31 Days to Better Health - Day 6

*Woo Hoo* Today is my favorite day or the week. Hello Friday, I have missed you. Not only is it Friday but we are expecting temperatures in the upper 50’s today. Wow, what a treat for January! I woke up today with a big smile on my face anticipating a wonderful weather day and a gorgeous start to the weekend. I hope your Friday started off this well. :-)

I have been enjoying the recap of what we have done so far because I find it encouraging. Here are the tasks we tackled during the first 5 days:

Day 1 – Defined Success and What is/was Holding Us Back

Day 2 – Determined our Purpose and Looked at Passion

Day 3 – Listed Our Goals for January

Day 4 – Listed the Things We Have Needed to Work on for a While

Day 5 – Looked at Optimism vs. Pessimism and Fear vs. Intuition

How are you feeling about the posts so far? Have my words caused you to look at your life and your reactions to events in different ways? I hope so, I want as many people to learn from my life, and my mistakes as possible. The one benefit of be the ripe old age of 49 is that I have had plenty of time to make mistakes. Additionally you can view those mistakes as things from which you learn and grow or as just mistakes. Doesn’t it make much more sense to see your mistakes as learning opportunities?

Conscious Eating:

Today I want to talk with you about conscious eating. I am going to look at this from a number of different angles. The classic approach is to be aware of what you are eating so that you don’t eat mindlessly and I will discuss that. But first I want us all to look at what we are eating. Remember it is not a cliché that we are what we eat so the composition of our food intake is important.

First let’s look at what we eat. Please take out your notebook and jot down what you had for breakfast, lunch and dinner yesterday. List as many ingredients in your meals as you can. For example if you had a sandwich for lunch list what type and brand of bread, all the fillings, basically as many details as you can. Do this for all your meals for the day.

Second, next to each item on the list I want you to write, animal, produce/natural, or processed. Animal would be meat, fish, poultry, dairy, butter, and honey. Processed would be anything that came from a factory and has more than one item in its ingredient list, this would apply to bread, condiments, lunch meat, frozen meals (yes even Amy’s brand), protein powder, etc. Any item that didn’t fit in one of those categories would most likely be produce. If you think a category that I missed please let me know.

Third, now mark if these items were organic or not. If you don’t know because you ate out assume it wasn’t organic unless is specifically indicated that is was.

Finally, what was the country of origin of the food? Most of us aren’t used to looking for this information so you might not know. But this is important and as you become more interested in nutrition you will find yourself buying food closer and closer to your geographic location for a number of reasons.

Here is my list from Thursday:

breakfast: savory oatmeal
oats – produce – conventional - Ireland
nutritional yeast – produce/processed – ? Bob’s Red Mill - ?
oregano – produce – organic - US
paprika – produce – organic - US
spinach – produce – organic - US
mushrooms – produce – organic - US
raw pumpkin seeds – produce – organic - US

lunch: Ezekiel wrap with veggies and hummus
Ezekiel wrap – processed – organic - US
hummus – organic - ?
spinach – organic - US
broccoli – organic - US
pine nuts - ? - Turkey

dinner: brown rice risotto and salad
short grain brown rice – organic - US
nutritional yeast – produce/processed – ? Bob’s Red Mill - ?
truffles – produce – organic - Italy
shitakes – produce – organic - US
onions – produce – conventional - ?
garlic – produce – organic - US
spinach – produce – organic - US
salsa – produce – organic - US
cucumber – produce – conventional - US
avocado – produce – conventional - US

beverages: tea with citrus and cinnamon
green and white tea – produce – organic - Japan
fresh squeezed grapefruit juice – produce – conventional - US
cinnamon – produce – organic - US

Other than the Ezekiel wrap I did pretty well today. Admittedly I don’t usually eat Ezekiel wraps but I really wanted a sandwich-type thing and I had them in the freezer so I had one and I really enjoyed it I might add. I debated about whether to list nutritional yeast as processed or not, I think that one could go either way which is why I listed it in both categories. But overall I thought my list was clean and I felt as though I made good choices on Thursday.

You may notice that some of the items have a ? listed as my response. I tend to throw out containers that the items come in when purchased which means that I wasn’t certain of the country of origin and therefore left it blank.

I hope you also noticed that many of the items on my list are conventional. While I try to buy organic I will also buy conventional produce. However if I purchased meat or dairy (which I don’t) those I would only buy organic. The reason for this is that animal products contain much higher levels of pesticides and chemicals than produce ever contains. Remember that the toxins that the animal consumes are stored in its fat. Given how much food the animals eat in order to grow one can only imagine the levels of toxins that are stored in the animals. No you can’t trim the fat or skin and remove the toxins. All animals have subcutaneous and intramuscular fat. You can’t trim away the intramuscular fat. I wanted to point that since this was a topic of conversation with a friend of mine recently.

Now review the list you created of the items you ate. What do you notice? Did you know where your food came from, where it was grown, what was in it, and whether it was organic or not? Are you happy with your choices or do you think that you might want to make some changes now that you have looked at your list?

