Fast Food My Way

Recently I have been swamped at home as I recently told you.  When this happens cooking takes a back seat. However, even when I don’t have much time to cook that doesn’t mean that we will be eating unhealthy food.  I thought you  might want to know what sort of things we have been eating for ideas.  Here are some of the things I have been making at home:

Lots of this: hummus topped with paprika (sometimes with pine nuts sometimes without) and raw veggie dippers.

This hummus and veggie platter also has my roasted red pepper and onion salad with smoked paprika on top of arugula. There was also balsamic and lemon dressed roasted mushrooms.

Dan enjoyed this quinoa salad. I cooked the quinoa with orange zest and cinnamon. I dressed the cooked quinoa with pieces of fresh onion, dried cranberries and raw sunflower seeds.

There was also roasted miso and mirin glazed acorn squash.

I made a green bean dish inspired by things we have had a Jaleo. This one included green beans, apples, Brussels sprouts, almonds grapes, lemon juice and smoked paprika.

Curried split pea soup is good for cold nights.

Roasted yellow cauliflower and white bean soup topped with lemon dressed arugula and almonds.

One of Dan’s favorite meals, my spinach lasagna.

Black bean soup topped with lemon dressed arugula and sliced almonds.

Soba noodle soup with a mushroom broth topped with chopped baby tatsoi.

Okara pate I made with okara (leftovers from making soy milk that I keep in the freezer), tahini, garlic, lemon juice and hot pickled peppers). We like to eat things like this with veggies.

Broccoli with a pesto made from basil (also from the freezer), raw garlic, nutritional yeast and whole pine nuts for texture.

Mexican spiced bean and barley soup.

Marinated kale salad which I made with julienned kale. I marinated the kale in lemon juice and add the lemon zest. To this I added shredded carrot and sliced grapes. Even Dan commented that this was really good. As you can see it was also very simple. Love that!

As you can see fast food doesn’t have to be unhealthy or boring. Most of these came together quickly because either: I used the pressure cooker, or they did most of the cooking unattended. I hope these pictures inspire you to make more quick healthy food.

What Does it Take to Change Our Collective Health?

This question is what drives me to read, research and continue to write about nutrition and health. My husband and I started eating a vegan diet as a way to regain health. This early dietary change led to a healthy whole food plant-based diet, then to a vegan lifestyle not just diet. I sincerely hope that reading about what two not so young Americans do in their daily life will lead others to think about their lifestyle and changes that they can also make to improve their health as well.

As I have mentioned before all of our friends are omnivores. Dan and I are the lone vegans in our circle of friends which is probably because we have known most of our friends long before the cancer caused us to wake up and make some changes. When I think back now to the warning signs that we ignored I am sad that we didn’t make serious changes sooner. The warning signs were things like: elevated blood pressure, high cholesterol, weight gain, being easily winded doing little activity, difficulty waking up in the morning (requiring espresso to get moving in the morning), seasonal allergies requiring medication for months at a time, sinus infections, frequently catching colds, and just generally feeling lousy. Something tells me there are at least a few of you who can relate to this. ;-) Here is the crazy part of this journey. We changed our diet and lifestyle because of the cancer but all the other problems disappeared. If anyone had told me in my twenties that I would feel better when I was approaching 50 than I did then I would have thought they were insane. However I can honestly say that I feel better now than I have in at least 20 years and probably longer.

Now the only problem is how can I share this with other people in a way that will inspire them to try to make some changes too? This is the $64,000 question that I struggle with as I think about what to write. I very much want others to realize what a huge difference a healthy diet and exercise make in terms of overall health. About 8 years ago I read the book “How to Prevent and Treat Cancer with Natural Medicine”. At the time I thought the authors were crazy to suggest that we should be eating minimum of 10 produce servings per day to prevent caner. Now we eat closer to 20 servings with no difficulty. When you compare this to the average American diet which contains 3 servings and half of those are potatoes you can easily imagine why our collective health is so lousy in this country.

