Healthy Eggplant and Tahini Dip

Since I had the oven on yesterday for the sweet and spicy tofu I decided to also bake an eggplant for baba ganoush, or my version of it I should say. As you all know I never follow a recipe, mine or those of others. I think recipes are simply suggestions unless we are talking about baking, and I don’t do that any longer for health reasons. I also suggest you don’t follow recipes but use them as ideas to change to your own tastes. Much of the fun of cooking is taking a recipe and making it your own.

Over the years my cooking has changed dramatically. In prior decades my cooking more closely resembled what you would find in a restaurant. Many evenings dinner was a celebration at our house. I am not talking about national holidays but just some random weeknight. Before the cancer we would eat for taste assuming we had plenty of time to make healthy changes later before we were old. Little did we know the universe had other plans. I mention this because I want you to think about what you are consuming. Eating is a chance to refuel your body and provide much needed macro and micro nutrients. When you look at food as fuel rather than an indulgence it is much easier to make healthy choices. Well at least that works for us. Climbing down off my soapbox now. ;-)

Okay, back to the dip. I say this is my version of baba ganoush because it doesn’t contain olive oil and certainly not in the ridiculous quantities that most recipes call for. I think it still tastes great it just isn’t causing inflammation or coating the inside of our arteries with crud. Here is how I make a healthier eggplant dip:

Eggplant and Tahini Dip
Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 medium eggplant, well scrubbed
½ cup raw sesame seeds (tahini if not using a high speed blender like a Vitamix)
½ lemon, juiced
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon cumin seeds (ground if not using a high speed blender)
¼ - ½ teaspoon sumac, add to taste
6 tablespoons of water, or whatever is necessary to achieve the creamy texture you desire

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a pan with parchment or silpat.

Prick the eggplant with the tip of a paring knife and bake until the eggplant slumps, about 30 minutes. You want it to be completely soft and easy to pierce with a fork. Allow the eggplant to cool a little so that you can remove all the skin. You want to be sure to get all the skin because it can impart a bitter flavor to the dip if you leave it on the eggplant.

Place the peeled eggplant, sesame seeds (or tahini), lemon juice, garlic, cumin, and sumac into your blender. Start with a couple of tablespoons water and turn on the blender. Add more water a tablespoon at a time until the blender is processing easily and the texture is creamy.

Refrigerate in a closed container until needed. I like to serve this with a drizzle of pomegranate molasses and a few pine nuts which is how it is pictured above.

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

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 90.94
Calories From Fat (57%) - 51.88

Total Fat - 6.21g
Saturated Fat - 0.87g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 4.23mg
Potassium - 253.19mg
Total Carbohydrates - 8.45g
Fiber - 4.48g
Sugar - 1.84g
Protein - 3.1g

Comment:

This dip is very much like hummus but with a base of eggplant. It is creamy, rich and very flavorful. Since the base is eggplant and not garbanzo beans it is lower in fiber, starch, and protein. I really like eggplant dip but Dan is not a big fan of eggplant so he actually prefers hummus. However the sesame paste smoothes out both the texture and flavor of this dip enough that even Dan likes this in moderation.

I use this on wrap sandwiches, with collard leaves as the wrapper of course. This is also good on a salad in place of dressing. We also like to dip raw veggies in it.

Today’s lunch:

I had a late lunch today because I have been out of the house for a while with a friend. When I got home I wanted something quick but nutritious. So I decided to make a veggie sandwich in a collard wrap. I stuffed the collard leaf with green cabbage, marinated mushrooms, roasted red peppers and eggplant dip. Here it is unwrapped,

and then wrapped and cut.

It was a nice light little lunch. Perfect for this hot weather we are having.

Unrelated note:

Today I spent some time with my friend Sheila who is trying to make more healthy food for her family. Now that is a project I can completely get behind. ;-) She is new to vegan cooking and wanted to know how to make nut cheese. I showed her how to make my almond feta spread. We also made cinnamon walnut butter. We had a productive late morning/early afternoon. It went so well I think we may have to do this again soon. Hopefully her husband and son enjoy our efforts as much as we did.

I need to do a few things around here and then work on dinner. I will chat with you all again later. My plan is to make an Asian salad with the quick tofu I made yesterday. I hope everyone is having a great Thursday.

Easy Sweet and Spicy Baked Tofu

Both Dan and I like Asian salads. I don’t know exactly why we like them, but we do. I wanted to try to make one that didn’t include a lot of sodium. Since I normally use liquid aminos and/or miso I know keeping the sodium down was going to tough.

While liquid aminos is lower in sodium than soy sauce it still contains a good bit of sodium. According to the nutrition label on the bottle it has 160mg of sodium per ½ teaspoon. Seriously? How many of us consider ½ teaspoon a serving of liquid aminos. I used to use one, two or three tablespoons depending on what I was making. I am only pointing out the sodium in liquid aminos so that you are all aware that each tablespoon contains 960mg of sodium.

I decided that we would start with tofu for the salad and then work on a dressing that wouldn’t add too much sodium. Here is the tofu I baked today:

Easy Sweet and Spicy Baked Tofu
Makes 7 slices

Ingredients:

14 ounce block extra firm tofu, well pressed and cut into seven slices (frozen and defrosted if you want a more chewy texture)
1 ½ tablespoons apricot preserves or orange marmalade
Sriracha, to taste
quatre epices, or Chinese 5 spice powder, or cardamom and powdered ginger, to taste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with silpat or parchment. Place the tofu slices on the prepared pan.

Heat the apricot preserves in your microwave until it just starts to melt. Twenty seconds was enough in my microwave. Add a little sriracha, stir and taste. Continue to add sriracha until you like the heat level.

Use a spoon to apply a little of the spicy sweet sauce to your tofu. Sprinkle the top of the tofu with quatre epices, Chinese 5 spice powder, or cardamom and ginger. Any of those would work fine.

Bake the tofu until you like the texture. We tend to like ours more firm so I bake it for at least 45 minutes, sometimes longer.

Store in a covered container in your refrigerator until needed. This would be great cold on an Oriental style salad with edamame.

