- On today's "Fit to Eat", I'll be preparing chicken Parmesan with zucchini noodles, marinara, and fresh herbs.

Our guest is Felder Rushing, Host of MPB Think Radio's "The Gestalt Gardener".

We're gonna check in with our friends at Wurmworks Farm in Jackson, and Registered Dietician Rebecca Turner is gonna tell us about the benefits of growing your own kitchen herb garden.

It's gonna be a great show so stay tuned.

(cheerful music) Welcome back to "Fit to Eat", I'm your Host, Rob Stinson.

Today's guest is the Host of MPB Think Radio's, "The Gestalt Gardener", Felder Rushing.

- Good to be here, Rob.

- Felder, man, it's good to have you back.

- Hey, I brought some stuff for you to cook with.

- I'm telling you.

- Can you do me proud?

- I'm hoping, I think I have the perfect recipe.

All right, so oregano- - Yep, oregano.

- Oregano - Yeah.

- Basil.

- Yep.

- Flat parsley, so guess what that tells me when I hear all those three?

- [Felder] Italian?

- How'd you know?

Salute!

- Yeah.

(Felder laughs) - I mean, this is perfect.

- Yeah.

- So it's two- - Oh, you forgot the tomatoes.

- Yes and tomatoes.

Well, the way everything worked out, I thought, what better to do.

So what we're gonna do, you ready for this?

- Yeah.

- Is a healthy chicken Parmesan.

- Okay.

- All right and by that we're gonna take the pasta out and create some zucchini noodles that I affectionately call... - Don't say it.

- I have to.

- Don't say it.

- Zoodles.

(both chuckling) All right, all right, I'm sorry.

With you and I, we'll never get anything done.

Okay so I'm gonna immediately start with the chicken so we can get it cooked and done.

Now this is just a beautiful fresh chicken breast.

The one thing I wanna show people is cutting it, I'm gonna cut into it on the bias, and I'm doing it right here on the plate.

It's easy for me that way and I'm gonna do where it's a little thicker.

And this side, this side really isn't that thick so now we'll take it off.

I like to have that plate, it almost guides it.

Cut out that little sinew that's in the center, all right?

And now we've got this, and I'm gonna turn it into...

Isn't that pretty?

- [Felder] Yeah.

- [Rob] And let's do a little... Let's just do a little bit on this side too.

- [Felder] That sinew part is really hard for me.

- [Rob] Yeah, I just, you know what, if you cut it out and I wanted people to see how simple it could be done and that's all there really is to it.

- [Felder] Oh yeah that's pretty.

- All right, so now we're gonna create a beautiful light seasoning.

And I don't know if you recall but we don't use salt, so we got a got a little bleach cloth there so I can sanitize that but over here, what we're gonna do in this is put in some black pepper, some ground oregano.

Oregano.

- [Felder] Yeah.

- [Rob] Some garlic powder.

- [Felder] Which I grow myself, also.

- [Rob] Well, I hope.

- [Felder] Yeah.

- [Rob] And onion powder.

So the powders, and I just always like to harp on this, the powders don't have salt.

Granulated typically means they're granulated with salt.

So I use onion powder, garlic powder in any of the recipes.

And it makes for such a different little way to do it.

- [Felder] And it brings out the flavor like salt would?

- [Rob] Absolutely.

- [Felder] Yeah.

- All right so in these pans, what I'm gonna do is take and put a little zero-fat spray.

Pan is good and hot, turn that down just a little bit.

And then about a half a teaspoon of oil.

So this is very light and keeping it very healthy.

Now we're gonna season the chicken just lightly.

This isn't to make 'em spicy or anything, it's just to give it a nice little crust.

- [Felder] Yeah, yeah.

- [Rob] And then put that directly in the pan.

(pan sizzling) And the other nice thing about cutting it so thin is it doesn't take it as long to cook.

- [Felder] Yeah.

- [Rob] So now we're gonna sprinkle the other side, and then I'm gonna actually- - [Felder] Oh that smells good.

- [Rob] I know, huh?

That's where we need smell-o-vision.

I know from there, it's only gonna go downhill.

- Maybe do a little scratch thing on the monthly.

- All right, now I'm taking the same bleach cloth because you gotta sanitize in between using chicken.

- Yeah.

- All right cause I think I'm gonna take and have some fun with some of your herbs.

