Oatmeal: A Busy Mom's Best Friend

I want to take a few moments to wax poetic about one of our favorite foods: humble oatmeal. Not the sugary-instant-processed-packages (which I do not allow in the house), but the good ol' rolled oat variety. How do you like your oatmeal? Our preferred texture is not runny and not thick, but nice and creamy. I make it in the microwave in around three minutes with minimal clean-up. We liven it up with our favorite toppings: real maple syrup or real local honey, real cream, fresh fruits and nuts, or our favorite trick: frozen blueberries. The hot oatmeal melts the blueberries and makes them soft and juicy, while the cold blueberries immediately cool down the piping hot oatmeal to the perfect temperature for immediate consumption. The oatmeal even turns one of the girls' favorite color: purple. We've tried it with other frozen berries, too. Sliced frozen strawberries are best, the whole variety are just too big, or frozen blackberries and raspberries, and all are delicious, but the blueberries are our favorites. Other favorite combos are fresh sliced bananas and walnuts; warm cinnamon apples; and fresh berries and cream in the spring and summer.

I like to add either honey or real maple syrup for sweetener that brings more than empty calories. The roots of the maple trees reach deep down into the earth, pulling up trace minerals that are not commonly found in other foods. While calorie-wise, maple syrup is close to sugar, at least maple syrup contains a little bit of zinc, manganese, and calcium! Pick brands, such as Coombs Family Farms, which do not use formaldehyde in the refining process. Raw honey is a good choice, too, because it contains amylases and enzymes to digest carbohydrates and grains, which are hard on the tummy. According to Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon,  honey also does not spike the bloodsugar as severely as table sugar. I always have to keep in mind, though, that a sweetener is a sweetener, and no sugar is "good for you", so I try to restrain myself when adding one, even the goods ones like honey and maple syrup.

Even though oatmeal is a complex carb, it will still get broken down into simple sugars, and according to Diana Scharzbein in The Schwarzbein Principle, it's best to eat all carbs in combination with protein and real fat (not trans fats, which are man-made). That's why we always add real cream to ours, and the kids usually eat it in combination with some kind of protein, usually a scrambled egg.
But enough nutrition talk! Here's how I make it:

Super-Easy Oatmeal

I usually make 1 cup of dried oatmeal at a time, but you can make any amount you want, just cook it for more or less time. Just remember that however much oatmeal you have, you will use twice as much water. Cooking times may vary depending on how many watts your microwave is. I believe ours is pretty high powered, at least 1100 watts. The trick about microwaving oatmeal is to break up the cooking time into smaller increments so that the oats don't boil over and make a huge mess. Play with your toppings and find your favorites.

1 cup rolled oats (not quick cook)
2 cups water

In microwave safe bowl, combine oats and water.

Oats and water before cooking

Microwave on high in 1-minute increments, stirring between each increment, until you reach desired doneness, about 3 minutes.

The cooked oatmeal with honey and cream. Not too thick, not too thin. Delicious!

 If it still needs to cook longer than three minutes, switch to 30-second increments. Sometimes I have to add a bit of extra water to get the consistency the way we like it. Be careful when you take the bowl out of the microwave! It will be hot!

Toppings (the best part!)

3-4 tablespoons real cream
1-2 teaspoons honey or maple syrup
2 large handfuls frozen blueberries

Frozen blueberries are our favorite topping

 

The girls love how the blueberries turn the oatmeal purple.

Darling had the bowls all ready

Other topping ideas:
sliced fresh bananas, maple syrup, chopped walnuts, and cream
stewed apricots and figs with honey
stewed apples with cinnamon
fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, cream, real maple sugar

How I Make Home-Made Stock

Have you ever made home-made stock, either beef, chicken, or vegetable? It's so much more flavorful than the store-bought kind, but to be honest, I used to think it would be too much trouble to make. Every celebrity chef has their own recipe for chicken stock, but I always find it so wasteful. They often want you to use the whole chicken (or two, or three!)  and then just throw it away once you have strained the liquid. This offends my sensibilities. Waste a whole chicken???? What are they thinking? Likewise with the vegetables. Veggies are relatively inexpensive (only compared to meat and dairy, though), but I still find it bothersome to have to buy vegetables just to make stock.

