The Despair of Disneyland

Since finishing Michael Pollan's book, "In Defense of Food", I've become more aware of the food I put in my body, and painfully aware of what goes into my sons' bodies.  Pollan's core concept - "Eat food.  Mostly plants.  Not too much." - is surprisingly difficult to live.  It's even harder to get the kids to go along with it.

I have made very little in the way of changes so far.  I'm focusing on observing whether the food I eat normally falls into the Food Rules. and determining what I'll have to change.  However, the act of observing changes that which is being observed.  Just by paying attention, I'm making some changes.

A small example:  the boys wanted spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.  While I was grocery shopping, I grabbed a bag a frozen meatballs so I could get dinner made quickly.  Before I put it in my cart, I skimmed the ingredients.  The ingredients list turned my stomach.  Mechanically separated turkey.  3 kinds of flour.  Both vegetable oil and shortening.  Autolyzed yeast extract.  11 ingredients I couldn't spell without peeking.  So back into the freezer they went, and I got some ground beef instead.  Even red meat has to be better for my kids than the stuff in those frozen turkey meatballs.

This past weekend was really challenging.  We were fortunate enough to spend 3 days at Disneyland.  There are some good choices at Disneyland.  In addition to the stands selling ice and churros, there are stands selling sliced mango and pineapple.  But it's harder in the restaurants.  We had to plot to find restaurants that had something other than hamburgers and chicken nuggets.  We discovered that the kids' Mac and Cheese is a foodlike substance that bears such a vague resemblance to food that even my son was grossed out.  You could get your leathery burger with either a giant serving of french fries or a 2-ounce cup of oil-soaked marinated vegetable salad.

It took work, but we found some real food.  The pizza place in Tomorrowland had really excellent salads - and great pizza.  The french cafe in New Orleans Square had great, vegetable-rich salads and grilled citrus chicken.  That cafe had a kid's chicken meal that came with grilled chicken, rice pilaf, grapes, carrots, and celery.

Now that we're home, I'm ready to stop observing and start making changes.

Enchiladas/Enchilada Casserole

One of the most popular dishes at Now We're Cooking was the Enchiladas. We had a number of different variations on it, and we always stocked the bar so that you could make your own variations, too. I received a request today to post the recipe, so here it is!

This one is a bit of a pain because you have to cook the chicken in advance and shred it. However, I'll do this on a Sunday and cook 6-8 chicken breasts at the same time. It never hurts to have cooked chicken breasts in the fridge. You can easily throw together a salad, sandwich, quesadillas or pasta with the cooked chicken and whatever else is in there.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Prework:

Cook 2 chicken breasts - I would either season them with salt and pepper and roast at 350 for 20-40 minutes (depending on the size of the breasts - the key is to make sure it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees - which means pull it out of the oven at 155 and let it sit for 10 minutes - the temperature will continue to rise.)

Spray a 13x9 inch baking pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, mix:

2 cups shredded chicken

1 cup pinto beans, drained and rinsed

½ cup shredded Monterey Jack

½ cup diced onions, diced (or green onions)

4 Tablespoons chopped cilantro (there's also a nice cilantro paste in the veggie section of Safeway - about 1 Tablespoon has the same effect)

¼ cup sour cream

1 Tablespoon lime juice

½ teaspoon cumin

If you prefer rolled enchiladas or want firmer tortillas, try the variation below. Otherwise:

Swirl ½ cup green or red enchilada sauce around bottom of pan.

Layer in pan:

3 corn or flour tortillas

½ of the chicken mixture

3 corn or flour tortillas

½ of the chicken mixture

3 corn or flour tortillas

Pour 1 ½ cups green or red enchilada sauce evenly over enchiladas.

Top with:

1 cup monterey jack cheese

You can either cook this immediately or freeze for later.  If you're freezing it for later, cover tightly with 2 layers of saran wrap - letting the wrap rest directly on the cheese, then cover with foil.

Cooking directions:
Fresh or completely thawed:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
Frozen:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Remove foil.  Remove saran wrap, brushing any stuck cheese back into the casserole.  Recover with foil.  Bake 30 minutes.  Remove foil and bake 30 minutes more.

Variation - Rolled Enchiladas

Spread 1/2 cup sauce evenly on the bottom of the pan.  For each tortilla, either  heat briefly in the microwave (5-10 seconds) or in a hot skillet (10 seconds per side).  Place 1/4 cup filling in the tortilla, roll, and lay seam side down in pan.  Repeat until all tortillas are filled.  Pour the remaining sauce evenly over the enchiladas, then sprinkle evenly with cheese.  Cook as directed above.

Back from the Crash and Inspired

It's been more than a year since I've written here. I have many reasons - I've been busy, uninspired, etc - but more than anything, I've been grieving. It got a little too hard to keep up the association with a business that I loved and lost, and I didn't have much to say. I also have had a run of bad computer luck - 3 computers killed by either hardware failures or viruses in 3 months. I lost everything about the Now We're Cooking business, including 3 years' of recipes. I had everything backed up on a backup drive, but we lost that in the move. Sigh.

