Tempeh, Mushrooms and Veggies in Tomato Cashew Curry

Thursday … Not my Favorite Day this Week

Getting up at 4:45 in the morning is not on my list of fun things to do. I am not a morning person but this was ridiculous. The sun came up almost 2 hours after I got up. The full moon was beautiful this morning but I wasn’t actually conscious enough to really enjoy it. I tried to take some pictures of it but none of them were “perfect”.

After Dan left for the airport to make his 6:50am flight to Florida I tried to start my day. Heavy emphasis on tried. I got on the scale to find out the damage from so much eating out and it went up 2.4 pounds in one day. Needless to say I got on twice to confirm this since I knew there was no way I overate by 8,400 calories yesterday (3,500 times 2.4). Heck that is about what I eat in a week.

Even though I know the increase on the scale was probably water weight due to consuming more sodium than usual (since my normal is almost none)l it didn’t exactly give me an appetite for breakfast this morning. Also I knew I wasn’t going to be very active (based on the yawning that I have been doing all day) so I waited until mid-day to grab some lunch and skipped breakfast today. I was also just too tired to get myself anything beyond water and iced green tea.

Lunch was one of my huge salads which consisted of: 1 head of romaine, ¼ cup salsa, ½ cucumber thinly sliced, ½ carrot thinly sliced, 4 Roma tomatoes and a good sized dollop of cheezy white bean dip. I am really loving the cheezy white bean. This is going to be making regular appearances at my house. Who knows it may become as popular as the baked falafel. ;-)

I finally ended up getting a nap in that I intended to be an hour or an hour and half and it ended up being 3 hours. Clearly I was physically exhausted this morning.

For my afternoon snack I had a banana and 6 walnut halves. As always I added the nuts to make certain that I absorb any fat soluble vitamins and to make the snack more satisfying.

To accompany the banana I decided a cup of frozen grapes would be good. As you probably noticed I eat a lot of frozen grapes.

Dan called as he was getting to the airport to find out if the flight was on time since he was running later than he wanted and of course it was on time. However he got to the gate with a few minutes to spare so everything was good on that front. I am happy to have my hubby back home. Even though he was only gone today like being downtown it still seemed worse since I knew he was thousands of miles away. I like having him close by I suppose. ;-)

Once I found out Dan didn’t have dinner before getting on the plane I knew I needed to have something ready for him to eat once he got home. I shifted into chef mode and started thinking about what would be good for him tonight. There was a piece of tempeh in the refrigerator that I thought would be nice to use. Here is what I made tonight:

Tempeh, Mushrooms and Veggies in Tomato Cashew Curry
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 large yellow onions, cut into bite sized chunks (allow to stand 10 minutes before heating)
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced (allow to stand 10 minutes before heating)
1 inch fresh ginger, finely minced or grated
4 carrots, cut into bite sized chunks
approximately 3 cups fresh tomatoes, pureed
1 teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
1 ½ teaspoon black mustard seed
¼ teaspoon cardamom powder
1 pinch ajowan seeds or substitute thyme the flavor is very similar
1 pinch red pepper flakes
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
8 ounces three grain tempeh cut into small bite sized pieces
¼ pound fresh shitake mushrooms (stems removed), cut into bites sized pieces
zest of 1 lime
½ cup raw cashews pureed with the juice of one lime and water enough to make it process
cooked grain to serve as the bed for the dish (I used brown basmati)

Directions:

Combine the onions, garlic, ginger, carrots, tomato puree and spices and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the tempeh and mushrooms and cook for another 10 minutes. Add the lime zest to pan with the veggies. Process the cashews and lime juice, add enough water so that you get a smooth puree. Add the cashew crème to the pan and stir to thoroughly combine. Simmer until everything is heated through.

Serve over a cooked grain or baked sweet potatoes. If desired garnish the dish with sliced almonds, cilantro or crispy onions. Tonight’s dish had a few sliced almonds for crunch.

Nutritional Information (not including the grain or garnish):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 308.08
Calories From Fat (34%) - 105.27

Total Fat - 12.57g
Saturated Fat - 2.36g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 76.33mg
Potassium - 1135.96mg
Total Carbohydrates - 39.24g
Fiber-  7.58g
Sugar - 13.03g
Protein - 16.94g

Comments:

This is a quick dinner but one with nice Indian flavor. I make variations of this dish quite often because we like it so much.  I am sure this isn't traditional since I am Italian, not Indian, but we like the flavors so it works for us.

To accompany the curried dish we had a green salad on the side that consisted of romaine, diced Roma tomato, thinly sliced cucumber and carrot, topped with marinated mushrooms and roasted red peppers.

Signing out:

That is going to be if for me today. I must say it feels good to be caught up on my posts. Tomorrow will be my usual whirlwind of errands and checking on the parents. However with a little luck there will be time to spend in the kitchen tomorrow afternoon. I hope you had a great Thursday and have fun plans for the weekend. Talk to you again tomorrow.

Cafe Atlantico, Dan's b'day and General Catching Up

It feels as though this post is all about us going out to eat. We haven’t been home much over the last 36 hours which is why you weren’t hearing much from me. This post is a catch up on what you have missed recently. I hope you all have been having a good week too. :-)

Tuesday night:

Our friend Phil was in town a few days this week and this time he brought his oldest son Jeff who just recently joined his firm. Like always we had to have dinner with Phil. Since Phil lives in Springfield, Missouri we don’t get to see him as often as we would like to. Phil loves Ian’s food as much as we do so you know who made dinner Tuesday night.

We were able to give Ian a few days notice so he made four special appetizers for the table to share. Ian always finds it difficult to think of vegan items for us he thinks are “good enough” so he likes to have lots of advance notice that we are coming in so that he can do something special. *shakes head* I really wish he wouldn’t go to any trouble for us but it is very sweet that he wants to. Sorry I forgot to photograph one of the special vegan appetizers Ian made just for us. I was too busy talking. You can’t imagine me doing that I am sure, LOL.