Now I have a question for you. What type of information do you think would get people’s attention? What can we share with them that may have them consider making some serious dietary and lifestyle changes? Was there one thing that caused you to make changes? Please share so that we can all learn from each other.

Happy Thoughts:

What a busy week I have had yet again. I never seem to get as much accomplished as I expect. However I have made progress and that is good thing. Here are my happy thoughts today:

• We had a wonderful dinner on Wednesday for our architect friend Phil (he is the one from Missouri), Walid and his wife Jackie. Life is too short not to spend time with friends. Ian had a nice fall vegetable ragout for us over haricot vert which we both enjoyed. I even joined Phil in an adult beverage while he and I waited for Dan, Walid and Jackie to arrive. See I do sometimes indulge, it just isn’t often. ;-)

• My girl Jackie came through for me on the glasses. That was a huge relief to have glasses again. While I was there she showed me some super cute frames that she liked and I had to agree with her they were fantastic. She was kind enough to bring the frames with her to the restaurant and fitted them for me after dinner. I can’t wait for them to come in next week. I am such a big kid. LOL

• While I was out shopping this week I found a bracelet that matches a pendant and earrings Dan bought me last year for Christmas. Score! This made me very happy. I love anything Italian and this is Venetian glass wrapped in silver. *happy dance* ;-)  Anything from Venice makes me happy since that is where we started our honeymoon.  Are you starting to notice how often Italy finds it way into my life?  It really is a magical place. 

• Studying has been going well and I feel good about being ready for my final nutrition exam. It will be very nice to have that behind me. I am looking forward to relaxing over the holidays.

• Today I had lunch with Dan and Tamera from his office. It is always nice to meet the people who he works with. Tamera and I are a similar age I believe. It was great that she is interested in healthy eating so it gave us something to talk about right away. You know where we went right? Dan had black bean soup and we shared the roasted hummus and veggie wrap that Ian makes for us. Yes we are spoiled, I know that. I wish all you had an Ian of your own. He is a life saver for us and we love him for it.

• Tomorrow we are spending the afternoon with Ian, his wife Carmen and kids. It will be nice to have time to chat with Ian while he isn’t distracted by what is happening around him at the restaurant. Ian is quite the perfectionist which means that he is always watching what is going on. That perfectionist streak is what makes him so good at what he does.

Signing out:

It is time for me to get back to studying and to get dinner started. I hope you have some fun things planned for your weekend. In addition to hanging out with Ian we will be sailing and working on the boat (to get her prepared for the winter), going to the farmers’ market, and just generally relaxing.  Enjoy your weekend whatever you are up to.  :-)

Talk with you again soon. Happy weekend everyone!

Sometimes Life Gets Completely Out of Control

My life has been a whirlwind lately. Every time I sit down to write a post something else comes up that requires immediate attention. With the holidays approaching I can only imagine what will come up next. *rolls eyes* Does your life ever spin out of control? Mine seems to be doing it a lot lately. However there has been some “fun stuff” in my life lately.

There have been as many days and evenings on the boat as we could manage. Here a few pictures from those times to give you a better feeling of the marina.

It is so relaxing at the boat I am sure you are starting to see why we go as often as we can.

Sunday we started the day the usual way at our local farmers’ market. Like always we can home with a small mountain of produce. Today’s haul included: Brussels sprouts, tatsoi, arugula, lacinato kale, delicata squash, mushrooms, bok choy, green onions, celery, and hummus (buffalo wing, mango curry, cinnamon raisin, and pizza). Like always we stopped to chat with our favorite farmers and catch up on what is going on with them. Feel better soon Pam, we missed you! Six reusable grocery bags full and it was time for us to head for home.

We were in a hurry to rush to the boat so we had a little reduced-fat peanut butter on whole grain toast and a salad. Odd I know but I really felt like I needed greens. The salad included: arugula, tomato, bell peppers and avocado. I added a little wine vinegar and no-salt seasoning for flavor.

