One of the things I love about this partnership is what a natural fit it is. To start with, dried plums are a good source of fiber, which boosts digestive health and keeps you satiated for a nice, long while. There’s also recent evidence that dried plums helps maintain bone density. And, quite frankly, they’re surprisingly delicious and versatile. So a Nourishing thumbs up on all accounts.

But there’s another thing too, and I’m aware this may sound nostalgic so bear with me … before Healdsburg was known as “wine country,” it was renowned for its dried plums. There’s heritage kismet here with Nourish Network and California Dried Plums, I tell you.

Tune in over the next few weeks to get tips from Natalie on what fuels her body and feeds her spirit, and if you’ve got a great snack recipe for dried plums, by all means, enter the Super Snacking Sweepstakes here. You’ll be entered for a chance to win a $1,000 gift certificate for groceries near you … talk about a boost to your budget!

Good luck!

1 cup wheat berries (soaked overnight and drained)
3 cups water
sea salt
1 large (2 pound) acorn squash, halved lengthwise, seeds scooped out
2 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons maple syrup
nonstick cooking spray
freshly ground black pepper
6 cups green leaf lettuce, cleaned and dried
¼ cup scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup Go-To Vinaigrette
¼ cup pecans, toasted
1 ounce blue cheese, crumbled
¼ cup dried cranberries

Combine wheat berries and water with a pinch of salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until tender. Drain off any excess water and set aside.

While wheat berries are cooking, preheat oven to 400. Place squash halves flesh side down in a microwave safe dish and cover with a paper towel. Microwave on high for 12 minutes (if your microwave doesn’t have a rotating dish, rotate the plate every 2 minutes). Remove squash (be careful of steam) to a cutting board and let cool flesh side up until cool enough to handle (1-2 minutes). Carefully cut into 1/2-inch wedges and peel off skin. Microwave the butter and syrup in a bowl for 30 seconds and stir to mix.

Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray. Lay the squash wedges down, brush with maple glaze and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Flip and repeat on the other side. Bake for 5 minutes. Carefully flip wedges over and bake another 5-6 minutes.

While squash is cooking, mix together lettuce, scallions and drained wheat berries and toss with vinaigrette. Divide evenly onto four plates. Top with squash wedges, pecans, crumbled blue cheese, cranberries and a twist of freshly ground black pepper.

Serves 4

My theory is that people get frustrated when their lives don’t do an about-face after seven days of good intentions. I know I used to. Then one year, about eight years ago, I gave myself an entire year to lose the twenty pounds I’d been trying to lose and everything changed. I changed.

In the years since, as I learned about behavioral change, it became clear that time was a major key to my success. It makes sense if you think about it; a habit is something we’ve done so consistently for so long that we do it without thinking. The cool thing, though, is that we can use the same process to develop new, healthier habits.

How we form habits

There is a proven progression in learning:

1.     from unconscious incompetence (not knowing that you don’t know)

2.     to conscious incompetence (knowing that you don’t know)

3.     to conscious competence (you know what you want to do, but you still have to think about what you’re doing)

4.     to unconscious competence (you automatically do what you want to do).

It’s the shift from conscious competence (the “I should”) to unconscious competence (the “I want to”) that creates sustainable change. You get to the place, in fact, where it feels uncomfortable to go back to your old ways. I hear this voiced all the time with My Nourish Mentor participants near the end of the program. They say, “I look back on how I used to eat and I wouldn’t even choose to do that any more.” Not only have their behaviors shifted; positive emotions and experiences have reinforced those new behaviors and cemented them into place.

Getting there takes time, though. One 2009 study found this long-term shift takes an average of 66 days (incidentally, My Nourish Mentor takes 90 days … I like the extra padding for peaks and valleys).

Reforming habits in real life

Let me give you an example of how this worked in my own life. For years and years and years, I was frustrated with myself because I couldn’t lose the weight I wanted to. I tried diet after diet, but still couldn’t get the dang pounds to stay off. At that point, I was at the first stage of unconscious incompetence; I had no idea what I really needed to do to make sustainable change in the way I ate.

