An Invigorating Day and Gorgeous Weather

Our day started with the most glorious weather today. Who wouldn’t love a sunny April day with mid-day temperatures in the mid-80’s? Hello spring, how I have missed you. ;-)

Knowing the weather was going to be on the warm side I started a batch of cold processed green and white blend tea first thing in the morning. It is nice to be back to the cold processed green and white tea. I missed making it this winter but when it is cold outside cold tea doesn’t feel “right” to me.

While I was rushing around this morning making Dan’s breakfast and packing his lunch I bent my little toe back extremely far and immediately knew it wasn’t good. I am fairly sure it is broken because it hurts to touch and is swollen. No I didn’t go to the doctor it is only my little toe. I did do some quick research and immediately started icing it, took Tylenol and elevated my foot. Since the Tylenol was enough to take the edge off the pain I just kept going. I did skip my long walk this morning since it isn’t comfortable to be on my feet. Maybe this will teach me to wear slippers around the house from now on. Knowing how I am I can safely say that I probably won’t change my barefoot habit but hope springs eternal right?

Dan had his favorite green smoothie this morning for breakfast which included: frozen banana, kale, walnuts, wheat germ, freshly ground flaxseeds, cinnamon, powdered ginger, stevia and a little water. He loves this smoothie which makes me happy because it is more nutritious than many things he could request for breakfast.

I mentioned yesterday that I just finished reading “Clean” and that has me craving fresh juice. Additionally Emily is doing a juice fast and that also has me thinking juice and smoothies. Of course the change in weather doesn’t hurt either. I suppose I don’t have to tell you what I had for breakfast do I?

Wednesday my breakfast was fresh juice of: 1 beet, 3 stalks celery, 2 cups raw baby collards, 1 orange, ½ lemon, 1 inch fresh ginger and 1 tablespoon chia seeds which I had over ice in a frosty glass. It may be just me but I love having a tall glass of nutrition first thing in the morning.

Given the throbbing in my foot I decided today was a good day to take it a little easy. I actually didn't exercise today. Okay I did some crunches, planks and gentle yoga but I don’t think that really counts. ;-)

My lunch was an enormous salad of: approximately 6 cups baby spinach, about 1 cup cold leftover bulgur with sun-dried tomatoes, marinated mushrooms, thinly sliced cucumber, salsa, and cherry tomatoes. Lunch was delicious, nutritious, very filling not to mention ready in under 5 minutes. That is my kind of lunch for sure. LOL

After lunch I had a chance to chat on the phone and found the call to be very uplifting. There is something wonderful about talking to someone that shares your views of health and nutrition. It caused me to reflect on my life and how it has changed since I gave up being part of corporate America.

Retiring is one of the best things I ever did for myself. When I “worked” I spent far too much time away from home and very little time on myself and/or my family. Additionally I never felt any joy from work; it was only what I did to make money. Of course I liked some aspects for working but overall it was a giant bust.

One of the things I love the most about my life now is the time I have to research health and being able to share it with you. I get many touching emails from people telling me that I inspire them, or asking questions about how to eat more healthfully or telling me how much they like savory oatmeal. Every time I read one of those emails I am encouraged to put more effort into blogging and to share more information. Making a difference in someone’s dietary choices and helping them to improve their health is such a high for me. Thank you for reading, commenting and emailing. All of you make the time I spend on the blog a true labor of love.

After “Chatty Cathy” (my nickname as a child for obvious reasons) got off the phone it was time to make something for dinner tonight. I decided to pressure cook black beans since we hadn’t had those in a couple weeks. You do all remember that the darker beans are higher in antioxidants right? I pressure cooked 2 cups of black beans in 8 cups of water under high pressure for 22 minutes then let the pressure fall naturally. When the beans were cool I put them in the refrigerator for later.

I also cubed two sweet potatoes and cooked them in the little counter-top halogen/convection/infra red oven and they were ready in 15 minutes without preheating the oven. I have only used my big oven twice since I bought this thing. It is the perfect for making quick food for the two of us. I love that it doesn’t need to be preheated and is almost as fast as the microwave but without the odd texture that you sometimes get when cooking in a microwave. When I bought this thing I wasn’t sure we would get a lot of use out of it since it is marketed as cooking meat quickly but I really love having it.

While the beans were cooking I grabbed package of seaweed snacks for their iodine content. When I gave up iodized salt years ago I wondered about the impact on my health but didn’t do a lot of research since I decided adding iodine to salt was unnatural and therefore not a concern. Fast forward about a week ago I read this article about iodine deficiencies in the UK. That was when I decided to add more sea vegetables to our day. We don’t eat sea veg every day but we do have it a couple times of week when I remember. With a little luck sea veg will become part of our routine like the brazil nuts, flax or chia, turmeric and black pepper, broccoli and tomatoes, walnuts, green and white tea with ascorbate C…you get the idea. ;-)

I also had my usual orange and Brazil nut snack.  When it is no longer orange season I may start adding two Brazil nuts to our smoothies to make certain we get adequate selenium.

Dinner tonight was another salad in a serving bowl. This salad contained: baby spinach, cilantro, salsa, black beans, sweet potatoes, artichokes, tomatoes, and marinated mushrooms.

Salads are one of my favorite things to eat when the weather starts to get warmer. It is hard to believe that there was a time when salad was my least favorite part of a meal. My food preferences so radically changed it is hard for me to believe. I often get asked if it is easy to eat this way and my answer is always yes. There are two primary reasons we are able to maintain our uber diet. The first is that we both feel so incredible which reduces our desire for unhealthy food. The second reason is knowledge. Once you know exactly why you should be avoiding certain foods even when our habits and memories cause us to look fondly at an unhealthy item the knowledge is enough to keep us from indulging.

I will be the first to admit that eating healthy at home is a breeze compared to when we go out. Chefs are not typically "able" to cook without oil and that is just something that I accept and don’t obsess about. Given how clean our diet is at home I can let that go when we go out. Life is always a series of trade-offs. I would rather go out sometimes and have some oil that to stay home and have a more perfect diet. I guess you could say having a little oil is my idea of moderation. Overall I am content with the healthfulness of diet at this time.

Happy thoughts:

• I am happy that my toe is improving, and that is wasn’t hurt as badly as it could have been. This morning (Thursday) my toe felt really good until I bumped it on a cat tree. *rolls eyes* I have my foot elevated and iced again and it is starting to feel better. I really need to be more careful until it heals.

• Given my toe I won’t be working out as much for the next few days at least. My plan is to use that time to be productive around the house. I have a number of projects that have been on my to-do list for entirely too long. This forced exercise hiatus will give me time to get a few items crossed off my list.

• It is nice that I have gotten the hang of Facebook since I had a lot of trepidation around starting that. I can already see that I need to be careful that Facebook doesn’t cause me to spend a lot more time on the computer since I have don’t want to give up any of my other activities and there are only so many hours in the day.

• Today I am going to take some time to work on my Easter menu. Currently I am thinking I may make fresh pasta as a treat for everyone. When I have the menu finalized I will let you know what I am making.

Signing off:

I have been lazy long enough this morning so it is time to get busy. I need to make myself breakfast and get caught up with my nutrition reading. For those of you on Facebook I will posting links to any articles that I find interesting soon.

I hope you had the same gorgeous weather yesterday that we enjoyed. Talk to you again tomorrow. Have a great Thursday!

Low Saturated Fat Coconut Milk Replacement

I love the flavor of coconut milk but I am not crazy about the saturated fat content. I know what you are thinking isn’t coconut good for me? Sadly that is only theoretical at this time and until there is hard science regarding the benefit I am going to stay away from concentrated sources of saturated fat whether it is animal or vegetable since we know saturated fat isn’t healthy. When/if there is definitive science on the benefits of coconut fat I will let you know.

