Ginger pear smoothie

 

Surely there is a good Halloween name for this concoction. Witches brew? Frog's breath smoothie? It's yummy no matter the name.

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, but this smoothie was too good to not share. I've been on a breakfast smoothie kick lately, but this one was a lunchtime concoction created out of a desire to liquify a pear. So here it goes- ginger pear smoothie.

One cup spinach

One cup kale

One cup milk

Blend. Add:

One banana

One pear

One tablespoon honey

Half scoop vanilla protein powder

Half teaspoon ginger

Half teaspoon cinamon

Blend.

Drink.

Yum.

The spices lend it a fallish kick, as does the pear. Coming in at around 400 calories with about 22 grams of protein, this makes a great lunch. I might try fresh ginger next time, or just more ginger generally. Definitely a new one for the rotation.   

Ginger Carrot and Cabbage Stir-fry

Less than 30 minutes from harvest to table.

I'm not sure which is better, this delicious meal made with fresh-from-the-garden veggies, or the technology that allowed me to create this great collage in about five minutes. The recipe is one of our favorites- a super easy weeknight meal that packs a health punch of veggies. Our carrots, as you can see above, are a bit small this year, but they were still flavorful and had that great fresh texture that store bought can't replicate. I planted the cabbage early in the season, but with our unusual heat and the plague of cabbage moths, it took a bit longer to mature than it probably should have. In any case, I got a few perfect heads of cabbage, and the imperfect ones still have a tasty flavor. The crisp texture and slightly peppery flavor of fresh cabbage is such a treat.

The recipe is one that we adapted from a small cookbook titled Homestyle Japanese Cooking. In that recipe, the protein is pork, but we substitute seitan and added carrots to the mix, using powdered ginger instead of ginger juice. We also use less oil than suggested.

Ginger Carrot and Cabbage Stir-fry

3 tbsp soy sauce (low sodium)

2 tbsp sake, cooking sake can be found at Asian markets or well stocked grocers
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp oil
1 small head cabbage, chopped
2 tsp powdered ginger
2 inch section of fresh ginger, diced
1 bunch carrots (about 3 large, 6 small), matchstick
about 8 oz. seitan, cubed

Combine soy sauce, powdered ginger, sake, and sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. Add fresh ginger, carrots and cabbage, stir-fry for about 3-5 minutes. Add seitan and stir-fry for about 3 minutes. Add sauce mixture and stir-fry until cooked through, about 2 minutes.

Serve over sushi rice.

Fourth of July Blueberry Pie

Thanks, Martha Stewart, for improving my Saturday with this fantastic Blueberry Pie recipe. The pate brisse crust takes quite a while, as there is a good deal of refrigeration time involved, but that gave me more time to go to the Farmers Market and get this great haul of veggies:

And of course, around here a trip to market means a trip to the adjacent playground, so I got in some exercise to burn off the pie and ice cream. Plus, blueberries are full of antioxidants and supposedly they improve your mood, so I'm healthier and happier all around. I can't imagine a better Saturday morning.

Tomatoes and Education

It's fascinating how education changes our opinions.

This is true of everything from the Affordable Care Act to vegetables. As a supporter of health care equality for all, I'm frustrated when I read that the majority of Americans support the individual provisions of the ACA, but because of the propaganda they hear on t.v. or in other media, do not support the law as a whole. I strongly believe that if educated about the ACA, only the most cruel among us would chose to deny care to 45 million people, to deny care to people with pre-existing conditions, to take away coverage from people when they fall ill, or to systematically discriminate against women by forcing them to pay higher rates for no reason other than gender, which are all things that the ACA protects us from, and are all things that exist in our current system and will remain if ACA is repealed. I have yet to hear an argument for why the Affordable Care Act is not a good thing, unless the argument involves lies such as the always hilarious Sarah Pailn's claim that there are "death panels" involved. And I'm fascinated to hear the conservative rhetoric today about repeal. This was a conservative bill, the ideas of which were originally introduced by the conservative Heritage Fountadion, was the same style as Romney's health care in Massachusetts, and was approved by a conservative Supreme Court which in their written opinion discussed limitations on the Commerce Clause- a huge conservative victory. Why are they complaining?

