Category Archives: Food

#LoveYourLeftovers

I blinked and it’s no longer summer!  In fact, we’re almost halfway through November, which means I am one month away from finishing semester five (of six) on my journey to becoming a registered dietitian.  It’s nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel of a demanding semester!

On to leftovers!  A recent article in the Washington Post explored reasons for shifting attitudes toward leftovers:

The food historian Helen Veit has observed that regard for leftovers plummeted in the 1960s, when refrigeration and cheap food became plentiful. Although saving food had been patriotic during the World Wars, and economically necessary in the century before them, rising incomes and agricultural productivity pushed thrift out of favor.

I know my cooking and eating habits are not reflective of those of a majority of Americans, but leftovers have been a staple in our house for years.  We primarily use leftovers for weekday lunches; most mornings I pack dinner leftovers in glass containers for microwave reheating (Matthew and me) and in an insulated stainless steel jar (Gabriel).

Benefits of eating leftovers include reduced food waste, monetary savings, and, perhaps, healthier eating.  I’ll explore each of these more in future posts.

I often share pictures of my lunches on Instagram and Twitter.  After reading the article, I decided it’s time to show those lunches some extra love, so I’m starting a “Love Your Leftovers” campaign.  Whether it’s lunch at work, an easy dinner, or a savory breakfast, please join me in sharing your leftover-based meals with the hashtag #loveyourleftovers!

When your cart is bigger than your bike

Every six-to-eight weeks, I make a big stock up run to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, which are conveniently located near each other.  They are also located relatively near a light rail stop, making them ideal for a bike + transit trip.

That said, I usually make the trip by car, trying to combine it with a time that I’ll be out and about in the car in the vicinity of said stores anyway.  Making this trip by bike poses two challenges that aren’t an issue with the car:

  1. Can I fit everything on my bike?
  2. What do I do with the groceries from the first store while I’m in the second store?

The answer to #1 is . . . maybe — more on that in a sec.  The answer to #2 is, “It depends.”  I usually hit WF first and TJ’s second because I buy frozen veg at TJ’s that I want to get back in a freezer ASAP.  For today’s trip, I went to WF first, as usual.  I fit most of my WF grocery bags into Big Blue’s side loaders, where I could conceal them fairly well with the flaps.  Sure, someone could walk off with my groceries, which would totally suck, but to make this bike thing somewhat reasonable, I counted on the decency of my fellow shoppers.  I brought the one bag I couldn’t fit into the side loaders into TJ’s with me.

Back to question #1 — I’ve made this double-store trip at least once before, and the bike was full, but it wasn’t an issue.  I don’t know what was different today, but for some reason I barely made it.

As in, barely fit all of the bags, and then, once I had everything loaded, I dropped the thing right in front of Trader Joe’s as I wheeled it from the sidewalk into the parking lot.  Yep, that was me, attempting to heave Big Blue back upright.  Fortunately, I had packed everything well enough that no bags fell off of / out of the bike, and no items fell out of bags, and a nice lady stopped to help me right the bicycle.

I knew riding it would be easier than walking it, but my confidence was a little low at that point.  I wobbled my way to the MetroLink stop, where I examined my scraped knee and took some pictures to regroup.

I wrangled the bike onto and off of the train without incident, thankful that I wasn’t actually riding the bike all that far, and wobbled home to survey my haul.

Nine bags in all (these six + three insulated bags)

Curious, and expecting a big number, I weighed all of the bags.  From the way the bike was handling, I was expecting close to 200 pounds!  The grand total?  A measly 105 pounds — whomp, whomp, wah.  On the up side, everything was fully intact despite the tip, including a number of glass jars / bottles (the nice thing about Big Blue is that she doesn’t really tip far to either side because of the metal running board rails).

I’m not sure if this load was really that much heavier than previous big loads, or if I just loaded it poorly.  I know it’s better to carry weight lower and evenly distributed on both sides.  I fit two bags in each of the side loaders, which left five bags on the cargo rack.

I’m not sure what I could have done differently.  For now, I’m thinking that if I want to do WF and TJ’s by bike, I need to divide it into two trips, unless one of the stores is truly just a few items.

Diving into the deep freeze

Our chest-style deep freezer was overdue for a defrosting and inventory check, so I’d been keeping my eye on the forecast, hoping for (while also dreading) one more really cold day so the freezer contents could chill outside while I tackled the frost.  I had to wait awhile, given the unseasonably warm winter, but I finally got my chance last Thursday (note to the weather, thanks for the cold day; now bring on spring!).

