Hoppin' Johns

Black beans and brown rice are a staple of mine. A bag of brown rice is under $2. A bag or dried black beans is under $2. Together, they make about 8 generous servings that, with a few extras, can serve as a delicious and healthy meal.

It requires some planning as is always the case with dried beans. I find it is best to soak the black beans at least 12 hours, but 18 is even better.

8 oz Dry Black Beans, Soaked
1 1/2 Cups Brown Rice
Romaine Lettuce (enough for a bed to plate the lettuce)
1/4 Cup Salsa per serving
1/8 Cup Fat-Free Plain Yogurt
Cayenne
Hot Sauce/Tobasco Sauce optional

You can put the beans and rice on at the same time. Completely cover the beans with water and bring to a rolling boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add about 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne to give the beans a touch of additional flavor and heat.

Combine the rice with 3 cups of water, bring to a complete boil, and then reduce to low heat, a very low simmer and cover. The rice will take about 40 minutes to cook, and so will the beans.

After about 40 minutes, put down a bed of romaine. Romaine is really best for this recipe. It is a tall lettuce with rigid leaves that are tightly packed together. The leaves are dark green, with the inner leaves having less color. Some consider romaine the most flavorful lettuce variety. It is usually cheaper to buy a bundle of it, wash and shred it yourself, but you can buy it prewashed and ready as well.

Next, pile on your rice and then put your black beans on top of that. Then your salsa follows (I'll give you a quick and easy salsa recipe in the following weeks, but you can use any canned variety, but I urge you to pay attention to the ingredients and try to find something preservative free). After that, put on your dollop of yogurt. Fat free plain yogurt is a fantastic substitute for fatty sour cream--so good, in fact, no one who hasn't seen me dumping yogurt on their Cubano food hasn't asked, "Is this sour cream?" So, save yourself a heart attack and try yogurt instead.

That's it. Two pots dirty and your plates. This is also a great packed lunch dish since you can make it for dinner the night before and prepare yourself a Hoppin' John for breakfast the next morning and stick in your lunch box.

I had a bit of an eclectic meal the last time I served this, having some spinach with garlic and vinegar and some locally made kim chee to go along with this. The spiciness of the kim chee went well with the spiciness of the Hoppin' John (to which I added quite a bit of hot sauce to in addition to the hot salsa), and then vinegar taste of the spinach (recipe given in a previous post) went well with the kim chee, so in the end it all came together. I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

The Unhealthy Vegetarian

Vegetarianism can definitely be a healthy lifestyle approach. Unfortunately, most vegetarians I know want to eat exactly like an omnivore so they blow the big bucks on things like veggie burgers and fake meats. Yet, vegetarianism by itself is not a healthier lifestyle choice than any other, and in fact, it can be much worst than even the omnivore who chooses to eat less processed and more natural foods. Much of the information below has been pulled from Wiki and other sources, mostly chemistry Web sites. Of course, I get all my favorite recipes from chemistry Web sites.

So, for example, the ingredients list of Morningstar Farms Veggie Buffalo Wings.

TEXTURED VEGETABLE PROTEIN (SOY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, WHEAT GLUTEN, WATER FOR HYDRATION), WATER, ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR (FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), CORN OIL, CORNSTARCH, WHEAT STARCH, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF SALT, METHYLCELLULOSE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, SUGAR, DEXTROSE, ARTIFICIAL VINEGAR FLAVOR (MALIC ACID, SODIUM ACETATE, LACTOSE, FUMARIC ACID), POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, GARLIC, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS FROM NON-MEAT SOURCES, SPICES, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, TAPIOCA DEXTRIN, DISODIUM INOSINATE, DRIED YEAST, CARAMEL COLOR, MALTODEXTRIN, HYDROLYZED SOY PROTEIN, PAPRIKA EXTRACT FOR COLOR, XANTHAN GUM, SODIUM ALGINATE, CELLULOSE GUM, YELLOW CORN FLOUR, INULIN FROM CHICORY ROOT, ONION, ANNATTO EXTRACT FOR COLOR, NONFAT DRY MILK, DEHYDRATED BUTTER* (CREAM*, NONFAT MILK, SALT, ANNATTO COLOR), SODIUM ACETATE, PAPRIKA FOR COLOR, MALIC ACID, BAKING SODA, CELERY EXTRACT, WHEAT FIBER, LACTIC ACID, BARLEY EXTRACT, NIACINAMIDE, EGG WHITES, CITRIC ACID, SUCCINIC ACID, IRON (FERROUS SULFATE), THIAMIN MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1), PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), VITAMIN B12, TURMERIC FOR COLOR.

