Zucchini Bread

Wow, that zucchini bread is amazing. I think I'll make more of it this week. Lest you think I've lost my mind on the "healthy" part -you can follow this link for the recipe.

But here are my changes:
subbed 1 cup all purpose flour with whole wheat
added 2 Tbsp wheat germ
replaced half of the oil with applesauce
cut the sugar in half (2 cups??), and will reduce a bit more next time (to 2/3 cup probably)
replaced one of the three eggs with 1 Tbsp ground flax seed and 3 Tbsp water (free range eggs aren't cheap!)

Tonight's Dinner, brought to you by the color GREEN

Or really, last night's dinner.

Sesame Cashew Noodles, Sauteed Green beans, and some diced avocado.

It was a pretty busy week (when aren't they?) I had a great evening out with my fellow mom-friends on Thursday. And Friday, I had a great meal of leftover Beef Bourguinon, homemade bread (from the bread machine, that my husband made), and more sauteed zucchini. I'm loving this shredded zucchini thing. I got a pound from the CSA this week, and then probably another 3 lbs from some great coworker. Or two. They just show up in the lunch room. Also showing up this week? Apples.

I recently impressed a couple of friends with my meals. On a Friday, how on earth did I have beef bourguinon, homemade bread, and zucchini? Well, it's all about planning. And...I'm not always perfect with the planning and execution. For example, Thursday night (when I went out), I could have done better planning dinner for my family. But I was tired. I'd donated blood the night before, swum in the frigid Pacific that morning...so I said "you can heat up this stuff here, or you can get pizza." Pizza won (and we had leftovers for lunch for a couple of days too!).

But Fridays, I'm pretty tired. And I've GOT to plan for leftovers, if I want to avoid the lure of the overpriced and disappointing restaurant meal. I've said it here before - when I cook, I cook A LOT. I aim to make a big dish of something that's at least 10 cups, every weekend. On good weekends, I make two things. I have these Pyrex dishes that are 4 and 6 cups. Each weekend, I try to put one 4-cup item in the freezer. A 4 cup item will feed us for one meal, sometimes 1.5 meals.

Now, you don't HAVE to freeze things. If you don't mind eating the same thing over and over, like the folks at Path to Freedom, then you can just eat 10-16 cups of something for lunch and dinner for 4 days. But I think my family would revolt if I did that. And, I get bored also.

Recent things that have made it into my freezer (and later, onto my plates): split pea soup, beef bourguinon, red bean gumbo, plain cooked read beans, and caponata. If I plan to pull out leftovers for Thursday or Friday dinner, it's a late-in-the-week "treat". What I make over the weekend is generally gone by Weds lunch. So Weds and Thursday tend to be quick and easy - grilled cheese, veggie burgers, etc.

Other things that I've been making this week:
Tofu and veggie stir fry with rice and quinoa
Mango-banana smoothies
Zucchini bread
Caponata

Thank you Lori

Just when I wasn't sure what kind of veggie I was going to make with my veggie burgers, I arrive at work to a bag with 5 huge zucchinis sitting on the lunch room table, saying "take me".

I took 3.

Sauteed zucchini. We ate all three of them for dinner last night. Yum!!

Pizza

Homemade pizza last night and tonight. I could not figure out why my dough didn't rise yesterday. I forgot to do the second kneading, so I did it - but late. My flour is pretty new, but I did use extra whole wheat. Hmmm...am I losing my touch?

And then, as I was crawling into bed, it hit me. I forgot the yeast. So, my tip for the day, friends, is - don't forget the yeast, or you get flat pizza crust.

But the homemade sauce was awesome. I hid a bunch of onions and peppers in it.

Breakfast

So, here I am on Sunday morning. My hubby's not playing tennis today, so it would be the perfect opportunity for yoga. But not today. Today, I am supporting my friends.

Little tidbit about me: I have done 3 Breast Cancer 3-day walks. 2001, 2003, 2005. That last one, I was pregnant, so I only walked about 51 of the 60 miles. Nowadays, you have two long-distance choices: the Avon 2-day walk and the Susan G. Komen 3-day walk.

The Avon, ironically, is here this weekend. They walked past our house (which is rare, but I guess when you are walking 26.2 miles, you have to weave in and out all over town). I wasn't here but we put up balloons, my husband and son cheered them on, and they let one lady use our bathroom. My hubby knows, especially from the one where I was pregnant, how important bathroom stops are.