The next part of the assignment is to contemplate how our food came to us. Do you know the farmer or did your food come from a grocery store? Do you have any idea how the workers on the farm are treated? That is one of the benefits of buying locally and/or belonging to a CSA. If you eat meat and animal products do you know how those animals were treated and raised? This is probably something that you don’t want to think about but that is precisely the reason that you should be thinking about it. Many of us avoid thinking about things that are unpleasant because that way we can also avoid taking action.

Now let’s think about the reasons behind why we ate. Was it simply time to eat, like lunchtime? Were you physically hungry each time you ate a meal or was there some emotion driving you to eat? Many people eat to avoid feeling something that is unpleasant. Those feelings could be: anger, loneliness, boredom or sadness as well as many other emotions. If you aren’t sure if you were eating out of hunger or emotion ask yourself if your hunger came on slowly and built over time or it came on quickly. True hunger builds slowly but emotional causes of hunger happen fast. If you are eating due to emotions don’t judge yourself but be aware of it so that you can spot it the next time it happens. It is good to keep in mind that none of us can change what we aren’t aware of. Awareness is the first step to making any change.

Did you stop eating once your hunger was satisfied or did you keep eating until your plate was empty? If you aren’t sure think back to if you left anything behind on your plate. Lots of us grew up being told to clean our plates and we eat everything without ever thinking of leaving anything behind. I will talk about this later in the month and give you some ideas for how to cope with this if it is a problem you struggle with.

The final part of this exercise is to determine if you truly enjoyed your food. Most people in our culture eat too fast. They try to slip in meal time between meetings, errands, taking care of the kids or some other activity. However this means that they aren’t fully present to what they are doing which in this case if fueling their bodies. Have you ever eaten a meal and then not really remembered doing so? If you find yourself eating too fast that is also a sign of mindless eating. To remind ourselves to eat with awareness I have an exercise for you when you eat your next meal. I thought it was over the top before I tried it but once I was finished I had to admit that it was a very pleasant way to eat, though I will admit that I am not sure that I would do it with anyone other than my husband. Here is what you do:

1. Set the table with your favorite dishes and glasses. You might want to add some fresh flowers and a special cloth napkin. I played some very quiet instrumental background music too. If you normally watch TV or read the paper when you eat, don’t. Instead of being distracted concentrate all your attention on the food.

2. Plate your meal as nicely as you can and sit down to dinner.

3. Pay special attention to the food. Observe the following:
a. What does it look like?
b. How does it smell?
c. Is it hot or cold?
d. What is the texture?
e. Does it remind you of any food memories, like something you mother used to prepare for you?

4. Place a bit of food on your fork and bring it to your nose and smell it before you put it into your mouth.

5. Once the food is in your mouth put your utensil down. Notice the following:
a. How does the food feel on your tongue? Roll it around a little before you start to chew.
b. What is the texture of the food between your teeth?
c. Is the food hot, warm or cold?
d. Does it taste like you expected it to based on the smell?
e. Make certain to chew the food well, until it has no substance left before you swallow.
f. How does the food feel as it travels down your throat?

6. Place another bite of food on your utensil and repeat the process.

7. Pay attention while you are eating to whether your hunger has been satisfied or if you are still hungry. Stop when you are satisfied and but the leftovers away.

8. Now reflect on what this experience was like for you. Answer the following questions in your notebook:
a. How did this experience differ from your usual meal time?
b. Was the food more satisfying eating this way or was it frustrating for you?
c. Were you satisfied with less food than usual?
d. Did eating this way cause you to slow down?

I found that his practice made me much more aware of what I was eating. The flavors of the food were much more intense than usual. I also realized that when I ate this way I tended to close my eyes and concentrate on the experience. If you haven’t tried this exercise at least one please do. You may be surprised by the things that you notice. You can do this with an entire meal or just a piece a fruit. It doesn’t matter what you use just take your time and notice everything about the food and your experience with it.

If you want to share what this is experience is like for you I would love to hear it. I was surprised by how much I learned when I did this.

Progress on my goals:

1. Newsletters – spent 60 minutes on this Thursday and the first month is looking good. Soon I will be working on the second newsletter. *woo hoo*

2. Body Bugg – four days in a row wearing my bugg and going strong.

3. Date with Dan – Dan came home early on Thursday and we watched a meditation lesson before my webinar. Not a date in the classic sense of the word but it works for us.

4. Measuring calorie dense food – I am still doing this, and it is annoying me a little less. As a result I am adding more seeds and nuts to my food.

5. Working on my business – I spent 60 minutes focused on my new business which was very productive and made me happy.

Are you making progress on your goals? I continue to review mine each morning after I finish my reading and meditation and it seems to help me to stay focused. If you are having difficulty making progress on your goals try my technique of reviewing yours each morning. Alternately you could write your goals down and post them in prominent places around your house, in your car, on your desk, etc. Maybe you could make your goals your screen saver at work. Another idea would be to set an alarm in your phone to remind you to work on a task at a particular time. Keep trying different ideas until something works for you. If you find something that works for you please share the technique with others to help them be successful too.

Thursday:

Dan had fruity oatmeal with nuts and seeds again because we were out of kale. But since I made my way to the store for kale later in the day I don’t have to tell you what he is having on Friday do I? I love it that my husband enjoys healthy food enough that he requests it. You have no idea how far we have come. Trust me when I say that if we can eat a healthful diet anyone can do it. Less than 10 years ago I would have told you that we weren’t capable of being this healthy. It is so good to have exceeded my expectations by leaps and bounds.

