1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken, cut into 1/2 in cubes
2 tsp each: cumin, sea salt, oregano
2 cups enchilada sauce
1/2 cup green onion
1/2 cup finely chopped broccoli
1/2 cup finely chopped Anaheim peppers (I got mine from mom’s garden)
8-9 large corn tortillas (we like Trader Joe’s homemade corn tortillas)
1.5 cups shredded raw white cheddar, also from T. Joes.
Once enchilada sauce is prepared, set aside 1 cup. Add the chicken and the spices to the remaining enchilada sauce in the pan and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the broccoli to the chicken mix and cook until chicken is done – about another 5-7 min on medium heat. Stir regularly to ensure the chicken is cooked through.
Meanwhile, layer a deep dish pie pan with tortillas. Cut the tortillas in half and lay on the bottom of the dish, covering as much area as possible. Add 1/3 of the shredded cheese. When chicken mix is done, add 1/3 of it to the pie dish, then 1/3 of the green onions, 1/3 of the Anaheim peppers, and 1/3 cup of the remaining enchilada sauce. Repeat the process of layering. Once the top layer of tortillas is added, sprinkle the remaining 1/3 of cheese, onion and peppers and sauce on top. You can garnish with chopped black olives if you like.
Bake at 325 for about 18-20 minutes, until cheese is melted.
Then just this morning I was reminded in my yoga class that today is a day of transition. It’s the Vernal Equinox. Change time. The fleeting of one season as the other rises.
During change things are awkward. We don’t know what is going to happen next. One day we wake up and it’s 90 degrees, the next day the leaves are turning and rain is pending. One minute the Wake Board is right underneath my feet, the next minute it’s GONE! It can feel pretty out of control, especially in our worlds which have been mostly created to give us control over everything from our climate (AC and heaters) to being able to buy every item, food, song, or whatever from the tips of our fingers. We forget that the natural process of life is change. We are not meant to control everything, but rather to harness the energy of change and guide to toward our personal growth.
Personal change has been a lot like this for me too. It’s not always graceful, pretty, or comfortable (okay it is NEVER these things), but the beauty is in the fact that it’s new – it’s evolving – it’s creation in motion.
And at the end, you might get something more like this:
now she has it!
If you are in the midst of change – changing your diet, your life, your mind or your body…remember that you are EXACTLY where you need to be. You can’t have the butterfly without the cocoon, you can’t have the first snow of Winter without the transitional season of Autumn. You simply must go with the process – dance with it, embrace it and one day you will get it ! I promise!
This summer I fell in love with a Lean Cuisine dish that was some tasty mix of beans,rice, veggies and a ‘cheese sauce’. Tasty yes, but when you look at the ingredient list there is a slough of goodies that just don’t belong in everyday cooking.
So I decided to see if I could ‘one up’ my Lean Cuisine favorite by making the same thing at home and freezing it for those busy fall school days. Boy did I strike gold.
I call this one “Clean Cuisine” because it has all the bennies of frozen entrees with all the goodness of organic, local and fresh foods – it’s also more cost effective per serving that the frozen stuff AND you can customize the flavors to your liking.
The basic ingredients: rice, black beans, peppers, green onions, cheese, spices
Cook 2 cups of brown rice in a rice cooker, adding 2 tsp cumin, sea salt and 2 Tbsp of tomato paste to the water. Just let it do it’s thing and in the meantime, you can prep the veggies and cheese.
Grade about 4-5 oz of sharp cheddar cheese, set aside.
Blanch 1 large red bell pepper in boiling water for about 30 seconds
Now chop the peppers into small pieces, and dice up about 4-5 green onions.
If you have any salsa (which I did) bring that along too!
The Assembly Line
Mix about 1 cup beans and 1.5 cups of rice in a large bowl. Add 1/2 the peppers, onions, cheese and about 2 tbsp salsa. Mix thoroughly. Separate into two plastic, freezer safe containers. Close and label. Repeat with the rest of the rice and beans. You’ll have some left over rice if you started with 2 cups dry rice – perfect for tonight’s dinner.
