Recipe: Bean Bourguignon

I was reading Runner's World recently, and found a very good looking recipe in it.  Generally, I find their recipe's too look great, but be way too high in sugar for my preference.  It's funny - usually they have naturally sweet ingredients (like fruit), but then add more sugar, honey or maple syrup on top of that, and I never know why they do that.  Of course, by, "it's funny," I mean, "it's sad and unnecessary."

So, with a bit of skepticism, I read a recipe for making a classic, rich, savory dish into one a bit healthier.  Bouf Bourguignon is an old French classic for a rich, flavorful, slow-cooked treat. If you've seen the movie Julie & Julia, you may recognize the dish's name.  Runner's World replaced the beef with white beans, so as to be more health-conscious while still providing lots of protein. Oddly enough, they add in prosciutto for flavor, thus dashing any hopes of this being a vegetarian or vegan dish.  My version kept with the meat, but I have a couple of ways to move further away from carnivority (if that's a word, which it isn't).

So, here's the Runner's World recipe, as it appears on their site, save for one edit.  They left out re-adding the mushrooms, so I've written that in below (see the blue text). This comes from http://www.runnersworld.com/recipes/recipe-bean-bourguignon.

Ingredients

Photo courtesy of Runner's World

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 package (10 ounces) baby portabella mushrooms, quartered, or cut into sixths if large
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large onion, chopped
6 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, minced
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup flour
1 cup dry red wine, such as cabernet sauvignon, burgundy, or merlot
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
3 cans (15 ounces each) white beans, drained
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

Instructions
Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms. Cook for about 6 to 8 minutes, or until liquid evaporates and mushrooms start to brown. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl and set aside. Add remaining tablespoon of oil and onion to the pot. Cook onion, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes, or until translucent. Add prosciutto, garlic, thyme, and bay leaves. Add the cooked mushrooms back in. Cook for 2 minutes. Sprinkle in the flour and stir. Whisk in wine and broth. Stir in the beans. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes. Stir in the parsley and serve. Serves 6.

Nutrition Information
Calories Per Serving: 377
Carbs: 44 g
Fiber: 9 g
Protein: 22 g
Fat: 11 g

It's a very simple dish, actually, with the toughest part being, well, just about nothing. OK, if you use fresh thyme like I did, picking it from the stems is time-consuming.  It's basically about throwing things in a pot, sometimes taking some out before adding them back in - but you could even skip that, and just add the onions after the mushrooms cook.  I wouldn't, but it's probably not that big of a deal.

So, what did I do to alter this?  Well, first, I don't drink, so the wine had to go.  This allowed me to make this recipe while sticking to my Clean14 pledge of no alcohol (along with other things). I was trying to think of what to use instead, and my wife had a brilliant idea - seriously brilliant - use pomegranate juice. It has a similar flavor profile and tartness.  It is very sugary, though, which is my only concern. A serving of POM Wonderful has over 30 grams of sugar. You could also use tart cherry juice. I just looked at a concentrate version on Amazon, and it has 14 grams per serving, so that would work nicely, too.

The second thing I changed was to ditch the white flour. That has the nice effect of making this a gluten-free dish, while also replacing wasteful carbs with more productive carbs and protein.  You can go several ways here, but I chose a mix of almond and coconut flour. The coconut flour is closer to white flour in consistency, while the protein and carb profile of almond flour is really nice. I also think it gives a richness to dishes while not adding rich stuff.  I was also a little concerned with the coconut flour giving coconut flavor to the dish.  I can say this didn't happen at all given how flavorful the other ingredients are, and how little you're using (it's only a 1/4 cup of flour, so even all coconut flour should't do much).  As always, I'd recommend Bob's Red Mill for your flour needs.  They're a great company with great products and great values.

Third thing I changed was to use natural, black forest bacon.  Nothing wrong with prosciutto if you're ok with meat (and pork), but the really good stuff without junk preservatives can be very costly.  I added 20 strips of well-cooked bacon (I bought pre-cooked, but you can cook it yourself - I just didn't have the time) for about 1/4 the price of 6 ounces of prosciutto.  This gave a lot of great flavor to the dish.