Appetizer One: roasted Brussels sprouts with wild mushrooms & balsamic glaze. This combination had a ton of flavor and was eaten on crispy crackers. Even though the Brussels sprout is a much maligned vegetable it was the first dish we all dove into, much to Dan’s chagrin as he loves sprouts. ;-)

Appetizer Two: mango, sweet potato, avocado and jalapeno salad. The flavor of this salad was sweet and savory combination with a hint of heat in the background. The photo does not do this justice. I think this was my favorite of the four appetizers. I will be making my own version of this at some point.

Appetizer Three: Mediterranean salad with roasted red peppers, grilled red onions, artichokes, at least two types of olives, and fresh dill. The flavors of this were so intense that we decided it would make a great pizza topping.

Appetizer Four (which I forgot to photograph, sorry): very thinly shaved fennel salad dusted with sumac. This made a very refreshing palate cleanser for the end of the round of appetizers.

Entrée: Whole wheat pizza topped with hummus and some to the Mediterranean salad listed above,

Our friend Walid was supposed to join us for dinner but he ended up needing to work late. However he did stop by the restaurant to pick up carry out to take home since Ian had made a special dish for the meat eaters that isn’t on the regular menu. It was a red wine and garam masala braised dish that is extremely tasty. Dan would love me to make a vegan version of it so that may have to go on my to-do list for dinner on Friday.

Breakfast:

We needed to be out the door somewhat early on Wednesday morning. To speed things up we had green smoothies for breakfast.

My green smoothie that contained: 1 frozen banana, 3 kale leaves and stems, 6 walnut halves, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger, water to process (add stevia if you think it needs sweetener). I love getting vegetables into my breakfast. It always makes me feel as though I have started the day off right.

Dan gets a similar version but his has 2 bananas and more walnuts. We both like the green smoothies for breakfast. When you aren’t sure what your food day will bring it is good to get a few veggies into your breakfast. ;-)

Lunch:

Dan, Phil and Jeff needed to perform a site inspection in DC on Wednesday and then they had a warm up meeting with the construction team (architect, general contract, landscape architect, etc). Since they were going to be about 10 minutes from Café Atlántico you know where lunch was going to be. ;-) Both Dan and I are huge fans of Jose Andres so any chance we get to visit one of his restaurants we are right on it. It did not take much arm twisting to convince me to join this party. Especially given that today was also Dan’s birthday. How could I possibly not join the guys in DC? It just wasn’t going to happen.

This is the entrance to Café Atlántico.

Here is the birthday boy contemplating what to order for lunch. Doesn’t he look so deadly serious about what to order? Food is not for the timid in this crowd, it is serious business. ;-)

For the table we ordered the guacamole, which is always a treat. I like that they make it order at the table mild, medium or hot depending on how you like it.

The guacamole comes with a mountain of chips that we polished off a bowl of and part of a second bowl. How they are fried but not the tiniest bit greasy is completely fascinating.

Dan and I also ordered our own pots of green tea. I love the little one person tea pots. You know I am going to have to try to find a few of those because they are just too darn cute.

For an appetizer we ordered a tomato and beet salad. The salad contained beefsteak tomatoes (which looked as though they were painted with beet juice for color), cherry tomatoes, thinly julienned ruby beet, and thinly sliced golden beet. The greens were mesclun and there was a swirl of beet dressing on the plate. This was to be served with yogurt but having that one item left off made it vegan. The salad was very light and refreshing. Phil ordered the same thing (no yogurt) and really enjoyed it as well.

For lunch Dan and I both ordered a bowl of carrot soup with passion fruit. Again this was supposed to have a yogurt swirl on top but the base was vegan so we went for it. The plate came with micro greens and a few passion fruit seeds in the bottom and the soup was poured over the garnish. I wasn’t quick enough with the camera to get a shot of the bowl before of while the soup was being poured. The texture of the soup was like velvet. It was so light yet with a touch of thickness. I think it was fresh carrot juice that was thickened with passion fruit puree. The taste was mostly carrot but with a background of passion fruit. Both Dan and I really enjoyed this. You can expect to see a variation of this out of my kitchen at some point.

Since I know not everyone has been to Café Atlántico I wanted to include a shot of the interior from the first floor looking to the third floor. There is a big open area where you can see the various stair cases. The building interior is quite unique and having lunch with two architects made it even more enjoyable.  It is a gorgeous light filled space.

Overall it was very easy to stay vegan today for lunch. The options were limited but they were delicious so we didn’t mind a bit. We may have to try Jaleo next time to see what things we can get vegan from Jose’s tapas bar. ;-)

While the guys had their construction meeting I stayed in the car so that I could get started on the post leaving more time to spend with Dan after we dropped the guys at the airport early tonight.

Phil and Jeff made it to BWI with plenty of time to catch their flights to Memphis and Atlanta. Since we were close to Costco we made a quite stop for a few necessities (TP and cat litter). Of course I had to pick up a few things while I was in there. Is it even possible to stop at Costco and stick to your list?

They had two exercise items a DVD and a Wii game that somehow jumped into my cart. They were cheap so I picked them up. I have added them to my list of things to review. That list is getting really long, just so you know. LOL

Since we were so close to cooking class and it was the right night I suggested that we stop to see everyone and disrupt productivity before class started. That turned out to be such a great idea. I really missed everyone from class and it was incredibly good to see them all. We really wanted to stay but since Dan was scheduled to leave BWI on the red eye this morning at 6:50am it wasn’t an option.

I snapped a couple of pictures of Baltimore with my phone on the way home.

This one is the entrance to the old train station (Penn Station). It looked nice at dusk with the light on so I thought you would enjoy it.

