KOFTA CURRY - INDIAN INSPIRED COMFORT FOOD!

KOFTA CURRY

(aka Chandra Malai Kofta)

My daughter got me the new Isa Chandra Moskowitz cookbook , "Isa Does It", for Christmas. Yippee Hurray! I was jumping for joy!  I have already perused it cover to cover several times.  I've made two of these fabulous recipes for our dinners. I see a strong future relationship with this cookbook --- much like my relationship with two of her other vegan cookbooks, "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" and "Veganomicon". Isa is a bit of a cooking idol for me!

Last night I took on the Indian inspired kofta curry dish on page 216 of "Isa Does It".  The list of ingredients was a bit overwhelming so I chose to make this dish on an evening when I had plenty of time and patience.  I also followed Isa's advice and got everything that I was going to need out, set on the counter, and ready to be prepped

                      The ingredients set out ready for action.

Isa writes about using her cast iron skillet so I got mine out from storage and started to use it!  Love it.  Here are the sliced almonds toasting.

Toasting the cumin seeds.

Chopped cilantro, garlic, and fresh ginger. (A delightful trio)

Kofta Curry

(aka Chandra Malai Kofta)

from "Isa Does It"

For the Kofta:

---1/2 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained, about 3/4 cup

---1/2 cup slivered almonds

---1 1/2 teaspoon cumin seed

---8 ounces zucchini, shredded (I used the large holes on the box grater)

---1/4 cup chopped cilantro (I used at least 1/2 cup)

---1 tablespoon minced ginger

---2 cloves garlic, minced

---1/2 teaspoon salt

---black pepper

---1 1/4 cups panko bread crumbs

For the Sauce:

---1 cup cashews (if you don't own a Vitamix, you will need to soak the cashews for at least 2 hours so they blend into cashew cream with no lumps or bumps)

---2 cups vegetable broth

---1 tablespoon coconut oil

---1 medium yellow onion, finely diced

---3 cloves garlic, minced

---1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced

---1 tablespoon mild curry powder

---1 teaspoon garam masala

---1 teaspoon ground cumin

---1 14 ounce can lite coconut milk

---3 tablespoons tomato paste

---1 teaspoon salt

---1 cup frozen peas

---2 handfuls fresh chopped spinach ( I added this to the recipe but it was delicious!)

Prepare the Kofta Mixture:

1.  In a medium bowl, mash the chickpeas until they are mushy but not pureed.

2.  Preheat a large heavy pan over medium heat.  Toast the almonds for about 7 minutes, tossing frequently, until they are golden and browned in some spots.  Transfer immediately to the mashed chickpea bowl.  Next, toast the cumin seeds in the same pan for 3 minutes or so, until fragrant and a shade or two darker.  Transfer those to the bowl, as well.

3.  Add the zucchini, cilantro, ginger, garlic, salt, and black pepper to the chickpea bowl and mix well.

4.  Add the bread crumbs and use your hands to mix and mush until it holds together.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Prepare the sauce:

1.  Drain the cashews and add them to a blender with the 2 cups broth.  Blend until very smooth.  This is called "cashew cream" and is often used in vegan recipes to make things taste super yummy and rich!  It may take 1 - 5 minutes to blend this smooth so give the blender a break every now and then. (My Vitamix blended unsoaked raw cashews with the broth in about a minute to a smooth cream)

2.  Preheat a 4 quart pot over medium heat and add the coconut oil.  Saute' the onion in the oil for about 3 minutes, until translucent.  Add the garlic and ginger, and cook just until fragrant, 15 seconds or so.  Add the curry powder, garam masala, and cumin and toss for a minute or so, just to toast the spices a bit.

3.  Add the coconut milk, tomato paste, blended cashews, and salt.  Bring to a low simmer and let cook for 15 minutes or so.  It should thicken up nicely.  Add the peas and spinach and allow them to warm through.  Taste for seasonings, then turn off the heat and cover until ready to serve.

