Quatre Epices

Those of you that have been reading for a while know that I like my spice blends. I think spices add so much flavor to food. They are invaluable when you are trying to reduce your salt and fat intake. If you missed them you may want to check out the blends I posted for curry powder, ras el hanout and dukkah.

For those of you that don’t speak french quatre epices translates to “four spice” and the name makes sense since that is what the blend contains. Classically it contains white pepper, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. It is used in processed meat and pate. It is also wonderful with game meats and wine based stews. In my prior life I used it to make pate, sausages, terrines and beef stew. I realized yesterday that I had not used this in ages and decided it was time to find out what uses it has in a vegan diet. Needless to say you can expect a seitan sausage and vegan pate very soon. ;-) Here is how you make the spice blend.

Quatre Epices
Makes about 2 tablespoons

Ingredients:

1 fat tablespoon white peppercorns
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (I use approximately ½ of a whole nutmeg)
½ teaspoon ginger, ground (dry not fresh)

Directions:

Toast the white peppercorns and cloves until you smell the aroma. Now cool the spices before grinding. I place them in a coffee grinder I have reserved for spices but you can use a mortar and pestle if you like to do things old school, it does work but taste longer to get it finely ground. Add the nutmeg and ginger and stir to combine. Store in an air tight container, I use an old spice bottle that I have cleaned well.

Comments:

If you like french food the flavors of this spice will be very familiar to you. I think it works well with mushroom and think I am going to try it as a seasoning for marinated tofu. If you make a vegan beef stew try adding a teaspoon or two of this to the dish. It will make the flavor much more complex. This spice plays well with both white and red wine.

Unrelated note:

Today is Friday so that means I need to take care of my usual errands. Assuming all goes well I will be back to make something using this spice blend. I also have a raw salad with sumac that I want to work on today or tomorrow. 

I hope you are all having a great day. I do love my Fridays even when they are hot and humid like today. Nothing, not even sticky weather, can ruin my mood on Friday. Be back later.

Lightly Cooked Veggies with Fermented Black Bean Sauce over Brown Rice

Today started early since Dan had a morning meeting in Annapolis and wanted to stop at his office for a while before heading south. I hate moving early in the morning. Let’s just say I have never been nor will I ever be a morning person. After Dan had his breakfast I did a little exercise and got on line while I waited for the TV to be delivered. The TV arrived about 10am so I didn’t have to wait long, which was very nice. If anyone is in the market for electronics HHGregg has a great selection, reasonable prices and they deliver.

I spent a little time in my garden this morning watering and weeding. I need to spend more time out in the garden tomorrow and this weekend. There is a lot of work to be done. I have decided gardening is like housework it is never finished. However, my tomatoes have quite a few little yellow flowers and the lettuce is growing very well. It is so nice to have fresh salad in the summer directly from the garden to the plate.

Dan ended up having lunch in Annapolis at McCormick and Schmick's with our friend Carmella after the meeting. Apparently the restaurant has a nice cucumber and strawberry salad with white balsamic that Dan really liked. He also ordered an asparagus side, no butter sauce. The only down side of the meal was Carmella wanted to substitute the fries for a salad and was told they don’t allow substitutions. Not the best customer service I would say. They clearly did not the customer is always right memo.

During the afternoon I went back to trying out exercise DVDs on Netflix. I am enjoying the variety of instructors and exercises. No DVDs have stood out yet as must haves, but I have many more to work through so there is still plenty of time. ;-)

Like usual I did not plan dinner but decided to go with the flow. I tend to look in the refrigerator and decide what needs to be used and start with that. Since the bok choy and shitakes were the oldest that meant Asian food to me. I added other veggies to the dish to make it substantial enough for 4 servings, dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow. Here is what I did:

Lightly Cooked Veggies with Fermented Black Bean Sauce over Brown Rice
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups brown rice (I used brown basmati)
3 cups water
7 ounces tofu, baked until lightly browned (brush with ½ tablespoon liquid aminos before baking)
½ large yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced tip to root
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced (allow to stand 10 minutes before cooking so the allicin has time to develop)
½ inch fresh ginger, finely minced or grated (if it is organic you don’t need to peel it just clean it well under running water with a vegetable brush)
2 medium bok choy, thinly sliced (approximately 6 cups)
2 leaves kale, julienned
½ pound fresh shitakes, stems removed and caps thinly sliced (save the stems in a freezer bag for mushroom stock when you need it)
4 carrots, julienned
2 tablespoons fermented black bean sauce
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar or mirin
Sriracha, to taste if you want a little heat - optional
¼ cup fresh cilantro, to garnish
Cashews for garnish if you choose (Dan thinks these are a must have item) you can also use peanuts or omit this completely - optional

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the tofu into 6 even slabs and coat it in the liquid aminos. Place the seasoned tofu in a well seasoned cast iron pan and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven allow the tofu to cool for a few minutes so it will release easily from the pan and flip it over. Bake for another 30 minutes to form a crust on the second side.

While the tofu is baking combine the rice and water and bring to a boil. Cover the pan, reduce to a simmer and cook until the water is absorbed. If you use an enameled cast iron pan the rice will be ready in approximately 30 - 35 minutes. I allow my rice to stand covered for 10 minutes once I turn off the heat this makes fluffier rice.

While the rice is standing combine the veggies and ¼ cup of water and sauté quickly. Whisk the fermented black bean sauce and rice wine vinegar together and add to the pan with the veggies. Toss to coat the veggies with the sauce. If you are using sriracha add it to the sauce before combining with the veggies.

To serve plate the brown rice, top with veggies and finish with cilantro and cashews (if desired).

Nutritional Analysis (does not include the optional nuts):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 436.83
Calories From Fat (11%) - 50.07

Total Fat - 6.17g
Saturated Fat - 0.81g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 833.32mg
Potassium - 1092.72mg
Total Carbohydrates-  88.43g
Fiber - 9.19g
Sugar - 12.08g
Protein - 15.64g

Comments:

This is one of those quick weeknight dinners that I fall back on regularly. You can vary this by using any veggies you have on hand. Additionally is just as good with lo mein as it is with rice.

If you are used to eating Asian food from a restaurant you will think this dish needs salt. I intentionally used less black bean sauce so the sodium wasn’t through the roof. You can either add more black bean sauce or liquid aminos to suit your taste buds.

Each serving of this dish contains approximately 20,950IU of vitamin A, 80mg of vitamin C, 295mg of calcium, 135mcg of folate, 195mcg vitamin K, 415mg of phosphorus, 180mg of magnesium, and 38mcg of selenium. I would have preferred a lower sodium count, but this is just what happens with Asian food. However, comparing the saltiness of this dish to restaurant Asian food now I know why I always retain water after eating Chinese. It must contain three days of sodium at a minimum.

Unrelated note:

Dan actually came home at a decent time today. I wonder if the TV had anything to do with it? ;-) Hmmmm. Well he didn’t get it set up yet but there was lots of measuring so he could decide about the furniture to go around it. I am getting more bookshelves. Yay! I may be as happy about that as he is the TV. Those of you that know me well know that books are everywhere in my home and I always buy more. In fact I ordered three more books last night from Amazon, three textbooks on nutrition actually. I can’t wait for them to arrive. I just love learning new things. ;-)

We were about half way through dinner when I realized I forgot to put the tofu on top the dish. Duh! That is why the picture doesn’t include tofu. I added it far too late to get a picture. But it looks just like the tofu I baked for the recipe on tofu with satay sauce posted here.

After dinner we decided to watch the first episode of “Thirty Something”. I was so excited to see this on the Netflix instant options. I was obsessed with this show when it was on in the late 80’s and early 90’s. So far it is just as entertaining now as it was all those years ago. However, they were a little whiny and self absorbed. But I am still enjoying it.

I did get some time in the kitchen today but I will need to fill you all in on that tomorrow. For now I am signing off to relax before turning in. I hope everyone had a great Thursday.

Sodium Recommendations

I have had an interest in nutrition for almost as long as I can remember. My interest wasn’t always as strong as it is now but I have been fascinated by nutrition for decades. About 20 years ago I remember my internist mentioning to me that the optimal sodium intake was 2,200mg. That number stuck in my head and wouldn’t shake loose.

