Beans and Greens: a Breakfast Variation

I love having grains ready to go in the fridge. 

This morning I just happened to have mashed white beans  and left over quinoa in my fridge. Having cooked grains on hand makes it so much easier to put together a hearty breakfast before you have to rush off to work. 

Breakfast Menu:

Beans and Greens on Toast

White beans, quinoa, alfalfa sprouts, mustard sprouts, sourdough bread, butter, salt

Tea

Bulk Earl Grey, water

White Beans, Quinoa, and Sprouts on Toast

Beans and Greens on Toast (5 minutes)

Slice, toast, and butter bread. Spread white beans on toast. Mine were mashed from the day before, but it really doesn't matter. Spread quinoa on the white beans. Generously add salt, mustard and alfalfa sprouts. Enjoy!

Earl Grey Tea (5 minutes)

All of my tea is bulk and loose. This batch is from Tao of Tea. Add tea to tea ball, and tea ball to hot water. Enjoy.

Bulk Earl Grey from Tao of Tea

Today's Plastic Free Local Shopping List:

Quinoa Grown in  Colorado

People's Coop:

Bulk White Beans 2.59/lb

Bulk Colorado Quinoa 5.89/lb

New Seasons/Fred Meyers

Sour Dough Bread 2.99/loaf

Bulk Earl Grey Tea 9.99/tin

Earth Balance 5.79/lb

Home Grown

Mustard Sprouts n/a

Alfalfa Sprouts n/a

Sundays With Ems

Beans, Greens, and In-Betweens 

I've been craving white beans lately. I just love how versatile they are. You can make them into a hummus, thicken a creamy sauce with them, add them to a creamy soup base or gravy, they're even delicious in a sandwich. Today I'm going to prep a batch. It looks as though both my kale and cabbage have survived the frost, so I'm going to harvest some of them, as well as a few other projects that will set me up well for a busy week. All the while, catching up on some weekend radio shows while my hands are busy.

Soaked White Beans

Sunday's Menu:

White Beans ala Pressure Cooker

White beans, water

Roasted Kabocha

Kabocha squash, salt, oil

Harvesting Garden Greens

Kale, cabbage, water

Sprout Starts

Alfalfa seeds, water
Soaked Almonds
Almonds, water

White Beans (30 minutes)

Pressure Cooker in Action

Add water and soaked beans to pressure cooker-do not add salt! Cook for 15 minutes once the cooker has reached high pressure.

I've been trying to figure out the right water to soaked bean ratio for my pressure cooker. I know that if I put 2 cups of dried beans in, 5 cups of water will make perfect beans. However, if I take 2 cups of dried beans and soak them, they become 5 cups of soaked beans. Today I learned that 4 cups of water is way too much to cook 5 cups of soaked beans.

It's tricky because it's chaotic if you have too much water in your pressure cooker, but dangerous in a different way if you don't have enough water. I think next time I'm going to try 2.5 cups of water to 5 cups of soaked beans. My suspicion is 2 cups is the perfect amount, but I want to be conservative when experimenting.

Roasted Kabocha (30-40 minutes)

Chopped Kabocha with Peel

Mmmmmm.... The final half of my kabocha squash. I once again preheated my oven to 400 degrees, chopped the squash into 1-2 inch pieces keeping the peel on, placed them in a pan with salt and a high heat oil, and cooked them covered for about 20 min until they were soft. Then let them crisp uncovered for the last 10 minutes. Now they're ready to add to my stir-fries and pasta for the rest of the week!

Garden Greens (10 minutes)

January Garden Kale

It's always dark when I get home from work this time of year, and I have no motivation to put on a headlamp and pick greens from the back yard. That's why I picked some leaves during the early afternoon sun today, so that I'll have washed, fresh kale in my fridge the rest of the week. To be efficient, I always use a large bowl with a little bit of water to rinse them.

Kale Washed in Bowl

Sprout Starts (5 minutes)

Alfalfa Seeds Soaking

I'm having good luck starting a round of alfalfa sprouts about every week. That's about how long they take to get delicious. My mustard sprouts are coming along, too. They will both be great on sandwiches and toast this week. (I love it when the seeds get stuck to the bubbles.)

Soaked Almonds (5 minutes)

Almonds Soaking

I began soaking some almonds to turn into almond milk later this week. If I wanted to pulp them tomorrow, they'd be ready. I think tomorrow will be hectic though, so more likely I'll change the water out and wait a few days to finish making the milk. That also allows the almonds to sprout.

