A visit with Mairlyn Smith

I am a huge fan of Mairlyn Smith. Why, you ask?

1. She's funny. 
2. She's a home economist, which means her profession paved the way for mine. 

(Thank you!)

3. Her recipes are healthful, whole food focused and accessible enough for real people (aka, me!) to actually be able to cook her food for their families on a regular basis. 

Mairlyn was in town last week to promote her new book, The Vegetarian's Complete Quinoa Cookbook, and I had the pleasure of sitting down with her for a little chat. The book was a compilation of recipes from the Ontario Home Economists Association and represents a huge range of cooking styles and flavours. I will review the book and hopefully share a recipe with you next week but in the mean time, I thought it would be fun to share a little rapid fire Q + A. 

What is your favourite, little known fact about quinoa?

If you don't rinse it, it tastes like hell! Don't trust those packages that say pre-rinsed, rinse anyways.

Name one food you can't live without.

Chocolate!

One recipe from the new book that everyone should try.

The Brownie Bite. I was jealous of that one; I tried to recreate the "two-bite brownie" in the past and it never worked.

Name one food that reminds you of childhood.

Anything creamy...my mother made the best rice pudding I have ever had.

What makes someone a good cook? 

Love. You have to love what you're doing. 

The Secret to Eating Healthier for Life

...Now that I have your attention...I am feeling inspired to share the one habit I feel everyone must acquire in order to be truly healthy: cooking at home.


Before you dismiss this statement in a flurry of memories of triple fudge cheesecakes and double cheese lasagnas of meals past, let me explain. At home, you have the ultimate control over what you eat. You choose exactly how much oil or butter or salt or sugar to add (or to leave out). You can pile your plate high with broccoli and tofu or raspberries and Greek yogurt. When you dine or grab take out, you have no idea how much oil or salt or MSG got loaded into the dish you are about to consume. Typically, the calorie counts will be two to three times what you expect. It often doesn't actually taste that good - that "delicious" sensation you are experiencing is solely a reaction to all the fat, sugar and salt you are eating. You also don't appreciate a meal as much.


I feel like so many of our maladies nowadays are caused by disconnection. Disconnection from loved ones, our physical bodies and especially food. When food is simply something to be ordered and consumed, we forget how nourishing it can truly be. We want food cheaper, faster and richer. Our waistlines are bulging, our energy is lagging and we feel miserable when we should be feeling amazing.


To cook at home, you don't have to be a fancy cook...or even to love cooking. If you can boil water, you can make a simple pasta with some olive oil, garlic and baby spinach. This might not taste like much...but give your taste buds time. Add a little crunchy sea salt to enliven the dish. The more you eat simple foods at home, the more the flavour of real, natural foods will come alive. Consider this an investment in yourself and your family's health. 


I thought I would share some of my favourite things to help inspire you to get connected with your food and get in the kitchen. Remember, it doesn't have to be fancy. Often, it is better if it isn't. Make a ritual of preparing good quality food simply and enjoying your nourishment. 


If you haven't discovered my recipe blog that I write with my friend Heather, check out one of our favourite snacks here. To make the idea of cooking a pastime and not a chore, it doesn't hurt to treat yourself to a few pretty (or functional) gadgets. And if you can read, you can cook...but this cookbook is especially helpful for those new to the kitchen. This cookbook is a great one to introduce you to beans...one of my favourite foods. And if you really want to make cooking an event, sign up with your spouse, roommates or girlfriends for a cooking class or if you want to get fancy, a lesson in patissierie francais. And of course, you can't talk about a cook at home revolution without talking about one of my food heroes.


Stroll out to a farmer's market this weekend, pop open a bottle of wine and have a leisurely afternoon with friends in the kitchen.

Eat...Healthy Starts Here (a book review)

I love cookbooks. I can't get enough of them, really. It seems that while I am constantly trying to acquire less and rid my life of excess stuff (electrical cords for tech unknown, lidless lunch containers, hole-ridden tights...), cookbooks are exempt from my anti-hoarding aims. This month, while everyone is thinking about eating better, I thought I would share reviews (and recipes!) from some of my latest finds. 


In December, a lovely little gift arrived at my door: my copy of Healthy Starts Here by Mairlyn Smith. Mairlyn is a professional home economist and a Second City alum and she has long been writing on health and creating healthy recipes. I have a very dog-eared (well, no...I take really good care of my books but that doesn't mean they aren't well used!) copy of Ultimate Foods for Ultimate Health, that she co-wrote with Liz Pearson RD. 


