Last night we held our first cooking for health gathering – five of us gathered to discuss and share ideas around the theme Substituting Vegetables for Grains. I realized a few years ago that I didn’t eat a single meal without some sort of grain. And the easiest one to grab was from a plastic bag: store-bought bread. Bread was totally out of balance in my diet. And, since I needed to get more vitamins and nutrients and wanted to reduce foods stored in plastic, bread seemed like it would cover the gamut as a single food to sub out. I thought it was a great idea – simple substitution. But: it was REALLY HARD. I was totally addicted to bread! I found out this year that eating a slice of white bread causes the liver to release as much glycogen into the blood as ingesting a tablespoon of white sugar. Because bread is fluffy, it digests really fast, causing that spike in blood sugar. Pasta made from the same wheat is slower-digesting. See this study that Paul Bergner, of the North American Institute for Medical Herbalism, introduced us to.

I finally adjusted to not reaching for bread by just not having it around for a while, forcing me to come up with alternatives instead of taking the easy way out. Having a group of friends sharing similar path would have been so awesome – which is the reason for our cooking evenings. 

Here are some of the ideas we shared:

Lunch/Sandwich substitutes:

• Portobello mushroom tops as bread slices, stuff with hummus and strips of roasted red pepper, or use as a regular sandwich – a veggie filling with lots of lettuce, shredded carrots or ginger carrots.
• Cabbage leaves for burrito roll-ups, stuff with baked sweet potato and goat cheese, wilted swiss chard and onion, or pork filling. Steam for 3 minutes or wilt slightly in salted water before rolling.
• Lettuce leaves for tacos – like burritos above but with fillings like ground beef, fermented red cabbage, and yogurt.
• Skewers or toothpicks or chive tie – rolled up sliced meat around think long slices of pepper, cucumber, and carrot.

Breakfast without bread:

• Salad or wilted greens with egg on top as sub for egg and toast
• Almond butter on apple slices
• Granola parfaits made with whole-milk yogurt and nuts (for higher protein content)
• Bowl of steaming polenta with butter, whole-milk yogurt, and frozen blueberries piled high

Pasta substitutes:

• Zucchini, Summer squash, or Carrot spaghetti (use box grater or veggetti spiral slicer).
• Spaghetti squash, baked, salted, drizzled with olive oil and scooped onto the plate, sauced.

The key is to strive for a continuous kitchen with easy-to-grab vegetables. Start with a bunch of thinly julienned vegetables to stuff into these above ideas. Use a knife, box grater, or mandoline. Try Carrots, Daikon, Cucumber, Peppers, Beet, Summer Squash/Zucchini, Turnips, Radishes. Prep crisp vegetables up to 3 days ahead and store in glass with airtight seal. Airtight keeps things fresher longer. Some people like a little water – I find all but the radish keep better without water.

None of these are really recipes – the idea is to be facile enough to use what’s on hand in whatever you make, using a format your family is already comfortable with (sandwich, pasta with sauce, egg breakfast).

Finding glass and stainless containers with airtight rubber gasket lids made by companies like Kids Konserve, Anchor Hocking, Wean Green, and LunchBots was a big help in making this work. I can cut the veggies, store them in the containers, and stack the boxes in the fridge, grabbing them in the morning to add the rest of the lunch and packing them in their lunch bags. The cut vegetables stay fresh longer and it makes it easier and more appealing than reaching for the bag of chips or bread. Crisp, colorful, and flavorful.

We heard about CSAs from Life Force Juice, Farmers to You, and Simple Scallion. (Which used to be called Graze – but lost that name to a UK-based snack company… which I realized this morning is a service that I currently use! Slow on the connections… But anyway, you can sign up here. Graze has some great choices, you can get the four-pack boxes weekly, bi-weekly, monthly. I don’t think their sources are organic, and not sure about local, but the mixes and choices are fun and it is a great concept with fun packaging. Plus my kids love getting the box in the mail!) Farmers To You is another interesting CSA out of VT.  They have more basic pantry items, dried legumes, wheat flour that’s grown and processed by a single producer, fish, milk and many of the same vendors used by the prepared-foods of Simple Scallion. They complement each other nicely. Also, they have a few paragraphs about the farmer and item produced – I love having the story.

Topics to cover:

• Probiotic foods
• Wheat alternatives
• Preparing wheat for optimal digestibility
• Simple snacks that can be stored without refrigeration
• The muffin format: what else can we get in there?
• Nut- and meat-free high-protein snacks
• Easy pasta sauces
• Simple seasoning: garlic, olive oil, butter, salt and pepper, spices and herbs
• Desserts to feel good about

Next gathering: Fermented Foods – how to increase your probiotic intake with pickling fruits and vegetables. We will make ginger carrots, a shrub, kombucha, fool-proof yogurt, and sauerkraut.

Third gathering: The Muffin Format

Jodi’s oatmeal bites and lentil muffins

Juliana’s orange cupcakes

Jess’s morning glory muffins

Fourth gathering: Desserts (just in time for the holiday season to start)

Juliana’s jingle balls

Jodi’s granola

Natalie’s herbal nut truffles