Time to Rock & Roll

No. Not going to see the Rolling Stones. Nope. Not running some rock & roll marathon.

I made sushi.


I have to admit, I was inspired by Elizabeth's [Sushi] Rollin' With My Homies post. I'm not a fan of reposting on something someone just did, but I had to try sushi again. Last time I attempted this, it was a rice-aster. I had flecks of short-grain brown rice in my hair for weeks. But when I saw the success Elizabeth had, I decided I would give it another try. So I cranked up some country music and began sushi rolling. (I know, there's no connection, but I like to listen to country while cooking.)


I first had to pick up some ingredients that were not currently in my cupboard:

• Nori wraps
• Wasabi powder
• ginger
• sesame seeds
• miso

I did have the rice vinegar, SHORT grain brown rice, and veggies.



I started the process by making some Quick and Dirty Pickled Ginger

3/4 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 large hunk of ginger peeled and sliced mandolin-style


Bring vinegar, sugar, and salt to a boil. Add sliced ginger and boil for 5 minutes. WARNING: Boiling vinegar will drive away your most vile neighbors, but will also send everyone else within a 1000-yard vicinity running to the hills. Pack a jar with ginger and boiling liquid. Let cool, and the refrigerate for at least and hour before eating.


I know there aren't many ginger fans out there, but I love it. This quick pickled ginger recipe leaves quite a kick, so I wouldn't advise it for the meek of heart. If you like ginger like me, the more the better!


I then got started on the rice. Elizabeth says that the keys to making brown rice sticky are 1) use a 1 cup:1 cup:1 Tbsp ratio of rice:water:rice vinegar and 2) DO NOT use metal utensils or bowls. I am a fan of the Lundberg short grain brown rice; in fact, I do not know of any other brands that produce this kind of rice in the U.S. I suggest you see Elizabeth's notes on making sushi for more insight.


I was on a roll (ha), and decided to make miso soup, too. I really wanted seaweed salad, but Hannaford doesn't carry seaweed. I made this basic miso soup recipe on the back of the Shiro Miso (for which I paid a small fortune for). From the Eden Foods website, Shiro Miso is "often called "sweet white" or "Kyoto-style" light golden paste and is the sweetest and lowest sodium miso. It is made in small batches and is hand crafted by one of the oldest miso companies in Japan in the ancient traditional manner, from organic rice, US organically grown soybeans, pure water, sea salt, and koji. It is the most popular miso in Japan."

It was very bland, and I did have to add some salt. In the future, I'd add some vegetable broth in place of the water, and more veggies!


Next came the very arduous and potentially fatal process of sushi rolling.


Here, I have all of my fillings cut into long strips. I used mango, cucumbers, avocado, and leftover sweet potato. No raw fish here. So far, things are looking pretty un-chaotic.

A 1/2 cup scoop of brown rice/rice vinegar mixture spread over a nori wrap. Still pretty calm. I added some avocado and cucumber here, too.

Seriously? Okay, at this point things were looking good. But where I ran into trouble last time was in the cutting part.

Getting ready to cut...

Success! I can't believe it worked. Elizabeth was right. The secret's in the rice vinegar.


This is where it gets embarrassing. I spent the next hour (or way more) making TONS of rolls. I keep wanting to make "on a roll" jokes, but I'll stop.


It worked every time! I did end up eating the ends along the way, because those tended to fall apart, but other than that, I now have plates full of vegetable or mango rolls!

Doesn't that look like raw fish? Nope, it's cooked sweet potato! It even kind of has the texture of salmon sushi...

I topped the sushi with some toasted sesame seeds, and plated these bad boys up with some light Kikkoman soy sauce, wasabi, and pickled ginger.

Like Elizabeth mentioned in her post, this revamped style of sushi brings a lot to the table: brown rice adds a little bit of fiber and vitamins not had in white rice, the vegetarian-ness of this sushi does not require the certification of raw fish sushi chef (and they can be saved for lunch tomorrow), sushi night adds variety to an otherwise monotonous week of meal, and the pickled ginger and wasabi will blow your head off!


Question of the Day: Do you DESPISE ginger or LOVE it to the ends of the Earth? Personally, I love it and if I have kids and I have a girl, I'm naming her Ginger. :-) By that time, the Gilligan's Island reference will be history.

Worth Your Weight in Salad

Did you know?