I ended up with 4 full servings of this dish plus left over for dinner AND lunch the next day – that’s pretty good ‘bang for your buck’, as my dad would say 😉
This past Monday, in the name of science, I chomped on a sausage egg McMuffin with cheese for breakfast. Did I mention I got $20 and a free blood draw? Score! Hey, I’m a starving student…cut me some slack.
The whole experience got me thinking about why people go to Micky-D’s for B-fast anyway? The line was long when I arrived at 7:30 Am, and I’m sure some folk’s were getting more than $.99 coffee. So I decided to put my Off-White skills to the test and see whether I could improve on this drive-thru staple. Let’s see…
The challenger: Sausage Egg McMuffin
Ingredients: Muffin, egg, cheese, sausage, and probably some added sodium.
Nutrition facts:
45cal, 27g Sat fat, 42g total fat, 0g fiber, 285 mg cholesterol…all this for on sale for $1.50, but usually somewhere around $2 – yee-HAW.
My challenge: to do this at home for the same price and BETTER nutrition. Bring it on!
OFf-White version:
1 dozen cage-free, Omega 3- fat fortified eggs: $4, or $.33/egg
1 package of Sprouted 100% Whole Grain English muffins: $3.60, or $.60/muffin
1 oz of mozzarella cheese $6/lb = $.38
1 standard turkey sausage patty: $.50/each (based on what I find on the web)
Total: $1.86
Nutrition:
Estimated Calories: about 430
Total fat: about 21g
Total sat. fat: 9g
Total cholesterol: 215mg
Fiber: about 6 g
Other added benefits: omega-3 fats from eggs, an array of vitamins and minerals from the english muffin, and the satisfaction of knowing where your food comes from.
Am I lovin’ it…oh YEAH!!
Would love to hear what your McMakeovers for breakfast are!
If you are wanting to make some healthy lifestyle changes and want support, you are in luck. Support is on the way!
I am hosting an 8-week Group Wellness Coaching session starting FRIDAY, SEPT 17th. We will convene via phone (you’ll get the # when you sign up) and create achievable, motivating goals around issues of weight, healthy eating, increased exercise, and stress management.
The session will last 8 WEEKS and will occur every Friday 1:30-2:30pm. You will complete a thorough intake form upon sign-up so we can both know where you are coming from.
Group coaching takes all the benefits of personalized coaching and amplifies them, as you’ll learn from others and build positive relationships.
What can I say…I love chocolate. But not just any chocolate. In fact, the list of chocolate items I DON’T like is much longer that the list of chocolate faves…oh but how I do LOVE those faves.
Cooking with cocoa powder is definitely a top choice for me. It’s a way to capture the flavor of cocoa without all the sugar. Don’t get me wrong – a hershey bar is good for Smores (but not as good as dark chocolate), but otherwise it’s way too sugary for me.
I tell my clients that if they are really craving chocolate, than a rich, cocoa flavored treat will hit the spot, but if it’s sugar they want they will likely go for the Hershey bar or chocolate ice cream, as those are lots of sugar and very little chocolate (less than 20% cacao!).
Oh, back to the cookies…..these are a modification from the Bob’s Redmill Double Chocolate Cookies. I think Bob should start paying me kickbacks for all the time I tout his products and recipes. He can pay me in chocolate… 🙂
1.5 sticks softened butter (room temp)
3/4 cups unrefined sugart (turbinado is great – adds a crunch)
2 eggs, room temp
1 tps vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
1.5 cups whole wheat or spelt flour
.5 cups oat bran
1/2 cup unsweetened Cocoa powder. I’m currently using Trader Joe’s.
.5 tsp each: baking soda, salt, and baking powder
6 oz white chocolate chips (Ghiradelli) – this keeps the hubby happy!
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
Cream butter with sugar and eggs. Add vanilla and cinnamon. Set aside. Whisk or sift dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Fold into butter mixture. Add white chox chips and coconut. Spoon onto a Silpat or greased baking sheet.
bake for 8 min @ 350.
Try not to eat them all at once.
Piles of goodness!
PS: kids love them and don’t even care that they are healthy!