When I finally walked away from silver bullets and diets of the month and dug into learning sound nutritional truths, I knew what I needed to do to lose the weight for good—eat more vegetables and whole grains, and less calorie-dense meat and refined foods—but I didn’t know how to get there without feeling like I was giving up all I enjoyed (sound familiar?). I had gotten to the second stage of conscience incompetence.

I decided to tackle one area at a time. To start, I set out to double the amount of vegetables I ate each day. Sounds easy, sure, but when you’re not used to consuming vegetables in large quantities, there are a lot of hurdles. Like refrigerator space, for instance—I had no idea how much space a pound of kale could take up! And then there was repertoire. Most of my go-to’s at the time centered on refined grains and meat—sandwiches made with deli meats for lunch, pasta with meat or sausage and a bit of veggies for dinner. I was in this third stage of conscious competence for quite some time, working at how to get more vegetables on my plate in a way that got me excited about—not dreading—eating them.

But I did get there over time, and I eventually reached the fourth stage of unconscious competence. Now if I don’t get enough vegetables during the course of the day, I feel a bit off kilter and will crave them for dinner; eating an abundance of veggies has become my norm.

So if you’re struggling with the resolutions you made earlier this month, I urge you to give it time. Set your sights on something you want to change and, over the next two months, experiment, work out the kinks, mess up and try again. Most important, though, consistently practice the way you want to be.

Hara hachi bu is sound advice for many reasons. It takes your brain about twenty minutes to register how much your body has eaten, for instance, so stopping when you feel about 80 percent full means you’ll likely top off around 100 percent. It also gets you tuning in to every bite rather than mindlessly barreling through a burger.

For me, though, that 80 percent is the border over which the battles of will are fought. Here’s a snippet of what my brain sounds like when I’m eating a so-juicy-and-delicious-all-I-can-do-is-close-my-eyes-and-hum burger and I hit my 80 percent mark.

Willful Me (turning a shoulder to Mindful Me): “Shut up, I’m eating.”

Mindful Me: “You know, you’re just going to feel like crap if you eat the whole thing.”

Willful Me: “I’m not listening, I’m not listening …”

Mindful Me: “Seriously, why don’t you just put the rest down and take it home.”

Willful Me: (suddenly taking faster bites): “But there’s really not enough left to take home.”

Mindful Me: “Then why don’t you just put down those last couple bites so you don’t stuff yourself and you can feel a bit better about this whole thing.”

Willful Me: (holding the last bite in front of my mouth): “But I WANT this burger!”

I’ll bet if you miked everyone’s minds at that burger joint you’d hear a lot of conversations that sounded quite similar to mine.

The problem is, we don’t have much experience in listening to our bodies and stopping when we’re full—much less 80 percent full. Instead, we’ve just re-engineered our food so that we can eat more and more and more of it (Oh, I remember the glee when Snackwells would come out with a new cookie flavor). Or we’ll “lighten” something up with the implicit notion that we can eat more of it.

But that’s missing the point.

When we ignore our body’s cues for the sake of … MORE … we’re snubbing our nose at the complex, wonderful system that connects our brains to our tummies.

FYI, I did feel awful after eating that whole burger. I was nauseous and uncomfortable all night, and was mentally flogging myself with guilt (“what was I THINKING?”). But I had another experience with another burger a few months later that felt entirely different.

I cut the burger in half and luxuriated in every bite of the first half. Then I noticed myself starting to feel full. I waited for a few minutes, sipping my beer, and noticed that I continued to feel more full even without eating more. Sure, I was still eyeing that other half. But I remembered how it had felt when Willful Me had had her way last time and, finally, I pushed my plate away.

“I’m done,” I said.

“Aren’t you going to have any more?” Christopher asked?

“No,” I answered. “I’m done.”

I felt great. I felt respectful. I felt at peace.

