Love Your Leftovers!

The New Mexico Action Corps, features a blog post by guest and local chef, Kathy Chavez! Read on to hear how this stellar chef  uses her leftovers for meals as delicious as Thanksgiving dinner. To read more about the New Mexico Action Corps, check out their blog here or like them on Facebook!

-  -  -

Hopefully your Thanksgiving was filled with fun, food and happy times. Now comes the leftover debate. Some people love them, while others vehemently avoid them. Many people argue that nothing tastes better than a cold turkey sandwich and a slice of leftover pie. Others vow that they will never eat leftovers. My favorite part of holiday meals are all the savory dishes prepared using all the leftover food, so I'd like to share my favorite ways to use leftovers.

First, here are some good safety tips:

• Before handling any food, cooked or raw, you need to wash your hands. Many food-born illnesses are passed from dirty hands and improper storage. 
• Cut meats off the bone and be sure to store any stuffing in separate containers. 
• Always reheat liquids such as gravy and red chile by bringing them to a boil.

The most basic post-holiday meal includes the famous sandwich. Just cut your meat and place it between leftover buns or bread. You can add mashed potatoes, stuffing, green chile, or lettuce from the salad. The list of what to put in your sandwich is limited only by what’s in your imagination and your refrigerator. Make turkey or ham salad by dicing up onions and celery, then sprinkle in your favorite spices and spoon in either mayonnaise or plain yogurt. Eat with bread, crackers or scoop it onto a bed of lettuce or your leftover salad.

Try eating mashed potatoes for breakfast. Make them into round patties and brown them in a skillet with a bit of olive or any oil. They make delicious hash browns. Or make a yummy spicy shepherd’s pie. Gather your meat, greens such as spinach, green beans, corn, and any vegetables you have on hand. Mix them in a skillet then add gravy and red or green chile. Scoop your mashed potatoes over the top and brown in the oven. This meal can be made vegan if you skip the meat part and make your mashed potatoes without any butter or milk.

Many of my friends make enchiladas and tacos using their turkey. Just make the enchiladas and tacos as usual but using your turkey. Packing your lunch, whether you’re going to work or on a day hike, can save you money and calories. If you just have too much leftover food to handle you can take that pie to work, give the cookies to a friend, host a leftover party and ask your friends to only bring their appetites.


Have a happy winter season and may your days be filled with love, joy, and lots of local eating and shopping.

Community dinner creates lasting impressions

The New Mexico Action Corps partnered with several local farmers to use their left overs to host a community dinner in honor of World Food Day.  Joined by Oxfam constituents partner organizations and local food enthusiasts, this GROW friendly event brought people together over principles such as reducing waste, eating less meat, and cooking smart.  For more photos and information about the New Mexico Action Corps click here.

-  -   -

By Jasmine McBeath

 

The time to vote has come and gone, right? Not true, according to Foodology star Greg Gould, who claims we vote three times a day, probably more. That’s because you’re making an economic, political, and social justice choice every time you raise a fork to your mouth. 

For instance, if Americans in urban areas bought two fair trade chocolate bars a month, it could benefit 30,000 small-scale farmers. Or, if we were to join families in the Philippines, India, Brazil, Spain, and the UK in cooking more efficiently, the benefit would be the same as planting 540 million trees and letting them grow for 10 years. 

My favorite part about this worldwide GROW movement is that it’s not overwhelming. The idea is to think global, act local. It’s not hard to save food, cook smart, or eat a little less meat. It’s also reasonable to expect us to eat seasonally and support small-scale farmers.

Oxfam’s been talking a lot about the GROW Method this fall, so we decided to practice what we preach in a big way. Two weekends ago, we celebrated our first World Food Day Community Dinner. We partnered with six different nonprofits, received donations from a dozen farms, and put twenty volunteers to work in shifts from 10am to 10pm. Everyone came away saying how wonderful the food tasted and with a greater understanding of how eating locally can make a global impact. 

I was lucky enough to see it through from beginning to end. The day started with picking up produce at the Downtown Growers Market. Our community chef Kathy met me there and we visited each booth from 11am-1pm requesting leftovers. The farmers were incredibly generous and helpful, offering what they didn’t think other growers would have and making sure we came out with what we needed to pull off the meal. We left with watermelons wedged below the seats, baguettes leaned against the doors, and greens draped across the seats. Boxes of cauliflower, squash, and tomatoes called shotgun, paper bags full of potatoes and apples filled the truck, and mini pumpkins spilled out the back.

