TALES – OLD & RECENT - OF LENTIL-BASED CHUNKY SOUP.

I know it’s mid-summer. And, yes, I’m preparing a hot, chunky soup. I LOVE home-made soup and always have. It's healthy. What's more, this kind of soup is not only filling but also helps make us sweat, thereby cooling the body. All tropical cultures, at least, the ones I know about, eat warm and often spicy foods to create a higher level of perspiration. It’s nature’s own cooling system. So, even though it’s the summer solstice, let’s talk soup –chunky-style, at that.

Now, for a bit of personal background lore…
Today, as I prepared what might be my 100th - or more - pot of lentil-based, veggie soup, I found myself a bit misty. Past memories came back to me of a time when chunky soups meant an awful lot in terms of nutrition and comfort. This reminiscence was the product of some Internet news I saw today about not one, but two, tropical storms that appear to be on a target course for Texas or some other Gulf destination.
And I remember a time when my husband, Enrique, his good friend, Bob, and I spent the better part of a month eating chunky soup almost every night. Imagine that, and we didn’t complain a bit, since we considered ourselves more than lucky to have all that soup. It was, back then, when Hurricane Wilma devastated a good part of South Florida, including our own condo and the entire building that we’d been living in for 5 years. Enrique’s friend, Bob, invited us to spend time with him in his condo - nearby - that was not so much affected by the storm. We thought it would be just for a few days or a couple of weeks. But it turned out to be more like eight weeks.

In the first week, we didn’t have electricity and our menus were made up of what Bob had in his pantry and the cans that we’d bought when we knew the storm was approaching. Luckily, Bob had a patio gas-run grill and we were able to heat up essential food and drinks on the grill. Main courses were a bit hard to come up with. Fortunately, we had plenty of cans of chunky soup. So, for that first week, we ate soup out of cans, just warmed over, along with crackers, olives and such in order to conserve cooking gas. Then, in the second week, the electricity came back on. Cooking, was then, less of a problem. Still, we decided to keep our food budget as low as possible, given the economic crunch that we found ourselves in when our work places did not reopen for several weeks. Our answer was to make chunky soup with the addition of white rice and garlic bread as our go-to menu for supper that month. I bought a lot of lentils and other quick-cook and canned legumes, and whatever fresh veggies I could find. The supermarkets, when they reopened, didn’t have a lot of fresh produce – and that lasted for several weeks.

My main productive role during that mostly quiet month was soup cook. I simmered chunky soup all day in the slow cooker. And, with the aid of a large rice cooker, I prepared enough white rice for three days at a time. Plain sandwich bread - the only bread available for some time - was toasted and spread with margarine and garlic salt. We enjoyed our meals and were grateful to be eating well –– or, at least, what we considered correctly – at a time when so many other people were having a hard time feeding their families. So much for reminisces.

Most recent chunky soup
There are a few tried and true soup-making tips that every cook should know. And remembering some of these tips, I've successfully once again made soup – and if I may say so - with great flavor (and as little effort as possible).

 - Sauté all the chopped vegetables to enhance the flavor. But, if you’re short on time, just skip the sauté and add all the vegetables and accompaniments to the pot.
- Use some aromatic vegetables –garlic, onion, leek, etc, among others, and add all the veggies directly into the pot for good flavor and no waste.
- Don’t be shy about using time-savers, including such things as canned beans and frozen veggies.
- Use a stock cube or some soy sauce or pesto to get more flavor into the soup. Any of these can make a big flavor difference.
- Don’t dilute the soup too much when you begin the cooking process. You can always a bit more water later if the soup appears too thick.
- Spices are your friends. Proper seasoning is a must for all dishes and especially so for veggie soups. Salt, pepper, a variety of your favorite spices – even a squeeze of lemon or vinegar - will give some zing to the final product. Just be sure to taste after putting in what seems to be just a little seasoning. Experience has shown that it’s not easy to overcome an over-salted or over-spiced soup.
- Last minute, soup toppings are great, too. A regular tasting soup gets a lift with toppings such as croutons, cut green onions, grated cheese, avocado slices or a few toasted nuts.


So, here’s the recipe for chunky soup that I improvised today, made with fresh veggies and pantry ingredients - no particular recipe consulted. I think this soup would be a winner any time of the year and in all sorts of climate, including hot, cold, stormy and post-stormy weather.

Chunky lentil-based soup, great in all kinds of weather...  (6 to 8 servings)

2 teaspoons olive oil
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2 large garlic cloves
4 small potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 (18 ounce) can lentil soup
Enough water or broth for thinning
4 ounces of tomato sauce
1 ½ cups of red cabbage, cut up in slices
¾ cup of pasta noodles (optional)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
Toppings: Parmesan cheese, cut green onions, or sunflower seeds

Instructions
- In a large pot, heat olive oil and sauté carrots, cabbage, garlic, onions and potatoes for 5 minutes.

- Add the canned lentils and other ingredients to the pot.

- Bring the soup mixture to a boil and reduce the heat to simmer, uncovered for 30 minutes. Add noodles and cook for another 10 minutes.

- Serve immediately or reheat later with one or more toppings. Leftovers keep well for 3 or 4 days in the refrigerator. (Soup is always better the second day.)

Notes
I made this stove-top soup in less than sixty minutes but it cooks just as well in the crock pot. It might take 4 to 6 hours to slow-cook the soup.

Go veggie-crazy and add any of your favorites. Modifications of this kind of soup almost always taste great. You can also use up whatever veggies you find at the end of the week as a version of “refrigerator-stew”.

This lentil-based, chunky soup is perfect for quick everyday lunches and suppers. What's more, I’ve taken similar soups to covered-dish dinners. And it's always "just perfect" for all kinds of weather.

QUICK & TASTY RADISH & CARROT PICKLES

There are a few veggies that are almost always available at markets and remain fairly cheap all year long. A good deal, right? But, on the other hand, we – you and I - may not be used to buying them. For me, radishes were among those veggies. I always found them somewhat overpowering like raw garlic and onions. My own feeling was that radishes were good – finely sliced - in small doses buried in a green salad but, still, the quantity that I could consume was very little indeed. Most every time I bought a bunch of those rosy red roots, I found some left behind in my vegetable bin at the end of the week.

