Farro

Well, leave to me to decide to start a new diet at noon on a Wednesday.  A day that I happen to work until 9pm.  I had picked up groceries on a break in my schedule, but what about prep time?

A few months ago I bought some Farro in the bulk section at Winco, but hadn't tried it yet.  Farro is a form of wheat popular in Italy, with ties to Ancient Egypt.  It's in the family also known as Emmer, Spelt and Einkorn. Apparently, it fell out of popularity due to low yield.

An internet search brought good news that it can be cooked in just 15 minutes.  Here's the article from A Couple Cooks which has some links to additional recipes.  Other articles talk about having cooked it for an hour and it was still hard as a rock.  Looks like I lucked out on having the right kind.

I whipped up a batch with the plan to use it as a breakfast cereal (1/2 cup), warmed up with trail mix (3 Tbs), 1% milk (1/2 cup) and cinnamon.  Nutrition:  350 Calories.  54g Carbohydrate, 8g Fiber, (46 Net) 16g Protein

Meanwhile, I washed a big hand-full of bean sprouts, steamed a head of broccoli for 1.5 minutes in the microwave, and made a balsamic vinegrette.  The veg are topped with 1 cup of the cooked farro and some pumpkin seeds for good measure.  I will warm this up in the microwave and plan to eat this for 2 meals since it's really filling, and my activity level is currently low.

Nutrition (as described): 517 Calories, 95g Carbohydrate, 19g Fiber (76 Net), 25g Protein

I had a sampler portion of the lunch bowl as a late supper.  I love the texture of the Farrow.  It's firm, like an al dente pasta with a nice whole grain flavor. It appears to be a good make-ahead grain so I'll be able to spread it out and have a serving a day in one form or another.

Vegetarian Challenge.

It has been quite a while since I've done a food post on this blog. 

I taunt my family and close friends with food pictures but decided this format may be best for the latest challenge that I set for myself.  I am going to be following a low calorie, predominantly vegetarian diet.  This is sometimes referred to as Flexitarian. 

Primarily, I will be focused on increased vegetable intake.  Also, daily intake of whole grains and legumes.  Inclusion of foods that are good for me that I don't really like (fruit & dairy).  But there won't be a strict avoidance of all, or any one category of animal proteins.  

I was an ovo-lacto vegetarian in my 20's and that left me burnt out on dairy products, eggs and peanutbutter, which I felt at the time, I needed to include to get adequate protein. 

 I headed to our local Asian grocery store to stock up.  Here are 5 kinds of mushrooms.  They have that great Umami flavor that meat usually provides.  All of this variety for only $11

 Next up, some of my favorite veg: baby bok choy, giant asparagus and carrots, pea pods and bean sprouts.  $11.  Plus 2 jicima I forgot to take a picture of for $4.

 Some starches I don't always use.  Red Rice $8, Lentils $2.60, Yellow and red sweet potatoes $3

And a personal challenge.  I never found soy foods that I like.  In addition to the tofu, I found some Tofu noodles and some spicy, flavored tofu.   A $6 gamble.

I'll keep you posted with my discoveries.

Bean Week

I decided to start with something basic and familiar:

White Chicken Chili
3 cups cooked white beans ( 2 cans rinsed or 3 c pre-cooked in a crock pot)
4 cups broth
1 large onion
1 yellow bell pepper, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, minced (with seeds for more heat and flavor)
2 Poblano or Anaheim peppers, minced
 4 cloves garlic
1 Tablespoon cumin
 1 1/2 tsp coriander
1 tsp ancho chili powder
1 large chicken breast, diced.

Serve with cilantro, lime and plain yogurt.

Adjust the heat with the mix of peppers.  This combo results in a mild-medium hot chili (depending upon the peppers and  your taste buds)
On the heat scale:
Jalapeno = 3500-8000
Poblano 1000-2000
Anaheim 500-2000

Minestrone Soup
2 onions, diced
4-8 cloves of garlic
1 46 oz of V-8 juice

1 quart low sodium broth
4-6 cups cooked dried beans (garbanzo, lima, white)
6-8 large carrots, diced
inner 4-6 stalks of celery including the leaves, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
2 cups whole wheat pasta
1 Tablepoon each of dry oregano and basil
1 teaspoon each of thyme, onion powder, and garlic powder

2 zucchini, diced
4 cups fresh greens (spinach, cabbage, chard)
1 pound frozen  peas

Cook onions until golden, add garlic and cook 3-5 min.
Add remaining ingredients and simmer 15-20 minutes.  You may want to wait until the last 5 minutes to add the greens, peas and any veggies that you want to remain crunchy such as zucchini.

Serve with fresh parsley, basil and parmesean cheese.

Dried Beans

So today, I have spent 4 hours waiting for legumes to re-hydrate.  I could just buy canned version, but this has no added sodium and a fraction of the cost.

Usually I soak the beans overnight.  But today I did the "quick soak"

Rinse the beans.  Remove the broken bits.  Add double the water.  Bring to a boil then turn off the heat.  Let sit at least 1 hour.

At this point they either need to sit in a crock pot for 4-8 hours, or simmer on low about 2 hours.

I added 3-4 cloves of garlic, but otherwise, no other ingredients until they re-hydrate.

This was about 2 pounds of beans ( 3 scoops from the bulk scoop = 4 cups)  for about $1.50.