I’m not saying I’ve mastered the territory struggle for that 20 percent, but I have learned a few battle lessons. Here’s what helps me stop when I’m 80 percent full:

• If you’re at a restaurant and you’ve got a big plate of food, create a smaller portion of it for yourself somewhere on your plate. If you’re at home, start off with a smaller portion. Then let yourself enjoy it with abandon (no guilt allowed!).
• If you catch yourself having a conversation like mine above, try to deliberately subvert your Willful Self. Argue back (“you know what, YOU shut up!”). Throw in some hot buttons (“Fine … if you want to feel like a helium balloon all night, go ahead. I’ll bet you’ll feel great at the pool tomorrow too.”). Your Willful Self is not playing by the rules or being rational, so throw in some curveballs to take control away from her.
• Know, KNOW that you are not saving any starving children by eating the second half of your burger. Yes, it’s probably going to go to waste. So next time, you find someone to share it with.
• Take a break. When you start to feel not hungry, just hit the pause button for a few minutes. It will give you time to check in with how you feel and helps disengage the autopilot that your Willful Self may have you on.
• When you’re feeling somewhere around 80 percent, DECLARE it. Say, out loud, to yourself and/or the table, “I’m done.” It’s powerful.
• Don’t believe your Willful Self when she plays the card of “but if you don’t eat it all, you’ll be hungry again in an hour.” If you get hungry again in an hour, you can have a snack.

Give these a try and let me know if they work for you!

2 cups roasted squash, mashed to a puree (you could also use canned pumpkin)
2 teaspoons canola oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cumin
Nonstick cooking spray
2 cups prepared red enchilada sauce
12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
3 cups shredded chicken or pork
1 recipe Sauteed Swiss Chard (or other leftover greens)
5 ounces monterey jack cheese, (1 cup, shredded)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix squash with canola oil, garlic and cumin.

Spread 1/2 cup sauce in the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish coated with cooking spray. Top with 4 tortillas, tearing as needed to fill in any gaps. Top with 1 cup squash, half the pork and chard, 3/4 cup sauce and 1/3 cup cheese. Top with 4 more tortillas, remaining 1 cup squash, remaining pork, 1/2 cup sauce and 1/3 cup cheese. Top with remaining 4 tortillas, sauce and cheese.

Cover and bake at 400 F for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes, or until hot and tortillas are golden brown around the edges. Let stand 5-10 minutes before slicing.

Serve with sour cream and salsa, if you like.

Serves 6-8

Here are five delicious, seasonal options that you can make at least two to three days ahead and savor throughout the holidays.

1. Apple Pie with Chinese Five Spice and Hazelnut Crumb Topping. Chinese five spice powder adds a surprising, bright note to the cooked caramel-y apple filling while a nutty crumb topping adds crunch. You can make the Toasted Nut Pastry Dough up to a week ahead, pop it in the fridge, and then cook the filling, blind-bake the crust and finish off the pie a couple of days before the holiday. (Pressed for time? Pick up a pre-made whole-wheat pastry crust. We won’t tell.)
2. Spiced Pumpkin Harvest Bundt Cake with Pecans. Linda West Eckhardt created this homey, old-fashioned treat to celebrate Nourish Network’s first birthday. It’s golden and rich with warm spices and a lemony glaze. Leftovers will make delightful snacks all weekend long.
3. Chocolate Angel Food Cake. For some crowds, only chocolate will do, so whip up our angel food cake. Only instead of macerated strawberries, pair it with Grandma Friese’s Whole Cranberries, which are soaked in port. It’s a gorgeous holiday presentation.
4. Small bites. Desserts don’t have to be lavish to end the feast on a high note, and your guests may well appreciate a selection of little treats. (Honestly, I’m tempted to go this route myself this year.) Decorated with dried cranberries and slivered almonds, Crunchy Ruby-Studded Meringue Buttons are light and festively pretty. Our Chocolate Orange Pistachio Biscotti are prefect for dunking in after-dinner coffee, while these Boozy Orange-Pecan Truffles are rich-tasting, impressive and not too heavy. Make extra and freeze ‘em to enjoy throughout the holiday season.
5. Pumpkin Tart with Maple Whipped Cream and Toasted Walnuts. Graham crackers, sugar and butter add up to the world’s easiest crust for this tart. Add a simple, spicy pumpkin filling and you’re good to go. Bake the tart up to two days before the feast and store it in the fridge. You also can whip the cream a day or two in advance and refrigerate it. Toast the nuts a day or two ahead and stash them in an airtight container.

Have a happy–and sweet–holidays!