Let's begin with THIAMIN MONONITRATE. It is innocuous enough--it is just vitamin B_1. Well, great--they are just adding vitamins! The question to ask, though, is why. It comes down to the fact that they are using ultra-processed white flour. Bleaching agents such as benzoyl peroxide (yes, the same active ingredient in OXY 10, the acne medication!) are added to make the flour more white. Oxidizing agents (also known as "improvers") such as potassium bromate, chlorine dioxide, and azodicarbonamide are added to enhance the baking quality of the flour. These agents are added in a few parts per million. Self-rising flour contains salt and a leavening agent such as calcium phosphate. It is used to make baked goods without the need to add yeast or baking powder. Most states require flour to contain added vitamins and minerals to replace those lost during milling. The most important of these are iron and the B vitamins, especially thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin. In the US, processed flour must be enriched with thiamine mononitrate (along with niacin, ferrous iron, riboflavin and folic acid) to replace that lost in processing. Sounds like something you could do in your own kitchen, doesn't it?


Let's skip forward to SODIUM ACETATE. Industrially, it is used in the textile industry to neutralize sulfuric acid waste streams, and as a photoresist while using aniline dyes (I'm not even sure what that means). It is also a pickling agent in chrome tanning, and it helps to retard vulcanization of chloroprene in synthetic rubber production. It already sounds delicious, doesn't it--yum, retarding vulcanization! That is what I like to eat. It's used as a seasoning in this product.

How about a quick glance at another Morningstar Farms product, their "Sausage Style Recipe Crumblers."

TEXTURED VEGETABLE PROTEIN (WHEAT GLUTEN, SOY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, WATER FOR HYDRATION), WATER, CORN OIL, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF CHICORY ROOT FIBER (INULIN), SPICES, SALT, DEXTROSE, MALTODEXTRIN, NATURAL FLAVORS FROM NON-MEAT SOURCES, HYDROLYZED VEGETABLE PROTEIN (SOY PROTEIN, CORN GLUTEN, WHEAT GLUTEN), AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, CARAMEL COLOR, SUGAR, PAPRIKA, GARLIC POWDER, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, MALIC ACID, VITAMINS AND MINERALS (NIACINAMIDE, IRON [FERROUS SULFATE], THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE [VITAMIN B6], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], VITAMIN B12), ONION POWDER, HYDROLYZED TORULA AND BREWER'S YEAST PROTEIN, SOY LECITHIN, SPICE EXTRACTIVES.

To begin with, what is DEXTROSE? The simple answer is a simple sugar like white sugar. The longer answer is dextrose monohydrate, a simple sugar produced commercially via the enzymatic hydrolysis of starch. In the United States, cornstarch (from corn) is used almost exclusively. Ready for a chemistry lesson?

Hydrolysis is a chemical reaction during which one or more water molecules are split into hydrogen and hydroxide ions, which may go on to participate in further reactions. It is the type of reaction that is used to break down certain polymers, especially those made by step-growth polymerization (think of a crystal chain). Such polymer degradation is usually catalysed by either acid e.g. concentrated sulfuric acid (H2SO4) or alkali e.g. sodium hydroxide (NaOH) attack, often increasing with their strength or pH. In polysaccharides (complex sugars), monosaccharide molecules are linked together by a glycosidic bond. This bond can be cleaved by hydrolysis to yield monosaccharides (simple sugars). The best known disaccharide is sucrose (table sugar). Hydrolysis of sucrose also yields dextrose monohydrate and fructose. There are many enzymes which speed up the hydrolysis of polysaccharides. Invertase is used industrially to hydrolyze sucrose to so-called invert sugar. For industrial use, invertase is usually derived from yeast. MALTODEXTRIN is made by a very similar process--the hydrolysis of complex sugars. Basically, the process takes natural food starch and, though a chemical process, turns it into simple sugar.

