My Sabbatical ... Sort of

First I want to say thank you to all of you who sent me emails to reach out and make sure that both Dan and I are okay.  I am very, very sorry that I didn’t have the time to respond yet.  I hope to find time in the future to respond to all of you who were so kind to spend your time to check on us.  Your thoughtful messages meant a lot to me. 

Needless to say my life has been out of control busy for the last few months.  It seems like every day something else gets added to my already bulging to-do list.  *sigh*  Since you know I don’t like to focus on what is wrong I am going to skim over the bad things and focus instead on the positive.

We have had the most wonderful weather this spring.  There have been quite a few days in the upper 80s already this year which is unbelievable.  The sailboat is officially “unwinterized” and she has already been out a few times which were fantastic! 

Our first trip of the season was with our new friend Lauren.  You remember Lauren we met her are Johns Hopkins during our unplanned visit this January. Lauren is quickly becoming an unofficial member of the family.  We have seen her on average once a week since we met in January.  It is wonderful to have a local health conscious friend who I can share healthy recipes, books, videos and articles with and hear her thoughts.   Lauren has also been kind enough to offer to be a recipe taste tester for me.  By the way, the new curried almond salad with cashew mayo recipe (no oil of course) was very well received.  Now I need to measure the ingredients since the concept worked.  This will be making regular appearances on the boat this summer, it is that good.

Also on the very positive news front  “my duck” (the one who eats Cheerios and catches them in the air) had babies.  As Dan said I am proud “grandmother”  LOL.  My duck brought her little ones over to meet me the day they were born.  I couldn’t be more thrilled if I were an actual grandmother.  ;-)  Aren’t they just the cutest little things?  They are the sweetest little chirpy fluff balls.  J  Since I am sure some of you are curious the little ones are already eating Cheerios.  I need to do some research and figure out what I should be feeding my ducks so that they are as healthy as possible.

What has gotten in the way of writing entries for the blog?  There have been so many things that I really don’t know where to start.  First there was a series of computer problems that resulted in three dead laptops in the span of a few days.  Dan was able to reformat one of them and resurrect it but the other two are permanently gone.  We bought another ultrabook and are now back to two laptops thank goodness.  After the laptop debacle of 2012 I don’t go anywhere near Dan’s desktop in his home office. All I need is to crash that too. I used to joke that I have the black thumb of death with plants but now I think the same thing is true with computers.  ;-)

Additionally I have been much busier than I anticipated with school (both the Immersion program at IIN and the Robbins-Madanes program).  Also my health coaching business is taking off and that too is taking up a lot more time than I expected.  However I will say that I am still thrilled each time someone has an “ah –ha moment”.  I can honestly say that I will never get tired of helping people reverse unhealthy trends and get on a better path.

Part of ramping up the business meant that I needed to stop fiddling around and square away my second website which I have been working on “in my spare time”, what little of that there has been over the last few months.  I am reasonably happy with my new site.  However I would love to get a little more feedback before I open it up to everyone.  If you have time to look at the site and give me feedback please let me know by sending an email to veganepicurean@gmail.com with “new site review” in the header and I will send you link.  Thank you in advance for taking the time to consider whether you have time to help me out or not. 

As you can tell I went from a woman of leisure to running flat out, rather zero to sixty in a lot of respects. I knew that I would be busy but never anticipated that I would be this busy.  However I am not complaining things are working out well so it’s all good.  There is a lot more going on but I have to save some of it for future posts so I don’t run out of things to write about.  ;-)

What have you been up to this spring? Is there anything fun going on in your life? Any new tips or tricks to staying healthy that you would like to share with others?  As I am very fond of saying we are stronger together than we are alone.

Happy thoughts:

Since it has been a while since I have written my happy thoughts I will need to get back into the habit of doing this.  J