Nutritional Information (for 1/7th of the recipe):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 62.94
Calories From Fat (44%) - 27.68

Total Fat - 3.32g
Saturated Fat - 0.31g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 20.54mg
Potassium - 78.21mg
Total Carbohydrates - 4.1g
Fiber - 0.26g
Sugar - 2.29g
Protein - 5.65g

Comments:

This tofu is a little too good if you know what I mean. I did taste it in the interest of quality control of course. I may have to keep this on the rarely list or risk eating too much of it. Something tells me the hubby will love this one.

I will be working on a low sodium Oriental salad dressing tomorrow. After I get that taken care of I will post it and the salad that accompanies this tofu.

Unrelated notes:

Somehow I ended up spending quite a bit of time in the kitchen today. It appears I am making up for the last few days. I also made an eggplant dip this afternoon. That recipe will get posted tomorrow. I am running out of the time to write that post tonight.

Talk to you all again tomorrow. I hope everyone is having a good Wednesday. We are more than half way to the weekend!

Baked Stuffed Zucchini and Peppers and Walnut Parmesan

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

Baked Stuffed Zucchini and Peppers
Serves 6

Ingredients:

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

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Comments:

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

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

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

Next recipe:

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

Walnut Parmesan
Makes 16 servings that are about ½ tablespoon each

Ingredients:

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

Directions:

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

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

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

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

Comments:

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

New Cookbooks:

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

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

Unrelated Notes:

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

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

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

Zinc Nasal Spray May Cause Permanent Loss of Smell

(Photo source:  Amazon)

This morning I read an article about zinc nasal sprays causing loss of smell by destroying olfactory receptor cells, potentially through the inhibition of carnosine synthesis.  It was a small study, 25 patients. However I see no reason to risk loss of smell. Since this was second time I have seen this in a few months I wanted to bring it to your attention. I am skeptical of using zinc nasal sprays at this time, but I am more cautious than most. I will stick with my neti pot and warm salt water if I need anything up my nose. ;-)

Unrelated notes:

Dan did make it home late last night even with the storm cells in the area. Since a few of you had emailed me about this I wanted to let everyone know. :-) Thank you all for asking, it was very sweet of you to be concerned.

Today is going to be a little more busy than normal. I may not have time for another post today but I will work one in if I can.

A lot of you ask questions about what to do with the veg and fruit pulp that is leftover from juicing. I have another idea for using that which is on my agenda to try either late tonight or tomorrow. With a little luck it will turn out and I will be sharing that successful recipe for what to do with things that many of us are now throwing away. I have my fingers crossed that it will work as well as I am expecting it to.

I need to run for now. I hope you are all having a great Tuesday and I will talk to you again soon.

Lentil, Mushroom and Walnut Pate with a Little Kick

Yesterday Dan was in his office most of the day trying to finish a work project since he will be out of town on business until very late tonight. I think his plane lands sometime after 9pm. Since I had time on my hands I spent a bit of it in the kitchen and am so I glad I did. This experiment turned out really, really well. I just it love it when an experiment turns out well, LOL.

We were out of hummus again, so I wanted to make some sort of bean dip. But then I thought about a mushroom and lentil pate I used to make. It tastes amazing but it uses truffle oil (nectar of the Gods in my opinion though now on my rarely used list) and truffle salt. *sigh* I knew I could make something without either and make it lower in fat by adding beans. Here is what I made:

Lentil, Mushroom and Walnut Pate with a Little Kick
Serves 12

Ingredients:

1 cup red lentils
2 – 4 cups water
2 cups yellow onion, peeled and finely minced (allow to stand 10 minutes before cooking)
4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced (allow to stand 10 minutes before cooking)
1 cup dried mixed mushrooms, rehydrated in 1 one cup of hot water (soaking liquid strained and reserved)
1 cup walnuts
1 chipotle in adobo
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 clove raw garlic, peeled and minced
zest of one lemon
1 green onion, thinly sliced
½ teaspoon dried thyme

Directions:

Combine the red lentils, two cups of water, onion, garlic, rehydrated mushrooms and strained cooking liquid and simmer stirring occasionally. You may need to add more water to achieve completely soft lentils. You want to cook the mixture until the lentils are completely soft and most of the cooking liquid has been absorbed or evaporated. I made the mistake of starting with too much water so my lentils simmered a very long time to evaporate the water. Next time I will start with the lesser amount of water given and add a little when necessary.

Once the lentils are soft it is time to blend.  Add the walnuts, chipotle, tomato paste, nutritional yeast, raw garlic, lemon zest, green onion, thyme and cooked lentil mixture into your blender. I used my Vitamix. If you don’t have a high speed blender chop the walnuts first in your food processor and then add the remaining ingredients. Process the mixture until it is completely smooth like hummus. Taste for seasoning and adjust to your tastes. Move to a container with a tight seal and refrigerate until needed.

The pate is pictured above on cucumber rounds topped with Dijon, salsa or broccoli sprouts. I think the Dijon topped round was my favorite, but they were all good.

Nutritional information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 148.4
Calories From Fat (40%) - 59.11

Total Fat - 6.79g
Saturated Fat - 0.68g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 17.31mg
Potassium - 252.19mg
Total Carbohydrates - 16.49g
Fiber - 3.38g
Sugar - 1.71g
Protein - 6.24g

Comments:

Damn this stuff is good. The texture it so close to pate it is scary. I decided to season it more like lentil and mushrooms rather and meat pate and I am really happy with how this turned out. It has a little bit of heat (from the chipotle) in the background. The fact that this doesn’t need liquid aminos or sodium is just shocking to me. I kept adding a little of this and a little of that until I thought it had enough flavor. Thankfully I was writing it down. This will definitely be repeated at our house.

For those of you that are wondering about what do to with the leftover chipotle and tomato paste I have a suggestion. Whenever I open a can of chipotles in adobo I wrap the leftover chipotles individually and store them in a marked bag in the freezer. I do the same thing with tablespoons of tomato paste. This works great and I always have small amounts on hand to use in recipes. What I used today came for the freezer. I tossed them both into the blender frozen and the heat from the beans and the speed of Vitamix took care of the rest. Those little frozen flavor bombs are quite handy.

