Category: Recipes

Food experiments, recipes, & my eating habits

How What Where to Compost

Published on by thewholeruth3 Comments

These guidelines are true for any compost, whether it’s done in a bin, in a pile, or in the ground. (More info: Compost Bins vs. Piles)

  • Compost needs about 50% green ingredients, 50% brown ingredients, oxygen and water.

GREEN

  • “Green” is anything with moisture. It can be any color. Food scraps, grass, leaves, coffee grounds, (non-pet) manure…
  • Green is nitrogen-rich.
  • If there is too much green, it will get very stinky. If this is happening, add more brown. (Also, too much green means too much nitrogen, which means it could burn plants if it was used as fertilizer in this stinky form.)

BROWN

  • “Brown” is anything dry. Dry leaves, brown paper bags, wood chips, egg cartons…
  • Brown is carbon-rich.
  • It helps to cover the compost with a layer of only brown to keep the smell enclosed.

OXYGEN

  • The compost needs oxygen to work. That’s why it’s important to turn bins or flip piles when making compost, to let oxygen reach different parts of the compost. Also, make sure there is air circulating around the compost.

WATER

  • The compost needs moisture, so add water to give it more oxygen and help it cook.

MORE INFO

  • No: No meat, dairy, fish, or animal food oils can go in the compost, unless it’s bokashi (More info: Compost Indoors or Meat & Dairy = BOKASHI). No pet waste because sometimes it has bacteria that can survive the heat of the pile.
  • Shrinkage: Whatever size the compost starts out, it will end up being much smaller when it’s done. (Sort of like cooking fresh spinach)
  • Organic: If you’re trying to make organic compost, make sure yard trimmings you use (fresh grass, brown leaves, etc) come from a yard that doesn’t use pesticides. Anything that is non-organic, we still compost in our city’s green bin.
  • Chop it: We chop up twigs and branches with shears before adding them to the compost. Making everything into smaller pieces helps the compost digest more quickly and easily, like chewing for our tummies.

IT COOKS INTO CLEANLINESS

A few years ago, a farmer friend of mine taught me that compost piles get hot and they are actually cooking the carbon-rich brown & nitrogen-rich green scraps. They get so hot, about 140 degrees, that the creatures one might worry about staying inside the pile (bad bacteria, bugs and any rodents who might smell tasty treats inside the pile) can’t live there anymore. It’s too hot so they leave. Pretty cool, huh? (Pun inaccurate and not intended.)

When a pile is flipped, sometimes there is ash inside. A pile covered in winter snow will still cook and sometimes steam will still rise off of the covering snow! The Hollywood Orchard hosts a 6th grade field trip for the local school and a few days before the kids come, they put an egg and potato inside the compost so when the kids arrive, they can see the egg is hard-boiled and then play hot-potato with the weird stinky potato!

When the compost has been turned a few times to allow the whole thing to cook, there will be only good bacteria and healthy, nutrient-rich compost.

WHAT TO COMPOST

  • No meat, dairy or animal products (bones, butter, fish skins) or pet waste

Nitrogen/ “Green”:

  • Fruits & veggies
  • Peels, skins & cores of fruits & veggies
  • Herbs & spices
  • Nutshells
  • Coffee Grounds
  • Egg shells
  • Pits & seeds
  • Grains & beans
  • Tea bags without the staples
  • Chemical-free hair
  • Chemical-free fingernails
  • Feathers from the down sofa or birds outside
  • Fresh house plant leaves
  • Store-bought flower bouquets (only for the city green bin if your goal is organic)

Carbon/ “Brown”:

  • Shredded brown paper bags
  • Paper egg cartons
  • Toilet paper rolls
  • Brown, dry leaves (you can get them from parks sometimes, ideally they’d be from a pesticide-free yard)
  • Vacuum cleaner or sweeping dust
  • Ash from a firepit that used wood
  • Dry house plant leaves
  • Wood chips (ideally chemical-free/ non-treated)

COLLECT THE COMPOST

Collect your food scraps in the freezer or fridge, so they don’t smell or attract bugs. You can keep them in glass or plastic tupperware, or you have regular plastic bags, you can use those and wash them out and re-use them. Or use compostable bags. Or to create less waste, you can keep them in a bowl with no lid or a brown paper bag that can be tossed in to the compost.

You can also collect scraps in a smell-absorbing compost bucket on your counter-top. (We use this one. During the summer ant-parades, we keep it in the fridge.)

