Howdy, Friends!

I've been taking this past month off from blogging, just trying to take better care of my health. I've had several health challenges this spring and now summer. This has been my wake-up call to do better. 

So, that's where I've been. I truly could not string together enough words to create an upbeat and positive blog post and still have energy to take care of my family and myself.

We've still been living frugally -- who hasn't during the pandemic when you couldn't go out shopping, eat in restaurants, go to the movies, theme parks, or any other activity that has an admission fee.

To restart my blog posts, I thought I'd list out some of my recent frugal activities with 

the penny-wise dozen edition

• 1) cut my own hair, several times over the course of the last 4 months
• 2) colored my hair with a kit in a box

• 3) made rosemary and rhubarb preserves
• 4) restocked and expanded the pantry to develop an emergency pantry while we seem to be in a good place with grocery shopping -- store shelves are full once more and autumn stockpiling has yet to begin. I used our vacation fund for 2020 to pay for the purchases. Also, we've increased our monthly grocery budget to $250.
• 5) made a long-term food use plan and have been sticking to it. Doing so ensures we have well-rounded meals for a long stretch of time.

• 6) still baking sourdough bread -- loaves, hot dog and hamburger buns, and pizza crust

• 7) making yogurt on the reg. I'm a creature of habit and have a small cup of vanilla yogurt every morning and another small cup of chocolate yogurt after lunch.

• 8) I'm harvesting from our garden. Not everything did well. However, in the places where seeds failed, I replanted with other veggie seeds. It looks like it won't be a green bean year -- boo.

• 9) the hanging lettuce baskets are finally looking like I could pick from them

• 10) drying sage, oregano, thyme, lemon balm, and peppermint and freezing rosemary and basil for use in the coming months. Lemon balm and peppermint iced tea has become a favorite in the afternoons.

• 11) playing with ring and pin designs using wire wrapping techniques -- the pins are in gold wire and the ring is double wire (one silver, one gold)
• 12) knitting another dishcloth using leftover yarn (this one is lavender)

What are some of the ways that you've been penny-wise (but not pound-foolish) these last couple of months? Add your list in the comments.

The Last Bit of the Radish That We Eat -- the Seed Pods

We eat the red roots of radishes. We eat the greens. And we also eat the green seed pods.

A trough of radishes in flower.
The red stalk through the middle is a beet plant going to seed,
to collect seeds for next year's beets.

When radish plants are about to go to seed, they develop these small and pretty, pale pink flowers. From each flower, a seed pod will grow. When the seed pods are still green (so the seeds inside are still soft), they are edible to eat fresh or added to soups or stir fries, tasting like mild radishes. The pods are best when still young and tender. 

I've let this trough of radishes go to seed just for the pods. I don't need this planting space for another 2 or 3 weeks, so the timing is great. Over the next two weeks, I'll be harvesting all of the seed pods and use them, fresh in salads and slaws as well as cooked. They're also good for pickling in a garlic brine. I may pickle a jarful if I have enough at any one time. 

Radish seed pods -- making our meals interesting.

TVP "Burgers"

Just thought I'd show you another way we're eating our TVP (textured vegetable protein).

My daughter made TVP patties for us last week. These are delicious -- chewy and flavorful. My daughter incorporated some sautéed onions, carrots, and celery with the TVP, and used flour and an egg as a binder. She pan-fried the patties in oil that evening. We also plan to try baking some soon, hoping they'll hold their shape without over-browning to keep on hand in the freezer (like commercial veggie patties). 

The burgers had a great texture, too. That's where TVP burgers and bean burgers differ. Bean burgers, although tasty, have a mashed texture, while the TVP burgers are chewy.

TVP is a regular on our menu, using it 2 meals per week as the main protein. 

Homespun Holidays: Using What I Had for Memorial Day Dinner

some of my favorite plates -- Liberty Blue c. 1976

Rainy day -- A cook-in with hot dogs in homemade, part whole wheat/part white 
sourdough buns. This sourdough is so soft and fluffy. The hot dogs were served 
with homemade relish, homemade ketchup, and commercial mustard.

sauteed radish greens from the garden with onions and garlic -- delish!

mashed potato, herb, and homemade yogurt (instead of sour cream) casserole,
 topped with melted cheddar

creamy rhubarb gelatin for dessert, made with cooked garden rhubarb, 
cream cheese, sugar, gelatin, baking soda (to reduce the sugar)

The four of us had a nice dinner, using just what I had on hand. I still haven't been inside a grocery store since late February.

The sourdough just keeps getting better and better. This is my new favorite bread. When I say it's light and fluffy, it's really light. The loaves feel so much lighter in weight than my yeast-raised wheat bread. Like they're full of air.

I hope you had a good weekend.

Baking Delicious Cookies With Half the Sugar

Like many folks these days, I've been reading about how to use less of just about all of the ingredients in my baking cupboard. A couple of weeks ago, I looked into baking cookies with half or less sugar -- what changes I would need to make, and what results I could expect.