All right, what we're gonna do now is I'm gonna let the chicken go cause I'm gonna start on making the marinara sauce, which utilizes your fresh herbs.

- [Felder] I brought 'em.

- I know, so I'm gonna set this over here to the side and just do a quick little switch and then just kind of let this sit over there.

And then we're gonna flip that chicken not too long.

So where we're gonna go with this is taking and doing the exact same process and we're careful, we can do this.

- Yeah.

- Don't do that at home.

Yes, they could do that.

- Not when you have hair like mine too close to the kitchen.

- Yeah you don't... Now let tell you, same half teaspoon of oil.

Now, the fun.

You know me and fresh garlic.

- [Felder] Whew!

- Yep, you'll know that I was here.

Onion, garlic.

All right and guess what?

Your basil!

- My basil.

- [Rob] Chopped it.

- I grow different kinds of basil too, maybe we can talk about- - Absolutely, you know what we're gonna do?

Let's show this.

Here's your beautiful oregano.

- Yeah.

- And so many people don't know what that is or what to do with it.

- Yeah.

- When it's fresh.

- And it grows in all parts of Mississippi, it's perfectly hearty outdoors, even in a container.

- Well let's take this chicken over on the other side now and all we're gonna do is turn it and leave it alone.

And I'm gonna actually turn that heat off cause it's gonna cook right through.

- It's getting there.

- It'll be perfect.

So let's show people, cause I think people are scared and I do it so easily, I pull it down.

- Yeah.

- And you get all the leaves off.

Take the top part where the flower budding is and then we just do that on each one.

And honestly, in sauce, like from this, if I were gonna put this into a different application, I might chop it, but I love to see the little leaves in our marinara sauce.

So I don't even wanna chop it.

I'm just gonna use the kind of all that fresh flavoring that it has.

God, is that amazing?

- Oh yeah.

- Oh, the aroma.

I wish people could get the beauty of the aroma of what we're doing right now.

- You know, I grow this in the back of my truck as well as in my garden.

And I open up the back window and it all comes flowing in from driving the truck.

I smell like chicken marinara when get out of my truck.

- I'll tell you what, it'd be hard to beat that.

All right, now let's turn this heat back up since we got done with that, and I'm gonna take that oregano and throw into the sauce.

All right, a little pepper.

- [Felder] Little more pepper.

- [Rob] Yeah and I love black pepper, this is not a spicy dish and a little white pepper and that's the spicer of the two so I use about half as much just to be cautious and not make it overpower it.

- And we cannot grow pepper in Mississippi so you have to get it.

- Yeah and that's kind of the name of the game, there's certain things we're good at.

Now this is just some white wine to do that fancy word, de-glazing the pan and then you get, look at that, isn't that incredible?

All the aromas, - [Felder] We don't need the chicken.

That's good enough.

(Rob laughs) Give me a spoon.

- I'm telling you!

I mean, it really is that good.

All right, then we're gonna go ahead and add in our tomato filets and look at that, beautiful ripe tomatoes.

And now I add in, this is no salt, virtually fat-free vegetable stock.

And that really, is that not amazing?

You know how simple that is.

- [Felder] And it'll cook down pretty quickly then, right?

- [Rob] Oh yeah.

- Yeah.

- It really will and I mean, some people think you have to cook it for hours, you really do not, not a marinara sauce, it's a little different that way.

So this is kind of a lighter blend of flavoring and we'll get into a little bit more of the urban farming and the whole concept.

- [Felder] Oh yeah, yeah.

Because honestly, and I know you're bashful about it, but you're a pioneer.

- I've been growing stuff a long time and find out the easiest way to grow it.

- Well, and I think that that's something that we really need to talk about because it's something that people are intimidated to do.

And look, nobody is gonna remember all of the recipe that we're talking about.

So they can definitely go to mpbonline.org/fittoeat to find the full recipe for everything you see here, as well as more the information about what we've been talking about and I think the way it looks right now, this is a perfect point, everything is kind of at a settled time.

We're gonna take a short break and check in with Wurmworks Farm in Jackson, where we'll learn more about just how much is going on in our soil and what you can do to grow your own produce at home.

Take a look.

- We all think that everything ends when we're putting it in the waist bin, but for me, everything begins where your story ends.

It takes months for this process to happen.

When I'm thinking about where does this all begin for composting in general, it's these waste streams.

