@RowanUniversity #RowanPROUD Bridgeton Schools Veggie Train! #GardenCuizine

 Veggie Train

Choo Choo... here comes the nutritious and delicious Veggie Train!! Last week, Rowan dietetic intern Ms. Lyndsay showed students at Bridgeton Public Schools how fun it is to nourish their bodies. 

 "Feeding education is always on the menu" is the philosophy at New Jersey, Bridgeton Public Schools Food Service Department. The Vegetable Train included colorful bell peppers, cucumbers for the wheels with grapes, celery and carrots for the cargo. This train shown above was created by special education children. 

This creative nutrition education lesson was lead by one of Rowan University's future Registered Dietitian Nutritionists, Ms. Lyndsay. She is participating in what Rowan calls "Supervised Practice".  

Supervised practice experiences are included in Rowan's Coordinated Masters in Nutrition & Dietetics curriculum. The curriculum is designed to meet the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) Core Knowledge and Competencies required for students who plan to become Registered Dietitians.

Great job Lyndsay! Special thanks to preceptor Ms. Allison!

Photos like this make me proud to be a supportive adjunct faculty member at Rowan.

Copyright (C) Rowan Dietetic Intern Lyndsay; photo used with permission.

@JerseyFreshNJDA Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage #GardenCuizine Low Sodium, Healthy Meal using fresh garden ingredients! @EatRight_NJ

low Sodium

Stuffed Cabbage

Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage made from a beautiful head of Savoy Cabbage from Burlington County Ag Center's Farmers Market. Stuffed Cabbage makes a nutritious recipe for a large family or as meal prep for several meals for a household of one or two. 

The outer leaves were large and unblemished, which gave me the idea of using them for stuffed cabbage rolls. I plan to make more sauerkraut with the rest of the cabbage.

We used lentils vs ground beef for something different from traditional stuffed cabbage rolls with ground beef and rice. Harry picked up some red lentils vs green lentils, because that is all they had at the store. And, guess what? The red lentils worked out great and were delicious!

GardenCuizine Free style recipe - meaning use as much or little as you want of the ingredients!

Yields: At least 10-12 servings or more

Serving size: one roll

Ingredients                    

1 cup rice - (I used a rice blend from Rice Select "Royal Blend" - Texmati white rice, brown rice, red rice and wild rice)

Outer leaves from fresh head of cabbage

1 lb dry Red (or green) lentils cooked and strained - (I used Goya Lentejas Rojas and cooked the entire bag. We had leftover filling to use for fritters at other meals)

Onion, diced - I used half of a large onion (from the Farmer's Market)

1 jalapeno pepper, minced (from the garden!)

few thin sprigs celery with celery leaves chopped - (I used Tango celery from our garden)

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 clove fresh garlic, minced

2 Tblsp olive oil

pinch salt and ground black pepper

Your favorite red sauce - we used a jar of Rao's

Grated Parmesan cheese for topping

Putting it all together

Cook the Rice

1) Cook the rice and set aside.

 Cook the Lentils

2) In a stock pot, saute the onion, peppers and celery in olive oil. Saute until onion is translucent; stir in the garlic and seasonings of your choice.

Add 4 cups water and lentils, salt and pepper and bring to boil, reduce heat. Cover and simmer 15-20 minutes or until lentils are cooked.

Combine

3) Stir in the rice blend with the cooked lentils and combine.

Set aside while you prepare the cabbage leaves

Prepare the Cabbage Leaves

4) Boil a large pot of water

Rinse off your selected cabbage leaves then add to boiling water; boil a few minutes to soften. Remove and place in a large baking dish to drip off and cool.

Use a paring knife to trim out the thick stem from the edge.

Stuff and Roll the Cabbage

5) Using an ice cream scoop, scoop a portion of your filling onto a cabbage leaf. Fold up the sides and roll burrito style.

Place into baking dishes with a layer of red sauce on the bottom.

Repeat for how ever many Cabbage Rolls you want to make.

Top with more red sauce and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese

Cover and keep in refrigerator or freezor until ready to cook.

Cook and serve!

When ready to cook, add a small amount of water, cover and bake in 350 deg oven until heated through and bubbling.

Serve with a side of chopped ripe and juicy heirloom Jersey tomatoes!

Enjoy!

Blog post and photos Copyright(C) Wind. All rights reserved.

Dad's Pickled Beets with Eggs #GardenCuizine Brain Health #recipe

Dad's Pickled Beets with Eggs

Growing up, I remember loving pink, hard cooked eggs. The eggs were served family style in a bowl with pickled beets that Dad made. Funny, all these years gone by since his passing (RIP Dad) and I've never made pickled beets and eggs until now. I made them using last week's leftover hard cooked eggs and 3 whole beets in the cooking liquid that I saved from my kid's "Brain Health" cooking class.

• Eggs contain many beneficial nutrients, including: protein, Vitamin D and Choline. Choline is good for brain health.

To make Pickled Beets with Eggs, cook however many eggs and beets you want to use. One medium beet per person works well. You can use canned beets, but it is so easy to cook your own. Or, better yet, grow your own! 

