MFM REcipe: Chickpeas, Spinach & Squash Gnocchi

Happy meat free Monday all! Here's a recipe my husband and I enjoyed last week. Its an adaptation of a recipe I found on Eatingwell.com and a great way to use butternut squash other than roasting it or putting it in a soup. My husband is definitely a carnivore but he really enjoyed this and we both found it to be very filling.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

4 servings, 1 1/2 cups each

Active Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 pound frozen or shelf-stable gnocchi(we used fresh sweet potato gnocchi)
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cups thinly sliced peeled butternut squash or unpeeled delicata squash (1- to 2-inch-long slices)
• 1/2 cup sliced shallots (1-2 medium)
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 14-ounce can vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons currants
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 4 cups fresh baby spinach
• 1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar reduction or 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (see Note)

Preparation

1. If using frozen gnocchi, cook in a large pot of boiling water according to package directions. Drain, rinse and pat dry. (If using shelf-stable gnocchi, skip this step.)
2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add gnocchi and cook, stirring often, until starting to brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
3. Add the remaining 1 teaspoon oil, squash, shallots and garlic to the pan and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Stir in broth, currants, sage and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer and cook, stirring, until the squash is almost cooked through, 6 to 8 minutes. Add spinach, chickpeas and the gnocchi and cook, gently stirring, until the spinach is wilted, about 2 minutes more. Serve drizzled with balsamic reduction (or balsamic vinegar).

Tips & Notes

• Note: vinegar reduction, simply balsamic vinegar that is cooked down until thick and syrupy, is sometimes called balsamic glaze or balsamic drizzle. Look for it with other vinegars in well-stocked supermarkets. Or make it yourself: Bring 1 cup balsamic vinegar to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook until syrupy and reduced to about 1/4 cup, 10 to 14 minutes. (Watch the syrup carefully in the last few minutes of reducing to prevent burning.)

Nutrition

Per serving: 458 calories; 7 g fat ( 1 g sat , 4 g mono ); 0 mg cholesterol; 88 g carbohydrates; 0 g added sugars; 15 g protein; 10 g fiber; 620 mg sodium; 597 mg potassium.
Nutrition Bonus: Vitamin A (225% daily value), Vitamin C (53% dv), Folate (33% dv), Iron (28% dv), Magnesium (19% dv), Potassium (17% dv), Calcium (16% dv).

My food battle plan.

I am fighting a war. A war against junk food. I am a busy professional with a home that requires a lot of love & attention...not to mention a husband to keep happy. When a soldier goes off to war they have weapons and armor. My greatest weapon is my weekly plan; My armor is all the vitamin rich food my body takes in to stay healthy. Sound a bit dramatic right?!

I feel it needs to be. If I don't think about the coming week ahead and figure out a meal & chore plan for the upcoming week, I've found that I get short on time, am more stressed and will occasionally opt for the easier meal solution, like takeout Chinese.

I do eat pretty healthily, but I can always do more. The core of my coaching clients are busy professionals with families. So what better way to make sure the strategies and meal plans I suggest work than to try them out with my own family first? Taking just 1 hour each week to make a food plan is a great way to reduce stress and ensure you're family eats healthily. I made mine last night while we were watching tv.

I love digging up new recipes and have a ton I've wanted to try. Often times I find them surfing the web or in the latest issues of my favorite magazines. I then file them, either on a bookmark file on my computer or in a folder, by the season their ingredients are available.

When I sit down to make my plan for the week I open my current season folder and I have a ton of new meal ides at my disposal. I try to coordinate recipes so I can use leftovers for lunches or use recipes that share some of the same ingredients. I also make sure 1 or 2 of the dinners for week can be made in advance, such as a casserole or a crockpot meal. Once I've picked my meals then I make my grocery list of the items I don't have in the pantry already. After doing this planning a few weeks, you'll find that you will also have a list of family favorites to work off of as well.

When I go grocery shopping I make sure to stick to my list. Iq so try to only shop the perimeter of the store where the main staples like the produce are found. By avoiding all the junk food in the center aisles I'm not even tempted to buy them. Out of sight, out of mind. I am always pleasantly surprised when I hear the total. Shopping this way not only makes my time at the store shorter, but also saves a ton of money.

My plan this week has a few new squash recipes and some yummy homemade snack foods. I'll let you know how they turn out  and share the recipes for the successes. I hope you all have wonderfully low stress week and keep warm. I'm now off to the gym and then the grocery store to put this week's battle plan into action.
It sounds like a lot of work but it truly only takes 1 hour each week.

