Planning Meals: Beautiful & Bountiful Dinners with Grains & Veggies

I haven't been blogging our food lately, but there have been many delicious meals made with whatever looked good at the co-op and what I had time to fix between teaching and other commitments. The beauty of the plate is one thing that I continue to enjoy immensely about our meals.  The colors and textures definitely influence my meal planning. I think of the plate, the textures, the flavors. Any of these elements can run the show when it comes to planning a meal based on what I have in the house, or what I am buying in order to have in the house.  Weather can influence me too -- is it a "comfort food" day or a cool temperature meal we need to heal the day's energies and seal in the benefits of nurturing ourselves?

So I thought I'd put up a few photos of how things come together, even though I haven't blogged the recipes for these meals. Most of them are very simple sequences of cutting, cooking and putting together... and I'll try to give enough information so that you could give it a go... or let me know that you really want directions and I'll blog 'em out.

As an experimental, temperamental, spontaneous and intuitive cook, I find it amusing that I am now trying to routinize anything about my kitchen activities and write things down, document what works, and imagine that anyone is following along.  The idea of the eat2thrive blog is truly to inspire you to go ahead and explore this marvelous feast of possibilities. If these meal ideas spark something -- light it and go with it! I'd love to know if your results thrilled you and would be happy to put them up on the blog for others if they are replicable.

A blend of vegetables, joined with a flavorful sauce or spice, and served on a plain grain can be a marvelous anchor for a meal. These medleys of flavors can be combinations. Here I combined in a water saute with bits of ginger and garlic:  carrots, onions, olives, Cremini mushrooms, and fennel on plain millet. The  sides are fresh spinach cooked with small bites of tofu and garlic, and a salad of enoki, Asian watermelon radishes, arugula and grape tomatoes treated with a splash of Mirin.









This blend is slivered lacinato (dinosaur) kale sauteed with bits of onion, and then mixed together with the white quinoa that I cooked separately in the gingery water I used to steam the carrots, sweet potatoes, and parsnips that make up the side dish finalized with roasted sunflower seeds and a tablespoon of dried currants. The salad is a simple chopped endive, radicchio, cucumber and quartered red grapes with a splash of pomegranate balsamic vinegar.  The sriracha hot sauce turned the quinoa into a wonderful complement to the sweet of the root veggies and slightly bittersweet crunch of salad.

Here is a stir-fry model (in water of course, not oil), with sugar snap peas, shiitakes and pea shoots thrown in at the end. The binder is tamari with a splash of ume plum vinegar plus water. Plain long-grain brown basmati rice was the base under it, and then the fun started with the sliced steamed zucchini cooked with fresh cilantro, a little salt and lemon! This added a flavor bite to the salty familiarity of the stir fry.

 Here the rice is the border keeper to separate the veggie medley of sauteed snow peas, carrots, broccoli, and garlic with a light peanut sauce, and the pressed, soaked, and then broiled tofu slabs ... soaked in ginger/tamari/tomatillo/sesame seed. I'm still working on how to get that crispness without oil... and this was a pretty good outcome, broiled on tin foil, and reserving a little of the sauce to continue putting a little moisture on as the tofu began crisping.

Here the rice is transformed into Asian rice noodles, soaked in boiling hot water, and then rinsed. The black eyed peas were cooked with garlic, salt, pepper and lemon, and snuggled up to steamed fresh spinach with a dash of seaweed gomasio. I wanted a distinctly different texture/shape and went for the fresh green beans, steamed plain and served with a squeeze of lemon.  Using the noodles changes the nature of the meal and makes today's dinner vastly different from the rice-based meal of yesterday or tomorrow.

Another way to totally change the rice experience is to play with special heirloom rice grains now available in so many places. This black rice is packed with nutrition, stays a beautiful deep color and has a nutty marvelous flavor. So all I did was add bits of chopped mushroom and garlic to the rice as it cooked, served it with plain steamed broccoli, a leafy salad with scallions, pea shoots and sliced strawberries treated with tarragon vinegar, and then I experimented with the side dish.  This one was a delicious surprise of black grapes, jicama, fresh tomatillo chopped up like tomatoes, bits of scallion and a splash of mirin.





Pasta! I use brown rice pasta to avoid gluten, and because it can be served either soft or al dente.  This variation was served at room temperature on the first hot day... partly because I had no time to cook dinner at dinner time, and made this in its parts before heading out to teach an evening yoga class. Steamed Brussels sprouts were rinsed in cool water and quartered, then mixed together with quartered grape tomatoes, sliced parsnip, bits of green and black olives, and two beautiful fresh scallions chopped. The glue was a red miso sauce -- a heaping tablespoon of red miso mixed with about 1 cup of hot water, a splash of balsamic vinegar and stirred well. I poured this over the whole thing, cooked noodles and all, and let it sit out until I got home later. Simple salad - radicchio, chopped romaine, last of the endive and a little pomegranate balsamic, salt and garlic.



