Make simple and delicious meals with these healthy vegetarian recipes.

Meatless Mondays
Whether you’re a vegetarian or not meatless meals are an excellent way to incorporate healthy meals in your diet. Starting with fresh vegetables from the farm market. Canned or dry beans are a great source of meatless protein.  There is more to whole grains that bread and pasta.
More and more, people are realizing that going meatless even once or twice a week can have real health benefits, including weight loss and reduced risk for heart disease. Why? Plant-based foods, such as vegetables, beans and lentils, are low in saturated fat and full of fiber, which helps you feel satisfied on fewer calories. (Most Americans eat only about half the 25 to 38 grams of fiber that’s recommended each day.)

Egyptian Edamame Stew
From EatingWell: January/February 2007, EatingWell for a Healthy Heart Cookbook
A riff on the Egyptian classic ful medames, a highly seasoned fava bean mash, this version is made with easier-to-find edamame. Edamame (fresh green soybeans) have been shown to lower LDL cholesterol. They can be found shelled in the freezer section of well-stocked supermarkets. This stew is great served with couscous, bulgur or warm whole-wheat pita bread to soak up the sauce.
4 servings, about 2 cups each
Active Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
• 1 1/2 10-ounce packages frozen shelled edamame, (about 3 cups), thawed
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 large zucchini, diced
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
• 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, or mint
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
Preparation
1. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add edamame and cook until tender, 4 to 5 minutes or according to package directions. Drain.
2. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until starting to soften, about 3 minutes. Add zucchini and cook, covered, until the onions are starting to brown, about 3 minutes more. Add garlic, cumin, coriander and cayenne and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomatoes and bring to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer and cook until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the edamame and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes more. Remove from the heat and stir in cilantro (or mint) and lemon juice.
Nutrition
Per serving : 257 Calories; 8 g Fat; 1 g Sat; 3 g Mono; 0 mg Cholesterol; 29 g Carbohydrates; 15 g Protein; 10 g Fiber; 520 mg Sodium; 304 mg Potassium  1 Carbohydrate Serving

Tips & Notes
Tip: Edamame are found in the natural-foods freezer section of large supermarkets and natural-foods stores, sold both in and out of the “pods.” For this recipe, you'll need the shelled edamame. One 10-ounce bag contains about 2 cups of shelled beans.

Fly Like A Pig...then Eat One

For all my friends running the Flying Pig...

recipe tips:

*Go Thick, Not Thin

When buying pork chops, choose ones that are at least an inch thick—they won't dry out as easily as thinner cuts.

*Porcine Anatomy 101

Recipes that call for pork butt are actually referring to pork shoulder. The meat on the upper part of a pig's rear legs—near its true butt—is known as pork leg or ham.

*In the U.S., bacon traditionally comes from the sides of the belly. Canadian bacon—also known as back bacon or Irish Bacon—is typically a leaner, meatier cut and comes from the pig's back.

Storage Timetable

*Uncooked pork cuts such as chops, ribs, and roasts can be stored for up to five days in the refrigerator and for six months in the freezer. Ground pork, however, should be stored for just three days in the refrigerator and up to three months in the freezer.

*Safety in Numbers

When preparing any pork product, the USDA recommends that the internal temperature reach 160°F.


Roasted Pork Loin with Poached Plums
 Bon Appétit

September 2007  Mike Davis
At 26 Brix in Walla Walla, Washington, chef Mike Davis takes plums to the savory side—where they bring a bit of acidity to a spicy sauce for pork.
Yield: Makes 6 servings
Plums
6 sweet firm red or black plums (such as Burgundies, Satsumas, or El Dorados; about 2 pounds), quartered, pitted
2 cups Pinot Gris or Viognier
1 cup dry red wine
2 whole star anise*
cinnamon stick
1/4 cup plus 1 1/4 teaspoons sugar, divided
2 cups low-salt chicken broth
5 fresh thyme sprigs plus 1 teaspoon finely chopped thyme, divided
2 tablespoons chopped shallot

