Healthy hot cocoa

Natural (not dutched, or processed with alkali) cocoa is chock full of antioxidants. Plenty of recent studies show that even moderate increases in cocoa consumption can reduce the risk of heart attacks and stroke.

But most of the ways of eating chocolate are full of sugar and fat. And the forms of chocolate and cocoa we like the best have been processed with alkali (dutched), to make them less bitter -- and that destroys some of the antioxidants.

But if you enjoy a cup of black coffee, you can enjoy a cup of black cocoa.

Just stir a tablespoon of natural unsweetened cocoa powder (Hershey's or Ghirardellis are easy to find) into eight ounces of warm water or warm milk. Add a little cinnamon if you like, up to 1/8 of a teaspoon, for an extra burst of sweet flavor, and even more antioxidants.

Too bitter? Add some of your favorite low-calorie sweetener, like stevia (truvia and other brands), or your favorite sweetener packet.

This warming drink won't throw off your calorie count or your blood sugar. In fact, it can help your body regulate its blood sugar, reduce inflammation, and help fight arterial disease.

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Peruvian Beef and Squash Stew

I love winter squash. Not everyone does. Including some members of my family. So I was interested when I saw a recipe in FoodontheFood, from a blogger who quit a CSA that gave her too much squash. But she enjoyed a squash dish made by her mother's Peruvian friend. So I thought my resident squash-haters might not hate it. And they didn't. Just like Tammy Donroe, they were suprised that there's nothing fancy in this dish hiding the squash flavor. Just plenty of garlic and a little bit of time....

-= Exported from BigOven =-

Peruvian Beef and Squash Stew 2

Chopping up all this squash takes some time, but you’ll make a major dent in your squash pile, and, really, isn’t that what matters?

Recipe By: http://foodonthefood.com
Serving Size: 8
Cuisine: Peruvian
Main Ingredient: Pumpkin
Categories: Winter, Fall, Braise, Vegetables, Main Dish

-= Ingredients =-
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium onions ; chopped
6 cloves garlic ; smashed
2 tablespoon paprika
2 pound Beef bottom round roast
8 cups Winter squash ; seeded and sliced in half
2 medium tomatoes ; chopped
1/8 teaspoon Pepper ; or to taste
1/4 pound Low Fat Cheddar cheese ; optional

-= Instructions =-
In a large braising pot, heat olive oil until shimmering. Brown meat on all sides. Sauté onions, garlic, and paprika over medium heat until soft.
Add tomatoes, lay pieces of squash over top, cover, and cook over low heat or in oven 30-45 minutes, until squash is soft.
Remove squash from pot, return pot to oven. Cool squash until you can handle it, then scrape it out of the rind. Return squash to pot, mash, stir, and return to heat.. Continue to cook over low heat until the squash cooks down into a thick sauce and meat is tender. Timing will depend on whether you cut meat into 1" stew chunks (15 more minutes) or left it in roast-sized chunks (another hour or so)

Optional: Sprinkle with cheese and cover until melted. Remove from heat and serve over rice.

Without Optional Cheese:
Serving: 1.67 cups (407g), Calories: 345: Fat: 14g : Sodium: 72mg
Protein: 27g, NetCarbs: 19, K: 1505mg
SatFat: 6g, PolyFat: 1g, MonoFat: 7g, Chol: 71mg
TotCarbs: 26g, Fiber: 7g, Sugars: 8g
Calories: 42.0% from fat, 22.0% from carbohydrates 31.3% from protein
RecipePoints: 6.67

DASH: Vegetables: 3.2: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish: 1.3: Seeds: 0.0: Fats: 0.4: Sweets: 0.0
USDA: Vegetables: 1.6: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 4.0: Fats: 0.4: Sweets: 0.0

With Optional Cheese:
Serving: 1.67 cups (421g), Calories: 380: Fat: 16g : Sodium: 158mg
Protein: 31g, NetCarbs: 19, K: 1505mg
SatFat: 7g, PolyFat: 1g, MonoFat: 7g, Chol: 79mg
TotCarbs: 26g, Fiber: 7g, Sugars: 8g
Calories: 43.0% from fat, 20.0% from carbohydrates 32.6% from protein
RecipePoints: 7.53

DASH: Vegetables: 3.2: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.5: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish: 1.3: Seeds: 0.0: Fats: 0.4: Sweets: 0.0
USDA: Vegetables: 1.6: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.5: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 4.0: Fats: 0.4: Sweets: 0.0


** This recipe can be pasted into BigOven without retyping. **
** Easy recipe software. Try it free at: http://www.bigoven.com **

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Baby Lima Beans

My family doesn't like mashed cauliflower. We'd rather have it raw, or steamed with a sprinkling of cheese. It is definitely not a replacement for a big pile of mashed potatoes.
But we did find a "better carb choices" substitute. It's white, has a mild flavor, feels creamy in your mouth, and is popular with the kids. It's easy to cook. It goes well with a little bacon, and makes a nice side dish.

Baby Lima beans! This one is simple:

Cook one cup dried baby limas in enough broth to cover.
Simmer for one hour, adding additional water as necessary.
Season to taste.

Thanks to Mel at dietriffic for reminding me about the latest legume addition to my diet.

Read all of "Baby Lima Beans" ...

A berry good snack for the kids

At some point, the kids will get bored of even the most luscious farmstand peaches. Here's a quick, icy snack they'll love. Because the milk turns blue.

Icey Berry and Milk Snack
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1/4 cup frozen Maine or wild blueberries
1/4 cup skim milk, or less if you run out of room in the bowl.

Surprisingly, this will all fit in the same 6-oz bowl.
Put about 1/2 cup large frozen strawberries in a bowl. This will only be 3 or 4, with a lot of empty space between. Pour in 1/4 cup frozen tiny Maine blueberries. They'll fit between the strawberries. Shake them down to the bottom of the bowl. Now add the milk.

Immediately, the milk will freeze into a skin around the berries. Cut or mash the strawberries with a spoon to expose new surfaces for the milk to freeze on. Explain that this is ice milk. Tell them the story about how, when your mother was little, the milkman left milk on the back porch every morning, how some winter mornings the cream floated up to the top of the milk bottle and froze, and how their grandmother's mother stirred it up with vanilla so they could have ice cream with breakfast. The kids will ooh and aah, splash purple milk on the kitchen table, and be perfectly delighted with their special afternoon snack. Notice how you haven't gotten out the sugar bowl. That was easy. Don't forget you need a snack, too.

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Sweet Potato Orange Muffins

I'm not an advocate of hiding vegetables. Maybe I have more in common with the authors of "real food for healthy kids," who focus on teaching kids to enjoy filling their plates with healthy, nutritious foods. At the same time, I think it's a great idea to replace some refined or milled grains with fruits and vegetables. Especially after reading how meals high in refined grains cause a couple hours of inflammation that can damage your arteries, how high-fat meals meals cause insulin resistance, and how foods with the right carbohydrates can improve blood sugar, cholesterol, and inflammation.

