My New Iron BFF.

Sweet potato greens.

I had previously written about how I borrowed my friend's cast iron pan over this summer in order to keep my sanity. I mean, cook.
When I arrived back in Jacksonville and found my own place, I realized that keeping my sanity not only served me well, it was actually quite enjoyable. So I decided to keep on cooking- with my own cast iron pan. A simple 8 inch pan.
My cast iron pan stays on top on my stove. I don't ever put it away, as I use it for pretty much everything I cook. Bacon for the beans, eggs, spanish tortilla, mexican tortillas, granola in the oven,  meat, corn bread, roasted chicken, vegetables, greens... all I need to do, when done cooking, is rinse it, without soap, and put it on the hot burner for half a minute for it to dry. Done. It goes hand in hand with living simply, using my time efficiently, and eating well. Good, wholesome, tasty food that is nourishing, fresh, and free of crap- pesticides, hormones, antibiotics. Food that is not processed.

Roasted chicken.

My challenge living alone, or even when I have my children with me, is to eat a broad, good-quality variety of food, especially when it comes to vegetables. It is so easy to say to myself ''oh, this is so complicated to make, it takes so long, I don't have the time, I need to study, I want to go climb, I just want to go ride or run, I am too tired to deal...''  I don't want to commit to hours in the kitchen. I already must wash all dishes by hand, mine and my kids'- that takes time. I don't want to toil all day in the kitchen, I am done with that part of my life. But I still want, and need for my own and my children's health, to eat well. Bling! Along comes my BFF!

Portabello in coconut oil.

My BFF can cook anything in minutes. Baby spinach that is about to go bad because the package is too goddamn big for me to eat it all as salad? Throw it in the cast iron with butter. Sweet potato greens from the local farm that only last a few days before turning brown? Cast iron with olive oil. Left over mushrooms that my son asked me to buy and never ate? Cast iron with butter. My daughter doesn't want to eat anything for breakfast? Throw her in the cast iron. Just kidding, throw some eggs in the cast iron, and let her cook them. Zucchini, peppers, eggplants, onions, garlic... sautée them with the fat of choice on high heat, and no matter what kind of vegetables they may be, simple or complicated, they are ready to eat in a few minutes. Serve over, or with, quinoa, roasted potatoes, farro salad, rice, chicken, meat, pasta... the choices are infinite.
Thank you, cast iron, for being there for me. Your companionship and loyalty is deeply appreciated. Even if you burn me sometimes- I understand.

In defense of cheap food.

Brazilian Canjica (Hominy)

I have lived in the States for 25 years now, and have seen so many food fads and diets come and go. The interesting thing about them to me is that they all seem to share one common trait: they are all expensive.

Yes, blueberries are good for you. And so is quinoa,  Greek yogurt, sprouted bread, amaranth, green juice, pomegranate, açaí, coconut water, kefir, almond milk, rice milk, soy milk, granola, canola oil, matte tea, coconut fat, flax seed, chia, salmon oil and avocados.

The thing is, all foods are good for you. Not just a few special ones. We were made to eat everything. We are omnivores who can survive on anything from old soggy potatoes to squirrel meat. Just think for a minute about what people ate during war times, draughts and economic hardships. Porridge of grains, beans, oats, vegetables, whatever meat they found... simple, unprocessed food.

Unprocessed foods don't bring in money to grocers though. Vegetables and fruits spoil easily, and there is little profit to be made from grains and beans. Packaged, processed foods are the ones which market well, and sell for more money. And their packaging can always be changed to fit the fad, like the local Lay's potato chips I found at a gas station the other day.

Think about how much money you pay for that healthy granola. And greek yogurt and kefir... and chia and flax seed.... almond milk, soy and rice milk. And the antioxidant miracle fruit of the year of course.

Now go a few isles down the same market, and check the price of bulk oats and brown rice. Check the price of corn grits, yellow and white. Lentils, black and white beans, chick peans... check also how cheap turnip, mustard and collard greens go for, depending where you are in the country. Cabbage, squash, beets, radishes, celery, parsley, green onions, carrots, onions, turnips, garlic... those are all foods that are incredibly nourishing to the human body, and yet cost relatively little when compared to packaged pasta, packaged couscous, lettuces, tomatoes... which make pretty meals, but don't really give us much in terms of nutrients and health.

I am not advocating against buying granola, kefir (which I love), and all the other beautiful foods that we encounter at the grocery store. But I do want to make a point that, in order to eat well and stay healthy and slim on a lean budget, I can easily find and eat traditional, wholesome, simple foods that my parents, grandparents, and their grandparents, ate.

All I need is a stove, a few pots and bowls, a sharp knife, sea salt and olive oil, and I am ready to take care not only of myself, but those I care for. Because that is the beauty of those foods: they are generous. When I cook them, they expand and give, and it is easy to feed many on little.

Take a meal that I made yesterday: 2 cups of organic brown rice (1 Lb, about 2 or 3 dollars), 2 cups of organic dry black beans (1 Lb, about $3), 1 Lb of local, organic grass-fed ground beef (about $8), corn salad (organic corn on the cob, cheap during the summer: $10 for 48 ears) and a beet salad (a few dollars more)... it fed 8 hungry adults, 5 kids, gave some away, and there is still enough food left to feed myself and my kids for another couple days.

Growing up in Brazil I ate hominy, with sugar and ground peanuts, for breakfast and/or as an afternoon snack. I still often eat it for breakfast, with sugar and chopped nuts- it is so incredibly delicious, filling and cheap. I also ate a lot of polenta, both in Argentina and Brazil; cheaper and healthier than pasta, and so very sustaining. Rice and beans, soups made from the meat and chicken bones, eggs... and an incredible variety of vegetables and fruit.

