Middle Eastern Seasoned Cucumber Salad with Chickpeas, Tomatoes Red Onions and Olives

Breakfast:

No surprise we had a bowl of oatmeal Sunday morning for breakfast. This time the oatmeal included: mixed berries, dried apricots, cinnamon, powdered ginger, walnuts, and freshly ground flaxseed. I added the apricots for color and chew. Dan’s oatmeal was the same but had more of everything.

Lunch:

Lunch with my parents was a tricky one list always. I never know what to make that they will like but that I consider healthy enough. Meals with my parents are always a balancing act. Since I couldn’t think of anything today I went back to soup.

I had picked up this package of spelt with dried veggies before Christmas. Today I added leeks, garlic, thinly sliced crimini mushrooms, thinly sliced carrot, thyme, sweet paprika, dill, celery seed and pepper. Surprisingly everyone agreed they prefer spelt to barley. Now I need to figure out where I bought this so I can get more.

To accompany the soup I made a quick marinated salad. This is a super fast salad to put together but it needs time to marinate in the refrigerator to allow the flavors to be absorbed. Here is what I did:

Middle Eastern Seasoned Cucumber Salad with Chickpeas, Tomatoes, Red Onions, and Olives
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 English cucumber sliced very thinly on a mandoline
¼ red onion, sliced thinly on a mandoline
6 olives, very thinly sliced
approximately 1 cup cherry tomatoes cut into quarters
approximately 1 cup cooked chickpeas, well drained
zatar, to taste (I used two big pinches or about ½ teaspoon)
sumac, to taste (add this if your zatar doesn’t include sumac I used approximately ¼ teaspoon)
red wine vinegar, to taste (I used about 2 tablespoons)
stevia, to taste (I used 1 small scoop that comes in the container)
freshly ground black pepper, to taste (I used about ¼ teaspoon)
¼ cup fresh parsley, minced
1 head romaine, shredded

Directions:

This is a salad I tossed together an hour before dinner. I didn’t plan to post the recipe but since everyone loved I thought I should. Sorry the amounts are approximate. Before I had the blog I never measured anything and I fall back into that habit when I don’t expect to post the details of a recipe. Mea culpa. ;-)

To make this salad combine everything except the romaine and parsley, toss to combine, and refrigerate for an hour. You want the onions to mellow and the cucumber to absorb the flavor. Add the parsley to the veggies just before serving and toss.

To serve, top the romaine with the marinated veg salad.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 125.48
Calories From Fat (16%) - 19.52

Total Fat - 2.36g
Saturated Fat - 0.29g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 71.34mg
Potassium - 728.27mg
Total Carbohydrates - 22.45g
Fiber - 7.68g
Sugar - 5.12g
Protein - 6.61g

Comments:

I could eat mountains of this but I love salad and anything pickled. If you like pickled food you should give this a try. It has a lot of flavor and doesn’t taste like healthy food to me. Even my father proactively offered up that this salad “hit the spot” and I didn’t add any oil to his. I think that says it all since my father is not a healthy eater by any stretch of the imagination.

Sunday Evening:

We decided to take it easy Sunday night and spent a couple more hours watching season 6 of Criminal Minds. Can you tell it was a TV weekend? While we watched TV the soymilk maker took care of making another batch of non-dairy milk for tomorrow. Now that I have learned that I can pour the hulls off the top of the soybeans the job of making soymilk goes much faster. I also made a quick batch of walnut parmesan to have on hand in the refrigerator.

Since we were “busy” in front of the TV Sunday evening dinner was a very simple affair. I made a pot of quinoa. Like always I made more quinoa than was necessary for dinner leaving leftovers for another meal. For dinner I topped the quinoa with the red sauce and garbanzos from yesterday and heated it in the microwave. Then I topped the dish with fresh chopped spinach and walnut parmesan. The heat from the cooked dish lightly wilted the spinach.

Later in the evening Dan has his usual strawberry banana soft serve which I made with soymilk instead of water. Are you starting to notice how often Dan has this dessert? I think he has it at least 5 times a week. He really has a huge sweet tooth.

12 Super Foods Article:

Since I assume most of you don’t get the daily emails form caring.com I wanted to share this article. It contains a lot of interesting information. Nothing earth shattering but reinforcement is always good. If you like the article you may want to sign up for the emails. There is a nutrition or health article at least once a week and usually more often.

New 2010 Dietary Guidelines:

Just like the government to release the 2010 guidelines in 2011. Oh well, better late than never. *rolls eyes*

As expected they reduced the maximum sodium intake to 1,500mg for everyone. I wanted to point this out since most people consume more than that every day. If you eat processed food like veggie burgers, faux meat, commercial bread, canned tomatoes with salt, Asian food, canned soup, bottles sauces or condiments you are probably well over the 1,500mg. I was shocked when I initially started to track our sodium. Even though I made our food from scratch the liquid aminos, miso and tomatoes had us consuming more than 1,500mg of sodium on average.

The guidelines are also encouraging people to eat more whole food (plants) and less sugar, processed food and saturated fat. Woo hoo! *happy dance* It is nice to see things going in the right direction for a change. Maybe in 2015 they can take their recommendations a bit farther. However even a little progress in the right direction is a good thing.

If you want to read the full set of dietary guidelines, all 112 pages they can be found here.

Happy thoughts:

What a good weekend we had. Here are my happy thoughts:

• There is nothing like an entire weekend with my hubby to make me happy. Even when we are just hanging out at home, or at our second home (the restaurant) we always have a great time together.

• I had a very nice evening with everyone at dinner on Saturday. For those of you that are trying to figure out how we got to know people at the restaurant so well it is very simple actually. Since I get a lot of email about that I will write about in a future post, maybe tomorrow assuming it doesn’t slip my mind. ;-)

• I was able to reschedule my dental appointments so that they are back to back tomorrow. Woo hoo? LOL! I need to see both the dentist (to have old fillings removed and replaced) and the hygienist. My appointments were tomorrow and Wednesday but now they are both tomorrow. Assuming everyone can get downtown (they are predicting an ice storm) I am happy to knock those visits out at one time.

• As I type this I am using my little halogen/infrared/convection oven to roast a big winter squash which I cut into 1/8’ths. The new countertop oven is getting a lot more use than I expected it to. I like that is uses less power and cooks quicker. However I love that it doesn’t generate any VOC’s .

• This morning I woke up with a nagging headache. The pain isn’t terrible it is enough to slow me down. I am thankful to have the ability to take it easy when I am feeling less than 100%.

• I am also thankful to have Masi to as part of the family. When he comes to get me in the morning to remind me to turn the electric blanket on in the bed I think it is the cutest thing. Spoiled? Well of course but I wouldn’t have him any other way. ;-)

Signing out:

Time for me to log off the computer otherwise I won't get anything done at home today. Like always I have a backlog of things to do after spending the weekend with my sweetie.

I hope you are having a great start to the week. If you are in one of the cities that are expecting ice this week please be careful. I have two dental appointments tomorrow and hope the weather forecast of ice turns out to be a bust. *fingers crossed*

Talk to you again tomorrow.