Pork 
2 1 1/4-pound pork tenderloins
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
2 garlic cloves, minced
Chopped fresh chives

For Plums:
Combine first 5 ingredients and 1/4 cup sugar in heavy large saucepan; bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat; simmer until plums are tender, about 20 minutes. Transfer plums to platter. Strain wine mixture.
Return strained liquid to same saucepan. Add broth, thyme sprigs, and shallot. Boil until mixture is reduced to 1 cup, about 25 minutes. Strain sauce; stir in 1 1/4 teaspoons sugar and chopped thyme. Season with salt and pepper.
DO AHEAD:Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover plums and sauce separately; chill. Bring plums to room temperature; rewarm sauce over medium heat.

For Pork:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Brush pork with 1 tablespoon oil; sprinkle with thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook until brown on all sides, turning often, about 5 minutes. Transfer skillet to oven, and roast pork until thermometer inserted into center registers 140F, about 20 minutes. Remove skillet from oven and let pork stand 10 minutes. Cut pork crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Serve with poached plums and sauce. Sprinkle with chopped chives.
*Available in the spice section of some supermarkets and at specialty foods stores and Asian markets.

Not Just My Food Revolution

 Not Just My Food Revolution

The Sweet Taste of Smoked Paprika

Smoked Paprika [pimenton], made in Spain from smoked, ground pimiento peppers and often referred to as simply smoked paprika can be found in varying intensities from sweet and mild (dulce) bittersweet medium hot (agridulce) and hot (picante).

This paprika is not the relatively bland stuff you get at the local supermarket. It's more related to traditional Hungarian paprika.

This prized powder is indispensable for Spanish chorizo sausage, in pork dishes and any number of shrimp dishes and tapas. It adds the absolutely wonderful taste of authenticity to paellas. It is a great flavor for American cuisine, as a seasoning for barbecue pork, kebabs, and rich beef and lamb stews. There is no substitute for its use in authentic Spanish cooking.

With its prominent deep red color that spreads through any dish to which it is added. It has an exciting smoky aroma from the slow oak smoking, and a silky texture from the repeated grinding between stones.

I like to add it to my spice rub or barbecue sauce for pork ribs, or as an accent for my Rusted Root Roast Potatoes.  Anything with shrimp, light stews, sauces, garlic chicken and roasted meats.

I suggest you experiment with this ingredient and make it your own. There are so many ways to use it. One whiff when you open the can and you will imagine a dozen ways to use it.:

Pimenton is often compared with Hungarian paprika (which descended from Spanish pimenton.) It is a powder ground from the Capsicum annum pepper in the case of the sweet variety and the cerasiforme subspecies in the case of the semi-hot product. The peppers are roasted over the hot night fires of pedunculate or holm oak. Cultivation began with the Jerunimos monks from the Yuste Monastery in the 16th century in La Vera region of western Spain.

Luscious red peppers have been produced in the La Vera microclimate of Spain's Extremadura region for centuries. The paprika made from these peppers is the first aromatic seasoning to attain the coveted status of Denomination of Origin (D.O.). Mature peppers are dried and smoked over oak fires and then stone-ground to a fine, powdery consistency. The bittersweet smoked paprika possesses a smoky warmth with a mild bite on the finish.

The best pimenton is made, as it has been for four generations, by the Hernandez family.

The Hernandez family began the manufacture of Pimenton de la Vera at the turn of the century. Today, their "La Dalia" brand smoked Paprika is considered THE smoked paprika by the best chefs.  Don Valeriano Hernandez Martin founded "La Dalia", a company dedicated to the manufacture and distribution of Pimenton and Spices. Thanks to its quality, it quickly established a great name for itself amongst the finest food competitions winning the "Diploma de Honor" at the "Exposicion Internacional Permanente de Barcelona" in 1916 and the Silver Medal in the "Exposicion Iberoamericana de Sevilla" (Latin American Exposition of Sevilla) in 1929 and 1930.