Cook the Kofta:

1. Line the counter with parchment paper to keep the formed kofta from sticking.  Scoop up a scant 1/4 cup of the mixture and roll between your hands to pack it well and roll into football shapes.  Set on the parchment and continue to form balls - should make about 12.

2.  Preheat a large cast iron skillet, add some coconut oil and make sure it coats the bottom of the pan.  Now add the kofta balls, rolling each one around in the pan when you add it, making sure to coat all sides.  Use extra oil as necessary - this is not a low fat meal!

3.  Fry them for about 7 minutes, rolling them around in the pan to get them browned on all sides.  They don't have to be uniformly browned.  Do your best and be careful because they may start to fall apart.  Once browned, turn off the heat.

To Assemble:

Scoop some rice onto each plate, place 3 koftas on top of the rice, and cover with sauce.  Garnish with more chopped cilantro, if you like, and serve.

Foot ball shaped koftas awaiting the cook!

The curry sauce all thickened up and ready for pouring over kofta and rice!

Up close view of a kofta cut in half, smothered in yummy delicious rich curry sauce, over brown basmati!  

This was really a delicious meal and worth the effort.  It's not hard work, just a lot of steps.  One thing I would suggest is to look at both the kofta and sauce recipes and do things like chopping all the garlic and ginger at once so you can expedite the process.  This is the kind of recipe where you can be cooking the onions for the sauce while forming the kofta after refrigerating the mixture.  This planning ahead really saves time while cooking.

We made two full meals out of this recipe and had a large portion of sauce left over.  We used the curry sauce on some rice and beans later in the week. 

Yes, and finally.... two of my dogs sleeping butt to butt over Christmas vacation.

Best Beans Ever!

 BEST BEANS EVER!!!!!

Red beans in a tomato curry like broth

My friend, Bryce, grows cranberry beans in his garden. He cooks with them all year and I have loved eating them at his house.They are a fancy colored pinto bean and cook up to a plump "meaty" bite.  Yummy.  Super yummy.

I decided to grow them myself a couple seasons ago.  Beans are super easy to grow - they just need some good compost and soil, water, sunshine, and a tall tripod or other bean pole set up. Once they are looking ripe and green you just leave them on the vine until the outer hull turns brown and the beans have dried out.  However, the sad news is... gophers love beans and they found mine this year.  Boo!  The gophers left me a small handful of these lovely colorful pinto beans but I have resorted to spending far more than I am comfortable with at the local Farmer's Market where they can be purchased!  However, it's local and I know the farmers work hard and I just love these beans.

Live Earth Farms is not the local farm stand where I buy my beans but man oh man do I love this sentiment!  I really do believe more of us should know where our food comes from and how it was grown and/or produced.  I think we would eat really differently if we had any idea.

Back to beans....

I recently had a vegan feast at a friends house.  She is not vegan and this was her first vegan dinner party.  She did an amazing job!  One of the things she served us were bowls of savory red beans in a mildly spicy curry like broth.  Her inspiration was the Smitten Kitchen http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/02/red-kidney-bean-curry/


I decided to try my own beans inspired by Smitten Kitchen (which is an awesome blog and many of the recipes can be made vegetarian or vegan)

Laurie's Best Beans Ever!!

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

2 or more cups of Cranberry Beans 

Olive Oil

1 onion chopped

1/8 - 1/4 cup grated ginger

Box or can of Tomato Sauce

3 or more garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons cumin

2 teaspoons coriander

1 or more teaspoon turmeric 

1/4 or more teaspoon cayenne

1 teaspoon or less paprika

1 bouillon cube and lots of water

Chopped fresh tomato, if in season and on hand

1.  Soak beans overnight and rinse before using

2.  Heat oil in a large skillet and add chopped onion, grated ginger and minced garlic. Saute' until translucent.  Add spices and saute' for a minute or so.  Add tomato sauce.  Simmer until everything is fragrant and mixed - maybe 5 minutes or so.