And what is AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT? It sounds at least semi-natural. "Yeast extract" is the common name for various forms of processed yeast products that are used as food additives or flavourings. They are often used in the same way that monosodium glutamate (MSG) is used, and, like MSG, often contain free glutamic acid. It's a way to get MSG into your food without having it labeled as such in most cases since that is one thing most people are aware to look out for these days. And how about SPICE EXTRACTIVES? That just means we started with real spices and then let the boys down at the lab get freaky with them, and then we dumped them into the huge industrial vat where we create the "fake meat" you will dish up later.

So, the next time you are serving up a simple and healthy meal and hear your vegan friend howling about the use of a ham bone in your bean soup or the audacity of your eating an egg, perhaps it is time to explain to them that some people might call their "vegetarian alternatives" industrial waste.

I Like My Recipes Healthy, Cheap and Easy

Welcome to the "I Like My Recipes Healthy, Cheap and Easy" blog. This blog is in overwhelming response to requests for my quick and easy eating solutions, that is, my recipes.

I cook with five basic principles:

1. My ingredients should not require someone with an advanced degree in chemistry create them.
2. My food should be delicious.
3. My food should contribute, not take away from, my quality of life.
4. Unless I really want to spend all day cooking and cleaning, my recipes should be simple to make so I can taste what they are made of and not have to wash ten pots for one dish.
5. I should be able to eat like a gourmet without breaking the bank.
   

That being said, life is a game of give and take. You eat healthy 98% of the time so you don't have to flog yourself like Dimsdale when you give into temptation and have take-out one night. So, occasionally you will find the recipe here that pushes the limits of those principles, or at least (1), (3) and (4), but rarely. I promise you, though, that everything you find here should be delicious.

Sometimes you'll get full meals, but mostly I'll be providing you recipes for single dishes, things you can whip up in a hurry for dinner guests or things that are perfect to make the night before in order to have a hearty and healthy packed lunch. Also, these recipes often pull from the same base ingredients which means you don't have to have a shelf full of spices growing old because you only use them once in a blue moon. Instead, using a pretty standard répertoire you can create dishes with enough variety that you and your discerning palate don't get bored with what is on the dinner plate each night.

Also, a YouTube Channel is in the works to demonstrate some of the techniques and dishes that are given here, as well as some bonus recipes are well. I'll let you know once that has been launched. In the meantime, I leave you with one of my most coveted recipes (and most often handed out), my Red Lentil and Smoked Paprika Soup. This soup is heavy on umami--the combination of salt, the smokiness of the paprika, and the balsamic vinegar make this soup an absolute cheap and easy hit.

And just a quick note--you can often find smoked paprika much cheaper at Middle Eastern or Eastern European food stores than you can in the grocery store, but rest assured, this is a recipe you won't mind eating a couple of times a month and smoked paprika will resurface in some other recipes in the near future.

Red Lentil & Smoked Paprika Soup

Long Version:

1.5 cups Red Lentils

½ cup brown rice

4 cups water (add more as water reduces for a soupier soup)

½ white or yellow onion

2 cloves garlic

2 small tomatoes

2-4 shiitake mushrooms (fresh or rehydrated--to rehydrate soak dried mushrooms in cool water 30 minutes)

2 tablespoons smoked paprika

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (more to taste)

1 teaspoon salt (more to taste)

Short Version:

1.5 cups Red Lentils

½ cup brown rice

4 cups water

2 tablespoons smoked paprika

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (more to taste)

1 teaspoon salt (more to taste)

(You can also lose the brown rice and reduce the cooking time by 20 minutes, but it won't be a complete protein)

Combine rice and water and boil for 20 minutes. Then combine all remaining ingredients except balsamic vinegar and cook until lentils are cooked (20 minutes more or so). Add a dash of balsamic vinegar to pot after heat is turned off and add teaspoon on top of each serving when serving (or when you put it into your lunch box). This should make two very generous servings or three smaller ones. In case you want to increase the recipe, just add more lentils and rice, then salt and smoked paprika to taste.