Giving Meatless Monday a Try

I'm not really the type to jump on any old bandwagon. I'm not the earliest adopter. I didn't get the first generation iPhone, and I waited several years to get a DVD player. I wait things out to see if they're gaining traction before making my move.

So it has been with this newfangled idea they're calling Meatless Monday. I've mostly ignored the background babel. Meatless Monday is a concept initiated by The Monday Campaigns in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

When I first heard about Meatless Monday it sounded to me a bit like Backwards Friday, an annual event we had in grade school when all the kids wore their clothes backwards. It was something you do once for the novelty of it--it wasn't something anyone would make a lifestyle out of.

I have to admit that I didn't initially investigate the concept or read up on the why and how of Meatless Monday, but it didn't sound like something I'd try, much less permanently implement (even though I am generally quite content forgoing meat). But in the burgeoning movement to reduce one's carbon footprint, and toward greater long-term health, my interest was slowly piqued by this one-day-a-week vegetarianism thing. After all, I do love a good eggplant parm. How hard could it be?

I'm particularly interested in a fresh start on Monday after gorging all weekend. The cheeseburger right off the grill at Saturday's barbecue melted in my mouth (washed down by a bottle of beer), but following it with two pieces of The Pioneer Woman's chocolate sheet cake was just unnecessary (but worth every bite!).

Monday is a new beginning. Monday speaks to me in tongues of crispy vegetables and protein sources low in saturated fat.

In his bestselling books, Michael Pollan has endorsed quasi-vegetarianism, and others are taking note. Giving up one-seventh of meat consumption (the equivalent of one day per week) is practicable, Pollan says, and I agree. I can do this.

So I mentioned it to my husband this weekend. "Honey, will you do Meatless Mondays with me?" I expected him to laugh and reply with a sarcastic, "Yeah, right." But in a surprising moment of marital support, and without asking why, he said, "Sure. Starting tomorrow? Pasta Mondays." I told him tomorrow we could indeed start with pasta--a win-win (easy for me to cook, even easier for him to like). But in my secret scheming, I plan to slowly intervene in this carb-lover's lifestyle--after all, replacing a hearty protein with an empty carb is not helping anyone. Next week we'll try a tofu or bean dish.

We're aiming to try this for the long haul--for ourselves and for our planet. Meatless meals can be less expensive and easy to prepare. I'm all for that as a bonus.

Cooking Day #2

You may have heard about the cooking day (Plummelo Cooking Club, PCC) I planned with five friends in January. Six of us got together at Kate's house for a down and dirty meal prep day (three hours). We assembled steak fajitas, chicken marbella, turkey and roasted red pepper meatloaf, and a spinach and prosciutto lasagna. We did all of this with minimal prep--but everyone did her part and brought what was on her shopping list. It cost each family $37.50 to take home more than four meals' worth of food. It kept us eating well on busy weeknights for days, if not weeks. (I think there is still a Ziploc of the chicken in my freezer.) It was such a success that we had to plan another one.

In order to gain hall passes from the husbands, we pulled it off as a work day ("What. I'm making dinner!") and assured them they'd benefit.

This past weekend, again at Kate's, a slightly different group got together. Five of us this time, and again four recipes: the same steak fajitas (simple yet classic), garlic-citrus chicken, meatballs, and salmon cakes. We agreed that this round worked us harder, but it was the recipes' fault: they were a bit more involved. The meatballs required browning, the chicken required zesting (of limes and oranges), and, well, the salmon cans required opening. (It also involved squeezing, patting, chopping, slicing, bagging, admiring.) The shocker? Also exactly $37 per person. Awesome.

Cooking days with friends are hard to schedule and a logistical nightmare to organize, but so worth their trouble. Not only do you get three-plus solid hours of quality time with people you love, but also four meals to take home to eat that week ... and think of your friends while enjoying each bite.

You better believe this PCC is pushing on for #3 in May. Stay tuned.

Girlfriends' Guide to Fooling the Husbands (er, Cooking)

Girlfriends will find any excuse to get together. And what better way to spend a cold Saturday than with food and friends. In order to justify our absence from our husbands and kids, we decided we’d better find a way to benefit them as well.