It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Moving, teaching summer school and research demands have taken my time lately. Nonetheless, right now I would describe life as “delicious”. I absolutely love my new place, and it comes with a 22 minute commute each way to school along a scenic bike path – love it!! We wake up to the sound of birds rather than cars and urban noise (as was the case in our other place), and we even have a giant pine tree in our little backyard that serves as a reminder of how much we love the mountains and the Northwest.
Speaking of delicious, I whipped up this new cobbler last week when last minute dessert needs arose and I had extra fruit scraps from dehydrating lots of pears and nectarines. You could add any fruit you like.
Delicious summer cobbler
1 cube butter, softened
3/4 cup unrefined sugar
2 cups whole wheat flour (or spelt)
1/2 cup oatmeal or oatbran
1/2 tsp: Salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup rice/almond milk or you could add 1/4 cup more of butter
Cream butter and sugar and milk. Add the cinnamon. Set aside. Mix the remaining dry ingredients and fold into the butter/sugar mix. It won’t be super moist but should stick when you press it with your fingers.
Press half the dough into a deep dish pie dish or med sized baking dish. Fill with 2 cups of chopped fruit (I used a mix of nectarine, pear and banana). Press the other half of the dough on top. Add more cinnamon if you’d like.
bake at 350 for about 35 minutes, depending on how deep your dish is. Top will be slightly crisp when done. Makes a good dessert or even breakfast treat. It’s pretty dense so it serves many if you cut small slices.
Now that I’m cozy in the (air conditioned) comforts of my own home after a very warm holiday weekend, I got to thinking about how easy it was to eat off-white this weekend, despite being away for 3 days, not eating on my terms per se, and celebrating a holiday with familiar friends and some folks I met for the first time.
Usually when I go away for a weekend I like to bring my own food, or at least plan ahead. It’s not just because I’m picky or anal, but because what I eat has a HUGE bearing on how I feel. In summer this is especially true. After having a heat stroke in 2004, I’m now pretty suceptable to heat headaches and eating well can help me stave them off.
Summertime eating just lends itself to being offwhite without much effort. There’s fresh fruits galore, grilled veggies and meats, and there just isn’t as much drive to turn on the oven and bake a big ol’ cake or cookies. Nonetheless, you don’t want to feel like the outcast when you bring the quinoa pudding to the camping trip when everybody else is eating sugar cookies decorated with 4th of July sprinkles. Dang can those sugar cookies talk to me if I’m not prepared with something equally competitive. (Glad to report no sugar cookies suffered by my hand this4th of July.)
So, here are a couple of recipes that are good for summer holidays, including camping trips and places where not everybody is not so excited about the fact that the “off white girl” is coming to the potluck 🙂
Raw Keylime Pie – sooo easy to make and soo tasty. It’s the only time you’ll probably ever say ‘gee, I can’t even taste the avocado’. Recipe adapted from the book Raw Food, Real World:
Crust:
2 cups almonds
1 cup coconut, shredded
1 tbsp lime zest
2 tbsp lime juice
1/2 cup dates
Mix on med-high in a food processor until the ‘dough’ clumps. You may need to scrape the sides a few times. Press evenly into a standard pie tin and refrigerate.
Filling:
3 lrg avocados, peeled and pitted
1/2 cup key lime juice
1/4 cup lime zest (6-8 keylimes)
1/4 cup agave nectar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp shredded coconut OR 2 tbsp of the cream off the top of a can of coconut milk
1/2 tsp salt
Process all ingredients in a food processor. Add a little more agave or some stevia if you want a sweeter taste.
Place in the chilled pie tin and chill overnight. I’ve frozen it after it’s been chilled and cut and made Key lime pie ‘popsicles’, which are divine!
yes, you can have salad when you camp
The next little trick is to always be the one who bring a salad when you are doing the summer holiday cookout or camping trip. And for goodness sakes, make it interesting. Salad is often a forgotten entity at the bbq, unless you count macaroni salad, which I don’t. I pre-chop all my salads before camping and will store the various chopped veggies in individual tupperware or plastic bags (that I wash and reuse to be green!) to put on the salad when it’s time to eat. Believe me, it feels GOOD to eat a crisp salad after a day in the sun, and that bbq’d tri-tip is mighty tasty a top a salad instead of on a big white bun, at least in my opinion. Things like roasted nuts, goat cheese, fresh avocado, yellow/orange bell peppers, figs, and microgreens can make the allure much stronger for you and your friends.
