Category: Cooking

Dipping My Toes Back In

On By Cultivate WellnessIn CookingLeave a comment

Holy bananas, you guys. I’m coming upon four weeks since getting Covid and I’m just now starting to feel like I have the energy and bandwidth to plan recipes and cook. It has been quite the rollercoaster. Some days I feel great, and some days I have no energy whatsoever and it’s a miracle I can get off the couch. I’ve always had a strong reaction to viruses, so this isn’t entirely surprising, but it hasn’t been fun and I look forward to the day I feel “normal” again (whatever that means). Covid keeps throwing surprises at me. For instance, last night I developed a full body of hives out of nowhere. Upon doing some Googling, I found out this is not unusual in the recovery stage of Covid. Seems my immune system is still pretty revved up. That’s fun. As someone who got all the vaccine doses possible, and who took Paxlovid (as recommended by one of my doctors who knows my history), I’m certainly glad I didn’t go through this without those added protections. And now on to more fun things!

Firstly, did you know how easy it is to make a green salad? I used to shy away from salads because it felt like a lot of work and/or I didn’t feel super great about the dressing choices I was making. I finally took a note from some of the yummiest Italian restaurants I’ve been to, who serve some of the simplest but most delicious salads. My go to is a a few big handfuls of arugula, a handful of cherry tomatoes sliced in half, several slices of cucumber cut in quarters, a drizzle of olive oil, a drizzle of any type of vinegar you have (or lemon juice), some large flake salt and a few dashes of pepper. It’s so good, so easy, and completely homemade. No emulsifying of ingredients, no fussiness. If you want to add some shaved parmesan or pine nuts or mozzarella pearls, or canned garbanzo beans, go for it! A lot of times for a side to my lunch, I will just have the arugula with the dressing, and it’s still delicious.

Secondly, I bought a big bag of pre-washed kale, and today I am going to be making some kale chips. The whole family likes them, but honestly there might not be any left by the time they come home. They are best when fresh out of the oven, but I keep them in a bowl on the counter and every time I walk by during the day I grab a few.

And finally, I’m a big fan of sheet pan meals. They make cleaning up easy, and I haven’t met one that wasn’t easy and delicious. I’m planning this salmon, asparagus and potato recipe for tonight.

Hope you have a nourishing week.

Pivot

On By Cultivate WellnessIn Cooking1 Comment

Remember last week how I said my allergies were SO BAD? It turns out that it wasn’t just allergies making me miserable, it was my first bout of Covid. I tested negative on Monday, woke up Tuesday, wrote my blog, and then tested again. This time it was positive. As Tina Fey’s character on 30 Rock Liz Lemon would say: BLURGH. I immediately went into isolation and started on Paxlovid. Thankfully, after six days of a very mild (by Covid standards) course of illness, I tested negative. I’m still quite tired but hopefully the worst is behind me.

Needless to say, none of the cooking plans I had for last week materialized. Whenever I’m sick I crave Pho and Tom Yum soup, so I started there, ordering in. I moved on to noodles and spring rolls. Then my husband and daughter left for admitted students day at my daughter’s college, a trip I was supposed to take her on, *sigh*. I proceeded to order in a falafel wrap from an African deli and a kale and vegan chorizo salad from a health food restaurant. And once, in a fit of feeling very sorry for myself, I ordered delivery from Taco Bell and a pint of Peanut Butter World ice cream by Ben & Jerry’s. I drank copious amounts of kombucha, Liquid IV, and water. Pro tip: Fill up an insulated large water jug with ice water, sliced lemons and sliced cucumbers. It’ll keep your water icy cold all day and night, and encourage a lot more consumption of liquids. Mine is 40 oz and has a straw, which makes it so easy just to take sips all day long. It is is from Target and you can find it here.