Winter Wonderland and My New Kitchen Toy Reviewed

Wow did we get hit with snow Wednesday evening. It was the craziest weather I have seen in a long time. Thunder and lightning during a snow storm is wrong and creepy. It came down so quickly that many people abandoned their cars on the expressway (83 North) heading out of town and walked out. However Thursday morning we were greeted with a beautiful winter wonderland effect of a foot of wet snow sticking to everything. It is gorgeous but I didn’t have to drive in it so that is easier for me to say than those who did have to come home in it. I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Our breakfast Thursday morning contained: oatmeal, wild blueberries, cinnamon, powdered ginger, cardamom, freshly ground flaxseed, and walnuts. I made mine with water and Dan’s with soymilk.

My lunch was okara sliders I dipped in a quick sauce of salsa and bbq. I liked the sauce because it was less sweet than bbq but also had chunks of tomatoes and more heat. I am not sure what possessed me to combine them but I liked the way it turned out.

The first afternoon snack of the day was a navel orange and two Brazil nuts (for the selenium).

My second snack was frozen grapes and walnuts. In case you hadn’t noticed walnuts are my nuts of choice, other than my two daily Brazil nuts for the selenium. I tend to grab walnuts because they have the best omega 3 to omega 6 ratios of the tree nuts.

For some reason I was hungry today and my third snack was a small bowl of the curried red lentil and tomato soup with a few sliced almonds on top

New Sharper Image Oven:

I had not planned dinner tonight so I decided to make something simple and try out the halogen, convection and infrared oven I ordered last week. Thursday night seemed like a good time to try out the oven. I used it make BBQ tofu since I knew how long that should take in the oven. Here are the pros and cons of the oven:

Pros:

• It preheats very quickly; it took under 10 minutes to reach 350 degrees which is much quicker than my stove. It is also easy to tell when it has reached temperature because the light goes out.

• In 20 minutes the tofu was firm and chewy and that would take 45 minutes in my convection oven

• It has a self clean feature that worked extremely well. You put two inches of water in the base and a small amount of dish liquid and set it to self clean. I was skeptical this would work but it did very well. The steam generated even softened the BBQ sauce on the lid making it easy to wipe off with a damp towel.

• It draws no more power than my Vitamix and uses much less than my oven.

• No VOCs were generated by this machine. I had an air quality monitor set up with two foot of the machine to see what would happen. This is huge for me since I know the oven sets off the air quality monitor every time.

Cons:

• Takes up a large footprint on the counter when not in use. Additionally it requires space on either side so you have somewhere to set the lid down when flipping or removing the food.

• The light coming off and on attracted the cats which wasn’t good since the exterior gets hot. I will have to work on how to keep the felines away from it when it is on. Hopefully they will get used to it and stop being attracted to the light going off and on.

Overall, I am happy with the purchase. If you are someone who uses a toaster oven for a small meal this takes up about the same amount of room and is faster.

Dinner was the BBQ tofu from the little oven and frozen broccoli that I cooked until lightly tender and tossed with tomato and raisin pesto and topped with sliced almonds for crunch.

Carrageenan:

Jenny asked how dangerous carrageenan was in a prior post. I had read years ago that it was linked to cancer in lab animals and then eliminated it from our diet. When you read your ingredient lists I think you will be surprised how often this shows up in processed food, particularly non-dairy beverages, cheezes and frozen desserts. It is also called Irish moss and is used often in raw food. In case any of you wanted to read more on this here is what Dr. Weil has to say about carrageenan.

Vitamin Water and Soda with Vitamins:

These products make me crazy! Why would people what to get their artificial vitamins in water or soda? Does anyone actually think these are natural sources of vitamins? Seriously they are no different than taking a multivitamin only most people that drink them seem to do both as though more artificial vitamins are better than less. *sigh*

Studies are now showing that getting your vitamins from artificial sources (like supplements or beverages) does not have a positive impact on health and in some case can be harmful. If you want to do something healthy eat more fresh whole food because that contains natural vitamins that your body knows how to process and use. There really is no magic bullet you can use to overcome living a less than healthy life.

Sorry for the rant but whenever I see commercials for this junk I get annoyed. As you can guess I just saw that vitamin water is on sale at Whole Foods and it set me off. ;-) *ugh*

Making Dietary Changes Part 2:

Back to this section I started on January 15 with the idea of starting your morning with a healthy breakfast. I wanted to give you plenty of time to work that in before introducing another idea. After writing about carrageenan and vitamin water I think the next idea has to be to reduce the intake of processed food. I can almost hear the collective groaning as I type this. I know it isn’t the easiest thing to do but it will have a huge impact on your health. Don’t believe me? Pull something out of your refrigerator or pantry and read the ingredient list. I will almost guarantee it you includes some chemical word that you can’t pronounce and don’t know that it means (unless you are a chemist). I am not a medical professional but it can’t be good to ingest a chemical cocktail every day. Humans weren’t designed to consume artificial food.

Corporate America has taken something natural, food, and turned it into “food-like substances”. It looks like food, it smells like food but it has been chemically altered making it not natural. When we initially gave up processed food it was difficult mostly because I needed to make more things rather than buying them. However once you get into the habit it really isn’t that difficult. Also now when I take a bite or sip of something processed it takes like the chemical concoction that it is. It never tasted like that to me before, I suppose my taste buds were used to it. But now processed food tastes vile to me.

I would suggest you start by removing the processed food you consume the most and substitute something natural for it. If you are huge diet soda drinker switch to water or tea. If you eat a lot of processed faux meat switch to beans and tofu or learn to make your own veggie burgers or seitan. By removing the thing you consume the most you will have the biggest impact on your health.

Happy Thoughts:

With all the snow we had I spent Thursday at home as you might have guessed. It was a good a day for me and here is what I am thankful for today:

• Thursday was a mostly me type of day. Sometimes you need to pamper yourself to recharge your batteries. I had a relaxing day which included exercising, listening to instrumental jazz, talking on the phone with friends, and a nice long soak in a hot bath with sea salt and essential oils. Doesn’t it just sound like heaven? ;-)

• I loved playing with my new kitchen gadget. I am totally a gadget type of girl so anytime I get a new toy I am in heaven. I am very pleased by how well it worked and love the self clean feature which was a very pleasant surprise.

• I was grateful that Dan made it to work and back this week safely and without incident. There were many travel horror stories which made me very thankful he wasn’t one of them.

• It was also wonderful to be one of the homes that didn’t lose power in the storm. I heard Friday morning that 80,000 in DC are still without power. It made me appreciate that ours very rarely goes out.

• Dan liked the combination of BBQ and salsa that I sent in his lunch for dipping his okara and oat sliders into. This is probably our new favorite sauce of the moment. I love coming up with new sauce ideas especially one that is super quick like this one. *happy dance*

Signing out:

Friday was a busy day but also a good one. Dan even ended up coming home from work earlier than usual. We spent a nice relaxing evening catching up on season 6 of "Criminal Minds" that we had recorded but hadn’t watched. It was a good way to spend the evening.

Talk to you again tomorrow. I hope you are having a great start to the weekend.

Pressure Cooker Experiment Results

Sorry for the lack of post on Wednesday. Blogger was acting up and though the post was written I couldn’t upload it. That means there will be two posts today with the second one later today.

Tuesday:

This week the gym is still on a somewhat wonky schedule and wasn’t scheduled to open until 11am on Tuesday. Needless to say there was no morning at the gym for us. Since Dan had gotten home late from work last night we also got into bed late which means we slept in a little.