Healthier & Happier for the holidays: The importance of self care

Hello all. Sorry for the several week gap in my posts.Life has been nuts and I'm working hard to stay healthy and keep my "Life in Balance". We bought a new house Thanksgiving weekend and have been gradually moving. So needless to say we've been busy, not to mention the holiday season activities with family and friends.   For me, part of keeping balance is deciding  what are my priorities each week.  Priorities aren't just the activities I pursue, it also means taking time to take care of myself and actually schedule self care. May sound a bit crazy but it really helps to keep me sane and more relaxed.

Self care is a is exactly what it sounds like: taking some time to be good to yourself and it can be done in ton of different ways. You also don't need a lot of time to practice it.WhenI have a full day off, I definitely take advantage of it, but thats not a typical amount of free time for most of us.  Instead try to plan 2 things a day. They don't have to be long activities either. Check out some easy and quick things you can do to help take care of your body:
 
1)First step of self care: Banish the guilt. I spent way too many years of my life as a workaholic. Guilt used to be my middle name. Believe me, if you feel guilty about taking time for yourself, it kind of defeats the purpose. Life is meant to be enjoyed. This means that if you're tired it is ok to take that nap, you'll feel better. If you need to recruit the help of friends and family to get 10 or 15 minutes of "you time" thats ok too. When they realize you are a nicer person to be around when you have a few minutes to relax, they'll be happy to assist and they will want to spend more quality time with you as well.

2)Part of my self care is of course taking the time to cook myself healthy and nourishing foods. I love seeing my family over the holidays but I can't help but notice the insane amount of carbs ingested and lack of veggies at holiday mealtime. (A huge thank you to my sister in law Eriko for making my brussel sprout slaw on Christmas eve, it was much appreciated!) So all week I've started my mornings off with a nice green smoothie.

3) Next up hit the showers, or if you have time, enjoy a nice soak. While in there, a sugar or a salt scrub will not only help your dry skin, but its really relaxing too. Meditations in the shower are also a great way to relax.  While the running is running down your skin visualize not only, the grime of the day washing away, but also anything that stressed you out or got you upset. Literally, wash your cares away. For you Reiki practitioners out there, infusing Reiki energy into your shower head is a very energizing and soothing tool as well.  When you hop out be sure to moisturize. When your skin is still damp is the most effective time for your body to absorb that nice lotion. For other spa like experiences at home check out my  previous post : Treat Yourself to a Spa Day.

4) Treat yourself & Celebrate! No you don't have to have a party...we're reducing stress remember?! Once a week, if not daily, I reward myself for accomplishing my goals. I have various things I'm working on posted on little notes around the house. When I get to take one of these notes down because I've accomplished it I treat myself. Sometimes its an nice hour of restorative yoga other times I might buy myself something. Today for example, I'm treating myself for getting back in touch with this blog and attacking the massive pile of laundry that is amassing in my basement. So I used one of the gift cards I received to buy myself a compost pail for my kitchen and a cookbook I've wanted for some time. Rewards don't have to be things to be bought. Some days I jam out to a favorite cd or call a friend I've been missing. The idea is to give myself a warm fuzzy just for accomplishing the day to day tasks that make up life.

5) Another part of my self care is paying attention to my physical health. With some preventative maintenance I find the holidays (which can be rather stressful) can be a lot easier, to not only get through, but actually enjoy.  Over the past month I've been doing my annual checkups, just to be sure if there's anything I've been neglecting. Happily I received a clean bill of health. And with some of the new modifications I've made in my eating habits this year, some of my "not so nice" numbers actually have gone down.

SO, as you can see self care isn't hard. The hardest part is reminding yourself to do it. Its nice to get a pat on the back, especially when you're giving it to yourself.  I hope you each take a few minutes for yourself today any have a happy new year 2012!

Next post: 2012 is an exciting year, I'll be talking about all the great posts to come.

Belated meat free Monday Post- Yummy fall sides

Hello everyone and Happy almost Thanksgiving.  I always liek to try new sides and recipes. This time of year there are a wealth of them. I recently started watching a show on ABC called "The Chew". ITs a nice daytime show that's centered around food & family, which I love. The fact that one of the 5 co-hosts is Mario Batali (fav celeb chef), doesn't hurt either.  What's refreshing about this show is that the daughter of the famous Dr. Oz, Daphne Oz, is also one of the cohosts. I like this because she keeps the balance of the other chefs and keeps a healthy focus running throughout it.

