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.

And We Are OFF!

Finished up with our last rule for a while. Attempted to stay clear of all four-legged animal meat and limited all other meat consumption significantly. With the excitement of our trip growing I have to admit that we have not paid very much attention to our food rules. Last night we went out to dinner and Ryan asked, "What's our rule again?" I do have to say that I was impressed with him earlier this week because he ordered a veggie sandwich (that is huge for him, actually I believe it's a first).

I now have two days of unemployment. During this time I plan to transform my body into that of a superwoman, pack a month's worth of gear into a bag half the size that I actually need....or maybe want......and mentally channel the spirit of Pocahontas (don't ask). The Great Food Experiment will resume the first week of November 2010!

Pear Crazy

This past weekend we got a bag full of asian pears from Ryan's parent's tree. Because we only have a week left before the big rafting trip I have officially gone pear crazy. It started with a delicious pear tart with a walnut crust. We then had pear sandwiches with blue cheese and caramelized onions. AND then I added pear to a macaroni and cheese dish and it was surprisingly good--Ryan even requested that I make it again. Also, I can't forget the pear smoothie (Brooke, it wasn't green but it was a smoothie!) and the number of pears we have just eaten plain or in salads. I would have taken pictures but all of this dishes have already been devoured. I am currently about to make a pear spice cake. Any other suggestions for pears? I'm thinking pear butter or jam would be a good way to store what we don't eat.

Rule #24.....Our Last Rule For a While

Rule #23 went well. On one occasion we ate lamb chops (at Ryan's parent's house) but we were sure to eat more veggies that night and I only ate one chop (Ryan ate two but refrained from a third!). It was just one of the many delicious meals we had this weekend at their house! Ryan continues to state: I don't think we ate much meat to begin with. And I continue to think he is in lunatic. Our next rule: Eating what stands on one leg (mushrooms and plant foods) is better than eating what stands on two legs (fowl), which is better than eating what stands on four legs (cows, pigs, and other mammals). Very similar to this past week but differentiating between the meat. We will try to continue to eat mainly veggies. Also, this will be our last rule for a while. We are going on a trip to raft the Colorado River and will not get a choice what we eat. Basically, we will be eating what is offered and what is offered will be dependent on what can keep in the 100 degree heat for multiple weeks......We will post pictures of some of the food when we get back. I'm thinking a lot of canned items and thawed stuff. We will be back at the end of October and will resume our rules then!

Some random foodie pictures from this week:

The co-op by Ryan's parent's house lets you grind your own flour! Never seen this before but was curious if fresh ground flour tasted better......


The raspberry pie that Jill, Ryan's step-mom, slaved away all day making for us (Ryan and I picked all the raspberries from their garden).

"Well, That Would Look Weird"

Ryan just made me laugh so incredibly hard that I decided I would have to blog about the incident. As I was in lying in bed and quickly checking my emails before going to sleep I realized I had an email from a friend that I am having dinner with tomorrow. She sent me the name of a restaurant where she suggested we dine. I mentioned this to Ryan, because I had never heard of said restaurant and he wanted me to look it up. I then started reading him the menu. He thought it sounded good until I told him that we might not be able to get any of the entrees, as they all have meat as the main course and would not fit with out rule. He then exclaimed in a panic, "Oh no! What are we going to eat then?" "Ryan, the entrees have all the meat dishes, we can always get a salad or something." He then replied, "Well, that would look weird!" (this is the comment that made me laugh uncontrollably. Maybe it was the tone of his voice, and the undertone of sheer panic or maybe it was picturing my carnivorous boyfriend ordering a salad. Either way, I was in a state of hysterical disbelief). "What?!?!! Why would getting a salad look weird? Who cares? This is what vegetarians have to do all of the time," I responded. "But Zoe, we are not vegetarians, so it would look weird." Ryan continued to be insistent on this point. I have no idea what he will do tomorrow but I guess I am going to look weird because I already have my salad picked out.

Leaf crazy and Rule #23

This past week we had leaves everyday....chard, kale, various types of lettuce, arugula, spinach, etc. etc. We added leaves to things we would normally not just to make this goal and everything turned out to be very tasty. In terms of the eating mostly plants part of the rule.....we were pretty good about this too. I thought I was going to have to take back the part about this being hard for Ryan because we ended up cooking ZERO meat this week. However, when we went to our friend's pool party with spicy black bean garden burgers in hand, Ryan ended up backing out and eating a beef burger and hot dog. To his credit he also loaded the burger up with veggies and had two salads so all in all I am not complaining. He impressed me. See some of our leaf pictures below.

This next week the rule is pretty similar to last week's: Rule 23: Treat meat as a flavoring or special occasion food. This means we will not eat any meat as a main course unless a special occasion arises. The only special occasion I can anticipate would take place at Ryan's parent's house this weekend, as they are known to cook amazing dinners with locally farmed meat (Ryan's step-mom has a fantastic rule where she only eats meat if she knows where it came from).

One of our many salads this week.....


We never figured out what the darker leaf was in this picture--it was really stringy, bitter, and I almost wondered if I was supposed to cook it before eating.




Ryan's veggie quiche complete with spinach leaves


When we went to my mom's for brunch she used one of my favorite leaves (arugula) to make savory crepes. They were amazing.

Rule #22...bring on the leaves!

Rule #21 I did not like and I did not seem to pay much attention to. Really, what it boils down to is that I did not understand this rule. Is there any food that is pronounced the same in EVERY language? When I was in India they had Subway but the sandwiches were all changed around to incorporate Indian specialties. And I am pretty sure they did not call them sandwiches.

This upcoming Rule #22 I am much more excited about: Rule 22: Eat mostly plants, especially leaves. . For this week we are going to try and eat a leafy dish every day. Also, we will have all our main courses be plant based. When discussing this rule with Ryan he seemed to think it would be easy for us, saying "I think we eat mostly vegetarian anyway." I have to disagree. Ever since I moved in with Ryan I have found myself eating a lot more meat. I attribute this to Ryan's willingness to touch/cut up/clean all the dead animals. When I lived by myself I really only ate meat when I went out to dinner or if it was pre-prepared (not saying that makes eating meat better....just saying I rarely ate it). These upcoming rules will limit our meat consumption considerably so it will be interesting to see if Ryan objects.