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Beans are a great form of protein & fiber, but most cans are lined with BPA which can leach into your food.
Buy dry beans and cook them yourself. You can cook them in large quantities and freeze unused portions for another meal. Just make sure to rinse and soak your beans first! To Cook Dried Beans: (1) Sort and rinse how ever many beans you want to cook (as a general rule, they expand to about one and half to two times their original size). I usually cook a lot (4 cups dried) and freeze whatever I don’t use for another time. It means I don’t have to cook them that often. (2) Cover beans with water so the level of beans is about 2 inches below the water level. Soak overnight (or if you’re forgetful like I am, bring the water to a boil and then remove from heat and soak 1 hour - overnight is better, but the 1 hour fast method works well). (3) Drain beans and rinse again. At this point, they’re about half way cooked/softened. (4) Place back in pot, and cover with water once again. (about the same as before) (5) Bring to a boil, then reduce to low and simmer 1- 1.5 hours, until soft. (6) At this point you can make refried beans, keep them whole, add to salads, or do whatever you want with them. And the extra, just put in a glass jar and freeze until you want them!
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 As a general theme, I don't eat muffins because they make me feel like I've instantly gained 10 lbs. My house isn't 'gluten free' or adverse to grains, but by in large we eat them in moderation at most. Most baked goods I create are made gluten free, and my go to flours are nut and bean based. That said, last weekend I woke up with a craving for muffins and coffee for breakfast. So I embarked on an experiment, actually two, and they were a hit! Since I believe in starting the day with decent protein, the first set of muffins were "Frittata Muffins". For those of you who don't know, frittata is a sort of crustless quiche (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frittata). My mom happens to make the best frittata I've ever had, but it wouldn't be able to hold up in muffin form, so I started with her recipe and modified from there. The end result? A light fluffy egg muffin with ham and veggies inside. My husband ate 3. For the second variety I wanted something sweet to counter the savory Frittata Muffin. Still wanting to be healthy for breakfast (I know, so boring), and having an endless supply of peaches from our farm stand, I tried out a peach and pecan muffin. They still need some tweaking: the peach is so juicy that it made the muffin more moist than normal, and the coconut oil I used left them stuck to the muffin papers I (so glad I used paper liners!!!). But the flavor was awesome. So if you want that recipe… well, you'll just have to wait until I try it again. But if you'd like to try Frittata muffins, here you go! They're especially great to have during the week, when all you have to do is grab a couple muffins and you're set for the morning.  Frittata Muffins:
Preheat oven to 350. Ingredients: 6 eggs 1 cup whole milk 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1.5 cups grated zucchini 1 cup chopped ham 1 cup grated parmesan, cheddar, and/or romano cheese, plus more to sprinkle on top Directions:
*Note: You can really use any cheese, veggie or meat you like, or just cheese & veggie (about 3 to 3.5 cups total). I've used spinach, kale, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, green onions, and carrots. Anything I can chop very finely or grate so that the pieces are small enough to cook in the muffin. Otherwise, if you want big chunks, you'll need to cook the veggies first.  Kombucha: Do you dare?
I’ve been reading a lot about fermented foods lately and I have to admit, I’m intrigued. They’re packed with natural probiotics and aid in our absorption of the nutrients in our food. My personal opinion is that the short cuts on food production and preparation are playing a large role in the general demise of our health and natural food fermentation is one way of getting back to natural food preparation. It turns out, that if you look for the right things, there are actually a lot of different fermented foods to choose from (but you have to be careful. Some previously fermented foods are now made in a way that doesn’t include the fermentation due to the risk of bad bacteria being added in). I happen to love yogurt and my family uses it almost daily (especially in the hot summer months for yogurt/berry smoothies), but as with most things, in my opinion, variety is the spice of life. Well, unless I wanted to up my intake of wine, beer or authentic sourdough bread, I was pretty much stuck with yogurt for my regular intake. Enter Kombucha. I heard a lot during it’s rise in popularity a few years back but was always turned off by the price and didn’t have the time to try it on my own. But then, a good friend of mine said that she had just gotten a starter kit, but decided to not keep it going. Would I like it? Uh… yes please! Now to be honest, there’s not a lot of research out there on Kombucha. The general consensus is that as long as it made correctly it’s not harmful, but the health benefits are yet unknown (assuming of course there are some). My interest and reason for going ahead with this project are more spurred on by my general belief in raw/fermented foods (i.e. apple cider vinegar, natural yeast), and my love of making things myself. So I’ve embarked on my first journey of making Kombucha. I bottled my first batch a few weeks ago (Yum!) and have my second brewing (this time starting with ginger peach black tea to try a new flavor). I also started my “Scoby Hotel” with the extra Scobys that form each time you make a batch. It is amazingly easy to do and you can find wealth of information online (see below). My favorite resource is actually the journal article written up for the FDA (top link under ‘how to make Kombucha’ below). A few words of caution: It’s tempting to want to refrigerate your unused Scobys, but in all I’ve read it’s actually a good way to weaken your Scoby and risk unwanted bacteria from entering the mixture. A healthy (warm) Scoby will be a good mix of bacteria and yeast and will fight off unwanted bacteria much better than a Scoby weakened by colder temperatures. Also, make sure you’re disinfecting everything you use when making it (by boiling utensils and containers, NOT using actual chemical disinfectant), just like you would when canning, or making jams, etc. If you start with a sterile environment, you’ll be much better off. And in making Kombucha, the most important thing to monitor is pH levels (tea starts at 5 and over the fermentation time should drop to somewhere between 2.5 & 4.2. If it drops too much or too little then you have problems). Finding a way to test at home is a good idea. If you have the correct pH levels, then you’re going to be pretty safe. Of course, you can always go out to the store and buy some… just be prepared for sticker shock (and make sure you look for raw varieties – pasteurization is just a fancy word for making something sterile, thereby getting rid of all that potentially beneficial bacteria). Next up in the vast world of fermentation… learning to bake using sourdough starter instead of active dry yeast (I’m learning this might make a huge difference in digestion), and finding local raw milk to start making my own yogurt. Wish me luck! Kombucha/Fermented Food resources: http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/truth-about-kombucha http://www.huffingtonpost.com/meredith-melnick/kombucha-tea_b_1304730.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombucha How to make Kombucha: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Kombucha+brewing+under+the+food+and+drug+administration+model+Food...-a0349904556 http://www.organic-kombucha.com/kombucha_and_ph.html http://www.healthygreenkitchen.com/homemade-kombucha-recipe.html http://www.rawfoodrecipes.com/recipes/homemade-kombucha.html For a Scoby Hotel: http://www.kombuchakamp.com/2013/11/scoby-hotel-maintenance.html http://www.kombuchakamp.com/2010/08/scoby-hotel-video-quick-tip.html Kombucha Research: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21776478 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14631833?dopt=Citation http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23716136 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19420997 |
