Michelle Zink's Blog, page 16

The Vegetarian Pantry

I’ve been getting a ton of traffic on my vegetarian recipe posts, which makes me think there are a lot of people out there trying to cut back on meat (or cut it out entirely).

So in lieu of a recipe this week, I thought I’d give you some vegetarian pantry staples. Odds are, if you have most of these things in your pantry or refrigerator, you can make something healthy and vegetarian with a moment’s notice.

Bonus; it’s MUCH cheaper to eat vegetarian, even allowing for organic produce and other more expensive type items, which you don’t HAVE to buy.

This may seem like a lot, but once you’re stocked, you just have to replace an item here and there as you use it. Every week I might have to replace 3 to 5 non-perishables (tamari, vinegar, olive oil, etc.). Most of our grocery cart is fruit, veggies, and the rare dairy product or almond milk. Our family of five (Rebekah is away at college but I still supplement her dorm food a bit) spends $150-$200/week on groceries, and that includes paper products and almost entirely organic produce (and even organic rice, canned tomatoes, etc.). If you’d like to start making changes but want to avoid a big, giant stock up, just add a couple of these items to your regular list each week.

Here’s what I recommend;

Olive oil

Vinegars (I keep balsamic, red wine, apple cider, white wine, and raspberry)

Brown rice

Quinoa

Canned chickpeas (I also keep black beans, pintos, kidneys, and white beans as well as dried beans, although they take longer to cook)

Peanut butter and/or tahini

Jarred tomato sauce

Canned diced or whole tomatoes

Better Than Bouillon vegetable broth paste (in soup/broth section of store or natural foods section for organic)

Applesauce

Pasta and/or rice noodles

Greek yogurt

Goat cheese and/or feta cheese

Olives

Nuts and/or seeds (the ones we use most are sunflower and pumpkin seeds, walnuts, and peanuts)

Eggs

Tamari (natural soy sauce – don’t buy so called soy sauce. It’s just corn syrup) and Sriracha sauce

Wheat bread

Tortillas (corn or flour)

Herbs and spices (my go-tos are cayenne, red pepper flakes, paprika, oregano, basil, tarragon, thyme, chili powder, and cumin)

Staple fruits and veggies (ours are apples, bananas, oranges, tomatoes, mixed greens, avocado, eggplant, zucchini, carrots, celery, leeks, onion, garlic)

With these things you can make multiple (and amazing!) vegetarian soups, pastas, rice and quinoa-based dishes, wraps/burritos/tacos, main course salads, etc. Next week I’ll post some of my favorite quick vegetarian dinners, including a recipe for my much-loved, super fast and easy vegetable soup.

Happy cooking!

 

The Sunday Experiment – Uphill Battle

You guys… I’m clinging to my Sunday Experiment by a thread.

After working so hard last week (SO HARD) to meet a deadline, I told myself I’d take the whole weekend off. Problem was, I was running on 2 hours sleep from Thursday night and it totally jacked me up. I was in this weird manic, exhausted state where the words of the project I’d finished kept roiling around my head, even when I tried to sleep.

And it lasted all. weekend. long.

Then on Sunday I had another project I had to finish, plus I had to go to town to run an errand (something I normally would have done in advance to protect my Sunday off, but didn’t get to do because of the deadline).

So basically, I had this weird, exhausted, frustrating, sort-of day off that I didn’t fully enjoy.

Part of the problem, I think, is that I was struggling with mindfulness (my focus for February). I couldn’t seem to compartmentalize the things I’d finished and the things I needed to do from the time I needed to relax.

The other part is that I abandoned a lot of the things I’d been prioritizing to take care of myself. I should know by now that the 30 minutes I gain is totally offset by the diminished productivity I feel when I’m not taking care of me.

But I’m NOT giving up. I still have a lot of balls in the air, but I’m really going to work on getting back on track this week, starting with taking care of myself with yoga and meditation, both of which went out the window during last week’s crunch.

And I WILL get my Sunday off this weekend!

How are you guys doing? Is anyone still with me in trying to take one full day a week away from work and social media?