Since coconut milk adds lusciousness to food, particularly Indian food, I really wanted a replacement for it to use in cooking. Wednesday I made coconut soymilk and today I made coconut almond milk so that I could compare the two. Here is what I did:

Coconut Soymilk
Makes approximate 1 quart

Ingredients:

1 cup dried organic soybeans soaked in plenty of water over night in the refrigerator then hull
4 cups filtered water, or to the top line in your soymilk maker
3 tablespoons oatmeal, dry
½ teaspoon coconut extract (start with ¼ teaspoon and taste)

Directions:

Follow the directions for making soymilk found here or here. Add the oatmeal to the soybeans and water in the machine. Strain the milk and add in the coconut extract starting with ¼ teaspoon and add more from there if necessary.

The result, the milk has a nice coconut aroma and is reasonably thick from the additional oatmeal. Before I made this I considered adding a couple of tablespoons of raw cashews for richness but I didn’t think it absolutely needed it. This was very easy and tasty. I loved the heady coconut aroma that wafted off of this each time I opened the jar. It is definitely good stuff.

Then it was time for the Coconut Almond milk. Here is what I did:

Coconut Almond Milk
Makes approximately 1 quart

Ingredients:

1 cup almonds (which I did not skin)
filtered water to make 5 cups in the blender
3 tablespoons oatmeal, dry
½ teaspoon coconut extract starting with ¼ teaspoon

Directions:

Place the almonds in your high-speed blender. Cover the almonds with water to the 5 cup mark. Add the oatmeal and process on high until the nuts are thoroughly ground (about 3 minutes but I didn’t time it). Strain through a fine wine sieve. Add ¼ teaspoon of coconut extract and taste the milk. I ended up using ½ teaspoon. Refrigerate until needed.

Comparing the Two Coconut Milks:

I liked them both but thought the almond milk version was a little richer. Not to mention the almond milk is faster to make. However I was very pleased with both versions and will be using them both again. If you want to more closely mimic the richness (i.e. fattiness) you can try adding raw cashews to the milk. I would start with a tablespoon at a time. Additionally you could try adding a little unsweetened shredded coconut (but I suspect that will need to be strained).

I am not including nutritional information for either recipe since it would be a SWAG (scientific wild as..d guess) on my part.

Thursday:

You have probably already figured out that my Thursday was hectic. I spent some time making orange marshmallows that were chocolate dipped some with coconut and some with walnuts. Even though we don’t eat the marshmallows I do like to make them for others. There is something fun about the process for me. Jonathan and Brittany are celebrating their anniversary today so I was happy to help out with some homemade sweets. I made extra to take to the restaurant since everyone there also enjoy sweets and have had my marshmallows before. What? You don’t take food to your local restaurant? LOL, I know I am not right.  ;-)

We got the restaurant late, late, late. Knowing that they stop seating at 9pm I called ahead and placed an order for dinner so that we weren’t holding up the guys in the kitchen.

No surprise Dan wanted a vegan whole wheat pizza and Brandon picked our toppings and Mike executed it and the result was delicious. Thanks guy’s great job as always!

We also ordered our new favorite Tuscan carrots

and a plate of roasted veggies.

Then we hung out on the patio for a while with Jonathan and chatted with Jenn, Steph and Corey. If you don’t have a restaurant where you are a regular I am sure our stories seem very odd.  As you can probably tell we have gotten to know everyone fairly well.  ;-) We wouldn’t go out to eat nearly as much if we didn’t have such a nice time every time we are there.

Happy Thoughts:

• I heard from Jonathan this morning and Brittany loved the marshmallows. *happy dance* I love doing things like this. I suppose deep down I have a bit of “food pusher” in me like Ian. LOL

• Thursday was hectic but not as bad as the last couple of weeks. I feel like life is starting to return to normal again. *huge sigh of relief* I am looking forward to having time to get back to my routine.

• Our weather has been very nice lately. The spring bulbs are all up and the garden is starting to come to life. My newly planted herbs are doing well. I can’t wait to spend a little time in the garden. Spring is my favorite season.

• I have been getting back into juicing again with the change in season. Needless to say I am enjoying starting my day with a big glass of fresh veggies.  This one contained beet, lemon, kale, garlic, celery and chia seeds.

• Is there a better day of the week than Friday? I am always in a good mood on Friday. Saturday is supposed to be rainy but Sunday we should be sunny and 66. *woo hoo* Then our temperatures are forecasted to get into the 70’s next week. I love spring!

Signing out:

Since it is Friday I am running errands today and getting ready for the weekend. I hope you have some fun things planned for the weekend. Talk to you again soon, hopefully tomorrow.

Frenetic Wednesday

My day completely got away from me today and I ran out of time to write a proper post. On the bright side I did have a few things go really well which I wanted to tell you about briefly, but will go into detail about tomorrow.

My morning started with fresh vegetable and fruit juice. As you can tell this one contained beet.  ;-)

I made the coconut soymilk today and was very pleased with how that turned out. Talk about easy and delicious and many options for enhancing it. This is a real winner and one I think you will enjoy.

Seaweed snacks are back at our house for the iodine. I will explain why in my next post.

Lunch was Egyptian flavored fava beans over quinoa (not very Egyptian but a good source of protein). 

Dan came home early from work today since he had an upset stomach. It is nothing serious he just wasn’t feeling right and it worried me since he never complains. However after being home for a while and relaxing was just what he needed. He is doing much better now. *whew* Now I can relax.

I had a great call this evening with Janet who is helping me to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Who knows maybe I will figure it out before I am too old to put my ideas into action. *fingers crossed* Only time will tell.

Dinner was a fast curried "cream" of carrot soup made in the Vitamix. In case you hadn't noticed I love that machine.

After I get this posted I am making homemade chocolate dipped marshmallows for a friend. I won’t be blogging that since the recipe isn’t vegan. If any of you want the recipe please email me at veganepicurean@gmail.com and I will be happy to share it with you. Homemade marshmallows are very easy to make and delicious though neither good for you nor vegan.  When we were omnivores I made marshmallows every Christmas instead of cookies.  No sugar fiends in my circle of friends.  The chocolate dipped espresso marshmallows were always very popular. Sugar, caffeine and chocolate no wonder they were addictive.  LOL, see I am not kidding when I tell you that I haven't always been so health conscious.  ;-)

Happy thoughts:

• Overall I had a great day today. I got a number of things crossed off my to-do list which always makes me happy. It feels good to be productive.

• I enjoyed chatting with my friend Joy today about food that travels well without refrigeration. That conversation gave me some ideas of things to experiment with for Dan to take with him when he has to go somewhere for work. I will be detailing that in a future post.  I needed food ideas for when Dan has to go out of town for work but somehow when Joy asked the question I was able to come up with ideas more easily. I think talking to another woman was the secret.  ;-)

• I am thankful that my schedule is returning to normal. It is nice to have a little time to myself again.  Today I had a few minutes to kick back during the afternoon and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

• Today I started listening to “Veganist” the book on CD. I finished the first and second CDs today while doing other things around the house. I didn’t know what to expect but so far it is better than I thought it would be. When I get finished listening to it I will write a proper review.  I still have 6 CDs to go so it may be a few days before I am done.

• We are more than half way to the weekend. *happy dance* I love my weekends and hope we have good weather again this weekend so that we can take our bikes out for a long ride and maybe a picnic. Doesn’t that sound like fun?

Signing Out:

It is time to make the marshmallows, literally. They need to cure overnight before I can cut them and dip them in chocolate. After that it is time for us to start winding down.

I hope you had a great Wednesday. Talk to you again tomorrow. Good night!

Corn Fungus was Fabulous…Woo hoo!

The weather on Monday was absolutely gorgeous. When we heard that temperatures were expected to rise into the mid to upper 80’s we knew that meant dinner on the patio tonight for us. Knowing that we would be going out meant a reasonably light food day to keep things in check.

It was wonderful to start the day opening the windows to let the fresh air into the house. Any day when I have the windows open is a good one in my opinion. I am convinced that I feel better when the windows are open and the fresh air is flowing through the house.