Below are two recipes that I have recently discovered, one from an episode of "the Chew" and the other from Wegman's. Both are a healthy ( and vegetarian) side dish option using leafy greens that taste fantastic, and are not covered in a ton of fatty sauce, such as a certain green bean cassserole that so many enjoy this time of year. We've started making these regularly at home. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Mario Batali's Stuffed Acorn Squash

Wegman's cocounut cream kale has captured my heart & my tummy. i know it sounds weird... And no, it is not sweet. Check it out for yourself :Wegman's Coconut Cream Kale

Hope these recipes help you have a tastier holiday weekend that is also better for you!

Woohoo! Its October!

October is here and it is by far, my favorite month of the year. There are so many great things to love about October: the weather starts getting a little chilly but not quite cold, nature brings forth all of my favorite produce,  the leaves change, and it has my favorite holiday, Samhain (or Halloween to all of the muggles reading this post). Fall weddings are always so pretty and I just got to celebrate one of my best friends getting married on the Eastern shore  of Maryland this past weekend. October is also Vegetarian awareness month and Breast Cancer awareness month.So, needless to say, I find October to be a stellar month.

Doesn't my friend look amazing?! And you can't even tell that I was crazy sick in this picture (I'm the brunette)

Tonight I have the apartment to myself  while my hubby is at school and thought I'd enjoy the quiet.... by raiding the local farm around the corner and celebrate a belated meat free Monday. Besides, what is a better way to celebrate vegetarian awareness and help fight cancer than eating a super veggie laden meal?!

In a baking dish I diced up some brussel sprouts, a sweet potato, a beet, sliced kale, some squash and a handful of cranberries. I tossed them all together with some olive oil and sea salt. Then I covered the dish with some foil and roasted everything for about 45 minutes on 350. This is what I ended up with.

Its delicious and filling! I'm sitting back enjoying my dinner while watching "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead". Its making me feel that much better about all the green drinks I've been enjoying at breakfast.
Well, I'm going to get back to my relaxing, stay tuned throughout the month for some great veggie dishes as well as info on breast cancer awareness month.  Tomorrow morning I will be experimenting with oats and chia seeds. I'll let you know how that goes. Happy October Everyone!

Keepin' It Green

Happy Meat Free Monday Folks! I woke up this morning feeling a little under weather. I think I have a cold coming on. My solution, blast my body with lots of fruit and vegetables  and help it to heal itself. 


In trying to keep up with eating breakfast every morning, I started off  my day by having a green smoothie for breakfast.   Green drinks are something I've been wanting to try for a while. On the advice of some of my classmates, I've been experimenting with different fruit and veggie combinations. They look weird, but taste really good.   Ideally, using fresh veggies & fruit is the best way to enjoy these drinks. Leaf vegetables are typically low in calories, low in fat, high in protein per calorie, high in dietary fiber, high in iron and calcium, and very high in phytochemicals such as vitamin C, carotenoids,lutein, folate as well as Vitamin K.These drinks are a great way to get kids to enjoy vegetables too.

The Basic Green Smoothie Recipe


This is what I recommend for starting out (makes about 1 quart/1 liter).


1 or 2          ripe bananas
1/2 cup       of another fruit: (pineapple, blueberry, apple, peach, mango)
1 1/2 cup    fresh greens:   (~2 chard leaves or ~1 handful spinach/kale)




~ 12 oz water (or to desired consistency)

If you don't have a blender or juicer, or you're short on time, you can buy pre-made green drinks and smoothies.  The fresh ones are best, just be sure to read the ingredient labels to make sure there aren't any additives and that you are truly just getting blended fruit and veg.   I like Naked juice and Odwalla brands, if I have to grab a smoothie on the run.


For lunch I had some spicy black bean soup. It really helped clear up my stuffed up sinuses. I finished clearing them out when I got home from work with the aid of my netipot.


For dinner I tossed some whole grain pasta, in homemade basil pesto with some Kale, spinach, broccoli & I tossed in some cannellini beans for some added protein.  It was really yummy and super easy to make. 