I have to admit it was a little overwhelming when we laid all the food out on the counter in the church. Then something magical happened. Our community chef Kathy transformed into a contestant on one of those cooking show competitions. Challenge: make food for 100 people using the ingredients in the kitchen with only 6 helpers in under 5 hours. But unlike the people on those shows, everyone seemed to maintain their composition. Every time I glanced over, I saw people hard at work, but smiling.

And then, suddenly, it was dinnertime. Volunteers set out frothy watermelon juice in a glass punch bowl next to pitchers of sun tea. The produce from the counter (plus the donation from the Co-opt) became spicy pumpkin soup, chicken stew, bruschetta, shepherd’s pie, beans with tortillas, squash and greens, green chile bread, baguettes, and half a dozen different salads. The dessert table screamed fall with its peach squares, apple brown betties, dark chocolate covered apple slices and pumpkin pudding.

As I walked around, I heard great things about the food, and was happy to see people using the food icebreaker questions. There’s nothing like food to get strangers talking. 

        

When it came time to pledge GROW, some people said they will try Meatless Mondays, others vowed to chop vegetables and meat into smaller pieces for shorter cook times, and still others promised to buy CSAs and shop at the farmers market. Keynote speaker Greg Gould shared insight into fixing the food system by improving our personal quality of life and health. I liked how Greg acknowledged that each person is an expert as far as their own personal food preferences. We already know what we like to eat, now we just have to think about the best way to go about it. Greg’s talk tied in family food traditions, teaching children to cook, and what we can learn from planting trees. He’s a very engaging speaker, so I recommend hearing his speech, recorded by Peter Gallo at Kimchi Farms.  

At the end of the night the cleaning crew came to the rescue. Right in line with the GROW Method, we didn’t have to throw anything away. With hoards of hungry guests, there weren’t many leftovers. Anything extra was split between volunteers while the kitchen scraps went to the pigs at Kimchi Farms.

I really couldn't have wished for a better event!

THANK YOU!

Donors

Bosque Baking Company

Brown's Family Farm

Clay Trafton Farm

Frost Hill Organics

Granja Para Mañana

Harvest Gifts

La Montanita Co-opt

La Quiche

Macias Farm

Magos Farm

Majestic Valley Farm

Moore Family Farm

St. Thomas of Canterbury Church

Collaborators

Amnesty International

Bread for the World

Community Bricolage

Food Corps

Foodology

Nourish International

Oxfam Action Corps

Community Chef

Kathy Chavez

Guest Speaker

Greg Gould

Photographer

Rene Ronquillo

Circle of Protection Success!

Republished from Bread New Mexico Blog by Carlos Navarro.
To learn more about the New Mexico Action Corps check out their blog here!

- - -

A Circle of Protection Vigil: Prayer, Songs and Letters

There were 30 to 35 people gathered at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque for our Circle of Protection prayer vigil on the second Saturday of October. Just as we did with a similar vigil last year, we had intended to start outside on the front porch of the church with candles and the song Come and Fill But the wind gusts were too strong and they would have extinguished our candles. So we decided to start inside in the chapel where we could better center ourselves. 

Surely enough, the calm, quiet wind of the Spirit was present inside in our prayers and reflections and songs from Taizé. We reflected on hunger, poverty, justice and inequality, just as we did last year. And the Circle of Protection campaign remained the focus of our prayers and reflections.

In our reflections, we put some emphasis on the mini campaigns in Bread for the World's 2012 Offering of Letters. And we invited representatives or volunteers from partner organizations to join us in the reflections: New Mexico Oxfam Action Corps, Roadrunner Food Bank, Medical Mission Board, Interfaith Power and Light (representing the National Council of Churches) and Sojourners.

And just as we did last year, we followed our vigil with an opportunity for action. In 2011, we signed letters to five individuals seeking to represent the New Mexico First Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Afterwards, we held face-to-face meetings with each of those candidates, who had yet to square off in their respective party's primary election.

The letters this year were to the candidates who won their primaries for the U.S. Senate and for the First Congressional District. (And for good measure,we included a third-party Senate candidate and two declared write-in candidates). We have arranged to bring the letters to the campaign headquarters of most of the candidates on Wednesday, October 24. We have requested a meeting with a ranking member of each campaign. Stay tuned for more details.