Recipe of the Week – Vegetarian Stroganoff

Before we became vegetarian, Beef Stroganoff was one of my very favorite dishes. Sure, I knew it was loaded with fat and calories, but there was just something about it’s creamy goodness… every now and then, it was worth the splurge.

 

For a long time, I didn’t even think about trying to recreate it, probably because anything that leads with the word “beef” can seem like a no-brainer for vegetarians.But I have to say, I really regret not trying to modify this sooner. It’s AH-Mazing!

 

And super easy!

 

Okay, still not great in terms of fat, but no meat and so delicious, none of us missed the beef. I made it for the kids for Valentine’s Day last week, served it with green beans sauteed in butter, garlic, and lemon, and topped it all off with my famous No Red Velvet Cake.

Best. Valentine’s. Dinner. Ever.

After mentioning it on Facebook, a bunch of you clamored for the recipe, so here tis! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Vegetarian Stroganoff

I’d say this serves 6-8 people. All measurement accomodate a standard size bag of egg noddles (12 oz).

4 tbsp. butter

1 medium-large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

32 oz. mushrooms (I used Baby Bella but you can use whatever you want), quartered (halved if they’re small)

16 oz, sour cream

4 tbsp flour

2 cups water

4 tsp. Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Paste

12 oz cooked egg noodles

1/4 cup chopped parsley

Saute onion, mushrooms, and garlic until onion is translucent.

In the meantime, combine sour cream, flour, water, and vegetable paste in a medium bowl.

Once onions are translucent and mushrooms are cooked but still firm, add flour mixture to pan. Stir until combined.

Let simmer until sauce begins thickens.

Stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over egg noodles and bon appetit!

The Sunday Experiment – Sidetracked

Welp, this week’s Sunday Experiment was, if not a failure, an experiment in compromise.

After doing the math on a project due this week and realizing there was no way I could finish it if I didn’t work on Sunday, I had to accept the fact that there was no way I was going to get my day off.

I thought about taking it anyway and just dealing with the consequences, but since said consequences might be a project well past its due date, my conscience wouldn’t let me go that route.

At the same time, I didn’t want to blow it off completely. Since taking one day off a week, I can feel myself getting edgy and stressed as I approach the six day mark. I NEED that time, not only to recharge but also to work my best the rest of the week.

So I decided to compromise. I set my normal Sunday Experiment Away Message on email and didn’t check it (except for one email I owed someone) or Facebook/Twitter all day. Then I tried to focus on February’s goal of mindfulness/compartmentalization by really enjoying my morning coffee and the work breaks I took to have lunch with Rebekah, run to the store, and watch a movie with ice cream later that night. In between, I really focused on work.

And while I missed the total break (and I can already tell I’m going to feel it later in the week), I got some work done and the respite from email and social networking was nice. It also reminded me how much more efficiently I work without the distraction of the internet.

Hello, Mac Freedom!

I guess there are times in life when you really CAN’T take the break you need. But working it in most of the time IS a buffer against those times you can’t, and it’s still possible to compromise – even if it’s with yourself. I’m hoping to finish this project by Thursday and may just reward myself by taking a long weekend (gasp!) before starting my next big one.

What about you? Anybody still doing the Sunday Experiment with me? How’s it going?

Little Things – Homemade Treats

Those of you who follow me online have probably figured out that I love to cook. What you probably don’t know is that this was not a forgone conclusion. My mom was a single mother and often worked two jobs to support me. She didn’t have the time or the inclination to cook regularly, so it wasn’t something I learned at her knee.

My grandmother, however, loved to bake. Famous for her boysenberry pie, homemade candy (divinity to die for!), and endless jars of jam, it seemed she was always cooking up something.

When I first got my own place I called her all the time for cooking and baking tips and advice. She spent hours with me on the phone talking me through things and even sent me her recipes, copied in her own hand. Now that she has passed on I treasure them even more.

Maybe it was the feeling of comfort and home and security I felt while in my grandmother’s house — smelling pie crust browning, sugar dissolving on the stove, fruit turning into jam — that turned me into someone who loves to cook. Maybe it’s in the genes (Rebekah loves it, too). Whatever the reason, I love cooking great meals for people I love.