I don't think that I and my family are ready to renounce ground grains (flours made from white and whole wheat, rye, rice, corn, even cornmeal). And I cannot convince them that a high-fiber orange sweet potato is more delicious than a starchy baking potato. But I can see the logic of replacing a bagel with something less inflammatory. Like a muffin. A muffin? Full of white flour, sugar, and saturated fat? I found a low-fat sweet potato orange muffin recipe from an old volume of Womans Day Low Fat Meals that was an almost perfect match for my fridge full of rejected sweet potatoes... Of course, I changed it up a little. I used 100% whole wheat flour, threw out the egg yolks, reduced the sugar, and increased the cinnamon (everybody loves cinnamon). And I used fresh sweet potato instead of canned. My first attempts had more sweet potato than the rest of my family could tolerate (how is that even possible?), and I learned that the potato ricer goes a long way toward creating a smooth and tolerable sweet potato puree. This newest version seems to be well-tolerated by everyone in the family, and it is my new favorite recipe. I've even tried substituting ground flaxseed for the eggs to turn the recipe vegan, and that works, too.

Sweet Potato Orange Muffins

A moist, rich muffin with a pumpkin-pie flavor

Recipe By: Family Nutritionist
Servings: 16

-= Ingredients =-
2 c Whole wheat flour
2 ts Low-sodium baking powder
2 ts Baking soda
1 1/2 ts Cinnamon
1/2 ts Nutmeg
1/2 ts Allspice
3/4 pound Sweet potatoes ; cooked, mashed/pureed
1/2 c Firmly packed brown sugar
4 large Egg whites
1 c Orange juice
1 medium Carrot ; shredded
1 ts Vanilla

-= Instructions =-
Lightly grease 16 muffin pan cups or line with paper liners. In a medium bowl, flours, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. In a large bowl, mash sweet potatoes. Add brown sugar, eggs, orange juice, carrot and vanilla. Mix well. Add dry ingredients to sweet potato mixture and stir until combined. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full with batter and bake at 400 F for 15 to 20 minutes or until tops are brown. Let cool slightly and remove from pan. Serve warm. Makes 16.

Serving: 1 muffin (77g), Calories: 113: Fat: 0g (4% of Cals): Sodium: 178mg
Protein: 3g, NetCarbs: 21, K: 242mg
SatFat: 0g, PolyFat: 0g, MonoFat: 0g, Chol: 0mg
TotCarbs: 24g, Fiber: 3g, Sugars: 9g

DASH: Vegetables: 0.2: Fruits/Juices: 0.1: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.9: Meat/Fish: 0.0: Seeds: 0.0: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.5
USDA: Vegetables: 0.1: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.9: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 0.1: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.5

Based on a recipe by: Womans Day Low Fat Meals, June 1995

Read all of "Sweet Potato Orange Muffins" ...

Cinnamon Chocolates for your heart

Cassia Cinnamon is an even more concentrated source of flavanols than cocoa. So, if, like the Kuna, you wanted 900mg of flavanols to your diet, you could eat 2 1/2 tablespoons of cocoa. or only 3 teaspoons of cinnamon. But you shouldn't eat 3 teaspoons of cinnamon, because Cassia cinnamon contains coumarin. The German government has decided .1mg of coumarin per kg of body weight per day is safe. There are about 2.8mg of coumarin in every gram of Cassia Cinnamon. If you weigh over 124 pounds, you should be safe with 2g (1/2 tsp) of cinnamon per day, as long as you aren't eating any other foods with coumarin in them. If you weigh 185, you can tolerate 3 g (3/4 teaspoon)...

Here's a recipe that's not exactly haute cuisine. It makes four servings of a slightly sweet, strongly cinnamon/cocoa patty. It is not smooth like fine chocolate, because it is made with cocoa powder and cinnamon. All that conching destroys flavanols, anyway. One quarter of this recipe has about 500mg of flavanols, including 3/4 teaspoon of cinnnamon per serving, which provides over 200mg of flavanols and 8.4 mg of coumarin. It should be perfectly safe for someone weighing over 190 pounds who isn't eating other sources of coumarin or other blood thinners. If you weigh less, you can divide the recipe into more, smaller servings to get less cinnamon and flavanols. Of course, you would want to discuss this with your doctor. If you'd prefer to leave out the cinnamon altogether, try the recipe for Cocoa Chocolate Patties

Chocolate, Cocoa, and Cinnamon Patties

Recipe By: Family Nutritionist
Serving Size: 4
Cuisine:
Main Ingredient:


-= Ingredients =-
1 oz Baking chocolate ; 100% cacao, unsweetened
3 teaspoon Cinnamon
4 teaspoon Honey
3 tablespoon Cocoa powder

-= Instructions =-
Gently warm baking chocolate until you can stir it.
Stir in the cocoa, cinnamon and honey. Allow to cool to a dough, then divide into 4 pieces and form into balls or patties. Cool on the baking chocolate wrapper.

Do not take with milk, butter, or other dairy products.

Serving: .11 cups (24g), Calories: 81: Fat: 5g : Sodium: 3mg
Protein: 2g, NetCarbs: 9, K: 194mg
SatFat: 3g, PolyFat: 0g, MonoFat: 2g, Chol: 0mg
TotCarbs: 14g, Fiber: 5g, Sugars: 6g
Calories: 56.0% from fat, 69.1% from carbohydrates 02.5% from protein

NFCS: 6.54g Cinnamon: 3.0g : Fats: .84: Sweets: 0.4
PA: 512.35 mg, 1-3 mers: 128.45 mg

German government guidelines for safe daily consumption of Cassia Cinnamon, assuming no other sources of coumarin in the diet. Talk to your doctor to discuss what is safe for you.

Body Weight(pounds)	Cinnamon (g)	Cinnamon(tsp)	flavanols(mg)
60	0.97	0.24	78.97
61.6	1.00	0.25	81.08
110	1.79	0.45	144.79
123.2	2.00	0.50	162.16
130	2.11	0.53	171.11
184.8	3.00	0.75	243.24
190	3.08	0.77	250.08
200	3.25	0.81	263.25

Read all of "Cinnamon Chocolates for your heart" ...

Any-bean hummus good for your heart

Beans -- they're good for your heart. And they all make delicious hummus. Use Lima, kidney, or black beans to make hummus of many different colors and lots of soluble fiber for your heart. Even more soluble fiber than chickpeas.

Hummus makes a good dip for vegetables, and a great sandwich spread. Try a tablespoon or two in a whole wheat pita with some lettuce and tomato. I found a Black Bean hummus recipe in the bigoven archive. It features olive oil, high in mono-unsaturated fat. You could reduce the oil by half if you wished, and increase the lime juice to keep it moist...

Black Bean Hummus

Try this recipe with any kind of beans, canned or home-made in the pressure cooker.

Recipe By:
Serving Size: 8
Cuisine: Uncategorized
Main Ingredient: Beans
Categories: Vegetarian, Vegan, Summer, Boating, Appetizers

-= Ingredients =-
16 oz Black beans
1 tb Tahini
3 tb Olive oil
1 Lime juice
2 clove garlic
Salt & pepper ; to taste
1 ts Ground cumin

-= Instructions =-
In a food processor, combine all the ingredients & process till smooth. Cover & refrigerate till ready to use. Bring to room temperature before serving.
From Geminis MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini

(Nutritional Analysis assumes beans cooked without salt, no additional salt added)
Serving: .27 cups (71g), Calories: 136: Fat: 6g : Sodium: 204mg
Protein: 6g, NetCarbs: 10, K: 227mg
SatFat: 1g, PolyFat: 1g, MonoFat: 4g, Chol: 0mg
TotCarbs: 15g, Fiber: 5g, Sugars: 0g
Calories: 42.0% from fat, 29.4% from carbohydrates 04.4% from protein

DASH: Vegetables: 0.0: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish: 0.0: Seeds: 0.8: Fats: 1.1: Sweets: 0.0
USDA: Vegetables: 0.0: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 0.8: Fats: 1.1: Sweets: 0.0

Read all of "Any-bean hummus good for your heart" ...