Today's Plastic Free Local Shopping List:

Sunflower Sprouts at the Peoples Coop

People's Coop:
Bulk White Beans 2.59/lb
Kabocha Squash 1.49/lb
Bulk Alfalfa Seeds (?)

New Seasons/Fred Meyers:
Bulk Almonds 5.99/lb

Back Yard:
Kale Leaves n/a
Cabbage Leaves n/a

Dandelion Greens and Kabocha Over Tanini Lime Quinoa

I recently ran out of the cooked beans I had prepped over the weekend. Luckily quinoa is a great stand in, and takes almost no time to make. If I had been thinking about it, I would have roasted up a lot more kabocha squash last weekend, too. This dinner was made on a lazy Friday night when I didn't need to rush off anywhere. I think the whole thing took an hour total, including savoring and clean up.

Dandelion Greens and Kabocha Over Tahini Lime Quinoa

Dinner Menu:

Roasted Kabocha

Lightly salted oven roasted kabocha squash.

Boiled Dandelion Greens

Fresh local dandelion greens, boiled to remove bitterness*.

Tahini Lime Quinoa

Quinoa with tahini and a hint of lime.

Roasted Kabocha (30-40 minutes)

Kabocha is one of my favorite squashes. It's rich and sweet. Anytime I find a recipe that calls for a sweet potato, I'm happy to substitute kabocha instead. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Chop the kabocha into 1 inch chunks. Don't worry about the skins, they will be soft and delicious. Place the kabocha in a baking dish you can cover. Add salt and a high heat oil and mix well. Cook covered for about 20 minutes, then check it. If the kabocha is soft, uncover and allow to crisp for about 10 minutes. 

Kabocha Squash With Peel

Boiled* Dandelion Greens (20-30 minutes)

Dandelion greens are great for you and you can often find them locally in these barren winter months. The biggest issue is they are incredibly bitter. There are a few ways to approach this. In this recipe I use a few water baths to soak the bitterness out. Bring water to a boil. Chop the greens into 1-2 inch chunks. Once boiling, add the greens and leave them 5 minutes. After 5 minutes change out the water bath, and repeat. Some people add salt to the water to help pull the bitterness out. I find that after 2 boils, the dandelion greens are quite delicious. They have almost an artichoke flavor to them. 

Local Dandelion Greens

Tahini Lime Quinoa (20 minutes)

I always start with toasting the quinoa in the pan. Pour 1 cup of dry quinoa into a hot pot on the stove. Stir the dry quinoa for a few minutes, until it pops regularly and begins to smell like popcorn. If you have a light colored quinoa, let it go until some of the grains are brown. Add a cup and a half of water, which will immediately begin to boil. Boil the quinoa until it's soft and the water is gone. Add more water if necessary. While it's cooking add in a generous spoonful of tahini, as well as soy sauce and lime juice to taste. If it tastes to salty or boring, add more lime juice. If it tastes too sour, add more soy sauce.  

Today's Plastic Free Local Shopping List:

Local Dandelion Greens at New Seasons

People's Coop:

Kabocha Squash 1.49/lb

Bulk Soy Sauce 3.99/lb

Bulk Tahini 7.49/lb

Bulk Colorado Quinoa 5.89/lb

New Seasons/Fred Meyers:

Dandelion Greens 2.99/bunch

Lime Juice** 3.99/12.5oz

Safflower Oil 8.99/740ml

Boiling Dandelion Greens to Remove Bitterness

*Boiling is not the first way I would treat a green. Many people are concerned that boiling food causes some of the nutrients to seep into the water and leaves it less nutritious. In general, when you cook food you are unlocking and breaking down many of the complex sugars your body would not be able to absorb otherwise. This can also be done by roasting or sauteing. Even though some of the nutrients come out when you boil vegetables, there is a net gain in what you are able to absorb compared to eating them raw. With dandelion greens the intention is to actively remove the molecules that are causing the bitter flavor, so that they will be palatable. I'm sure they lose some nutrients along with the bitterness, but I wouldn't be able to swallow them otherwise. As it stands, they're one of my new favorite foods.

** You can get lime juice that comes in glass, has a long shelf life, and stores unregenerate until opened. It's usually in the juice isle.

Quick Breakfast: Beans and Greens on Toast

I fell in love with beans and greens on toast while working on the Schooner Adventuress up in Puget Sound, Washington. The boat had a tight food budget, and operated on a lot of bulk dried goods and donations. Needless to say, they had quick, cheap, delicious meals figured out. There are many variations on this combination, but the one I'm sharing with you today uses the goods I have access to in January in Portland, that are not packaged in plastic.

