Don’t forget your beans!

I oftentimes remember what one of my Latin American friends said about the beans and rice so common in the Latin diet—they make the perfect protein.

As someone who isn’t a big meat-eater, I’ve long explored the use of beans in my diet for their protein. They’re also tasty. So far this year, I’ve tried making and eating white bean and rosemary spread and white bean and turkey chili. Both were successful recipes. This week, Jim made his traditional pinto beans and I prepared the cornbread we must have to accompany that. A co-worker of mine said pinto beans and cornbread is one of his favorite meals so I ladled the beans into a jar, wrapped the cornbread in foil and presented them to him the next day. He was so excited about his meal that he polished it off before noon.

So beans were on my mind when I picked up the food section of the Lexington newspaper on Thursday and found an article about beans and their nutritional value. Their nutrition goes far beyond protein. Rather than write more about that, I’ll just refer you to the article.

If the information convinces you that this is your year to begin growing beans, I want to encourage you to include them in this year’s seed order. My experience tells me they are just about problem-free to plant and grow. If they are climbers, put up your trellis, plant, weed and let them grow. Check them as they grow in case you need to guide them up the trellis. Plant them early enough and you can get two crops from your beans. Let them dry on the vine before you pick them.

It takes a while to hull the beans but once you do you can store them in glass jars on your counter. Grow black, red, white and pintos and they’ll add some color to your kitchen. You’ll be surprised at how much more you enjoy eating your home-grown beans than what you buy in the store. They tend to be fresher so they don’t take quite as long to cook and the flavor will make you smile.
Get out that recipe book or that seed catalog and make your choices.

Turnips keep us thankful for the garden

Until recently when winter finally came to Kentucky, we were still pulling fresh turnips and greens from the garden. My appreciation of this humble vegetable has deepened this winter as I’ve explored different ways to enjoy this gift from the garden.

As a child, I ate turnips raw with salt on them. That’s how my dad still prefers them. The bitterness that turns some people away from turnips is in the skin, so just peel that away and enjoy.

I now have lots of other favorite ways to prepare turnips: roasted with sweet potatoes and garlic, braised and paired with potatoes in turnip soup. I still want to try a turnip mash, which I’ve been told is fabulous.

I’ve also added turnip greens to my long list of favorite greens to sauté and serve with caramelized onions. I’ve even acquired a taste for the boiled greens my husband likes to make.

Besides tasting good, turnips also help to fulfill that important need for cruciferous vegetables in our diet. These are some of the best cancer-fighting vegetables and also add significant fiber and vitamins to a meal. For more information on cruciferous vegetables, read the article at World’s Healthiest Foods.

What are your favorite winter vegetables and how are you cooking them?

Mother Wind does me a favor

One of the joys of having a greenhouse during winter is stepping inside to be enveloped by sun and warmth as I check on whatever is growing. I planted lettuce in two containers to grow this winter and dug up my flat leaf Italian parsley to repot and continue harvesting. My watering visits to the greenhouse were a highlight of a sunny afternoon.

Were. No longer. Yes, you read right. New Year’s Day brought 40 mile per hour winds that knocked down the green house and blew at the plastic, tearing holes in it. As you can imagine, my lettuce containers also toppled from the shelves, spreading black soil and baby plants all over the fallen greenhouse.

When I returned from church and saw the disaster, I quickly changed clothes and made my way out there to see what I could salvage. The wind continued to whip the fallen plastic around me as I scooped up soil and plants to carry inside. Somehow the parsley plant remained intact so I had to merely carry it indoors.

As for the lettuce, my goddaughter and I spent some of the afternoon carefully repotting it from the one oblong and one round container to three round containers that would fit on the counter under my grow light. Yes, you heard me right. I received a grow light from Santa this year. Since I had been planning to bring in one container of lettuce to grow in the heat and light of the kitchen, Mother Wind did me a little favor by pushing me to repot. The long, oblong container that I had photographed in the greenhouse earlier in the week wouldn’t fit under the two-foot light anyway.

I no longer have a test pot in the greenhouse to see how long it could stand up to the sheltered cold. However, I do have lettuce plants that have decided they want to continue growing. They aren’t quite as beautiful as they were all snug in the greenhouse, but they’re getting there. Perhaps in another month we’ll have fresh salad. In the meantime, I need to look into replacing or repairing the greenhouse cover so it will be ready for my spring seedlings.

Keep a wellness diary in 2012

Every year, researchers who study the links between foods, lifestyle and wellness uncover additional interesting connections that intrigue us. As a result, we to try to add, for example, more blueberries, meditation or whole grains to our daily habits. Those are all positive lifestyle additions.

Although I’ve been on a path to increasing my wellness for many years, I still run into snags. So I’ve decided to do some research of my own. Beginning January 1, 2012, I’m going to keep a Wellness Diary for at least three months. I’m using a stenographer’s notebook (for those of you who haven’t used them, they’re 6”x9” and have a pink, vertical line down the middle) since it gives you lines to write on in two easy columns. I plan to use one page a day.

On the left, I will answer these questions:
How much time did I spend with God today? (For me, that typically means in prayer, journaling or meditation.)
What did I eat and drink today? (I’ll try to keep track of amounts and times as well.)
How many steps did I walk today? (I’ve been wearing a pedometer daily for three months so that’s easy to track.)
What else was significant in my day? (Maybe I’ll add gardening or other activities here.)

On the right column, I’ll answer these questions:
How was my mood today?
How was my energy level today?
How well did my digestive process work? (I’ve been having minor stomach issues so this is important to me.)
What else did I notice today about my wellness?

