Winter Pantry Meal

1/4 C Onion, diced
1 Garlic clove minced, or 1 t of jarred chopped garlic

3 T   Oil (olive oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil)
1/4   C Balsamic vinegar
3T Apple cider vinegar, Bragg's
1/2 Canned tomatoes, any variety (favorite: with green chilies) (12oz can)
1   Canned black beans, drained (12oz can) (any bean will do)
1/2   Avocado, cut into 1/2" pieces
2 C   Cooked grain (rice, quinoa, millet, etc.) or pasta
Grains do better here than pasta, but if you do use pasta, you might want to cut it into small pieces.
4 C Chopped greens (i.e. spinach, kale, romaine lettuce, spring mix
1-2 C    Left over cooked veggies (or raw veggies this is where you can be creative)
2 T   Nama shoyu or Tamari
1 T Umeboshi plum vinegar
Black pepper to taste

Before you begin, options here are to decide how you want to eat your meal: You can make it a 'one pot' meal, by adding everything to the same pan, or you can layer your parts into the bowl after everything is hot and/or cooked. Depends on how many pots you want to wash, and how 'artistic' you want to be with the final product.

Saute the onion over medium heat in oil until translucent, season with black pepper, and almost brown. Add garlic and continue to saute for about one more minute. Add vinegars and turn heat to high, reduce vinegars until almost dry. Add tomatoes and bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium high, allow to reduce for 2 minutes. Using left over or stray veggies here to spruce it up is a great way of not wasting, so toss in any left overs.  You can choose to cook them or keep them raw, if you want to cook them, cut them into small pieces and add them now and allow to simmer until they are to your desired doneness. The mixture should remain liquidy, not too dry. Add black beans and bring back up to a simmer, and either add the grain or pasta to heat, or heat them separately in a covered small sauce pan with a little water. Remove from heat, toss in avocado pieces. You can either add the chopped greens here or layer them raw with the cooked grain and the beans in the bowl. Season the ingredients in the pan with the nama shoyu and umeboshi.

Now you get to be creative, if you chose a one pot meal, you are done... just go ahead and eat it right out of the pot!! If you chose to heat them separately, then layer the grain in the bowl first, then the chopped greens, and then finally with the bean mixture. You could also decide to make this a wrap or sandwich by using any wraps, pita, or even rolls that you might have lurking around the kitchen.

This month's OM factor:

This whole recipe! It's really a list of staples that will make it easy to throw things together, even when there is nothing else around!

Onions and garlic don't go bad to quickly, so buy small onions, so they can stay whole longer and you can use them one at a time. Shallots are great for this because they are small. If you like to use jarred garlic, please do... it keeps well in the fridge (although I would add my own extra virgin olive oil to the mix to make it even better!)

We recommend keeping these oils in the kitchen:

Sunflower oil: best 'general use' oil. Good for both high and low heat, neutral flavor
Extra virgin olive oil:  It's just delicious, and good for both food and skin!
Extra virgin coconut oil: Like olive, it's good for both food and skin, not recommended for high heat, but mix with sunflower to raise the smoke point.
Sesame oil (un-toasted): Best high-heat oil, it's actually better for you when heated! Un-toasted variety has a more subtle flavor.

Balsamic and Apple cider vinegars: Don't go bad, so you can buy the BIG bottles and keep them around ALWAYS!

Canned tomatoes and beans: Again, they don't go bad, and as long as they are brands that are not LOADED with sodium (look for kombu as an ingredient for salt flavor), they are a great source of flavor and protein. I prefer black beans because of the higher anti-oxidant values of the darker beans, but your favorite variety is best!

Avocados: For those of us who love them can always benefit from having one around. When you cut it open, try to keep the seed intact for the part you wrap and keep in the fridge, it will last longer! Buy them green so they have time to soften in your kitchen, instead of having to use them right away.

Cooked grains: Keeping quinoa or millet or various pastas is easy, and we most often will have some kicking around the back of the cupboard. As grains are an essential part to a balanced diet, I always have some cooked or soaked grain in the fridge, you should too!

Greens: My favorite- baby spinach, it keeps so well, and is just delicious!

Left-overs: USE THEM UP! If we didn't want to eat them again, we should compost them at the end of the meal instead of clogging up the fridge! We all hate to throw a 'little' bit away, but then we never want to eat a 'little' bit later... use them in a new dish!

Nama shoyu, or Tamari, and Umeboshi vinegars: They have been spotlighted as OM factors before, and they are the best 'salt replacement' around... and they don't go bad, so buy the big bottles so they are always in stock!

This recipe is one way to use them all together, but they are very versatile and will add to many many meals.