I was surprised last week when watching the 2009 videos of the Nutritional & Health conference one of doctors mentioned the IOM (Institute of Medicine) target of 1,500mg of sodium daily. Now I knew Doc Fuhrman recommended lower levels of sodium but I always thought the official target was still in the low 2,000’s. Of course I did a little research to find out exactly what the IOM had written. They published a paper recently on reducing sodium intake. Apparently American’s on average consume 3,400mg per day of sodium which exceeds the maximum of 2,300mg. Also the target established for most Americans is 1,500mg. Here is exactly what was written:

SODIUM AND POTASSIUM

Key Recommendations

• Consume less than 2,300 mg (approximately 1 tsp of salt) of sodium per day.

• Choose and prepare foods with little salt. At the same time, consume potassium-rich foods, such as fruits and vegetables.

Key Recommendations for Specific Population Groups

• Individuals with hypertension, blacks, and middle-aged and older adults. Aim to consume no more than 1,500 mg of sodium per day, and meet the potassium recommendation (4,700 mg/day) with food.

For those of you that don’t know the proportion of sodium consumed in relation to potassium is important. This is why eating a lot of processed food (high in sodium and low in potassium) and little produce (low in sodium and high in potassium) isn’t a good idea.

One the things I learned in the last Cornell class in relation to sodium was when you are buying processed food the milligrams of sodium should not exceed the calories. For example if the food has 100 calories per serving than the sodium should not exceed 100 milligrams. While we don’t buy a lot of processed food this seemed like a good rule of thumb to me. I hope you find it useful when you are grocery shopping.

Additionally it is useful to keep in mind when you are adding salt to food that each teaspoon of salt contains approximately 2,300mg of sodium. Sea salt and kosher salt are a little lower in sodium at approximately 1,880mg per teaspoon.

We find that liquid aminos is where we get a lot of our sodium. Even though it is lower in sodium than low sodium soy sauce it still tends to add up. For those are you that are going to try for 1,500mg of sodium per day it isn’t easy. We make it most days now but initially food tasted very bland. I found that using a lot of herbs and peppers was very helpful in adding flavor to food that didn’t have salt.

Unrelated note:

Sorry I wasn’t around much yesterday. We had some appointments out of the house. Once those were finished Dan wanted to shop for a new TV for the family room. It was delivered this morning. My hubby loves his technology. This television seems more like a computer to me. It can be connected wirelessly to the internet and comes with 3D capability. Not that I can imagine why we need a 3D TV, but I guess this will make watching sci fi more fun for my hubby. Boys do like their toys no matter how old the boy becomes.

While we were out I ran by Marshalls just to see if I could find a couple shirts. I found 6 summer shirts which I liked and they were very reasonably priced. I picked up the cutest Ralph Lauren shirt in a nautical white with thin blue horizontal stripes marked down to $16.99 with a boat neck and gold buttons. I love, love, love a good deal. LOL! I had to pick up a pair of white pants to wear with this shirt of course.

Since it was right there we ran into Costco to replenish our supply of veggies and fruit to juice. It is amazing how quickly we go through veggies for juice. Costco had Capri yoga pants in stock so I picked up 4 more pair. Can you have too many workout clothes? I don’t think so. ;-)

By the time we got home it was late and I was exhausted. This is what happens when you “have to” wear cute sandals with an enormous heel (because I am vertically challenged after all). For dinner we had a leftover quinoa that I had stashed in the refrigerator which I stirred salsa into, wilted spinach and a veggie burger from the freezer. We also had a big glass of veggie and fruit juice. Nothing exciting to eat last night for dinner, just healthy food fast because I didn’t really feel like standing on my feet.   Gee I wonder why, LOL.

Since I was gone most of the day yesterday I have a lot to do today to get caught up on my “to do list”. One thing I need to do is spend some time in the kitchen. I feel like I need a little therapeutic cooking today. I will be back with at least one recipe if not more. Talk to you all soon.

Southern Italian Green Beans over Quinoa

For some unknown reason I decided to clean out my closet this morning. You wouldn’t think I would have anything left to purge but somehow I found another three big trash bags worth of clothes to donate since the last purge. Even though I have only lost three pounds over the last few months I have lost two inches on my waist. (Yay exercise!) That makes an enormous difference in how your clothes fit. Needless to say, the big clothes are going out. I don’t want any fat clothes to fall back on. But now my closet is looking really bare. There may be a shopping expedition in my future. Darn it, LOL! ;-)

When I have no idea what I am going to make I frequently turn to some variation of this meal. We like the light yet flavorful tomato sauce. It is good with any number of veggies, beans, or even tofu. In the past I would serve this tossed with al dente whole wheat pasta. But since we are trying to keep our flour consumption to a dull roar I serve this dish over quinoa more often now. Quinoa has the added benefit of containing all 8 essential amino acids as well as being a whole unprocessed grain. Here is what I did.

Southern Italian Green Beans over Quinoa
Serves 3 (or two servings for Dan and one for me)

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled (allow to stand 10 minutes so the allicin can develop before cooking)
¼ cup water for sautéing the aromatics
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
14 ounces canned diced tomato, no salt added
2 cups fresh green beans, tipped
½ tablespoon of fresh lemon juice or red wine vinegar
fresh basil, julienned for garnish (approximately 9 leaves)
sliced almonds, for garnish (approximately 1 ½ tablespoons)
1 ½ cups cooked quinoa to serve under the beans (if using previously cooked quinoa it reheats well in the microwave)

Directions:

Water sauté the onions and garlic until tender, about 3 minutes on high. Add the seasonings and tomatoes and cook for approximately 7 – 8 minutes so the flavors con develop. Add the green beans and cook for another 5 minutes until the beans are just starting to soften but are still bright green. Finish with a ½ tablespoon of fresh lemon juice or red wine vinegar to brighten the flavor. Add salt and pepper if desired.

To serve top the quinoa with the bean and tomato mixture. Add a sprinkle of sliced almonds and basil.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 225.83
Calories From Fat (18%) - 39.98

Total Fat - 4.65g
Saturated Fat - 0.27g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 22.78mg
Potassium - 864mg
Total Carbohydrates - 40.87g
Fiber - 9.61g
Sugar - 8.23g
Protein - 8.91g

Comments:

This dish makes a nice light meal. Served with a green salad you have a complete healthy meal that is ready in less than 20 minutes. If you are in the mood for heat this is also great with a little hot crushed peppers (wet hots) added to the tomatoes at the end.

Each serving of this dish contains approximately 1,800IU of vitamin A, 140mg of calcium, 55mcg of vitamin K, 260mg of phosphorus, and 125 mg of magnesium. Not too shabby for so little time and effort.

Unrelated note:

Today is going to be a little more hectic than normal. I hope to be back later today with another post, but I have a lot on my plate so there is a good chance I may run out of time. I hope you are having a good Wednesday. Talk to again as soon as I can.

Busy Monday …. I mean Tuesday, and Sunflower Seed Pate

I have been thinking today was Monday all day long. Obviously Dan went back to work today and I have gone back to my schedule, well sort of. Yesterday I discovered that there were quite a few exercise DVDs available instantly through Netflix. I have been enjoying finding ones to add to the instant queue. My goal is to try two new exercise DVDs each day until I get through them all. I love trying out new exercise DVDs. At the moment I am working my way through the Pilates DVDs.

In addition to playing on the computer I have also spent a lot of time on the phone today chatting with girlfriends. Sometimes there really is nothing better. We are going to meet my friend Deirdre for dinner again on Friday. She has such a wonderful sense of humor I can’t wait to see her.