I anticipate modifying this process as needed. I also hope to evaluate what I’ve written weekly and monthly, noting patterns and connections between the two columns. At the end of three months, I’ll have a significant amount of data to use in drawing conclusions about what I should do to improve my wellness efforts. If I feel like I need help at that stage, I’ll call on holistic nurse Hunter Purdy (Seeds for Health Holistic Nursing Services, seedsforhealth@gmail.com) to assist.

Are you interested in joining me in this research? If so, let me know. The more people who participate, the more observations we’ll all have from which to draw conclusions about how to be healthier and happier throughout 2012.

Happy New Year to you!

Choosing a wise lifestyle

At certain times of the year I’m reminded more frequently how hyper-vigilant I have become about my lifestyle. What I eat and what I expose myself to in my environment are both aspects of my lifestyle that I’ve modified since recovering from cancer five years ago.

My brother prompted me to think about this the other day when he told me about the easy way he’s been fixing eggs—in a plastic bag mix an egg with whatever you like to put in an omelet. Boil it for seven minutes. Eat.

My first thought? BPAs in the plastic. Many people who know me realize I don’t mix heat and plastics. If I mention it, some of them look at me like I’m a little crazy and they do it anyway.

I was talking about refined sugar to a co-worker recently. The study came out several years ago showing that as soon as you eat it, your body’s ability to protect itself plummets because your white blood cell count drops. But who wants to hear that, especially at this time of year when refined sugar is so readily available? Yes, it’s also cold and flu season so you need a thriving immune system, but that sugar is so good.

Then there’s the matter of artificial scents. Essential oils are great but synthetic scents, like you smell in so many candles (especially at this time of year) can be quite dangerous, especially to the respiratory system. Maybe I don’t notice them as much during the warm weather months because I’m outdoors so often. In the past month, however, I’ve been in situations every week that exposed me to these airborne chemicals for more than just a few minutes.

It’s not hard to do it another way.

I cook my eggs in a glass bowl in the oven.

I love sweets and I don’t deny myself. When I bake I cut down the sugar and almost always use agave nectar, honey or unrefined sugar as the sweetener instead of refined sugar. Are they less harmful? I don’t know. They weren’t included in the study. However, I tend to think that when something is less processed, it’s probably less dangerous. In those sweet treats I also throw in some whole wheat, dark chocolate, nuts and fruit, when appropriate, so I’m at least getting something that’s good, along with the delicious taste.

And as for scents, essential oils are wonderful but if I’m cooking or I put cinnamon into my hot tea, nothing else will smell as good anyway.

Am I too hyper-vigilant? I try to be reasonable and not make myself feel like I’m struggling under a burden of lifestyle rules. If I felt constrained, even living that way for a 100 year wouldn’t be fun. But I do want to be wise and enjoy every minute I have here.

I would love to hear what you have to say.

Turn the leftovers into a casserole

There was a time when food companies created all sorts of casserole recipes using their products so they could sell more of their canned and boxed products. Many of those recipes have become family favorites for generations. But you don’t have to use canned cream of mushroom soup to make a casserole. You can do it with your leftovers and maybe one or two more additions.

Although we loved our roasted pumpkin stuffing for Thanksgiving, there was plenty of stuffing and pumpkin left afterward. Giving leftovers a new twist always makes them more attractive so that’s what I did with the stuffing and pumpkin.

First, I put it in a bowl and added more stuffing that I hadn’t yet baked. Next, I chopped our leftover turkey and stirred it in. You can use any amount of each of the three ingredients—stuffing, pumpkin and turkey—that you prefer or that you have left over.

Next, I shredded cheddar cheese. In our household, adding cheese to a dish is never a bad choice.

I chose a round casserole dish and put down a layer of the stuffing mixture. Next, I poured a little chicken broth over it to add moisture. Then I sprinkled a layer of shredded cheese. I followed the same procedure a second time and the rest of my stuffing filled the casserole dish to the top. Bake at 375 for 30 – 45 minutes, until the cheese is quite melted but not browned, and serve hot. It was delicious.

It’s not a magic mixture that good just for stuffing leftovers. Right now I have a leftover rice and greens mixture in the refrigerator that I’m thinking of adding beans, cheese and vegetable broth to for another casserole. It will be quick, easy and provides a warm dish on a chilly night.

Loving the humble pumpkin

On television the other day I saw an advertisement for a show in which people throw pumpkins. Aack! Throw them and not eat them? Watch that beautiful flesh splatter across the ground instead of cooking with it? Oh my, all that Vitamin A going to waste.

I used our final fresh pumpkin of the season for Thanksgiving. I had heard someone on a more food-friendly television network talk about cooking Thanksgiving stuffing in a pumpkin so I decided to try it. It worked beautifully.

I don’t have a favorite stuffing recipe (it’s never been my most-beloved Thanksgiving dish) so I copied one out of a magazine and went to work. My pumpkin was a medium size that could easily sit on a dinner plate for serving. I cut off the “cap” and set it aside then proceeded to remove the stringy insides and the seeds. When it was clean, I filled it with stuffing. I still had stuffing left so I put it into a bowl to use later in the weekend.

With the oven set at 450 degrees for roasting, I put the pumpkin on a cookie sheet then placed it in the oven with the cap on. In 30 minutes, I checked it. The pumpkin was yet soft enough and the scent wasn’t strong enough for it to be done. I also took the opportunity to spoon out three tablespoons of turkey drippings to pour on the stuffing. Next, I returned the pumpkin to the oven, sans top, to cook for another 15 minutes.

That’s when it looked and smelled done. It turned out to be a picturesque addition to the Thanksgiving table. Plus, everyone liked the stuffing! This was so much fun that I might learn to love stuffing so I can roast a filled pumpkin more than once a year.

Next: stay tuned for what to do with that leftover stuffing and pumpkin.