Now I'm nursing a cup of green tea, with a hint of honey from the farm around the corner to soothe my sore throat.   It may not be the instant feel good cure for a cold, like some of the pills and remedies in the drug store, but I have peace of mind that I'm giving my body the tools to help it heal itself. .... Now if that can just be sooner than later so I can be healthy enough to enjoy being in my best friend's wedding this weekend.... :-)

Reinventing the Way We Pack Lunch

About a year and a half ago, I decided to rid my life of as much disposable plastic as possible. I was sick and tired of constantly hearing about our country's dependence on foreign oil and how much plastic was not getting recycled or even ending up in a landfill, but strewn across the land and  in our natural bodies of water, endangering animals.

I had already ridden our household of plastic grocery bags by switching to cloth ones and we'd switched to aluminum water bottles sometime ago.....but I knew there was something bigger I was missing. It hit me when my husband spent one of several weeks out of town for work. he decided to pre-pack several days worth of lunches to save money and also because he didn't know what was available.  My husband is a very tall guy and has a big appetite. I watched him spend an hour making PB & J sandwiches, portioning pretzels and stuffing all of it into those little plastic bags. He was using about 5 of those bags a day for one lunch. It drove me nuts thinking about the fact that  he spent several dollars on something that was going in a trash can as soon as it was no longer protecting his sandwich...several hours later. We tried gladware for sandwiches too, but I still wasn't happy about it being made of plastic and the possibility that even though I chose to place it in my recycle been when it outlived its life it may not actually get to where it was supposed to go.

About this same time, I had started planning my wedding. Knowing my passion for living as green as possible, one of my mom's friends had given me a gift that she saw in a new eco-friendly store in her town. It was a reusable sandwich bag (they call them lunchskins), by a company called three green moms. Genius! I thought what a great wedding favor......that was until I researched the cost on this little bag. These bags are easily cleaned just turn them inside out and place them in the top rack of your dishwasher.

I decided that even if I didn't use these for the wedding, I needed to track down more of these and at a better price point.  The other disadvantage of my first bag was that it was too small. We like big sandwiches and it just didn't hold them without smashing the sandwich. When I have something in mind that I'm searching for that doesn't seem to be available in conventional stores, my go to place is Etsy.

When I searched for reusable sandwich bag I had thousands of hits. I went through several tries finding just the right size and type of bags and now hopefully you can benefit from my trials and errors. Here are my criteria for a nice sandwich bag
1) Material
In trying to avoid plastic, I don't really like the use of oilcloth on the inside of these bags.  I've learned that wraps and bags made of cotton on the outside with nylon on the inside work really well. I also like ones with multiple layers of cotton.  Both of these types can be thrown in the washer with my other kitchen towels if they get dirty. I definitely prefer velcro or snap closures as opposed to the snack bags with zippers as well.

2) Size
We've learned that for our hearty sanwiches we prefer using a sandwich wrap instead of a bag.  They are big enough for one of my husband's gigantic sandwiches.  They also double as a placemat on your lap while noshing on your sandwich.  For our snacks the snack bags are good for little things, but the "sandwich size" bags work better for bigger things like chips.

3) Fun colors and prints

There are hundreds of different bags and wraps on Etsy, handmade by a ton of very talented people. You can even look up to see if any of them are in your local area. So, not only can you pick fun prints that suit your personality, you can also support the US and potentially your own local economy.  Kids (and your inner kid too) love all the fun colors and prints. It really makes their lunches personal. (My husband especially loves his batman wrap and his smiley faced one.) I think his next one will be a Pittsburgh Steelers wrap.

Now that you may be thinking, These are pretty cool, where do I find one?, never fear I've got some links to my favorite etsy shops. Definitely give them a try you won't be disappointed. I also recommend looking at lots. For example, one of my favorite shops Mada's Place, offers discounts if you buy 5 sets at once, you pick the prints from the choices she has in her store. I ended up doing this  and getting a different set for each of my bridesmaids in my wedding and it saved me a ton of money! A few more good choices include:
-Zenbot baby they have a wide variety of prints and styles, including some cool modern looking ones, also where I found my cool tiki one... I love tikis!
-Moja Creations
-RKEM designs

I hope this gives you some ideas on where to look if you think this solution to "greening" your lunch is for you. In the coming weeks look for a post on how to make packing lunch fun again. I kind of miss the fun notes and cool things my mom did when packing my lunch, don't you? here's a hint:

Phineas Sandwich from Hawaii's Bento Box Cookbook for Kids

In the meantime, be good to yourselves...