Whether it's our household kitchen scraps, whether it's for farms, whether it's juice pulp from the juice bar, Any one of those pieces is where it all begins.

I take that waste, we take it through a number of different types of composting.

We thermal compost a lot of our stuff to get rid of weed seeds, to get rid of pathogens.

You are turning, you are moving, you are doing lots of physical stuff.

We then take that material and bring it into our worm beds as well.

The worm compost is why I love worms.

They are really doing the work for you.

They're actually consuming the microbiology, those plump little bacteria and those plump fungi that are consuming the plant material or the kitchen scraps.

That is what the worms are after.

They're getting in there, whenever fits in their mouth, they're gonna smash it up in their body.

Things are getting broken down into smaller particles or smaller pieces, and once that worm has eaten that material, those nutrients slowly release to feed plants.

One of the biggest pieces of what we try and do is getting as much information out as possible.

A lot of people don't understand what happens in this gobbledee goop that gets us to the greater possibility of more, better food is understanding this in-between space, right?

That's how you get there.

The process from the apple core to that amazing soil amendment.

There are just more responsible and healthier opportunities, more centered on stewardship than just chucking it in the backyard or putting it in the waste bin and letting it go to the landfill.

All that's part of perpetuating the cycle and helping people understand this is valuable.

Waste is energy.

With the right resources, with the right timing, you can make it happen.

- Welcome back to "Fit to Eat".

If you're just joining us, Felder Rushing and I are right in the middle of preparing today's recipe.

All right, so we got the sauce at a good point.

So let's do this cause then we gotta talk about all these beautiful fresh herbs.

- Oh, that was quick.

It really cook down quickly.

- [Rob] Isn't that cool?

- [Felder] Yeah.

- So we're gonna put a little bit of it and flatten it on the chicken cause you gotta have a little marinara sauce under your cheese.

Now this is fat-free mozzarella cheese, so really kind of cool.

And we're just gonna kind of put it and guide it on top of that sauce and on top of the chicken.

And it's not a heavy amount at all.

And then I'm gonna show the folks a little trick in case some people have lids, some people don't, a lot of saute pans don't.

So now that it's there and it's warming, we can take it and cap it with this pan and that way, it'll actually be melting while we're there.

- Yeah so that's what that extra pan was for.

- Well and I'm gonna actually use this to kind of finish the zoodles if you would.

But look, let's go ahead, let's go ahead and take a look at what you got.

And I thought it was kind of neat our conversation about parsley.

- I've been growing herbs for a long time, in containers, and gardens, and raised beds, whatever, and it's so easy to grow just a few that I'm likely to cook with.

And I brought these in my truck because I just wanna show that anybody can grow stuff and herbs are the easiest because look at the colors and the texture.

I have rosemary, I have three different kinds of basil, and I'm curious about purple, green, does it really matter?

- [Rob] No.

- Not really?

- [Rob] Not really.

- But I also and the oregano, which is a nice little treat, and all of these will take cold weather except for the basil.

I do have a question, I grow both flat parsley and curly parsley and they taste sort of alike to me.

- It's so funny that you bring that up in particular too, because I use both.

I love-- and this is just what we garnish almost every dish with, chopping the curly parsley.

It chops better.

- [Felder] Yeah, yeah.

- It just lends itself to kind of being-- and I mix it with Parmesan as a garnish, where the flat parsley I think is more elegant and I chop it coarser and that's why I like to use it in the marinara sauce so you get a little bit more of a bite of it.

- Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

- But I love 'em both and I mean that's the beauty of it.

All right, well let's do this, let's do this.

I wanna show people I've already taken the liberty of making a few, what I affectionately call zoodles.

- I know, I know, you were saying don't go there, I have to go there.

- You call this, let me guess the zoodler.

- It is now!

You've named it, I love it.

And all right, so very simple and I mean there's a million different styles of this, but all we're gonna do is kind of show, look at that.

I mean, if somebody can't do that at home.

- [Felder] You do that with carrots, I guess, would be a carrot-er.

- [Rob] It's great with squash.

- [Felder] Okay, cool.

- [Rob] Squash works just the same.

And I mean literally, so this is a manual, this is solid stainless steel so it can go in the dishwasher too.

- Yeah, yeah.

- That's the important part.

Some of them cannot and that's something I think people need to figure out, because if you find one that won't go in the dishwasher, it's almost not worth having.