And girlfriends trust each other. Girlfriends share their opinions about everything–recipes and food are no exception. Most women I know are always looking for their next batch of great recipes, so we decided to get together and test some out.

The ultimate goal was to come home with four meals to enjoy throughout the week (or stash in the freezer for a busy night).

We accomplished several things during our three hours together this weekend: quality time, trying new recipes, and preparing meals to take home for our families. Here is how it went.

I invited 5 girlfriends who, like me, are busy moms who are into cooking and trying new recipes but are short on time. Six people was the perfect size. The dads planned on staying home for some quality time with the little ones.

I looked through my recipes on Plummelo for a few important criteria: little to no cooking on prep day; highly freezeable; no more than about 10 ingredients each; and using relatively inexpensive ingredients. We narrowed it down to 4. We wanted to start out with an attainable goal.

Our Recipes

• Steak Fajitas from Real Simple
• Turkey and Roasted Red Pepper Meatloaffrom Real Simple
• Chicken Marbella from Simply Recipes
• Spinach and Prosciutto Lasagna from Martha Stewart

I saved these 4 recipes to My Recipes on Plummelo and emailed them to my friends so they could save them into their recipe boxes as well. I put the recipes into My Plans and then into My Shopping List.

Here was the part where Plummelo really saved the day in this planning process: Once the recipes were in my shopping list, Plummelo adjusted the servings for me!

For 6 people, we needed everything times six (for a grand total of a lot of food). The recipe showed number of servings as 4, so I entered 24 (4 x 6), and the Plummelo shopping list automatically changed all the quantities for me (for example, 1 1/2 cups of ricotta became 9 cups of ricotta).

I then hit “Email Shopping List” on Plummelo and sent the combined list to my friends. We divvied up the shopping by section of the grocery store (which was also easy because the Plummelo shopping list is divided by category, such as Meat, Produce), and each went grocery shopping on our own schedule and planned to arrive with the assigned items.

One friend and I hit Costco for all the meat, and the others went on their respective treasure hunts. I was surprised at how little effort went into the shopping when we divided and conquered.

The day of, I packed it up the food and a few essentials (including my favorite knife), ready to take to the hosting friend’s house. We allowed 3 hours for our cooking adventure, with some time built in for girl talk and munching on freshly bakedmuffins.

We started out with the Chicken Marbella. One team of two trimmed the chicken thighs, another team minced garlic (of course, with the garlic gadget!), and another team measured spices, olives, capers, and prunes. In no time our chicken was marinating in the bowl, and we divided the massive quantity into 6 Ziploc freezer bags for each family to pull out on the designated night.

The routine went like this for the remaining recipes. Chopping and dicing, dividing and conquering (and washing some dishes in between). Meal prep is much more fun when it is organized in advance and shared with good friends. It’s also more fun digging into a huge bowl of ground turkey when wearing plastic gloves! We had a lot of laughs about food favorites and not-so-favorites, cooking blunders, and each other’s techniques, and fed each other bites of blueberry muffin while we worked. It didn’t seem like work at all.

It took us two and a half hours and $37.50 per family (that’s less than $10 per meal) to make 4 delicious meals that are ready for our loved ones to enjoy. Economies of scale definitely pay off!

Now we each have 4 new recipes in our repertoire and 4 new meals for the week. And after receiving a big thank you from more than one of the husbands, I know we have a hall pass for another girls’ afternoon out.

Try planning a cooking day with your friends. Let us know how it goes.

Beets: An Attempt and Failure

I read a list published in the New York Times last week (first published in June 2008) that highlighted the 11 best foods you aren’t eating.

They are right.

I’m not eating beets. I’m not eating cabbage. I’m not eating swiss chard. I am definitely not eating sardines. But I am eating cinnamon, pomegranate juice, dried plums, frozen blueberries, and canned pumpkin. That’s a start, right?

Back to beets. Beets have always been a very mysterious vegetable to me. I didn’t grow up eating them. Not that I’m one to garden (I live on a lovely patch of pavement in the city), but beets aren’t something I’ve ever grown or harvested myself. And how do you cook them? I know they are absolutely sweet and delicious–possibly nature’s sweetest vegetable–once I can get my hands on them (and they stain, so watch out!). But unfortunately, when it comes to beets and other such vegetables, intimidation gets the best of me and I’m usually afraid to attempt cooking them.