My breakfast was a bowl of savory oatmeal once Dan was out the door to work. Unlike my husband I feel no particular need to have something sweet in the morning, or really any time of the day. I was never the type of person who craved sweets. However Dan was a huge sweets person and he says that after a couple of months of not eating them his cravings literally disappeared. I ask him about this all the time because I am looking for insight to share with those of you who are battling the dessert demons. According to Dan understanding the impact of eating the sweets made it much easier for him to avoid them initially. He went on to say that after a while the cravings disappeared and then he was fine. He thinks that smoothies, fruity oatmeal and strawberry and banana soft serve also helped him to get over his desire for sweets. I hope those tips help you.

Back to the food, my savory oatmeal yesterday had nutritional yeast, cumin, paprika, no-salt seasoning, garlic, fresh spinach, mushrooms and a little salsa. I finished it with a teaspoon of raw pumpkin seeds. It was delicious, if I do say so myself. ;-)

Lunch was one of my favorite comfort foods. I heated an Ezekiel wrap over the grate of my stove until it was hot and a little crispy. Then I smeared it with hummus, and topped it with spinach, broccoli and pine nuts. *yum*

Dinner was a truffled short grain brown rice risotto with shitakes. I added a little nutritional yeast for umami and topped the risotto with fresh parsley and walnuts.

To accompany the risotto we had a simple salad of shredded romaine, cucumber, avocado, salsa and no-salt seasoning.

After dinner I had a webinar while Dan relaxed with his little fur child. They were curled up in their favorite chair doing Sudoku. BTW I picked up a few tid-bits during this webinar that I am going to research and experiment with on my own. If they work for me I will share them with you soon.

Happy thoughts:

• It was wonderful to have the weather warm up so much today. It was in the upper 50s here so it was completely comfortable outside in a T-shirt when I walked to the store. This is a wonderful treat for us in January. Tomorrow we may reach 60 which I think will mean and boat relaxing time. *woo hoo*

• I got carried away again with the mindful meditation DVDs from The Great Courses. I am have finished watching 9 of the 12 hours in a just a few days. When I ordered this I knew I would enjoy the subject matter but had no idea how much. I can already tell you that I will be watching this over and over. The level of detail that the professor covers is fabulous. I have gained a lot of insight about myself and expect this to continue with multiple viewings at least for a while. I will review this properly once we are in February and I have more time. Additionally I now feel like I need to learn more about Buddhism which is a big step for a girl who went to a Jesuit college (Loyola).

• I am happy that I am learning to accept my perfectionism and disregard it. Earlier today I felt like I should turn off the mindfulness meditation DVDs and attend to my to-do list. However I recognized this as my drive to be perfect and consciously disregarded getting to my to-do list. This is a huge step for me and I was proud of myself for making the decision to disregard what I “knew I should be doing”.

• Dan called to tell me that carpenter repaired the teak door to the V-berth and delivered it to his office today. *nice* I can’t wait to get that reinstalled on the boat. Now we need to schedule a time to meet the carpenter at the boat so he can look at the woodwork and give us a bid on replacing some of the teak that is weather damaged in the galley.

• I am really looking forward to a little boat time tomorrow. With weather in the 60s it should be a wonderful day to sit in the cockpit, drink tea, talk to the neighbors and just kick back with our feet up. There really is nothing like relaxing on the boat.

• I love Fridays as you know by now. Needless to say I am very happy that today is Friday and that means extra time with my hubby. *woo hoo*

Signing Out:

Dan is on his way home from work so that is my cue to finish up this post. I was so involved in my mindfulness meditation DVDs that I haven’t even started to think about dinner. Nothing like planning on my part huh? ;-)

For those of you who want to know what is coming up for tomorrow that post will be an extension of conscious eating. Specifically the post will be about the Japanese concept of hara hachi bu.

I hope you had a wonderful week and have some fun planned for your weekend. Talk with you again tomorrow.

Are You Interested or Committed?

The distinction between interest and commitment is what I believe separates people who are able to reach their health goals and those who do not. I have avoided talking about this for a while because I knew that those who haven’t yet made it to commitment may find my comments to be upsetting. Since I don’t like to upset people I avoided this topic. However it occurred to me yesterday that by avoiding this topic I was doing exactly what frustrates me when other people do it. How many times have you heard me get upset by doctors who won’t advocate a diet like ours to their patients because they knew the patients wouldn’t do it? Well isn’t my avoiding this topic similar to what those doctors don't do? *sigh* Oh well at least I figured it out eventually.

When you read this please try to do so with an open mind. Ask yourself are you interested or are you committed.  If you fall into the interested category starting thinking about what you can do to move toward commitment. I will be giving you concrete ideas for that during the month of January. However I wanted to introduce the concept now so that we can all be thinking about it for a few days before my “31 Days to Better Health” starts January 1st. *woo hoo*

People often tell me that they would “love to be able to do what we have done” as if relates to our health. They seem to be genuinely interested in our weight loss, Dan’s dramatic drop in cholesterol and blood pressure, and the fact that neither of us seems to pick up colds or flu now. But often in the next breath they usually tell me why they can’t do what we do themselves. It usually goes something like this: “My husband would never eat like you and Dan, I don’t have time to cook, my kids would revolt, and my personal favorite I need to entertain clients for work.” Are all of these true? On some level I am sure they are true. However these are also problems which have solutions. The difference between their life and mine literally comes down to this, they are interested in better health but they are not committed to better health. Let me explain what I mean.