After some work on the boat we had a simple meal of whole wheat pasta dressed with tomato sauce that was seasoned with dried criminis, fennel seeds, hot pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, garlic, red onion and no-salt seasoning. The pasta was finished with raw arugula (because arugula is in the cruciferous family meaning it is more nutritious raw or lightly cooked) and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast.

Dinner came from Jesse Wong’s in Hunt Valley because both Dan and I were missing the faux duck dish. We started with veggie sushi (asparagus, avocado and sweet potato).

Then we shared the green beans and shitake mushrooms in spicy sauce.

We also order the faux duck to nibble on expecting most of it to end up in Dan’s lunch on Monday since I haven’t been home to cook. With a few cups of broccoli added to the faux duck leftovers Dan had lunch today.

After dinner we stopped at Wegman’s for some staples (organic dried beans, organic raw nuts and organic whole wheat pasta). While we were there I picked up some organic cat food for the fur children to mix into their existing stash. My little ones like it when we mix a number of different cat foods together. No spoiled cats here. ;-)

While we were in the organic bulk section Dan spotted this bag of cashews flavored with pomegranate. Darn are these things good and only 6 grams of sugar. You know I will be figuring out how to make this myself right? They include a couple of ingredients that I would prefer him not to eat so I will make my own version.

A Women’s Journey – Baltimore:

This past weekend I attended the annual women’s health conference put on by Johns Hopkins called “A Women’s Journey”. There were many sessions to choose from but I ended up selecting: Probiotics, Inflammation and Antioxidants, 10 Ways to Reduce Your Cancer Risk, and Staying Healthy in a Toxic Environment. I learned a few things so I wanted to share those with you now before too much time passed.

In the Probiotic session I learned that there are over 1,000 species and 7,000 strains of bacteria in our guts. Wow! I knew there were a lot of them but that was far more than I expected. Additionally many of these cannot be cultured so that when they are killed by antibiotics you aren’t going to add them back to your gut with a supplement. When we are born our GI systems are sterile but the gut is quickly populated with good bacteria by mother’s milk. Your gut bacteria are affected by: your diet, when you take antibiotics, intestinal infections and colonoscopy preparations. The gut bacteria help your immune system develop. They also prevent harmful organism from adhering to your intestine.

In most cases probiotics are not necessary. However if you are taking an antibiotic the doctor recommended that you use a probiotic concurrently and take it for 30 days than stop. She also explained that she would only use probiotics that have been tested in clinical trials because they are the only ones that have been “tested”. The brands she recommended were: Align and Culturelle.

For those of you that are thinking just eat yogurt or kefir the doctor addressed that as well. Studies have shown that eating fermented milk products everyday for a week did not substantially change the gut flora. This is probably due to the fact that they contain one or two strains typically. The doctor started the lecture pointing out $35 million dollar class action lawsuit that Dannon settled due to false advertising. Can you tell she wasn’t pushing the consumption of yogurt?

Her take away message was that it was more important to eat a healthy diet (whole grains, fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans and little meat). These healthy foods are the prebiotics which feed the probiotics. Inulin and fructo-oligosaccahrides are prebiotics and are found in things like: wheat, onion, artichokes, bananas, garlic and onions.

The Inflammation and Antioxidant session was also an interesting session. The MD that taught this session specialized in geriatric medicine so his focus was on inflammation and aging. He explained that chronic disease, altered body composition (less muscle more fat) and free radicals typically go in the wrong direction when we age. When we are younger estrogen, testosterone and DHEA protect us. However as we age and those substances decline we develop more inflammation. The doctor also mentioned the shortening telomeres as one of the triggers for inflammation. I have mentioned this previously but it is worth repeating that as little as 10 minutes of moderate exercise stops your telomeres from shortening. The doctor further explained that things like CRP, IL-6, IGF-1, DHEA-8 and Cortisol all activate inflammation. Did you notice the IGF-1? You remember that I have mentioned that many times before right?  Here is a link so you can refresh your memory.

The doctor also mentioned a study that showed that people with the lowest levels of selenium had the greatest risk of death. Are you eating one or two Brazil nuts every day? I hope so!

