The Importance of Keeping a Pantry

How often are your eating habits influenced by convenience? At the office you’re craving a snack and the vending machine is your only option. After a long day at work you opt for ordering in Chinese food or a pizza, or popping in a microwaveable meal, because it’s the easiest thing to do for dinner.

I’ll save “Eating Healthy at Work” strategies for another entry. For this entry, I’ll focus on keeping a pantry at home, so that no matter what, you can maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle.

I’ll use myself as an example. Below is a list of fresh, dry, and frozen goods that I always keep on hand. This strategy has benefited my husband and I tremendously. I can not tell you how many times we’ve been able to throw together a quick healthy meal, simply because we have a wonderful array of ingredients stowed away specifically for those “I’m too tired to shop or make anything elaborate” nights.

Dry Goods:
Red and green lentils (lentils cook super quickly and are loaded with protein and fiber)
Quinoa
Millet
Steel cut oats
Barley
Buckwheat
Almonds
Walnuts
Pistachios
Pecans
Filbert nuts
Raisins
Dried Cranberries
Sun-dried tomatoes
Various seaweeds (a quick and easy way to boost nutrients in a soup or salad)
Organic popcorn kernels (Brent makes a mean popcorn – and what a nice healthy snack it makes)
potatoes
Gnocchi
Soba Noodles
“Healthy” pastas (whole wheat, Jerusalem artichoke, quinoa pasta)
Nature’s promise whole wheat tortilla
Sprouted bread
Trader Joe’s pre-made polenta
Kashi Heart to Heart cereal

Jarred and Canned Goods:
Annie’s Gingerly Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
Canned beans (cannelloni, salad bean mix, refried beans, chickpeas, and red kidney beans)
Canned artichokes
Canned diced green chilies
Newman’s salsa
An organic spaghetti sauce
Organic tomato paste
Organic crushed tomatoes
Various Trader Joe’s Indian style Sauces
Low-fat coconut milk
Organic chicken broth
Organic vegetable broth

Fruit bowl:
Granny Smith apples
Bananas
A pineapple
Avocados

Condiments:
Agave nectar
Maple syrup
Rice vinegar
Balsamic vinegar
Apple cider vinegar
Bragg’s Liquid Amino Acids
Extra Virgin Olive oil
Lots of spices
Onions
Garlic

Refrigerated Goods:
Almond Butter
Fruit-juiced sweetened jams
Thai red curry paste
Mustard
Organic low fat plain yogurt
Rice milk
Trader Joe’s organic hummus
Free range eggs
Lemons
Limes
Organic red peppers
Carrots
Baby carrots
Organic salad mix
Organic baby spinach and/or arugula
Organic celery
Goat feta cheese

Frozen goods:
Spinach
Organic frozen pie crusts
Frozen veggie stir fry mixes
Frozen shrimp
Frozen fruit
Our sin: Always an organic, fair-trade dark chocolate bar for emergencies!

By keeping these things on hand, I always have something to whip up. The salad greens and sometimes the bananas and avocados are the only items that may not last an entire week. With these items in my pantry, I can easily whip up a quiche, chili, a barley and veggie soup, dahl, and Thai shrimp with red curry sauce to name a few things. If I’m super tired, I can resort to pasta and sauce (I usually throw in shredded carrots for good measure) or a refried bean burrito. For snacks, I like crudités with hummus, fruit, an almond butter and banana sandwich, and sometimes a fruit smoothie.

Improvisation in the Kitchen . . . and the result a Mediterranean Frittata!

My New Years Resolution this year is a simple one: really walk my talk. I am passionate about healthy eating and healthy living. I have committed so much time, attention and effort over the years to helping others prioritize their health and wellness. And I proudly assert that I usually prioritize my health and wellness too. But this year, I am going to do so with passion. 2009 is the year that I can say I transitioned my life into a most amazing balance. So what have I been doing so far: more yoga and meditation, retaining sermons from church, plenty of exercise, quality time with my family, friends, and dog, and lots more home cooking.

