Setting Yourself Up for Success

Living a Mediterranean lifestyle does incorporate more time picking and preparing your foods than you may have experienced in the past. As a result, you want to strategize with small goals to help you start living this lifestyle. You don’t have to cook three meals a day each and every day. You’re busy, and no one really cooks every single meal, regardless of the culture. If you look at your own habits, you likely cook part of the time, use quick pull-together meals like cereal or a sandwich other times, and eat out other meals.

You may not see strategizing as an important concept, but failing to plot a course can become a saboteur in the nutrition world. Many people decide that figuring out what they’re going to do and how is just too much work and give up all together. We encourage you to find your own path with the Mediterranean lifestyle; making even a few small changes can make a big difference in your health.

As you read this section, take some time to jot down a few notes on how you can make these strategies work in your lifestyle. Change is hard for everyone; humans are creatures of habit. Having a strategy can help ensure that your journey is a successful one. In this section, you can map out how to incorporate time for cooking and save time on busy days by using quick and easy meals and freezer-friendly leftovers.

Scheduling time for cooking

Cooking is a crucial strategy in the Mediterranean lifestyle because it helps you lean more toward eating fresh, plant-based foods and away from depending on prepackaged meals or on restaurants. Cooking may already be a regular part of your world, or it may only happen once a week. Luckily, you don’t have to cook every single day to benefit from the Mediterranean diet.

To incorporate cooking into your schedule, choose how often you cook on any given week. Managing your time and figuring out ahead of time how much time you have to cook are key factors. Here are a few ideas:

If you only have time a few nights a week, schedule those evenings for cooking and make enough leftovers for the next day. Treat this appointment like an important date you can’t break.
Short on time every night? Choose recipes that take less than 20 minutes to prepare. For example, a small fillet of fish takes about 8 minutes to cook; pair that with a large salad and some crusty whole-grain bread, and you’ve got a home-cooked dinner in no time.
Utilize batch cooking; see the later section “Making good use of batch cooking” for details.
Rearrange your schedule to find time to cook dinner several nights a week. Maybe you frequently run errands after work that you can push off to one day a week or the weekend.

Keep the following time-management tips in mind as you figure out how much time you can devote to cooking:

Focus on one cooked dish. While your dish is cooking, you can rely on gathering fresh ingredients that require no cooking time (only prep time) for the rest of your meal. This strategy can help you avoid feeling overwhelmed in the kitchen. After you get the hang of it, you can slowly add another cooked dish and then another.

For example, you may cook the Sautéed Shrimp with White Wine and Feta in Chapter 18 and add a big salad, a side of plain canned black beans, and a slice of crusty sourdough bread.
Look at the prep and cooking times on each recipe. When you’re planning, make sure you allow yourself enough time to follow through as well as time to eat. You may be able to easily cook two to three dishes if they have minimal prep work and short cooking times.

Don’t underestimate how long certain tasks take. Cooking takes time. We can’t tell you how often we see people abandon the new, healthy changes they were going to make because of time-management problems. Here’s what happens: You make a meal plan for the week (see Chapter 4), buy the groceries, and then continue on with your normal schedule. But then you find that recipe you were going to make on Wednesday needs 45 minutes of prep and cooking time, and you only have about 20 minutes to spare. If you find yourself in that situation …
Making changes to your plans is okay. Life happens to everyone, even the best chefs. If you get home too late one night to prepare your planned dish, postpone your cooking for another night and throw together a quick meal instead.

Finding ways to create quick and easy meals

Living the Mediterranean lifestyle certainly doesn’t mean you have to cook every day. Even the folks that live in that region utilize leftovers and quick, easy, pull-together meals.

When you’re creating your quickie meals, focus on completing the meal with fresh, simple flavors from produce and/or legumes. For example, perhaps you have a favorite frozen meal like lasagne that you use when time is short. Add a side salad with fresh lettuce, tomatoes, and kidney beans. Or you can place your heated lasagne on a bed of fresh spinach leaves that will naturally wilt underneath. Chapter 4 gives you several specific ways to plan quick and easy meals.

Making good use of batch cooking

Batch cooking is a great habit to get into, especially if you want to incorporate a Mediterranean-style diet but feel you don’t have as much time to cook as you want. With batch cooking, you cook up larger amounts of food than you need for one meal and save the leftovers. The end result? A freezer well stocked with homemade items you can pull out for healthy, easy-to-serve meals later when time is short. You can more easily stick to your Mediterranean diet even when you’re busy because you don’t have to rely on prepackaged foods and eating out to save time.

