Tandoori Tofu and Corey's Last Day

Here is the preview of the Tandoori tofu that I will be detailing below. It turned out extremely well so I think hope you will like it as much as we did.

Friday was a beautiful day weather wise. We had a gentle breeze and temperatures in the upper 70’s. I really enjoyed that we also got a break from the rain that we have had so much of this spring. There has been so much rain that it also feels like you can see the grass growing now. ;-)

Breakfast for me was a simple bowl of local strawberries with a little soy yogurt (organic soy and no soy protein isolates) a touch of granola and a few sliced almonds. When we have local berries I love to have this for breakfast. It is a bit of splurge for me since I don’t typically buy soy yogurt and I really enjoyed it.

After breakfast I took time to enjoy the garden and went for a quick walk to see how my toe was going to do in my running shoes. My broken toe still isn’t 100% but it held up nicely so happy to say that I am back in business. *woo hoo*

For some reason (and I have no idea why) I was thinking of lobster tandoori today. Given that tofu has a very mild character I decided to use that as a stand in for the lobster. The biggest problem wasn’t the meat substitute but the sauce. The omni sauce that I have used in the past contained cream, egg and butter which meant I knew it was going to be a challenge to veganize. I had no idea how my healthy vegan version would turn out but since I had nothing to lose I decided to give it a go and here is what I did:

Tandoori Tofu
Enough for 2 – 14 ounce packages of tofu

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons freshly ground golden flaxseeds
2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled (mince if you aren’t using a high powdered blender)
½ teaspoon sweet paprika (not smoked)
1 pinch stevia
½ cup raw cashews
1/8 teaspoon ajowan seeds (you can substitute thyme)
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons dry oatmeal (ground into flour)
2 teaspoon garam masala
½ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
¼ teaspoon cardamom powder (optional but recommended)
1 cup water
2 – 14 ounce packages of organic extra firm tofu (be sure to read the ingredient label to make certain that it doesn’t contain soy protein isolates)

Directions:

Combine everything but the tofu in your blender (I used my Vitamix) and process until smooth and well blended. If you aren’t using a high powered blender you may want to soak the cashews a few hours first.

Cut each block of tofu into six slabs and cover it with the sauce and refrigerate for a few hours. Now place the tofu (excess sauce removed) in your oven to bake. I used my convection/infra red/halogen oven set on 350 degrees but it would also work in a regular oven though I would use a parchment or silpat covered baking sheet. Turn the tofu when the sauce begins to brown. Smear a little more sauce on top and bake until the second side is brown. I am guessing that this will take 20 minutes on the first side and 15 on the second side.

Nutritional Information:

Sorry I ran out of time to run the numbers again. Are you starting to see a pattern here?

Comments:

I just love this recipe! It is definitely one of my better experiments in a while. If you like Indian food and tofu please give this a try.

It was a gorgeous evening for dinner outside.

Friday was Corey’s last day managing the restaurant so you know we had to go out to dinner? There was no way we were going to miss his last day. I have to say I am still shocked that he is leaving after 14 years but I also understand. However it is really going to take a while before I get used to him not being there when we walk in but I am determined not to cry. Yes, I am that girl. ;-)

Both Ian and Will were working on Friday so I didn’t need to walk into the kitchen to see if I was making stuff up or if they had things planned. Since Will was working he was taking care of us today. Given the beautiful weather and a full patio I was expected the kitchen to be swamped and it was. I have no idea how they make food as fast as they do. That will always amaze me I must say. While I love to cook there is no way I could do it as quickly as they do.

We started with a pot of green and hibiscus tea and chatted with Corey, David, Mike, Jonathan, Jennifer, Emily, Janine, Stephanie and Ahmed. Everyone was a little bummed to see Corey leave but they hid it well while they were working which is better than I think I could have done.

Our first course was a very nice but simple salad of port soaked dried cherries, cucumber, radish, spinach, red onion, sliced almonds and semolina flat bread shards. The salad was dressed with tarragon vinegar. This salad was clean and delicious. I am fairly sure the port soaked cherries were what made this pop.