To avoid pork, you could easily use turkey bacon (I actually intended to, but the Whole Foods I went to was out of it when I went).  To go vegan, you can use vegan bacon. It doesn't have the same flavor, but it has a good flavor, and I think would definitely do the job. If you don't want to do that, you could add probably a tablespoon of liquid smoke to get the same effect.  Lastly, if you want to avoid adding something like that, you could use shiitake mushrooms, which have a nice, woody, smokey flavor to them.  I'd do another 10 ounces (so doubling the amount of mushrooms), and make sure they're nicely cut up to release as much flavor as possible.  To keep it vegan, you could easily use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth (as RW points out), but you could even possibly use miso soup (Whole Food's 365 brand has a miso broth that has a very light flavor, and could help make up for the lack of wine by adding a bit of fermentation to the dish).  I haven't tried doing it with miso, but a gentle miso broth could work nicely here.

My only other change was to add way more thyme than they recommend, and to do so with fresh thyme.  I love the taste of thyme, and it can help to make up for the lost flavors from rendering beef, wine or prosciutto.

The whole thing, including picking the thyme from the stems, took about 40 minutes, with 30 of that being cooking.

So how did it taste?  Honestly, unreal.  The house smelled amazingly, too.  I got three good-sized servings out of it, but I'm not sharing them with anyone because I'm stingy and like it took much.  This would go really well over brown rice or quinoa (tip - cook them in chicken, veggie or miso broth for an even better taste), or on its own.  I put it over a little bit of chicken-stock-cooked brown rice.  It would also pair really nicely with some rutabaga chips.

Recipe: Kale Chips

Kale is perhaps the most talked-about, poster-child-food for healthy eating. Every serious and joke post I read about healthy eating makes some reference to kale. The thing is, it really is exceptionally healthy.  Wikipedia has a great post on kale and its nutritional value:

Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, and rich in calcium. Kale is a source of two carotenoids, lutein andzeaxanthin. Kale, as with broccoli and other brassicas, contains sulforaphane (particularly when chopped or minced), a chemical with potent anti-cancer properties. Boiling decreases the level of sulforaphane; however, steaming, microwaving, or stir fryingdoes not result in significant loss. Along with other brassica vegetables, kale is also a source of indole-3-carbinol, a chemical which boosts DNA repair in cells and appears to block the growth of cancer cells. Kale has been found to contain a group of resins known as bile acid sequestrants, which have been shown to lower cholesterol and decrease absorption of dietary fat. Steaming significantly increases these bile acid binding properties.

OK, so that's a lot to take in, but it's a very healthy vegetable.

A basic way to eat it is to steam, sauté or boil it, but my favorite way is to make kale chips. You can buy lots of different kale chips in flavors like parmesan, but I find the store-bought ones to be over-done in terms of flavoring, which typically means they're loaded with things you don't need to put in your body (ahem, clean14). You can make your own kale chips super easily, and make sure you don't get any of what you don't need.

FYI - if you would prefer this in video form, I did an episode of my podcast on kale chips, so check it out on YouTube or subscribe to the iTunes podcast.

First, you need to know a bit about the various types of kale. You can make chips with any of them, but I suggest lacinato kale, which is also called dinosaur kale. It has a flat leaf, unlike most other types of kale, which lends itself really well to making chips.


ingredients

• 1 bunch of lacinato kale (aka dinosaur kale)
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1-2 tbsp sea salt or himalayan (salt to your liking)
• Optional flavors - cayenne pepper, ginger, sesame, dill, cilantro, parmesan cheese, curry, etc - experiment with spices and flavors you like, but stay away from sauces - use the real spices behind the flavors

cooking for life

Step one is to make your oil and seasoning mixture so it has time to get well-flavored.  In a bowl, mix up your oil, crushed garlic and sea salt. If you want to experience with other flavors, go for it. My main guidance is to use the actual spices rather than a sauce. For example, if you want a hot, BBQ-style flavor, throw some garlic, cayenne and cumin into the oil - don't use BBQ sauce. The idea is to keep things light and flavorful, but also healthy.  Putting BBQ sauce on them would make them soggy, heavy and loaded with sugar. You won't have chips, but rather wet and soggy BBQ sugar kale. That doesn't sound very enticing to me, and certainly not keeping things healthy.