Dan had his usual green smoothie for breakfast with: kale, frozen bananas, walnuts, cinnamon, powdered ginger, stevia to taste and water to process.

Since I was exercising later at home I started my morning with green tea with peach and a little ascorbate C to increase the bioavailability of the EGCG. Then I did some knee friendly cardio and strength training on the TRX.

My late breakfast/early lunch was two small russet potatoes topped with some of the favas and mushrooms from yesterday, some fresh parsley and a splash of red wine vinegar. Changing the spud, acid and adding fresh herbs made it taste like a different dish. I love doing things like that with leftovers.

For a snack I had my recent usual orange and two Brazil nuts.

Once I stopped cooking with oil I had to give up pressure cooking my beans. For those that don’t own a pressure cooker you should know that oil is required to keep the beans from foaming and clogging the pressure release valve. Some types of beans foam more than others and lima beans are one that foam a lot. Tuesday I knew I needed to make more beans and was lamenting not being able to use my pressure cooker when I had an idea. What if I refrigerate the cooked beans to make it easy to remove the cold hard oil which would rise to the top? It sounded like a decent plan to me. Since I had used this technique for years with sauces and soups with meat I thought it would work but didn’t know how well. Today I decided to try that experiment and here is what I did:

Pressure Cooked Lima Beans
Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 pound large lima beans
6 cups water
2 tablespoons olive oil (to prevent beans from foaming and clogging the pressure release valve)
1 head of garlic, smashed and peeled
1 large red onion, peeled and diced
2 bay leaves

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in your 6 quart pressure cooker. After the garlic and onions have sat for 10 minutes lock the lid on the pressure cooker and turn the heat to high. When the cooker has reached pressure lower the heat as far as you can while still maintaining high pressure and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the pressure to reduce naturally which took 20 minutes for me. Now cool the beans and refrigerate until cold. This will cause the oil to rise to the surface making it easier to remove. I was able to remove 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of oil so the nutritional stats reflect only the 2 remaining teaspoons of oil.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 287.06
Calories From Fat (6%) - 18.24

Total Fat - 2.1g
Saturated Fat - 0.34g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 22.58mg
Potassium - 1336.02mg
Total Carbohydrates - 52.01g
Fiber - 14.86g
Sugar - 6.5g
Protein - 16.91g

Comments:

The beans were meltingly tender and had a nice subtle flavor. They texture and flavor reminded me of potatoes. I think they would be good drained and pureed like potatoes, or with potatoes. I will be trying that sometime in the future (assuming I remember that is).

What I wasn’t thrilled with was the amount of oil that was left. I was hoping I could remove more of it than I actually did. I may try to make beans one more time to see if I can remove more fat. I could always place the cooked beans in a colander and give them a quick rinse and drain. I may try that next time. I was actually surprised that I didn’t like the texture of the oil that was left on the beans. I suspect that is to be expected after eating food without oil for so long. Oh well, I had to give it a try right? At least the flavor and texture were both good.

Since I had the pressure cooking out I decided to break out of my usual habits and make a veggie dish. I looked up the cooking time on cabbage and used that to decide how long to cook the dish. This is a combination of my prior recipes for sweet and sour cabbage and caponata. Here is what I did:

Sweet and Sour Cabbage in the style of Caponata
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 large red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1 head of garlic, smashed and peeled
½ head green cabbage, thinly sliced (about 8 cups)
32 ounces canned tomatoes (no salt) or 2 – 15 ounce cans
¼ cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons water
2 scoops (individual serving size) stevia, or to taste
1 teaspoon fennel seed
freshly ground black pepper (maybe ¼ teaspoon), to taste
½ cup golden raisins
Hot crushed peppers (wet hots), to taste (I used about 2 tablespoons because I wanted a subtle heat)

Directions:

Allow onions and garlic to stand for 10 minutes before heating.

In the pot place onions, garlic, cabbage, tomatoes, vinegar, water, stevia, fennel seed, pepper and golden raisins (in that order, don’t stir) and clap on the lid. Bring to high pressure and cook for 3 minutes.

Place the cooker under cold running water to reduce the pressure quickly. Remove the lid away from you to avoid being burned by the hot steam and taste for tenderness. If the cabbage is too firm cook for a few minutes on the stove top not under pressure. Now add the hot crushed peppers to taste.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 103.89
Calories From Fat (5%) - 5.19

Total Fat - 0.62g
Saturated Fat - 0.09g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 25.82mg
Potassium - 680.81mg
Total Carbohydrates - 24.39g
Fiber - 4.73g
Sugar - 11.28g
Protein - 3.44g

Comments:

This dish actually blew me away. I loved the intensity of flavor and the little bit of heat and sweet. I will definitely be making this again. Tuesday night we had the sweet and sour cabbage over the beans and it was a very good combination. Wednesday morning I used the cold beans and cabbage to top a big green salad and that also worked. This dish would also be good on top of potatoes, polenta or brown rice. Can you tell how much I liked this? ;-)

After dinner Dan had his favorite dessert of strawberry banana soft serve. Now you know why we buy bananas 12 to 15 pounds at a time. We consume a crazy amount of frozen bananas in this house.

Dan ended up working late Tuesday night so it was another late evening at our house. Since my knee was a little wobbly on Monday we decided to sleep in Wednesday morning which meant we weren’t getting up early so staying up late worked out fine, other than getting us off schedule again. Both of us are night owls which makes the morning trips to the gym that much more odd.

I find that when I work out at home alone I tend to be more aware of my knee. Basically I am less gung ho in the cardio department and that is good when you are injured.

Thoughts on Fruit:

A few days ago Laura asked why I was trying to reduce Dan’s banana intake and was I concerned about fruit sugar. Sorry it took me a few days to get back to responding to this. Since I knew my answer wasn’t going to be brief I thought it was best to write about it in a post rather than in the comment.

Fruit is higher in natural sugar than vegetables and for that reason I try to no over consume it. However I also don’t avoid fruit because it does contain many micronutrients. Dark berries are my fruit of choice due to their micronutrient content particularly ellagic acid which may keep cancer from spreading, and causes cancer cells to die (apoptosis). This is the reason I was trying to reduce Dan’s banana consumption and increase the wild berries in his diet. Now you know why you see wild frozen berries turn up every other day for breakfast.

While I think fruit is a good choice I am not crazy about fruit juice. This has to do with the removal of the fiber and the impact of that on the Glycemic Index (GI)/Glycemic Load (GL). When you look at the chart in this link you can see for example that an orange has a GL of a whole orange is 5 but the GL for orange juice is 13. That may not seem like a big difference but if you drink it often it can be. My preference is to eat my fruit whole unless I am using it to sweeten vegetable juice or make a smoothie to make it palatable.  My tendency to avoid fruit juice goes back to my idea to eat food as unprocessed as possible. This idea has limits since I also want my food to be interesting and flavorful. But in general the closer to nature an item is the better it is for you.

Laura also asked about dates which you can see have a GL of 42 which happened to be the highest item on the list. I think dates in moderation are probably okay if you aren’t diabetic or concerned about blood glucose. When we have them I like to combine them with other foods (like nuts butter) which reduce the overall GL of the item being consumed.

