Love ( ,Food, and Grad School) in the Time of COVID-19

I was behind on updating this blog, with posts half-finished, for months.

And then the world came derailed.

Like many of you, I saw any number of threads of my life start to unspool at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many of you, I have been told to work remotely (which is difficult because of what I study, and also because teaching online classes when you’re not trained to do so is a sure way to get a bad headache), and am practicing social distancing by basically not seeing my friends in-person, going to my weekly sports league (also put on hold), and staying in my apartment with my dog as much as I can. (I am, however, rapidly catching up on the TV on my watch list.) A project I’ve worked hard to prepare to put in the field likely has to be put on hold because I can’t do community-based recruitment right now.

I know this is hard. Not being able to see other people is really, really hard, and public health experts are saying we will need to maintain social distancing measures for a minimum of 6 weeks, and very likely the time scale will range from several months up to a year or more. At some point, we will have to start balancing social distancing with our need to have our lives back, but for now, we need to make things work in our current situations. We all need to work together to flatten the curve, and the best way we can do that is by following the guidelines for social distancing to minimize the spread of the virus as much as possible.

FOOD

I’m sure you’ve already been told to make sure that you have enough shelf-stable/freezer-stable food to last up to 2 weeks, in case you have to self-quarantine or self-isolate.  If you are able to find them, I encourage you to consider looking at ways to use various kinds of beans, lentils, and dried peas. Tofu is fridge-stable for up to 6 weeks, and many meats can be frozen (I’m a particular fan of frozen fish).  We’ll deal with that later, though, because right now, supermarkets around the country are a disaster.

Source: ABC News

If you are suddenly going to be home a lot more than often, you are likely to be snacking more than usual. So as much as it is possible, make sure you have healthy snacks on hand, like fresh fruit (apples, pears, kiwis, oranges, and grapefruits are all in season right now, and mangoes, blueberries, and strawberries are all coming into season!), snack-able veggies like carrots, celery, and sugar snap peas. Consider pairing them with peanut butter or hummus to add a little extra flavor and protein. If you can get them, cheese and crackers, peanut butter crackers, or granola bars can all be good snacks. For more ideas, check out my previous piece On Snacking.

LOVE (Romantic and Platonic)

If you’re like me, and you’re single (and therefore not hunkered down with your significant other), this is particularly frustrating. My generation has kind of forgotten how to date: apps have made connections instantaneous and have allowed us to not really put effort into building them if they do not have immediate/short-term rewards. For better or for worse, people have kind of forgotten how to make organic connections with people and nurture them into relationships; in fact, people sometimes think it’s kind of weird when I say that I have met none of the guys I dated on apps (unless you count the guy I met in an Uber Pool, in which case, ok, I met him on an app but Uber isn’t really meant to be a dating app!).  Right now, though, we won’t be going around in rideshares or chatting people up at bars, or meeting them at parties hosted by mutual friends; we’ll still be reliant on apps, and how we will use them is going to have to change.

Now, if you are thinking, girl, this is supposed to be a food blog, a) look at the title of this post and b) I’M GETTING TO THAT! I was long distance with my now-former partner for a long time, and my sister and her bf are possibly the queen and king of long distance dates (in grad school in totally different parts of the country), and we’ve both lived far away from some of our closest friends & each other (bc of college/grad school/work), so I figured I’d share some (food related) ideas for connecting with friends or dating partners (or prospective dating partners, I guess):

• Order takeout together–from the same place, or from different places, and eat it over video chat. My sister and her boyfriend even order each other stuff and arrange to have it delivered at the same time, but don’t tell the other where it’s coming from or what it is-~-it’s a total surprise!
• Cook a recipe together over video chat (another pro tip from my sister and her bf)
• Just eat together! Planning a meal with friends can help reduce your sense of social isolation even while practicing “social distancing”. Eat whatever you were going to be eating, or have a cup of coffee, over video chat. Studies show that eating with others is better for your mental health, and helps you eat more, which can be really important since stress often messes with our appetites.
• Watch movies or shows together while texting/messaging. I personally really like doing this with Disney movies (because they’re easy to follow even if you have to glance away) and competition shows, like the Great British Bake-Off or Top Chef, since you’ll start rooting for (and against) contestants

GRAD SCHOOL

Okay, first thing’s first: you need to cut yourself some slack.

Source: Giphy

Look, expecting yourself to perform at your usual level of productivity may not be reasonable right now. There’s a pandemic going on that they say is going to disrupt our lives and our work for 12-18 months, most likely. It’ll change important aspects of work, social life, and health behavior, and honestly I would not be too surprised if it resulted in some pretty notable social and economic changes (e.g. universal basic income, paid sick leave, paid family/medical leave, greater access to jobs for people with disabilities, and a re-conceptualizing of the internet as a public good). Many of us will have to hold off on things we were really looking forward to, such as travel, conferences, etc. You may have family or friends who are sick, or get sick yourself, and the anticipatory stress of this is going to make things really difficult. Many of us are now home with family members, roommates, significant others, and/or pets; for parenting grad students, trying to produce at the usual level may well be impossible while providing childcare and homeschooling supervision. We can’t just pretend this is business as usual, just from our homes instead of our offices, when it very definitely is not.