Now I've already got quite a few, so this is plenty.

So we've got these and that to me, what's... All right, I always talk... Felder, I always talk about "this, not that".

- Yeah.

- So in this case, it is this zucchini looks like pasta.

- [Felder] Yeah.

- [Rob] But it isn't the fattening pasta and it's carb...

It doesn't have the carbohydrates.

So, so many people are trying to find a healthier way.

- And it's easy, zucchini is easy to grow.

There are jokes about too much zucchini.

- And the beautiful part about it is when it's cooked the way I do it.

- [Felder] Yeah.

- And we're gonna show that, we're gonna come back and do that as well, the key is not to overcook it just like any vegetable.

- [Felder] Yeah.

- Let me turn this off on this side.

- Or pasta.

- Yeah, I mean, I hate to say people overcook vegetables when they've lost their beautiful, vibrant color.

- Yeah.

- People have overcooked them.

- You weren't raised in the South.

You don't know about really overcooking black eyed peas, do you?

- I was not, but I do know exactly.

I wasn't gonna go there but I figured- - Yeah, black eyed peas got to be nothing but gravy left.

- And what about turnip greens?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Let's not go there because I have actually, on this show, cooked turnip greens, but I sear 'em and I put some fresh garlic and onion and man I love those.

So anyhow, but I'm not trying to downgrade what's been done for generations that would be a mistake.

Now on the other hand, I think the fun part about something like this though, where we say "this, not that", is the thought, "Gee, I love marinara sauce."

I love the idea, maybe it's a shrimp pasta that they want, but they know they can't have the luxury of the carbohydrates.

- [Felder] Right.

- [Rob] You put it over zoodles and if you pan sear these the way I'm gonna show 'em, they're still crunchy, flavorful- - So you don't boil 'em?

- No, no.

cause you'd lose all the nutrients.

- Okay, cool.

- And that's a great question.

So I guess we're kind of to that point, too on the recipe, it goes into detail and a lot of people will not remember all this, we're kidding around too much, hence forth, go to mpbonline.org/fittoeat to find the full recipe for everything you see here, as well as more information on what we've been talking about today.

I think that's kind of vital.

And that's the beauty of it is realistically, I always pan sear them with fresh garlic, a little bit of oil, and a little bit of pepper, and it's incredible.

And it becomes part of the meal instead of them thinking, "Ew, I'm eating a vegetable not pasta."

You know what I mean?

- It's okay- - Cause you put the sauce on top and it's an incredible combination.

So, all right, we are going to take a quick break and check in with Registered Dietician, Rebecca Turner.

She's gonna show us a bunch of delicious herbs that you can grow right in your own kitchen.

Check it out!

(peppy music) - Everyone loves the flavor of fresh herbs in their cooking.

Fresh herbs are an easy way to add flavor without added salt and act as an attractive garnish for your meal.

But usually you only need a little and you have to buy a lot.

Now how many times have you bought a large bunch of parsley or another herb at the garden, only to take it home, chop up a tablespoon or two, and then throw out the rest?

Sound familiar?

That's one reason starting your own indoor herb garden is a great idea.

You might have wanted to start an indoor herb garden before, but maybe you thought you didn't have the time, the space, or the experience.

That's not true.

Starting an indoor spice garden is much easier than you think.

They are low maintenance, they require no special equipment and don't take up much room.

Plus they smell great and they look pretty too.

So to get started, think about the herbs that you use frequently in your cooking and just pick two or three, try basil, chives, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, thyme.

These are all great options.

Now you want to give each plant its own pot and pick pots with good drainage.

Make sure to place a saucer under your pots with holes in the bottom.

No one wants water on a tabletop or window sill.

Now in the beginning, your herbs will be happy in a smaller pot but as they grow, you may need to transplant them if you notice any roots in the drainage holes or if the plant's growth stalls, or if it just starts to sort of flop over.

Now your herbs need a sunny spot to hang out.

Most herbs need at least six hours of solid sunlight every day.

Now water your new herb friends as needed.

You want to make sure you keep the soil moist but never water-logged.

Wilting or yellowing of the plant is a sign that you've over watered them.

The best part of having an indoor herb garden is you have easy access to fresh herbs all year long.

Now when you need fresh herbs, you just simply snip off the right amount and enjoy.

Voila!