I hope that gives you something to think about regarding fruit and gylcemic load.

Happy Thoughts:

Tuesday was another good day and here are my happy thoughts:

• I am thankful that my knee is recovering, though slowly, and that I seem to have learned not to push myself when I am injured. This is big for me since I have always been someone that pushed through the pain causing it to take me much longer to recover than I should.

• The weather has returned to normal. While it is our characteristic brown winter which tends to be a little blah at least our high temperature on Tuesday was a nice tepid 45 degrees. I appreciated being to walk to the store without needing to bundle up like an Eskimo.

• The cabbage dish I made was a real winner. I loved the flavor of that dish. I think I will be making more veggies using these same seasonings going forward.

• I have gotten a chance to cross more items off my to-do list this week which is very good. The holidays had me too far behind schedule but now I am gaining ground on the list if you know what I mean. ;-)

• The week is moving along very quickly for some reason. It doesn’t feel like it is Wednesday Thursday already. However it is nice to know we are more than half way to the weekend. I love my weekends because I get to spend more time with Dan.

• I am happy to have Blogger be cooperating with me this morning.

Signing out:

Time for me to wind down and get ready to turn in for the evening. I hope you are having a good week. Talk to you again tomorrow. Obviously I woke that last night before I found out Blogger wouldn’t let me upload my post. Dan has left for work and it is time for me to moving on my tasks since there are always things to do. I will have another post for you this evening, assuming Blogger doesn’t act up. I hope everyone has a great Thursday! Talk to you again soon.

Tuesday a Lentil Loaf Experiment and Xmas Menu

I must not slept have well Monday night because when the alarm went off at 5 I turned it off then crawled back into bed and feel fast asleep. Typically I turn the alarm off and get back in bed but get up 5 – 10 minutes later after I have started waking up. That plan didn’t work for me this Tuesday morning. Dan woke up after 7 and got me up. So much for our morning trip to the gym. *rolls eyes* I get annoyed with myself when I oversleep. However being realistic we both must have needed the rest or we would have woken up sooner rather than later. I had to remind myself that getting adequate rest is just as important as a healthy diet and exercise.

I made our usual green smoothies this morning for breakfast (frozen banana, kale, walnuts, ground flaxseeds, cinnamon, powdered ginger, and stevia to taste). Dan had his smoothie to go and I had mine at home.

I spent the morning exercising, catching up on my email and cleaning and organizing the kitchen.

For my mid morning snack I had my usual orange and two Brazil nuts (for selenium).

Lunch was another snack this time cucumber slices with salsa and white bean cheeze. I used the cucumbers as a stand in for crackers and spread the cheeze on top and finished with salsa.

My afternoon snack was a banana and reduced fat peanut butter.

Dinner was a lentil loaf, and spinach salad with sweet potato and grapes topped with a quick dressing of Dijon, red wine vinegar and stevia. The lentil loaf was a recipe I found here. I decided to make this because our friends that went to “Forks Over Knives” with us borrowed my book from Dr. Esselstyn and made the loaf over the weekend and liked it. I thought I should give it a try and looked for the recipe on line. The flavor was good but the loaf would not come out of the pan in one piece or even in two pieces. It actually didn’t stick together at all. I have tried so many lentil loaf recipes and they almost always do this. Clearly I need to make one up myself. Oh well at least it tasted good. I plan to use the leftovers in collard wraps to make “sandwiches”.

Black Rice:

My friend Sheila sent me a link to this article about black rice. If you haven’t tried black (or forbidden) rice I like it. I have seen the Lotus brand at Whole Foods and Wegman’s. However check your local Asian market as I have purchased a large (3 lb I think) bag of organic black rice there for much less.

Black rice, which is more purple hued when cooked, also contains anthocyanins like other purple/blue foods. If you are having difficulty consuming those every day maybe black rice would be good for you.

Removing Tea Stains from your Ceramics:

As you all know we drink a lot of tea in this house usually white or green. All that tea means ugly stains in my favorite mugs. Tuesday I decided to try something unorthodox to remove them since making a paste of baking soda didn’t work. Remember I mentioned buying denture tablets to clean my juicer? I thought they are supposed to remove stains from false teeth they should remove stains from my ceramics. The verdict? Much to my surprise it worked beautifully. The mugs are not sparkling white but in one application that are “almost” back to new. I added warm water from the tap and one tablet to each mug and allowed them to sit undisturbed for about 6 hours. I put them in a cabinet with a closed door to keep the cats out of them.

Christmas Menu:

I have finally had a little time to think about our Christmas menu. It is not finalized yet although I need to get that done today or tomorrow since I am running out of time. However at the moment here is what I am thinking of making, subject to change of course:

• lasagna (Italians love lasagna and it shows up for many national holidays)
• acorn squash stuffed with fruit (I am thinking apples, dried fruit and nuts or mostarda)
• cauliflower and millet mashed potatoes (maybe with a few white beans this time)
• sauerkraut with apples and onions
• spicy cranberry relish
• green salad possibly with roasted vegetables
• marinated veggie tray
• cranberry orange granita

The funny thing is when I looked at this typed out my thought was it wasn’t enough veggies. However when I looked again I realized that was ridiculous since it is nothing but veggies and fruit with a little tofu and pasta.

What are you making for the Christmas or are you going to be a guest and not a cook? Will your meal be 100% vegan or are you also serving omnivores?

Happy thoughts:

Tuesday was a little stressful but that was completely self-induced. I probably should stay focused on Christmas rather than adding other things to my to do list now. ;-) Here are my happy thoughts today:

• I am looking forward to another holiday season with Dan. We always have such wonderful holidays together. I am very thankful to be married to my best friend and to know how much I am loved.

• I am very thankful for my friend Louis. He has always been there when I needed him frequently before I even asked him for help. Thank you for being calm and putting things into perspective when I get too emotional. There have been many times you were the only reason I remained “somewhat” calm. Hugs!

• It is wonderful to know that I am ending 2010 more healthy than it started. I love being able to see positive change in my life year to year.

• My knee was acting up a bit again yesterday and this morning so today my cardio was on the exercise bike at home. I am thankful to have an option for elevating my heart rate at home that isn’t hard on my knee.

• I made good progress yesterday on my to do list and hope to get more crossed off today. I am thankful to have time to do the things that need to be done. Life isn’t perfect and I am always behind schedule lately it seems but it could always be worse. At least I have time to do things that many have to cram into their weekend.

• Luca Belle (our female feline) seems to be responding well to the prednisone that was prescribed for her asthma. We worry about our little fur babies when they aren’t 100%. I am very thankful to have a wonderful carrying veterinarian that treats my animals as though they are his own. I have known our vet longer than I have known Dan and can’t imagine anyone else taking care of my babies.

• It is very exciting that it still looks like we will have snow falling on Christmas this year. I am looking forward to my first White Christmas in probably 30 years. I love to sip hot chocolate and watch the snow fall. Seriously I am just a big kid.

Signing out:

I have many things on my to do list that I need to take care of today. Christmas is always a little hectic around here but it is worth it in the end.

I hope all of you are having a wonderful week and are looking forward to the holiday. Talk to you again tomorrow.

