Fast Food My Way

Recently I have been swamped at home as I recently told you.  When this happens cooking takes a back seat. However, even when I don’t have much time to cook that doesn’t mean that we will be eating unhealthy food.  I thought you  might want to know what sort of things we have been eating for ideas.  Here are some of the things I have been making at home:

Lots of this: hummus topped with paprika (sometimes with pine nuts sometimes without) and raw veggie dippers.

This hummus and veggie platter also has my roasted red pepper and onion salad with smoked paprika on top of arugula. There was also balsamic and lemon dressed roasted mushrooms.

Dan enjoyed this quinoa salad. I cooked the quinoa with orange zest and cinnamon. I dressed the cooked quinoa with pieces of fresh onion, dried cranberries and raw sunflower seeds.

There was also roasted miso and mirin glazed acorn squash.

I made a green bean dish inspired by things we have had a Jaleo. This one included green beans, apples, Brussels sprouts, almonds grapes, lemon juice and smoked paprika.

Curried split pea soup is good for cold nights.

Roasted yellow cauliflower and white bean soup topped with lemon dressed arugula and almonds.

One of Dan’s favorite meals, my spinach lasagna.

Black bean soup topped with lemon dressed arugula and sliced almonds.

Soba noodle soup with a mushroom broth topped with chopped baby tatsoi.

Okara pate I made with okara (leftovers from making soy milk that I keep in the freezer), tahini, garlic, lemon juice and hot pickled peppers). We like to eat things like this with veggies.

Broccoli with a pesto made from basil (also from the freezer), raw garlic, nutritional yeast and whole pine nuts for texture.

Mexican spiced bean and barley soup.

Marinated kale salad which I made with julienned kale. I marinated the kale in lemon juice and add the lemon zest. To this I added shredded carrot and sliced grapes. Even Dan commented that this was really good. As you can see it was also very simple. Love that!

As you can see fast food doesn’t have to be unhealthy or boring. Most of these came together quickly because either: I used the pressure cooker, or they did most of the cooking unattended. I hope these pictures inspire you to make more quick healthy food.

What Does it Take to Change Our Collective Health?

This question is what drives me to read, research and continue to write about nutrition and health. My husband and I started eating a vegan diet as a way to regain health. This early dietary change led to a healthy whole food plant-based diet, then to a vegan lifestyle not just diet. I sincerely hope that reading about what two not so young Americans do in their daily life will lead others to think about their lifestyle and changes that they can also make to improve their health as well.

As I have mentioned before all of our friends are omnivores. Dan and I are the lone vegans in our circle of friends which is probably because we have known most of our friends long before the cancer caused us to wake up and make some changes. When I think back now to the warning signs that we ignored I am sad that we didn’t make serious changes sooner. The warning signs were things like: elevated blood pressure, high cholesterol, weight gain, being easily winded doing little activity, difficulty waking up in the morning (requiring espresso to get moving in the morning), seasonal allergies requiring medication for months at a time, sinus infections, frequently catching colds, and just generally feeling lousy. Something tells me there are at least a few of you who can relate to this. ;-) Here is the crazy part of this journey. We changed our diet and lifestyle because of the cancer but all the other problems disappeared. If anyone had told me in my twenties that I would feel better when I was approaching 50 than I did then I would have thought they were insane. However I can honestly say that I feel better now than I have in at least 20 years and probably longer.

Now the only problem is how can I share this with other people in a way that will inspire them to try to make some changes too? This is the $64,000 question that I struggle with as I think about what to write. I very much want others to realize what a huge difference a healthy diet and exercise make in terms of overall health. About 8 years ago I read the book “How to Prevent and Treat Cancer with Natural Medicine”. At the time I thought the authors were crazy to suggest that we should be eating minimum of 10 produce servings per day to prevent caner. Now we eat closer to 20 servings with no difficulty. When you compare this to the average American diet which contains 3 servings and half of those are potatoes you can easily imagine why our collective health is so lousy in this country.