But as much as I enjoy cooking an awesome meal, there’s something singularly soothing about baking. I don’t know if it’s the warmth of the kitchen as the oven heats up or the smell of all that sugary goodness or the almost subconscious concentration required to measure and spoon, but baking is like therapy for me.

In our house, we make everything from scratch. This way I know what’s going into the finished product and we can spend time together while we bake. And let’s be honest, homemade just tastes BETTER. The best part is, anyone can do it anytime. As long as you have pantry staples (mine are flour, sugar, cocoa, chocolate chips, vegetable oil, butter, eggs, and vanilla), you can make almost anything. Craving ooey-gooey brownies? Warm-from-the-oven cookies? A gorgeous, old-fashioned layer cake?

You can probably make them right now!

All reasons why homemade treats are this week’s Little Thing. Like this AH-mazing Red Velvet Cake (minus the red, since we don’t do dye) with cream cheese frosting and toasted walnuts that I made today for my four favorite Valentines. I whipped it up in no time flat while drinking coffee and catching up on email this morning.

Hope you have a week full of wonderful Little Things! And feel free to share your favorites here or on Twitter using #littlethings.

Recipe of the Week – Potato Leek & White Bean Soup

 

This week’s vegetarian recipe is my very own. I had another Potato Leek Soup recipe that I used before we stopped eating meat, and while that one didn’t have meat, it did have a lot of cream and butter and absolutely no high-quality protein.

 

This one has very little animal product (only a little Greek yogurt, which you cam omit to make the recipe vegan) and the addition of white beans gives it some much needed protein and fiber. Because everything is blended together, you won’t even know the beans are there (and trust me, neither will your kids – mine didn’t until I told them) and they add nice flavor while also thickening the soup.

 

I make a giant pot of homemade soup every Monday in the winter and we munch on it all week. This is a staple. Cheap, easy, and nutritious, it’s a great way to add a little warmth to a winter night. I serve it with an apple salad – my kids favorite – and we’re good to go.

This recipe make a ginormous pot of soup. I’d say it probably serves 10-12. You can halve it if you’re not hardcore like us and you just can’t handle all that soup.

 

 

You will need;

2 tablespoons olive or grape seed oil (or you can use canola)

3-4 leeks, sliced

2-4 garlic cloves (depending on how much you like garlic), minced

2-3 good size potatoes (white, russet, eastern – doesn’t matter!), chopped

10 cups of water

8 teaspoons of veggie broth paste (you can substitute 10 cups of ready-made vegetable broth if you want, but the pa

ste is amazing and much cheaper in the long run, plus there’s less waste/packaging)

2 small or one large can white beans (any kind is fine, although I usually use Great Northern)

1 cup Greek yogurt (omit to make vegan)

2 tablespoons tarragon, salt & pepper to taste

Halve and slice white and light green part of leeks. Saute with olive oil and a couple tablespoons of water until leeks are translucent.

Add garlic and cook for one more minute. Then add potatoes.

Cook for a couple of minutes and then add all the water and the broth paste. Bring to a boil and simmer until potatoes are soft (this shouldn’t take more than10-15 minutes since the potatoes are cut somewhat small).

Add beans and yogurt (if using).

Remove from heat.

Using an immersion blender or food processor, blend until mostly smooth. You can also use a potato masher and do it by hand, although the soup won’t be as smooth (it’ll still taste good, though!).

Turn heat on simmer and add tarragon and salt and pepper to taste.

I serve with a simple apple salad – greens with chopped apples and walnuts, dressed with equal parts olive oil and raspberry vinegar, a sprinkle of salt, and little ground pepper.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Experiment – Just Do It

I think I’m getting the hang of this day off thing. For the second week in a row, I didn’t even open my email or Facebook. And it was easier this week!

I started the day with coffee and a pastry, watched END OF WATCH with the kids, had an awesome homemade veggie sub better than any I could buy, took a couch nap, made homemade eggplant pizza (sauteed eggplant and ricotta!), played Scrabble with Caroline (we haven’t played in a long time so we both suck, but we’re determined to get better), and started House of Cards with a warm cup of tea.

