Pumping Iron

Wrong kind of iron. . . .
(I blame Wikipedia for this!)

Yesterday, as I was catching up from a weekend that can be best called "busy," I was asked by one of the fantastic barristas at my local coffee shop about low meat or meatless meals which can help her get more iron into her diet. Thinking about it, I realized I had a few ideas, but needed more information. So when in doubt, go attack the local library!


After a bit of research, I came up with a diet idea that is not only high in iron, but also vitamin c, which helps the body absorb it better, and non-dairy sources of calcium. This uses very common supermarket ingredients, including lentils, pasta, leafy greens, and some salsa for sauce. Meat of course is optional, but in this case the iron in red meat when you are deficient is much easier for your body to process, and makes the processing veggie based iron much more efficient. This is a hot or cold pasta dish!

The Iron Pasta!

Tools:
Large pot
Smaller saucepan with lid
Strainer
Spoon for mixing.

Ingredients: (per person)
1/4 cup of lentils (these are small beans that you can find in your dried beans section of the supermarket) (about 20% of your daily iron right here!)
3/4 cup of your favorite dry pasta (all pasta is enriched in the USA with certain minerals, like iron!) (another 10%)
1/2 cup of dark leafy greens of your choice (I either us collard greens, spinach, or turnip greens, which you can find chopped in many supermarket freezer sections for relative cheap! Iron all the way around!)
1/2 cup of fresh salsa (check your local produce section for what the mercado sells for fresh salsa. These will have far less preservatives and taste fantastic! I tend to grab the very spicy salsa!)
Optional: 1/5th of a pound of red meat like beef, sliced ultra thin or ground (Or the alternative is various forms of liver or other organ meats, which I can give advice below how to cook for most people who HATE the irony taste of these foods.) (or an alternative source of a large amount of iron include several sources of seafood, such as shrimp or oysters, but be careful of eating too much of these while pregnant.)
Pepper and Salt to taste.
2 tbsp of Lemon Juice
Water

First thing is first, fill your large pot with water to about 3/4th mark, put it onto the stove, and turn the heat onto high. As soon as you turn the heat on, pour in your lentils into the water. Once the water starts to boil, wait ten minutes before adding in the pasta to the water.

In your smaller saucepan, add in your meat, cooked  to however you like it. If you use seafood, wait until the very end of the cooking process before adding it, otherwise it can get tough. Add in your dark leafy green and cook until tender, and finally the salsa until it's warmed up. Turn the heat down or off depending on how you'll eat the dish.

At the ten minute boil point for the lentils, add in your pasta and cook based on box direction. Drain through the strainer, and add to the salsa/meat mixture. If your using seafood, add it now!

Mix together the ingredients gently. At this point squeeze some lemon juice onto the mix and sprinkle with pepper and salt to taste.

Either bowl this for immediate consumption (cheese is optional), or put into a sealed container in the fridge for later.

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Alright, now the organ meat. This is a touchy topic because a LOT of people hate that irony flavor, but that's what is actually good for you when you need a bit more iron in your diet. The trick with this is cooking the organ meat long and slow in a slow cooker to help mask the irony flavor, especially with chicken or turkey.

Tools:
Smaller slow cooker

Ingredients
1 lb chicken or turkey hearts and gizzards (they will taste a lot less irony, but still be a good source of iron, but this works for beef and chicken liver as well. Chop the beef liver into smaller cubes.)
1/4th cup of water
1 chicken or beef bullion cube depending on which meat you use. (for salt and other herb flavors)

OK, put meat, water, and bullion into the slow cooker, put the lid on, and turn it onto low. Then walk away for twenty-four hours. Seriously, that's it. The meat will come out tender and flavorful and you'll wonder why you've not had anything so flavorful ever! I like to get a good crusty loaf of bread and make sandwiches with this as well. Add this instead of the ground meat in the above dish, or in other dishes which needs meat.

Bien Camino!