consciouseating
Slow Cooking The Zen of
Savor Your Autumn Harvest in One-Pot Dishes by Judith Fertig
A
utumn’s shorter days remind us how precious time is, especially when we can spend the hours with good friends and loved ones. That’s why Chicago mothers and bloggers Meg Barnhart and Jane McKay decided to try slow cooking with a Zen approach in creating family meals. With the time they save in food preparation—especial- ly when one recipe can yield an extra
lunch or dinner—they free up moments for both family interaction and their own spiritual practices. “Slow cooking with the sacred in-
tention of slowing down creates a sense of peace and calm after a full day of work and school,” says Barnhart. Once she transitioned to this kind of meal planning and preparation on a regular basis, she realized that it allows her to
be more attentive to her family’s needs while a healthy, tasty dinner basically cooks itself. With extra time for medi- tation and yoga in her daily life, she realizes increased clarity and focus for other interests and demands. McKay enjoys the creative chal- lenge of making family-pleasing, whole food recipes and converting conven- tionally cooked recipes for use with a slow cooker. “I especially love the bounty of the autumn harvest, which includes seasonal picks from our fam- ily’s urban garden,” she says. She’s found that root vegetables, squash, pumpkin, leeks, mushrooms, leafy greens, Brussels sprouts, apples, pears and nuts all translate well to lower tem- perature cooking for a longer period. Whether it’s a quick preparation
that allows for other activities or a more contemplative, mindful endeavor that can be relaxing in itself, the reci- pes on the pair’s website, TheZenOf
SlowCooking.com, are highly suited for busy people.
Slow Cooking 101 Slow cookers have come a long way since they were first introduced in the 1970s. Today, they come in all shapes and sizes, with inserts, timers and a wide range of settings. Barnhart and McKay recommend the five-to- six-quart size with a removable insert as the most practical. Food cooks in the insert, which can be washed and dried separately, so there’s no need to put the entire slow cooker in the sink to clean up afterwards. Because the slow cooker’s low
temperature is about 200° F and the
38 Lehigh Valley
www.healthylehighvalley.com
photo by Stephen Blancett
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64