Source: Giphy

Eventually, we will find a middle ground that allows people to go back to work when and in ways in which it is safe. But in the meantime, it’s okay to realize that you’re not going to suddenly start cranking out papers and grant proposals from your living room.  You’ll also need to develop new routines, find ways to hold yourself accountable, and balance your work goals with all of the other things you are dealing with. Here is some great advice I have collected from friends who do work from home, or have done so previously:

• Don’t do work from bed. Choose one or more spaces in your home where you do work, and just work from there. For me, it is my dining table and my desk (and sometimes I do grade on the couch with the TV on).
• Squishy surfaces like couches, beds, and arm chairs encourage/facilitate slouching and offer much less back support when you’re sitting, so even if you feel like you want to be sitting on them, try to limit the amount of time you spend on your sofa, for the sake of your lower back. It may not be super easy to get a chiropractor appointment for a while.
• Put on music or something minimally distracting on TV (e.g. something you’re not invested in, or something you’ve seen a zillion times before and therefore don’t need to pay close attention). Sometimes working from home can be *too* quiet, which can be distracting in its own way. There are lots of great ambient noise albums and such online and on Spotify, as well.
• Get dressed. It doesn’t have to be what you’d wear to the office/to class, but even if it’s athleisure, change out of your pajamas and into actual clothes, to help your brain be clear that you are starting your productive hours.
• Set productive hours! If you’re a grad student, I highly recommend setting aside several hours a week to exclusively work on research/writing projects whether you are working from home or working on campus or some combination thereof (and by “I highly recommend”, I mean my advisor and the author of How To Write a Lot recommend and I adhere to their advice). If you already have those hours, KEEP THEM! Do not sacrifice the hours you already set aside for writing, since it’ll help you maintain some semblance of your normal routine. Decide at what time you’ll start working and, maybe even more importantly, what time you’ll stop. Working from home can blur the boundaries of work life/home life, but those boundaries are still needed.
• Take breaks! When you’re at work/at school, you probably don’t work nonstop for hours on end, right? You get up, walk around, stretch, get coffee. Do those things! They help your productivity, sure, but they’re also just good for you.
• Say no to things. Working from home means people assume you have lots of extra time, sometimes. It’s okay to say that you can’t take something on right now, or that you have to pass on something. It’s okay to set and maintain those boundaries.
• Eat lunch! You still have to eat, and just because you’re working from home doesn’t mean you need to eat through lunch. Take a break while you eat and watch an episode of something, or read a book for fun, or call/video chat with a friend.

 

BACK TO FOOD

I hope at least some of those tips will help you!! In the meantime, I wanted to leave you all with some recipes/resources for cooking during this crisis. For me, this has really challenged how I approach meal planning and cooking, because there are still a lot of ingredients not available in stores, including key vegetables I need (which makes no sense to me; if you weren’t eating swiss chard before this, why are you suddenly buying it now??), which means I’m having to improvise my plans while I’m at the grocery store based on what is there. For some, now is a great time to consider batch cooking, especially if you can freeze some of it for later. It may be a great opportunity to prepare things ahead of time, freeze them, and throw them in your slow cooker. Or you may be in need of some simpler recipes based more around shelf-stable goods. Either way, here are some recipes and resources that may be of help:

• Smitten Kitchen has a collection of recipes based around shelf-stable pantry ingredients, like beans, rice, and grains. These include some pretty great staple recipes, like her recipe for a really good pot of chickpeas topped with burrata, three bean chili, barley risotto with beans and greens, and a basic yellow dhal.
• Cookie and Kate, another food blog I love, recently published a list of 50 Pantry-Friendly Recipes and Substitutions that Work. Her list has a lot of recipes that keep well in the fridge for several days and freeze well for later, perfect for if you want to batch cook, and includes things like black bean and sweet potato enchiladas, brown rice risotto with mushrooms, and mujaddara (a dish made with brown rice and lentils, topped with caramelized onions)
• Pinch of Yum has an awesome post that will walk you through what’s in her fridge, freezer, and pantry, and how she’s planning to make a wide range of foods using the ingredients you see. She also has a great collection of freeze-ahead meals, including freezer meal beef ragu, freezer-to-slow-cooker wild rice and mushroom soup, and of course, her freezer-friendly chicken meatballs (she has a lot of recipes in which you can use these, too!)
• The Kitchn has created a guide consisting of 100 Ways to Turn Pantry Staples Into Complete Meals. While I haven’t made these, I’ve yet to have a bad experience working with recipes from the Kitchn, and hey, it’s your life and your palate!
• If you’re just getting into meal prep now, take a look back at some of my previous posts on meal prepping: this post covers batch cooking and using leftovers for lunch, while this one covers cooking techniques suited to batch cooking such as slow cooking and sheet pan meals.

Food Resolutions for 2020

Yup, I know.  I said I was back in the kitchen, and I was-~-sort of.  But I got into a post-comps funk.  I stopped cooking interesting things.  I stopped exploring new recipes. There was a loss of the inspiration that was needed to keep producing food that I really wanted to share, as opposed to food that just sustained me.  I went into a post-comps funk with my work, too; it is almost as though I lost momentum and once I lost it I had trouble getting moving again.  After all, an object at rest will stay at rest unless it is prompted to move by an outside force.

But it’s a new year!  You know what the best part of the academic calendar structure is?  Every few months, there is a new semester.  A fresh start. Oh, all the work is still there, of course.  But our schedules shift.  The classes we take or teach may change, or at the very least, the students in those courses may change.  We get to reset ourselves through a break, through a new schedule, and that can be exciting.  I still have the same papers to push out, the same data to try to make sense of.  But hopefully I also have a little fresh perspective now that I’m a little less burned out.  And that’s exactly what I’m hoping to have with food as well.