I started my morning with green juice. This juice combination included: ½ bunch kale, 3 stalks celery, 1 lemon, 1 clove garlic, 1 tablespoon of chia seeds and a little sparkling water. If you like sweet things this is not the juice for you. However if you are like me and favor things like savory oatmeal then you should give this a try.

My lunch was a giant salad that contained about 6 cups of mesclun, topped with strawberries and blueberries and topped with almonds and a dressing of fresh lemon juice, lemon zest and white miso. If you like you can sweeten this dressing with a touch of stevia or leave it out. This dressing has a big punch so you only need a very small amount to flavor your salad.

My afternoon snack was an orange and Brazil nuts. As you can see Masi had to check out the orange for me and make sure it was fit for consumption. Good thing I have my cats to look out for me.

I bet you know exactly where we went for dinner right? Dinner was the “vegan prix fixe” by our very beloved chef friend Ian. He was kind enough to use both the corn fungus and tempeh in dinner which I was thrilled to hear.

Our appetizer was tofu in a spicy corn smut (aka corn fungus or cuitlacoche) sauce on top of arugula. The black color was very scary but honestly given some of the omni dishes we had had this was really not too threatening. The flavor was out of this world. He went with the fungus angle and added shitakes and truffle and also added corn (it was corn fungus after all), edamame and chilis. We both this dish and it was definitely our favorite. As you can tell we both like “unusual foods”?

Course two was zucchini and tomatoes over gnocchi which appeals to my Italian DNA. I can’t think of a single Italian dish that I don’t love. Some of them are off my list now (because they are meat or dairy based) but I still love them only now it is from afar.

The entrée was Indonesian curried tempeh and veg over sticky rice. We thought this had great flavor and texture but to say that Ian was not excited about working with the tempeh would be an understatement.  Ian didn’t like the texture or the flavor of it plain. Oh well, at least he tried it right? He is still willing to try working with seitan so there is still hope. He has made huge strides coming from a place where everything has demi glace or beurre blanc and we really appreciate that he has done that for us.  We really adore you Ian I hope you know that.

Peta’s Sexiest Vegetarian Next Door:

Early this morning I received a very nice email from Paige introducing herself and telling me that she was taking part in the PETA contest for the Sexiest Vegetarian Next Door. Paige went on to explain that she also went to Loyola (like Dan and I did) and was a health conscious vegan. When she asked me to vote for her and mention it on my blog how could I possibly say no given all we had in common? One thing she told me that I had to share was that she changed her diet after realizing that when she ate a lot of junk she felt like junk. If only I had been that smart at her age. Here is the link to her page, please vote for her.

Additionally Carissa also asked me to vote for her later today. I double checked and you can vote more than once in this round so please also vote for Carissa who is about as sweet as they come. She entered to get back to Hawaii to see her family. You can check out her blog here.

Good luck to you both!

Happy Thoughts:

• Monday was a great day. The weather was glorious and we had a lovely dinner on the patio soaking up the 80 degree temps and gentle breeze. It was just a great day to be alive and in love.

• I have been crazy busy the last few weeks but thankfully I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now and know it isn’t a train. Knowing my life will be returning to normal very soon is enough to make me feel better. ;-)

• We had a lovely dinner Monday night and Ian really put himself out there. He is so good to us, you have no idea. We are very lucky to have him in our lives.

• The stolen tag issue has been resolved and now both cars are back in service, now with locking bolts on the tags. We were fortune to have two cars, and one that wasn’t needed so that the tag issue could be taken care of so quickly.

• Luca Belle is doing very well on her new medication from the DVM. It looks like she will be getting her teeth taken care of soon. We had to stabilize her asthma before she could go under anesthesia. It is nice to have the asthma under control. I worry about my fur children when they aren’t feeling 100%.

Signing out:

I have a lot to get done this evening before I can turn in. However by lunch time tomorrow my life returns to my usual lady of leisure ways, LOL. Can’t say that is coming soon for me.

I hope this week is treating you well so far. Before I forget, I have soybeans soaking now for coconut soymilk tomorrow. I will keep you informed how that works out. My goal is to make a low-fat coconut milk substitute using soy milk thickened with oats. Hopefully I will get this right on the first shot. *fingers crossed. Talk to you again tomorrow.

Grapefruit and Kale Juice and Other Monday Eats

For some reason neither Dan nor I slept well Sunday night. No surprise that meant that we slept in rather than going to the gym. I exercised after Dan left for work and he exercised at the office before coming home. We both worked out just not together or before dawn.

Breakfast:

Dan was happy to have his favorite green smoothie for breakfast which included: kale, frozen bananas, wheat germ, freshly ground flaxseeds, cinnamon, powdered ginger, walnuts, water, and stevia.

Breakfast was inspired by Laura’s comment on yesterday’s post. I loved this so much I also had it Tuesday for breakfast. Here is what I did:

Grapefruit and Kale Juice
Serves 1

Ingredients:

1 ruby red grapefruit, peeled and seeded
4 organic kale leaves and stems
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
small piece of fresh ginger (peel if not organic and young otherwise just clean well)
¼ teaspoon powdered ginger
2 ½ cups water
2 tablespoons wheat germ
1 tablespoon golden flaxseeds, freshly ground

Directions:

Place everything in your blender and process until smooth. Serve in a frozen glass or over ice.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 321.9
Calories From Fat (20%) - 62.89

Total Fat - 7.33g
Saturated Fat - 0.89g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 112.61mg
Potassium - 1404.86mg
Total Carbohydrates - 59.5g
Fiber - 13.4g
Sugar - 17.01g
Protein - 14.13g

Comments:

This tastes predominantly like grapefruit juice but with the added nutrition of raw kale.  Woo Hoo! What a winner this combination is! Thank you Laura for the inspiration as you can tell I loved your citrus suggestion!

Lunch:

Since Monday was a grey and rainy day I decided to have 2 medium bowls leftover split pea soup from the weekend for my lunch. I needed something to warm up a little given the weather. Instead of taking another picture I used the one from the weekend. ;-)

Snack:

No surprise I had my usual snack of an orange and two Brazil nuts. What am I going to do when it is no longer prime citrus season? ;-)

Dinner:

For dinner I made a quick pot of curried tomato sauce which I added mushrooms and broccoli to and served that over quinoa and topped with cashews. I like to combine broccoli with tomatoes since learning that when they are combined the phytonutrients in both are more bioavailable. Since Dan was very late coming home I had a small serving before bed so it didn’t keep my up.  Dan's serving was about three times this size.  I made extra to put in Dan's lunch on Tuesday.

Happy Thoughts:

Tuesday was a good day, a little busy but still good. Here are my happy thoughts:

• It was nice to wake up to blue skies this morning after our day of rain on Monday. It is a shame that was a little on the cool side by the sunshine was very welcome and brightened my mood.

• Today I spent a little time organizing and now have an excel spreadsheet of all my exercise and health DVDs as well as my Wii health games. I knew I had too many DVDs when I brought home an exercise DVD that I already own but hadn’t used lately. LOL *shakes head* Sometimes I need a wrap on the side of the head to do things like cataloging my DVDs.

• Our friend Phil is going to be in town next week which means dinner out. ;-) I found out today that Walid, and possibly his lovely wife Jackie, will also be joining the group. Sounds like a party to me. It is fun to get together with friends for dinner. There really is nothing like a gathering on a work night to put a smile on my face. Somehow things like this make weekdays seem less daunting.

• I had a chance to chat on the phone with a blogger friend today. It is really nice to be able to put a voice with the face. I love making new friends don’t you? It is even better when those friends are as concerned about health and nutrition as you are. I think having health conscious friends helps me to stay on the appropriate nutritional path.

• Isn’t this a great picture of the sunrise?  I took it a few weeks ago and forgot to share it with you.  As you may have noticed I love to take pictures particularly of nature. Mother Nature really can put on a show can’t she?

Signing Out:

I am running a bit late today getting my post written and making dinner. Sorry this post was a little short I ran out of time but didn’t want to skip a day like I did far too many times this year. I hope Tuesday was a good one for you. Enjoy what is left of your evening. Talk to you again tomorrow.