• Two weeks ago I got to spend a weekday with my husband when he had a trip to Richmond for work. I rode along to keep him company and we talked the 3 hours down and back which made us both happy. We had lunch at our favorite veg restaurant and I got more recipe ideas. I will tell you more about this later.
•  I bought a new Vitamix for home and now I have my old Vitamix on the boat.  *happy dance*  I love having a Vitamix on the boat.  Now we can have green smoothies anytime and anywhere.  Could life get any better?  Well maybe it could get better.  One of the guys (Eric, who you will be hearing more about in upcoming posts) at the marina saw my Vitamix in action and he bought one too.  I am spreading the Vitamix love everywhere I go.  I really should be on their payroll.  LOL
•  Recently I have been testing homemade fabric softeners because I dislike the idea of using the chemical stuff with its carcinogens and that has been going really well.  This is something else that I need to share with you in an upcoming post.  If you don’t see this in a few weeks and are interesting be sure to remind me to tell you about it.
•  I have been reading a lot of books on Buddhism in my free time and I must say the more I learn the more it draws me in.  If any of you have any book suggestions let me know I would love to know what you would recommend. I will tell you about the specific books I have been enjoying in a future post.
• Dan and I went to a fun little Italian movie at The Charles last week called " The Salt of Life” that was cute.  It was shot in Rome and made us both miss Italy since we adore Rome.  We may need to take a little trip sometime this year to satisfy our craving for living on Italian time.  Any of you who have been fortunate enough to go to Italy know exactly what I mean. 
• As crazy as this will sound I have finally come to terms with the fact that I am going to be 50 years old later this week.  Wow, I can’t believe that I said that out loud LOL.  I now realize that since I don’t look my age I really need to wear 50 proudly.  ;-)  This has really been huge for me since I have been dreading turning 50 for the last 3 years. Yes I actually started worrying about it when I was 47.  No vanity here…… LOL
•  I am also very thankful for every day that I get to spend with my wonderful husband. We both appreciate every moment we have.  One thing that cancer has taught me is that life is short so enjoy it now since none of us know how long we have.  Buddhism reminds me that the only moment any of us has is now and to live fully in this moment.

Signing out:

I have a client to coach later today and then I need to do fun things like finish doing laundry and cleaning the kitchen since I actually cooked today.  I hope you are having a wonderful day.  It is my plan to get back to daily posting though my posts will probably be shorter than they have in the past.  In a few weeks I will be sharing the second site with all of you and that is where I will be writing more about health with this blog reserved for my recipes and daily musings.

Talk with you all again soon which I hope means tomorrow.  J

Happy Mother’s Day

What a great day to be alive! The skies were blue, there was a little nip in the air and I felt completely rested this morning. This was one of those days where I actually enjoyed the morning and being a night owl those don’t happen too often. ;-)

We started our morning with a big mug of tea. Today we are having my latest favorite combination of: white tea, tulsi tea and rose buds. The new Bodum glasses that I picked up at Marshall’s happen to have the same size top as the Bodum tea cups with the tea insert which makes it easier to start our day with a double green tea.

This morning Dan asked for a green smoothie. It makes me smile that Dan likes green smoothies enough that he requests them for breakfast.

My breakfast today was fresh veg and fruit juice. When I make juice I never use a “recipe” but rather just start cutting up things that I have on hand and send it through the juicer. After you have made juice for a while you get a feel from what works. Additionally you can do the same thing I do and taste the juice as you go along and add things to make the taste suit you. Typically I use both green and sweet things in the juice. I also like to add lemon and/or fresh ginger to the juice when I have them on hand. Today’s juice contained: 4 kale leaves, 2 stalks celery, 1 large beet, 1 small apple, and 2 carrots. I pour this into a frozen glass, stir in chia seeds and add ice. I shared this juice with Dan to increase his natural vitamin and mineral content at breakfast. After you start making fresh juice I think you will find that your body starts to crave it as mine does.

Dan bought us both 7” tablets last week. He liked the small size since they fit easily in a jacket pocket (and my purse). I have been playing around with mine too and so far I like it. After I have had more time using it I will let you know what I think. One thing I know that I like so far is how portable it is. I love that is small enough to fit easily in any of my purses and I have some small bags. ;-)

The later afternoon meal with my parents was very simple. For appetizers we had two simple dishes. The first was roasted red peppers and onions dressed with sherry vinegar, smoked paprika, parsley and almonds. The second dish was marinated mushrooms and peppers finished with parsley.

The main dish was a fruited quinoa topped with lightly wilted Brussels sprouts, garlic, cumin, apple, dried apricot, golden raisins and grapes that I finished with lemon zest, lemon juice and sliced almonds.

After the meal we rushed to get to MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) for the showing of “Cafeteria Man”. It was the story of chef that took over the food program for the Baltimore City school system and his fight to make the cafeteria food both local and fresh. Talk about a thought provoking and touching story, wow! If the documentary is shown near you and you have an interest in school nutrition this is good film.

We then went home so that I could whip up a batch of nut cheese to take with me to the restaurant. I know that sounds odd but let me explain. David (at the restaurant) is also vegan and hadn’t had nut cheese so I wanted to take him some to try. Corey isn’t a vegan but he is trying to give up dairy so I had to take him some. Will does a wonderful job coming up with vegan dishes for us and loves to try new things which meant I wanted him to taste it too. Me taking nut cheese to the restaurant makes more sense now right? ;-) This batch was raw cashew and macadamia that I flavored with fresh garlic, sherry vinegar and nutritional yeast. I served it a spread on top of the tomato and raisin pesto/chutney and finished it with black pepper and fresh minced parsley. (FYI Will liked the nut cheese as did Jonathon. Corey has had it before so I know he likes it. David took his home so we will have to see what he thinks.)