Dinner last night:

Since we have our mid-day meal at 3pm on the weekend that means dinner tends to be lighter because it is a late meal. At our house a late light meal normally means either soup or salad. Last night we had salad. I made a very simple salad with romaine, collards, red cabbage, salsa, cucumber, tomato, broccoli sprouts, raw sunflower seeds and topped with a little nutritional yeast. If you haven’t added nutritional yeast to your salad it adds nice flavor without sodium, fat or calories. I wanted to mention this for those that haven’t tried it yet. My nutritionist friend mentioned it to me and I love it on salad now.

Unrelated note:

Dan left the house at 7am for an early flight to Norfolk. He is due back on the last flight tonight. Nothing like a short day right? Since he had to get moving very early this morning I opted to make his veggie and fruit juice last night before we went to bed. While I prefer to make his juice fresh, I assume juice that is 10 hours old is better than no juice. *rolls eyes* Neither of us is a morning person. I had to get everything ready before bed, our vitamins, breakfast, juice, you name it. Otherwise there would be no way he would be heading out of here on time.

Since he is having lunch and dinner with clients I can only hope that he will find a salad or bean soup on the menu. To make sure that Dan has something with calories to eat tomorrow I packed him trail mix to have in his bag to snack on.

Having the day to myself today means I will be taking it easy. I plan to watch at least one health DVD in the queue that has been piling up. Other than that my day today is fairly open. I am just going to take a break from my to-do list and play things by ear and do whatever appeals to me at the moment. This is something that I don’t often do but I think I need the break today.

For now I want to catch up on my health and nutrition reading that has been piling up. If anything catches my eye I will be back to share it. I hope everyone is having a good Monday and that your day didn’t start as early or rushed as ours. Talk to you later.

Watercress Pesto Dressed Zucchini Pasta and Veggies

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

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

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

Watercress Pesto Dressed Zucchini Pasta and Veggies
Serves 6

Pesto Ingredients:

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

Veggie Ingredients:

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

Directions:

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

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

Nutritional Information:

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

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

Comments:

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

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

Quick Question:

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

Unrelated notes:

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

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

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

Enhancing the Absorption of Carotenoids

Catchy blog post title right? Pulled you right in I know, LOL. ;-) Okay so this isn’t an exciting thought for most people but I think it is good stuff and wanted to share it in a separate post to give it proper importance.

This morning we got up early and went to the farmers’ market and bought home our usual enormous haul of produce. I just love shopping for local produce. ;-) When we got home I wanted to have a big bowl of fruit for breakfast. I cut up a cantaloupe, added blackberries and blueberries and topped the fruit with ½ tablespoon of chia seeds on each serving. When I realized Dan didn’t know why the chia seeds were there I figured that meant I need to explain it to him and all of you.

Vitamin A and the carotenoids are absorbed in the small intestine. To properly absorb them requires the presence of lipid and bile. What this means ia a very low fat diet will reduce the bioavailability of the carotenoids. My solution is to add a little ground flaxseed, chia, hempseeds or nuts to most dishes. This is also why I included the cashew crème fraiche on the melon and berries we sometimes have for breakfast.

Some foods that contains carotenoids:

pumpkin
sweet potato
carrots
spinach
kale
red peppers
collards
beet greens
dandelion greens
cantaloupe

While I don’t think it is important memorize which foods contain carotenoids I wanted to list a few. My approach is to add a few seeds and/or nuts to our meals to ensure absorption. This is also why I send trail mix with Dan to work so that he can have it with his fresh juice (which includes carrot, kale, spinach and collards).

What does vitamin A and carotenoids do?

Vitamin A is important for optimum health. Here are a few of its functions:

• Plays an important role in vision. The rods in the eyes contain cis-retinal (a form of vitamin A). Vitamin A also helps to maintain the health of the cornea and helps you see in low light (night blindness or lack thereof).

• Cell differentiation requires vitamin A. Cells are constantly turning over so we need a steady supply of vitamin A to “feed” the cells.

• Vitamin A is required for a properly functioning immune system.

• A diet rich in vitamin A is associated with lower risk of cancer. Not vitamin A from supplements, which is dangerous, but vitamin A from food.

I hope this encourages you to want to absorb all the carotenoids you can from your food.

Unrelated notes:

As I mentioned we started our morning at the farmers’ market. You know you get there early when the farmers’ are still pulling in and setting up when you get there, LOL. I love going to the farmers’ market downtown but the parking situation is not the best. When you buy as much produce as we do you don’t want to lug it for a few blocks. Since we get there early we do a couple of laps around the market to get our blood pumping and then chat with our favorite organic farmers before we start shopping.

Today we brought home quite the haul of gorgeous organic produce. This morning we picked up: 3 bunches kale, 1 bunch collards, ½ pound ginger, 2 pounds beets, 1 pound shitakes, 3 Italian zucchinis (more spiralized zucchini coming), 9 big tomatoes, 3 white eggplants, 2 pints blackberries, 1 cantaloupe, and 9 cucumbers. I probably forgot something but you get the idea. I love local produce. ;-)

Right now I have no idea what I making for the mid day meal with my parents. The zucchini seems to be calling my name, but I tend to change my mind often so who knows. It is supposed to be another scorcher today so raw food is appealing to me at the moment.

I hope everyone is having a happy and healthy weekend. Talk to you again soon. ;-)

White Bean and Vegetable Soup with Morels in a Tomato Base

Like most weekends we had a mid-day meal with my elderly omni parents today. This situation always pushes my culinary limits. It is not easy to make a healthy whole food plant based vegan meal that unhealthy omnivores will also enjoy. I rely on soups and salads often since those are healthy dishes that we can all agree on.

In keeping with the new information from the cancer lecture yesterday I have included mushrooms in our soup today. I did not list morels in the post yesterday but the message was that all mushrooms are protective but some maybe more than others. Since Dan loves morels, and we always have multiple packages in the pantry I though why not use those today.