Next we had our favorite, Ian’s version of a samosa. Both Dan and I love this dish. The filling is potatoes, lentils, golden raisins and Indian seasonings. Like much of Ian’s food the dipping sauce is fabulous. I know it contains cilantro, citrus (which I think is lime) as well as heat (probably serrano). Sorry that I haven’t asked about the details on the sauce. I will try to remember to ask the next time we see Ian.

Dan loves to eat bread or pizza when we go out since I don’t keep any in the house. With that in mind the last course was bruschetta with tomatoes and basil. You know that Dan really liked this right?

For some crazy reason I decided to take some of this with me to the restaurant to get Ian’s take on it. Who takes their home cooking to a classically trained chef? *shakes head* Ian thought the spice blend was well balanced and he liked the texture of the coating and the tofu. His only suggest was that it needed more salt which makes sense since I don’t use any salt. That was something that Ian didn’t realize and he appeared completely confused by the concept. ;-) I do like to keep people guessing LOL. If you still use salt I would suggest that you add some. I took enough for others to try and everyone seemed to like it. Needless to say once Ian gave this his blessing I felt like my experiment was a complete success.

When everyone else left the restaurant everyone started getting ready for the first part of the send out. First there was a shirt that everyone who worked at the restaurant signed (and us) which I thought was adorable. I haven’t seen this tradition before but I really liked the idea of it.

Next there were balloons which I think I blew up most of. That isn’t as easy as it was when I was younger. LOL

I said goodbye to Corey (who they had sequestered in the office during preparations) and left before the first part of the party got started. Dan and I are just a little too old to hang with “the kids” all night. Not to mention I didn’t want to intrude on their time to say good bye to Corey. However they clearly had a good time Friday night. Here are a few pictures:

(Corey (L), Elly (C) and Taylor (R) earlier in the day)

(Corey (L) and Ian (C) toasting with Jenn, Will and Mike in the background) 

(Emily (L) and Steph (R) having a good time)  ;-) 

(Jenn (front) and Mike aka shorty (back) yes he is 6'7" and Jenn is not) 

(Janine (front), Elly (back left) and Jenn (back right) - what is Janine doning?)  LOL

Clearly they were having a good time before heading out for round two of the send off.  :-)

Blog Direction:

I still have no idea what I am going to do with the blog, but I appreciate the suggestions. The “greatest hits” idea is very appealing and I will try to do that soon. I think I will separate that into a number of posts with categories like: basics, soups, entrees, smoothies, that sort of thing.

The idea about “so I have cancer now what” I will also write about soon. The crazy thing about that comment is that was what I had originally wanted to write about but my friends weren’t sure that there was a market for it.

If you are an Facebook check out my fan page here. I am using this to share the interesting health and food related articles as I come across them. Additionally I am posting pictures here and some random stuff.  Be sure to use the link above as there are two vegan epicurean pages and one has no activity.  Long story, but to make it simple I set it up and then couldn't get log in again.  Only me right?  LOL

Other than that I have no idea what I will be doing. I hate being without direction like this. There is no doubt that I am more focused when I have a “mission statement” in mind. If you have any additional thoughts or ideas please feel free to share. I am open to any ideas.

Happy thoughts:

• Friday was a gorgeous day and I was very happy that we were there to say good bye to Corey. As often as we go out to eat I spend more time with Corey than most anyone I know other than Dan. It just won’t be the same going out to dinner without Corey at the restaurant. If you are reading this Corey I hope you know how much we will both miss you. Don’t forget to let me know when you want to get together. Hugs!

• I was very happy about how my tandoori tofu turned out. Sometimes it is very easy to make me happy.

• Being able to wearing my running shoes was a huge accomplishment. You have no idea how happy this made me. I have really missed my daily walks.

• I love that winter is far behind us now. Spring is my favorite season. It is fantastic to go outside and have the foliage be that lovely spring green. It is also great to not have seasonal allergies any longer. If I had known eating this was would eliminate my allergies I might had done it long ago. Just imagine all the sinus medication I could have skipped. :-/

Signing out:

I need to clean up the kitchen and start to wind down. The farmers’ market will be starting before I know it. Talk to you all again tomorrow.