Of course there is room for granola, as well as all the kinds of different and great foods that I find at the stores. But it is important to not forget that just because one food, like quinoa, is being lauded as the super grain of the year (it is actually a seed), that does not mean that good old corn, oats and rice aren't just as nutritious and balanced a grain as their (seed) cousin. The same goes for beans. Maybe they are not as easy to market because they do make folks kind of gassy, but they really are super foods. And don't forget eggs and butter, which I also remember were replaced at one point by egg whites and... margarine???

Trust your simple, wholesome, cheap foods- they will keep you, your budget, and your overall sanity going strong, lean and healthy.

How to make Brazilian-style ground beef

I have no photo for this post, so the flag will just have to do it.

To be honest, I am not even sure if this way of preparing meat is Brazilian or Argentinian. As I grew up in both countries, and my mother fittingly adjusted her cooking to both cultures, we ended up with a nice mix of recipes which I was happy to simply eat and enjoy. No matter where it comes from, the great thing about preparing meat this way is that not only it makes something as simple and mundane as ground beef taste great, it also makes it go a long way.

Ingredients... I use organic as much as possible, so as to avoid hormones, antibiotics and pesticides...

• 1 Lb local ground beef
• olive oil
• sea salt
• onions
• garlic
• olives
• raisins (optional)
• scallions
• parsley

I heat up a cast iron skillet on medium high heat. If you don't have one, buy one now. In the meantime, use a stainless steel skillet. Do not use a teflon skillet, as you will only poison yourself and your loved ones with it. Throw it away. If using cast iron, there is no need for olive oil. If your choice is steel, you might need just a little oil to get the meat going and not get it all stuck to the pan.

Once the skillet is hot, I turn the fire to medium, and place about a pound of local, organic ground beef on it. I let it cook, stirring it so that it cooks evenly, until it begins to brown, adding salt to it at any time I remember to do so. 

While the meat is cooking, I quickly chop the onions, garlic, olives, parsley and scallions, in the order listed. It works well, because once I chop the onions, I throw them in to brown with the meat, then chop the garlic, throw it in... chop the olives (which get the garlic taste of the chopping board), use whole raisins, and chop the scallions as well. 

When I see that everything is cooked, I turn the fire off, and add the parsley. That way it does not cook too much, and stays fresh and green- which is definitely more pleasing to see and eat than brown wilted parsley.

I serve it with rice, black beans, and lots of vegetables such as thinly cut cabbage with salt and olive oil,  chopped tomatoes and cucumbers in salt and olive oil, collards or turnip greens sautéed in olive oil and salt, and thinly cut radishes with... olive oil and salt. Always. Lots of it!

Beans

This post is dedicated to all of us who need a little video help here and there in order to learn...

The ingredients...

1 cup organic dry beans

4 cups filtered water

1 bay leaf

1 stamp-size piece of seaweed 

The steps...

Tips and tricks...

Black beans, white beans, pinto beans, chick peas, black-eyed peas... are all hardy beans that cook much the same way. In this video I use dry white (also called navy) beans. 

I measure the beans, pour them on the counter, and pass my hand through them. I look for stones so that when I eat my own cooked beans I don't break a tooth or, worse yet, break a friend's tooth. 

I put the sifted beans in a bowl of cold water, gently stir, and discard the water by pouring it through a colander. I throw the used water, whenever possible, in the vegetable garden. If the beans happen to have a lot of dirt in them, I give them a second rinse.

I usually make the beans sort of last minute, so most of the time I ''quick soak'' them. That means that, instead of soaking them in cold, filtered water for about 8 hours, I throw them in boiling water, turn off the heat, and let them soak for 30 minutes. This softens them so I don't have to cook them for endless hours... and makes their nutrients more digestible for my body. I use enough water to cover the beans by about 2 inches so that it allows for them to expand as they soak. 


I add the bay leaf and seaweed to the soaked beans to give them fragrance and minerals. I keep the size of the seaweed small, so as not to overdo the sodium content and make the beans hard.

I cook the beans in the same water that I soak them, so they don't lose their nutrients.  I use a pressure cooker, and cook them anywhere from 15 to 17 minutes, depending on how soft I want them to be; softer for rice and beans, a bit harder for soups. I bring the pressure to ''high'' (2 lines on my pressure cooker, and a hissing sound), then lower flame to ''low'' and simmer for the desired amount of time. I turn off heat, and let the pressure subside before I open the lid so I don't burn myself with the hot vapor, or see a lid flying to the ceiling.


When I don't have access to a pressure cooker, I use the heaviest/thickest pot I can find, and cook (simmer) the beans, partially covered, until I achieve the desired softness- about 1 hour. Some batches of beans do take longer than others... it's nature. 


When I use a regular pot, I check the water level throughout the cooking to make sure the beans don't burn- it is easy to happen, trust me. When the beans are fully cooked and soft, I add salt. This is very important, as adding salt to uncooked beans will make them tooth-breakingly hard.

A note on black beans: at the end of their cooking time I sauté (local, nitrite-free) bacon, and/or a few cloves of garlic in olive oil, and mix it in with the beans, along with sea salt. Then I let the beans simmer (low heat) to the desired consistency. I serve them with rice, collards, mustard or turnip greens, chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, finely chopped cabbage, sautéed zucchini... they are so delicious and fulfilling, any time or day of the year.


Where to purchase beans, sea salt, olive oil, bacon and vegetables: Grassroots Market.