While I’m negative for Covid now, I’m still dealing with fatigue, so I plan to take it as easy as possible to reduce my chances of long term fatigue. That includes not doing a lot of (or possibly any) cooking this week, as standing up for longer periods doesn’t feel good. I ordered the chicken street taco kit from Costco yesterday. I like it because it comes with corn tortillas (whole grain) and cabbage as a topping along with the cheese. Overall, not a bad choice. I also bought more Rao’s sauce, which has been consistently rated the best jarred pasta sauce available. That on top of some Banza (garbanzo bean pasta) served with the easiest salad ever (arugula, squeeze of lemon, drizzle of olive oil, sprinkle of salt and pepper) makes for a great dinner. As for the rest of the meals this week, I’ll play it by ear. My husband works from about 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. these days, but he’s always more than happy to stop by the grocery to pick something up.

If you’re in the cooking mood, might I suggest this whole wheat orzo salad? I’m also partial to this braised chicken with green olives. And if you need some inspiration to let some things go, I still love this blog post from 2016. It resonates especially right now for so many reasons.

I hope you have a healthy week!

The Cooking Continues! This Week/Last Week

On By Cultivate WellnessIn CookingLeave a comment

I hope this finds you enjoying some spring-like weather wherever you are. Here in Minnesota the snow is verrrrrry slowly melting, but the sun has decided to come back out and the promise of spring is there.

Last week’s dinner plan went well, and I continue to lean into pivoting with ingredients and sometimes entire menus when needed. One example is the Kathleen Ashmore salad from Monday. I opened the container of arugula to find that it had gone completely bad before I had a chance to use it. The only other thing I had on hand was half of a green cabbage, so I went with it. Not at all the same taste or texture, but it worked. Yesterday I had a persistent allergy headache from all the snow mold (the stuff that grows under the snow on the grass that is uncovered when the snow melts) so I let myself off the hook and instead of making this penne from Sunday’s plan, I threw together penne with jarred Rao’s tomato sauce and instead of the original plan of warm spinach salad, my daughter made a delicious spinach salad with cucumbers, pine nuts, shaved parmesan and this homemade balsamic vinaigrette. Perfect.

This week I’m doing something a little different. I bought ingredients for four different meals, and I am going to let my mood dictate what I make on each day Monday-Thursday. What can I say, I’m feeling sassy (I told you spring was in the air). The recipes for this week are: Kathleen Ashmore Quinoa Glow Salad, this yummy looking Mediterranean vegetable soup, these easy Chicken Sheet Pan Nachos (a request from my daughter), and Simple Veggie Curry. We have salad greens and leftover balsamic vinaigrette, plus some garlic naan in the freezer, so we can have some easy sides to accompany the appropriate dishes.

Here are a couple less-than-ideal photos of what I made last week.

Cabbage salad with white beans and roasted tomatoes
Lentil Stew topped with avocado and cilantro

Have a tasty week!

This Week’s Menu/Last Week’s Success

On By Cultivate WellnessIn Cooking1 Comment

It’s a sunny “warm” day in Minneapolis and I can just feel my energy levels rising. But fair warning: once it’s golf and “outside” season, my cooking tends to fall off a cliff. When it’s gorgeous here, we make full use of the beautiful weather, which means less time spent around a stove. I’m going to try hard to plan ahead for more slow cooker and Instant Pot meals, plus hearty salads that can withstand the refrigerator for a few days so that we will usually have something healthy to eat. It just might look a little more loosely organized than usual.

So, how did last week’s meal plans go (click here to read last week’s blog and access the recipes)? Great! I mostly adhered to the plan. Monday’s scallops were a bit of a bummer because I accidentally bought the tiny bay scallops instead of the nice big buttery ones. But that family still enjoyed them. Tuesday was a cluster because I was late for everything, and forgot that I would be doing something from 4-5:30. I came home in a bad mood (daylight savings time sucks, and I hate it) and was *thisclose* to bailing on the Sicilian chickpea soup, but my daughter sat and kept me company while I cooked and I’m so glad I did it. The soup was delicious, and cooking usually puts me in a better mood. We did in fact go out Wednesday (happy retirement Mark!) and on Thursday we had more delicious food from Eat for Equity. Friday I made the crock pot corned beef meal, which was so delicious that I ate it for three days straight. Saturday night instead of more Eat for Equity, we ordered in sushi from Ama (so good! We love it there!) and last night I decided to bail on making the casserole because we had Italian Wedding Soup and radicchio salad from E4E that we had planned on eating Saturday. I love it when things work out relatively well. I also realize that committing to something and following through when possible feels great. I did a terrible job of taking photos of my meals, but I did remember to snap one of the Sicilian chickpea soup!