Step two is to separate the leaves and the central spine.  Kale has a spine in the middle which you can eat, but it isn't pleasant or easy, and it doesn't make for as good a chip experience, so you should separate it out. You can tear the leaves away, or use a paring knife to cut them free.

Wash and dry your leaves, really ensuring you rub each leaf to get any dirt that's stuck on them off of them.  Shake the leaves dry, and maybe even pat them dry.  The dryer they are, they better.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. You can use aluminum foil, but it's better to avoid the heavy metals, and also the parchment will help the chips end up lighter as they'll keep the chips from sitting in a pool of oil by allowing it to permeate away from the chips a little bit.

Once the leaves are dry, you can mix them with the flavored oil, either in a bowl or right on the baking sheet.  Really work the oil throughout the chips, coating both sides.  Then arrange the chips so that you don't have layers of plastered together chips.  It's ok for a chip to have another on top of it, but try to turn each layer so there's air between them.  This will allow them to crisp up.

Pre-heat your oven to 350˙ F.  While it heats up, the kale will get a bit marinated to enhance the flavor. Do feel free to let them sit with the flavor a bit longer, but not too long or the leaves will wilt a bit.

Cooking time is usually about 12-18 minutes, so start looking in on them at around 12 minutes to make sure they aren't burning.

That's it.  It's an easy recipe that doesn't take too long (the longest part is getting the leaves off the spines), and it makes a light, crispy, enjoyable snack or side dish that you can feel really good about eating.  As we try to change our lives to be healthier, it's great to find ways to do it that also are fun and enjoyable - proof that healthy eating doesn't have to be a chore or be joyless.

These healthy chips are one way to deliver on the clean14 challenge if you have vowed to cut out junk food from your diet.

Recipes like this really show how you can eat fun and tasty food while you enlighten.your.body.

Recipe: Cilantro Garlic Rutabaga Chips

Finding healthy ways to eat isn't hard. Finding healthy ways to eat that still including really enjoying your food can be tougher for some people.  The recipes I provide here try to give you truly healthy eating that also tastes good.  While tasting good is key, sometimes how a food eats is just as important.  We Americans have a need for crunching things, and those things can't always be raw veggies for most people.  The good news is, there are lots of ways to solve that need and still be healthy.  Case in point, Garlic Cilantro Rutabaga Chips.

FYI - if you would prefer this in video form, I did an episode of my podcast on rutabaga chips, so check it out on YouTube or subscribe to the iTunes podcast.

ingredients

• 1-2 medium rutabagas
• 1 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1/2 table spoon turmeric
• 1/2 table spoon paprika

cooking for life

So what is a rutabaga, first of all.  It's a cross between a turnip and cabbage, and is a root vegetable.  It doesn't have too strong of a flavor, which makes it ideal for chip making.  Select medium-sized rutabagas with a firm feel to them. Some have purple on the outsides and some don't - don't worry too much about that.

Before we deal with the root itself, let's make the seasoned oil so it gets a chance to really take on the flavors we are going to add.  This batch is a cilantro and garlic rutabaga chip (with sea salt, turmeric and paprika), but you can really season them however you want.  I've done them similarly but with dill instead of cilantro.  You can put in sea salt and cayenne for a spicier chip.  You could make curry chips.   You could just do salt and oil.  It's really up to you and what you enjoy.  The key is to keep them healthy, so stay away from sugars (any kind of sugar, e.g. honey, maple syrup) or heavy sauces that likely hide a ton of sugar (e.g. BBQ sauce).  The idea is to get the flavor profile with the spices themselves instead of a sauce with spices in it. Most herbs and spices have health benefits (like turmeric for anti-inflammatory benefits, cayenne for metabolic and anti-inflammatory benefits, ginger for digestion, Ceylon cinnamon for sugar regulation, etc).  We're also going to use garlic, which is very healthful and good for your gut along with cilantro, which helps the body detox from things like heavy metals (which most people have too much of in their system in today's world).