Home cooking all the time isn’t easy, trust me I know. It can be a challenge, but it’s one I take with joy! So, last night, after a long day of work, I was ready to make a quiche. In fact, for the past six months or so, I have made a weekly quiche. My pantry makes it easy; I always have healthy frozen pie crusts on hand, fresh farm eggs, low-fat organic plain yogurt, mustard, an organic cheese and vegetables. But last night, there was one dilemma: the yogurt I had was bad! Ack – what to do??!! It was already 8:00 PM; there was no way I was going to make a grocery store run! I improvised using what I had on hand…and this is what I came up with. It took a little more time and effort that a quiche, but it was in fact healthier, more wholesome, and oh so delicious!

Mediterranean Frittata
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:
- 6 farm fresh eggs
- 4 organic cloves of garlic minced
- 4 organic red potatoes, cubed
- 2 teaspoons dried mint
- 1 can artichokes, quartered
- 1 red pepper, diced
- Handful of Kalamata olives, chopped
- 3 packed cups of fresh organic spinach
- 2 Tablespoons of olive oil
- sea salt and pepper to taste
- 4 ounces of French sheep feta…YUM!

Directions:
First, chop the potatoes and then boil them for 10 minutes in a pot of water, until they are just about tender. Wile they are boiling, chop all other veggies. Drain the potatoes. Heail 1 Tablespoon of olive oil on an iron skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic. Stir for one minute. Add the potatoes and stir frequently for about 12 minutes or until they become almost crispy. Add the chopped red peppers and artichokes, stir for 5 minutes or until the peppers start to become soft. Add the mint, olives, and spinach. Stir well until spinach wilts. Add sea salt and pepper to taste. Remove veggies from pan. Beat all six eggs (I did it in my Kitchenaid Mixer). Heat the second tablespoon of olive oil in the same iron skillet. Add eggs. Let cook over medium heat until eggs begin to solidify by top is still slightly liquefied. Pour vegetables over the eggs. Sprinkle with feta. Place skillet under your broiler for 5 minutes.

This was So so so tasty, and because it’s just Brent and me, we had it again for breakfast this morning!

Book Review: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

I know, I know, this book was popular about a year ago! As you well know about me by now though, my list of "To Read" books is extensive - and because I spend so much time working (with passion), my time to read is not a lot.

This is a MUST read book though. If any of you have read Barbara Kingsolver's novels, you will find her autobiographical writing just as delightful. And perhaps one of the greatest aspects of this book is the inclusion of scientific sidebars from her husband Steven Hopp and the inclusion of recipes and meal plans from her daughter Camille Kingsolver.

The plot: Kingsolver realizes one major downfall to living in Arizona for several years...food does not grow there. The more she ponders this, the more she is sickened by the commercial food she is inducing herself with. Fortunately she and her family have a "summer home" in Virginia. They decide to move there permanently and in doing so they make a commitment to live off local foods for one year! The book chapters represent a month. They began their local-food diet in late March.

Kingsolver eloquently describes the difficulties in keeping this local food pledge, but also shows how such a commitment adds excitement to life. OMG it's April- I get to eat FRESH asparagus! For us in PA, we get to delight in asparagus in late May. And did you know that you only have to plant asparagus seeds once and then it takes THREE years to harvest? The wait is worth it because you will be blessed with asparagus for 20-30 years. I should also let you know that even though this is an incredibly informative book, there is humor sprinkled in as well. Here's an example: "In my adult life I have dug asparagus beds into the property of every house I have owned, and some I rented--even tiny urban lots and student ghettos--always leaving behind a vegetable legacy waving in the wake of my Johnny-Asparagus-seed life...it's a ludicrous commitment to dig one into the yard of a student rental. It's hard work to dig the trench, fill it with compost, and tuck in a row of asparagus crowns ordered from a seed company. Then you wait THREE years for a harvest." Here's another example that humorously illustrates the difficulty of being on a local-food diet. In mid-June, the cherries finally ripened, and Kingsolver exclaims "Our fructose celibacy was over."

This book has inspired me so much that I am making a commitment for 2009 to try to eat more locally. Here are some stats/facts that Kingsolver shares that alone may inspire you:

- Every food calorie we eat has used hundreds of fossil fuel calories in its making: grain milling for example, which turns corn into the ingredients in packaged foods, costs 10 calorie for every one calorie produced, and that's BEFORE it gets shipped anywhere.