But in the spirit of healthy eating and conquering my cooking fears (see a prior post on this topic), I decided to give beets a try. I had collected a little bit of vague advice from a friend. I thought the hard part was actually getting myself to purchase them at the store. Once I got them home it would be cake.

(Humorous anecdote: The leaves were so long the whole beets didn’t fit in the standard size plastic vegetable bag at the grocery store, but, like a carton of eggs, I managed to babysit the unruly creatures all the way to the check-out line, gently place them on the rolling conveyor belt, and then–wham!–the otherwise very kind check-out bagger folded my beet stems to squeeze them into my reusable shopping bag! With a worried smile, I informed him that I wanted to photograph those beets. He rushed off to get another bunch for me.)

I thought maybe it was as easy as chopping off the stems and leaves and putting them in a preheated oven. I decided to make a few other vegetables at the same time, and threw in a sweet potato and a regular potato on the same cookie sheet. Maybe my attention wasn’t focused–I was just winging it. I pulled out the sizzling beets, oozing sticky juice, and let them rest for a while. They seemed tender when I pierced them.

I served them with our chicken dinner, proud of my accomplishment. But I needed a steak knife to cut them. I hadn’t cooked them long enough.

What did I learn? One, I am now capable of bringing home even the most intimidating vegetables. And two, I am now even more determined to give them another try–this time letting them cook until they are really done. A recipe like this Orange and Beet Salad would be a good start for me.

Are you eating beets? If you are a beginner when it comes to trying new vegetables, many stores, such as Trader Joe’s, sell beets pre-cooked in the refrigerated section.

Plummelo Blog: New Year's: A Resolution

New Year’s Resolution lists are usually full of items that may or may not be accomplished in the next 365 days. In past years, I’ve resolved to change dramatically from the mere human that I am into some sort of gym-going, flaxseed-eating, uber-organized robot. I’m learning each year that these visions of a new me don’t become habits at all, but just make me feel worse when I don’t accomplish what I set out to do on January 1.

This year, I’m resolving to take it one day at a time, not to beat myself up about it, but to be just a little more organized. I don’t mean the hanging folder, alphabetized, checklist sort of organized. I just mean I want to be more efficient in order to save time and energy.

Do you have this same resolution?

We at Plummelo want to help you be more organized about your recipes and your meal planning. Here are two ways to get started:

1. Organize your paper recipes (those you don’t have online):

I have a corner–yes a corner, not just a shelf–of my kitchen dedicated to cookbooks and paper recipes, with everything from 1990s Martha Stewart Living issues to Chez Panisse first editions. Of course the cookbooks will always be a well loved and inspiring part of my kitchen, but sometimes I want ditch the piles of paper. Even in this high-tech life, I haven’t totally done away with the scraps of paper. But I’ve taken a tip from my sister over the past few months and I’ve started organizing the paper recipes into a binder with plastic sleeves (I bought a pack of 100 sleeves at Staples). Where there used to be full issues of Martha, Real Simple, Cooking Light, and Everyday Food in that corner, now I’ve torn out only the recipes I use and I’ve put them in the sleeves and organized them in the binder by recipe type (main course, chicken, etc.). However, most of these recipes are online, so now I don’t even need many of my tear-outs (but I have kept many just for the pictures). I’ve saved hand-written recipes and those from other sources that aren’t easily found online.

2. Organize your online recipes (on Plummelo, of course):

I get into a surprising number of conversations about recipes. And I can’t tell you how many people have mentioned to me (somewhat like a bartender hears all manner of personal tidbits from thirsty customers) that they don’t remember where they found a certain recipe online. That same sister was recently telling me she wanted to make side dish with green beans and shallots, but she couldn’t recall where she had found it when she made it the first time. Online somewhere. (Great, that helps.) Well, she eventually went back to do a Google search and found it, but the hassle could have been saved if she had saved it to Plummelo in the first place (now, smartly, she has).

It’s as easy as installing the browser button on Plummelo and saving a recipe when you see one online that you have used or you think you might use. Then it’s always at your fingertips on Plummelo. And you can share it with your friends just as easily. (Or you can delete it later if you don’t end up using it.) Now I have that green bean recipe and you do, too! Less clutter and more recipes.