At last I found a kindred in The Unplugged Kitchen, by Viana La Place. She suggests saving all your kitchen scraps: onion and garlic peels, vegetable peelings, tops, and stems, cheese rinds, and even bread crusts and making soup every week. Then, one of my friends wrote on her blog about saving vegetables scraps in the freezer and making vegetable stock with them. So I decided to try it. Voila! Luscious, dark, flavorful broth, made for free, out of the stuff you usually throw away. And it's super easy to do.

All week long, I save my vegetable scraps, and I mean, everything. Tops, peelings, and root ends of carrots, turnips, eggplants, sweet peppers (though not the seeds or core), celery, okra, potatoes, sweet potatoes, stems of herbs, the tiny little garlic cloves that are too small to use, you name it, I save it. Because I'm using the scraps instead of throwing them out, I make sure to do an extra-thorough wash and rinse of everything before I use it. I put trimmings in baggies and store them in the freezer. We eat a lot of veggies in this house, so I end up with a lot of scraps. One day a week, I roast a chicken. Whatever day that falls on is the night I make stock. Before I go to bed, I ceremoniously dump the carcass and all the pan juices into my large crockpot (not sure of the actual capacity, but it's at least 6 quarts), then I dump all the frozen veggie trimmings on top, and cover everything with pure, filtered water. The only thing close to measuring I do is to make sure I don't over-fill the pot. I add the tiniest pinch of salt and two or three black peppercorns, put the lid on, turn the crockpot on low, and forget about it until the next day. Whenever I get around to it the following morning, I pour the liquid through a fine colander and into 3-cup-capacity Tupperware containers. I use a ladle to press and squeeze every last drop of goodness out of the scraps, then throw the scraps away. Then I label each container and put it in the freezer.

If you are only making vegetable stock, you could make your scraps do double duty by then throwing everything in the compost pile once you've strained your broth. If you are making a stock with meat in it, then throw the scraps away, as animal products are not supposed to go into a compost pile.

The flavor of the stock will not be consistent when made this way, as it would if you followed a recipe, but I have yet to make a batch that didn't taste good. And, I make mine almost for free with hardly any trouble, which is more than I can say for the Barefoot Contessa recipe (although I'm sure hers tastes fantastic). Oh, I do have to confess that I do not include beet scraps. The thought of red or pink stock is just not appealing to me.

And finally, I'll leave you with a link so you can read up on why broth and stock are so very good for for the body. Everyone's grandmother says that if you are sick, you need home-made chicken soup. Well, it turns out there is some actual science behind that old wive's tale. You can read about how good broth is for you here.

Real Food for Weight Loss, or How I've Lost 25 Lbs (and counting)

A quick hop on the scale the other day brought the rare good news that I have lost weight! Almost twenty-five pounds in the last six months, to be precise. I always shut my eyes as I step up on the scale, not able to bring myself to look at the number until it stops spinning. This time, I just starred at it in disbelief. I have not been at this weight since before I was pregnant with Darling, five years ago.  I am also a mere six pounds above my my first goal weight! The astonishing thing is that after five years of feeling like I had to starve myself to simply not gain any weight and constantly losing my battle with sugar cravings, the weight has just melted off without exercise or restricting calories in any way. It has happened very steadily these last six months. So what's changed? Well, my diet has changed, yes, but also my mentality. See, I decided to only eat Real Food. When I say "real food", I mean Nina Planck's definition of real food. In my own words, I eat the food that God made. Lots of grass-fed beef and dairy, pastured pork, chicken, and eggs. Tons upon tons of vegetables. As much fruit and nuts as I want. I sweeten things with honey and real maple syrup. Salad dressing is olive or hazelnut oil and balsamic vinegar. I never count calories. In fact, I way upped my fat intake so I wouldn't get hungry. Just between you and me, I eat insane amounts of butter. In the morning, I have a slice of sprouted-grain cinnamon raisin toast with a huge pat of butter, along with two scrambled eggs and half of a pink grapefruit. I eat pasta or rice only occasionally. I indulge in dessert at least four times a week. Usually it's a small scoop of all-natural ice cream (the closet kind to home-made that I can find), or frozen berries topped with heavy cream and sprinkled with real maple sugar. Carbs and sugar are the only thing I monitor, and I still eat plenty, I am just careful not to over-do it. But I don't eat food unless it tastes good. I just enjoy food too much to starve myself. I found that once I brought my meals into balance, the food cravings vanished. I don't snack anymore. I finally gave up all sodas and haven't missed them. I no longer have those unbearable moments of, "I need sugar!" that used to plague me every night. And meanwhile the weight is coming off very steadily, at about a pound a week.
While I am doing so much better, I do find that some foods are hard to eliminate totally. Damned if I don't love Pepperidge farm goldfish!

