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What can I substitute for mushrooms in a Glorious One-Pot Meal?

July 17, 2012

Reader question: In your cookbook, page 33, “Fish with Herbs de Provence”, what would you use if replacing mushrooms? Also, do you like this recipe with chicken instead of fish? Would I slice the chicken thinly to accommodate?
Thanks! ~ Hanna S., Denver, CO

Hi Hanna. In this recipe you can replace mushrooms with anything else you might have around. Mushrooms are a great source of Riboflavin. They are fungi rather than vegetables, so there is not a direct one-to-one substitution for mushrooms in the world of produce.

However, now, in high summer, is a great time to play around with the bounty of nature, and Glorious One-Pot Meals are particularly accommodating for this endeavor. I would lean toward pattypan squash, or carrots, or eggplant… The possibilities are endless! Choose whatever tickles your fancy and I’m sure it will taste delightful.

As always, you may substitute any protein for the fish in this or any Glorious One-Pot Meal. Chicken would taste great, as would lamb or pork. You may pre-cut the chicken if you like, but you never have to. Here are some guidelines for using chicken in a GOPM. Be sure to follow your nose as it will always tell you when your meal is ready!

In case you don’t have the Glorious One-Pot Meals cookbook, and can’t refer to the recipe on page 33, I am including the recipe here.

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Fish with Herbs de Provence

The term Herbs de Provence refers to the mix of herbs commonly used in southern French cooking. These include basil, thyme, chives, oregano, sage, rosemary, lavender and dill, and can be used in almost any combination. You can purchase a pre-mixed jar of Herbs de Provence and use that in place of the herbs designated in this recipe. Any white fish tastes great in this recipe. Try this with cod, sole, roughy, or snapper.

1 lemon, washed and sliced thinly
5 garlic cloves, sliced
1/2 to 3/4 pound white fish
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, or 1 teaspoon dried
1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil, or 1 teaspoon dried
3 to 4 chives, minced
3 to 4 medium red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/2-inch thick rounds
8 to 10 mushrooms
15 to 20 string beans or 1 small zucchini
1 tablespoon capers (optional)

Preheat the oven to 450° F.
Spray the inside of a cast iron Dutch oven and lid. Arrange 1/3 of the lemon slices and garlic slices in the bottom of the pot. Add the fish in a single layer (cut fillet into pieces, if necessary), and top with 1/3 of the lemon and the rest of the garlic. Sprinkle most of the herbs over the fish, keeping some in reserve.
Add the vegetables in layers, sprinkling with herbs, until the pot is full. Top with the drained capers, if desired.
Cover and bake for about 45 minutes, or until 3 minutes after the aroma of a fully cooked meal escapes the oven. Serve immediately.

Calories 167 Protein 15g Carb 26g Fat 2g Chol 19mg Sodium 216mg Fiber 2g

Beautiful Breasts Naturally

July 16, 2012

Warning: I’m off topic today. There’s just something I have to get off my chest. Literally.

Whenever I see a woman vigorously exercising without proper breast support, I cringe. Breast tissue is delicate, and excessive jiggling can cause small tears that allow the breast to sag and droop as we age. Surgically augmenting breasts is not risk-free as there can be all kinds of complications including leaking, infection, movement, and loss of sensation. Luckily, there are some things we can do to help our breasts maintain their perky appearance long past our twenties without resorting to questionable surgical procedures.

Your bra. First and most important is to wear a well-fitting bra in our daily lives. Remember a few years ago when Oprah announced that more than half of American women were wearing incorrectly-fitting bras? And then, during the course of the show, she demonstrated how the simple act of wearing a correctly-fitted bra could visibly drop ten pounds off your appearance. Lose ten pounds just by changing your bra.

I suggest going into a lingerie shop or department store where there is a knowledgeable sales person who can measure you and help you find the styles that fit you best. I’m a fan of Victoria’s Secret for this mission. Plan to spend at least an hour and try on no fewer than a dozen styles in your correct size, now that you know what it is. And don’t be afraid of some padding: bra fabric technology has come a long way in the last twenty years, and today’s bras do more to smooth and shape than to artificially construct. Get the sales person’s opinion as to the fit, and listen to what she tells you. The right bra will lift and support while being comfortable and non-binding. I call this the “$50 boob job”.

