Peanut Love: 3 Delicious Meals For When the Fridge is Bare

Lately I've been on the lazy train when it comes to writing. It's hard to sit indoors when there's so much fun stuff to do in the garden right now. Our new house doesn't have a large, sunny spot for vegetable gardening yet, so the plants and seedlings are scattered wherever the conditions are right. I'm finding out that some parts of the yard have more pests than others! But it's all good and I can't wait until we have more than just herbs and salad greens to eat.


Perry the Peacock watches over oregano, thyme, rosemary, arugula, chard, chives, mint, pear tomatoes, basil...



This lazy business has also extended to my food shopping. I always find it hard to be motivated in the grocery store this time of year, when all the produce is coming from either California, Florida or another country altogether. Our local farmer's market has officially opened, so we are getting baby boc choi, dandelion leaves, arugula, mustard greens, some baby kale, etc. You know I love the green stuff, but I still get antsy waiting for the first bite of a tomato warm from the sun.



Hens and chicks happily ensconced in our long-abandoned bonsai pots

Anyway, with little fresh produce in the house and a decidedly "whateveh" attitude to cooking, lately I've been reaching back to some of the foods I used to make a decade ago while I was living in a little village in Ghana, West Africa. Since we didn't have electricity and the local farmers didn't have irrigation, I got used to making the most of canned goods for much of the year and eventually developed quite a repertoire. Some of the things that did store well were locally grown peanuts (called groundnuts), rice, millet, sorghum, garlic and onions. We also had dried tomato powder, dried alefi leaf powder (like spinach), and tomato paste and boullion cubes were always around. Here are a couple of very good recipes that are similar to what I used to prepare while I was there. Happily, I no longer have to do things like store my precious carrots in a clay pot filled with wet sand to keep them from turning into gumby carrots within one day!



Groundnut soup over brown rice



Groundnut Soup

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 T canola or peanut oil
• 4-5 smallish tomatoes, crushed (about 1 -1/2 cups; if using whole canned tomatoes just break them up with your fingers)
• 3 large spoonfuls natural peanut butter (unsalted if you have it, otherwise don't add salt later)
• 1 cube boullion
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup frozen chopped spinach, or about 5 ounces of fresh leaves, chopped

In a medium saucepan, saute the onion in oil over medium heat for several minutes. Add the tomatoes and stir, cooking another couple minutes. Mix in the peanut butter and let simmer for about five minutes on medium-low heat. The oil may separate and that's just fine. Add water and boullion and bring to boil. Stir in spinach, turn down heat a bit and simmer for five more minutes. Taste for salt.

Traditionally, groundnut soup is served over rice balls, which are made when you overcook the rice (white rice) until it is very mushy, then shape into round or oblong balls about 2 inches in diameter. Ideally this process takes place while the rice is still very hot, the rationale for the balls being that they allow rice to better retain its heat. But unless you are raised doing this on a regular basis, your palms are going to burn like crazy, take my word for it...

Groundnut Burgers

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 T canola or peanut oil
• 1 cup ground peanuts
• 1 cup fresh whole wheat breadcrumbs, coarsely ground
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 egg
• 1 T tomato paste or marinara sauce from a jar
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro or other fresh herb (chopped leaves and stems can be stored in a ziplock in the freezer for emergencies)

In a small skillet, saute the onion in oil for about five minutes until it's browned a bit. While it cooks, heat a non-stick skillet or griddle (ideal) on medium heat. Place the rest of the ingredients into a food processor, pulsing briefly between each item. Add the onion at the end and pulse for a few seconds. The mixture will have a thick consistency. Drizzle the griddle with a little oil, then drop large spoonfuls onto it. There should be enough for six burgers. Cook for about 5 minutes on each side, pressing down on the second side so the thickness is about 1/2". Servie with a dollop of aioli, with a bun or without.

Aioli

• 1 cup storebought or homemade mayonnaise
• 1 small clove garlic, pressed
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/4 tsp salt

Mix ingredients together and let sit for a little while to meld the flavors. This also makes a nice dip for roasted potatoes, mmm...

Peanut Sauce (for spaghetti, rice, spring rolls...)

• 1 large spoonful natural peanut butter
• 2 T Braggs liquid aminos or soy sauce
• 1 T sugar
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 T grated fresh ginger
• 1 small garlic clove, pressed
• 1/2 cup water

Combine all the ingredients in a microwave-safe dish or small saucepan. Microwave for 1 minute or bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir. The mixture should be creamy and taste delicious. Add a little more of any one ingredient to make it just right for your palate. While still warm, stir into cooked noodles or rice (steamed broccoli and tofu cubes make it a balanced meal). Serve the sauce at room temperature as a dip for cold spring rolls.

Only a few more weeks left for us New Englanders to start enjoying the summer harvest!