Anyway, I have just been so flabbergasted by my results that I had to share. If you are wondering what in the world we eat, here is my menu plan from last week:

Sunday: homemade chicken soup with celery, carrots, potatoes, and turnips
Monday: apricot chicken, bok choy with cashew
Tuesday: meatball stroganoff, roasted Brussel sprouts
Wednesday: home-made tacos
Thursday: pot roast with celery, carrots, tomatoes, and potatoes, roasted cauliflower
 Friday: girls were with Nana and Papa for dinner and I ate leftovers
Saturday: Ratatouille with zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, green peppers, and tomatoes

If you are interested in learning a little more about real food for health, I would highly recommend:
Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck
The Schwarzbein Principle by Diana Scharzbein
I have read a lot of books about real food, some better than others. Those are my two favorites.

You know, of course, that this is just my personal experience. If you want to know what you should eat, do your own research! Don't listen to a rambling hobbyist like me.

Adventures in Bok Choy

I have a confession to make: I have never had bok choy before. Until tonight! I'm always wanting to expand my vegetable horizons, and while browsing Simply Recipes, I came across this recipe for Baby Bok Choy with Cashews. I thought, this is the recipe for me! I was a little skeptical as I chopped it up, but when I ate the first bite, I became a bok choy convert! Tender, crisp, lightly sweet-- delicious! Not stringy, like celery. I decided to do a little research, as bok choy isn't a vegetable that I knew anything about.

In the West, we associate bok choy with Chinese cooking, and that's because it's been cultivated in the Far East since ancient times. It make appearances in Korean, Thai, and Philipino cuisine. And it turns out, bok choy is just as good for you as it is delicious! It's packed with vitamin C, vitamin A, calcium, and folate. It also contains beta carotene and vitamin K, phosphorus, and magnesium. With that list of powerful anti-cancer nutrients, it's no surprise that bok choy is a proud member of none other than the brassica family! It may not look anything like the broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbages that we see in our supermarkets, but bok choy can definitely hold it's own in this prestigious family, and it does it without that super-strong, cabbag-ey flavor.

If you hate broccoli and cauliflower, try bok choy. It has a nice mild flavor and an addictive crispy crunch. Head on over to Simply Recipes and find a good recipe to try. It just might become your favorite vegetable!

Home-Made Baby Food

Makin' baby food: Round 3. With an active toddler and an over-active pre-schooler running around, it can be hard to remember why I would go to the trouble again (although really it isn't that much trouble). A recent report on the news, however, helped remind me why I've lugged out the steamer basket and the blender again: Of over 400 baby and snack products tested by an independent lab, 85% were contaminated with lead, including products by Gerber, Beech Nut, and Earth's Best. (It is important to note that the products are contaminated during the processing (I would guess from the equipment), but because processing plants will often process many foods for many different brands, any product from an implicated brand could be suspect, and organic and conventional brands alike are affected.) But besides the assurance that I'm not slowly poisoning my baby with lead-laced products, I just happen to like everything about home-made baby food. It smells better (a waft from those jars is enough to put your head in the toilet), it tastes betters, I can make sure I'm using the freshest ingredients ensuring optimum nutrition, and E's meals are limited only by my imagination and his discriminating palate. For example, today E sampled eggplant with roasted bell peppers (orange ones). Go look for that in the Gerber aisle! (He loved it, by the way).