Here are two pictures of old row houses on Charles Street. This type of architecture is very common in the heart of downtown Baltimore.

Once we got home I made a quick salad for us for dinner while Dan was printing board passes for tomorrow. We each had a head of shredded romaine, thinly sliced cucumber, and thinly sliced carrot. I topped this with the leftover Ian salads from last night, a dollop of cheezy white bean dip and a few sliced tomatoes. This was an easy yet tasty meal. It was also Dan’s first taste of the cheezy white bean dip and he enjoyed it. Woo hoo! As you can tell the fact that Dan liked it made me happy. My buddy Courtney mentioned that she also makes a mozzarella version of the white bean dip so I will play around with that concept soon too. ;-)

After the salad Dan was certain he had not had enough calories today, and this time I actually agreed with him. I made him a batch of strawberry and banana soft serve for dessert (no oats). He suffered through the entire recipe, except for two spoons I had.

We had to turn in early since the alarm was set for 4:45am so that he would make his flight. There is nothing like flying to Florida and back for a few meetings in one day. *shakes head* Whenever possible Dan tries to be home to sleep so Thursday is going to be a very long day for him.

Thursday:

No one should get up when it is still going to be dark for another 2 hours. *ugh* I am not a morning person and seeing it at 4:45 in the morning does not help that fact.

While Dan was getting a shower I put together a green smoothie for him that contained: 2 frozen bananas, 2 kale leaves/stems, 2 collard leaves, 1 handful of walnuts, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ginger and green tea to blend. Since I had made cold processed green tea last night before bed I also sent him out the door with a travel mug of iced green tea and two Mareblu Naturals nut bars in case he got hungry while traveling.

I am going to try to go back to bed now. I have to say that I am looking forward to being home today to get a few things accomplished here. I also hope to have time to spend in the kitchen today. Not cooking at all yesterday has me a little antsy. ;-) Talk to you all again soon. Wish me luck getting back to sleep.

Cheeze Dip made from White Beans

I wanted to start this post with a recipe because I enjoyed this so much. This idea came from a recipe that arrived in my email from AICR a few days ago. My version is different but kept the overall vibe of the recipe. I was very surprised how well this worked. Something tells me this will be a regular recipe at my house. Here is what I did:


Cheeze Dip made from White Beans
Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

2 cups white beans, cooked and well drained
2 tablespoons raw sesame seeds (use tahini if aren’t using a high speed blender to make certain the seeds get completely pulverized)
6 tablespoons of nutritional yeast, or to taste
1 clove garlic, peeled
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon turmeric
4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoons water (to process)
black pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine the ingredients in your blender and process until smooth. The mixture will be thick so that you can use it to fill a tortilla for a quesadilla or mixed with roasted veggies and stuffed in a pepper. I think this will have a lot of uses.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories-  153.19
Calories From Fat (21%) - 32.19

Total Fat - 2.97g
Saturated Fat - 0.45g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium-  47.05mg
Potassium - 314.07mg
Total Carbohydrates-  17.34g
Fiber - 6.88g
Sugar - 0.04g
Protein - 6.47g

Comments:

This turned out much better than I expected it to. I did not expect beans to make such a nice cheese substitute. This is a concept I will be playing around with more in the future. White beans are nice mild canvas to flavor.

Monday Means Lots of Life Administration at Our Place

As I mentioned earlier I was on the road first thing Monday morning with a run to the library. Other than taking a little while to start reading “Engine 2 Diet” I was moving since early morning. However it has been good because I was able to accomplish a few things that have been on my to-do list last week. It always makes me feel better to cross things off my list. I wonder what that says about me. Hmmmm. ;-)

Dehydrated Leeks:

Since I had a little time I prepped a big batch of balsamic glazed leeks to have on hand for topping salad and soup. After reading an article about how effective raw leeks are at stopping cancer growth I first tried making the crispy leeks. They work well to top cooked food just before serving. I try to keep these on hand in my pantry.

Vegetarian Restaurants in the DC area:

For those of you that are local I wanted to share this dining out guide from the Washington Post for Vegetarians. There are a few restaurants I will be checking out from this list when I am near DC.

Snack Yesterday Afternoon:

Late yesterday I got a little hungry so I grabbed a few baked falafel from the freezer and popped those into the microwave. I had them with a little bit of salsa. If it weren’t for falafel and salsa I swear I wouldn’t know what to eat sometimes.

Dinner:

At about 7pm Dan called and said don’t wait for me for dinner. He has meetings out of the office all day today (Tuesday), Wednesday and Thursday which means he doesn’t have much time to actually get work done. This meant he worked late last night and grabbed Chinese (steamed veggies and cashews) with sauce on the side for dinner. Thankfully the Chinese place near his office is open fairly late so he can always find something to eat in a pinch.

Since I was on my own for dinner I really didn’t feel much like cooking. If I had not had 2 collard wraps already I would have grabbed one of those for dinner but the novelty had worn off my dinner time. The only food that was appealing to me was frozen grapes. I tossed a cup of those into a bowl and had 6 walnut halves to go with them. The nuts always seem to make the fruit more satisfying to me.

Tuesday:

Holy moly it was downright cold this morning! I didn’t check the weather channel but it felt like it was in the 50s. When Dan left for work I thought I would hit the pavement and get my cardio in. Three houses from my front door I turned around to grab my fleece. It was not warm enough this morning for running pants and a long T shirt. I was happy to get finished so that I could get home and warm up a bit. Brrrr, it was cold. This was the first morning I was actually cold not just cool.

Breakfast this morning was a smoothie like yesterday containing: 1 frozen banana, 3 kale leaves and stems, ½ avocado, 1 ½ cups green tea, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger, and ½ inch fresh ginger. It was a good smoothie and very creamy.