If you haven’t yet, now’s a good time to think about a Food Resolution.  The most common resolution made in the United States is exercising more, followed by saving money, and eating more healthily.  Losing weight is consistently in the top 10 most common resolutions made every year in the US.  But most New Year’s Resolutions fail-~-some surveys estimate that as many as 80% of us fail to achieve our resolutions.  One reason is that we’re not specific enough: we say we want to exercise more or eat healthy, but we don’t come at it with a specific plan.  So before you tell yourself you’re going to “eat better” in 2020, here are a few, more specific goals that may be easier to follow through on:

• Eat more meatless meals!  Melissa Clark, cookbook author and NYT food writer, published a piece entitled “The Meat Lovers’ Guide to Eating Less Meat”.  She describes how, for the sake of environmental sustainability (and our health), we need to cut down our meat (and dairy) intake-~-at the national level, by up to 40%.  I talk about some similar articles in my post on “Meatless Mondays for Beginnings”.  So maybe make eating meatless ONE more day a week than you currently do.  It’s an easier starting point, and  it’s a clear goal for you to hold yourself accountable.  Some recipes that might be a good starting point include this coconut curry ramen with tofu, this sweet potato and black bean hash, and this vegetarian skillet pot pie.  Want something that feels “meatier”?  Check out these 30 minute vegetarian meatballs from Pinch of Yum, these vegan Sloppy Joes from Minimalist Baker, or these slow cooker Indian butter chickpeas from Simple Healthy Kitchen.
• Make a concerted effort to eat a range of different colored vegetables!  Maybe you’re already on top of your green veggie intake, but how about your yellow/orange vegetables?  Or your blue or purple vegetables?  They all have important nutrients that you may be missing out on!  Some recipes that might provide a starting point include these Butternut Squash and Black Bean Enchiladas, this Skillet Eggplant Parm Pasta, this Ratatouille Tart, or this Summer Nicoise Salad.
• Eat less sugar.  Sugar is hidden all over in our food.  In an attempt to reduce fat in many foods, companies often increase sugar-~-but constant intake of excess sugar is bad for us metabolically and dentally, among other ways.  Take a look at the broader discussion of this I have in my post on snacking, or take a look at this piece from Harvard Medical School on how to reduce both sugar and salt in your diet.
• Eat more fresh fruit.  It’s a good snack, a tasty treat, and better for you than a lot of sweet alternatives.
• Cook something new on a monthly/bi-weekly/weekly basis.  Continue to expand your cooking skills and your palate, as well as your list of recipes you can go to for healthy and interesting meals.
• Speaking of cooking, cook at home more!  Cooking at home will save you money and give you a LOT more control over what you consume.
• Increase your intake of foods with healthy omega-3 fatty acids, such as fish, avocado, peanut butter, nuts, and chia and flax seeds.

There are tons more food resolutions you can make, but I would caution you this:  dieting just for weight loss often is not sustainable, and many diets may cause you to focus a lot on all the things you cannot eat or when you cannot eat, leading to a restrictive mentality regarding food.  Don’t let your desire to be healthier or to lose weight lead you on a path towards disordered thoughts about food.  There are not “good foods” or “bad foods”.  There are more nutritious and less nutritious foods, but that does not mean you have to give up food you want to eat entirely just because it’s not as densely nutritious.

So go!  Find your food inspiration!  Find foods you like to eat, foods you’re excited to make, foods that make you feel good.  Find foods that help make you healthier, foods that satisfy your cravings.  And check back here, because starting soon, I’ll be doing a series of posts on my go-to recipes (vegetarian and otherwise).

On Snacking

I don’t know about you, but I snack a LOT when I’m at school all day.  I also snack a lot when I’m working from home.  It helps keep my energy up and prevents weird blood sugar dips.  And I know I’m not alone: only 4% of Americans say they do not snack at all during the day, and the most common eating behavior in the US is eating 3 meals a day with some snacks in between.

Source: Giphy

Just because we’re all snacking doesn’t mean we’re snacking smart, though. The most popular snack foods in America are still chips and chocolate, with healthier options like hummus further down in the rankings.  The most common item Americans order as an afternoon “snack” is a burger.  (To be fair, though, many of those who snack on burgers also don’t necessarily eat lunch, so maybe it would be more fair to say that the most common late lunch item is a burger?)  And a lot of popular American snack foods, like cookies, Kind bars, and flavored yogurts, are high in added sugar.

I am not a nutritionist or dietitian.  I am just a person who does a lot of research on the foods she eats because if you are what you eat, then I mostly want to eat the good stuff.  Having desert sometimes is fine!  Having a pudding or a sugary cereal bar as a snack sometimes is fine.  But when it comes to fueling up, I want to make sure that I am putting good foods into my body.  So, without further ado, the Grad School Girl Eats Guide to Snacking:

1. You’ll snack on whatever is easiest, so make sure you have healthy snacks readily available.  Buy fruit and fresh vegetables like baby carrots (or regular carrots cut into sticks), bell peppers, or sugar snap peas, which are easy to snack on (just cut up the bell pepper into slices first!).  Also good to have around: nuts, lower sugar yogurts (more on this in a minute), cheese (esp part-skim cheese), and dips like hummus or peanut butter. Nuts, fruits, and vegetables have the added bonus of not being processed.
2. Limit the amount of high-sugar and high-fat snacks you keep around.  Again, you’ll eat what you can easily get to, so if your pantry is stocked with cookies, potato chips, and buttery crackers, you’re more likely to go for those items.  That’s not to say you can’t have any of those things-~-I would be a HUGE hypocrite making such a claim! Just try to make it so they’re not your go-to all the time.
3. Read the labels and know what the nutrition info really means.  Lots of fat-free yogurts make up for their lack of fat by adding a lot of sugar. A fruity low fat La Yogurt has 28 grams of sugar, and a Stonyfield Fat Free Fruit on the Bottom yogurt has 21 grams of sugar.  They’re not very big yogurts, and they each only have about 5 or 6 grams of protein.  In comparison, Yoplait Greek 100 Calorie Whips have 12 grams of sugar and 9 grams of protein; a Siggis has 9 grams of sugar and 14 grams of protein (and that’s still with 2% milk, by the way). Yogurt isn’t the only culprit here, though. Plenty of granola bars also have lots of added sugar, and it may vary by flavor: lots of RXBAR granola bars have no added sugar, and some Kind bars have very little, but other Kind bar flavors have more.  And plenty of granola bars, regardless of sugar content, may be lower in fiber or protein, and higher in saturated fat, than would be ideal.
4. Put together snacks that have ingredients that balance each other.  Try apples with peanut or almond butter, carrots with hummus, grapes or apples and cheese, or smoothies that have fruits or veggies and protein. (My green smoothies work just as well as a snack as they do for breakfast!).  Doing this will help make sure that a quick burst of sugar is balanced by proteins and healthy fats to help keep you full and energized.
5. Pick things you actually want to eat!  All of this advice will get you nowhere if you don’t actually want to eat the things you buy or pack.  And if you do want a snack, and you’re completely turned off by the granola balls you brought with you to the office, you’re going to go elsewhere…and you may very well end up with chicken nuggets, french fries, or chips as your snack instead.