Also, apparently the American Academy of Pediatrics has updated its recommendations about introducing solids. You can read the report here. It basically states that if you are going to get a food allergy, you're going to get it no matter when you were first introduced to the food. I had read a few years ago that delaying solids until 6 months does reduce the risk of food allergy, but that after that, it makes no difference (although the reason that I delayed solids until six months is that prior to that, any solid food will decrease baby's ability to absorb iron, increasing their risk for iron-deficiency anemia).  Exclusively breastfed babies have the most protection from food allergies, with the greatest benefits seen in those children who are at risk for food allergies (one parent or one sibling with a food allergy).

If you are interested in making home-made baby food, here's a site that I have found very helpful. My baby cubes have also held up through three children and are still going strong. I've had to throw some away because the lids wouldn't close, but I think that for the price, it's a great deal.

Here's What's Cookin': March 21st-28th

I'm trying to get back into the habit of a weekly menu. I'd forgotten how much work it is! I think the key to being frugal with food is simply to eat your leftovers and not be wasteful. If you plan out what you are going to cook and then stick to it, you will probably end up saving money, even if you spend more on the ingredients, because you won't throw out wasted food. I used a menu last week and it worked out pretty well. Here is the menu for this week:

Monday
Breakfast: 
banana pancakes, stewed plum with walnuts, grapefruit
Lunch:
Out to eat (will be out for haircut)
Snack:
hummus with carrots, olives
Dinner:
Pita pockets with roasted red peppers and avocado, salad

Tuesday
Breakfast:
yogurt, clementines, blueberries, and almonds
Lunch:
 Out to eat (more appointments!)
Snack:
avocado salad with feta, olives, and lemon
Dinner:
chicken salad over greens

Wednesday 
Breakfast:
steel-cut oatmeal with raisins, grapefruit, grapes
Lunch:
Chinese rice with peas, eggplant, and mushrooms; roasted carrots
Snack:
roasted eggplant and red pepper spread; pita crisps
Dinner:
Homemade pizza, salad

Thursday
Breakfast:
scrambled eggs, English muffin, grits, strawberries
Lunch:
Bell peppers stuffed with Chinese rice, salad
Snack:
hummus and pita crisps
Dinner:
leftovers

Friday
Breakfast:
yogurt with granola, frozen berries, grapefruit
Lunch:
veggie fajitas of zucchini, squash, mushrooms, and onions; guacamole
Snack:
cottage cheese and grapes
Dinner:
black beans, veggies, seasoned rice

Saturday
Breakfast
oatmeal with walnuts and dates   
bacon
banana
Lunch
creamy chicken and vegetable soup, salad, French Bread
Snack:
yogurt
apples
Dinner:
leftovers

Sunday
Breakfast:
fried eggs, biscuits and jelly, grapefruit
Lunch:
If you can find it, you can eat it!
Snack:
olives and cheese
Dinner:
cottage cheese and fruit 

As you can see, I try to do the largest meal at lunchtime. It is healthier to eat a large lunch and light supper: you burn more calories that way! It is much better to not consume your largest meal before you go to sleep!

Beautiful Soup, So Rich and Green!

Beautiful Soup, so rich and green,

Waiting in a hot tureen!

Who for such dainties would not stoop?

Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!

Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!

Beau-ootiful Soo-oop!

~Lewis Carroll

 Want to add a bit of extra nutrition and flavor to your soups? It's easy to do! Just make a broth from any dark, leafy green (such as kale, spinach, turnip, collard, or mustard greens, to name a few). Cover in abundant water, add a bit of salt, and boil until the broth is very dark and rich. You can also add a few more nutrients by adding one can of organic chicken broth with the water. You can eat the greens (which are delicious!) separately and reserve the liquid for a variety of uses. You can add the liquid as a stock to any soup, and one of my tricks to cook purple hull or crowder peas in the stock instead of in water. The peas get so much flavor from the broth! Or you can add it to mashed potatoes instead of milk. The broth is so good, in fact, that you can simply drink it on its own. In her book, Unplugged Kitchen, Viana la Place writes of her grandmother's "Verdura cure." Once a month, her Italian grandmother would fast, drinking only the broth some dark greens all day long. La Place claims this, along with lots of walking, is what gave her little grandmother a long, healthy life.