Fortunately, someone else has already done a reasonable amount of experiments in this area, from baking cookies with half the sugar to 25% of the sugar for a variety of cookie types. Here's the link to the full article: King Arthur Flour: How to Reduce Sugar in Cookies and Bars.

The article experimented with 8 types of cookies: gingersnaps, buttersnaps, fudge brownies, cut-out holiday sugar cookies, chocolate chip, oatmeal-raisin, sugar, and vanilla-chai bars.

For my batch of cookies, I chose chocolate chip drop cookies and used half of the usual amount of sugar that was called for on the back of a bag of chocolate chips (your standard Toll House recipe). Instead of a combined 3/4 cups of brown and white sugar for the batch, I used a total of 3/8 cup of sugar (both brown and white sugar combined). My batch made 25 cookies. That's about 3/4 teaspoon of sugar per cookie in addition to the sugar contained in the chocolate chips. By the way, I sampled just the dough, and you know how cookie dough can have a slightly grainy texture from the sugar? This dough was smoother -- a lot like those tubes of dough sold in the refrigerated cases at the supermarket.

The King Arthur website indicated that cookies with less sugar wouldn't spread as much, so after forming balls of dough, I flattened them all slightly. The cookies still held more of a mounded shape than the completely flat cookies that I'm accustomed to. However, unlike some other cookies which are rather soft and cakey, these cookies still had a crispy edge to them (which I especially liked). And they were definitely sweet. Next time, I'll try flattening the dough even more to produce a larger and flatter cookie.

The King Arthur website also suggested refrigerating the cookie dough overnight before baking. This rest period for the dough allows the sugars to caramelize better, resulting in a cookie that tastes sweeter. Since I didn't bake a control batch (following the regular recipe), I don't have an adequate way to compare sweetness of my half-sugar cookies with how they usually turn out. But I can say this, we enjoyed the cookies very, very much and didn't care that I only used half the usual amount of sugar. The flavor was rich and deep.

I thought the results of the KA's experiments were interesting. As you might guess, cookies that had a sweet extra ingredient, such as chocolate chips or raisins, gave the consumer a greater sense of sweetness than cookies which didn't have such ingredients. 

In addition, the KA's experts indicated that with considerably less sugar, other flavors become more prominent -- spices took on a larger flavor profile in a cookie, sometimes overwhelmingly so, and baking soda became more pronounced. Because they recognized that baking soda was more pronounced, I did use slightly less soda in my batch. The recipe called for 1/2 teaspoon baking soda. I used a shade less, somewhere between 3/8 teaspoon and 1/2 teaspoon. My batch had no detectable soda taste to it.

King Arthur's article had a bunch of helpful nuggets for reducing sugar content in homemade cookies. It's worth a quick read. 

I'm not in any danger of running out of sugar soon, but I am being cautious with my supplies. The bonus was that I made a very tasty cookie that may be better for my waistline. 

I think I'll continue reducing sugar in other cookies and bars, using some of King Arthur's suggestions and experience to guide me as I alter favorite recipes.

Quick Garden Greens

I've mentioned that we harvest early spring greens from our garden from perennials, self-seeding annuals, and greens that I plant in fall to overwinter and harvest in spring. Those greens are very welcome in March and April. 

However, they finish up long before any of the main-season garden veggies are ready for harvest. There seems to be this void in the harvesting calendar beginning in May and lasting until the first or second week in June for my garden.

Enter the veggies that I plant for quick greens. I think all vegetable gardeners know that radishes are a fast-growing from seed vegetable. I take advantage of their spritely growth by seeding them thickly with the sole intention of growing radishes for their greens. I can harvest quite a lot of vegetable matter in a small space by planting my radish seeds close together.

peas in the back, radish greens in the middle, and spinach in front
spinach and radish planted in same week

I sowed these seeds around the first of April, and now there's plenty of greens for harvesting. I made a tuna-noodle casserole the other night and used radish greens as part of the vegetable component. I've also been using some of the greens added to eggs at lunch for myself. And, one of my daughters is making lentil-vegetable curry tonight and using more of radish greens.

To harvest radish greens, I pull up any plants that are crowding others, or about 1 in every 3 or 4 plants. I leave the plants which have roots that look like they could develop into a sizable red radish. Until those are ready, we're enjoying these lovely greens in a time of the season that usually doesn't offer much ready in the garden.

Better Sourdough Bread

I've been baking our sourdough in loaf pans
 this spring. For one thing, the slices are
easier to retrieve from the toaster.
For another, it's just a familiar look
to my homemade bread for my family.

