I’ve been vegetarian for just over seven years now. I know a good bit about nutrition (I have enough college credits in nutrition to be considered a “nutritionist,” though not a dietitian, by most employers), and that foundation makes me confident in my dietary choices.

Though I don’t need outside validation, the last 15+ months provide some satisfactory evidence that my diet is not lacking.  Over nine months, I grew a big, healthy baby on a vegetarian diet*, and for the last 6 1/2 months, he’s thrived on nothing other than mama’s milk

As I wrote earlier this week, the time has come to expand The Dude’s one-item food menu, and we look forward to introducing him to our way of eating, meals filled with flavor, variety, and lots of nutrients, striving to eat in a way that is good for the body and gentle on the planet.

*In the interest of full disclosure, I took a high-quality fish oil supplement while pregnant, so I wasn’t quite vegetarian, technically speaking.

Read more about my thoughts on a vegetarian diet:
Vegetarian I
Vegetarian II

Yes, you really can bake a chocolate-based bread. And yes, it’s as good (or better) than your imagination.  A chocolate lover’s fantasy come true . . . .

However, at $17 + shipping per loaf, my chances of enjoying this deliciousness anytime soon were very slim, unless . . . I made it myself!  I hunted down some likely recipes and sent them to Matthew, requesting the bread as a Christmas present.

Luckily for me, he created a delicious loaf on his first try!

Luckily for you, he’s sharing the recipe

Chocolate Cherry “Sourdough”
Recipe by Matthew
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery and thefreshloaf.com

Time: About 1½ hours plus 12 to 20 hours rising

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed
1 cup dried tart cherries
1 scant cup big chunks of dark chocolate
1 Tablespoon Cocoa powder

Directions
In a large bowl combine both flours, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice.

When the dough is ready, pour some boiling water over the cherries. (If you can’t find dried tart cherries you may substitute cranberries.)  Let the fruit soak for about 15 minutes, drain and then place on towels to dry. You want the interior wet enough so that the fruit won’t draw moisture from the dough, but dry enough on the exterior so they won’t turn your dough into soup. When the fruit is ready, mix it up with the chocolate in a bowl, and have it handy.

Flour a workspace lightly, and then gently turn the dough out onto the board. With wet hands, lightly pat the dough into a rectangle. Stretch the dough to about twice its length, and then spread 1/4 of the chocolate cherry mixture in the center*. Fold one-third of the dough on top, and again, spread 1/4 of the mixture on top. Fold the final third of the dough like a letter, and then turn the dough one-quarter. Follow the same procedure, and then cover the dough. Let it rest for about 15 minutes.

*See recipe here for pictorial guidance on stretching, spreading, and folding:

Folding the chocolate and cherries into the bread ensures that the vast majority of the goodies stay protected from the fierce heat to which you’re going to subject the dough in order to get that lovely, crunchy crust we all adore. The yummy stuff is not as evenly distributed as it would be were it mixed in from the beginning, but uneven distribution is highly preferable to charcoal. Trust me.

Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 -500 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

It’s important to let bread cool for at least an hour, if not longer, before slicing, because of the heat and moisture from the inside of the loaf.  However, this bread is best slightly warm, with the chocolate a bit melty.  Solution?  Place slice in toaster on very low setting for 20 seconds or so.  The goal is not to toast the bread, but to give it that fresh-out-of-the-oven goodness.

Enjoy as-is, or with some butter and perhaps just a touch of honey for sweetness.  Perhaps Valentine’s Day will bring another loaf my way!

Since the beginning of the month, we’ve been making a more concerted effort to let him sit at the table and try some solid food at least once a day.  After reading the eponymous book, I decided Baby-led Weaning made a lot of sense:

Baby-led weaning is a way of introducing solid foods that allows babies to feed themselves – there’s no spoon feeding and no purées. The baby sits with the family at mealtimes and joins in when she is ready, feeding herself first with her fingers and later with cutlery (from the BLW leaflet).