In order to increase the nutrition in this soup I added a little turmeric. This is something I do often. I start with ¼ teaspoon stir it in, taste and keep adding until I can detect a hint of turmeric. Then I add a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper since the piperine in the pepper makes the turmeric more bioavailable. This is just one of my “tricks” to enhance the nutrition of our food. Here is the soup I made:

White Bean and Vegetable Soup with Morels in a Tomato Base
Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 cup dried white beans, presoaked and cooked until tender
½ ounce package dried morel mushrooms
2 cups water
28 ounces diced tomatoes, no salt
1 onion, peeled and finely diced (allow to stand 10 minutes before heating)
5 cloves garlic, peeled and finely diced (allow to stand 10 minutes before heating)
2 carrots, finely diced
3 stalks celery, finely diced
¼ cup nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
½ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon dry mustard
¼ teaspoon paprika
water to cover the soup ingredients by about ½ inch
4 cups finely shredded cabbage
2 tablespoons wine vinegar
sea salt and pepper, to taste (if desired)

Directions:

While the beans are cooking combine the dried mushrooms and water and microwave until the water just begins to boil. Allow the mushrooms to soak for 30 minutes so they soften completely.

Combine the beans, tomatoes, onions, garlic, carrot, celery, spices and water and simmer over low heat. When the mushrooms are soft cut them into thin rings. Pour the mushroom soaking liquid through a fine wire strainer lined with a few layers of cheesecloth or a damp paper towel. Place this strained mushroom liquid into your soup pot.

During the last 30 minutes of cooking add the cabbage to the pot. You want it to be just tender, but not mushy.

Just before serving add the wine vinegar and stir to distribute. Taste the soup for seasonings and adjust to your taste.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 208.59
Calories From Fat (4%) - 8.89

Total Fat - 0.95g
Saturated Fat - 0.22g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 73.05mg
Potassium - 1091.17mg
Total Carbohydrates - 37.4g
Fiber - 11.53g
Sugar - 10.06g
Protein - 9.89g

Comments:

While this isn’t something that you would think of as a summer dish it works if you are in the air conditioning. I was careful to not add too much turmeric and make the soup bitter. It did add a light yellow color to the beans. Paprika was added to tone down yellow color and that seemed to work well. Nutritional yeast was added until I could taste a little umami in the broth that reminds me of butter. If you add more the taste seems to go from butter to cheese, in my opinion. With this soup I wanted to stop with the note of butter.

What I liked is the soup was healthy, filling and didn’t require a lot of attention from me while it cooked. It is also nice to have some leftover for tomorrow. One of the benefits of making a pot of soup is that it always lasts more than one meal. Nothing like double duty cooking I always say.

To start the meal we had a simple salad of shredded romaine, shredded red cabbage, cucumber, shredded carrot, salsa, avocado and sun flower seeds. This was the first time I tried the concept of using salsa as salad dressing on my parents. Much to my surprise they both ate their entire salad and said it was good. I mention this for those of you that haven’t tried salsa as dressing. We think it works well, and it even gets the omni seal of approval. I will say I think adding the avocado helped the omnivores enjoy the salad more. ;-)

Unrelated note:

Sorry I bailed on Fun Facts Friday. Yesterday was far too busy at our house. I was lucky to accomplish half of my to-do list. Today has been a little more mellow, thankfully. Dan is still swamped at work but at least he is working from home, which is much better.

Yesterday I spent a bit of time on the phone with a friend talking about my favorite subject, nutrition. She asked me many questions about food and it gave me some good ideas for posts. I have decided to write a series of posts called “what is the matter with …..”. In those posts I will select one food and write about what I learned about the issues or concerns are about consuming that particular food. I thought some of you may find it interesting and other would enjoy reading the studies that I thought were noteworthy. Those posts are going to take me much longer to write with links to the studies since I will need to go back and find some of the studies again. I am mentioning this because if anyone is interesting in the science behind the health problems with a particular food let me know and I will add it to my list of topics.

Once I finish the series on which foods are to be avoided I may do another series on the foods we should all be eating and why. Whether I do that or not will depend on how long the first series takes to write and document. I would love to hear if you think this is a good idea or not. Please let me know.

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. I will chat with you all again soon, either tonight or tomorrow.

1000th post and Anti Cancer Mushroom and Onion Soup

I had originally intended to do something completely different for my 1000th post. But I thought that sharing with you what I learned watching Dr. Fuhrman’s cancer lecture yesterday seemed much more appropriate. As many of you know by now I started this blog to share good tasting but healthy recipes that were also appropriate for everyone even those currently battling or in remission from cancer. I also wanted to pass along anything new I was finding on cancer and nutrition since much of the information on the web is either hard to find or garbage. When anyone is faced with cancer the last thing the need is to wade through the nonsense to find useful information and recipes. With that in mind a cancer post seemed per very appropriate for my 1000th post.

My general food philosophy is to make dishes that taste great but that don’t compromise anyone’s health. It is very easy to make food taste good using sugar, fat and salt without restriction. That would be a good description for how I used to cook, before I was focused on health first. It has been a long and somewhat difficult journey to clean up our food. I will say that healthy food is now second nature to me and when we go out to eat the first thing I notice is the fat followed by the sugar and finally the salt content in food not made by me. I wanted to add that note for anyone that is struggling to clean up their diet. Your taste buds will adjust to your new way of cooking if you stick with it, it just takes a little time.

Dinner last night is something I developed after watching Dr. Fuhrman’s lecture. It contains a number of the foods he discussed. I will summarize some of the points from the lecture below. However since this is the food blog, we should start with the recipe. Here is the soup we had last night:

Anti Cancer Soup – aka Mushroom and Onion
Makes 4 servings

ingredients:

0.88 oz (25grams) package dried maitake mushrooms (I used Eden Brand)
2 cups water
1 large yellow onion (approximately 2 cups)
6 cloves garlic
6 cups water
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/3 cup oats, ground into flour
1/3 cup walnuts
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons sherry or wine vinegar
sea salt and pepper, to taste
cashew crème fraiche for garnish - optional

Directions:

Combine the mushrooms and 2 cups of water and heat until boiling then turn off the heat and allow the mushrooms to steep in the water for 10 minutes. While the mushrooms are steeping peel and slice the onions and garlic and allow them to stand 10 minutes before cooking. The standing time of the garlic and onions allows the anticancer compounds to develop.

