When I have paddled my last New river and had my last Huge experience, I am planning on going to grad school for a master’s degree in nutrition. It’s become a real passion of mine to eat in a way that is not only healthy, but also sustainable. I know, I know, we hear it every day. But, when you start to examine what you’re eating, and how you feel, the connection is inarguable. After a summer splurging on raw foods at Chaco Canyon Cafe in Seattle, I was a little worried about continuing my quest to eat healthy when the school year started up again. Here is what we’re up against:
1. We have to feed 13 people per meal. Not a huge amount, but still more challenging than a typical family size, or feeding just yourself, which is what I’m used to!
2. We are on the road a lot. Not constantly, but certainly more than usual. And it doesn’t matter how many sandwich supplies you pack for the rest stops, as soon as you unload 13 hungry boys and girls (mostly boys, mostly teenagers) in the vicinity of a fast-food restaurant….blink and they’re gone. I’ve packed away enough untouched cold cuts to know they just don’t stand a chance next to a taco-bell chalupa.
3. We must shop and cook with a strict budget. This isn’t much of a problem for the general populice, but I have a tendency to go WILD in grocery stores. They’re like…my mother ship. Whenever I land in a new city, I always hunt immediately for that grocery store with the local organic high priced farmer’s market shi-shi stuff. Why, just the other day I was alone in Ottawa city. I stopped for lunch at one of those nice little food stores. It began innocuously: I had been on the road for a while and needed a bite to keep me going. Nothing crazy. But I soon fell prey to my own routine, and walked out with: sushi, cous-cous salad, chocolate, cheese curds (!!!) prepared thai rice, a piece of pork, a ridiculous coconut chicken curry skewed thing, and those rainforest crackers that cost 8$ a bunch. In truth, I had a little bit of a melt down that I now regret. I single handedly spent an amount (of my own money) that rivaled a 4 entire weeks’ budget at NRA. (Almost.) So, you see, having a budget looming over me while I shop really bums me out, but I adhere to it.
And it turns out, as long as you’re creative, you can eat really well for cheap. So far we’ve had record-delicious meals. And I’d like to take this opportunity to brag about my soup today. I call it Melina’s Sad Soup. There’s a story there, not worth mentioning here. Taylor Cote and Tracy d’Arbeloff are my sous-chefs.
Melina’s Sad Soup: Aka how to make 8 teenagers eat a million pounds of veggies without noticing
You start the night before you have to serve your soup. Begin by melting butter and olive oil in a large pot. Add handfulls of cut-up leeks, green onions, and onions. After they’ve softened and glostened, add a ton of chopped up potatoes. Add more butter. The upside of this is that when you make it during study hall, the whole room smells like sauteing onions and people seem to relax when they smell this. Allow the potatoes to soften in the butter while you cut up the carrots and celery. Add a few inches of veggie broth to the potatoes and onions and allow it to really soak up the buttery flavor.
Now add the celery (as much as you want) and carrots (ditto) and any other veggie you had on hand. Continue to add broth. Season with salt, pepper, chili flakes and anything else lying around. Now, it’s starting to really look like a soup!
Now, allow this to sit on the stove until the next morning. This is when the soup really takes on its own flavor. In the morning, turn the heat on and add more broth. Now comes the fun part: root through the fridge and find any leftovers you have. Really, just about any leftovers, and dump them in the soup. We added the previous day’s chili, a frozen bag of peas, and a few cans of diced tomatoes (who eats those, anyway.) Our soup was looking hearty. Next we cooked egg noodles al dente and added them. We added spices the entire time, frequently tasting it. If you’re not careful, you could lose flavor. Nobody likes a drab soup.
Then came breakfast, which was a bean and tomato mixture over eggs. When the bean and tomato mixture didn’t get finished: into the soup!
The final touch came from sous-chef Cote. She is a vegetarian and knows the secret to making meaty delicious mushrooms. She and sous-chef d’Arbeloff sauteed two packages of mushrooms in butter until they were soft and flavorful. We poured the butter/mushroom cream into the broth and then added all of the mushrooms. I made a big pot of rice for people to add if they needed more starch. Then, just to cinch in that ‘iron chef’ award we vote on every week, we baked three sheets of whole grain crescent rolls.
The result? Everyone was eating giant bowls of vegetable soup, there on the deck in the sunny autumn afternoon on the Ottawa river. They ate onions, potatoes, green onions, leeks, peas, beans, tomatoes, celery, mushrooms and carrots in a rich broth. They ate all the leftovers from the fridge. All home made, without scary chemicals. And they thought it was really good. Did anyone complain about the lack of meat? No way.
I decided to write about it, because I’ve been talking about it all day, and I think the only way I’ll stop is if I put it up on paper (or on the screen.)
Till next time, Melina & Dog
Chef Coogan and her next dish, Roast of Hometeam with green beans
