Squash tea

Today L.H. and I went over to visit my friend I.  She was busy making orange soup from yummy squash.  She prefers her orange soup to be based on milk, not water, but she cooks the squash in water first before separating, mashing, and mixing in milk.

That's a shame, you might say.  All that cooking water, full of valuable nutrients, and she's not even going to use it.  Except that she does - she drinks it as tea.  It may sound a little odd at first, but let me tell you - it is really, really yummy.  She adds a little bit of brown sugar, some milk, and then drinks down this delicious, nutritious beverage.  It's not the kind of tea that I would necessarily want every day, but boy is it yummy as a once-in-a-while kind of thing.

So the next time that you are cooking up some squash and don't plan on using the cooking water for anything, keep this in mind.  Squash tea is simply amazing.

Fruity Wheat Berry Salad

As part of my quest to include more whole grains in the family diet, I have been experimenting with all sorts of different salads based off of bulgur, kasha, and wheat berries.  My friend L. has a fantastic wheat berry salad that she makes and everyone loves, but I was looking to change things up a bit and make them more interesting.  So after some internet searching, I recently found a new recipe here and then modified it to fit what was available in my cabinet and the grocery store.  So here it is:

1.5 cups wheat berries
1/3-1/2 cup Craisins (or raisins or dried currants)
1 red bell pepper
1 cup chopped peaches (preferably fresh, canned and frozen also work)
1 clove garlic, minced or crushed
2 T honey
1 T lemon juice
1 T vinegar
2 T canola oil
1/2 tsp salt

Rinse the wheat berries.  Place in a pot and cover with enough water to be about 2 inches above the wheat berries (around 4.5-5 cups, usually).  Bring to a boil and then simmer for around an hour, stirring occasionally, until the wheat is soft.

After cooking, allow the wheat to cool before adding Craisins, pepper, and peaches, and then topping with the dressing.  Taste and adjust as needed.

This salad is a big hit with L.H., who tends to be a little picky.  N. and I also enjoy it very much and it's great because you get a whole grain, a fruit, and a vegetable all in one delicious dish.  It can also be easily transported for lunch away from home and will survive the long hours out of refrigeration.

Eating homemade, eating healthy

There is a growing movement, at least in the US, to eat more 'natural' foods.  This includes less processed food, more whole grains, more organic products, etc.  Many people think that since I am a vegetarian (and have been for my whole life), I must be into all of these things, too.  Truth be told, organic really isn't my thing.  Are there merits to this 'natural' way of eating?  Sure.  Am I going to take on all of these habits and the extra expense that comes with them?  Nope.

That being said, I am changing my cooking and eating habits, and the hyperemesis is largely to blame for that.  While I was pregnant I could eat very few foods, and I noticed that some things in particular were sure to come back up.  But then I found that the more pure the food was, the fresher, the freer from preservatives and additives, the more likely it was to stay in.  The two biggest examples were apple juice and chummus.

I spent my pregnancy pretty much chronically dehydrated, though I only went in to the hospital for IV hydration when I got really really bad.  I probably should have gone more often, but even just getting there was such a nightmare, not to mention that I would come home and just continue vomiting.  So finding liquids that would stay in was at the top of my list of priorities.

Apple juice seemed like a likely candidate at some point, so we bought some.  Mind you, at least in Israel most of the things labelled 'juice' don't necessarily have much relation to the real stuff, but N. went out and bought me a bottle that was labelled as 100% juice (I'm pretty sure he must have spent half of those eight long months going back and forth to the grocery store, trying to find me something that would stay in).  Needless to say, this '100% juice' did not sit terribly well.  Why, you might ask?  Well, it could be the added ascorbic acid or the other couple of things that were in it, if you actually read the ingredients.  My juice was not pure.

We finally decided to move up to the refrigerator section, where there were bottles of juice that only had juice listed in the ingredients.  And you know what?  It worked.  That stuff was like magic.  Pure apple juice, and it stayed inside my belly where I got needed hydration and calories to keep the babe growing and myself from fading away.  There were about two months at the end of my pregnancy where that was all I could drink, so it took me a year after giving birth to be able to drink it again at all.

The chummus was more obvious.  If you pick up a package of chummus from the store, there's a list of around 20 ingredients.  If you make it yourself - six.  My mother-in-law makes her own chummus so that was how I found out that I could tolerate homemade and not store-bought.

Before all of this, I had never really thought so much about the amount of extra things that go into your normal, everyday food.  Sure, I wasn't buying those super processed foods that are clearly terrible for you and I was trying to steer away from things like MSG, but I wasn't really thinking about seemingly harmless foods.  It takes an overactive stomach to realize that things aren't as innocent as they seem.

Now I make from scratch a lot of food that we were previously buying ready-made, and you know what?  We're much happier that way.  Aside from being healthier, yummier, and cheaper, it also opens up more options for me in the event that my next pregnancy continues on this trend.  So am I an 'organic' person, buying only 'natural' foods?  No, and I don't plan to be.  I plan to be as healthy as I can on our very limited budget, and trying to keep out of my body things that shouldn't be there.

Sweet Potato Fries

I first started making this recipe when I was looking for finger food to feed L.H.  I made my first batch and half of it made it into my belly before I remembered that it wasn't even for me!  This is a delicious, healthy way to make sweet potatoes, and you can play around with the spices to personalize it.

Sweet potatoes
Olive oil
Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400F.  Cut up scrubbed or peeled sweet potatoes into whatever size and shape you want (I do strips).  Put the cut-up potatoes into a big bowl, sprinkle with olive oil and cinnamon, and toss to evenly coat.  Place them on a baking sheet and stir them around a bit before popping them in the oven for 30-45 minutes.  They will be mushy, not crunchy like white potato fries.

You could also add a little nutmeg or brown sugar, or if you want to make it spicy instead of sweet you can put curry powder and chili powder.  I haven't tried this yet but it's on my to-do list!

These fries are perfect as a finger food, a snack on the go, or as a side at a meal.

Delicious Smoothies

I've made these smoothies a couple of times, and they are just too yummy to pass up:

1 pint strawberry yogurt
1 banana
1 kiwi
enough milk to get it to the consistency that you want

Stick everything in the blender until smooth and enjoy!  Blending it also makes it satisfyingly frothy, and this makes enough for about 2.5 people.