Author Archives: Lia Huber

Look Who We’ve Teamed Up With!

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We’ve teamed up with Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin and the California Dried Plum Board to bring their Super Snacking Sweepstakes here to NOURISH Evolution.

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 Evolution 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!

Roasted Acorn Squash Salad with 
Wheat Berries and Blue Cheese

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Acorn squash skins are quite leathery and the cooked flesh will pop out of it as you cut the wedges. Use a butter knife to help separate the skin and flesh if needed. This combo of winter squash, hearty wheat berries, toasted walnuts and blue cheese is the essence of fall. Soaking the wheat berries overnight is smart trick to help slash the cooking time in half. It’s the same principle as soaking dried beans.

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Nourishing Resolutions: Give Yourself Time to Change

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OK, let’s have it … how many of you have stuck to your New Year’s resolutions so far this year? If you’re grimacing right now, you’re not alone. Statistics show that somewhere between 78% and 88% of people give up on (or forget) their resolutions before the days on the calendar hit double digits.

give yourself time ot change

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 20 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, but 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.

Temptation in the 20%: How to Stop Eating When You’re Full

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Hara hachi bu is a Japanese term that roughly translates to “eat until you’re 80%  full.” It sounds simple, I know, but many deeply profound concepts wear a simple shell. This is one of them. Hara hachi bu is sound advice for many reasons. It takes your brain about 20 minutes to register how much your body has eaten, for instance, so stopping when you feel about 80% full means you’ll likely top off around 100%. It also gets you tuning in to every bite rather yielding to the temptation to mindlessly barrel through a burger.

temptation-stop-eating-full

For me, though, that 80% 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% 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 sound like this.

The problem is, we don’t have much experience in listening to our bodies and stopping when we’re full—much less 80% 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%, but I have learned a few battle lessons. Here’s what helps me stop when I’m 80% 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!) and less temptation to keep eating.
  • 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 curve balls 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%, 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!

Pork and Squash Enchilada Bake

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Think of this recipe as a template for whatever leftovers you have in your fridge … sauteed greens, squash or root veggies, beans, pork or chicken. They all adapt beautifully to this dish. Enjoy a small slice for breakfast topped with a fried egg, or for lunch or dinner with a dab of sour cream and salsa and a dribble of hot sauce. It’s a GREAT gathering dish!

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

Kitchen Sink Fried Rice

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You’ll see this fried rice recipe come up every few months in Nourish Weekly Menus, always in a different guise. Sometimes with cabbage, sometimes with bok choy, sometimes with shredded pork, sometimes with spicy shrimp … you get the picture. Feel free to use add basic recipe to your rotation with anything calling from your fridge. It’s a great way to use up leftover rice, veggies — whatever you have on hand.

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Improv Cassoulet

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There are so many things I love about cassoulet … one of them being its versatility. Be creative with your leftovers–beans, roasted meat, stale bread–and see what it becomes.

improv-cassoulet

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
1 (14-ounce) can tomato puree
4 cups leftover cooked 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
1/4 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat, and saute bacon and onion 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

A Winemaker’s Advice for a Laid-Back Thanksgiving

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I recently had the pleasure of sitting next to Beringer’s winemaker, Laurie Hook, at a wine dinner focusing on Beringer’s outstanding wines from Knight’s Valley (if you don’t know about Beringer’s Knight’s Valley tier, do yourself a favor and click here) and thought she’d be the perfect person to tap for this year’s Thanksgiving wine pairings. Here’s what Laurie had to say.

Thanksgiving wine pairingLia: 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!

Pear, Goat Cheese and Prosciutto Panini

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Panini are the upscale Italian cousins to the average Joe grilled cheese sandwich, and these panini, made with pear and prosciutto are a perfect match with creamy soups. Feel free to mix up the cheese; I like to add a generous grind of pepper on top of the pears before topping too. You can use any type of pear you like, but Anjou pear’s sweet, citrusy tang pairs well with the goat cheese. If your pears don’t yield slightly to a squeeze, ripen them on the counter for a few days.

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Crispy Mashed Potato Cakes

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I’ve always wanted a potato cake recipe like this, and I spent some time perfecting it. Would it be better to coat the mashed potato cakes in panko? I wondered. It turned out to be too much trouble, and didn’t make the cakes that much crispier. What if I sprinkled cheese on the outside to make a crisp, savory crust? Nope. That didn’t add as much punch as I’d expected. This straightforward recipe — it takes just a few minutes to pull together if you have leftover mashed potatoes on hand — yielded the best results, and will be a potato pancake I go back to again and again. I hope you do, too.

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