Your sports bra. Always wear a true sports bra when you work out. A good sports bra should hold the girls securely no matter how high you jump or how much you bounce on your toes. Let me repeat that: if your breasts move when you jump around, your sports bra is not doing its job. This is true no matter what your cup size.

I had a college roommate who always wore two sports bras, one on top of the other, when she went for a run, and the rest of us would laugh at her. I should have emulated her instead, and in fact, by the time I got into my mid-twenties I was a convert to the layered sports bra approach… until I learned there are now more modern options out there that work much better than the old ones did.

Sports bras do not last forever, and they are not all the same. Check out sports bra specialists like title nine to find the right sports bra support for your delicate tissues. Don’t settle for a flimsy shelf-bra with no support, or like I saw in my Jazzercise class this morning, a string bikini top. Ouch! Even a regular bra is not good enough to hold you securely during a real workout, so make the investment, whether it’s LuluLemon or Old Navy, and wear it. You’ll be glad you did.

Your pecs. Breast tissue hangs from the structure of your pectoral muscles, those same ones that look so good on a guy with a six-pack. Without surgical intervention you can’t change the amount of mammary tissue you were born with, but you can absolutely build up the pectoral muscles underneath so that your breasts will hang on a mannequin instead of a hanger, and look more shapely and perky as a result.

How do you build up those pecs? The easiest way I’ve found is to do push-ups, but if you have a set of hand weights you could also do extended arm lifts, as seen in this video. This exercise can also be effective if done standing up with bent knees and a flat back angled forward. Talk to a knowledgeable personal trainer for more advice on building your pecs, and don’t forget to also work the complimentary back muscles by by bringing your elbows together behind your back, so that you remain balanced and don’t end up with a forward hunch.

Your posture. A major benefit of strengthening your chest and back is that it will help your posture. Breasts just look better on women – and men, too!– who stand up straight. The benefits of better posture are too many for this post, but include better overall health, more mental alertness, better back health and less back pain.

Self exam. This goes without saying. Look for lumps regularly.

So skip breast enhancement surgery and nurture your breasts to be the best they can be instead!

Do You Need to Add Liquid to a Glorious One-Pot Meal?

July 13, 2012

Reader question: I have a question which I hope you can take the time to answer. We don’t eat “dry ingredients” and I am therefore confused about the use of liquid. If not using “dry ingredients, I can not use liquid? Or is it wiser to put in the onions? Or are the onions just for flavor and onions always go first in the pot? Many thanks if you can address my problem. ~ Mary O., Syracuse, NY

Hi Mary. I hear that you are saying you do not eat grains and want to know if you need to add liquid to a Glorious One-Pot Meal recipe that does not include grains. I understand your confusion, but you should know that the only time you need to add liquid to a GOPM is when you include a dry grain that needs to hydrate to cook. Then, you only add just enough liquid to hydrate the grains according to the table in the front of the cookbook. So YES, you are correct that you do not add liquid to a GOPM if you are not using a dry grain. GOPMs do not have to be stews or soups just because they are one pot meals.

One of the great things about the infusion cooking method used for Glorious One-Pot Meals is that every single ingredient called for in a recipe is substitutable. Think about GOPMs like a puzzle where you choose any item from within each category to build your meal, with the categories being: oil, aromatics/herbs/spices/condiments, carbs, protein, and various colors of veggies.

As to your questions regarding onions: If you like onions, by all means, use onions. Not only do they give flavor, but onions offer myriad health benefits ranging from treating respiratory system ailments to colon health and cancer prevention. But you never have to use onions – or anything else – in a GOPM.

I like to place onions and other aromatics like leek, shallots, garlic, and ginger, in the bottom of the pot because then they come into contact with the thin film of oil coating the inside of the pot (always the first step in any GOPM recipe!) and emerge with a sauteed effect, which I like. That’s the only reason they go in the pot first. You can always add onions higher up in the layers, and they will cook and be tasty, but they will not get that same sautéed effect.

Please feel free to use the comments below if you have any other questions.

Happy cooking!