The Cobb salad was invented by Bob Cobb, cousin of Ty Cobb. Bob Cobb (what was his mother thinking??) was the owner of Hollywood's Brown Derby in 1937. The original recipe contained lettuce (Iceberg, chicory, watercress, Romaine), tomatoes, bacon, chicken, hard-boiled eggs, avocado, corn, Roquefort cheese, chives, and the signature Cobb salad dressing.

I have to confess, I'm not the best example of a salad lover. Big chunks of Iceberg, Romaine, and mealy tomatoes just don't do it for me. However, a salad made from fresh garden greens is another story. I also like my salad to be chopped in bite-sized, manageable pieces. A wedge salad is my worst nightmare. Anyway, in order for me to like salad, it has to be prepared in a specific way with only the freshest ingredients; otherwise, I'm heading to a different section of the menu.

My CSA started this week, and in it came a head of green leaf lettuce, a bunch of arugula, beets and beet greens, strawberries, kale, spinach, and garlic scapes. In the spirit of creating a salad dish I was willing to eat, I began creating a hybrid Mexican - Cobb knock-off salad. Using the green leaf lettuce and arugula from my CSA and the vegetables that were hanging around in the crisper, I created a taste of the rainbow that puts Skittles to shame.

Taste of The Rainbow Salad

1 head of green leaf lettuce (I'd get yours from Stillman's Farm if I were you!), finely chopped

1 bunch of spicy arugula, finely chopped

1 cup of black beans

1 cup chopped cherry tomatoes

1 yellow pepper, finely diced

1 cup Trader Joe's roasted frozen corn, defrosted

1 avocado, sliced

1 small bunch cilantro, chopped (optional)

Simple Dressing

1/4 cup EVOO

1/4 cup lemonade

1 tsp Arizona seasoning

1 tsp turmeric

S&P

Instructions:

Chop all ingredients into tiny, bite-sized bits. Layer ingredients in a salad bowl. Mix dressing ingredients together and whisk. Drizzle over the salad.

We topped the salad with small slices of free bird chicken, grilled and seasoned with Arizona rub.

So delicious, filling and a overall feel-good meal.

These guys also came in the CSA box. Garlic scapes, not snakes. Any suggestions for cooking? I was thinking of sauteed kale with garlic scapes...

Question of the Day: How do you like your salad? Are you a Ranch dressing person? A wedge lover? A Caesar salad soul? Or, when you hear salad do you think potato and macaroni?

Leadership at its Best... and Lentils.

This past weekend, I was in Scottsdale, Arizona for the American Dietetic Association's Leadership Institute. What a beautiful place!

Here are some quick take-away messages for anyone, not just RDs:

• When a bad decision was made, you are frustrated, or in a bad mood, just remember the mantra, "nobody died."
• Create "white space" in your life.
• Everyone can improve on their active listening skills.
• Attitude is everything.
• You're a genius, oh brilliant one.
• Always check your credit card when traveling.

After 8 days of traveling, it was nice to be home. In celebration of being back to my kitchen, I whipped together a quick veg dish you'll be sure to love, in honor of the letter "L."

Lovely Leadership Lentils

It's back to the grind this week. By the way, how do you like my new blog layout? Any suggestions to make it better?

I'm SO excited because my CSA starts this week!

Food For Your Whole Life Symposium, Day 2

Food For Your Whole Life Symposium, Day 2 started out with a super-early morning press conference with all of the big players - from Dr. Katz to Dr. Clemens to Dr. Michael Roizen. They all reviewed their part of the upcoming program for the day and answered questions from the press. The best part of the press conference was the five of us in the second row with our computers out, tweeting away. We were quite a sight to be seen.

After the press conference, we got a bite to eat for breakfast and the day started rolling, one talk after another. During the morning sessions, Karen Collins talked about the importance of making nutrition a priority during early adulthood. During this time, good nutritional practices are not always on the top of a young adult's priority list; usually, it is getting through college, getting a job, paying bills, establishing yourself, etc. These days, it seems like less and less young adults are cooking for themselves, and Dr. Collins, RD quoted that in young adults, 40% of caloric consumption comes from foods eaten out of the home. This is a huge contributor to a young adult's energy and nutrient needs.

