Earth’s Essence

I want to post this for the Baltimore locals. If you are ever on the north side of Baltimore near Belvedere Square stop at Earth’s Essence for a fresh juice. This was our lunch on Monday before the raw dinner at Great Sage.

We ordered the Vita-Cocktail and Summer Salad. The Vita-Cocktail was sweet from the carrots and the Summer Salad was more savory. Even though they were both fresh vegetable juices they were very different. Crazy right?

Here is part of the fresh juice menu.

They also have snowballs in case you have kids or less than health obsessed husbands.

Earth’s Essence is fairly close to us but I would go out of my way for their fresh vegetable juice. They will also make a made to order juice if you have a combination you like. If you have been I would love to know your favorite juice. The Summer Salad with a little sherry vinegar is my current favorite.

Raw Vegan Dinner at Great Sage

For those of you that don't follow me on Facebook I apologize for my absence. I have been swamped for the last fews weeks.  Tonight (Monday) Dan and I went to Great Sage for a special raw vegan dinner. Since I thought many of you would be interested I wanted to share some pictures.

I hope this gives you an idea of the menu. If you have any questions let me know.  Talk to you again soon, hopefully tomorrow.  I have lots of things to fill you in on.  Good night!  :-)

Memorial Day Weekend

How was your holiday weekend? Mine was good, not what I had planned but still good. Dan had to work all weekend which was a bummer, but we did find a little time to have fun in spite of work.

Saturday night we met our friend Louis for dinner on the patio at our favorite local restaurant. It is always great when Louis is in town from the Delaware shore and we can get together for dinner. Thankfully the weather was beautiful so we were able to relax, talk and just enjoy each other’s company.

Knowing that we would be meeting Louis for dinner I emailed Ian on Wednesday to give him plenty of notice that we would be coming in. I am not kidding when I said that Ian prefers a lot of notice that we are coming in since vegan food is out of the box for him.

Since I always get inspiration from seeing what Ian puts together I wanted to share his creations with you. I love to see how his mind works and truly believe that eating his food regularly is the reason that I my cooking has improved. Like usual we had no idea what he was doing and were happy to have whatever he created since it is always good and frequently outstanding. Here is what we had for dinner:

Our first course was a salad of artichokes, avocado and corn dressed with charred tomato vinaigrette on a bed on baby arugula topped with crispy tortilla strips. Needless to say we both loved this and I will be doing something similar and home. I love going out to dinner and getting new ideas. ;-)

The second course was roasted portabellas, sautéed cabbage and Bing cherries on top of roasted sweet potatoes. The dish was dusted with something spicy which I think was cayenne. This was another winner. Where does Ian come up with his ideas? I wish I knew. LOL

Our entrée was tagliatelle with Swiss chard, caramelized onions and garlic finished with fresh lemon. This was very Sicilian inspired which meant that I loved it since I have a preference for Southern Italian cuisine. Ian also made a concerted effort to reduce the sodium in our food which was very sweet. Apparently he does listen when I talk. ;-)

Michael (“Shorty”) decided that we should have a little dessert and brought us martini glasses filled with fresh fruit which was a perfect way to end the evening.

Ian took some time to chat with us before he headed out for the evening. It is always fun to have time to catch up with him.

Saturday was our first night without Corey at the restaurant and I missed him. Even though Corey and I are still chatting it isn’t the same as seeing him a few times a week. However it is good that Corey is enjoying his new job.  It is going to be tough to replace Corey, glad I don't have to fill those shoes.

Where Did My Nutrition Knowledge Come From?:

This is a question I get my email regularly. People want to know if my knowledge came from the eCornell program of somewhere else. The truth is that I am mostly self taught but I will explain so that you understand and can do the same thing if you would like.

Years ago, after the cancer, I decided that we needed to learn about nutrition since what Dan and I were taught in school was next to useless. I started by reading books on cancer and health and moved on to reading articles at PubMed. Six days out of seven I start my day reading health and nutritional articles for an hour or more in the morning. I am also always reading a book on nutrition to continually learn and/or reinforcement my knowledge.

I will be suggesting books that I particularly liked in another post. For those of you that are concerned about cancer I highly recommend a book by Keith Block MD “Life Over Cancer”. It is a little technical but even without a scientific background you will get the basics. That is my go to book for research in regard to cancer.

Happy Thoughts:

• We had a lovely meal on Saturday. Thank you Ian! Of course it was a great time with our buddy Louis. Thank you Louis for joining us for dinner. We love spending time with you.

• Having the weekend to myself meant that I had time to be productive at home which was great. I am slowly but surely chipping away at my out of control to-do list. Additionally since Dan worked all weekend he is going to take some time off soon to spend with me. We will need to do something fun with our time off during the week.

• Dan has been joining me in the morning for treks through the neighborhood. Even though we are experiencing a heat wave with temps in the upper 90’s we have been covering some good distance and doing a little jogging and walking which is good. I decided to add in a little jogging to see how my knee was doing and so far so good which makes me very happy. Also I love that Dan has been going with me since I really want him exercising everyday to stimulate his immune system.