I, of course, knew what to do - serve the remainder to my husband who loves them and can eat them as a snack without anything – not even a dressing or dip. Now, with this recipe that I'm sharing with you, I know how to love those little red goodies and find no obstacle to consuming some of them most any day. I found that I truly like radishes when they pack a vinegary punch. Actually, the recipe is one my husband showed me how to make. I asked him to add the carrots, thinking - correctly, as it turned out - that the sweet of the carrot would combine nicely with the spicy tart of the radish.

So, here's our recipe for crisp, radish and carrot pickles. We made our first batch this past Sunday afternoon. We have pickled other things, before, and I don’t know why we took me so long to make these tasty pickles. They're so easy to make and go great with all kinds of foods, from tacos to salads, to sandwiches and crackers.

We sliced the veggies very thin because that way they soak up the flavors of vinegar and spices in just a few hours. A sharp chef’s knife was the key to getting the thin slices.

A sharp chef-style knife will make the work a lot easier.

The best thing about these quick pickles is that they’re ready munch on right away. We ate some about 4 hours after they were made – still a bit crunchy but good.

Here is the recipe for these tasty pickled radishes and carrots . The recipe as given below yields about 2 to 3 cups of pickles.

Ingredients

1 bunch radishes (should make 1.5 cups when thinly sliced)

2 medium carrots, also thinly sliced (about a cup's worth)

¾ cup balsamic vinegar or apple cider vinegar

juice of a medium lime (something my husband always adds for extra zip)

2 tablespoons of minced garlic

2 tablespoons of kosher salt

1 cup of balsamic vinegar

1/8 teaspoon of black pepper or a bit of crushed red pepper flakes

Instructions

To prepare the veggies: Wash and slice off the tops and bottoms of the radishes and carrots, then use a sharp knife to slice the veggies into very thin rounds. Peel and mince the garlic. Pack the rounds and garlic into a quart-sized canning jar.  

Sprinkle the kosher salt on top and shake the jar to thoroughly salt the veggies. Leave without a top (or cover with a clean kitchen cloth secured to the jar with a rubber band) and let them sweat for, at least, 30 minutes. This step ensure crunchier veggies.

Add the vinegar, lemon juice and pepper. If you use some other kind of vinegar - other than balsamic - you may want to dissolve a couple of teaspoons of sugar with it. Make sure that there is some space between the veggies and the rim of the jar. This allows a space for the good gases produced by fermentation. Shake, again, to make sure you've coated all the veggies. Put a secure top on the jar and refrigerate. They're good to go from the first day.

These pickles keep very well for a week or ten days, and usually will be gone long before that. 

Best of all, you can pickle almost any thinly sliced vegetables in this manner. Try carrots, beets, cucumbers, red onions, cabbage or cauliflower. The thinner you slice the vegetables, the better they absorb the vinegar solution and taste like pickles.

Vinegar is good for us, too. It helps control high blood pressure, improve digestive system, reduce urinary tract infections and strengthen bone. With this pickle recipe, you will have a delicious way to have a little vinegar everyday. So go ahead with confidence and make pickles of all kinds, knowing it's almost impossible to get it wrong, and, for most people, they're a spicy delight. And get ready to for a lifetime (healthy) addiction to homemade pickles.

EARTH & SKY MORNING TEA

Earth and Sky chilled tea, a mid-summer hit.

Tea. It’s something wistful. It takes me back to distant childhood memories of how my Mom, sister and I, who had few luxuries, would sit down – feeling oh! so pampered – to our almost daily, afternoon tea break. Perhaps that’s why I’ve always felt that there is something extraordinary about a hot cup of tea in cold weather and iced tea in hot weather … the thirst-quenching liquid in the mouth, the flowery odor and, of course, the bittersweet taste. So, here I am, decades later, writing this post about tea making.

In all these years of drinking tea, I’ve tried out all kinds of teas, from the bags and loose tea purchased at the store and, more recently, my own blends, mixed from dried teas available commercially along with flowers, herbs and (yes) veggies – some of these from my garden. I find it highly satisfying to mix up several of these ingredients in particular ratios to get a custom blend for my own table and to share as a gift for others.

In my mind, tea making is a way of taking time for yourself - - on a regular basis. It’s also sometimes a way to combat brain-freeze or general negativity. Next time you need to have your perspective turned around, think about filling up your tea cup. It's an effective and common solution for replacing fluids, brushing off sleepiness and cheering up from most any kind of bring-down. As a bonus you get some antioxidants that help fight DNA-damaging, free radicals and give a boost to the immune system.

Just this past week I brewed up a new kind of tea that my husband and I shared in the mid-morning. We enjoyed seeing the bright fuchsia color along with the floating green lime slices and savoring the cool, thirst-curbing goodness of this tangy tea. I called it **My Earth and Sky** tea because of its ingredients - beets dug up from the earth, peppermint from an expansive, creeping vine hugging the earth and the bright flowers of the high branches of the hibiscus shrub, as well as the citrus of the lime tree.

For this blend I used a combination of already boiled and cooled beet juice, added to hibiscus tea with a final hit of the juice of limes and peppermint. The first two ingredients – hibiscus and beets – were purchased at the market. But, as a believer in family gardening, I was fortunate enough to be able to pick the last two ingredients from my own front yard. With all that thrown in together, the tea turned out to be a tasty cooler with the added benefits of being a stomach and nerve soother.

Here’s what I mixed up to achieve my blend.

Quart of hibiscus tea boiled with a bit of mint (or peppermint), cooled
2 cups of boiled beet juice, already chilled
juice of two limes with a few extra lime slices.
2/3 cup of light brown/natural cane sugar

Put all the liquids and sugar in a 2-quart glass pitcher, stir and chill.

As you can see, it’s easy enough to make up this Earth and Sky tea and, in my opinion, well worth the time. So get up and make some tea – this mix or some other that suits your mood - and, then, sit down to a comforting cup of warm or chilled tea. You will thank yourself for the positive mood-lifting and other health benefits that accompany that glass (or cup) of tea.