We got to the restaurant late because it was Mother’s Day and they were packed from brunch on. When we arrived at 8pm things were definitely starting to slow down and I am sure everyone was happy to have a break. Even though we hadn’t given him any notice Will quickly made a three course menu for us when he heard we were there. Seriously, we didn’t expect that but it was extremely nice of him to do that with zero notice. Are you starting to see how we could get pulled into going out to eat every night? These guys make it way too easy for me to take the night off from cooking. Darn them, LOL! ;-)

Our first course was a Greek orzo dish with zucchini, tomato, garlic, lemon, olives and oregano. Fortunately for me Dan doesn’t love olives, which means I got most of them. I do love olives even though I know that aren’t the best for me with all the salt they contain. Of well, I can’t be perfect all the time because that just wouldn’t be any fun. Okay so maybe I should say I am not going to be perfect all the time.

The second course was AMAZING! Can you tell I liked it? This dish was sriracha and soy marinated tofu topped with radish, green apple, celery and carrot salad. Seriously this recipe hit all my buttons, spicy, salty, crunchy, soft…..definitely good stuff.

The final course was a whole wheat pizza topped with mashed sweet potato, golden raisins, curry powder, and almonds topped with lemon dressed arugula. I have never used mashed sweet potato as a pizza base before and after tasting this I have no idea why that never occurred to me before. This is why it is so great to go out to eat. Every time I eat out I get more great recipe ideas.

I also had to post this picture of Stephanie being silly. In case the picture doesn’t say it all Steph is quite a lot of fun. LOL

Happy Thoughts:

• I love hearing the Westminster chimes in the morning. We live near an old clock tower with chimes and when we have the windows open you can hear them every 15 minutes. This is another one of those things that I take for granted that I shouldn’t. The chimes remind me of my childhood and my grandmother which is a great thing to think about on Mother’s day.

• It was great to start the morning with the windows open. I love having fresh air in the house. I also love that on a very high pollen day like today (I only know this from the weather channel) I have no sign of my seasonal allergies. While I didn’t change my diet because of allergies it was a very welcome side effect. ;-)

• Every time Dan asks me to make something nutritious I smile. He enjoys having green smoothies for breakfast and that makes me very happy. I get a lot of email from you that ask how I get Dan to eat as healthy as I do which reminds me how much progress I have made with his diet. The only thing that I do is that I share all the new health information as I learn it with Dan. I think that knowledge is power and when you understand the true impact of the choices you make on your health it results in better decisions.

• The fur children bought me a present for Mother’s Day. Wasn’t that incredibly sweet of them and Dan? When he gave me the earrings he said they were from “the kittens” (that is what we call the fur kids since they still act like kittens) since I am their mom. Awwww, too cute. ;-)

• Lunch today turned out very well. My father commented how good the roasted red pepper salad was. Will miracles never cease? ;-) I enjoyed the Brussels sprouts dish which was my variation of something that we had at Jaleo (one of Jose’s restaurants in DC). Who could possible ever get bored eating vegan when there are so many possible combinations of vegetables, fruit and seasonings?

• I really enjoyed the movie today and highly recommend it. As much as I study nutrition and health there is always an angle to explore that had not occurred to me. I walked out the movie saying that I need to get involved in childhood nutrition somehow. Only time will tell what that means for me.

• When we walked in the door at the restaurant Kristin said happy Mother’s Day to me and wanted to know how my day was. Of course I said thank you and told her that the kitchen bought me earrings. It is little moments like this that remind me that there are many nice people in the world though the bad ones seem to make much more noise.

• Dinner out was lovely as always. Yes, I will admit that we have been out to eat 4 days in a row and that is probably excessive. I will need to make up for slacking on my kitchen responsibilities this coming week. LOL, I wonder if I can do it.

Signing out:

It was another wild week for me. I didn’t really expect last week to be busy but somehow it was. How does this keep happening? This coming week is supposed to be hectic. Let’s hope I can pull it together enough to make a few meals in my own kitchen. If I can’t do it I am sure the gang will be happy to make something for us. Can I be much more spoiled? Okay, don’t answer that. LOL

I hope your weekend was a good as ours. I will chat with you again tomorrow.

Planeat: The Movie

Wednesday we went to the Baltimore showing of the movie “Planeat” at The Charles Theater (pictured above). The movie was sponsored by Whole Foods and was part of a multi-film series.

This movie covered both the health and environmental impact of dietary choices. Like the movie “Forks Over Knives” it focused on Doctors T. Colin Campbell and Caldwell B. Esselstyn. However one of the big differences (in my mind) between the two movies was the time spent talking to vegan chefs and showing them preparing food. Now I will be the first to admit that when they were using agave and oil I was cringing because that isn’t healthy, but we all have to start someone. It was nice that they showed that vegan food can be delicious, complex and flavorful.

