Cheap Eats (with no meat)

My last two posts have been about sustainable chicken and fish, but there are other foods that offer eco-friendly and animal-friendly deliciousness. One such meal that I love to make is beans and rice.

Beans and rice make a great meal because together they make complete proteins, but also have lots of fiber and no saturated fat (if you don't add fats to the beans). Best of all, it is a very cheap meal! I use dried beans to save money (and I don't want to lug the weight of cans since I don't have a car).

Dried beans are easy to make as long as you remember to pre-soak them. I usually get a mixture of different dried beans and lentils. Soak them overnight or for a day. I usually put 1 to 1.5 cups of dried beans in a pot and cover them with a good amount of water, about 3 cups of water to 1 cup of dried beans. (Too bad I didn't think of taking step by step photos so you could see the dried beans soaking.)

I start soaking the beans in the morning before I leave for work (around 8 a.m.) and then start cooking them once I get home (around 6 p.m.). Strain and rinse the beans and then put them back in the pot, covered in water. Once the water comes to a complete boil, I take the pot off the stove, strain the beans again, and put them back in the pot with fresh water for a second boil. Doing this makes the beans softer and more digestible (ahem, less of a "magical fruit"). Use about 3 cups of water to 1 cup of beans, so that 1 cup of dried beans will become about 3 cups of cooked beans. This is one reason why it's so cheap!

From there, the beans will take about 1-2 hours to cook. I like to add different herbs and seasonings to the beans. Tonight I added chopped celery, rosemary, onion, garlic, chili flakes and black pepper. After the beans soak up most of the water, I add in a can of chopped tomatoes and some olive oil. Note, do not add salt to the beans until the very end of their cooking.

And then viola! You're done. Cooking beans from scratch is time consuming, but it isn't labor consuming. You really just put everything in a pot and check on it now and then.

I had these beans with white rice (brown rice is good too) and sauteed orange peppers. Tasty, healthy and easy on the wallet.

Sustainable Fish

As I mentioned in my last post on chicken, I've been concerned lately about the seafood I eat. Overfishing has caused a huge depletion of fish species, environmental destruction, and harms other sea life, such as turtles, dolphins, crabs, and many other critters. Not to mention mercury poisoning! Unfortunately, I eat a good amount of fish (3-4 times a week); so what's a pescatarian to do?

While planning a weekend trip to Monterey, I came across the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Guide. This guide is awesome because it lists fish that are best to eat, others that are good alternatives, and those that should be avoided. You can choose your guide according to where you live: http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1185489398155820307. I'm definitely no longer eating any fish on the avoid (red) list and hope to eat off of the yellow list only a few times a year (if at all). They also have a guide to use for sushi dining. Both guides can be downloaded to your phone as well.

I further recommend using their seafood search, where you can look up reports for each species of fish. I found this helpful for looking up tuna, since there are different types that often go by different names (Ahi, for instance, can be used to refer to Bigeye or Yellowfin tuna).

Here are some photos of fish dinners I've made with such sustainable fish:

Rainbow U.S. Farmed Trout with potatoes, mushrooms and onion. Yum. Trout is also usually cheap and easy to cook.


To be honest, I forgot which fish this was, but I believe it was wild Mahi Mahi. Troll/line caught U.S. Mahi Mahi is a Best Choice and longline caught U.S. Mahi Mahi is a Good Alternative.


Wild Tuna Steak. Can you tell that I love pairing fish with bok choy with rice?

Return to Chicken

Last night, I decided to buy and make my own Rotisserie Chicken. Now, let me explain why this was a big decision, besides the fact that I have never roasted a chicken.

The summer before my junior year of high school--almost 8 years ago!--I decided to give up all meat besides fish. I wanted to give up fish too, but my parents were too worried that I wouldn't get enough protein. (Plus, I really liked sushi, so that made my parents' demand pretty reasonable.) I still eat fish, but in the last year or so, I've learned about how a lot of fish are over-fished, which endangers their species as well as harms the environment. Plus, there are concerns about mercury poisoning and commercial fisheries using practices that end up hurting other sea life, such as turtles and dolphins.

One reason why I ended up giving up meat was because of the meat industry's damage to the environment as well as their cruelty to animals. So I decided I couldn't keep eating fish if this was true of the fishing industry too. But rather than go full vegetarian, I decided to see if I could buy a sustainably and humanely raised chicken to eat. (This decision was mostly influenced by Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and because Jeremy eats chicken too. Note, I do still eat fish, but I try to avoid the "bad kinds," which I will do another post on later.)

I ended up buying Mary's Organic and Free Range Chicken. Now, let me break down what these terms mean in regard to chicken. Organic means that the food the chickens ate was organic (aka not grown with pesticides, fertilizers, or other chemicals). Free Range means that chickens had access to the outdoors and were not kept in battery cages. However, I'm not really satisfied with the idea of free range. Why? Because free range means that chickens only had "access" to the outdoors. This means that chickens can be packed together in a barn, with a little doggie door opened up now and then to allow them to wander out. This door might lead to a tiny concrete porch, not necessarily a grassy pasture. Now, this is still a lot better than living in a battery cage, but I'd prefer if the chicken was pasture-raised. Pasture-raised means that the chicken was mostly raised outdoors--they actually had access to fresh grass where they could graze and stayed indoors when necessary (i.e. when they sleep and are young). Mary's Chicken didn't say "Pasture-raised," but other writing on the package indicated that the chicken was most likely pasture-raised. I also did a little research on the brand and visited their website: . I was pretty satisfied with their description of how they raise their chickens, and I was happy that the farm was fairly local. (I suggest watching their video too!)