I mentioned last week that my work to improve my sourdough bread had paid off. I read several articles, watched a couple of informative videos, and used some trial and error at home. If I had to pinpoint what really helped with my own sourdough success, I'd have to list these three areas of change:

• time
• temperature
• physical work

Time

Sourdough simply need more time than yeasted bread. The total time for the dough to rise, both as a mass and once in the pans, is far longer than yeasted doughs. Sourdough takes a couple to a few hours to fully rise. Once the dough is in the pans, the rising phase can take up to three hours. Furthermore, while yeasted bread will continue to rise once it's in the oven, sourdough has much less oven-spring. However big your loaf is when you put it in the oven is pretty much the size that you will have once it is fully baked.

Temperature

While you can be somewhat imprecise when working with sourdough, it's ideal temperature range is somewhat important to the natural yeast's activity. Too cool and the natural yeasts don't do much or work very, very slowly (think 5 hours to get a loaf of bread to rise). Too warm and the natural yeasts are toast. In my own kitchen, I've found that my sourdough prefers temps that are right in the range of 70 to 80 degrees F. 

My starter will continue to work and bubble at 64 degrees F. But whoa, look out if it's in the 70s for a day. That starter will bubble over the container and spill all over the counter. Sourdough bread dough made on such a warm day will rise, beautifully, in about 1  1/2 to 2 hours. 

To give you an idea of how high temperature can bring sourdough activity to a halt, here's what happened to a friend. Several years ago, a friend of mine was beginning to use sourdough starters. He misunderstood just how warm is too warm for a starter and the dough. His sourdough bread had a good taste, but it was quite flat and chewy. Fortunately, he had another friend who walked him through the process and determined that he was adding water which was far too warm for the sourdough yeasts. Once this was understood, this friend was then able to produce really great sourdough bread. 

In my own experience this year, I began my starter in the early spring, a time when it's typically still quite cool. Our house is always a bit on the cool side, so I chose to keep my starter in a closed oven with a light on 24/7. When I would place my hand in the lit oven, it would feel quite warm. Pans of bread dough (placed in the lit oven to rise) almost felt hot, they were so warm. My starter did get bubbly, but not overly so. And the bread was good, but not fully risen in those early batches. One morning, I went to check on the starter and noticed the oven light had burned out. I took the starter out of the oven and just started keeping it on the counter. Later that same day, I noticed that the starter was bubbling more vigorously. And my bread was rising more. What I gather from this is that my oven with a light on was at the too warm end of the spectrum for good activity.

In addition to maintaining a better temperature for the starter and rising dough, I've also adjusted the temperature for baking the loaves. I had been baking my sourdough at about 375 degrees F. My reading indicated that I really should be baking sourdough is a hot oven, as much as 475 degrees F. For my own dough, I've found 460 degrees F to be the sweet spot for this kind of bread. I like the color that the bread's crust develops and the interior is nicely baked, yet soft.

Add in a Good Dose of Physical Work

Sourdough bread is not one of those no-work breads. It requires a lot of kneading to activate the gluten. Gluten gives doughs that stretchy texture that will hold the bubbles of gas created by natural or commercial yeasts. Without gluten, those bubbles collapse on themselves, leaving the baker with a flattened loaf. With commercial yeasts, gas bubbles are more durable and reliable, for lack of better words. Even if the gluten has not been fully developed through kneading, its still possible to make a good loaf of no-knead bread by using commercial yeast and giving the dough extra time. In the case of no-knead bread, the mixing of the dough begins the development of gluten, while the additional rise-time allows the commercial yeasts to reproduce. With sourdough, vigorous kneading substantially develops the gluten in the dough, enough so that it can stretch and hold around the bubbles of gas produced by the natural yeasts. 

I notice a texture change during the process of kneading the dough. At first, the sourdough feels grainy or gritty. After about 10 to 12 minutes, the dough becomes satiny and smooth. I knead for about 15 minutes and then check the stretch of my dough. There's a bakers' term that describes a technique to see if a dough's gluten development is full -- the windowpane test. If you take a small chunk of dough, flatten it in your fingers, then stretch slowly, a fully-developed dough will stretch until thin. Some say that the dough should be almost transparent (like a window) in the center of this stretched dough. In my own experience, my sourdough doesn't become this stretchy, but it does become thin enough to develop a small hole. In contrast, dough that fails the windowpane test will break off as one tries to stretch it, much like how the kids' product Silly Putty will only stretch so far and then "break" into two pieces.

So, this is what I've been doing with my sourdough for the past month:

• I give the dough ample time to rise, as much as 3 or 4 hours per rising if my kitchen is really cool, but most of the time about 2 hours per rising.
• I bake on days when the kitchen will be around 68 to 78 degrees F in the afternoon hours when my loaves will be rising. This means that I am actually baking the sourdough loaves in the evening, after dinner.
• I now knead my dough for 15 solid minutes. My technique is pretty vigorous. If I didn't have the same strength or endurance for this kind of kneading, I would knead in 5 minute intervals, with however long breaks in between that I needed, to a total of 15 minutes. I check the dough by way of a windowpane test. And then, just for good measure, I knead for another 3 minutes before forming the dough into loaves and placing into pans.