Breakfast Menu:

Black Beans and Greens on Toast

Wheat bread: toasted and buttered, with salted black beans and alfalfa sprouts

Tea

Lapsang Souchong Tea

Black Beans and Greens on Toast

Black Beans and Greens on Toast Recipe (5 minutes)

Slice and toast bread*. Spread butter or vegenaise on the toast; your preference. Spread beans** on the toast. Sprinkle generously with salt. Add sprouts to the top. Enjoy.

Lapsang Souchong Tea (5 minutes)

Bring water to boil. Fill tea ball with lose tea***. Add hot water and tea ball to cup and steep for a few minutes until the tea is dark brown. This is a smoked tea that has a strong campfire flavor. I think it's best with a little cream in it. I usually use home made almond milk.

Today's Plastic Free Local Shopping List:

People's Coop:

Bulk Black Beans 2.49/lb*

New Seasons/Fred Meyers:

Bread 2.99/ loaf**

Earth Balance sticks 5.79/lb

Vegenaise 7.49/quart

Alfalfa Sprouts

Almonds 5.99/lb

Lapsang Souchong Tea 19.99/lb

Local Black Beans and Chickpeas at The People's Coop

*It is so easy to find fresh bread that is sold in paper in Portland! We have a lot of local bakeries and groceries who bake their own bread. Often, they will slice the loaves for you. I like getting bread wrapped in paper from the New Season's bakery, but there are many wonderful options.

** Canned food has a layer of BPA plastic inside of the can. Because of this, I only buy dried beans. Right now the People's Coop has bulk black beans from Noti, Oregon- just west of Eugene.

***For a while I bought exclusively Tao of Tea, which is based in Portland comes in a metal tin. Now I have an excess of the tins. New Seasons, Fred Meyers, and the Coops usually have tea in their bulk section. I like the selection at New Seasons, so I go there. I found that refilling my lapsang souchong tin was about half the price of buying it new.

Local Winter Greens Series: Grow it at Home

Home Grown Winter Greens

The most challenging part about eating local during the winter months is finding greens. Whether your diet is strictly plant based or you supplement with animal protein, a well balanced meal needs something green in it. In Portland Oregon, at 45 degrees north, our options for fresh local greens diminishes during the winter months. This is the first of a two part series on eating local greens, even in the winter.  Today we'll be looking at growing green food when it's frosty outside.

My Winter Garden

This far into the season, I've been able to keep a row of cabbage and a row of kale, sown the first week in September. These past few weeks we've had frost here in Portland at night. Most of the leaves on the kale have died, although I suspect some of the plants might still be alive. I can't tell with the cabbage. The leaves don't look wilted or damaged under the frost. I might try and bring the frozen leaves in and use them soon.

Some people have luck covering their winter gardens, or putting a glass frame over them. I've found you can usually get well into the winter with hearty greens, as long as their root system is big enough before the weather turns.

Frosted January Cabbage

Sprouting Seeds

Sprouting is another way to get green food when you can't buy or grow your own. This is a good option in the winter, or if you're on a long sailing trip. It's quite easy, and lots of grains will sprout if they're whole and uncooked. All you need to do is soak them over night, and then wash them with water once or twice a day until they look delicious. I've made a strainer lid from some mesh I bought at True Value and a canning lid.

Home Made Strainer Lid

I bought lot alfalfa seeds a few years back, and I'm still working on them. Alfalfa is pretty reliable. My kitchen is a bit colder in the winter, so I find they take a little over a week to fully sprout.

Alfalfa Sprouts at 1 Week

I think these are mustard sprouts. Their seeds were also purchased a few years back. They're less reliable than alfalfa seeds and take longer to sprout. They have a nice spicy taste, though.

Old Mustard Seeds at 1 Week

I was able to save almost a pint of spinach seeds from my garden last summer. So I thought, maybe I can sprout them. This is an experiment at this point, I don't know how well it will work.

Spinach Seeds at 2 Days

Mung beans are also delicious and easy to sprout. They are often served with Thai food. I don't usually buy them, because the only ones I've found are shipped from over seas.

Window Farming

Window Farms are a movement that started a few years back in New York. The short of it is if you don't have a place outside to grow food, you can use a indoor window as a plant habitat. This is a variation on hydroponics where there is a column of plants with a nutrient that trickles through them and is collected in a sump at the bottom and then pumped up through the system again. It's very water efficient and makes great use of window space. The Window Farms website has a great discussion forum, and people from all over the world have made and modified their own systems. They have construction plans available on their site. I've made two versions. Although the mechanics of the systems seems to work fine, I can never get anything to grow past a sprout.

Maybe that's why I'm sticking to eating sprouts.