Depending on your style, you can tackle batch cooking in any of a few ways:

Take a day to cook many items. Get together three to five recipes, such as soups, stews, chilis, lasagnes, or casseroles. Clear off your calendar for the day and cook, cook, cook. Package your meals in freezer-friendly containers, date them, and place in the freezer for later use. Note that this strategy does take a lot of time and energy during your cooking day.
Spend a day prepping some of your go-to foods. Instead of cooking several complete recipes at one time, you can get the base ingredients for later meals ready so you don’t have to worry about them later. For example, you can precook beans, sauces, or whole grains such as rice or barley. Meri has a friend who makes large pots of brown rice and quinoa every Monday and then uses them up during the week with various meals.
Make extra when cooking freezer-friendly meals. You can then pack them, date them, and tuck them away in the freezer. For example, if you’re grilling chicken, fill up that grill! Make more than you need and let it cool; slice the extras up and put them in individual storage containers. The next time you want to add grilled chicken to salads, burritos, sandwiches, or steamed veggies, you have the hardest part out of the way.

No matter what approach you use, make sure to package your meals in a way that works best for you. If you’re single, use single-serving containers so that you don’t have to warm up an entire lasagne. (We’ve all been there.) If you’re cooking for a larger family, you can go ahead and freeze the complete meal. Keep a list on the outside of your freezer of the foods/meals you have stashed and dates you stored them. This way, you don’t forget about the food you have (even if it gets hidden).

Cooking with Oils

Part of the Mediterranean lifestyle is using healthy, monounsaturated fats, such as olive oil, in place of butter or other fats. Oils are beneficial for cooking because they allow you to cook food at a higher temperature, and they provide flavor and texture to your foods. The following sections give you the lowdown on cooking with oils to assure you get the healthy benefits.

Although the oils typically associated with the Mediterranean diet are healthier than other oils, they can turn your healthy strategy into an unhealthy one quickly if you aren’t careful. As with any fat, you don’t want to consume large amounts. Additionally, oils that are too old or have been stored at the wrong temperature are no good. Taste your oil immediately when you open it so you can see what it tastes like in its freshest form. Doing so gives you a good comparison when checking oils that may have been sitting on the shelf for awhile.

Understanding smoke points

All oils have what’s called a smoke point, or the temperature where the fat begins to break down, turning your healthy fat into an unhealthy fat. You want to avoid cooking oils at high temperatures so you don’t hit that point of no return.

You know it when your oil has reached the smoke point because you can actually see smoke and smell a burnt oil or burnt pan odor. According to the International Olive Oil Council, a good quality extra-virgin olive oil has a high smoke point of about 410 degrees. Canola oil, another monounsaturated fat, has a smoke point around 468-475 degrees depending on type.

IMMACULATELY CONCEIVING OLIVE OIL?

When you start to peruse the oil aisle at the grocery store, you see all sorts of language on the labels like virgin, extra-virgin, and like a virgin (okay, that last one is in the music aisle). And then you’ve got cold-pressed and expeller-pressed to deal with. It’s enough terminology to make your head spin. If you’re new to reading these labels, the first thing you need to know is about the manufacturing process.

The hand presses that traditionally pressed olive paste into an oil make only a small amount. To increase the output, hot water was added to the presses to get more flow.

Cold-pressed or first-pressed are synonymous labels that indicate that the oil was pressed with little processing. Expeller-pressing is similar to cold-pressing (cold-pressing includes a heat-controlled environment); it uses heat and friction but no chemicals or solvents, creating a pure oil with no risk of chemical residues.

Here’s a crib sheet of oil terminology so that you can become a master at picking out oils:

Extra-virgin olive oil: All oils produced by the first pressing (the cold pressing) and that contain less than 1 percent acidity, providing rich flavor perfect for drizzling on salads, veggies, or bread.
Virgin olive oil: Not as pure as the extra-virgin simply because it uses riper olives, making the acidity higher at 1½ percent.
Refined olive oil: A lower-grade olive oil where virgin olive oils with a higher acidity are refined using chemical or physical filters, creating a less-tasty oil with a higher acidity of up to 3 percent. Some places deem this unfit for human consumption based on flavor.
Olive oil: Your basic olive oil is a combination of refined olive oil and virgin olive oil, with a higher quality of flavor than the straight refined olive oil and a 1 percent acidity. This oil works well for basic cooking needs.
Light olive oil: The term light in this circumstance has nothing to do with calories or fat; rather, it refers to the flavor and color. Light olive oil is made with a fine filtration process and has a very light, almost neutral flavor that won’t be so great in your next salad but is a wonderful choice in baking, where you don’t want a strong flavor.
Olive Oyl: Goes well with spinach.