The end result of this "extra" work is really great sourdough bread. Sourdough bread has better keeping qualities than yeasted bread, with the center of each slice being stretchy and soft, days after baking. My family all thinks my bread tastes amazing and is much like what we've sampled in San Francisco at the wharf. For the time being, while I can't buy the large bags of yeast for the $5 to $6 that I am accustomed to, I'll continue with baking sourdough.

If you're interested to know -- I use about 1/3 whole wheat flour and 2/3 white flour for my sourdough. This seems to be a good balance of fiber and nutrients with the softness of an all-white flour bread. For more on the recipe that I use, see the post in this link.

what my previous loaves of sourdough looked like,
in case you were wondering

On the commercial yeast front, I've been stalking several sites  as well as my local restaurant supply for a few weeks, hoping to find the large bags bag in stock on one of the sites that waives shipping fees with minimum purchase or has local availability for me to pick up. I thought this was interesting: on one website's page for large bags of yeast, "Temporarily Unavailable due to Global Shortage." Wow, that really caught my attention, a global shortage. It's no wonder that so many people are trying their hands at sourdough baking right now!

It Took Me About 3 Weeks to Get It Right

this is sourdough bread, made completely without yeast

For the first 3 weeks of eating my homemade sourdough, our loaves looked something like this -- flat, chewy, and quick to become stale.

from one of the early loaves of sourdough

Then, after some research and reading, I hit upon a technique that enabled my sourdough to get a good rise and develop a smooth texture. For the last couple of weeks, this is what my sourdough bread has been looking like.

sourdough success

This looks like a regular yeast bread, doesn't it? The texture is soft and smooth on the inside and the bread keeps for several days in the pantry. The dough contains some of my starter (which was made with just flour and water), water, flour, 2 teaspoons of salt and 2 teaspoons of sugar. That's it.

You know the saying. . .

if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Free Onion Flavor Using Chive Blossoms

I do have some whole onions in the fridge from a large purchase this winter. But I'm trying to make those last as long as possible. In order to stretch them out, I'm using both the chives greens and now the chive blossoms.

This time of year, I also like to make chive blossom vinegar. I'll have more than plenty of blossoms for that, so I'm using the rest of the blossoms in cooking.

I use about 2 to 4 blossoms per serving of soup, salad, or sauce/gravy. I pull apart the heads right into the dish that I'm cooking.

Then toss. Not only do they add a nice onion flavor, but I think they're pretty, too.

I'm working at using every last bit from this year's garden.

Not the Loveliest of Pots, but It Will Work

When my son was in the 4th grade, he had to write a report on his home state -- Washington. In investigating what Washington produces, one book he read highlighted the state's wood and paper industry. The page said, "trees grow well." This phrase took root in my mind and comes to the surface every year when I begin to plant my vegetable garden.

The sunny part of my yard is extremely limited. Each year, I try to plan where I can plant those heat and sun-loving vegetables, such as tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and beans. Eggplant and peppers are completely out of the question for me. I've tried and had success about 20% of the years. It's just too shady. To cap it off, in one of the sunniest portions of the yard, a wide, paved path takes up a huge amount of the sun-filled real estate. This year, I decided that I would line that path with my various pots.

While I love the look of terra cotta pots, the winter weather really beats those beauties up. Lurking in the corner of the garage are a stack of chipped, cracked, and otherwise less-than-stellar clay vessels of all sizes. Here is one of the two largest of those broken down, but still useful, pots. The upper edges of both pots have completely broken off, leaving this ragged, "who dragged that thing in" appearance. 

So, they're not pristinely beautiful. But they do have a charm of their own -- a shabby, bedraggled chic, if you will. And, they seem to be holding the soil pretty well. I planted some of my zucchini in the pots and am keeping my fingers crossed.

With no realistic way to shop for garden supplies this spring, I'm having to use what I have on hand, even if it's not my first choice. I have revived the components of a pea trellis and put it all together a week ago. I also found part of an old soaker hose running through a defunct part of a garden bed, which I've now used in one of the strawberry beds. And as I need soil for pots (such as these two), I'm looking to my own yard for soil rich enough to hold water during the hot weeks of summer. In past years, I likely would have bought pot soil. 

So, while there have been many inconveniences to staying at home during this pandemic, I think I may be saving money and giving a little extra life to some of the belongings that have lingered in corners of the garage or less-wandered parts of the yard.

The Meat Eater's Guide to Crafting a Meatless Meal, pt.5: Some Favorites From My Kitchen

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 1

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 2

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 3

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 4

I often think it must be boring to read about what I cook. But I did want to give suggestions from what works for meatless meals my family as a sort of springboard for ideas, yours and mine. So, I've divided my family's favorite meatless meals into categories based on the major protein source for each meal.