Happy Mother’s Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Thoughts:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Signing out:

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

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

Soymilk Without a Soymilk Maker, Homemade Tofu and a Soap Review

This post is long overdue and I apologize for the delay. The first time I made homemade tofu I didn’t take pictures of the steps because I didn’t actually expect it to be this simple or that it would work the first time I tried it, but it did. That meant I needed to make tofu a second time to photograph everything. Oops. ;-)

First here is what I was up to today. For some reason it is unseasonably cold now with Thursday being colder than Wednesday. It was only 41 this morning when Dan and I went for a walk before breakfast. Good thing we were moving fast or it would have felt much colder outside. On the bright side even though it was gray outside at least it wasn’t rainy and that was a very good thing.

When we got back home I made Dan’s breakfast (wild blueberry oatmeal) and packed his lunch while he got ready for work. I considered going for another walk by myself later today after Dan left for work, but I needed to warm up since it was darn cold outside this morning. Who knows I might even wear pants that go to my ankles for my second trip. It is funny that I was cold yesterday in capri yoga pants and still wore them today even though it was colder outside. Earth to Alicia, do you ever learn that you get cold? LOL, apparently I am too stubborn for my own good. ;-)

I used my TRX for a little strength training this morning which also helped me warm up. Then it was time for my breakfast. I can’t tell you how nice it is to eat whatever I am in the mood for. Can you tell I am not good at following a structured diet? Honestly I don’t know how anyone stays on them I find them to be entirely too restrictive. Not to mention why would any diet restrict vegetable consumption? I still can’t get over the fact that a diet would restrict how many vegetables someone could eat. *rolls eyes* ;-)

This morning I was in the mood for savory oatmeal, made my way with loads of veggies. Today my oatmeal included the following: ½ cup oats, approximately 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons wheat germ, 1 tablespoon freshly ground flax, approximately 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast, some cumin, some oregano and no-salt seasoning to taste, 3 cups baby spinach, salsa (about ¼ cup), marinated mushrooms (about ¼ cup). This is my idea of breakfast. Savory oatmeal you will never know how much I missed you, LOL. That assumes savory oatmeal can think but you get the idea. ;-)

For those of you that haven’t noticed I tend to eat a big breakfast. My body seems to work best when I make breakfast the largest meal of my day. I am always open to experimenting with both my food and exercise to see what works best for me. I can’t remember where I read making breakfast your largest meal works for some people and I seem to be one of those people. The concept originally made sense to me since you go longer between dinner and breakfast than any other meal. Also if breakfast is your biggest meal you have all day to burn if off. Conversely when you eat a big dinner normally none of us are very active and needs that many calories to fuel our evening of sitting on the couch. If that makes sense to anyone I hope you might give a big breakfast a try.

After I finished my savoy oatmeal and my cup of tulsi and white tea I started making another batch of soymilk and then tofu so that I could photograph the steps for the blog.

Lunch was leftover French Market Soup from yesterday. What would I do without my intentional leftovers? Seriously if I didn’t always make leftovers I could never eat a diet this healthy. Intentional leftovers come to my rescue all the time.

Next I decided to start playing around with Facebook. For those of you that just fell out of your respective chairs I am sorry for the shock. I have no idea what I am doing at the moment but according to my friend Laura Jill I haven’t made a faux pas (yet) and she promised to keep an eye on me which is good. When I feel like I know what I am doing I will post a link. It may take me a couple weeks since I am a technology dinosaur. ;-)

Dinner? Oh yeah we do need to eat don’t we? Oops … guess who didn’t plan dinner again? How we ever manage to eat is sometimes beyond me. I often get so busy doing things that I forget completely about dinner. I decided to make something easy for dinner namely a big salad. The good thing about forgetting dinner tonight is that Dan doesn’t need lunch tomorrow since it is training day at work and lunch gets brought in which means I don’t need leftovers. Thank goodness for small favors right?

Making Soymilk Without A Soymilk Maker:

The first step to making soymilk is to soak soybeans overnight in your refrigerator. I used 1 cup of organic soybeans (the only ones I will buy) and placed them in a quart mason jar and covered them with filtered water.