How to Eat More Chocolate for your heart

"Eat more chocolate" sounds wonderful. But it's a bit vague. What kind? How much? When? With what? As the designated nutritional expert of the family, it's my job to figure this out.

I know how to eat chocolate. I know how to eat more chocolate. I know what happens if you eat an entire pound of chocolate the day after Valentine's day. And I know that the 100g (3.5 oz) candy bar used in the famous European cocoa studies contains 480 Calories (2008 kilojoules), mostly from sugar and cocoa fat. Not exactly what most of us need...

The Kuna people of the San Blas islands drink 5 8-oz cups a day of ground cacao boiled in water, which seems to make them immune to high blood pressure. But how much cacao? Nobody's saying. Maybe the answer is in this paper that I haven't paid to read because I'm not convinced it has what I'm looking for.

Three famous European studies used the Ritter Sport 100g Halbbitter bar, which contains 500mg of polyphenols. Younger hypertensives saw the most improvement on this diet -- an average of nearly 12 points systolic, 8 ½ points diastolic. Older hypertensives saw smaller improvements at the some dose. Other studies showed that less cocoa means less improvement. The one US study showed no improvement at a dose of 294mg per day. No clues why this study showed different results from all the others.

I figured 500mg of polyphenols seems like a good starting point. There are about 200mg of polyphenols in a half-ounce of 100% cacao (baking chocolate), and 74 calories (mostly from the cocoa butter). There are also about 200mg of polyphenols in a tablespoon of natural cocoa, and only about 12 to 20 calories, depending on the fat content of the cocoa.

Here are some ways to get more cocoa into your diet with out so much fat and sugar:

• Stir a tablespoon of cocoa into boiling or near-boiling water. For a strong and bitter but muddy-looking drink, very different from Swiss Miss.
• Substitute milk for some of the water (Recent studies suggest that milk does not affect the absorption of flavanols, though it might affect their metabolism).
• Stir a tablespoon of cocoa into a bowl of oatmeal. The the carbohydrates may speed up flavanol absorption.
• Or mix some cocoa with melted baking chocolate and a bit of honey to create a confection. The recipe below gives you 1/2 ounce cacoa and 1 1/2 tablespoons of cacao in every serving. Because it uses cocoa powder, it is not as creamy as chocolate, which is conched until very smooth (and lower in bitter flavanols).

Chocolate Cocoa Patties

Recipe By: Family Nutritionist
Serving Size: 4


-= Ingredients =-
1 oz Baking chocolate ; 100% cacao, unsweetened
4 teaspoon Honey
3 tablespoon Cocoa powder

-= Instructions =-
Gently warm baking chocolate until you can stir it. Stir in the cocoa and honey. Form into 4 balls or patties. Cool and eat one per day.

Serving: .1 cups (22g), Calories: 77: Fat: 5g : Sodium: 3mg
Protein: 2g, NetCarbs: 8, K: 186mg
SatFat: 3g, PolyFat: 0g, MonoFat: 2g, Chol: 0mg
TotCarbs: 12g, Fiber: 4g, Sugars: 6g
Calories: 57.0% from fat, 41.6% from carbohydrates 02.6% from protein

NFCS: 6.54g Cinnamon: 0.0g : Fats: 0.84: Sweets: 0.4
PA: 269.1 mg, 1-3 mers: 82.48 mg

Read all of "How to Eat More Chocolate for your heart" ...

No-knead Bread Fifth Attempt -- qualified success

Last Thursday, following my Fourth Attempt, which I'll call a qualified success (it had considerable sourdoughy character but was as heavy as a rock), I saved a 2-oz lump of the dough to try again. Based on my experience and that of others, I decided my dough was simply overproofed and overhandled. I'm a bit rough on the dough, and I don't think these slack doughs take particularly well to that. So I decided to make a less wet dough. I started with:

2 oz leftover from the fourth attempt
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour

and let it sit until it was bubbly, after which I added

3/4 cup water
1 1/2 cup King Arthur Bread Flour
1 1/4 cup King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour

That's a total of 4 cups flour and 1 1/2 cups water, for a dough that was still quite slack but not nearly as wet as the no-kneads I have made so far. A bit later, I realized I had forgotten the salt..., so I added

1 teaspoon salt

And I had to knead that in. I did the kneading with a silicon spatula in the tupperware "rising bowl".

I IMMEDIATELY put the dough in a sealed tupperware in the refrigerator and ignored it until Sunday evening. By the time I had time to think about it, it was 8pm. The dough looked somewhat risen and bubbly, with a slightly leather skin. When I tipped it, it slid a little, displaying the strings in all of its bubbles. I used a tea towel in a bowl as a bread form, gently pulled the leather top skin of the dough all the way around the ball of dough, and formed a kind of seam at the bottom, which I gently nestled in the oat-strewn, tea towel-lined bottom of my bread form bowl, and covered it with a damp tea towel. By 10:30, the ball had risen, though it hadn't quite doubled. But I had to bake this thing so I could get to bed. Following Jim Lahey's advice, I dumped the thing into the preheated casserole (500F), seam side up, covered the casserole, baked, covered for 20 minutes, then uncovered and baked for 30 minutes more at 425F. I used a thermometer to tell me when the center was 205F, at which time I took it out and went to bed. I didn't stay around to listen to it crackling. And I didn't take any pictures.

This loaf was a success. In the oven it rose up in the casserole, pulled away from the sides, and developed a nice rustic crust. Monday morning, I used it for sandwiches. It had a nice sourdough flavor and a crunchy, chewy crust. I thought the interior was a little on the damp side, though the crust had gone slightly past medium brown.

I recrisped the bread in a 350F oven for 15 minutes to serve with soup Monday night, after which it was pretty much gone. Monday night, I made a loaf of my standby bread with buttermilk for the rest of the week.

What went well:

• The slightly drier dough was easier to handle and harder to deflate
• The cold, stiff dough was also less delicate than a warmer, softer dough
• I saved a piece of the fragrant but over-proofed dough for its sourdough organisms.
• I did all of the first rising in the refrigerator
• I didn't try to make fiddly little rolls out of it

What I want to do differently next time

• Add the salt before the final addition of flour
• Allow more time for the dough to warm up so it can rise before baking
• Remember to turn the oven down to 425 as soon as the bread goes in

Did you notice the part where I saved 2 oz of dough to start the next batch? Neither did I. So I started over, substituting a spoonful of plain yogurt for part of 3/4 cup of water, and a couple spoonfuls of rye flour for part of 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour, and adding just a pinch of yeast. After that began to bubble, I added 3/4 cup each of water and flour and put the starter in the fridge to fool with later. Next time, I might feel bold enough to try rolls again

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No-Knead Bread Third Attempt

This time, I decided to try the "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes". The dough is not as wet, so it should be easier to handle. And I wanted to try their approach to creating a more sour dough. After all, it was lacto-fermentation that got me interested in the no-knead breads. What I really wanted was crusty sandwich rolls. And, since my last attempt at sandwich rolls was not exactly what I wanted (extra-dense mini-rolls), I decided to try a different recipe.