MAKE PICKLED GINGER IN JUST A FEW MINUTES

My husband did a fast julienne cut - worked just as well as super thin-sliced.

Do you like pickled ginger - that sweet and sour garnish served alongside sushi at Japanese restaurants? Most of it is made with mature ginger covered by tan, dry skin. The skin is cut off and “pickle cooked”.

Pickled ginger is called gari in Japanese. This kind of garnish punches up many foods and warms our bodies. You can find prepared pickled ginger in pink or white at most Asian markets. It costs more than two dollars for just an ounce or two. I think that's too much and prefer to make my own.

My husband loves ginger and eats as much of it as he can.  He likes it in many forms – as tea, glazed sugar candy, and in all sorts of sweets. But most of all, he likes it pickled it, Japanese style, as sushi ginger. He swears that his good health is a direct result of eating a lot of ginger - along with green tea and garlic.

Did you know that an all-natural version of gari is easy to make  at home?

Since today we're having at-home sushi Sunday, I’m making some right now. My husband is the official veggie cutter  - for ginger and for the sushi veggies. So, I think it’s a good time to share my gari  recipe.  When you see how quick and easy it is to make and how fresh and clean it tastes, you may never go back to the store-bought stuff.

Instructions

Preparation Time: 10 to 15 minutes. Wait another couple of hours before eating.

- 1/3 pound fresh ginger root, peeled and sliced very thin against the fiber (The best pickles are made from the firmest ginger.)
- 1 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
- 1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar, depending on how sweet you like it
- 1/4 cup distilled rice vinegar (If you like, you can use cider vinegar or white wine vinegar instead.)

1) Use an inverted spoon or small paring knife to scrape off the brown skin on the ginger. Then take a very sharp knife to cut the ginger across the grain into super thin pieces.

2) Sprinkle the ginger with the salt and toss thoroughly. Let the ginger sit for 15 minutes. This helps the ginger absorb salt flavor and retain its texture.

3) While the ginger's sitting, combine the sugar and vinegar in a sauce pan. Boil it just briefly and stir until sugar is completely dissolved.

4) After 15 minutes, add the vinegar solution to the ginger and stir it well.

5) Put the ginger and vinegar solution in a small glass jar.

6) Let the ginger sit in the jar for an additional two hours before eating. You'll have a zippy and crunchy pickled ginger. Get ready to enjoy it with sushi. (My husband eats it with just about any kind of food.)

Leftovers can keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks. And don’t throw away the pickling brine. It can be eaten as a spicy dressing for rice or veggies.

FERMENTING CABBAGE TO MAKE SAUERKRAUT

By now, you’ve probably heard about the benefits of probiotic fermentation. It’s a new food “trend” with ancient roots. It refers to a traditional way of preserving food without canning or freezing.

Sauerkraut (German word for sour cabbage) is one of those delicious fermented foods that you can make for yourself in fair-sized quantities. Sure, you would need to do some foot (and hand) work to prepare this healthy food but the results should be well worth the effort.

Now, I’ve been reminded a lot that people, in general, either really like or are completely disgusted with sauerkraut. Beyond that, cabbage, however it's served up, is cheap, healthy, and available almost any time during the year. And in my opinion, that makes cabbage just about a miracle food. And, for people who like sauerkraut, having a couple of gallons of the stuff in the refrigerator is always a real plus.

And almost all the recipes for this food are simple and have the same few ingredients – salt, cabbage and water.  And that's about as minimalist as any recipe can be. There are, of course, a number of possible additions to the basic recipe and personal experimentation is the best way to go.

I’m including a sauerkraut recipe that I’ve used. Actually, it was a friend's recipe. (Thank you, Beth Ann.) She and her husband visited us for a few days, and this was my motivation for getting all this done. It’s very basic recipe but can be endlessly elaborated on.

Everything in the jar and weighted down. Then, the wait begins.

You’ll need a large fermentation crock or glass jar. Sauerkraut can be started up in just a couple of hours. Chopping is the biggest task. 

If you like sauerkraut with a crunch, you could eat it straight from the jar after about two weeks.
Otherwise, you can taste it from time to time, after the first two weeks, to see when it gets the flavor that you are looking for. You'll find it's in its most traditional form and flavor - salty, pungent and acidic - after settling in for a month or so. And it's so much better than the canned stuff.

Sauerkraut recipe

2 large heads of cabbage

2 large onions

6 garlic cloves

salt (any kind but natural sea salt is best)

filtered water

2 large carrots (optional)

1 teaspoon caraway seeds, celery seeds, or dill weed (optional)

How-to
Cut finely or shred the vegetables into a big pot. Put in an inch or two of veggies into the crock or large glass jar and add a teaspoon of salt, sprinkling it around. Then put in another layer. Add salt and so forth until all the veggies are covered. Add enough filtered water to cover the veggies. Stir the mixture to make sure the salt is evenly spread throughout. 

Press down on the veggies with a small plate and some weighted object (could be a stone) and check every few hours to see that the cabbage water level is above the cabbage. Cover with a cloth to keep out flies and dust. Let stand for two days in an area that is neither hot nor cold. Then refrigerate for a week and taste the product. If it’s tasty enough at that tine, go ahead and start eating it. Or wait a few more days or another week. This fermented food lasts for a month or so in the refrigerator. The longer it sits, the stronger the flavor. 

Hint: A favorite combo in my family is sauerkraut and mashed potatoes with cornbread and pinto beans.

CHOOSING TEA OVER COFFEE: ONE HUMBLE EXAMPLE OF VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY.

When, a few months ago, my husband and I began to discuss voluntary simplicity, we knew we had a lot of not-so-comfortable decisions to make. This adventure was one that I had been slowly making over the past few years and it was one that I, personally, wholly embraced.  So, when we recently decided to challenge ourselves in new simple ways, we should have known that it was to be a long, strung out adventure, loaded with starts and fits. Unlearning so many things and relearning others is not for the feint-hearted. And, as many posts in this blog attest to, I've had more than a few stumbling efforts toward a more simple life. Yet, yearning for less stress in our lives and more time to enjoy simple pleasures, we continue to travel the rocky road.

Tea gets us off to a good start in the morning.