So far, he’s tried rutabaga/turnip, carrot, sweet potato, rice cake, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, pear, apple, pumpkin, oatmeal, and homemade bread.  Many of his first foods came from our garden.

Yum, broccoli!

As this photo (and later, his diaper) attests, he was pretty into the broccoli.  Actually at one point during this “Fun With Cruciferous Veggies” meal, he was double-fisting broccoli and cauliflower.  At another point, he put the cauliflower in his mouth, leaving his hands free, one to hold broccoli, the other to hold cabbage.

Squash facial mask

Although this picture might look more like conventional puree spoon-feeding, the difference is that The Dude is “feeding” himself.  Also, we did not cook and puree this squash for him, we just happened to have extra from a big batch we prepared for pumpkin bread.

In addition to the website link above, you can read more about Baby-led Weaning here.  So far, we’re taking it slowly and having fun introducing the delicious, wholesome foods that make up a regular part of our diets.

]]> http://hergreenlife.com/2012/01/24/fun-with-food-baby-led-weaning/feed/ 3 hergreenlife IMG_7964 IMG_7933 http://hergreenlife.com/2012/01/23/black-ice-and-bikes/ http://hergreenlife.com/2012/01/23/black-ice-and-bikes/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:03:21 +0000 Melissa @ HerGreenLife http://hergreenlife.com/?p=2892 Continue reading →]]>

I recently did a guest interview for Simply Bike’s “Biking While Pregnant” series — you can read it here.

People often express surprise at the weather conditions we bike in, which include some pretty extreme temps (hot and cold),  rain, wind, and snow.  For us (though much less so for me, at the moment), these conditions are just part of using a bicycle for transportation.

As a general rule, there are two conditions in which we don’t bike: ice on the road and lightning storms.  Late Friday afternoon, freezing rain coated area roads just in time for rush hour.  After a failed attempt to fit his bike in a coworker’s car, followed by narrowly missing a bus, Matthew decided to chance the icy streets rather than wait 20-30 minutes for the next bus.

He made it to within a few blocks of our apartment and then went down on some black ice on a side street.  Fortunately, he escaped with just a few bruises and aches.  (His bike is also fine.)  After making it to the sidewalk (he said the street was so slippery he could barely stand up!), he opted to walk the remaining blocks.

The next day, when I suggested biking to an afternoon apartment appointment, he was understandably hesitant.  With the roads still icy in the morning, I reluctantly agreed to the car.  When the time came, I walked outside and proclaimed, “We totally could have biked.”

Our destination was less than two miles away, the kind of trip that can really almost be reached by bicycle as fast as by car, and we had fifteen minutes, so we headed to the basement for the bikes, quickly donned cold weather riding gear, and pedaled down the road.

As it turned out, the apartment was a total flop.  I would have been really annoyed if we had driven, but the bike ride turned it into a nice afternoon outing — so glad we reassessed road conditions, and that Matthew was willing to get back in the [bike] saddle.

I recently conducted a survey on walking and biking to school, and I couldn’t believe this response from the parent of a 9-year-old who lives six or seven blocks (residential blocks with sidewalks and low speed limits) from the school:

Reason for disinterest in walking school bus or bike train: “prefer to drive [child] myself”

Sadly, there were other, similar responses.  In my mind, this is inexcusable, both from a health and a resource standpoint.  There’s a reason we have a huge childhood obesity problem and the attitude behind statements like this play a big part.

I know, I know, there are millions of excuses, some legitimate, but most not.  Parents’ fear the risk of very rare events that get lots of media coverage, like kidnappings, and fail to see the much more real risk of a sedentary lifestyle: obesity, type 2 diabetes, and a host of other chronic diseases and health problems.

Don’t want your child to walk alone?  Okay, then get off the couch and walk with them. You’ll be doing something good for yourself and your child.  And I could cease the head banging over here.