Sicilian Chickpea Soup

This week is wonky due to a lot of different activities, so I’m going to try to roll with it even if we aren’t all eating together.

MONDAY – This Kathleen Ashmore salad with garlic naan. My daughter has a dentist appointment at dinner time and then I’m going to play paddle, so this salad will be available for whomever.

TUESDAY – This crock pot Mediterranean lentil stew served over brown rice.

WEDNESDAY – My husband is out at a basketball game and I don’t know that my daughter will be home either, so I’m designating it a “fend night”. There will be leftovers available so will probably dig into those.

THURSDAY – Eat for Equity!

FRIDAY – Order in or eat out

SATURDAY – Eat for Equity

SUNDAY – Penne with roasted tomatoes served with a warm spinach salad (from the America’s Test Kitchen Complete Mediterranean Cookbook). Try this similar penne recipe one, which looks delicious. And this similar spinach salad recipe.

And I think that’s it! I hope you have a delicious week!

What We Ate Last Week & What’s On The Menu This Week

On By Cultivate WellnessIn Cooking, Health and wellness, mediterannean, Nutrition, Recipes1 Comment

Remember how a few weeks ago I said that most of the time my meal plans go awry for some reason or another? This last week was the perfect example. Monday and Tuesday went great, when I made farotto and a salad (risotto made with farro) and Tuscan bean soup with bruschetta, respectively. Wednesday things went off the rails when I found out the rest of my family had things going on and would not be joining me for dinner. So, I kept the scallops in the freezer and ordered myself Crisp & Green for takeout. I love C&G salads, but I’m a little irritated that probably 50% of the time something is wrong with my order. Still, they are really yummy and healthy so I keep getting them. Thursday, we had Eat for Equity as planned, and Friday my husband got us reservations at Martina, one of my favorite places to eat and have a cocktail. We had scallops, pasta, and Brussels sprout salad, with a delicious banana caramel crepe for dessert. Our plans Saturday were foiled because our paddle party was cancelled due to weather, so we punted and had more Eat for Equity. We tried watching Jurassic World Dominion but it was just meh so we switched to our daughter’s high school’s championship hockey game, which was super fun to watch, and they won state! Sunday I heated up the lasagne from Eat for Equity and we had that and a salad while watching the Oscars. My daughter put together this fun snack tray below. Yes, there’s candy and cookies there! And microwave popcorn. These are all ok (we practice moderation). I lost the Oscar’s ballot competition by a mile.

Oscar’s Snack Tray
Bruschetta with fresh tomatoes and garlic
Farrotto, made with farro, asparagus, peas and parmesan
Romaine with strawberries and goat cheese with a vinaigrette
Tuscan white bean soup with kale

Moving on to this week’s plan!

MONDAY: The scallop recipe from last week’s post, along with some leftover roasted vegetables from Eat For Equity.

TUESDAY: Sicilian chickpea and escarole soup with whole grain bread dipped in olive oil.

WEDNESDAY: We have a retirement party to attend, so we will be out (on a school night!)

THURSDAY: Eat for Equity

FRIDAY: Corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. I’ve been told this is not an actual traditional St. Patrick’s meal, but I love corned beef and cabbage and eat it once a year, at most, on this day.

SATURDAY: Eat for Equity

SUNDAY: French onion soup casserole. My daughter and I are big fans of French onion soup, and this just looks cozy and delicious and I love the addition of white beans. Sadly, winter is far from over here, so this recipe just spoke to me, and it came highly recommended.

I hope you have a delicious and restful week! I will need some extra zzz’s thanks to Daylight Savings Time.

The Goal: Better Sleep

On By Cultivate WellnessIn Cooking2 Comments

Daylight Savings Time started today, which means the vast majority of people in the US “sprung forward” one hour in the middle of the night. It feels like one hour shouldn’t make a huge difference, but the fact is, heart attacks, strokes, and car accidents all increase in the days after DST.