So, based on the Artisan Bread In 5 minutes recipe, I tried this:
3 cups lukewarm water
1 teaspoon granulated yeast
2 teaspoons table salt
4 cups whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 cups bread flour

I mixed the ingredients on a Tuesday morning, let the dough sit out all day in a loosely-covered Tupperware bowl, then refrigerated until Friday morning, when I let it warm up a bit.

Then I removed about half, which I then cut into 12 pieces, each just under 2.5 oz, and formed into little 5" loaves on a cornmeal-strewn cookie sheet that I intended to use as a peel, and let them rise for 2 hours.

Only, then didn't turn out looking much like the little loaves I expected. Instead of rising up, they spread out. They looked more like coccodrillo loaves. Only flatter. And, when it came time to slide them off the peel onto the baking stone, they wouldn't slide at all. So I put the entire cookie sheet on top of the baking stone, poured hot water in the brownie pan in the bottom of the oven, and baked them for 15 or 20 minutes, during which time they did not spring up....

They were even more stuck to the cookie sheet afterwards than they had been before. It was quite a job getting them off the cookie sheet. They did not crackle as they cooled. They were on the menu Saturday, when they disappeared quickly, as 2 rolls were required for every sandwich . That's 5 ounces of bread for every sandwich. Which is almost my entire RDA of grain, so it seems a bit inconvenient to eat it all in one meal. Especially after I've already eaten 2 slices of bread for breakfast.

Why don't my no-knead breads rise enough? Here are several possible reasons:

1. Not enough gluten in my flour mixture -- Unlikely. I use 2/3 King Arthur White Whole Wheat (13.2% protein) and 1/3 King Arthur bread flour (12.8%)
2. Gluten not well-enough developed. That goopy dough gets very stringy when I tip it. Doesn't that mean the gluten developed?
3. The slack dough is too soft and fragile. Sounds likely
4. I drive all the gas out while forming the loaf -- likely
5. The yeast has used up its food source and doesn't give me much during the final rise
6. The oven is too hot, preventing a good oven spring -- likely

I started with this comment from Alecto, who has taken to adding wheat gluten to Jim Lahy's no-knead recipe. But I wasn't paying attention. I read some comments at the Chocolate and Zucchini posting on no-knead bread, followed on to another discussion at chowhound, and looked up a lot of facts by searching for dough conditioners, rise, and oven spring. I found out:

1. People have widely-varying ideas of how heavy to make a cup of flour and
2. Some bakers like to use a dough enhancer like ascorbic acid
3. Too little kneading gives a weak and sticky dough, while overworking gives a strong but inelastic dough (Dough and Bread Conditioners); ascorbic acid causes oxidation, leading to more disulfide bonds between gluten molecules (Chemistry and Technology of Cereals )
4. Prevent sourdough from rising horizontally by kneading more, adding more flour, or adding ascorbic acid (baking911 bread problems)
5. lauralmay's blog pointed me to a "clarified" recipe for the Jim Lahey bread, in which the water weighs about 80% what the flour weighs, instead of the nearly 95% I had figured. That means that Jim Lahey's one cup of all-purpose flour weighs about 140g, not the 125g given in the USDA database
6. I figured out that I make a cup of flour a pretty consistent 5.3 oz -- 150g. So my really loose dough must be firmer than Jim Lahey intended.

I have a hard time beleiving I am using TOO MUCH flour. I can believe that I am not stirring enough to start the glutens developing.

Here's my plan for the next loaf (to be baked from the "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes" dough in my fridge)

• Allow the dough to warm up before shaping it
• Shape very gently
• Try a loaf or boule, not rolls (too much handling!)
• Bake at 425F
• Slash the loaf

I haven't decided whether I'll bake in a casserole, on the stone, or in a bread pan in a large casserole.

Read all of "No-Knead Bread Third Attempt" ...

No-Knead Bread Second Attempt

Immediately after my first attempt at no-knead bread (in which I was somewhat disappointed), I decided to try again. Again, I started with Jim Lahey's recipe (1 1/2 cups of water, as recommended in the video). I used two cups of wheat flour and one cup of bread flour, and left out the yogurt this time. I didn't add any flour.

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups water

I made up the dough at 10 on Thursday morning, stirring it up until it was well-blended. Because of several interruptions, I am pretty sure I accidentally added the salt twice. But it's really hard to pick it all out again, and doesn't it seem wasteful to throw out all that dough and start over? It seemed a little moister then last time -- just a little too moist to be "shaggy". But I left it on the counter (I could not resist giving it a sort of kneading stir-down a couple of times) until bed time, then put it in the fridge...

At 7 on Friday morning, I pulled the dough out of the fridge. At 9 AM, I cut it into 12 pieces, formed each into a little round oat-studded sandwich-roll and set to rise on a tea-towel well-strewn with rolled oats, and covered them all with another tea towel. Most of the rolls weighed about 2.3 ounces, about the same as Amoroso's sandwich rolls. An hour and a half later, I preheated the bread stone to 500F. At 11, I lowered the oven temperature to 450 and lifted the tea towel. There were my rolls. They hadn't risen much. Maybe they would spring up in the oven? In any case, I didn't have time to mess around because I needed to get them in and out of the oven so I could get to the bus-stop at noon and continue packing for a weekend trip. So I popped the rolls onto the stone, poured some nearly-boiling water into the brownie pan on the shelf below, and baked those rolls for 20 minutes.

They were lovely little things, but really too small for a sandwich. If I hadn't been packing so frantically while also trying to eliminate ants, I would have photographed them for you. Apparently, they were quite popular -- there wasn't even one stale one left for pictures by the end of the weekend, even though had rushed out to buy a bag of Padinha sandwich rolls. Strangely, some family members chose them over another slice of home-made raisin bread. And my daughter actually made sandwiches on them, folding the ham and cheese slices over and over until they fit the tiny rolls.

Here are the problems I had with these rolls:

• Last rise failed and no oven spring
• Didn't have the crackly crust

Here's what went better than last time:

• More flavorful (I probably doubled the salt!)
• Uniform texture
• Crust did not seem too tough for the roll.

Where did I go wrong? Did I overhandle the very wet dough, deflating the bubbles beyond what it was able to recover in the 2-hour rise?

So I am going to try another no-knead loaf. This time I will try one "Artisan Breads in 5 minutes" style, at least as far as the flour/water ratio goes. And I want to try the longer-term refrigerator storage. I don't want to double the salt for flavor. And I don't want a soupy dough or a wet loaf. I'll start with the recipe posted in the NY Times and wing it, using my usual 2/3 whole wheat to 1/3 bread flour blend. I made my usual sandwich loaf last night. This will make sandwiches for my family through Friday, so I'll be making bread Friday morning with a dough that's had a long, slow fermentation in the refrigerator. And I'll be wondering how, with every blogger in the US advertising it, the NY Times is suffering such financial hard times.

Edited on 5 May 2008 to correct spelling of Padinha

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Baked cod with garlic ginger oil

Last night for dinner, I made a bunch of dishes "match", like they really belonged together in the same meal. Even though they were really just a bunch of things I pulled out because I decided they needed to be eaten.

