Spinached-Out and Rule #27

We decided to boil spinach to make spinach water this week and then used the water as a broth for a vegetarian bean soup. We called it affectionately "spinach-water soup" and we still have lots of left-overs in the fridge for lunches this week. The big debate was what to do with the spinach after we boiled it. We ended up putting it in the soup because it seemed like a waste to throw it away. If we aren't throwing the water away then we shouldn't throw the actual vegetable away, right?! Sadly, the spinach is a little slimy in the soup and next time I might toss the spinach. Which brings me to my next question....is vegetable water ever convenient to use???

I don't know when people would actually just have some spinach water laying around their kitchen to cook with and I don't think I would recommend making spinach water unless it is absolutely convenient. I think most of the time that we cook vegetables in water we are simultaneously cooking other dishes. We aren't going to wait around until the vegetable is done to use the water to boil the pasta because that is just not efficient! Some people in the internet world suggest saving vegetable water in jars for later uses but I just cannot rationalize this. Really?!?! Do these people have ginormous refrigerators with nothing else to put in them? Who knows.

We also had some spinach water plain so we could appreciate the full flavor. Ryan was pretty nervous about this and made me take the first spoonful (see pictures below). Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. It tasted like any other vegetable broth. I thought it could have used some salt, but that isn't an uncommon issue for me.

On a completely unrelated topic I also included some pictures from a non-spinach meal that we had this week. I took the pictures because I was so excited to be using my new pasta machine that Ryan got me for Christmas. Using a pasta machine is a whole lot easier than how I used to make homemade pasta and it tastes way better (less thick noodles). We had homemade whole wheat noodles with a tomato-basil chicken sauce, glazed carrots, baked squash, and sauteed chard and caramelized onions. Red wine complemented the meal perfectly. Please note all of the colors (we would have made last week's rule proud!).

Next week is Rule #27: Eat animals that have themselves eaten well. We will be focusing on knowing where the animals we eat lived and what kind of care they got before they were slaughtered.



Making Spinach Water





Tasting Spinach Water







Spinach Water Soup



Homemade Pasta Meal

Like Spinach and Water? Like Drink it?

I said previously that we were not too sure what was going to happen with this food rule. The concept is simple: When you cook veggies in water the water becomes filled with good nutrients, so if you drink the water then you will become filled with good nutrients too! If you throw out the water then you are wasting some potentially good vitamins.

Ryan cooked brocolli earlier in the week and when we looked at the green water left in the pot I wanted to gag. Then I spotted some dirt in the water! "Ryan, did you wash the broccoli before you cooked it?" "No." "Why not!?!?!" "What does it matter, it's organic and you don't actually see any dirt!?" Ugggghhhhhhhhhh. Needless to say, the water was flused down the drain. Fail.

The spinach conversation went something like this:
"I don't get it...Do people actually cook spinach in water?"
"I'm not sure. Do we actually have to drink spinach water?"
"Yes! But I still don't get it....why would people cook spinach in water? That sounds so disguisting."
"Drinking spinach water sounds even more disguisting."
"Maybe we need to talk to someone about this."

Any ideas????

I looked on the internet and they suggest using spinach water for soup bases. I also saw a suggestion of saving spinach water to cook pasta in. I think we are also going to have to drink some spinach water plain, just because we are doing a great food experiment.

Tasting the Rainbow and Rule #26

This past week we focused on eating as many colors as possible in every meal. I thought that shooting for four colors per meal would be an easy feat. At lunch and dinner this was not a problem. A few meals we ate represented all of the colors in the rainbow except blue (blue seems to be a challenge, especially in the winter). Breakfast, however, was a problem for color eating. Usually we have some oatmeal or cereal. To add colors we relied on smoothies (Brooke you would have been proud!). Ryan disliked this rule because he felt like he was having to eat so much for breakfast that he would feel sick all day. He would often drink a smoothie, eat some toast, and an orange or an apple.

Our fruit and veggie consumption skyrocketed. In a normal week we try to be good about eating fruits and veggies but inevitably some go bad before we can eat them. This week we could not keep our fruit and veggie supply stocked quickly enough. It was interesting to plan meal choices around color. We often would eat less "bad" foods because we had to save room for all of the colors, and the colors were usually healthy foods such as the fruits and veggies. I have to say that we stretched this rule at times and considered the red in wine as adding a color (hey, it's antioxidants right?) or the colors in a dessert such as ice cream. Overall though it was usually adding carrots to something that we would not normally include carrots in just to get the orange.

This next week we will follow Rule #26: Drink the spinach water. We are not sure exactly what this will mean but I think it might be entertaining.

In the meantime, enjoy some of our food rainbow pictures from this past week:

We're Back!

I left this food challenge to raft down the Colorado River. I expected to return and write a blogpost detailing what it was like to be away from civilization for 21 days, how I faced some of my biggest fears, and how we were able to eat like gods and goddesses even on day #21. Instead, I returned home and was exhausted. The first mission was to unpack all of the gear and attempt to wash the red silt from everything the river encountered (and that would be every tiny little thing if I would have been on one of the many rafts that flipped......but luckily I have my own personal expert oarsman who kept me safe and the boat upright all 226 miles).

I was then anxious to have my parents over for dinner to show off the 442 breathtaking pictures of our trip. In retrospect, I am so thankful this was one of my top priorities because it is one of the last happy memories I will have of my dad. Life got crazy after that. The following weekend, when I was in Corvallis cleaning the red silt from the boats my dad was diagnosed with pneumonia. Less than 24 hours later his spirit left the world. I have no words to describe this event. Only feelings, alternating between numbness and painful sadness.

In the midst of all of this, due to financial reasons, I needed to get a job. I was lucky enough to get my dream job in a very short period of time. I feel extremely grateful for my employment, as I know this economy has not been kind to many. I am now a Child and Family Therapist working towards my LCSW.

And then the holidays. These went better than expected considering the hole in all of our hearts. I was thankful to have my sister, mom, and Ryan to celebrate with and also cry together.

Most recently we held the celebration of my dad's life. Complete with all our close friends and family, jazz music, wine, Native American drumming, etc. etc. etc. I would like to proudly say that my family has the best friends in all of the world. Seriously. They have given us the strength to keep breathing, walking, and hoping. They made me eat, laugh, and sleep, even when I thought these daily tasks were impossible. Best of all, they made my dad's celebration perfect. The whole event encapsulated his life exactly like he would have wanted it. And I feel so proud to be my father's daughter.

Now my life has finally slowed down. Sure, other things have happened these past few months that I am choosing to leave out for a variety of reasons, but I think you get the point that I have barely been able to keep up, much less write a blog. But now I think Ryan and I are finally ready to finish the challenge we set out to complete. I am happy it's 2011 because I am hopeful
it will be kind and bring about some positive things.....I don't know what these things will be, but I guess that is part of the excitement of this crazy rollercoaster ride. I keep telling myself that the only constant thing in life is change (my daily mantra lately). So, with that, here is our first change- Rule #25: Eat your colors. For this rule we are going to try and eat as many colors as possible each meal. I am telling Ryan that we should eat four colors minimum. He has already called dibs on our oranges......oh boyfriend. :)

Below are a few very select cooking pictures from the Colorado trip. If you want to see more check out Ryan's facebook album.