Need more inspiration?  These are some of my favorite snacks to eat at home/bring to school/work:

• Icelandic or Greek yogurt–it costs a little more, but the reduced sugar and extra protein makes it worth it in my book
• Carrot sticks with hummus
• Sugar snap peas, sometimes with ranch dressing
• Harvest Snaps (No, I receive nothing for endorsing these, I just like them)
• Grapes + small cheese rounds (e.g. Mini Babybels)
• Sliced cheddar cheese and crackers (choose something with whole grains!)
• Peaches, nectarines, pears, or apples
• Protein smoothies-~-either a green smoothie or one packed with other kinds of fruit like blueberries and bananas (have to get those white and blue phytonutrients!). Adding yogurt and protein powder to my smoothies makes them a little healthier and more filling
• Nuts like pistachios or cashews, often paired with blueberries, blackberries, or raspberries
• Cucumber slices and a hard-boiled egg
• Popcorn-~-I make it on the stove top and then store it in to-go containers to take with me to campus; this means that I know I really am just eating popped corn lightly drizzled in olive oil and sprinkled with salt

Happy snacking!

Meal Planning Part 3: Diversifying Your Diet and Making Meals Work Together

It has been a loooooong time since I just talked about meal planning, but it is something I get asked about a fair bit, especially in my off-line life. I still plan out all the meals I am going to make in a week in advance, but I have gotten a little more sophisticated about it as I have gotten better at it and learned to cook more things. Also, I cook for 2 people now instead of just one, which has shifted how portions work a little bit.

As a reminder, this is my own approach to meal-planning. There are plenty of other ways to approach planning meals, and lots of resources online, so if the way I describe here doesn’t work for you, but you still want to meal plan, then definitely go forth and research!

I previously shared some meal-planning basics and tips on using batch-cooking and leftovers for lunch as strategies in a meal plan. As a recap, since it has been a while, here are some fundamentals:

• Plan for as many meals as you can. I plan for all of my lunches and dinners, and then buy general breakfast foods like cereal, oats, yogurt, etc.
• The meal plan is what decides goes on the grocery list. This keeps you focused at the store so you don’t buy random things. It ensures you end up with the right ingredients for the meals you want to make without missing anything key, and it will hopefully reduce food waste.
• Every meal needs to have at MINIMUM 2 food groups, but should ideally have at least 3. This means protein, vegetables, and grains. Realistically, you may have some meals that have just protein and veggies or grains and veggies, but try not to let this be the norm.
• Plan for vegetables. If you are making something that does not necessarily feature vegetables, plan for veggies as a side dish and write out which veggies those will be.
• Use a variety of protein sources. Don’t let yourself just rely on 2 things, try to use 3 or 4 different protein sources if you can. Remember, there are lots of plant-based protein sources like beans, lentils, chickpeas, and tofu, which are extremely healthy and relatively inexpensive.
• Think about how your meals fit together. If you are buying a vegetable that can only be bought in a bunch (e.g., leeks) or in a larger portion than you necessarily need (e.g. an eggplant, esp if you are cooking for one), think about how you can include two meals that will use those ingredients (but try to space them out so you won’t get bored).
• Limit the pasta. Many of us have grown accustomed to pasta as a fall-back because it is easy, cheap, and cooks quickly. Don’t fall into this trap. Use other grains such as brown rice, wild rice, quinoa, rice noodles, couscous, barley, bulgur, and farro to help mix it up and add other nutrients to your diet.
• Try to include at least 1 new recipe per week, especially if you are still trying to expand your cooking knowledge/skills. This will reduce boredom and force you to learn new recipes. It is okay if you don’t do this every single week, but try to throw in a few new recipes a month, just to keep things interesting.

One of the things I emphasize in those rules is diversifying what you eat. You can see this especially in my tips about grains and proteins: use a variety so that you don’t get bored and get a greater range of nutrients. While you definitely don’t need to adopt them, these are my personal rules for food diversification in my own meal plans:

1. No more than 4 meals using the same protein source
2. No more than 4 meals including pasta
3. At least 1 red/purple vegetable per week
4. At least 1 yellow/orange vegetable per week

Those rules challenge me at times, but in a good way. There are certain proteins I find I always use, like tofu and chicken and ground beef, and some I use with reasonable regularity, like eggs, shrimp and chickpeas. But there are others, like lamb, pork, turkey, lentils, black beans, and fish, which I use much less regularly. Making meal plans with these rules forces me, when I’m about halfway through, to ask myself “What haven’t I used yet?” and then try to work something else into the meal plan.

These rules also help me think through whether I am getting a balanced variety of vegetables and limits the amount of pasta I eat. But implementing all of these rules, and having balance without a lot of waste (keeping in mind that extra meat does get frozen and worked into later meal plans), takes planning, and thinking about how all of these things work together.

In previous posts, I talked about using batch cooking and leftovers for lunch as strategies in the meal plan. I don’t batch cook as much anymore (although sometimes I do, if it’s something that I can easily freeze and cannot easily make in a smaller portion, like lasagna, enchiladas, chili, or breakfast tacos), but I am still a huge proponent of leftovers for lunch.

