Healthy Foodie Rules to Live By: Rule #1, No Supermarket or Fast-Food Meat

This is the first in a series outlining my rules, principles or "commandments" about how to be a healthy foodie. Please note that my version of "healthy" is not extreme nor all that strict, because I'm also a committed foodie--someone who loves to eat (and to shop, cook, dine out, drink wine -- the works).

If you have watched "Food, Inc." or "Fresh," read Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma or some of his other books, you know that our nation's industrial food system is terribly unhealthful and environmentally irresponsible. One of the worst offenders is how we raise, slaughter, distribute and consume meat -- not just beef and pork, but also poultry and seafood.

Unless you're vegetarian, it's almost impossible to opt out completely from the industrial meat system. For instance, when eating out you're highly likely to be served meat, poultry or fish that was inhumanely raised, fed ingredients that the animals don't naturally consume, handled in ways that promote dangerous food-borne illnesses and/or farmed (in the case of much seafood). It's daunting, when you think about it.

My response has been twofold. One, I absolutely never eat fast-food meat of any kind, including stuff I used to order occasionally such as an Arby's roast beef sandwich or a grilled chicken sandwich at one of the fast-food joints that seem to be your only choice sometimes. Frankly, this has not been hard since I have never been a fan of fast food.

Second, I will not buy meat or poultry at the supermarket, and I'm also very careful about where I buy fish.

When possible, I buy meat and poultry from local farmers who raise their animals naturally and handle their products with extreme care.

It's very hard to be 100% pure even in these halfway measures, but it's a step in the right direction.

I welcome and encourage comments and suggestions about how to cope with and ideally to change the industrial food system. Meanwhile: no supermarket or fast-food meat, healthy foodies!

Dinner at the Summit Restaurant

We introduced two of our foodie/wine-loving friends to the hidden gem in town called the Summit Restaurant. It's the fine dining establishment connected to the Midwest Culinary Institute at Cincinnati State College, a neighbor of ours here in Clifton.
If you're not familiar with this excellent dining option, you really ought to check it out. The Summit serves dinner Thursday - Saturday under the guidance of professional chef Matt Winterrowd, assisted by top students from the culinary school.
We went on an extra-special evening when our city's top chef participated in the kitchen by contributing one starter and one entree to the already-enticing menu at the Summit. While Jean-Robert de Cavel gets his new downtown eatery ready to open later this spring, it was a wonderful treat to partake of his cooking--and his delightful personal presence after the meal.

Above are photos of some of our choices. My personal favorites were the stellar lobster duo (top photo), J-R's appetizer of lobster salad next to a cup of lobster bisque. It was even better than it sounds, thanks to Chef's inventive touches. I love how he selected common ingredients for both the salad and the bisque -- such as apple, watercress or black truffle -- and yet produced two distinctive but complementary taste sensations. As far as I could tell, most diners found this treat as irresistible as I did, along with two of the three accompanying me at our table.

Our entrees included Chef de Cavel's rich beef and bison preparation with a complex red wine/chocolate sauce and Chef Winterrowd's red snapper preparation. Both got oohs and ahhs from my companions.

Finally -- dessert. The chocolate one (second from bottom) was a hit at our table, but it's the final photo of my coconut cloud (I think it was called) that was my second-favorite dish of the night. I could eat that every night: very light coconut ice cream -- more like ice milk or granita -- with crunchy basmati rice and tropical fruits. It was not too sweet, not too rich and a positively perfect finish to a marvelous meal.

Mushroom and Barley Soup

I've adapted this soup recipe from another of my favorite healthy-foodie sources, the Berkeley Wellness Letter.
Although I've subscribed to the hard copy for years, you can also find a lot of good health related info on their website.

This soup fits my ideal for virtually all my cooking, or at least my everyday cooking: the result is so tasty that you lap up every spoonful, and you don't feel guilty about it because the ingredients are so healthy.









