Cooking Away My CSA

I am joining in on the "Cooking Away My CSA" challenge created by Flour Girl.  What a great idea!  I'm usually pretty good about pulling together some meals with my CSA box contents, but I am occasionally stumped by such things as fava beans.  Fortunately, there are some brilliant resources online (including the Google group for the CAMC challenge) where I can find ideas on just what to do with those crazy fava beans! 

This is the first week of the challenge, so I'll kick it off by sharing some photos of our CSA-based meals this week.  

First, the fava beans.  I must confess that I had never had a fava bean until this year.  It isn't that I've avoided them, we've just never crossed paths until now.  I have heard that they are difficult to work with so they sat in my fridge for a long time before I got around to cooking them (these came in a prior week's CSA box).  I decided to try a grilled fava recipe from 101 Cookbooks over the weekend.  The recipe was super simple and the beans tasted great!  Oh fava beans, I am now a fan of you!

We typically have pizza about once a week and usually on Friday night.  With last Friday's fava beans, I made grilled vegan pizzas.  I used many of the things from our box including heirloom tomatoes,  gypsy and lipstick peppers, red onions, and summer squash.  

The pale yellow heirloom tomato had just a touch of pink on the inside.  So pretty!

Grilled pizza, I've found, involves a bit of alchemy.  I make my own crust and I've found that I prefer to use mostly "00" flour with a bit of whole wheat.  I slice the veggies super thin (so they cook quickly on the grill) and I use soy-based cheeses.  Here are two of the finished products (I added non-CSA veggies to one of the pizzas):

If you've never tried grilling pizza, I definitely recommend giving it a try!  This recipe will help you get started.  

On Saturday night we had leftover pizza.  I sauteed the rest of the summer squash with one of the peppers and added garlic, salt, and pepper for a quick side dish:

Next, I made a large salad using more of the peppers, tomatoes, and leftover fava beans.  I also added some lightly toasted walnuts and made a simple dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt, and agave nectar:  

Finally, tonight I made some vegetable juice in our new Vita-Mix blender.  I used parsley, dandelion greens, carrots and non-CSA celery, lemon juice, ginger, and apple.  The juice was seriously green and I didn't take any photos for fear of freaking out the more mainstream diet folks out there!  It was good stuff, loaded with all kinds of veggie goodness.

What's next?  I'm not sure yet.  Maybe some cobbler made with strawberries that I picked up at a local roadside stand.  I vegan-ized a strawberry rhubarb cobbler recipe a few weeks ago with strawberries and rhubarb from our CSA box.  That was the first time that I had tried rhubarb.  Ever.  Loved it!  

Happy locavore cooking!  

PS- Speaking of locavores, I enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and recommend the book to anyone interested in local eating and growing food at home. 

An update, a big thank you, and something cool

My mother's surgery was successful.  She is recovering well from the tumor removal.  She has been moved to Los Angeles and, in a few weeks, she will have another procedure to fix the aneurysm.  She is doing better than I expected.  Thank you all for the positive thoughts, prayers, e-mails, phone calls, and Facebook comments.  My family and I are so lucky to have your support and love.  Thank you, thank you.

I'm back home and trying to remember to take breaks and find downtime each day.  Trying to stop freaking out about my To Do list.  Trying to go outside and play with my boys.  Trying.  While curled up with some organic chamomile tea and my MacBook this evening, I came across this on Twitter and thought I'd share:

'COOKING AWAY MY CSA' CHALLENGE

Are you a member of a CSA?  Check it out!   

Waiting

Saturday started out as a normal day. I was up earlier than I wanted to be. I didn't have time for a real breakfast before dashing out the door for bootcamp at the park.

After bootcamp I was hungry and sweaty but content to have just had a good 90 minute workout. Time for good mornings to my kids, shower, and food.

Everything changed in a single sentence. "Your mom is in the hospital."

My mom was admitted to a hospital in Palm Springs on Saturday. What I had seen as her acting unlike herself lately turned out to be a grapefruit-sized tumor in the right side of her brain. They also found an anurism.

Now here I sit. In an empty hospital waiting room waiting for news on a surgery that started five hours ago. Hoping for good news with a heart that pounds each time someone passes by the waiting room door.