That being said, sometimes you can’t have leftovers for lunch, because what you are making (e.g., eggs) does not make for good leftovers. And along with my efforts to keep my meal plan diverse, this strategy means I need to think about my meal plan as a whole, and how different meals might work together.  If I am making something with eggs, like an omelette or a hash served with eggs, or I am making something like a hamburger, which does not yield leftovers, I have two options: I can use something else in the meal plan to produce an extra lunch, or I can plan on making sandwiches or salads for lunch. But if I am making sandwiches or salads, I usually can’t buy ingredients for just one sandwich or salad, which means I need to plan for two lunches without corresponding dinners.

If that feels complicated, don’t panic. Here are a few sample meal plans with explanations of how to make this work:

• Sweet potato hash with black beans (leave out the eggs) (dinner and lunch)
• Tofu stir fry with sugar snap peas and green beans with brown rice or quinoa (dinner and lunch)
• Spinach and mushroom lasagna (dinner and two lunches)
• Shrimp and vermicelli in red curry sauce (dinner and lunch)
• Homemade veggie pizza (dinner and lunch)
• Hamburger and zucchini fries (plus leftover lasagna for lunch)
• Honey lemon chicken and broccoli with brown rice(dinner and lunch)

In this sample meal plan, I have included a hamburger, which will mean no leftovers for the next day. But I also know that the lasagna will yield an extra portion (or really, 2 portions, since this meal plan is for two people), meaning I can eat it for a third meal-~-lunch the day after the hamburger. This means that I need to be sure to cook the lasagna before I am going to need those leftovers; I can’t change up the order in a way that puts the burger before the lasagna. Everything else is pretty self-contained, though, so it can be moved around. (It also follows all of the rules I laid out earlier in this post: lots of different protein sources and different colors of vegetables, with limited use of pasta.)

Here’s another example:

• Shakshuka and green beans (dinner)
• Red pepper fettuccine with shrimp (dinner and lunch)
• Baked falafel and salad (dinner and lunch)
• Mussels in Spicy Red Sauce and sauteed broccoli (dinner)
• Asparagus with chorizo and croutons (dinner and lunch)
• Chicken fajitas (dinner and lunch)
• Crispy Tofu Pad Thai (dinner and lunch)
• Sandwiches (2 lunches)

In this sample meal plan, both the shakshuka (which is eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce) and the mussels (which are also cooked in a spicy tomato sauce, coincidentally) won’t result in leftovers, which means there are two days which will need something else for lunch. I use sandwiches here, but you could just as easily include salads, or these homemade instant noodle cups, or wraps, whatever works for you.

The point is, I am planning for a week, not just one night at a time. The meal plan becomes a puzzle that I am trying to fit together, where I need to figure out 14 meals: 7 lunches and 7 dinners.

You can definitely throw in there a “TBD” as long as you have things in your kitchen that you can turn into a meal or two, and you can definitely include meals that you plan to eat out. I usually include “1 meal-takeout (leftovers for lunch)” or “1 dinner out, Wednesday” so that I know I need to plan a lunch for Thursday, just as examples.

Hopefully this helps some folks who are trying to get into meal planning or set New Year’s Resolutions about learning to cook or eating better! In the spirit of providing examples, I’ll try to make sure I share partial meal plans periodically, along with links to recipes that are available online. Happy cooking!

 

You Might Not Like Vegetables Because You’re Not Sure How to Cook Them

When I was growing up, I HATED asparagus and Brussels sprouts. I dreaded asparagus night. I thought it was the most disgusting vegetable imaginable.

Today, it is one of my favorites.

Why? Because I learned how to cook it. Also, because I now eat only fresh asparagus, and I grew up with canned asparagus which is, let’s face it, absolutely gross. I’m sorry, but it has to be said. Canned asparagus is mushy and the wrong color and it basically is not asparagus.

I also really like Brussels sprouts now, and that is 100% because I learned how to prepare them in ways that actually make them taste good. My parents relied heavily on frozen vegetables (when we weren’t eating canned vegetables) and the Brussels sprouts they bought were steamed in bag with some sort of butter sauce and, again, I hated them. I thought they were so incredibly nasty. But as an adult, I cook my Brussels sprouts in the oven or in a skillet where they caramelize properly and lo and behold, they’re one of my veggies of choice.

How we cook vegetables matters in how we feel about vegetables, so in the next couple of months, I am going to devote extra time on this blog to talking about vegetables and how to prepare them in ways that will make you actually want to eat them.

Some basic vegetable nutrition information: first, we are supposed to eat about 5 servings of vegetables a day. I am guessing that many people, especially young people, do not actually consume this many servings. But vegetables provide essential nutrients that help with things like your vision, immune function, digestion, and heart health, among other things. They also provide key nutrients like fiber, potassium, and iron. Vegetables are your friends, folks. You may not like all of them (I may never like collard greens and that is something I am honestly perfectly fine with), but you’re bound to like some of them if you keep trying.

Second, you are supposed to eat a rainbow of vegetables: it’s not enough to eat green things, you need a variety of vegetables in a variety of colors. A 2009 report using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES) found the following:

• 69% of Americans are falling short in green phytonutrients
• 78% of Americans are falling short in red phytonutrients
• 86% of Americans are falling short in white phytonutrients
• 88% of Americans are falling short in purple and blue phytonutrients
• 79% of Americans are falling short in yellow and orange phytonutrients

I will admit that 2009 was literally a decade ago but I’m guessing that things haven’t improved *that* much since then. In late 2017, Time reported that close to 90% of Americans don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables. And if you’re reading that and thinking “oh, crap, I probably do not eat enough fruits and vegetables”, don’t panic. Think of it as a bonus New Year’s Resolution that you can definitely achieve with a little effort and a little mindfulness about what you eat.