Another quick meal using brown rice pasta and a side salad! This one was garlic sauteed chard with bits of sun dried tomatoes, stirred into the brown rice spirals, and then a quick steam of fresh asparagus spears to cut and toss on top. Beautiful and tasty! Boston lettuce with cucumber, red pepper, bits of chopped celery and tarragon vinegar with garlic to dress it up.

None of these meals were planned ahead more than the day-of. The most important aspect of all these meals was having beautiful fresh ingredients on hand, and a stock of grains/pasta to put in place to round things out.

Desserts are usually sharing a cut up apple, perhaps a perfect pear, a naval orange ... or when the mood strikes, a little container of soy yogurt with granola and fresh strawberries!

Give it a try -- play around with these ideas ... and let me know if you find something marvelous to share or want a more detailed instruction about how to make any of these.  One thing is for sure you will be eating well!

Moo Shu Style Veggies

Maybe it isn't really Moo Shu without the pancakes, but it sure is yummy! This is a combination of textures, the harder vegetables like the carrot and turnip sliced into thin sticks, the savoy cabbage sliced into thin strips, mushrooms in sticks, tofu in strips, and the combination of salty and sweet from the Tamari and the Mirin.  Easy, one pot stir fry. We ate it with Lundberg's Black Japonica Rice. a gluten free whole grain with an almost fruity overtone and, according to the package, "containing the anthocyanin antioxidants like those found in blueberries and blackberries." The idea is to combine chewy, crisp, and soft, use what you have and like!

Moo Shu Veggies (serves 4 hungry -6 with pancakes and side dishes)

6 leaves Savoy cabbage
1 medium carrot
1 small turnip
6-8 Cremini mushrooms
1 large onion
2/3 of a block of firm tofu
3/4 cup pea shoots

1. Chop all the vegetables into strips.
2. Put about 3/4 cup water in a wok or large saute pan, adding carrots, turnip, onion, mushrooms, tofu and cabbage. Add Tamari and Mirin, and cook for 10 minutes covered, stirring and mixing the sauce into the veggies.
3. Taste for doneness and flavor of the sauce. Add tofu, stir and add the last 1/4 cup of water with another splash of Tamari or Mirin, covering for another 5 minutes and serve.

Moo Shu Veggies Nutrition Facts for 4 servings Serving Size: 1 Serving (278g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 137 7% Total Fat 4g 6% Saturated Fat 1g 3% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 773mg 32% Total Carbohydrate 19g 6% Dietary Fiber 4g 17% Sugars 8g 0% Protein 11g 22% Vitamin A 12% • Vitamin C 40% Calcium 32% • Iron 11% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com using my data.

Nutrition Facts for Black Japonica Rice

Serving Size: 1 Serving (45g)  based on 1/4 cup uncooked

Amount Per Serving		% Daily Value*
Calories	150	8%
Total Fat	2g	2%
Saturated Fat		0%
Trans Fat
Cholesterol		0%
Sodium		0%
Total Carbohydrate	33g	11%
Dietary Fiber	3g	12%
Sugars		0%
Protein	4g	8%

Vitamin A	0%	•	Vitamin C	0%
Calcium	0%	•	Iron	4%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com using data provided by Lundberg's Rice.

Homestyle Mushroom Bibimbap

I have only had mushroom Bibimbap once, but it was extraordinary. We had this amazing dish at a serendipitous lunch at Mandoo Bar on E. 32nd Street in Manhattan. So I was dreaming of how to imitate anything like that and came up with this. I'm sure I will change and refine it, and encourage you to do the same! Aside from mushrooms, the Sriracha sauce is a requirement! This Vietnamese chili sauce adds spice but also terrific flavor. Aside from soaking the mushrooms for several hours, this dish took about 40 minutes to put together.








Homestyle Mushroom Bibimbap

1 cup brown jasmine rice
4 cups water (including soaking water for mushrooms)
4 cloves garlic
6 shiitake mushrooms
12 dried mushrooms (wood ear, shiitake or whatever you have)
1 cup raw spinach - small leaves
4 savoy cabbage leaves
2 scallions
1 small zucchini
1 cup full of enoki
4 inches of daikon radish
2-3 tblsp tamari
1.5 tbsp black vinegar
1/8 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp ginger root
1 tsp sesame seed
3 tsp Srirachi chili sauce

1. Soak dry mushrooms several hours. Slice the diakon and put in a small bowl with sriracha sauce (Vietnamese chili sauce) and let soak.
2. Cook rice. steam separately a few minutes (microwave in a bowl is fine) finely slivered cabbage, spinach leaves in a little water, and matchsticks of zucchini  with vinegar, tamari and sesame seeds.
3. Simmer slivered fresh shiitake mushrooms with sliced soaked mushrooms in some of the mushroom  juices with tamari, ginger, garlic and a dash of black vinegar added, covered.
4. In a small cast iron or enamel pot put 1/8 tsp roasted sesame oil and coat the bottom of the pan. Layer in about 1/2 of the rice. Meanwhile, uncover the mushrooms, stir in the chopped scallions and cook down the liquid a little.