Healthy Starts Here is a breath of fresh air where health-focused books are concerned because there are no gimmicks. No low carb, raw-everything or protein overloads here. Mairlyn's recipes are always accessible, healthy and tasty.The recipes are full of fresh produce, whole grains and there are plenty of vegetarian options. The book is organized by ingredient and each section offers information on the health benefits of a variety of foods: from greens to yogurt to berries, there are recipes for each season and appetite. 


Where Mairlyn's background as a home economist and educator really shines through is in the book's opening section where she advises on basic kitchen equipment and stocking a pantry; she also demystifies terms that are commonly used in recipes. With more and more of us spending less and less time in a kitchen, this book is a great crash course in re-introducing yourself to cookery. The recipes come with plenty of helpful tips on, as Mairlyn describes, "how not to wreck them". Mairlyn is encouraging and humorous in her writing and graciously self-effacing in sharing some of her own kitchen mishaps. If nothing else, let the image of Mairlyn in her onion goggles forever be engrained  in your mind as your culinary cheerleader, encouraging as you embark on another meal's prep! 


The recipes all include nutritional information and, even more impressively, Mairlyn enlisted the help of a dietitian to ensure that there are diabetes food choice values for each recipe so that it is easy for diabetics on a meal plan to incorporate these recipes into their daily lives. These are recipes for real life and the book includes treats like cookies and chocolate chip muffins that are family friendly. The quality of ingredients is good and generally whole food focused; Mairlyn does use margarine in some of her recipes and I might argue that butter would be a less processed and better quality choice. 


In choosing a recipe to feature, I thought I would give you something that will keep you warm and healthy this winter and that includes one of my favourite unsung heroes of a grain, barley.


Recipe


Tuscan Supper
From Healthy Starts Here! by Mairlyn Smith, PHEc 
Used with permission from Whitecap Books

Makes 6 cups (1.5 L) | One serving = 1 cup (250 mL)

4 large cloves garlic

1 cup (250 mL) pot barley

1 tbsp (15 mL) extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, diced

4 cups (1 L) sliced cremini mushrooms (about 24 mushrooms, or one and a half 8 oz / 227 g packages)

1 tbsp (15 mL) dried basil leaves (see below)

1 tsp (5 mL) dried oregano leaves (see below)

¼ tsp (1 mL) cracked black pepper

One 19 oz (540 mL) can diced tomatoes

1 cup (250 mL) lower-sodium vegetable or chicken broth (see page 7)

½ cup (125 mL) lightly packed grated

Asiago cheese or really good

Parmesan or Pecorino cheese

Mince the garlic and set aside.

Place the barley in a wire-mesh colander and rinse it well under cold running water. Set the barley aside to drain.

Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add the oil, then the onion, and sauté until golden brown, about 5 minutes. (This extra bit of time browning the onion pays off in the end as it gives the dish a deeper flavour.)

Add the mushrooms and sauté for 3 minutes. (I know what you’re thinking: this pot isn’t big enough. Trust me, the principle of shrinkage applies here and in about 3 minutes the mushrooms will have shrunk down.)

Add the basil, oregano, and pepper, and sauté for 1 minute. Add the barley and sauté for 1 minute.

Stir in the tomatoes and broth, making sure you scrape up all the little browned bits stuck to the bottom of the saucepan.

Bring to a boil and stir again. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, covered, until the barley is cooked through and soft but not mushy, 45 to 50 minutes. Stir occasionally and adjust the heat so it doesn’t burn.

Remove the saucepan from the heat, stir once, and let sit, covered, for 10 minutes. Spoon into bowls and top each serving with 2 tbsp (30 mL) grated cheese. (Store any leftovers in the fridge for up to 3 days.)

Per serving: 207 calories, 5 g total fat, 1 g saturated fat, 0 g trans fat, 309 mg sodium,

33 g carbohydrate, 8 g fibre, 5.5 g sugars, 9 g protein

Diabetes Food Choice Values per serving: 2 Carbohydrate, 1 Meat and Alternatives, ½ Fat

Tips from Mairlyn:

“Can I use fresh herbs?” Yes, you can. Use 3 tbsp (45 mL) chopped fresh basil and 1 tbsp (15 mL) chopped fresh oregano, but add them just before serving so the flavour isn’t completely cooked out of the herbs.

Full Disclosure: Whitecap Publishing generously supplied my copy of Healthy Starts Here but they did so because I am already such a fan of Mairlyn's and my views, expressed here, are entirely my own.