Keep in mind that an oil’s smoke point will change depending on how many times you’ve opened your oil (which brings in oxygen) and how long it’s been sitting on the shelf. Don’t go higher than medium-high heat when using olive or canola oil; if you see smoke coming off your pan, it’s time to start over.

Finding high quality olive oil

The traditional Mediterranean diet uses extra-virgin olive oil. Though you can find many types of olive oil (see the nearby sidebar), extra-virgin is the kind that provides the health benefits associated with this style of eating.

Extra-virgin olive oil is made up primarily of monounsaturated fats shown to help decrease cholesterol levels. It also contains vitamin E and polyphenols, which are both antioxidants. Finding a good quality olive oil is important so you can assure you’re getting these health benefits instead of unknowingly using rancid oil that’s not giving you much of anything. Keep these general tips in mind as you search for oil:

Look for extra-virgin olive oils stored in dark glass containers. Light can affect the oil negatively, so the darker the glass the better. If your local grocery store has a display of olive oil bottles near a bright window, keep walking.
Check out the harvest date. When olives are harvested early, they have higher polyphenol content. Try to find olive oils that were harvested in fall.
Seek out a grassy, spicy flavor. Olive oil tasting can be mysterious if your taste buds aren’t used to discerning fruity and grassy flavors. One easy trick is to take a small amount in your mouth and swallow. If you suddenly taste a strong pepper flavor coming from the back of your throat (literally as if you just swallowed black pepper), you have a winner. That peppery flavor is the polyphenols, and its strength is a good sign.

You don’t have to buy oils from olives grown overseas. California is a leading olive grower, so you often can find good quality, affordable olive oils at your local grocery store chain. Check out the California Olive Oil Council website at www.cooc.com/ to see a list.

Storing oils

To get as much benefit as possible from your oils, make sure you store them appropriately. Keep your oils in a cool, dark cabinet away from sunlight and heat. To avoid storing your oil for too long, buy only a small- to medium-sized glass bottle so that you use it quickly enough.

If you have a high-quality extra-virgin olive oil, avoid keeping it in the refrigerator; refrigerating increases the risk of condensation. Put the lid on tightly after each use to avoid oxidation, which can turn olive oil rancid. After you open a bottle of oil, store it for up to 6 months. If you’re using it frequently, you won’t have to worry about it wasting away on your shelf.

Knowing how much to use

People on the Mediterranean coast use a lot of oil. They drizzle oil on fresh vegetables and breads every day. When adopting this type of lifestyle, knowing how much is too much oil to drizzle is important. Though there’s no magic number, studies show that consuming 2 to 3 tablespoons a day promotes the health benefits. You don’t necessarily have to measure this amount out, and please don’t drink it; the idea is to use it on salads and as your primary cooking oil. The amount you use may vary depending on the application; a drizzle of 1 teaspoon may be enough for a tomato, but you may need 2 tablespoons to sauté a vegetable.

Oil is a fat with 9 calories per gram, which equates to about 120 calories per tablespoon. Make sure you’re careful and don’t go overboard on calories and total fat.

Keeping tabs on your oil use is easier with recipes because they give you an exact amount. In this book’s recipes, we use a moderate amount of oil. If outside recipes seem to call for a lot of oil, try adding a little less. The change likely won’t make a huge difference in flavor.

A Pinch of This and a Pinch of That: Using Herbs and Spices

People in the Mediterranean use an abundant amount of fresh herbs and spices in their cooking, which is another significant component of the lifestyle. Besides providing taste, color, and aroma, herbs and spices also add health benefits to your meals.

Think about your own diet. Do you tend to use a lot of herbs and spices in your cooking, or do you mostly depend on salt and pepper? If you don’t use many seasonings, your Mediterranean goal is to cook with more of them, both for the health benefits and to create amazing flavor in your food. This section lets you in on some interesting health benefits simple seasonings provide, how to store the seasonings, and how you can work more of them into your diet.

Looking at the health benefits of herbs and spices

You may have thought that the oregano and basil in your spaghetti sauce just provided a distinct Italian flavor, but those little herbs are plants, which means they have all sorts of health benefits that can make a big impact on your overall health. Simple seasonings such as ginger and oregano contain phytochemicals, which are natural health-promoting substances that have been found to protect against conditions such as cancer and heart disease. (Flip to Chapter 2 for more on the powers of phytochemicals.)