Dan and I talked about the film after it was over and both decided that we thought “Forks Over Knives” was more compelling in terms of demonstrating to omnivores that there is huge health upside to them personally from making the shift. However “Planeat” does a better job of making vegan food look delicious. Additionally the environment impact of switching to a vegan diet is a big part of "Planeat" and that is a bonus. We both thought the film work was better in “Forks ...”. In the end I think we thought it was basically a draw in terms of which film we liked better with a slight nod to “Forks...”. Either way I would encourage you to see both films. When they are available on DVD I will be buying them both to have in my lending library.

I linked to the movie above and at that site you will find a trailer of the film as well as other clips and recipes that you might want to check out. I watched and enjoyed them.

Sandal Road Test:

Knowing that we were going out on Wednesday I was a bit worried about what shoes I was going to wear given the whole toe situation. I tried on many different sandals and found 4 pair that didn’t bother my foot much. Sadly the most comfortable pair was also the ugliest which meant that I didn’t wear them (crocs sandals). I decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood to see how my toe was holding up. Fortunately it was fine, a little tender but not too bad.

This was also my first walk in a long time without my IPod. I decided that I didn’t want my mind cluttered with noise but instead wanted to listen to the birds and try to clear my mind. My goal was to have a sort of walking meditation and it seemed to work. I was able to notice things that I had not seen previously and I think it was because I wasn’t distracted by the noise of my IPod.
I took these pictures while I was out for my walk. I enjoyed the blooms and thought you might too. Here is the neighborhood now that things are starting to bud and to bloom.

(It is really starting to look much more green here now..must be all the rain.) 

(I love stairs and gates leading into gardens.) 

(Are you starting to notice that I like gates?) 

(This little urban garden made me smile.) 

Dinner Out:

The movie was over about 8:20pm which gave us time to get to the restaurant for dinner before the kitchen was cleaning up at 9:00. Without Ian, Will or Dani working I was on my own in terms of what we were eating. As I have said before the restaurant isn’t vegan but they will make things that I make up, or will come up with things for us if we give them notice.  Jenn helped me come up with ideas for dinner since I haven't had to do this much lately because the guys have us very spoiled.  ;-)

We started with iced green tea with fresh orange juice that Emily made for us. Knowing how much I like fruit in my tea this was perfect. Thanks Emily!

Next we had gazpacho which was on the menu last night topped with crab. It was simple to ask them to leave off the crab making the soup vegan.

We next had the antipasti that is on the menu but had them leave off the meat and cheese and add additional veggies. This was another easy vegan modification but also a filling and tasty dish that is one of my favorites.

Knowing how much Dan loves to get pizza when we are out I am sure you aren’t surprised to hear the last dish was a small whole wheat pizza topped with marinara and roasted veggies. After it came out of the oven it was topped with baby arugula, balsamic glaze and an artichoke “rose”. I think the artichoke was my favorite part because it was unexpected.  We never get tired of pizza variations.  Funny we have eaten them without cheese for so long now that I can't imagine why I ever thought I needed fake vegan cheese.  Who said that? LOL

After dinner I had a few minutes to chat to Emily and told her about “The 21-Day Consciousness Cleanse”. Since she is interested I will be lending her my copy once I get through all 21 days. By the way, I liked this book from the library enoughthat I ordered my own copy from Amazon and it arrived today.  Once I get through all 21 days I will post a review for you.
Happy thoughts:

• It was nice to have my hubby home from work early enough Wednesday to make a 7pm movie. I like have a date during the week.  Having plans mid-week also made the week go by a little more quickly I think.

• I was fortunate to find 4 pairs of sandals that I can wear even with my toe still messed up. I am very happy to be getting out and about again. Thursday night when Dan got home from work we went for a walk before dinner. It is good to be mobile once again as I was getting very antsy without my favorite morning walk through the neighborhood.

• Everything is green, lush and blooming here now and is extremely pretty. I love spring since it is a time of renewal. With my dramatic change in diet came the unexpected benefit of the disappearance of my seasonal allergies. Now I am able to enjoy the blooms with sniffling or sneezing which makes spring much more pleasant.

• I also enjoyed my “walking meditation” in the neighborhood. In fact it was so nice that I am going to leave my IPod at home for a while and see if I can use my time outside every morning to appreciate nature and clear my mind of thoughts. Wish me luck, I am going to need it since I am always thinking ... much to my own detriment. ;-)

• The upside of being stuck in the house (because of the toe) is that I am a reading machine lately. I have had time to read four books this week which I have enjoyed. I read both “Crazy Sexy Cancer Survivor” and “Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips”. Given the subject matter I did not expect to laugh through the books but they were very funny in parts. I can’t say that I agree with everything contained within them but overall I thought they were both good reads.