3.  Dump onion/spice/tomato mix into a large crock pot, add soaked and rinsed beans, the cube of stock and enough water to cover the beans, the chopped tomato, and salt and pepper.

4.  Cook on low for 6 - 8 hours.

5.  Serve over rice, next to stir fry greens, or in tortilla or chapati like bread!  Top with chopped cilantro if you like.

Remember that you can used canned beans. I would suggest some sort of red bean or hearty larger bean. Adjust the spices to your enjoyment level. Add less spice for milder beans and a bit more cayenne and some sort of chili pepper if you'd like a stronger bite!

This is originally a red bean "curry" but it can be made with a stronger chili flavor, as well.

Play with the recipe and come up with what works best for you.

Use a ginger planer for best results when grating ginger.  Ginger is so good for you!  Great for digestion.

I have quart bags of sauce that I made tucked away in my freezer but it has a distinctly Italian flavor.  I used this Pomi tomato in the box.  What a debate there currently is about tomatoes and cans!  I am trying to stay away from cans.

Here is the saute' pan full of onion, ginger, garlic, and the spices.  

These are the soaked cranberry beans.  They lose the beautiful red color after being soaked.  This kind of pinto is so much meatier than a regular pinto.  You gotta try them.

 The crock pot is full and ready to simmer for hours.  I try to cook at night or put it all together in the morning so it is ready by the time we are all home and eating dinner.  Yum!

And how can I post without a photo of my doggies?  Here I am giving the black doggy a big hug! The brown spots are sitting in the background awaiting their turn! By the way... they don't eat beans.

Savory Pumpkin Applesauce Muffins

Savory Pumpkin Applesauce

Muffins

(yum! -vegan baking is easy)

I have frozen roasted pumpkin puree and frozen home made applesauce in my freezer.  The pumpkin needs to be used so I can roast more pumpkin and squash this season for  2013/2014 baking and soup making.  I looked online for a good vegan pumpkin applesauce muffin recipe.  I used a combination of several online sources to make these yummy savory muffins that were delightful with coffee in the morning.  They are not too sweet and the "pumpkin pie" spice flavoring is not overpowering at all.  All in all this is an easy recipe to whip up if you've got pumpkin puree and applesauce on hand.

I froze large containers of pumpkin puree and I'm glad because I ended up making 2 large batches of the muffins and freezing the extra muffins.  Frozen muffins are easy to thaw and even reheat and they lose very little of their yumminess.  Throw them in a gallon zip lock bag and take the extra air out - voile'.

This is an easy recipe to follow because you simply mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients into another bowl and then combine and stir gently.

The wet ingredients mixed together.

Adding the wet ingredients to the dry a little at a time.

Almost 2 dozen yummy muffins ready to be popped into the oven.

Pumpkin Applesauce Muffins

(makes 1 dozen)

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup of all purpose flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup applesauce

1/2 cup canola or other oil

1 tablespoon vanilla

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2.  Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice into a large mixing bowl.  Stir together and set aside.

3.  Combine pumpkin puree, applesauce, oil and vanilla.  Stir.

4.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just mixed.  I did this in 3 steps - a little bit at a time and just stirred to combine.

5.  Spray muffin tins with spray oil. 

6.  Fill muffin tins about 2/3 - 3/4 and bake for about 15 - 18 minutes in a 325 degree oven.  I turned the muffin pan half way through for more even cooking (but my oven is almost 30 years old!)

Finished muffins with a few missing!

-----  I didn't have any pumpkin pie spice so I put together a mixture of cinnamon, ginger and cardamon.  Now I have the real mixture and I liked it much better in the second batch.

----- I froze a bunch of these muffins in a big ziplock bag and they thawed beautifully and tasted really fresh.

----- Try to time the cooking of these muffins with a cup of coffee or tea because the warm steaming muffin with hot cup of something is about the best thing!

----- Enjoy!

And finally.. here is what we hope is a bomber of a garden box with the right kind of gopher resistance!  It's filled with 12 broccoli plants, 18 kale plants, 6 chard plants, 6 spinach plants, and 6 snap peas.  I'm crossing my fingers that this lovely box can help get us through the winter with green vegetables!