Sometimes the bumps in the road of life can feel more like a kick in the stomach, can't they?

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Cherishing

Isn't it funny how, on any given day, our minds can fool us into believing that we know everyone and everything that we're ever going to know?  Even though we're smarter than that.  Even though we know that nothing will be the same forever.  Our hearts attach themselves firmly to what we wish will always be.

Consider your life as it was five years ago.  You're probably close to some people who you hadn't even met back then.  You may feel comfortable in a new job that you didn't even see coming.  Or you may have painted a bathroom your favorite shade of green in a house that didn't even exist.  Life shifts in so many ways.  We meet new people.  We get back in touch with old friends.  We lose touch.  People pass away.  Even people who, like a mountain range in the distance of our home town, always seem to have been around.  We fall in love.  We move away.  We have children.  Good things.  Bad things.  Just different things.  We move on.

Someone I barely know (I only met him once) passed away a few days ago.  He and his wife were married for a really long time.  I hardly know these people but they have me thinking.  About my loved ones.  About my new friends and old.  About how everything is so unpredictable and how I love all of my "now" so much.

My busy life can be a big pain in the butt sometimes.  I need a little reminder every now and then to take a look around and notice that all of the things that keep me busy are things that I love.  It is good for me to flip through old pages in my mind to ease the unsettling fact that time marches on.  I wouldn't go back in time to relive any of the past.  That can only mean that I'll continue to live in a "now" that is just right.         

"You know a dream is like a river

Ever changin' as it flows

And a dreamer's just a vessel

That must follow where it goes

Trying to learn from what's behind you

And never knowing what's in store

Makes each day a constant battle

Just to stay between the shores...and

I will sail my vessel

'Til the river runs dry

Like a bird upon the wind

These waters are my sky

I'll never reach my destination

If I never try

So I will sail my vessel

'Til the river runs dry

..."

~Garth Brooks

        

Unsung

(Photo courtesy of the VegNews magazine crew.)

I went to San Francisco with a good friend on Thursday evening to attend a vegan "dessert soiree" that was put on by Veg News Magazine.  The event was a stop along the way for Ani Phyo in the promotion of her new book (which we received a copy of!), Ani's Raw Food Desserts.  We mingled and enjoyed a five-course (yes, five!) dessert.  Each of the unique desserts was fantastic!  We had carrot cupcakes with an amazing cream cheese frosting, ice cream sandwiches made with chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies and coconut sorbet, vanilla bean custard with hemp seed shortbread and blueberries, chocolate mousse with tart cherry sorbet, and finally a chocolate mousse with chocolate cake and raspberry sauce topped with fresh berries.  Everything was vegan and everything was amazing!  I'd be hard-pressed to choose a favorite.

While eating a five-course dessert is sheer bliss, what I enjoyed most about the event was meeting Ani Phyo.  She spoke for about 20 minutes on her approach to and tips for eco or green living.  She is a true role model for green and healthy living and she cares so much about helping others to achieve the same level of health and vitality that she enjoys.  Since the group was somewhat small (I think they were expecting 70 people), we had the chance to talk with Ani for a few minutes.  She has such a gentle way and amazing glow about her.  Such a beautiful person inside and out!

On the way home from San Francisco, I stopped at a park-and-ride lot in West Sacramento to drop my friend off at her car (we carpooled from the lot).  When I pulled back onto the main street, it quickly became quite clear to me that I had a flat tire.  At nearly midnight.  In an iffy part of town.  I parked the car under a light at a gas station and called my roadside assistance number.  My friend realized that I was having a problem and stopped to wait at the gas station with me until the tire was changed.  The roadside assistance dispatcher gave me an ETA of about 45 minutes for the tow truck to arrive but a few minutes later I got a call from the tow truck company saying that they had a driver in the area and he was about to head home but offered to take our call since he was nearby.  Within 5 minutes there was a bright yellow tow truck parked next to us and within another 15 minutes, the tire was changed and we were on our way home.

As I slowly drove home on a tiny spare tire, I felt such gratitude for the people whose paths crossed mine that day.  I felt lucky to have met Ani and so warmed by the way that she shares her passions.  I felt so happy to have a good friend who was willing to sit with me at a gas station in the middle of the night and wait for a tow truck.  I was so appreciative of the tow truck driver who selflessly offered to work a little late to get me, a total stranger, back on the road and headed home 40 minutes faster.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you! 