- Over the last decade, our country has lost an average of 300 farms a week.

- Buying your goods from local businesses rather than national chains generates about 3X as much money for your local economy.

- Ironically (or maybe not so ironically), industrial crops have been using millions more pounds of pesticides year after year, and the crop losses have been accelerating simultaneously.

- Modern U.S. consumers get to taste less than 1 percent of the vegetable varieties that were grown here a century ago. (My reflection about this: Kingsolver gives examples such as 400 potatoe varieties were once grown in Peru, now there are less than 10. This makes me grieve. It's comparable to endangered animals...this is endangered vegetation. Just think how much lovelier our meals would be with more variety. The saying that variety is the spice of life is so true.

Have I inspired you to change your life? If not, read the book, and I am sure you too will become inspired!!! After all, your body is your temple, you REALLY hsould treat it as such. You only get ONE in this lifetime!!!

Dumpling Heaven

The first time I ever had a dumpling was in the fall of 1999. My dear friend Rhonda and I decided to take a road trip from Philadelphia to Amish country. After a long day of sightseeing, we stopped off at

an Amish restaurant for dinner. As this was during my vegetarian phase, I was quite

disappointed that the only options open to me at the buffet were pickled corn and apple dumplings. Thankfully, the dumplings were very pleasing.

Since then I’ve had the desire to make dumplings. So much about the wonder of food is the texture. Texture is the reason why I am enamored with chickpeas, cassava, and grits…and dumplings! Can you believe it has taken me over nine years to make dumplings of my own? I was inspired by this tasty root veggie soup recipe from Eating Well. Root vegetables are very grounding and warming in the winter time. Such an awesome recipe. Aren’t root veggies so pretty?

Let them eat "apple" cake

So, how many of you tried to cleanse this autumn? It can be tricky, but I can not tell you how great it feels to slash processed foods our of your diet. You begin to feel more vibrant, truly. While I rarely eat processed foods, I certainly crave cake from time to time. Not super sweet cake - because I rarely eat sugar, I am annoyingly sensitive to it. It's not the sweetness that I crave, but it's the texture and I'm sorry, but whole grains can not mock cake very well. And there is nothing quite as divine as a piece of cake and tea. So, after some experimenting and blending various recipes together, I came up with a delicious apple cake - perfect for the season! Try it and let me know what you think. Be adventurous and change it up a bit to suit your taste buds!

Apple Cake:
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups diced apples
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
2/3 cup chunky “sugar-free” apple sauce
1 1/2 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. Grease 9” or 10” round pan with olive oil cooking spray. Sprinkle diced apples with sugar. Set aside. In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a larger bowl, beat the egg. Mix in the applesauce, vanilla, and maple syrup. Slowly stir the flour mixture into the egg mixture until well-combined.If it's not completely moist, add a little more applesauce. Add the apples. Stir well. Pour into round pan. Bake for 35 minutes.

The Importance of Cleansing this Fall!

Cleansing is a wonderful way to adapt to healthier eating patterns. The winter is on the way! After a fun (and hopefully active) summer, how do you prep your body for winter? First of all, you want to adjust your taste buds to warming foods. Your brain will help you with this. When the cold fronts begin welcoming themselves, your brain will tell you that your body needs warm foods.

Do you notice how, with the coming of fall, you begin craving soups and cooked foods more frequently and aren’t as excited about the idea of a fruit salad or a milkshake? This transition indicates your body’s natural inclination to balance itself with your mind, spirit, and nature.

Seasonal eating is imperative in order to sustain optimal health. So, beginning to incorporate more soups and fall vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, squash, root vegetables) into your diet is an amazingly healthy action this time of year. If you want a more profound transformation, fall is an ideal time to implement a detoxification regimen or simply put, fall is a great time to cleanse! A fall cleanse will also help you lean toward healthier options throughout the winter (which will help you greatly during the holidays!)

Cleansing is a fantastic source of vitality; it removes toxins from your system and helps you to feel vibrant and youthful. Not only does it give your digestive system a rest from having to process chemicals, it also empowers your immune system by pumping an abundant of nutrients into your system from wholesome fruits and veggies.