Adding them to your fresh meals.

Now you're ready to enjoy your garden and make homemade meals "Fit to Eat".

- Welcome back to "Fit to Eat".

I'm here with Felder Rushing, "The Gestalt Gardener" himself, and we're almost done with this recipe, huh?

- Really, really I wanna take... May I take this home with me?

(Rob laughs) - I think the aroma is with you whether you want it or not.

- All right.

We're gonna actually show people the fast, easy, healthy way to cook zoodles.

So light, light, light oil.

All right, you know me, I gotta have garlic.

You just have to have garlic.

But very light seasoning actually just that and just a little bit of pepper, and I put it in the pan kind of to season that pan a little bit and not heavy and then- - [Felder] The zoodles.

- [Rob] The zoodles!

And I mean, isn't that crazy?

I love, just love how easy.

You asked a great question and I'm glad it came up, which is- - That's going quick.

- Yeah, you don't boil them.

No and I tell you, cause if you boil 'em, all the nutrient is around the skin and all and everything ends up boiling out and all right, so in Italy they always wanted pasta cook to a two, they want it al dente.

And my thinking was, well if you boil these, you're not gonna have that, you lose the nutrients.

So for many different reasons, it's the easiest way to go.

And I just love how simple it is.

And this is what we do in the restaurant at Salute.

And we cook these, I mean you'd be amazed, certain days you see more of this than you do pasta.

- It's almost steaming itself down.

- It really is and actually what's gonna happen, I'm gonna.

- And when you see when it's tossed.

- Look at that!

- Isn't that incredible?

- [Felder] It takes water five times as long just to boil.

- And think of the mess and everything else, and you're doing this all in one pan, and you've got it all ready.

So anyhow, as we were talking though, it's amazing, I appreciate so much having the fresh herbs and everything from you, cause this dish, it's really ironic of all things that you brought the perfect herbs.

- You know and so talk about fresh, not just homegrown, but I drove it up here in the back of my truck.

- I know, I mean it doesn't get any fresher.

- And not only that, it's not only organic but I drive so fast I don't have any insects on it.

(both laughing) - All right one quick motion, one quick motion.

Now that's it.

I don't wanna overcook them and we're gonna put 'em on this side of the plate.

- Look at that.

- Isn't that incredible?

And I mean, it really is that easy and some people like 'em just like this without the sauce but we went to all the trouble the whole idea is- - You're not gonna cover up that beautiful parsley with marinara sauce are you?

- Oh, no way!

- Okay, okay.

Oh okay.

- No way.

No, let me tell you, we are gonna be very diplomatic.

We would not cover that beautiful parsley of yours up.

Look how pretty that came out.

- [Felder] Look at that, look at that.

- [Rob] So that what you end up having is just the perfect blending with all those fresh herbs.

- [Fleder] Yeah.

- And then all I do to take it is put a little bit of fresh-grated Parmesan.

- [Felder] To step it up a little.

- [Rob] Yeah just like you would if it was a regular pasta dish, you know?

- Yeah.

- And I mean I think with that, tell me that is not an incredible, beautiful, tasty, healthy meal.

- Yeah.

- And we did it, that's real time.

And using your, I mean, I can smell the aroma of the basil.

That's the one that hits me the most and I can smell the oregano.

- Yeah and I smell it when I drive down the road.

It's so easy to grow herbs in any kind of container.

And I do it in the back of the truck to show, if I can do that, anybody can grow herbs anywhere.

- At their house or in an urban setting.

- And Rebecca was talking about how healthy it is.

There's also healthy about feeling good about growing it yourself.

- [Rob] There's no doubt.

- [Felder] There's mental health.

- That's a really good point too.

- [Felder] Yeah.

- Cause I think a lot of people might miss the idea that hey, be proud of yourself for doing that and like I said, you've been the pioneer.

You really have and I mean.

- People have been growing stuff in boxes, and in things forever.

I just put it in the back of a pickup truck.

- Well I think that's what I remember you for.

- You did me proud.

- Well all right, I guess it looks like we're out of time and that's kind of sad but I think everything turned out great.

I want to thank Felder Rushing for joining us today.

If you wanna learn more about anything you've seen in this episode, then head over to mpbonline.org/fittoeat, and don't forget to follow and like our Facebook page.

Until next time, I'm your Host, Rob Stinson.

Eat well.

(happy music)