I made something similar for Dan this morning before he left. His had twice as much kale and banana and I added ¼ cup of oatmeal to his as well. He said it was good, not like banana soft serve good, but good nonetheless. ;-)

To warm myself up I made a couple of mugs of hot water with lemon slices. I love hot water with lemon slices on cold mornings because it is warming but still refreshing.

Exercise Ball Review:

I have had the chance to play around with the 8 pound exercise ball that I bought a couple of weeks ago. It has been very useful in terms of abdominal work. I was a little concerned that sharp cat toes may be the end of this, like an exercise ball that my youngest popped before I could use it once. However either this is tougher rubber or it hasn’t interested the cats.

Benefits over using a dumbbell or a plate: 1) more quiet and less destructive when dropped, 2) more comfortable to use for weighted bridges 3) more comfortable to hold on my chest for weighted crunches 4) can also be used as a medicine ball in partner exercises which wouldn’t work with a dumbbell or plate. Overall I like the ball and find it to be a nice addition to my equipment. Not to mention I couldn’t beat the price at Marshall’s. For $12.99 I knew I had to bring it home when I saw it.

Lunch:

Today for lunch I made myself an enormous salad because I was really hungry, or at least I thought I was. My salad included 1 pound of spicy greens (mizuna, tatsoi and arugula) 4 Roma tomatoes, ¼ cucumber thinly sliced, ½ carrot thinly sliced, 1 cup cold cooked cannellini beans, ½ cup of salsa and 1 tablespoon of raw pumpkin seeds. I thought I could eat all this but I was no longer hungry after I finished ¾ of the salad. I saved the remaining ¼ of the salad to eat as my afternoon snack.

Book Review: Engine 2 Diet

I picked up this book from the library for obvious reasons. It is written by a healthy vegan athlete so I expected it to be right up my alley, and it was. The book is segmented as follows:

The E2 Diet

1. Engine 2
2. My Story
3. The Engine 2 Diet
4. Crazy Myths About Food
5. The Medical Proof Behind the Engine 2 Diet
6. The E2 Exercise Program

Making it Work

7. The E2 Attitude
8. E2 Vital Signs
9. Label Reading
10. Making it Work for Life

Recipes and Meal Plans

11. GettingE2 Shape
12. E2 Easy Weekly Planner
13. E2 Recipes

I enjoyed this book more than I expected. I liked that there was a lot of decision about the interconnectedness of health and nutrition. The author does a nice job explaining why a whole food plant based diet without oil is the best choice in terms of overall health.

The exercise section of the book provides body weight only strength training that would be very handy for those just getting back into exercise.

The recipe section is much more extensive than most “diet” books. I was a little surprised to see TVP listed given the soy protein isolate issue. There are also baked goods included with use flour and sugar so you know I won’t be making any of those. However these are my only substantial complaints about the recipes. For the most part the recipes are whole food plant based with little or no oil and sugar.

Overall I think this is great book for someone that wants to either clean up their vegan diet, or wants to jump start their health in a dramatic way.

Signing out:

That is going to be it for me today. I will be back tomorrow with another update. I hope everyone is enjoying their Tuesday.

Sunday and Monday Update

What a beautiful morning we had Sunday. I love a cool crisp fall morning and that is exactly what I got. With temperatures in the upper 50’s and a wonderful light breeze it was a quintessential fall start to the day. Apparently it was too cool for many shoppers as the market wasn’t crowded when we left at 7:45am.

We started the morning by helping Rudy (one of the organic farmers) unload his truck. He had picked some lovely green beans for us for helping. Rudy is such a nice man and we would happily help him for nothing but it so thoughtful of him to bring things just for us.

Our haul from the market today was out of control. When we left the house I knew I didn’t have much room in either of our two refrigerators and still I bought a mountain of produce. Somehow we stuffed it all in but I know things will be rolling out when I open either of the refrigerators, LOL. Today we can home with: 3 bunches kale, 1 bunch collards, 1 pound shitakes, 3 cucumbers, 6 large beets, 1 quart green beans, 1 quart white potatoes, small basket (about 10) of sweet potatoes, a huge basket of gala apples, a small basket of peaches, a bunch of watermelon radishes and probably other things that I have now forgotten.

On our way home I snapped a few pics of downtown on our way home. I love city life particularly early Sunday morning when the city feels as though it is still asleep.

This pic is looking up Charles Street that is the Walters Art Gallery on the left and the Washington Monument at the top of the hill.

Here is a shot down a side street near the Peabody Institute.

Also in that same area is a church that is so unusual. I love the colors on the building exterior.

Breakfast:

Once we got home it was time to get on the scale and find out the damage from eating out and then grab some breakfast. I always dread the scale after eating out but I really shouldn’t since it very rarely goes up any more. Breakfast this morning was oatmeal for Dan and a smoothie for me.

My smoothie this morning consisted of: 3 stalks/leaves kale, 1 frozen banana, 1 cup frozen wild blueberries, 1 carrot, 1 tablespoon chia seeds, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ginger, ¼ cup fresh mint, juice of 1 lime, and water to process. It was almost a little too sweet initially which is why I added the lime juice to tame the overall sweetness. Here are the stats on the smoothie:

Calories - 353.17
Calories From Fat (9%) - 32.63

Total Fat - 3.89g
Saturated Fat - 0.54g
Cholesterol -0mg
Sodium - 112.25mg
Potassium - 1254.98mg
Total Carbohydrates - 80.42g
Fiber - 13.03g
Sugar - 19.42g
Protein - 8.91g

While we were enjoying our breakfast I had cannellini beans cooking for the mid day meal with my parents. I normally don’t plan what I am going to do with beans I just cook then and figure it out later. Making extra beans is never a problem at our house since they store so well in the freezer.

