Meatless Mondays: Start it out right!

I am a huge believer in breakfast, probably because my body seems to be programmed to eat a full meal within a few hours of waking up.  (I wake up hungry, people, hungry!)  In my experience, it's important to eat healthy (and hearty!) in the morning to start a day out right. 

As a vegetarian, I also find it's important to be sure there's a decent dose of protein in every meal, including breakfast.  Don't be fooled - "vegetarian protein in the morning" does not necessarily have to mean eggs.  In fact, I find that I can get a nice dose of protein simply by eating whole grains. 

This weekend I whipped up my first batch of baked oatmeal, which I've been reading about all over the internet.  I used a very basic recipe, and I look forward to jazzin' it up in future versions with some dried or fresh fruit and other flavor combinations. 

Oatmeal has a nice dose of protein built right in, plus it makes a great base to combine with other protein sources.  By my count a serving of this baked oatmeal recipe has about 5 grams of protein (based on a 12-serving recipe), which isn't bad for something that smells as good as a freshly baked oatmeal cookie! 

This morning I had it with yogurt and berries, which was great.  Tomorrow I might try it with warm milk, which I imagine will be closer to a true bowl of oatmeal.  The oatmeal-dairy combo puts my protein tally closer to 12 grams, which I consider to be quite respectable for breakfast.

In case I'm selling this stuff short, this recipe is truly enticing!  It absolutely smelled like a cookies as it baked.  I was thrilled when it won over my hubby, who typically turns his nose at traditional oatmeal.  Plus, it satisfied my morning sweet tooth without being quite as sweet as an actual cookie.  I'm the queen of leftovers, so I was doubly pleased to discover how well it warmed up in the toaster oven the next day.  Yay for a week of baked oatmeal!

Baked Oatmeal - the Basic Recipe
Serves 8-12

• 3 cups oatmeal
• 3/4 brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 cups milk
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the over to 375 degrees.  Mix all of the ingredients together.  Pour into a buttered 13 x 9 inch pan.  Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.

On Counting Carbs . . . and Eating Them Too

For reasons I am not yet ready to reveal to the Internet, I recently had to start counting carbs and watching my diet.  In a nutshell, it’s not fun.  I have always been a very healthy eater, but there’s something about being told I have to eat healthy that is just so . . .  well, annoying.  Nevertheless, I have committed to following the rules.  Most of the time, anyway.  When I do feel like cheating, it will most definitely be for chocolate.

At our Superbowl party last weekend I cheated with these brownies.  They have less flour and less sugar than your average brownie.  The chocolate flavor really shines through from the Dutch-processed cocoa, which is supposedly more flavorful than your run-of-the-mill cocoa powder.  

These brownies also have a nice dose of salt, and I have to admit I find the sea salt and chocolate combo to be downright mouth-watering.  Initially I made a version with all of the salt inside the batter, but I think the crunchy topping makes for a nice finish. 

If you happen to be watching your carb (or calorie) intake, give these brownies a try.  I hope to cheat with them again soon!

Lower Carb Chocolate Sea Salt Brownies

Makes 16 brownies

• 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa (preferably Dutch-process for a flavor boost)
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 ¼ teaspoons sea salt, divided
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ butter
• 2 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degree F.  Grease an 8-inch square metal baking pan.

In a cup, dissolve the coffee in the vanilla extract.  In a small bowl, combine the cocoa, flour, ¾ teaspoon sea salt, and the baking powder.  Then in a medium bowl, whisk the sugar, vegetable oil spread, eggs, and coffee mixture until well-mixed.  Then blend in the flour mixture.  Spread the batter in the prepared pan.  (It will be a thick batter.)  Lastly, sprinkle the remaining ½ teaspoon sea salt over the brownies.

Bake for approximately 22 to 24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted approximately 2 inches from the edge of the pan comes out almost clean.  Place the pan on a wire rack and cool for approximately 2 hours.  Enjoy!

So Saucy

{Green Bean Casserole}

I have a new secret sauce. I think it's pretty great, but my hubby absolutely loves it. He's always had a taste for creamy sauces ~ alfredo, bechamel, creamy pesto. Basically, if there's cream in it he loves it. Of course this hasn't always worked out so well for him. I mean, a busy dad can only squeeze in so many runs to stay ahead of the cream sauces. You know what I mean!

This creamy sauce isn't actually creamy ~ its texture comes from someplace other than cream. It has very little fat and lots of flavor, not to mention a dose of protein and fiber. So far I've used it with veggies and as a pasta sauce. Success, success, success! I plan to continue adapting this recipe for as many uses as I can. Tonight I'll share my basic recipe, and I'll share a few of my variations soon.