Now I have a question for you. What type of information do you think would get people’s attention? What can we share with them that may have them consider making some serious dietary and lifestyle changes? Was there one thing that caused you to make changes? Please share so that we can all learn from each other.

Happy Thoughts:

What a busy week I have had yet again. I never seem to get as much accomplished as I expect. However I have made progress and that is good thing. Here are my happy thoughts today:

• We had a wonderful dinner on Wednesday for our architect friend Phil (he is the one from Missouri), Walid and his wife Jackie. Life is too short not to spend time with friends. Ian had a nice fall vegetable ragout for us over haricot vert which we both enjoyed. I even joined Phil in an adult beverage while he and I waited for Dan, Walid and Jackie to arrive. See I do sometimes indulge, it just isn’t often. ;-)

• My girl Jackie came through for me on the glasses. That was a huge relief to have glasses again. While I was there she showed me some super cute frames that she liked and I had to agree with her they were fantastic. She was kind enough to bring the frames with her to the restaurant and fitted them for me after dinner. I can’t wait for them to come in next week. I am such a big kid. LOL

• While I was out shopping this week I found a bracelet that matches a pendant and earrings Dan bought me last year for Christmas. Score! This made me very happy. I love anything Italian and this is Venetian glass wrapped in silver. *happy dance* ;-)  Anything from Venice makes me happy since that is where we started our honeymoon.  Are you starting to notice how often Italy finds it way into my life?  It really is a magical place. 

• Studying has been going well and I feel good about being ready for my final nutrition exam. It will be very nice to have that behind me. I am looking forward to relaxing over the holidays.

• Today I had lunch with Dan and Tamera from his office. It is always nice to meet the people who he works with. Tamera and I are a similar age I believe. It was great that she is interested in healthy eating so it gave us something to talk about right away. You know where we went right? Dan had black bean soup and we shared the roasted hummus and veggie wrap that Ian makes for us. Yes we are spoiled, I know that. I wish all you had an Ian of your own. He is a life saver for us and we love him for it.

• Tomorrow we are spending the afternoon with Ian, his wife Carmen and kids. It will be nice to have time to chat with Ian while he isn’t distracted by what is happening around him at the restaurant. Ian is quite the perfectionist which means that he is always watching what is going on. That perfectionist streak is what makes him so good at what he does.

Signing out:

It is time for me to get back to studying and to get dinner started. I hope you have some fun things planned for your weekend. In addition to hanging out with Ian we will be sailing and working on the boat (to get her prepared for the winter), going to the farmers’ market, and just generally relaxing.  Enjoy your weekend whatever you are up to.  :-)

Talk with you again soon. Happy weekend everyone!

Food Fit to Travel

In the midst of the storm system that turned into torrential rain and flooding our ship literally came in. Given the raising water in Baltimore it was nice to know we could float away if necessary. ;-) 

There were a lot of raw meals on board because I was trying to get prepared for the Crazy Sexy Detox which I started on Monday. It would be nice to say that I am totally prepared but that would be a lie. You know me I will wing it as I go along.

The first day on the boat I brought very little food with us and fortunately I was able to find food that Robert (the captain) left onboard which I could turn into something to feed us. There were cans of tomato soup which I seasoned with curry powder and finished with peanuts and it was delicious. He also had tea bags on board we had trail mix, seaweed and flax crackers so we didn’t starve.

There were many mugs of tea enjoyed outside.  What a great way to spend the weekend.  :-)

We went home overnight which gave me an opportunity to whip up a few things. One of them was a Southern Italian spice mix. This one contains dried minced onions, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, fennel seeds, freshly ground black pepper and hot pepper flakes.

This is a dish I concocted from food from home and what was on board. It took canned tomatoes and added Southern Italian seasoning referenced above, cannellini beans and diced bell pepper that I added at the end to minimize the destruction of vitamin C which is sensitive to heat.  I finished the dish with some nutrition yeast which I will also be keeping on board.