Unrelated Side Note: Here's proof that you can get kids to eat collard greens - you just need the right incentive!
(in this case, homemade mint chip ice cream)

Effort vs. Ease + Savory Bread Pudding

I had an epiphany today. Well, I guess I should say a growing hunch that finally “epiphanized”, if you will – is that a word? I was at a wonderful yoga class I attend every week and as usual, I was pushing myself harder than I should have. It’s pathetic that I do this because as with everywhere I go in the Berkshires, I was easily 20 years younger than everyone else in the room. Meaning there was really no contest flexibility-wise. Not that it’s supposed to be a contest at all, this is just another example of my immature, competitive, Western brain struggling to grow up and fully embrace higher-order Eastern philosophy. But I digress.

So I was in this class, sweating way more than I should have been, and at some point the instructor said, very gently, “Yoga is about trying to find a balance between effort and ease.” It's possible that she says this every single week, but for some reason I never heard it before. Today those words hit me like a ton of yoga bricks. Strike that - yoga bricks are made of foam. Let's just say it made a big impression on me.

I started thinking and realized that for a long time I’ve been making such an effort in my life. Trying hard to be good at everything, especially the things that are least natural to me. Trying to please everyone and make them all like me (even people that I don’t really like, how sick is that?) Very often those efforts have resulted in me being disappointed (don’t other people appreciate my effort?) or resentful (if they don’t appreciate it, then phooey on them) or at the very least, exhausted (it’s rather tiring trying to be perfect).


A perfect example of expending too much effort - Class moms were stressed about making sure each May Day crown had the right amount of flowers, but did it matter? Not one bit!

I don’t think I’m completely alone in this situation. In this country, we place such a high value on orchestrating every detail of our lives. I mean, we invented the self-help book industry, for God’s sake! And especially for women and mothers - we have so many forces lined up against us, but we also cling to the expectation that nothing should stand in our way. Trying to control everything often seems like the only means to get what we want. The trouble with that approach is that we’re damned if it doesn’t work, but we’re also we’re damned if it does - because how long can that kind of effort be sustained?

 

Here is balanced effort and ease - kids having fun and creating a beautiful result.

Even if we can agree that too much effort is not a good thing, there is still the question of how much ease is too much ease? How do I decide where to push hard and where to relax? In some cases, the answer is obvious. For example, every vacation that I’ve ever planned has pretty much blown up in my face. Even when everyone is satisfied with the accommodations, the activities, the weather, etc., I invest so much in the planning that I become extremely defensive at the slightest whiff of disappointment or annoyance from anyone on the trip. Which then snowballs until nobody is having a good time. So after enough bad experiences, I’ve learned not to get involved at all – just take it easy and enjoy whatever my husband has planned. (He’s much better at ignoring my complaints.)

The finished May Pole!

 As for the more complicated areas, such as relationships, mothering, work, etc., I clearly have a lot more pondering to do. Too much ease and relationships end up dying a slow death, children grow up not getting what they need, careers stagnate. Too much effort and we lose the joy in our lives; it all becomes one chore after another. Finding balance is indeed the challenge. Of course it's quite unlikely I’m saying anything that hasn’t already been covered by numerous special issues of Oprah magazine. But as with all revelations, this one feels important because it came to me personally. I look forward to asking for advice from my wise friends and family as I look for the middle way forward. And maybe I'll even crack open a self-help book or two on the subject.

Today’s recipe for Savory Bread Pudding is one attempt at balancing effort and ease. The “effort” is saving heels of bread in a ziplock bag in your freezer and resisting the urge to toss your broccoli stalks. (C’mon, you know you feel guilty throwing them out, anyway.) The “ease” is dumping bread cubes and sauteed veggies into a dish with milk, egg and cheese and ending up with something the whole family will devour. As with every recipe I post, feel free to substitute all over the place – different kinds of cheese or tofu, bread, veggies, herbs, soymilk, egg replacer, etc.)

And if you're feeling about five pounds underweight, be sure to instead make Emeril's version of this dish, found here. I swear, after just reading his recipe my pants already feel tight...

Apologies for the gross picture - not only was it too dark for natural light, but the bread pudding disappeared
so fast, I didn't have a chance to photograph the whole dish!

Savory Bread Pudding with Broccoli and Goat Cheese

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 2 cups chopped broccoli stalks, tough outer peel discarded (or florets if you prefer)
• 1 whole roasted red pepper (e.g. from a jar), chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt

In a medium skillet, saute the onion for several minutes, then add the garlic and  broccoli. Turn the heat down a bit and cover, stirring occasionally, until broccoli pieces are completely tender. Stir in red pepper.

While the vegetables are cooking, mix together:

• 2-1/2 cups lowfat milk
• 2 eggs
• dash salt

In a 9"x12" casserole dish, pour the milk mixture over:

• 8 bread ends from whole grain loaves, cut into roughly 1/2 inch cubes (about 6 cups)

Press down as you stir so that all the bread becomes moist. Once the veggies are ready, add them to the bread mixture. Gently fold in:

• 6 oz. goat cheese, crumbled

Cover the dish with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Prepare to watch it disappear. (Unless my kids truly are weird eaters, which I'm beginning to suspect...)

Wishing you a day of balanced effort and ease, and offering you a hug for encouragement.