 (soybeans with hulls)

 (pouring hulls off the soybeans)

(soybeans without hulls)

The next morning drain the water from the soybeans and move them to a large container (one you can easily get a hand into), hopefully this container will have a spout. Now use your hand to smush the beans between your fingers like you are making bean burgers or meat loaf. This smushing action will release the outer skin from the beans. Now add water to the container and the outer skin (hulls) will float to the surface and you can pour them out of the container. Continue to do this until you have removed most of the hulls which will take about 5 minutes. Removing the hulls isn’t absolutely necessary but it results in a soymilk that has less of a bean taste.

(straining okara from the soymilk using a jelly strainer)

Drain the hulled soybeans and place them in your blender (I used a Vitamix) add 4 cups of filtered water to the blender. Now process the hulled soybeans and water on high for two minutes. Pour this thick liquid into a large pot and cook until the mixture foams then strain the solids form the liquid. I used a jelly strainer and that works faster than the strainer that came with the soymilk maker. While the soymilk is straining clean the pot ,the milk will have formed a tough film inside the pot no matter how low the heat and how often you stir. Return the strained milk to the clean pot and bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes to make the soymilk digestible.

If you are fortunate enough to have a soymilk maker use that to make your milk because it makes for much easier clean up. You need to strain this like you are making soymilk since that is the first step.

Making Tofu:

No matter which method you use now you need to heat the strained milk to 180 degrees then turn off the heat.

(nigari to coagulate soymilk)

(curdled soymilk)

While you are heating the milk combine 1 teaspoon of nigari with ¼ cup of water and heat to dissolve the nigari. Pour the nigari and water into the milk and stir once or twice to combine then leave the milk alone and let it sit for 8 minutes. You will see the milk curdle and the whey begin to separate.

You can use a strainer lined with three layers of cheesecloth to make your tofu which will result in a round tofu.

Or you can use an old tofu container that you punch holes in with a knife and line that with cheese cloth (3 layers). Be sure to put this inside another container so you don’t end up with whey in your refrigerator.

(coagulated soymilk after 8 minutes)

(soymilk solids before being pressed) 

(homemade tofu in water ready to be refrigerated)

Pour the curdled soymilk into the cheese cloth. Fold the cheesecloth over, press out any water, put a weight on top of the “tofu” and place this in the refrigerator for 1 ½ to 2 hours. Remove the tofu and store it in filtered water in a covered container in your refrigerator. Homemade firm tofu is that simple. 

The best part of homemade tofu is the taste which is subtle and fresher tasting. For those of you that ever made fresh ricotta cheese and remember how different that is from the commercial stuff fresh tofu is very similar.  It will be very tough to use the commercial stuff now that I have had homemade. Fortunately I only have a few packages of the commercial stuff in the freezer to use up.

Now that I have made soymilk in my blender and in my soymilk maker I definitely have a preference. When Dan first wanted to buy me the soymilk maker I thought it was extravagant and unnecessary. Here is where I have to eat those words and admit that my husband was right, and therefore I was “less right”. Okay I was wrong, but I hate to say it out loud since he will never let me forget it.

The problem with making soymilk without the maker is the clean up. Each time you cook the soymilk it scorches on the bottom of the pan and is a pain to clean. If you plan to make your own soymilk you will say a lot of time if you have a soymilk maker. I can safely say that I am now very happy to have my soymilk maker. Thank you Dan for insisting on buying it for me even though I wasn’t sure it was necessary. Mea culpa, LOL.

Angelic Soap: A Review

As all of you know I haven’t been very keen to accept products for review in the past because I didn’t want to appear biased. However when Teresa contacted me about reviewing her soap there was something in me that immediately said yes which was completely out of character. I am not sure if it is because Teresa is a blog reader, or because I am not fond of commercial soap but either way I am very happy that I said yes. Now I need to give you a little background before I get to the review, please bare with me.