Luckily, all is going well – so far - and we don’t, even a bit, regret our dedication to a more simple lifestyle. It's the road that allows us to celebrate the joys of gratefulness and appreciation for the NOW of life. So here’s an example of another one of those "everyday" simple choices: we parted from the commonly held belief that coffee is an essential part of a healthy/enjoyable breakfast. And, yes, we were ardent coffee drinkers in the a.m. On the other hand, we tended to drink tea later in the day. 

Beyond that, concern for our health was nudging us to buy better quality products and organic foods, whenever possible. But, what with high food costs, we didn’t have a budget large enough for both good coffee and good tea. As a result, we had been drinking very regular to poor quality tea and coffee. It finally dawned on us that drinking just one of those beverages and eliminating the other was the answer. A quick review of online reports helped us see that tea was the healthier product. We were also aware that tea was a more earth-friendly option as compared to coffee. For example, one source points out that a mug of coffee takes about four times more water in its production than does a mug of tea. (Of course, plain water is a very healthy choice and, by far, the greenest possible beverage. But water, for most of us, doesn't offer the pick-me-up power that coffee and tea do.) 

So, here I’m sharing what I consider to be some more advantages of tea over coffee and why it's our simple choice. 

First, of all, tea has high levels of potent antioxidants and is helpful in preventing heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and osteoporosis. Arguably, coffee has some of these benefits but studies conclude that it has much less than tea. And tea is more relaxing and useful in lowering stress levels while coffee tends to speed up the mind, often adding to stress.

Second, regular tea drinking helps reduce cholesterol levels, relaxing blood vessels and impeding the formation of blood clots. Studies show that drinking three or more cups of tea each day reduce the risk of stroke by more than 20%.

Furthermore, tea tends to be more hydrating to the body than coffee. And tea, relative to coffee, is better for your teeth. Coffee is notorious for discoloration in teeth, while tea is to a lesser extent. Tea even helps prevent of cavities as a result of its powerful antioxidants and serves to fight off many kinds of bacterial and fungal infections.

So, to follow this up, I'll make a plea for organic tea over the non-organic type. It turns out that the huge tea plantations, common in Asia and elsewhere, are among the most environmentally devastating crops. That’s because the chemicals – industrial fertilizers and pesticides - applied to these farms damage the local ecosystem and run down the mountains and to pollute other farmland, rivers and finally to faraway oceans.

The choice of organic teas favors small farmers and small farms over agribusiness. Small farms, often have natural grasses and weeds as ground cover, work better in harmony with nature to manage various pests and usually do not grow tea as a monoculture. In the long-term, industrial fertilizers deplete the soil, making it more difficult for the tea plants to grow without stronger chemicals. This kind of chemical dependence becomes a vicious cycle that harms the tea plants, the farm workers, and the environment.

Finally, as you might imagine, organic tea is better for you because there are remnants of all those chemicals that stay in the leaf structure after processing. And those will be ingested - by you and your family - after the tea is boiled up for drinking.  Some of the negative side effects that people feel from drinking too much tea (such as jitters and sleeplessness) may not be a direct result of the caffeine in tea, but from the chemicals used in conventional tea production.

As you have probably read elsewhere, not all teas - - black, white, green, etc. - are created equal. My husband and I choose green tea, almost exclusively as our daily pick-up beverage. We’ve made the choice of green tea, rather than two or three different types of tea, because we believe it's healthier  - and, again, mostly for simplicity reasons. We also buy bulk tea, thus avoiding higher costs than the small individual envelops and, with less packaging, is the greener option. We enjoy a cup of coffee only when we go out. It tends to make coffee-drinking something special, a treat to be savored, rather than a regular habit. 

 

Here's a parting word to the wise - keep your tea drinking cool. Repeatedly drinking of very hot beverages increases the risk of esophageal cancer. So, let your tea cool off for several minutes before sipping.

And, now, all this midmorning writing is making me thirsty. So, I’m off to brew up a batch of the good stuff — and enjoy what, today, will make my third cup of tea.

THE SEARCH FOR A BETTER TABLE SPREAD

I'm always looking for ways to prepare and eat REAL FOOD - or, at least, as close to it as we can get these days when so much of the readily available stuff is full of empty calories and toxins. For my own health and that of my family members, I've learned over the years to make most food from scratch. Among other things, it was important to me to have a healthy and tasty spread for my toast and to put on the veggies.

Store-bought margarine was out because it was made from what I consider non-food contents and loaded with chemicals. Of course, I also wanted to keep within a budget - since my household income hasn't increased more than a smidgeon in five years while food costs have doubled - or it seems that way to me. Am I wrong on this?

Obviously, I wanted to use only "natural foods" in my table spread. That pretty well ruled out industrially processed vegetable oils. There are a lot of problems with those oils. One hundred years ago, most people didn't consume any vegetable based oils. Today, US people consume mostly vegetable oils such as canola, corn, cotton seed and soy. The soaring increase in vegetable oils occurred after the 1950s. That's when the government launched a campaign to convince people to eat industrial oils and margarine and thus, avoid butter and other "artery-clogging saturated fats." According to the theory, then promoted, saturated fats were the cause of so many heart attacks and that dietary change was going to change all that. Well, butter and lard in the diet decreased substantially over the years but the use of cheap industrial oils went through the roof - to a current average of 70 pounds per year per person. (For sure, a lot of this has to do with the meteoric rise of the fast food industry where processed foods and cooking grease and oil are the basis of most of what's served.)

Our collective health, as we are well-aware, has not improved over the sixty or more years since that campaign. Instead, as a nation, half or more of us are overweight and have chronic (diet-related) diseases. Part of the reason that we have so much illness comes from the unnatural oils we are consuming. Vegetable oils contain very high levels of polyunsaturated fats, something human bodies can't use well - leaving us fat but not well-fed. Nutritional science knows that saturated- and monounsaturated fats, in modest quantities - is what we need. Another problem is that polyunsaturated fats are unstable and oxidize easily - during processing, by light exposure while sitting on shelves or, later on, in our very own bodies. Oxidized fats cause cell mutation. These mutations cause cellular inflammation and clog arteries. Is it any wonder that we have so much cardio-vascular disease and cancer?