3 cups of dry garbanzo beans - $1.24

Hummus:  3 cups of garbanzo beans,.  Zest and juice of 1 organic lemon.  1/2 cup of tahini (sesame paste...like peanut butter).

I cooked this longer than usual ( 2 hour simmer) and removed as many of the chick pea skins as possible ( maybe 70%),  Best hummus ever.

I put 3 cloves of garlic into the cooking liquid and 1 into the final result.

Shopping List

This week's list starts pretty veggie heavy.   $29

garlic x 4
onion (pantry)
16 mushrooms
2 zucchini
1 jalapeno
2 Pablano peppers
Munchy veg: sweet pepper bag & 2 peppers in the fridge, sugar snap peas, sliced carrots, baby carrot, grape tomato, asparagus x 2, green beans,.

Nuts, Legumes and whole grains.
The white beans $1.44 for just under 2#.  Waiting to become chili.
Dry garbanzos $1.24.  This is $24 worth of commercial hummus.
Oats.  $0.84  and I only used 1/2 for 4 servings.
Barley $1.08

What else did I buy?
Kefir $3
Yogurt $3
Broth $5...I usually have some in the freezer
Nuts: $6 for vegetarian dishes
Chicken $ 6

So, for about $68, I have most suppers and and $2 reheat meals.

Happy Gut Bacteria Challenge

The newest buzz in nutrition is to improve the balance of good and bad bacteria that hang out in your intestines.  Lots of people have written books about this, and even more are trying to make a buck or two selling products promoting this idea.

I decided to do a month long challenge  starting with foods that we already eat and are easily available at chain grocery stores in Boise.  I'll have to hit some specialty stores in order to accomplish all the goals.

The basic principles are:
1) Lots of variety of good microbes (the more sources the better)
2) High fiber, 38g per day.  Especially legumes
3) Small amounts of meat.  Grown without antibiotics.
4) Fermented foods (sauerkraut, kimchi, miso)
5) Eat foods that the good guys like to eat: resistant starch, legumes, onions, garlic, veggies

Additional challenges I see:
Time: To find a balance between cost and time, I will develop menus that involve 1 shopping/prep day, 2 evenings of 20 minute meals, and everything else pre-prepared and ready to eat or re-heat & eat.

Cost: I'll include my actual costs with each recipe.  I am initially using many convenience prepped foods but will note if there's an extra cost saving option.  For example, I bought "Carrot Chips" which are just pre-sliced carrots for $2 for 12 oz.  I could have paid the same amount for 2 pounds of carrots, but would have had time involved slicing them.

While I am an advocate of organic farming practices, I will focus the budget on "the dirty dozen" and give priority to locally grown over certified organic as in talking with local producers, I know many of them use organic practices but don't qualify for the certification process.
Buy Organic: fruits you eat whole (berries, grapes, peaches, apples), leafy greens, tomato, peppers
Don't bother: fruit you peal (banana,pineapple, avocado), cabbage family (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage...because even bugs don't like to eat them), anything grown underground, asparagus.

Also there are always exceptions.  Like today when I went to by the organic cherry tomatoes I bought last week at Winco, but they didn't have any this week. And the Organic rainbow baby carrots are the sweetest thing I have ever eaten so I will keep buying them even for more $.

Additional Challenges:
I hate yogurt and oatmeal.  Hubby hates fermented foods and would like to eat a weeks worth of meat in each meal.

Among the group going to do the challenge with us, there's a mix of options for lunches between having to pack a "sack lunch" and being able to reheat a meal.  And there is at least one person who insists he won't eat "leftovers", but eats frozen convenience food all the time (get over it!).

So here we go.  The 4 week Happy Gut Nutrition challenge.  I'll post menus and recipes in subsequent posts so sign up to get updates via blog readers or email.

Breakfast

I hate mornings.
I hate everything about mornings including food.
I get hungry at 10:30am.
I married a morning person.
I have a morning person work schedule.
Quite a conundrum.

I spent the first couple decades of my life skipping breakfast and the next couple trying to figure out some kind of fuel source that doesn't make me hurl.

I'm not a fan of eggs.  Traditional breakfast options are too greasy or too sweet.  Oh and while I'm being whiny, I should point out that when hubby retired and was home when I was getting ready for work, it made me late and forgetting lunch...simply because he made the mistake of "talking to me".

 My solution is breakfast burritos.  Frozen in batches.  A month's worth left at work to re-heat.

I buy a 1.5 pound package of spicy, Italian bulk sausage and the same amount of ground pork or turkey (whichever is cheaper).  I bake that on a rimmed 1/2 bun pan at 450 for about 20 minutes. After it cools, I break it into smaller pieces with my fingers and add 2 packages (2 pounds total) of frozen vegetables (any combo you like). Normally I add onions and mushrooms for filler and flavor, but I skipped them because of the new veg mixes.  Saved time. :)

I also roast about 5-6 small potatoes, diced, using the same pan I cooked the sausage, using a small amount of the left over fat from the meat.  That also takes about 20 minutes and can be done at the same time as the meat with a small amount of olive oil.

I heat the tortillas 5 at a time in the microwave for 30 seconds to make them soft.  Then I add about 2/3 c of the filling to each.

No 2 batches of my breakfast burritos are ever the same.  This combo makes 20 burritos, about 470 calories and 45 carbs each.  They cost $1.25 each and re-heat in the microwave in 2 minutes.