Whole beets are readily available in the produce section in markets. Simply cut the tops off (compost or use the greens in another recipe), leaving a 1/2-inch on the beet. Rinse and place unpeeled beets in a saucepan. Cover with plenty of water and boil until tender when pierced. Refrigerate. (I leave the cooked beets whole in the cooking liquid until ready to peel and eat.)

Ingredients

Hard cooked eggs
Cooked, peeled, sliced beets 
Beet water - reserved from cooking
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Putting it all together

1. Peel your cooked eggs and add to a large mason jar
2. In a medium sized pot, add sliced beets and their cooking liquid
3. Add the vinegar, sugar and cinnamon; bring to a boil, gently stir to combine
4. Reduce heat to simmer; when the cinnamon looks blended in an all combined, turn off heat. Allow to cool at least 15 min. before transferring to the egg jar. 
5. Let sit another 10-15 min. to color eggs. Transfer to a serving bowl. Serve family style at the table.

If you're eating the beets at a meal, they taste great served warm or cold. Save your leftovers! 

I don't like the eggs soaked overnight in the beet liquid; they soak up too much natural color. Save leftover naturally dyed eggs in a separate container without liquid. Pink eggs make a healthy snack!

Enjoy!

Nutrition Data Beets: 1/2 cup slices (85g): 37 calories; 8.5g total carbohydrate; Dietary Fiber 2g; Folate 68 mcg (17% DV); Potassium 259mg (7% DV) plus other nutrients
Blog post and photos Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.

Oyster Mushroom Nutrition @GardenCuizine #GardenCuizine

Oyster Mushrooms

Excellent Source: Niacin
Good Source: Potassium

Oyster Mushroom Nutrition: 1 cup sliced = 3g Protein (wow!), Niacin (21% DV); Potassium (10% DV), Riboflavin (18% DV); source Fiber, Folate, Iron, Zinc* and other important nutrients.

*Unlike Oyster shellfish, which are high in Zinc, Oyster Mushrooms are low in Zinc. One cup sliced Oyster Mushrooms contains 4% Daily Value of Zinc.

Where can I find them in NJ?

• Drop the Beet Farms

462 Adelphia Road
East Freehold, New Jersey 07728

• Whole Foods 
• Local Farmers Markets

Related Links
Drop the Beet Farms 
Oyster Mushroom Recipes

Blog post Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.

Just two ingredients to make-your-own Probiotic Sauerkraut #GardenCuizine #guthealth #probiotics

Probiotic Sauerkraut

The joy in preparing for my probiotic foods cooking class was introducing myself and the participants to homemade and store-bought fermented foods with live-cultures. Being new to fermentation myself, I ordered a few educational, how-to-ferment, cook books by James Beard Award-winning and NY Times bestselling author Sandor Ellix Katz. He is considered "The Johnny Appleseed of Fermentation" by Michael Pollan. Katz says in his book, Wild Fermentation, that for him, it all started with sauerkraut.

Sauerkraut is a good place to start for making food with probiotics. Our first batch of sauerkraut is fermenting now. We used the dry-salt method and did not add any water. When enjoying probiotic kraut in meals it is important to remember to eat it at room temperature or not to heat it too high or the beneficial live probiotic microorganisms will die.

Clean your Jars or Crock
To start your adventure in fermented food preparation, first decide what containers you would use. We washed out a few Mason canning jars that we had in our basement. We use them in jelly making and preserving our Jersey tomatoes - now they have yet another purpose - sauerkraut! 

You can readily find Mason jars at grocery markets and stores like Walmart and Target. Our next batch of kraut is going in our crock pot, for an even larger batch!

Only Two (2) Ingredients
Ferment time: 3 to 4 weeks or more (of course you could nibble sooner too) - taste and you decide! Fermentation for at least 9 days yields a more diverse group of microorganisms.

1. 1 head Green Cabbage  (note the weight)
2. non-iodized course sea salt- 1 Tablespoon per 2 lbs. (2% salt)

Method

• Rinse cabbage; discard any dirty, bruised leaves and core and shred the cabbage like you would for Coleslaw. 
• Add cabbage to large bowl and sprinkle top with salt. Squeeze and massage salt into shredded cabbage until you start to notice sweating and moistening of the cabbage. This indicates that cell walls are breaking and water within the veggie can seep out. 
• Stuff the cabbage loosely into clean jars. Then firmly tamp down using tongs or a wooden spoon. Cover and let nature do the rest!
• Check your kraut daily and open the lid to allow any natural gas to escape. Tamp down each time to press down the top cabbage pieces into the brine.
• For best results temperature should be between 68°F and 75°F

Congratulations! You've just completed Sauerkraut Fermentation 101. In your next batch try using other types of veggies. In his book, Sandor Katz suggests radishes, turnips, carrots, beets, garlic, greens, peppers and other veggies. Other options include: caraway seeds, turmeric, ginger or whatever else you can imagine.

People use many different methods to weigh down the top layer of cabbage to keep it under the brine. We didn't do anything. When we try a larger batch in a crock, I may use a stainless steel pot lid to press down the top.

