In the midst of all of my “activities” as of late (charity organizing, cupcake baking, race-skipping), I have become a little more lax in the cooking department than I would like to admit. While I still cook dinner 90% of the time, my dinner plate looks far less inspired than I would normally prefer.

Even more concerning is the fact that I have been eating take out for lunch approximately 99% of the time. This makes me cringe, because I know that these quick lunches are to blame for that squishy feeling I’m experiencing around my belly button region.

Making healthy choices at a restaurant is easy for me, but I’m sure that my version of chicken and brown rice has far less added junk in it than the restaurant version. If I had some great dinner leftovers to eat for lunch, I would be far less likely to eat lunch out 99% of the time.

I blame my lack of kitchen inspiration on three things: 1) busyness, 2) laziness, 3) I need ideas!

Yesterday, as I was contemplating this very dilemma that I have got myself into,  Jen (a PriorFatGirl…one of my favorite girls ever…) posted this Tweet:

And I immediately wanted to see every single response that she received!

I read a few cooking blogs, but honestly, The Pioneer Woman is not exactly healthy. Delicious, but not healthy. I love reading Mama Pea’s recipes (p.s…have you pre-ordered her cookbook yet?), but I’d like to read more blogs that focus most of their attention on healthy cooking.

Incidentally, I read a few days ago that many of the farmers markets in Maryland opened last weekend (nearly a month early), due to an abundance of spring crops. This is wonderful news! I have to go to the farmer’s market! I have to cook!

[I understand that was far too much exclamation for one paragraph, but really...vegetables are exciting business]

I need inspiration! Now, I ask you dear readers. Help Jen and I feel inspired to cook beautiful meals.

What are your favorite healthy cooking blogs?

Please do link and promote and let yourself be seen, lurkers! I need help!

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I know, I know. The title is corny. But it’s a little funny, right?

So, last night I didn’t feel like cooking. I wasn’t in the mood to search the depths of my large melon-head to come up with a plan for dinner. However, I am a healthy eater. And healthy eaters cook (or un-cook). Even when they don’t feel like it. Thankfully, through my organic food travels over the past month-ish, I have acquired quite a few items that would be considered “convenient”, easy to prepare items. Perfect for a weeknight.

I was in a hurry because I had stopped at MOM’s on the way home from work to quickly pick up some much-needed fruit and veggies. True to form, of course I walked out like 4 years later with a whole bunch of other stuff (wait for that in a fun upcoming post). Since I was shopping off-the-list, it took me extra long. I could seriously spend hours in an organic/gourmet food store. Or even in the kitchen gadget department of Tarjay.

In my Joggerverse, if it involves food, I’m taking my sweet time. I have to allot plenty of time for package fondling, label oogling, and content squishing. That’s just the way it works. And I love every single moment of this long process.

Since it took me so long to oogle, fondle, and squish, I was running late. And, I had a telephone call at 9PM with http://customizedmarketing.com/, who is going to help me unveil an entirely Jogger-proof template that does all of the snazzy stuff that I want it to do. In such a way that I won’t lose all of my readers again, or ever need to change my stupid template. Won’t that be exciting! Stay tuned for that to happen very soon!

My point in all of this blah, blah, blahing?

I needed dinner, and I needed it fast.

After a lot of self-mumbling, I pulled the following items from my fridge:

This included two new, never-before-played-with items. Trader Joe’s Greenwheat Freekeh, and Miso Master Organic Mellow White Miso. Now, I must qualify that by saying that I’ve had miso soup before, which I love. I’ve just never cooked with miso, so the experience was new.

Here’s the scoop on TJ’s Greenwheat Freekeh:

Not bad, not bad. Seemed like a very whole-food to me, and it comes in a package, yet is salt-free. Amazing.

So, I began wingin’ in. That’s sort of my cooking style. Abide by some basic cooking principles (do not chop off fingers, run with knives, or lick utensils that may contaminate food to be consumed by others). Other than that, I just go with the flow. For the most part, it’s all about my large melon-head and a little creativity. Occasionally, I cart the MacBook into the kitchen, and refer to various recipes and such for guidance.

This is completely normal and safe, right?

Ummmm. Right?!

So, I really just chopped up the necessary ingredients and threw everything in the pan to saute in a little bit of olive oil. After the veggies started to get soft, I dumped in the egg whites. At this point, it looked like a really yummy egg white omelet.