Mid Morning Snack:

While I was working on rearranging the stuffed refrigerator I realized that I needed a little bit of a snack to tide me over until lunch at 3pm. I grabbed a Gala apple and 3 walnut halves. I forgot to take a picture, but then again we all know what an apple and walnuts looks like. ;-)

Eating small meals often like I do it seems to make a big difference in terms of keeping me satisfied. I am convinced that one of the reasons I don’t eat much is that I never get too hungry. I personally seem to make bad food choices if I get too hungry or if I have eaten something with a high GI value (sugar, bread, those sorts of things). For whatever reason eating veggies and beans seems to keep my satisfied without food cravings and that is a good thing.

Lunch: Cold White Beans and Rice over Salad Veggies

I had no idea what I was going to make for lunch so I decided to go with an enormous salad. Turning lunch into salad had the added benefit of reducing the volume in the refrigerator. It was so stuffed that it could not have had good air flow in there. *rolls eyes are self for not planning better*

This salad for 4 contained: 2 cups white beans cooked and cooled, ½ cup short grain brown rice cooked and cooled, ¼ cup red wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 1 scallion finely minced, ¼ cup parsley minced, ½ teaspoon dried Italian season, 1 pound mesclun greens, 7 finely diced Roma tomatoes, 1 cucumber thinly sliced, 2 carrot thinly sliced, and 1 bell pepper thinly sliced. This was surprisingly filling for the few calories it had. I also sprinkled a few raw pumpkin seeds on top (maybe 1 tablespoon total). The nutritional stats for 1/4 of the total are as follows:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 310.99
Calories From Fat (9%) - 27.9

Total Fat - 3.34g
Saturated Fat - 0.37g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 106.92mg
Potassium - 1469.74mg
Total Carbohydrates - 60.73g
Fiber - 14.43g
Sugar - 11.16g
Protein - 14.48g

Surprisingly even my parents liked this salad. Now I did add a little drizzle of good olive oil to their plates but they seemed to enjoy it as evidenced by the empty plates.

Interesting articles:

I was trying to catch up on my health reading and came across two interesting articles. The first one is a about a poll that surveyed people regarding their exercise habits. Only 5% perform so type of vigorous exercise per day. My initial reaction was that number could not be right. But the more I thought about it the more reasonable it seemed. I know from experience that spending too much time sitting and not enough exercising can result in feeling lousy. If you aren’t exercising now I high recommend that you start. It can be as simple as walking every day at first, though that will only get you so far. But once you get into the habit exercise can be a very enjoyable part of your daily life.

The next article discusses the impact of diet on cancer. They even go as far as to discuss reducing the consumption of bread and pasta to increase the health benefit. The article also discusses the risk factors of being obese and inactive and having high insulin levels. My take from the article is that there is quite a bit of control all of us have in terms of staying healthy.

Afternoon Snack: Leftovers

Dan ended up having a veggie and tofu enchilada with mole sauce for his afternoon snack. I had the last little bit of oven roasted butternut squash, broccoli and red pepper soup topped with roasted squash seeds. I am making a concerted effort to get things out of the refrigerator at the moment so I can move things around and see what I have to work with.

Dinner: Fresh Juice and Walnuts

Since I really need to reduce the bulk in the refrigerator Dan and I decided that making a bunch of fresh veggie and fruit juice would be nutritious and use up quite a bit of fresh produce. We both liked that this didn’t include any grain.

Here is what I used this time: 3 Gala apples, 4 stems/leaves kale, 8 carrots, 4 collard leaves, 1 enormous beet (about the equivalent of 3 regular sized beets), 1 lemon, and 1 inch fresh ginger. We split this 1/3 for me and 2/3’s for Dan. Here is the nutrition info on 1/3 of the recipe:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 234.44
Calories From Fat (5%) - 11.34

Total Fat - 1.42g
Saturated Fat - 0.22g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 237.79mg
Potassium - 1406.87mg
Total Carbohydrates - 57.87g
Fiber 0.00g
Sugar - 30.28g
Protein - 6.02g

To accompany the juice I had 6 walnut halves and Dan had 12. I add nuts to make certain we absorb the fat soluble vitamins in the juice.

It felt good to have a nutritious dinner that didn’t have any flour. After our enchilada lunch and pizza dinner last night my GI system was certainly not its usual happy self. I never realized how sensitive my body is to what I feed it. However within an hour or so I can tell when I have eaten something that is less than optimally nutritious and it isn’t a good feeling. Sunday was much better with a produce filled day.

Sunday evening snack:

A certain man whose name I will not mention felt certain that he “needed” strawberry banana soft serve (without oats) because he was certain he had not had enough calories today. That is code for someone wants dessert. I had a few spoons but the hubby had 95% of the recipe. *rolls eyes* He has just a sweet tooth is it unbelievable.

Monday morning:

Why are Monday mornings always so rough? Today we went through our usual routine of making fresh veggie and fruit juice for Dan to take to work with trail mix in addition to his lunch.

When Dan left the house this morning so did I. We had taken 5 DVDs out at the library that needed to be dropped off. While I was there I picked up “The Kind Diet”. As soon as I read that I will let you know if I am buying a copy or if the library read was enough.

Breakfast:

Breakfast for me this morning was another smoothie. This one contained: 1 frozen banana, ½ avocado, 4 collard leaves, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger, ½ inch fresh ginger, green tea so the mixture will process. I really liked the taste of this smoothie. It was mostly banana flavored with a rich creamy texture that undoubtedly came from the avocado. I even think Dan would enjoy this and he isn’t an avocado fan. You know I will be giving him a smoothie tomorrow for breakfast to see what he thinks.

Calories - 274.61
Calories From Fat (43%) - 117.32

Total Fat - 13.99g
Saturated Fat - 2.03g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 24.05mg
Potassium - 1064.02mg
Total Carbohydrates - 39.98g
Fiber - 10.87g
Sugar - 15.07g
Protein - 4.13g

After breakfast I started reading “Engine 2 Diet” that I got from the library last week. My reading list just seems to keep growing. ;-) I hope to have this read by tomorrow so I can let you know what I think of it. So far I think it is pretty good.