• I am grateful that the nasty weather system that spawned all the tornadoes in the south didn’t cause any real damage here. We had some hard driving rain and high winds but nothing compared to what happened in the south yesterday. When we had the first tornado warning Thursday morning I got out the cat's travel bags so that they wouldn’t run when they saw them. I was getting prepared to grab felines and get them into their carriers so I could take them to the basement. You never can be too prepared when it comes to things like this.  NO OCD here, LOL.

Signing Out:

Wednesday time got away from me. I had expected to have time to write a post after the movie but since we went out to dinner time just disappeared. However we had a nice mid-week date and that is always a good thing right?

Tomorrow I plan to discuss a book that I read recently. I have started something new and am taking notes when I read each book and keeping them in a binder by topic and book. On the books that I get out of the library I am doing this to record the source of nutrition information that I gather since I won’t have the actual book as reference. Not to mention I am hoping this will make writing reviews a little easier. We will see how that goes.

I am very happy that tomorrow is Friday. *woo hoo* We are supposed to have nice weather which may mean a nice bike ride with my sweetie. At least that is what I have in mind so hopefully Dan doesn’t need to work this weekend. *fingers crossed*

Talk to you tomorrow. I hope your week has been good.

Friday Update and Slow versus Fast Food

We started our morning bright and early at the gym on Friday. Woo hoo! *happy dance* Yeah, I know I am not right. It was so dark this morning when we arrived it looked like night though it wasn’t. There is something wrong about getting to the gym at 6am but I am learning to get over that. ;-) I spent the majority of my time on the indoor track and my knee was only a little sore later in the day. Needless to say I am calling this a major success.

After leaving the gym we had to run to the lab for blood draws. Both Dan and I have appointments with our internist soon so we wanted to get this out of the way. I do not like having my blood drawn. Honestly I am not fond of needles in general but blood draws are the worst. I am “blessed” with veins that roll which means they have a hard time hitting them when I need to give blood. The vein situation is so bad that it makes other people queasy.

About a decade ago I had signed up to donate blood through the hospital where I worked. My boss, a former marine, was sitting next to me and after the fourth stick and watching the person dig around inside my arm with the needle to hit a vein he told I had to go back to work because he couldn’t watch any more. When you make a battle hardened former marine nauseas you know it is bad. Thankfully the person at the lab got me with one stick and only had to adjust the needle on the third vial. Nonetheless I am happy to have this little task behind me for a while.

Once we got home we both had a bowl of oatmeal with mixed wild berries, freshly ground flaxseeds, cinnamon, powdered ginger, and walnuts. Dan had the same thing but a larger serving and his contained a little stevia and soymilk in place of water.

Since it was Friday I had my usual errands to run which included checking on my parents and do a little cleaning for them to give my dad a hand. It was late when I got home so I had a big veggie salad with beans and salsa.

While I had a little time at home I made a pot of Southern Italian tomato sauce with fennel seeds and hot peppers. I made a large pot of sauce so that this could be used in a couple different meals over the coming days. If there is any leftover on Monday it will go into the freezer in small containers to use later.

Dan worked late on Friday so I made myself something I call pizza veggies. I take whatever veggies I have on hand and top them with tomato sauce and walnut parmesan. This is something I have made for over 30 years. I started eating this in high school only then I used dairy parmesan. It is a tasty combination with the flavors of pizza but no refined carbs (dough) or animal fat (from the cheese).

You will not be surprised to hear that Dan had his favorite dessert tonight. Yes I made him another batch of strawberry banana soft serve. I need to find him a new dessert. LOL!

After dinner we watched another episode of season six of Criminal Minds. I think we have two episodes left and we are caught up on this year.

Food Philosophy:

For some reason I was thinking about food today and I realized that the biggest thing that separates my food from society is the fact that it is “slow food”. What I mean by that is that since my food is homemade it takes longer to cook. However I think this is also what makes me feel better. I know that when I used to eat processed food I didn’t have the vitality that I have now. If you are currently eat a diet of canned, bagged or other processed/chemically preserved food I would suggest that you try eating homemade food for one week and see if you feel different.

I am not sure how to describe how I feel now. But I can say that compared to how I used to feel now I am somehow lighter and have more energy. It is as though the food has nourished me on a different level. Cravings that I used to have for unhealthy food, sugar, flour and even wine are now rare. I think that the cravings left because I am better nourished though I can’t prove that is why. All I know is that I feel much better eating food that is minimally processed. I think if you try it you will understand what I am struggling to describe.

Happy Thoughts:

The weekend is starting well here. Here are the things I am thankful for now:

• Friday and Saturday have been good days for us. Any day that you wake up is by definition a good one. This is something that we used to take for granted but I try to remember that each day is precious and enjoy it to the fullest.

• As always I am thankful that I have the time to take care of my family (Dan and the fur babies) and help out my parents. In the end relationships and people are what matters in life.

