I have been thinking today was Monday all day long. Obviously Dan went back to work today and I have gone back to my schedule, well sort of. Yesterday I discovered that there were quite a few exercise DVDs available instantly through Netflix. I have been enjoying finding ones to add to the instant queue. My goal is to try two new exercise DVDs each day until I get through them all. I love trying out new exercise DVDs. At the moment I am working my way through the Pilates DVDs.
In addition to playing on the computer I have also spent a lot of time on the phone today chatting with girlfriends. Sometimes there really is nothing better. We are going to meet my friend Deirdre for dinner again on Friday. She has such a wonderful sense of humor I can’t wait to see her.
Today Dan and I had leftovers for lunch, nothing new. We ate the end of the almond feta so I needed to make another nut cheese or seed pate. Today I decided to make a sunflower pate to mix things up. Today I wanted to make one that reminded me of seafood. Nut and seed pates are very easy to make and this one is no exception. Here is what I did:
Sunflower Pate
approximately 24 tablespoons
Ingredients:
I cup raw sunflower seeds, soaked at least 4 hours in plenty of water, then drained well
1 cup raw red bell pepper, diced
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely minced
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
½ teaspoons sweet paprika
¼ teaspoon cumin seed
¼ - ½ teaspoon dry mustard, depending on how much “zip” you want
¼ teaspoon fennel seed
1 pinch celery seed
black pepper, to taste
dulse granules (or sea salt), to taste
Directions:
Combine everything in your food processor and puree until completely smooth. You will need to stop the processor a few times to scrape the side of the bowl. Refrigerate and serve cold. Because this spread includes raw veggies it will not last as long in the refrigerator as nut cheese made without veggies. It normally lasts for us 4 or 5 days.
Nutritional Information:
Amount Per Serving
Calories - 35.91
Calories From Fat (71%) - 25.38
Total Fat - 3.03g
Saturated Fat- 0.26g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 1.68mg
Potassium - 50.98mg
Total Carbohydrates - 1.5g
Fiber - 0.62g
Sugar - 0.32g
Protein - 1.27g
Comments:
The flavor of this dish comes from the spices. If you don’t have all these herbs and spices use Old Bay to taste instead. This smooth pate with a nice hint of heat in the background (I used the ½ teaspoon of dry mustard). The mouth feel is much lighter and less fatty than the almond feta cheese. If you are new to nut and seed pates I recommend you start with the recipes that are denser, like the almond feta.
For those of you that are doing the 6 week "Eat to Live" program the 1 ounce of nuts or seeds seems to come out to be about 18 grams of fat. So you could have 6 tablespoons (or 1/3 cup) of this pate as you daily nut and seed allowance. Here is an interesting chart I saw today that you may find helpful. It shows you how many nuts are in one ounce.
Unrelated note:
Tonight for dinner we had a simple salad topped with salsa and sunflower seed pate. Nothing too exciting at our house for dinner, just a simple veggie salad. There was a fruit smoothie to go with that as well as fresh veggie and fruit juice and powdered green drink.
Courtney has introduced me to a new way to get raw cruciferous veggies into our diet. I want to play around with the specifics a little. But I will get that recipe ready to post this week. I think you will all be amazed, I know I was. Thanks for sharing Courtney! This is going to come in so handy this summer.
I don’t know how many of you saw this article at the NYT website but it annoyed me so I thought I would share. Some silly woman was eating 2-3 pounds of raw bok choy a day and ended causing low thyroid function due to an overdose of glucosinolates. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the doctor indicates that raw veggies should be eaten in moderation. Really? Silly me, I thought raw veggies were good for us. Who knew we should eat them in moderation. Do Americans really need another excuse not to eat their veggies? I don’t think they do. My take on this article is that we should all vary our diet and not eat an enormous quantity of anything. But that doesn’t mean that veggies are harmful. Sorry for the rant, this just irritated me. I am not a big fan of sensationalism.
I hope you are all having a good day. Only 3 days until the weekend. Don’t you just love these short weeks? I know I do. Talk to you all later.
2-3 pounds of bok choy daily? What an extraordinarily odd thing to do!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm all for bok choy in moderation! The pate sounds delicious.
Rose,
ReplyDeleteI found it odd that someone would eat that much raw bok choy a day myself. Not to mention that is a lot of chewing.