WHERE TO COMPOST

When you’re ready to compost, put your food scraps and brown compostable waste in:

  • your yard in a compost pile above ground
  • a pit in the ground with or without doors to seal it
  • a fenced in compost area
  • a plastic compost bin that turns
  • a wooden compost bin that allows for air circulation
  • a homemade compost trashcan with holes drilled in the sides

More information on this part of the process: How to Compost in Bins & Piles

NO ROOM? PUT YOUR FOOD SCRAPS IN…

  • your green or brown bin from the city
  • your indoor or outdoor worm bin (no acidic food or oils)
  • an indoor bokashi compost bucket
  • your friend’s compost
  • the compost collection of a community organization, farmer’s market or restaurant that accepts compost. (See more info below)
  • a compost hub
  • a compost co-op

For folks in Los Angeles:

  • LA Compost collects food scraps at:
    • The Atwater Farmer’s Market, every Sunday 10am-2pm (double check the LA Compost site)
    • The Los Feliz Farmer’s Market, 1st & 3rd Sundays 9am -1pm (double check the LA Compost site)
    • A slew of community hubs listed on their website
    • Community co-ops

NEED HELP?

It seems like it’s possible that everyone can participate in some part of the compost cycle. But getting started may be difficult without seeing the magic in action. In my experience, composting can a passionate team sport or an invigorating ice-skating solo. Reading about it may be all you need to start on your own, but it can also be helpful to find some experienced folks who will let you watch their process or answer questions about how they do it. You could also find a free class or offer to temporarily help a community garden with their compost. I learn so much by helping flip the pile every so often at our beloved Hollywood Orchard.

If you want to do it in a group, there may be compost hubs or compost co-ops near you that you can join.

Whether working with others or solo, I suggest trying to get comfy with the idea that trial and error is part of the process no matter what, and it can be exciting and beautiful.

For folks in Los Angeles:

  • The City gives some free workshops and discounted compost bins and worm bins.
  • Kiss the Ground also has free compost workshops sometimes, listed on their FB page.
  • Grow Good gives free classes from time to time. This LA Times article has more info.
  • The Burbank Recycle Center has a free compost workshop the last Wednesday of every month from 6-8pm from March – November, you just have to RSVP.
  • The Hollywood Orchard in Beachwood Canyon offers opportunities to work on their compost pile where the compost-curious can learn via hand-on practice. Join the Hollywood Orchard mailing list and ask to be informed of when we get together to work on our compost pile, then come play in the dirt with us!

WHY

Why to Compost

WHEN TO COMPOST

Whenever you’d like. Composting can seem tricky, but I feel like you’ll know when you’re ready. To me, love is the main ingredient. Add some to the compost, and some to yourself. It lets you keep trying until you figure out what works for you.

heart ruth signature

Compost Story infographic

 

Jake’s Favorite Lawn Burger

Published on by thewholeruthLeave a comment

 

15.5.30 TheWholeRuth Jakes Favorite Lawn Burger2

This tasty burger is award-winning! I was presented with “Jake’s Favorite Burger Award.” What does that mean? It means this is my friend Jake’s favorite burger! Yay!

I think it looks like it was made by a man who just mowed his lawn and got curious about what it would taste like if he piled some clippings on his much-earned burger. Luckily this particular man has a lawn made entirely of organic arugula and he massaged the clippings in apple cider vinegar and the burger tastes great!

A few fun facts: There is a top piece of bread, it’s just hiding on the other side of the plate. This is organic, grass-fed beef. The burger is gluten-free, soy-free, corn-free & dairy-free. It has about 6.5 grams of sugar (4g from two slices of bread, 2g from the ketchup, and a whole medium tomato has 3.2g of sugar, so I’m guessing these two slices are around .5g). Everything in it is organic except for the bread.

Also, I eat beef if it’s organic and when I feel like I need it, which varies greatly. It seems like once a month or every two months, I’ll eat a one pound package of grass-fed organic beef or a bag of beef jerky. But it’s not often. Beef is an inflammatory food and I can tell I swell from it a bit. I also usually keep my meat separate from carbs because my body stays leaner that way. It’s called food combining and it’s very effective. The theory behind it is that the enzymes that break down carbs and proteins are different and mixing them makes digestion more difficult. Without going into a huge explanation of how and why I eat what I eat, I’ll simply say everyone is different, but I wanted to share that I eat this meal as a rare, well-done treat!