Start by washing your cilantro, and then separating the stems and leaves.  We're primarily going to use the leaves, but the stems pack a lot of flavor, so I have a trick use for them before throwing them out.  Be sure to pat the cilantro dry before picking the leaves off or your job will be much harder and your seasoning will not mix well when you add the oil.

Oil and seasoning coming together

How much Cilantro to use is up to you - you can't really overdo it, but I suppose if you don't like cilantro (I know a few people who don't care for it), then you wouldn't want to use much (or use something else, like dill).  Set the leaves aside for a moment.  Take the stems into a bunch, and crack them in a few places to open them up.  Get a large bowl, put the stems in, and pour oil over them.  What kind of oil is largely up to you, but make a healthy choice.  Use olive oil, avocado oil, macadamia nut oil, coconut oil or sesame oil.  Stay away from canola and vegetable oil.  You don't need a ton of oil - it needs to be enough to coat the chips.  Usually a quarter to half cup is sufficient.  Add to this mashed up garlic (use a garlic press, or crush and mince it).  I typically use 3-4 large cloves.  Again, feel free to adjust this up or down to your taste.  Same goes for the spices.  I added about a table spoon of salt, and a half table spoon of paprika and turmeric.  Use the cilantro stems to stir it all up, taking care not to mix the stems in.  We need to pull them out soon, so don't make that job harder on yourself.

Chop up the cilantro leaves, and mix about 3/4 of them into the oil.  Again, stir things up.  Let that oil sit for an hour or so to really take on the flavors.  It's not mandatory, but the longer it sits, the more flavorful it will be.

Now back to the root of the issue.  You can't misspell rutabaga without root.  OK, that wasn't funny.  Use a peeler to take off the outer layer of the rutabaga.  Now you have to make chips, which you can do a couple of ways.  You can use the peeler and just peel right across the rutabaga.  That will make consistent but thing chips.  You can use a mandolin (a board with a blade you can adjust the depth of to make consistent slices) set to either 1/16" or 1/8", depending on how thin and crispy you want your chips.  If you use 1/16", be more vigilant while cooking the chips as they'll cook faster and can go from undercooked to burnt very rapidly.  As a note, you can peel or slice your chips right into the seasoning bowl, but if you do, pull out the cilantro stems before.  If you make the chips elsewhere, pull out the stems before adding the chips in.

Next, combine the chips into the oil and seasoning mixture, and work them together with your hands. OK, before doing that, wash your hands. Wait, go back to the whole beginning and wash your hands. OK, now wash them again before mixing things up.  Good work.  Now the key is to make sure that each chip is oiled/seasoned on both sides.  Be mindful of chips being stuck together.  Once you work everything through nicely, set the bowl aside for an hour if you have the time. Again, this isn't super necessary, but the longer they sit, the more flavorful they'll be.  I just made a batch of these with dill and let them sit for about 8 hours before cooking them, and they were out of this world.

Now, get the oil off your hands.  Stop for a moment and appreciate how nice your hands feel.  Wait, you have a piece of cilantro stuck to one of your fingers.  Got it?  Good.

Chips arranged on a baking sheet, ready for the oven.

Now we have to set the chips up for baking.  Preheat your oven to 350˙F and get out of baking sheet. Line it with parchment paper (I find this works better than aluminum foil as it lets the oil pull away from the chips rather than making them sit in a pool of oil, which leads to less crispiness and heavier chips that aren't as healthy for you. There also a benefit to reducing your exposure to heavy metals, so it's win-win.).

Try to avoid overlapping chips or piling chips on top of chips. If you do, you'll get softer, soggier chips.  this might mean you need two trays.  So be it.  If you have a wire rack you can bake on, you can use that, too, but be sure there's something under it to catch oil drippings, and make sure you can easily clean it (i.e. don't just use the oven's rack - and if you tried, you'd get all burned from trying to lay the chips on it when the oven is heated up).  Now is also the time to use any remaining cilantro to sprinkle some fresher (i.e. less oily) cilantro on the chips (as in this photo).  This is optional, of course.

Done. Some more so than others.
Be sure to rotate the trays to help avoid this

Once the over is at 350, pop the sheets in.  At 10 minutes, turn the trays around.  If you have two trays on different levels, also flip which is on top and which is on the bottom level.  The key is to help the chips cook evenly.  If you have a convection oven, that can be helpful here.