In fact, the hardest part of this week’s Sunday Experiment came BEFORE Sunday. I have a project with a very aggressive deadline, and I lost all of Saturday due to a computer emergency with Rebekah that required a last minute trip to New Jersey.

Aaaaanyway, I’d planned to do a bunch of work on Saturday to keep me on schedule with my deadline, but it just didn’t happen. I was very, VERY tempted to skip the Sunday Experiment this week in lieu of work. But I talked myself out of it, because the truth is, there will always be SOMETHING.

So I reorganized my schedule.

Because I’d split the work up into daily goals, I had to redistribute everything based on on less day. Which, of course, means a little more work each day this week. But I reasoned that I’d be better able to tackle it — and FEEL better about it, too — if I had my day off.

Was I right? I’ll get back to you on that.

 

What are your biggest challenges in taking time off? Work? Getting sucked into kid stuff? Sidetracked by tasks around the house? Share here! And if you’re doing the Sunday Experiment, too, blog about it and post a link in the Comments section!

 

Sneak Peek Saturday – Adult Fantasy WIP

This book has been an obsession since I started it last year. Unfortunately, I’ve had to set it aside several times for pressing deadlines, leaving it as about 35,000 words, which is where it still stands. One of my goals this year is to finish it.

This is the first chapter, which doesn’t really hint at the fantasy element in the rest of the book. But this is me we’re talking about, so trust me; it’s there. You can get another hint about the book from the picture.

 

Hope you enjoy it!

I tried not to look suspicious as I sat across the street from the school, waiting for the kids to stream out the back door.

I shouldn’t have been worried. I’d been careful to dress like the moms I saw in the grocery store, the ones wearing faded jeans and stretched out t-shirts, their hair usually in a ponytail or cut short for minimal styling.

I’d forgone my usual skinny jeans and black t-shirt, digging a cardigan out of my bottom drawer to wear in place of my leather jacket. I hadn’t worn the sweater since Abby’s last birthday, and I’d lifted it to my nose when I pulled it from the drawer, inhaling deeply. It was stupid. It wouldn’t smell like her, and I wouldn’t know if it did. Like so many things about Abby, I could only imagine what she smelled like.

I’d finally put the sweater on, getting a whiff of wool and old wood as I tugged it up over my shoulders. I’d pulled my long brown hair into a ponytail and slipped on some tennis shoes before getting in the car and driving across town to Verrazano Elementary School. I knew it was Abby’s school both because I’d used the Moser’s address to look it up on the district map and because Grace Moser had mentioned it in her yearly letter, something that made me squirm a little in the car, guilt worming its way through my veins.

Grace wouldn’t like the idea of me sitting across from the school, watching Abby. It’s not that she would be angry. She’d just wonder why, if I was starved for a glimpse of my daughter, I didn’t take her and Dan up on their offer to have me over. And that was something I’d never be able to explain. I couldn’t even think about it long enough to explain it to myself.

A breeze, the perfect mix of late summer warmth chased by the slightest chill, drifted through the open car window as a bell cut through the air. I sat up straighter, eyes trained on the school. Ten seconds later the side doors opened with a clang, and a stream of small bodies emerged, some bounding down the steps, others showing more caution.

Abby was one of the first ones out. She hit the blacktop behind the school with so much speed the momentum seemed to carry her forward, her blond hair streaming out behind her like a handful of yellow ribbons. My hands rose from my lap, reaching for the window, as if I could catch her from where I sat in the car.

But she didn’t fall. She just kept running, her pale legs bare under a green dress.

My breath caught in my throat. She was bigger than she’d been last year, just like she’d been bigger last year than the year before that. For a minute, I saw it; the years and years ahead when I would only bear silent witness to Abby’s growth. Years when the loss of her would etch itself deeper into my bones until they were worn as smooth as a river stone.

I shut the thought down before it could cripple me.

I lifted the picture in my hand, comparing it to the little girl running back and forth across the playground, playing tag with some of the other kids.