Getting Caught Up at Home and a Book Review

Wednesday:

I try to spend time with Dan when he isn't working and that means I was extremely behind on everything at home. I spent most of the day trying to get caught up but still remaining behind schedule which makes me nervous. I am not the type that likes to be behind. ;-) Thankfully I did make a dent in the my to-do list but I have a ton more to do today.

As usual we went to the gym early in the morning before Dan had to leave for work. The weather yesterday was frightful. It started out very warm (64) at 6 am but rainy and windy. While we were at the gym the power went out. All I can say is the gym is dark at 6:40 during a rain storm when the power goes out. Fortunately we were on the track when this happened and not on a machine or in the pool. We did a few more laps and headed out since it was close to time to leave anyway.  The emergency lights really weren't enough though they did keep us from running into things.

When we got home from the gym we heard that there were wind, severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings. There was a strong cold front moving through bringing this unpleasant weather just in front of it. Not two hours later the temperature had dropped to 44.  Brrrr.

Breakfast was a big bowl of oatmeal with wild blueberries, walnuts, ground flaxseeds, cinnamon and ginger. We have been switching between green smoothies and the wild blueberry oats in the morning for variety.

I have completely forgotten what I had for lunch, and I didn’t photograph it to remind myself. Darn it is rough getting old, LOL.   Clearly it was something I grabbed quickly from the refrigerator.

Dan had a bit of headache yesterday and ended up coming home about two hours earlier than usual (at 5:45). Needless to say I hadn’t even started dinner yet. Thankfully I had some eggplant “meatballs” in the freezer which I reheated in simple southern Italian sauce with thinly sliced carrot. I served this over baked sweet potatoes. I had intended to put this recipe on the blog until I realized this morning that I never put the eggplant meatballs on the blog. I thought for sure they were on here but I can’t find them so they must not be. Looks like I need to get my hands on some eggplant so I can make another batch for the freezer and share the recipe with you.  Sorry about that. 

Tomatoes and Prostate Cancer:

While the notion of eating more tomatoes reduces men’s probability of prostate cancer isn’t new but this $400,000 grant from NIH is. The bottom line is that the NIH wants to know what in tomatoes is the effective ingredient against prostate cancer.

Personally all this said to me is don’t forget to get more tomatoes into your man. I think this article about the grant was a good reminder to do just that. ;-)  Good thing we Italian Americans like our red sauce.  Don't forget that lycopene is fat soluble and needs to be eaten with a little fat to be absorbed. I add a few sliced almonds to our dish last night for healthy fat.

Book Review: Cucina Ebraica by Joyce Goldstein

This is the book I was reading during the morning at jury duty on Tuesday. It isn’t vegan but it is a fabulous cookbook. The book is part history lesson and part recipe book. I enjoyed reading about the history of Judaism in Italy. I picked up this book because the Jewish Ghetto has some of the best food in Rome. I was anxious to see the recipes in this book.

I read each recipe and can’t wait to make most of them. By the time I had finished the book it was on my Amazon list and you know I am trying not to buy too many books now. From looking at the chapter titles you can tell I will be veganizing a lot of recipes but that is so simple I don’t mind. What I like about books like this is that the recipes are the same old thing over and over again. How many recipes for hummus, baba ganoush or enchiladas do any of us really need?

The book is subdivided as follows:

• Introduction regarding Judaism in Italy and Kosher laws
• Antipasti (appetizers)
• Minestre (soups)
• Pasta e Riso (pasta and rice)
• Verdure (vegetables)
• Pesce (fish)
• Pollame (poultry)
• Carne (meat)
• Salsa (sauces)
• Dolci (desserts)

Some of the recipes that I will be veganizing and making healthy include:

Antipasti:

• chopped liver with egg Italian style  (I like a challenge)
• double crusted vegetable pie
• ricotta pizza with potato crust

Soup:

• pasta squares in broth with spinach
• broth with broccoli rabe and rice
• cream of artichoke soup
• Venetian white bean soup with pasta and beef sausage

Pasta and Rice:

• pumpkin filled ravioli with mostarda, raisins, sage and hazelnuts
• whole wheat bigoli (think fat spaghetti) with anchovies and garlic
• deep dish pasta pie with mushrooms and peas

Verdure:

• braised carrots with pine nuts and raisins
• spinach pudding
• spinach croquettes
• stuffed lettuce
• baked stuffed onions

I stopped listing recipes because the list was getting out of control. But I hope this gives you an idea of what is in the book. If you love Italian food like I do, and are comfortable veganizing recipes I highly recommend this book. I was very surprised to learn that many of my favorite Italian dishes have their roots in Jewish cooking.  If you aren't comfortable veganizing recipes you can always wait for me to do it and post them here.

Television:  "Celebrity Life Coach":

Did any of you see that crazy show “Celebrity Life Coach” on Bio at 10pm last night that followed a life coach trying to help actress Sean Young get over her “stuff”? I should have been in bed since we are getting up at 5:30 for the gym these days. However the show was so interesting I could not turn it off. I hope they rerun it because I missed part of it. Not that many of us have the same problems but the life coach had an interesting way of looking at things that I found refreshing. When Sean would complain about someone else her favorite phrase seemed to be “maybe it’s you”.  The part of the show I saw was refreshing and worth watching, IMO.  :-)

Happy Thoughts:

I love Thursday because it means Friday is almost here. As you all know weekends are my favorite time. Here are my happy thoughts today.

• We had a good workout his morning at the gym and got the December schedule so we can plan our workouts this month. ;-)  This is a bit of of a story I will explain soon.

• Dan may be taking Friday off. You know what that means. Shopping! We are talking about hitting an outlet mall to see what bargains we can find.  

• I was texting with a friend this morning who was watching the Foodnetwork and commented on something they were seeing. I had to change the channel and see what she was talking about. Now I am thankful that we don’t eat that way. I had the network on for about 3 hours and didn’t see anything that I would even consider veganizing. *bleh* :-p

• The rain has finally stopped and we have blue skies. Even though it is cold outside I prefer the light filled blue skies to the warm rain and wind.

Signing out:

As always I need to run and get some things accomplished around here. My plan is to try to get caught up on my to-do list so that I can go shopping tomorrow with a reasonably "clean" conscious. Wish me luck; I am going to need it.

I hope you are having a happy and healthy Thursday. Talk to you again soon, most likely tomorrow morning before we head out to shop.

Movie Review and Perimenopause Information:

(Massimo enjoying the fresh air)

Yesterday was one of those days that were generally chaotic and disorganized with a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I had quite a few things on my to-do list that remain unfinished. The weather was fairly cool and we had the windows open again yesterday. The felines were loving being in the window sills with their fuzz blowing.

Review Food, Inc.:

One of my friends called and was telling me about Food, Inc. assuming I had seen it. Since this was the second of my omnivore friends to rave about the movie I thought it was time to watch it. I had been avoiding the movie assuming it would have graphic scenes that I didn’t want to see and wouldn’t provide much new information. I was right on both counts. However the movie did a good job of coalescing disparate but related information into an interesting cohesive film.

