Meatless Monday: Celebrate Summer

Eat Well. Stay Safe. Don’t Let the Bugs Bite!

Summer is in full swing, and it’s time to head outdoors to enjoy the long sunny days with family and friends.

Much as I like to cook, my summer game plan includes spending as little time in the kitchen as possible. I make lots of salads, some whipped up with canned beans and condiments from the cupboard, others more elaborate and based on what produce has come into season at the farmer's market. My key to success is to make sure I always have fresh greens on hand for a salad base, and to make extra grains each time I cook so that I can easily turn a simple salad into a meal.

As promised here is a link to all my blog posts on salads to get you inspired. They are in chronological order beginning with last weeks’s recipe. I can almost guarantee that there is something in this list to appeal to even the pickiest eater.

• Three-Bean Salad 
• Farro Salad
• Last Days of Summer Salad Note: This is the perfect salad to make when local berries come into season. Don’t wait until September to try this.

The time is now for this Danish treat!

• Kale Salad
• How to Turn Any Salad into a Meal 
• Quinoa Salad
• Greek Cucumber Salad 
• Fred Harvey’s Coleslaw Note: This recipe, made popular by railroad restaurateur Fred Harvey, is simply delicious and particularly refreshing on a hot day — perfect for a 4th of July cookout!
• Hakurei Turnip Salad

Now that we have Salads covered, I want to share a couple of summer safety tips.

As tempting as it might be to run out the door and head to the beach without applying sunscreen or putting on a hat, keep in mind that in the northern hemisphere the sun’s rays are the longest and most powerful at this time of year. Unprotected exposure to intense sunlight increases the risk of skin cancer, particularly between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm. Be warned that while some sunscreens are long lasting and do what is promised on the label, others are inadequate. Each year the watchdog Environmental Working Group tests and rates sunscreens on the market; here is the link to this year’s list. Good Guide is another useful consumer tool, rating products based on safety, health, and environmental factors. See how your sunscreen performs here.

And don’t forget the dangers from insect bites. Even though I don’t plan to hit the tropics, the Zika virus has been on my mind. I visited the CDC website to see what they recommend for insect repellants and I discovered this excellent fact sheet. I then checked out the latest recommendations from Consumer Reports and I learned there was one repellant, Sawyer Picaridin, that is effective for at least eight hours against the mosquitoes that transmit the Zika virus, the Culex mosquitoes (which can spread West Nile virus), AND deer ticks (which can spread Lyme Disease). Here is the link to the report. Sawyer Picaridin can be purchased on Amazon as well as in a number of big box retailers; here is a store locator.

I'm all ready to enjoy some time outside the kitchen. I hope you are, too.

Eat well. Stay safe. Don’t let the bugs bite!

Happy Summer! Happy Meatless Monday.

On Mondays I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Meatless Monday: Summer is for Salads

It’s the first day of summer! And the weather in New England is glorious at the moment. With such perfect weather it is a shame to spend too much time indoors. In our house, summertime is salad time, especially now that fresh local greens and berries are making their way to our farmers’ markets. With some careful planning before you go to the market, and a bit of advance preparation on the weekend, you too can stock your fridge for a week’s worth of salads.

In all my years of Meatless Monday blogging I can’t believe I have never shared this favorite recipe — a riff on “Kidney Bean Salad” from Recipes for a Small Planet, by Ellen Buchman Ewald, first published in 1973. This easy to prepare salad is versatile and economical; it can be altered depending on the ingredients you have on hand, making it perfect for a surprise invitation to a potluck. Served on a bed of greens with a side of bread it is all you need for a quick dinner on a hot summer night. It stores well in the fridge and makes a wonderful grab and go lunch for the office or a spontaneous picnic. No need for those high-price containers from the deli section!

The original recipe follows with my changes in brackets.

KIDNEY BEAN SALAD [AKA Three Bean Salad]

6 portions; 1 portion=approx. 7 grams of protein

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup dry kidney beans [1 small can kidney beans + 1 small can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained, + 1/3 lb. fresh or frozen green beans, lightly steamed]
• 1 green [red] pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped onions [Vidalia]
• 1 teaspoon crushed or minced garlic
• 1/2 cup olive oil [extra virgin]
• 1/4 cup wine vinegar
• 1/8 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon tomato catsup
• dash [or 2 or 3] hot sauce
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley [Italian] 
• 1 cup yogurt whisked with …1/4 cup milk powder [Greek yogurt]

DIRECTIONS

• Combine the beans, pepper, onions, and garlic.
• Make a dressing of the remaining ingredients EXCEPT yogurt and milk powder.
• Pour the dressing over the bean mixture and toss gently. 
• Refrigerate at least one hour.
• Just before serving, stir in the yogurt mixture.

Optional additions: chopped cucumber and/or celery. NOTE: I chose not to stir the yogurt into the mix. I prefer to top each salad with a scoop of Greek yogurt, some crumbled feta cheese, or some grated sharp cheddar. The salad stores better that way.

Enjoy your time outside the kitchen! And come back next week for a complete list of the salad recipes I have shared over the years.

Happy Summer! Happy Meatless Monday.

On Mondays I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

The Choice is Clear

Many of my blog posts have an optimistic tone. I strive to share good news about people doing things to make the world a better place, such as the recent post about a bee swarm and a beekeeper who came to its rescue.  

But now to a reality that should strike fear into any responsible person’s heart. The presumptive Republican candidate for president, in a late May speech to oil producers in North Dakota, said he would “cancel” the Paris climate agreement and withdraw any funding for United Nations programs related to global warming. He also pledged to reopen coal mines and to try to reopen negotiations to build the Keystone XL pipeline. You can read his entire energy policy plan here. 

Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has vowed to “deliver on the pledge President Obama made at the Paris climate conference last December… Her plan will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30 percent in 2025 relative to 2005 levels and put the country on a path to cut emissions more than 80 percent by 2050.” In November 2015 Hillary Clinton said: “I won’t let anyone take us backward, deny our economy the benefits of harnessing a clean energy future, or force our children to endure the catastrophe that would result from unchecked climate change.”

For the first time in its history the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) has endorsed a candidate for president. That candidate is Hillary Clinton. The advocacy group declared: “She has the deep knowledge and diplomatic skills to fight for our kids’ future, preserve America’s leadership role in the Paris Climate Agreement and build upon that global framework to fight climate change. We will work with her to honor and implement that historic accord to preserve our planet for future generations.”

Why is this so important? In a talk entitled “A Future Free from Fear: Why We must Act on Climate Change Today,” delivered at Yale in May, Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCC (Un Framework Convention on Climate Change) stated that we have just FIVE YEARS to make important progress to reducing the amount of CO2 in our air. 

Figueres praised the Paris Climate Agreements for setting up the possibility of a new reality, but emphasized in her message the we need to make this reality happen NOW. She was careful to point out that with challenges come great economic opportunities. Yes, we can change the world and garner economic benefits. We must face the challenge head on. This is our moon shot!

One only has to watch or read the news to see that destabilization of our world has begun. Parents and grandparents in particular must realize the burdens which we are going to pass on to the next generation. That is the price of inaction.

It is clear that just one of these candidates has the vision to help us as a nation achieve a clean energy future. An obvious first step is to vote for that candidate in November and to work in the coming months to persuade everyone you know that they should do the same.