Well, my answer to this dilemma is to make my own tubs of buttery spread. When I first started making this spread I just used olive oil and butter. Later, I added coconut oil to the mix. That gives it a bit more consistency and a lighter flavor.  I like the combo of flavors. My husband doesn't - says he doesn't need butter at all. So, I continue to use my combo for cooking and he uses only olive oil on bread and baked potatoes. Someday I'd like to follow his guidance - less use of dairy products - but haven't done so yet.

In the meantime, I have my own table spread - one that doesn't have a list of ingredients a mile long and is free of potentially toxic additives. It's super easy to make.


A healthy table spread that's easy to make.

Grandma's Own Not-Margarine Spread  (makes about a pound)


Ingredients (organic and extra virgin varieties are recommended)

1/2 pound butter (two sticks)
1 cup olive oil
1/4 cup coconut oil
dash sea salt (or more if you like it salty)

Directions
Put out all ingredients close to the stove to get warm. When all are soft, take a small spatula and whip them together. You could use a blender or food processor to do this but I find it unnecessary. When there are no more important lumps, you've got your spread.

Press your spread into a clean glass jar. Store it in the fridge. The color of course, will tend to be a bit greenish rather than bright yellow. Once, I put some turmeric in the spread thinking that it would look more yellow but that didn't turn out so good. It looked an even brighter green! Also worth noting - not all olive oils are light tasting so plan to try out a couple of different brands until you find what's best. Beyond that, this otherwise good table spread but may not be the best substitute in baking. You'll probably have to experiment with that to find the fats that work for you.

Closing thoughts
With this recipe you can get along without the use of vegetable oils for your table spread. It is also advisable to stop using them for cooking and baking. I use butter, olive and coconut oil for all kitchen uses. On the other hand, a huge challenge still comes from processed foods. If you look on the label of most processed foods, you'll see "partially hydrogenated corn/soybean/etc. oil" or "may contain soybean, canola, or other vegetable oil". These products are not good for you. Stop buying them.  If you're pressed for time during the week, cook up several healthy meals on the weekend and freeze the portions that your family needs. That way you won't be so inclined to buy quick-cook dinners or stop by fast food places.

COOKING OIL SPRAYS: ANOTHER THING TO THROW AWAY - FOR GOOD.

A lot of foodie-consumer-products are touted to be natural-like and more convenient for you. And some of them are supposed to help you cut calories. The reality is that most of that is just BIG-FOOD manufacturers' hype. Less costly natural ingredients are almost always more healthy and don't have to seriously add to food preparation time. The case in point, here, concerns commercial cooking sprays in aerosol cans. They contain oils, an emulsifier and a propellant to create a fine mist of oil onto a surface making it nonstick for cooking. The sprays are expensive relative to regular cooking oils. They also use many more natural resources - particularly, the aluminum cans.

This post urges you to toss out the oil spray can and get cooking in a healthier way. And, if you still need convincing, here is some more bad news about aerosol cooking sprays.

Unhealthy additives.
The aerosols in use in these sprays tend to be toxic chemicals and, even in tiny amounts, can't be good for your health. Just one glance at the ingredients and you'll know that it isn't pure or natural. Yeah. Ugly things like soy lecithin, mono and diglycerides, dimethylpolysiloxane, dimethyl silicone, and artificial flavors. The long-term effects of eating these chemicals on a regular basis are not well known but can't be good. As to lawful half-truths in advertising, some have simply listed a "propellant" as ingredient. Needless to say, they don't want to have to spell out what substances are in there. But word has it that the usual propellants are petroleum gas, propane, and butane. (Anyone in their right mind would want to avoid propellants.)

Genetically modified foods (GMO’s)
Most of the soy, corn, or rapeseed/canola commercialized in the US is GMO. (And that's as much as 90 percent according to some sources.) For years, scientific studies have shown that GMOs create health risks such as infertility, auto-immune disorders, diabetes, and changes in the gastrointestinal system. GMO foods also contain higher levels of pesticides than conventional crops.

Damage to the lungs
Because the aerosol particles are so tiny, you just can't stand back far enough to get away from them when you spray. So the cook - and any one else nearby in the kitchen - is always breathing in some part of the spray when they are in use. Over time, that kind of chemical exposure is a serious risk for respiratory disease.

Bad for the environment
Most cooking sprays contain propellants, all of which are greenhouse gases. That can't be good for the earth.  And the nitrous oxide, used in some, is particularly bad in that it doesn’t break down easily. That means they create environmental damage for many decades.

Unnecessary packaging
The manufacture of aluminum cans represents huge amounts of resources. Then, after use, most of the spray cans end up in landfills. Only a small fraction get recycled. But those also require a recycling, a process that involves a great deal of heat and electricity.

Help solve the oil spray can problem by not participating in it.
Don’t look to BIG-FOOD manufacturers to do you favors. Now that you know more about them, do you actually want to use cooking sprays? And the same can be said for many other foodie-consumer-products. Real food, in the form of fruits and veggies, lean proteins, whole grains, and good grade oils, bought as fresh as possible and prepared in the kitchen is what's best for you.

You can always do just what has been done for centuries by carefully using the right amount of oil for each type of food preparation. I remember that as a young girl, we used measuring spoons to add the oil. We also spread out the oil with our fingers onto the baking sheets. But, now-a-days, we tend to do our best to avoid such direct contact with the gooey oils. Fortunately, there are at least a couple of good ways to do spread out the oil without skin contact.

Solutions to the cooking spray can dilemma.
If you think you can't live without cooking sprays, there are some really good options to the commercial ones. And these alternative are less costly in the long run, more earth-friendly, and healthier.

First, you can always buy a hand-pump mister bottle at a big box store and fill it with your favorite cooking oil. But these misters tend to clog up and need a lot of unstopping. (I tried them a while back and decided it just wasn't worth all the fuss.) 

 

Second, you can do what I do now to avoid the use of commercial sprays. I dispense my regular cooking oils - sunflower, coconut and olive oil - with a drip pour spout. I drizzle a few drops of oil into the pan or skillet. If I need a more uniform way of spreading it out - like for baking tins - I use a small silicon spatula to baste the oil onto the cooking surface. I use two bottles - one for regular cooking oil and another for olive oil. The color-coded caps keep me from grabbing the wrong one in a rush.

