Quinoa Casserole

Quinoa is an grain that originated in the Andes Mountains of South America. It is high in protein and iron, making it great for vegetarians. The grains are about the same size as couscous when uncooked.

When I first read about quinoa I was intimated by the need to rinse it before cooking. Once I tried it, though, I realized how easy it was. N. likes it some days, especially if I leave out the spices!

I usually bake it in a casserole using the following general guidelines:

1 T canola oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red or green bell pepper, diced (optional)
1 cup dried quinoa, rinsed in a wire strainer under cold running water for 2 minutes
1 can black or pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 T chili powder (optional)
1 tsp ground cumin (optional)
2 cups vegetable broth - approximately

1. Saute the onion, garlic, and pepper (if using) in oil until softened.
2. Mix all ingredients except the vegetable broth in a casserole dish.
3. Add the vegetable broth until the mixture is a couple of centimeters from the top of the dish.
4. Bake in 375 degree oven for 1 hour. Check after about 45 minutes, stir, add more broth if needed.
5. The quinoa is finished when it is puffy and translucent.

I think the photo shows some corn in there, too, but I usually leave that out.

Serve with grated cheddar (optional).

Ode to Frozen Vegetables

Frozen vegetables, oh so cold

Frozen vegetables rarely get old

So easy, so simple, throw them in the pot

Quick, nutritious, and delicious, tedious they are not!

Organic? Yes! Diverse? Of course! I really cannot say...

Enough about these vegetables -- so great in every way!

************

As you can see, my freezer is overflowing as usual with a variety of tasty frozen vegetables. Frozen vegetables are actually said to have more nutrition than fresh, because they are immediately packed into bags after processing, while fresh vegetables can leak out vitamins and minerals during transport to market. I like them because they are so easy -- no need to spend time chopping! I usually buy them at Trader Joe's, which has great prices for organics.

Some common ways I use them include:

-- add thawed blueberries to oatmeal (Nora eats this nearly every morning, with banana mashed in as well)
-- add thawed strawberries or raspberries to plain yogurt
-- add chopped spinach to spaghetti sauce or Mexican-style casseroles
-- add green beans, sliced bell peppers, or broccoli to stir-fry*
-- add any of these same, plus peas, to Thai-style green or red curries*
-- add peas or peas & carrots to macaroni & cheese
-- add thawed and sliced artichoke hearts to pizzas**
-- Serve as a side dish! I microwave broccoli, asparagus, green beans, or peas for 3-4 minutes if my main dish is cooking on the stove. If I'm already using the oven, I might throw green beans or asparagus in a pie pan with some cooking spray and roast them for 20 minutes or so right alongside the main dish.

* This will result in a slightly mushy stir-fry or curry, which might bother some people, but I still find that the easiness of it outweighs the mushiness.
** Trader Joe's has frozen artichoke hearts!

Baby Stir-Fry

In search of a combination of finger food, vegetables, protein, and grains? Try a baby stir-fry. Easy and nutritious!

For protein, I have used cubed tofu and halved black beans. I think other beans would work as well.

For grains, I have used brown rice, brown rice spaghetti, and assorted quinoa pasta shapes. Her hands-down favorite is the brown rice spaghetti, despite its nutritional deficiency as compared to the quinoa pasta. I think she likes it because it clumps together nicely and she can actually get it into her mouth.

For vegetables, I like carrots, broccoli, green peas, onions, and green beans. Last night she had a bit of red bell pepper and mushroom. I keep the vegetables at an adult bite-size for the cooking, but cut them smaller before I put them on her tray.

I found a wheat-free tamari sauce (San-J brand) at Safeway. Of course, not wanting her to have too much sodium, I try to keep the tamari to a minimum. But she seems to really like it, especially on the tofu.

1) Cook rice or pasta according to package directions.

2) Chop all ingredients to desired size. (For stir-frys, a thin slice or dice is appropriate.)

3) Heat canola oil over medium or high heat. Fry tofu (if using) until golden. Spoon out and set aside.

4) Fry vegetables. Start with the hardest (e.g. carrots) and add additional vegetables every minute or two. End with the softest.

5) Mix all ingredients together. Let cool before serving to baby.

Lentil Balls

We're still not 100% sure Nora has a wheat allergy, but a nurse at our pediatrician's office told us to hold off on giving her any more wheat until we have more info. So, I'm now on a quest to find ways of offering the kinds of foods I'd like to see her eating -- things she can pick up, bite chew on, pull apart, etc -- without using any wheat. It's a challenge.

Last night I made a tray of "lentil balls." I put organic instant oats (no salt or sugar added -- just straight up oats from the bulk food bin at Whole Foods) in my mini-blender and ground them to a powder, as I often did when making her porridge. I then mashed it together with some cooked lentils, a little salt, and sauteed onion and carrot. I baked the lentil balls for 20 minutes. She loved them! She enjoyed being able to control the food by herself, though she did drop a lot down the sides of her chair. I gave her another this evening and it was a hit again.