Here is the “award-winning” recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 of a pound of grass-fed, organic beef
  • 1 large organic garlic clove
  • organic oregano
  • organic crushed black pepper
  • organic yellow mustard
  • organic ketchup
  • handful of organic arugula
  • tablespoon organic, raw apple-cider vinegar
  • 1/4 of an organic avocado
  • 2 slices of organic red tomato
  • 2 slices of organic yellow onion
  • 2 slices of gluten-free, multi-grain bread
  • tablespoon organic olive oil

Hide Garlic in Patty Mince the garlic glove. Heat pan on medium high. Remove about half or a third of the hamburger meat and set it aside. Form a patty with the rest of the hamburger meat and sprinkle the minced garlic on top. Cover the garlic with the meat that was set aside so that the garlic ends up in the center of the burger. Shape the patty how you’d like and place in pan. Wash your hands, you nasty bastard. (Shane added that last part.)

Toast Bread Heat a separate large pan for about thirty seconds. Add olive oil and set the bread slices in the oil, covering each side. Toast each side in pan until brown.

Sauté Onion Add onion to the same pan so it can sauté in the oil at the same time. I like to use the least amount of pans possible so there is less clean up afterwards.

Spice & Cook Burger When the first side looks cooked almost half way up to the raw side, flip the burger and add oregano to the cooked side. Add pepper to one side when it is almost done.

I don’t know that much about cooking burgers, but it seems like when I don’t drain the fat out of the burger (or smash it with a spatula or puncture it to see how well it has cooked), the juices help cook the burger all the way through in a more even way and in a shorter amount of time. It seems like the boiling juice inside is helping cook the center. Once it is cooked all the way through, there is less fat to drain anyway. So my advice is don’t smash, puncture or drain it until it is done cooking. How will you know it’s done cooking without puncturing it? I don’t know yet. I wait until I think it’s done and then puncture it in the center a little bit with a small knife. If it has juice immediately come out, I quickly stop applying pressure and leave it be. If it seems cooked, it’s done.

Massage Arugula In a small dish, massage the arugula with the apple cider vinegar about 10 times. Don’t be scared to squish it.

Cool the Bread Once the bread is toasted to your liking, lean it at an angle on the edge of your plate. This sounds weird. But the bottom of the gluten-free bread makes condensation from the heat and moisture so if you place it flat on the plate and leave it in the same place, it can get soggy. I like to air it out by leaning it at a diagonal on the lip of the plate. Once it’s cooled down for a couple of minutes while I do something else, I’ll flip it over and move it to a different section of the plate. If there is condensation under the original spot, I’ll wipe off the water.

Slice Tomato & Avocado Cut two tomato slices. Open your avocado by running a knife through the center until it hits the pit, then sliding the knife along the pit to slice the avocado in half. Pull the halves apart and slice the side without the seed. Scoop out the slices with a spoon. I used about 1/4 of an avocado.

Plate & Eat Place the sautéed onion on the toasted bread, then the tomato slices, the burger, avocado, and arugula. Add ketchup, mustard, the top bread slice and enjoy! Or feed it to your friend Jake. It’s his favorite! 🙂

 

 

Berry Dice to Beet You Shake

Published on by thewholeruthLeave a comment

15.5.28 TheWholeRuth Berry Dice to Beet You

I didn’t realize how violent this recipe title could sound until after I became attached to the name. Oops! To me it sounds like an adorable Hobbit man in heavy tweed pants that are held up by brown-striped suspenders meeting his neighbor for the first time, in the morning, sharing a breakfast shake over the fence. He also has a bulby red nose and little cold, so even though he has a warm twinkle in his eye, his consonants are stifled.

“Berry Dice to Beet You…”

It tastes like a sunny Hobbit morning too. Hope you like it.

Recipe:

In a blender, combine the ingredients and blend on high. Makes almost 1½ glasses.

Because our blender is not as strong, I usually start blending by pulsating on low for a second and then letting it settle, again for a second, and let it settle, and I continue this until I can see that the blender has pulled in all of the whole food. It’s usually about five times. Once that has happened, I turn the blender to the highest low setting and let it run for about 30 seconds. Then I switch it to the highest high setting and blend for 30 seconds to a minute or until the texture looks drinkable. If you have a strong blender, please feel free to move through your life at your own pace.