You may be surprised to hear that herbs and spices also contain healthy omega-3 fatty acids, which help decrease inflammation in the body. Check out some of the specific health benefits of commonly used herbs and spices:

Basil is shown to have anti-inflammatory effects and may be useful for people with chronic inflammation, such as arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease. Basil also protects against bacteria and is an excellent source of vitamin A, which helps reduce damage to the body from free radicals. (Chapter 2 has more information on vitamin A’s benefits.)
Cinnamon helps people better control their blood sugars because it slows digestion and therefore the rise of blood sugar. Not to mention that it’s a wonderful flavor for baking or in a cup of tea!
Oregano is a nutrient-dense spice containing fiber, iron, manganese, calcium, vitamin C, vitamin A, and omega-3 fatty acids. It’s shown to have antibacterial and antioxidant properties.
Parsley is a rich source of the antioxidants vitamin A and vitamin C, providing protection from heart disease and cancer. And you thought eating your parsley garnish was silly.
Turmeric acts as a powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, helping protect against arthritis, heart disease, and certain cancers. Try the Chicken Curry recipe in Chapter 17 to get a healthy dose of turmeric.

Storing fresh and bottled herbs

Herbs are delicate, so you want to make sure you store them properly to retain their best taste and their nutrient value.

Use these tips for storage:

Fresh herbs: Immediately use them. Just like fruits and vegetables, the longer fresh herbs sit around, the more nutrients they lose. Store them in perforated bags in your refrigerator crisper for up to four days.
Dried herbs and spices: Use them within a year of purchase. Keep them in airtight containers away from heat and light. You may want to record your date of purchase on the label; forgetting how long that stack of seasonings has been in your cupboard is really easy.

One way to ensure that herbs and seasonings don’t sit too long on the shelf is to use them generously in your cooking. If you’re running out of herbs every six months or so, you’re on the right track! That’s a good problem to have.

You may also consider keeping a raised garden for fresh herbs if you will be using them often. Fresh herbs are expensive at the grocery store, and they’re relatively easy to grow, even in a city garden on your back porch. Check out Herb Gardening For Dummies, 2nd Edition, by Karan Davis Cutler, Kathleen Fisher, and Suzanne DeJohn (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) for more on starting up your own herb garden.

Livening up food with herbs and spices

With all the health benefits of herbs and spices we note in the preceding section, figuring out a way to increase the herbs and spices in your diet, whether you currently use a moderate amount or none at all, is a great idea. Doing so adds lots of flavor on top of the health perks, so it really is a win-win situation. Here are some suggestions for getting more herbs and spices in your diet:

Add ample amounts of herbs to your stews, soups, and chilis. Don’t be shy.
Use fresh basil leaves in sandwiches, or spread your bread with basil pesto (see the recipe in Chapter 9) rather than with mayonnaise.
Spice up a tuna- or chicken-salad sandwich with some curry, turmeric, and ginger.
Let fresh mint, sliced cucumbers, and lemon sit in a pitcher of water for five to ten minutes for a refreshing drink.
Mix fresh mint into your next fruit salad.
Sprinkle fresh cilantro or basil over black beans and rice for a quick meal.
Top off your scrambled eggs with your favorite herb combination.
Kick up your lettuce-and-vegetable salads with cilantro and dill.
Add fresh dill to fish.

GLASS IS BACK, AND PLASTICS ARE OUT

In the United States almost everything in grocery stores is held in plastic containers. Walking into food markets throughout the Mediterranean, however, you notice rows and rows of glass jars. You may be thinking, “Wait, I have to use the same kinds of storage vessels to follow the Mediterranean diet? You’ve got to be kidding me!” But hear us out. Bisphenol A (BPA), the chemical found in plastics, has received negative attention in research and from leading health agencies because of its tendency to leach into the contents of the container, especially when the container becomes too hot. The full extent of exposure to BPA is unknown, but most American products come in plastics or in cans lined with BPA, and BPA alternatives aren’t getting great reviews, either. Though trying to get away from all plastics would probably drive you crazy, you can lessen the extent of your exposure by choosing some great plastic-alternatives. Here are some ways to make the switch:

Choose a glass or stainless steel water bottle. Even baby sippy cups now come in stainless steel with silicone nipples.
Buy foods packaged in glass.
Pack lunches in glass storage containers or stainless steel lunch boxes.
Opt for plastic-free reusable bags for grocery shopping.
If you must buy foods that are in plastic, consider storing them in glass jars when you get home.
Ditch plastic cutting boards and go for wood instead. (Wood is easier on your knives, too!)