• 1 pound of mahimahi fillets
• 1 spaghetti squash
• 1 pound of fresh broccoli
• Leftover rice
• A green salad

I started with an idea approximately like this recipe for baked fish, but didn't really feel like using jerk- or Cajun- style seasonings again. I knew the kids insist fish is only good with ponzu sauce, and that spaghetti squash always seems to come out too watery and crisp or else overcooked and mushy. I had a moment of discouragement and panicked. Some part of me reached about 20 years back, to a time when my only seasonings were powdered garlic, powdered ginger, and soy sauce. Since then, though, I've learned a few things....


You can finish baked spaghetti squash in a pan to drive out extra water and control how much it cooks. Lemon juice is really good on fish. Ponzu sauce has citrus and sweetness in it. You need oil to finish baked spaghetti squash in a skillet. You can use the same oil to dress the baked fish, and broccoli tastes good with a little bit of oil, too.

So I came to my senses and did something like this:

1. Split a spaghetti squash in half the long way, forced the halves, face-down, into a pretty baking dish with 1/4 cup of water, covered it, and microwaved for 10 minutes
2. Heated a large skillet, then added 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 huge clove of garlic (minced), and a small knob of fresh garlic (minced), left it cooking slowly over low heat for about 10 minutes, and then turned off the heat.
3. Cut up the broccoli crowns, put them in the steamer basket over water in the saucepan, ready to go.
4. Took the hot squash out of the microwave and dried the baking dish
5. Put the fish fillets in the same baking dish (this was my second-cleverest idea all evening), squirted them with lemon juice, spooned a tablespoon or less of the garlic-ginger oil on them, and sprinkled them with sugar and just a tiny bit of low-Sodium soy sauce.
6. Spooned a little bit of oil into a very small bowl, to save it for the broccoli
7. Scraped the spaghetti squash into the skillet with the rest of the seasoned oil, and gave it a good stir to break it up into strands and mix the oil around a bit.
8. Then I waited until twenty 'till dinner time and preheated the oven to 350°F
9. At quarter 'till dinner time, I put the baking dish in the oven.
10. At ten 'till, I turned on the heat under the broccoli (high) and the squash (medium). While the broccoli steamed, I stirred the squash strands as gently as I could with a pair of tongs to finish them cooking evenly, drive off the excess water, and make sure the flavor was evenly distributed. Then I turned off the heat and put the lid on the squash.
11. At 5 'till, I pulled leftover rice out of the refrigerator, and popped it into the microwave for 3 minutes.
12. At 3 'till, I took the broccoli out of the steamer and dressed it with the reserved oil and just a drop of soy sauce.
13. At dinner time I pulled the baking pan out of the oven and set it on a trivet on the table.
14. I added a tiny sprinkle of soy sauce to the squash and brought everything else to the table.

If that sounds too good to be true, it's the "something like" talking. Actually, I had already dressed the fish with powdered garlic and ginger before I realized flavored oil would be better and just as easy. The waiting in steps 8 and 9 was not as relaxing as you might think, as I spent the time shouting at the kids to clear and set the table instead of playing with the accumulated toys, newspapers, and junk mail. I didn't actually do step 6. Instead, I scraped the squash into a large bowl and left the oil in the skillet until the broccoli was ready. I had thought I might serve the squash in the bowl, but the bowl was cold by serving time and I served the squash in the skillet. It's a nice-looking skillet. Sometime during step 10, I checked the fish, panicked, and turned the oven up to 400°F. I didn't make the rice myself -- my husband had made it to go with his Red Stripe chili the night before. And did you notice the salad was MIA? I discovered a lettuce shortage during step 8. But it's the thought that counts. I chopped up extra broccoli.

Fish baked this way is just about foolproof (why did I panic?), and looks smashing on a bed of spaghetti squash. The kids didn't even complain about it (much). The spaghetti squash was seconds-worthy, the broccoli was just as good as always and maybe a little better. The rice was as good as it had been the night before, and nobody asked about the salad. This was a successful 50-minute weeknight meal. If I had known what I was doing, I probably could have done it more quickly, but I still would have had to allow time for the fish to thaw.

Baked Fish Dinner with Garlic Ginger Oil

Recipe By: Family Nutritionist
Serving Size: 4
Cuisine:
Main Ingredient:


-= Ingredients =-
3/4 pound raw fish fillets
1 teaspoon Lemon juice
2 tablespoon Olive oil
1 clove garlic
1/4 oz Fresh ginger
1/2 pound Spaghetti Squash
2 cups Broccoli florets
4 cups Romaine
1 tablespoon Low-sodium soy sauce
2 cups Cooked brown rice

Serving: 3 oz fish, 1/2 cup each broccoli, spaghetti squash, and rice, 1 cup romaine (346g), Calories: 279: Fat: 8g : Sodium: 208mg
Protein: 20g, NetCarbs: 28, K: 754mg
SatFat: 1g, PolyFat: 1g, MonoFat: 5g, Chol: 37mg
TotCarbs: 31g, Fiber: 3g, Sugars: 1g
Calories: 28.0% from fat, 44.4% from carbohydrates 07.2% from protein

DASH: Vegetables: 3.0: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 1.0: Meat/Fish: 1.0: Seeds: 0.0: Fats: 1.5: Sweets: 0.0
USDA: Vegetables: 1.5: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 1.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 1.0: Fats: 1.5: Sweets: 0.0

Edited on 7 April 2008 to correct errors in nutritional information and to add the rice, which I had left out of the original posting.

Nutritional information in this post calculated using bigoven. Food Group Servings calculated in EXCEL using http://www.mypyramid.gov/ and DASH diet references

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Caribbean Flavor: Jamaican-Style Jerk Ribs

We were planning to have a few people over (11 or 14) to make some summer plans, it was March, and everyone was tired of winter. So something warm and cheery was in order. My husband wanted ribs. So I immediately thought of a Caribbean-inspired menu. Just as soon as I had stumbled across the Caribbean Getaway Menu on the Wegmans website. It was only a starting point. I made ribs instead of a roast, forgot about shrimp, decided on a straightforward Cuban black bean soup, made up my own recipe for greens, cut the desserts down to one, and decided on a blend of tropical fruit juices (with or without rum) instead of the Mojito.

I've done dry-rubbed pork loin short ribs before. They really take up the flavor of the rub well, so I made up a jerk-style dry rub based on several recipes I've read. We were lucky enough to get 90 minutes of good weather that day. The aroma and flavor were really wonderful. I made sure to have tangy barbecue sauce available, but I enjoyed the ribs just as they came off the grill, with mango rice and a side of greens. ...

Jamaican-Style Pork Spareribs

-= Ingredients =-
~~ Jerk Seasoning (see recipe) ~~
2 lb Pork spareribs

-= Instructions =-
Rub Jerk Seasoning onto all surfaces of ribs. Marinate in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Place ribs in center of cooking grate. Grill (indirect, medium heat) 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until tender.

Cut ribs into 2 or 3-rib portions. Serve with warmed sauce.

