Monday, July 30, 2012

Meatless Monday: Indian Style Black Bean Burrito

Ingredients

1 medium onion, cut in half and sliced thin  
4 medium cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
1-1/2 cups sweet potatoes cut in 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup green peppers, thinly julienned
1 cup red peppers, thinly julienned
1 tsp garam masala
1 TBS + 1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 cups or 1 15 oz can black beans, drained
2 oz Chevre goat cheese (optional)
Salt and black pepper to taste
4 whole wheat (or GF free) tortillas
3 large lettuce leaves
8 tbsp. salsa

Directions

1. Chop onions and garlic and let sit for 5-10 minutes to bring out their health-promoting properties.
2. Prepare other vegetables.
3. Heat 1 TBS broth in a 12 inch stainless steel skillet. Healthy Sauté onion, garlic, ginger, and peppers in broth over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. 4. Add garam masala and sweet potatoes and mix well. Add 1/2 cup broth and cook covered on low heat for about 10 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.
5. Add beans making sure they are rinsed and drained well first. Mix, cooking for another 5 minutes.
6. Season with salt and pepper.
7. While vegetables are cooking, shred lettuce.
8. Place vegetable mixture in tortilla and top with goat cheese. Roll and top with salsa and shredded lettuce.

Source: whfoods.org

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Can You Go Meat-Free for Just One Day?

This year Animal Freedom Day will take place on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, July 28-30. People are encouraged to attend through the live web cam and to pledge to go meat-free for at least one of the three days.

“This day is not just for vegans, vegetarians or animal activists” says Nadia Masoudi, the 19 year old founder. “It is a worldwide celebration; encapsulating people from all walks of life to come together and help our world.”

We know that many of our customers and employees are meat-free every day, but we also know that many of our customers and employees enjoy meat regularly. And of course, we encourage and provide organic and free-range meat options. But, check out the statistics below, going meat-free for only one day can do amazing things for us, the animals and the planet!

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would save:
 - 100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months;
 - 1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock, enough to feed the state of New Mexico for more than a year;
 - 70 million gallons of gas — enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare;
 - 3 million acres of land, an area more than twice the size of Delaware;
 - 33 tons of antibiotics.

If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would prevent:
 - Greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 1.2 million tons of CO2, as much as produced by all of France;
 - Million tons of soil erosion and $70 million in resulting economic damages;
 - 4.5 million tons of animal excrement;
 - Almost 7 tons of ammonia emissions, a major air pollutant.

So, what do you think? Can you go a day without meat? Can you convince your family, friends, co-workers, neighbors? Can you turn a day into a week, month, year? Take the pledge and let us know in the comments. we might use your story on Facebook and Twitter!

Monday, July 23, 2012

Meatless Monday: Green Bean Curry

Ingredients
 
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 serrano peppers, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
5 fresh curry leaves
1 tablespoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
Salt to taste
1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 tablespoons lime juice

Directions

1.Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook the onion, serrano pepper, garlic, and curry leaves in the oil until the onions are golden brown.
2. Stir in the curry powder, fenugreek seeds, turmeric, and salt; cook another 3 minutes.
3. Add the green beans to the mixture and stir until evenly coated. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until the beans are al dente.
4. Pour in the coconut milk and simmer at least 5 minutes more.
5. Remove from heat and stir in the lime juice just before serving. Delicious over rice or other grains.

Source: allrecipes.com

Monday, July 16, 2012

Meatless Monday: Mediterranean Eggplant Barley Salad

This recipes utilizes local, in-season eggplant, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, mint and parsley!

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb eggplant, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3/4 lb zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
10 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup chopped scallion (from 1 bunch)
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1 1/4 cups pearl barley (8 oz)
1 (14-oz) can reduced-sodium vegetable broth (1 3/4 cups)
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 lb cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/3 cup Kalamata or other brine-cured black olives, pitted and halved
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion, rinsed and drained if desired
1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint

Directions

1. Roast eggplant and zucchini: Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Toss eggplant and zucchini with 5 tablespoons oil, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper in a bowl, then spread in 2 oiled large shallow (1-inch-deep) baking pans. Roast vegetables in oven, stirring occasionally and switching position of pans halfway through baking, until vegetables are golden brown and tender, 20 to 25 minutes total. Combine vegetables in 1 pan and cool, reserving other pan for cooling barley.
3. Cook barley: Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a 3- to 4-quart heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then cook scallion, cumin, coriander, and cayenne, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add barley and cook, stirring until well coated with oil, 2 minutes more. Add broth and water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until all of liquid is absorbed and barley is tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 5 minutes. Transfer to reserved shallow baking pan and spread to quickly cool, uncovered, to room temperature, about 20 minutes.
4. Make dressing and assemble salad: Whisk together lemon juice, garlic, sugar, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 3 tablespoons oil in a large bowl. Add barley, roasted vegetables, and remaining ingredients to bowl with dressing and toss until combined well. Serve with cheese slices.