I unplugged the freezer and hauled all of the food up the basement stairs and out the back door.  Once empty, I attacked the frost with a plastic dust pan (note to self: a windshield ice scraper would be a good tool here).  The freezer has a drain opening, but the freezer is not located particularly close to the floor drain in the basement, so instead of letting the ice melt, I chipped it off and then scooped it into a 5-gallon bucket.  (Note: Apparently the manufacturer does NOT recommend my “chipping the ice off” method, but I was careful — using plastic, and not metal, to scrape — and this method was so much faster than letting it all melt that it’s probably what I’ll do in the future.)

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My method proved relatively speedy and efficient, and next thing I knew, I was plugging the freezer in again.  By this time, I was overdue for my morning snack, and I was sorely tempted to just throw all of the food back into the freezer, but I took the time to inventory the contents of the various cloth bags and pillow cases that we use to “organize” (ha!) the food, knowing I would thank myself later.

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Our freezer is not a huge, “there’s definitely a dead body in there” size, but at 15 cubic feet, it’s fairly big, and having a list helps us make the most of our frozen food: using the oldest food first, planning meals around items that we have in large quantities, and avoiding food waste.

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We use a high-tech organizational system involving a large white board and a variety of “bags” (which include extra canvas bags, old pillow cases, and anything else sturdy and bag-like we can find) to keep track of what we have where in the freezer, and it works fairly well.  In the past, I’ve tracked what is in which bag (e.g., green beans in flowered pillow case), but this gets messy quickly when bag contents change, so I’m trying a new system that’s more of a straight list.  I try to keep bags with older, “use first” items toward the top for easy access.

Now I am looking for ways to use plums and broccoli, as well as the priority older items, before we start freezing 2017 goods.  Frozen broccoli is not my favorite ingredient to work with, but friends have chimed in with some helpful suggestions, and I’ve already reduced our broccoli count by two bags by making a broccoli-rich version of lemon-egg soup.  The best uses for frozen broccoli seem to be soups or casserole-type dishes, and I like partially thawing it and pulsing it a few times in the food processor first.

Kitchen riffs

It seems like just yesterday it was October, and still hot, and I was itching for cooler weather and “oven season.”  Well, oven season is in full swing, and our recent icy weekend gave me a chance to spend extra time in the kitchen.

St. Louis pretty much shut down on Friday with the impending ice storm (which was, at least where we were, rather underwhelming).  I made a quick grocery store run first thing on Friday morning.  A small amount of freezing rain fell right before I left, making untreated areas a bit slippery, but 98% of my route was treated.  I debated the wisdom of bike over car, but I was happier on the bike.  Definitely a day for sticking to the streets and eschewing the untreated greenway.

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I was a bit nervous about what I would find when I left the grocery store, but the precip had stopped and the temp had risen a few degrees, so everything was just wet for my return trip.

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Not your stereotypical “bread, milk, eggs” grocery store run.  Obviously my biggest fear is being iced in with no fresh produce!

Come dinner time, I turned to a new cookbook, The Veggie-Lover’s Sriracha Cookbook, a Christmas gift from my sister.  I certainly love veggies, and I’m quite fond of sriracha, and the “Sriracha Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie” caught my eye.

As usual, I used the recipe as a guide, not a dictate — I tossed in some red cabbage and subbed lentils for the tempeh (my original plan was to use both tempeh and lentils, but I was in a hurry to get it in the oven, so I skipped the tempeh).  I also went a little light on the sriracha with G in mind (even though he was “stuck” at grandma’s for the day and night) — you can always add more sauce at the table.

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We invited a neighbor to dine with us, and we all enjoyed the flavorful, filling dish.

Most of my kitchen experiments are intentional, but every once in awhile, there’s an accident.  On Saturday morning, we had a little kitchen mix-up.  Matthew was making waffles, and I found a small jar of what I thought was oat flour.  I gave it to him to toss into the waffles.

Several minutes later, he brought me a sample of a waffle with great flavor, but a pronounced crunch, a crunch beyond what we experience when adding a bit of cornmeal to the waffles.  We weren’t sure why they were so crunchy, and he continued making waffles while I went about my morning.

I was walking down the basement stairs when a thought hit me, and I froze.  Suddenly, I was pretty sure I knew what had been in that jar, and it wasn’t oat flour.  A few months ago I experimented with making my own calcium supplement from eggshells — the process was laborious, requiring boiling, baking, and then grinding (in small batches in our coffee grinder) the eggshells.  The result of my efforts was a small jar of finely ground eggshells that I quickly forgot after putting in a jar in the refrigerator . . .