Today Dan and I had leftovers for lunch, nothing new. We ate the end of the almond feta so I needed to make another nut cheese or seed pate. Today I decided to make a sunflower pate to mix things up. Today I wanted to make one that reminded me of seafood. Nut and seed pates are very easy to make and this one is no exception. Here is what I did:

Sunflower Pate
approximately 24 tablespoons

Ingredients:

I cup raw sunflower seeds, soaked at least 4 hours in plenty of water, then drained well
1 cup raw red bell pepper, diced
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely minced
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
½ teaspoons sweet paprika
¼ teaspoon cumin seed
¼ - ½ teaspoon dry mustard, depending on how much “zip” you want
¼ teaspoon fennel seed
1 pinch celery seed
black pepper, to taste
dulse granules (or sea salt), to taste

Directions:

Combine everything in your food processor and puree until completely smooth. You will need to stop the processor a few times to scrape the side of the bowl. Refrigerate and serve cold. Because this spread includes raw veggies it will not last as long in the refrigerator as nut cheese made without veggies. It normally lasts for us 4 or 5 days.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 35.91
Calories From Fat (71%) - 25.38

Total Fat - 3.03g
Saturated Fat-  0.26g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 1.68mg
Potassium - 50.98mg
Total Carbohydrates - 1.5g
Fiber - 0.62g
Sugar - 0.32g
Protein - 1.27g

Comments:

The flavor of this dish comes from the spices. If you don’t have all these herbs and spices use Old Bay to taste instead. This smooth pate with a nice hint of heat in the background (I used the ½ teaspoon of dry mustard). The mouth feel is much lighter and less fatty than the almond feta cheese. If you are new to nut and seed pates I recommend you start with the recipes that are denser, like the almond feta.

For those of you that are doing the 6 week "Eat to Live" program the 1 ounce of nuts or seeds seems to come out to be about 18 grams of fat. So you could have 6 tablespoons (or 1/3 cup) of this pate as you daily nut and seed allowance. Here is an interesting chart I saw today that you may find helpful. It shows you how many nuts are in one ounce.

Unrelated note:

Tonight for dinner we had a simple salad topped with salsa and sunflower seed pate. Nothing too exciting at our house for dinner, just a simple veggie salad. There was a fruit smoothie to go with that as well as fresh veggie and fruit juice and powdered green drink.

Courtney has introduced me to a new way to get raw cruciferous veggies into our diet. I want to play around with the specifics a little. But I will get that recipe ready to post this week. I think you will all be amazed, I know I was. Thanks for sharing Courtney! This is going to come in so handy this summer.

I don’t know how many of you saw this article at the NYT website but it annoyed me so I thought I would share. Some silly woman was eating 2-3 pounds of raw bok choy a day and ended causing low thyroid function due to an overdose of glucosinolates. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the doctor indicates that raw veggies should be eaten in moderation. Really? Silly me, I thought raw veggies were good for us. Who knew we should eat them in moderation. Do Americans really need another excuse not to eat their veggies? I don’t think they do. My take on this article is that we should all vary our diet and not eat an enormous quantity of anything. But that doesn’t mean that veggies are harmful. Sorry for the rant, this just irritated me. I am not a big fan of sensationalism.

I hope you are all having a good day. Only 3 days until the weekend. Don’t you just love these short weeks? I know I do. Talk to you all later.

Unusual Breakfast and Cold Lunch

This morning it was hot outside when we got up. I really don’t enjoy hot food in the summer. Instead of a smoothie I thought I would use the cold brown rice I had leftover from dinner last night. There was also a pound of organic asparagus that I wanted to use. Since asparagus has been shown to fight cancer when consumed raw (and we enjoy it that way) I cut it into thin coins and tossed it with the cold cooked brown rice. I topped this with my Asian walnut dressing and some torn basil leaves. That was breakfast along with a fresh veggie and fruit juice that is. Here are the specifics and nutrition breakdown:

Asparagus and Brown Rice with Walnut Dressing
Serves 3 (meaning a double portion for Dan and a single one for me)

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups brown rice, cooked and cold
1 pound of asparagus, cut into 1/16 inch coins
6 tablespoons Asian Walnut dressing (I added sriracha to it today)
6 fresh basil leaves torn

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 198.29
Calories From Fat (28%) - 55.57

Total Fat - 6.68g
Saturated Fat - 0.76g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 76.08mg
Potassium - 431.8mg
Total Carbohydrates - 30.44g
Fiber - 5.59g
Sugar - 3.15g
Protein - 7g

Comments:

While not a typical breakfast we enjoyed it. The best part was that it came together in about 5 minutes. This is why I keep cold cooked grains in the refrigerator all the time. With cooked grains and fresh veggies you can always make a meal very fast. I keep cooked beans on hand for the same reason.

To go with this we had a fresh veggie and fruit juice comprised of: 1 apple, 5 carrots, 3 stalks celery, 2 kale leaves, 1/3 pound spinach, ½ lemon, 1 inch ginger, 2 frozen wheat grass shots. Of course we also had our powdered green drink. Can you ever have too many vegetables? I don’t think so, obviously, LOL.

Next recipe

Since it is a little warm here Dan and I have decided to take it easy again today. We watched something from PBS on Netflix and decided to make another simple and easy cold mid day meal. After much discussion this morning we settled on a cold bulgur and veggie salad and some fresh veggies marinated in lemon juice. I still hadn’t decided how I was using the marinated veggies, whether on a salad, or in a wrap. By the time I needed to make a decision I decided to toss the marinated veggies with spiralized zucchini. Here is what I used:

Lemon Marinated Veggies with Spiralized Zucchini
serves 6

Ingredients:

2 red bell pepper, julienned
3 carrots, julienned
2 collard leaves, julienned
1 lemon juiced and zested
4 cups spinach, julienned
4 zucchini, spiralized
¼ cup pine nuts

Directions:

Combine the red bell pepper, carrots, collard threads, lemon zest and juice in zip top bag. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Turn the bag over periodically to make certain all the veggies are in the juice. The point of the lemon juice is to soften the veggies. Most raw recipes use oil and salt with the lemon juice. Since I have eliminated oil and try to cut back on sodium I don’t use either and it works just fine. Taste and add salt and pepper if desired.

When you are ready to serve toss the marinated veggies and juice with the spiralized zucchini and spinach. Top with pine nuts and serve cold.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories-  99.87
Calories From Fat (37%) - 37.1

Total Fat - 4.43g
Saturated Fat-  0.37g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 60.26mg
Potassium - 755.94mg
Total Carbohydrates - 14.04g
Fiber - 4.56g
Sugar - 6.91g
Protein - 3.99g

Comments:

This was the hit of the meal. Even my omni parents had seconds. Needless to say both Dan and I were shocked. My father really seemed to enjoy this. It was very light but had good flavor. Some fresh basil would be a nice addition to this if you have it.

Each serving of this dish contains approximately 10,600IU of vitamin A, 100mg of vitamin C, 65mg of calcium, 115mcg of folate, 130mcg of vitamin K, 120mg of phosphorus, and 65mg of magnesium. Pretty amazing nutrition for less than 100 calories.

Next Recipe:

To go with the zucchini spaghetti I made a quick bulgur dish. I added the bulgur for fiber and calories. Here is how I made that dish:

Lemon Bulgur with Vegetables and Mint
serves 6

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups bulgur
3 cups water
1 lemon zested and juiced (use 2 if you love lemon)
1 cup edamame
1 cup snow peas, sliced thinly on the diagonal
2 cups spinach, julienned
¼ cup mint, thinly sliced

Directions:

Combine the bulgur and water and bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Add the lemon zest and juice while the bulgur is still hot so it can absorb the lemon flavor. Chill the bulgur until cold. Add the edamame, snow peas, spinach and mint and toss just before serving. Season with salt and pepper if desired.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories 161.61
Calories From Fat (10%) - 15.76

Total Fat - 1.88g
Saturated Fat - 0.25g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 19.86mg
Potassium - 354.01mg
Total Carbohydrates - 31.45g
Fiber - 8.47g
Sugar - 1.45g
Protein - 7.78g

Comments:

This cold salad has a subtle flavor and freshness from the mint. You can use any veggies you like with the lemony bulgur. This dish would have been great with the lemon marinated veggies. I added the edamame to this dish for protein. Snap peas were included for texture.

Each serving of this salad contains approximately 1,100IU of vitamin A, 50mg of calcium, 115mcg of folate, 60mcg of vitamin K, 160mg of phosphorus, and 85mg of magnesium.