The traditional methods of manufacture and preparation of the product have been passed down from father to son throughout the generations, making this reasonably priced spice one of the most affordable "must have" spices, essential to every gourmet kitchen.

The Many Uses for Smoked Paprika
 Mix with olive oil and rub between the skin and breast of a roast chicken.
 Prepare sensational beef goulash.
 Add to deviled eggs or egg salad sandwich.
 Mix into guacamole dip.
Flavor risotto and top with a rustic mixture of chorizo sausages and tomatoes.
Cook in a little oil to release the flavor and then mix with olive oil and use for marinating feta cheese.
 Add a little sweet smoked paprika to vinaigrette and toss it through a salad.
 Put some thick plain yogurt in a shallow dish, drizzle it with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle well with bittersweet smoked paprika. Use as a dip.
Quickly fry 2 chopped cloves of garlic, 1 teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika and a bay leaf in a little extra virgin olive oil. Add a splash of wine vinegar and some chopped red onion and toss it with steamed broccoli, cauliflower or sautéed zucchini.
Slowly fry waxy potatoes, sliced onions and chopped garlic in olive oil and a little sweet smoked paprika.
 Rub skinned boned firm white fish fillets with a mixture of 2 tablespoons of sweet smoked paprika, 1/2 teaspoon salt and the juice of a lemon, dust with flour and fry in hot olive oil until golden.

Eating On The Run

Most of us are professionals who run. We put in 40+ work hours a week. An eight hour day is considered a short day. We are doctors, lawyers, teachers, IT guys & gals, one pilot and a chef. We struggle with spending time with our family and friends. We all have family commitments, and then we have to find time to train for a marathon or more. The last thing we want to do is think about nutrition and cook a proper meal to fuel us to run.

I have found using a crock-pot can lend a hand in preparing a great tasty healthy meal not only for you, but for your family too. The crock-pot takes all the hassle of rushing home to get dinner ready. The meal slowly cooks while you’re at work, with the family or out for your weekend long run.

As a runner one of my favorite meals to fuel me for a race or training is Red Bean & Rice. You got your grain (rice), you got your protein (chicken or sausage).

I love making a big batch on a Sunday or Monday and eating in it all week. I think my favorite way of eating it is the next day, (Like chili it gets better the next day) I’ll place the mixture in a tortilla wrap with some lettuce and a little cheese. It makes for a great lunch.

CROCK-POT RED BEANS
from COOKS.COM

________________________________________

1 lb. dark dried red kidney beans

Hot water
1 onion, diced

1 tbsp. garlic salt

1 tsp. black pepper

1 1/2 lbs. smoked sausage or cooked chicken

Prepared rice

Put beans in crock-pot; fill to 1 1/2 inch of top with hot water. Cook on high. After 1 hour, add next 3 ingredients. Cook 3 hours or until beans are tender.

About 30 to 45 minutes before serving, slice sausage in 1/4 inch pieces or diced chicken and add to beans. Serve on rice.

Serving size = 1 1/2 cups beans, 2/3 cup rice

Calories 438 Calories from Fat 33
% Daily Value
Total Fat 4g 6%
Saturated Fat 1g 4%
Monounsaturated Fat 1g
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 10mg 3%
Sodium 443mg 18%
Total Carbohydrates 81g 27%
Dietary Fiber 18g 70%
Sugars 4g
Protein 22g
Vitamin A 8% Vitamin C 43%
Calcium 12% Iron 38%
Vitamin K 26 mcg Potassium 1194 mg
Magnesium 163 mg

Mohican Mote

I'm in full 50 miler training mote. I'm hoping nothing is going to stop me.


For the last few months Bob Cassill & I have been running 6 miles on the bike & hike on T W TH at 5:15 AM. We've be pretty steady and consistent. We’ve added Thursday night Crooked River Trail group run to get in a “Two-A-Day” run. Throw in a 15-20 miles on Sat AM long run and I think I’m in good shape for my first 50 miler.