Heat ½ cup water in a large sauté pan or soup pot and sauté the aromatics (onions and garlic) until they are just beginning to soften. Add the remaining water, paprika, thyme, tomato paste, and nutritional yeast and simmer to cook the onions through completely.

Process the oats into flour in your blender. Add the walnuts and strained mushroom soaking liquid to your blender and process until smooth. Add the processed oats and walnuts to your pan.

Give the rehydrated mushrooms a rough chop so they will all fit easily on a soup spoon and add them to your simmering soup pot. Add the Dijon mustard to the pot and simmer until the soup thickens. The wine vinegar should be added just before you are ready to serve the soup. Vinegar brightens the taste so that you need less or no salt. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to your tastes.

Serve hot topped with cashew crème fraiche if desired.

Nutritional Information (does not include the optional cashew crème fraiche):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 168.82
Calories From Fat (38%) - 64.5

Total Fat - 6.92g
Saturated Fat - 0.71g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 83.6mg
Potassium - 366.55mg
Total Carbohydrates - 21.35g
Fiber - 4.19g
Sugar - 4.43g
Protein - 4.41g

Comments:

This soup has a fairly complex flavor from the variety of seasonings. I wanted to give it depth of flavor without using much fat or any sodium.

Salt has definitely been my nutritional Achilles heel. I have to admit I am a bit of salt addict. But I have decided to eliminate salt from our diet. I have been working on this for a while now. I will continue to say add salt to taste, but know that at our house there is no sodium being added to food. With this in mind I am relying on other seasonings to flavor our food. That is the reason you see so many seasonings listed. I didn’t want any of them to stand out, but each added a little something to the mix.

Both Dan and I were happy with both the depth and overall flavor of the soup. This will show up at our house often from now on.

Notes from the Cancer lecture:

I am going to out cover a few highlights from the lecture that I found to be useful. Overall I was pleased to find out that I was doing almost everything right in terms of nutrition based on the most recent nutritional science. However I think all of us can make a few tweaks and I picked up a tip or two.

Foods we should concentrate on eating for cancer prevention and/or survival are:

• mushrooms (not white button, cremini or portobello rather concentrate on shitake, maitake, oyster, trumpet, etc.)
• onions (slice and allow to stand before cooking which was news to me)
• garlic (slice and allow to stand before cooking) no time was given I am sticking with 10 minutes
• cinnamon (this was a new idea for me, glad I use it liberally)
• berries (contain ellagic acid which fights cancer as I frequently mention)
• whole soy reduces all forms of cancer by 25-30%. It is a myth that whole soy causes cancer!
• green leafy vegetables - a variety
• beans
• flaxseeds/hempseeds/chia seeds – a combination regularly
• fresh vegetable juice and blended salads are good

For those of you that don’t know the “seeds of cancer are sown” early in life by what we ate as children. However since cancer takes decades to manifest itself that also gives you time to make changes. One point the doctor made which I have seen other places is that excellent nutrition can stop of reverse prior damage. Since so many Americans will be diagnosed in our lifetime why not do anything within your power to reduce your risk?

Some studies have shown a positive association between the consumption of grapefruit and the occurrence of breast and prostate cancer. They think this occurs through the interference with cytochrome P450 gene allowing estrogen to build up. Until there is more data it may be wise to limit grapefruit consumption.

Low levels of vitamin D have been linked to an increase in cancer. Get your vitamin D checked and supplement appropriately to bring your level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D to between 35 and 55.

Other Dr. Fuhrman information:

Additionally when I was searching the Doctor Fuhrman website I came across some information on TVP (textured vegetable protein). This caught my attention because Dr. Block mentioned in “Life Over Cancer” that TVP should be rarely used. Dr. Block didn’t give a reason but I stopped using TVP after reading that to be safe. According to Dr. Fuhrman TVP is isolated soy protein. As soon as I heard that I knew exactly why it was on Dr. Block’s rarely use list. The TVP at our house immediately went into the trash. Isolate soy protein is found in many processed vegan foods and should be avoided or at least severely reduced due to its link to hormonally induced cancers. 

I spent hours online today watching the webcast and listening to previously recorded teleconferences. It is clear that I will need to spend some time doing this everyday if I am going to read or listen to everything that is available over the next six weeks. While so far the majority of the information has been things I knew. However, I don’t want to miss anything so I am trying to read/watch or listen to it all.

If you sent me an email and I haven’t responded as quickly as usual now you know why. The backlog in my email is growing fairly rapidly at the moment. I apologize and will try to respond to all of your email as soon as possible, hopefully this afternoon.

Unrelated note:

Before I forget we tried a test last night with Dan’s beloved Strawberry Banana soft serve. The experiment did not go well. I made a batch without the walnuts to lower the calories and get Dan’s opinion. His first comment, was “what did you do?” Followed closely by “We are going back to the original formula tomorrow right?” I supposed I don’t have to tell you what Dan thought. The walnuts are critical ingredient from his perspective. ;-)

Since today is Friday it means I have to run my usual errands today. However I will be back later today with an update and a recipe. I got up this morning craving zucchini spaghetti and want to make a healthy version of watercress pesto with walnuts.

Lightly Sweet Walnut Ginger Miso Salad Dressing

Good morning! I hope everyone had a great night. Sorry I didn’t have time to post last night. The evening got away from me.

I ended up signing up for 6 weeks on Dr. Fuhrman’s member center so that I could watch the nutrition and cancer webcast today. So that I knew my way around the website I spent a few hours looking around to see what other information was available. I might as well get my money’s worth, right? There are some interesting articles and teleconferences that I will be reading and listening to over the next 6 weeks. I will keep you all posted and let you know if there are any tid bits I think you should know.