Zucchini Pasta with Creamy Tomato Sauce

Much to my surprise Dan actually left work earlier than usual today, before 6:30pm if you can imagine. This meant I didn’t have dinner ready since he has been working late this week. When I need a quick meal zucchini pasta always works.

The sauce I made today is a raw version of a creamy tomato sauce that typically has vodka. I used raw cashews in place of cream and added wine vinegar for the vodka. Both Dan and I liked the way this turned out. Here is what we had tonight:

Zucchini Pasta with Creamy Tomato Sauce
Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 zucchini, spiralized
14 ounce can artichokes hearts, quartered
2 large tomatoes, rough chopped
½ cup raw cashews (soaked for at least 30 minutes and drained if not using a high speed blender)
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 medjool date, pitted
½ tablespoon wine vinegar
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
8 basil leaves, julienned
2 sprigs oregano, for garnish

Directions:

Combine the tomatoes, cashews, garlic, date and wine vinegar in your blender and process until smooth. If you are using a high speed blender it is not necessary to soak the cashews. Taste the sauce once it is smooth and add black pepper and/or adjust seasonings to your taste.

To plate, place the zucchini pasta on the base of the plate, top with sauce, artichokes and herbs. Serve cold.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 342.51
Calories From Fat (28%)-  97.36

Total Fat - 11.67g
Saturated Fat - 2.01g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 222.92mg
Potassium - 2031.13mg
Total Carbohydrates - 55.28g
Fiber - 18.31g
Sugar - 17.78g
Protein - 16.16g

Comments:

Both Dan and I enjoyed this dish. The sauce is rich (from the cashews) yet still light and with a hint of sweetness from the date. I will definitely be making this again since we both enjoyed it and it was quick.

Unrelated note:

I wanted to let you know why there have been fewer posts recently. I seem to have lost my blogging voice temporarily. Over the last week or so I haven’t felt like I have much to say. Additionally I haven’t felt much like cooking. I assume this will pass but at the moment I am riding it out while I wait for things to return to normal.

The raw cracker experiment from yesterday turned out different from other raw crackers I have made. It isn’t exactly what I wanted but they are thinner and very crisp. I am moving in the right direction with the crackers but we aren’t there yet. But given the results on the latest recipe I am fairly sure I will come up with a raw version of Mary’s crackers at some point. I think it is only a matter of time.

I made another version of lentil pate late this afternoon. It is still chilling so I am not ready to post the recipe yet. I hope to be able to sample it early tomorrow so I can share the recipe. This version is seasoned like traditional pate.

For now I need to run. A certain husband “needs” strawberry banana soft serve while he watches sci fi. Talk to you tomorrow.

Raw Nori Wraps and a Busy Monday

Monday and Friday tend to be busy for me and this week is started out the same way. I will share more details later in the post but let’s start with the food. ;-)

Have you ever had one of those days where you stare at a full refrigerator and draw a complete blank on what to make? If so, then welcome to my day. We have plenty of produce to choose from and I could not think of anything to make for dinner until after 5:30 this evening. *rolls eyes* I was considering Asian food but I didn’t want rice again. That bought nori to mind which is how this recipe started. I decided why not make a little nut spread/pate instead of rice and use that to anchor the veggies into the wraps. Here is what I did:

Raw Nori Wraps
Serves 4

Nut pate Ingredients:

1 cup raw cashews, soaked at least an hour, then thoroughly drained
1 tablespoon white miso
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
approximately 1/3 cup water

Vegetable ingredients:

8 sheets nori
1 cup snow pea shoots
4 cups mixed greens
1 bell pepper thinly sliced
1 carrot, grated

Directions:

In your food processor (or blender) combine the drained cashews, miso, garlic, and onions flakes and process. Slowly drizzle in water until you have a thick but spreadable consistency.

To make the rolls place a sheet of nori on your sushi nori mat and spread with the shiny side down. Spread 1/8 of the nut pate on the nori leaving a wide border to seal the nori after you roll it. Add 1/8 of the lettuce, bell pepper, carrot and pea shoots to the end closest to you. If you use different fillings always place the largest ones first and end with the smallest.

Roll the nori using the mat to help you wrap the nori firmly. When you reach bare nori moisten it with water (to seal the roll) and continue rolling. Use the mat to help you compact the rolls.  Only make as many rolls as you are going to eat right away these do not store well, they get soggy.

Slice into 8 pieces using a very sharp knife. Two whole rolls, or 16 pieces is a serving.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 188.66
Calories From Fat (49%) - 91.51

Total Fat - 10.93g
Saturated Fat - 1.92g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 192.26mg
Potassium - 434.85mg
Total Carbohydrates - 16.06g
Fiber - 5.13g
Sugar - 4.16g
Protein - 8.1g

Comments:

Not your traditional sushi but less work and still quite tasty. I really like how quickly this comes together, particularly if you have soaked raw cashews in the refrigerator waiting to become “something”.

This isn’t particularly Asian in flavor but I like that. It would work well as a starter for any type of cuisine. Sometimes I add capers, olives or sun dried tomatoes to similar verions of these rolls and all those work well.

Other Food to report:

Last night we ended up having a big salad at about 8:30pm. Nothing exciting just romaine, tomato, avocado, cucumber, salsa and walnut parmesan.

This morning we had a bowl of watermelon, blackberries and kiwi. Dan had oatmeal to go along with the fruit bowl.

Lunch was leftover ratatouille from yesterday. Of course there was a big bottle of fresh vegetable and fruit juice and trail mix.

Monday’s are always busy:

I normally try to spend as much time with Dan as possible on the weekend when he doesn’t need to work. Since Dan took the entire weekend off I did very little around the house other than cook this past weekend. By Monday tasks have piled up around here. There is always a lot to do at our house with three little cat fuzz makers. I will leave the specifics to your imagination. ;-)

I also decided to take everything out of my refrigerator to see what was in there. It is so full of produce it is a bit embarrassing. I decided if I had list of perishables inside it would make it easier for me to come up with recipe ideas. Yes, I know I should plan my meals ahead of time but I just don’t work well with “constraints”. Instead I buy things that look good or appeal to me at the moment. I always try to vary the produce we eat to maximize our consumption of micronutrients.

Here is what I have in the refrigerator or on the counter currently: beets, beet greens, zucchini, cucumbers, collards, carrots, celery, mesclun, romaine, spring onions, fava beans, Italian flat beans, red bell peppers, red cabbage, avocadoes, shitake mushrooms, king trumpet mushrooms, portobello mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple, apples, lemons, mangoes, kiwi, dragon fruit, mangosteen, lemon, banana and ginger. Since I imagine you are wondering that is for the two of us and we will eat it all. Dan and I both eat and/or drink a lot of fresh produce every day. It is all for us and we will manage to eat it all by the end of the week.   

I still marvel at the fact that the average American eats three vegetable servings a day. Sadly I don't think many vegans eat a lot more veggie servings based on some blogs I have seen. *shakes head*  I wish more people understood the importance of eating fresh produce, and as much as possible.  Had we known that sooner we would have changed our habits much earlier in life.

Twitter update:

I also have been spending more time trying to learn Twitter. It is still not intuitive but is starting to make more sense. I will say that it baffles me how people keep up with blogs, twitter and facebook. There must be some secret I haven’t figured out yet. At the moment it appears to be a big time drain. I am hoping it gets easier and quicker. Clearly I will need to use more of the capabilities of the fancy phone my hubby bought me this past January.

Tomorrow:

If all goes according to plan tomorrow I should be a little more relaxing. I want to read “The New Rules for Lifting” which arrived last week. I have only had a chance to skim it but what I did see I liked. I also want to work on a new raw cracker tomorrow. I haven’t made any flax crackers in a while so I think it is time for another batch and I am going to play around with the thickness, or I should say thinness to see how that changes things.

For now I need to go and spend some time with my hubby. I will “chat” with you tomorrow.