One fact that I had not heard before was the connection of GMO soy with the weed killer Round Up. According to the film soy was genetically modified so that the field could be sprayed with round up to kill the weeds but not affect the soy. If this is true that is why GMO soy should be avoided. According to Monsanto’s own website they call their soy “Round Up ready soybean technology”. Sounds like the film got it right. *sigh*

For those of you that buy meat analogs many of them contain GMO soy and worse yet GMO soy protein isolate. I would caution you to do your own research. I won’t eat any of those products anymore for health reasons. Now knowing they contain Round Up makes it even more unpalatable for me.

Overall it was a good film and one I would encourage everyone to watch. There are some scenes that caused me to turn away but I think the information was worth the discomfort. If you have Netflix streaming that is how I watched up. But I have also seen the movie at our local library branch.

Perimenopause:

Men should feel free to skip this section. Since I have been doing a bit of research on this recently (for obvious reasons) and wanted to share what I have learned.

I should start this by saying that for years I thought PMS was a vast female conspiracy to have an excuse for being moody. However I changed my mind on this in my late 30’s when I started to experience PMS.  Perimenopause is a little like PMS, only much worse. From what I have read it starts sooner for women that eat a healthy vegan diet. Supposedly it is less intense for these women as well. If this is true change your diet now because it isn’t good at the level I am experiencing I can not imagine it being worse. Some of the things that I have happen so far are: insomnia, vast mood swings, forgetfulness, and abdominal bloating. I have missed the hot flashes and night sweats thus far thankfully. According to what I have been reading these symptoms could last anywhere from 2 to 10 years. Yay? Clearly I need to figure out how to deal with this since it will be with me for a while. *rolls eyes*

From what I have been reading the drop in estrogen is less dramatic for those women that abstain from meat and dairy making the symptoms less severe. Additionally entering perimenopause earlier is associated with a reduction in the overall risk of breast cancer for the same reason that having child has that association. The fewer monthly cycles you have the better.

I have also read that consuming soy helps to relieve the symptoms by adding the weaker phytoestrogens to your body which is producing less of its own estrogen. I have been adding a couple of tablespoons of dry roasted edamame each time I have my daily green tea (5 or 6 times per day). This is a bit of twofer since consuming soy (not soy milk with interferes) with green tea has a synergistic effect. I also plan to add more tempeh, tofu and fresh/frozen edamame for the same reason. My goal is to get two servings of soy per day with my preference being whole soy. I think it is too soon to say if the soy is helping or not. But I will keep you posted on how this goes for me.

I have also read that black cohosh and valerian can help with the symptoms. I have not tried either of those but if you are experiencing symptoms you may want to do a little research on them yourself. Prevention had this article on perimenopause on their daily email today. I thought some of you might want to check it out.

For now the worst part of this seems to be the trouble sleeping. I find it difficult to function when I am constantly tired. If any of you are going through this and have any suggestions I would love to hear them as I am sure others would as well. ;-)  Please feel free to share what you have learned or experienced.

My food since the last post:

For breakfast yesterday I made Dan his usual oatmeal with mixed frozen berries, cinnamon, ginger, ground flaxseeds and walnuts. I cooked what was left in the oatmeal container which was a bit too much for his breakfast so I saved about 2/3 of cup of cooked oatmeal in the refrigerator for my smoothie. Once Dan was off to work and I had time to exercise I made myself a smoothie. It contained the cooked oats, 2 peaches, 1 cup frozen cherries, cinnamon, ground ginger, 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, 1 tablespoon ground flax, 1 cup baby spinach, water and ice. This smoothie was really good. I don’t always have frozen cherries on hand but they are really good in a smoothie.

Lunch was a simple salad of shredded romaine, diced tomatoes, caponata and pine nuts. I have been enjoying caponata on salad these last few days but yesterday was the end of it. Now I need to come up with something else to use for salad dressing.

I have been craving bread or pasta for about a week. While I try to listen to my body when it wants something that is not optimally healthy I try to put that off as long as possible. Since my flour craving was not going away I decided to defrost a few mushroom ravioli I had stashed in the freezer in a food saver bag. These were made pre-blog which means I don’t have the specific recipe to post. If you want to make your own ravioli they are very easy. Here is my favorite pasta dough recipe.  Also tofu ricotta and porcini mushroom or spinach makes a great filling.

Dinner last night was shredded romaine, diced tomatoes, mushroom ravioli and a creamy walnut sauce.

Breakfast this morning was a simple romaine salad topped with the eggplant and tomato salad, falafel from the freezer, Middle Eastern eggplant and cashew sesame sauce. I topped it with a few pine nuts for garnish. I had with a hot water with lemon. Since I wasn’t overly hungry this morning I wanted something on the light side but that was substantial enough to keep my fueled while I took care of my usual Friday errands.

As you may have noticed by now I use my freezer as part of my pantry.  It plays a big part in my being able to get a varied meal on the table rapidly.  This is why I also make extra food to stash in the freezer. Those frozen items are a big time saver later when I am short on time.

For now I need to do a few things here, check on my folks. I am planning on cooking something different tonight so I should be back with a recipe later today. I hope everyone is having a great Friday. Aren’t Friday’s just the best? They are my favorite day of the week. ;-) Talk to you all again soon.

Tea May Help Reduce Blood Sugar in Diabetics and Hot vs. Cold Brewing

As you know I love my tea. I drink it all day long; in fact I am drinking an iced green and white tea now. It is good for so many things I can’t imagine why I wouldn’t drink it whenever possible.

This latest in vitro (in the lab) study published in Food Chemistry suggests that the EGCG in tea (more is found in white and green) may reduce antiglycative action (reduce blood sugar) and have lipoprotein binding (prevent the oxidation of cholesterol) activity. Obviously these results need to be replicated in vivo but the preliminary study is interesting. Since green and white tea is so good for so many things I say why not drink it whenever you can, we do.

I had mentioned before about an article that looked at the antioxidant level of hot versus cold brewed tea. Since reading the article in Food Chemistry I have been cold brewing our tea. The study looked at whether the antioxidant activity, total phenolic content and metal-chelating activity of different teas could be affected by steeping leaves in hot or cold water. The results:

• Total Phenol Content was typically a little higher in hot tea than cold tea. However white tea, whether prepared cold was higher than the other teas and even when hot was higher than all the teas except the Lyon brand (an African and Indian black tea blend).

• Metal Chelating Activity was higher in hot tea. White tea showed the highest chelating power. Chelating activity of the tea infusions measures how effective the compounds in them can compete with ferrozine for ferrous ion.

• Antioxidant Activity in general was a little higher in hot tea than cold. The white tea was highest and higher yet when cold brewed.

• The effects of the different tea infusions in suppressing the oxidation of LDL, i.e. a test of antioxidant functionality, were also evaluated. Cold tea performed best overall in this assay with cold white tea doubling the lag time compared to hot white tea.

What does all that mean? Hot and cold teas performed similarly but there were some differences. The thing that stood out to me is that cold white tea scored extremely well on all measures. Also the charts showed that green tea also fared well. I also want to find some of this Lyons tea which did very well in the testing.

My take away message from this article is add more cold brewed white tea to our intake which is what we have done. You can find white tea at Asian markets, Whole Foods, or Wegman’s. We combine green and white tea together in our brew.

Unrelated note:

It is amazing how busy I can be yet seem to get little accomplished. Does that happen to any of you? I have exercised, watered and weeded the garden and walked to the grocery store but that is it.