Let’s get into this whole “rainbow of veggies” concept for a moment:

Red fruits and vegetables support heart health, reduce diabetes risk, and help fight inflammation; examples of healthy red fruits and vegetables to try are tomatoes, red bell peppers, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, red onions, beets, cranberries, rhubarb, red potatoes, and radishes.

Source: Organicfacts.net

Yellow and orange fruits and vegetables support immune function, promote eye health, and support healthy circulation, because of their higher concentrations of vitamin C and carotenoids such as beta-carotene. Some examples of healthy yellow and orange produce to try are carrots, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, butternut squash, yellow and orange bell peppers, mangoes, apricots, nectarines, pineapple, yellow squash, golden beets, and pumpkin.

Green fruits and vegetables also support immune function, digestion, and blood and bone health. Examples of healthy green fruits and vegetables include: kale, broccoli, spinach, green grapes, kiwifruit, asparagus, green beans, romaine lettuce, peas, zucchini, avocado, edamame, Brussels sprouts, and green apples.

Source: WebMD

Blue and purple fruits and vegetables help fight inflammation and aging, by helping to repair some of the damage of oxidative stress. Examples of healthy blue and purpose fruits and vegetables to try includes: blueberries, blackberries, red (purple) cabbage, red (purple) grapes, plums, eggplant, purple sweet potatoes, purple carrots, turnips, and prunes.

Brown and white fruits and vegetables help support bone health and heart health. These include mushrooms, bananas, jicama, cauliflower, parsnips, onions, potatoes, dates, brown pears, white peaches, and white nectarines.

Now that that’s squared away, let’s talk general vegetable cooking tips:

1. Throw them in a stir fry. This works particularly well when you are using vegetables like bell peppers, sugar snap peas, broccoli, and green beans. There are a ton of easy stir-fry recipes out there, and you can use whatever protein source you want-~-chicken, tofu, beef, shrimp, whatever works for you.
2. Cook them on a sheet pan. Roasting vegetables is one of the easiest ways to cook them. This works for all of your root vegetables, including turnips, beets, squash, carrots, and potatoes/sweet potatoes, but it also works for things like Brussels sprouts, bell peppers, broccoli, zucchini, and yellow squash. Just remember that root vegetables take much longer to roast than your non-root vegetables, so plan to add your non-root veggies to your sheet pan partway through cooking if you are making something that uses both. You can also use roasting to cook just a batch of Brussels sprouts, green beans, or asparagus; just drizzle with oil and sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper (and red pepper flakes if you so desire) and cook at 350 degrees for 15 minutes (green beans or asparagus) or 20 minutes (Brussels sprouts).
3. Make a slaw. For root vegetables like kohlrabi, jicama, etc., a slaw is an easy way to make something taste good. Chop everything into little matchsticks and toss with an acidic dressing (a vinaigrette will usually work wonders here-~-I particularly like the dressing that goes with the Kitchn’s cabbage and carrot slaw). Often a slaw with only one vegetable will feel like that vegetable is overwhelming, so if you’re working with jicama, kohlrabi, cabbage, etc., try throwing in some thinly sliced sugar snap peas and/or carrots, and maybe some herbs like basil, cilantro, or mint, to offset the taste.

This post from Better Homes and Gardens contains links to posts outlining how to cook individual vegetables, such as artichokes, asparagus, edamame, Brussels sprouts, and kale. It’s also worth it to check out the Kitchn’s guides to roasting vegetables, pan-searing vegetables, and steaming vegetables.  You can also take a look at Delish’s guide to when and how to steam, roast, sauté, and more.

 

10 Veggie-Heavy Recipes to Start Your New Year Off Right

This is part of my ongoing series on How To Cook Vegetables So You Will Actually Like Them. I didn’t come up with all of these recipes, but I do eat all of them, and I genuinely like all of them. And, just as importantly, they all use ingredients you can actually find in a normal grocery store. I mention this because sometimes when I go through lists of veggies on the internet, I get recipes that use ingredients like broccoli rabe that my grocery store simply doesn’t carry, and then I am stuck with this dilemma: do I abandon an otherwise tempting recipe, or waste a lot of time trying to find a grocery store in my area that actually sells broccoli rabe? (I usually opt for the former.) THESE recipes all use ingredients you should definitely be able to find: butternut squash, spinach, eggplant, zucchini, broccoli, bell peppers, asparagus, green beans, sweet potatoes, etc.

Deb Perelman’s Broccoli Slaw: this recipe made my roommate a believer in raw broccoli. She doesn’t really like broccoli much at all, and definitely disliked raw broccoli, but I made a batch of this and she was completely sold on it. Now every time I make it, I make sure there’s enough for us each to take second helpings with dinner.

Lindsay’s (Pinch of Yum) Creamy Orecchiette with Butternut Squash and Broccolini: it’s veggies (and two different colors of veggies at that!) but couched in creamy Parmesan sauce and pasta, which is everything you want it to be.

My Vegetarian Skillet Pot Pie: with leeks, mushrooms, carrots, and corn, this recipe brings you a pretty wide variety of veggie colors, and the lentils are a great source of meat-free protein.

Lindsay’s (Pinch of Yum) 5-Ingredient Green Curry: hello, easy vegan meal! This recipe has tofu for protein and sweet potatoes and broccoli to help up your veggie count for the day. It’s also super simple to make!

Chelsea’s (Chelsea’s Messy Apron) Sheet Pan Sausage and Veggies: this is such a simple meal, because the only real work is cutting everything up. Then you throw it all on a sheet pan and ignore it while it cooks-~-making this a perfect weeknight meal. You can also swap the potatoes for perogis, if you prefer.