For years I wanted to lose weight and to feel like I did when I was in my 20’s but I had every excuse in the book why it didn’t happen. I would try a new diet at least once a year, frequently more often. As long as I was enjoying the results of this new diet I stuck with it, after all who doesn’t like results? However if I hit a weight plateau I dropped the diet like a hot potato and always returned to my old habits and in short order and my weight was back where it was before I began the diet. The reason I was so quick to go back to my old habits is that I was interested in losing weight, but I was not committed to improving my health. Back in the day I thought that weight loss was synonymous with better health. Isn’t it amazing how far I have come? LOL

However a funny thing happened when I decided that my focus was my health not my weight. Now I had something much bigger in mind. Instead of being interested in a short term result (like weight loss) I saw the big picture and I was committed to achieving the best health that was possible now. Do you see the difference? The things that I do now are just part of my life rather than temporary changes until I reach some arbitrary number on the scale.

Now when I encounter a challenging situation, like going out to dinner with Dan I know that isn’t going to derail my healthy behavior. I have a very simple rule that I follow. I make the best choice that I can in that moment and this changes based on what is available, who I am with and my mood. Let’s look at dinner on Monday night as an example so you see what I mean.

Dan wanted to go out to dinner and having the night off from kitchen duty sounded very appealing to me so we went out to eat. While I love Asian food (particularly veggie sushi) but I also know that comes with white rice and too much sodium. However I also know that we both enjoy it and that getting pleasure in life is good for the soul. I gently encouraged my hubby to order a veggie dish of napa cabbage, carrots and mushrooms with brown rice which would have been much healthier than the faux duck which was what he really wanted. In the end we went with the faux duck which at least came with a variety of veggies. Since the faux duck in tofu based, and not fried, it wasn’t a bad choice just not the optimal one from a nutritional perspective. However the faux duck made Dan happy and this is also important. In the end our dinner was healthier than what I was seeing people around us order, we both enjoyed it and we left the restaurant feeling satisfied but not stuffed since we split our entree entrée.

Now I am sure some of you are thinking that it is much easier for me to eat this way since my husband goes along with it and yours won’t. I will agree with you that it does make my life a little easier, but I also have a solution to that challenge. If my husband insisted on eating meat I would make dishes that would work for both of us. For example I would make veggie lo mein and add some shrimp or chicken to his portion. What about pasta with tomato veggie sauce for you with meatballs and/or cheese added to his plate? Do you see how that could work? The same things could apply to your children. Another plan would be to find veggie dishes that the entire family likes and work those into your meal rotation. Coexisting with meat eaters doesn’t have to mean two entirely different meals. However you will need to be a little creative until this way of cooking becomes second nature to you. Please know that in a few short weeks you will get the hang of making meals that can be both vegan and omni with a few tweaks. If you need suggestions feel free to ask, I am happy to help.

What about the "I don’t have time to cook problem"? If you aren’t willing to make time to cook what that tells me is that you aren’t committed to your health. We all have to eat, it isn’t an optional activity. When we buy packaged food or take out all the time we have given the task of feeding us over to someone whose motivation is to make money. These people are not interested in our health they are interested in their profits. They prepare what sells, and what sells is food that is harming all of us. As you can tell I really don’t think anyone can be optimally healthy unless they are willing to get into the kitchen and prepare the vast majority of their meals. Sure if you have a big pile of money you can hire a personal chef, eat a lot of salads with the dressing on the side, or spend a lot of time at your local juice bar. But for most people that is going to be cost prohibitive and other than the personal chef it is going to be more time consuming than getting into the kitchen to cook.

You may think that I spend a lot of time cooking but I actually don’t. Every other day I pressure cook 2 cups of dried beans. Those beans are used to make soup and some of them are saved to add to salads. While the beans are cooking I typically make some sort of whole grain to either add to the soup, salad or to serve under cooked veggies for a main dish. While the beans and whole grains are cooking I am often roasting mushrooms and onions to add to our salads since mushrooms and onions are so healthy. We either have green smoothies or oatmeal for breakfast, a soup or veggie and grain entrée for lunch, and frequently a salad for dinner. I spend on average 30 minutes cooking per day or less. Can’t we all find 30 minutes to spend in the kitchen cooking healthy food for ourselves and our families?

In my mind the difference between being interested and committing comes down to “would you like to be healthy, or are you going to be healthy”. Dan and I don’t want to be as healthy as we can be; we are going to be as healthy as we can be! The difference between interest and commitment is literally all in our minds and our attitudes. Any of us can achieve our best health possible if that is what we decide is most important. So, are you ready to commit to having your healthiest year ever? I hope so! :-)

Tuesday:

Today we were back to our usual routine. *sigh* My morning was spent making breakfast for Dan (a big chocolate cherry and kale smoothie), packing his lunch (split pea soup, salad, roasted seaweed, Brazil nuts, and dried Asian pears), and making green tea with grapefruit and cinnamon for us both.