There are several strains of desirable lactic acid bacteria that will develop and preserve your sauerkraut by lowering the pH. This type of bacteria are anaerobic so it won't matter if you want to cover your kraut with an airtight lid. Just remember to allow the natural gas that forms to escape daily.

We used a huge 4 lb. head of store-bought cabbage. Sliced it and added 2 T of salt. After massaging in the salt I took a taste. It tasted too salty. After one week I took another taste and it was so much better; still crunchy, but had the familiar flavor of sauerkraut. Success!

Trouble Shooting
What if Brine Does Not Cover Top of Cabbage?
As you can see from my photo above, our brine is not covering the top layer of cabbage in the first week. I'm thinking that the green cabbage that we used may not have had as much water in it's cell walls like homegrown, fresher cabbage probably would have. If that happens to your kraut too, an option would be to make a small amount of brine (non-iodized sea salt and water) and add it to the jars. 

Update 1/26/18: We waited three weeks before making and adding brine and by the third week, enough natural brine developed so we did not add any.
References and Related Links
Katz S., Wild Fermentation, Chelsea Green Publishing 2016

Plengvidhya V, Breidt F., Lu Z. et al, Applied Environmental Microbiology. DNA Fingerprinting of Lactic Acid Bacteria; 2007 Dec; 73(23): 7697–7702. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2168044/

Recommendations for Safe Production of Fermented Vegetables

Blog post and photo Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.

#PattypanSquash Potato Pancakes #GardenCuizine #lowcarb #latkes

Pattypan Latkes
~ low Carb, high Vitamin C ~

End of Summer, early Fall garden harvests can be quite interesting. Look at the above photo of the white, scalloped-edged veggie on the far right. Have you ever seen anything like it? Pattypan squash reminds me of a creature from outer space or in the ocean. I've seen 2- inch-size yellow/green types before, but never a giant, pure white pattypan. My initial thought was, "What do you do with it?"  

After harvesting our first one, I posted a photo on Facebook and Sheila, a long time special friend and chef, commented, "These were my favorite summer squash that our Mama used to make for supper..........lightly dredged in salt and pepper seasoned flour, fried, of course, in the iron skillet." At that moment I knew that frying was going to be my cooking method for our first dining experience with this scalloped wonder. 

What's great about pattypan is that it's not like eggplant or potatoes; the squash does not soak up oil like a sponge. These Latkes taste flavorful without containing excess fat or salt. Pattypan squash can be cooked in as many ways as you would prepare zucchini: sauteed, steamed, stuffed, stir fried, baked, grilled, veggie lasagna, etc.

My first pattypan "potato" pancake recipe didn't use any potato, just 100% summer squash; they were tasty, but I used more flour than I wanted to. In our next batch, I used much less flour and added just a little potato flakes. The end result was yum! Harry couldn't stop at eating just one. Pattypan squash remains the star of this low carb recipe: 2 cups grated pattypan (skin on) to only 1/2 cup potato.

Note: The squash turns to mush if frozen raw. Try leftover squash Julienne cut and added raw to salads. 

Yields: 6 large pattypan-potato pancakes
Ingredients
2 cups grated pattypan squash (about 3/4 of one large 572g squash)
2 eggs (100g)
1/4 cup (61g) low fat 2% milk
1/2 cup (30g) potato flakes 
2-3 (30g)Tablespoons (Tblsp) fresh grated onion
2 Tblsp (56g) all purpose flour (or Matzah meal)
1/2 teaspoon (2.5g) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon (1.5g) salt
pinch freshly ground black pepper
Peanut oil or oil for frying

Putting it all together

• Wash squash - dry w/paper towel; cut in thick slices and trim out the stem area. Spoon out any visibly large seeds (can save and dry seeds on a plate for planting next year).
• Grate squash and set aside.
• In large bowl, add eggs and milk and whisk. 
• Stir in potato flakes and remaining ingredients. 
• Heat oil in a large skillet. Test heat by dropping in a pinch of batter; it should sizzle and turn golden.
• Using an ice cream scoop, spoon one scoop batter into hot oil; using the scoop, flatten the mixture in the center to press into a pancake shape. Cook one at a time.
• Cook until golden - carefully flip to cook both sides. Drain on a paper towel.
• Remove from paper towels to a baking dish, cover and keep warm in preheated 150 deg F oven.
• Serve warm with a dollop of Greek Yogurt or applesauce.

Enjoy! 
Garden Cuizine Nutrition Data: 1/6 of recipe (92g) approximately one large Scalloped Squash Latke: 
Excellent Source: Vitamin C
Good Source: Thiamin, Riboflavin, Folate
110 calories; total fat 4g; saturated fat 1g; sodium 170 mg (vs 500+mg in a classic potato Latke recipe!); total Carbohydrate 14g (vs 32g in a classic potato Latke recipe); dietary Fiber 1g (~3% DV); Protein 4g; Vitamin C 12 mg (20% DV); Thiamin 0.2 mg (11% DV); Riboflavin 0.2mg (10% DV); Folate 42 mcg (10% DV)

Related Links
White Scallop Squash Recipes
Seasonal Spotlight: Pattypan Squash
Recipe and blog post Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.