Aside from DST and its effects, I’ve been thinking a lot about sleep in general lately. As a 48 year old woman in perimenopause, I’ve noticed sleep changes in the last couple of years that affect how rested I feel the next day. And I’m not alone – so many of my female friends tell me they are up at all hours of the night, suffering from night sweats, insomnia, and general feelings of exhaustion. I’m so tired some days it’s hard to function (which, admittedly, could also have something to do with the incessant snow and cloudy days we’ve been enduring this winter). While I’m hoping this will all work itself out over the course of this hormonal shift I’m going through, I feel like there are some things that I am doing recently that have been helpful. And there are some things I’m going to try this spring that I’m hoping will also help. I’m not a doctor or a medical professional, so if you want to try any of the supplements or modalities I’m discussing below, please make sure you consult with one before you start.

MAGNESIUM: I’ve been taking magnesium at night for years. I generally take 250 mg a night of Magnesium Citrate. Known as the “relaxing supplement”, I have noticed it really does make a huge difference. On nights when I forget to take it, my sleep is much worse. That being said, actual evidence is thin. Read this for more info.

EYE MASK: I started using this eye mask recently, which blocks out all light from my eyes. We live in a more urban setting which includes city lights making the sky brighter, street lights, security floodlights on neighbors’ houses, planes flying overhead, ambulances speeding down our street, etc. Plus both of our digital clocks are bright. Using this mask has helped me to sleep so much more deeply. It has an adjustable nose piece that lets you pinch it shut to your liking. At just about $10, it’s affordable and effective.

MELATONIN BODY LOTION: I tried out this lotion on my lower back/SI joints before bed, and holy cow. It made me sleep HARD. It also gave me incredibly vivid and imaginative dreams. I’m not sure the effects the day after are desirable, as I do feel like even though I slept great the night before, I felt some “hangover” effects from the melatonin. I’m one of those people who is sensitive to melatonin though. If you aren’t, this could be really useful for you.

BORING PODCASTS: I started listening to the podcast called Boring Books at Bedtime last month and it works like magic. A woman with a really soothing voice literally just reads super boring books. The benefit of this is that it allows my brain to shut off and I usually fall asleep within a few minutes. Otherwise, my brain goes into overdrive and sometimes won’t shut off. I also do meditation apps, which are super helpful. I like Calm and Headspace.

WHITE NOISE: I have tinnitus (that annoying ringing in your ears all. the. time.) To cover up that noise, we keep a fan or humidifier going all the time at night.

KEEPING MY ROOM COOL: I have started cracking the window at night, even in the dead of winter. When I don’t, I wake up sweaty. When I do, I sleep much more peacefully.

WEIGHTED BLANKET: I love mine, and when I travel and don’t have one, I can tell the difference. Mine is old and out of stock, but there are tons of options out there.

There are some things I do that are huge no-no’s in terms of sleep hygiene, such as looking at my phone up until the minute I put it down to go to sleep, having a TV in the room, and drinking caffeine in the afternoon. We cannot be perfect, and up until recently I didn’t feel like those habits were detrimental to my sleep. I’m willing to revisit those if my sleep quality tanks.

What I am willing to do right now:

BLUE FILTER GLASSES: These were recommended by the New York Times and are under $10. Easy.

ABSTAIN FROM ALCOHOL MOST DAYS: I have started recently reserving Fridays and Saturdays (and occasionally Sunday) for my favorite cocktail or glass of wine, and staying “dry” the other nights. I am committing to doing this through the spring to see if it helps my sleep. I know it’s healthy in a lot of other ways, too!

What do you use to help you sleep at night? Drop a comment below! For those dealing with a time change, I hope this next week isn’t too painful!

What I Cooked Last Week/What I Plan To Cook This Week

On By Cultivate WellnessIn Cooking, health, Health and wellness, high cholesterol, mediterannean, Nutrition, Recipes1 Comment

I have been really enjoying having my meal plan set each week, as well as having the time and energy to actually adhere to it. That wasn’t alway the case, so if it’s not in the cards for you these days to stick to a meal plan, don’t worry. I’m in a season of life where it’s possible and also fun for me to cook a lot. We’ve gone through seasons where we were doing a lot of “fending” for ourselves, or scraping together whatever, or picking up dinner on the way home. The best way to ensure you hate cooking is to hold yourself to some arbitrary standard that doesn’t fit in with your current life.