Recipe: Mushroom, Barley and Pasta Soup
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 T olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves minced garlic
1 large carrot, coarsely chopped
8 ounces mushrooms (baby bella, preferably), sliced
3/4 cup pearl barley
1 teaspoon liquid smoke seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 cups water or stock (chicken or vegetable)
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 cup pasta shells or rotini
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions:
Heat oil over low heat in a large saucepan. Add onion, garlic and carrots. Stir frequently until veggies are tender, about 6-7 minutes. Stir in the mushrooms and cook 3-4 minutes. Add tomatoes, barley, liquid smoke, salt, thyme and water. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce to low heat again and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add pasta, cover again, and cook until the pasta is done, about 10 minutes.
Pass the cheese at the table.

Mashed sweet potatoes with chopped pecans

We like sweet potatoes WAY better than other types of potato. Even if they didn't pack their beta carotene and Vitamin C punch, we'd love sweet p's for their delicious taste. Regular potatoes, at least in my opinion, need so much more caloric enhancement than their orange cousins do. While both veggies are amazingly versatile and very healthy (unless deep fried in oil or loaded with butter and cream), sweet potatoes get the edge in my kitchen.

I'll often cut a couple of large ones into chunks, toss with olive oil and seasonings and roast in a hot oven until tender but still toothsome. A little more work but worth the effort is to peel, cut and steam them until very tender before mashing with a little milk, oil or no-trans-fat margarine and seasonings of your choice.

For the version pictured above, I added a dash each of cinnamon and cayenne pepper, then sprinkled liberally with chopped pecans.

Quinoa -- easy to make, tasty whole grain

Whole grain foods make great side dishes, or even main courses studded with vegetables and additional protein sources such as shellfish, chicken or cheese.
One very versatile grain is quinoa, which also has the benefit of being quick-cooking. It takes about 15 minutes to cook. From there, you can serve it hot or cold, all kinds of ways.
My favorite food magazine, Eating Well, features several quinoa recipes on their website this week.
Here's a marvelous quinoa dish--pictured above--that combines delicious scallops with crunchy snow peas and red bell pepper.
Search the site for additional ways to enjoy this healthy ingredient!

Pumpkin Nut Loaf

This cake is delicious with your morning coffee or tea, and also makes a nice dessert with a scoop of vanilla frozen yogurt or low-fat ice cream.

It's chock-full of healthful ingredients, such as whole-wheat flour, pumpkin, carrots and nuts.

For a sweeter loaf, add the dried cranberries and increase the sugar to one cup. If desired, substitute other nuts you have on hand, such as chopped walnuts or slivered almonds. Chocolate chips make a nice addition, too.If you don't have whole-wheat flour on hand, it's OK to use white flour instead.

Recipe: Pumpkin Nut Loaf

(10 servings)

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup whole-wheat flour

¾ cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

¼ cup canola oil

1 egg

2 egg whites

½ cup grated carrots

¼ cup lightly toasted pine nuts

¼ cup chopped pistachio nuts

½ cup dried cranberries (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, blend flours with next five ingredients (through salt). Add pumpkin, oil, egg and egg whites, carrots, nuts and cranberries. Stir until evenly blended.

Spoon batter into loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out dry. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then invert on rack to complete cooling.

Farmers' Markets in Winter

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You have to go pretty far south to find farms in their growing season, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to buy at your local farm markets. Admittedly, Cincinnati's historic Findlay Market is not your typical seasonal tailgate market. And yet there are a surprisingly robust number of markets that have found indoor places to hold winter markets. At Findlay, there even are some hardy souls hanging outdoors at the farm shed on Saturdays, selling pastured meat and eggs or orchard apples from their trucks.
Now that we're in a February thaw, the number of shoppers at the market has picked up, especially on Saturday. In addition to the fish, meats, prepared foods, cheeses, teas, coffee and wine/beer available in Findlay's indoor areas, you'll also find locally made foods, jewelry, soap, baked goods and all manner of other treats even in the dead of winter.
I always like to get lunch there, too, and can't seem to get past the terrific vegetarian crepes at Taste of Belgium.
Here are some photos from a Saturday visit. The market is open Tuesday through Sunday in all weather except a Level 3 Snow Emergency, which has not occurred (thank the Lord) in recent years.