Nutritional Information (not including rub or barbecue sauce):
Serving Size: 1/3 of rack ( 157g): Calories: 454: Fat(g): 32 (69%of Cals): Sodium (g): 117
Protein: 26g, NetCarbs: 4, K: 432mg
SatFat: 14g, PolyFat: 3g, MonoFat: 15g, Chol: 118mg
TotCarbs: 5g, Fiber: 1g, Sugars: 3g

Food Group Serving(s)
DASH: Vegetables: 0.0: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish: 1.2: Seeds: 0.0: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0
USDA: Vegetables: 0.0: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 3.7: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0

Jerk Rub for Jamaican Style Pork Spare Ribs


-= Ingredients =-
2 tablespoon Onion powder
1 tablespoon Sugar
1 tablespoon dried thyme
2 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 teaspoon Allspice
1/2 teaspoon Ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon Cayenne

-= Instructions =-
In a small jar with tight-fitting lid, shake together all dry ingredients until well-blended. Rub dry mixture onto all surfaces of ribs. Marinate in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Serving: 1 tsp (3g), Calories: 8: Fat: 0g (13% of Cals): Sodium: 278mg
Protein: 0g, NetCarbs: 2, K: 15mg
SatFat: 0g, PolyFat: 0g, MonoFat: 0g, Chol: 0mg
TotCarbs: 2g, Fiber: 0g, Sugars: 1g

Caribbean Flavor

• Black Bean Soup
• A Big Pot of Greens
• Mango Rice

Nutritional information in this post calculated using bigoven. Food Group Servings calculated in EXCEL using http://www.mypyramid.gov/ and DASH diet references

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Red Lentils with Bengali Spices

One day, when I had run out of dinner ideas, I decided to do something with the red lentils I'd had in my pantry for months. Of course I had no idea what to do with them, which is why they had been sitting for so long. But a quick online search turned up several recipes. Some call for cooking the lentils no more than 10 minutes, while others call for more than 30 minutes.

Red lentils, with their skin removed, split the way split peas are split. They cook very quickly. I concluded that, if you want the lentils whole, you should cook them for no more than 20 minutes. If you want a pureed texture, cook them for 30 minutes or more. They are also called pink lentils or masoor dal. They turn from red to yellow during cooking, which really surprised me.

I picked a recipe called Bengal Red Lentils with Spices, which called for Bengali Panch Phoron, a simple five-spice mix. I didn't have all the spices, but I didn't let that stop me. I substituted butter for usli ghee (clarified butter), and used a bit less. I substituted a little jalapeno for the green chilis, and cayenne powder for the dried red chilis. I left out the Nigella entirely. Instead of Fenugreek seeds, I added just a little imitation maple flavor (which is mostly fenugreek) to the finished dish.

From the moment I started frying onions, tomatoes, and ginger in a little butter, the kitchen filled with a wonderful smell. When I started frying my panch phoron substitute, the whole house became fragrant. My children asked me if I had some Indian food. Not quite, but something a little bit like it. What I came up with is not authentic Bengali cooking, but it is a quick, delicious dish that features some flavors from Bengal. If it becomes a regular on our menu, I may even buy some Nigella or Fenugreek for even more flavor. And the next time I visit an Indian Restaurant, I'll look for Bengali specialties like Red Lentils with Panch Phoron, to find out what I have been missing.

-= Exported from BigOven =-

Red Lentils with Bengali Spices

Based on a recipe from Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking by Julie Sahni, this recipe is adapted to use ingredients which are common in many parts of the US.

Recipe By: Family Nutritionist
Serving Size: 8
Cuisine: Indian
Main Ingredient: Lentils
Categories: Vegetarian, Advance, Vegetables, Side Dish, Main Dish

-= Ingredients =-
~~ Boiling the dal ~~
1 1/2 cup Red lentils (masar dal)
1/4 Jalapeno peppers
1/2 teaspoon Turmeric
4 1/2 cup Water
1/4 teaspoon Salt ; or to taste
~~ Tomato-Onion paste ~~
1 tablespoon Unsalted butter
1 cup Onion ; minced
1 cup Tomatoes
1 tablespoon Fresh ginger ; grated or crushed
~~ Perfumed Butter ~~
1 tablespoon Unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon Cumin seed
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
1/2 teaspoon Fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon Nigella seed ; (also called onion seed, black sesame, black cumin, kalonji)
1/2 teaspoon Fenugreek seed ; (imitation maple flavor contains Fenugreek)
4 Bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon Cayenne ; or crushed red pepper (piquin)
2 teaspoon garlic ; minced

-= Instructions =-
1. Pick, clean, and wash the red lentils. Add to a deep pot with chilies, turmeric, water, and salt.
and cook the red lentils, chilies, turmeric, salt and water. Put the ingredients in a deep pot; bring to boil. Stir often to make sure they do not lump together. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, or until tender. The lentils will turn yellow.

2.While the lentils are cooking, heat butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the onions and fry until golden brown (about 10 minutes). Add the tomatoes and continue frying until the tomatoes are cooked. Add the ginger, and continue cooking until the mix is a uniform thick pulp, about 8 minutes. Add the tomato-onion paste and salt to the cooked lentils.

Serving: 2/3 cups (215g), Calories: 167: Fat: 4g (21% of Cals): Sodium: 84mg
Protein: 10g, NetCarbs: 20, K: 304mg
SatFat: 2g, PolyFat: 1g, MonoFat: 1g, Chol: 8mg
TotCarbs: 25g, Fiber: 5g, Sugars: 1g

DASH: Vegetables: 0.5: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish: 0.0: Seeds: 0.9: Fats: 0.8: Sweets: 0.0
USDA: Vegetables: 0.3: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 0.9: Fats: 0.8: Sweets: 0.0



** This recipe can be pasted into BigOven without retyping. **
** Easy recipe software. Try it free at: http://www.bigoven.com **

Nutritional information in this post calculated using bigoven. Food Group Servings calculated in EXCEL using http://www.mypyramid.gov/ and DASH diet references

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Chipotle and Red Hubbard Squash Soup

I picked up a beauty of a 2-pound red Hubbard squash in November, and it has been hanging around my kitchen ever since. Obviously, it's a good keeper, but Autumn is long gone, and I've been thinking about a smoky soup flavored with chipotles, those smoke-dried jalapeños I like to pick up at The Spice Corner in Philadelphia's Italian Market.

Red Hubbard Squash, center row

Hubbard squash has a tough shell of a skin, so I baked the squash at 350F for about an hour while I helped out with a science fair project. At that point, it was easy to cut the squash open (watch out for the escaping steam), scoop out the seeds and strings, and peel the skin. Maybe, if I had let it go longer, I could have scraped the flesh out of the skin.

I discovered that the red Hubbard squash has a very orange firm, mild-flavored flesh, not very pumpkiny at all, drier than most winter squashes, with a flavor something like roasted chestnuts, though not as sweet. Perfect for those family members who are not big winter-squash fans. That 2-pound Hubbard gave me about 4 cups of cubed squash, weighing 1 1/2 pounds. I modified a recipe for the Ritz-Carlton's Chipotle Carrot soup (from the Philadelphia Inquirer's former Sunday Magazine). I added white beans and a little bit of cumin.

The chipotles in their soaking water smelled like Lapsang Souchong in the kitchen. The squash and cumin added a warm note. The soup was delicious with a sides of cooked kale and vinegared red cabbage slaw. But I learned a lesson -- three chipotles is just a bit too much for the young children in the house. I served them emergency rations of cheese on bread, and ate their leftover soup myself. So the official version of this recipe now calls for only one chipotle. If I want more heat, there is always Bufalo.