However, last week I found a USB drive that has everything on it, and I've now saved all the recipes in 10 different places. I've also been doing some reading recently that has me re-inspired.

What's gotten me fired up in Michael Pollan's ""In Defense of Food" and ""Food Rules: An Eater's Manual". "In Defense of Food" helped me see the absurdity of some of what I've been eating - like low-fat yogurt and double-fiber bread. I haven't made it all the way through the book yet, but what I've read inspired me enough to grab "Food Rules". It took less that 30 entertaining minutes to read the 64 common-sense food rules. They also struck me as an inspiring challenge - what would my life be like if I ate this way? How would I feel physically? Would I lose weight? Would I have more energy? Would I become insufferably superior about my eating habits?

I don't know the answer to these questions, but it seems like fun to find out. So from now through next April, I am going to try to live according to these food rules. We'll see what happens.

I did manage to put together a very tasty Easter Brunch that complied with the rules. We had Broccoli and Gorgonzola Crustless Quiche, green salad, and fresh strawberries, followed by homemade Tollhouse Cookies. The only cheats were the salad dressing (I love some bottled dressings, but I'll write about that challenge later) and the chips in the cookies - they contain one ingredient my first grader couldn't pronounce (soy-based lecithin). But that seemed like a pretty good start to me.

Broccoli and Gorgonzola Crustless Quiche

5 large eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 lb broccoli, steamed until almost tender, chopped

1/2 cup gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

1. Preheat oven to 375 degreees. Spray a pie pan with Pam or other cooking spray. (If you want to be pure with the rules, just coat it with butter).
2. Sprinkle the chopped broccoli evenly across the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle all but a little bit of gorgonzola over it.
3. Whisk together the eggs, milk. salt, and pepper. Pour over the broccoli and cheese.
4. Sprinkle the top with the remaining gorgonzola.
5. Bake in the middle rack of the oven for 40-45 minutes, until quiche is firm and top is golden brown.
6. Let stand for 10 minutes, then slice and serve.

Serves 4-6 people.

This basic quiche recipe works with many flavor combinations. Don't like gorgonzola? Use cheddar. No broccoli? Use asparagus or spinach. Add a little pancetta, bacon, or ham for a bit of additional flavor. The key proportions need to remain the same: about 1 cup "filling", 1/2 cup cheese, 5 eggs and 1 1/2 cups milk.

Chickpea Masala

I'm struggling a bit to adapt to this gluten-free life.  But here's a quick and easy recipe that I love - and to my surprise, my kids love, too!  Serve this over basmati rice for a quick, easy, healthy, and delicious dinner.

Chickpea Masala

1 onion, finely minced
3/4 cup carrots, diced
2 cans (15 oz) chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 inch ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped (or use 1 teaspoon ground)
juice of 1 lemon
zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1  teaspoon garam masala
2 Tabelespoons catsup
salt to taste
fresh cilantro, chopped, for garnish and last-minute flavor

1. Heat a bit of canola oil in a medium deep pot.  Add the onions and carrots.  Saute until onions are golden brown.
2. In a blender, puree the tomatoes, garlic, ginger, and 1/2 cup of the garbanzo beans.
3. When onions are brown, add the remaining ingredients to the pot, except the fresh cilantro.  Let simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes, until carrots are tender.  Garnish with cilantro and serve over rice.

This Week's Changed-Life Plan

It's been a difficult week.  On Wednesday, I was diagnosed with either gluten intolerance or Celiac's Disease.  Still waiting for the test results, but regardless of which outcome it is, I have to figure out how to eat and live without gluten.  Wheat, barley, rye, most flour, pasta, bread, baked goods - all are gone from my life.  I'm still in a bit of shock and denial, and I have reached the point of sadness and depression yet - but I'm sure they'll come.

So my new challenge is making meals that I can eat and the boys in my house will enjoy.  They should not have to live without pasta and bread just because I do.   Fortunately, as gluten intolerance has become more common and high-profile, there are a host of books, websites and products that cater to this population.

So, this week's plan:

Saturday:  Microwave Risotto with Chicken and Asparagus 

Sunday:  Roasted Chicken with lemon and garlic, roasted potatoes and carrots, roasted Brussels sprouts.  (I'm roasting 2 chickens so I have leftovers throughout the week).

Monday:  Mixed green salad with chicken, apples, dried cranberries, and caramelized pecans.

Tuesday:  Chicken Tacos with avocado, tomato, sauteed peppers, and black beans

Wednesday:  Garbanzo Bean Stew with steamed basmati rice

Thursday: Grilled hamburgers with Sweet Potato fries, white potato fries, and coleslaw with vinaigrette

One of the hardest things is desserts.  I LOVE brownies, cakes, pastries, beignets, pies, and all kinds of baked goods.  Combining this with the fact that I need to lose some weight, I need some good answers for dessert.  I crave something sweet after dinner, and so do my boys.  So here are my dessert plans for the week:

Fruit with Chocolate Fondue:  Chocolate fondue is super easy to make, and it's a great way to get the boys (and me!) to eat a ton of fruit.  You can dip almost any fruit - we love bananas, strawberries, diced pineapple, and sliced mango.