• Saturday we slept in and both enjoyed that luxury. We both relish our Friday night, Saturday mornings to recharge from the prior week. ;-)

• My Teavana on-line order arrived and we had a chance to enjoy one of the new white teas. I really do enjoy the purity of the products are Teavana. The teas they sell aren’t exactly inexpensive but they are good.

• Saturday Dan and I made a trek to one of our local health food stores (The Health Concern) and picked up some dried herbs for tea. I was thrilled to find all but one item on my list. The tea book that Aimee and Michael gave us for Christmas is coming in very handy. :-) Dan pointed out that I was beaming at the herb counter. Clearly I enjoy this whole food lifestyle. I am becoming very granola in my old age. LOL

• We also made a run to Whole Foods and picked up organic kale for green smoothies since Dan was having withdrawal. I never thought he would learn to love green smoothies but I am extremely happy that he has. I appreciate that Dan indulges my "healthy tendencies" since I know not all men are as cooperative.

• Saturday we watched “The Future of Food” and another documentary “The Giant Buddhas” on the Buddhas in Afghanistan that the Taliban blew up. Both films were good and I will be watching them again. If you have Netflix I recommend them both. They are both available streaming on Netflix if you are interested.

Signing out:

It is time for me to log out and relax before bed. I hope all of you are having a good weekend. Talk to you again tomorrow.

Monday & Tuesday and "Forks Over Knives"

Tuesday:

While I started the morning at the gym it wasn’t a productive workout sort of morning. My knee collapsed on me the prior evening so I was concerned about pushing myself at the gym. Within 15 minutes of arriving I knew I had to take it easy and opted to the walk to the indoor track for a while Dan used the cardio machines. It wasn’t much longer before I knew I needed to stop exercising for the day before my knee gave out again. I decided it was best to find a comfortable chair and wait for Dan.

When we got home we had another bowl of steaming oatmeal. It was ridiculously cold here making oatmeal the obvious choice. We had one of our usual versions. This one contained: wild blueberries, cinnamon, powdered ginger, ground flaxseeds and chopped walnuts.

For lunch Dan and I each had the of the soup from Sunday and a green salad.

Since we had eaten the end of the soup with lunch I decided to make another pot of soup. I knew I was going to use the end of the chickpeas that I cooked on Sunday but wasn’t really sure what soup to make. I have been thinking of the Sicilian zuppa di pesce I used to make recently. This soup gets most of its flavor from the seasonings which to me meant it would be fine without the fish. I could have used cubes of tofu in place of chickpeas I only picked the beans because I had them in the refrigerator. Here is what I did:

Chickpea Soup in the style of Zuppa di Pesce
Serves 6

Ingredients:

28 ounces canned diced tomatoes, no salt
4 cups water
1 large yellow onion, peeled and finely diced
8 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 stalks celery, finely diced (or ½ fresh fennel bulb, finely diced)
2 carrots, finely diced
1 tablespoon hot crushed peppers (wet hots), or to taste (you can substitute hot crushed pepper flakes and a splash of red wine vinegar)
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
½ teaspoon oregano, dried
2 pinches saffron threads
2 bay leaves
1 cup dry white wine (I used the Masi Pinot Grigio)
1 piece kombu (approximately 1 inch by 4 inches) cut into very small short strips – used to add a background of “fishiness”
6 olives, thinly sliced (I kept this to a minimum so I didn’t add too much sodium)
3 ½ cup cooked chickpeas, no salt (or 2 – 15 ounce cans)
1 cup parsley, finely minced
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Combine everything except the chickpeas and parsley and cook until the vegetables are tender and the flavors have combined. Add the chickpeas and cook to heat them through. The parsley is added at the very end when you are ready to serve.

Note: This soup has a thin base. If you prefer a thicker soup I would suggest adding a couple of tablespoons cornstarch which you whisked into a slurry with an equal amount of cold water and cook until the soup bubbles. Then add the parsley and serve.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 277.9
Calories From Fat (10%) - 28.8

Total Fat - 3.43g
Saturated Fat - 0.4g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 124.45mg
Potassium - 1129.67mg
Total Carbohydrates - 46.87g
Fiber - 11.94g
Sugar - 13.95g
Protein - 11.97g

Comments:

This is a classic Italian soup that is traditionally made with swordfish and shellfish. I substituted chickpeas for the fish and added kombu to help mimic the fishiness. It is reminiscent of the traditional soup but different. I think cubes of tofu may be closer to the traditional soup but this one is also good just not as much like the original as I had intended. It would also be good if you decided to add some diced potato or cooked pasta though those are not traditional.

Wednesday:

The morning started with Dan going to the gym and me staying home. My knee was still acting up and since I had a dentist appt this morning I didn’t have time to go to the gym and still get ready to leave the house with Dan. Our dentist is across the street from Dan’s office so I road to work with him.