If you are feeling under the weather, try "the Verdura Cure." According to the Weston A. Price Foundation, broth is so good for you when you are sick because it provides a range of vitamins and minerals in a form that is easily absorbed and very useful to your weary body.

Warnings About Vitamin D

First, a note that I am not a health professional, just someone who likes to read.

We're starting to hear a lot about vitamin D lately, and it is no wonder. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to several types of cancer (especially breast cancer), high blood pressure, diabetes (types 1 AND 2), depression, osteoporosis, autoimmune disorders, stroke, Alzheimers, the list goes on and on. This is an essential vitamin, known casually as "the sunshine vitamin" because our bodies can manufacture vitamin D from the UV rays of the sun. I have a Google Alert on vitamin D so that I can keep up with new info about it. About 1 billion people worldwide are deficient in vitamin D. About 80% of women in the US are at least marginally deficient. Also, more and more children are being diagnosed as deficient in vitamin D. In fact, certain diseases once though to be eradicated, such as rickets, are making a comeback and this has health officials baffled. In big cities, they are starting to see kids who are obese, but suffer from malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies. What is particularly scary about vitamin D deficiency affecting children, is that it seems that a severe deficiency early in life will contribute to health problems later....Even if vitamin D levels are brought back up when they are older. (There has been a link made between women who are deficient as youths battling high blood pressure later in life, even after the deficiency was corrected.) 

There are very few food sources of vitamin D apart from sunshine, and with the exception of one, all of them are animal sources. Good, whole milk contains vitamin D, as well as eggs from pastured chickens, but keep in mind that pasteurization destroys all the pathogens, and all the nutrients as well. Manufacturers then add back cheap synthetic, chemically created nutrients which are near-worthless to the body. Especially the vitamin D that they add: most companies boast a "vegetarian source" of vitamin D, meaning D2. That's great, except the vitamin D with all the health benefits is D3, or Cholecalciferol. Also, egg yolks from pastured chickens contain vitamin D, but most chickens today have never seen a pasture. It is a big deal for egg producers to put "vegetarian diet" on their egg-cartons, to let you know that they aren't putting anything sick or gross in their chicken feed (like they put in cattle-feed). That's all well and good, except that chickens aren't meant to be vegetarians: they're omnivores. They love to scavenge and eat insects and worms (remember: insects are an excellent source of high-quality protein!). When chickens are put on a restricted diet, many nutrients found in pastured eggs don't make it into the eggs of commercial chickens. That's why you can only be sure your eggs yolks contain vitamin D if they come from pastured chickens who were allowed to graze and eat their natural diet. 

Of course, the best food-source of vitamin D is from fatty fish, such as salmon, and high quality cod-liver oil. But, of course, we're told to steer clear of fish whenever possible because they are hopelessly contaminated! The least-contaminated fish are deep, cold-water fish from the Pacific ocean which are low on the food chain, like sardines. If you take cod liver oil, do your research to find out how it is processed. Choose the darkest oil you can find (lighter oils likewise nutrient-light). Molecularly distilled is apparently the best process for removing heavy-metals and other pollutants while keeping nutrients intact. The great thing about Cod Liver Oil is that it also contains vitamin A, and the ratio of A to D is in perfect proportion (as are the ratio of omega-6-to-omega-3's). According to The Weston A. Price Foundation, any intake of vitamin D increases your body's need for vitamin A.  But I digress....

The only plant source of vitamin D is found in mushrooms, and it is a scant supply at best. But isn't it fascinating that the only plant source of "the sunshine vitamin" is found in a fungi that grows in the shade???? I think so.