After spending far too much time online I decided to make some seitan lunchmeat to use on salad. I wanted to make it without any added salt since I am trying to reduce or sodium intake as much as possible. The texture of the seitan was great but I need to work in the seasonings. Without sodium it definitely needs more flavor. I will be tweaking the recipe over the coming month and will post it when I am completely happy with it. For now it is a good start, but not yet ready for prime time.

My plan was to use the seitan on salad and that is what we had last night for dinner. I made a quick salad dressing and used that with mango, apple romaine and some of the shaved seitan. It was a good dinner. Here is the salad dressing I made last night:

Lightly Sweet Walnut Ginger Miso Salad Dressing
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

½ cup walnuts
½ cup water
1 tablespoon white miso
½ tablespoon fresh ginger
1 medjool date, pitted

Directions:

Toss everything in your blender and process until smooth. Pour into a jar and refrigerate until ready to use. The mixture will be thick, almost like mayo before being chilled thoroughly. It will get thicker when it is cold. It coats salad very well.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 121.42
Calories From Fat (68%) - 82.06

Total Fat - 9.81g
Saturated Fat - 0.95g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 161.47mg
Potassium - 118.69mg
Total Carbohydrates - 7.77g
Fiber - 1.63g
Sugar - 4.65g
Protein - 2.85g

Comments:

This dressing is lightly sweet, a bit salty, rich from the walnuts and with a little zip from the ginger. I think it is a good flavor combination. It worked well with the fruit. You can expect to see variations of this in the future since Dan and I both enjoyed it.

Unrelated note:

Today I will be listening to the webcast on nutrition and cancer. I will be taking notes. Surprised right? I am hoping he cites some studies so I can read the source information that he talks about. I am just one of those people that need to read things for myself. ;-) I suppose I am a born skeptic.

Beyond that I want to spend a little time trying to get the hang of twitter. That has been on my to-do list for far too long. I feel a little like a technology dinosaur. *shakes head* Finger crossed I take the time to figure it out this time and actually start using it regularly. That is my goal for July so we will see how this goes, LOL. Hopefully since I wrote it down I will feel like I need to actually do it. If anyone has any tips, tricks or advice on twitter please feel free to share. I can use all the help that I can get.

I need to go and knock out my lifting. I want that out of the way before the webcast. Talk to you again soon.

Mixed Berry and Spinach Smoothie and Cats

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

Mixed Berry and Spinach Smoothie
Serves 2

Ingredients:

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

Directions:

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

Nutritional Information:

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

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

Comment:

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

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

Gratuitous Cat Photos:

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

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

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

Unrelated note:

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

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

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

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

Oyster Mushroom Quinotto

Late last night I was catching up on my food reading and came across this video at chow dot com about quinotto. My immediate reaction was “oh, something new”. While they didn’t give a recipe I thought how hard could this be?

As an Italian I love, love, love risotto. I was always very picky about my risotto. Instead of arborio I always used carnaroli rice because the texture was better. While I also make barley in the risotto style, and brown rice risotto, the idea of quinoa risotto was too appealing to pass up.

Once I got the kitchen cleaned up from breakfast I started making mushroom broth. Whenever we buy organic shitake mushrooms I always save the stems in a zip top bag in the freezer to make stock later. I had to quart bag full of stems and added them to water to simmer for an hour to make the stock. I also added about a cup of leek trimmings, a few garlic cloves, two bay leaves and a dozen whole peppercorns so the broth would have a more complex flavor. Strain this mixture through a very fine wire strainer or one lined with cheese cloth or damp paper towel. Now you have the cooking liquid for the quinotto. Keep this liquid warm in a separate pot on the stove.

Here is the remainder of the recipe:

Oyster Mushroom Quinotto
Makes 6 big servings

Ingredients:

2 cups quinoa
1 leek, white and light green portion finely sliced and soaked to remove grit
7 cups mushroom stock (technique described above) add water if you don’t have enough stock
¼ pound fresh mushrooms (I used oyster mushrooms torn into shreds)
1 tablespoon no salt seasoning
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup walnuts, soaked 30 minutes to reduce tannins and soften
1 cup water
sea salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine the walnuts and enough water to soak while you make the quinoa and set them aside.

Add the quinoa to a dry pan and toast for a few minutes to develop a somewhat “nutty” flavor. Now add the leeks and a ladle of hot mushroom stock and cook while stirring. Add the no salt seasoning and thyme and continue to cook until the water is mostly absorbed. Continue to add mushroom stock a ladle at the time until you have added the seven cups of liquid. Put the lid on the pan and turn down the heat and simmer for 5 minutes so the liquid will all be absorbed.

While the quinoa is continuing to cook drain the walnuts of the soaking liquid and place the walnuts in your blender. Add 1 cup of water to the blender and process until the entire mixture is smooth. Stir the walnut mixture into the quinoa so that it gets evenly distributed. The walnut mixture is needed to achieve a quinoa risotto with a creamy texture. Without the walnut mixture the dish is just quinoa it does not give up any starch during the cooking and stirring process like rice or barley does. Taste for seasonings and adjust before serving or refrigerating.

To serve, top the quinotto with fresh herbs, sun dried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes and/or a dollop of cashew crème fraiche.

Nutritional information (without optional garnish):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 349.91
Calories From Fat (40%) - 138.38

Total Fat - 16.28g
Saturated Fat - 1.62g
Cholesterol-  0mg
Sodium - 16.74mg
Potassium - 496.89mg
Total Carbohydrates - 41.9g
Fiber - 5.82g
Sugar - 1.4g
Protein - 11.8g

Comments:

I was really hoping this would work and get creamy without fat like rice or barley but no luck. Needless to say I was a tad disappointed with the lack of creaminess. However I knew I could rectify the problem with walnut cream and it worked perfectly. I chose walnuts because the taste works so well with mushrooms. The end result is very tasty but has more fat than I had anticipated. However this dish is good enough that it will show up again when I have planned for it in our fat budget. I had to get the quinotto into the refrigerator after it was finished cooking before I nibbled away at far too much of it. It is creamy and very tasty. ;-)

Being a grain based dish this is not a powerhouse of nutrition. Each serving contains approximately 270IU of vitamin A, 2mg of vitamin C, 69mg of calcium, 3.8mg of iron, 1.7mg of vitamin E, 0.4mg of vitamin B6, 136mg of folate, 348mg of phosphorus, 152mg of magnesium, and 7.7mcg of selenium. Those low numbers are not typos. This is a good example of why we focus more on veggies and fruit and less on grains.