Eat green, stay healthy, and practice gratitude!

Hearty Fall Soup with soy sausage

Hearty Fall Soup

(white bean, kale, carrots, yam and soy sausage)

Harry is my big old man dog (nearly 11) and he is happily saying "I'm tired after running on the beach.  Don't I have a HUGE tongue?!"  Like most of us, as he has aged, Harry's slowed down and doesn't do as much chasing squirrels into the forest or endless rounds of tennis ball repeats!  The consequences of this are... he's getting kind of fat.  With his aging arthritic joints I need to be careful to exercise him enough but not so much that he ends up limping! One of the lessons I learn from him and my other two doggy beasties is to just enjoy every darn day whether you limp through it or not!  Amazing teachers.

Yesterday I had a big work day with a 2 hour slot in between my morning yoga class and a 3 hour Inversion workshop I was teaching in the afternoon.  I came home and put together a hearty fall soup between those two events so that dinner would be ready when I got home.  It's not that unlike other soups/stews I have made with lots of vegetables and beans.

I decided to chop the carrots really big this time so they would be more "stew-like" chunky.

 I used basic seasonings - garlic, thyme, oregano, and salt and pepper.

I was extremely generous in my use of kale.  I rough chopped about one and a half bunches.

Great Northern White beans were the beans I choose.  I used canned beans this time.  I usually freeze a portion of whatever crock pot bean I make during the week but it seems I haven't made any white beans lately!  Pintos or garbanzo beans (plenty of frozen baggies living in the bottom drawer of my freezer!) just didn't seem like the right fit for this soup.

I decided to use big chunks of yam in the soup rather than potato.  It's fall and the color reminded me of the leaves on trees right now and I had several yams just waiting to be used. 

 Sweet potatoes are so good for you!  Full of fiber and phytonutrients.  You can bake a yam in the oven for about 35 - 40 minutes and throw in on a plate next to a pile of quinoa, beans, and greens.  It's a mighty meal  ----- and a mighty simple meal.  Add some tahini dressing drizzled over the quinoa and greens or a side of salsa next to the beans, maybe even some kim chee and you got yourself something special! But here I am off topic again.

Recipe for 

Hearty Fall Soup

Feeds 2 of us at least 4 times or more/huge soup pot full

1 - 2 chopped onions

4 - 6 chopped garlic cloves

4 - 8 chopped celery stalks

6 - 8 large chopped carrots

2 large yams, chopped

1 and 1/2 bunches of any kale, rough chopped

2 cans of Northern White bean (or bean of choice)

2 soy sausages, chopped into bite sized pieces

4 cups vegetable broth

4 - 8 cups additional water

1/2 cup or more tomato sauce, canned tomato, or chopped  fresh tomato

1 Tablespoon thyme

1 Tablespoon oregano

salt and pepper to taste

1.  Saute on very low heat the onion, garlic, and celery until cooked through and very soft (maybe 10 or more minutes)

2.  Add chopped carrots, thyme, and oregano, some salt and lots of black pepper and cook another 5 - 10 minutes

3.  Pour in the vegetable broth (have I spoken to you about how easy it is to make your own vegetable broth and keep it in the freezer?  So worth it!  Most store bought broth is full of salt and really, do you know what they used?  My homemade stock is full of the vegetables I purchase at the Farmer's market and off the organic refrigerator shelves at the grocery.  Making stock is well worth it! )

4.  Layer in the kale, soy sausage, white beans, yams, tomato sauce, canned tomatoes or fresh,  and add water to cover. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down and simmer for another 30 plus minutes until the carrots are soft.

Recipe Notes:

----- Have I spoken to you about how easy it is to make your own vegetable broth and keep it in the freezer?  So worth it!  Most store bought broth is full of salt and really, do you know what they used to make it, where the veg came from?  My homemade stock is full of the vegetables I purchase at the Farmer's market and off the organic refrigerator shelves at the grocery.  Making stock is well worth it! I'll blog it soon.