Abby’s hair was longer now. Ditto her legs. Her face was slightly less round, and every now and then, I thought I caught a glimpse of the girl she would be in a few years. I tried to project myself forward five, six, seven Septembers into the future, to see her sitting with other girls at recess, their heads bowed as they shared secrets and talked about classmates.

Then again, that was just the way I imagined it would be. The way I hoped it would be for Abby. The truth was, I didn’t have a clue. My own childhood had been about as far from normal as you could get. But normal was what I was hoping for for Abby. What it had been all about.

I watched her run, her laugh falling through the air like glitter. I wondered if her happiness was a product of her environment or if it was some kind of throwback gene, some long-lost chromosome that allowed her to play and smile and be carefree without worrying and wondering and being afraid. She definitely didn’t get it from me.

I took one last look, committing every detail to memory even though I knew Grace would send me a picture taken on this very day. She always sent me a birthday picture.

Still, this was the last time I’d see Abby in person until next year. I would need to call up the image of her countless times to make the journey from now to then, and I drank her in until my heart was so full of her it felt like it would explode.

“Happy birthday, Abby,” I said softly.

I put the picture back in my purse and started the car.

* * *

It had been an open adoption. Not because that’s how I wanted it, but because Daniel and Grace Moser didn’t believe in keeping secrets. And I had my heart set on Daniel and Grace Moser.

I’d looked through hundreds of profiles before I’d chosen them. Daniel was a Senior Vice President for a computer consulting company. Grace was an artist who liked to cook and wanted to stay home with their adopted child. They made a good living, but not enough to make them a member of the financially elite. I liked that. I wanted Abby to have a happy, stable home. I wanted her to have a normal life. Extremes went both ways, and while I didn’t want her to worry about where her next meal was coming from, I didn’t want her to become some stuck-up little bitch who thought she was better than everyone else, either.

The Mosers were perfect. Sweet and sincere, Grace had the kind of inherent warmth that made me wish she was my mother. Daniel was a big, solid man with intelligent eyes. I liked the way he put his hand on Grace’s back when they’d entered the room at the adoption agency, the way he seemed to watch over her even when we were just talking. They talked about how they liked classical music but listened to Otis Redding when they cooked dinner, and I had a flash of my child, dancing around a homey kitchen to Sitting on the Dock of the Bay or doing homework with Brahms playing the background.

Choosing them had felt right, inevitable. They’d supported me through my pregnancy without being obnoxious, giving me small gifts to make me more comfortable and covering all of my medical expenses. But they never intruded. Never asked questions about what I was eating or whether I was taking the prenatal vitamins or getting enough rest.

Maybe they just knew they didn’t need to worry. For once, it had been easy to be good to myself because everything I did for myself was really for Abby.

After Abby was born and they’d taken her home, Grace and Dan had offered to have me over. It was a standing invitation, they’d said when I declined. As Abby got older, they even offered to tell her I was a family friend, if it would make me more comfortable.

But I just couldn’t. I felt like if I saw her up close, the scream that had been building inside me since the night I’d let her go might finally wrench itself free, and I’d never be able to stop. I’d consigned my memories of her birth to the shadowy place in my heart, the place where I swept all the things I couldn’t bear to think about. I allowed myself one day a year — this day — to see her. To think about her. I was already shuffling through life. Already trying to find a way forward, a way to navigate the world and the people around me the way everyone else seemed to do so easily, so effortlessly.

It was all I could do. I’d already learned that spending too much time in the past would undo me completely.

Little Things – Stella Perfume

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a girly-girl. I vaguely remember a time when I wore dresses and skirts, but it was so long ago it feels like I’m remembering another person. Now my style is more Katherine Hepburn than Grace Kelly, although I am willing to give Sophia Loren or Diane Lane a whirl.

 

But one thing I ADORE is this perfume. I found it by chance when I received a sample from Sephora and was so hooked I immediately splurged on a full size bottle. Sephora describes it as, “A fragrance based on the contrast between the freshness and softness of the rose, and the dark sensuality of amber, Stella is a sophisticated scent focused on an intense sense of femininity.”