We both had another steaming bowl of oatmeal before heading downtown.

Dentist appt:

If any of you are local and are looking for a new dentist we love ours. This practice was recommended by our friend Troy and we are glad we gave them a try. We see Dr. Nicholas Garcia downtown at 36 S. Charles. They are very friendly and literally practically painless. They also have a short call list for people with flexible schedules that allowed us to call in and get an appointment the next day. You have to love that. ;-)

I am not generally fond of going to the dentist but I don’t mind going to see these nice folks. One of the hygienists (Regan) is the brother of the dentist and he is always very gentle when cleaning my teeth. If all dental appointments were this painless more people would go regularly.

Forks Over Knives:

Wednesday night was the big event, the advanced screening of the movie. There were four of us that went together (Troy and Sheila joined us). Sheila has a grad degree from the Hopkins School of Public Health so I can’t wait to talk to her about her reaction to the movie. With a little luck we will have time to chat about the movie later today. While I love to talk to Dan about health it is also great to hear what other people think.

Since I have read “The China Study”, “Prevent and Reserve Heart Disease” and completed the Cornell Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition there wasn’t anything new in this documentary for me. However I did think it was well done and will be buying a copy to lend to my omni friends.  You know who you are, LOL.

The documentary essentially follows Dr. T. Colin Campbell (The China Study) and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn (Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease) as they grow on farms and the take different paths (a PhD in nutrition and Medical Doctor) to come to the same conclusion that the most healthful diet is a whole food plant-based diet without processed food (oil, sugar, etc.). This is not a movie that discusses the ethics of a vegan diet the entire purpose was to highlight the healthfulness of a whole food plant-based diet. I continue to mention the whole food aspect because the focus is NOT on a processed food vegan diet.

There are other doctors in this movie specially Dr. Matt Lederman, Dr. John McDougall and Dr. Doug Lisle. All three of these men were also in the Cornell program. These doctors (and a few others) play a supporting role to Dr’s Campbell and Esselstyn.

The movie also follows on a few people that adopt a whole food plant-based diet and highlights the results they achieve in a short period of time. One gentleman had remarkable changes in his lab work (blood) in only 13 weeks. Since Dan and I saw the same thing I now assume that most people will respond that quickly.

Overall it was a good evening and I am very happy we went to see it. When I asked Dan what he learned from the movie he said “nothing really, I have been hanging around you a long time”. Men! We both think this is a must see for anyone that is interested in health and what they can do to live a more healthy life.

While doing a little internet search to confirm the spelling of Dr. Lederman’s name I discovered he and his physician wife have written a book, “Keep It Simple, Keep it Whole: Your Guide to Optimum Health”. I will be adding this to my next Amazon order. Once I have had a chance to read it I will let you know what I think.

Happy Thoughts:

Tuesday and Wednesday were good days for us, in spite of my knee. I have many things to be happy about today:

• I was able to get back to the gym this morning. While my calorie burn wasn’t what I wanted it was okay. I used the elliptical more than morning and my knee was fine on that. I did hop on the treadmill for a while but had to back off the incline to 5 degrees which didn’t make me happy. Thankfully I know how far I can push my knee and I actually listened to it today and took it easy.

• We enjoyed the movie last night. It was good to see so many people interested in health. I am looking forward to talking to Sheila about the movie soon. I am very curious to hear what she thought about it. My fingers are crossed that she will have some time today.

• While we were at the movie I picked up a copy of the current magazine of the Hopkins School of Public Health. I can’t wait to read that later today.

• The Baltimore Chapter of Earthsave passed out a guide to vegan and/or vegan friendly restaurants in the local area before the movie. I am looking forward to checking some of them out. We grabbed two copies so we can put one in each car. If any of you are local here is the link to the on-line list.

Signing out:

It is time for me to get a few things done around here. We are out of soup again so I that is on my agenda this morning. I also need to roast more veggies to be included with our salads and make my grocery list of the weekend. Also I need to get my strength training in and do more cardio since I didn’t have a good calorie burn this morning at the gym. Darned knee. ;-)

I hope all of you are having a great day and staying warm. It is ridiculously cold here and has been since the weekend. Apparently we had a cold front come through. It should be not 25 degrees in the morning when we leave for the gym. I am ready for spring and we haven’t had our first “real snowfall” yet. Talk to you all again soon.

Vegan MoFo 16.1: Advance Screenings of “Forks Over Knives”

I came across this list of advance screenings of “Forks “Over Knives” this morning and signed up for two seats for us on December 8. As of 30 minutes ago there were still seats at the Baltimore screening. I wanted to post this link in case any of you are interested. 

I will be back later with a regular post.

Mixed Mushroom Dahl and 2 Movies Today

I love sleeping in on Saturday morning. It is the only day we get up when are bodies naturally want to wake up and it makes for a much nicer start to the day.