So, if you’ll remember from last week’s post, I planned to make roast cod with chermoula and broccolini on Monday, peanut and veggie soup from the freezer on Tuesday, pasta with zucchini and tomatoes with a salad with Marcona almonds and manchego cheese on Wednesday, Eat for Equity on Thursday and Saturday (we got hot pot! Some beef and some vegan with tofu), over to friends on Friday and Crappy Dinner Party on Sunday. How did it go? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday went according to plan. When I went to make the pasta on Wednesday, I realized I didn’t have enough fresh tomatoes, so I broke out a jar of Rao’s (seriously, it really is the best tasting jarred pasta you can get, and it’s available at Costco) and did a little riffing. It turned out delicious. Make sure to check out the post from last week if you want recipes. So, what didn’t go according to plan? By Saturday we had eaten most of the Eat for Equity food, our daughter was out, and we had hosted friends for cocktails and bites (olives, cheese and crackers, veggies and hummus) so we didn’t need a full dinner. I had a bowl of Trader Joe’s O’s cereal. Sunday, our Crappy Dinner Party was postponed so we pivoted and ordered from one of our favorite places, Edina Grill. We got two Thai chicken and brown rice bowls (so delicious) and a chopped Italian salad. Here are some photos from dinners last week.

Cod with chermoula, white beans with herbed oil, and broccolini.
Vegan Hot Pot from Eat for Equity, topped with kimchi.
Whole wheat spaghetti with zucchini and pine nuts.

On to this week’s plan. All recipes are from America’s Test Kitchen Complete Mediterranean Cookbook, but I have found the same or very similar recipe links elsewhere. As you can see, my pattern is to make dinner Mon/Tues/Wednesday and then the rest of the week is sort of loosey goosey. We are so lucky to have Eat for Equity to fill in some gaps, and I keep stuff in the freezer and pantry that we can make meals out of.

MONDAY – Farrotto with pancetta, asparagus and peas, and an arugula and pear salad with goat cheese

TUESDAY – Tuscan bean soup with bruschetta

WEDNESDAY – Seared scallops with orange lime dressing and skillet-roasted cauliflower with capers and pine nuts

THURSDAY – Eat for Equity

FRIDAY – Either more Eat for Equity, or go out

SATURDAY – Pizza and paddle (click here if you’re wondering what paddle tennis is. We play it in the winter here in Minnesota).

SUNDAY – TBD, not sure if we are doing Crappy Dinner Party. It’s the Oscars so maybe we will do something fun around that.

I hope you all have a great week ahead and feed yourselves well, whatever that means to you.

What I Cooked Last Week/What I Plan To Cook This Week

On By Cultivate WellnessIn Cooking, Health and wellness, Nutrition, Recipes2 Comments

I got a lot of interest in my meal planning post last week. And it makes sense. There are some weeks when I sit down to plan the menu for the week and I think “What do I even cook?” My mind just goes completely blank. It’s nice to see what other people are doing with their cooking lives and get new ideas.

First things first: how closely did my actual cooking life last week resemble the plan? I give myself an 9/10. The only change was that on Wednesday I made homemade chicken noodle soup out of the leftover roast chicken because my kiddo wasn’t feeling well. (FYI, if your celery is looking anemic and bendy, throw it in some soup instead of tossing it in the garbage or compost). So I punted on the coconut curry until Thursday, which punted the Eat For Equity meal until Friday. Which means on Friday instead of going out or ordering in, we assembled the most amazing shrimp po’ boys topped with coleslaw made with miso dressing and collards with raisins. We were supposed to go out with friends Saturday but that stupid cold that’s going around foiled our plans, so while our daughter was out, we ate Po’ Boy leftovers and watched the Yellowstone prequel 1923. This time we also ate braised butter beans along with it, also from Eat For Equity. And tonight, we are going out, an usual plan for us for Sunday evening. Anyway, maybe I should give myself an 11/10 for cooking an additional meal this week. Here are some photos of the things we ate. As I keep saying, I’m not a professional blogger who curates amazing photos. I’m a real person who doesn’t have the patience to stage a photo, so you’ll see real-life depictions of what food actually looks like.