----- I think the yams might work a bit better if they went in about 10 minutes or more after the other vegetables.  Our yams broke down a bit. Perhaps cooking the carrots for a bit longer before adding all the other stuff is a way to go too.

----- I used a lot of kale.  I would make this soup again for us or for my friends Deb and Bryce or Laurie and Bob or my niece, Julie, but regular folks who don't eat kale like we all do might think there is a wee bit too much in this soup!  Cut back a bit if you think you might scare someone with kale. But remember... kale is a super food.  A super duper food and you should probably eat some each day!

----- This soup is sort of sweet.  Thank you, yams.  If you'd rather, use chopped potatoes.

----- This was a big whooping pot of soup.  I would add another soy sausage.  There is a certain snappy spice to the soy sausage that mixes well with the kale and the sweet yam.

----- Be creative.  Use leeks instead of onions, add some winter squash, use chard instead of kale, add some parsley.  It's soup with vegetables and beans so go crazy with creativity.

----- I added a few splashes of balsamic vinegar to my bowl of soup prior to eating.  It gave the sweetness just a bit of "acid" and saltiness and was really yummy.

Here's the finished product.  A big bowl of goodness.  Eat and enjoy!

Lentil Shepherd's Pie

Lentil Shepherd's Pie

Fall is here and it's time for stews and casseroles and warming yummy food.  I made us a huge lentil shepherd's pie the other day and it fed us for days. 

Lentil Shepherd's Pie Recipe

2 - 3 cups of lentils (or  2 or 3 cans of pre-cooked)

5 - 6 baker potatoes or a whole bunch of little red or yellow pots 

(with skin, that's where the fiber is, folks!)

onion

carrots

garlic

kale or greens of some type

Big can of roasted chopped toms or a couple cups of fresh chopped toms

tomato paste

green peas (fresh or frozen)

cooking oil

soy or almond milk

Italian Herb or Herbs de Provence

Salt and Pepper

This recipe is not an exact science.  I make this casserole a bit differently each time.  Sometimes I add more vegetables like broccoli or fresh parsley.  You can be very creative.  The great thing about a casserole like this is it can be stuffed full of vegetables and we all know that vegetables are where it's at!  Full of micro and phytonutrients.... it's the perfect place to be generous.

1.  Wash the lentils thoroughly.  Trust me, you really gotta do this.  We crunched some rocks in this last casserole and that just sucks.  I like to use black lentils or french lentils because they are "meatier" in texture for the casserole.

2.  Put lentils in a big pot of water and bring to a boil.  Cook until just tender - maybe 20 - 30 minutes.  Watch and taste.  If they get mushy then the casserole is less pleasing to your mouth.  Once cooked, drain and set aside.

3.  While the lentils are cooking, chop an onion, some garlic, and some carrots.  Put them in a saute pan with oil and cook until just tender (again, don't overcook!).  Add in a couple heaping tablespoons of Italian herb or my favorite, Herbs de Provence which has lavender in it!  The H de P is the ticket, if you ask me. 

4.  As those are cooking, chop up a big bunch of kale, chard or collards and throw into the pan with onion mix.  Cook for a bit until it's all looking good and then add tomatoes, about 2 - 4 tablespoons of tomato paste, and 2 or more cups green peas.  Cook a bit longer.  Remember  ---- this will all get another 30 - 45 minutes of baking time so you don't want to make it mushy.

5.  Add lentils to the vegetable saute mix.  Add some salt and pepper and taste.  Does it need more H de P or tomato paste?  Be creative and add what you like at this point.

6.  While the vegetables were in saute mode, I hope you were washing, chopping and boiling your potatoes for the mashed potato bit.  Come on, you can do it ---- three pots on the stove.

             1 pot for lentils

             1 huge saute pan for the vegetable mixture

             1 large pot for potatoes to boil

All we need is love!