Wishing you all the best with your resolutions. Share them with us!

Plummelo Blog: Conquering a Cooking Fear... with Cheese

Today I overcame one of my longtime cooking fears. I’m sure many of you can relate — I tend to shy away from (read: avoid like the plague) recipes with more than, say, 10 ingredients.

But I adore a good eggplant parmesan so much, and I needed to have it so much, that in the end I was willing to do what it takes to accomplish the homemade flavor. I had saved Bobby Flay’s recipe to my Plummelo weeks ago, but kept staring at it with intimidated eyes. No, not this week. Too many ingredients. But at a certain point, you just need to have the eggplant parm. I reached that point.

My husband had done the grocery shopping this past weekend. Somewhat surprisingly, he returned with two lovely eggplants (he tends to bring home about 90 percent of what is on the list). The pretty purple guys stared at me from their lofty shelf in the fridge for a few days. Too many ingredients…

But today was their day.

Let me digress. I live in the North End, a quaint neighborhood that is Boston’s Little Italy. It is a place where people still shop (and vendors still sell) for their ingredients separately… the meat from the butcher, the vegetables from another guy, the cheese and cold cuts from the salumeria. To me, there is so much joy and old-fashionedness in procuring my ingredients from the specialty sellers. They know their stuff, and they have the highest quality ingredients. Quite often, they are also at competitive prices. But today I spent $30 on cheese. Fontina, two types of mozzarella, and parmesan. As the cheesemonger was serving up my portions, he inquired as to their ultimate destination, “What are you going to make?” “Eggplant parmigiana,” I said. “How many are you cooking for?” And I sheepishly replied, “Two.”

I spent $30 on cheese? And so it goes.

With my 20 or so ingredients on hand, I began. It required a good deal more attention and stamina than my standard five ingredient recipes, but none of it was as difficult as I had feared. It was a journey, and I aimed to enjoy the whole process. There was dicing, slicing, boiling, dredging, whisking, stirring, layering, and baking.

And then there was eating. (We called over some friends to share in the eating.)

My conclusion? It was worth the investment of time, and I tasted each one of my 20 ingredients.

Plummelo Blog: Kill Two Birds with One Stone: Rotisserie Chicken

My key to getting through a week with no fewer than two presentable and edible meals on the table is planning, or—at a minimum—creativity. I can make this happen if I plan ahead enough to make two great meals out of one primary ingredient. But success will only ensue if I have all ingredients on hand after an exceptionally efficient grocery shopping.

Does this sound familiar?

Note: Extra points for making enough to last for lunch leftovers, or better yet, putting a portion in the freezer.

This week my plan involves one pre-cooked rotisserie chicken. (In previous stages of my cooking life, I used to pass these birds by, writing them off as shortcuts for people who don’t cook. Now I run to them: “Please come home with me, delectable little bird!”)

On Monday morning, I walk to Whole Foods with the baby. I get a golden-and-crispy-on-the-outside, juicy-and-tender-on-the-inside rotisserie chicken, among other things.

Upon returning home, I first inform my work-at-home husband that there is a killed and de-feathered animal in the house, because he insists on picking off all the meat I discard as unusable. I am a meat snob.

I pull out a sharpened sudoku (no, not one of those puzzles from the newspaper) and a clean cutting board. For me, there is something therapeutic about chopping chicken.

I divide the chicken into two bowls. I put one bowl of diced chicken in the fridge and get to work on the first recipe, my adaptation of Everyday Food’s Broccoli Calzones(this recipe doesn’t include chicken; what a shame). The recipe makes eight calzones, so I always serve two and freeze six for later. It’s the perfect pull-out-in-a-pinch dinner or lunch. Whenever I make them, I pre-cook them (the recipe says not to) so I can just zap them in the microwave (on the convection/crisper function) and serve with some jarred pasta sauce on the side. I buy the pizza dough pre-made, which saves a lot of time.

On Tuesday, I doctor up Real Simple’s Chicken Curry in a Hurry. The chicken is already set to go! I alter many recipes, including this one, by adding some veggies (mushrooms, green peppers). I always add vegetables to any casserole-type dish that doesn’t call for anything green. If I’m feeling bold and wishing I was someplace tropical, I throw in some cubed pineapple. I serve it over jasmine rice.