Dr. Collins also discussed the importance of stressing adequate sleep when working with individuals within this age group. A study that Collins presented showed that only 23% of individuals studied said that in the last 30 days, there were zero days that were reported as excessively tired due to lack of sleep. As a whole, we need to be working on getting adequate sleep to improve the quality of our waking hours.

When working with this age group, Collins recommends:

• flexible meal planning
• providing practical application for grocery shopping for meals
• providing basic cooking skills
• providing time management cooking skills
• providing education about equipment and access barriers

Collins, the RD for the American Institute on Cancer Research also recommended a great resource called the New American Plate, and is a great resource for any age group. Check it out here.

And then came lunch. I have to say, this was the best conference lunch I've ever had! One of the underlying themes of most of the speakers' presentations was the emphasis on a plant-based diet for good health. We all agreed that focusing on and celebrating this type of meal pattern at lunch would be a "great way for us as health professionals to practice what we preach."

This pear and blueberry dessert in a walnut tuile cup was SO delicious. I wish I knew how to make tuile cups with walnuts.

After lunch came some more presentations, including Brian Wansink's interesting discussion about his research. Elizabeth was granted an interview, and when she posts about it, you HAVE to read it. He is quite the character, and I'm sure it came through in the interview. Check out some of the work that he and his lab does up at the Cornell Food and Brand Lab here. Watch the video. It rocks. It's pretty amazing stuff about why we eat the way we do. After all, he specializes in behavioral psychology about food behaviors.

I have an interview in the works with a very special guest. This post to come shortly!

Overall, this was a great experience, and I can't thank that staff that organized Food For Your Whole Life enough for the opportunity to partake in this conference! Thank you also to the gracious sponsors The California Walnut Board, USA Pears, Wild Blueberries, The Pea and Lentil Council.

Where's Waldo?

So after the conference, Janel and I flew to Arizona for the ADA Leadership Institute. Here's a photo journey of what we've experienced so far...

We ate breakfast here.

We relaxed here.

We ate a healthy lunch of fish tacos and hummus and pitas.

And did yoga here.

I'm so excited for the ADA Leadership Institute to begin!

Food For Your Whole Life Symposium, Day 1

What a great conference! I'm here in New York City listening to talks from the likes of Dr. Oz, Dr. Roizen, and Dr. David Katz. You can follow all of the sound bites I've recorded on Twitter here.

Before the conference started, we utilized the fabulous gym at the Hyatt; after all, we ARE at a healthy living conference!

The conference started out with a great display from industry sponsors: USA Pears, Wild Blueberries, Peas and Lentils and Walnuts.

At noon, Dr. Oz stepped on stage and talked about making changes to improve health:

• Control your blood pressure (115/75)
• Stop smoking
• Exercise 30 minutes per day
• Eat a healthful diet that's easy to love
• Control stress

I was thrilled to hear that Dr. Oz was promoting a healthy diet that's easy to love. He talked a bit about the details, including eating a whole food, plant-based diet high in fiber. Food should be eaten in the form in which they come from the ground! Whenever possible, get your nutrients from whole foods instead of supplements; let food be thy medicine!

Later in the afternoon, we heard Dr. David Katz speak. I've been using his research in my work in childhood nutrition and public health for quite a time now, so it was great to finally hear him speak. He was even better than I could have dreamed!

Dr. Katz is an internationally renowned authority on nutrition, integrative medicine, and patient-centered care; he is the director and founder of Yale University's Prevention Research Center and director and founder of the Integrative Medicine Center at Griffin Hospital and inventor of Nuval, a nutrient scoring system found in grocery stores nationwide. Basically, a genius.

One of his most poignant messages is that we have a whole lot of control over our own medical destiny. Through making healthy decisions with our feet (exercise!), our forks (healthy diet!), and our fingers (stop smoking!), we control our fate. He was speaking more in terms of public health, but thinking through these items on a personal level helps to improve our own health as well.

He also spoke a lot about our food environment, and how we are "polar bears in the Sahara." It is difficult to function in an environment that we are not acclimated to: a food environment saturated with unhealthy foods 24/7. This is one of the reasons he invented the NuVal nutrient scoring system; as a "GPS for the food supply", this intricate and complicated scoring system provides a guide to consumers provides them with the freedom, skill, and knowledge to make choices within the food system that are healthy.