This past Saturday was the Run For The Orphans 5K. I’m on the race committee along fellow runner with Nick Villanti. We had a great turn out for the weather, 180 counting kids. It was a little cold, but not too bad for runners. Because I helped organize the race I could put in my long run. I was able to run the course before the race and I ran about 2 extra miles getting volunteers to their post.

A few weeks ago Melissa Cairns asked me to run a 50K with her for her Grand Canyon training. Well it was Sunday… What a great course. Although I’ve ran these trails before, but not in this order. I met Melissa at Boston Store. I left my car there for an aid station. We drive to Lock 29 to meet John Buehrle. We ran Lock 29 up to Pine Lane, then to Boston Store. We stop for aid then headed to Brandy wine. This was my first time over the new bridge. Brandy wine back to BS then to Snowville Rd. Then back to BS. This is the 20 mile marker. John was toast…He ran 27 with a group the day before. We headed back to Brandy Wine then back to BS and Pine line. We’ll call in 50K, but Garmin called it 30.6.

I’m ready for Mohican. I keep a little thought in the back of my head…Once in a while someone (a fellow runner) will say something that just sticks to me. This time it’s Mr. Nick Billock. He said something to the effect of… “Chef, there’s one thing about you and running a race…No matter what you finish.” He’s right. I don’t have any DNF’s. I know once I start the race the next time you’ll see me is crossing the finish line.

Join The Food Revolution

Hi Guys

Jamie's Food Revolution is about changing the way America eats. Today is Food Revolution Friday. Please help spread the word that every child in America has the right to fresh, nutritious school meals, and every family deserves real, honest, wholesome food.

Here are 3 ways you can participate today -

If you use Facebook, post the following message as your status:

Fresh food not French fries! Sign the petition to make school lunches better. http://bit.ly/JOfoodrev Please repost this status message.

If you use Twitter, tweet the following message:

Fresh food not French fries! Sign the petition to make school lunches better. http://bit.ly/JOfoodrev Plz RT. #foodrevolution

If you use email (and you obviously do because you are reading this message), send the following note to friends, family and colleagues:

I have joined the Food Revolution and you should too! We need your help to change the way America eats. Every child in America has the right to fresh, nutritious school meals, and every family deserves real, honest, wholesome food. Sign the petition to save America's cooking skills and improve school food. http://bit.ly/JOfoodrev Thanks and please pass this message on.

Don't miss back-to-back episodes 4 and 5 of the show tonight beginning at 8PM ET/7PM CT on ABC!

Thank you again for your support.

Big love and respect,

Pasta With Broccoli, Cauliflower, or Broccoli Rabe
Makes 4 servings
Time: 40 minutes

A rich Bolognese sauce can be super-satisfying, but it has three times the ingredients of this recipe and can be cooked only a few different ways. This simple pasta dish is made with a terrific, explosive vegetable sauce that takes well to other flavors.

1 Tbsp salt
1 lb broccoli, cauliflower, or broccoli rabe, trimmed and cut into pieces
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, or more as needed
1 Tbsp chopped garlic, or more to taste
1 lb penne, ziti, or other cut pasta
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Bring a large pot of water to boiling and add salt. Boil the vegetables until they're fairly tender, 5 to 10 minutes, depending on what you use (broccoli rabe is fastest, cauliflower slowest) and the size of the chunks. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-low; add the garlic and cook until it begins to sizzle. Scoop the vegetables out of the pot with a slotted spoon or strainer.
2. Drop the vegetables in the skillet and turn the heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring and mashing, until they're hot and soft.
3. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. When it's almost (but not quite) done, drain it, reserving about a cup of the water. Add the pasta to the skillet with the vegetables and 2 tablespoons of the reserved water. Toss it all with a large spoon until well combined. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, along with more of the pasta water to keep the mixture from drying out. Serve immediately.