A heartfelt thanks to Rene Ronquillo for spending the evening snapping all the beautiful images contained in this blog post.

Michaela Bruzzese (Sojouners)

Sharon Barefoot served as a nurse in Haiti

Kalen Olsen and Jasmine McBeath talk about Oxfam's GROW Campaign

The reception featured fair-trade baked goods

Albuquerque Gets Into GROW!

Restaurants and Community Come together over World Food Day Dinners! 

By Jasmine Mcbeath

I have to admit that I wasn't the one that came up with the idea. The idea began with a local farmer at the downtown market and evolved with each collaborator. A little over a month ago, I was speaking with Jeremiah from Frost Hill Organics about Oxfam's potential partnerships with successful local growers and producers, such as La Montañita Coop, Los Poblanos, and Farm and Table. He looked at me with honest eyes and pointed out that while it's great to partner with large, established farms, markets, and restaurants, we shouldn't forget the little guys. Oxfam is all about supporting those small-scale farmers, after all. Jeremiah suggested using his leftover produce as a good start. Instead of composting his extra veggies, Oxfam could make a small GROW Meal out of them. Soon a dozen other farmers were on board, and the intimate GROW Meal had evolved into a community dinner for a hundred. Then at the last booth, a buyer overheard my conversation with Macias Farm and asked to coordinate the meal preparation. She started freezing leftover produce that day onwards and calls once a week to let me know what new recipes are in store for guests. Clubs on campus and groups of faith joined in too. Community Bricolage, Bread for the World, Nourish International, and Food Corps are all teaming up with Oxfam. Foodology star Greg Gould is giving a presentation during dinner and St. Thomas of Canterbury Church is donating the space. So you could say that "community dinner" accurately represents not only the meal, but also every step in the process. 

PLEASE JOIN US IN MAKING OUR COMMUNITY DINNER AND WORLD FOOD DAY EVENTS A HIT:

Tuesday, October 16th – restaurants serve up the GROW Method :

Here's your excuse to eat out on a Tuesday, burquenos! 13 restaurants across Albuquerque have pledged to serve World Food Day meals. The restaurants range from cafes and bakeries to wine bars and fine dining. They dish out flavors from all over the world--chicken tikka, pizza bianca, shrimp tamales, green-chile-cheese-bread, and red velvet cake. Each restaurant is already putting into effect multiple principles of GROW, whether by offering more vegetarian options, serving seasonal and local dishes, cooking smart or saving food.

Visit one of these restaurants listed below for breakfast, lunch, or dinner to show your support and learn more about what you can do to decrease hunger both here in NM and worldwide.

Artichoke Cafe

Baileys on the Beach

Desert Fish

Farina

Golden Crown Panaderia

Jennifer James 101

Nob Hill Bar and Grill

Rasoi

Richard's Mexican

Sky Garden Market

Slate Street Cafe

Thai Cuisine ii

Tiles of Old Santa Fe

Saturday, October 27th: Community dinner from local farms and coops!

For a home-cooked meal and great conversation, celebrate with us on October 27th from 6-8pm. Oxfam Action Corps is hosting a FREE Community Dinner for 100 people at St. Thomas of Canterbury Church on UNM campus. We're putting every step of the GROW Method into practice. First, we're saving food by making the meal from leftover produce from the downtown Growers Market. Second, we're cooking smart by preparing more at once. We're obviously eating seasonally and supporting local farmers. Finally, we're eating less meat, since the meal is mostly fruit and vegetables. (We're also receiving a donation from La Montañita Coop, so meat-lovers don't worry!)

What are you doing for World Food Day? Looking for a local event? Check out our Oxfam America event calendar here and sign up to host your very own World Food Day dinner in your own city!

Email actioncorps@oxfamamerica.org with any questions.

-   -   -

Jasmine McBeath of Oxfam Action Corps Albuquerque writes about upcoming World Food Day events and the idea that launched an effort by dozens of restaurants and community farmers. 

Pictured: Robin Seydel 
and Terry Bowling of Monañita Coop, 
Jasmine McBeath of the Albuquerque Action Corps, and Brian Rawson of Oxfam America

MY PLEDGE: MEATLESS MONDAYS

Jasmine McBeath from the New Mexico Action Corps has made a promise to cut down on her meat intake for Meatless Mondays! Take a look at her post below to see why Jasmine decided to go meatless on Monday - and you won't believe what a difference it can make!

