Eat Your Veggies

I eat several meals a day and spent time considering, planning, preparing, and cooking meals for my family.  Early this year, Tim and I started to change our diet for health reasons related to long-term stress and related hormone imbalances (see this previous post for more info).  In the past couple weeks, we've also been watching a few other new-to-us programs on similar issues:  Food, Inc. (a documentary on where food comes from in the US) and Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (a tv show on ABC about changing the way America eats). 

I can't believe how few veggies most Americans eat!  Ok, I can.  I never used to eat veggies myself, unless you counted the pea/corn mixture that would garnish my plate at dinner times throughout my childhood.  But for breakfast?  Or lunch?  No thanks-- I'll stick to my meat/carbs/dairy combinations, thank you very much!  I counted potatoes as my veggies-- mashed, boiled, roasted, or fried.  I wish I could blame this entirely on my parents, but honestly I didn't cook many veggies (other than potatoes) in my first years out of the house, either.  Maybe some frozen corn/peas, some potatoes, or a can of green beans, but not fresh real ingredients.  It's only really in the last few years (probably since moving to TZ in 2007 and not having access to the same foods!) that I've learned to cook and prepare a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.  And it's probably only in the past couple months that I've actually started to enjoy the fruits and veggies more than the processed foods.  Why is that?  My theory is that my body was literally addicted to food-related pleasures-- fats, sugars, refined flours, and a whole host of preservatives and chemicals!  It has taken removing them from my diet to actually see that there are better options.  And now, I'm just starting to really appreciate the whole, real foods for what they are-- high quality fuel for my body! 

I'm thankful for the new USDA Food Guide, which emphasizes filling half your plate at every meal with veggies (and fruit).  According to the CDC via this website, less than 1/3 of adults eat the recommended servings (2 fruit/3 veggies) every day.  Healthy eating takes intentionality.  It is an investment of time and money.  Eating equal amounts of veggies/fruits as carbs/protein really does take discipline and planning.  In addition to getting myself healthy, I also want to be a good example of healthy eating for my daughter.  I want her to grow up with healthy perceptions of food and to learn these healthy-eating principles now rather than having to re-learn them later.  How amazing would that be to grow up with an immune system that's built up by consuming nutrient- and antioxidant-rich foods??  That's an investment!  And if I can get healthier while helping my family grow stronger, then that's a real win-win!

-JLR

Apple Bundt Cake

Last year for Christmas I received a silicone bundt cake pan as a gift. When we return to Tanzania, I'm hoping to have a full set of silicone cake and cupcake pans because they are so light-weight compared to metal pans! I also love the way you can bend them to loosen the cake, and need little to no oil/shortening to keep cake from sticking. I've even been using a silicone baking mat that helps cookies cook evenly without getting stuck! But enough with my fascination with silicone bakeware... :)

I quickly realized that I didn't have many recipes to use in my new bundt cake pan since the idea of making bundt cakes has always been more of a nice idea than a practicality. I've tried a few and just the other day ran across this one from Martha Stewart.com and made it for our small group last night. It was so yummy! Sorry, I have no pics-- it was mostly gone before I even thought of it! I did make one change-- I added a small amount of cinnamon to the glaze. I had been planning to just do a dusting of powdered sugar, but then realized that I had done this too soon (the cake was still warm) and so the appearance was not what I wanted. Hence the cinnamon glaze.

Anyone have other bundt cake recipes that I could try?? Here are a few ideas I'm currently searching for... lemon poppyseed bundt cake, traditional coffee cake, sour cream coffee cake, chocolate cake, and pound cake. Let me know if you have any ideas!

-JLR

M's Bday Cake #1

Birthday cakes have become one of my favorite things! I love making cakes and even more than that, I love the excitement and appreciation from Micaiah, my special birthday girl! This year we plan to have lots of guests in March to help us celebrate her 5th birthday... Nana and Aunt Jaime came this past week, Grandma and Grandpa Roth are coming next week, and the week after we'll do a friends party. I got this great idea for a multi-layer rainbow cake from a seminar at church on party planning. The facilitator forwarded lots of info, and I also found another blog online with some additional info.

Anyway, here are some pics from my first cake adventure of the birthday season!

(minus the purple batter, which was already in the oven!)
I told Micaiah that I lost the colors... she was bummed. :) This cake was so massive that the cake cover wouldn't fit!
The happy birthday girl with the first slice.
The insides of the cake.
Oh, and with only one cake pan (which I would never again attempt!), I could not have accomplished this task without Jaime to keep me company. Thanks!

-JLR

Wheat Pizza Crust

This is the recipe I've been using for pizza crust, if you are interested. I got the base from my sister-in-law and have been tweaking the wheat/white flour combination since this summer. Half and half works well, but I also tried 2 c wheat and 1 c white this past time and it was ok. It didn't rise as much as the other, but it tasted great! This is a very basic dough recipe-- probably similar to many others out there, I think.

1 C warm water (1/2 C boiling plus 1/2 cup room temp, then allow to cool only slightly)
1 T yeast
1 T sugar
1 T oil
3 C flour (1 1/2 C each of white and whole wheat)
1 t. salt
A bit extra flour
A bit extra oil
A sprinkle of cornmeal

Dissolve yeast in water. Add sugar and oil, stir, and allow to set for 5 minutes. Once you see bubbles forming, add salt and flour. Knead on lightly floured surface for 7-10 minutes or until not sticky-- try not to add too much additional flour during this step. Lightly oil the dough and place in a bowl, covered, in a warm place until it has doubled in size. Punch down. While dough rests for ~5 min, put small amount of oil into the pan (I usually use two small/med nonstick cookie sheets-- approx 9x13) and spread evenly. Should just be a very light coating. Sprinkle cornmeal lightly over the pan/oil. This helps keep the pizza from sticking once cooked. Roll out dough and place in pan(s), folding over the edges if desired to form a crust. I often put freshly minced garlic on at this point-- just mince and combine with small amt of butter, then brush on. Top with sauce and desired toppings (veggies, pineapple, meat, cheese, etc.)

--JLR

Pizza

I used to think that homemade pizza was just a sad excuse for poor people who didn't want to order it. I first learned how to make pizza in TZ (as a taste from home), and have been working on my technique/recipes ever since. I think I finally have it!

There are no pictures from the homemade pizza we had this evening simply because it's gone. And I didn't realize until now that I'd want to blog about it! But it was so amazing that I need to give it a spot on the blog.

So what is the perfect pizza? For me it is a whole wheat crust over a lightly oiled pan with cornmeal sprinkled on. Then some sauce (I used to make this from scratch, but I'm enjoying the canned kind for now, some cheese, some ground-beef-sauteed-with-onions, some pepperoni, and some more cheese. I guess I'm kind of childish in my preference to keep veggies off my pizza. But for me, meat and cheese is the way to go! (Although the occasional pineapple chunk doesn't bother me a bit.) :)

--JLR

Cookbook

I just saw this cookbook (More-With-Less) on our friends' blogs and it reminded me that I've been wanting to find a copy for myself. Another one I had borrowed from friends in Tanzania and would love my own copy of is the Newcomer's Guide to Cooking in Africa.

Does anyone out there happen to have spare copies of these? Or other recommendations for cookbooks that have great from-scratch recipes that don't take hours and hours to make? Oh, and when I say "from-scratch," I do truly mean that (perhaps the image of a big hunk of beef from the butcher that needs to be cut up and ground in my own kitchen will help, if it doesn't make you entirely sick to your stomach). I guess the up side is that dry beans and legumes no longer intimidate me!

-JLR