If you made chips using your peeler or cut to 1/16" with something like a mandolin, keep an eye on them every minute after 10 minutes.  If you cut them a little thicker, start your checks at minute 15.  For 1/8", I typically find them to be done around 18 minutes.  For 1/16", it's usually more like 14 minutes.

Nice, crisp chip

That's it.  They're done.  Let them cool for a minute or two (you can eat them warm or cool).  I don't recommend treating these like store-bought chips that will keep for a few days.  Eat them the day you make them.  You won't have a problem doing that.  They're really good, and you will likely be more concerned with wether you got enough and if it's ok to lick the parchment paper.  No, it isn't.

These healthy chips are one way to deliver on the clean14 challenge if you have vowed to cut out junk food from your diet.

Recipes like this really show how you can eat fun and tasty food while you enlighten.your.body.

Lessons from my 1st Interview

So I recently got to interview a very inspirational guy, Dai Manuel, for my podcast and YouTube channel. It was a great experience with some really awesome discussion - no surprise given my subject.  In addition to all the great content, I learned a ton since this was my first web-based interview, so I thought I'd share what I've learned.

the setup
I used Skype to do the interview, and a piece of software called "Call Recorder for Skype" from ecamm Networks that lets me record the video chat and split the two halves into their own movie files. It's a very cool feature.  This allowed me to let each side of the conversation be focused on, rather than having the screen split. It also allowed me to be off camera while Dai was talking so I didn't have to worry about how I looked.  I don't mean whether I looked good or not, but if I had to move out of the shot for some logistical reason or something like that. It just allows the viewer to focus on the speaker more than a distracting side image.

I used a 13" Retina MacBook Pro with a Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD, and for audio, I used the built in mic and speakers.  I was connected over WiFi, but would have preferred a hard wire. I had also run an extension chord and power strip to be sure I wasn't on battery power.  Stupidly, I turned the power strip off about 10 minutes before the call without thinking as I'm big on saving electricity.  That strip also powers my treadmill, but was off, so I figured, "Hey, let's save the planet." It's a habit. See how it may have mattered in the quality section.

Dai was on his iPhone, and had the Apple headset plugged in for his audio.

I also had my Canon Vixia camera running on the side, focused on the screen as a backup just in case.

quality
Having shut off the power to my laptop, the processing power was throttled back. This ended up mattering in how well the recording was keeping up with the video chat (mainly the frame rate). If you watch the video, you'll see some periods where there's jagged movement.  The call also dropped twice, which could have been my WiFi, the load on my computer from doing an HD recording.

Audio was interesting. Dai's voice was very loud because he was using a headset, while mine was pretty soft.  I had to adjust the audio tracks for both of us to compensate for this. Also, because I was using my built in speakers and mic, my audio track included a low-fidelity capture of Dai's voice (what my mic picked up through my speakers). As much as I don't want to use a headset, I will think about it strongly next time to avoid this. It wasn't a huge problem overall, but there are moments where we're talking simultaneously, or where the way I've edited things makes it awkward (he says something, then I pull my video/audio in to ask the next question, and you hear the end of something you just heard him saying).  An alternative would be to use a dedicated mic, and shield it a bit so it picks up less audio from my computer.

I do think the audio from the headset - while certainly loud enough - was not as clear as I'd like. It could just be the Skype connection, but I'm guessing it was also the headset itself. It's an OK mic, but not amazing.

running the show
I didn't establish rules for the interview. That is, I didn't act as a director. Dai had a lot of great things to share, and I didn't want to cut him off. I had sent him the questions just before the interview, so he was naturally covering the material I was hoping to get into.  I didn't realize it at the time, but this lead to really long cuts of Dai talking, and less of an interview.  I'm overall fine with this as I think the material is great, but it taught me a lesson for next time in case the material isn't flowing as well or the interview is going way off topic - I should have established a gesture or something to insert myself so I could keep the interview to my intended topics and questions.