A life worth photographing

I probably shouldn't admit this in public, but there are two people living in my head.  One of them is barking at me to adopt the GTD (Getting Things Done) methodology to get my life organized.  The other one is far more laid back and never uses the word "methodology".  Part of me is panicking that my To Do list is out of control while another part of me is crazy excited about all kinds of new things that I want to try, learn, read, write...(i.e. add to my To Do list).

When I look over my list right now, I see a lot of "should do" items and a lot of "I could really get ahead of schedule if I..." things too.  In an average day I spend almost all of my time keeping things as they started out at the beginning of the day (e.g. keeping the family room as close to neat as it was in the morning, keeping the fridge stocked with bread and milk, keeping the kids fed and napped, etc.).  I never really feel a huge sense of accomplishment from maintaining the status quo because that is never finished.  

I have to pause here in my thought process about this and ask myself what makes some days feel better spent than others.  What kinds of things am I doing on the days that are really satisfying?  Well, crossing things off my To Do list always feels good if the list is actually shrinking and I'm not adding to it as I'm removing things.  I love the idea that we work better and think more clearly if we're not trying to remember too many things.  The GTD concept instructs people to get everything out on paper.  Good idea not to stress about remembering things but, boy, could I drive myself crazy with a paper list as long as the rambles of my monkey mind.  

Each day that we live is a tiny puzzle piece in how we spend our lives.  Every day that I'm alive, I'm doing my life's work and living my life story.  So what do I want my story to be about?  Reorganizing the pantry and vacuuming bedrooms?  It is true that there are necessary tasks like these that must be done but a good balance of work and play is what I'm missing now while I'm obsessing about crossing things off of my ubiquitous list.  I need to add more laughs, more coffee dates with girlfriends, more painted toes relaxing in the sun, more downward dogs, and more walks to the park to my days.  I want my story to be about time well spent vs. efficiency.  I want to live a life worth photographing instead of adding "take better pictures" to my To Do list.  

Summer is starting early here.  The forecast says 104 degrees on Sunday.  I'm working on my summer reading list.  I'm planning meals that involve grilling outside.  I'm making iced tea (mango today- so yum!).  I'm planning aquarium, beach, and park trips with my family.  I'm ready for some balance.  I'm ready to use my organized pantry to bake cobblers with fresh-picked berries.  I'm opening the windows and taking off my shoes.  It's time for downtime.  It's time to have some fun.  It's time!       

Popped amaranth

Did you know that you can pop amaranth like popcorn?  Amaranth is a tiny grain with big benefits- lots of calcium, iron, protein, and amino acids.  I love it popped and tossed with salads or over hot cereal.  

Popping amaranth has a bit of a learning curve.  It took me several tries before I found a method that works for me.  I heat a dry skillet on high heat, add about a tablespoon of amaranth, and shake the pan in a circular motion (ala "Jiffy Pop") over the burner.  This works well over my gas stove- not sure about electric.  Since I don't use a lid on the pan, the key is to keep the pan moving in a circle until the amaranth is finished popping.  Otherwise you'll have little white snow all over your kitchen!

Give it a try!  

Thoughts on losing baby weight

After having a baby, it can feel like you are wearing a "mom suit" over your formerly familiar figure.  After carrying a little human around inside your body for about nine months, you're bound to feel a little different when you return to your un-pregnant but changed shape.  

I have mentioned in a post or two lately that I am training for a triathlon (and then a half-marathon in the fall).  That is NOT where I started, though.  My baby is now almost a year old and, when I started on my journey back to my skinny jeans, I started very, very slowly.  I have two favorite mantras that apply to this time (and to most situations, really):  1) Don't freak out!  2) Something is always better than nothing.

When you're just beginning to exercise and/or change your eating habits again, it is really easy to think only in terms of all or nothing.  We eat a cupcake and think, "I might as well have another since I already blew it."  It is important to pay attention to our self-talk during this time so that we can stop to remind ourselves that little bits of good are just as powerful as little bits of transgression.  A fluffy cupcake may have 500 calories but it takes a 3500 calorie surplus to gain a pound.   