Baked Stuffed Zucchini and Peppers and Walnut Parmesan

Today has been almost as busy at our place as yesterday. I was hoping for a bit of respite today but that didn’t happen. Since I didn’t have time to cook yesterday I wanted to make something today to have leftovers for Dan’s lunch. I had initially planned to make zucchini lasagna but ran out of time to dehydrate the zucchini noodles overnight. In the interest of saving time I went with stuffed zucchini and peppers instead. This is one of those quick, no fuss meals that everyone likes so leftovers are always welcome. Here is what I did:

Baked Stuffed Zucchini and Peppers
Serves 6

Ingredients:

2 cups yellow onion, finely minced (allow to stand 10 minutes before heating)
4 large cloves garlic, finely minced (allow to stand 10 minutes before heating)
¼ cup water to sauté aromatics
1 medium zucchini, cut in half lengthwise and hollowed out like a boat (chop the insides to include in the filling)
green juice pulp from 3 stalks celery, 1 head romaine, 3 leaves kale, 3 leaves of collards
14 ounces extra firm tofu, well drained
2 tablespoons brown rice flour (helps the tofu to firm up like ricotta)
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon hot crushed pepper (wet hots)
black pepper to taste
14 ounces tomato sauce plus ¼ cup water to thin sauce
1 green pepper, seeded and stemmed
1 tomato, thinly sliced

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Start by cutting the zucchini in half lengthwise. Then cut it into serving size pieces. Use a melon baller to scoop out the insides leaving a reasonably thin shell to hold the filling. The remaining sides on my zucchini were maybe a fat ¼ inch thick. The less thick the zucchini shell the quicker the dish will cook. Place the zucchini you removed in your food processor and pulp until it is ground, but not yet mush.

Water sauté the onion, garlic and zucchini you scooped out of the boats until it is tender. You are cooking the zucchini so that it doesn’t make your filling runny since zucchini is mostly water. I got impatient waiting for the water to evaporate end put the mixture in a fine wire sieve to remove the water. Set this aside.

In your food processor add the green juice pulp, tofu, flour, nutritional yeast, Italian seasoning, fennel seeds, hot crushed peppers and black pepper to taste. If you wish add salt to the tofu stuffing. Combine the tofu and onion mixtures together with a spoon. You don’t want the processor to obliterate the onions. You want a little texture in the filling.

Pour the tomato sauce in a baking dish and rinse the can with a little water. You want to start with a sauce that is a little more liquid since it will concentrate in the oven.

Fill the zucchini boats with the stuffing. If you have stuffing leftover, which I did, use bell peppers or an eggplant to hold the extra stuffing. Place the stuffed veggies in the pan with the sauce. Top each filled boat with a slice of tomato (for color only). Bake uncovered for 45 minutes or until the filling starts to get firm. I would suggest you check it at the 30 minute mark in case your oven runs hot.

To serve, spoon a little of the tomato sauce on the base of the plate or on top of the stuffed veggie. Sprinkle with vegan parmesan or nutritional yeast if desired.

Nutritional Information (for 1/6th of the recipe):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 150.63
Calories From Fat (28%) - 41.62

Total Fat - 4.42g
Saturated Fat - 0.46g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 362.83mg
Potassium - 648.55mg
Total Carbohydrates - 17.53g
Fiber - 7.09g
Sugar - 7.59g
Protein - 9.55g

Comments:

This is light and yet flavorful. I like that it doesn’t include pasta and that is it low in fat and calories yet contains a nice amount of protein and fiber. Obviously the dish is too light to be an entire meal. But with a big salad on the side you are all set.

If you want to make the filling more rich add a couple of tablespoons of soaked and drained raw cashews to the food processor with the tofu. I do that when I make tofu lasagna and it does make a much richer filling. However we are not always in the food for rich food that seems to be more appropriate during the cold weather to me.

When choosing your tofu be certain to read the ingredient list. Some of them contain soy protein isolates. Recently I have been buying the organic Nature’s Promise brand from Giant or Wegman’s organic. Both of these are soy protein isolate free. I will be writing a post on the problem with soy protein isolates soon.

Next recipe:

When baking Italian dishes I immediately think of serving them with parmesan. It just seems to be de rigueur. The problem is that I don’t buy the commercial vegan varieties because they contain too many “frankenfoods”. When the ingredient list reads more like a science experiment than food I won’t buy it, period. Even though I made parmesan here, that took quite a while and isn’t something that I as in the mood to play with today. Instead I decide to make a quick nut parmesan. Here is what I did:

Walnut Parmesan
Makes 16 servings that are about ½ tablespoon each

Ingredients:

1/2 cup walnuts
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast, or to taste

Directions:

Combine the nuts and nutritional yeast in your food processor (or blender) and process until you have what can best be described as tiny bits of walnut coated in nutritional yeast. Place this in a covered container and refrigerate until needed. I store this in the refrigerator because I store all my nuts there or in the freezer to keep them fresh for longer. You can keep this on your counter if desired.

Nutritional Information (1/16th of the recipe):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 30.47
Calories From Fat (83%) - 25.41

Total Fat - 2.38g
Saturated Fat - 0.22g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 0.07mg
Potassium - 16.12mg
Total Carbohydrates - 0.5g
Fiber - 0.24g
Sugar - 0.1g
Protein - 0.56g

Comments:

If you like the flavor of nutritional yeast you will like this. It is a quick and simple recipe that I like to keep on hand to sprinkle on salad or baked dishes. If you are still eating salt you may want to add that to the food processor. You can also use other nuts to make this. I like to use almonds or pine nuts to make this too. These days I tend to favor walnuts for the favorable omega 3:6 ratio compared to other nuts.

New Cookbooks:

So… while I was at Costco I had to check out the book section. What if there were cookbooks that I “needed”. As luck may have it there just happened to be two. I enjoy the Culinara series of cookbooks. I own the ones on Italy, Spain and Greece. When I saw Costco had the one on Germany and South East Asia I knew I had to have them. Okay now I know making German food healthy and vegan is going to be a problem. But I think I can do it, and I am up for the challenge. Well, at least I think I am. My husband is of German heritage, as is my father. I get my Italian DNA from my mom. Something tells me my husband and father will be brutally honest about my recipes, LOL. I will keep you all posted on my progress.

If anyone has a German dish that they want to me to try to make healthy and vegan let me know. There is nothing that I have in mind at the moment. I just plan to read the cookbook like a novel, which how I always read a cookbook, and see what appeals to me.

Unrelated Notes:

Yesterday was a long day with keeping an eye on my mom while my dad ran errands and then our appointments later in the day. I didn’t end up cooking anything. After a late afternoon appt we stopped at Costco for a few veggies. While we were there we grabbed a 4 pound tub of cut up fruit and ate over half of it in the parking lot. For those of you that don’t know Costco also has a prepared food area where you can buy pizza, smoothies, generally fast food which we won’t eat. However they also have disposable cutlery there which worked just fine for the fruit. I mention this in case any of you find yourself hungry and at Costco. Our other option was the veggie tray and a tub of hummus or edamame and cannellini dip. When I looked around there are quite a few healthy options that don’t require chopping or cleaning.

Once we got home and put the groceries away it was getting rather late. We ended up having a big green salad with romaine, red cabbage, salsa, black beans, tomato, sesame seeds and nutritional yeast. Definitely just a sustenance type of meal, but still good for us and tasty enough we thought. But sadly no leftovers for Dan’s lunch today. That is why I ended up baking today. I wanted to make certain that I had something to put in his lunch tomorrow.  It was just one long day yesterday.

I am going to relax now and read one of my new books. I have been moving nonstop since I got up at 6:30 am.