In the parallel world of food (also related to health), I read a fascinating NPR story on mass produced tomatoes, and why they taste so poor. I read this while eating lunch on the patio and eating leftover pizza that we made with farmers market heirloom tomatoes and arugula. We did cheat and bought the Trader Joe's pre-made refrigerated pizza dough, but topped it with tomatoes of all colors and sizes. The purple ones were particularly delicious, which got me thinking about why people think they want a uniformly red store-bought tomato when heirloom local varieties are so much better. My best guess is education- that people are not aware of what they are missing. That combined with marketing and habit. I'm still waiting for my three varieties of heirloom tomatoes to ripen in my garden, but tomorrow is market day, and I can't wait to pick up more tasty orange, yellow, and purple varieties for the week, and now, thanks to the story linked above, I know to look for green shoulders. Education.

Super Simple Weeknight Pizza:
Roll out refrigerated whole wheat pizza dough (either your own, or store bought) on a pizza stone. Top lightly with pizza sauce, this could be tomato sauce, pureed tomatoes from a can or jar, or store bought pizza sauce. Toss on a liberal amount of chopped tomatoes (about two cups), top with chopped arugula (we bought one bunch from our farmer, so about two cups), add about a cup of shredded mozzarella and sprinkle with dried oregano and basil. Bake for about 12-15 minutes. Yum!

A Voice of Reason from the Supreme Court

Indeed, it was a great day.

I came home from the gym this morning, checked my e-mail and was so pleased (overjoyed, perhaps) to find out that I passed the French translation exam that I took last week. And then, as I open the New York Times to do a five minute review of the news before getting to work- bam- my day got even better- the Affordable Care Act was judged constitutional by the Supreme Court! Finally, the U.S. is getting closer to the basic standards of health care enjoyed by every other industrialized nation on Earth. Finally, children won't be denied care because of a pre-existing condition. Finally, those who work for themselves or for small companies won't be punished by being denied affordable coverage due to their desire to work outside of the large corporate system. Finally, the working poor will have access to preventative care. Now if only we could create a system of health care not based on profits, we'd be closer to the care other nations have, but I'll take this small victory as a first step.

Thank you, Supreme Court. America just became a better place to live.

Tea

Loose leaf rose-scented green tea to soothe my sore throat on a Monday.

Sick day

Not much to say for Tuesday.

Seitan

After an inspiring visit to Penzey's Spices on Saturday afternoon, we decided to make a batch of seitan on Saturday evening for use in meals throughout the week. Seitan is a vegetarian meat-substitute made of wheat gluten. Generally available at well-stocked supermarkets and health food stores it's far less expensive to make at home and works well as a dense and textured substitute for chicken or beef. After mixing the ingredients and kneading the dough, we boiled the seitan in cheesecloth for about an hour, during which it expands and solidifies (what you see below). We'll use it in a Cabbage Stir Fry and Thai Curry, probably with a bit left over for next week's menu.

For the love of homemade

Today was one of those in and out busy days- appointments, errands, meetings and we didn't get home until about 8 p.m. I did have about an hour of free time this afternoon though, so I decided to make some homemade Parmesan-Rosemary Crackers to go with our quick weeknight meal of Squash and Sage Cream Sauce Pasta with a light salad. The pasta consisted of frozen squash (that we prepped back in September, but store bought would work too) that we heated in olive oil and simmered with garlic, dried sage and cream as we waited for the pasta to boil. Simple, organic, whole foods, but admittedly not our most healthful meal. The crackers, which are my new favorite homemade bread product, took all of half an hour to make, thanks to the Kitchen Aid and my Martha Stewart Baking book (shout out to my family for gifting me these things through the years!). This ties in to the NY Times recipes and article that I was perusing in the doctors office this morning about sustainable food and cooking at home. Most people claim that they don't have time to cook, but I was pleased that the article called people out and mentioned t.v. habits. I was astonished to read that the *average* American watches 35 hours of t.v. a week and that cooking at home is *decreasing*. First off, if I watch zero hours of t.v. a week, who is watching 70 to balance that out?!? Second, I hear so many people say that they don't have time to cook- um, how about you quit that full time job of t.v. watching? I know that many say that it's on in the background, or that they don't really watch that much, but the statistic just sits there. Thirty-five hours. Five hours a day. You could do a lot of cooking in 5 hours a day. I don't want to be preachy or judgmental (even though I kind of am), but just turning off that t.v. for an hour would do a world of good, and you could have cooked the meal that we had tonight. Plus, cooking at home is better for your health, for the environment,and for your pocketbook, not to mention your taste buds. Cracker, anyone?