Back in 2005 I came across a book “Toxic Overload” and read it cover to cover with great interest. This was interesting to me because the doctor had said the cancer was probably due to an exposure to a toxin. When I pressed him for what type of toxin could we possibly have come into contact with the doctor explained that it could be something simple like artificial flavors, preservatives or something in our environment like cleaning products. Given my propensity to go at something 100% I tried to educate myself regarding where these toxins were lurking in our life. This book was a great primer on what I should be avoiding. Reading the section of the book that talked about beauty products was simultaneously enlightening and horrifying. After reading that book I became much more conscious of the things that came into the house. This resulted in my eliminating many items that were previously always in our house.

It seems second nature to me now but I was initially shocked when I realized now many chemicals and known carcinogens are found in beauty products. Before you think it doesn’t make a difference since you aren’t eating them think again. Many items you put on your skin are absorbed into your body. Think of nicotine patches to stop smoking or birth control patches. Once you think about things being absorbed through your skin it is difficult to put carcinogens on your body. What are some known carcinogens in beauty products: coal tar (shampoo), benzyl violet 4B (shampoo and moisturizing body bar), formaldehyde (shampoo, sunscreen), phthalates (moisturizers), parabens (moisturizers, sunscreen, foundation, etc.), sodium lauryl sulfate (shampoo, body wash), and resorcinol (shampoo) to name a few. I could have listed many more items but I think you get the idea. I started using the Environmental Working Group website to select the healthiest products for us to use. Finding soap that we liked was extremely difficult. I tried Dr. Bronner’s and using our organic shampoo as body wash but nothing was quite right. I always had it in the back of my head to try making soap for us to use but it seemed a little scary and I never got around to it.

When Teresa suggested that she would like to send me some of her homemade soap to try I thought this was marvelous. I will admit that had no idea what to expect when I said yes. Then I went to her website and I was blown away. Not only is the soup made using old world techniques but each of them is a little work of art. When I said that to Teresa she told me she has a Master’s degree in Fine Art and think that is very obvious in the look of the soap.

I image you are thinking being beautiful is great but how does it work? From the first time I used the soap my skin felt hydrated and soft. I can’t say I understand how this is possible exactly but it is true. Teresa explained that her soap has a high fat content and is made from the highest quality ingredients. Additionally Teresa explained that her handcrafted soap retains all the natural vegetable glycerin which increases the humectant factor. All I know is that I love her soap which is more than enough for me. It is gorgeous to look it, smells wonderful, doesn’t include anything I that don’t recognize and it leaves my skin feeling smooth and soft. If you haven’t checked out her website please do. Other than a few obvious items which contain goat milk or honey her products are vegan. I have been completely blown away by the quality of her products. In fact I don’t think that I can go back to any commercial products again.

You can find out more about Teresa's products at her blog and her etsy shop.

Happy Thoughts:

• It was great to get up early enough this morning that Dan and I could go for a walk together before breakfast. This needs to happen more often at our house. With spring there is lots of rain in the forecast but hopefully that will prompt us to the go to the gym together on days when rain is scheduled for the morning. *fingers crossed*

• It was great to be back to my food, woo hoo! I had no idea that I would miss it so much. Before the diet guinea pig project started I expected to be able to do it a week which would give a good idea of the diet. Little did I know I would get so cranky on that diet. I suppose this proves that willpower alone is not enough. However I will say I am happy that things turned out the way that they did. I firmly believe that only permanent lifestyle changes are what any of us should be making. I realize that we are all in a different place when it comes to nutrition but I hope my attempt to use myself as the experiment helped at least one person think about lifestyle changes versus a diet and what that means.

• Today I made soymilk using my soymilk maker which means I am very thankful for it today. I am also thankful for my wonderful husband who insisted on buying the soymilk maker. Love you!

• I decided to confront my Facebook fear and jumped into today, hopefully not head first. I am proud of myself for just doing something. Also I am thankful for Laura Jill who graciously volunteered to keep any eye on me to hopefully keep my stupid mistakes to a minimum, LOL.

• We had another beautiful sky this evening. I love to watch the sunset each night. Do any of you do that too?

