10,000 Vinyasas

love this multigrain hot cereal

I picked up some Bob’s Red Mill 7 Grain Hot Cereal the other day.  I have been a fan of Bob’s Red Mill brand of grains, pancake mixes, hot cereals, vegetable soup mixes and other baking products for quite some time, and this multigrain hot cereal is no exception.  It is thick, but not as thick as Bob’s Scottish Oatmeal, and presents a hearty, dense texture when cooked over the stove with raw whole milk.  In addition, I add cinnamon, nutmeg and walnuts or pecans, along with a touch of salt. Topped with some fresh berries, Bob’s 7 Grain Hot Cereal is all anyone could ask for in a quick and easy breakfast.  As an added bonus, and for those who pay attention to the quality of merchants with whom they do business,  I understand that Bob’s Red Mill is employee-owned!

Give this fine, high quality multigrain hot cereal a try.  I thought enough of it to buy it in bulk, and will be enjoying this hot cereal for quite a long time in the future.

10000 Vinyasas Review of Bob’s 7 Grain Hot Cereal

I stumbled across this ancient grain a few weeks ago, and liked the taste of the salad made with it, so I got some and last night made a delicious meal of it, using the following recipe for an outline:

Wilted Spinach Salad with Kamut and Sauteed Vegetables

Ingredients:

* 1 cup uncooked kamut, soaked overnight in cold water
* 3 cups fresh baby spinach
* 1 medium red onion, sliced 1/4″
* 3/4 lb yellow squash, sliced 1/4″
* 8 oz mushrooms, sliced thinly
* 1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
* 1/4 cup cubed Pecorino Romano
* 6 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
* 1 red pear, cored and sliced thinly
* 2 tsp Kosher salt
* fresh ground pepper to taste
* 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to saute
* 2-3 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar

Preparation:

1. Place the kamut in 4 cups water, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and allow to cook for 50-60 minutes. Drain and allow to cool slightly at room temperature.
2. Place the sliced squash in a medium bowl and toss with 1 tsp kosher salt. Allow it to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. This will draw out much of the water which would otherwise prevent the squash from caramelizing. Drain the squash and pat dry.
3. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large sauteuse over medium heat. Add the squash and saute for about two minutes until one side begins to brown, turn over and saute the other side for an additional two minutes, or until lightly brown. Remove from pan and set aside in a large bowl (you will build your salad in this bowl).
4. Add the sliced onion to the pan and saute until it begins to caramelize. Remove from pan and set aside with the squash.
5. Repeat step 4 with the garlic. Reduce the heat slightly.
6. Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pan. Add the sliced mushroom and stir in pan for one minute. Add one tablespoon of Balsamic vinegar and stir. Allow mushrooms to lightly brown and then remove and set aside with the squash.
7. Remove the pan from the heat. Add up to 1/4 cup of olive oil to the pan (*you might scale this back a little if you were heavy handed with the oil while sauteing) and 1-2 tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar. Stir to incoporate the brown bits into the warmed dressing. Pour over the sauteed vegetables. Add the pine nuts and kamut. Toss well.
8. Add the spinach, sliced pear, and 1 tsp of kosher salt and toss well, allowing the spinach to wilt.
9. Garnish each serving with some of the cubed Romano. Sprinkle with fresh ground black pepper, and salt if desired, to taste.

I left out the spinach and pear, and changed the cheese to something I had already, but overall, this worked out extremely well. Give Kamut a try; it’s available, probably, in your local bulk bins.

For some reason, this popped into my head the other day: granola! Of course I had to try to make some. Here’s the recipe I cribbed off the internet, modified of course to my own needs:

4 cups oats (3 regular, 1 rye)
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
a bunch of mixed nuts (cashew, almond, pecan, walnut, macadamia)
a bit of vanilla
1/3 cup flax seed
some salt
cinnamon
about half a cup of shredded coconut

mix oats, nuts and flax seed together, spread out on nonstick baking pan. Melt coconut oil, add to maple syrup along with vanilla, cinnamon and salt. Add this to the pan of oats and stir. Bake at 325 for 15 minutes, stir, and bake again for 15 minutes.

Ok, this turned out really well, and is yet another item you don’t need to buy at the store. Just get the ingredients and mix it up!

I got this from Amazon, using their 15% off discount for Subscribe and Save. It comes in small plastic bags, and looks somewhat like steel-cut oats. Anyway, I tried it this morning; here’s my first impressions: interesting texture. Reminds me of the Cream of Rice hot cereal I used to eat when I was a kid. Thick and hearty when prepared with 1% milk. Good flavor; easy to make. Highly recommend. Of course, this stuff isn’t cheap; as I’ve mentioned before, buying your own cereal ingredients from bulk bins is the cheapest way to go, and offers the most control. Still, it’s good to have some variety.

