Quick and Easy Lunches/Dinners On The Fly

Until we can devise a Jetson-style food system (or until we can create droids/AIs that won't try to take over the world and kill us), we are going to have to settle with preparing our own meals. As our time becomes more and more packed, we have to choose between fast food/convenience meals and the sickness and disease that comes along with that lifestyle, or healthy, whole food-based meals that will promote health and well-being.

I struggle with this just like you. I want meals that are quick, delicious, easy, and varied. Here's a list of things I keep in my house to make sure I always have what I need on hand.

The Essentials:

My pantry is WAY too messy to photograph!
From left to right: black pepper, sea salt, olive oil, bay leaves, vanilla

• Sea salt
• Black pepper
• Olive oil
• All-purpose flour
• Sugar
• Vegetable broth
• Rice
• Bread crumbs
• Fresh or jarred garlic
• Fresh or jarred ginger
• Parmesan cheese
• Pasta
• Butter
• Eggs
• Milk
• Mayonnaise
• Ketchup
• Mustard
• Honey
• Vanilla extract
• Frozen chicken or fish

Spices and flavorings

From left to right: cumin, oregano, cinnamon, cayenne pepper

• Cilantro
• Lime (or lemon if you like)
• Basil
• Bay Leaves
• Cayenne
• Chili powder
• Cumin
• Cinnamon
• Oregano
• Curry powder

Veggies

• Carrots
• Onions
• Potatoes
• Sweet Potatoes
• Garlic

Supplement this list with fresh fruits and veggies that are in season, and preferably local. For a more complete list, and for some lifestyle-specific pantry lists, click here.

Preparing meals:

Once you have gathered the essentials, the next part of the process is preparing the meals. Much of the process of planning quick meals is in knowing how to combine flavors and spices to achieve the tastes you want. A quick meal is not the time to play Top Chef, so you don't have to try to create new and different. We're going for simple and quick here.

Patterns in cooking:
Ginger, garlic and scallions create a Chinese flavor
Lime, cilantro and cumin create a Mexican flavor
Parmesan and oregano create an Italian flavor
Curry and red pepper create an Indian flavor
Cook meat or vegetables with any of these herbs and spices, cook some rice or pasta, and you have a quick and easy dinner. If you make extra, you can carry the leftovers with you for lunch the next day.

Use the ingredients available to plan your meals and menus rather than the other way around. Have you ever gone to the grocery store with a list for a specific meal, only to find that a key ingredient is not available? Look at what you have at hand and plan your meals accordingly.

I don't know about you, but I dislike the idea of my food being in the form of pills and I REALLY dislike the idea of Cylons preparing my food, so for now I'll keep doing it myself.

Feel free to share your quick and easy recipes in the comments section!

Sarah's Awesome Chicken Soup

1 Whole chicken, cooked and deboned*
2 cups Magic Mineral Broth** or other vegetable stock
5 carrots, cut into thirds
1 onion, chopped coarsly
4 stalks celery, cut into thirds
3 shiitake mushrooms, soaked and sliced. Retain water.
2 small pieces of kombu
1-16 oz. package of noodles
Sea salt, black and red pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Boil 2 cups water and soak shiitake mushrooms in a glass jar for 30 minutes
2. In a small or medium stock pot, combine chicken and broth.
3. Chop up carrots, onions, celery, and shiitake mushrooms and add to the pot. Add mushroom water.
4. Wash kombu, spread out flat, and cut into slices. Add to pot, along with salt and pepper.
5. Add enough water to cover all vegetables twice.
6. Bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
7. Add noodles and cook for another 20 minutes.

* Preferably organically fed, pasture-raised chicken. I cooked mine in my crockpot.
** Recipe here.

Notes and helpful hints:
- Kombu will have a white powder coating. It should look like this. Just rinse it off. It will also expand considerably when cooked. Kombu provides lots of vitamins and minerals.

Dry kombu

Washed kombu

- I prefer less salt and more pepper. If you are making this soup to battle a cold, add red pepper until it is almost too hot for taste. The capsaicin and salicylates in red pepper can help with headaches, body aches, and inflamed sinuses. Also, it always makes my nose run and clears my sinuses, sick or not.

The Panera Compromise

Hello, my name is Sarah (hi Sarah) and I'm an addict. A breakfast addict.