I had planned to get outside early in the morning to get my cardio in before the rain started but the weather people were wrong. It was raining by a little after 9am so cardio had to be inside affair today. I really prefer exercising outside, even when it is cold, but cold rain is enough to keep my inside. Thank goodness we have exercise equipment at home so I don’t need to run to the gym on days like this.

Once Dan left for work I did my morning reading in “The Book of Awakening”, checked in with some friends by text and started cleaning. Wow … do I have a lot of cleaning to do. Things really get backed up when you just skim the surface for a month. I don’t know why my cats aren’t bald given all the cat hair I have to clean up. ;-) I am not sure that I am going to be finished by Friday afternoon but that is still my goal.

I started another batch of pizza nuts in the dehydrator. This time I added ground flaxseed to the mix to see what that does to the texture of the finished nuts. I know it will add nutrition so I am hoping we like what it is does to the coating. *fingers crossed*

It became very clear to me that I had too much dinner Monday night when I didn’t get hungry for breakfast until almost 11am. I made a pot of quinoa (some for my breakfast and leftovers for tomorrow) and topped that with a Mexican-spiced red bean and tomato soup. After breakfast it was back to cleaning. This is the going to be the story of my life this week.

I also made time to listen to some audio recordings on nutrition and health while I cleaned. You probably guessed that I am prone to multitasking didn’t you? ;-)

So that I wasn’t wasting time I also starting soaking some dried mushrooms during the afternoon so that they would be ready to make a nice mushroom sauce as part of dinner tonight. Dried mushrooms are very handy to have because they are easy to rehydrate and don’t require any attention while they are doing so. I love low maintenance food. While I haven’t mentioned it recently I do make it a point to consume mushrooms often, and preferably every day. Mushrooms are not only delicious and low in calories but they help to stimulate the immune system. Also they are wonderful cooked and added cold to salad, or incorporated into hot dishes.

Our friend Louis bought us some wonderful fresh Italian truffles for Christmas. Louis knows that I adore truffles and since they are available this time of you he splurges in the spirit of the holiday season. For dinner I made a mushroom sauce of the dried mushrooms, the mushroom soaking liquid, ground walnuts, onions, nutritional yeast and just enough arrowroot to tighten the sauce. I served this over cauliflower and a little quinoa and topped it with shavings of fresh truffle. Heaven! Thanks Louis. :-)

After dinner Dan wanted to watch a movie which is why I didn’t get this post up last night. It was probably for the best since having extra time is the reason that I added the section on interested or committed to this post.

Happy Thoughts:

Life Tuesday was very odd with the all day rain and being home by myself for the first time in a month. The house was beyond very quiet. However being by myself also meant that I was able to focus on getting some things accomplished which makes me happy.

• It was nice to have some time to check in on my friends by text. A few of my friends aren’t feeling well so I wanted to make certain that they knew I cared. It is always good to let those you are important to you know that. As my grandmother used to say if you want more love in your life you need to be more loving to others. My grandmother was a wise woman wasn’t she? ;-)

• I am very excited to see how my revised pizza nuts turn out with the addition of ground flaxseeds. I am hopeful that this nutritionally improved version will be just as good as the original. *fingers crossed*

• Today I have been thinking a lot about my intentions for 2012. I have a number of areas that I want to improve next year. I prefer to think of my plans as intentions rather than resolutions since those never seem to come to pass. I have some exciting plans for the year (well I think they are exciting) which I will be sharing with you. :-) Have you starting thinking about your plans for next year?

• I believe in coincidence/premonition. Out of the blue I decided to check my library account to make certain the dozen items I returned Monday night were off my account and for the first time ever one of them was still there. I called the library right away; they located the item, apologized and removed it from my account. What made me confirm the books were all properly recorded as returned I have no idea. It wasn’t as though this had ever happened before. Isn’t it odd how these little coincidences creep into our lives? I wish I knew how and why they happened. But it is a good reminder to me that life isn’t always just the things we see and understand. ;-)

• We had a delicious dinner at home last night with fresh truffles which was such a treat. Since we don’t have truffles at home often I really relish them when we have them. You are the best Louis. :-)

• After dinner we watched an older movie “Big Night” which is about two Italian brothers who come to America to open a restaurant. If you know about Italian culture you will enjoy this movie. When one of the brothers calls a customer a criminal for ordering risotto with a side of pasta I could not stop laughing. We thought it was a good movie, but we also understood why most people wouldn’t enjoy it.

• I am very excited about my “31 Days to Better Health” which will start January first. I have been working on the topics for a few days and I think it is going to be a great month for all of us. I hope many of you will be in the mood to join me in making some healthy changes next month. We will be working on defining success, setting goals, changing our attitudes about food and other fun things. Of course there will also be healthy food in our month too.