There’s a Zen Buddhist saying about bringing presence into every part of your life, even the most mundane of activities. Viewed in that light, my morning espresso-making ritual approaches that of a religious experience, considering the care and time I take to make my three shots of espresso every day. Let’s just walk through this: one has to fill the boiler of the machine (with specially filtered water, of course), turn it on, wait for the machine to heat up, warm an espresso cup in the microwave, wait some more, grind beans, dose ground coffee into basket, lock portafilter and basket into grouphead of machine, pull lever up, wait ten seconds, pull lever down halfway, pull up again, slowly pull lever all the way down while observing the espresso coming out of the naked portafilter. Here’s the payoff: drink the espresso, savor the fullness and subtlety of the flavors and the jolt of caffeine. If I get energetic some morning, I may post a video of the whole thing. Just a little coffee action on a day when I sold my “extra” espresso machine…to celebrate, I suppose, and consider how much I do appreciate this whole process. I’ve left out the coffee bean roasting, which takes place typically about four or five days before the actual making of the espresso (since the fresh roasted beans need to rest before consumption), but is likewise filled with details, none of which I’m sure you want to hear about.

Menu for dinner tonight: Wild Sockeye Salmon,topped with pecans and raspberry chipotle sauce, accompanied by green beans, mushrooms and quinoa.

Here’s one from a soup cookbook that friend Barbara gave me the other day. It was kitchen-tested last week. Verdict: easy, simple, delicious. Give it a try.

2tsp butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 lb. zucchini, sliced
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 cup sour cream, plus extra to garnish

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook about 3 minutes until it begins to soften.
Add the zucchini, stock and curry, along with a large pinch of salt, if using unsalted stock. Bring the soup to a boil, reduce heat, cover and let cook gently for about 25 minutes until vegetables are tender.

Allow the soup to cool slightly, then transfer to a blender or food processor and blend, just until smooth (there should be green flecks present).

Return soup to sauce pan, stir in sour cream, and heat gently.

Serve with sour cream garnish on top.

Yield: 4 servings.

I modified this with goat butter and plain yogurt instead of sour cream. Very nice.

10. The ingredients are inferior. Think you’re getting organic spinach in your salad? I doubt it. This goes double for salmon, which is invariably farmed and contains harmful PCBs.

9. Alcoholic beverages are outrageously priced. Generally, a glass of wine sells for about as much as you can buy the entire bottle in the store. Some establishments resist the temptation to vastly overcharge, but they are rare. Get ready to pay out the nose if you want to drink.

8. Actually, there’s really no telling what could be in that dish you just ordered. The people in the back (see rule #7) might pour a bunch of sugar or corn syrup in there, just to make it taste “better.” Too much salt is also entirely too common.

7. Generally, felons are employed back in the kitchen. I’m not making this up; it’s one of the few areas where people with a criminal record can still find work. Would you invite someone like this into your kitchen to serve you food? I think not.

6. Noise. Apparently, many many restaurant owners think an ear-splitting volume equates to a convivial atmosphere, so little or no noise-reducing materials are used. This does not make for an setting of tranquility and serenity.

5. The temptation to eat crap is too much, when it’s all around you. I’m talking here about white processed flour and sugar. You might be a saint at home, but when it’s staring you up at you from the bread basket, it becomes much harder to stick to your chosen dietary path of avoiding raising your glycemic levels.

4. Poor service and an expected tip for same. We’ve all experienced this one, I’m sure.

3. The sanitary condition of the establishment is also a concern. Periodic inspections by your local health department are necessary, but not sufficient. Do you want to take the time to examine the certificate and do other “homework” to ensure that you’re not risking infection before you decide to patronize a restaurant?

2. Did you know many of the dishes you think are uniquely prepared in the restaurant are in fact delivered frozen on a truck? Why not just skip the dining out and just go straight to the freezer at the grocery store? Google Sysco if you think I’m kidding.

1. If you take even a small amount of time and effort, you can create dishes at home that are much better and cheaper than you will find at almost any restaurant. You’ll know you’re getting to that point when your reaction to most of the offered cuisine at an establishment is “I could make this at home, better.”