Sliced strawberries macerated in sugar and tossed with a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar - alone or over vanilla ice cream!

Dark Chocolate-covered caramels - I like Reisen - I can eat just 1-2 and be perfectly happy for dessert.

Greek yogurt flavored with vanilla and sweetened with Splenda - creamy, delicious, and healthy!

That doesn't look like a bad menu to me!  The weeknight meals are quick and easy.  Maybe I can get through this week without feeling deprived.

Dinner is somewhat easy because I'm used to planning, so making adjustments is not hard.  Breakfast and lunch are much harder, because I generally don't think about them until mealtime.  I am not in the habit of planning these meals.  I'm used to grabbing a quick breakfast that I can eat in the car - peanut butter toast or English muffins with Laughing Cow cheese are my favorites, with a banana.  So I'll have to make a little more time in the morning and scramble an egg, make a smoothie, or mix fruit and yogurt with a gluten-free granola. The food is not as hard as adjusting my schedule to sit down and eat.

Lunch is more challenging.  I'm so used to going to one of the delis and grabbing a sandwich.  I can't just grab soup because most commercial soups either contain pasta or are thickened with flour.  I think I'm going to have to start making lunches at home and bringing them into the office.  It's probably much better for my health and my wallet.  It's just more work and more time - and lots of planning.

Thanks for reading.  I'll keep posting Now We're Cooking recipes over the course of this week.

Chef Dane's Offers Now We're Cooking Meals

One of my favorite competitors when I was in the meal assembly business was Chef Dane's Kitchen in Santa Clara.  Chef Dane Mechlin came into Now We're Cooking soon after we opened, on a reconnaissance mission to see what was going on in the industry.  We quickly became friendly and we regularly checked in with each other to see how things were going.  I also checked out a number of other assembly kitchen in the area, and I thought Dane's food was by far the best.

When Now We're Cooking went out of business, Dane began delivering meals to pickup locations in the Tri-Valley area.  Although he doesn't do home delivery in this area, he does deliver freshly-made meals to Crow Canyon Wines in San Ramon and Gene's Fine Foods in Pleasanton.  

He's now expanded his menu to include a number of favorites from Now We're Cooking.  I've given him recipes of a bunch of your favorites (in exchange for a VERY generous donation to my kids' school auction).  He's incorporating them into his menu, a few at a time.

In March, he's offering three of your all-time favorites:  Marinated Skirt Steak with Bleu Cheese or Shallot Butter (he's adding sesame noodles, too!); Southern Pulled Pork Sandwiches, which he's improved with a side of Linguica Baked Beans; and Hoisin-Glazed Meatloaf.  In addition to these dishes, he has other delicious offerings, including Thai-Coconut Bouillabaisse and Chicken Puff Pastry Pot Pies.

Place your order at Chef Dane's Kitchen in Santa Clara.  Let him know about your Now We're Cooking favorites, and I'll make sure he gets those recipes, too!  Thanks so much to Dane for keeping some of our favorites available.

Academy Awards Party Menu

I love to host parties.  However, my friends have picked most of the traditional holidays for their annual parties.  BJ has the 4th of July, my sister-in-law has Christmas Eve, Rebecca has Memorial Day, and Heather has Labor Day.  So when I was trying to find an occasion for my annual party, the only thing I could think of was the Academy Awards.  I don't care much about the Academy Awards. Since I've had kids, most of the movies I've seen involve animation or talking animals.  But it's a reason to host a party, and people have a great time.

This year, I decided to have a Bollywood theme.  The guest are coming in festive Bollyw00d-style attire (saris, or bright clothes and lots of jewelry).  Jessica will be doing henna tattoos for those who'd like them.  And I'm doing an Americanized Indian feast.  I'm combining dishes in ways that are neither authentic nor respectful of regional variations.  And I'm modifying the spices to be more palatable to American tastes.  But we'll still get the idea.

One of the things I love about Indian cooking is that it's very easy to put together a menu that accommodates vegetarians without making them feel like they're missing something.  In addition, the heavy incorporation of legumes makes Indian food a great choice for an inexpensive but sumptuous feast.

Bollywood Academy Awards Menu

Veggies and Pita with hummus and chutneys 

Chicken Tikka Masala  (spiced chicken in a tomato cream sauce)
Saag Paneer  (spinach and cheese)
Gajar Matar (spiced peas and carrots)
Empress Dal (spiced lentils)
Chana Masala (chickpea stew)
Raita (yogurt sauce to cool the heat)
Various chutneys
Naan (bread)
Basmati Rice with Cinnamon & Saffron

Red Carpet Cake (banana cake with cream cheese frosting)
Chocolate Fondue (OK, not Indian, but it's yummy!)