As you’ll see, the recipe is just a starting point.  You could make the dumplings and add them to just about any broth-y vegetable soup, and it would be delicious.  Last night, Matthew made our Country Vegetable Soup using dumplings instead of pasta.

Chicken and duckling soup
Recipe by Melissa

Ingredients
1 c. orange lentils*
4-5 c. water
6c. veggie broth (can subs. water and extra spices)
bay leaf
thyme, marjoram, oregano, cumin (season to taste)
olive oil
1-2 c. onion and/or leeks
1 bulb garlic
2-4 stalks of celery
2 c. carrots or sweet potatoes or butternut squash
3-4 c. cabbage (it will cook down!)
optional other veggies — see directions for ideas
1 recipe Bean Flour Ducklings Dumplings (recipe below)

Directions
Place lentils and bay leaf in large pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil and turn down to simmer.  You may need to check back and add more water or broth as they cook.

Chop your veggies.  The ingredient list is just a starting point.  You can add or subtract veggies as you wish.  Green beans, potatoes, frozen corn, and/or frozen peas work well here, too.

If you haven’t already made the dumpling batter, make it now.

Saute onion/leeks and celery in olive oil until tender, about 10 minutes.  Add garlic and saute for an additional minute.  Add herbs and spices to the mix.

Check on lentils.  When they are starting to fall apart, add the sauteed mix, along with the other chopped veggies**, and more water or stock to the lentil pot.  Bring back to a boil, and then lower to a simmer.  If using water or no-sodium broth, you will need to add salt.  Start with 1 t. and add more to taste.

Once all veggies are in the pot, drop in dumpling batter by the spoonful.  You will need enough extra broth in the pot for the dumplings.  If your pot is too full, you can cook the dumplings in a separate pot of broth.  Cover pot and cook dumplings for 15 minutes.

Serve, let cool a bit so you don’t burn your mouth, and enjoy!

*Split and hulled, these tiny lentils break down very quickly and will dissolve, creating a thick, rich base for the soup.
**For ideal veggie cookage, start by adding the veggies that take longer to cook, like potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, etc.  Let simmer for 10-15 minutes, then add tender veggies, like cabbage and green beans.  Many frozen veggies can be added right at the end of cooking, and they’ll help cool the soup for eating.

On Saturday morning, I ran a couple of errands by car, due to some remaining ice from the mid-week snow.  Once off of our tiny street, I realized conditions were bikeable.  When I arrived at the library and found no [car] parking spaces, I really wished I’d chosen two wheels instead of four — lesson learned!

While out and about, I stopped by the winter farmers’ market.  Some beautiful cabbage, along with a few bags of frozen green bell peppers, a couple of fresh sweet red peppers, and a few pears made the trip well worth it.  I bought enough cabbage that we might do a new round of sauerkraut, though we’ve really been enjoying the cabbage cooked in various ways, and I want to get around to making a slaw/salad with some of it.  Cold weather cabbage tastes so sweet and delicious!

Speaking of sauerkraut, and deliciousness, we made reubens over the weekend — so messy and so good!  The kitchen’s been a busy place lately, and I have a couple of fun new recipes to share soon, one for a nice, warm soup and the other for an amazing bread — very high quality bike fuel

We originally made an only-slightly-adapted version, using some cashew butter, but retaining the cream and Parmesan cheese.  The recipe here is vegan, except for our homemade noodles, which contain eggs.  Once again, we benefited from having homegrown Swiss chard and squash prepped (from the deep freeze this time), as well as the noodles made up from a previous night.

Happy cooking and eating!

Pumpkin Lasagna
By Matthew
Adapted from Food & Wine

Directions
In a large cast iron or nonstick frying pan, heat the oil over moderately low heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Increase the heat to moderately high and add the chard, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, 1 Tablespoon sage, and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg. Cook, stirring, until the chard is wilted and no liquid remains in the pan, 5 to 10 minutes.