Signing out:

What a great Wednesday so far! I have been very productive so far today which always feels wonderful. While I miss having my hubby at home I am also enjoying crossing items off my to-do list. I have really been enjoying working on my month of posts for January which I am going to get back to now. I hope your week is going well and that you are looking forward to another long holiday weekend. Let’s all make 2012 our happiest and healthiest year yet. :-)  If you have any suggestions on areas we should work on next month please either comment here or send me an email. Talk with you again tomorrow!

Truffled Hummus

Massimo Update:

Today has been a rough day at our place. It started last night since the cats all fasted so that Massimo could go under anesthesia today. Nicco (Binky) wanted no part of fasting with his brother and made sure that I knew he was starving. He run up and down the bed all night meowing. When that didn’t get me out of bed he decided to burrow until the blankets and nibble me. As you have probably guessed by now I didn’t get much rest last night.

Masi was at the doctor a little before 9 and was the first procedure on the schedule. Since he isn’t the most cooperative little guy at the vet I offered to get him out of the cage and put him into the anesthesia chamber so that he didn’t hurt anyone at the hospital. Word of advice on this, don’t try it. Masi kept trying to cling to me and wrap himself around my neck. I felt so incredibly guilty prying him off of me and placing him in the chamber.

Doc called around 10:45 to tell me that Masi was doing fine and was already waking up. The only problem is that the x-rays showed that one of his kidneys doesn’t look right. He also told me that he has seen this before and that sometimes it is nothing and other times it is a problem. We will know more after the blood work comes back tomorrow. I need to talk to Doc and Dan but I think I am going to suggest that we go ahead and have an ultrasound on Masi so that we know more about what we are dealing with. If cats can do fine with one kidney (like people) I am leaning toward saying remove the problem kidneyI don’t want to miss an opportunity we may have to stop this before it spreads. I will know more tomorrow and when I do I will let you know.

Truffled Hummus:

Needless to say my day has not been good. Between being sleep deprived and then worrying about Masi this is a day I could have done without.

While I waited for Masi to recover completely from surgery (so he could safely come home) I made some truffled hummus today. I took hot freshly cooked chickpeas into the food processor and added some of the cooking liquid a ladle at a time until the mixture was creamy. Then I added a little truffle oil, less than a tablespoon and continued processing. I also added a little truffle salt, a clove of garlic and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. When I compared this to what I bought I could immediately tell the difference but in a good way. The hummus I bought had much more fat, and included tahini which I think detracted from the truffle taste. I was glad I still had some that I bought to compare.

I got started writing this post later because the fur children have been out of sort today hissing and swatting since Masi came home. I will get the eggplant soup posted tomorrow when I have more time.

On-line Book Club:

I have mentioned an on-line book club on the blog before and the idea also seems to be taking off on the Facebook page. I set up a quick survey to gather ideas from all of you regarding the book club. Please take a minute and answer the questions, there are only 7, if you are intrigued by the idea. You answers are anonymous. Thanks!

Happy Thoughts:

Since it has been another rough day around here finding things to be grateful for may not be easy but let’s see how it goes.

• I am enjoying the new hummus flavors and being back in the kitchen. I had lost my desire to cook for a while so it is nice to have it back.

• Things are going well in Grenada which is very good. I only wish I could be a little happier about it. I would much rather have a healthy little fuzz ball.

• Our friend Walid is on his way to Egypt now to bring his mom back here for Ramadan. Even with all the chaos here the last few days I managed to get in touch with him to tell him to have a safe trip. I am looking forward to seeing his mom (Nadia) because she is so sweet and caring. Exactly the sort of lady that anyone would like to spend time with. I suppose that is why Walid is also a great person; he obviously takes after his mom.

• Masi seems to be doing well at the moment and I am trying to be thankful for that. He is the sweetest little guy and we have been very lucky to have him in our lives for 10 years. If I have anything to say about it Masi will be a part of this family for another 10 years.

• Last night I took some pictures downtown at the harbor. Here are a few of them to give you another glimpse into Baltimore life.

• I am looking forward to the jazz concert on Friday. That will be a nice distraction from my week.

Signing Out:

I am dragging this evening because I got very little sleep last night. I need to turn in soon because I am exhausted. Talk with you again soon.

Cream of Mushroom Soup with Truffles

Surprise, surprise we had truffles again for dinner. I know, poor us right? Like I said a few days ago when “one has truffles, one eats truffles”. I sure will miss them when they are gone.

I wanted to make something different with the truffles tonight and mushroom soup came to mind. I knew the truffles would make an excellent topping. What I didn’t know was that the soup itself would turn out so fantastic. This soup is rich and creamy but nowhere near as fattening as a dairy cream based soup. The texture is thick, but not in a fatty artery clogging way. I will definitely be using the “cream base” in this recipe again. Once the sauce cooks a few minutes the oat taste disappears and soup thickens almost like magic. Make certain to stir often, as this soup will try to stick to the bottom of the pan as it cooks.

I added a little nutmeg to the base not for an obvious nutmeg flavor but to add a complexity to the flavor. If you have sherry in the house you can eliminate the pinot and swap it for ½ cup of water and ½ cup of sherry. That would also be great, but I was out of sherry last night. Here is what I made.