My Homemade Veggie Pizza: there is no reason why vegetables have to be packaged in a way that is boring or tasteless. You like pizza? Make pizza! Put vegetables on pizza! Vegetables are great on pizza, and you get your veggies but you still get all that doughy, cheesy goodness, too.

Molly Gilbert’s Sheet Pan Ratatouille with Goat Cheese: this recipe will get vegetables you may not eat as often-~-such as eggplant and zucchini-~-onto your plate, and again, the real effort is just in chopping the vegetables. Once they’re on the pan, your oven does the rest. (Side note: sheet pan dinners are a great way to make dinner prep easier on weeknights; I actually just gifted Molly Gilbert’s Sheet Pan Suppers for Channukah.)

Jeanine’s (Love and Lemons) Farro Fried Rice with Brussels Sprouts: this recipe takes something you likely already enjoy eating (fried rice) and kicks it up a notch by substituting healthier farro as the grain and Brussels sprouts and leeks as the veggies. Even my roommate, who does not like Brussels sprouts at all, enjoyed this recipe, so give it a chance!

Liz’s (Floating Kitchen) Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Chickpeas, Asparagus, and Arugula: I fell in love with this recipe the first time I made it. It has a great mix of veggies, it’s super easy (I pre-cook the sweet potatoes so that I’m not waiting for them for dinner), and it features cumin-roasted chickpeas and a delicious tahini sauce.

Lindsay’s (Pinch of Yum) Butternut Squash and Mushroom Enchiladas with Tomatillo Sauce: this recipe takes a little more time and effort, but it’s worth it, because at the end, you get a big batch of delicious, veggie-heavy enchiladas that are packed with flavor. If you don’t have the time/patience to make the tomatillo sauce, store-bought is fine.

 

Some Thoughts on Break and New Year’s Resolutions

Just a brief reprieve (ha ha ha) from recipes (I know, I do not post nearly enough, but I’ll get to that in a minute) to talk about winter break and New Year’s Resolutions.

Winter break is one of the best things about academia. It is a multi-week period when you are not expected to teach, attend classes, or be in your office. As anyone in academia knows, you often can’t actually do no work for 4-5 weeks (yes, friends, that really is how long winter break is at some of our programs…readers who attend schools on the quarter system, I am sorry, shorter winter break is indeed one consequence of not having semesters). Instead, much like summer break, winter break ends up being a mix of recharging and catching up on work that you can finally get done with minimal interruptions.

Breaks and recharging are SUPER important. I can’t underscore enough how important it is that we all walk away from our work at least for a week or two. It will improve your mental health, let your body hopefully dial down the stress response, and it will eventually make you more productive because you won’t be as burned out. If you’re not sure what burnout is, it is a state of “mental or physical collapse due to overwork or stress”. Lest you think this is just me wanting to label how incredibly tired we have all been, here is a brief overview of burnout from the Mayo Clinic. Here are some of the questions they recommend asking yourself in assessing if you are experiencing burnout:

1. Do you drag yourself to work and have trouble getting started?
2. Do you find it hard to concentrate?
3. Do you lack satisfaction from your achievements?
4. Do you feel disillusioned about your job?
5. Are you using food, drugs or alcohol to feel better or to simply not feel?

Psychology Today lists the following red flags for burnout: chronic fatigue, insomnia, impaired concentration, increased illness, loss of appetite, anxiety, depressive symptoms, anger, pessimism (including negative self-talk and trust issues with friends and coworkers), increased irritability, and lack of productivity, among others.

If any of that sounds familiar, you’re probably not imagining it: graduate students are disproportionately at risk for anxiety and depression. Inside Higher Ed published a piece several months back talking about the “mental health crisis for graduate students“. Investigators found that work-life balance is a key issue at play in this crisis, and for that reason, I’m going to suggest that every single one of us make at least one of our New Year’s Resolutions about our mental health or our work-life balance.

Source: http://blog.online.colostate.edu/blog/the-lighter-side/sleep-in-grad-school-may-college-meme/

That meme is exactly the problem I’m talking about. Something’s gotta give, and we have to make the conscious choice to make that change. I mean, come on, aren’t you as tired as I am of feeling tired and stressed all the time?

If you’re not sure where to start for setting goals for work-life balance, may I be so bold as to suggest starting with a self-care assessment to see where you’re doing well and what areas of your life might benefit from more attention? (Full disclosure, I myself did this and have come to the unsurprising conclusion I need to spend more time in nature and be more active.) Then, check out this overview of common “traps” we fall into that prevent us from achieving work-life balance.

If you’re still not sure what goals you want to set, I started by asking myself these questions:

1. What are some boundaries that I need to set or enforce to make my life feel more balanced? This can include (but isn’t limited to) times when you don’t do work, limits to help that you offer or give, specific types of tasks you say no to, and topics that are off-limits for you either at certain times or in general.
2. Am I scheduling leisure time? Is there time blocked off for me to work out, go to a fitness class, engage in creativity, be part of a social sports league, be part of a book club, etc.?
3. Am I getting enough sleep? What time would I need to realistically go to sleep in order to get enough sleep?
4. Am I getting the support I need? Do I make enough time for family, friends, a partner, my pet? Am I getting any professional support I need (therapist, counselor, support group, psychiatrist, nutritionist, physical therapy, chiropractics, occupational therapy, etc.)?
5. Do I have a set time to stop working each night? Do I have specific hours I can designate as work hours so that other times can be designated as non-work hours?
6. Am I eating healthily? What choices can I make to better manage my diet?

Obviously, this blog relates the most to question 6 on my list, but you may have noticed that appetite, eating regularly, and eating healthy meals are all part of the self-care referenced in everything I linked to. I actually started learning to cook because I realized that I was burned out and wasn’t eating well, in part because I was bored with the few things I knew how to cook. Now, cooking is my half hour a day when I am not doing any other work. Meals are a time for me to unplug and be present with my roommate or my family. And I can know that I am giving myself good, healthy food and giving myself an activity where I can feel a sense of accomplishment that is totally unrelated to school/work.