Do ahead: Salad can be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Return to room temperature before serving.

Source: smittenkitchen.com

Thursday, July 12, 2012

The 10 Best Food Apps

Courtesy of Rodale.com

Put That Smartphone to Use
So you've mastered Angry Birds and you're bored with Words with Friends. Now what to do with that smartphone that's weighing you down? Use it to create a better world—through food. Whether it's avoiding pesticides or ridding your pantry of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), there's an app for any of us who want to vote with our forks for a better food system. We've rounded up the 10 best must-have smartphone apps for anyone concerned about the who, what, when, where, and how to have the best weekly grocery shopping trips.

Fooducate
Hard-to-pronounce ingredients and tricky marketing tactics make it tough to find truly healthy food at the grocery store. Fooducate, voted the top Fitness & Health App of 2011, takes the pain out of supermarket shopping by allowing smartphone users to scan barcodes for an honest evaluation of ingredients and product safety. The app grades scanned food items in terms of healthiness while also providing alerts for health-food imposters that in fact contain high-fructose corn syrup, harmful additives, trans fats, or other toxic ingredients. Mt. Dew, for instance, receives a D+ for excessive sugar, ingredient interactions that create carcinogens, as well as controversial artificial food dyes. The app also suggests healthier alternatives, making your shopping excursion a walk in the park

Seafood Watch
With many ocean species on the brink of collapse, Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch app helps you find more sustainable options based on GPS-location readings. On the West Coast? Avoid orange roughy but feel good about enjoying U.S. skipjack tuna caught using the troll/pole method. (This reduces the amount of other species harmed during the harvest.) In the Northeast? Go for farmed clams, mussels, and oysters, but pass on farmed salmon, even Atlantic salmon. For the top choices that protect the health of the oceans and your family, tap the "Super Green" list for sustainable seafood choices that are also low in common contaminants like mercury and PCBs but high in healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Sucker for sushi? This app also shows both the Japanese and common market name for sushi seafood to make searching easier to find safer, more ocean-friendly picks.

Wild Edibles
For wild food of the land-based sort, look no further than Wild Edibles, an app developed by Wild Man Steve Brill, who leads trips through New York's Central Park teaching people how to identify edible wild plants. Learn what a "Hoosier banana," aka paw-paw, looks like and where to find paw-paws growing, and how to tell the difference between garlic mustard and wild mustard greens. More important, it'll teach you how to avoid poisonous plants without your having to lug around bulky paper guidebooks. The app even works if you have no reception.

What's on My Food?
From apples and almonds to yams and zucchini, this extensive list of more than 90 foods helps you figure out which produce items are most likely to be contaminated with toxic pesticides linked to ADHD, autism, certain cancers, and other health problems. Brought to you by Pesticide Action Network, this app goes far beyond traditional dirty dozen lists and helps you compare pesticide levels on organic versus conventional crops. New in the upgraded version? A honeybee icon that helps you avoid produce items that likely harbor pesticides linked to colony collapse disorder.

Non-GMO Project Shopping Guide
One of the best moves you can make to vote for a more sustainable food supply, in addition to buying organic food, is to buy foods certified as Non-GMO by the nonprofit Non-GMO Project. GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, have had their DNA altered to resist toxic pesticides, and those pesticides wind up in your food. The Non-GMO Project actually tests foods for GMO ingredients, and their app lists specific GMO-free foods and brands.

True Food
Want to take more of a stand against GMOs? Then download the True Food app, which not only points you toward GMO-free brands, but also educates you about issues facing our food system, and has the capability to let you send your congressmen letters telling them how unhappy you are with the way our government regulates GMOs. Developed by the Center for Food Safety, the app lists companies they've contacted who have pledged to rid their supply chains of GMOs. Thumb over one more screen, and learn about more of these toxic crops that are in development. The Center for Food Safety is one of the greatest advocates for a healthier food supply, and now you can carry all their valuable research and knowledge with you everywhere you shop.

NRDC Eat Local
The hardest part about eating local foods in season is menu planning. It's hard to know what you need every week if you don't know what's in season. Enter the Eat Local app, designed by the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Put in your zip code and up pops a list of all the produce that's in season in your area at the moment. Even if you're not a planner and like to be surprised by what's available, the app provides you with recipes and ideas for any seasonal foods you just don't know what to do with, like kohlrabi and garlic scapes.

Dirty Dozen
Paranoid about your pesticide intake? Look no further than the Environmental Working Group's Dirty Dozen app, which helps you determine which foods you should always buy organic and which conventionally grown foods have the lowest pesticide residues. The nonprofit painstakingly pores over U.S. Department of Agriculture data every year to come up with its "Dirty Dozen" and "Clean Fifteen" lists. While it's best to buy organic as much as you can to reduce pesticides that wind up in our air, soil, and water, this app makes it easier to know which foods are safe when organic isn't widely available.