Unrelated note:

Earlier today we watched a two part documentary which originally ran on PBS. It was called “The New Medicine”. Here is the description from Netflix, “The Before her death in 2006 from lung cancer, Dana Reeve filmed this thought-provoking program exploring the use of holistic remedies in modern medicine. Moving beyond traditional treatments and examining more lifestyle factors, an increasing number of doctors are supplementing their work with a host of healing alternatives -- including meditation, hypnosis and acupuncture -- to treat the whole body and restore their patients' health.” Dan and I both found it fascinating. Some of the scientific information about the mind body connection was very interesting.

For those of you that are wondering yes I am as interested in health and nutrition as it appears. For the last few years it has been my favorite topic of choice which is how I amassed so much information on nutrition. If I am not reading something on the topic of health or nutrition than I watching something on it.

I am going to spend some time with Dan and then make dinner. I will be back later to let you know what I came up with. I hope you are having a great long weekend. Talk to you all later.

Raw Spring Rolls

We brought back a plethora of beautiful organic produce from the market this morning. Because it was suppose to get hot today I decided a cold dinner was in order. Tonight’s dish is a method more than a recipe and was inspired by one of the recipes in the “Raw For Life” DVD which was raw spring rolls.  That recipe used zucchini for the wrapper. This process works exactly the same as the cannelloni I made here, except it is healthier because it is filled with veggies. To the interior I added finely julienned spinach, Napa cabbage, grated carrot, cilantro and mint. Roll them up just like the cannelloni and refrigerate (covered) until ready to serve. I can imagine changing these many ways depending on what you stuff them with. The trick appears to be shredding the filling finely and rolling it tightly.

Make any dip you like to dunk them in. I made a dressing of mellow white miso and mirin with a little sriracha. Not only did Dan and I like this but so did the omnis. Will miracles never cease?

To go with the raw spring rolls I made my deconstructed sushi salad, which the omnis also liked. Since tomorrow is supposed to be another scorcher I made extra rice for us to have for dinner or a snack with some finely chopped raw veggies. That is something I do often.  Leftover brown has lots of uses.

This may be my last post for today.  I only got 3 1/2 hours sleep last night which may mean I will crash early. If not I will be back with our next meal since we still haven't had dinner. Talk to you all later. 

Farmers’ Market Sunday

As usual we were at the farmers’ market bright and early this morning. We get try to get there by 7am and are frequently leaving at 7:30am. Typically we start with our two favorite organic farmers. Both Dan and I think supporting the local organic farmers is important. While we like to buy local produce we prefer that it be local and organic so we always shop with that in mind.

This morning we stopped to Calvert Farm first which is our CSA. Today we picked up: 1 head of red leaf lettuce, 1 bunch of collards, I bunch of kale, 1 napa cabbage, 2 pints peas, and 2 pints strawberries. While we were there we ordered a tray of wheat grass juice. The nice thing about our CSA is you get to select what you want each week. Everything has a share allotted to it and you get typically 8 shares. Then you mix and match and pick what you want. There were tons of things we didn’t buy, the selection is wonderful and everything is so fresh and gorgeous.

Next we went to see Rudy at Cat’s Paw Organic. There we got some sugar snap peas, radishes and cucumbers. I loved the radishes when they were spiralized last week which is why I picked up three bunches this week. Rudy has a lot of plants for sale this time of year. He is the one we got our tomatoes and some of the herbs from a few weeks ago. For those of you that are local Rudy also sells homemade baked goods made by his wife. We have picked up a muffin and time or two. They are excellent. Some of them are low sugar others low fat but they are all fantastic, at least the ones we have had were.

Since I picked up radishes I wanted to grab some zucchini to be spiral cut as well. Since our two certified organic farmers didn’t have any zucchini yet we just picked the closest farmer that had squash. I got both zucchini and yellow squash so I could mix the colors on the plate. I will be making a different sauce this week for the spiral cut veggies. If you haven’t tried making your veggies this way I highly recommend it. They is something much more appealing about veggies that are spiral cut.

After the market we came home to make breakfast. While I prepped the veggies and fruit for juice Dan “entertained the cats” with the bags of produce. Whenever we come home the felines need to “investicat” the new stuff no matter what it is. They must smell everything and check it out. You know humans need cats because without them who knows how much trouble we could get into. Once the cats approved we could put things in the frig. Clearly the felines are in charge at this house, just ask them. ;-)

For breakfast this morning we had oatmeal with wild blueberries, ground flaxseed, cinnamon, powdered ginger, and walnuts. To go with that we had fresh vegetable and fruit juice and our powdered green drink. Breakfast was 2 hours ago and I am still full.

For supper with the parents today I am thinking of making raw spring rolls. I have no idea what I will be making to go with that, but clearly there needs to be something else or my parents will think I am trying to starve them. I may have to get out one of my Asian cookbooks for ideas. That doesn’t happen very often any more. I must be slipping. If anyone has a raw Asian recipe idea I would love to hear what it is.

Dinner Last Night: I took the night off, Ian cooked instead

The weather yesterday was perfect for eating on the patio so we decided to let Ian cook so I could have the night off. When I called for reservations the first thing the manager said was, “we were just talking about you guys”. Have I said recently how lucky we are to have such a great place right around the corner? Everyone is so nice and they always treat us like family. It is rather like our version of “Cheers”.

We love sitting on the patio under the trees and having dinner. There is really nothing better than dinner on the patio when the weather is cooperating. It is always great to see Ian, Corey, Aimee, Michael, Stephanie, Brandon, and Kristin. There is something very special about having a neighborhood restaurant where you know almost everyone by name as well as quite a bit about them. We used to know everyone but there are some new people for the summer that we haven’t met yet. Give us time though we will get to know them too. ;-)

We were thrilled to hear that Aimee’s straight A streak is still intact. Yay Aimee! She aced organic chemistry, which she was a little worried about, as well as her other three courses. We knew she could do it! ;-) We (Dan, myself and Louis our pharmacist friend) are all convinced Aimee will be getting into her first choice pharmacy school next spring. As you can see I was not kidding about knowing them fairly well.

As usual we had to order things that aren’t exactly on the menu, nothing new there. ;-) It is amazing that they put up with us, LOL.

Here is a pic of the specials from this evening. Nothing vegan here, but great inspirations for things to veganize later which I often do. This is one of my favorite tricks when I am looking for dinner ideas. Ian is always a great source of inspiration.

Aimee thought we needed something to nibble on while we decided what we were going to eat and brought us some whole wheat baguette with hummus and fried sage leaves. Again, this isn’t on the menu, but most of the things we eat there aren’t. It is nice to be part of the family and get “special” food. Fried sage leaves were quite the treat since you know we don’t use oil at home. They tasted much more decadent than I remember them being in the past when I used oil regularly. Our tastes have changed tremendously in regard to fat.

For our appetizer we had a small whole wheat pizza with basil and pine nut pesto, grilled eggplant and roasted peppers. This made a great pizza that was full of flavor; we did not miss the cheese. This is a really nice flavor combination. Ian would have added Taleggio (my personal all time favorite cheese, of course it is Italian) which would have been fantastic here if you are a vegetarian. For those of you that don’t cook much Italian food pesto almost always has cheese so you need to know that it won’t be vegan at most restaurants. 

Good thing we don't go out to eat often with all the flour and fat. This is why I try not to cook with flour at home.  We always seem to end up with pasta, pizza or bread when we go out.  But it is good. ;-)

Then Michael and Aimee made us a special salad with granny smith apples, raspberries, strawberries, walnuts and balsamic glaze. We also had an arugula salad with avocado, oranges, cucumbers and black olives (sorry I forgot to take a pic).

Of course there were copious pots of green tea. We don’t even have to order that any more. It shows up at the table about the same time we do. It really is nice to have such a friendly neighborhood restaurant with fabulous food.

Like always we stayed for hours and had to chat with everyone, some more than once. Ian came to the table a few times and even sat down for a little while to chat. We have been trying to coordinate dinner with Ian and Carmen (his wife) for quite a while. Ian is always so busy he is hard to catch up with unless we see him at the restaurant.

Overall it was a lovely evening with wonderful food, weather and company. Definitely a fabulous way to start the long weekend. I hope you are all having a great weekend too.

I need to run and get ready to leave for the farmers' market. Talk to you guys later today.

