Birth of the fish car and death of a teenage dream

I never wanted to go to college.  At least not right away.  I didn’t know much when I was 18, but I knew that I was in no position to be choosing a career path.  I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life, so clearly the best course of action would be to travel around the country until I figured out what I was passionate about.

By the time senior year of high school started, my friends were all talking about college.  Kids were looking into degree programs, writing essays for scholarships, and sending in applications for early admission.  And I was painting fish on the side of my car.  I had just bought a 1987 Dodge Colt from my neighbor.  My first car, paid for with babysitting and barista earnings.  It was a tiny, ugly car that needed something extra to bring it to life, and I decided that something extra was a hand painted underwater scene.  I enlisted a couple friends and before I knew it, the fish car was born.  That car was going to take me around the country, from town to town and state to state, while I worked odd jobs and met people who would help me figure out what I was supposed to do with my life.  Or so I thought.

Cranberries

Cranberries are an amazing fruit.  Anything that tart and dark in color has got to be good for you.  Half a cup of whole berries has only 23 calories but has 2g of fiber (10%RDV) and over 10%RDV of calcium.  Even greater than that are all the benefits of its phytonutrients, such as phenolic acids, flavonoids, and proanthocyanidins (PACs).  The structure of their PACs helps prevent bacteria from attaching to the urinary tract and stomach lining, which helps prevent UTIs and stomach ulcers.  Cranberries also have high concentrations of anthocyanins (which give them their deep red color), which are strong antioxidants and have anti-inflammatory properties.  They also have been shown to help prevent cancers such as breast, colon, lung and prostate, due to a synergy of nutrients that help inhibit and stimulate specific enzymes, ultimately triggering tumor cell death.  Not bad for a tasty, pretty little fruit!

You can find cranberries in the following recipes:

Cranberry apple crisp with orange and coconut

Garbanzo beans (Chick peas)

Garbanzo beans are a truly amazing legume and can be used in so many ways.  A 100g serving (~½ – ¾ cup) has roughly 164 calories with 9g protein (18%RDV and 19% caloric ratio), 8g fiber (30%RDV) and only 3g fat (4%RDV and 13% caloric ratio).  You are also getting 43%RDV of folate, in addition to 7%VitB6, 16% iron, 5% calcium, 8% potassium, 17% phosphorus, 18% copper, 10% zinc, 52% manganese, and much much more.  And they are SO delicious!

You can find garbanzo beans in the following recipes:

Cumin-paprika garbanzo beans with cashews and dinosaur kale

Kale

Leafy greens are amazingly healthy and are like a vitamin pill in a bowl.  Kale is no exception.  Kale has been shown to lower risk of several kinds of cancer and lower cholesterol, in addition to being an anti-inflammatory and packed with flavonoids and anti-oxidants.  One cup of raw, chopped kale (67g, <1/2 cup cooked), has only 33 calories yet still contains 2g protein (16% caloric ratio and 4%RDV) and 1g fiber (5%RDV).  It also contains 9%RDV calcium, 6% iron, 9% potassium, 10% copper, 26% manganese, 9% VitB6, and it doesn’t stop there.  It has an astonishing 206% VitA, 134% VitC, and 684% VitK.  In less than a half cup when cooked! Vitamin K plays an important role in bone growth and bone density maintenance, and has been shown to benefit Alzheimer disease and significantly reduce risks for liver and prostate cancer.  Seriously, what are you waiting for.  Go buy some kale!  There are so many kinds to choose from- curly leaf or flat leaf, green or red, some that are more sweet and some that are more bitter, some that are delicate and some that are hardy.  You’ll never run out of options to make your dish exactly how you want it.

You can find kale in the following recipes:

Cumin-paprika garbanzo beans with cashews and dinosaur kale

Celeriac (Celery Root)

Celeriac, or celery root, is a classic case of you-can’t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover.  Although it lacks aesthetic appeal, it is delicious when eaten both raw and cooked and is incredibly nutritious.  Its flavor is often described as a cross between celery and parsley and its raw texture reminds me of turnips crossed with jicama.  One cup (156g) of celeriac has a mere 66 calories, yet in those 66 calories you get 3g fiber (11% RDV) and 2g protein (10% caloric ratio and 5% RDV).  It is also jammed packed with vitamins and minerals, containing the following percentages of your RDV: 21% VitC, 80% VitK (!), 13% VitB6, 7% calcium, 6% iron, 18% phosphorus, 13% potassium, 12% manganese…and this is just to name a few.  It is harvested in the late fall and stores really well at cool temps, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be buying some right now!

You can find recipes with celery root at the following links:

Celeriac and potato salad with cashew-miso dressing

Wooden window message board

If you ask my mom, she would probably tell you that I am super disorganized, always last minute, a bit of a slob, and incredibly flighty.  She would tell you this because she knows the real me and that is very much the truth.  But compared to Harlan, I’m the freakin’ Muhammad Ali of organization and cleanliness.  I’m on it like white on rice.  So I tend to be in charge of most of the responsibilities that go along with having a house and pets and bills to pay and errands to run, and whatever else goes hand in hand with being an adult.  But like I mentioned, this is not easy nor natural for me, and it doesn’t take long before everything gets out of control, late and/or lost.  So I decided to make myself a message board of sorts to keep all these things better organized.

Battling It Out: Minimalistic Gypsy vs. Materialistic American

I don’t want to like nice things.  I have grown to eschew words like “materialism” and “consumerism”, almost as if they were nasty four letter words that might result in scouring your mouth with lye based suds.  Harlan was raised on a farm where money was spent on necessities, not luxuries.  I was raised by a bargain-hunting mom who put more emphasis on the thought and meaning behind a purchase than the expense.  We have often touted to each other that we don’t need nice things or money to be happy, and we both hate shopping and have trouble justifying most purchases.  We are those crazy people who can’t buy things without going through the convoluted thought process of “What is this made out of?  Where was it grown/manufactured?  How many people took part in making it and what were their work conditions?  How far did it have to ship?  What will happen to it when we are done with it?”  It’s complete insanity.

Cranberry apple crisp with orange and coconut

As I was reaching into the depths of our refrigerator, trying to find provisions from which to make a dinner despite being in desperate need of a grocery trip, I discovered that we had done it again.  We had overbought cranberries for Thanksgiving and they had subsequently gotten lost in the back of our fridge.  We had one full and one partial bag begging me to use them in something delicious before they spoiled, so I happily obliged.

The worst of my Se7en

If there was ever a deadly sin of which I could quickly and easily be found guilty, it would be envy.  That sly, green, self-destructive sin of envy.  But don’t worry.  I’m not going to go chop off Gwyneth Paltrow’s head a la Kevin Spacey in Se7en (although let’s be honest, who doesn’t envy Brad Pitt’s life?), and I honestly don’t envy big houses or expensive clothes or fancy cars.  I am beyond thrilled with my fixer upper that contains not one square wall or even floor, my wardrobe that hasn’t been added to all that much since I was an undergrad, and my poor Malibu that is on her 7^th life.  I don’t envy “things”, and for that I am grateful.  What I do envy, however, are personality traits that I wish so dearly came naturally to me.

Cumin-paprika garbanzo beans with cashews and dinosaur kale

I love greens and beans.  I make so many combinations of greens and beans that I could fill a cookbook.  This recipe uses garbanzo beans and dinosaur kale, although you could easily substitute with cannellini or great northern beans and basically any other dark leafy green.