who had adhered to the regimen for an average of 8 years.

But this paper, like many others, plays down its own findings and instead points to four studies that, many years ago, apparently did find a link between saturated fat and heart disease. Because of this, it's worth taking a closer look at each.

The Los Angeles VA Hospital Study (1969) This UCLA study of 850 men reported that those who replaced saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats were less likely to die of heart disease and stroke over a 5-year period than were men who didn't alter their diets. However, more of those who changed their diets died of cancer, and the average age of death was the same in both groups. What's more, "through an oversight," the study authors neglected to collect crucial data on smoking habits from about 100 men. They also reported that the men successfully adhered to the diet only half the time.

The Oslo Diet-Heart Study (1970) Two hundred men followed a diet low in saturated fat for 5 years while another group ate as they pleased. The dieters had fewer heart attacks, but there was no difference in total deaths between the two groups.

The Finnish Mental Hospital Study (1979) This trial took place from 1959 to 1971 and appeared to document a reduction in heart disease in psychiatric patients following a "cholesterol-lowering" diet. But the experiment was poorly controlled: Almost half of the 700 participants joined or left the study over its 12-year duration.

The St. Thomas' Atherosclerosis Regression Study (1992) Only 74 men completed this 3-year study conducted at St. Thomas' Hospital, in London. It found a reduction in cardiac events among men with heart disease who adopted a low-fat diet. There's a major caveat, though: Their prescribed diets were also low in sugar.

These four studies, even though they have serious flaws and are tiny compared with the Women's Health Initiative, are often cited as definitive proof that saturated fats cause heart disease. Many other more recent trials cast doubt on the diet-heart hypothesis. These studies should be considered in the context of all the other research.

In 2000, a respected international group of scientists called the Cochrane Collaboration conducted a "meta-analysis" of the scientific literature on cholesterol-lowering diets. After applying rigorous selection criteria (219 trials were excluded), the group examined 27 studies involving more than 18,000 participants. Although the authors concluded that cutting back on dietary fat may help reduce heart disease, their published data actually shows that diets low in saturated fats have no significant effect on mortality, or even on deaths due to heart attacks.

"I was disappointed that we didn't find something more definitive," says Lee Hooper, Ph.D., who led the Cochrane review. If this exhaustive analysis didn't provide evidence of the dangers of saturated fat, says Hooper, it was probably because the studies reviewed didn't last long enough, or perhaps because the participants didn't lower their saturated-fat intake enough. Of course, there is a third possibility, which Hooper doesn't mention: The diet-heart hypothesis is incorrect.

Ronald Krauss, M.D., won't say saturated fats are good for you. "But," he concedes, "we don't have convincing evidence that they're bad, either."

For 30 years, Dr. Krauss -- an adjunct professor of nutritional sciences at the University of California at Berkeley -- has been studying the effect of diet and blood lipids on cardiovascular disease. He points out that while some studies show that replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats lowers heart-disease risk, this doesn't mean that saturated fats lead to clogged arteries. "It may simply suggest that unsaturated fats are an even healthier option," he says.

But there's more to this story: In 1980, Dr. Krauss and his colleagues discovered that LDL cholesterol is far from the simple "bad" particle it's commonly thought to be. It actually comes in a series of different sizes, known as subfractions. Some LDL subfractions are large and fluffy. Others are small and dense. This distinction is important.

A decade ago, Canadian researchers reported that men with the highest number of small, dense LDL subfractions had four times the risk of developing clogged arteries than those with the fewest. Yet they found no such association for the large, fluffy particles. These findings were confirmed in subsequent studies.

Now here's the saturated-fat connection: Dr. Krauss found that when people replace the carbohydrates in their diet with fat--saturated or unsaturated -- the number of small, dense LDL particles decreases. This leads to the highly counterintuitive notion that replacing your breakfast cereal with eggs and bacon could actually reduce your risk of heart disease.

Men, more than women, are predisposed to having small, dense LDL. However, the propensity is highly flexible and, according to Dr. Krauss, can be switched on when people eat high-carb, low-fat diets or switched off when they reduce carbs and eat diets high in fat, including the saturated variety. "There's a subgroup of people at high risk of heart disease who may respond well to diets low in fat," says Dr. Krauss. "But the majority of healthy people seem to derive very little benefit from these low-fat diets, in terms of heart-disease risk factors, unless they also lose weight and exercise. And if a low-fat diet is also loaded with carbs, it can actually result in adverse changes in blood lipids."