• We had a great Sunday at the farmers’ market and came home with a crazy amount of produce including: kale, asparagus, zucchini (woo hoo for zucchini spaghetti pictured above), strawberries, tomatoes, basil, Swiss chard, shitakes, beets, radishes, sugar snaps, and lettuce. As you can guess both of our refrigerators are stuffed with fresh produce and that makes me very happy.

• Monday Dan did his work from home rather than in the office so we got to spend a little more time together. I wish my hubby didn’t have to work so much but it doesn’t seem to stress him out and I am thankful for that.

Signing Out:

It is getting late here and my hubby should be home from work soon. Tomorrow is a busy day but I hope to have time to get up a post late in the day. I will talk to you again soon, hopefully tomorrow.

Cooking Class May 25, 2010

I have had another very busy week which has not been conducive to blogging. I wanted to get you a quick idea of the recipes from class this Wednesday. Since I know that many that read are omni looking to transition to vegan and/or have omni families I am going to post pictures of both the original and vegan versions of the dishes. I hope this gives you an idea of how you can feed both omnis and vegans without a lot of effort. Additionally I hope this inspires you to “veganize” some of your favorite omni dishes.

The appetizer was a green gazpacho topped with Greek yogurt and a quick pickled beet garnish.

Since the gazpacho was vegan mine omitted the yogurt and no other change was necessary. You could always top the soup with cashew crème fraiche if you like.

The next dish was a roasted vegetable and chickpea salad.

This was served with Stromboli which was made with a variety of Italian cured meats, cheeses and artichokes.

Mine was filled with vegetables.

The dessert course was macerated fruit and pignoli cookies.

The only change for me was to eliminate the cookies and I was good to go.

Other needing to make a separate Stromboli this meal was very simple to modify.

When you start to think in terms of “how I can I modify recipes” it becomes easy to make a vegan and omni version of the same dish. Ideally the entire family would eat vegan but I realize that isn’t going to work for a lot of people. However I hope you find it comforting to realize how easy it is to modify dishes without creating a lot of work for yourself.

Happy thoughts:

• I have had a good week though it has been another busy one. It seems like my life has been in overdrive for the last few months. I sure hope things slow down soon I need a break. ;-) Don’t believe people when they tell you retirement is boring. I read somewhere that “if you bored it is because you are boring” and there may be something to that saying. Boring doesn’t happen at our house.

• Today if our friend Walid’s birthday. Happy birthday buddy! Big hugs! I am very happy to have you in our lives. I hope you know how much you mean to us.

• Shopping this week I picked up a few great buys which I will tell you about in another post. I love a bargain and these were definitely that. *woo hoo*

• Summer is definitely here and that is a very good thing. I am looking forward to the holiday weekend. Now I just need to convince Dan that work can wait until Tuesday. Wish me luck; I am going to need it. ;-) He is such a hard worker. While I appreciate that he works so hard to provide for our family I also wish he would relax more than he does. There is always good and bad in everything. But the bottom line is that my husband is a great guy, who takes good care of us and I love him very much. I couldn’t ask for better husband for me.

• We are having dinner with our friend Louis this weekend which makes me very happy. We both enjoy spending time with Louis and appreciate it even more since he lives so far away. It is always great to spend time with good friends and Louis is one of the best! He has been there for me through the good times and the bad. I love you man! ;-)

• Wearing my running shoes has been fine this week! I am elated that I have been able to get out every morning and go for a nice walk before I start my day. There is nothing better than getting outside first thing in the morning. I snapped a few pictures this morning which I put up on Facebook. For those that don’t follow me there here are a few of them.

Signing out:

It is time for me to turn into a pumpkin so I can get moving early tomorrow morning. I hope you have some fun planned for the long weekend.

Pumpkin Pie Mousse

I have no idea where my week has gone but I have been swamped running errands and going to cooking class last night. I will give you more details soon but for now I wanted to share a very quick recipe I whipped up this morning for breakfast. Here it is:

Pumpkin Pie Mousse
Serves 2

Ingredients:

½ cup raw cashews soaked in water overnight in the refrigerator and well drained
15 ounce can organic pumpkin (nothing added just pumpkin)
2 tablespoons chia seeds
1 tablespoon raw organic maca powder
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon powdered ginger
1 pinch stevia (or to taste)

Directions:

Toss everything in your high speed blender (I used my Vitamix) and process until smooth. To serve top with a little sliced banana, sliced almonds and/or granola if desired.

Nutritional Information (does not include the banana, nuts or granola):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 273.5
Calories From Fat (41%) - 111.58

Total Fat - 13.43g
Saturated Fat - 2.41g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 5.87mg
Potassium - 611.69mg
Total Carbohydrates - 34.72g
Fiber - 11.6g
Sugar - 8.44g
Protein - 9.42g

Comments:

This reminds me of pumpkin pie only without the guilt. I love that in included omega 3 fatty acids (from the chia seeds), and beta-carotene (from the pumpkin). This may be good for you but it tastes delicious.