Here’s a Thanksgiving tradition at my house (actually, my parents’, which is where Turkey Day takes place since time immemorial), that I started when I dug the recipe out of the newspaper (back when we had a newspaper). Now, it seems that most of the family expects me to appear with it, so here goes:

Almond Squash Soup

4 tablespoons butter
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
1 leek, white part only, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1/2 stalk celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
4 ounces (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup flour
4 medium yellow squash, diced into 3/4 inch pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons rosemary, minced
5 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup toasted almonds
1 cup half and half, or as needed
salt and pepper to taste

Melt 4 tablespoons butter in medium sized pan, then add onion, leek, carrot, celery and garlic, and saute gently until tender, about 8-10 minutes.
While vegetables are cooking, make a roux. Melt 4 ounces butter in separate pan, add flour, stirring in well. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently, about 8 minutes. Remove roux from heat and set aside until needed.
When vegetables are tender, add squash and saute 8 more minutes. Add rosemary and stock, and bring mixture to a boil. Add prepared roux, stir to blend, and allow mixture to cook and thicken about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and puree in blender, along with toasted almonds, until smooth. Heat half and half and add to soup until desired consistency is reached. Season with salt and pepper as desired.
Yield: 8 servings

I modify this recipe somewhat, depending upon (yes!) what I have in the kitchen. Also, in the past I’ve used skim milk instead of half and half and whole milk. I think the flavor doesn’t suffer.

Honestly, I don’t know why, but this was very very good. I’ve made pasta quite a bit in my life, but this Italian super premium stuff really is to die for. It improves your cooking immensely. I could be wrong about this, but I’ve done this twice now, and it’s been awesome. My best guess…

Well, here is yet another example of the industrial food system, and it’s corrupt influence on the persons in charge of regulating it, in a story about how a new labeling program called “Smart Choices” allows such fine processed foods as Froot Loops to be deemed healthy, or, in the words of the captivated Eileen T. Kennedy, president of the Smart Choices board and the dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, at least the least worst option: “You’re rushing around, you’re trying to think about healthy eating for your kids and you have a choice between a doughnut and a cereal,” Dr. Kennedy said, evoking a hypothetical parent in the supermarket. “So Froot Loops is a better choice.”

Ho ho ho…Thanks, doc. Just for reference, this product is 42% sugar by weight. As one commentator mentioned, surely the doughnut would be better than a tub of lard, so let’s give the doughnut the Smart Choices check too. Actually, I don’t really think you should be buying stuff that has a nutrition label on it; these are processed foods not deserving of your attention. Once again, it’s difficult to come to any other conclusion except that the industrial food system is untrustworthy and no one should buy their products. Here are some of the participants: Kellogg’s, Kraft Foods, ConAgra Foods, Unilever, General Mills, PepsiCo and Tyson Foods.

Just don’t buy. Just don’t.

I’ve been meaning to try composting for quite awhile…just something that seemed to be a good thing to do, but hadn’t gotten around to it until recently, when I purchased a small kitchen bin from a local discount store. About a foot high, it seemed kind of small, but what the hey, let’s give this a shot. Well. I was just amazed, after using it a couple of weeks, at how much kitchen refuse this thing swallowed up. It seemed to be full, but then you press it down a bit, and voila! it goes back down. I’ve put an enormous amount of stuff into this thing (lots of coffee grounds, natch) and it still refuses to fill up. This item has really exceeded my wildest expectations. I mean, the amount of biodegradable kitchen material that we discard is just amazing, when you look at it, and the second thing that ran through my head was, “why doesn’t everyone do this?” I mean really, it’s so easy and so cheap, and requires no effort at all. Just another example of how ridiculously wasteful our industrialized society is, and a hint of how much more we could all do, or at least some of us, if we wanted to.

Here’s a very nice and simple recipe for stuffed portobello mushrooms. Mushrooms, of course, are one of the mysteries of the natural world; we aren’t sure what they are, exactly. A plant, a fungus, who knows? Well, for our purposes, they have quite a “meaty” taste and are excellent in many many dishes. Here is one that will make you smile:

6 or 8 portobello mushrooms, remove stems (don’t discard, they go well in the Mexican Flag Omelet)
tiny amount of red/green bell peppers, chopped
one or two cloves of garlic, chopped
small amount of feta cheese bits
tiny amount of onion, chopped

Put all ingredients into mushroom caps, bake in oven at 400 for awhile. This would be for a single serving, so add more of everything if you’re sharing. Takes about 10-15 minutes. Here’s a picture of some I made tonight:

Tuesdays, unless I’m working, I usually take the time to whip up a two egg omelet, with lots of veggies. Topped with salsa and cheese, this is one of my favorite breakfasts. The salsa tends to come from a local Mexican food chain, Taco Cabana, which is one of my food “vices.” They do, however, produce an excellent selection of red, green, and brown salsas in a town that’s got rugged competition in this category. Hence, the name “Mexican flag omelet.” The usual vegetables tend to be red and green peppers, onion, spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, and a bit of cumin sprinkled on top. Well, anyway, here it is….

Made this last night, with some wild Alaskan halibut I just received from www.pristinesalmon.com(highly recommended for fish right off the boat):

Title: Roasted Fish Fillets with Dill and Spinach
(4 Servings)

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
4 6-oz skinless fish fillets IE: SNAPPER or HALIBUT
1 tbs fresh lemon juice
4 tsp Dijon mustard
8 tbs finely chopped fresh dill or 2 tbs dried dillweed
1 tsp olive oil (preferably extra-virgin)
2 10-oz packages fresh spinach leaves, stems trimmed, rinsed, drained
1 garlic clove, minced
1 lemon, quartered lengthwise

Preheat oven to 450F. Spray glass baking dish with
nonstick vegetable oil spray.