While Dr. Krauss is much published and highly respected -- he has served twice as chairman of the writing committee of the AHA's dietary guidelines -- the far-reaching implications of his work have not been generally acknowledged. "Academic scientists believe saturated fat is bad for you," says Penny Kris-Etherton, Ph.D., a distinguished professor of nutritional studies at Penn State University, citing as evidence the "many studies" she believes show it to be true. But not everyone accepts those studies, and their proponents find it hard to be heard. Kris-Etherton acknowledges that "there's a good deal of reluctance toward accepting evidence suggesting the contrary."

Take, for example, a 2004 Harvard University study of older women with heart disease. Researchers found that the more saturated fat these women consumed, the less likely it was their condition would worsen. Lead study author Dariush Mozaffarian, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Harvard's school of public health, recalls that before the paper was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, he encountered formidable politics from other journals.

"In the nutrition field, it's very difficult to get something published that goes against established dogma," says Mozaffarian. "The dogma says that saturated fat is harmful, but that is not based, to me, on unequivocal evidence." Mozaffarian says he believes it's critical that scientists remain open minded. "Our finding was surprising to us. And when there's a discovery that goes against what's established, it shouldn't be suppressed but rather disseminated and explored as much as possible."

Perhaps the apparent bias against saturated fat is most evident in studies on low-carbohydrate diets. Many versions of this approach are controversial because they place no limitations on saturated-fat intake. As a result, supporters of the diet-heart hypothesis have argued that low-carb diets will increase the risk of heart disease. But published research doesn't show this to be the case. When people on low-carb diets have been compared head-to-head with those on low-fat diets, the low-carb dieters typically scored significantly better on markers of heart disease, including small, dense LDL cholesterol, HDL/LDL ratio, and triglycerides, which are a measure of the amount of fat circulating in your blood.

For example, in a new 12-week study, University of Connecticut scientists placed overweight men and women on either a low-carb or low-fat diet. Those who followed the low-carb diet consumed 36 grams of saturated fat per day (22 percent of total calories), which represented more than three times the amount in the low-fat diet. Yet despite this considerably greater intake of saturated fat, the low-carb dieters reduced both their number of small, dense LDL cholesterol and their HDL/LDL ratio to a greater degree than those who ate a low-fat diet. In addition, triglycerides decreased by 51 percent in the low-carb group--compared with 19 percent in the low-fat group.

This finding is worth noting, because even though cholesterol is the most commonly cited risk factor for heart disease, triglyceride levels may be equally relevant. In a 40-year study at the University of Hawaii, scientists found that low triglyceride levels at middle age best predicted "exceptional survival" -- defined as living until age 85 without suffering from a major disease.

According to lead study author Jeff Volek, Ph.D., R.D., two factors influence the amount of fat coursing through your veins. The first, of course, is the amount of fat you eat. But the more important factor is less obvious. Turns out, your body makes fat from carbohydrates. It works like this: The carbs you eat (particularly starches and sugar) are absorbed into your bloodstream as sugar. As your carb intake rises, so does your blood sugar. This causes your body to release the hormone insulin. Insulin's job is to return your blood sugar to normal, but it also signals your body to store fat. As a result, your liver starts converting excess blood sugar to triglycerides, or fat.

All of which helps explain why the low-carb dieters in Volek's study had a greater loss of fat in their blood. Restricting carbs keeps insulin levels low, which lowers your internal production of fat and allows more of the fat you do eat to be burned for energy.

Yet even with this emerging data and the lack of scientific support for the diet-heart hypothesis, the latest AHA dietary guidelines have reduced the recommended amount of saturated fat from 10 percent of daily calories to 7 percent or less. "The idea was to encourage people to decrease their saturated-fat intake even further, because there's a linear relationship between saturated-fat intake and LDL cholesterol," says Alice H. Lichtenstein, Ph.D., Sc.D., who led the AHA nutrition committee that wrote the recommendation.

What about Krauss's findings that not all LDL is equal? Lichtenstein says that her committee didn't address them, but that it might in the future.

It could be that it's not bad foods that cause heart disease, it's bad habits. After all, in Volek's study, participants who followed the low-fat diet -- which was high in carbs -- also decreased their triglycerides. "The key factor is that they weren't overeating," says Volek. "This allowed the carbohydrates to be used for energy rather than converted to fat." Perhaps this is the most important point of all. If you consistently consume more calories than you burn, and you gain weight, your risk of heart disease will increase -- whether you favor eating saturated fats, carbs, or both.

But if you're living a healthy lifestyle -- you aren't overweight, you don't smoke, you exercise regularly -- then the composition of your diet may matter much less. And, based on the research of Volek and Dr. Krauss, a weight-loss or maintenance diet in which some carbohydrates are replaced with fat -- even if it's saturated -- will reduce markers of heart-disease risk more than if you followed a low-fat, high-carb diet.