Product Review: Simply Raw and Raw for Life

As many of you know I am not nor will I probably ever be a raw foodist. But I do like raw food, particularly in the summer. Since we have been eating more raw food I thought it might be nice to pick up a couple of DVDs on eating raw. I ordered “Simple Raw” and “Raw for Life” about a month ago. I was so busy with the Cornell certificate program that I didn’t finish watching both of them until this week. So I wanted to let you know what we thought of the DVDs.  As usual I purchased these they were not sent to me for free to review.

"Simply Raw" is about 6 people (2 type 1 and 4 type 2 diabetics) who go to the Tree of Life (in Arizona I think) to see if they can cure their diabetes by eating a raw diet. While neither Dan nor I have high blood sugar I found the results of this 30 day experiment to be nothing short of amazing. If you know anyone with diabetes I would recommend they see this video. One type 1 diabetic was cured which I found absolutely miraculous. Curing the type 2 diabetics wasn’t that much of a big deal, in my opinion. If food is what gets you into trouble it only seems logical that it can be resolved by changing what you eat. But that is just my opinion.

"Raw for Life" was more about the general health benefits of being raw. Some of the “experts” that are on the DVD are” Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Gabriel Cousens, Dr. Julian Whitaker, Tony Robbins, David Wolfe, Brendan Brazier, and Brian Clement PhD (Hippocrates Institute) to name a few. A few of the topics covered are:

• starting out on a raw diet

• weight reduction

• detox and cleansing

• nutrition

• optimal athletic performance

This DVD also contains about a dozen raw recipes which are demonstrated by chefs. I think that section alone is worth buying the DVD if you are new to raw food. There is a crazy cracker recipe that is very different from mine that I will be trying this weekend (with my own spin of course). I will let you all know how that turns out.

Overall I am glad we bought both DVDs but unless you have diabetes or know someone who does I would stick with "Raw For Life" alone. It also has a section on diabetes which I thought contained all the information I needed on the subject.

Unrelated note:

Last night Dan came home from work early so I unplugged (no computer no smart phone) and we watched a couple of movies on Netflix streaming. Now my Wii is more than just an exercise device, LOL.

We watched both “The Gerson Miracle” and “The Beautiful Truth”, both movies about Max Gerson. They moved a little slowly but were full of interesting stories and information. Dan and I both came away thinking we need to make and drink more fresh juice. The movies did have the effect of making us both think we are doing the right thing with our diet. The basics of the Gerson therapy are: vegan diet, fresh pressed juice, organic produce, no salt, and coffee enemas. Let’s just say that last item had us both go “what ……?” I don’t see that happening at our house anytime soon. Even we have our limits, LOL. But overall it was quite interesting and the coffee portion was downplayed, thankfully.  I would recommend both movies to anyone that is open to something new and facing cancer.

Dinner last night was nothing special, bulgur dressed with lemon juice and cumin and lots of fresh finely minced veggies plus fresh vegetable and fruit juice. Nothing exciting enough for dinner last night to write about, you didn’t miss anything. ;-)

The weather today is cool, mid 70s and a little overcast. It is a good day to get some yard work done, which is on our agenda. I will check back in with you all later tonight or tomorrow. I hope you are all having a great start to the weekend.

Fun Facts Friday

(This is a pic I took in Firenze I added it because I am in an Italian state of mind after my questions)

Hello everyone. I hope you are all excited about the long weekend. I know I am. We don’t have any definitive plans but it just nice to know I get to spend three days with my hubby, assuming he doesn’t have to work that is. ;-) What are you doing this weekend, have any plans?

Are you planning any big food activities? We frequently grill "veggie" burgers, seitan hot dogs and fruit for Memorial Day. However since the weather is supposed to be hot again I may just go with raw food instead. Do your tastes change with the weather?

Fun Facts Friday:

I like to write these questions as they pop into my head. Today I was thinking about life in general which is where the first question came from. Reading is something that I try to do every day. I just find it good for my sanity. Italian wine is something that I have loved as long as I can remember. It isn’t the healthiest choice but I still adore it. I can’t remember the last time had a glass but I can also smell and taste it just thinking about it. Here are my questions:

1) What was the favorite time in your life and why? This was a difficult question for me because I am basically a happy person and have enjoyed most of my life. But I have to say that now is my favorite time. With age I have learned to relax and take things as they come. I used to be too focused and hard working to relax long enough to enjoy the little things. I try to do that every day now. I start my day with a mug of green tea and to try to write a few things each morning that I am grateful for. It really seems to help me to put life into perspective. If you haven’t tried it I highly recommend it. If any of you want an example so you can do it let me know. I would be happy to write a post about it.

2) Do you have a favorite activity, something that always makes you happy that you do it every chance you get? I love to curl up in my favorite chair with a good book and a cup of green tea. That is my idea of heaven. This is followed closely a long leisurely hot bath with a magazine. See the connection?  I love to relax and read, LOL.

3) What is your favorite indulgence? This was the easiest question of all for me. A nice "chewy" glass of Brunello di Montalcino. Add a piece of dark chocolate to that and I almost melt into the glass. I can think of no better indulgence than that.  Drop me in Firenze or Venezia with the wine and chocolate and I can think of nothing better on earth.  In fact I think of Italy every time I drink Brunello.  Maybe that is why I love it so much. ;-)

Unrelated note:

It is time for me to run my errands and check on the folks. I will be back later. I can’t wait to read your answers. You guys come up with some great stuff. Talk to you soon.

Dinner Salad and Cheeze filled Dandelion Bites

Tonight’s post is more of an idea then it is an actual recipe. Dan was in the mood for gazpacho but I really wanted a salad. So we had both tonight. I saved a little of Dan’s gazpacho to use for my salad dressing and it worked really well. I will definitely be using gazpacho that way again. I have no idea why it took me so long to try it.

To accompany the salad and soup I made dandelion bites. This is a simple concept. You take a dandelion leaf and cut off the bottom of the stem so you have about 4 or 5 inches of the top of the leaf remaining. Place a small amount of nut cheese at the base of the leaf, add a half a sun dried tomato and roll it up. It should be one bite size tasted. Four of these were more than enough tonight with salad for me. You can use any small leaf for this. I warn you these are rich little bursts of flavor. The chewy tomato adds nice textural variation.

Dandelion Greens:

For those of you that are wondering these came from the grocery store or farmers’ market.  Some raw sources say you can use the ones that come from your yard. I tried one a few days ago to compare them. The flavor and texture is very close.  Dandelion greens are commonly used in Italian cuisine. I like to use them as a salad green, in pesto and in soup. They are so nutritious why not use them everywhere you can. If you like bitter greens you should give them a try. A cup of the raw greens contain: 25 calories, 5,588IU of vitamin A, 428mcg of vitamin K, 103mg of calcium, 19mg of vitamin C and 218mg of phosphorus.  Here is the link to the stats at nutrition data.

Unrelated Note:

That is going to be it for me tonight. It is time for me to clean up the kitchen and wind down. I am so happy tomorrow is Friday. As usual I will be running my typical Friday errands. However I will be back in the afternoon. Talk to all soon.

Happy Thursday - One Day Until a Long Weekend!

The good thing about today is that it is almost the weekend. I need a long weekend something fierce. This week has not been one of the best. But it is almost over and that is a very good thing. I am ready for some fun and relaxation. For those of you that listened to me whine today a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart! You have no idea how much you helped me not have a mini breakdown. Thankfully I bounce back quickly. ;-)

The weather the last few days was uncomfortable to say the least. I am not fond of heat and today it has 90 plus degrees and not very pleasant. The air conditioning is still cranking at our house. Early today I would have loved to hit the pavement to get out my frustration but the weather was not right for it. Heather suggested kickboxing and that was a brilliant idea! Sometimes kick and punching is just what you need to get your frustrations and stress out. I felt so much better once I was finished. If you haven’t tried kickboxing I highly recommend it. What a wonderful stress reliever it is.

Memorial Day:

Memorial Day isn’t a holiday where we tend to do anything special. At our place it does mean the official start of summer. For us that translates into more cold and raw food. Shorts and sandals become the uniform of choice. My hair will normally be a in a high pony tail, like it was 30 years ago when I was a cheerleader, though there are some grey hairs now that I didn’t have then. Both Dan and I move a little slower in the summer though we are also outside much more often soaking up the UVB and vitamin D (post to come on that).