The group of people that I did the 3-days with continues to ebb and flow, and walk. Mary Anne is our leader, and has walked one walk every year since the start in 1998. They are walking in San Francisco this year, and this is the big back-to-back weekend. They are walking 18-20 miles Saturday AND Sunday, to get used to that before the big weekend.

So today, as I've done before, I am meeting them at their big beach turnaround, with snacks and drinks. I made raisin bread in the bread machine. I have electrolyte water, cheese sticks, and I'll probably pick up some gatorade on the way. We've got the balloons from yesterday.

So where does breakfast come in here? Well, there's a nice restaurant at the beach. I was thinking that it would be nice to go early, eat, then cheer them on. I looked up the menu, and some reviews. The reviews said that it wasn't good for children (though I figured breakfast would be okay). And it's pricey. But I do like a good breakfast.

As I looked at the average price ($12.95) and the cost of a breakfast burrito ($8.95), I got to thinking. That breakfast would cost us about $36-37 for the three of us. My husband was still asleep (he's been working late and on weekends). My son was watching TV (the only way I could get him to let my husband sleep). So I started cooking.

Even with the local, organic, free range eggs from the farmer's market ($4.50/dozen), the Niman Ranch bacon ($4.49 for 12 slices), etc., I managed to make breakfast for three for under 5 bucks.

Breakfast burritos:
1 lb organic potatoes: 1.00
1 Tbsp canola oil: 0.05
chopped green onion and small pepper: 0.25
3 eggs: 1.13
3 slices bacon: 1.12
3 large tortillas: 0.90
1 slice American cheese: 0.13
1 teabag for iced tea: 0.15

Total: $4.73 for 3 burritos, plus extra potatoes on the side

Steam the potatoes and fry up in the oil with peppers and onion.

Microwave bacon until crispy.

Scramble the eggs and top with the cheese.

Wrap in tortillas and enjoy!

Keep Fighting the Good Fight Folks

See article on Fruit and Vegetable consumption here.

A few tidbits:

Recommended minimum fruit/veg consumption for Americans over 2:
2 servings fruit
3 servings vegetables
(though I have seen smaller serving recommendations for children under 5 elsewhere)

One serving is 1/2 cup (1 cup for leafy greens), 1 small piece fruit. Grand total: 2.5 cups. That's not a lot folks.

As of 2009:
Percentage of Americans meeting the minimum:
Fruit: 32.5% (40.1% in California, second only to DC)
Vegetable: 26.3% (highest consumption by any state is ... Idaho)

We hit the minimum almost every day (though my son maybe gets 3-5 servings - he doesn't always get 5). It's a rare day when we don't. Like today, when we're out of fruit. We've got dried fruit and one peach to share 3 ways. But my son gets fruit at school.

My biggest tips for getting enough fruits and veggies:
Fruit: eat one for breakfast, one lunch, if you are a 3-meal-a-day person. Or, if you are a snacker (like me), have one for breakfast and one or two for snacks. I get my fruit at the morning snack and afternoon snack. Sometimes at breakfast and/or lunch.

Veggie: At least one serving at lunch (though 2-3 is more normal). That means a main dish should be veggie heavy (veggie soup, stew, pasta, stir-fry). If it's not, then a side of veggie. A frozen mixture to throw in the micro, edamame, carrot sticks, a salad. I've been known to throw a few radishes, some tomato, and a cucumber in a bag and slice it up into a salad at lunch. Last night's veggie was celery sticks with peanut butter (yesterday was CSA day, our fridge was getting bare). Tonight's dinner is split pea soup - the main dish IS the veggie. And our dinners generally are based around veggies, so it's easy to get 3 servings.

This week's veggies were:
celery and peanut butter
sauteed zucchini
Baked limas with tomato
pasta with cherry tomato and zucchini
split pea soup
red bean gumbo
edamame
salad
radishes
potatoes

Upcoming week:
green beans
tomatoes
potatoes
cherry tomatoes
peppers
plus some frozen veggies to round it all out (stir fry, broccoli, cauliflower)
onions
radishes

Meals

Fresh limas with garlic, tomato, bread crumbs, and cheese.
Stuffing. Because despite my attempt to keep control over the bread heels, I found 5 bags of them in the freezer.
Roasted Potatoes (because they are cheaper than Whole Foods' hot bar at $7.99/lb).
Sauteed zucchini. Because it's the season. I was doubtful about the tastiness, but again Perfect Vegetables did not fail me.