"The message isn't that you should gorge on butter, bacon, and cheese," says Volek. "It's that there's no scientific reason that natural foods containing saturated fat can't, or shouldn't, be part of a healthy diet."

For more on this topic and a guide to foods you shouldn't fear, check out "Fat Foods You Can Eat".

http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do
?site=MensHealth&channel=health&category=heart.disease
&conitem=a03ddd2eaab85110VgnVCM10000013281eac____&page=0
2007 RODALE INC. ALL rights reserved

Sautee Veggie Casadilla!

2007-10-09T10:53:00.000-07:00

This is a very tasty burrito that I just started making last week.
It was a lot of guesswork that came out delightful!

Need:
-1 medium green pepper (or red whatever you like!)
-3 stalks of green onions
-a handful of spinach
-2 handfuls of white mushrooms sliced (a standard package)
-2 tortillas
-handful of cheddar cheese
-a dollop of butter

Directions:

Chop the green pepper into 1/2" pieces. Slice the green onions into little chunks (as small as you can get them). Wash the spinach.

Next warm a large skillet and throw in your dollop of butter. Roll it around in the pan so it covers the bottom.

Throw all the veggies in the pan and start to sautee. Keep the veggies moving and don't get the pan too hot (burned butter is not fun) Once they start to soften throw in another dollop of butter and toss the veggies in the pan.

Continue to sautee until the mushrooms are browned and smell really flavorful. Take skillet off of burner and set aside.

Put tortilla on microwave safe plate and spread the handful of cheddar across it.

Heat tortilla and cheese in microwave for 30-40 seconds (until cheese starts to melt)

Place the amount of veggies you would like in the middle of the tortilla. Fold it up into a burrito.

ENJOY!

The veggies can be pretty hot from being sautee'd....so maybe wait a sec to avoid tongue burn!

:)

Latin Black Beans & Sweet Potatoes

2007-10-01T14:13:00.000-07:00

2-3 c cooked black beans
2 lbs sweet potatoes, cut into 1-2 in. chunks
1 c roasted red pepper strips (found in a jar in the pickle section)
1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 c canned diced tomatoes
3/4 c chicken broth (1/2 can)
1/4 onion, diced
4 crushed cloves garlic
2 tsp gound cumin
1-2 tsp chipotle sauce
1/2 tsp ground allspice
a little all purpose seasoning
salt & pepper

Cook in slow cooker on high for around 3 hours.
Serve with rice.

(My personal opinion is to butter the rice first. Although very tasty, it just needed some fat!)

Borrowed and greatly modified from a Good Housekeeping recipe for chicken; I believe that adding chicken would cut the need for butter so I guess it just comes down to choosing your saturated fat...

Italian Roasted Eggplant

2007-10-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

1 large eggplant (I prefer Japanese)
1 large beefstock tomato (add more if using a smaller tomato)
about 1/2 c diced leek (or other onion)
a couple of Tbsp olive oil
a couple crushed cloves of garlic
a small handful of fresh lemon or lime basil chopped (you can also substitute regular or dried basil)
some spaghetti herbs (oregano, thyme, marjoram) to taste
salt and pepper
1-2 cooked navy beans

Toss together in a large stone with a lip (as in, not a flat stone) and roast on 350 degrees or so until everything starts looking golden brown. Top with mozerella cheese and continue cooking until melted.

Serve with whole grain toast or rice.

FYI- Although all of the recipes I post are original, most of them are moderately to significantly modified versions of another recipe and/or well known dish. This is 100% Tara original.

Black Bean Salsa

2007-09-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

Combine-
2 c cooked black beans
1 large tomato
1 c corn
1 green bell pepper
1/2 onion
1-3 cloves garlic
1/4-1/2 c lemon juice
1 handful fresh cilantro
1-3 tsp cumin to taste
salt and pepper to taste
ground red pepper if you for a little heat

Serve with corn tortilla chips.

Navy Slow Cooker Lasagna Instructions

2007-09-18T20:57:00.001-07:00

Layer
1/4 Sauce- 1 28oz can diced tomatoes, 1 8oz can tomatoe sauce, about 2 cp cooked navy, canillini, and/or white kidney beans, 1 Tbsp beef or ham base disolved in 1/2 c boiling water, seasonings to taste (basil, garlic, thyme, oregano, salt & pepper) *Note-you can use flavored tomatoes and sauce-just make sure they are a garlic, oregano, basil-ish type flavor*
Uncooked Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles (about 3)
1/2 Cheese Mixture- 1 large container cottage or ricotta cheese, 1.5 c shredded white cheese (I like Monteray Jack), 1 egg, frozen spinach or other vegetable, parsley
1/4 Sauce
Noodles
1/2 Cheese Mixture
1/4 Sauce
Noodles
1/4 Sauce
1/2 c aforely mentioned shredded cheese & 1/4 c parmesan

Cook on high for a few hours until noodles are done.