. . . until now.  After a few moments’ deliberation, I fessed up to the mix-up.  We now have a triple batch of “Calcium Crunch Waffles” in our freezer.  Edible, but not something I would have done on purpose!

Keeping with the [intentionally] trying new recipes spirit, I used this Morrocan Farro and Lentil Soup recipe from Food & Nutrition magazine as a guide for a week night meal.  I’d been eyeing the recipe for awhile, but I wasn’t in the mood for soup, so I used the spicing as inspiration for a veggie and grain bowl.  It was a fun change from the standard spicing and flavoring I use.

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Another night, I was looking for something new to do with millet, and I found this recipe: Millet Cakes with Carrot and Spinach.  It was a little involved and time-consuming for a weeknight, but I managed to pull it together by skipping the chilling step, which worked okay because I baked them instead of frying (without the chill time, I think they would have fallen apart when frying).

I’m looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of America’s Test Kitchen’s “Complete Vegetarian Cookbook” (thanks, library), which I discovered through the millet cakes recipe.  More kitchen riffs to come, no doubt!

Finally, in the sweets category, I made these Kahlua Truffle Bars.  We received some of these truffles as a Christmas gift a few years back, and I was quite taken by them.  A soft shortbread crust with a rich, dark chocolate topping — what’s not to love?

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For some reason, the crust on mine came out crunchy (no, it did not have eggshells in it!), which was not bad, but also not what I was hoping for.  Matthew really likes it with the crunch, but I want to figure out how to get a softer crust next time.

In the spirit of closing a couple of random tabs I’ve had open for weeks, while still keeping track of things, here are a couple of items on my “To Try” list:

Oatmeal Plus

A bowl of oatmeal has been an almost constant breakfast companion for over ten years now.  While I am clearly a creature of habit, my bowl has evolved over the years.  Here’s a quick look at my oatmeal evolution, followed by a recipe for the current iteration.

2006 — instant oats cooked in the microwave, topped with peanut butter, bananas, cinnamon, [sweetened] soy milk, and a bit of brown sugar

2009 — switch from bananas (distinctly not local) to locally grown fruit, when in season (primarily apples), or dried fruit (primarily raisins)

2010 — switch from instant oats to rolled oats, still cooked in the microwave

??? — ditch the added sugars by switching to unsweetened soy milk and eliminating the added brown sugar; dried fruit makes for plenty sweet oatmeal

2012 — start making an extra-thick, stove top version with rolled oats that works as finger food for G when cooled; make in big batches

2013 — when G moves on from the finger food version, I continue making big batches of stove top oatmeal for both of us; I serve G’s really thick to help it stay on the spoon; bananas reappear as a “sometimes” food

2014 — start using a mixture of rolled + steel cut oats, with an overnight soak

2015-2016 — experiment with adding in other grains, including millet, quinoa, brown rice flakes, and amaranth

Each of these iterations took the flavor, texture, and nutrient variety up a notch.  The amaranth is the most recent addition, and it almost didn’t make the cut.  It’s seedy taste really stood out in the first batch, and I wasn’t a huge fan.  By the second batch, I had adjusted to the flavor, and now I’m really enjoying it.

The overnight soak helps the longer-cooking grains, like steel cut oats, cook quickly in the morning.  It’s still more of a time investment than microwaving instant oats, but it tastes better AND you’ll have breakfast for several days.  The recipe below makes about four days’ worth of one parent- plus one child-sized portion.

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OATMEAL PLUS
Recipe by Melissa
Serves 5-8

Ingredients

2 T. amaranth
1/2 c. steel cut oats
1/4 c. millet
1/4 c. quinoa (rinsed)
1 c. rolled oats
3 1/2 c. water
1 1/2 c. unsweetened soy milk

Directions

Measure grains into pan and pour water over the top.  Let sit at room temperature overnight.  In the morning, add the milk, bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat and simmer for 8-10 minutes.  Can be served immediately, or turn off heat and let sit, covered, for an additional 5-10 minutes.

Add [soy] milk to thin to desired consistency, and top with cinnamon, fresh or dried fruit, and nut butter of choice.  Additional toppings: hemp seed, chia seed, chopped walnuts, nutmeg.

After the first morning, reheat in microwave with milk.  For a take-to-work version, place oatmeal, additional milk, and toppings in a wide mouth, pint size jar and reheat at work.