The Panera Compromise

I LOVE breakfast, and not just in the morning!  When I was a student at ORU, the first night I was home on break, my dad would cook bacon, Layden's sausage and cheese, grits, and eggs. I would carefully construct the perfect sandwich...start with a piece of toast, smear it with strawberry jelly, layer bacon, then top it with egg. Invariably, my toast would lose structural integrity and drip eggs and strawberry jelly all over everything else. I didn't care, it was breakfast!! (Shout-out to Layden's...if you've never gotten sausage or cheese from there, you are seriously missing out!!!)

The kitchen where it all began. My grandpa (Doc) and the
Harris girls. He liked his coffee strong and his scrambled eggs juicy.

My grandparents were notorious in their breakfast ritual, and some of my fondest memories of childhood took place in their kitchen. Ma would be buttering toast, making orange juice and coffee, getting the biscuits ready. Doc would be cooking the eggs (from his chickens) and bacon. This division of labor originated because apparently Ma couldn't cook eggs to suit my grandfather, so she solved the problem by telling him just what he could do with them...fix them himself. Nothing would suit me less than a bowl of cereal at their house. I took it as a personal insult, but to get breakfast, I had to get up with the chickens, quite literally. Not hard for a little kid, as a college student, it was torture but well worth the pain.

After my grandparents passed away, we started celebrating Christmas with my mom's family, and we would go big! Deer and regular sausages, eggs in a variety of ways, bacon and cheese grits, assorted banana/spice breads, toast and rolls, breakfast casseroles, hoooweeee! We did not mess around. These breakfasts were not for the faint of heart, and would take us until the middle of the afternoon to recover.

"It's Gwaltney Bacon, fool!"

Now that my sister is in college, the breakfast food of choice is mom's french toast (different from what I cook because mom adds extra love, and occasionally/accidentally orange flavoring, which is not an approved variety.) At Christmas, mom uses eggnog, and I try to remember to bring home Challah bread, which is a combination I highly recommend to all the French toast lovers out there! Jennie also insists on Gwaltney bacon, and throws a Harris fit if any other brand makes an appearance at the house. This led to one of mom's famous breakfast sayings, "It's Gwaltney bacon, fool!" in a voice reminiscent of Mr. T. We take breakfast seriously in the Harris household.

Corn flakes? I DON'T THINK SO!!

Once, in a home decorating/breakfast fiasco, my mom accidentally lured my sister and I out of sleep using a cinnamon bun candle, which just happened to smell exactly like French toast. Rioting ensued, and mom was forced to make an unplanned batch of French toast. Don't mess with hungry, angry, sleepy, tricked Harris girls. We do not negotiate.


So, here I am, sitting in Panera at Tyson's Corner at 7:30 on a Thursday morning (this in itself is a crazy scenario, but driving a friend to the airport is a sacred duty, and I get to eat breakfast out, which is a real treat.) As I sat and looked at my bacon, egg and cheese on ciabatta, I was thinking about the role breakfast has played in my life. I know, deep. But very delicious. I was planning on writing about breakfast today anyway, but I think the above is a more accurate portrayal of my heart and my feelings about these favorite foods.

Here's a quick look at what you WOULD have seen had I written what I planned:

Getting a good, healthy breakfast is more quick and easy than most people think. Hey, look what I did in about 5 minutes, and it's all transportable. And in case you're wondering, that is an egg-white omelet only because I used the yolks the night before in rice pudding. Waste not, want not. Also featured in case you were wondering: Granola with dried cranberries and organic vanilla yogurt, skim milk, white tea.

Healthy alternative to Layden's. But if you get the chance,
go with Laden's. You can run it off later.

Wise words from MT.

The Friendship Factor

People have different understandings and views of what I mean when I say "holistic lifestyle" so I'll give you my definition. Living a Holistic Lifestyle means to be aware of the needs of yourself and others, how your interactions and choices either affirm or destroy relationships, and how lifestyle choices affect overall health in general. Now I know what you're thinking, that this is going to tell you not to eat your favorite junk foods, or all the cool kids eat tofu, but you're wrong!  I was out bowling with my small group last night, and it got me thinking about the role friends play in the health and well-being of a person. (On a side note, did you know there's such a thing as a "bowling season?" I didn't, but I don't bowl on a regular basis, nor was I allowed to watch Roseanne when I was a kid. Thanks mom!)