Also, veggies and hummus are an easy, inexpensive treat to bring to the summer picnic. Recently, my favorite dipping veggie is jicima. I think it’s good with almond butter, peanut butter, and hummus. It’s inexpensive and quite refreshing. Bonus: jicima contains the fiber inulin, which may help maintain good digestion.
Okay, this last bit is really someting that only applies to camping trips. It’s so easy but wow’s everybody: whole grain pecan pancakes with banana ‘flambay’ (did I spell that correctly??)
3/4 cup Bob’s Redmill Multigrain OR Gluten-Free pancake mix
1/4 cup oatbran
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped pecans
2 tbsp turbinado sugar
mix all the dry ingredients before you go camping. Bring your skillet, butter, 1 egg, water, and 2 bananas with you.
At the campsite: Mix the dry ingredients with the egg and about 1/2 cup water – determine the thickness you like. Cook the pancakes in a buttered pan over the stove. Meanwhile, have a friend chopped the bananas. When the pancakes are done (or in a separate pan if you want to wash 2 pans – I don’t!), sautee the bananas with a bit of butter for about 3 minutes. Serve over the pancakes. Add a touch of plain yogurt to round out the taste experience. SOOOOO good! Makes buttermilk pancakes look like chopped liver 🙂 Wish I had pics, but I gobbled them up too fast!
Would love to hear about your summer cookout and camping treats that make offwhite eating easy!! I could always use more good ideas, so send them my way.
Deborah Madison, author of great cookbooks like Greens and Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, came to Davis tonight. As soon as I heard about it on NPR I hopped to the chance to interview her for Davis Life Magazine…little did they all know that my alterior motive was to get a few minutes with the woman who first introduced me to cooking with Vegetables.
I got the cookbook Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone several years back for Christmas. I was committed to the path of eating better and having more variety. My approach was simple: a new veggie/week. This is where I discovered my love for kale, first saw the word quinoa (and had NO idea how to pronounce it), and realized that a little mushroom goes a long way.
Today that book is still a staple, as evidenced by the food stains throughout the dog-eared pages. I make many modifications to switch out white flour, dairy, and sugars but for the most part it is great as it is. I highly recommend it for the beginning vegetable cook.
Tonight’s experienced reminded me of why Off-White is such a passion of mine – I was amidst a group of people who also believe that food has vitality when it is fresh, wholesome and close to nature. I was reminded that nutrition is not about counting calories, but rather making our calories count by putting flavor and intention as a top priority.
So now I’m fired up to dig into the kitchen this summer and play with some new recipes. Her new book focuses on fruits for dessert. I’m going to make it a treat for myself to buy the book this summer when fruit is such a bounty in Davis. But for now I’ll try the quinoa pudding she directed me to in Veg. Cooking for Everyone. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Recently I posted the first half of my “Kitchen Bootcamp Challenge”, by Jen Schall, to make a yeasted bread.
Well, I ‘rose’ to the challenge, so to speak, but my bread did not. Here’s why: I was using an enriched starter, meaning that is has milk, sugar, and flour added to grow the yeast. A baguette style bread is just flour and water. Hmm…. made me think about how my starter was (or was not) aligning with my eating values.
I really have no business feeding my bread sugar and milk when I try to minimize those in my own diet. So, I’m putting my starter on a diet and ‘leaning’ it out, based on what I learned in the Professional Chef cookbook. Let’s see what happens.
One good result was that I added an egg wash to the bread, which made for a nice shiny finish. We ate the buns with turkey burgers instead of steak becasue I frankly don’t like steak sanwiches that much.
an egg wash makes for a shiny finish
Enriched buns are quite tasty, but a little too cakey to be a good sandwich or baguette bread. Next time…..
Off White Living 