Speaking of outside I may see if Dan feels like going for a nice long bike ride this weekend. We haven’t done that yet this year. A bike ride and a picnic sound like a great idea. What do you have planned for this long weekend? Something good I hope.

Eat to Live:

I know that some of you are doing or have tried to do “Eat to Live” (hereafter E2L) because I get a lot of great email and comments about it. Any of you that have been reading for a while know I love Dr. Fuhrman and “Eat to Live.” I love the nutritional aspect of the plan but it also is good if you want to drop a few pounds. I decided I should write a little about our experience so that you would know what to expect. We went from omni to E2L so it was probably a bigger change for us than most of you will probably experience. I read the book in a few hours and we went vegan with the next meal. What I like about the plan is that is science based. The doctor does a great job of footnoting his sources and you can go on line to read the studies if you wish. I did this for many of the studies he cited. Yes I am that much of a nutrition geek, LOL. If any of you like science I recommend the book for that aspect alone.

The question I get most often is how hard was it? Well if you think a root canal is a party this plan is for you. ;-) The first couple of weeks I was miserable, not unhappy but downright miserable. I stomped around complaining that I would rather die than eat like this. A little dramatic, you think? Sadly this is exactly what happened. I cheated and ate more starch and added a little oil and convinced myself that I was following the plan. Yeah, okay if you say so Alicia. But I just couldn’t commit 100% immediately. Twenty three days after we started Dan was scheduled for a blood draw for a visit to his internist. He and the doc had been watching his cholesterol and there was talk of prescribing a statin drug.

Neither Dan nor I like to take meds. We don’t like to take a Tylenol when we get a headache unless absolutely necessary. This is where the magic in the story happens. Dan’s cholesterol went from 280 to 165 in a matter of 23 days and we weren’t as diligent as we should have been. My reaction was to be overjoyed. This is when I knew we were on to something. Additionally my blood pressure went from 120/80 to 95/55 in just a few months. The physical results were amazing. Even today the seasonal allergies I struggled with each spring for more than 20 years are gone, vanished. I used to “have to” take pseudoephedrine every four hours all spring (don’t cringe Louis). If I didn’t take them, and I tried that approach, I lived with constant sinus headaches. I think we all know how debilitating those can be. I can’t tell you the last time I had a sinus pill. For me that was a miracle.

Now it was time to get serious and really commit to the 6 week plan (page 179 in my edition). Was it hard? Yep. I had no idea how to cook without oil, heck I am Italian. We think olive oil is good for anything that ails you. But I persisted and discovered that you can sauté in water and it works just fine. The biggest problem for me was what to cook. Initially I felt so limited in my choices. But the worst part was only one cup of grains and/or starchy veggies a day. What? Thankfully this was the initial program and it gets more relaxed after 6 weeks. Before I went through this I didn’t realize the point was to break the hold those less than optimally healthy foods had on my body. I had no idea that I was actually addicted to them. Sure they tasted good but addicted, that didn’t seem possible. Since then Dr. Kessler has written a great book called “The End of Overeating”which explains the addictions to sugar, fat and salt. However before that book addiction didn’t really seem like a physical possibility, at least I didn’t believe it. But I now believe the entire point of the strict 6 weeks is to break your addiction to those less than optimally healthy foods.

Once the 6 weeks is over the doctor has the 90 percent rule (page 185) that allows you to relax a little and live in the “real world”. This works if you have broken your addiction but can lead to trouble, even for me. I find it easier to keep our diet free of oil, dairy and meat than add them back at any level. Very rarely we will have something made with flour (whole wheat pasta, pita, pizza) but that is a treat and doesn’t happen often and is normally when we are out. Additionally it is nearly impossible to get food at a restaurant that doesn’t include oil. I have learned to relax and just go with the flow. I would prefer not to have it but most commercial kitchens (even when you know the chef …. you know who you are) can’t cope with a request for no oil. They look at you as though you just asked for their first born. I had to relax and realize that a little oil and flour every once in a while wasn’t going to kill us. My hubby would love me to relax a little more, but that isn’t going to happen. ;-) Those of you that know me know that I am not kidding.

It took us about a month to get comfortable with cooking and eating this way. Dan thinks it was harder on me since I make the food. I will honestly say that I no longer feel limited in my choices as I once did. I have no difficulty coming up with ideas for meals. If anything adhering to E2L has resulted in more creativity and choices, not less.

I hope that answers some of your questions.

Unrelated note:

I need to run and get into the kitchen and make dinner. I will be back later and let you know what we had. As usual I have not entirely decided yet. Nothing like planning, LOL.

Carb Analysis - take two

Thank you Heather!  This is what happens when you try to do things when you are frustrated. Sometimes it is best to step back and relax. This is the chart I had wanted to post earlier.

If anyone wants the actual excel file send me an email at veganepicurean@gmail.com and I will get it to you.

Talk to you later!

Grain and Potato Analysis

Sorry for the delay in posting this. I tried everything to convert the excel file with its formatting and nothing worked. Argh!  Here is some of the information I compiled:

Grain and Potato Analysis

                                               carb/fiber ratio      ranking
amaranth                                            9.2               7
barley pearled                                     7.3               3
brown basmati rice                             11.3              8
brown medium grain                           11.5              9
bulgur                                                  4.3               1
millet                                                  20.5             12
sorghum                                             11.9             10
teff                                                      n/a            13
quinoa                                                 7.8               5
potato, baked with skin                        9.0              6
potato, baked skin removed                13.0            11
sweet potato, baked with skin               5.9              2
sweet potato, boiled skin removed        7.3              3

information came from Nutrition Data
All measures are for cooked items except the sorghum

If anyone wants the full chart in excel with calories, protein and fiber send me an email and I will forward it to you. It was difficult to read when I tried to include all the information here.

I was not surpised that bulgur did so well but the sweet potatoes did better than I thought and they include beta carotene.  The teff contained no grams of fiber which I did not expect.  Dan's beloved millet was also very low in fiber.  Overall I think it is important to eat a variety of grains and starches. But I will be using more bulgur, sweet potatoes and barley now.

Spiralized Zucchini and Radish Topped with Walnut and Spinach Sauce

The weather is hotter today than it has been. When the weather turns warm I tend to gravitate toward more raw food. This is a simple dish or spiralized veggies dressed with a nut sauce. It takes longer to clean the equipment (mandoline and blender) than it does to make the dinner. Here is what I did:

Spiralized Zucchini and Radish Topped with Walnut and Spinach Sauce
Serves 2 as a entrée with a salad on the side

Ingredients:

1 zucchini, spiralized
5 radishes, spiralized
½ cup walnuts
2 cups spinach, tightly packed
½ cup water
½ lemon, juiced
½ clove garlic, peeled (not a huge clove less is better in this sauce)
½ cup basil leaves, julienned
1 tablespoon pine nuts for garnish (optional but adds nice texture)

Directions:

Place zucchini and radish threads on a plate.

Combine the walnuts, spinach, water, lemon juice, and garlic in your blender and process until completely smooth. Pour the sauce over the plates of vegetable threads. Sprinkle the dish with basil and top with pine nuts

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 251.69
Calories From Fat (74%) - 187.03

Total Fat - 22.36g
Saturated Fat - 2.06g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 38.38mg
Potassium - 645.74mg
Total Carbohydrates - 11.22g
Fiber - 4.18g
Sugar - 3.32g
Protein - 7.51g

Comments:

This dish is rich and flavorful but is not an entire meal. I combine it with a spinach salad topped with beans and salsa to add more calories and reduce the overall fat percentage to something more manageable. Like many raw dishes you need to be careful to add non fat or low fat foods to it to bring the fat percentage in line.

Each serving of this dish contains 3,300IU of vitamin A, 35mg of vitamin C, 89mg of calcium, 125mcg of folate, 175mcg of vitamin K, 190mg of phosphorus, and 105mg of magnesium. Nice nutrition but higher in fat that is good to make a meal by itself.

For those of you that are wondering other than a tablespoon of ground flaxseed in my oatmeal this was the only fat I have had today.  I try to keep my total fat intake on average at 25 grams per day. That is the target that works for me. You may another level works better for you.