Anyway, that’s my pitch for work-life balance resolutions this coming year. I’ll be back to sharing recipes really soon, so if eating well is one of your goals, stay tuned!

Meatless Mondays for Beginners

Why Do “Meatless Mondays”?

As many of you know, a few weeks ago a report was released with suggestions on how we as individuals can reduce our environmental impact. Numerous sources have suggested that reducing how much meat (and dairy) we consume is one of the biggest ways that we can reduce our carbon footprints and be kinder to this planet. And while we as individuals can only do so much to slow climate change, and corporations remain the biggest contributors to the climate change phenomenon, that doesn’t mean that this whole “eat less meat” idea isn’t worth exploring.

I know there are some people who will read that paragraph and accuse me of getting political, and you’re not wrong in thinking that this blog is not about politics. But I’m a scientist, and all the evidence points to the same conclusion: something’s gotta give. And what this blog is about is food, and if food is one way we can be kinder to the earth, then I say it’s worth discussing.

Even if you don’t buy that this is a good thing to do environmentally, it’s still a good thing to do, period. Research shows that eating more plant-based meals reduces your risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Plant-based diets are linked to lower mortality rates, and even reduced cancer risk. (If you didn’t click through the links, just know that I got that info from studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Proceedings of the National Academies of the Sciences (PNAS), and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.)

But I’m not a vegetarian, and I’m not here to preach vegetarianism. I myself eat meat, and I post recipes that use meat. I am not in any way saying give up meat! But all of this scientific evidence demonstrates that even just reducing meat intake, without cutting it from your diet completely, can be protective of your health. So, here we are, Meatless Mondays for Beginners. I don’t necessarily do Meatless Mondays (sometimes I want meat on a Monday and tofu on a Tuesday…sorry, I couldn’t pass up the alliteration), but I do eat meatless meals 2-4 days a week, and I want to share some recipes and tips for substituting plant-based protein for meat even just a couple days a week, for you and for the environment. (And honestly a little bit for your wallet; tofu is way less expensive than beef and beans are much less expensive than chicken, or really any other protein.)

Plant-based Protein Sources:

No one, and I mean no one, is advocating for less protein in your diet when they say you should eat less meat. But you do need to swap in some plant-based protein sources. Just about everyone has heard of tofu, but this is a list of major plant-based protein sources, and how much protein they offer, just to get you started.

Tofu (10g of protein per 1/2 cup)

Edamame beans (8.5g of protein per 1/2 cup)

Tempeh (15g of protein per 1/2 cup)

Chickpeas (16g of protein per cup)

Quinoa (8.14g of protein per cup)

Lentils (17g of protein per cup, cooked)

Split Peas (16g of protein per cup, cooked)

Black-eyed peas (12g of protein per cup)

Cashews (22g of protein per cup)

Pumpkin seeds (30g of protein per cup)

Almonds (30g of protein per cup)

Black beans (15g of protein per cup, cooked)

Kidney beans (15g of protein per cup, cooked)

Pinto beans (12g of protein per cup, cooked)

There are other surprise sources of protein that you can sneak into your diet. Broccoli, for example, is surprisingly high in protein. There is protein in spinach, kale, and arugula, though not enough to constitute protein for a meal. Rice is also a good source of protein, and brown rice has more protein than white rice. (All of this information was pulled from the US Dept of Agriculture, by the way.) And let’s not forget eggs, of course, which have about 6g of protein each.

There are trade-offs with some of these protein sources. Nuts and nut butters are high in protein, but they also have a fair amount of solid fat, which means they should not be your primary sources of protein in meals (although certainly incorporate them into your diet, they’re still good for you). But there are a LOT of plant-based protein sources that you can use to reduce your meat intake, and now we can get to the fun part: turning these things into actual meals.

Meatless Meals You Can Actually Make

The following list includes some of my favorite meatless meals, as well as some that I have had saved and been meaning to make for a while. This isn’t even close to a comprehensive list of ideas, and any vegetarian you know would laugh if I said it were. But hopefully it’ll be a decent starting point, and give you some ideas on how you can make meatless meals work for you, at least 1 or 2 nights a week.

Lentil Butternut Squash Curry

Slow Cooker Barley Chickpea Risotto

Creamy Orecchiette with Butternut Squash and Broccolini

Eggplant Parm Pasta Skillet

Butternut Squash and Mushroom Enchiladas

Shakshuka (I use a can of crushed tomatoes instead of making the sauce completely from scratch, making this a totally do-able weeknight meal!)

Creamy Thai Sweet Potatoes and Lentils

Broccoli Pizza

Shaved Asparagus Pizza

Black Pepper Stir Fried Noodles (with tofu and spinach)

Vegetarian Skillet Pot Pie

Sesame-Crusted Tofu

Five-Ingredient Coconut Curry (with tofu, sweet potatoes, and broccoli)

Eggs in a basket grilled cheese with asparagus

“8” Ingredient Garlic Butter Mushroom and Goat Cheese Fettuccini

Wild Harvest Skillet

Kimchi Udon Stir Fry

Sweet and Spicy Asian Tofu

Farro Fried Rice with Brussels Sprouts

Slow Cooker Butter Chickpeas and Tofu (like butter chicken, but vegan!)

Crispy Tofu Pad Thai

Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Chickpeas, Asparagus and Arugula

Mediterranean Chickpea and Veggie Skillet

Barley Risotto with Beans and Greens

Portabella and Halloumi “Burgers”

Curried Roasted Eggplant with Smoked Cardamom and Coconut Milk

Thai Coconut Butternut Squash Soup

Masala Chickpea Buddah Bowls

Tofu and Broccoli in a Peanut-Sesame Pesto

HAPPY COOKING!