Coconut Curry Lentils
Oven roasted garlic
Burst tomato pasta with basil and parmesan

This week, I plan on making the following (they are all from the America’s Test Kitchen The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook so I’ll provide similar recipe links. OR you can buy the book or pay to have access to the recipes online):

MONDAY: Roast cod with chermoula (a sauce made with cilantro and other delicious things), and broccolini with garlic and red pepper flakes.

TUESDAY: I’m chaperoning my daughter’s Model United Nations conference and then playing paddle (if you don’t know, definitely watch the video link. It’s such a fun winter sport!) Tuesday late afternoon, so I’ll be pulling out a peanut stew with winter vegetables from the freezer that I ordered from Eat for Equity. The recipe is from Bryant Terry’s Afro Vegan Cookbook. I plan on serving it with toasted sourdough.

WEDNESDAY: Pasta with zucchini and tomatoes and pine nuts, served with a green salad with Marcona almonds and manchego cheese.

THURSDAY: Eat For Equity

FRIDAY: Out

SATURDAY: Eat For Equity

SUNDAY: Crappy Dinner Party (if you don’t know about this yet, read about it here). It’s our turn to host, and I’m thinking maybe my husband can smoke something in our smoker, TBD).

I also plan on making a chopped salad with chickpeas along the way for lunch. Something like this but with my leftover goat cheese instead of feta. As usual, I will also probably eat avocado toast with an easy salad once or twice. Here’s a photo of what my lunches look like most days.

I hope you all have a delicious and healthy week ahead.

What I Plan To Cook This Week

On By Cultivate WellnessIn Cooking, Health and wellness, high cholesterol, Nutrition, Recipes2 Comments

This will be interesting, because many (most?) times my menu plan and what I end up cooking are vastly different. Either I realize not everyone will be home for dinner, or we have so much leftover food it doesn’t make sense to make a new meal, or I get a headache and don’t feel like cooking, or whatever other life stuff pops up. But having a menu plan is good! It helps to make sure I’m buying only the food I need, and keeps me focused on cooking healthy meals vs. falling into the takeout trap.

Here’s what the menu plan looks like for this week. I hope to circle back at the end of the week and report back on what actually happened! Either way, I hope this gives you some inspiration.

MONDAY – Burst cherry tomato pasta with a simple arugula salad (literally lemon juice or rice vinegar and a drizzle of olive oil, sprinkled with s+p) and sourdough bread toasted and dipped in olive oil. If I’m really feeling myself, I’ll roast a head of garlic until it’s soft and spreadable and serve that with the sourdough.

TUESDAY – Roast whole chicken (I buy it cut into pieces), herb new potatoes (I buy the container that you just microwave) and roasted cauliflower with pine nuts and capers. This recipe is from a cookbook and I can’t find it online, but if you google it, similar recipes will pop up. Easy enough to leave out the capers and pine nuts and just roast some cauliflower with the herbs and spices you like.

WEDNESDAY – Lentil crockpot curry served over brown rice. We have, by all accounts, a massive snowstorm coming from Tuesday through Thursday of this week. I imagine school might be cancelled, but even if not, we have appointments on Wednesday so I want to be able to put this in the crock pot and forget about it all day. If we are home we can enjoy the aroma, and if not, we will come home to a delicious and warming meal.

THURSDAY – We order meals every week from a local organization called Eat For Equity. We get two main dishes, two sides, two salads/soup/bread, and one dessert. It’s an amazing organization and the food is so yummy. I always say, it’s the food I would make if I had just a little more energy to make my dinners really special. They deliver every Thursday to our house. We usually eat E4E for dinner Thursday, and then throughout the weekend either as another dinner or as our lunches. We are so lucky to have this option! As a backup (because we are expecting 1-2 feet of snow overnight Wednesday and into Thursday), I am also planning to make a Greek white bean soup from a Mediterranean cookbook I have. Here’s a comparable recipe.