Lunch and Afternoon Snack:

Lunch was a collard wrap stuffed with ½ cup fat free Spanish flavored hummus, 6 walnut halves, spicy greens (mizuna, tatsoi and arugula) and a few julienned cucumbers. I topped this with a little no salt seasoning and had a nice healthy few bites for lunch. The walnuts add nice texture to this wrap. The spicy no salt seasoning (Costco brand) adds a lot of flavor to the wrap. This was so good I had a second one about 2 hours later.

Signing out for now:

Since I got behind I wanted to get caught up with this post. I have no idea what dinner is going to be at our house tonight. However I have made enough of the dent in the veggies in the frig I may make something other than salad or juice tonight. ;-) I hope everyone is having a good Monday. Talk to you all again soon.

Roasted Vegetable and Tofu Enchiladas with Mole Sauce – Omni approved

I wanted to start the post with a tease of the recipe to follow later. Nothing like a little creamy Mexican food for lunch especially when it is also reasonably healthy. ;-)


Yom Kippur:

For those of you that observe Yom Kippur, I hope you had an easy fast.

Saturday Morning:

Happy Saturday …… well it is Sunday now since I didn’t post this yesterday.  I hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Saturday morning started slowly at our house like always. It is our only day to sleep in so we take advantage of it by turning off the alarm and allowing our bodies to sleep until they naturally wake up. We lounged around until 9 am. It was great, LOL.

Breakfast was oatmeal for Dan. I made myself another uber healthy smoothie. The color was really atrocious. It was so bad I almost didn’t post the picture but I wanted you all to see what it will look like. Thankfully it tastes much better than it looks. ;-)

Saturday’s smoothie contained: 2 stalks of shredded kale, 1 ½ carrots cut into slices, ¼ cup uncooked oatmeal, 1 frozen banana, 6 large frozen strawberries, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger, and water to process the mixture (probably 1 ½ cups). Add stevia to taste if you think it needs the sweetness. Here are the stats on this smoothie:

Calories 372.05
Calories From Fat (22%) - 83.15

Total Fat - 9.95g
Saturated Fat - 1.11g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 126.49mg
Potassium - 1423.55mg
Total Carbohydrates - 70.77g
Fiber - 13.58g
Sugar - 25.93g
Protein - 9.53g

Additionally this smoothie contains: 30,600IU of vitamin A, 160mg of vitamin C, 190mg of calcium, 109mcg of folate, 567mcg of vitamin K, 244mg of phosphorus and 130mg of magnesium. Not too shabby for a few minutes of work. This is why I love having smoothies for breakfast. They are a simple and easy way to pack a lot of nutrition into a glass.

Do any of you like to have smoothies for breakfast? If you have a favorite recipe I would love to know what it is. I am always looking for new smoothie ideas. ;-)

Lunch: Roasted Vegetable and Tofu Enchiladas with Mole Sauce

As always we had my parents over for lunch. With the weather turning cooler Dan wanted me to make some sort of enchilada type dish this weekend. We discussed possible options for the interior and this is the one he selected. I decided to top it with a mole sauce to give the dish some sophistication. When we out to dinner last week with our friend Louis Ian had a slow cooked duck mole on the menu that Louis ordered. Since Louis loved it I have had mole in the back of my mind. I thought it would be good on enchiladas too and it was. Here is what I did:

Roasted Vegetable and Tofu Enchiladas with Mole Sauce
Serves 6

Enchilada Ingredients:

1 eggplant, diced
1 large zucchini, diced
14 ounces of firm or extra firm organic tofu, squeezed dry (check the label for soy protein isolates)
2 tablespoons flour (I used brown rice because that bag was open but any type would work)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and grated
½ teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon chili powder
¼ teaspoon cumin seed
6 large whole wheat tortillas or whole wheat flat bread (if you don’t make you own check the label for soy protein isolates)
3 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced to line the baking pan

Mole Sauce Ingredients:

2 cups tomato sauce
½ red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and grated
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon anise seed
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
2 teaspoons raw pumpkin seeds
¼ teaspoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon cocoa powder

Garnish Ingredients

2 Roma tomatoes, peeled, finely diced
2 tablespoon of roasted seeds (pumpkin or squash)
¼ cup fresh parsley, minced

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a half sheet pan with parchment, silpat, or easy release aluminum foil.

Place the dice veggies on the sheet pan and roast until they begin to brown. My oven was set on convection and the veggies were brown in 25 minutes. The reason you are roasting the veggies is to dry them out a little so that they don’t make your filling too wet.

To make the sauce place the cumin, anise, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, and cloves in a spice grinder (or a coffee grinder you reserved for spices). Grind the mixture until it is smooth.

In a small pot combine all the mole ingredients. Cook on low, stirring occasionally, until the sauce starts to brown and the flavors married. I cooked mine for about an hour on the lowest setting.

Combine the tofu, flour, garlic, oregano, chili powder and cumin in your food processor and process until smooth. Place the tofu and roasted veggies in a large mixing bowl and combine well.

Line the bottom of the baking dish with sliced tomato.

Place 1/6 of the filling onto the end of the tortilla or flat bread and roll up. Place the filling wrap in the baking dish on top of the sliced tomatoes. Continue until you have filled 6 wraps. Top with the mole sauce and bake until hot (about 30 minutes).

To serve top with diced tomato, toasted squash or pumpkin seeds and parsley.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 292.27
Calories From Fat (30%) - 86.5

Total Fat - 10.72g
Saturated Fat - 1.56g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 820.47mg
Potassium - 995.36mg
Total Carbohydrates - 38.77g
Fiber - 13.95g
Sugar - 10.32g
Protein - 22.09g

Comments:

This dish was very popular yesterday. Not only did Dan and I like it but so did my omni parents. I would say this is omni approved. I have not had enchiladas with mole sauce before but I will be making this again.