Vitamin D is essential to support your immune system, and has been proven to be more effective at preventing the flu than the flu vaccine....Wait, what???? So, doctors and other healthcare professionals must really be encouraging people to take their vitamin D this winter, right? Wrong. In fact, the opposite is true: doctors often discourage taking vitamin D supplements, recommend no more than 400 IUs of the vitamin, and advise avoiding cod liver oil "to avoid toxicity." Wow. If doctors warn about vitamin D toxicity, it must really be devastating, right? That's what I wanted to know, and this is what I found:

Vitamin D CAN be toxic at extremely high doses. In fact, it is used in rat poison for this very reason (as is Coumadin, a blood thinner which is extremely prevalent in most medicine cabinets). But according to The Vitamin D Council, the dose at which vitamin D will kill half the rats tested, is the equivalent dose of 110-lb human adult ingesting 176,000,000 IUs (that's one-hundred, seventy-six million IUs, in case you have trouble counting the zeros). Also, the only reported case of pharmacological vitamin D toxicity was a man who took an over-the-counter supplement which contained a manufacturing error: the man was unknowingly taking almost 2,000,000 IUs of vitamin D daily for two years. So what happened? He recovered, uneventfully, after proper diagnosis, with a treatment of steroids and sunscreen. And just what are the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity? Well, they appear to be nausea, heartburn, and constipation or diarrhea. Because vitamin D is a natural blood thinner (which is why it is important for blood pressure and heart health), it can thin the blood too much when taken in excessive doses, causing dizziness. oh, my! Dizziness! What a horrible side-effect! So much worse than stroke or lymphoma, a common side-effect of many prescription drugs, which is a particularly deadly type of cancer that attacks the lymph system. Wait...what? So, doctors have no qualms prescribing drugs known to cause an aggressive type of cancer with a low survival rate in order to treat restless-leg syndrome, but are fearful of you getting more than 400 IUs of vitamin D on the basis of "toxicity", which will affect you basically the same way as a Chicago-style deep dish pizza? 

If we follow the logic that because we were meant to make vitamin D from the sun, we could measure how much vitamin D we make during a day in the sun and consider that a healthy dose, right? So just how much vitamin D do you make from the sun? Well, 30 minutes (sans sunscreen) in the summer sun, and you'll make over 10,000 IU's of vitamin D. But wait...I thought the RDA was only 400 IU's, for fear of toxicity! So this must mean that every person who ever lived before the invention of sunscreen suffered from vitamin D toxicity! That's a lot of constipated people! Or, could it possibly be that we need MUCH, MUCH MORE vitamin D than was previously realized? Considering that all the diseases that vitamin D is known to prevent are only modern phenomena's and are directly correlated with the modern phenomenon of vitamin D deficiency, I'd say the later is more logical. 

I have decided to take 4,000 IUs of vitamin D3 daily, and have had only positive results. I could probably do more, but it is true that it doesn't pay to be over-zealous with supplements. And I don't have time to get the runs.

A Delicate Balance

I'm at that point in pregnancy that when planning what I'm going to eat, I have to strike a delicate balance between two thoughts: 1) if this is my last meal before I go into labor, would it give me the nutrients I need to sustain me through?; and 2) if this is my last meal before I go into labor, would I be comfortable throwing it up?

I'm trying to choose meals with lots of iron and potassium, as well as vitamin C to keep my immune system up. Tonight I have the added bonus of fighting off yet another virus that we are passing around (which my girls brought home from Sunday school. This happens every time they go with their grandparents, but that is a rant for another time). My poor, pregnancy-depleted immune system is putting up a good fight, though! So far I've managed to keep any real misery at bay and am just a little tired and have a runny nose. My littlest one, again, had the lightest case, but my older one is having a tough time getting over it. I think what is so hard is that when they are so little, there is nothing you can give them to make them more comfortable. That is why I rely so heavily on food and nutrition to help heal right now. I am a firm believer that when you are truly sick, you need medicine, but let's face it: if you don't provide your immune system with the support it needs, how can it possibly work? So it's lots of sunshine for us, as well as foods rich in vitamin C, such as kiwi, sweet potatoes, and chicken broth. Sweet potatoes are especially good, because they are so rich in vitamin A, which you need to absorb vitamin D, which you need to absorb vitamin C. In fact, vitamin C has had its time in the media spotlight, and vitamin D is currently getting all the attention as it is becoming more widely studied, but vitamin A isn't really thought much about. However, any intake in vitamin D drastically increases your body's need for vitamin A, so I predict that in the next 2-5 years we'll start hearing more about how important this vitamin is for good health.