Arrange fish fillets in dish and sprinkle with 1 tbs fresh lemon juice.
Spread 1 tsp Dijon mustard over each fillet.
Sprinkle fish with 7 tbs chopped dill.
Bake until fish fillets are just cooked through, about 10 minutes
Meanwhile, heat olive oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat.
Add spinach and minced garlic and stir just until spinach is wilted,
about 3 minutes.
Using tongs, transfer spinach to serving platter, leaving pan juices
behind;
top with fish fillets.
Garnish with remaining 1 tbs. chopped dill and lemon wedges.
PER SERVING: calories, 270; fat, 4 g; sodium, 342 mg; cholesterol, 34 mg

For those of us who have migrated to whole grains, bought from the bulk bins of local grocers (well, there are no local grocers anymore, just chains), here’s a quick hint to prevent certain, well, bugs and offspring of same from reproducing while in your pantry: freeze the items for a couple of days after you get them home. This should be enough to kill off the potential sources of protein which might one day look up at you from your cereal bowl.

Here’s another one from the “home alone” department: I love fresh berries, in my cereal and elsewhere, and tend to want to buy a lot of them at once, for financial and convenience reasons. Alas, we find that these little devils tend to spoil relatively quickly, making their quick consumption a priority. Strawberries tend to be the worst, but all varieties are subject to this to some degree. To that end, here’s one way to dispose of a great many berries at once: a smoothie. Here’s one recipe for a nice one:

cup of blueberries
2 or 3 strawberries
1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 cup orange juice
some walnuts
couple of tablespoons each of oat and rye flakes
6 ounce cup of plain or vanilla yogurt (try to get the ones with the least sugar)
some ice cubes
(optional) banana, peanut butter, protein powder

Mix it all up in your blender and enjoy the taste of health and frugality.

Here’s an interesting article on whether it makes sense to make your own food (assuming you have and are willing to spend the time). Hint: mostly, it does. I noticed that bread is specifically not mentioned, but the other items are thought-provoking. Bagels: yes. Cream cheese: no. Yogurt: yes (this is on my list to try next) Jam: mostly yes. Crackers: probably not (but why are you eating them anyway?) Granola: yes.

Couple of small crab pizzas I made for lunch one day, and yes, that is a bite taken out of one…couldn’t wait.

Lunch!

I posted before on the value of oatmeal. Since then, I’ve been refining and adding to my original formulation, to the point that I believe I now have the quintessential hot multigrain cereal (it’s changed so much, you can’t really call it oatmeal any more) recipe, and here it is:

A spoonful of each:
oat flakes
steel cut oats
rye flakes
amaranth
hard red winter wheat
wheat berries
ground up flax seeds
These should add up to about one-half cup for a single serving

Add to the above:
some walnuts or pecans, in pieces
sprinkle of cinnamon
sprinkle of nutmeg
salt

Heat one cup of skim milk on the stove, taking care not to scorch. Stir the above mixture in, and keep stirring occasionally. When it reaches desired consistency, remove from heat and pour into bowl.

Add in whatever sweetener you prefer (honey, maple syrup, agave are suggested), and whatever fresh or frozen berries you prefer.

Yield: one hearty serving

Notes: this is, by far, the best breakfast cereal I’ve ever had. I almost want to make a double portion, it’s so good. Once you get the hang of it, it really takes very little time to make; the most time you’ll spend is assembling the ingredients. Buy these in bulk and you’ll not have to worry about it for quite awhile.

I am quite aware that the reason that recipes like this are so, well, unusual is that the industrial food system has taken over and tyrannized our ideas of what “food” is to the point that making something like this is considered odd…

…determines how healthy your cooking is. Interesting findings present in this New York Times article. Here’s an excerpt on the five types of cooks:

“Giving” cooks (22 percent) are enthusiastic about cooking and specialize in comfort food, particularly home-baked goodies.

“Methodical” cooks (18 percent) rely heavily on recipes, so their cooking is strongly influenced by the cookbook they use.

“Competitive” cooks (13 percent) think less about health and more on making the most impressive dish possible.

“Healthy” cooks (20 percent) often serve fish and use fresh ingredients, but taste isn’t the primary goal.

“Innovative” cooks (19 percent) like to experiment with different ingredients, cooking methods and cuisines, a process that tends to lead to more healthful cooking.

It’s further interesting to note that, although giving cooks think they are cooking healthy food, they are the least healthy of all types. Food for thought (sorry, that just came out).