The weather is much milder today so it was a very pleasant walk to the store. We used the end of the carrots and celery in juice this morning so I needed replenish our stock. One of the things I love about where we live is the ability to walk to the grocery store. It is so nice and reminds me of my time in Firenze where everyone grocery shops every day. It is so nice to have that option and not need to get into my car. ;-)

I wanted to mention my favorite snack before I forget. I have told some of you by email but never think to mention it on the blog. If you have a sweet tooth, like I do, take a medjool date and cut it in half and remove the pit. Place a little reduced fat peanut butter in the cavity where the pit was. The richness of the nut butter is a great contrast with the sweetness of the date. It makes a really good snack.

I am going to start the next flax cracker experiment before I get distracted by something else. Then I am going to read my new women’s weight lifting book. Talk to you all again soon. ;-)

Zinc Nasal Spray May Cause Permanent Loss of Smell

(Photo source:  Amazon)

This morning I read an article about zinc nasal sprays causing loss of smell by destroying olfactory receptor cells, potentially through the inhibition of carnosine synthesis.  It was a small study, 25 patients. However I see no reason to risk loss of smell. Since this was second time I have seen this in a few months I wanted to bring it to your attention. I am skeptical of using zinc nasal sprays at this time, but I am more cautious than most. I will stick with my neti pot and warm salt water if I need anything up my nose. ;-)

Unrelated notes:

Dan did make it home late last night even with the storm cells in the area. Since a few of you had emailed me about this I wanted to let everyone know. :-) Thank you all for asking, it was very sweet of you to be concerned.

Today is going to be a little more busy than normal. I may not have time for another post today but I will work one in if I can.

A lot of you ask questions about what to do with the veg and fruit pulp that is leftover from juicing. I have another idea for using that which is on my agenda to try either late tonight or tomorrow. With a little luck it will turn out and I will be sharing that successful recipe for what to do with things that many of us are now throwing away. I have my fingers crossed that it will work as well as I am expecting it to.

I need to run for now. I hope you are all having a great Tuesday and I will talk to you again soon.

Quick and Easy Mexican Salad for Dinner

Sometimes I am not really in the mood to cook. That was my mood yesterday. While I love to cook I am not always in the mood to spend a lot of time in the kitchen every day. However I still wanted to feed us something nutritious. I had a few ideas for dinner but in the end I decided on salad. This meal came together in under 10 minutes from things I had in the refrigerator. Here is what we had for dinner last night:

Mexican Inspired Salad
Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 head of romaine
1 cup red cabbage, finely shredded
1 cup salsa
1 avocado
2 ounces broccoli sprouts
1 tomato
2 tablespoons cashew crème fraiche

Directions:

Nothing much to say here, LOL. Use the romaine as a base and build from there. I think we all know how to make salad. ;-)

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 277.46
Calories From Fat (50%) - 139.3

Total Fat - 16.62g
Saturated Fat - 2.38g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 830.67mg
Potassium - 1714.37mg
Total Carbohydrates - 30.2g
Fiber - 16.49g
Sugar - 8.23g
Protein - 9.83g

Comments:

This is a variation of a salad that I make when I run out of inspiration. I really enjoy salads dressed with salsa. I find that salsa is a great alternative to standard salad dressing. If you haven’t tried salsa on salad I highly recommend it. Adding a dollop of cashew crème fraiche really helps this to feel more like a taco salad only without chips. ;-) Cabbage was added to this salad since I used to use it on tacos. Of course I like nutrition cabbage adds to the salad.

Each serving of this salad contains approximately 18,700IU of vitamin A, 100mg of vitamin C, 170mg of calcium, 4.7mg of iron, 3.7mg of vitamin E, 0.7mg of B6, 530mcg of folate, 345mcg of vitamin K, 215mg of phosphorus, and 105mg of magnesium. Stats like this are the reason we eat so many salads. Consuming a lot of salad makes getting your vitamins from food much easier.

Breast Cancer and Fish Oil:

While catching up on my nutrition and health reading I came across this interesting article about women that regularly take fish oil. According to the VITAL study women who take fish oil supplements have a 32% risk reduction of breast cancer. The authors do caution that this was one study and fish oil should not be promoted as reducing breast cancer.

I think this is another example of omega 3 fatty acids reducing inflammation and that having an impact on overall cancer risk reduction. I will continue to focus on consuming healthy food containing omega 3 fatty acids like: flaxseeds, hempseeds, chia seeds and walnuts and reducing our consumption of omega 6 fatty acids. For me there is no down side to these dietary practices.

Unrelated note:

Guess who claimed he hadn’t enough calories yesterday and “needed” strawberry, banana and goji soft serve? Yes it was Dan, of course. He would live on that if I would let him. ;-) 

I need to run for now. I will be back later with an update.  With today being Monday I have a few more things on my to-do list.  Talk to you later.

Vitamin E and Alzheimer’s Disease

As you may have guessed I am catching up on my nutrition reading today. Since I know at least three of you are concerned about Alzheimer’s I wanted to highlight this abstract. A population based study conducted in Perugia, Italy (great chocolate town) wanted to “evaluate whether higher plasma levels of vitamin E could be protective against Alzheimer’s in advanced age and whether the protective activity could be due to more than just the tocopherol form of the vitamin.”

According to the abstract “The study found that subjects with higher blood levels of all the vitamin E family forms had a reduced risk of developing AD, compared to subjects with lower levels. After adjusting for various confounders, the risk was reduced by 45-54 percent, depending on the vitamin E component,” said the researchers.

Additionally the abstract adds “These findings support the hypothesis that vitamin E’s protective activity seems to be related to the combination of different forms, rather than α-tocopherol alone, they concluded. This, they said, justifies the “protective effect of dietary intake observed in epidemiological studies and the disappointing results observed in clinical trials.”

If I were taking vitamin E for Alzheimer’s prevention I think I would be concentrating instead of foods that are high in the vitamin (almonds, sunflower seeds, peanuts, and hazelnuts to mention a few). You can find a list of those foods here at the NIH (National Institute of Health) site.

Cargill Debuts a Flax and Canola Oil Blend?

This article got my attention this morning and I wanted to share. Apparently Cargill thinks they have developed a flax and canola oil blend that is shelf stable for 9 months. From what I have read about flax oil I can’t imagine how this can be.

I wanted to warn everyone since it if hits the market all types of processed foods will probably be sporting the “Good Source of Omega 3” label. *ugh*

Beetroot Juice Reduces Blood Pressure and Increases Exercise Performance and Fun Facts Friday

For the last month of so we have been adding a beet to our daily fresh veggie and fruit juice. I liked the color it provides to the juice as well as the nutrition. According to a recent study the nitrate rich beetroot juice also reduces blood pressure as much as nitrate pills. Now I don’t know about you but given the choice of fresh vegetable juice or a pill I am going with the veggie every time. Previous studies have shown that beets enhance exercise performance. I think adding beets to your diet is a win/win.

Beets add a beautiful purple color to fresh juice. So far it has hasn’t mattered what else I put in the juicer if there is a beet in there the final juice comes out magenta. If you haven’t tried adding beet to your fresh juice I highly recommend it.

Fun Facts Friday:

Today I have a few things to do so I wanted to post the fun facts questions earlier than normal. I am going to stick with Laura Jill’s idea of positivity in the questions today because I think it is such a wonderful idea to look on the bright side. I know we all have things in our lives that would rather change but focusing in the negative things doesn’t help and I think it only makes things worse.