Chipotle Squash Soup

This rich, smoky soup is made from mild-flavored Hubbard Squash, and is delicious served with cooked greens.

Recipe By: Family Nutritionist

-= Ingredients =-
1 whole Dried chipotle ; (3 if you can take the heat)
2 teaspoons Olive oil
1 medium Onion ; diced
1 teaspoon Cumin
1 1/2 pound red Hubbard squash, cubed
4 cups low-sodium Chicken broth ; warmed
15 1/2 fluid oz Canned White beans
pepper ; to taste

-= Instructions =-
Break stem(s) from pepper(s) and remove seeds. Soak dried peppers in enough warm water to cover.

For 1 1/2 pounds squash (about 4 pounds cubed), start with a 2-pound Hubbard squash. Bake squash in 350 degree oven for at least one hour, or until skin is tender . Halve squash, scrape out seeds, and peel with a paring knife or scrape flesh from skin.

Heat oil over medium heat and add onion, stirring frequently until caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add squash and peppers and their liquid. Add broth, bring to boil and reduce to simmer, covered for 30 minutes or until squash and onions are tender.

Drain beans. Add 1/3 to 1/2 to soup. Puree soup in until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Add remaining beans. Serve hot with cooked greens.

Quick-cooking variation:
Substitute 1 1/2 pounds of canned pumpkin or winter squash for the 1 1/2 pounds of Hubbard squash. Cook soup for 10 minutes before pureeing.

Nutritional Summary
Each (1 cup; 240g) serving contains:
Cals: 107, FatCals: 15, TotFat: 1g
SatFat: 0g, PolyFat: 0g, MonoFat: 1g
Chol: 0mg, Na: 207mg, K: 451mg
TotCarbs: 18g, Fiber: 4g, Sugars: 1g
NetCarbs: 14g, Protein: 7g

Food Group Serving(s)
DASH: Vegetables: 1.1: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish: 0.1: Seeds: 0.1: Fats: 0.1: Sweets: 0.0
USDA: Vegetables: 0.6: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 0.5: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0

Nutritional information in this post calculated using bigoven. Food Group Servings calculated in EXCEL using http://www.mypyramid.gov/ and DASH diet references

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Healthier choices: Veggies need salsa

Kids like to dip. And I don't like bottled ranch dressing. I hate to see them slurp it up as though it were a side dish. It makes me feel like a bad parent.

So I decided on a dip that, when I see them slurping it up, I can simply ask them to pretend to be civilized and use a spoon. Salsa. It's tomatoes and vegetables. Commercial salsas are often full of salt, but salsa is quick and easy to make. Use fresh or canned (no-salt added) tomatoes, any peppers (sweet to hot) you like, onions for flavor, a little lime (or lemon) juice, and cilantro, if you like it. Stir it up for a chunky salsa, or process in the blender for a smooth one. This will keep for a few days to a week in the refrigerator. Broccoli will do a really good job soaking up the tomato juice. Kids will probably prefer the onions chopped fine.

Salsa

Make this low-salt salsa from fresh tomatoes in season or canned tomatoes in the winter.

Recipe By: Family Nutritionist

-= Ingredients =-
15 ounces Tomatoes ; unsalted, petite diced
1/2 cup Onions ; chopped fine
1/4 cup Cilantro ; chopped
1 cup Peppers ; small dice
1 tablespoon Lime Juice ; or to taste

-= Instructions =-
If the tomatoes are too juicy, drain some of the juice.
Mix ingredients together in a bowl. For a smoother salsa, blend in a food processor.
Refrigerate for an hour. Add salt if you need it.
Serve with baked corn tortillas or vegetables

Nutritional Summary
Each (1/2 cup; 96g) serving contains:
Cals: 24, FatCals: 2, TotFat: 0g
SatFat: 0g, PolyFat: 0g, MonoFat: 0g
Chol: 0mg, Na: 7mg, K: 196mg
TotCarbs: 5g, Fiber: 1g, Sugars: 1g
NetCarbs: 4g, Protein: 1g

Food Group Serving(s)
DASH: Vegetables: 1.1: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish: 0.0: Seeds: 0.0: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0
USDA: Vegetables: 0.5: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 0.0: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0

Nutritional information in this posting calculated using bigoven. Food Group Servings calculated in EXCEL using http://www.mypyramid.gov/ and DASH diet references

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Food and Mood

What happens when a 9-year old eats a bowl of cereal, runs around for 2 hours in the snow, and then tries to tackle a science fair project? Sudden negativity. Ready to quit the science fair. Convinced that her hypothesis is stupid. Resistant to looking at the graphs we have just made in EXCEL. Refusing to paste the data into her science fair notebook. Contrary and combative. Angry and nearly in tears.

We slogged on like this for an hour before I said to myself "Blood sugar," and declared it to be lunch time. "It is not lunch time, and I am not hungry," she said, so I boiled her an egg, which, predictably, she complained about. But she ate it, with a little orange marmalade, and was soon all smiles and ready to finish her lunch. Afterwards, she had a good attitude, was able to draw some conclusions about the data, and made much better progress on her project.

No surprise, really. Food for thought, though. We've been in the habit of starting the day with grains. Cold cereal or oatmeal with 8 ounces of milk and perhaps a fruit or 6 ounces of orange juice. But, after running around for two hours in the cold, my daughter had run out of energy.

So this morning, I decided to change the balance a little. Add a boiled egg, reduce the oats a little, don't forget the fruit, lose some sugar. First thing in the morning, though, it seems a child's blood sugar is low. No honey? No marmalade? Contrary, combative, angry, and nearly in tears. Eventually, she ate the experimental breakfast, and had the energy to run errands all the way until lunch time, without even stopping for a snack, though she did say she was hungry. Not the same as running around for two hours in the snow and then tackling a science project, but worth thinking about, all the same. Tonight, She boiled 4 eggs, and intends to have one in the morning. With a little orange marmalade.

Of course, I never get grumpy when my blood sugar runs low. Never.

Oatmeal Breakfast	Oatmeal and Egg Breakfast
1/2 cup Quick oats, prepared with water 1/4 cup raisins 1 cup skim milk	1/4 cup Quick oats, prepared with water 1/4 cup Raisins 1 cup Skim milk 1 hard-boiled egg
Each 435g serving contains: Cals: 329, FatCals: 22, TotFat: 2g SatFat: 1g, PolyFat: 1g, MonoFat: 2g Chol: 5mg, Na: 156mg, K: 856mg TotCarbs: 65g, Fiber: 5g, Sugars: 25g NetCarbs: 60g, Protein: 15g	Each 426g serving contains: Cals: 302, FatCals: 18, TotFat: 2g SatFat: 1g, PolyFat: 1g, MonoFat: 2g Chol: 5mg, Na: 154mg, K: 828mg TotCarbs: 60g, Fiber: 4g, Sugars: 25g NetCarbs: 56g, Protein: 14g
Food Group Serving(s) DASH: Vegetables: 0.0: Fruits/Juices: 1.0: Dairy: 1.0: Grains: 1.0: Meat/Fish: 0.0: Seeds: 0.0: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0 USDA: Vegetables: 0.0: Fruits/Juices: 0.5: Dairy: 1.0: Grains: 1.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 0.0: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0	Food Group Serving(s) DASH: Vegetables: 0.0: Fruits/Juices: 1.0: Dairy: 1.0: Grains: 0.8: Meat/Fish: 0.3: Seeds: 0.0: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0 USDA: Vegetables: 0.0: Fruits/Juices: 0.5: Dairy: 1.0: Grains: 0.8: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 1.0: Fats: 0.0: Sweets: 0.0

Nutritional information in this posting calculated using bigoven. Food Group Servings calculated in EXCEL using http://www.mypyramid.gov/ and DASH diet references.

