Recipe: Linguine with Portobello Mushrooms

Let's clear this up now: I love portobello mushrooms. They're versatile and work with a variety of recipes. This is one of the first recipes I ever tried with portobello mushroom caps.

Linguine with Portobello Mushrooms

Ingredients:
4 portobello mushroom caps
2 TBS extra virgin olive oil
1 pound linguine
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven broiler.
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add linguine, and cook for 9 to 13 minutes or until al dente; drain.
3. Brush the mushrooms with 1/2 the olive oil, and arrange on a medium baking sheet. Broil in the prepared oven 6 to 8 minutes, turning frequently, until browned and tender.
4. Cut the mushrooms into 1/4 inch slices, and place in a medium bowl. Mix with the remaining olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, basil, rosemary, garlic, and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.
5. In a large bowl, toss together cooked linguine and the mushroom mixture.

serves 8

Growing Power

This afternoon I had a meeting at Growing Power, a non-profit organization that works to provide locally grown food to people in Milwaukee and Chicago while promoting urban agriculture. One way the promote this idea is through community gardens. Maple Tree is home to one of these gardens, so a meeting between stakeholders of the community around the school and employees of growing power was held at their farm yesterday afternoon. I meant to take pictures, but decided against it since we didn't have time to take the tour they had told us about in the email.

The best part of this meeting was, without a doubt, the part where I got to meet Will Allen. Will is the founder of Growing Power and has been featured on Oprah's talk show, as well as a guest of honor by Michelle Obama as part of her Let's Move campaign. One can only imagine the look on my face when I was sitting at a table in a greenhouse rocking my mom jeans talking to a pastor, a president of a neighborhood association, and a growing power employee and Will Allen just strides in and starts shaking hands with everyone. It was pretty surreal. I wanted to be a nerd and ask to have my picture taken with him, but decided against it for two reasons: 1) I looked like crap (I learned during my first visit to growing power that wearing nice clothes there is a bad idea, since you will leave smelling like fertilizer), and 2) my hair had become a giant poofball, compliments of the greenhouse we were meeting in.

After the meeting I asked the employee who facilitated our meeting if Growing Power accepts foodstamps. It turns out that not only do they accept foodstamps, but they also accept WIC (a government assistance program similar to foodstamps, but it is only available for mothers and you can only purchase certain foods). I was so elated to hear this and will definitely consider purchasing food there in the future. It's important to help local businesses whenever possible, especially those similar to Growing Power that are doing so much good for the community.

Daily Food Journal

Today was a relatively average day for what I ate. However, I was pretty disappointed this morning when I opened my 100 calorie pack of blueberry muffins to discover how much packaging was wasted for two mini-muffins. I'll probably pick up some fruit to go along with the muffins for something a little more filling.

Breakfast:
mini-muffins and coffee with truvia

Lunch:
hummus sandwich (I'll post the recipe for this soon, it's awesome)
Trader Joe's light string cheese
seedless red grapes
fiber one yogurt

Afternoon snack:
Nature's Path Mmmaple Pecan granola bar

Dinner:
Masoor Daal (see previous post for recipe)
brown rice
green giant peas and corn in basil butter sauce
edy's ice cream

I'm using the term "afternoon snack" loosely here, since it was more like I stuffed the granola bar in my mouth while driving home so I could stay awake for the commute.

Also, the meeting I was originally supposed to go to this evening was canceled, so I managed to squeeze in a pilates class this afternoon.

Tomorrow's post will include a pasta recipe!

Lentil Recipe

it's hard for me to recall what I did before I discovered the wonder of lentils. they have become a staple in my vegetarian diet for multiple reasons-they are cheap, filling, and can be cooked in a variety of ways.

those of you who are familiar with lentils know that the trick to cooking a successful lentil dish is to soak them before cooking them. Most people recommend soaking lentils for 24 hours before cooking them. Kudos to those of you who have that sort of foresight. I am usually lucky if I can soak them an hour and a half or so before cooking them, though it does make a difference. Luckily, I remembered that I was planning on making lentils for dinner this morning before I left for yoga class, so I managed to start soaking them at around 8:30 this morning. This meant that the cooking time was reduced from the normal 30 plus minutes to about five minutes.

unfortunately, I did not realize that I was out of naan. yes, I could've made a quick run to whole foods to grab some, but I decided that I'd rather just stick some instant rice in the microwave. of course, this turned into the jar of homemade hot cocoa mix i had sitting on top of the microwave falling over and creating a huge mess in my kitchen area. I really need a bigger cooking area.

here is the recipe:

Easy Masoor Daal (aka red lentils)

ingredients:
1 cup red lentils
1 1-inch slice of ginger, peeled and chopped
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
4 tsp vegetable oil
4 tsp dried minced onion
1 tsp cumin seeds

directions:

1. Rinse lentils thoroughly and place in a medium saucepan along with ginger, turmeric, salt and cayenne pepper. Cover with about 1 inch of water and bring to a boil. Skim off any foam that forms on top of the lentils. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until beans are tender and soupy.
2. Meanwhile, in a microwave safe dish combine oil, dried onion and cumin seeds. Microwave on high for 45 seconds to 1 minute; be sure to brown, but not burn, onions. Stir into lentil mixture

serves 4

the main reason why I chose to make this recipe for dinner tonight was because of my schedule. Some of you know that on sundays I drive down to Gennesee to volunteer at a therapeutic riding facility. Because the facility is a good 50 minute drive each way and I help out with the pm feed, I often don't get home until somewhere between 6:30 and 7:00. I like to be in bed by 10 because I get up at 6 to go to work the next day. This means I have roughly three hours to shower the horse smell off of me, eat dinner, and prepare my lunch/coffee for the next day. this is further complicated by the fact that my school's monthly school governance council meeting is tomorrow, which means I won't get home until 7 pm. obviously, i wanted to make a dinner that was simple and could provide leftovers that were easy to reheat. that's exactly what this dish is.