Tonsilitis 扁桃腺炎

I've been reading my friend Erin's blog about her life in China this week and I realized that I have posted very little information here about daily life in Japan. All of my blog posts revolve around politics, photos, art, or travel, which says alot about my personality. I am resolving to be more well-rounded in my blogging- let me know what you think!
So today I had a very "real" daily life experience- I took a sick day from work and went to the doctor. For about 2 weeks now I've had a cough and sore throat. I've been putting off going to the doctor hoping that I would get better on my own, which is my usual strategy for combating illness. Well, I haven't been sleeping well because I have been waking up a few times with coughing spells in the middle of the night, and last night Joe complained during my 3 a.m. spell that I was being loud (though he didn't remember saying this in the morning), so I figured it was time to put my socialized health care coverage to the test. It was amazing.
First let me say that I love the idea of socialized medicine. I loved Sicko. I really loved the Frontline special Sick Around the World; so much so that I used it as the basis of a speech I had to give in my Japanese language class last year (if you haven't seen it click on the link, you can stream the entire program on the internet). So I was pretty excited to try out the system.
I rode my bike to the local hospital, about 10 minutes away (here one goes to the hospital, not a family doctor). I entered and spoke with the greeter (for lack of a better title) at the door who assisted me in filling out the short form for a first time visit. I then took this form to the check-in counter where the receptionist helped me fill out a form detailing my illness. I took this form to the Ear, Nose and Throat department and waited for about 35 minutes before seeing a doctor. The doctor (a specialist at that!) poked around in my throat and asked me a few questions, most of which I understood. At this point I was feeling pretty good about my Japanese, I've cheked in, explained my condition, we've had some exchange. Then he declares my condition, but I don't understand. He sees the blank look on my face and writes the English word "tonsil" on a sheet of paper before I can look up the Japanese word in my dictionary. So I have tonsilitis. Visit finished. I get a sheet of paper from the department receptionist and head back to the front waiting area. I turn in the paper and wait about 5 minutes before I'm called up to the payment counter. Total cost of visit: 1,800 yen, about $18. Then I deliver my receipt of payment to another window where I receive yet another document which I take to a desk where three ladies stand behind fax machines (all 3 of these last windows are within 10 feet of each other). The woman shows me a map of the hospital parking lot which has four pharmacies surrounding it and asks which one I would like to get my prescription from. I ask which is best, she says they are all the same. So I select the one that is closest to the bicycle parking, my prescription is faxed over and I'm done. I walk over to the pharmacy and by the time I get there (3 minutes) they know who I am when I walk in the door. I show my insurance card again and fill out a short form, wait for 5 minutes and walk out with my prescription. I received 2 sets of pills that I will take for 5 days 3 times a day, an antibiotic and an anti-inflamatory. Total drug cost: 700 yen, less than $7.
All told, I left my house at about 10 a.m. and was home with a take-out lunch by 11:30. The total cost of my visit and drugs was less than my co-pay for a doctor visit in the U.S., and the amount that I pay monthly is much less than what we were paying for our insurance in the states. I have to say that my care was faster, more efficient and far more pleasant than what I have received at home. Sure I had to wait 35 minutes, but when I tried to get an appointment with my doctor in Kansas in June I was told it was over 2 weeks for non-emergencies. All this AND I rocked my Japanese language skills (at least in my perception!).
At my last dental visit in the U.S. the dentist lectured me about the perils of socialized medicine while he was doing the exam. How I would have to wait for any visit or procedure and how the care would be sub-standard. I couldn't argue with him then because my mouth was filled with dental instruments, but I can ceratinly argue now, especially after having such a good experience today. I know that every nation has issues with health care, but I certainly think that the U.S. has alot to learn (ok, so I got political afterall...).
Here's to hoping that in 5 days I'm all healed!

Side note: I have started linking information within the text of this blog- if you see a highlighted word you can click on it to link to additional information on the web. I can't guarantee that this info is accurate (as in the case of Wikipedia, etc.), but I will attempt to find legitimate sources.