Here is a cucumber salad I made which includes chunks of cucumber, shredded carrot, shaved onion, raw sunflower seeds, sherry vinegar, and cilantro.

We also had crudite, caramelized peach and habanero hummus and flax crackers made from the pulp of vegetable juice and almond milk. I added a bunch of no-salt seasoning for flavor, some ground flaxseeds to bind it and enough water to make“dough”. They dehydrated for 24 hours to make them extra crispy the way Dan likes them.

We had some diced cantaloupe also.

I also made fresh veggie juice at home to take with us each morning.

Then there were pizza flavored almonds which turned out really well. I will need to make those again since we both liked them.

Here is another meal of flax crackers, the same caramelized peach and habanero hummus, pizza almonds and a kale salad that I marinated in sherry vinegar, raw garlic and smoked paprika. I topped the salad with diced tomatoes that I packed separately.

No matter where we are Dan and I always try to eat as healthy as possible.

Happy Thoughts:

• It is wonderful to have the boat in Baltimore. We have not been as productive as we could have been but we have done our share of relaxing which was sorely needed. Additionally we also have gotten a lot done on the boat which is excellent. We are slowly but surely figuring out the boat which makes us both happy.

• We have met quite a few of our boat neighbors which is nice. There are a few live-a-boards on our dock which makes us both really happy. It is always nice to have people on your pier to keep an eye open on things.

• The mallards at the marina have figured out that I am a crazy animal lady and having been hanging around by our boat. At one point we had 8 ducks visiting with us all at once and I wasn’t feeding them….yet. ;-) Dan thinks that they sent out a message that there is a sucker in the neighborhood (that would be me not Dan BTW).

• I have been playing around with some new recipes and feel ready for the Crazy Sexy Cleanse to start which I am looking forward to. Let’s hope that it is as easy as I am expecting it to be. I will tell you how it goes for me and what I am eating in case you want to do it too.

• There are many photographic opportunities from the marina. Expect to see a lot of nautical shots for a while. I expect to take my camera with me each time I go to the boat. Here is a picture I love of three older people heading to their boat with the “crazy pirate” ship in the background. I loved the story that this picture told.

Signing out:

Monday is going to be another busy day all day. I have a very busy day planned and we may end our day at the boat since it is so nice to have dinner out in the cockpit while listening to the water. Talk with you again soon.

Another Crazy Weekend and Pecan Taco Meat

I have been having one of those summers where we are home very little. Not being near my computer does make it tough to stay current with the blog.

Thursday:

We went to Ram’s Head On Stage to see Euge Groove who gave a great performance. He was the first artist who came out to sign CDs and chat after the show. Personally I thought that was a very nice touch on his part.

The picture above is one I took under very low light and I was extremely pleased with it. Apparently I can take pictures that don’t involve food. LOL

For those of you who may be going to Ram’s Head order the veggie sandwich (hold the mayo) and the red pepper hummus with all veggies (hold the pita) and you are good to go. Not only is this combination vegan but fairly healthy vegan if you avoid the potato chips which come with the sandwich. ;-)

Friday:

Like all Friday’s mine was particularly jam packed. However this particular Friday I also had an appointment and we ran some errands after that. We did a little clothes shopping and then ran to West Marine for a few things that grew once we were inside. Both Dan and I got sandals with non-marking soles, sailing gloves and hats. We also picked up some extra sailing gloves while we were there since we know none of our friends are likely to have their own since all of them but Dennis don’t sail.

We were shopping longer than we expected so the evening turned into dinner out which we didn’t decide to do until the last minute. You know that meant that Ian didn’t get any advanced notice and fortunately he forgave us for that. ;-) I love having Open Table on my phone. It is very convenient to make reservations using my phone while Dan drives.