Pump up this pasta

8 simple ways to add complex flavor
1. Cook 3 or 4 dried chilies along with the garlic, or toss some red-pepper flakes into the pasta.
2. Add a teaspoon of minced garlic to the mashed vegetable 30 seconds before you turn off the heat.
3. Cook several threads of saffron in the oil along with the garlic.
4. Toss 1/2 cup of pesto into the cooked pasta.
5. When you combine the pasta and vegetable, stir in a small can of tomato paste or a cup of chopped tomatoes.
6. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive tapenade when you toss the pasta.
7. Add 1 cup of sliced mushrooms to the oil once the garlic sizzles.
8. Toss in a cup of peas, chopped spinach, or arugula during the last minute of cooking.

A Seafood Snob Ponders the Future of Fish

Published: November 15, 2008
Mark Bittman writes the Minimalist column for the Dining section of The Times and is the author of “How to Cook Everything.”


I suppose you might call me a wild-fish snob. I don’t want to go into a fish market on Cape Cod and find farm-raised salmon from Chile and mussels from Prince Edward Island instead of cod, monkfish or haddock. I don’t want to go to a restaurant in Miami and see farm-raised catfish from Vietnam on the menu but no grouper.

Fish and Other Marine Life | Fish Farming | SeafoodThose have been my recent experiences, and according to many scientists, it may be the way of the future: most of the fish we’ll be eating will be farmed, and by midcentury, it might be easier to catch our favorite wild fish ourselves rather than buy it in the market.

It’s all changed in just a few decades. I’m old enough to remember fishermen unloading boxes of flounder at the funky Fulton Fish Market in New York, charging wholesalers a nickel a pound. I remember when local mussels and oysters were practically free, when fresh tuna was an oxymoron, and when monkfish, squid and now-trendy skate were considered “trash.”

But we overfished these species to the point that it now takes more work, more energy, more equipment, more money to catch the same amount of fish — roughly 85 million tons a year, a yield that has remained mostly stagnant for the last decade after rapid growth and despite increasing demand.

Still, plenty of scientists say a turnaround is possible. Studies have found that even declining species can quickly recover if fisheries are managed well. It would help if the world’s wealthiest fish-eaters (they include us, folks) would broaden their appetites. Mackerel, anyone?

It will be a considerable undertaking nonetheless. Global consumption of fish, both wild and farm raised, has doubled since 1973, and 90 percent of this increase has come in developing countries. (You’ll sometimes hear that Americans are now eating more seafood, but that reflects population growth; per capita consumption has remained stable here for 20 years.)

The result of this demand for wild fish, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization, is that “the maximum wild-capture fisheries potential from the world’s oceans has probably been reached.”

One study, in 2006, concluded that if current fishing practices continue, the world’s major commercial stocks will collapse by 2048.

Already, for instance, the Mediterranean’s bluefin tuna population has been severely depleted, and commercial fishing quotas for the bluefin in the Mediterranean may be sharply curtailed this month. The cod fishery, arguably one of the foundations of North Atlantic civilization, is in serious decline. Most species of shark, Chilean sea bass, and the cod-like orange roughy are threatened.

Scientists have recently become concerned that smaller species of fish, the so-called forage fish like herring, mackerel, anchovies and sardines that are a crucial part of the ocean’s food chain, are also under siege.

These smaller fish are eaten not only by the endangered fish we love best, but also by many poor and not-so-poor people throughout the world. (And even by many American travelers who enjoy grilled sardines in England, fried anchovies in Spain, marinated mackerel in France and pickled or raw herring in Holland — though they mostly avoid them at home.)

But the biggest consumers of these smaller fish are the agriculture and aquaculture industries. Nearly one-third of the world’s wild-caught fish are reduced to fish meal and fed to farmed fish and cattle and pigs. Aquaculture alone consumes an estimated 53 percent of the world’s fish meal and 87 percent of its fish oil. (To make matters worse, as much as a quarter of the total wild catch is thrown back — dead — as “bycatch.”)

“We’ve totally depleted the upper predator ranks; we have fished down the food web,” said Christopher Mann, a senior officer with the Pew Environmental Group.