I'm trying very hard to stay out of the processed foods (but did I mention that my mother brought home 2-dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts...and then conveniently went to Texas and left me alone with them???), not just because they are empty calories and not good for my waistline and are useless to the baby, but also because the acidity of sugar will deplete your immune system, making you even more vulnerable to colds and viruses. I've done pretty well, but if only I could stay off processed foods completely! I'm getting there. It's been at least a week since I've eaten out. However, there is something about bread, carbs, and sugar that SEEMS so comforting when you don't feel good. Too bad they actually make you more tired.

Recipe: Summer Tomato Risotto with Spinach

I can't say enough about spinach. What a nutritional powerhouse! This leafy green, which is thought to be native to Persia (now Iran), should be a staple in the diet of every health-conscious person, but should especially be incorporated during pregnancy. Spinach is an excellent source of iron, a host of B vitamins, including riboflavin (B2) and folate (the naturally occurring form of folic acid), as well as calcium, potassium, and vitamins A, C, and K. It's also a good source of dietary fiber. Your baby will thank you for eating as much spinach as you can. Folate is known to prevent the birth defect, spina bifida, and vitamin K, calcium, and iron are all essential to bone development.

So, now you may know of a few of the many reasons why you need to eat more spinach, but nutrition alone has never been enough to convince anyone to eat anything. But guess what? It's delicious! This is one green that I usually prefer fresh over cooked, and I easily incorporate it anytime a recipe calls for it's less-nutritionally dense cousin, lettuce. I'm not a fan of the soggy, gross boiled spinach that I remember from my childhood (the kind Popeye ate from the can), but luckily there are a host of ways to prepare spinach that are both more delicious, and more nutritious. It's hard to beat a good spinach salad, but spinach sauteed in olive oil with garlic is right up there in my book. I also like it wilted in stir-fries. And can we get a shout-out for spinach dip, please?

I like to make a game of buying fresh, baby spinach in bulk at Sam's and seeing how much of it I can eat before it goes bad. Of course, since I wash it in my fabulous lotus washer, it lasts longer than it normally would, but still. It's a lot of spinach to consume. Naturally, I add it to everything I can, and tonight's dinner was no exception. Simple tomato risotto sounded boring. Where was the color variation? What it needed was some green.

Risotto is a traditional Italian rice dish, made with a short-grain, round rice. Arborio is commonly used and easy to find.  It seems that rice was known in Italy a-way back in the Roman days, but was not common and was used mainly for medicinal purposes. It seems that the Arabs introduced rice to Northern Italy sometime during the Middle Ages, and it became a staple crop of the Po Valley sometime in the mid-late 1400's. Risotto is an extremely flavorful dish that takes some practice, but I found to be more forgiving than it is rumored to be. Just be patient and keep stirring!

Here is my recipe for Tomato Risotto with Spinach. There were no leftovers!


Tomato Risotto with Spinach

1 small package arborio rice
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes with liquid, warmed

1/3 cup good wine, warmed (white would be best, but I only had red and it was fine. I warmed mine in the microwave...DO NOT add cold, or it will "shock" the rice) 
1 medium onion, diced (I had a red onion on hand)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chicken stock, warmed (again, cold liquid will shock the rice), use more or less if needed

2 tablespoons butter, divided
2 cups fresh baby spinach 
salt and pepper to taste



In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, melt 1 tbsp butter and saute onion until translucent. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute more. Add rice and saute until golden brown (5-7 minutes), stirring constantly. When rice is toasted, add the wine in slow constant stream, stirring gently to keep mixture from sticking. Next, add the stock, one ladle-full at a time. Keep stirring gently, adding each ladle-full once rice has absorbed what is in the pan. Then add the canned tomatoes with liquid and continue to stir gently. When rice has reached the "al dente" stage, add the spinach and stir until it is tender and incorporated.  Turn of heat and stir in the last tbsp of butter to make it extra rich and creamy. Top with grated pecorino romano or parmigiano reggiano and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately! Enjoy!

