beans, greens, & seeds

I listened to a Fuhrman telecon about how to build muscle in which he recommended that you eat a high-quality protein meal combining beans, greens and nuts& seeds after exercising. Protein gets excreted from your system if you don't use it (i.e., build muscle), so it's good to eat it one or two meals after exercising. It turns out that this is an easy and delicious meal to make. Here are two examples, from today's lunch and dinner.

First, make a pot of beans (or just use a can!). Today I made a mixture of lima and pinto. I soaked them overnight, then rinsed, and cooked with a chopped onion for about 3 hours. At the end of cooking, I added from fresh herbs from the garden. Today that was chives, dill, a little cilantro, and tarragon. The garden cilantro and dill will end soon, but the basil will be strong soon, so there should be something all summer long. For fun, I added 2 tsp of fig vinegar. That was unnecessary but good.

Next, chop some greens and one other veggie. or more. whatever you want. My greens today were kale, baby bok choy, and mustard greens. I made enough for two. It was probably about 10 oz, so 5 each. I didn't measure it. It went into a big pot. I also added some mushrooms and a can of tomatoes. I cooked them in the pressure cooker for 2 minutes (or steam for 15 minutes or so). I ground up 1 Tbsp of hemp seed and 2 Tbsp sunflower seeds in the coffee grinder (the meal served two people). I added that to the greens, poured 1/2 cup beans on top, and the seeds. The seeds mixed with the cooking liquid and made the sauce a little creamy. It was fabulous.

For dinner, my greens were asparagus. okay, that doesn't count as greens, but it's a healthy vegetable. I added sesame seeds to the asparagus and pressure cooked for 2 minutes. then I thought I could grind them but I realized after cooking that you can't really separate them. So I thought, they might not digest well, so I ground up 2 Tbsp of sunflower seeds. Added that and juice of 1/2 lemon to the asparagus, topped with 1/2 cup beans. And added more herbs that I had picked for lunch. It was fabulous too!

I may be doing this sort of thing a lot. It's an easy way to get a high-nutrient, high-protein meal!