You can't pretend to be cool
wearing shoes like these, even if
you are hanging with the Wolffpack!

I'm writing this portion snuggled up with Hurley, who in all honesty is great moral support, but when it comes to typing, she's a button masher, she drools on my keyboard and she has no thumbs, so I don't let her type.  I mention her here because I consider her a part of my holistic lifestyle. We go on walks, play, she's a great heating pad when I'm sick, she always happily eats whatever I cook...I could go on and on, but you get the point.


My two-legged friends are an important part of my "holistic" lifestyle as well. I am fortunate enough to have several distinct groups of friends that are wacky, cool, funny, smart, supportive, and just all-around good people with whom I am blessed to share these trips around the sun. These people stretch me to be a better person, and I'll list a few "anonymously" here (but you'll know who you are!)


1. The one who will literally take in any animal who wanders across their path and spend time and hard-earned money finding "forever homes." Of course, this one also let me almost drown in my accidentally-inhaled Fresca, but that's a story for another time. 
2. The one who will tell me to get it together in the nicest tone possible, who works with kids in heartbreaking situations and shows them the love of Jesus in ways that I would never be able to do convincingly. We also watch football together. :)
3. The one that kills my cell phone battery and keeps me up all night verbally dissecting events in our lives, who appreciates my mom's cooking even more than I do (and that's almost impossible!)
4. The one who reminds me that life is not always beautiful, that people are flawed individuals who make mistakes.  There's hope even in heartbreak, and people should be afforded grace and mercy, because if you haven't been there before, you will be there in the future. Thank you for reminding me of where I've been and I hope I can continue to be a source light and security as we all figure this out together.


And now for some of the groups:
1. My flesh-and-blood family. From the ones that look like they ride with the Hell's Angels, to the ones who teach yoga, and of course my immediate family, you all have contributed to who I am as a person and for that I'll be eternally grateful.

2. My small group, for being quite possibly one of the coolest assemblages of people on the planet. I'm so glad I met each of you and that I can share your lives every Tuesday night. WOLFFPACK!


3. My friends from college: you are proof that people attend ORU and can go on to lead normal lives. I'm so thankful for the new experiences, the tours of DC and the fascinating viewpoints you have on life. 


4. I am blessed to have grown up in Northeastern NC. I love ya'll  for your sandal-wearing, tractor-driving, sun and sand loving ways. 


5. A special shout-out to my military/government friends. You put yourselves in harm's way for us and our freedom on a daily basis, and I know you've seen some awful things so that I don't have to...and for that I'm forever in your debt.

"You are my
cheezeburrrrgerrrrrrr!"

I hope you are blessed to have awesome friends like mine. :)

Sharing the love...

Just a quick shout-out to Michelle (one of the best cooks I know) for her awesome take on Valentine's Day treats. I don't care much for the holiday, but I won't turn down chocolate covered strawberries and yogurt-covered pretzels. And thanks to her little helper Samuel as well. Love!!

The first part

I guess some people call this the introduction. This is the who, the why, and the what.

The who: I'm Sarah, and I'm currently working on a Master's Degree in Holistic Nutrition. I am also a fan of action movies (I'm currently watching The Expendables for the 2nd time, I love these guys.) What girl can say no to Sylvester Stallone flying a Grumman HU-16, drinking a beer, rocking out to Georgia Satellites, hanging with Jason Statham? Not me. If you're looking for reviews of Nicholas Sparks books/movies, you should look elsewhere. Note: Future blogs may also mention Star Trek/other sci-fi series episodes, rock music, or classic novels. What can I say? I'm a girl of many interests. Just not sappy yuck.

The why: I got bit by a tick in June 2009 and contracted Lyme's Disease. Three 1-month courses of antibiotics helped the major symptoms, but I was left with some pain, chronic fatigue, and weight gain that I couldn't shake. Through the use of acupuncture I managed the pain, but I could not shake the rest of the problems. I am hoping that through the use of a holistic approach, the rest of the symptoms will be alleviated as well.

Helping mom write is hard work!

What: This blog is a way for me to share the things I am learning with others who may be interested in bettering their health through a more holistic approach to life. I'm becoming part foodie, part consultant (although not professionally - yet), part activist. 

So, keep coming back for tips, hints, and ideas for living a healthier life!