Of Memories and Muscadines

We all have them: those golden, pure, perfect memories of a childhood summer day. The ones that it seems no amount of time can diminish or fade. They are burned into our mind's eye forever, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

I don't know why this one particular memory stuck with me. Nothing special happened, nothing kids today would find particularly interesting. We were just a bunch of kids, I think 5 or 6 of us, all cousins (two of them were my brothers), visiting our grandparents' house out in "the country".  It was a hot, late  summer afternoon and we walked down the looooonnnggg, winding driveway towards the road, where we picked wild muscadines for Mamaw to make into muscadine jelly.  Of course, we ate tons of them straight off the vine. I still remember the little "pop" as they burst in my mouth, and that rush of wild, tangy flavor, and the bitterness if you got one not quite ripe.

This has been one of my favorite childhood memories, perhaps for the simple fact that I was included in the group of "big kids" for once. Perhaps it was because we were partaking of a tradition in the spirit of pioneers: harvesting food wild from the land!  I was a very sentimental child like that. Whatever the reason, the mere utterance of the word "muscadine" will bring it all back. So it's no surprise that when we were picking strawberries back in June at a local U-Pick orchard and they advertised that they would have muscadines in August, my sentimentality took over and I pre-ordered 2 gallons worth: one each of red and white muscadines.

Let's fast forward to late August, after a phone-call to let me know that my order was ready and a drive to the orchard to pick it up, and I have 2 gallons of muscadines sitting on my kitchen counter. And, for laughs, let's throw in the fact that I don't know how to make jellies, jams, or sauces that muscadines are typically used for, so I have no way to consume them unless I eat them like grapes. By myself. All two gallons. It's nearly enough to make me wish I'd never heard of muscadines!

But after a few minutes of allowing myself to wallow in buyer's remorse, I decide to get on with it. They're just grapes, after all, and I am a fully-grown Homo sapien with complex rational thought, problem solving skills, and opposable thumbs. No way are those grapes getting the best of me! I head to my first line of defense: the internet! A feat of man no mere Vitis rotundifolia could ever conceive of! I begin my research and quickly succumb to another weakness of mine: fascination. Damn, if those little buggers aren't fascinating! Here's a bit of what I uncovered:

Muscadines are native to the Southeastern United States. They were discovered in 1584 by Sir Walter Raleigh. The name muscadine comes from the word, muscus, which is the root of the muscat grape, as well. Early settlers called the new, wild grape of America after a grape they were no doubt familiar with. A golden/bronze muscadine was found growing and then cultivated along the Scuppernong river, and so were given the name scuppernong. Muscadines are no doubt the red-headed step-child of the wine industry, but for no good reason other than blatant wine snobbery and ancient prejudice. This little jewel of the South is high in vitamin C, vitamin B, and manganese, and are higher in calcium, fiber, iron, and zinc than most other fruits. But muscadines are also a significantly better source of that "miracle" compound, resveratrol, than their more popular grape cousins. Wondering where you've heard that word before? Resveratrol is that compound found in red wine that is thought to reduce abnormal cells and lower your risk of heart disease. It has been in the news recently as containing the key to "The French Paradox", and is also thought to have anti-aging benefits.

So now I am totally thrilled that I have 2 gallons of muscadines on my counter, and I can't wait to try some recipes. I found a recipe for muscadine jelly that doesn't seem too intimidating, here. I will let you know how that turns out, and hopefully I'll some muscadine recipes of my own to post. But for those of you wanting to try muscadines without all the work, there's always muscadine wine!

Sources on Muscadines:
Paulk Vineyards
USDA Website
Birmingham Business Journal

For A little Bit on Arkansas Wine:
Wiederkehr Wine Cellars