Finding Inspiration in Cooking

Recently, I have been struggling with lunch. My days are packed– even more so right now between work and planning for a June wedding– and I have so many phone calls that I don't have time to think about what I'm going to have for lunch. 

Finally today I decided to pick up some frozen meals just so I didn't have to think about it for a week. I was at Target and looked for a few of the Amy's brand Mexican casseroles. I like them but as someone whose body can't handle a lot of salt, the sodium content is much too high for me. However, today I found them with half the sodium. But then I looked to the right of the Amy's section and saw the evol (with the backward e) meals including gluten free burritos (which Greg's says should not be called burritos at that point). And then I spotted a fire-grilled steak bowl with black beans. I need meals high in protein, low in carb. It took me a long time to figure out how I function best; there is no pizza for lunch in my world or I'll be asleep all afternoon.

As I continued to walk through the frozen food aisle, I realized I was getting ideas: inspiration. While sometimes recipes are good inspiration, trying a combination someone else has made can work better. The fire-grilled steak bowl wasn't bad but a little tasteless for me. That means next Friday I'll be picking up the ingredients to make my own. Look forward to the recipe here soon.

The key for me is having enough meals in the refrigerator (because I work at home) that I don't have to think hard about lunch. And with today's inspiration, I think I'm good for awhile. All it took was a little time to let my mind wander at the store.

Finding Taste in Healthy Eating

There is nothing worse than bland food. And not just bland food but waking up in the morning, wanting to eat better and feel better, but knowing that, well there isn't much to look forward to food wise in the day.

While none of our lives should revolve around food, there is some truth to the satisfaction we feel in a good meal. After all, our bodies need to be nourished. It's part of the emotional-spiritual-physical pie of life. 

I remember back in the seventies and eighties how challenging diets were because the knowledge people had about how to use spices was minimal. And ice berg lettuce isn't exactly nutrient rich although it is filled with water. That satisfaction doesn't last long though.

My father ate a very bland diet but my mom always had the bottle of crushed red pepper near her. I often hear how children don't like spicy foods but somehow that crushed red pepper always made it onto my slice of pizza and I got used to the flavor.

In my own quest to eat well, I have finally figured out that it helps to food to look forward to. And that means food with taste. I feel fortunate to live in New Mexico. I see now how coming here in 1994, when I was 22 for graduate school, has been a huge influence on my cooking. I didn't realize how much until I moved away and came back.

I have learned how to use chiles to make food desirable even with less fat. Look forward to more blogs and recipes that use spices, not hot ones, but just enough to give it flavor to make it a meal you'll feel satisfied and ready to continue to create the life you've always wanted by feeling good and looking good.

Check out the black bean soup I use here– from Martha Stewart. I don't use my regular blender to mix the hot beans anymore after the lid was too hot and popped out of my hand that one time. It's not so much fun to clean a black-bean splattered kitchen! I have Ninja blender that works great for hot foods. It also doesn't matter what kind of chiles you use– whatever you can find in the store. I do love sliced avocado on top of my soup though. With some chips it makes a great lunch or meal on a cold day.

Tofu Scramble and Setting up the New Year

I am not a huge fan of new year's resolutions. As someone who has been running for a long time, I see the number of people out running increase after January 1 and then fall off after people get bored or tired or both. I do think it's good to set goals and for me January is the usual time I set goals because my birthday is in December: I'm coming into a new individual year and an overall new year. But I do then at any point during the year when I feel the need to make a change or move my life forward because it doesn't matter when you set your goals, the key is sticking them.

And I believe one of the hardest parts about setting goals regarding eating is finding healthy food that tastes good. I've been trying to eat well since I was in junior high– this was the middle 1980s and we didn't have the access to the food we do now. We also didn't have the knowledge. For instance, everything would say that you need to eat salad. That was great and I was happy to do that but no one told me to add some protein to my salad (in those days "salad" meant all vegetables) so I wouldn't have a headache at the end of the school day when I went out for track practice. 

After a few days of that, there was no more healthy eating; I needed protein I wasn't getting. Today I would add hard-boiled eggs and nuts.

But I also didn't understand why I would attend a conference and want to sleep during the keynote: orange juice and bagels are not exactly the best breakfast to keep people awake (but they are cheap!). I finally started bringing my own blender and making smoothies. It wasn't worth the exhaustion I felt when I didn't get a good breakfast.

Now we talk more about eating proteins that will fill us up and keep us full for a number of hours. We have access to whole grains rather than simple carbohydrates. And we are encouraged to eat more greens. 

There are lots of good happenings in the eating world but I'm sure many people don't think that tofu is one of them. I would agree– the one time I made tofu I didn't get it. The white substance had no flavor and left me hungry.

I decided to give tofu a chance again with this recipe from the Martha Stewart Clean Slate Cookbook (one of several that I've tried already). I made it Saturday for lunch and while I did things slightly differently: used chile powder instead of turmeric, no cojita cheese, and onions instead of scallions, it was quite tasty. I liked the spice off the chiles and the chile powder. The tofu wasn't too bad either because it had been blended with several other spices. We also had strawberries as a side.

However, I was hungry about two hours later. In the future I would find something to pair it with to help stave off my hungry and I would add more black beans. While I agree it is important to eat every few hours, often our lifestyles don't allow us to do that. The less I think about food, the better off I am.

Give tofu a chance in the new year.

The tofu scramble recipe is here.

Red Velvet Cake with...Beets? Carob?

Periodically I will talk about the challenge I always faced when I was very into running in high school and trying to eat better: I wanted to use better ingredients and find more nutritional density to my food but it was almost impossible in the late 1980s. 

My fiancé and I were talking about this a little while ago. He said, "It wasn't just that you didn't have the access to ingredients but you also didn't have access to the recipes."

While I would make pizza using wheat flour, I knew of all most no one else who did that (outside of Rocky Rococo Pizza, a Wisconsin chain that had opened in the next town over from mine in Illinois).

Now there is so much out there and I'm willing to explore all sorts of ways to make my food not just be nutritionally better but also have unique flavors.

For a dinner party across the street yesterday, I used the Cooking Light recipe for red velvet cake that uses beets for the color. However, instead of using cocoa, I put carob powder in my version. While I had some issues with the recipe (I don't believe there was enough frosting or filling), I was very happy with the outcome and the taste which wasn't overly sweet but brought together several foods one might not consider before. I also like the lightened calories and fat content- including using Greek yogurt in the filling.

Carob Peanut Butter Brownies

Ah, the carob peanut butter brownie.

I started making carob brownies in my quest to create something for myself that didn't include chocolate and was a bit healthier than the regular brownie. It started with cookies and branched into brownies when I realized it was an easier way to make a dessert for a gathering (it happened to be a Tupperware party I held last fall).

I took a peanut butter cookie recipe that has no egg and used wheat flour and altered it with carob plus upped the ingredients to make a thick, moist brownie.

And honestly? It's one of my favorites. When I need a sugar fix, I know I'm getting better nutrition here (flax! oats!) than with many other sweet desserts.

Carob Peanut Butter Brownies

1 cup whole wheat flour

½ cup ground flax seeds

1 cup quick oats

1 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 tablespoons canola oil

2 tablespoons applesauce

½ cup maple syrup (minimum)

½ cup peanut butter, creamy style

2 cups carob chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. I usually add more maple syrup and extra carob chips. Bake in greased square pan 35-40 minutes until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cut after the brownies have cooled and thickened.