The amounts below are approximate as I didn't do a good job of measuring, but I think different proportions could work as well.

2 cups lentils, cooked
2 cups instant organic rolled oats (before grinding), ground into a coarse powder
1 small onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1/2 tsp salt
olive oil for sauteing

1. Saute the vegetables in the olive oil for about 5 minutes, until softened.
2. Leaving aside about 1/2 cup of the oatmeal powder, mix the remaining oatmeal, lentils, vegetables, and salt together in a large bowl.
3. Form the mixure into balls about 1 1/2 inch in diameter. Roll each ball in the leftover powdered oatmeal before laying it on a cookie sheet.
4. Bake the lentil balls at 350 for 20 minutes.

They can be frozen after cooking -- I would guess they'd keep well for 2-3 months.

Avocado!

The vegetarian baby has embarked on this next stage in her life! She had avocado on her 6-month birthday -- you can see the results. She seemed to like it pretty well, but then developed a cold that kept her from enjoying much of anything for about a week. Since the cold ended, though, she's been eating up her twice-daily meals.

Her absolute, hands-down favorite food so far is oatmeal. Because I was concerned about iron, I opted to use a fortified commercial brand instead of making my own. We feed her Earth's Best organic whole-grain oatmeal, and it's a hit!

To date, her foods and opinions on them include (in order of introduction):

-- avocado (liked, then didn't like, now likes)
-- sweet potato (didn't like, now tolerates)
-- [rice cereal] (she has just had some tastes of this at our "baby pre-school" class, she likes it fine)
-- oatmeal (her favorite)
-- unweetened applesauce (also introduced at baby pre-school and I decided to go ahead and let her eat a little every few days -- she loves it)
-- banana (didn't like, now tolerates)
-- peaches (just a taste, at pre-school, she liked them)

And next on the lineup, later today, is butternut squash. So there's some variation from my original plan, but on the whole I'm happy with the schedule so far.

I've been asked why I was skipping rice cereal. In my opinion, there's not much point to it. Rice cereal is usually given as a first food because it has a very low allergy risk. However, it doesn't have much to offer - nutritionally - other than calories and fortified iron. I decided that I wanted to maximize nutrition, and oatmeal offers more vitamins and fiber, as well as the iron, with a similarly low allergy risk.

With the exception of the oatmeal and applesauce, I am making all her food myself. I use the "food-cube" method. I buy the produce -- all organic -- then cook and/or puree it at home. She'll eat a bit fresh that day, and the rest gets frozen in an ice cube tray overnight. Then I pop the cubes out and store them in freezer bags. So far I've made two avocados, three sweet potatoes, and 2 bananas . . . and I have enough of all these foods to last another 10-15 days. It's much cheaper and more environmentally friendly than buying all those little jars! Plus it's very satisfying.

Garbanzo Beans with Spinach and Spices

One of my favorite quick-and-easy recipes -- very low-fat and nutritious!

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, diced
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
2 T canola oil
2 T ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or less if you don't like it spicy)
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 10-oz package frozen spinach
2 tsp garam masala (Indian spice blend)
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste

1. Saute the onion and garlic in the canola oil over medium heat until translucent.
2. Stir in the cumin, coriander, tumeric, and cayenne and heat for one minute.
3. Add the tomatoes and simmer five minutes.
4. Add the garbanzo beans and simmer five minutes.
5. Add the spinach and simmer until fully thawed. Stir it in.
6. Add the garam masala and salt to taste. Simmer a few more minutes and taste to adjust seasonings.

Serve over brown rice cooked with a little tumeric in the water for yellow coloring.
Optional: If you make it spicy, serve with plain nonfat yogurt on the side.

Fat-Free Stir-Fry

Finally having recovered from my delivery & postpartum complications, I decided it was time to work on losing the pregnancy weight. I gained a rather astonishing 45 lbs... of which the baby was less than seven. Three months of breastfeeding and limited exercise enabled me to drop 25lbs, and finally at the beginning of July I felt ready to start focusing on diet.

I lost 30 lbs on Weight Watchers in 2004 and I am a big fan of the program. I find it works very well with being vegetarian. Since starting to count points and increase my exercise in the middle of July, I have dropped another five pounds. This recipe for fat-free stir-fry has become one of my lunchtime favorites over the past couple of weeks.