To see what else is up in New Mexico, check out their blog: http://newmexico.oxfamactioncorps.org

What have you done to implement the GROW Method? Have you tried meatless Mondays? Have any vegetarian specialties to share? Let us know at actioncorps@oxfamamerica.org!

I have to admit that I only recently considered the changes I could make to my diet that would affect others. Although I grew up in a conscientious, environment-oriented family, we were more concerned with saving water than food. In fact, my boyfriend still refers to me as "The Water Nazi" for turning off the facet while he's midway through brushing his teeth or shaving.

But when I read about "Meatless Mondays", something stuck. I had learned about Oxfam's GROW Campaign from my training, and this plan provided a simple, concrete way to support the "eat less meat" objective. 

The phrase has been around for almost 100 years (originally a WWI slogan to ration food), but I didn’t know about “Meatless Mondays” until a recent backlash from ranchers about the content of a USDA newsletter. This flurry of articles made me dig a little deeper, and realize that the campaign has reached a lot of people. According to a report by the American Meat Institute, nearly 20% of households participate. 

Chefs are on board; schools, hospitals, and even whole towns have implemented meat-free Mondays. 80,000 children attending Baltimore City Public Schools made the switch. University of California Santa Cruz and Carnegie Mellon students enjoy Meatless Mondays at their dining halls. The Cobblestone Café at John Hopkins Hospital offers only vegetarian options on Mondays. Bigger still, San Francisco and Washington D.C. have passed city-wide resolutions. And in 2011, Aspen became the first “Meatless Monday Community” with over 30 restaurants and organizations participating.

If you're like many of my friends, you're probably asking, "What difference does it make?" The answer is: a lot.  A family of four that trades in their steak dinner for lentils once a week saves 12.5 Olympic-size swimming pools of water per year. Moreover,“if everybody in America did that, that would be the equivalent of taking 20 million midsize sedans off the road,” food advocate Michael Pollan commented on Oprah. Water, land, fertilizer, oil. These are all things we don’t often consider when eating meat. Maybe you knew that livestock farming accounts for almost 20% of greenhouse gases, but did you know it also represents 8% of water use worldwide?

                   

 What it Takes to Make a Quarter-Pounder

Source: J.L. Capper, Journal of Animal Science, December, 2011.

Credit: Producers: Eliza Barclay, Jessica Stoller-Conrad 

Designer: Kevin Uhrmacher/NPR

The drain on resources gives rise to other problems. According to Oxfam press officer Ben Grossman-Cohen, "If we don't reduce our environmental footprints as we increase production, poor people, particularly women, will be the first to suffer. Eating less meat is a simple way to reduce the pressure on global resources and help ensure that everyone has enough to eat." Oxfam's GROW campaign goes a long way toward feeding a world population estimated to grow to nine billion by 2050. 

Now, I realize there are many people that go way beyond the once-a-week pledge. There are vegans and vegetarians, and others like a former roommate of mine that ate veggie burgers every other day just because they were simple to prepare and tasted good. However, we all do what we can, and that means "Meatless Mondays” for me. This plan assures I eat less meat by making it a priority at least once a week. I've conned my boyfriend into joining in also. As a big meat-eater, it’s a significant sacrifice for him, but I’m confident I can cook up some great vegetarian meals. I’ll keep you updated on how it’s going, and post some fun recipes so you can join in too.

By Jasmine McBeath

Albuquerque GROW Launch event

Table for 9 Billion Launch Event

NM Oxfam Action Corps were out spreading the word about the GROW Campaign last weekend in Nob Hill. We set up a table with information and GROW goodies in front of the La Montanita Co Op. We met some wonderful local ABQ folks who were committed to sustainability, organic agriculture, and food security. Lively conversations about ending hunger, population numbers, and NM activism paired with the amazing early June sun left us feeling energized and productive.

Thanks to La Montanita for giving us table space next to their organic herbs and seedlings, which totally fits with the new GROW Campaign.

A big thank you to everyone who came out and supported the event and the GROW Campaign! More local ABQ and Santa Fe events to come later this summer. Let us know if there's somewhere nearby you think we should show up!