Dr. Katz is an expert on childhood feeding practices, and he discussed that before we can feed children well, we need to learn how to feed ourselves. And in feeding ourselves, it's not just about will power, but about skill power. Skill power is about being empowered and prepared with knowledge and skills for buying, cooking, and eating foods. Just like adults, children like the freedom of choice, so when feeding children, give them structured choice; instead of letting a child choose a cookie or apple for a snack, give them the option of an apple or pear.

His bottom line was that the one true path to health is our lifestyle choices, day in and day out. He proved this point through his 10 minute recitation of a poem he wrote about disease prevention and living a healthy lifestyle. Written in Dr. Seuss-ish fashion, it conveyed the health state of our nation and what we can do about it. It was pretty awesome.

After the other talks, we headed to the media reception to chat with some of the speakers, including Mollie Katzen, Dr. Katz, and Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating.

And for dinner, we headed to Josie's Cafe for some delicious vegan eats, including a nice big spinach salad with the best tofu I've ever had!

After dinner, we all crashed and got ready for a very early press conference with the experts in the morning!

Corinne, Janel, Elizabeth, and Lindsey also posted on specific speakers' talks on Sunday, and their recap posts can be found here:

• Lindsey's recap of Dr. Roizen's talk
• Janel's recap of the Cooking Demo with Rocco Dispirito, Mollie Katzen, and Jamie Lauren
• Corinne's recap
• Elizabeth's recap

Come back soon for a recap of Day 2!

Welcome to Jessica's Taco Stand!

I've been a little absent for a while on this blog, but I've just really been enjoying reading others' blogs and finding inspiration there. I've also been super-busy with my new job, training, and trying to disconnect from electronics a bit to enjoy the people, places, and things around me.

Regarding the training, I don't know where I ever found the time to train for the Boston Marathon, because I'm doing P90X and can barely keep up. P90X in a nutshell is a DVD-based weight training program that includes muscle group-specific exercises on varying days in addition to yoga, plyometrics, kenpo, and stretching. I've have certainly toned up since starting 5 weeks ago! Once completed, I'll give you a full recap.

So you might be wondering why I titled this post the way I did. After reading this article about the rising popularity of taco trucks in Eating Well magazine, I decided that if I ever change professions, I will open a pesco-vegetarian taco truck in Central Massachusetts. Seriously, can't you see the need for it? But since I will probably stick to my current job for the time being, I did the next best thing and made tacos at home today. Fish tacos, to be exact. Since it was a little warm last night, I decided everything needed to be cooked on the grill to keep the house from heating up.

Friday Fish Tacos (for two)

4-6 corn tortillas

cooking spray

8-10 oz. white fish (I bought haddock)

1/4 tsp cumin powder

1/4 tsp cayenne powder

1/4 tsp chili powder

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 head of cauliflower

olive oil

S & P to taste

1 avocado

1 bunch of cilantro

1 tomato

1 small lime

1 cup black beans

I started with some corn tortillas. Spray them with cooking spray and onto the grill they went for about 1 minute on each side.

I then dressed the fish with some roasted cumin powder, chili powder, cayenne powder, pepper, and lemon juice and grilled inside of a aluminum foil wrapping. For some reason, this combination of spices makes it into everything I cook.

To make sure I got some vegetable matter in this dish, I grilled some cauliflower sprinkled with salt, pepper, and EVOO. It too went on the grill aluminum-wrapped.

While all the taco filling ingredients were grilling, I assembled my tried and true recipe for guacamole for 2:

• 1 avocado, mashed
• 1/2 bunch (about 1/3 cup) finely chopped fresh cilantro
• juice of one small lime
• a pinch of sea salt
• 1/2 cup chopped tomato (optional)

And finally opened a can of black beans to sprinkle on top of our tacos. I always try to get the low-sodium version whenever possible. If I'm not in a rush and plan ahead, I'll get dry beans and soak and cook them from scratch, but this requires forethought. Canned beans are so easy and a great source of fiber at 7 grams per 1/2 cup!

The finished product:

On another note, this weekend I will be tweeting (and follow the #food4yourwholelife hashtag) and blogging like crazy because Corinne, Janel, Lindsey, Elizabeth and I will be heading to NYC to provide media coverage for the Food For Your Whole Life conference! Come back early and often to find out just what Dr. Oz or Keri Gans or Dr. Katz is saying about healthy living! In the meantime, see what all us bloggers have to say about healthy living on the Food For Your Whole Life blog. See you in New York!