Cream of Mushroom Soup with Truffles
Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 cup dried mixed mushrooms
4 cups water
½ cup raw cashews
1 cup water
½ cup dry oatmeal, ground
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon onion flakes
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup pinot grigio
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pinch nutmeg
1 tablespoon reduced fat tofu sour cream, for garnish
1 tablespoon vegan demi glace, for garnish
truffle, shaved, for garnish

Directions:

Combine the mushrooms and water in a large microwave safe bowl and heat for a few minutes until the water is hot. Allow the mushrooms to sit in the water for at least 30 minutes to soften.

While the mushrooms are soaking cover the raw cashews with water and allow them to soak.

When the mushrooms are soft pour the mushrooms and soaking liquid through a fine sieve lined with cheesecloth and save the water to make the sauce. Chop the mushrooms into bite sized pieces that will easily fit on a spoon and reserve.

When the mushrooms are soft drain the cashews of the soaking water for the next step in the recipe.

Grind the oatmeal in your blender. Add the cashews and a cup of the mushrooms soaking liquid. Process until smooth.

Place the oatmeal and cashew mixture in a pot and add the remaining ingredients, except the garnish (tofu sour cream, vegan demi and truffles). Heat the soup until it begins to thicken and is hot. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as desired.

To serve, top the soup with tofu sour cream and vegan demi by placing both in a squeeze bottle and squirting on top the soup. Finish with fresh shaved truffles. Serve immediately.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 410.2
Calories From Fat (28%) - 116.25

Total Fat - 13.13g
Saturated Fat - 2.08g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 690.89mg
Potassium - 674.24mg
Total Carbohydrates - 42.9g
Fiber - 6.31g
Sugar - 3.04g
Protein - 9.94g

Comments:

I knew this was good when the only thing my husband could say was “wow, this really is amazing”. Dan is not prone to being overly enthusiastic about my food so I knew this was a winner.

This is definitely a soup I will be making again truffles or not. I was very pleased with both the taste and texture of this soup. Additionally, each serving of soup contained 45mg of calcium, 290mg of phosphorus, 130mg of magnesium and 22mcg of selenium. Considering there aren’t a lot of veggies in this soup that isn’t too bad.

Unrelated note:

I will get the Egyptian breakfast bean recipe posted tomorrow something just as soon as I get a nice picture and finish writing the directions.

Dinner 12.16.09 - Ravioli and Miso Soup?

Last night we had an odd combination of items for dinner, but overall it was reasonably healthy. We started with a miso cabbage soup followed by five mushroom ravioli with a little melted earth balance and truffle shavings.

Since we don’t eat much oil any more the teaspoon of earth balance that I melted over each small plate of ravioli seemed like a lot of fat to both my husband and me. It is amazing how quickly your tastes grow accustomed to healthy low fat food. Next time I will probably cut the earth balance in half. Sorry I don’t have a ravioli recipe for you. I pulled these from my freezer stash and they were made before I started documenting my recipes. I will make a batch of mushroom ravioli in the coming months and post the recipe.



Both my husband and I love miso soup and I normally make a mushroom miso but since we were having mushroom ravioli I decided to make a cabbage miso soup tonight. I used cabbage for added nutrition and fiber. Here is the recipe for tonight’s miso soup.

Miso Soup with Cabbage
Serves 2

Ingredients:

6 cups water
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 piece kombu, 6 by 6 cut into ½ cubes with scissors
3 cups cabbage, shredded
1 cup celery, sliced very thinly
12.3 ounces of organic firm silken tofu, cut into small cubes
4 tablespoons yellow miso

Directions:

Combine the water, onion and kombu and cook until the onion is soft. Then add the cabbage and celery and cook until the cabbage is the consistency you like. Now add the tofu cubes. Turn off the heat and place the yellow miso in a small bowl. Add a ½ cup of the hot soup broth to the miso and whisk to thin the miso. Add the miso back to the soup and serve immediately.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 246.06
Calories From Fat (26%) - 62.82

Total Fat - 7.1g
Saturated Fat - 1.21g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 1451.31mg
Potassium - 894.16mg
Total Carbohydrates - 28.99g
Fiber - 7.43g
Sugar - 12.34g
Protein - 18.93g

Comments:

I love miso soup it is one of my favorites. I make many different versions of miso soup and think they are all equally good. Miso soup is low in calories. My only complaint is that it has more sodium than I would like but other than that is a nice healthy soup.

Each serving of this miso soup contains approximately 55mg of calcium, 140mg of vitamin C, 105mcg of folate, 130mcg of vitamin K, 125mg of phosphorus, and 60mg of magnesium.

Unrelated Note:

Sorry I didn’t get this posted last night. We ended up eating dinner later than normal and then relaxed after dinner (which my husband thinks doesn’t include blogging, silly man).

Today I have a little cleaning to do, and then I am making an Egyptian breakfast bean dish since I packed the end of the French Market Soup in my hubby’s lunch today.

For those considering the 6 week intensive "Eat to Live" program I find that eating a small serving of beans with each meal helps keep me full longer. Undoubtedly this is a result of the protein. That is why I am making the Egyptian breakfast beans today.

I will be back with another recipe or two after I finish cleaning and exercising. I hope you all have a great day and manage to stay warm. It was a balmy 25 degree Fahrenheit this morning. Brrrrr. With weather like this it is definitely a good day to stay home and warm.