Guess who had another double shot of espresso this morning? Yep, it was me. I need to get a handle on this immediately. Having a machine at home that you press a button and espresso arrives magically is not good when you love the stuff like I do. I am a bit disappointed that I had a double shot of espresso two days in a row. My goal is to go back to avoiding the stuff. We will see if I can do it. I will report in if I fall off the wagon again. *rolls eyes*

Breakfast:

This morning Dan had a smoothie made with: 2 tablespoons oats (grind into a powder first if not using a high speed blender), 2 frozen bananas, 1 cup frozen wild blueberries, 2 kale leaves and stems, 2 collard leaves and stems, 1 tablespoon chia seeds, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger and water to process. I would have used cold processed green tea but I didn’t wake up early enough to make it before breakfast.

My breakfast, other than the double shot of espresso, consisted of nothing more than 4 large glasses of iced water with lemon slices and cucumber. After my espresso this morning I decided I needed to encourage my body to eliminate the caffeine. Clearly this vicious cycle needs to stop before it gets out of hand like prior times in my life.

Lunch:

As usual we had my parents over for a late mid day meal. I had no idea what I was going to make for since cooking for my unhealthy omni parents is always a bit of a challenge. I ended up making my variation of mixed mushroom dahl over brown basmati rice. Here is what I did:

Mixed Mushroom Dahl
Serves 8

Ingredients:

2 cups moong dahl (split mung beans)
8 cups water or no salt veggie stock
2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
1 ¾ teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds (crush in your hands before adding)
½ teaspoon cardamom powder
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
1 red onion, minced
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced or grated
3 carrots, finely diced
14 ounces reduced fat organic coconut milk
1 poblano pepper, finely minced (use a jalapeno or serrano if everyone at the table likes heat)
½ pound fresh criminis, thinly sliced
¼ pound fresh shitake stems, thinly sliced
4 diced Roma tomatoes, for garnish
cooked brown rice to serve under the dahl (I cooked 1 ½ cups brown basmati)

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients except the tomatoes and rice and simmer until the beans are tender. If desired you can use a little cornstarch to thicken the soup. Just before serving add the diced tomatoes so that they can heat through. Serve on top of the cooked rice.

Nutritional Information (includes the brown rice):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 394.51
Calories From Fat (12%)-  48.39

Total Fat - 5.21g
Saturated Fat - 2.94g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 48.29mg
Potassium - 1199.5mg
Total Carbohydrates - 70.65g
Fiber - 12.65g
Sugar - 8.11g
Protein - 17.77g

Comments:

Three of the four of us loved this. Oddly my parents didn’t even add salt which was quite the shock. No surprise my mother thought this was entirely too hot even though we thought the heat level was mild. If you like heat add more red pepper flakes or use a hotter fresh pepper. If my mother is any indication this is too hot for children or the elderly. *rolls eyes*

To go with the dahl I made a quick salad. The best part of the salad was the dressing which I put together quickly and without measuring. Sorry about that I was running behind schedule.  It was a very simple dressing of Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar and stevia. This took my under a minute to make and it reminded me of honey mustard only without the honey and its resulting increase in serum blood glucose. This dressing will be happening at my house often from now on.

Dinner:

We opted for a quick salad tonight for dinner after we finished watching our second movie of the day. Since we weren’t exactly active today we thought something on the light side was in order. This salad, which we shared contained: 1 head of romaine, 1 cucumber, 2 carrots, 4 Roma tomatoes, 2 tablespoons of cashew crème fraiche and ½ avocado.

For dessert I made an extra big batch of strawberry banana soft serve in the Vitamix. These measurements are approximate but should be close: 1 handful walnuts, 3 frozen bananas, 2’ish cups frozen strawberries, ½ teaspoons cinnamon, ½ teaspoon powdered ginger and about a cup of water to process. If you still use sweeteners you may want to add a little stevia to the mixture. The Vitamix turns that into a delicious thick frozen dessert that my husband is addicted to. Tonight I had a little of the soft serve with him (about 1/4th of the total) since I had not had much to eat today.

Movies today:

Dan picked the movies today and I didn’t pay a lot of attention. The first one was “From Paris with Love” with John Travolta. It was definitely an action movie which means it was not my thing. The second movie was “Knowing” with Nicholas Cage. I would describe it as a mystery, sci fi sort of thing. It was okay, better than the first movie but not something I would have chosen to watch. As you can tell Dan and I have very different tastes in movies.

Signing out:

Tomorrow is the farmers’ market which means an early morning for us. I hope everyone had a great Saturday and stayed cool in the unseasonably hot weather we had on the east coast today. Things are supposed to cool off tonight and tomorrow at least. Rumor has it we go back to fall tomorrow. I hope the weathermen are right this time. Talk to you tomorrow. :-)