1. What was the best moment of your life? Is there something that stands out to you as just being perfect? For me it was the look on my husband’s face when Venice first came to view as we took the boat from the airport to the city. Venice was where we started our honeymoon. I had been to Venice before but the look on Dan’s face made it all new for me. I only wish I had a picture of that moment. He reminded me of a child at Christmas, it was the perfect moment. ;-)

2. What do you do to give back? I always think I should do more but give back as much as I have time for. We donate money and items to charity. I also see my blog as a way to give back. Fighting cancer is such a time consuming process. I hope that my recipes and links to articles helps other people in terms of requiring less time to research and experiment in the kitchen.

3. If you could make one change in the world what would it be? This is one of the questions that I ponder off and on. There are so many things that are broken in this world. Given our situation I have to choose the notion that all people would completely understand the impact of eating an unhealthy diet and leading a sedentary life. I would love to see cancer and heart disease on the decline in my life time.  I hope my blog helps people to realize that diet and lifestyle do have an enormous impact on health.

Unrelated note:

Today is going to be a little busy for me. I will try to come back tonight with an update but that may not be possible. If the day gets away from me I will fill you in on our food today tomorrow.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend. I love long weekends. Talk to you again soon.

BPA Levels in Various Foods and Lifestyle Changes

Since some of you have asked about BPA I wanted to draw everyone’s attention to this article that outlines the levels in various canned foods. The highest levels in the Health Canada tests were found in canned tuna, followed by condensed soup with tomato products being on the low end. Prior tests had shown canned green beans to be exceptionally high.

The epoxy lining of cans that prevent botulism also contain BPA which is how it leeches into canned food. Additionally from what I have read BPA is more of any issue during childhood contact so pregnant women and mothers of young children should be more diligent. It is worth noting that according to Health Canada BPA poses no risk to human health.  Here is another link if you are interested in reading what the American Council of Science and Health has to say on the matter.

While I don’t obsess about this I have gotten rid of our plastic storage containers to be safe. One reason I don’t worry much about BPA is that we eat little canned food and don’t use plastic storage containers for food. When I use plastic cling film I place waxed paper or parchment between the food and the plastic. I don’t microwave food covered with plastic. Additionally I have read that placing hot food on or in plastic results in BPA transfer so avoid that as well. It is always something isn’t it?

Lifestyle Changes are Coming:

This has been a rough week at our house. Sorry I bailed on Fun Facts Friday yesterday. I wasn’t much in the mood for writing a post but I will get back to that next week. ;-)

Do you ever feel like the universe is trying to tell you that you aren’t in control? That describes my week in a nut shell. However I am just stubborn enough that I have no intention of giving in. Dan and I have decided to make a few changes to our life to enhance immune function. Since I thought some of you may be interested I wanted to outline what changes we are making.

We have decided to add short bursts of moderate exercise in the morning, afternoon and evening. The reason for this is that moderate exercise is said to boost the immune system after 10 minutes while intense exercise is said to depress the immune system. Now we will be doing a moderate mile or two each morning before Dan leaves for work. I will continue to exercise during the day as I have but Dan is going to add 15-20 minutes on the elliptical at lunch time. After work we are going to do another mile or two before dinner. The idea is that these short bursts of exercise spread throughout the day will  help to keep the immune system elevated all day.

Additionally we are going to be drinking more fresh vegetable and fruit juice to increase our nutrition. Currently our favorite juice contains: ½ pound baby spinach, 1 beet with greens, 1 apple, ½ lemon, 3 stalks celery, 5 carrots 3 kale leaves, 1 inch ginger and 2 frozen wheat grass shots. This makes 2 generous servings and we drink it every morning and evening. But now we will be drinking fresh through the day in place of water. I am also going to try to add more raw vegetables to our diet, while still keeping the cooked vegetables.  I believe in combining both raw and cooked food to maximize nutrition.

Finally we are going to make certain to get 8 hours of sleep every night since the body repairs itself while you sleep. We are also going to meditate every evening before bed. Thanks for the suggestion Laura Jill. :-)

Food Today:

The mid day meal today with the folks isn’t going to be anything exciting. I have decided to make a huge pot of chili with kidney and pinto beans and use that to make taco salad. When I make chili I intentionally make a large quantity so I can stash small servings in the freezer for later.  Planned leftovers come in very handy at our house.

For dinner Dan and I are going to have zucchini pasta with the garlic scape pesto, tomatoes and vegan mozzarella. I have not had a chance to photograph the scape pesto yet so I will try to get that post up tonight.

Gratuitous Feline Pics:

The boys were very cute this morning. I know I am biased but I think they are just adorable. As normal they were both napping. I had to stick the camera in their respective faces which woke them up. Here is Nicco (Binky) playing in a box. Why do cats and children all love boxes?

Big brother Massimo (Masi) was lounging in the window.

Miscellaneous:

Today is going to be a little busy. We are finally making time to buy a new refrigerator.  However I should have time to come back later this evening with a post about the pesto. Otherwise I will get that posted tomorrow morning after the farmers’ market.

I hope everyone is having a great Saturday. Talk to you again soon.

Lung Cancer Risk is Lower Among Those with Higher Levels of B-6

(pictured: Italian Zucchini and Potato Bake garnished with Homemade Tofu Sour Cream)

Today I have been trying to catch up on my health and nutrition reading. It seems as though I am always behind on this. ;-) Since I had just read an article in the Wall Street Journal about the increased incidence of lung cancer among women, even those that never smoked, this article on B-6 and lung cancer stood out to me. According the study those with higher levels of vitamin B-6 had a lower incidence of lung cancer.

I did a little more research and found that B-6 is required for producing thymidine without which cells are more likely to develop cancerous mutations. Additionally a low intake of B-6 increases tumor susceptibility and tumor size.According to the USDA the RDA for B-6 is 2mg per day and 80% of Americans don’t consume enough. Some animals studies indicate that above-normal intake of B-6 stimulates the immune system, slows tumor growth and increase survival time. Threshold toxicity occurs at 2,000mg and 500mg is said to be safe daily dose. Studies have shown 50mg is enough to enhance the immune system. We are not supplementing with B-6 (other than our multi vitamin) at this time, but will keep this in mind for the future.

The obvious question for me was what foods are highest in B6 so I can be certain to include them in our diet. I found this handy chart  at NIH that shows quite a few high sources in vegan foods. Baked potatoes with skin, bananas and garbanzo beans are all good sources. I am going to start monitoring our intake to see how close we get to the 2mg from food.

Unrelated note:

I have not been doing much inventive cooking this week. A few times per year I get bored with cooking and don’t feel like spending much time in the kitchen. This week has been a little hectic with appointments which is probably playing into the lack of kitchen love I have been feeling.

We were scheduled to have dinner tonight with friends but things fell through. This is what happens when you make dinner plans with someone 1,000 miles away.  This should mean I will be cooking tonight, but we will see, LOL. I plan to make vegan mozzarella today and use my garlic scapes in dinner. Fingers crossed this actually happens. I hope everyone is having a great Thursday. If I find anything else interesting in my health reading I will be back before dinner.