Think about what interests you and fits with your lifestyle and schedule.  Try some activities that seem fun to you.  You have to like what you are doing or you won't stick with it.  Try a bunch of different things if you want to- variety is good for your mind and body!  Here are a few ideas to help start your journey:

1. Exercise DVDs:  If exercising at home is an option for you, exercise DVDs can be an effective place to begin.  Amazon has a huge selection and variety of fitness and postpartum DVDs.  You may also consider borrowing from friends or the library or renting a few at a time from Netflix.  I really like Lindsay Brin's Post Natal Boot Camp and Lindsay Brin's Core Fitness for Moms.  

2. Lullaby Exercises:  A high school friend of mine, Darcy Novo Albrecht, came up with the idea for Lullaby Exercises when she found herself dancing around her house to get her baby to sleep and feeling like she was getting a workout in the process!  Why not burn some calories while you're bonding with your baby and helping him or her drift off to sleep?  Check out Darcy's website and blog for more information.

3. Bootcamp!  It seems like bootcamps are becoming more and more popular lately.  I signed up for 12 weeks of Mama Bootcamp with Lorri Ann Code in my city (Roseville, Ca).  For me, bootcamp is once a week for 90 minutes (plus 90 minutes of triathlon training that I added to my training plan with Lorri Ann).  In addition to that, Lorri Ann provides exercise homework and nutrition counseling.  Her program begins with measurements and body fat testing and those are checked along the way and at the end of 12 weeks.  I was extremely proud of myself when I lost 6% body fat in my first 4 1/2 weeks!  Signing up for Lorri Ann's bootcamp and tri training was the best thing I could have done for myself!   

Remember, don't freak out and something is always better than nothing.  Don't use your diet and exercise goals as sticks to beat yourself over the head with when you fall short.  Be on your own side.  Be forgiving of yourself.  Be gentle with yourself.  Pay attention to your self-talk.  Do what you can and feel good about it.  Have fun!

40 mph flashbacks

In the middle of one of my ready-set-go days, I'll sometimes hear a song on the radio or catch a whiff of perfume or see a cute pair of sandals that sends me daydreaming about "back in the day".  Today it was a song, that I have already forgotten, but it was a song that made me think of days when my independence was new.  Days when my agenda included considerations like where I wanted to sunbathe in coconut-scented oil, what flavor of New York Seltzer was I craving (usually peach, peach was the "cool" flavor), and what magazines I wanted to take along in my Esprit bag.  

When I think about life back then, my first thought is about how uncomplicated those times were.  How my to do list was short and my free time was abundant.  My life wasn't effortless or untroubled but, with the experienced perspective that I have now, it seems so comfortably unhurried.    

Though, when I try on my old point of view, I remember the uncertainty that I had about absolutely everything.  I had no idea how anything would turn out, end up, or evolve.  I was clueless about so many things and so tortured by what I didn't know.  I was eager to move on from those days and that leisurely life to put to rest many of my insecurities about everything, including myself.

When my brain returned from the clouds of days-gone-by and back to the car that I was driving through my crazy-busy now, I felt a bit more buoyant.  Isn't it great how life occasionally seasons our days with little reminders of how far we've come?  My life might be hurried and hectic now, but it is filled with love, friendship, and comfort.  I'm such a lucky girl. 

Mexican chocolate yogurt

I'm am a serious lover of chocolate so I am always trying to find ways to sneak it into all kinds of things.  This is one of my favorite "sneaky" chocolate snacks!

I buy Navitas Naturals Organic Raw Cacao Powder (available at Whole Foods, Amazon, and various other places).  It is one of the BEST cocoa powders that I've ever had (and I’m a chocolate snob!).  Every serving (2 Tbsp) contains:  5 grams of protein, 7 grams of fiber, 15% RDA iron, magnesium, tons of antioxidants, and ZERO SUGAR.  

Here’s my “recipe”: 

Mexican chocolate yogurt:
1 cup vanilla yogurt (I use Whole Soy, but a light yogurt would be good for those watching calories closely)
2 Tbsp raw cacao powder
Dash of cinnamon

1. Mix all ingredients together thoroughly in a bowl (don’t try to mix in the yogurt cup- you’ll get chocolate all over the place- trust me on this!).  

Enjoy!