I lucked out here, and think the others I've reached out to for interviews will also be fine, but as I say many times, luck is not a strategy.

split personalities
The split video files were really cool, and I definitely liked this approach better for such a long interview (31 minutes) than having both of us sharing the screen. With the audio issue I mentioned above, I don't think it would have worked to have it all simultaneous since everything Dai said would come with the version my mic picked up layered over it. While you don't have to split the video (you get a combined file, and then have drag-and-drop filters you plop the file on to create the split versions), you have to say you want this upfront as the output file is different (it's essentially a 32:9 file made of two 16:9 images side by side versus creating a single 16:9 image that's split between an 8:9 of me and 8:9 of Dai). That means I couldn't really opt to go back to a side by side. So I was committed to it.

Luckily, ecamm built in a droplet to split out audio sides separately from video sides (you can get both together, or separately).  There are times when I wanted to clean up the audio tracks a bit, and needed them separated from the video.  These filters alone made Call Recorder worth the price (it was $29.99).

The downside to this approach is that I ended up with lots of back and forth between us. I could just cut back and forth, but it felt too choppy, so I used transitions. Every time I use a transition, I'm reminded of a Simpsons episode where Homer makes a dating video of Ned Flanders using a kid's video editing board Lisa has.  He uses a star-wipe effect between each cut scene, and Lisa warns him that it's too much.  He pushes back, insisting you can never have too much star wiping.  Lisa was right, but the video is hilarious.  Anyway, that always makes me concerned I've overdone it with the jazzy transitions.  I scaled back to really simple fades most of the time as the novelty wore off and I ended up almost feeling nauseous from all the cubed-wiping and card flipping going on as Dai and I went back and forth.

editing takes time...lots of time
I spent two days editing the 31 minute final product. Part of that was time I lost because of a computer problem, but a lot of it was nitpicking trimming clips, aligning audio, and trying to get nearly 50 minutes of content down without losing the point. I honestly wouldn't have cut anything, but it was too long for most viewers. So if I was going to cut, it had to be well done and the essence of everything Dai was saying had to be intact.

in the end...
I think the content is what made the interview solid. Dai's an amazing guy, and really gave of himself in a very real way in the interview, and you can't help but be inspired coming out of it.  I was inspired myself by his words, and also by what I'd do differently next time.  In summary:

• make sure my laptop is plugged in, and all other programs are quit
• establish rules of engagement so I can be the director and get the interview I'm looking for
• find a better way to capture audio on both ends (in case the next person uses a setup like I had), or ensure we don't talk over each other
• make sure I have solid editing time blocked out
• make sure your interviewee is willing to help promote the video and earn the right to check in to make sure they do

I had a great time doing the interview, and really enjoyed watching the finished product with my wife. Creating inspiring content for others is another way to enlighten.your.body.

Podcast Episode 009 - enlighten.interview: Dai Manuel

The first interview from newbodi.es, we are honored to bring you the inspirational and motivational Dai Manuel, COO of Fitness Town and one of the top health and fitness bloggers in the world. Dai has a similar story to mine with a background as an overweight teen, then changing his life and working to change the lives of others.

If you enjoyed this video, subscribe on YouTube or get the podcast on iTunes and spread the word. It's one more tool I'm giving you to help you enlighten.your.body.

Podcast Episode 008 - clean14

enlighten.your.body by cleaning your life of the things that you shouldn't be putting in it. clean14 is a challenge we've started on facebook for people to find things they eat, drink or (worse) smoke, and take them out of their life. learn more and join the challenge at http://www.newbodi.es/clean14.

this video ties to a post I did on the clean14 challenge.

If you enjoyed this video, subscribe on YouTube or get the podcast on iTunes and spread the word. It's one more tool I'm giving you to help you enlighten.your.body.

Podcast Episode 006 - Q&A: how do I make sense of all the conflicting advice?

there are so many people and companies out there telling you to do something to lose weight - and plenty of others insisting you never do that. eat meat. don't eat any meat. drink lots of water. don't drink anything. live on fruit. don't eat fruit. we help you figure out how to process all this conflicting advice to find a path forward for you to enlighten.your.body.

If you enjoyed this video, subscribe on YouTube or get the podcast on iTunes and spread the word. It's one more tool I'm giving you to help you enlighten.your.body.