The weather was so gorgeous we had dinner on the patio. When we arrived it looked like all the tables outside were taken but no, there was one set up for us. It definitely pays to be a restaurant regular. Not only did we get a table on the patio but it was in Jenn and Janine’s section which was very nice. Since Jenn was working Dan grabbed the extra sailing gloves to make sure they fit her as I was worried that small might have been too big but fortunately that wasn’t an issue. :-)

I was in a vino mood and asked about a sparkling red that I had tasted a few weeks ago and it was only available by the bottle. Since it was 5% alcohol we decided that one bottle wouldn’t be that bad since we rarely ever drink now. The trick will be to not order this ever time we come in but I think we can do it because it is a perfect summer wine and we don’t typically enjoy sweet wine but will make an exception for this. It must be good because it is Italian … all the good stuff is you know. ;-)

We also had a pot of tea which was half green and half hibiscus.

We started with the vegetarian plate of the day which also happened to be vegan (Gee...I wonder why LOL). This dish included saffron rice, ratatouille, a corn salad over avocado and snow peas.

Then we ordered a dish that is one the regular menu but asked them to remove the smoked mozzarella and replace it with cubes of tofu. It certainly does come in handy knowing that Ian has tofu in the kitchen now. ;-) This pasta dish included tomato, fennel, green onions and I am fairly sure there is white wine in the sauce. It was a good summer pasta.

Saturday:

It rained overnight which meant it was muggy and humid when we got up. Thank goodness for air conditioning was all I could think. Since Dan promised to start exercising again he did go with in the morning for a nice little 3.5 mile walk to start the day.

While we were out for our walk we saw this cute little Mini with a red mustache like Snidely Whiplash from Dudley Doright. I could not help but see the humor in this. After our walk we had small bowls of oatmeal and then a small green smoothie (kale and banana).

Dan went downtown to the office to get some work done and I stayed home and worked on my new website. Have I said recently that I am good with technology? Well, I am not good with technology so it was a frustrating Saturday for me.

Dinner was a simple stew of mixed beans (13 to be specific) which I pressure cooked and then added canned tomatoes, Italian seasoning, fresh shitake mushrooms, wine vinegar and zucchini. Nothing too complicated just simple healthy food. To Dan’s stew I added some cooked pasta and pine nuts for extra calories.

Sunday:

We started our day at the farmers’ market like usual. We picked up two containers of hummus, the version with Old Bay (the traditional Maryland seafood seasoning) and a super hot version called XXX. I loved the heat in the XXX hummus but I do love heat. I found out today that the “hummus dude” also has a restaurant. When I look up his menu online if he has vegan options I will be checking it out and will let you know what I think.

While we were at the market Rudy and I had a quick talk about the causes of autism, He is going to bring me an article next week to read.  I love that one of our organic farmers has a PhD is biochemistry. He and I have the best conversations.  :-)

This is a cute bumper sticker I saw when leaving the farmers' market. I love unusual bumper stickes in case you hadn't noticed.

We came from the market with our usual ridiculous amount of produce with included: red leaf lettuce, kale, collards, oyster mushrooms, baby carrots, tomatoes, bell peppers and a basket of peaches (about 100). Yes I really do love peaches that much. Plus I will freeze some of them for smoothies. :-)

Breakfast was leftover soup from Saturday night because it was quick and easy.

Lunch was corn on the cob, fresh tomatoes, and roasted red potatoes with a spicy red pepper dipping sauce. The sauce was something that I whipped together in the Vitamix. Combine roasted red peppers, raw cashews and chili garlic sauce to taste.

Dinner was a taco salad which included: red leaf lettuce, cilantro, salsa, roasted sweet potato, tomatoes and was topped with pecan taco meat. The pecan taco meat was loosely based on the raw dinner we went to at Great Sage earlier this year. Soak pecans in water for a few hours and then drain thoroughly. Place the drained pecans in your food processor and pulse until they resemble ground meat. Now stir in finely diced red onion, grated garlic, a finely diced jalapeno, a little lime juice (or you could substitute wet hots for the jalapeno and lime), ground cumin, chili powder and no-salt seasoning. Stir well to combine all the flavors.