Tofu

• Tofu-Veggie Lasagna     This dish is something that I think about as I fall asleep at night. It's a garden vegetable lasagna. When my daughters were first born, the hospital sent us home with a dinner basket of a frozen vegetable lasagna and a bottle of sparkling apple cider. It wasn't long before I felt compelled to replicate the lasagna, adding my own twist to the dish. The greens can be frozen spinach or garden (or market) spinach, kale, chard, beet greens, collards, or broccoli. I also like to add about a half of a large carrot grated. I'm lactose intolerant, so I can't have a lot of soft or fresh cheese at any one time. That led me to try tofu as the "cheese" filling, sometimes all tofu, sometimes blended with part cottage cheese. So, I mash 16 oz of firm tofu and season with lemon juice, salt, and garlic. I then add the chopped veggies and stir together. I don't use any meat in this lasagna. Instead, I layer lasagna noodles with the tofu-veggie filling and a marinara sauce. I top the entire casserole with a mixture of grated mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. This makes a 9 X 13-inch baker of lasagna with about 140 grams of protein total and 8 servings, with about 17.5 grams protein per serving.
• Chocolate-Tofu Silk     This is not a meal, but a high-protein end to a meal, with about 7.5 grams of protein in a serving (if dividing the recipe into eighths). 
• TLT Sandwich     Using strips of fried tofu, layer tofu, lettuce, and tomato on whole grain bread, like a BLT only subbing in the fried tofu for the bacon. One-sixth of a 1-lb block of firm tofu, cut into slices and fried has roughly the same amount of grams of protein as 2 regular slices of pork bacon, about 6.5 grams. Two slices of whole wheat bread adds 7 grams of protein, for a sandwich with about 14 grams protein.

Lentils

• Sloppy Lentils on Buns     I make a Sloppy Joe filling with tomato sauce, green peppers, onions, garlic, chili powder, mustard powder, beef bouillon, salt, pepper, and bit of cornstarch, plus about 1 1/2 cups of cooked lentils and 1/2 cup of cooked barley for 4 people. Serve on large burger buns. Each sandwich contains about 17 grams of protein.
• Lentil-Barley Marinated Salad     I toss together cooked lentils and cooked barley (in about a 2:1 ration lentils to barley), with diced celery, minced shallots, and a mustard vinaigrette. Chill for a couple of hours. Grams of protein would depend on serving size.

Garbanzo Beans

• Hummus and Fry Bread     Fry bread is a yeast dough, such as French bread dough, that is formed into rounds about 4 to 5 inches in diameter and about 1/2-inch thick. I fry them in a skillet with a little oil to prevent sticking (these are NOT deep-fried). We like the fry bread spread with homemade hummus. I make hummus in the food processor with cooked garbanzo beans, lemon juice, garlic, salt, oregano, parsley, and olive oil.
• Tabouli     The tabouli recipe that I follow comes from Jane Brody's Good Food Book. The recipe calls for prepared bulgar wheat, cooked garbanzo beans, olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, garlic, shredded carrot, diced tomatoes, diced cucumber, salt, and pepper. This is a favorite of ours in August, when my garden provides fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, and parsley. It's a dish that is served cold, so this can be made in the cool summer morning hours, refrigerated, and served in the evening -- no heating the kitchen in the late afternoon.

Assorted Other Beans

• Vegetarian Chili     I make vegetarian chili, using beans, barley or TVP (for "chew"), canned tomatoes, green peppers, the usual seasonings, then top with shredded cheddar cheese and fried/baked corn tortilla strips. It's very good, even without meat. The barley or TVP provide that chewy sensation that would otherwise come from ground beef.
• Vegan Shepherd's Pie     The "meat" in this shepherd's pie can be a vegan meat substitute, rehydrated TVP, or cooked beans. I like to use about half TVP/half cooked beans or lentils. We think this is quite delicious and don't miss the meat at all.   
• Bean Tacos/Tostadas     filled with black beans or refried pintos, marinated corn (in a lime vinaigrette), avocado, tomatoes, bell pepper, shredded cheese, and drizzled with plain yogurt.
• Bean and Cheese Quesadillas     whole grain flour tortilla spread with refried pinto beans and shredded cheese, topped with second tortilla and toasted on a griddle. 
• Kitchen Sink Burritos     flour tortilla filled with beans, rice, avocado, cheese, yogurt/sour cream, salsa, tomatoes, olives
• Pasta Primavera     made with spaghetti noodles, an assortment of sautéed vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, asparagus, green beans, carrots, onions, garlic), black olives, Greek olives or capers, cooked cannellini beans, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts or chopped almonds, basil and oregano -- all tossed together.

TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein

• TVP Spaghetti
• TVP (or lentil) Cabbage Patch Soup

Eggs

• Egg Foo Yung
• Garden Vegetable and Cheese Frittata
• Garden Vegetable and Cheese Quiche
• Skillet Huevos Rancheros     with corn tortillas, black beans, eggs, chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic, seasonings, olive oil, avocado, fresh cilantro, lime wedges, cheese, hot sauce, and any extra veggies (such as zucchini or bell peppers). 

Peanut Butter

• Peanut Noodles     using whole grain pasta, peanut butter, red pepper flakes, garlic, soy sauce, ginger, lime juice, and cilantro, topped with chopped peanuts.
• Live and Learn's Curried Pumpkin-Peanut Soup     topped with whole grain croutons.

Wheat Meat made from whole wheat flour (I haven't ever given this recipe, here. The texture is a lot like ground beef.  It is high in gluten, so a very bad option for someone who needs to be gluten-free. But my family has enjoyed it over the years.)

• "Salisbury Fake"     This is a faux ground beef patty smothered in brown gravy.
• Wheat Meat Breakfast Sausage     Again, a high-gluten meat substitute, seasoned and formed into sausage patties.

Okay, so those are my family's favorites. What are your family's favorite meatless meals?

The Meat-Eater's Guide to Crafting a Meatless Meal, pt 4: The Anti-Nutrients and Minerals

https://www.womensweb.in/2016/08/vegetarian-iron-rich-foods/

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 1

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 2

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 3

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 5

Our meat-heavy diets provide our bodies with much more than protein. Several minerals, including iron and zinc, are also made abundant to us through consuming meat. When eating less meat, we need to pay attention to how we're getting those other nutrients to make up for what is left out in our meatless meals.

The difficulty is that it isn't as simple as adding some spinach, beans, or whole grains to your diet to get those extra nutrients. Plant sources tend to be less bioavailable than meat sources for iron and zinc. I mentioned a bit about anti-nutrients yesterday and that they can impair the body's ability to absorb essential amino acids. In addition to interfering with amino acid absorption, anti-nutrients can also bind the uptake of minerals. 

When we think of beef, one of the first nutrients that comes to mind is iron. Non-meat sources also contain iron. However, the form of iron found in plant sources (non-heme iron) is not as absorbable as the iron form found in meat (heme iron). Various compounds, substances, and minerals impair the body's ability to absorb the mineral iron. 

Polyphenols (in tea and coffee), oxalic acid (in some berries, leafy greens like spinach, beet greens and chard, as well as chocolate and tea), phytates, inositol hexaphosphate, and polyphosphate (in beans, whole grains, and corn), phosvitin (in egg yolks), calcium, zinc, manganese and nickel (yes, there's nickel in some foods) can all inhibit the uptake of iron from plant sources.

We always think about vegetables like spinach as being especially high in iron. After all, Popeye got his extraordinary strength from a can of spinach. And if you look at a table of nutrients for spinach, it will indeed tell you that this vegetable has a lot of iron. It's just these anti-nutrients get in the way of the human body to access that iron.

Despite this, there are some super simple ways to increase your absorption of this vital mineral. 

1. eat a food that is high vitamin C along with the plant-based iron-rich food. This can be as simple as serving orange juice with the meal, or sprinkling lemon juice over a bed of spinach, or serving a tomato sauce-covered pasta dish with the greens or beans, or adding some canned pineapple chunks or tomato sauce to baked beans, or combining cooked or canned beans with shredded cabbage and sunflower seeds as a slaw-type salad. Some vitamin C foods include strawberries, citrus, raw cabbage and broccoli, and tomatoes.
2. eat your iron-rich vegetables along with a small amount of meat, poultry or fish. It's unknown why this works, but the pairing of some animal flesh with the non-heme iron increases the bioavailability of iron for the plant-based food. This would be one of those less meat meals instead of meatless ones.
3. a little bit of sugar, especially fructose is said to boost iron absorption, as well.

Information on boosting non-heme iron absorption found on The Nest and The Mayo Clinic's website.

The mineral zinc is also not as easily absorbed from plant sources as it is from animal products. In addition to being found in seafood, lean meats, poultry, eggs, and dairy products, zinc is found in whole grains, soy products, legumes, nuts, and wheat germ. 

These same plant foods that contain zinc also contain phytates (or phytic acid), the anti-nutrient that binds minerals and prevents their absorption. In particular, whole grains and legumes are particularly high in phytates. Phytic acid in itself is not a bad thing. In fact, there's growing research that indicates this anti-nutrient may inhibit tumor growth, help prevent cardiovascular disease, improve kidney health, and help the pancreas in insulin secretion. It may also give us that sustained full feeling after eating. But, if the diet is heavy in phytates with no mediation, it can bind minerals, such as zinc.