You can also use your own lasagna recipe with the following changes-
whole wheat noodles (to make the bean a complete protein)
substitute navy beans for hamburger lb for lb (1.5 c cooked beans = 1 lb) and mix in with sauce
add spinach or like vegetable to the cheese mixture
to maintain a hearty, meaty flavor, add ham or beef base to the sauce mixture

Navy Greek Salad General Instructions

2007-09-18T20:50:00.001-07:00

Combine-
(about) 2 c cooked navy, canillina, and/or white kidney beans
1-2 avocados
2 beefstock tomatoes (adjust amount if using some other tomato)
1/2 leek or other onion
1 cucumber
1 small handful fresh basil
1 small handful fresh dill
(you want to be able to taste the herbs; dried will work but won't taste as yummy)
1-2 cloves garlic pressed
basalmic vinegar (I'm guessing 1/4 c or so) to taste
a few Tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

Optional garnishments-
whole grain croutons
feta cheese

Eat with toast or pasta if you don't use croutons so that the beans will equal a complete protien.

Spanish Rice "Recipe"

2007-08-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a great one for saving money on your grocery bills. I try to serve good ol' beans and rice at least twice a month. We'll dice up a few tomatoes and some lettuce, add a little sour cream and it feels like eating out!

Keep in mind that I don't really do recipes so much as general meal instructions. That means that if it seams vague, your supposed to alter it according to your tastes.

1/4 (ish) onion diced
1 (ish) bell or other pepper
a couple cloves of garlic
a couple Tbsp olive oil
Saute in a large sauce pan.

(Health note: You don't want to heat the oil too much or it kills the good fats. You definitely want to include some peppers for the vitamin C which neutralizes phytic acid in beans and whole grains making their minerals more easily absorbed.)

Add 2 c rice to pepper mixture and brown rice.

After rice has browned, add 1 8 oz can tomato sauce and 2 14 oz cans natural chicken broth.

(Note: You can also use plain water, any other broth or water + chicken/beef base &c. in addition to the tomato sauce. Just make sure that the entire liquid/sauce combination = 4 c. I recommend avoiding anything with MSG in it. The only studies that show it to be safe were funded by food companies such as Lipton. All independent studies show it to be VERY questionable.)

Bring to a boil, turn heat to low and cook covered until all liquid has been absorbed by the rice.
This could take anywhere from 20 min to 1 1/2 hr depending on your rice...

Nutitiondata Comparisons

2007-08-15T18:32:00.000-07:00

Whenever I have food questions, I always go to www.nutritiondata.com. These are some things I learned this week...

Cooked frozen spinach is MUCH healthier for you than raw spinach. Just to show a few differences-

Fresh raw Cooked Frozen
Vit A 2813 IU 26534 IU
Vit K 145 mcg 1190 mcg
Folate 58.2 mcg 266 mcg

General mineral content for fresh, raw spinach is between 1% & 6% (although Mangenese is 13%) while the average mineral content for cooked, frozen spinach is 26.3%.

Cooked, fresh spinach is comparable to cooked frozen containing more vitamin C & E but less vitamin A and K. Spinach's anti-inflammatory index raises considerably after cooking it.

Baby carrots contain almost no vitamins and minerals, especially when compared to regular carrots. They do contain 2068 IU vitamin A but regular carrots contain 21520 IU.

Brown and white rice are surprisingly similar. Brown rice does have slightly more vitamin K, riboflavin, niacin, & vitamin B6 but white rice has more thiamin & folate.

Wheat

2007-08-15T14:58:00.000-07:00

Wheat

Enjoying Wheat Without a Wheat Grinder–

Use cracked wheat instead of cracker crumbs, bread or rice in meatloaves and meatballs.
Substitute half of your hamburger in any recipe with processed berries.
Use cracked wheat in breads and cookies or on salads for a nutty flavor.
Pop bulgar wheat like popcorn.
Sprout wheat for salad greens.
More suggestions and recipes at- http://waltonfeed.com/self/wheat.html

Approximate Measurements–

1 cup uncooked wheat = 2 cups cooked wheat
2 cups whole wheat = 3 cups ground flour
1 lb whole wheat = 2 1/4 cups wheat berries

Getting the Most Nutrients Out of Your Wheat–

Pairing wheat with vitamin C rich foods will increase iron absorption (think strawberries, kiwis orange juice, peppers, spinach, broccoli &c) as well as neutralize the phytic acid which can inhibit nutrient absorption and cause allergies.