The little bottles with drip spouts are recycled soy sauce containers. I bought the spatula at a big box store. They work well and clean up perfectly with warm water and regular dish washing suds.
 

GOOD-TASTING VEGAN MEATBALLS.

If you've been following Grandma Susan's Almanac for a while, you know that I’m a convinced vegetarian and, more recently, a vegan wannabee who falls off the vegan wagon, now and again. Yes, it’s been hard to be strictly vegan since my husband isn't. But he is vegetarian and we often compromise, ending up with slightly less than vegan meals. 

Also, as I've mentioned, I keep struggling to adapt some of my earlier recipes to fit our new eating style. What has happened, unfortunately, is that we've tended to eat two kinds of meals: rice – white or whole grain - with veggies or whole wheat spaghetti with veggies along with a lot of hummus along with homemade bread, multigrain crackers or tortilla chips. That makes for monotonous meals and we want to do better.

What’s more, when I do the grocery shopping, most of what I buy is organic. When my husband shops, he comes home with what he likes after looking at the prices. That means a lot fewer organic foods. Anyway, it’s been quite an evolution – “teaching two old dogs new tricks” – kitchen tricks, that is. And, in the process, we've put many of our former comfort foods on hold.

You know what I’m talking about. Some of the food that we liked a lot and ate in our childhood - and later on for years - and that we remember with sentimental fondness. And this is particularly true when situations get out of control and stresses rise. That's when we want to reconnect with comfort foods – along with all those accompanying kitchen smells, tastes, and textures. One important comfort food - from our upbringing - were/are meatballs. But, my husband and I stopped eating them because I hadn't found a vegan way to make them the way we like –juicy, tomato-y, and well molded together. (If you've made vegan meatballs, you may have seen them squishy in the middle and tasting more like cardboard than anything else.) I've been experimenting.  This time I think I've got a good recipe, and I’ll share it with you.

I used a mix of tempeh, bread crumbs, chopped onions, minced garlic, spices, organic marinara sauce and lots of olive oil – even more olive oil on top after formed into balls and a zip of ketchup on top of each one.  I made the mixture in just one skillet, then formed the balls and placed them in a glass dish to bake. They turned out crispy on the outside and dry - not at all mushy - inside. They were husband-approved.

Here’s the recipe I made today. It makes about 10 meatballs. You can see the photo of my yet uncooked meatballs (modified slightly in my usual cartooned style).

Ingredients

Half pound of frozen tempeh, thawed and crumpled

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 slices of whole wheat bread, pulled apart to make crumbs

(Use instant oatmeal instead of bread for gluten-free meatballs)

1/2 teaspoon paprika

Soy or Worcester sauce, 2 tablespoons

½ cup marinara sauce

Dash of black pepper

About 2 tablespoons of ketchup

¼ cup olive oil

Directions

Brown the crumpled tempeh along with the onions and garlic in the olive oil, holding back just a bit for later drizzling.

When the tempeh has browned, let it cool slightly and add marinara sauce, bread crumbs, spices, soy sauce. Form the moist – but not wet – mixture into 1 1/2″ balls.

Place the balls in a greased glass baking pan. Drizzle a bit more olive oil and ketchup on the top to make them crusty. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Serve the meatballs over rice or pasta with or without more marinara sauce. You can also indulge in a meatball sub - with lots of green salad, Italian salad dressing, and slices of cheese or non-dairy cheese.mozzarella. The meatballs can be frozen and reheated in the oven or on the stove top.

The same recipe can be used for meatloaf, just place the mixture in a greased pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

VEGAN COFFEE CAKE, A GREAT ADDITION TO POTLUCK DINNERS.

Last February, when my husband and I first started with our new diets – vegetarian for him and vegan for me – I quickly adapted any number of cooking recipes to accommodate our new eating style. Still I was at a loss, at first, as to how to make egg and dairy-free desserts. I researched on the Internet and found that many brave cooks were coming up with vegan recipes. After, studying a few recipe posts, I began experimenting and came up with my own. I decided to concentrate on coffee cake.  I’m always looking for a not-too-sweet treat to drink along with my mid afternoon pick-me-up coffee or tea. Coffee cake is my favorite. Luckily, it's really easy to make vegan coffee cake and it really tastes good.

So, for the past six months months, I've been making vegan coffee cake at home. Lately, I started carrying it to the potluck dinners at our meditation group’s weekly meeting – with a lot of success. It has disappeared from the dessert table quickly every time.  Several people have asked me about the recipe, so here I've tried to remember just what I do. I had to sit down and think about it since I almost never follow or write any notes. The truth is that I've have made it a bit differently every time.

Try making a vegan coffee cake. 

So, here it is. By popular demand, I’m writing up my favorite recipe for vegan coffee cake. It’s a classic kind of coffee cake, but with a twist, of course. There are no eggs or milk in this cake. The moist sponginess of this cake – traditionally associated with eggs, happening here without eggs - is due to some tricks, including a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and 2 heaping tablespoons of cultured coconut (non-dairy) yogurt, and only one minute of stirring in the ingredients. Over beating the batter will definitely flatten a vegan coffee cake.

My first recipe was for in-season fresh blueberries and it turned out fantastic! But since then, I've used raisins and dried blueberries and even pureed pumpkin as additional flavors. Just about any fruit you have on hand or any combination of nuts will combine successfully in this cake. However you make it, it will go great with coffee (or tea) and it’s an excellent choice as a breakfast treat or a snack at any hour - also guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser at covered dinners. The vegans in your group will love you for it. 

For health sake, organic ingredients, while not required, are highly recommended.

Ingredients

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda (choose the non-aluminum kind)

pinch of salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil (I use sunflower seed oil)

2 small, ripe bananas or 1 large one, mashed (Canned pumpkin and applesauce are good alternates.)

¼ cup dried blueberries or raisins

1/4 cup coconut milk (or coconut water)

1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons of cultured coconut non-dairy yogurt, optional

1/4 teaspoon of turmeric

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

juice of half a lime

½ cup of pecan pieces (or walnuts or cashews, etc.)