5. When the rice begins to crackle and crisp, try to flip it like a pancake ... crisping the other side. Then pour in the spinach, cabbage, zucchini with sauce, mushrooms with sauce, daikon and sauce. Put lid on and let simmer for 5-10 minutes.
 6. Add the rest of the rice a splash of srirachi sauce and chop up, stirring in the enoki.  Serve with a side of kimchi and more hot sauce to add to taste.

 Nutrition Facts

Home Made Bibimbap

Serving Size: 1 Serving (533g) (3 servings)

Amount Per Serving		% Daily Value*
Calories	349	17%
Total Fat	4g	6%
Saturated Fat	1g	3%
Trans Fat
Cholesterol		0%
Sodium	880mg	37%
Total Carbohydrate	72g	24%
Dietary Fiber	8g	32%
Sugars	5g	0%
Protein	11g	22%

Vitamin A	5%	•	Vitamin C	59%
Calcium	9%	•	Iron	17%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com using my data

Our side salad was beets, jicama, artichoke hearts, pea shoots, pomegranate seeds with a squeeze of lemon. 

Coconut Cauliflower Curry/ Brown Basmati Rice

There comes a time when that half a can of coconut milk in the fridge just has to get used or it starts to go bad. I had been thinking about the fact that it had actually been a long time since we had rice with anything, and the idea began with the thought of putting coconut milk in rice. Pretty soon that morphed into this cauliflower curry with coconut milk and whatever coconut milk was left could go in the rice. I decided to mix the traditional dal (pureed lentils) into the dish, so that the whole thing would have curry flavor and be poured right over the rice, which began to take on its own shape. Portion nutrition is based on 4 large servings. Of course you can stretch this to feed 6 by adding a side dish (I'm thinking green beans...). You can also add heat (peppers) or sweet (peaches or tomatoes) or heft (potato, sweet or otherwise!)

Coconut Cauliflower Curry with Brown Basmati Rice
1 cup red lentils
2 1/4 cup water for lentils
Florets of a whole head of cauliflower
1/2 cup water for sauteing
1 large onion chopped fine
3 large white or cremini mushrooms halved and sliced
2 tsp fresh grated ginger
2 tsp coriander
1.5 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp tumeric in curry
1/8 tsp tumeric in rice
4 Tblsp light coconut milk for curry

FOR THE RICE
1 cup brown basmati rice
1.5 cups water  (I used the water from steaming the cauliflower)
1 minced carrot
2 finely chopped sun dried tomatoes
4 Tblsp light coconut milk for rice
1 Tblsp dry currants (or other dried fruit)

1. Wash and cut up the cauliflower and steam the florets in a large pot until they are cooked but not at all mushy. You can use the leftover water for making the rice.
2. Cook the red lentils - put lentils in a medium small pot, add the water and the 1/8 tsp tumeric, cook until totally soft so that you can whisk this and it will get all creamy. Cover and let it sit.
2. Chop the onion and slice the mushrooms, grate the ginger, and put this in a wide saute pan with the 1/2 cup water. This needs to be big enough to hold the whole curry. Add the herbs and the salt and the 1/2 tsp tumeric. Cook stirring occasionally until the onion softens and the mushrooms are nearly cooked.

3. Cook the rice: Put the rice, water, carrot, tomato, coconut milk, currants and bring to a boil. Turn down immediately to simmer without a lid until most of the liquid is absorbed. Stir once, cover and let sit.  If the sun dried tomatoes are cured with salt - rather than soaked in oil - you do not need to salt the rice.  Otherwise, you can add salt and pepper if you like it that way when you fluff it up to serve it.

4. Add the lentils, and half the coconut milk, stirring. Add the cauliflower and simmer covered for about 10 minutes.  Serve spooned over rice, with a decorative bunch of cilantro or parsley leaves.

Coconut Cauliflower Curry/Basmati Rice Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Serving (460g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 427 21% Total Fat 4g 6% Saturated Fat 1g 3% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 470mg 20% Total Carbohydrate 83g 28% Dietary Fiber 10g 39% Sugars 14g 0% Protein 18g 35% Vitamin A 9% • Vitamin C 10% Calcium 8% • Iron 33% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com using my data.