Lime, Miso and Vanilla Dressing & Eat to Defeat Cancer

I really should know better than to let so many days go between postings. That or I need to learn to cover less in the update posts. It actually took me over 4 hours on Friday to get the post up with all the photos and that was after I had written most of it the prior day. Yikes! That is why I haven’t been able to fit posts into my schedule recently. Even on a good day I spend an average of 2-3 hours writing a post, working up the nutrition information for recipes, taking then selecting and reducing photos and getting everything onto BlogSpot. When you wonder why I skip posting some days now you know why. It can sometimes be tough to work that much time into my schedule. I could always post something shorter and without as many pictures, recipe details and/or health info but how much fun would that be? ;-)

On a related note I have been toying with the idea of changing what I include in my posts every day. If any of you have any suggestions regarding things/topics you would like me to cover I would love to know what is on your mind. Before I make any drastic changes I will post what I am thinking about and ask you for feedback. I want to the blog to continue to be something that is useful for all of you that take the time to read.

Our food Friday, Saturday and Sunday was not terribly exciting. We had our usual oatmeal and green smoothies for breakfast. Dan had to go downtown to his office on Saturday making food that day a bit dull. However I did make one salad dressing on Sunday that everyone enjoyed so I wanted to share that with you.

Dan remembered the lime and vanilla dressing that I had made before and asked me to make that again. When I looked it up it contained olive oil. You know that I wasn’t going to use oil now so I had to decide what to include to emulsify the dressing. I decided to try white miso and that worked well. Here is what I did:

Lime, Vanilla and Miso Salad Dressing
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 organic lime, zested and juiced
1 teaspoon white miso
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract (not the imitation stuff)

Directions:

Combine everything and whisk until the miso is broken up. No one wants to bite down on a big chunk of miso. ;-) Refrigerate the dressing in a closed container until needed.

I used this dressing on a salad of mesclun, Asian pear, blackberries and slivered almonds and the salad disappeared.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 10.36
Calories From Fat (10%) - 1.02

Total Fat - 0.12g
Saturated Fat - 0.02g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 53.85mg
Potassium - 23.27mg
Total Carbohydrates-  2.45g
Fiber - 0.7g
Sugar-  0.44g
Protein - 0.31g

Comments:

This is a great dressing to use on a salad with fruit. You will be seeing this turn on the blog again since everyone enjoyed it so much.

The other dish that I made for lunch on Sunday was roasted veggies (carrots, onion, mushrooms) that I tossed in lemon juice and zest immediately after roasting. Then I added zatar (a Middle Eastern spice blend of thyme and sesame seeds) and sumac (another Middle Eastern spice). I placed the veggies on top of quinoa.

Sunday night we needed to have dinner but I didn’t have any leftovers in the refrigerator. For dinner I made a batch of queso (this time with nutritional yeast, cumin and chili powder added) and used that to top quinoa and a lot of mixed veggies. I wanted to mention that because the sauce is very useful and one of my go to items when I need something quick. Without the nutritional yeast this sauce has also been popular with omnivores.

Golden Raisins:

Jenny asked me what brand of golden raisins I buy and that is pictured above front and back. I like theses because they are organic and only contain raisins no preservatives or other chemicals.

TEDx Manhattan:

Since Dan was downtown working on Saturday I had a chance to watch most of the TEDx program that was streaming live. Dr. William Li who I tuned in to see was a two part program. The first part was a repeat of this talk. The second part was a brief follow up to his talk. He mentioned his website “Eat to Defeat” Cancer and talked about some of the new science. You can join his site for free, I did, and get access to the list of foods that result in anti-angiogenesis (stopping the blood supply to cancer).

Dr. William Li was on the Dr. Oz show a few weeks ago and talked about eating hard cheese for the vitamin K2 it contains. You will not be surprised to know I did a little research and found out that there is a vegan item with more K2 than hard cheese. The only problem is that item is natto. I happen to have natto in the refrigerator but have not been brave enough to eat it yet. If any of you have any tips on how to make it less “gooey and gelatinous” I would love to hear your suggestions. ;-)

Happy thoughts:

I have many things to be happy about today. Here are my happy thoughts now:

• Woo hoo! The 8 nights of the Great Health Debate have ended. It was interesting to hear numerous people discuss health and I took a lot of notes and have many things to research. However it is also nice to have all that time back. I am looking forward to a more leisurely schedule this week.

• Sunday was the 24th anniversary of the day Dan and I met. I realized that we have now been together more than half my life. In one respective it feels like we couldn’t have together that long and in another it seems like we have been together forever. It is so nice to be married to my best friend.  :-)

• Our weather today (Monday) was glorious! It was wonderful to reach 65 early in the afternoon. Too bad it was crazy windy but the temperature was great. I loved having the windows open for a while today to air out the house. Nothing smells better than fresh air. ;-)

• I am really looking forward to spring now after the heat wave we had today. Spring is my favorite season! I can’t wait for my azaleas to bloom again. I am also looking forward to getting outside everyday to get fresh air, play in the garden, and ride my bike. Ahhhh spring is great I can’t wait for it to arrive.

Signing out:

It is time for me to log out so I can unwind. Tomorrow I have an appointment but hope that won’t keep me from getting a post up. I hope Valentine’s Day was good for you. Talk to you soon, hopefully tomorrow.