 Preparation

 Preheat your oven to 350 F degrees and grease an 8” X 8” baking pan (glass or stainless steel is better).

Stir together the flour, soda, and spices, and other dry ingredients. Whisk in the oil, lemon juice, coconut milk, and vinegar in the same bowl. Don't beat it like you would cake batter. When well mixed, fold in the dry fruit and nuts.

Bake on the center rack, until the middle is firm and the top is golden—about 20 minutes.

For topping, I simply drizzle vegan margarine on top of the hot baked cake and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top.

Cool on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before trying to cut this cake. It’s best to let it cool completely. Otherwise, the cake crumbles and the slices tend to be uneven. 

HEALTHY MEALS BEGIN WITH SAFE COOKWARE

As you may remember, I gave away my microwave oven a couple of months ago. Some time before that, I had already recycled (in favor of Pyrex) all those plastic pans that were supposedly micro-safe, but aren't at all. So, those were my first steps in having less toxic meal preparation. And just this past month, I decided to throw out the last Teflon skillet that I had continued to use long after I swore to myself that it had to go. All my other pots are now stainless steel and an enamel stockpot. And I have one large iron skillet.

To make life even more confusing, recently, I heard that all my aluminum baking sheets and tins aren't trustworthy either. So there’s another step that I’ll have to consider, very soon.

Even though, I can’t spend a lot of cash - at any one time - for expensive cookware, I've decided to completely revamp my kitchen with healthier cookware. You’ll want to, too, after you hear how dangerous those late 20th century pots and pans are for you.

Just how bad is it?
Non-stick cookware
Nonstick/Teflon cookware is the most popular cookware in the US. These kinds of pots and pans pose health risks. Names for this cookware include: Teflon (round since 1946), Silverstone, Tefal, Anolon, Circulon, Caphalon and others. The Environmental Working Group, reports that nonstick coatings can “reach 700 degrees Fahrenheit in as little as 3-5 minutes, releasing 15 toxic gases and chemicals, including two carcinogens (fluoropolymers).”

Want more health-related statistics? Over 90% of US people tested have been shown to have significant levels of toxic chemicals in their blood directly related to the nonstick coating used in cheap cookware. And newborns at birth already have measurable levels, too. At high heat the nonstick finishes release various toxic fumes, including cancer causing ones that are also associated with increase cholesterol and birth defects. When overheated, the nonstick finishes release fumes that cause illness in humans and are known to kill birds. Manufacturers have been forced to warn against use of these pans in homes with pet birds. It is also known that these substances cause tumors in rats and increased cancer rates in exposed workers.

Aluminum cookware
All those aluminum pans -some may be in your kitchen - are made from toxic heavy metals. Aluminum is a highly reactive metal that can leach into food, especially when you are cooking acidic foods. The metal-food reaction can form aluminum salts that are associated with impaired visual motor coordination and Alzheimer’s disease.

While improvements have been made in aluminum cookware with the advent of anodized aluminum (a process that covers the aluminum with less toxic substances on the surface of the pan). On the other hand, there are still environmental and worker health problems related to the mining and processing of aluminum.

Wood utensils help protect cookware surfaces.

Copper cookware
While not as interactive as aluminum, copper cookware may also cause metal migration into your food (especially with highly acidic foods). Beyond that, there are sometimes other metals fused with the copper. So, all in all, it's best to avoid possible risk in copper pots and pans.

Thank Heaven, there is some safe cookware. 

Yes, there is safe cookware and you'd do yourself a favor in using it. Here is an overview of the basic materials that make for kitchenware safe.

Stainless steel
With stainless steel, the cooking surface includes less risky materials (iron, chromium, and manganese). It is also less prone to leaching. The exception would be stainless steel pots and pans that have been damaged by harsh scouring with an abrasive material like steel wool. If you keep the cooking surfaces intact, stainless steel is an excellent choice.

Cast iron
Cast iron is versatile and easy care. It works on the stove top or in the oven and requires no detergent for cleaning. It can be used – literally - for centuries. Well-seasoned cast iron cookware has a coating of polymerized fat that creates a non-stick surface and serves as a barrier between the iron and your food. That means little or no leaching under normal use. But to be safer, avoid the cooking and storage of acidic foods in cast iron. Enamel coated cast iron has the added advantage of both naturally non-stick and non-porous surfaces that allow for the preparation and storing of acid foods.

Glass, ceramic and enameled cookware 
All of these allow for safe, non-toxic use. And depending on the quality and size, they can serve multiple functions. Breakage and cracking are the main problems. Cracking will often lead to metal leaching in ceramic and enameled pots.

Take the leap.
Now, that you've likely as not, decided to toss out all that old, toxic cookware, it’s best to choose wisely what pieces are going to replace it. Sets are expensive and for the most of us that’s an obstacle. Picking and choosing well thought-out individual pots and pans over time helps avoid unnecessary costs. Just get what you really need.

A few saucepans or pots with lids
Quality stainless steel is non-reactive with most everything except the highly acidic things cooked at high temperatures. So, for those things, you might like at least one that's ceramic, enameled or glass. With an enamel-coated Dutch oven, you can make do with just a couple of stainless pans.

A big stockpot
Every working kitchen needs a big stockpot. It’s a necessity for making stews and broth, and you’ll also use it for spaghetti and for all kinds of other home-cooked foods.

A couple of skillets 
For most of my skillet usage, a cast iron pan fits the bill. An 8” or 10-incher will do nicely for most everything. A 14" ceramic-covered, stainless skillet gets a big workout for most everyday stove top casseroles and serves as a fry pan. Skillet lids are essential.

Bake ware
You want to avoid bake ware with non-stick coating. Regular aluminum isn't good, either. So, keep that in mind and make plans to purchase stainless steel or ceramic baking pans. In the meantime, you don’t have to toss your aluminum. Parchment paper and paper baking cups (unbleached paper, please) can keep your bake goods away from the metals. Pyrex glass dishes are great bake ware. Some even come with lids. Those with lids do double duty as storage containers - a real plus in small kitchens..