  • Small organic banana
  • ¼ cup raw cashews
  • ½ cooked organic beet
  • 10 organic raspberries (rinsed)
  • 28 non-organic blueberries (soaked in a fruit/vegetable cleaner for a minute, swished for 30 seconds, rinsed until no more soap, & hopefully no more toxins 🙂
  • ½ organic Royal Gala apple (rinsed)
  • 1 big handful of dinosaur kale
  • small squeeze of fresh lime
  • 1 cup filtered water

Ass Hat Sandwich

Published on by thewholeruth1 Comment

20150503-123830.jpg

Ass Hat Sandwich: Dairy Free Soy Free Gluten Free Egg Sandwich with a giant pepper that looks like a butt holding in the ingredients and wearing a bread slice that looks like a hat. Good Morning Everyone. #sauteed #organic #yellowonion in a #pan then #ripped #organic #dinosaurkale into a #whisked #egg and #cooked on #mediumhigh until #goldenbrown then in the same #pan #toasted #ricebread in #oliveoil and #plated the #sandwich in the #order of #bread #omelet #onion #salsa #avocado #bellpepper #bread so that the #piece of #pepper #holds in the #avocado and I also #scored the #top so the #glutenfreebread could #grip the #orangebellpepper too #nofilter #yummy #breakfast #asshat #sandwich

Curry Quinoa & Avocado Kale Omelette

Published on by thewholeruthLeave a comment

 

20150412-144048.jpg

Savory and filling, yet refreshing and clean. Red Russian kale from the garden and eggs, over thick pieces of Bacon avocados on a bed of spiced quinoa.

It was Shane’s birthday and we woke up to an empty fridge and growling bellies. We had both been out of town for two weeks and gotten home the night before. We needed to go grocery shopping, but were too hungry to go. In the fridge there was a box and a jar filled with seeds I’m collecting. A Diet Coke we keep on hand in case our friend Simon comes over. Cookies shaped like the lead character of the show Shane works on that I plan to make into Christmas ornaments. A Brita filter in water that I’m hoarding in case the water in our pipes magically becomes not rusty and we start to use our Brita pitcher again. Our compost tupperware, a really old cabbage, and some new eggs:

15.4.11 The Whole Ruth Empty Fridge

So we had eggs. Outside of the fridge, we also had two avocados from my aunt and uncle’s tree, the end of a bag of dry quinoa, and a lemon.

That is pretty close to becoming something! We thought we would cook the quinoa and then sauté it in oil, stir in the egg to make something like fried rice and then add spices and avocado. Which would have pretty good I’m sure.

But then we remembered we have a GARDEN!!! It only has one thing in it right now: KALE :)!

So Shane picked fresh kale and made kale omelettes. I played with the spices and quinoa. And he plated it snuggling avocados between the two. Here is the recipe:

 

Curry Quinoa Avocado Kale Omelet title

Ingredients: 2 cups of water, 1 cup of red quinoa, 3 hearty shakes of: curry powder, turmeric, *berebere powder, garlic powder, chili powder, 1/2 a lemon’s juice, 1/2 large Bacon avocado, 2 eggs, 6 Red Russian kale leaves, olive oil.

We try to use organic everything. This amount makes two omelettes and leaves a lot of extra quinoa for later.

*The Berebere powder was a gift from our magical friend, Jenna Johnson. She brought it from a town near to our heart, Pittsburgh. It is commonly used in Ethiopia and Eritrea in Africa. It’s a blend of chili peppers, garlic, ginger, basil, korarima, rue, ajwain or radhuni, nigella, and fenugreek. If you don’t have this ingredient, it’s okay. If you want to buy berebere from the store that Jenna did, it’s called Penzey’s and they’re on Penn Ave in Pittsburgh. They also have locations in 24 states and an online store.

Instructions: Bring two cups of water to a boil, add quinoa, stir, lower to a simmer, add spices and cook until little holes of air appear scattered throughout the quinoa.

Rip up 2-3 leaves of kale and mix in a bowl with an egg. Heat the olive oil on high.

Shane heats it long enough so that when he puts his hand over the oil, he feels the heat, then he adds the kale and egg mixture.

After a few minutes of the egg cooking on the first side, when he sees the egg bubbling a bit, he checks to see if he can get the spatula under the egg. If not, he waits until he can, if so, he  flips the egg.

On the second side, he lets it cook for a bit again then presses it with the spatula. If uncooked egg comes out, he flips it again. Usually that’s all the flipping that is needed, but he’ll repeat this until the egg is cooked all the way through.

Place about an inch of quinoa the size of the omelette on a plate. Top that with thick pieces of avocado. Place the omelette on top. Enjoy! And have a Happy Birthday!