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Lentil Soup with Saffron Yogurt

I have a dollar bag of saffron that I picked up on a whim at The Spice Corner in Philadelphia's Italian Market. I tried a pinch in some recipe or another, but really couldn't taste the saffron. So I was intrigued by Heidi Swanson's Lively Up Yourself Lentil Soup recipe. It seems so plain, so unseasoned, except for a dollop of saffron-infused yogurt. I usually season lentil soup with hambone, celery, carrot, caraway, and cloves.


She suggests 6 to 8 servings from this soup. Six servings gives 288 calories (30 from fat) and 25g net carbs. You also get a total of 1 cup vegetable (onions, greens, and tomatoes) and 21g of protein, which is what you'd get in about 3.3 oz (uncooked weight) lean meat. Add a slice of whole grain bread to round things out and a couple more servings of vegetables, and it's a full meal. And it will fill you up. Depending on how much liquid you cook off, the serving size will be about 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 cups.

If you split the pot 10 ways, you'll get 173 calories (18 from fat), 15g net carbs, and 13g of protein, equivalent to about 2 oz (uncooked weight) lean meat, and about .6 cup of vegetables, from approximately 1 cup of soup, which is still nearly a main-dish sized portion.

Here's my version of Heidi Swanson's lentil soup, using diced tomatoes instead of crushed (which, in the US, is a puree).

Recipe By: http://HeidiSwanson.com
Serving Size: 12
Cuisine: American
Main Ingredient: Beans
Categories: Vegetarian, Meatless, Soup

-= Ingredients =-
2 cups Lentils ; (Black Beluga or green French), picked over and rinsed
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion ; chopped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
28 ounces Low-salt diced tomatoes
2 cup water
3 cups Chard ; or other leafy green (kale,etc.) rinsed well, deveined, finely chopped
~~ Saffron Yogurt ~~
1 pinch Saffron ; 30-40 threads
1 tablespoon water ; boiling
1/8 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Plain low-fat yogurt ; Greek, if possible

-= Instructions =-
Add the lentils to 6 cups of boiling water. Simmer for 20 minutes. Drain.
Combine saffron with 1 tablespoon boiling water, soak for a few minutes, add a pinch of salt, and stir into the yogurt.
In a heavy soup pot, then saute onion in oil with salt until tender. Stir in lentils, tomatoes, and 2 cups water and heat to a simmer. Add the chopped greens and cook briefly.

Serve with saffron yogurt.

Heidi Swanson suggests: garnishing with crunchy fried shallots, pan-fried butternut squash, a poached egg or cooked whole grains; substituing chive-infused cream for the saffron yogurt; adding seasonings such as smoked paprika, toasted cumin, or crushed dried chilis to the soup.

Based on a recipe by Heidi Swanson at http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/lively-up-yourself-lentil-soup-recipe.html

Nutritional Summary
Each (1 1/2 cups; 347g) serving contains:
Cals: 288, FatCals: 30, TotFat: 3g
SatFat: 1g, PolyFat: 1g, MonoFat: 2g
Chol: 1mg, Na: 125mg, K: 1040mg
TotCarbs: 47g, Fiber: 22g, Sugars: 10g
NetCarbs: 25g, Protein: 21g

Food Group Serving(s)
DASH: Vegetables: 2.0: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.1: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish: 0.0: Seeds: 1.7: Fats: 0.5: Sweets: 0.0
USDA: Vegetables: 1.0: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.1: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 3.3: Fats: 0.5: Sweets: 0.0


Nutritional Summary
Each (1 cup; 208g) serving contains:
Cals: 173, FatCals: 18, TotFat: 2g
SatFat: 0g, PolyFat: 1g, MonoFat: 2g
Chol: 1mg, Na: 193mg, K: 624mg
TotCarbs: 28g, Fiber: 13g, Sugars: 6g
NetCarbs: 15g, Protein: 13g

Food Group Serving(s)
DASH: Vegetables: 1.2: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.1: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish: 0.0: Seeds: 1.0: Fats: 0.3: Sweets: 0.0
USDA: Vegetables: 0.6: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.1: Grains: 0.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 1.0: Fats: 0.3: Sweets: 0.0

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Nutritional information in this posting calculated using bigoven. Food Group Servings calculated in EXCEL using http://www.mypyramid.gov/ and DASH diet references.

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Green and Orange Ribbons with Fettucini

I really love mustard greens. The young greens are sharp and snappy in salads. Cooked lightly, they retain their bright green color and snappy, mustardy, zing. They are sometimes very sandy, and may need to be rinsed twice in a couple inches of water in the sink. They can be roughly stacked up and sliced into ribbons with a chef's knife

Here's a favorite dish I haven't made in a while -- Green and Orange Ribbons with Fettucini. It's based on a recipe I found in a beautiful cookbook ("Healthy Vegetarian Cooking", published by Barnes and Noble). Strangely, the main ingredient was omitted. And the fat and sodium levels were too high for me. So I made a few changes.

This recipe, with garlic and mustard greens, has a lot of zing. It also has one cup of vegetables and two one-ounce servings of grain per serving. Decrease the sesame oil if you wish to reduce fat even further. A vegetable peeler, mandoline, or the "slicer" side of a vegetable grater can create carrot ribbons quickly. Once everything is sliced, it all cooks quickly, so this dish can hurry up and wait until the "main course" is ready.

-= Exported from BigOven =-

Green and Orange Ribbons with Fettucini

Recipe By: Family Nutritionist
Serving Size: 4
Cuisine: Asian
Main Ingredient:
Categories: Vegetarian, Saute, LOW SODIUM, DASH, Vegetables

-= Ingredients =-
8 ounce Fettucini
1/2 tablespoon Olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoon Sesame oil
3 cloves Garlic ; crushed
2 Carrots ; peeled and cut into ribbons
4 cup Mustard greens ; cut into ribbons
1 tablespoons Low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons Sesame seeds

-= Instructions =-
Prepare fettucini according to package directions.
Toast sesame seeds in dry skillet as you heat it. Remove sesame seeds, add olive oil and garlic -- heat until you smell the garlic. Add carrot ribbons and sesame oil; saute until carrots are tender. Five minutes before serving, add mustard green ribbons and soy sauce. Cover tightly and steam over very low heat.
Toss vegetables to mix, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and serve over fettucini.

Nutritional Summary
Servings: 4: Serving Size: (203g): Calories: 363: Fat(g): 11: Sodium (g): 175

Food Group Serving(s)
DASH: Vegetables: 2.0: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 2.0: Meat/Fish: 0.0: Seeds: 0.1: Fats: 1.5: Sweets: 0.0
USDA: Vegetables: 1.0: Fruits/Juices: 0.0: Dairy: 0.0: Grains: 2.0: Meat/Fish/Seeds: 0.1: Fats: 1.5: Sweets: 0.0
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