Signing Out:

Talk to you again soon. I am off to catch up on things at home. I hope to get another post up very soon. Wish me luck.

Pickled Onions and a Great Trip to the Farmers’ Market

(pickled onions used to brighten the wilted greens under the stuffed pepper)

(pickled onions on my salad for extra flavor)

We actually managed to get to sleep at a somewhat reasonable time on Saturday which is amazing since Dan was at work until very, very late. Don’t ask how late because it is ridiculous and I don’t want to call him out on the blog.

We were at the farmer’s market bright and early and were ready to shop, and shop we did. Sunday’s haul: 2 bunches collard leaves (for collard wraps of course), 2 huge bunches kale, 2 heads read leaf lettuce, ½ pound shitakes, 3 quarts strawberries, 1 bunch beets (save the tops for juice), 1 bag mesclun mix, 1 enormous bunch Swiss chard, 1 bunch radishes (the greens are good in soup, juice or wilted), fresh basil (woo hoo), and a tray of wheat grass (for juice of course).

I made one of my usual foundation recipes that I like to keep on hand. This one is pickled onions and I used those on salad and in collard wraps to add a pop of flavor with no fat and few calories. Here is what I did:

Pickled Red Onions
Makes approximately 2 cups

Ingredients:

1 large red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup water
½ cinnamon stick
rounded ¼ teaspoon whole cloves (this was approximately 20)
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 scoop (individual serving) stevia

Directions:

Combine the vinegar, water, cinnamon, cloves, pepper flakes and heat until it comes to simmer. Now add the stevia and red onions and let them stand, covered to seal in the heat. Toss the onions periodically so that all the onions will wilt. When the mixture has cooled place it in a sealed two cup jar and refrigerate until you need it. The onions have a long shelf life in the refrigerator. However we eat them long before they have a chance to go bad.

Nutritional information (for the entire recipe not that you would ever eat that much):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 76.94
Calories From Fat (4%) - 2.96

Total Fat - 0.42g
Saturated Fat - 0.07g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 11.54mg
Potassium - 62.25mg
Total Carbohydrates - 16.81g
Fiber - 5.72g
Sugar - 0.32g
Protein - 1.55g

Comments:

If you liked pickled food these are a must have to keep on hand. I like to use these as often as I can because they add so much flavor. The acidity adds brightness to dishes and helps me to avoid salt.

The stuffed peppers pictured above were what we had for lunch with my parents on Sunday. I am going to post that recipe separately, most likely tomorrow.

Miscellaneous:
Dan did take the day off on Sunday which was nice. We spend the day enjoying each other which is why you didn’t see anything from me on the blog though I did manage a few Facebook comments. ;-)

We went for a nice before dinner walk through the neighborhood before the rain. We stopped to take a few pictures while we were out.

I love this house which is probably why it never goes on the market. ;-)

Don’t you just love the beautiful spring green and the blooming plants? I love this time of year. :-)

Happy thoughts:

• It was great to have my hubby home on Sunday. We had a good day together that started with the farmers’ market and fresh local produce and ended with a nice neighborhood walk. It was an excellent day.

• The lunch I made on Sunday (bell peppers stuffed with millet and maitake mushrooms on agro dolce wilted greens and topped with gremolata) was well received. It was fun to make something that was a little more complex. I may be getting my cooking groove back. Only time will tell right?

• I am love having two refrigerators full of local produce. There really isn’t much that makes me happier. I am such a food and nutrition geek, but I would have it no other way.

• I am still contemplating what I am going to do when I grow up (assuming that ever happens). When I have more of an idea I will fill you in. Thanks for all the ideas regarding what you want to see on the blog. Keep those ideas coming!

• This may sound silly but I have had the windows open for days and that is a wonderful feeling. After being closed up all winter I love having fresh air blowing through the house all day long. It may just be me but I worry about VOC’s and offgassing when the house is closed up.

Signing off:

Monday was a good day for me but I wasn’t a productive as I would like to be. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. At least I got a few things accomplished I am going to concentrate on that instead of what I didn’t do.

I did manage to get into the kitchen to make a pot of red lentil and tomato soup to have on hand this week for lunches and that is a good thing.  I didn't use this recipe specifically but this version was close.

Talk to you all again tomorrow. I hope you had a great Monday!

Tandoori Tofu and Corey's Last Day

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

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

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

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

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

Tandoori Tofu
Enough for 2 – 14 ounce packages of tofu

Ingredients:

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

Directions:

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

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

Nutritional Information:

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

Comments:

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

It was a gorgeous evening for dinner outside.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blog Direction:

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

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

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

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

Happy thoughts:

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

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

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

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

Signing out:

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