Unrelated notes:

To increase the nutrition of dinner we had our quinotto with a green salad on the side that contained curried hummus. The salad added vitamins and minerals as well as protein from the beans.

Today has been another one of those gray bleary days. Nothing terrible just enough gray weather to make a blah day overall. However, I am not complaining. Generally things at our house are going fairly well. In the past I have found it too easy to get down or depressed. I think age makes it easier for me to put things into perspective. At least that is my story and I am sticking to it. I am very thankful to be married to my best friend and love him just as much, if not more, than I did decades ago.

Tomorrow is supposed to be another gray rainy day. I am planning to take advantage of the weather to spend more time cooking, I still to make those seitan sausages that my hubby loves.

I hope you all had a wonderful Tuesday. I will chat with you again soon.

Curried Hummus – No Added Fat

Today has been a little busier than normal for me because I lost over two hours on the computer watching a webcast on toxic hunger on Dr. Fuhrman live. It was interesting. I watched it to get an idea of the webcasts because he has a member’s only webcast on cancer prevention and survival coming up on Thursday. I think I am going to join the member’s center for 6 weeks to see that webcast and get a chance to look around the site. After I have had a chance to thoroughly check it out I will let you know if it is worth the investment (it isn’t cheap).

While I was watching the webcast I had some garbanzos cooking on the stove. We have been out of hummus for weeks and I was missing it. It is one of my favorite salad toppings, that and salsa. Today I added some Indian seasonings because I wanted to include turmeric for its antioxidant and anticancer properties. Here is what I made today:

Curried Hummus – No Added Fat
Makes 12 servings

Ingredients:

2 cup garbanzo beans (dried), cooked until very tender, beans only but cooking liquid reserved
1 lemon, zested and juiced
4 cloves garlic, peeled
4 teaspoons hot crushed peppers (or substitute jalapeno, cayenne, or crushed red pepper)
1 tablespoon no salt seasoning (I used the Costco brand)
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
as much bean cooking liquid as you need to achieve the texture you like
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

Directions:

Combine the ingredients in your food processor or blender. I have a large 14 cup food processor and it all fits in one batch if you have a smaller processor you may need to make this in two batches.

Process until the ingredients are thoroughly combined. Add bean cooking liquid a ladle at a time until you achieve the texture you like. Taste for seasoning and adjust to your tastes. The final texture will be smoother if you use the beans when they are still hot.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 131.41
Calories From Fat (15%) - 20.09

Total Fat - 2.42g
Saturated Fat - 0.24g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 14.34mg
Potassium - 337.91mg
Total Carbohydrates - 22.39g
Fiber - 6.67g
Sugar - 3.69g
Protein - 6.94g

Comments:

I imagine you are asking yourself, what does this taste like? Well it is a little hard to describe but it reminds me of curried garbanzos that I would typically have over rice. The Indian spices are not assertive but they are noticeable. The predominate flavor is a tie between the hot crushed pepper and/or lemon. If you like both of those you will like this hummus.

I added the turmeric for it health promoting properties. Since reading that it causes cancer to commit suicide I have been adding turmeric where ever I could. Adding the turmeric was what prompted me to make this an Indian inspired hummus.

Do you need another version of hummus? I suppose that depends on how often you eat hummus. Since I tend to make a batch of hummus twice a month I need many options.

I have been making no fat added hummus for a quite a while now so we are used to the texture of it. But if you still add oil and/or tahini to your hummus I suggest you try to stick to the tahini since it is a more healthful fat. However once you get used to hummus without fat it becomes your new normal.

Unrelated note:

True confession time, I have not been the best wife over the last couple of weeks. We have been eating so many salads for dinner that my husband has been buying his lunch almost every day. I have been making him trail mix and making a big bottle of fresh juice every morning. But after doing that and making breakfast I have not had time to make lunch too. That was one reason I decided to make some cooked food today. That is easy to put in a lunch bag with a side salad. Thankfully my hubby has a couple of good healthy options very close to his office downtown. But I have been feeling a bit guilty for not making him lunch. Sorry sweetie!

I have an experiment planned for dinner tonight. Since this is entirely new and there is no recipe I have no idea if it will turn out or not, but I hope it does. I don’t want to give up too much info yet in case my hubby is reading the blog because I want him to be surprised. ;-) We need a little mystery after more than 2 decades together. Whether it turns out of not I will let you all know what I am trying and what I learn from my experiment.

I hope everyone is having a great Tuesday. I will talk to you again soon.

Need Any Exercise Equipment?

This notice showed up in my email box and I wanted to share it with all of you. Between 10pm and 9am (Eastern Time) tonight/tomorrow morning you save 15% off your order at Dick’s Sporting Goods.  I have purchased a few things from Dick’s on-line in the past which is why the noticed arrived.

I may have to order something tonight. Who doesn’t love getting a discount? I know I do. Happy shopping. ;-)

Rice and Veggies with a Spicy Cilantro Sauce

We tend to stay minimize grains, whole or otherwise,  instead preferring to focus on veggies, fruits, beans, seeds and nuts. However, today we had a brutal thunderstorm roll through which dropped the temperatures from 90 something to 71 in a matter of minutes. When it is cool like this I tend to want comfort food. For me meals with grains scream home and comfort.