Eden Foods
One of our favorite companies and a pillar of the organic food movement (it's been around since the 1960s), Eden Foods sells organic, vegetarian foods packaged in the only cans on the market that use a less-toxic alternative to hormone-disrupting bisphenol A. Now the company has an app so you can figure out what to do with all their foods, whether a can of kidney beans or that package of soba noodles. The app has more than a thousand recipes to share, organized by course, cuisine, dietary restriction, or ingredient.

Harvest
Have you ever shuffled mindlessly through the produce department, unsure of what to look for when selecting your fruit? Are you really supposed to thump a watermelon or shake an avocado? Download Harvest, a comprehensive app that offers instructions and techniques for picking out the best produce, from strawberries to squash. The app also provides storage tips and incorporates the Environmental Working Group's information about pesticide levels on produce, so you don't have to switch back and forth between apps.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Meatless Monday: Golabki (Polish Stuffed Cabbage Rolls)

Ingredients 

1 large cabbage, with big leaves, core removed
2/3 cup long grain rice
3 1/2 tbsp. butter
2 large onions, peeled and minced
2 cups mushrooms (canned or fresh) 
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce (optional)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder 
2 tsp. sweet paprika
1/2 tsp. parsley
6 cups tomato juice or vegetable stock

Directions

1. Slice through the base of the cabbage and cook in lightly salted boiling water until tender.
2. When the leaves are tender, peel off (You may have to peel the first layers first and then return the cabbage to cook and continue peeling the leaves until all are done).
3. Boil the rice until just tender; drain and set aside.
4. Fry the onions in the butter until softened.
5. Dice the mushrooms and fry lightly with the onions, and the Worcestershire sauce, if using.
6. Mix with the rice and season with salt, pepper, garlic, paprika and parsley.
7. Place a tbsp. of the rice mixture in each cabbage leaf; carefully tuck in sides,roll to cover rice.
8. Heat the oven to 400°F.
9. Grease a roasting pan and place cabbage rolls seam side down in pan, packing them tight.
10. Pour enough juice or stock over the top to cover them.
11. Sprinkle lightly with remaining paprika.
12. Cover and bake in oven for 20 minutes.
13. Remove cover and bake for another 10 minutes to brown the cabbage lightly.

Source: food.com

Friday, July 6, 2012

DIY: Homemade Rosewater

Ingredients

2-3 quarts fresh roses or rose petals
Water
Ice cubes or crushed ice

Directions

1. In the center of a large pot (the speckled blue canning pots are ideal) with an inverted lid (a rounded lid), place a fireplace brick. On top of the brick place the bowl. Put the roses in the pot; add enough flowers to reach the top of the brick. Pour in just enough water to cover the roses. The water should be just above the top of the brick.
2. Place the lid upside down on the pot. Turn on the stove and bring the water to a rolling boil, then lower heat to a slow steady simmer. As soon as the water begins to boil, toss two or three trays of ice cubes (or a bag of ice) on top of the lid.
3. You’ve now created a home still! As the water boils the steam rises, hits the top of the cold lid, and condenses. As it condenses it flows to the center of the lid and drops into the bowl. Every 20 minutes, quickly lift the lid and take out a tablespoon or two of the rose water. It’s time to stop when you have between a pint and a quart of water that smells and tastes strongly like roses.

*Use rosewater for scenting and as a gentle astringent.

Source: Adapted from Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbs for Natural Beauty, by Rosemary Gladstar for care2.org

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Happy 4th of July from HHM!

We hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday!
We are open from 10am - 6pm today!

Monday, July 2, 2012

Meatless Monday: Morgan's Veggie Patties

Ingredients

2 ounces olive oil
3 tablespoons diced red onion
2 tablespoons diced black olives
2 tablespoons diced red bell peppers
1 teaspoon diced jalapeno
1 1/2 tablespoons diced garlic
1 tablespoon diced artichoke
4 ounces black beans, drained
4 ounces chickpeas, drained
4 ounces white beans, drained
6 ounces rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon Hungarian paprika
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley leaves
1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/4 teaspoon ground sage
2 tablespoons seasoned bread crumbs
1 egg

Directions

1. In a medium saute pan over medium heat, add 1-ounce olive oil and all raw vegetables except beans. Saute until translucent. Remove and cool.
2. Add veggies to beans and pulse in a blender or food processor until beans are just blended.
3. Add all dry ingredients along with the egg. Thoroughly mix all ingredients and form into 4 patties, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. In saute pan add 1-ounce olive oil, and cook patties 2 to 3 minutes per side.

Source: foodnetwork.com