I like it because it has a classic rose note that is reminiscent of old-school perfume while being fresh and modern. Also, the scent lingers in a nice, subtle way and is just a little bit sultry. I use it literally every day, even if I’m spending the day alone and working in my pajamas. It’s a little thing that just makes me happy (and it makes my room smell nice, too). And while it’s not super cheap, a bottle lasts me about a year and is well worth the price.

Plus, the bottle is gorgeous.

What about you? What’s your favorite scent or perfume? Why do you like it? Share here or on Twitter with #littlethings!

February Focus – Mindfulness

Those of you following the Sunday Experiment know that I’ve been working at finding more balance in my life. After wading my way through two years of near-constant work, it was past time.

Even though I’m only a month into what’s morphed from a simple New Year’s resolution into a year-long project, I can already see that this experiment will probably save my sanity. The scariest thing of all has been realizing how quickly everything can become out of control — and how easy it is to tell ourselves the crazy, hectic lives we lead are NORMAL.

But it doesn’t have to be, and I’m determined to take back my life. In January, I concentrated on taking one day a week off. And when I say off, I mean OFF. No work, no email (not even to peek at my Inbox!), no Facebook, no Twitter, no computer. It sounded like a reasonable goal, but if you’ve been following my Sunday Experiment posts, you know it’s been surprisingly difficult to really take a break. Not because of outside forces, but because I have forgotten how to relax.

I am my own worst enemy. Even as I’ve given myself permission to take one day off a week, my brain will not SHUT UP. It is next to impossible to flip through a magazine, read a book, or watch a movie without a constant stream of thought in my head. And I realized that when this little voice is playing, it’s usually not even to expand on what I’m doing at any given moment. It’s to think about things that happened yesterday (or last month), to contemplate what I’ll do the next day when I go back to work, to strategize mentally about my career, sometimes projecting myself a year or more into the future.

I started thinking about it and realized this is a problem of mindfulness. Not surprisingly, mindfulness is a core tent of Buddhism, a philosophy that rings more and more true for me every day. In Buddhism we’re instructed to set aside thoughts of yesterday and worries of tomorrow to be fully present in the moment.

What IS surprising is that this idea mimics another, more businesslike concept; compartmentalization. When I worked in an office, one of my bosses once commented how good I was at compartmentalizing. I had four kids at home (all of them under the age of eight). I worked through an entire pregnancy in a male-dominated field and didn’t tell anyone until I was four months along, even though I suffered from crippling morning sickness and had to drive with my boss to innumerable client meetings pretending to be fine. It didn’t matter if I’d had a fight with my then-husband or if I’d been up late with a sick baby, every morning I got up, went to the gym, and showed up to work with a smile.

And my boss was right; compartmentalization was key. When I was at work, I couldn’t afford to think about what was happening at home, if I was missing something, if the kids were okay. My time at home was precious, making it easier to set aside problems of work for the few hours a day I actually got to enjoy my family.

I like to think that mindfulness is a kinder, gentler form of compartmentalization. It’s something we should learn in the spirit of being more fully present in every moment rather than something we do to “deal with” the extraordinary demands of life gone crazy.

And it’s surprisingly hard.

Even though I’ve actively practiced mindfulness in the past, it is HARD to be in the moment. The mind is unruly child. It wants to watch TV, eat junk, and stay up late when what it really needs is silence, healthy food, and a solid eight hours of sleep.

But this month, I’m really working on it. Because a day off  – or a month or a year – isn’t going to do me any good if I can’t turn off the noise and really be in a given moment. So in February, my goal is to be PRESENT. It’s to really feel the steering wheel under my hands when I drive, really notice the beauty of the snow-covered fields around me. It’s to LISTEN to my children when they talk to me instead of thinking about what I have to do when they’re done. It’s to enjoy the feel of the wooden spoon in my hand when I’m stirring this week’s batch of homemade soup, to smell the rosemary and sage, to really take in the feeling of comfort it all brings.

Sounds easy, right? I’m betting it won’t be at first, but like everything with the Sunday Experiment, I think it will pay off in spades.

What about you? Do you find it’s difficult to really be in the moment in this crazy world? Is it something you notice? Ir is it just a way of life at this point?