There are several things that can be done to reduce phytates in grains and beans:

1. for grains, yeast breads have less phytic acid than flatbreads, and the breakdown of phytates is even greater in sourdough bread (there's that sourdough again).
2. soaking beans and grains before cooking reduces phytates and other anti-nutrients. With beans, soaking overnight reduces more phytates than using the quick-soak method (bring to boil, shut off heat, allow to stand 1 hour). 
3. fermentation is another good method of deactivating phytates. Using a sourdough is a form of fermentation. Rice can be fermented, too. Here's a tasty recipe for fermenting brown rice (scroll down through the article).
4. sprouting beans, grains, nuts, and seeds before using in recipes/baking  decreases phytates.
5. consuming vitamin C-rich foods with phytate-containing grains, nuts, seeds, and beans can also improve zinc uptake.
6. as with iron, consuming a small amount of animal flesh along with the grains, beans, nuts and seeds can increase zinc absorption.

Information on increasing zinc absorption found on Precision Nutrition and The Mayo Clinic's website.


This sounds like a lot of information to digest to ensure adequate iron and zinc absorption. However, there is some overlap in the anti-nutrients affecting uptake of minerals and how to mediate them through simple dietary additions.


I predominantly use two methods in my own cooking to help with iron and zinc absorption. I add Vitamin C rich foods to meals with high plant-based iron and zinc content. And, we consume these plant foods alongside small amounts of animal flesh for less meat meals. I'll often add an ounce of beef, chicken, or pork per person to an otherwise vegetarian meal, such as a bean soup or rice and bean casserole. The little tidbit of meat adds satiety and texture to the meal, yes, but it also improves mineral absorption. 

To a less extent, I also have also done some sprouting (as you know with my sprouted lentils), and I'm working with sourdough (fermentation of wheat) this spring during this yeast shortage. I also try to use the overnight soak method when cooking beans as mush as possible instead of the quick soak method.


Some quick lists for good foods to keep on hand. Read through and see which ones you might enjoy most.

Plant-based foods that are high in iron and good to keep in the pantry or fridge:

• dried or canned beans, especially soybeans (and foods made from soy), lentils, white beans, kidney beans, chickpeas/garbanzo beans, cowpeas/black-eyed peas, and black beans
• dark leafy greens, such as spinach, kale, chard, beet greens, and collards
• whole grains, such as amaranth, teff, oats, wheat, and quinoa, and to a less extent, cornmeal, rye, and barley. Brown rice and couscous are at the bottom of the whole grain iron list on dietbly.com
• nuts and seeds, especially pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, hemp, and flax seeds, but also cashews, almonds, pine nuts, macadamias, peanuts, coconut milk, pistachios (full list here)
• potatoes (iron is mostly in and just under the skins)
• tomato paste and dried tomatoes
• oyster and white mushrooms

Non-meat foods that are high in zinc and good to keep in the pantry or fridge:

• eggs
• cheese
• whole grains, particularly whole wheat as flour
• wheat germ
• soy products
• legumes (especially cowpeas, navy beans, lentils, black beans, white beans, and green split peas, to a lesser extent garbanzo beans, lima beans, and kidney beans) 
• nuts and seeds (especially pumpkin, squash, and sesame seeds)
• peanuts and peanut butter

Good vitamin C foods to keep on hand for mediating some of the mineral absorption issues:

• bottled lemon and lime juice
• canned pineapple
• fresh or frozen bell peppers or strips
• cabbage
• canned, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, or tomato paste with which to make a sauce
• orange juice

Next time, I'll wrap this up with some of my family's absolute favorite meatless renditions of meaty dishes. Till next time . . .

The Meat-Eater's Guide to Crafting a Meatless Meal, pt. 3

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 1

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 2

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 4

Meat Eater's Guide for Meatless Meals, part 5

I'm going to take a bit of a detour in this post, as I feel I've overlooked something that's important when it comes to getting protein in our diets. This is the digestibility of different protein sources, how well the essential amino acids (the building blocks of protein that cannot be synthesized by the human body and must come from food) survive the digestion process. This is often referred to as the bioavailability of protein.

You've probably heard this already -- animal sources of protein (the flesh as well as eggs and milk products) are more accessible to the human body, while plant sources of protein (beans, seeds, nuts, grains, vegetable matter) are less accessible. Part of this is the amino acid composition of the plant material. You've probably heard that if you eat beans, you need to combine them with a grain in order to get the full spectrum of essential amino acids. In addition, plant foods contain certain anti-nutrients, naturally-occurring compounds which can block the absorption of minerals and amino acids. The result of both of these conditions is that plant protein is less bioavailable than animal protein.