Points Value: 6 (without egg) or 8 (with egg)
All ingredients are Core

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked brown rice or whole wheat pasta
1 1/2 cups frozen vegetables
1/5 block of firm or extra firm tofu, diced
vegetable broth
soy sauce

Optional: chopped onion, minced garlic, chopped hard-boiled egg, cayenne pepper, whatever else you want to throw in

1. Heat a frying pan and spray it with cooking spray. Saute the onion and garlic, if using, until the onion is starting to soften.
2. Saute the tofu until the sides are starting to turn golden. Add vegetable broth as needed to keep the tofu from sticking to the pan.
3. Add the frozen vegetables and saute until cooked through. Add more vegetable broth as needed, and soy sauce for flavor.
4. Add the cooked rice or pasta and saute until heated through. Add more soy sauce as needed.
5. Remove from heat and turn onto a plate. It will be a large pile of food! Mix in the egg, if using.

Hints: When taking care of a baby all day, I don't have time to spend cooking rice or chopping vegetables. I'll make a large pot of rice one day to keep in the refrigerator and use for several days. Same goes for eggs - boil a bunch at once and then eat over several days. The frozen vegetables are a big time-saver, and are often more nutritious than fresh ones anyway. I like the vegetable broth that comes in a rectangular carton that you can keep in the refrigerator, just using as much as you need at a time.

Crockpot Black Bean Soup

This recipe is adapted from my newest cookbook: Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson. I have made it several times, and loved it every time! It's really quite easy, and the crockpot cooking method is very user-friendly. If you don't have a crockpot, I think you could make it in a regular pot, too.

Ingredients:

1 lb dried black beans, rinsed and soaked overnight
1 T canola oil
1 yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
3-4 carrots, halved and sliced
1 green bell pepper, diced OR 1 14-oz can diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
2 cups vegetable broth, or more
2 bay leaves
1 T ground cumin
2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste

1. Drain or partially drain* the beans and place in a crock pot with water to cover by three inches. Cook on low for 8 hours.
2. Heat the oil in a frying pan and saute the onions, garlic, carrots, and green pepper if using, until softened.
3. Add the vegetables, tomatoes, broth, and spices to the the beans.** Cook for at least another half hour to let the flavors blend.
4. Ladle some of the soup into a blender and puree. Return it to the crockpot and stir it in. It will thicken the soup. You can continue to puree until all of it is smooth, or leave some in chunks.

I like to eat it with sour cream or grated sharp cheddar cheese. You can also make this recipe with canned beans. I would use 3 15-oz cans and reduce the cooking time to six hours, with the vegetables included for the whole cooking time.

Weight Watchers points: 3 per cup of soup.

* Draining the rinse water from the beans reduces flatulence but also eliminates many of the B-vitamins that have soaked out into the water. I usually do a partial drain to try and get the best of both options.
** You can add the sauteed vegetables and the spices before or after cooking the beans. However, the tomatoes, vegetable broth, and salt should not be added until after the beans are completely cooked.

Som Tam

One of my favorite foods while living in Thailand was "som tam" -- spicy raw papaya salad. I wasn't sure whether I'd ever be able to find it in the USA, but it turns out that it's sold at many Thai restaurants! Of course, it costs about 20 times as much as it did in our Peace Corps town.

I haven't wanted to eat much som tam while pregnant, though, because folk wisdom has it that raw papaya can cause contractions -- not something you want early in your pregnancy. Now that I've reached full-term, however, I feel safe eating it again! So on Saturday night we headed over to Uwajimaya - a local Asian grocery store - and picked out the ingredients. Robert made the som tam while I worked on a noodle curry. He did a great job -- it tasted perfect!

1 large unripe papaya, peeled and grated
2-4 cloves of garlic, minced
2-4 small Thai chili peppers, finely chopped
1 cup green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large or 2 small tomatoes, coarsely chopped
3 T soy sauce, or to taste
1 T sugar, or to taste (optional)
1/2 cup peanuts, coarsely chopped
juice of 1-2 limes

The fresh chilies give it a real kick, so you might want to start on the lower end and increase if you think it isn't spicy enough. Som tam is best eaten fresh, but can keep for about two days, covered, in the refrigerator.

Healthy Start

Two weeks ago, when I went for the standard gestational diabetes test, I also had my iron levels checked. Being vegetarian and pregnant, I was slightly worried that I would have low iron. However, I passed both tests with flying colors!

I like to think that part of my success comes from the little things I do each day to boost my nutrient intake. In addition to aiming for a good variety of foods each day, or at least each week, I also make an effort to start every morning with a healthy breakfast. Most mornings, I have a bowl of oatmeal and a glass of cranberry juice. The oatmeal includes a good balance of complex carbohydrates, iron, fiber, and antioxidants. Here is how I make it:

1/2 cup instant oatmeal, microwaved with 1 cup water for 90-120 seconds
sprinkle of cinnamon
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup frozen blueberries, thawed in the microwave
1/8 cup raisins
1/4 cup plain soymilk

On days when I eat this breakfast, I don't feel quite as guilty about indulging my ice cream cravings in the evening!