Dairy-free, Gluten-free, Egg-free Banana Bread Recipe

July 12, 2012

My food sensitivity clients often find it challenging to find baked goods that still taste good without using ingredients they need to avoid as we work to eliminate the chronic inflammation in their bodies. That’s why I was so excited to learn about this dairy-free, gluten-free, and egg-free banana bread recipe concocted by Camille Womack, the mother of one of my pediatric clients.

Dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free banana bread recipe. Photo by Camille Womack.

Perhaps I am most excited to learn that pureed sweet potato can be used as an egg replacement / egg substitute in baked goods with great success. You may have seen some of my previous searches for egg-free egg substitutes when doing egg-free baking, but sweet potatoes were a new idea for me.

Thanks for sharing your wonderful recipe, Camille!

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Dairy-free, Gluten-free, Egg-free Banana Bread
recipe by Camille Womack

6 really ripe medium/large bananas
2/3 cup melted coconut oil
1/2 cup pureed sweet potato
3 cups oat flour
1/2 cup cane sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
A handful of raw sunflower seeds
A handful of chopped pecans
Rolled oats to sprinkle on top

Mash the bananas with a fork and combine with oil and sweet potato. Whisk together dry ingredients. Add dry mix to wet mix in small batches, just barely combining. Stir in nuts. Bake in two loaf pans (greased with coconut oil), with a couple handfuls of rolled oats sprinkled on top, at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes. Turn it out on a rack to cool.

Camille’s notes for success: In this last batch I made, I forgot to add the sugar, which didn’t affect the taste as much as it did the texture. With the sugar, it’s a bit fluffier, although the bread is still dense as you can tell. The most important thing is that it’s really tasty, and holds itself together well enough to make a sunflower butter sandwich. 🙂 I hope someone else can use it. (Would probably taste even better if you could add vanilla!)

No Sodium Metabisulfites in 365 Dried Fruits at Whole Foods

July 11, 2012

Sodium metabisulfite is a chemical preservative added to prevent foods from browning and molding. It is often used in preserving fresh and dried fruits, and in home brewing wines and ales. Unfortunately, for those people who are sensitive to sulfites, it can cause uncomfortable hypersensitivity reactions that may include anything from wheezing to eczema to IBS to migraines and more.

While the additive may or may not be identified, based on the amount used to preserve the food, sulfites do occur naturally in wines and meads. Here is a list of sulfite-containing foods that sulfite-sensitive people may want to avoid.

Recently, I have been working with the mother of an 18-month old boy to help bring the child some relief inside his own body. Chronic runny nose that would turn into sinus and ear infections, eczema, rash, constipation, difficulty sleeping through the night, and more were the kinds of symptoms he had been exhibiting. Upon receiving the results of his MRT food sensitivity test, we learned that one of his many sensitivities was to sodium metabisulfite.

In this mom’s quest to find sodium metabisulfite-free dried fruits, she used the online form at Whole Foods Market to ask the question:

Hello, I am looking for dried cranberries, dried pineapple, or dried bananas that are free of sodium metabisulfite. Do your 365 dried fruits contain sodium metabisulfite for color preservation? My local store could not answer the question. From what I understand, it is not something that is required to be listed on the package in small amounts. However, it causes my son to wheeze so I need to avoid it with certainty. Can you help? Thanks, Camille W.

Whole Foods came back quickly with this response:

Hi Camille,

Thanks for reaching out to us. Sodium metabisulphite is on our list of unacceptable ingredients for food, so none of our dried fruits contain it. I doubt that this an issue for your son, but just as an FYI we do allow it in some wines and meads.

Thanks for reaching out to us. I hope that information is helpful, please let me know if there is anything else I can do!
If you have any further questions please use our on-line response form.

Best regards,
Julie Brown
Global Customer Information Specialist | Whole Foods Market | 550 Bowie Street | Austin, Texas 78703

It’s good to know that Whole Foods feels the same way about sodium metabisulfite as I do, and that I can trust the 365 store brand of dried fruits to be sulfite-free.

What can I substitute for mushrooms in a Glorious One-Pot Meal?

Beautiful Breasts Naturally

Do You Need to Add Liquid to a Glorious One-Pot Meal?

Dairy-free, Gluten-free, Egg-free Banana Bread Recipe

No Sodium Metabisulfites in 365 Dried Fruits at Whole Foods

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