Harvard School of Public Health:Eating Red Meat a Health Risk

Well, it doesn't come as a surprise to me that a recent study suggests that eating red meat leads to increased mortality. I pretty much got disgusted with red meat around the age of 18, and can go months without eating it.  In this study at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), researchers have found that there is an increased risk of total, cardiovascular and cancer mortality with high consumption of red meat. You can check out the press release here. The study showed that substituting other protein sources such as fish, poultry, nuts, and legumes is associated with a lower risk of mortality.

The bottom line is: eat red meat infrequently!

Recipe: Swiss Chard, Tomatoes and Sprouts

I've been making a lot of vegetable dishes for dinner lately.  This is one of my favorites. I usually improvise, but I share the recipe to get you started on your own creations. I serve this with brown rice and fish. Fantastic!

Begin with a couple of chopped tomatoes in a skillet along with a Tablespoon of olive oil, a couple of cloves of minced garlic (or equivalent frozen/refrigerated). Cook for a few minutes on medium.

Next, I went out to my garden and harvested some Swiss Chard. I love fresh chard. It has a great texture and wonderful taste.

I also added sprouted mung beans, spinach, chopped red pepper, cilantro and chopped celery...

Let it cook down for 3-5 minutes...

I added some walnut pieces for some crunch toward the end of cooking.  Sorry, but no final picture on this one. Everyone must have been hungry!

Food: Home Bottled Tomatoes

I've had these bottled tomatoes done for a couple of weeks now. I love having home canned tomatoes on hand. I love fresh, but when I don't have fresh, these are the next best thing.

I got a case of tomatoes from Bountiful Baskets and ended up with 9 quarts of tomatoes. Love it!

I use bottled tomatoes for all kinds of recipes including, pasta sauce, chili and sauteed vegetables.

The next canning project will be black beans, since I've used up the ones I had on hand.

Canned anything lately? Share a link in the comment section.

Recipe: Sauteed Vegetables with Lentil Sprouts

Here are the lentils I sprouted to use in my stirfry. You can see how to sprout lentils, here and buy lentils for sprouting here. Sprouted Lentils are a wonderful addition to stirfry, chili, or garden burgers. Put the lentil sprouts into the large frying pan/wok, along with ginger, garlic and 1/2 c. broth. I like to steam the lentils first so that they are nice and tender.

After the lentils have steam cooked for about 3-5 minutes, add the rest of your chopped/diced vegetables. Next I added some fresh, peeled and chopped water chestnuts. They were in the Asian pack from my co-op, Bountiful Baskets. Awesome!

Then, add the rest of your chopped/diced vegetables. I like to get a huge gallon sized bag of vegetables prepared in advance of the meal. Then, it is easy to add to the pan. Below, I have included Swiss Chard, snap peas, celery, pre-cooked green beans. This is about 6-8 cups of chopped/diced vegetables.

Here it is in the frying pan. I cook just until everything is tender, but not overdone. Stir and turn constantly. Add additional small amounts of broth during the cooking process so that it doesn't burn

Sorry I didn't get a picture of the completed dish. It was served with fish and brown rice.

How to Sprout Lentils

I decided to go ahead and sprout some lentils. I have several sprouters, but I'm especially fond of the Easysprout sprouter. It is truly the best manual sprouter on the market. Anyway, the nice thing about the Easysprout sprouter, is that it takes up so little space, and it is very easy to use.

Recipe for growing lentil sprouts. Decide how much to sprout. A good place to begin is 1/4-1/2 cup.

1. Examine lentils for dirt or small rocks. Pick out anything that isn't a lentil and discard
2. Rinse thoroughly. You can do this right in the Easysprout sprouter. Place lentils in the inner cup. Run water over the top and let it run through the inner cup.
3. Place inner cup inside of outer cup, and fill with water. Have water come several inches above the lentils. Leave to soak for 12 hours. Overnight works great.
4. Pull inner cup out and drain. Discard soak water. Great for watering your plants!
5. Rinse every twelve hours. Continue to do this until the lentils are sprouted to your satisfaction.

Here are some pictures:

sprouted lentils 24 hours past soak

sprouted lentils 48 hours past soak

I like using the lentils at this point. I don't want them to form leaves. These are perfect for garden burgers, chili or stirfry. See my post on using sprouted lentils in stirfry here.

Chili with Sweet Potatoes

I decided that today would be a great day to make chili. There are lots of recipes out there that use canned pumpkin. However, I'm using canned sweet potatoes in the recipe, mainly because I need to use it up. Canned food does go bad. I try to rotate my food storage every year, especially the canned items. The great thing about chili is that it is so easy. I just get my crock pot out, and start dumping the canned items in. I do add diced onion, garlic and seasonings. Today I added some things from my freezer as well. Here is what I added. You can add cooked ground beef if desired. We're not big meat eaters, so this will work fine for us.

15 oz. can kidney beans (rinsed)
15 oz. can small white beans
2 c. pinto beans (from freezer)
2 cans Rotel diced tomatoes with green chili
1 large can sweet potatoes (rinsed)
2 tsp cumin
1-2 tsp chili powder
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 c. cooked whole grain cereal (from freezer)

It's cooking away on low. I'll make some cornbread in my cast iron frying pan and serve them with some cheese, chopped green onions and sour cream.

Scrambled Eggs with Homemade Refried Beans and Jalepeno Yogurt Dip

My new favorite breakfast is scrambled eggs with my homemade "refried" beans. I put the refried in quotations because they are actually cooked in a crockpot or pressure cooker. You can find the recipe, here. You can leave the bacon out of the recipe, and it is still dynamite! Serve just those two items with sliced tomatoes or salsa, and you'll love it. However, my new favorite Costco item is Skotidakis Mild Jalapeno Greek Yogurt Dip. And no, I didn't get compensated to say that (I wish!). Two tablespoons of dip are 50 calories, and it is the perfect addition to this breakfast. I use it as a vegetable dip as well.

Homemade Refried Bean and Jalapeno Greek Yogurt Dip

I use one whole egg and two whites for the eggs for 100 calories, the beans are approximately 150 calories for a 1/2 c. and 2 tablespoons of yogurt dip is 50 calories. Tomato slices aren't worth counting. For just 300 calories, you are filled up until well past lunch time. Add an orange or other fruit to boost the vitamin level. If I had fresh sprouts that were ready, I would add those for negligible calories too. I've chopped up romaine lettuce and added that to the plate in the past.