Happy Thoughts:

We had another great weekend though it was more busy than relaxing. However there is always plenty to be thankful for such as:

• We had a lot of fun at the Euge Groove concert Thursday evening in Annapolis. We both love live jazz and Euge did not disappoint. I was also thrilled to get some great pictures at the concert.

• Friday was another busy day but a productive one as well. We stopped at Marshalls before dinner and I found a cute Calvin Klein sweater, a Jones of NY sweater and a red floral maxi skirt. Dan found a great pair of Calvin Klein shorts for the boat. We also picked up some white organic tea and no-salt lemon pepper. Four bags later we were off to the boat store where we able to find more items that were on our boat to-do list. It was definitely a productive shopping trip.  ;-)

• Friday we had a very nice relaxing dinner on the patio. It was definitely the perfect way to wind down the week.

• I was very happy that I didn’t need to twist Dan’s arm to get him to do a little exercise this weekend. Dan claims he will be exercising more often now. Let’s hope work doesn’t continue to get in the way.

• Sunday we were fortunate to get more rain, in fact it rained most of the day. I don’t typically enjoy rain on the weekend but things have been so dry here that a rainy weekend was actually a very welcome sight. Not to mention it was nice to get it out of the way before the boat arrives. ;-)

• Even though Dan had to work again on Sunday we spent the morning together and he worked from his home office rather than going downtown. It was nice to have him at home for lunch and dinner and periodic green tea breaks.

Signing out:

Like always I am up later than I should be. Given what time it is now it looks like we won’t be getting up at 5:30 tomorrow morning. *rolls eyes* Oh well, you can’t win them all. We will at least focus on getting earlier than normal.

Looking at my schedule Monday doesn’t appear to be too hectic. I hope to have time to write another post tomorrow. Don’t forget to join us that the bookclub blog where we start discussing chapter one of “The China Study”. Talk to you again soon. :-)

Making Interesting and Healthy Salads

At first I wasn’t going to post this because I think making salad is something that everyone does, particularly in the summer. However once I thought about it realized that there are a few tricks to making an interesting and healthy salad. After I realized that I knew I should write something on the topic. Here are a few salads I made so far this weekend.

The first was a quinoa and veggie salad. This one contained cold cooked quinoa, diced cucumbers, julienned carrots, dried tart cherries, cilantro and green onions and pecans. I dressed this simply using only lemon zest, lemon juice and no salt seasoning.

The second salad was also a grain and veg salad. It was a simple salad which contained: cold cooked barley, shaved kohlrabi, artichokes, diced cucumber, tomato, and parsley. I wanted this one to have an Italian flavor and dressed it with red wine vinegar and nutritional yeast.

The third salad was all veg, no cooked grain. This one contained raw corn, shaved kohlrabi, diced cucumbers, artichokes, cilantro, tomato, and walnuts. I dressed this salad with fresh lemon juice and no-salt seasoning.

The first thing you will notice is that I don’t use oil on my salads. This isn’t a surprise to my long time readers since you know that I don’t use oil at home except for the occasional splurge with truffle oil or roasted sesame oil. This was a tough habit for me to break being part Italian. I was convinced that salad wouldn’t be any good without unfiltered extra virgin olive oil initially. However I have been away from oil so long now that salad which contains oil just tastes greasy to me. The other thing that I noticed is that oil mutes the flavor of the other ingredients in the salad. I never realized that until I gave it up. It does take a month or more to get used to food without oil, but once you get used to it you won’t go back. Plus your arteries will thank you.

I like to add nuts or seeds to my salad in lieu of oil. They add good fat to help your body absorb the fat soluble vitamins in the salad.