Watercress Pesto Dressed Zucchini Pasta and Veggies

I imagine someone is reading this is wondering how I can call this pesto when it doesn’t include any basil. Easy, pesto does not have to include basil. The pesto that most Americans are familiar with is Genovese pesto which is made with basil but the options are endless for pesto. The word pesto comes from the Italian word pestare which translates as to crush, pound or bruise. This is because pesto is typically made in mortar and ground into a paste with the pestle. Now you can make you pesto that way if you want to go old school. Many Italians will tell you the pesto tastes better made my hand. I do have a mortar and pestle and have made it by hand. Seriously, I could not tell the difference. I use my food processor it is easier. ;-)

When I made pesto I typically (though not today) make extra to have on hand. It is great on a sandwich (made with collards for bread of course), on pizza, in a baked potato, as a coating for tofu, stirred into salad dressing, added to soup just before serving. I think you get the idea. Pesto is not just for pasta anymore.

Here is what I made today for the mid-day meal with my parents:

Watercress Pesto Dressed Zucchini Pasta and Veggies
Serves 6

Pesto Ingredients:

1 bunch watercress, approximately 4 cups lightly packed well washed and spun dry
¾ cup walnuts
¼ cup raw sunflower seeds
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed
water enough to achieve the texture you want (the amount will depend on the juiciness of your lemon)
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast, optional if you want a cheesy undertone (add to taste)

Veggie Ingredients:

approximately 12 cups spiralized zucchini , it may have been more (4 big zucchini)
2 carrots, julienned
2 cups shredded red cabbage
1 tomato, finely diced and drained of liquid so it doesn’t make your dish too wet

Directions:

Combine the pesto ingredients in your food processor and blender and process until smooth. Add as much water as is necessary to get a thick but creamy consistency. The nutritional yeast is optional but 2 tablespoons is enough to add a little cheesy umami background but not enough to overwhelm the sauce. Taste and add salt and pepper, as or if desired. Refrigerate until needed.

Combine the veggies and toss to distribute evenly. Add the pesto and toss again. Serve cold.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories-  209.5
Calories From Fat (53%) - 111

Total Fat - 13.31g
Saturated Fat - 1.29g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 68.88mg
Potassium - 1180.57mg
Total Carbohydrates - 21.39g
Fiber - 7.94g
Sugar - 6.75g
Protein - 8.57g

Comments:

This dish is somewhat mild intentionally because my parents were coming for dinner. Since they are definitely meat and potatoes people I know there is only so much intense veggie flavor I can push on them. However if you wanted to add a few kale leaves to the pesto I think that would be great and would add to the flavor as well as nutrition.

Everyone (vegans and omnis) enjoyed this dish today. I suppose you would say it was another success. Not on the same level as using salsa for salad dressing, but a success none the less. ;-)  Anytime they eat my food and don't reach for the salt shaker or olive oil I am quite happy.

Quick Question:

Laura just bought a Saladacco and is looking for tips on how to make it easier to use. Any of you that have that particular brand of spiralizer please let us know if there are any tips or tricks you have found using it. Thanks so much!

Unrelated notes:

Poor Dan has been sequestered in his home office most of the weekend. He has come out periodically to eat or get fresh juice but mostly he has had his nose to the grindstone all weekend. I really wish he would rest a little but I know letting things get further behind would stress him out more so I am trying to understand and not fuss. *sigh* You have no idea how hard this is for me.

With my hubby working I have had the weekend to myself. I have taken the time to do a few things around the house that I normally wouldn’t get to on the weekend. Hopefully that will make Monday more laidback so that I can watch a few things on the tube. I have a few health related DVDs I want to get to soon. Shocking, right?

I need get going for now. I will talk to you all again soon. Enjoy what is left of your weekend.

Mixed Berry and Spinach Smoothie and Cats

This morning Dan and both saw our respective weight go up a little for the third day in a row. This is no doubt due to a little too much trail mix and fat from the quinotto. Instead of letting a bad trend start we are cutting back a little today and tomorrow if necessary. We decided to start the morning with a smoothie instead of oatmeal. Of course we still had our favorite veggie and fruit juice with beet before the smoothie. Here is the smoothie I made this morning:

Mixed Berry and Spinach Smoothie
Serves 2

Ingredients:

3 cups frozen mixed berries (blueberries, raspberries and Marion berries)
2 cups baby spinach, well packed
1 dash powdered ginger (for its anti-inflammatory properties)
1 dash cinnamon (for its ability to help the body process the fruit sugar)
2 tablespoons freshly ground flaxseed (for the omega 3 fatty acids)
2 cups water
stevia, to taste (if necessary)

Directions:

Toss everything in you blender and process until smooth.  Serve in a well chilled glass.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 190.62
Calories From Fat (22%) - 42.76

Total Fat - 4.94g
Saturated Fat - 0.48g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 37.04mg
Potassium - 339.37mg
Total Carbohydrates - 36.8g
Fiber - 8.97g
Sugar - 21.8g
Protein - 4.48g

Comment:

This is a flavorful and light breakfast. If you are looking for something a little lighter after a day of over indulging this is a light option. If we had not had a fresh juice with kale this morning before the smoothie I would have added a kale leaf or two to this smoothie for more nutrition.

Each serving of this smoothie contains approximately 2,900IU of vitamin A, 30mg of vitamin C, 50mg of calcium, 1.5mg of iron, 70mcg of folate, 185mcg of vitamin K, 40mg of phosphorus, and 40mg of magnesium. Not stupendous nutritional stats but not a doughnut or bagel either. ;-)

Gratuitous Cat Photos:

Last night the boys were particularly cute. But then again I am the cat mommy so I may be a bit biased. As usual Masi was not in the mood to have picture taken. Here he is refusing to look at the camera.

This one is of our youngest boy Nicco (aka Binky) raising one side of his lip. He does this a lot. We call it the Elvis lip. Last night was the first time I actually got a picture of Binky making the Elvis lip. He is funny boy.

I know I am biased but I think they have so much personality. Yes I am a extremely doting cat mommy. ;-)

Unrelated note:

Can you make juice in the Vitamix is a question I get asked a lot. My quick answer is yes and no. Yes you can do it, and no I don’t recommend it. The juice you get from the Vitamix is thick and not overall pleasant from a textural perspective. However the Vitamix does make great smoothies. This is how I like to use it. By including frozen fruit with the vegetables you get an intentionally thick drink that is very pleasant and still includes the fiber from the vegetables. It is more filling than juice from the juicer which must be due to the fiber. I like to have both machines (the Vitamix and juicer) but if you have room for only one on your counter I would stick with a high speed blender like the Vitamix.

I know that many of the “experts” say that you shouldn’t get on the scale every day but we do. Not weighing yourself everyday is probably a good idea if you are battling an eating disorder but I find it very reassuring to know what is happening. It has also been a good tool to see the impact of: eating out, or consuming foods higher in sodium, and the weight increases that occur due to female hormones. We have been using our Wii Fit scale function daily for almost two years. It is great to use since it shows you not only your weight but BMI. It also gives you a graph of your weight and BMI, by week, two weeks, month, three months and year. If you are numbers junkie like me it is a useful too. Please keep in mind I tend to be a nutrition micromanager so this approach won’t work for everyone. ;-)

Today is yet another gray and raining day at our place. The skies are dark and it looks as though it is going to pour any minute. It has been raining off and on since we got up this morning. Today is definitely the sort of day where a nap sounds more appealing than anything else. I am going to take advantage of the weather to do a little cooking and maybe some reading. I know my hubby loves it when I spend extra time in the kitchen.

For the time being I am going to sign off and do something productive before I change my mind and take that nap. ;-) I will talk to you all again soon.

Zucchini Spaghetti with Asian Walnut Sauce

I was feeling a bit lazy today in terms of cooking. When this happens I frequently turn to raw food. As long as there isn’t soaking or dehydrating involved raw food can be a good fast meal.

