The challenge continues.

As I open up the blog and check my last entry, I notice that I was then doing 140 burpees a day. Today I have 240 burpees to do. 240 burpees seemed impossible in the past, absolutely impossible. The thought of doing that many push ups and jumps every day, increasing one a day for a whole year, up to 365, seemed absurd. But it is not. The secret is to break it down.

The same holds true for food. The secret to eating well is merely breaking it down to many tiny tasks, instead of one overwhelming chunk of time that no one, including me at the moment, seems to have, or even want to have. I don't blame anyone. Why spend hours toiling in the kitchen when one can be outside enjoying the end of summer? Or studying, which is more like my own reality right now. 

But eating well is essential to keeping good health, and to not gain weight, which is another reality I face as a 42-year-old woman. There is no way around it. It does not matter how much I may exercise, if I don't eat well I will get sick, and/or gain weight, and break out into pimples on top of it. I say it, because I have experienced it. When I don't eat well, my face becomes oily, and I break out. Simple. I start to eat better, my face becomes clearer/cleaner, no pimples. And I fit into my pants. Easy to maintain, hard to fix. 

So how do I break down food? Cook in the morning. In the evening I am too tired to deal with anything except for what is absolutely necessary, which means the exam of the day that I am freaking about. Use the mornings! While I make coffee, I make brown rice. Or cook beans... or roast beets, eggplants, sweet potatoes, squash, cauliflower, garlic, onions... any hardy vegetable that I can coat with olive oil and sea salt, I will roast. I roast in my cast iron pan, so that way I don't have to worry about clean up and scrubbing. Just wipe it down with a paper towel when done cooking- courtesy tip from a climber who camps and cooks in his camper. And yes HE cooks. Don't have to be a woman to cook, or a housewife to cook- anyone can cook. A lot of it has to do with just getting into a habit, so that there is no thinking involved. Just doing...

What about all the chopping? The chopping... I do it while I heat up the food that I precooked in the morning. It takes about 5 to 15 minutes to heat up anything, so I use that time to chop: cabbage, red onions, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, parsley, cilantro, celery, tomatoes, green onions, peppers... any vegetable that can be eaten fresh. Or sautéed... kale, collards, chard, spinach, chinese cabbage, onions, mustard greens, turnip greens... 

I usually chop a little extra, so that I have some left over for the next day- call it a bonus. Have enough containers, even if they are yogurt containers, to keep the left overs. Good storage is important for eating well. Because there is always something in the fridge or freezer waiting for me at the end of the day... even if I am completely wiped out from a long school day, and don't feel like doing any extra work other than opening a beer. And studying some more, of course. 

But why go through all that trouble anyway? Cooking , chopping , storing... because I want to feel good everyday, because I want to have energy everyday. Because I want to stay lean and look good, and because I don't like to get sick. Simple. 

It is so easy, especially here in the south, to go and buy fried chicken, fried food, barbecue, go to Chick-fil-A... people: Chick-fil-A is JUNK FOOD!!!! eat chips, a cold cut sandwich, a snack, a bar... but remember, our bodies don't magically make vitamins. We need to eat them to have them. And we need to eat them in real food, not vitamin complexes that we buy at the store. That is processed food at its best. Eat food. Eat clean- less animal food, more grains, vegetables, beans, fruit, nuts, seeds. 

You will thank yourself years from now, when you are still active and well, instead of... insert your own future dream image of yourself, and how you want to look and live when you are older... and live to fulfill that dream.

2013 Food Challenge: Parsley and Cilantro

Parsley and Cilantro

I have not been doing too well with the 2013 Food Challenge, and I apologize. With the last stages of divorce unfolding, injury, loss of job, looking for job, getting ready for school and my 13-year-old to remind me daily of how bad I am just-in-case-I-forgot among other life events, a food challenge was not something I thought I could keep up with any longer.

But I was wrong. If I can keep up with a fucking burpee challenge as I travel across the country, getting on my hands and jumping around on filthy gas station grounds from Florida to Colorado to Florida in 9 days, then I can certainly keep up with my own food challenge.

And that was the challenge this week. Living in a hotel for 6 days with a hot plate, a microwave and the bathroom sink. True to the principles I learned at the Climbers Ranch, I had a cooler-full of ready-made foods like soup and beans, and a cast iron pan at hand. Eggs, garlic, broccoli, butter, kale, parsley and cilantro.

Why parsley and cilantro? Just like kale, those two incredible greens need no knife in order to be eaten. Hold them by the stem, and pluck the leaves out using the same technique used for kale: take two fingers, and run them through the stem. Wherever the stem breaks, that means the part that is left with the leaves is soft enough to be eaten. Then I can decide: eat the leaves whole, or chop them up as finely or coarsely as I wish.

Use them on eggs, meat, soups, pasta, beans, quesadillas... such an easy way to add freshness to a meal. Color, vitamins, life. Just sprinkle at the end of cooking, on top or on the side, and watch a monochrome meal come to life. Or sautée it with garlic, salt, olive oil or butter, and add it to pasta or polenta, with or without tomatoes, with or without onions. Cheap, simple, beautiful.

Keep the unused parsley and/or cilantro on a glass with water on the kitchen counter, and notice how it enlivens the kitchen as well. They give freshness in the spring and summer, and life during fall and winter.