7.  Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them and put them in a big mixing bowl, add some soy or almond milk, and salt and pepper and turn the mix master on.  Or.... you can build yourself some upper body strength and mashed those things yourself.  I prefer pull ups to hand mashing, myself.

8.  Lay the lentil mix in the bottom of a giant casserole dish and flatten slightly.  Add a thick layer of mashed potatoes on top.  Put this in the oven for 30 - 45 minutes at 350 degrees.  Watch it and look for a slight browning on the potatoes.  Remember, everything is really already cooked, now it's just marrying and combining until bubbly goodness.

9.  You can make the vegan gravy near the end of cook time for the Shepherd's pie.  Recipe to follow after some photos.

                                                                                                     

This is the saute pan full of onion, garlic, carrots, tomatoes, spices, and kale.

Blurry photo of the lentil vegetable mix laid into the bottom of the casserole dish.  No need to use any extra oil to grease the casserole dish.  Just layer in the goodness and add potatoes.....

After mashing the potatoes with almond milk and salt and pepper I scooped them on top of the lentil veggie mix and then popped the whole thing in the oven (uncovered) for about 30 minutes or so.  It browned right up and we slathered it with vegan gravy and ate it next to a HUGE side of broccoli.

Yum Yum Yum!  

                                                                 

Vegan Gravy

1 vegetable bullion cube

2 cups water

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

few good dashes garlic powder

2 - 4 heaped tablespoons Nutritional Yeast

 few good dashes soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard

1/4 - 1/2 cup flour (as needed, use brown rice flour if gluten sensitive)

1 tablespoon vegan margarine

sea salt and pepper to taste

Here's a little succulent spot I love.

 1.  Combine all ingredients in pot and bring to a boil.

2.  Cook on medium heat until thick.  I use a whisk and stir stir stir so it doesn't get lumpy.

You can add a pinch of sage, rosemary, or oregano to the gravy.

Easy peasy to prepare.  Maybe 10 minutes.

OK, that's it on the food front.  Now if you want a bit more entertainment and a little hint about who else I am (other than this really big advocate for eating lots of vegetables and good things like lentils) then keep reading.....

I always put photos of my dogs in my blog posts.  Here is our little old lady cat, Momo.  I was taking a photo of the new art I framed. I got this silk screen print from a yard sale.  It was in a frame and the mat had been signed by the artist.  The frame was old and yucky.  I took the print to our local frame shop and had a new mat cut and framed it up.  While I was taking a photo to send to my daughter, Momo appeared and decided to be in the photo too.  Her orange coloring kind of matches the print.  She misses my daughter (who is allergic to her, by the way!)

My husband recently spent an entire weekend helping a friend put in skylights.  While he was gone I sewed and sewed and sewed!  This is the Farmer's Market bag I made.  I love it.  I have about 10,000 yards of fabric in my sewing closet and I plan to make everyone I know a FM bag for Christmas!  Then, see, you have to go to the FM and fill it with kale, peaches, radishes, lettuce, beets, peppers, etc....

And finally... the purse I made myself.  It is reversible but I like this side the best.  I have a request or two in for these as gifts.  I guess I better send my husband off again so I can sew to my heart's content!

Gotta make some dinner.  We are having baked yams, green sorrel soup, brown rice, and a huge salad with garbanzo beans, olives, and nuts.  What are you having?

Be well, everyone!  Namaste'

Getting Ready for the Work Week.....

Buddha Dog with heart rocks and succulents.

Getting Ready for the Work Week.....

I admit that I love to putter in my home.  As a child I used to spend hours in my bedroom making "arrangements".  This consisted of creatively and thoughtfully setting up my knick knacks in a way that was pleasing to me.  That childlike love of putting things in a way that is pleasing is still very much with me ---- now I just have much more space and many many more things to arrange!  So many, in fact, that my home is a bit unorganized.  It's usually clean and presentable but fairly unorganized.  Still, I love to have things around me that are pleasing and calming like the Buddha dog, heart rocks that my family has found on various hikes, some rocks from my friend, Laurie, and a couple succulents given to me as gifts.  I have these sitting by the little sink on my kitchen island. 