Don't mind the grimace - she's a really good hugger.

Eyes Wide Shut: Kids' Lunches

Last week I had the chance to eat lunch with my daughter's preschool class. It may sound dramatic, but I'm still processing what I witnessed. Out of those cute insulated boxes and bags came the most astonishing products. (I'm not going to call them food because I'm skeptical about how much could actually be considered nutritive.) Here was one little girl's lunch, along with the key ingredients that concerned me so much that I used up all my internet bandwith today looking them up:

• 1 minutemaid juice box (16 grams sugar)
• 1 package cheezits (230 milligrams sodium)
• 1 gogurt (10 grams sugar)
• 1 package sliced apples with caramel dip (12 grams sugar)
• 1 lunchables jr. (540 milligrams sodium)

For a grand total of 38 grams of sugar and 770 grams of sodium, just in one meal! And this sweet little girl, who at 4 years old is still quite slim and healthy looking, ate the entire contents of her lunch, by the way.

In case you're wondering, the recommended daily allowance of sugar for children is a mere 12 grams. We're talking per day, folks. And for adults, it's just 20 grams for women and 36 grams for men (no fair). Back in the real world, the average American consumes around 90 grams of sugar daily, so clearly we're all way off here. But it's no wonder when you consider that our kids begin their lives eating so much of it!

What about sodium? The recommended daily allowance of sodium for children between 3 and 5 is currently around 1,000 milligrams. We all know that salt is in practically everything we eat, so if in one meal that child is already getting at least 770 grams, chances are she's probably eating about twice as much sodium every day. And for the record, 1,000 mgs is really too much for a child, just like the RDA of 2,300 for adults is also much higher than it should be. Strangely, I can't find anything about this on the Internet now, but I remember that during my last year of grad school (2005), the public health community was all excited because the USDA was preparing to announce a new sodium RDA of 1,200 for adults. Ultimately the agency backed down after extensive (and expensive) lobbying by Big Food. Hmm, Big Surprise.

The really sad thing is, you can easily imagine mom or dad packing that little girl's lunch and thinking, "okay, we've got fruit (apples w/caramel dip + juicebox), we've got protein (lunchables jr. + gogurt), we've got carbs (cheezits + crackers), all the important food groups are covered!" And the child isn't complaining, so tomorrow she gets the same lunch again.

But you know, it wasn't just the contents of the other children's lunches that disturbed me. It was also the way they ate their food. Plastic wrappers, containers and foil packaging flying all over the place. The lunchroom trash can was overflowing by the end of the meal. And how fast they ate! I never thought about it, but whole food really does take quite a bit more chewing and therefore more time to eat than processed  food. The giveaway should have been the word processed, I know.

1st day of kindergarten lunch. Note the (3) candy corns! And the cheese sticks I've finally gotten them away from...

So there's my kid, eating her homemade whole wheat bread, her apple slices, her cheddar cheese, her rice cake spread with sunflower seed butter and homemade jam, her carrot sticks. (I include homemade to indicate that I control how much salt and sugar goes into these items.) She's chewing and crunching away. Opening up her water bottle periodically for a gulp. And all around her, the other kids are sipping juice through straws, slurping down gogurt, gobbling crackers and bite-sized pieces of processed ham and american cheese, licking caramel dip off their fingers. It should not have surprised me that she was the last one still at the table, and even then she didn't have time to finish before recess.

At age 3, she's still clueless that her lunch is not like the others...

Just for the record, there is no judgement here. I am concerned for the future health of these children, but I have a great deal of empathy and understanding for their busy, unaware parents, and a vast reservoir of frustration for the food conglomerates that make these products and market them so heavily. Until now, I had only a vague notion that these things even existed, and no idea that they were so popular. If you don't watch t.v. and you shop the grocery store like I do, sticking to the edges of the store and only venturing into the canned goods and baking sections, then you just don't see this stuff. But I know I am a minority in that regard.

At this point, I'm wondering: How long before my kids figure out the score and start protesting? Will I be able to convince them that it's important to protect their health and longevity by getting the most they can from the food they eat? Will they revolt as teenagers and young adults by eating all the junk food they can get their hands on? And I ask myself, Once this brief phase of being a stay-at-home mom is over, will I feel compelled to buy pre-packaged lunch items just to save a little time each day? Because it's not just making the food, it's also washing the lunch box each day, shopping more often to buy fresh produce, etc. And unless we win the lottery, we probably won't be able to afford the organic, low-salt, low-sugar version of all these foods...


Hey Kraft, Nestle, General Foods and PepsiCo: you can kiss my you-know-what!!!

To close, here is a link to one of our household lunch staples: squash muffins. I published it a couple years ago in this blog and think it deserves another viewing. For the record, when I make these I throw in whatever is in season, whether carrots, beets, kale, even canned pumpkin if there's nothing else lying around. I also add a handful of chocolate chips to keep the kids interested. They are always tasty and despite it being kind of a pain to make them every couple of weeks, I feel good knowing that there is always a healthy snack like this around. FYI, they also keep very well in the freezer.