½ cup low sodium chicken or vegetable broth
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 teaspoons reduced sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon chile paste
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
6 cups savoy cabbage, thinly sliced
sea salt
½ cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups cooked brown rice, break up any chunks
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 cups cooked shrimp or shredded meat
4 cups cooked bok choy, greens or mushrooms
1 cup frozen peas, (optional)
¼ cup cilantro, roughly torn

Whisk broth, water, oyster sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, chile paste and cornstarch together in small bowl and set aside.

Heat 1/2 tablespoon oil in a large wok or non-stick skillet over high heat. Add cabbage and a pinch of salt and saute for 5 minutes, until wilted and charred. Remove to a plate. Swirl in remaining 1-1/2 tablespoons oil and saute onion for 3 minutes, until softened. Add garlic and cook another 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add rice and stir-fry 2 minutes, until softened and separated. Push to one side of pan and pour in egg. Let egg set for 30 seconds and then chop coarsely with spatula.

Stir in meat, veggies, cabbage and peas and toss everything together to combine. Give sauce a stir to mix and pour into pan. Toss rice to coat. Cook 5 minutes longer or until heated through. Spoon onto serving dish or into bowls. Sprinkle cilantro over top and season to taste with additional soy sauce.

Serves 4

]]> http://nourishnetwork.com/2011/12/09/kitchen-sink-fried-rice/feed/ 0 http://nourishnetwork.com/2011/11/30/get-over-the-guilt-2/ http://nourishnetwork.com/2011/11/30/get-over-the-guilt-2/#comments Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:53:57 +0000 Lia Huber http://nourishnetwork.com/?p=6800 Between Thanksgiving and Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I’m starting to feel gorged in every way. It happens every year for me right as November slides into December; I start to feel almost panicked about the cookies and treats and roasts ahead for the holidays. I start to feel a sense of gloom that I’m going to roll into the new year ten pounds heavier than I was at Halloween, which doesn’t feel so merry to me.

When I go there, my first response is to over-exert my will power. I’m sure it’s born of decades of dieting, but I immediately feel like, if I’m going to prevail, then, dang it, I’d better shore myself up for some hefty denial.

But I know better. I learned on my journey towards Nourish Network that denying myself something only made me want it more. In fact, it was only when I removed the ban on foods I enjoyed that I lost weight and kept it off. So nowadays I take a deep breath and remind myself that celebrations are a natural part of being nourished; my job is to make sure that I’m mindfully indulging in things likeSwiss Chard with Grated Garlic and Braised Kale Tartines with Feta in between the feasts.

In fact, there are a few things I like to do to recalibrate myself in between Thanksgiving and the December holidays, and I’ll be sharing those secrets with members of our Holiday Surthrival Kit.

I find if I’m not mindful about how I approach this time of year, I can feel guilty (when there’s no need to be), frazzled (when a few simple strategies can keep me organized on track) and in general an exhausted prickly mess by the time family arrives on my doorstep.

Truth be told, I created the Holiday Surthrival Kit as much for me (yes, I do use those Meal Grids and day-by-day checklists) as for y’all, although I’ll admit the pretty e-cookbooks (and they are pretty) take it over the top.

And if you’re reading this before December 1^st you’re in luck … click here to get your own Holiday Surthrival Kit for 50% off through the 1^st! Just enter WILDFIRE as the coupon code and get it for $29. After that, you can still grab it throughout December for the usual price of $59.

Whatever you do, DO spend these weeks in between nurturing yourself and getting prepared, rather than torturing yourself with guilt or depriving yourself. You’ll be in a much better place come the end of December, and a much happier person in the New Year.

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
4 thick slices bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 links italian sausage, cut diagonally into 4 pieces
4 cloves garlic, minced, divided
¼ cup dry white wine
2 cups low-sodium chicken, vegetable or turkey stock
14-ounce can tomato puree
4 cups leftover turkey, duck or dark-meat chicken, shredded
(2) 15-ounce cans white beans, drained
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs thyme
2 cups course bread crumbs
2 tablespoons parsley, minced
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 350. Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven and saute bacon and onion over medium heat for 12-15 minutes, until bacon is semi-crisp and onion is browned. Add sausages and 1/2 of the garlic and saute for 4 minutes, until slightly browned.