When I make salad I try to make sure that at least 50% of the ingredients in the salad are raw. I do this for both texture and nutrition.  You will notice that the kohlrabi is raw and that is because it is a member of the cruciferous veg family and is far more nutritious when it is raw or lightly cooked.

In addition I intentionally vary the texture of the vegetables. Some of them are cut into chunks, others julienned, and still others shaved. This adds interest to the salad.

I also love to add fresh herbs to salad because they add wonderful flavor intensity.  However herbs also add nutrition so add as many as you like.

Sometimes I add fresh or dried fruit to salad and that always adds a nice little variation to a straight veg or fruit salad. The dried fruit is particularly nice when you want pops of sweet intensity.

Salad dressings are something that I had to play around with for a while to get a feel for what we like. I always start with an acid base either: balsamic, wine vinegar, or citrus. To the acid base I add something that will help the dressing emulsify and this is either Dijon (which works great), miso or a nut cream (walnut and raw cashew are my favorites). Once you have the base done add any flavorings you like. These could be grated garlic or ginger, herbs or spice, poppy seeds, and maybe a little sweetener like stevia. After you start making no oil dressing you will find that they are simple to prepare it just takes a little time for your brain to adjust to the idea of no oil. If you want something really simple use straight balsamic glaze or pomegranate molasses. Both of these are thick as is and they add plenty of flavor.

Happy Thoughts:

• We had a lovely laid back Saturday. It was great to hang out at home and relax and recharge our batteries. We ate popcorn watched a movie and took it easy most of the day. In case you are interested I flavored the popcorn with nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, dill, no-salt seasoning and powdered garlic.  :-)

• Sunday morning we had a great trip to the farmers’ market. We picked up our usual enormous haul of produce. This week we brought home: zucchini, eggplant, kale, portabellas, red potatoes, cabbage, cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, cilantro, wheat germ, wheat bran, whole rye berries, steel cut oats, and mango curry hummus from the hummus stand. It was definitely a good haul this week. They have opened a “flea market” at Sonar next to the farmers’ market. This is where we picked up the organic whole grains. If you are downtown next Sunday check out the organic grains they have. I was very pleased with the variety and the prices.

• The fur children seem to have rebounded from their recent trips to the doctor. Luca is toddling around and smacking her brothers just like always. Masi is moving a little slower than usual but it might just be the season. My little ones seem to be less active in the summer even though they are in the air conditioning.

• I am enjoying reading “Younger Next Year”. If you want to understand the science behind why it is a good idea to exercise everyday this is the book for you. I checked this out from the library but will be buying this for my Kindle because I can see myself referring to it often.

• My laziness really paid off this morning. I was making a batch steel cuts oats to share with Dan today but I wanted savory oats and he wanted fruit and nut oats. I took some oats out for me and then put his breakfast together. Since I didn’t feel like running to the pantry to grab nutritional yeast I ended up making sushi oats for myself and loved it. I will share the details in the next post. While it sounds odd I promise you it was delicious. :-)

Signing Out:

We have other errands to run today so I need to get moving. I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. Talk with you again soon.

Earth’s Essence

I want to post this for the Baltimore locals. If you are ever on the north side of Baltimore near Belvedere Square stop at Earth’s Essence for a fresh juice. This was our lunch on Monday before the raw dinner at Great Sage.

We ordered the Vita-Cocktail and Summer Salad. The Vita-Cocktail was sweet from the carrots and the Summer Salad was more savory. Even though they were both fresh vegetable juices they were very different. Crazy right?

Here is part of the fresh juice menu.

They also have snowballs in case you have kids or less than health obsessed husbands.

Earth’s Essence is fairly close to us but I would go out of my way for their fresh vegetable juice. They will also make a made to order juice if you have a combination you like. If you have been I would love to know your favorite juice. The Summer Salad with a little sherry vinegar is my current favorite.