To accompany the enchilada I made 4 small side salads which consisted of: 1 pound mesclun greens, 2 carrots thinly sliced on a mandoline, 1 cucumber and 2 radishes also sliced on the mandoline. I tossed this with salsa.

Dinner Out:

Since we didn’t go out for our anniversary last week we opted to go out last night. As you probably guessed we ended up visiting Ian. It was a gorgeous evening so we had dinner on the patio.

We started with an appetizer or beet carpaccio with baby arugula, thinly sliced red onion, pistaschios and oranges. It was not only stunning to look at but it tasted delicious. I will be making my own version of this at home as soon as I pick up some oranges.

Next Dan had to have the Szechuan tofu appetizer with broccoli, carrot, mushroom and pine nuts. I had a few bites of this but let Dan have most of it.

Dan was craving crispy whole wheat pizza for dinner tonight so that is what he ordered. Ian suggested a putanesca pizza which contained marinara, fresh sliced tomatoes, black and green olives, red onions, and capers. It was absolutely delicious. Definitely something else I will be making at home. I only had one piece of the little pizza but I really enjoyed it. Dan was happy to eat the other three slices. Isn’t he thoughtful to suffer for me?;-)

Sorry I didn’t get this posted last night. We didn’t make it home until 10:30 and since we get up for the market at 6am I didn’t have much time to write.

The farmers’ market was lovely this morning. We brought home a huge haul which I will tell you all about in my next post. Talk to you all again soon.

One Crazy Smoothie and Salad....Weird Food Day at my House, LOL

Happy Friday! My day started with a glorious weather morning. There is nothing like waking up to temperatures in the mid 60s. Talk about a perfect crisp morning. Ahhhh, I could really get used to this. ;-)

Dan had appointments that had him out of the office all afternoon so there was no fresh juice made at our house this morning. I felt as though my morning was so restful, LOL. Making breakfast and lunch is a breeze without the juice component. It was like a weekend morning since I wasn’t rushed. ;-)

Today I opted to do something I don’t normally do. I decided to use an exercise DVD. My knees have been begging me to take it easy so I begrudgingly decided to listen for a change. Earlier this week I picked up a Wii Fitness game from the library. Today I decided to try it out. Today’s test was “My Fitness Coach 2”. I have the original so I wanted to try the new version. I am going to play it a few more times before I formally review it. I did need to spend some time on the exercise bike after the game as I didn’t get enough cardio but that may be how I set up the game. That is why I want to spend more time with it before I make a decision about whether this gets a buy or rent rating. ;-)

Breakfast smoothie:

Breakfast this morning was a healthy smoothie containing: 2 kale stalks (leaves and stems about 1 cup packed once it was shredded), 1 carrot cut into thin slices, 1 frozen banana, 1 tablespoon chia seeds, ¼ cup oats (grind first if not using a high powered blender) ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger, ½ inch fresh ginger, ½ cup frozen wild blueberries, 1 lime zested and juiced, about 1 ½ cups cold processed green tea. Add stevia if you want it sweeter.

I used two different types of ginger because one is said to be good for cardiovascular health and the other reduces inflammation. Cinnamon is a constant in my smoothies since it reported to help the body process sugar more effectively. Chia was included for omega 3 fatty acids and to make certain I was properly fueled to process the fat soluble vitamins in the smoothie. Carrot was added for sweetness as well as beta carotene. The oats provide a little body to the smoothie as well as a bit of protein. Green tea is my new favorite smoothie addition. It is so nice to get my EGCG in my smoothie and cut down on the total amount of liquid I consume in a day. ;-) This smoothie contained:

Calories - 338.46
Calories From Fat (10%) - 34.19

Total Fat - 4.09g
Saturated Fat - 0.61g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 100.18mg
Potassium - 1133.48mg
Total Carbohydrates - 74.12g
Fiber - 12.64g
Sugar - 18.6g
Protein - 8.79g

Additionally it contained 24,000IU of vitamin A, 98mg of vitamin C, 215mg of calcium, 560mcg of vitamin k, 240mg of phosphorus and 96mg of magnesium. Not too bad for something that only took a few minutes to prepare.

Dietary News?:

Okay so this is somewhat off the topic but I wanted to share because I think it gives you some insight into my brain (scary as that may be). I was talking to an omni friend last night and he told me that he had a taco salad for lunch (no chips, no dressing and only a little cheese) and was going to have a homemade smoothie for dinner followed by frozen grapes. I was so excited to hear this. It may not sound like a big deal to you but any time someone eats more fruits and vegetables I think it is wonderful news. I had to immediately email my vegan dietitian friend who was equally happy about the news. As I said yesterday (in the post or a comment I don’t remember where) I think that all of our diets are a work in process. All of us (me included) can do things to make our diets more healthful. However every little decision that each of us makes adds up. If you make enough good decisions before you know it you have overhauled your diet for the better.

I am telling you this because I suspect many of you think I am much more of a dietary zealot than I think I am. Yes I eat a very clean diet. But I am also a realist and know that most people don’t want to eat the way that we do. If it weren’t the cancer I can’t say for certain that we would eat this healthfully either. ;-) All you need to do is go back and look at my recipes from one year ago and you will see that my diet has changed quite a bit in just a year. There used to be frequent recipes with whole wheat pizza, whole wheat pasta, seitan and oil just a year ago.