Add wine and scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add stock, tomato puree, turkey, beans, bay leaf and thyme. Taste and adjust seasoning accordingly. Bake in the oven uncovered for 30 minutes, adding additional stock  if necessary to keep moist.

Mix bread crumbs with remaining garlic, minced parsley, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Toss with melted butter until moistened evenly and sprinkle on top of cassoulet. Bake for another 20 minutes. Push down breadcrumbs so they are slightly moistened and bake another 20 minutes, until top crisps.

Serves 8

Lia: First off, what are your thoughts on the big Thanksgiving feast?

Laurie: I love all the holidays, but Thanksgiving is a special one for me as a winemaker, since it falls just after harvest. It really has that feeling to me of celebrating harvest, celebrating friends and family, celebrating time together, which I look forward to after an intense season with a lot of long hours. By the time I’m done with harvest, I’m ready to reconnect.

Lia: Do you have any favorite Thanksgiving dishes?

Laurie: I like to keep things savory. The sweetness level, other than dessert, is pretty low at my Thanksgiving table.

Lia: What wines will be on your table?

Laurie: I’m a big fan of setting a lot of wines out on the sideboard and letting people play. We’ll have people at the table who really love wine, and those who like it, but aren’t as passionate about it, so I like to have different bottles of different levels and varietals available. Most of all, I want people to enjoy the meal and eat and drink what they like.

That said, I’ll definitely have a bottle of our Private Reserve Chardonnay—it’s a really versatile wine that holds up to a lot of different foods and is great for people who aren’t big red drinkers. For red, I like having a medium-bodied pinot noir and a cabernet sauvignon on the table. I’m excited about our 2009 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon; it’s generous on blackberry flavors and cedar and brown spice notes, and its satiny tannins make it softer and rounder and easier to pair with things—like turkey—that you normally wouldn’t turn to cabernet for.

Lia: Any special pairings?

Laurie: I’m starting with a butternut squash soup that I’m really excited about pairing with our Alluvium Blanc—a Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc blend. It has bright acidity and citrus from the sauvignon blanc and a buttery mouthfeel from the Semillon that I think are going to go beautifully with the soup.

In general, though, I like people to discover for themselves what they like. By having different bottles on the table—a very Thanksgiving-esque way to serve—you can try tastes of different wines with different foods. It takes the feeling that there’s a “right” and “wrong” way to pair away and allows people to just play. I like to send the message of “have fun, don’t take this so seriously … just experiment and relax and enjoy yourself.”

Lia: What about dessert?

Laurie: We’ll have the usual Thanksgiving desserts and pies, and I’ll definitely be setting out a bottle of our Nightingale. It’s got gorgeous balance with notes of honeyed apricot and caramelized sugar. Honestly? I could actually just have a glass of that for dessert.

Lia: You and I bonded over dinner about sustainability and, in particular, how a big label like Beringer approaches it. Can you talk a bit about your take on the subject as winemaker?

Laurie: First off, I have to say that we want to do the right thing. We live in this community, kids are growing up here, we’re breathing the air. We want to feel like we’re leaving the world in a better place … but it does take work.

I approach sustainability in a similar way as I do winemaking—it’s not one or two things that makes it successful, it’s paying attention to everything you do along the way. Thankfully, at Beringer, the new emphasis on “being green” is a comfortable fit with what we’ve been doing for years. If you look at our large vineyards from earlier generations, for instance, you’ll find wildlife corridors and trees and a whole ecological system. And we partnered with the Fish Friendly Farming certification program years ago to protect natural watersheds and rivers and waterways.

But we’re always looking for ways to do more. We’re in the process of becoming a Certified California Sustainable Winegrower, for instance. We’re composting more and more of our humus, have installed solar energy, and have reduced water usage by 13 million gallons in the last 4 years. We’re even doing things like reducing glass usage to cut down on packaging and lighten our carbon footprint with transportation.

Lia: Lots to be thankful for!

Laurie: Absolutely. The most important thing is that it all adds up; even just turning off the lights. We all have a lot more personal power in this area than we think if we just pay attention to what we do every day. I think sustainability needs to be both systemic, as a company, and individual. When you leave work, you want those same values to continue on after work. One of the things I love is that because they’re teaching these things in school now, kids are holding adults responsible. They’re great catalysts!