2013 Food Challenge: Brown Rice

Yes, forget about white rice. No sugar-coating here, let's jump straight into brown rice. After all, why waste your own hard-earned money, or worse yet, your friend's or parent's money, on a food that has no nutrients, fiber or essential oils? Why eat fluff, and then have to take yet another trip to the store just to buy those incredibly expensive essential oils, vitamin pills and fiber? Think about it for a minute... it's nutty isn't it? Why not get all of it from the food in the first place, and in the balanced dosage that only nature knows how to make.

Here are two articles that give us a good idea of how much brown rice has... http://www.organicauthority.com/mojo-foods/brown-rice-vs-white-rice.html

and does... http://diabetes.webmd.com/news/20100614/brown-rice-vs-white-rice-which-is-better

Brown rice was one of my very first posts when I started this blog. Here is a detailed description on how to make it: http://www.freshfoodunderground.com/2010/03/how-to-make-brown-rice.html

If you decide to use a rice cooker, here is some very important info to consider when acquiring one, used or new:
http://www.freshfoodunderground.com/2010/09/not-all-rice-cookers-are-created-equal.html

If you are still doubtful about the taste of brown rice, add butter and salt to it when you cook it. Or olive oil and salt... I do it, and I love it. I also use Basmati Brown Rice, because I love its scent. For those that are concerned about the ''heaviness'' of brown rice... let it soak for an hour or longer (up to 12 hours) before cooking it (do not discard the soaking water, as it has all the nutrients in it). Soaking softens the rice, and makes it more digestible.

Please let me know if you have any questions and/or suggestions!

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. 

How to Roast Beets, Potatoes etc

Beets and potatoes ready for the oven...

For those of you daunted by the prospect of cooking a ''root vegetable...'' here is an easy way to do it: pretend you are cooking a potato. 
Except one that is far more nutritious than just plain starch. The easiest way to cook a potato, and therefore any vegetable that has the same consistency as that of a potato, is to roast it. Sweet potatoes, beets, turnips, parsnips, carrots, butternut squash, onions... 

Beets, parsnips, turnips, potatoes...

Tonight, in an effort to expand my kids' food repertory, I mixed beets, parsnips and turnips with the potatoes. Roasted to a beautiful golden brown, it was challenging to tell a potato and a turnip apart. Miles took a full piece of ''potato'' into his mouth, and only when he started to chew he asked what vegetable that was. Elena, for the part, told me that her potato tasted ''really weird.''


How to roast...


1. Chop the vegetables you choose that day- or night... about 1 inch per side sounds about right. Some will be round, others square, others shapeless... not a problem. As long as they are all about the same size, they will cook evenly.


2. Place the vegetables in a Pirex 9X13 dish, or whatever glass/ceramic ware you may have. Do not use Teflon bakeware!


3. Generously coat vegetables with olive oil and sea salt, pepper or any other spice you may choose. 


4. Bake at 500ºF, in the middle rack of the oven, for about 15 minutes. Take casserole out of the oven, stir vegetables around, and put them back to cook for another 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how soft and/ or browned you like your roasted ''potatoes.'' If the oven does not quite reach 500ºF, no worries. 400ºF to 450ºF roasts just as well- it just takes a bit longer.


And where does one find all those vegetables, along with good quality olive oil and sea salt? Head over to Grassroots- tell them ''Sofia sent you!"

Salad Dressings

One of the easiest things to make at home is salad dressing. When you make your own salad dressing, you not only save money, but you also end up with a better quality product. Your salad will be pure and fresh, and will never have any high fructose corn syrup, glucose, sugar, hydrogenated oils, corn byproducts such as xantham gum, guar gum, citric acid etc, or preservatives.
I make my salad dressing in the bowl that I will put the salad in. My sister makes her dressing in little glass jars, such as Dijon Mustard jars, because she likes to shake the dressing in order to emulsify it. I just quickly whisk it a little bit with a fork, throw the salad in, and mix it all- either with a salad fork or, better yet, with my own hands (some people say that is ''the'' way to do it).
My dressings don't follow measurements. I just splash a tiny little bit of each item, then whisk it together. Make sure that there is enough salt and oil (if it is too runny, it does not have enough oil), and you are set to go! The key is to always use quality ingredients; they will last for a long time, so they are worth the investment. This is my favorite, daily dressing:

RASPBERRY VINAIGRETTE:

1. Extra Virgin Olive Oil: cold pressed
2. ''Alessi'' White Balsamic Raspberry Blush Vinegar (available at Publix)
3. Sea Salt

• If you wish to add a little pungent taste to the dressing, you can finely chop a little bit of red onion (cheaper), or shallots, throw it in with the dressing, and let it sit in the dressing for a bit while you make the salad/dinner. When you let the onion sit in the salt and oil, it makes it taste milder and, in my case, keeps it from giving me a stomach ache afterwards!
• If you wish for a sweeter taste, you can add a tiny little bit of maple syrup to the dressing.
• My sister loves a little mustard in the dressing, so she adds a tiny little bit of Grey Poupon as well.
• Some people substitute the vinegar for lemon. You can also use white balsamic vinegar, aged balsamic, or any other good quality vinegar of your choice. Enjoy!