I hope this encourages you that you can change your diet and it really doesn’t take long for your taste buds to adapt. If you had told me a year ago our diet would be this clean I would have thought you were crazy. But now I am looking for ways to make it even cleaner. I have not completely decided what that means yet. When I do I will let you know. ;-)

Lunch:

Today I wasn’t really feeling like anything in particular so I just combined things that were leftover in the refrigerator. As you know if it weren’t for my intentional leftovers we would starve (or be forced to eat unhealthy food). We had a bit of the green bean dish from last night left which I strained so it was not too juicy on the plate. Then I tossed a ¼ of a roasted acorn squash in the dressing from the green beans to give it a hint of flavor. I also strained that. I added a dollop of Spanish flavored hummus and a few sliced almonds for the green beans and that was lunch. Nothing fancy but full of many colors which means a variety or vitamins and nutrients which you know makes me happy.

Hate and Love:

Have you ever noticed how casually people will toss around the word hate? I hate this, or I hate it when someone says this or does that? Really? I have a visceral reaction when I read anything that uses the word hate. I didn’t realize that until earlier today. I think hate should be reserved for the most heinous things we might encounter not little every day things. Additionally since I was thinking about this topic I realized that there are actually very things that I personally hate. Sure there are things I don’t like but hate is a word I reserve for atrocities. Since I had my little epiphany regarding hate today I am going to be very mindful of my casual use of the word going forward.

Are there any words that you have an immediate negative reaction to? I have many other words that bug me but those are typically words used to describe an entire group of people (like queer…*ugh*… that word makes my skin crawl). There seems to be a pattern to what bugs me which is when people try to draw a line between people. I just don’t think that is necessary personally.

Since I started on hate I thought we should end with love. There are so many things that I love I thought I would list a few. I hope that causes you to think of things you love too. Here is my list:

I love my husband, our felines, my friends, and our life. There are so many things I could list like cool crisp fall weather or newly fallen pine cones (a current favorite). I could have said the first snow of the season or the first flowers in spring. There are so many things to be grateful for everyday if you just look for them. Today I am loving the wonderful cool weather and nice breeze we are having. I am also enjoying having the windows open and airing out my house. It was wonderful to not have any back pain today. Seriously isn’t always better to focus on the positives rather than what we don’t like? ;-)

Butterfly:

Isn’t this little guy or girl pretty? I have no idea what type this little beauty is but when he attached himself to the outside screen I wanted to take a picture and this was the best I could get. Anybody know what type of butterfly this is?

Afternoon Snack:

For my afternoon snack I five of my baked falafel from the freezer with 2 tablespoons of salsa. I like to eat my snacks on a appetizer plate and use an appetizer fork because it always makes them seem more substantial. Yes I am a little nutty that way.

One thing I have noticed is that it takes me a while for food to seem to register with my brain, or maybe I should say to register with my stomach. I have found that if I have a small snack when I get hungry and then wait 20 minutes before going back for more at least half the time when the timer signals time is up I am not hungry.  Yes I actually set a time for 20 minutes and wait until it rings to get more food.  No OCD here, LOL. I think most of us were conditioned to eat huge portions of food from eating in restaurants. Those gigantic portions have led most of us to over eat.

Another trick I have is to split things with my hubby. When we go out to eat we normally order an appetizer, which we share. Then we order an entrée and share that too. If we are still hungry we will get a veggie side dish to split. In the past we would have ordered and eaten much more food. However since we started to focus more on eating until we were 80% full we have difficulty eating a large volume of food unless it is salad. For some reason those go down easy. ;-)

When I am out without Dan I order a big salad for myself and let that be my meal. I usually have some nuts or dried fruit with me that I can add to the salad if I think it needs something. Most restaurants have a green salad on the menu with fruit and nut now. By having them hold the cheese and adding some nuts and dried fruit from my bag a salad can be very filling.

Bill Clinton Eats Mostly Vegan? What?:

Did you see this? I was shocked. Looks like Dr. Esselstyn, Fuhrman or McDougall has gotten through to either Chelsea or Bill Clinton. Given his love of McDonalds I have to say this blew me away. I hope this gets some mainstream press.

Dinner: An unusual salad

I was missing salad so that is what we had for dinner tonight. This version is another one of those crazy versions that comes from somewhere deep in my brain where many wild ideas originate. ;-) Here is what I made tonight:

Sweet and Savory Asian Inspired Salad
Serves 2

Ingredients:

¼ cup walnuts
¼ cup water
1 lime, juiced
liquid aminos, to taste ( I used about a ¼ teaspoon)
sriracha, to taste (I used about ½ teaspoon)
6 cups spring mix
1 ½ cups grapes, sliced in half
½ carrot, thinly sliced on a mandoline
1 radish, thinly sliced on a mandoline
¼ cup mint leaves, julienned
1 tablespoon sliced toasted almonds

Directions:

Combine the walnuts, water, and lime juice and process until smooth. Add liquid aminos and sriracha to taste. You want the dressing to be a little thick and spicy with just enough sodium to round out the flavor.

Place the greens on two plates and top each with ½ the dressing. Top the greens with the grapes, carrot and radish. Finish the salad with mint and almonds.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 237.7
Calories From Fat (43%) - 102.9

Total Fat - 12.3g
Saturated Fat - 1.15g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 100.75mg
Potassium - 697.84mg
Total Carbohydrates - 31.36g
Fiber - 5.8g
Sugar - 19.79g
Protein - 6.11g

Comments:

This salad is crunchy, bitter, sweet, and savory. I love the hit of mint from the salad. I firmly believe that salads do not need to boring and this is the perfect example of that fact. Mango would bout a good substitute for the grapes or an addition to them. Radish was added for bitterness. Carrot and almonds provided the crunch. Lime juice was added to the dressing to cut through the fat of the walnuts and brighten the flavor. Sriracha was included because I like a bit of background heat. Mint is a huge flavor element in this salad and one that I think is essential. As you can tell I really liked this salad. ;-)

Signing out:

That is going to be all for me today.  I loved the look of these clouds.  Beauty is every where if you are open to it.  I hope you al lhave a good evening. Talk to again tomorrow.

Update:

Thank you all for the anniversary wishes!  It was very kind of you and greatly appreciated. Good night. :-)