Arugula Avocado Tapenade Bruschetta

Published on by thewholeruthLeave a comment

15.3.10 TheWholeRuth Arugula Avocado Tapenade BruschettaYou can swap out the arugula for kale, or the rice bread for polenta, or the tapenade for vegan pesto. You can replace the bruschetta with a metal door, and the bread with the base of a jet plane, and the arugula with airplane wings and fly away! If you want to go flying, go flying!

#vegan #glutenfree #soyfree #dairyfree #goodfat #tastytreat #airplane

Ingredients: Trader Joe’s Bruschetta, Trader Joe’s Olive Tapenade, half an organic avocado, rice bread, organic arugula, organic olive oil

A way to make it: I heated about a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan, then cooked one side of the rice bread in it until it was browned. Then I buttered that side with avocado slices, covered it in tapenade, topped that with bruschetta and put on as much arugula as would fit.

Side notes:

I was craving Little Caesar’s pizza so I tried to put as much fat and tasty things on here as I could, but only fat and tasty things that I’m not allergic to. It actually satiated the craving! That’s a rare occurence.

Rice bread can be spongey and dry & crumbly at the same time so toasting it in oil usually makes it not those things and just delicious instead.

If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s nearby, turn this meal into an airplane first so you can go get the exact brand of ingredients. Or just use any brand.

Blueberry Banana Chia Cinnamon Nut Oatmeal

Published on by thewholeruth1 Comment

15.3.9 TheWholeRuth Blueberry Banana Chia Walnut Cinnamon Oatmeal

 

 

Blueberry Banana Chia Cinnamon Nut Oatmeal. Just sugar from fruit! Organic steel-cut oats cooked the night before and left ready on the stove for the morning, blueberries, bananas, chia seeds, walnuts, and lots of cinnamon. 

I usually hate oatmeal because the tasty, quick kind spikes my blood sugar and I’m instantly sluggish after eating it and the healthy, steel-cut kind is so thick and bland that I eat two bites and feel like I walked through the Sahara desert and still feel tired. But today, I tried this little combination and I enjoyed it and I have energy afterwards.

The food in this bowl has a bunch of health benefits, but here are just a few:

The chia & walnuts give it omega 3 fatty acids that are good for our skin and brain. The sugar in the banana makes it sweet without adding syrup, sweetener, processed sugar or honey. The cinnamon helps us lower our blood sugar levels so there is less of a blood sugar spike, and less of a crash afterwards. The blueberries have antioxidants. Steel-cut oatmeal is the lowest kind of oatmeal on the glycemic index because it’s a whole grain, that hasn’t been steamed or toasted like rolled oatmeal, and it takes longer for the digestive enzymes to get through all the fiber to convert the starch into sugar. So this helps with blood sugar spike too.

In the morning, I’m too sleepy to remember all of that and just want something that tastes good and makes me feel good.

It helps that Shane loves oatmeal and heats it the night before. He brings it to a boil and then instead of simmering it until it’s done, he turns off the heat and leaves it on the stove overnight. The residual heat slow-cooks it overnight leaving  him a pot of steel-cut oats ready in the morning! Then he reheats them. I was lazy and ate it cold today, it felt refreshing instead of comforting and matched well with the cool fruit.

For folks who don’t have time to cook steel-cut oats in the morning, Shane’s trick might help you make the switch from sugary, processed, microwave oatmeal to real, nutritious steel-cut oats.

#ThisMakesMeLikeOatmeal #ThanksForCookingTheOatmealBaby

Mexican Brussels Sprout Egg Scramble

Published on by thewholeruthLeave a comment

15.3.8 TheWholeRuth Mexican Brussels Sprout Egg Scramble

 

Mexican Brussels Sprout Egg Scramble. Epic mid-day breakfast. Organic sautéed Brussels sprouts, corn tortillas, red onion, mushrooms, egg, fresh garlic, turmeric, cumin, paprika, cinnamon, freshly ground black pepper, red bell pepper, dinosaur kale and minced cilantro.

#brusselS #sprouts #whoknew

Lemon Ginger Cucumber Water

Published on by thewholeruthLeave a comment

15.3.5 TheWholeRuth Lemon Ginger cucumber Water

Lemon Ginger Cucumber Water tastes like springtime! Organic sliced ginger root, cucumber, & lemon… gives water a chance to dress up 🙂 

This tastiness comes with vitamin C, immune strengthening, increased nutrient absorption, anti-inflammatory-ness, vitamin B1, vitamin B5, vitamin B7, and antioxidants. 

#nofilter