Today I was thinking about sesame noodles but I wanted something that was healthier of course. Spiralized zucchini was the obvious substitute for pasta. I substituted walnuts in place of peanut butter for the omega 3 fatty acids. In place of fresh ginger I used powdered for a couple of reasons. First we get a lot of fresh ginger in our diet in the form of fresh juice. Second I recently learned that the powdered ginger was better at reducing inflammation. I have been adding to our oatmeal and banana soft serve since learning this. Medjool date was included to round out the flavor with a touch of sweetness. Tamarind paste was included for the sharpness it adds. Here is what I made late this afternoon:

Zucchini Spaghetti with Asian Walnut Sauce
Serves 4

Sauce Ingredients:

1 cup walnuts
1/3 cup water
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
½ teaspoon powdered ginger
2 tablespoons liquid aminos
1 Medjool date, to lightly sweeten
1 tablespoon tamarind paste (or substitute lime juice)

Vegetable Ingredients:

4 large zucchini, spiralized
2 carrots, julienned
1 bell pepper, thinly slice
5 inches cucumber cut into thin half moons
¼ cup cilantro (a tablespoon saved for garnish)

Optional Garnish Ingredients:

black sesame seeds – for the color contrast
thinly sliced radish – would add nice color, crunchy texture and spicy flavor

Directions:

Combine the sauce ingredients in your blender and process until smooth. If you aren’t using a high speed blender soak the walnuts in water for an hour so they soften. Then drain the water from the nuts. Also reduce the water you add by at least 2 tablespoons so your sauce doesn’t get thin. You want a thick sauce, similar to the texture of sour cream. Refrigerate the finished sauce until you are ready to serve. Don’t combine the sauce with the veggies until you are ready to plate. The sodium in the sauce will draw water out of the veggies. That is why you need to start with an extra thick sauce so it doesn’t make a runny dish in the end.

When ready to serve toss the zucchini with the dressing. Add the other veggies and toss to combine. Top the zucchini with a little cilantro and serve.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 281.89
Calories From Fat (59%) - 165.04

Total Fat - 19.73g
Saturated Fat - 1.92g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 533.16mg
Potassium - 993.71mg
Total Carbohydrates - 24.67g
Fiber - 6.87g
Sugar - 13.49g
Protein - 8.21g

Comments:

I really like this sauce. It has a subtle but complex flavor but still reminds me of the peanut sauce I was trying to replicate. This sauce would make a nice veggie dip and I may make some for that purpose later this week. ;-)

If you still use salt you may want to increase the liquid aminos and reduce the water by the same amount. Other than that I can’t think of any changes I would suggest.

Each serving of this “salad” has approximately 8,300IU of vitamin A, 85mg of vitamin C, 90mg of calcium, 2mg of iron, 1.3mg of vitamin E, 0.8mg of B6, 115mcg of folate, 220mg of phosphorus, and 100mg of magnesium.

We had this as the starter course today for the mid day meal with my folks. Surprisingly both the elderly omnis gobbled this up. Clearly this was a winner with the vegan and omnivores alike. This “salad” was followed by a bowl of the vegetable and red lentil soup from yesterday.

Unrelated note:

Today has been a slow day, but a good day. Dan has been working away in his office. Poor baby. I have been reading and trying to get organized for the week. When you shop at the farmers’ market and buy what looks good sometimes it is a challenge to figure out what to make to eat later in the week.

We did end up getting hungry about noon and had a bowl of oatmeal to hold us over until the 3pm meal with my parents. Of course we will be eating again around 8pm. As I said many times before Dan and I really do eat all day long, or at least it seems that way to me. We are thinking something Mexican inspired for dinner. But that could change between now and 8pm, I do tend to be fickle.

Do any of you own or have read, “The New Rules for Lifting for Women”? I think I need a new weight lifting book, since mine are all over 10 years old. I was curious if any of you have thoughts on the book. From what I have read on line it looks like a good one.

Time for me to clean up my kitchen, so I can make it dirty again in a couple of hours. I will be back later tonight, or tomorrow, with dinner this evening. I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. Talk to you again soon.

Soup Tips and Breakfast

Yesterday Dan spent about 8 hours downtown at his office. *sniff sniff* Today he is working from home, which somehow makes it better. I like knowing he is at least in the house even if he is in his home office.

Soup Tips:

Dinner last night was nothing spectacular. I made a quick pot of red lentil and vegetable soup since it was rainy and gray. Plus the soup could cook while I did a little reading, an added bonus. If you have a slow cooker they are also great to use to make summer soup. I think we all sometimes overbuy veggies; soup is great for those times.

If you are trying to reduce your salt and fat consumption like we are I have a few tips. Add a little acid (lemon juice or vinegar) to your soup after you ladle it into your bowl. If you still think you need salt sprinkle a little sea salt on your portion. I also find that adding hot peppers seems to help reduce the need for salt. Adding a tablespoon of tomato paste also adds richness to soup that you can’t get from whole tomatoes and also seems to reduce the need for salt.

Farmers’ Market:

As usual we started our Sunday morning at the farmers’ market. I wanted to highlight what we bought and how much we spent since some of you are finding E2L to be cost prohibitive. Today we bought:

2 bunches kale
1 bunch collards
2 pounds beets
½ pound fresh ginger
1 pint nectarines
1 quart fava beans
2 pints blackberries
1 large watermelon
6 tomatoes
6 cucumbers
4 big zucchini
2 yellow squash
1 cabbage
1 quart Italian beans
1 bag mixed salad greens
1 bunch cilantro
2 large beets (for raw ravioli)

Part of that was our CSA share ($20 a week) and the remainder was purchased for $32. This $52 dollars of produce will last the two of us most of the week.  To give you an idea of volume it filled 4 reusable grocery bags. If you are having difficulty finding reasonably priced organic produce I highly recommend your local farmers’ market. Costco also carries quite a bit of organic produce which we make great use of in the winter.

Breakfast today:

After our early morning trip to the market we both wanted blackberries. We had a very simple fruit salad as follows:

Fruit Salad
Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 cantaloupe
2 cups black berries
½ cup blueberries

Directions:

Toss together and enjoy.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 176.42
Calories From Fat (6%) - 11.27

Total Fat - 1.35g
Saturated Fat - 0.17g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 45.96mg
Potassium - 998.11mg
Total Carbohydrates - 41.61g
Fiber - 10.99g
Sugar - 32.33g
Protein - 4.59g

Comments:

Sometimes you just want a fresh bowl of fruit and that was the mood we were in today. If you want to make this more “gourmet” you could add some fresh mint or a little cashew crème fraiche that you have sweetened with stevia. I also like my fruit salad with hulled hempseeds if you enjoy those.

Each serving of this fruit salad contains approximately 9,600IU of vitamin A, 135mg of vitamin C, 70mg of calcium, 1.5mg of iron, 2mg of vitamin E, 95mcg of folate, 40mcg of vitamin K, 75mg of phosphorus, and 65mg of magnesium.

Next recipe:

Surprise, surprise to go with the fruit salad we had another variation of fresh juice. This is the version that I seem to make most often. I suppose you could call it Dan’s favorite juice. Here is what we include:

Dan’s Favorite Juice with Beet
Serves 3

Ingredients:

½ pound of baby organic spinach
2 kale leaves
10 carrots
2 apples
1 lemon
2 inches fresh ginger
3 stalks celery
2 medium beets

Directions:

Run everything through your juicer and pour into a cold glass. As usual I used glasses that I store in the freezer just for our morning juice.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 214.27
Calories From Fat (6%) - 12.08

Total Fat - 1.51g
Saturated Fat - 0.24g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 311.54mg
Potassium - 1742.25mg
Total Carbohydrates - 51.58g
Fiber 0.00g**
Sugar - 25.08g
Protein - 6.83g
**manually zeroed out

Comments:

We both really like this juice. It is slightly sweet but not in an overwhelming way. I would say it tastes fresh and is very refreshing. It has a little kick from the fresh ginger and tartness from the lemon. We think it is good mix of flavors.

Each serving of this juice contains approximately 55,800IU of vitamin A, 100mg of vitamin C, 240mg of calcium, 3.9mg of iron, 3.6mg of vitamin E, 0.7mg of vitamin B6, 250mcg of folate, 600mcg of vitamin K, 180mg of phosphorus, and 120mg of magnesium. This is why I love fresh juice. You really can’t beat the nutritional value.