But I didn’t want an egg white omelet. That just wasn’t freekeh enough.

Sorry. I just couldn’t resist. I’m impulsive like that.

So at that point, I savagely tore open the package of freekeh. I smelled it. It had an aroma that I couldn’t really identify. Sort of nutty and grainy, but with a protein-y undertone. Got that? I wasn’t sure about this freekeh stuff. I tossed it into the pan anyway. Along with some veggie broth.

Yeah, yeah. I know. It’s too late to be making dinner. But, as previously mentioned, I was busy fondling, oogling, and squishing.

So, then, I mixed a tablespoon of mellow white miso with about 3 tablespoons of warm water to dissolve. It looked like miso soup. Mmmmmmm. Miso soup. I didn’t get a picture of the dissolving process, but by golly, I did take a picture to document my other-worldly clumsiness. This is so typical and expected.

Oops.

So, I re-dissolved. No biggie. I’m used to doing things twice. At least twice. Sometimes like 5 or 6 times. Welcome to my world.

I combined the dissolved miso with the other ingredients, and cooked for about 5 more minutes. The miso container specifically says not to boil the miso, so I kept the heat very low. Here is the finished product…

See, here’s the thing. I really liked the chewy texture of the freekeh, but it was horribly blah when I took my first bite. Then, I added some tamari soy sauce, and things started to look up. I ate the whole bowl. It was good. I’m awarding Miso Freekeh the Jogger’s Seal of Approval, but I suggest that if you try this combination, use spices and seasonings that are on the stronger side because the freekeh itself doesn’t have much flavor.

I just had an epiphany. It might be good to marinate the freekeh.

Sounds freekeh, doesn’t it?

I bought something new at the grocery store over the weekend.

Big surprise, right?

I decided to try Kasia’s Deli Sauerkraut Pierogies.

I like sauerkraut. I like pierogies. I have to like sauerkraut pierogies.

Right?

Wrong!

This is what they looked like shortly after I tried my first bite…

I swear, I really wanted to like them. Things just didn’t work out between us. Luckily, it was a clean break.

It’s not you, Kasia’s Sauerkraut Pierogies. It’s me. All me.

However, I made the most delicious vegetarian Italian beans and greens! Please ignore the ugly, gross pierogies residing on the other side of the plate. I was going to crop them because I hated them too much, but I didn’t want to ruin the picture of my beautiful beans and greens.

These are so good. You have to make them.

Vegetarian Italian Beans & Greens

Buy It:
8 cloves of garlic (more or less depending on preference. I love garlic)
1 large onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 large bunches swiss chard, collard, or mustard greens (or your favorite green)
1 bunch of kale
2 cups No Chicken broth (or veggie broth of choice)
4 veggie Italian “sausage” links
1/2 cup diced tomatoes (I used canned, unsalted)
1 can butter beans (or white beans of choice)
1 tsp chili powder (or more if you are feeling the heat)
Salt & pepper to taste

Prep It:
1) Peel and finely dice the garlic cloves. In case you haven’t learned from PW the easiest way to accomplish this, here goes. Take each garlic clove, and smash it with the bottom of a can (ie…the butter bean can). After you have smashed the clove, your can will look like this:

p.s…Now that you are aware of this trick, all of your cans are going to look like this going forward. I’m sorry. That’s just how it must be.

So, after you’ve smashed all of the cloves, the outside “skin” peels off easily. After peeling off the “skin”, slice all of the cloves lengthwise. After slicing them lengthwise, turn the slices sideways, and then slice them the opposite way. From there, just chop the daylights out of them until the garlic is finely chopped. Piece of cake.

2) After smashing and chopping the garlic, roughly chop the onion (to your preference).

3) Chop all of the greens into strips, cutting against the direction of the center vein.

Cook It:
1) Heat up the olive oil, and cook half of the garlic and all of the onion until the onions are just barely soft.

2) Add all of the greens on top of the onions and garlic, and pour in the broth. Cover, and simmer for approximately 15 minutes, or until the greens wilt and begin to cook down. Stir once half way through to combine everything.

3) Add the remaining garlic, veggie sausage, tomatoes and chili powder.

4) Cover, and continue cooking on medium heat for approximately 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. During the last 5 minutes of cooking, add the can of beans.

Enjoy.

And please eat all of them if you’re hungry. They’re good for you.