Sunday mornings are a time I am often at home with no agenda (except the one in my head which is often large and unattainable!).  I often prepare food for the upcoming week.  This is a wonderful form of puttering for me.  I wash, chop, cook, and in between do laundry, write some e-mails, a blog, play scrabble. Some of my friends and family think that we eat extraordinary things all week long but the reality is that we live on a fairly simple diet of green smoothies, grains, beans, fresh fruit, and vegetables.  Every week we eat bowls and bowls of fresh green salads, a stir fry or two, rice and beans, tons of kale and other greens, a soup or stew, nuts and seeds, green soup of the week and seasonal fruit and berries.  It's fairly simple food but there is a wash, chop, fix component that can sometimes be overwhelming on a week night after a long day of work. So Sunday morning puttering is a good time to put some of it together.

Today I prepared things for the upcoming week.  It was easy and took me about an hour.  This will save me lots of time during the week and more importantly there will be food here at home to tempt me rather than following my very hungry gut to some food source outside my home which may not be quite so healthy and organic.

The first thing I did was wash a bunch of lettuce, chop some fresh farmer's market carrots, and a big organic red bell pepper.   I combined all of it into two large gallon zip lock bags in the fridge.  Easy peasy.  Now we have 2 or 3 big salads that simply need some additions.  Our salads usually consist of:

A base of lettuce and other vegetables that keep for a few days once cut

Chopped vegetables that don't keep once they are cut - cucumber, tomatoes, etc

Some sort of bean.  Right now we are loving garbanzo beans.

Some sort of nut or seed - sunflower seed, pumpkin seed, hemp seed, chia

Live food like sprouts (easy to buy at our local Farmer's Markets and even easier to do yourself!)

A healthy fat like avocado or green olives

A simple dressing of flax oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and nutritional yeast

 Here's a sampling of a salad I made for myself the other day.  This is a "meal" salad and consists of all the things I listed above.  It's huge but that was my entire dinner. So Yum!

 Here's the big salad prep I did for the next few days.  A head of romaine chopped, a big bag of mixed greens from the farmer's market, 5 or 6 chopped carrots, and a huge red bell chopped.

And into two big bags it goes.  This photo doesn't do it justice.  It's like the color of Christmas in a bag and there is actually tons and tons of salad here. 

While I was chopping and washing the salad I had a big pot of lentils cooking.  Lentils are full of protein and a fast cook.  I'll use these lentils in a Lentil Shepherd's pie later this week.  They'll keep just fine in the fridge for a couple days before I mix a bunch of lovely tomato and veg into the lentils and cover it with super delicious mashed potatoes.

The lentils cooked and rinsed and ready to sit in the fridge until I use them on Monday or Tuesday.

The other things I got ready were:

Kale and Beans.  I washed and tore 3 huge bunches of kale in preparation for a big stir fry and a kale and bean soup.  I started soaking some lovely beans to add to that kale and bean soup (which will be made in the pressure cooker - quite a quick way to make a big soup for the week).  I'll bag the kale for future use and just be able to pull it out.

When I wash kale my three dogs sit at the kitchen screen door and look at me adoringly.  With their beautiful eyes they are saying, "Please give me the kale stems.  I love you but I really love kale."

I also made a big batch of brown rice in the rice cooker.  We'll use this for "rice bowls" (a stand by meal for us - rice or grain, beans, Annie's spread, avocado, fresh vegetables, kim chi, etc).  We'll also use this for the stir fry tonight.

I believe strongly that I make better food choices if I have food ready to eat and use.  I think one of the ways we stay healthy and strong is to eat as close to home as possible.  Although we do love to eat out at some of the local restaurants that cater to healthy eating, we just eat better if we have some stuff here and ready.  I urge you to consider spending an hour or so in your kitchen getting stuff ready to use for the next few days or week.