• We are having dinner with some good friends tomorrow which I am very much looking forward to. I can’t wait to hear all about Deirdre’s new life as a student since she bravely checked out of the work world and went back to school full time to follow her passion. Walid always makes me feel appreciated and his wife Jackie is one of the funniest people I know. Doesn’t it sound like it will be a great evening? As you can tell I am really looking forward to it? ;-)

Signing out:

Even I can’t believe I wrote this much today. Sorry for the long post. I hope you have a good sense of how to make soymilk and tofu. I also really hope that you check out Teresa’s soap it is amazing.

Tomorrow is Friday *woo hoo* and I can’t wait for the weekend. Come on Friday night you can’t come soon enough. I hope the week has treated you well and that you are looking forward to your weekend. Talk to you again tomorrow. Have a great evening!!!!!

Tofu Spice Rub & Thoughts on Which Studies to Put into Practice

Monday wasn’t bad in terms of getting things accomplished but I was a little more rushed than I prefer. I listened to the last day of “The Great Health Debate” which lasted longer than any of the prior days. However it was nice to hear Dr. T. Colin Campbell talk about health. I am going to summarize my thoughts on the debate and get those posted as soon as I can. Much to my surprise the “experts” agreed on more points than I expected.

It was almost 2pm before I was finished listening to the audio and then it was time to write the post I put up on Monday. I didn’t actually start dinner until about 5pm. Nothing like planning right? I was craving tofu and decided to make it with a spice rub I used with pork loin in the past. This rub is good but unusual spice rub that I think you will like. It can be altered and will outline that in the comments. Here is what I did:

Spice Rub for Tofu
Enough for two 14 ounce blocks of tofu

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
½ teaspoon cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (this amount is approximate)

Directions:

Combine the cumin, coriander and fennel seeds in a pan and heat over medium, shaking the pan periodically to toast all seeds. Heat the seeds until the coriander begins to turn a light brown and you can smell the spices. Next place the toasted seeds into a spice grinder and add the cocoa powder. Grind the seeds until they are a powder.

Use half of the spice rub to coat a 14 ounce block of tofu that you have cut into 6 pieces. Bake the tofu until it is the texture you like.

Nutritional information for ½ the spice rub:

Amount Per Serving
Calories 8.7
Calories From Fat (44%) - 3.85

Total Fat - 0.46g
Saturated Fat - 0.06g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 2.57mg
Potassium - 43.07mg
Total Carbohydrates - 1.39g
Fiber - 0.72g
Sugar-  0.03g
Protein-  0.44g

Comments:

This spice rub worked really well with tofu, better than I expected actually. If you want to change it up a little you can add ½ tablespoon freshly grated ginger or ½ tablespoon of espresso powder. I have added both of those in the past and they work well with these spices. If you eat sugar a little brown sugar in the mix is also good. If you add the sugar you need to be careful that the sugar doesn’t scorch while the tofu is baking.

Valentine’s dinner was tofu with the spice rub and roasted fingerling potatoes, broccoli and raw grape tomatoes. When the potatoes and broccoli were cooked I tossed them in fresh lemon juice and then added Italian seasoning and freshly ground black pepper. The tomatoes were added for temperature contrast and nutrition. There is a nutritional synergy that takes place when you combine broccoli and tomatoes which I try to keep in mind when planning meals.

Thoughts on “Scientific Research”:

Laura asked a great question that I wanted to share with everyone and then discuss my thoughts on the topic. Her question was: “You already share quite a lot of research-type info, but being a science person I always want to know more...for example, why you will or won't incorporate certain results/recommendations into your diet.” I thought this was a great starting off point for a conversation about “science”.

This question came up on the last post where I talked about the vitamin K2 in hard cheese being reported to have anti-angiogenesis properties. However there is also science that shows that dairy is tumor and metastases promoting. For me it comes down to what or who to believe.

If T. Colin Campbell had been the only one to discuss the tumor promoting effects of casein I wouldn’t know what to do since there appears to be science on both sides of this argument. However in the book “Life Over Cancer” there is also a discussion about the impact of casein on tumor growth (it starts on page 68). The doctor explains that dairy is bad for a number of reasons, these are:

• Dairy is high in cholesterol which is a problem in terms of cancer. High cholesterol is associated with metastases as well as making tumors more resistant to chemotherapy.