Whole Wheat Pizza with Smoked Mushrooms, Vegan Mozzarella and Topped with a Truffle Oil Dressed Arugula Salad with Lemon

My husband got another project off his desk today so I wanted to make him a special dinner to congratulate him. All Italians are fond of pizza, this Italian included. My husband has been married to me so long that he has also embraced pizza. I don’t make if very often because it is low on vegetables and we are trying to maximize our consumption of those for health purposes. Today was a celebratory day, so pizza seemed appropriate.

I hate making the same boring pizzas over and over again. But I hate making the same meals of any sort repetitively. The flavors of this pizza are unexpected but work well together. I think this pizza has flavor anyone would love (vegan or omni). If you are looking for a wow pizza, this unusual pizza may be for you.

Whole Wheat Pizza with Smoked Mushrooms, Vegan Mozzarella and Topped with a Truffle Oil Dressed Arugula Salad with Lemon
Serves 2

Ingredients:

¼ of the whole-wheat pizza dough
1 cup of smoked mushrooms
2 servings of vegan mozzarella, shredded
1 cup of arugula
1 teaspoon of truffle oil
approximately 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
lemon zest, to taste – optional but recommended

Directions:

Preheat your oven (preferably with a pizza stone) to 450 degrees.

Prepare and prebake the pizza according to the directions here.

Top the prebaked pizza crust with the smoked mushrooms and vegan mozzarella and bake until the cheese is melted. This should take about 8 minutes.

Toss the arugula with the truffle oil and place it on top the pizza. Zest the lemon over the pizza (if using). I added about ½ a lemon worth of zest. Squeeze a little lemon juice on the pizza and eat while still hot.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 569.9
Calories From Fat (19%) - 106.7

Total Fat - 14.27g
Saturated Fat - 1.3g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 588.11mg
Potassium - 702.9mg
Total Carbohydrates - 113.36g
Fiber - 12.33g
Sugar - 3.3g
Protein - 17.14g

Comments:

I loved the combination of flavors. The smokiness is subtle and the mushrooms are chewy. Crispness is added with the crust. Vegan mozzarella is warm and soft. Fresh arugula adds a crisp spicy/bitter flavor and well as cancer fighting nutrition. Lemon juice and zest helps to cut through the fattiness of the cheese and truffle oil. The aroma from the truffle oil is wonderful when it hits the hot pizza.

Overall, while this is not a traditional pizza I loved the flavor combination. My husband thinks this pizza is restaurant worthy. Since he is my biggest fan, but also my toughest critic, I take that as the supreme compliment.

Black Truffle Popcorn

On weekends we normally watch a movie or two. My husband loves movies while I think movies are okay. I love truffles, and he thinks they are okay. To compromise I watch a movie with him and he shares black truffle popcorn with me. This is just another one of those quirky reasons we have been together for over 20 years now.

I realize that black truffles seem a little decadent to be used on popcorn. Wait until you try this before you pass judgement. If you like truffles, you will love this! Be certain to put the truffle oil and salt on the popcorn while it is still hot. The heat from the popcorn opens up the aroma of the truffle and it is nothing short of intoxicating. I will warn you, once you have had truffled popcorn it is hard to go back to the boring stuff you are accustomed to eating.

Black Truffle Popcorn
Serves 2

Ingredients:

¼ cup of white popcorn kernels, not popped
1 teaspoon of black truffle oil
½ teaspoon of black truffle salt

Directions:

Pop corn in an air popper. Drizzle with black truffle oil and toss to coat. Sprinkle on the black truffle salt and toss to coat. Enjoy!

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 143.64
Calories From Fat (23%) - 32.7

Total Fat - 3.67g
Saturated Fat - 0.52g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 472.36mg
Potassium - 90.44mg
Total Carbohydrates - 24.13g
Fiber - 4.19g
Sugar - 0.3g
Protein - 3.59g

Comments:

As my husband says “you are either a truffle lover or you aren’t”. Since I love them and he doesn’t I think that makes us a perfect match since it means more truffle for me. Seriously, if you like truffles this really is the best possible popcorn you can imagine. It isn’t too oily or too salty. The aroma is amazing. This is my favorite snack.

Homemade Truffle Salt

Have you looked at the price of truffle salt lately? I can’t believe how much they charge for the stuff. I started to wonder if you could make it yourself. After all, I make my own cumin salt, fennel salt, porcini salt and vanilla salt why should truffle salt be any different.

I received fresh truffles from Earthy Delights for a present this past Christmas. When you shave fresh truffles you always end up with little ends that are too small to shave that you don’t want to throw away. I took my finest microplane grater and grated the ends of the truffles and mixed it with fine sea salt. I have kept this homemade truffle salt in the refrigerator for the last four months and it has stored beautifully. The aroma of truffle has become deeper as the salt was stored. It takes very little finishing salt to create a nice heady aroma of truffle to a finished dish.

I happen to love anything related to mushrooms and particularly truffles. I use truffle salt to finish any mushroom dish where I would use truffle oil. Sometimes I use both truffle salt and truffle oil. I use both truffle salt and oil when the flavor of the dish is predominantly that of mushroom.

I will post other salt recipes in the future. For now, enjoy the truffle salt.