Consider trying it out. I think you'll be surprised how flavorful and satisfying it is ~ especially when you don't feel like running off a real cream sauce!

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Garlic and Herb "Cream" Sauce

• 1 15 oz. can canellini or white kidney beans, undrained
• Up to 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• Up to 2 tsp. of dried herbs (try thyme, rosemary, oregano, parsley, or a combination)
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  

Place all ingredients in a blender (or use a hand blender) and blend until the sauce is smooth and creamy. It's that simple!

Eating Rainbows

Recently I led the morning circle at my daughter's preschool, hoping to teach them their fruits and avoid the situation in Jamie Oliver's video. Here are the basics of what I said:

Me: Do you like food?
Preschoolers: Yeah!
Me: Do you like rainbows?
Preschoolers: Yeah!
Me: Do you like to eat rainbows?
Preschoolers: Wah?
Me: Did you know that it's healthy to "eat rainbows"? And why do children want to be healthy?
Preschoolers: So that they don't get sick and they grow big and strong.
Me: Well, one way to make yourself more healthy is to eat every color of the rainbow.

We talked about all the different-looking fruits that are out there. Then we made our very own rainbow smoothies. I put several colors of fruits in a blender and blended it up to see what color the smoothie became. And finally, we all tasted.



It was a great experience, and I think everybody was pretty excited about it. I literally made smoothies until I ran out of fruit. Before I knew it I had passed out smoothie samples and recipes to all of the teachers in the school. And this is still posted on the classroom bulletin board:

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Make Rainbow Smoothies at Home

You’ll need:

• 2 cups of orange juice
• ½ cup yogurt (optional, any flavor)
• 1 banana, broken in half
• 16 whole frozen strawberries
• 2 handfuls frozen blueberries
• 1 handful frozen peach slices

Place all ingredients in your blender bowl. Pulse until the large pieces of fruit have broken up, then blend until smooth. Stir once or twice, and add more liquid if the blender has trouble breaking up the frozen fruit.

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So tell me, do you eat rainbows? If not, you just might try!

On Plastic Fruit

"I now have a cooler full of plastic fruit, OJ, and yogurt. Curious what I'm up to?"

This is what I recently posted on Twitter. I think it's time to explain the mysteries of my ways.

{Available here}

While I've got nothing on Jamie Oliver, I DO care about healthy eating. When I watched his video last week, I was alarmed at the fact that schoolchildren didn't recognize ordinary fruits and vegetables. (If you haven't watched it, jump to minute 11.) As a mom and a former teacher, I was pretty horrified.

The problem as I see it is that much of the food we see in grocery stores and on our plate doesn't even resemble real food anymore. So when the child on the video saw a tomato in front of him he saw a strangely shaped item. I'm sure he had eaten ketchup in the last 48 hours, but he had no idea where the ketchup came from. Another child had no idea that a potato was a potato, probably because he didn't know that French fries are actually made from something else.

How can we expect Americans to make better eating choices when they have no idea what real food is? How can they understand nutrition when they don't understand the basics of how food is cooked or meals are assembled?

Clearly this problem is bigger than me, but I wanted to do something. So I did. I went to my toddler's school with a cooler full of plastic fruit, yogurt, orange juice, fresh bananas, frozen fruit, and a blender. My goal was to make sure that my daughter's class knew their fruits. And they do now. I'll tell you what I said soon.

Soapbox, please

As you've probably heard, there's been a lot of buzz about obesity and all of its ramifications. It seems like finally more and more people are calling for changes to be made. I've read countless articles and posts calling for improvements to school lunches. Local governments have mandated better nutrition labeling. And people are taking a hard look at food nutrients, including sugar, trans fats, and now sodium.

Despite all of this talk, it seems that there's still a lot more to be said. Recently Jamie Oliver caught my attention. He got me thinking about why things are the way that they are. Sure, it's easy to blame the government for their poor choices. Officials have made bad decisions regarding food labeling, nutrition guidelines, and catering to food lobbyists. Another major factor, however, is the fact that our culture has changed. People don't cook anymore. And since people don't cook, they also don't learn to cook.

I've been thinking about this a lot in the last week. The fact is that I cook, and I love to cook. But the only reason I know how to cook was because I learned from my grandmother. I consider myself lucky because although my mom was a great cook, very little cooking every happened at my house. We were simply too busy. I can appreciate that the challenge of cooking at home is even worse for most families today.



Take a look at this video and you may be as shocked as I was at what you see. Jump to about 10 minutes in to see the part that's the most startling. Clearly the problem is bigger than just knowing how to cook. It seems that our children don't really even know what food is. Not even the basics. How can you cook or make sense of food labels if you don't even know what food is?

So I decided to do something about this. Stay tuned and I'll tell you more soon.