Pairing wheat with a healthy fat (as in not a trans fat) will help your body access the vitamin E in the wheat (think peanut or almond butter, olive oil, &c. Butter, eggs, meat & whole milk work too although you should not consume an excessive amount of saturated fat).

Cooking Whole Wheat Berries-

Wash one cup of wheat and soak in 2 cups cool water for 12 hours. Place rehydrated wheat in a pan and bring to a boil. It may be necessary to add water. Simmer for about one hour until tender. Wheat need not be covered with water since cooking by steam is effective (use a lid). Water should be mostly absorbed after the hour. The plump, cooked wheat will keep in a covered container in the refrigerator for about two weeks or frozen for longer. So, make lots and save time!

Cooking Whole Wheat Berries Overnight–

Wash wheat thoroughly, place in pot with twice as much water as wheat. Bring wheat to a steady boil for 10-20 minutes. Turn off heat, cover & let stand over night By morning the berries should be full and plump with most of the liquid having been absorbed by the berries. Carefully scoop the drier berries form the top of the pot and place in a plastic bag for storage. Drain remaining liquid from pot and reserve the more moist berries for processing.

Processed Cooked Berries– Run moist berries through a food processor. This will resemble hamburger. Freeze unused processed berries in 1 c portions after a few days.

Bulgar Wheat– Spread a thin layer of cooked berries on a cookie sheet and place in a warm oven (200°F-300°F) stirring from time to time until the kernels are completely dry and hard (about 45-60 min).

Cracked Wheat– Coarsely crack bulgar wheat in a blender or grinder.

Storing Bulgar & Cracked Wheat– Place in a glass jar to be reconstituted or used (respectively).

Reconstituting Bulgar Wheat– Add 2 cups of boiling water to each cup of bulgar. Let stand until moisture is completely absorbed, about 30-60 minutes.

Beans

2007-08-15T14:52:00.000-07:00

Beans

Storage- Store unopened bags of dry beans in a cool, dark cupboard for a maximum of one year; after that they will lose some of their natural moisture and need longer cooking times, although the nutrients will remain. Once the package is opened, either store the bag inside a zipped plastic bag or pour out the leftover beans into a canister with a tight seal.

Approximate Measurements-

1 lb. dry beans = 2 - 2 1/2 cups
1 cup dry beans = 2 - 3 cups cooked beans
About 3/4 c dry beans = 1 lb cooked beans
About 3/4 c dry beans cooked = 16 oz can beans

Cooking– Always sort and rinse beans before cooking. There are two ways to reduce the flatulence factor, both of which may be used on either cooking method. A couple carrots cut up into 2-3 in. chunks will absorb the enzyme that causes flatulence (discard carrots after cooking). You may also soak the beans overnight, discard water, rinse and cook in fresh water. Presoaking the beans will reduce the cooking time by about 30 minutes. To check beans, take a spoonful out of the pot and blow on them gently. The skins should split easily. If the "skin test" works, taste one or two to see if they are soft.

Stovetop Method– Bring cooking water to a rapid boil and add beans. Bring the water to a second boil, reduce heat to very low and cook covered (very important) until tender.

Crock Pot Method– This is best for older beans. Pour rinsed beans in crock pot with water and cover with lid. The water level should be 2 in. above the beans. Cook on high for one hour and then reduce to low and cook overnight or until tender.

Time Saving Strategies– Cook a large amount of beans at once. Store leftover beans in 1 c. servings and freeze for later use. A six qt crock pot will cook 6 c. of dried beans overnight. Use carrots instead of soaking.

Enjoying Beans– Use beans instead of meat in your favorite salad, pasta & pizza recipes. The navy bean is very versatile and will work with most any recipe.

Black & pinto beans can be used in any Southwest/Mexican recipe instead of meat (ie Enchiladas, Tacos, Southwestern pasta’s, salads, & pizzas). Southwest seasonings include chili powder & cumin.

Soups, chili’s & dips are bean classics as well as adding beans to a green salad.

Getting the Most Nutrients Out of Your Beans– Beans should always be eaten with a grain in order to form a complete protein (think rice, noodles, bread, tortillas, &c). Eat beans with a food high in vitamin C to increase mineral absorption (think salsa, peppers, spinach, broccoli, orange juice, &c)