I started with the idea of making a vegan bibimbap and ended up making a spicy cilantro sauce instead. I really do have difficulty staying focused on a meal. This is why I am never successful when I write menu plans. I seem incapable of sticking with them. For some reason I need the flexibility to change my mind when it comes to food. Who knows what deep seated psychosis is causing this, LOL. Here is what I made tonight for dinner:

Rice and Veggies with a Spicy Cilantro Sauce
Serves 2

Sauce ingredients:

¼ cup cilantro (stems and leaves)
1 tablespoon lime juice (or lemon if you don’t have lime)
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon white miso
1 teaspoon sriracha, or more if you like things hot ;-)
¼ cup raw sesame seeds (or tahini if not using a high powered blender)
¼ cup water (or what is necessary to make a smooth sauce)

Other ingredients:

2 cups cooked brown rice, warm preferably
½ pound baby spinach, chopped
1 cup marinated mushrooms (1 cup of any type mushroom that you tossed with a 1 tablespoon of liquid aminos and a pinch of stevia and refrigerated for at least 1 day, drain excess liquid before using)
1 bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 carrot, thinly sliced,
2 cups snow peas
1 tomato, diced

Directions:

Combine the sauce ingredients in your blender and process until smooth. You may need to add a little water to get everything to process.

To serve plate the greens first, top with rice and veggies and drizzle with the sauce. Alternately you can toss the rice with the sauce and then top with veggies. Either way you will need to give this dish a stir on your plate to distribute the sauce and veggies like you are eating bibimbap. This is good with hot, warm or cold rice. I prefer the rice warm in this dish.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 472.85
Calories From Fat (22%) - 103.3

Total Fat - 12.32g
Saturated Fat - 1.85g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 988.08mg
Potassium - 1683.66mg
Total Carbohydrates - 77.79g
Fiber - 15.18g
Sugar - 12.95g
Protein - 17.72g

Comment:

Both Dan and I really liked the spicy cilantro sauce. That will definitely be making repeat appearances at our house. This is a winning combination the warm rice and cold veggies with a lightly spicy sauce. I have always believed that sauces make the meal. This particular meal would have been very boring were it not for the sauce.

Each serving of this recipe contains approximately 21,650IU of vitamin A, 200mg of vitamin C, 390mg of calcium, 9.9mg of iron, 4.6mg of vitamin E, 1.2mg of vitamin B6, 350mg of folate, 590mcg of vitamin K, 470mg of phosphorus, and 290mg of magnesium.

Unrelated notes:

So far I still love the new dumbbells. I have not found anything not to like about them yet. It is great to have so much flexibility in terms of weight. I can tell I am getting a better work out because the DOMS has reached a new level. Yay? Unlike my friend Heather I have never learned to love the pain. Something tells me I never will, LOL. But hey, it works so what the heck.

Tomorrow I am planning to make something for Dan in the kitchen. I have not decided what that means yet. I may make seitan sausages since he loves those and I don’t make seitan very often or it could be a dessert. Who knows maybe I will do both. ;-)

I hope everyone had a great Monday. Talk to you tomorrow.

Quick and Easy Mexican Salad for Dinner

Sometimes I am not really in the mood to cook. That was my mood yesterday. While I love to cook I am not always in the mood to spend a lot of time in the kitchen every day. However I still wanted to feed us something nutritious. I had a few ideas for dinner but in the end I decided on salad. This meal came together in under 10 minutes from things I had in the refrigerator. Here is what we had for dinner last night:

Mexican Inspired Salad
Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 head of romaine
1 cup red cabbage, finely shredded
1 cup salsa
1 avocado
2 ounces broccoli sprouts
1 tomato
2 tablespoons cashew crème fraiche

Directions:

Nothing much to say here, LOL. Use the romaine as a base and build from there. I think we all know how to make salad. ;-)

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 277.46
Calories From Fat (50%) - 139.3

Total Fat - 16.62g
Saturated Fat - 2.38g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 830.67mg
Potassium - 1714.37mg
Total Carbohydrates - 30.2g
Fiber - 16.49g
Sugar - 8.23g
Protein - 9.83g

Comments:

This is a variation of a salad that I make when I run out of inspiration. I really enjoy salads dressed with salsa. I find that salsa is a great alternative to standard salad dressing. If you haven’t tried salsa on salad I highly recommend it. Adding a dollop of cashew crème fraiche really helps this to feel more like a taco salad only without chips. ;-) Cabbage was added to this salad since I used to use it on tacos. Of course I like nutrition cabbage adds to the salad.

Each serving of this salad contains approximately 18,700IU of vitamin A, 100mg of vitamin C, 170mg of calcium, 4.7mg of iron, 3.7mg of vitamin E, 0.7mg of B6, 530mcg of folate, 345mcg of vitamin K, 215mg of phosphorus, and 105mg of magnesium. Stats like this are the reason we eat so many salads. Consuming a lot of salad makes getting your vitamins from food much easier.

Breast Cancer and Fish Oil:

While catching up on my nutrition and health reading I came across this interesting article about women that regularly take fish oil. According to the VITAL study women who take fish oil supplements have a 32% risk reduction of breast cancer. The authors do caution that this was one study and fish oil should not be promoted as reducing breast cancer.

I think this is another example of omega 3 fatty acids reducing inflammation and that having an impact on overall cancer risk reduction. I will continue to focus on consuming healthy food containing omega 3 fatty acids like: flaxseeds, hempseeds, chia seeds and walnuts and reducing our consumption of omega 6 fatty acids. For me there is no down side to these dietary practices.

Unrelated note:

Guess who claimed he hadn’t enough calories yesterday and “needed” strawberry, banana and goji soft serve? Yes it was Dan, of course. He would live on that if I would let him. ;-) 

I need to run for now. I will be back later with an update.  With today being Monday I have a few more things on my to-do list.  Talk to you later.

Zucchini Spaghetti with Asian Walnut Sauce

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

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

Zucchini Spaghetti with Asian Walnut Sauce
Serves 4

Sauce Ingredients:

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

Vegetable Ingredients:

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

Optional Garnish Ingredients:

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

Directions:

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

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

Nutritional Information:

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

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

Comments:

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

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

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

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

Unrelated note:

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

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

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

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