what's in my fridge

I've been doing my best lately to eat health(ier) meals that involve foods with around one ingredient. So less mock meats with about ten different kinds of chemicals and soy gluten isoloxynodohedron (which may or may not be a twelve-sided die) and more beans and veggies and whole grains. My little mission has resulted in a few super easy stand-by dishes that I thought would be worth posting for the healthy woman on the go. So here we go:

1. Chickpeas.

I heart chickpeas. They are impossible to screw up and always taste good. Right now my favorite preparation is dumping a can in a pan with some olive oil and white wine. I usually drain out about half of the liquid from the can and use some of that liquid in the pan as well. I simmer the beans in the liquids with some chili powder and cumin for about 5 minutes. And that's it. I've found that the longer that cook, the better they are but some days I'm just too hungry to wait. I usually make up a batch on Monday and then eat the leftovers throughout the week. They're really good on top of salads (I'm currently a fan of warm things on top of cold things, so I'll heat the chickpeas up before putting them on a salad) or just as a side dish.

When I get tired of garbanzo, I usually switch to cannellini or kidney beans. For the cannellini, I heat them in a pot with the the liquid from the can, a good measure of white wine, and some olive oil. Then I add Italian seasonings - oregano, basil, etc - until I feel like I'm back in Tuscany. For the red beans I tend to just heat them slightly and then eat them with diced red pepper and some italian dressing or red wine vinaigrette.

2. Kale.

Most vegans view kale as the be-all, end-all of leafy green vegetables. It probably has more vitamins than a vitamin tablet. I am at present in love with kale chips. They are easy to make and unfortunately even easier to screw up, so pay attention! The easy part is tearing the leaves off into bite size pieces, putting them in a pan, spraying them with some oil, and sprinkling with salt before popping them into the oven. The hard part is remembering to take them OUT of the oven. I have sent many a batch of burnt kale into the garbage and oh does the smell linger. The pieces take about five minutes at 400 to get slightly crispy, and I've found that checking them obsessively and pulling them out every couple minutes works best for me. I also prefer my chips more soft than crisp, so I tend to be happy taking them out early.

When the kale runs out I revert to the other vegan staple, broccoli. It's another one of those vitamin powerhouses. I generally try to eat a handful a day of broccoli, which isn't too hard. Steamed is the easiest, but when I have to pack lunches I've found that raw broccoli in balsamic is pretty good. I generally really dislike raw broccoli, and the balsamic adds just enough liquid to combat that whole 'oh my god raw broccoli sucks' reaction I usually have. Along those lines, honey can be a big help for raw carrots.

3. Brown rice.

Totally boring, right? A big ol' plate of chickpeas, kale, and brown rice. Grossness. But au contraire, mon frere! The chili powder on the chickpeas and the salt on the kale and the right blend of brown rice can make for a veritable taste explosion. My rice recommendation at present is the brown rice medley from Trader Joes This is another dish that I make in large batches at the beginning of the week and then reheat for lunch for the rest of the week. When I run out of brown rice, I'll make a batch of couscous or quinoa for the week. I finally bought some barley, so we'll see what the grain is all about.

4. Soba noodles.

These are another 'take me through the week' staple. I'll boil up a pack on Monday and keep them in the fridge all week. When I'm feeling adventurous, I steam broccoli, carrots, tofu, and bok choy and mix them with the soba and some veggie broth. When I'm watching my stories, I eat them cold from tupperware without anything on them other than a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

5. Almond butter.

You can make this stuff! No really. It's crazy easy. All you need is a food processor and some ear plugs. I buy a bag of raw, unsalted almonds from Trader Joes and put about a cup into my food processor, using the S-blade. And then WHIR! It will initially make the most god-awful sound but after a minute it goes away. Every few minutes or so I check the processor and scrape the sides back down, but other than that I just let the machine work its magic. After about 8-10 minutes I have almond butter. Done and done. Given that I think almond butter on apples and bananas is the most wonderful snack ever, I make almond butter at least once if not twice a week. If you consume nut butters at a regular rate, yours should last two weeks.


All of this advance preparation has led to one problem: buried leftovers in a sea of tupperware and half-cut vegetables. I finally decided to tackle the issue by keeping a list of the food I have in the fridge. It's sort of a reverse grocery list. Now when I go to the fridge I can see in plain English that I still have a large bunch of radishes. Radishes which are presently shoved to the back of the crisper and buried under unwieldy Mr. Kale and which I would not have remembered until next week when I finish off the kale and find a mushy red mess of root vegetables. The list helps me tackle lunch and dinner because I can sort of prioritize what's in the fridge based on when it will go bad. When I finish off a vegetable or tupperwared leftover, it gets crossed off, so now I also have a good sense of what foods need to be replenished.

Happy eating!