Now, let's get to the cooking. I decided to copy this woman's recipe, which she got from Emeril, who got it from Julia Child: http://canyoustayfordinner.com/tag/chicken/
(it is the roasted chicken and vegetables recipe). I basically followed her exact instructions with a few minor changes. My chicken was also just over 3 lbs, not 4.

For the vegetables, I used 3 medium yukon gold potatoes, 1 big golden sweet potato, 3 carrots, 3 celery stalks, and half an onion (no parsnips). I put the celery leaves and onion in the chicken cavity, along with salt and pepper. I seasoned the outside of the chicken with olive oil, a little butter, salt, pepper, crushed garlic, and some dried thyme I had in my pantry. Also, when I basted the chicken for a second time, I drizzled a little mix of olive oil and red wine (tempranillo) over the chicken and veggies.


I thought it turned out really good! It was delicious and healthy, and I was proud that my first time roasting a chicken wasn't a disaster. :) I think in the future, I will experiment with different seasonings. I am sure adding rosemary would be really good and maybe a bit more of the garlic or wine, as well as salt and pepper. It fed Jeremy and me well with the wings and some breast still leftover.

Finally, at the end of this long post, I want to thank the little chicken who gave up his or her life to feed Jeremy and me. And I hope that its own life was happy on Mary's farm.

Happy Valentine's Day!

A lot of people hate Valentine's Day but I really like it. I get the chance to make little gifts and goodies for my closest friends and family to make sure they feel extra loved. How awesome is that? I even picked myself some flowers. Happy Valentine's Day to me!

xoxo,
ashley

Happy New Year!

Well Rachel finally guilted me into posting....It's New Year's Eve with less than an hour to go until 2010.

When one talks New Years, the conversation quickly turns to resolutions. Well, I haven't quite come up with my resolution yet. Oh wait, I got! Write more on the blog! Yes, that's it.

So far, it has been a quiet night at home for me with most friends out of town or working. I've spent most of the evening in my new Snuggie and sipping on some champagne. Yum. I hate drinking alone but hey it's New Years so who cares, right?

Part of my reason for my lack of inspiration to post here is that on September 1st, 2009, I fell down some stairs at a restaurant and broke my foot in 7 places. Yes, you heard that right: SEVEN! I've since been unable to walk on my left foot. As you can imagine, that makes cooking quite the impossible task. I do try to cook occasionally because if I don't, my dad certainly won't but it just takes so much out of me to do tasks that were once so easy and taken for granted. Luckily, I have surgery next week and my screws come out...meaning I should be rejoining the walking and standing world soon. So until then, my cooking will continue to take place in my dreams!

Cheers! Happy New Year!! Here's to a FABULOUS 2010. Gosh, it has to be better than 2009 right?

Apple Pie

I know that it's been a long time since I (or Ashley, uh hum) posted. Way back in July, I made an apple pie with Margaret. This was my first apple pie since I made my very first apple pie when I was 10 years old in England on my aunt's farm--so in other words, my only-second apple pie.

Of course, I do not have the recipe on hand, so I will have to get Margaret to post it. But I do want to say that it was delicious, especially with vanilla bean ice cream. A homemade pie just beats out anything store bought. And having it warm from the oven makes it so much more satisfying than a cold slice you get in a cafe. The dough was homemade too, although Margaret had made a batch beforehand, froze it, and then thawed it for this particular pie. (A nice idea.)

Anyway, enjoy the photo. Recipe to come soon!

Penguin's Frozen Yogurt

Hey! So this isn't Rachel, but her sis, Mariah. I just wanted to share with you all my favorite frozen yogurt shop! I like to think of myself as a fro yo connoisseur so to speak. If I was only allowed to eat one food for the rest of my life it would definitely be frozen yogurt, I would never get tired of it! I've tried every fro yo chain as well as many small family owned places. My favorite place in LA is Penguin's. The one I frequent is in La Canada but they have a couple others in the LA area. The reason why I love it sooo much is because it has the BEST kind of sugar free fro yo out there! It's so hard to find a sugar free option, let alone a tasty one! And its only a mere 8 calories an ounce!!! That means you could have a whole pint and it will only set you back 128 cals (if you do the correct math haha). The other reason I love this place is because their flavors actually taste like their descriptions! For example, the other day I got sugar free white cake batter and I could literally taste the flour in it haha! All the flavors are lovely and creamy. So if you're into the tart stuff this isnt the place for you. Penguin's also has great toppings.. an array of different fruits as well as yummy crushed cookie options, sprinkles, chopped candy bars, a variety of nuts, etc. Another great thing is they change all their flavors every 3 to 4 days so if you eat fro yo more than once a week (like me) you have lots of variety. In addition to fro yo, they also sell smoothies, parfaits, coffee, and ice cream. The prices are also relatively cheap compared to chains like Pinkberry and Yogurtland. The employees are also very nice and always smiling. The only downfall of this place (for some people) is that it's not self serve, which seems to be the new trend. However, I like the fact that it isn't self serve because I usually over load when I'm at a self serve shop and end up spending like $5 or $6 for just a regular size! So for myself (someone who doesn't have much self control when it comes to fro yo) a non self-serve place is best haha