Using fish meal to feed farm-raised fish is also astonishingly inefficient. Approximately three kilograms of forage fish go to produce one kilogram of farmed salmon; the ratio for cod is five to one; and for tuna — the most beef-like of all — the so-called feed-to-flesh ratio is 20 to 1, said John Volpe, an assistant professor of marine systems conservation at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

Industrial aquaculture — sometimes called the blue revolution — is following the same pattern as land-based agriculture. Edible food is being used to grow animals rather than nourish people.

This is not to say that all aquaculture is bad. China alone accounts for an estimated 70 percent of the world’s aquaculture — where it is small in scale, focuses on herbivorous fish and is not only sustainable but environmentally sound. “Throughout Asia, there are hundreds of thousands of small farmers making a living by farming fish,” said Barry Costa-Pierce, professor of fisheries at University of Rhode Island.

But industrial fish farming is a different story. The industry spends an estimated $1 billion a year on veterinary products; degrades the land (shrimp farming destroys mangroves, for example, a key protector from typhoons); pollutes local waters (according to a recent report by the Worldwatch Institute, a salmon farm with 200,000 fish releases nutrients and fecal matter roughly equivalent to as many as 60,000 people); and imperils wild populations that come in contact with farmed salmon.

Not to mention that its products generally don’t taste so good, at least compared to the wild stuff. Farm-raised tilapia, with the best feed-to-flesh conversion ratio of any animal, is less desirable to many consumers, myself included, than that nearly perfectly blank canvas called tofu. It seems unlikely that farm-raised striped bass will ever taste remotely like its fierce, graceful progenitor, or that anyone who’s had fresh Alaskan sockeye can take farmed salmon seriously.

If industrial aquaculture continues to grow, said Carl Safina, the president of Blue Ocean Institute, a conservation group, “this wondrously varied component of our diet will go the way of land animals — get simplified, all look the same and generally become quite boring.”

Why bother with farm-raised salmon and its relatives? If the world’s wealthier fish-eaters began to appreciate wild sardines, anchovies, herring and the like, we would be less inclined to feed them to salmon raised in fish farms. And we’d be helping restock the seas with larger species.

Which, surprisingly, is possible. As Mr. Safina noted, “The ocean has an incredible amount of productive capacity, and we could quite easily and simply stay within it by limiting fishing to what it can produce.”

This sounds almost too good to be true, but with monitoring systems that reduce bycatch by as much as 60 percent and regulations providing fishermen with a stake in protecting the wild resource, it is happening. One regulatory scheme, known as “catch shares,” allows fishermen to own shares in a fishery — that is, the right to catch a certain percentage of a scientifically determined sustainable harvest. Fishermen can buy or sell shares, but the number of fish caught in a given year is fixed.

This method has been a success in a number of places including Alaska, the source of more than half of the nation’s seafood. A study published in the journal Science recently estimated that if catch shares had been in place globally in 1970, only about 9 percent of the world’s fisheries would have collapsed by 2003, rather than 27 percent.

“The message is optimism,” said David Festa, who directs the oceans program at the Environmental Defense Fund. “The latest data shows that well-managed fisheries are doing incredibly well. When we get the rules right the fisheries can recover, and if they’re not recovering, it means we have the rules wrong.”

(The world’s fishing countries would need to participate; right now, the best management is in the United States, Australia and New Zealand; even in these countries, there’s a long way to go.)

An optimistic but not unrealistic assessment of the future is that we’ll have a limited (and expensive) but sustainable fishery of large wild fish; a growing but sustainable demand for what will no longer be called “lower-value” smaller wild fish; and a variety of traditional aquaculture where it is allowed. This may not sound ideal, but it’s certainly preferable to sucking all the fish out of the oceans while raising crops of tasteless fish available only to the wealthiest consumers.

Myself, I’d rather eat wild cod once a month and sardines once a week than farm-raised salmon, ever.


This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: November 23, 2008
An article last Sunday about threats to the world’s fisheries referred incorrectly to the amount of nutrients and fecal matter released by a salmon farm with 200,000 fish. It is roughly equivalent to the amount that would be produced by 60,000 people, not 600,000 people.