This week's menu - Focus: No meat!

As I mentioned in our recent Facebook post, we were inspired this week to revisit our almost-meatless days by our Nurse Practitioner Amber Morrow. We all had dinner at Tari's last night, where they usually have a nice selection of meatless dinners, and she and Willa (our 18-year old) both chose one of those. I got the beef tips, but theirs actually looked tastier (although the beef tips were very good...) When our family moved to Berkeley Springs 13 years ago, we were strict vegetarians. However, after about 3 years of living here, where being vegetarian meant you had to pick the bacon out of the green beans, or deal with the fact that your black bean soup had lard in it, combined with fact that our favorite hangout, The Troubadour Lounge, was purported to have the best steak in the universe (and it does), we were eating meat fairly regularly. So this week we're going to try toning down the meat, and increasing the veggies. You don't have to be a nutritionist to know that more vegetables and less meat is better for your health: the vegetables on your plate should take up at least 1/2 the space, with the other half divided equally between lean protein and whole grains. Here is this week's menu, with links to the recipes.

I found most of these recipes on two of my favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen and Serious Eats. If you're ever feeling bored with menu planning, I challenge you to spend 15 minutes on either one of these blogs and not be drooling with anticipation, inspiration, and a shopping list in hand.

Chana masala

Indian spiced cauliflower and potatoes

Jasmine basmati rice (you can buy this at Martin's grocery store, or any grocery store with a good selection)

Store-bought naan bread (even our poor old Food Lion usually carries this)

Huevos rancheros

Herbed green beans (really, just steamed green beans with some garlic- and rosemary infused olive oil dressing)

Pasta with garlic and broccoli 

This is easy: 

1. Start your pasta water boiling; steam 1 large clump of broccoli per person until bright green but not limp 
2. In a large saute pan, saute about 3-4 cloves (or more if you like) of very very thinly sliced FRESH garlic -- not that junk in a jar -- in about 4 tablespoons of good olive oil. Shake in a little dried chili pepper
3. Cook the pasta
4. Toss the cooked broccoli with the sauteed garlic until coated. Add more olive oil if desired, and salt and pepper to taste. If you like parmesan cheese, sprinkle on some freshly grated cheese. Serve with some good French or Italian bread.

Vidalia onion soup with croutons

Green salad

Pan fried tofu with dark sweet sesame sauce

Asparagus sautéed in (purchased) black bean sauce

Either rice or udon noodles

You'll notice that none of these recipes are American. Sadly, there is not a lot of traditional American food that's vegetarian. In Asian countries, meat is often more of a condiment. In India, beef is forbidden to the Hindus, and other meat can be scarce. Anyway, it's fun to cook with different ingredients, and combine old ones in interesting new ways. If you're stuck in a food rut, try some of these!

Finally, a post from your blogger

Indian food -- from my kitchen!

Well, it's been quite awhile, hasn't it! Let's just say.... I've been busy. Thank my daughter, Willa Hahn, for inspring this next post. She's going to be competing for Miss Eastern Panhandle in a few weeks, after finishing as runner up in the Miss Berkeley County pageant a few weeks ago. Each contestant is expected to have a platform; hers is "Healthy West Virginia." One problem she contemplates in creating a program is one we at the practice hear often: It takes too long to make healthy meals, and it's so easy to grab a meal at McDonalds, or buy a frozen meal. OK, that's not terrible once in awhile. But not every day. Our obesity problem in West Virginia is not going to be solved at the drive-up window of a fast-food restaurant, sorry!

So what's a busy family to do? I have the luxury of working flexible hours, so I often come home a few hours before my family to get household chores done, including cooking a healthy meal. We eat a home-cooked meal almost every night. But this "luxury" wasn't always the case. There were the days when we both had full-time jobs, visiting the gym after work almost every day, along with everything else. But we still ate at home almost every night. To top it off, we were fairly strict vegetarians at the time. I relied on  books like Meatless Dishes in Twenty Minutes or Less, a great little paperback that I believe is still in print. There are tons of other books and websites dedicated to making your mealtime less stressful. Here are a few:

• Eating Well Quick and Healthy Dinner Recipes and Menus
• Serious Eats 25 Quick Dinner Recipes Besides these dinner suggestions, this is a real foodies' paradise. It links to recipes, yes; but you can also read other foodies' blogs, restaurant reviews, and watch instructional videos on cooking techniques. Want to obsess about the best hard cider, or ask a question about the best way to poach an egg? This is the place.
• Cooking Light, one of the more popular magazines in our office judging by the dog-eared pages, always features quick, easy, healthy recipes. I love the slideshows with pictures of the food. Right now they're featuring an article on 100 ways to cook Salmon!

Some of these sites allow you to save favorite recipes, and even create a shopping list from those recipes. Many of them also have smartphone applications so you can look up recipes on the go. I use Epicurious.com's app quite often.

You'll see that the quick meals featured usually use some convenience foods to short-cut preparation time. Sometimes it's simply pre-grated cheese; but when using a pre-made sauce, for example, be careful  to choose a healthy variety.

It's always better to start with a plan. Always make a weekly menu, and from that, create your shopping list. I dread the end of a work day when I don't know what I'm going to make for dinner -- it just puts me in a bad mood! And keep some staples in your pantry for those days: some canned beans, tortillas, and cheese can make a quick burrito dinner with a few fresh additions, for example.

Besides finding a few favorite quick recipes, there is the make-ahead option. I know friends who spend their weekends cooking and freezing meals for the week. My mother is an amazing soup chef, and she'll make up a huge pot of beef vegetable soup and eat it throughout the week, adding a salad or a sandwich to the mix.

And even if you don't go crazy on the make-ahead meals, do this: when chopping an onion for tonight's meal, go ahead and chop an extra for tomorrow's and put it in a zip lock bag. Same for cheese, etc. 

And how about getting your kids involved? They probably get home from school before you get home from work. Leave them some simple instructions to shred some cheese, or prep some vegetables. If they're too young to handle the tools, maybe they could simply empty the dishwasher, or set the table. 

A rather creative idea is to start a meal-swap with a few friends. There are lots of ways  you could organize this; I first read about it in the Real Simple magazine. The basic concept is, you make meals enough for members of a group, and meet regularly to swap the meals. With a group of folks that are also committed to making healthy meals, this could be a lot of fun. I always like food that's cooked by someone else!

Anybody else out there love Pinterest? You can find tons of recipes, along with pictures of the food.  As you pin pictures of your own food, you might even inspire others!  Here's mine.  OK, some of those things aren't so healthy.... so don't look at those!