Combine the cashew butter and warm water to create a cashew sauce.

Heat the oven to 400°. In a medium bowl, mix together 6 cups of the pumpkin, amaretti cookie crumbles, cashew sauce (from previous step), and the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon, pepper, 1 Tablespoon sage, and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg.

Pour the soymilk into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Top the soymilk with one
third of the noodles, then spread 1/3 of the pumpkin mixture over the noodles. Layer half the Swiss chard over the pumpkin and top with a second layer of noodles. Repeat with another layer of pumpkin, Swiss chard, and noodles.

Spread the remaining pumpkin mixture evenly over the top of the lasagne, and sprinkle with the bread crumb topping.  Cover with a cookie sheet on a higher oven rack and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake until golden, about 15 minutes more. Let cool, to set up, for 10 minutes before cutting.

Bread crumb topping
I created this topping as a substitute for the Parmesan cheese in the original recipe.  It came out quite well.

Ingredients
2/3 c. whole wheat bread crumbs
1/3 c. wheat germ
1/3 c. nutritional yeast
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/3 c. vegan butter substitute, like Earth Balance

Directions
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.  Use a pastry blender to cut in the Earth Balance, creating a crumbly mixture that you can sprinkle on top of the lasagna.

I just don’t trust plastic, even the “BPA-free” plastic.  I figure it just contains some yet-to-be discovered, and perhaps worse, toxin leaching into my food.  I cringe when I see coworkers nuking their lunches in plastic containers — yikes!

Unless the food cools to room temperature first (at which point we’re probably in the bacteria-growth danger zone), we store all of our leftovers in glass containers.  We also use glass to transport our lunches for easy microwave heating at work.

Though it’s a compromise because it still involves plastic, we’ve found that glass containers with plastic lids work well.  This container style forms a relatively good seal for transporting the food to and from work, which can involve a good bit of jostling.  If we fill the containers to the brim, we refrigerate and put the lids on after the food is cool, and we remove the lids before reheating the food — one of those “not perfect, but good enough” solutions.

With normal use  and wear (i.e., not getting dropped on a hard surface), the glass containers have quite a long life.  That makes the plastic the weakest link.  After a couple of years of regular use, the plastic lids started showing their age, cracking at the edges, no longer forming a good seal.

Over a year ago, I searched for replacement lids in vain, frustrated that I couldn’t buy just a lid to go with the container that was still in perfectly good shape.  I’m rather certain I contacted the company directly and was told they didn’t make replacements — argh!  In the meantime, we wanted to expand our glass container collection and reluctantly purchased two sets of the same style, knowing about the lid issue.

For some reason, Matthew or I resumed the lid hunt a couple of months ago, and this time we our search ended in success!

To maximize the shipment, we ordered a couple of spare lids for each size of glass container, including some for my MIL who has the same containers with the same lid issues.  (Speaking of the shipment — ridiculously over-packaged!  Must remember to add “please minimize/avoid plastic when packing.”)  While it’s frustrating knowing that these lids will also wear out, I’m happy to get more good use out of the glass.

Friday morning, after his first nap, we strapped The Dude into the trailer and rode our bikes to Tower Grove Park.

Ready to roll

I’d debated using the trip to run an errand but ultimately decided to keep it all pleasure, so we biked the outer loop road in the park, and then headed back home.  Apparently The Dude was pretty comfortable — he looked around for a bit at first, and, shortly after we entered the park, he fell asleep for the rest of the ride.

My biking boys

Suffice it to say that after a year of research and planning on how we would include a baby in our preferred form of transportation, actually taking a bike ride with him was wonderful!  That, combined with the fresh air, sunshine, and physical activity really lifted my spirits

Previous “Biking with Baby” posts:

• Biking with babies
• Biking with Baby — Part 2
• The Dude’s new ride
• When baby’s away, Mama plays
• Bike void