Unrelated note:

Things have gotten a little hectic at my house this evening. I will try to get the grain and potato chart up tomorrow. I ran out of time to fiddle with the file this evening.

I hope you are all having a good evening. Talk to you tomorrow.

Product Review: Naked Juice Green Machine

As usual I bought this product it was not sent to me. This is something I grabbed at Costco because I went shopping and didn’t take a snack with me. Now I have been eating healthy long enough to know that finding food while I am out is nearly impossible (unless I am going to the health food store). But did I pack a few nuts or a piece of fruit? No! Bad Alicia, bad! I don’t need to tell you what happened. I got hungry; no I was famished, while I was out.

There sitting on the shelf was green juice with 2600mg of spirulina in a comforting army green color. So I grabbed it and tossed it in the cart. After all the ingredients didn’t sound too bad: Apple Juice, Mango Puree, Pineapple Juice, Banana Puree, Kiwi Puree, Spirulina, Natural Flavors, Chlorella, Broccoli, Spinach, Barley Grass, Wheat Grass, Parsley, Ginger Root, Blue Green Algae, Odorless Garlic. Only the “natural flavors” had me worried.  But overall, it sounds fine and in the cart it went.

Here are the nutrition stats from the package on 8 ounces of this beverage:

Calories - 140
Calories from fat – 0

total fat – 0g
sat fat – 0 g
trans fat – 0g
cholesterol – 0g
sodium – 15g
potassium – 400mg
total carbohydrates – 33g
fiber – 0g
sugars – 28g
protein – 2g

A little high in natural sugar but I was hungry so I went for it.

The verdict:

Both Dan and I expected to like this since we drink fresh green juice all the time. However, maybe we shouldn't make assumptions based on appearance. If you are addicted to sugar this is for you. This stuff is deadly sweet. I can only drink ¼ cup of it straight. The amount that is gone from this bottle has taken us over a week to drink and only contains 4 servings, if that tells you something. Even Mr. Sweet tooth (Dan) thinks it is too sweet. There is a good chance the second bottle will go in the trash unopened. It does not taste bad, it is just sickening sweet and I do not find that pleasant. Sorry Naked Juice this way too sweet for our tastes. Now if you like sweet food and juices this may be for you. As I said the flavor is good it is just too sweet for us.

Unrelated note:

Now you may be asking why I bought it. I was asking myself the exact same thing once I had a taste. This is what happens when you go out unprepared. I normally have a little trail mix and/or a piece of fruit in my purse. After all what are purses for if it isn’t to carry your wallet, sunglasses, keys and a snack. I am only mentioning this because I think a lot of us (myself included obviously) get in trouble when we are out of the house. From now on I am taking a snack with me even if I am only planning to be gone two or three hours. Or … next time I will rip open a bag a fresh fruit I just bought and eat it uncleaned. That would have been a better choice. *sigh*

Today has been a good one at my place. I had lots of time for exercise and knocked that out early. There was no rain, not a drop. Yay! But the temperature is in the 90’s so I had to turn the air conditioning on about an hour ago to keep my fur covered babies from wilting. They get so lethargic in the heat we have to run the A/C. Thankfully the weather is only supposed to stay warm for two or three days and then we are back to windows open. I really do prefer fresh air in the house. I just think it is healthier than being closed up.  But I make an exception when it is hot and/or humid.

I am working on the grain and potato chart after viewing the talk from Dr. Walter Willett yesterday. I have to say I learned a few things. I am still trying to find stats on cooked sorghum for Naina. Once I find those I will get that posted.

I hope everyone is having a great Wednesday. We are over half way to Friday and a long weekend. Anybody doing anything fun this weekend?

Talk to you all later.

Nutrition Facts and Tips

I have spent the last few days watching the 2009 Nutrition Conference DVDs so that I could order the 2010 disks. There was so much information that my head is almost swimming, but in a good way. One of the things I love about these disks is that they are very detailed and science based. They may not be for everyone but I really enjoy this level of detail. I wanted to cover some of the more interesting and useful things I learned.

Overall information:

According to Dr. David Katz by making healthy diet and lifestyle changes you can:

• Reduce your risk of heart disease by 80%
• Reduce your risk of diabetes by 90%, and
• Reduce your risk of cancer by 60%

If those statistics aren’t enough to spark a little fire I don’t know what is. 

Over 65% of American adults are overweight or obese. What has changed to spark such an increase in weight and disease? The size of our dinner plates has grown by 40% since World War II. That fact was shocking to me. Additionally, we have so many labor saving devices that we don’t as much exercise as our ancestors.

Dr. Katz has designed a nutrition scoring system to make it easier to grocery shop.  Check out the link above to learn more about it.

Spices and herbs:

Turmeric: is anti-inflammatory. The absorption is enhanced by 2000% when consumed with black pepper due to the piperine it contains. It is also recommended that you consume turmeric with fat. However I was happy to not hear that I needed to dissolve it in oil. That was a relief since I had been concerned about this.

Ginger: is best consumed in powdered form if you want the anti inflammatory properties, but fresh for colds or circulatory issues. This one surprised me. Our daily green tea with ginger will now be made with powdered ginger instead of fresh.

Sage: is good for sore throats. Make a tea from it with salt water can be used as a mouth rinse to gargle with when you have a sore throat.

Garlic: is basically useful for everything and anything. It helps with Candida, which I did not know. Additionally the aged form of garlic helps with the GI and mucosal side effects of methotrexate. It is also antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiviral, antifungal, lowers blood pressure and lipid levels.

Save your money on noni and mangosteen, they are over hyped and not worth the cost.

Sugar and Refined Carbohydrates:

According to Dr. Walter Willett sugar is the next tobacco. Sugar is empty calories that lead to weight gain and type II diabetes to mention a few things. The doctor feels that carbs like bread, potatoes and sweets are big problems currently facing Americans.

Interestingly if you are very active and have a BMI <23 eating a high GI diet results in ½ the risk of coronary heart disease as those eating the same diet with a BMI >23. For those that aren’t familiar with BMI, 90%+ of Americans have a BMI over 23. I think this difference is because those with more muscle mass use glucose more efficiently, but that is only a guess on my part.

Dr. Willet referred to brown rice as a “wimpy grain” and recommends that you get your whole grains in the form of barley and oats rather than relying solely on brown rice. He gives the rule of thumb that for each 6 grams of carbs there should be at least 1 gram of fiber. I will be looking up all the whole grains and creating a chart for us to use. Once I have that I will post it for everyone.

Interestingly the doctor says that fruit juice is just as bad as cola and should be avoided. Also the question of high fructose corn syrup came up during the Q&A and the doctor said that it and sugar are in essence indistinguishable and Americans consume too much of both.

Conclusion:

These are just a few of the things I picked up from the DVDs. I will be writing another post tomorrow with a few more things I learned from the DVDs. I highly recommend these DVDs to anyone that is interested in health and nutrition. They are jam packed with information. Some of it is highly technical and scientific but each lecture contains information you can use today. I have included a few of the items I found interesting and useful. These DVDs are a wonderful health resource and one I will be watching again,

I enjoyed the 2009 conference so much I ordered the 2010 disks today. I can’t wait for those to arrive so I can get started viewing them. For those of you that are wondering yes I really am this much of a nutrition geek, I do this for “fun”.

Foods of Spring: Fiddleheads, Ramps and Morels

We have been indulging in the food of spring at our house this week thanks to my best friend Louis. To say we are in heaven doesn’t even begin to cover it. We have both been enjoying every luxurious bite. This is the birthday present that just keeps on giving. This post is going to be about these foods and the method for dinner rather than I a recipe since I don’t expect many of you have these in your refrigerator.

Fiddleheads:

This luscious spring delicacy is the unfurled frond of a fern. It is easy to cook and reminds me of asparagus. It is also typically used the same way. I blanched it briefly then dropped it in ice bath to stop the cooking. It is great with lemon juice or just by itself. The taste is light and the texture is crunchy. Even my elderly parents like fiddleheads. Go figure!

Ramps:

These little darlings are also called wild leeks. The taste is more pungent than a shallot but not as harsh as a yellow onion. The aroma however is much more intense. I like to grill them, which is how we had them tonight. But you can also slice and sauté them.