Weekly Food Shop for 03/27-04/03

ok folks, you're going to have to bear with me for this first week.

admittedly, this is not the best week for me to start this blog. my site's school governance council is meeting this monday, and these meetings don't start until 5:30 in the evening (which means I won't get home until 6:30 if I'm lucky). also, my mom will be visiting me friday thru sunday, which means that I won't be cooking for myself during the weekend. This will be a relatively boring week for food shopping and cooking.

my proof for the previous statement is that I managed to do my entire week's food shopping at metro market. it usually takes trips to at least two grocery stores to get everything I need for the week.

here is what I bought at metro market for the week:

• red wine vinegar
• dried rosemary
• 100 calorie packs of hostess blueberry muffins
• edy's no sugar added fudge tracks ice cream
• 1 cucumber
• fresh ginger root
• 1 tomato
• red grapes
• 1 head of green lettuce
• 1 portobello mushroom cap
• fiber one peach yogurt

the grand total: $23.71

some notes about my grocery list:
I do not subscribe to the 100 calorie pack fad for dieting purposes. I do think they are convenient, especially someone in my situation who eats two meals a day somewhere besides her apartment. I can throw the pack in my purse the night before and not have to worry about remembering my breakfast in my 6 am wakeup haze.

the logic behind choosing no sugar added ice cream is simple. I have a hardcore sweet tooth. though nutritionists have not established an official limit as to how much sugar one should consume on a daily basis, most agree that you should aim for something under 40 grams of refined sugar. I can easily go over this. So, I try to go for low sugar options when they are available.

another reason why my grocery list was so light this week is that in light of my mom's upcoming visit, I decided to clean out/reorganize my cabinets and fridge. In the process of doing so, I realized that I have a lot of pasta and a large amount of red lentils. Thus, this week I will be making linguine with portobello mushrooms and masoor daal for dinner. I will also be breaking my previous promise and have a veggie burger one night (don't hate me too much).

stay tuned...I promise things will get more interesting!

edit: I didn't mention this earlier, but I will still try to update my blog on days that I don't cook. Instead of posting recipes and whatnot, I will write about other things that touch on the themes of nutrition and why I choose certain foods over others.

Welcome!

The point of this blog is simple: to prove that you can cook healthy meals that fit a tight budget. I am proving this by posting what I eat on a regular basis, along with photos and recipes. All of the ingredients are purchased with foodstamps.

Here is my situation with foodstamps:
As an Americorps*VISTA, I do not make an income (we are given monthly living allowances instead, which are small enough to keep us living at the poverty level). This means I get the maximum amount that anyone can receive in foodstamps. Because foodstamps regulations vary by state, here are the regulations I have for receiving foodstamps in the state of Wisconsin:

• I receive $200 a month in foodstamps, which is put directly on my QUEST card. This is in addition to the extra $500 I received when I first got my card, because they pro-rate your initial balance from the date of your application (I applied during my first night of pre-service orientation in mid-August)
• foodstamps can be used to purchase food at (most) grocery stores, food from pharmacies like CVS and Walgreen's, and farmer's markets.

Instead of listing what I can purchase with foodstamps at grocery stores, I will list everything I cannot purchase:

• prepared food
• alcohol
• cleaning supplies
• pet food
• medication
• cosmetics

I do the majority of my food shopping at Pick 'n Save, Metro Market, and Whole Foods. I do buy my coffee beans at Trader Joe's, but that is generally the only thing I buy there. There is also a deli/market around the corner where i make the occasional emergency run when i run out of something while in the middle of cooking. Yes, it would probably be cheaper for me to buy food at Walmart, but I choose not to because a) I feel like part of my soul dies every time I walk in there, and b) the closest Walmart to where I live is pretty sketchy. However, foodstamps are accepted there.

So here is how this blog will work:

I do my grocery shopping for the week during the weekend (usually friday or saturday, depending on my schedule). after I go food shopping, I will post the food that I purchased on here, along with my grand total. I often find that I need to go to multiple grocery stores to find everything I need, so I will post where I bought everything.

I will post what I eat every day, along with photos and recipes when I make something new. It is rare that I don't cook my own dinner and often like to experiment with new recipes. I do keep an emergency stash of veggie burgers in my freezer, but it's rare that I ever choose to eat one instead of something made fresh. Most of the recipes I will use will come from allrecipes.com, whole food's website, vegetarian times magazine, and various cookbooks.

This blog will officially start with my trip to the grocery store on Saturday, March 27th.

If anyone is interested in contributing a recipe or an opinion piece to this blog, please get in touch with me.