• Additionally dairy boosts estradiol which stimulates tumor growth particularly of hormonal cancers like breast, ovarian, uterine, and cervical. I should mention that eating a high-fiber, vegetable-rich diet lowers estradiol.

• Dairy contains calcium which binds with your vitamin D stores which you don’t want. Vitamin D appears to be crucial for controlling cancer cell division (growth).

• The saturated fat in dairy increases the likelihood of blood clots which is a problem for many with cancer.

• Milk/dairy contains lactose (milk sugar) which can raise blood sugar.

• The casein in dairy accelerates the growth of tumors and metastases by fueling IGF-1.

When I compare this to the idea that vitamin K2 may be good I decided to avoid the cheese and get my K2 elsewhere. I can’t say that either Dan or I are looking forward to consuming natto. The idea of a slimy gelatinous product doesn’t appeal to either of us but if it helps our health then we are going to find a way to consume it. I will keep you posted on what works and doesn’t work in regard to getting natto into our diet.

Since Doctor Block (who wrote “Life Over Cancer”) has been treating cancer patients in his facility for 30 years I tend to put more stock in his findings versus a research scientist like Dr. Li. I am not saying Dr. Li is wrong but Dr. Block being in the trenches with 1,000’s of patients gives me the feeling he has more experience with what works on people as compared to in the lab.

This was rather a long winded answer on why I am not jumping to add cheese to our diet. However I hope it gives you some insight. One thing that used to confuse me was all the apparently conflicting “science” around nutrition. I think part of this is the fact that we tend to look at food in a reductionist manner. What I mean by that is hard cheese is recommended for the vitamin K2 it contains however that isn’t all that is in cheese. When you look at cheese in its entirety I think there is more bad than good. I hope that makes some sense.

I will try to write a review of “Life Over Cancer” this week. This book is one of the best, if not the best, that I have read regarding cancer. If you are worried about cancer I would recommend you see if your library has a copy. I think you will find it is worth owning. I use it as a resource quite often.

Happy Thoughts:

The week is starting off well so far. Here are my happy thoughts at the moment:

• Tuesday has been much more relaxed than the prior 8 days. Both Dan and I had appointments with the internist today. The lab results were excellent except one thing I want to work on. I will share details with you very soon, maybe tomorrow if I have my new plan in place that quickly. I was thrilled that our blood glucose levels were 75 and 87. Nutrition really makes a huge difference. ;-)

• Dan worked from home Tuesday morning since appointments were at noon and 12:20. It was nice to have him in the house even if he was upstairs in his home office. I also loved spending time riding with Dan riding to the appointment and in the exam room. We always have a friendly battle or how has better numbers. Yes we are that geeky. LOL

• Since we had quite a bit of time together today I had a chance to discuss getting to the gym in the morning again. I am happy to say Dan has agreed that we need to get back on our morning schedule and that he plans to be home early enough that we can go tomorrow before work. I am looking forward to starting my day early at the gym tomorrow. Who said that? *looks around* ;-)

• I am also thankful for this sweet little angel. This is one of the rare pictures of Binky’s big brother Massimo (aka Masi) with his eyes open. Masi was very happy when we came home from the doctor and turned on the electric blanket as you can see from the look on his face. He is such a precious baby and I am very thankful to have him in my life.

• The weather service is predicting temperatures to reach 70 on Friday. Woo hoo! I may have to change my schedule so that I can enjoy my Friday rather than running errands. I can’t wait for spring to get here. Dan and I were discussing putting in a garden bed in the backyard this spring if we can find a spot with enough sun. I am definitely getting spring fever. LOL

Signing out:

Being out of the house for hours today means I am behind at home. I need to log off and get some laundry done and make something for dinner. Talk to you again tomorrow.

Winter Wonderland and My New Kitchen Toy Reviewed

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Sharper Image Oven:

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

Pros:

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

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

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

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

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

Cons:

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

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

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

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

Carrageenan:

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

Vitamin Water and Soda with Vitamins:

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

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

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

Making Dietary Changes Part 2:

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

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

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

Happy Thoughts:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Signing out:

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

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