Book Review: The Maker's Diet

The wide array of diets that have sneaked themselves into books available to consumers everywhere amazes me at times. And one diet recommends the exact opposite of the next. It’s no wonder clients come to me confused all of the time.

Regardless of the merit of these diets, I try to keep myself abreast on the popular diets so that I know where my clients are coming from when they make the decision to work with me.

One diet book that I have had on my shelf for over a year is The Maker’s Diet. The author Jordan Rubin promotes this diet as one that is holistic and assures that this diet will help people to boost their immune system, attain and maintain an ideal weight, have abundant energy, improve their physical appearance, reduce stress and improve digestion. Upon reading these promises on the book jacket, I thought to myself “Interesting, these sound like results that my clients achieve through my approach to health and nutrition.”

As a Christian myself, the title of course captivated me. I was so curious as to how Rubin was able to delineate a way that God designed us to eat and to perhaps mimic the way Christ ate. I often times thought about the food that is mentioned in the bible; it is so wholesome: millet, fish, wine, apples, figs, olives, spelt, barley. I also marveled at the fasts that took place in the bible. It has always occurred to me that people prioritized health in biblical times.

I spent the past month reading The Maker’s Diet. I don’t feel as though I learned a whole lot from this book. However, I am impressed with the memoir-type element of this book. Years ago, Rubin had a SEVERE case of IBS and was able to heal himself by following what he now calls the Maker’s Diet. The guy was deathly ill, weighing in at 110 pounds at one point in time. Rubin’s transformative diet consisted of natural meats and grains (not manufactured in big factory farms), fermented dairy forms (not ultra-pasteurized and pumped with antibiotics and hormones), a lot of vegetables, and fruits and a soil supplement called HSOs. Rubin also mentions the way in which prayer, aromatherapy, and therapeutic music helped in the recovery process.

I do believe that Rubin’s approach to dieting s quite holistic and holds merit. He talks about the importance of “clean” food, which I agree with. I think we are certainly meant to eat foods as naturally as possible. How much healthier we would all be if we ate wholesome foods derived from the earth as opposed to foods that have been sitting on a shelf in the grocery store for longer than my book has been sitting on my bookshelf or foods that have come from animals but have been processed to the maximum degree.Rubin also talks about avoiding toxic health, beauty, and household products, which I also agree with.

I applause Rubin for dissecting several popular diets and declaring what factors are good about each diet and what factors make the diets ineffective. He shares helpful resources in the book and also has quite appealing recipes! I’ll let you know when I try some out.

Now, on to what I do not like about the book. The book did not delve deeply into the connection between God and the diet. I think the book could have just as well been called The Natural Diet. Also, Rubin’s suggestions on how to avoid getting sick are somewhat implausible suggestions: never flying on an airplane, don’t swim in chlorinated pools (Hello! I’m a triathlete…if I were to swim in lakes, etc., all of the time then I’d have bacteria to worry about!!! And without indoor pools I’d never be able to swim from October-May! And might I add, swimming is amazing for relaxation. ), don’t get tattoos or pierce the skin ( I haven’t seen much research that shows serious consequences of those – I say moderation!), don’t wear contacts, no aerobic exercise (instead something he calls functional fitness).

I’ll be fair and say that I already do follow some of his suggestions like not using fluoride in my toothpaste, and I do breathe with long, deep breaths. Basically, I take his advice with a grain of salt. My approach to nutrition and health is that it has to be NATURAL and also SCIENTIFALLY BASED. I have not seen any literature on contact lenses and the destruction of your immune system.

I do believe God wants us to eat naturally and healthfully…these foods give us the vitality to work for peace, and to follow our callings to make the world a better and more just place! He wants us to respect our bodies as our temples. I also believe though that God would never want us to become extremely compulsive and restrictive about how we live our lives.We have to enjoy life!

If your diet consists of many processed foods, then I think following Rubin’s 40 day diet may benefit you – it’s almost like a cleanse (I’ll be writing about cleansing in my next blog entry, so stay tuned). He also recommends supplemental exercises, cleansing drinks, and vitamins, and aromatherapy throughout the day. Though I think these are great ideas (especially the aromatherapy), I think it would be unrealistic for the average person to be able to follow his plan to a T.

If you have read this book, I’d love to see your comments in the comment section!

With cheer,

Shannon