Including Whole Grains

Incorporating whole grains into your daily meal plans provides a great source of complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals; it also adds flavor and texture to your meals. The trick is to use grains as a smaller side dish to avoid eating too many calories and increasing your blood sugar with too many carbohydrates. Use one-half to one cup of grains with your meals to stay on the healthy side of the fence.

Although people on the Mediterranean coast frequently use pasta, they also consume many other grains, such as bulgur wheat, barley, and cornmeal. When you aren’t used to eating these grains, you may not know how to cook them or add them creatively to your meals. Luckily, introducing them isn’t difficult or time consuming. This section offers general cooking tips to conquer grain cookery, as well as suggestions for creating flavorful grain side dishes. Chapter 13 gives you some amazing recipes for whole grains to get you started.

Getting a handle on cooking times

Cooking grains is as simple as adding water and simmering. All grains pretty much cook the same way, other than varying cooking times. In fact, you can cook all grains the same way you cook rice.

You can always find the cooking time for a grain on the package, but we also provide cooking times for common whole grains in Table 6-1 to give you a quick reference whenever you need it. The amounts listed are for one cup of dry grain.

TABLE 6-1 Whole Grain Cooking Chart

Type of Grain	Amount of Liquid	Simmering Time after Boiling	Amount of Grain after Cooking
Brown rice	2½ cups	45–55 minutes.	3 cups
Bulgur wheat — medium coarseness	2½ cups	None; remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 30 minutes. Drain any excess water.	2½ cups
Cornmeal (polenta)	4 cups	25–30 minutes.	2½ cups
Couscous	1 cup	None; remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 5–10 minutes.	2 cups
Pearl barley	3 cups	45–60 minutes.	3½ cups
Quinoa	2 cups	12–15 minutes.	About 3 cups
Wild rice	3 cups	45–55 minutes.	3 cups

Adding flavor to grains

Incorporating grain side dishes in your menu can provide extra flavor to your meals. In fact, your grain side dishes end up tasting just as good as your main dish. In the Mediterranean region, people include a wide variety of grains in their meals; you aren’t going to find a whole lot of plates with plain white rice.

Use the following tips to add some flavor and, in some cases, more nutrient value to your grains (with the exception of cornmeal — its sweet flavor doesn’t need any doctoring up):

Add one to two teaspoons of heart-healthy olive oil or your favorite nut oil to your pot of grains for a light flavor. This idea works well if you have a very flavorful or saucy entree.
Instead of cooking your grains in water, cook them in low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth for more flavor.
Don’t forget your fresh herbs! Try fresh basil, cilantro, or parsley.
Throw in some dry spices such as cumin or cayenne pepper for a little kick.
Sauté some garlic, onions, and mushrooms and stir them together in your cooked grains. Take it an extra step and add some fresh herbs.
Add chopped walnuts or slivered almonds to cooked grains for some crunch.
Mix in chopped tomatoes and sliced olives for a savory flavor.
Use one to two tablespoons of Parmesan, feta, or crumbled goat cheese in your pot of grains to add flavor and a creamy texture.

After you get the hang of switching up your grain dishes, you’ll never be faced with a boring side dish again! Here is an example of how to combine a few of the preceding tips:

Cook your grain. Sauté a shallot with a teaspoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add it to your cooked grain with 1 teaspoon of cumin, ½ teaspoon of crushed coriander, ¼ teaspoon of garlic powder, and salt to taste.

This creation makes a great basic starter dish that you can serve as-is or with veggies, fresh herbs, and/or cheese and nuts mixed in. Don’t be afraid to experiment in your kitchen. You may stumble upon something superb!

You can batch cook a few pots of whole grains for the week to save time. Check out the earlier section “Making good use of batch cooking” for more insight.

Discovering Beans and Lentils

Beans and lentils are a big part of Mediterranean eating and provide great health benefits because they’re packed with fiber, B vitamins, protein, and phytochemicals. They’re also economical and can create amazing flavor and texture in your meals. People in the Mediterranean often eat less meat, so they depend on plant-based protein foods like beans and lentils. Chapter 14 includes recipes dedicated to legumes. This section gives you the skinny on cooking beans (canned and dried) and lentils, including cooking times for different beans.