Morels:

Who doesn’t love a fresh morel? I don’t know of anyone. These are my husband’s favorite mushrooms. He is enjoying this part of my birthday present as much if not more than I am. They frequently have little critters in them so I like to quickly submerge them to make certain the unwanted guests have evacuated.

In the past I would have sautéed these in butter. Tonight I used water and the flavor of the morel was more intense, I think because the aroma wasn’t muted by fat. I was worried about not using butter for these but I think they actually were better. This was not at all what I expected but a very pleasant surprise.

Dinner tonight:

I grilled a few ramps until the bulb of the ramps were tender, it mellows the taste. Then I water sautéed the morels for a couple minutes, add the blanched fiddleheads and a few halved cherry tomatoes. I served this over a little brown basmati rice. We used a little squirt of fresh lemon juice but a dash of truffle or walnut oil would have been great here too.

Unrelated note:

I learned quite a few interesting nutrition items today. I hope to have a post ready tomorrow on the usable nutrition information. Some of it is really too theoretical to put to use.

I hope you had a good Monday. Talk to you all tomorrow.

Falafel Flavored Kale Chips

How is Monday treating everyone? My Monday has been gray but good. I got my exercise finished much earlier than usual this morning. It is amazing how much more time you have in your day when you do this. I am not a morning person but I am going to try to get back to early morning exercise. Only time will tell if this is actually possible for me. ;-)

This idea came for falafel flavored chips I sampled at our health food store about a month ago. They were quite tasty and I thought I know I can make a healthier version at home. Seeing the kale at the farmers’ market made me think kale would be a good vehicle to hold the seasonings. I used sesame seeds since tahini is so common in all Middle Eastern food. The flax was added so that the chips would get crispy. The verdict, they are the new favorite kale chip at our house. I hope you give these a try. Here is what I did:

Falafel Flavored Kale Chips
Makes 3 Man sized portions

Ingredients:

3 kale leaves (stems removed) torn into pieces approximately 2 inches by 2 inches
4 tablespoons sesame seeds (or the equivalent in tahini)
2 tablespoons flaxseeds
1 lime zested and juiced (optional you can use 1 tablespoons of water but the lime adds brightness)
7 tablespoons water
½ tablespoon cumin seeds
½ tablespoon coriander sees
½ teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine the sesame seeds, flaxseeds, lime zest and juice, water, cumin, coriander, and garlic in your blender. Process the mixture until it is completely smooth. You may need to add a little more of less water. The lime juice plus 7 tablespoons of water created a thick consistency that I thought was right for sticking to the kale leaves.

Pour the seed mixture into a bowl and add the kale and toss to coat. They are going to look like a gooey mess. Don’t worry the kale chips will get nice and crispy when dry.

Place the pieces of kale on top of the teflex sheets in a single layer. If you wish sprinkle them with sea salt and pepper and dehydrate at 105 degrees overnight. In the morning they will be crispy and crunchy and will be flavored like falafel.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 180.45
Calories From Fat (61%) - 109.34

Total Fat - 12.95g
Saturated Fat - 1.67g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 35.22mg
Potassium - 275.66mg
Total Carbohydrates - 13.25g
Fiber - 5.26g
Sugar - 0.22g
Protein - 6.41g

Comments:

If you like regular kale chips these have better texture and flavor. They crunch more like a cracker. I love the flavor and aroma of these chips. They are a little high in calorie but the servings are big, about 2 cups a piece. The fact that they contain omega 3’s makes me very happy.

Each serving contains approximately 5,180IU of vitamin A, 45mg of vitamin C, 150mg of calcium, 275mcg of folate, 180mg of phosphorus, and 40mg of magnesium. Pretty amazing for something you have with your sandwich or salad. I am really pleased with this recipe.

Unrelated notes:

As usual my day hasn’t gone as planned. My friend Deirdre has something come up at work so we needed to cancel lunch today. Given our cool gray weather it was probably best that we had to reschedule. We were both hoping to go someplace downtown on the harbor and have an al fresco lunch. Today would not have been the best for that.

My afternoon is going to entail trying to get through the last few DVDs from the 2009 Nutrition Conference. The 2010 DVDs are available for sale now and I want to finish watching the 2009 ones before I order the next set.

I have a few things to get caught up at home. I will check in with you all tonight after dinner, if not sooner.

Green Beans in an African Peanut Sauce Over Quinoa

Today has been one of those cool grey days that seem to be typical of this spring. We got going early this morning with our morning trip to the farmers’ market. It was hard not to over buy but I tried to hold myself in check this morning and bought less than normal. Today we came home with: 2 bunches kale, 2 bundles asparagus, 1 pound shitakes, 1 bunch radishes, 1 quart green beans, 1 pint cherry tomatoes, 3 cucumbers, and 2 bok choy. To go with that I bought a few plants for my garden, 2 savory, 2 lemon grass and 1 arnica plant. I love the organic farmers at our market. They have the best stuff. We also found out of CSA will grow trays of wheat grass for us to juice at a great price provided we put in an order and give them two weeks. Score! We were very happy to hear this.

After we go home we had our usual oatmeal, with frozen wild blueberries. My husband had to go downtown to work today since he took Monday off for my birthday. It would have been nice to have him home but sometimes things just don’t go the way we want them to. Instead I spent the day at home trying to catch up on the things that got behind while I was finishing up the last Cornell course.

I ended up kicking back and chatting on the phone. Sometimes you just don’t want to do a darn thing. That describes a good part of my afternoon and it was quite relaxing.

For dinner tonight I wasn’t in the mood for anything complicated or time consuming so I made something else up, but what is not new. Since many of you ask where my ideas come from they are always a variation of something I have eaten or cooked in the past. Tonight’s dinner was inspired by the African Peanut Soup I made here. Those flavors worked together so well I wanted to do something else with the base ingredients. Here is what I did:

Green Beans in an African Peanut Sauce Over Quinoa
Serves 3

Ingredients:

½ cups cup quinoa
3 cups water
½ large yellow onions, peeled and sliced (approximately 1 ½ cups)
6 cloves garlic, smashed, peeled and finely chopped (allow to stand 10 minutes so the allicin can develop)
½ tablespoon fresh ginger, grated or finely minced
¼ cup water to sauté aromatics
14 ounces diced peeled tomatoes
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
½ teaspoon turmeric
1 pinch cinnamon
¼ teaspoon coriander seed, toasted and ground
2 tablespoons reduced fat coconut milk
2 tablespoons peanut butter (I used reduced fat but used full fat in the nutrition)
3 cups green beans, tipped

Directions:

Combine the quinoa and water and simmer, covered for 15 minutes.

While the quinoa cooks make the sauce. Water sauté the onions, garlic and ginger until the onions are tender (about 3 minutes on high). Add the tomatoes and spices and good for a few minutes to reduce the tomato liquid. Now add the peanut butter and coconut milk and incorporate into the sauces. Add the green beans and cover the pan and cook for a few minutes. You want the beans to be tender crisp.

Top the quinoa with African sauced green beans and finish with fresh chopped cilantro.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 483.89
Calories From Fat (21%) - 102.47

Total Fat - 11.74g
Saturated Fat-  2.32g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 30.98mg
Potassium - 1252.56mg
Total Carbohydrates - 79.81g
Fiber - 13.67g
Sugar - 9.49g
Protein - 19.21g

Comments:

This dish has a much more complex flavor than you would expect for a dinner you can make in less than 20 minutes. The sauce has a rich taste from the peanut butter and coconut milk. We really enjoyed this and will make it again when we need a quick meal. If you don’t green beans this sauce would also be good with julienned kale or collards. Millet would have been a more traditional grain to serve with an African sauce but I used quinoa for the protein.

Unrelated note:

I have an interesting experiment going in the dehydrator. I decided to try to make falafel kale chips. Since I have given up using oil I didn’t want to spray the kale with oil before drying it. Hopefully my variation will pan out. We will see, they smell great.

That is going to be it for me today. I hope you had a great weekend. I am meeting my girlfriend Deirdre tomorrow downtown for lunch. But I will be back tomorrow afternoon. Talk to later.