Sundays with Ems

Welcome to Sundays with Ems!

 Sunday mornings I set my alarm just so I can sleep through it. Sundays mornings I can practice yoga like I'm not running late for work. Sundays I write letters and lists and plan projects of all kinds. It's Sunday mornings that I spend hours experimenting and prepping food for the coming week. 

Trying to live on local food without plastic is hard. Especially when you get stuck at work without a lunch, or end up going somewhere straight after. The more I can do on my weekends to prepare myself for the week, the easier it is to avoid those situations. Here are a few of my Sunday recipes and a plastic free, local shopping list. 

Sunday's Menu: 

Roasted Veggies*:

 Roots, kabocha squash, brussel sprouts, onions, and pulp from making almond milk

Roasted Kabocha Seeds

Kabocha seeds, safflower oil, salt

Black Beans ala Pressure Cooker

Soaked black beans, water

Roasted Veggie Black Bean Quinoa Tacos

Ready made roasted veggies, black beans, and quinoa; tortillas**, vegenaise, safflower oil, salt, hot sauce

Roasted Kabocha Seeds: great plastic free snacks

Roasted Veggies (1 hour): 

Chop finger size, bake with salt and safflower oil in the oven at 400 for about an hour. Half to soften under tinfoil, and about that again to crisp without the foil. Add the almond pulp after you remove the foil.

Black Beans (30 minutes):

Soak over night. They will cook on high in the pressure cooker in 15 minutes after the pressure had been reached. (Don't ever add salt when they're cooking. Beans refuse to soften with salt.) My pressure cooker can cook dried beans in about 45 minutes once at pressure, but if I'm planning ahead it's nice to use less cooking gas.

 Kabocha Seeds (30 minutes):

Removed them from the squash and placed them in the top shelf of the oven at 450 with salt and safflower oil for about half an hour.

The whole project took an entire episode of This American Life and a phone call from my dad to complete, as well as 20 cups (1 gallon 2 pints) of water to clean. Over a gallon of water to wash the dishes is a lot, but I will be able to feather these treats into my meals for most of the next week.

Lunch later that day:

Roasted Veggie Black Bean and Quinoa Tacos (10 minutes):

Heat safflower oil in pan. Add your ready made veggies, black beans, and quinoa. Done when hot.  Heat tortillas** in cast iron skillet. Serve tacos with vegenaise and hot sauce. My lunch dishes took 3 minutes and 2 1/3 cups of water to clean.

Roasted Veggie Black Bean and Quinoa Tacos

Today's Plastic Free Local Shopping List: 

People's Coop:

Onion 0.99/lb

Celery root 1.49/lb

Rutabaga 2.99/lb

Golden beets 1.99/lb

Kabocha squash 1.49/lb

Brussel sprouts 7.00/lb*

Purple potatoes 1.49/lb

Bulk black beans 2.49/lb

Bulk Colorado Quinoa 5.89/lb***

New Seasons or Fred Meyers:

Vegenaise 7.49/quart

Bulk almonds 5.99/lb

Safflower oil 8.99/740 ml

Tapatio 1.33/10 fluid oz

Tortillas** 2.99/70 ct

Oregon's January vegetables

* I only buy produce that is grown in Oregon or Washington. This is the most difficult in the winter. I have found the People's Coop to have the best year round selection of local produce. At their Wednesday farmers market I can usually find local greens. They have local roots inside the store all year round. Some items, like brussel sprouts, can get pricey in the winter. I usually just buy kale. I also have some cabbage and kale still alive in my back yard.

** I have yet to find a place to buy tortillas that aren't packaged in plastic. I find when I don't buy them I go to taquerias more. I know restaurants and carts go through tons of plastic, even if I don't see it on my plate. Right now I'm allowing myself to buy tortillas on the condition that I don't eat out often. I hope that sometime soon I'll be able to find a better habit, or just make my own tortillas. I'm not there yet, though. My apologies for having them in this blog.

*** This is more expensive than Bolivian quinoa, but it is grown in the United States. You can get it in bulk at the People's Coop at certain times of the year. Because I don't eat a lot of quinoa, I usually eat beans, I don't mind paying a little more for some that's not grown half way around the world. 

  

Mission Statement

Hi, I'm Ems and I live in Portland, Oregon. My goal with this blog is simple. Over the past few years I have been able to remove single use plastics almost entirely from my kitchen. I buy only local produce and when I can, grains. I am writing this blog to share delicious recipes that use local produce and minimal plastic packaging to make it easier for you to avoid plastic and eat local, too.

Enjoy!

-Ems