If you aren’t used to eating beans and lentils, gradually add them to your diet and drink lots of water to cut down on the constipation and gas associated with these foods.

Preparing canned and dried beans and lentils

Beans are available dried or canned. Canned beans are easy to use in any dish, saving you time. Dried beans take longer to prepare, but they have better flavor and texture and less sodium than the canned variety. Lentils provide a unique, rich flavor and have the added benefit of quick preparation and cooking compared to dried beans. The following sections give you some tips on getting these Mediterranean staples ready to use.

Canned beans

Canned beans provide a whole lot of convenience and still pack great flavor. You can pretty much open them and serve, but keep these notes in mind:

If you’re adding canned beans to a recipe, rinse them in a colander unless the recipe instructs you not to. Doing so removes the saucy liquid and helps decrease about 40 percent of the sodium used as a preservative.
When incorporating canned beans into a hot dish that’s cooking on a fairly high heat, add them toward the end of cooking. Otherwise, they can become too soggy and fall apart.

Dried beans

Using dried beans requires a little bit more upfront work than using canned does, but your reward is a richer taste than what canned offers. Here’s how it works:

Sort through the beans, discarding any blemished or dirty ones.
Soak the beans.

The second step is, well, a bath. Preparing dried beans for cooking involves soaking them in one of three ways:
1. Soak them overnight. A leisurely soak is the most common approach. Soak the beans in a large pot of water overnight (at least eight hours). Afterward, simply discard the soaking liquid and cook with fresh water.
2. Soak them in boiling water. A quicker method is to bring the water to a boil, add the beans, remove the pan from the heat, and let the beans soak in the hot water for three to four hours. Discard the soaking liquid and then cook the beans in fresh water.
3. Soak them in a pressure cooker. For fast and furious soaking, use a pressure cooker. Add your beans and about four cups of water to the pressure cooker. Lock the lid on and turn the cooker to high pressure. After the cooker is heated to high, reduce the heat to maintain the pressure and cook for two minutes. Release the pressure cooker by running cold water over the lid and then drain the beans; they’re now ready to use in your recipe.

Lentils

Lentils require no soaking before cooking. Just sort through them, discarding any that are discolored or have dirt on them. Give them a good rinse in a colander and cook them according to package directions or recipe directions.

Finding cooking times for dried legumes

To cook unsoaked lentils or soaked dried beans, cover about 1 pound of the legumes with 6 cups of fresh water (not the water used for soaking). Simmer the beans or lentils until they’re cooked and soft. Table 6-2 shows you some cooking times for various legumes.

TABLE 6-2 Cooking Times for Legumes

Type of Legume	Cooking Time in a Saucepan	Cooking Time in a Pressure Cooker
Black beans	2–3 hours	15–20 minutes
Fava beans	1 hour	10–15 minutes
Chickpeas	2–3 hours	15–20 minutes
Kidney beans	2–3 hours	15–20 minutes
Lima beans	45 minutes	Not recommended
Pinto beans	2–3 hours	15–20 minutes
Lentils	30–45 minutes	Not recommended

Most people enjoy a pretty soft texture to their beans. If you aren’t using a pressure cooker, you can try them at the early end of the cooking times to see if they’re soft enough for you; if they aren’t, continue cooking. You want to use your cooked beans within 5 days; if you can’t make that happen, you can freeze them for up to 6 months.

COOKING MEATS THE HEALTHY WAY

Although the types of meats you eat on a regular basis are important, the way you cook them is equally important. If you deep-fry a lean chicken breast, it’s not so lean anymore. So what do you do? Why, look to the Mediterranean, of course. (What did you think we were going to say?) Folks there tend to cook meats by using the following methods, which create a lot of flavor but still keep the meats lean:

Braise: Simmering meats over low heat in a liquid (such as water, broth, wine, or fruit juice) in a covered pot for a long period of time. Braising works nicely with chicken, beef, and pork dishes.
Grill: Cooking with direct heat over coals or another heat source such as gas. Grilling is a delicious option for any kind of meat.
Poach: Cooking meats gently in a small amount of liquid (such as broth or water) just below boiling. This method works well with meats that cook quickly, such as fish.
Roast: Cooking meats uncovered with dry heat in the oven. Use this method with large pieces of meats, such as a whole chicken, a pot roast, or pork tenderloins.
Sauté: Quickly cooking meats in a small amount of fat (such as butter or oil), stirring until the meat is cooked through. Sautéing bite-sized pieces of chicken is easy and tasty.

Mastering Mediterranean Cooking with Helpful Tips and Techniques