Unrelated notes:

It was wonderful yesterday to get a temporary break from the heat and we really needed the rain. The farmers this morning the farmers were all talking about how much we needed the rain. However, today the temperatures are supposed to go back to the mid 90’s. This means I want cold food today. The soup I made yesterday may end up the freezer.

Today I will be making something with spiralized zucchini for the meal with my parents. I don’t know what that means yet, but that is what I am thinking now. At the moment I am torn better pesto, Mexican and Asian. I suppose I need to figure it out soon. *rolls eyes*

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

Saag Inspired Raw Spinach Sauce topped Zucchini Pasta and Breakfast

Last night for dinner I decided to make something inspired by one of my favorite Indian dishes saag. I do make a cooked version which you will find here. However last night it was warm and sticky so I opted for a raw dish. I used many of the flavors of the cooked dish and made a very quick raw spinach sauce that I used to top zucchini noodles. Instead of cashews I used raw sesame seeds in the sauce to add fat and mouth feel as well as calcium. Here is what I did:

Saag Inspired Raw Spinach Sauce topped Zucchini Pasta
Serves 2

Ingredients:

8 cups zucchini, spiralized (2 medium or 1 huge zucchini)
½ pound raw organic baby spinach
1/3 cup raw sesame seeds (1/2 teaspoon reserved for garnish)
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, finely minced
¼ - ½ teaspoon turmeric
¼ - ½ teaspoon black mustard seeds
¼ - ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
¼ - ½ teaspoon coriander seeds
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 splash vinegar (I used about a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar)
sea salt to taste
1 tomato, finely diced

Directions:

In your blender combine the spinach, bulk of the sesame seeds (use tahini if you aren’t using a high powered blender), garlic, ginger, and ¼ teaspoon of each of the spices. I would pregrind the seeds if you aren’t using a high powdered blender. Add a splash of vinegar to brighten the flavor. Process until you have a completely smooth sauce. Taste the sauce for flavor and add more seasonings to your taste. I used a ½ teaspoon of each spice but I like a lot of flavor you may prefer less. Add salt if you think it needs it.

To serve, toss the zucchini pasta with the sauce so that the “pasta” is thoroughly coated. Add tomato to the top of the dish and sprinkle with the reserved sesame seeds.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 277.22
Calories From Fat (44%) - 120.96

Total Fat - 14.47g
Saturated Fat - 2.02g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 147.09mg
Potassium - 2266.28mg
Total Carbohydrates - 31.67g
Fiber - 12.49g
Sugar - 11.16g
Protein - 15.13g

Comments:

This was a good and quick dinner. From start to finish I had to ready in 15 minutes and did not need to turn on the stove. I love meals like this in the summer time.

Each serving of this dish contained approximately 12,200IU of vitamin A, 125mg of vitamin C, 450mg of calcium, 9mg of iron, 3.4mg of vitamin E, 1.6mg of B6, 400mcg of folate, 575mcg of vitamin K, 440mg of phosphorus, and 280mg of magnesium. I also love the potassium, protein and fiber it contains for less than 300 calories. It was a big plate of filling food.

Breakfast this morning:

I get a lot of questions about what we eat of breakfast since I don’t typically post that. Today I thought I would share breakfast since it is one of our usual meals. We started with a veggie and fruit juice right after we got up. Here is what I made:

Fresh veggie and fruit juice
Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 head romaine
5 carrots
1 apple
½ lemon
1 inch fresh ginger
3 collard leaves
3 stalks of celery

Directions:

Run everything through the juicer and serve in a cold glass (I store our juice glasses in the freezer so they are always cold) with a few ice cubes.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 205.09
Calories From Fat (8%) - 15.71

Total Fat - 1.93g
Saturated Fat - 0.29g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium  -226.88mg
Potassium - 1799.87mg
Total Carbohydrates 47.58g
Fiber - 0.00g **
Sugar - 22.02g
Protein - 7.56g
** zeroed out manually

Comments:

We have variations of this juice every day. What changes are the greens we use. Sometimes I include baby spinach in place of romaine. Other times I use kale in place of collards. We also include a beet and beet greens when we have them. We also add a wheat grass shot or two when we have those in the freezer. The constants are the carrot, apple, ginger, lemon and celery. We think the taste is good and very fresh. But what we like most is the nutrition it provides. I make fresh juice every morning that we have before breakfast. In the past we had coffee or tea first thing in the morning and now we have fresh juice instead.

Each serving of this juice contains approximately 54,000IU of vitamin A, 120mg of vitamin C, 260mg of calcium, 4mg of iron, 2.7mg of vitamin E, 0.7mg of vitamin B6, 535mg of folate, 505mg of vitamin K, 200mg of phosphorus, and 90mg of magnesium.

Next recipe:

After we have our juice I make us either a smoothie or oatmeal. This morning it is gray and rainy so we had oatmeal. Here is the serving size I made for myself; Dan’s was 50% larger:

Wild Blueberry Oatmeal
Serves 1

Ingredients:

½ cup rolled oats (if you really want to make this more healthy use oat bran instead)
1 cup water
1 sprinkle cinnamon (to help the body process the natural sugar in the berries)
1 sprinkle ginger, powder (because powdered ginger is anti-inflammatory)
1 cup frozen wild blueberries (for their ellagic acid and antioxidants)
1 tablespoon flaxseed ground (for omega 3)
2 tablespoons walnuts, roughly chopped (for omega 3 and crunch)

Directions:

Combine the water, oats, cinnamon, and ginger and cook until done. I use the microwave because it is easier. When the oats have absorbed the water I top them with the frozen blueberries and put the bowl back into the microwave so the berries with thaw but not get hot. I top the blueberries with the ground flax and walnuts. If you have a sweet tooth you may want to add a sprinkle of stevia, we did at the beginning. Serve hot.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 394.73
Calories From Fat (36%) - 143.78

Total Fat - 17.02g
Saturated Fat - 1.81g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 15.39mg
Potassium - 331.02mg
Total Carbohydrates - 54.87g
Fiber - 11.75g
Sugar - 15.25g
Protein - 10.72g

Comments:

After the fresh juice and oatmeal we are satisfied and full for hours. It may be the 18 grams of protein that keeps us satisfied. I find it fascinating that we had no soy, tofu, beans or protein powder and get so much protein for breakfast. It seems to put an end to the “where do you get your protein” question doesn’t it?

This serving of oatmeal contains less nutrition than our dinner or juice but this because it is more grain (oats) and less veggies and fruit. From using the cookbook program to check nutrition for over a year now I can tell you that grains add bulk and calories but not a lot of vitamins and minerals. That is one of the reasons we try to keep our grain consumption (even whole grains) to a dull roar. This breakfast contains approximately 80IU of vitamin A, 14mg of vitamin C, 55mg of calcium, 2.6mg of iron, 1.1mg of vitamin E, 0.2mg of vitamin B6, 36mg of folate, 29mcg of vitamin K, 235mg of phosphorus, 91mg of magnesium and 12.7mcg of selenium. Quite a difference between this and the juice isn’t it? That is actually why we have both.

One thing I hope you noticed is that breakfast is a calorie dense meal at our house. Neither Dan nor I started out as breakfast eaters. However over the last 12 years we have worked to make breakfast part of every morning. At the beginning it was a tough habit to stick with. Now I can’t imagine starting my day without a big filling breakfast.

Unrelated note:

Today is much cooler but also gray and rainy. Since Dan needed to go into the office sometime this weekend he decided to go downtown today. He did spend the morning at home and just left for the office. I decided to forgo my exercising this morning to spend time with Dan before he left. We will see how afternoon exercising goes. I prefer to get exercise out of the way early in the day.

After exercising I am going to spend a little time in the kitchen. I want to see what I can come up with for dinner based on what I have in the refrigerator. This is something I try to do which has become sort of a game for me. What I can make from what I have. It is always a big question mark when I start.

Other than exercising and cooking I may spend time with a book or movie this afternoon. The rain is making me want to stay inside and curl up on the sofa.

I hope everyone is having a great Saturday. Talk to you all later when I come back with dinner.