Today I was in a raw sunflower seed mood. I like that sunflower seeds are high in plant phytosterols too. ;-)
talk to you later,
Ali
i feel like i should apologize for "silly women" ...since i would do something like that...im off to read that article.ttyl Alicia
ReplyDeleteMichelle,
ReplyDeleteThat is an enormous amount of bok choy. I think it would be tough to eat that much everyday. At least it would for me. Far too much chewing in my book. ;-)
talk to you later,
Ali
oh and i was just thinking that i wanted to try a sun seed cheese, thanks for this post. i have been using cshews since i love them so much for all the cheese things i was making. i wanted to make something using ingredients that were a little less expensive:)
ReplyDeleteMichelle,
ReplyDeleteYou can also combine soaked sunflowers with other nuts or seeds. I like them added to macadamia nuts and turned into cheese too.
ttyl,
Ali
ok im REALLY sorry, but its me again, i went and read the article and to be fair he did say ALL things in moderation, when people try to cure themselves through diet they can go to far, i know i have. and i know others that have also and ended up hurting themselves.he did say that if the bok choy was cooked she probably wouldnt have had that problem, i dont agree with that.
ReplyDeleteMichelle,
ReplyDeleteI can just see some veggie hater using that statement of moderation as a reason not to eat many veggies. There are very few people (other than that woman) that would do that. Who eats the same food at that level every day for months? Honestly if veggies were dangerous if eaten in large amounts I would be dead.
ttyl,
Ali
No kidding, with all that chewing she must have developed a nice sagittal crest, which may, or may not have been of some consolation! :)
ReplyDeleteRose,
ReplyDeleteSince you have done E2L I know you can envision how much 2 - 3 pounds of raw bok choy actually is. I don't know that I eat 2 pounds of various raw veggies in the form of salad every day. I must say she was determined, though a little misguided.
I think that implying that people should eat raw veggies moderately is wrong for many reasons. Don't eat one food all day everyday would have been a much better message! Reading other vegan food blogs it seems that lots of people don't eat many raw veggies each day. Can you imagine what the typical omni intake of raw veggies is?
talk to you later,
Ali
Your seed dip (the word pate scares me because I never liked the conventional ones) looks great. However I'm a little concerned that one ounce of nuts/seeds has about 18 grams of fat--that's a lot! Will you please repeat how you calculate the optimal fat intake for you and your husband? I think it was 10% of total calories...
ReplyDeleteLaura,
ReplyDeleteIn terms of fat percentage we try to consume approximately 10% of our total calories from fat (nuts, seeds and avocado) based on the recommendations in "Life Over Cancer". This is less than E2L since he allows a maximum of 1 ounce of nuts (approx 180 calories) plus 1 tablespoon ground flax (approx 60 calories) plus 2 ounces avocado (approx 95 calories) per day.
I hope that helps,
Ali
I have a ton of sunflower seeds. I need to try this out. I love trying out new workout DVDs too and love that I can get some via Netflix. OnDemand has been great for viewing new workouts for free too.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I've been remiss in adding up our fat content lately. It looks like my husband gets about 12g fat (110 cals) at breakfast (cereal/flax/almond milk) and another 5g (45 cals) at lunch (soy yogurt and whatever's on his sandwich). Let's call it 160 cals. If he needs 2300 cals per day, 230 of fat, that only leaves him 70 fat cals for dinner (veggies, grains, & beans). I've been encouraging a small handful of nuts in the evening, but now I think that's too much. Maybe I'll just start making some sauces and dressings with a LITTLE bit of nuts/seeds instead.
ReplyDeleteHeather,
ReplyDeleteI knew you would love the idea of using Netflix for exercise DVDs. There are more available instantly than I expected. But also others that you can only get through the mail. It will take me a while to get through all the instant ones.
You can also make spreads with soaked sunflower seeds and nuts to get a spread that is richer. They have a very neutral flavor.
talk to you later,
Ali
Laura,
ReplyDeleteWe also put flaxseed in our breakfast every morning. It sounds you like aren't too far off in total. Though I really like the nut sauces. Have you tried the Asian Walnut dressing yet? That one is particularly useful I think. I drizzle it over lightly steamed veggies or raw veggies. It seems to work with everything that I have tried it with so far. ;-)
talk to you later,
Ali
Alicia, I read about that woman too. My first thought was how ridiculous it was to eat one food all the time, and my second was that it would give the veggie haters another excuse to avoid eating veg.
ReplyDeleteThen our local news had a story about too much exercising - they called it overtraining syndrome- and how too much exercise is bad for you. Another excuse for folks not to exercise.
Some days the media really grates on my nerves.
Janet,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with your assessment of the media. As we all know Americans eat too many raw veggies and exercise too much. What the .... ?!? *sigh*
talk to you later,
Ali
"I must say she was determined"
ReplyDeletehahah that really made me lol you are so funny.
and
"....nice sagittal crest"
i almost died
I have been obsessed with nut spreads lately! AND cucumbers! Mmmmm
ReplyDeleteTasha,
ReplyDeleteI have been making a lot of nut and seed spreads lately too. For some reason I like them more than the actual nut. Not that I know why.
Alicia
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteRose is quite funny isn't she? She makes me giggle too.
Ali