GOING VEGAN - ALL THE WAY OR SOMETHING LESS THAN THAT.

Just a few months ago, I decided to adopt a vegan diet. Now, I’d read quite a bit on the subject and already considered myself a vegetarian – that for many years. But, at the time, I was still eating eggs, dairy, and some fish. So, to motivate myself for change,  I read books and watched documentaries that told me about all the wonderful benefits of the vegan diet. These sources emphasized that I would have more energy, lose some weight, and that my general health and skin tone would be better. All that sounded great. And, important for me, was the moral part – being kind to animals, living sustainably, and eating in an Earth-friendly way.

And so it began, there I was going VEGAN (or trying to go about it) – but still fussing around including a bit of cheese, some eggs and once a week fish in my diet. So, I launched my vegan adventure after that (and now, at this posting) having cut out all dairy and still eating 2 eggs a week and fish, once a week. (See note below.) And, unwilling to eat only at home, I’m not able to rule out occasional small amounts of eggs or dairy in breads and pastries, purchased in the street. On that score, for my general sanity,  I follow the: “Don’t Ask” policy.

Happily, it turns out that vegan meal planning is a lot easier than I thought, and there are quite a few  benefits. And some advantages have appeared that I only hoped to see when I began this challenge. The first was a change for the better in my skin that had been oily with a touch of acne. (Yes, even old ladies like me sometimes have skin problems.) It seems that kicking the dairy habit helped improve my skin. The next benefit I discovered was that I never have indigestion and can sleep for longer amounts of time in the night without waking up. For me, that’s a real plus because I often felt tired in the morning after too many internal wake up calls at night. Also I've lost a few pounds. The weight loss is slow but I have reason to think that it will steadily go down. This turns out to be the answer to a prayer – having been somewhat overweight for a good part of my adult life. And my blood pressure has moved from occasional pre-hypertensive into the solid normal range.

One thing that kept me from trying this sort of diet before was a fear of not getting full. I’m happy to say that's not an issue, as I now eat fairly tasty meals in the same quantity that I ate before.  It turns out that the vegan diet is a culinary adventure. And I get to experiment with meal planning, figuring out how to change over old recipes to conform to the vegan challenge. So, it wasn't so much like giving up something as it was the happy discovery of a new foods and food combinations.

Vegan diet is healthy

So, all  in all, changing to a vegan diet seems to open up a whole new level of health for many people - and now for me. This results from consuming more vitamins and minerals, more fiber, and fewer toxins.  Many of these same benefits are available to vegetarians but the vegan lifestyle seems to be even better – since the dairy and eggs are also often the cause allergies and general inflammation in the body.

Here are some of the improvements that have been documented.
- Mood improvements
 - Symptom relief of psoriasis and other skin ailments
 - Reduced incidence of adult diabetes
 - Lower risk of cataract development
 - Reduced risk of cardiovascular disease
 - Lower cholesterol levels
 - Less risk of stroke and obesity

Now, what about eating out?

As I began my vegan quest, I wondered if it was even possible for vegans to go to restaurants. Now, I know from personal experience that it is possible.  That is, of course, if you don’t obsess on the possibility of consuming tiny amounts of animal products that lie hidden away in otherwise vegan appearing menu items.

And you can always ask the chef – via the waiter – to make some changes in the food items so that the end result will be animal and dairy free. And it helps to plan ahead and look up the restaurant menu online or call restaurants for options. If all else fails, ask if they have any vegetarian entrees or get creative with sides.

Sometimes vegetarian menu items can be made vegan quite easily by just replacing the butter for oil and leaving off the cheese. And there are almost always green salads and baked potatoes on the menu. You can ask for olive oil instead of butter.

Above all, don’t sweat it too much. Some restaurants are going to be less than veggie-friendly. So, it’s best to focus on the experience itself – the pleasing ambiance and, hopefully, good flavors. Make your best choices and relax. It’s not going to make a huge difference in the great scheme of things.

So what about a part-time vegan option?

If you’re still not sure that you ready for the total switch, you can become a VEGAN PART-TIMER. That allows for an easy transition that lessens the amount of animal products you eat. And, maybe after that, you'll convince yourself that being a vegan is a worthwhile venture.

Give it a try. Vegan part-timing is something like Meatless Mondays - only you do it more thoughtfully and for more days of the week. That still leaves you with a couple of days  (say, weekends) to eat other things you want.

Anyway, you've got a lot of vegan choices, what with:
Meat alternatives: usually tofu, quinoa, beans, grains in general, and nuts.
Drinks: milk alternatives, veggie/fruit juices, tea, coffee, and water.
Fats: Flax seed oil, extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil.
Vegetables: most all. Soybeans, black eyed peas, artichokes, potatoes, beets are all high in iron, a mineral that tends to be low in a strict vegan diet.
Fruits: most all.

Try taking a break from your usual meat and dairy over-reliance. Begin by cutting out meat and dairy from your meals a few times a week and see how it goes. You’ll do yourself a favor as you lessen your risk for some dangerous diseases and disabilities. Also, you’ll reduce your fat intake, and that should help you shed a few pounds without the effort and effects of unhealthy crash or fad diets. With the part-time vegan diet, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much better you feel and know that you’re doing a pro-animal protection and Earth-friendly thing.

A day’s menu
Here’s my menu today. I’m quite content eating meals like these. And I don’t feel like I’m dieting at all.

A good tasting and filling vegan lunch.

Breakfast

Small grapefruit, organic raisin bran with  small banana and a handful of walnuts with coconut milk, a thick slice of toasted bread with soy-base cheese substitute and coffee.

Lunch (shown in the picture):

Corn fritters (a little soy flour adds some more protein), nopales and greens salad, boiled potatoes with margarine, and tea.

Dinner
White rice, mixed veggie entree with lentils, a bread slice, and a glass of water.

Snacks

Piece of vegan coffee cake, a few nuts, and cultured coconut yogurt with fruit.

Note: I guess I'm still, at this posting, a vegan wannabee. My downfall is sush/maki - something that I still like to eat once a week. For me, part of the joy of maki involves fish. Also, about once a week, I eat out for breakfast, and, in those moments of weakness, I usually order eggs or waffles.