Beyond this simplified distinction between animal and plant protein, within both the animal and plant kingdoms, the resulting foods each have their own unique rating of bioavailability for protein. I'm borrowing the following table and linking to the site (just under the tables) from where it came. This site has a reader-friendly article that explains all of this further if you want additional information.

https://www.nutritionadvance.com/animal-protein-vs-plant-protein/

https://www.nutritionadvance.com/animal-protein-vs-plant-protein/

The writer of the article explains that the DIAAS Protein Quality Assessment is the most recent and considered the most accurate method of rating protein availability. A score greater than 100 is considered "high quality." A score between 75 and 100 is considered "good quality/medium." And a score below 75 is considered "low quality" protein. As you can see, all of the animal sources of protein score in the "high" range. 

By the way, milk protein concentrate is primarily casein, the protein building block in milk. Some people are allergic to or have a sensitivity to the casein found in cow's milk. Goat's milk and sheep's milk do not contain the same problematic form of casein, and are therefore more easily tolerated. Whey protein is a by-product of yogurt and cheesemaking. Even though both casein and whey sound like they are each only part of or a component of milk, they both contain all of the essential amino acids.

Looking at the table for plant sources of protein, you can see that the only plant source that comes close to animal sources is soybeans. Whole soybeans contain all of the essential amino acids, likely the main reason they have been featured so heavily in many vegetarian meat analogues. The scores fall to soy protein (I think they mean soy protein isolate, which is what TVP is made from), pea protein (often found in protein supplement powders), and chickpeas/garbanzo beans, all in the medium range. Yellow lentils and pinto beans are just below the threshold for a medium score.

While this assessment looks grim, for those of us who may find themselves eating a whole lot less meat in the near future, here's the good news. This scoring is based on the quantity of essential amino acids in individual animal or plant foods and doesn't take into consideration the practice of combining different types of protein foods, such as eating beans with a grain, beans with eggs, grains and cheese, etc. 

According to this article, It's true that plant foods may lose about 10 to 20% of their protein availability due to those anti-nutrients and fiber. However, I would guess that most of us are capable of eating far more grams of protein than what meets the minimum for health. The other concern is the essential amino acid leucine. While plant foods like lentils do contain leucine, they don't contain as much of the essential amino acid as animal foods do. However, this is easily remedied by adding a small amount of an animal protein source, such as a bit of cheese, a little milk, or an egg to the meal that is prepared primarily using plant protein. Here are a couple of easy examples:

• peanut butter on bread, with a glass of cow's milk on the side
• refried beans in a flour tortilla for a burrito, with some cheese added to the filling
• TVP spaghetti (as I used for illustration in the first post on this topic), topped with Parmesan cheese
• or, one of my favorites, huevos rancheros, adding beans to the skillet along with the corn tortilla, then topped with an egg

The same article also mentions that of all of the plant foods, soy foods contain the highest amount of leucine. This would include tofu, soy milk, soy protein isolate (TVP and powders to add to shakes), tempeh, and edamame. In addition, quinoa and buckwheat (grains or pseudo-grains) also contain enough of all nine essential amino acids for the human body.

Finally, one last table, just for reference. This one readily identifies which foods to pair together to get the complete amino acid set for your body to use as protein when only consuming plant sources.

https://nutrition.org/protein-complementation/

We often hear about dishes that use complementary amino acids, such as beans and rice or peanut butter on whole-grain bread. This table shows which essential amino acid is deficient for the plant protein food, and in which foods to find it. Basically, beans go with grains, nuts, seeds, or corn. And vegetables (such as Brussel sprouts, asparagus, broccoli, avocado) find their lacking amino acid in grains, nuts, or seeds, but not in beans.


All of this goes back to what I said on day one of this topic, that I try to use 3 or 4 different sources of protein in every meatless meal that I prepare for the family. The TVP spaghetti meal -- pasta (grain), TVP (bean), Parmesan cheese (dairy), sourdough toast (grain). Okay, so the pasta and toast both came from grains. 

With the Cabbage Patch Soup meal mentioned yesterday -- lentils (bean), Parmesan cheese (dairy), Yorkshire pudding (egg, dairy, grain), pumpkin pie (egg, dairy, grain).

Here's another meal, last night's Cinco de Mayo feast. My daughter made baked nachos, using corn tortillas (corn/grain), refried pintos (bean), cheddar cheese (dairy), TVP (bean), yogurt (dairy), and about 4 ounces, total, of ground beef (animal). That amount of beef meant that each of us ate 1 ounce of meat. In our house, we not only eat meatless meals, but we also eat less-meat meals. I sometimes use just a bit of meat in a meal to add to the satiety of a dish. This is another way that we deal with having less meat available, for whatever reason. For dessert, we had a Nestle Tollhouse cake (grain).


For additional information:
https://www.nutritionadvance.com/animal-protein-vs-plant-protein/
https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/0419p30.shtml

The first article does a good job of explaining how protein foods are rated for their usability in the human body. The second article of the two provides an alternate viewpoint to the first article, in that the author of the second sees protein foods not as isolated individual foods, but as part of a larger diet that combines and complements various individual foods into a whole. Both are good reading and helped me understand how to make meatless and less-meat eating better for my family's health.