FRIDAY – We usually eat out or order in on Fridays. Sometimes we have an Eat for Equity meal, which I suspect will be the case this week because we have dinner out both Saturday and Sunday.

SATURDAY – We are going out with friends Saturday for dinner! For lunch, we will probably eat some of our E4E meals and if I feel motivated, I will make a salad of some sort.

SUNDAY – We will be going to a pasta dinner out. I’m excited because we get to pick our type of pasta plus all the add-ins. I’m not just saying this, but I love a pasta with tons of veggies in it, so I expect this will be really yummy.

If you’re wondering what I do for lunch during the week, mostly I eat leftovers, avocado toast, or Dr. Praeger’s California Veggie burger with raw sauerkraut. Once a week, I generally treat myself to a salad from Crisp & Green.

Please comment below with what you are cooking this week, if you’d like. I always like trying new recipes.

What I Cooked This Week

On By Cultivate WellnessIn CookingLeave a comment

Hi. It’s been a while. Bloggers who explain their long absences annoy me, so I’ll just start writing instead.

It was Valentine’s Day this week, and after 21 years of marriage and a husband who really doesn’t want more things, I decided instead to make a heart healthy Mediterranean inspired dinner. It consisted of this roasted salmon, this marinated lentils and butternut squash, this broccolini, a quick caprese salad (throw in baby tomatoes, mozzarella pearls, fresh basil, and season with olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette. Toss with s+p), and this apple crumble with a bit of Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream. I like HD because there are minimal, real ingredients (the vanilla contains only cream, skim milk, egg yolk, sugar, vanilla). Pictured here is everything besides the apple crumble. It took me several hours of cooking on and off to make this. A true labor of love.

My husband’s cholesterol is *high* recently thanks to genetics, and mine isn’t ideal either, so we have been more focused than ever on eating more heart healthy dishes. How can you, a nutritionist who loves to eat healthy, have *high* cholesterol, you might ask. Well first of all, there was a whole pandemic that upended everything. We were not immune to comfort eating (and drinking), high levels of stress, and all the things. Also, sometimes it’s just what happens. You can eat almost all the right things and still have high cholesterol.

One way to address high cholesterol through your diet is to read up on the Mediterranean Diet (when I say “diet” in this sense, it’s a way of eating and not a calorie restriction plan). Full of whole foods, lots of fruits and veggies, whole grains, moderate amounts of lean meats and fish, tons of herbs and spices, and healthy fats like olive oil and avocados, the Med diet is recommended and prescribed by doctors and nutritionists the world over for its heart healthy benefits. And there’s a saying that what’s good for the heart is also good for the brain, so if you have Alzheimer’s or dementia concerns, this diet is also probably a really good one to look into.

There’s a website called Oldways that has tons of free resources, including the Med Diet pyramid. There are also cookbooks galore out there. I just treated myself to this one by America’s Test Kitchen. I can’t wait to start making some recipes this weekend. I like American’s Test Kitchen because they explain to you the “why’s” behind everything.

If you’re looking to make some quick and simple Med inspired meals, you do not need to cook all day. Two nights ago for dinner I whipped up a very quick marinated white bean salad to serve over grilled sourdough. We had a Zoom meeting to attend at dinnertime so it was a pretty minimal meal that we ate in front of the computer. Into two cans of rinsed cannellini beans, I threw in some red wine vinegar and olive oil to taste. Chopped some marinated cherry peppers and threw those in, minced some garlic and parsley, and sprinkled some dried oregano. Seasoned with s+p and called it a day. It was so delicious (although I think five cloves of garlic was probably a bit much 🤣). It took all of 5-10 minutes to make.

This weekend I plan to make a chopped salad with garbanzo beans as well as an asparagus, red bell pepper, and goat cheese salad. Inflation is doing a number on all of our grocery purchases, but because I rarely buy meat I’m able to offset a little bit on cost. I’ll circle back next week with those recipes if they are any good!

Until then…