About half of the lecture was spent talking about supplements and that at best case many of them do nothing and at the worst they are linked to earlier death from all causes! Yes I said death. This was shown for beta-carotene, vitamin A and E in 2007 study published in JAMA. In another study taking vitamin C and D taken after a breast cancer diagnosis was associated with less mortality (i.e. more death). In another study taking vitamin E was associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer. This wasn’t news to me but if it is to you please do a little research on your own to confirm it.

The doctor pointed out that we all need vitamins and phytochemicals but that we should get them from food. Where do they come from? Guess where….whole unprocessed plant food of course.

In terms of reducing your overall inflammation you may be wondering what you can do to impact that. The doctor recommended routine exercise every other day. Exercise itself causes inflammation which is necessary to build muscle. However on your rest day the inflammation turns off. This “planned” inflammation (exercise) will lower the chronic low level of inflammation that is damaging. Additionally the doctor also recommended a healthy diet (lots of whole plant based food) and regular use of baby aspirin once you have had that cleared by your doctor.

The third session was on the 10 ways to reduce your cancer risk. The doctor started by discussing the statistics regarding cancer. For those of you who don’t know it is now accepted half of all men and one third of all women will develop cancer during their lifetime. No that is not a misprint the statistics are actually that bad. The good news is the only 10-20% of cancer is genetic. We can control many of the other things that are associated with an increase in cancer.

The causes of cancer, in order of magnitude are:

1. Tobacco
2. Being overweight
3. Infections
4. Diet
5. Physical Inactivity (Exercise)
6. Medication
7. Family History
8. Reproductive factors
9. Alcohol consumption
10. Environment
11. Sun and radiation

The oncologist did point out that even losing a little weight makes a difference no matter when you do it. Also in terms of diet she mentioned reducing/avoiding charred meat due to the HCA (heterocyclic amines), reducing saturated fat, and eating more fruits and veg and less meat overall. There is definitely a pattern developing here.

She (the oncologist) also pointed out that while genetics may put you at a higher risk for cancer they don’t mean that you will get it. They only mean that you have a predisposition for it. However you can make healthy lifestyle choices and reduce to your risk.

One statistic that she pointed out (from the NCI) was that 50-75% of cancer deaths are related to personal behaviors and/or habits. That is a shockingly high number to me. While it is scary it should also give us all hope. If that make cancers are caused by our choices they can also be prevented by making different choices.

The take away from this lecture is that the following activities will reduce our cancer risk:

1. Stop using tobacco
2. Maintain a reasonable weight (all weight loss is good unless you are underweight)
3. Increase physical activity (even moderate exercise if beneficial)
4. Eat 5-9 fruits and vegetable per day (err on the high side)
5. Increase your intake of fiber and reduce your consumption of saturated fat
6. Limit your alcohol consumption
7. Limit your exposure to the sun
8. Get immunized (HPV and Hepatitis B)
9. Avoid risky behaviors (unprotected sex and intravenous drug use)
10. Treat precursor lesions (example Tamoxifen)

Once again the take home message was to make healthy lifestyle changes. You are starting to see the pattern right? ;-)

The final session was on staying healthy in an unhealthy environment. As I expected there was a lot of talk about chemical and the impact they have on our health. However I didn’t realize there would be such a focus on CAFO’s and commercially produced animal products. The PhD in Pharmacology who taught this session was part of the Pew Commission that studied the impact of industrial food production which he said is available on the web.

As someone who reads and watches everything about health and nutrition I was not surprised by much of the lecture. However there were a few statistics that I wanted to share with you because I thought they were so telling. First, 97% of all animal food comes from commercial mass produced operations. Yes that does mean only 3% of animal foods are probably fit for human consumption if someone in your family is eating meat. Also, 80% of all antibiotics used in the US go for livestock and 90%of those are not used to treat infections. I have read before that antibiotics are used in animal feeding operations to get them to grow faster. The problem with this is that these practices result in a dramatic increase in MRSA (serious antibiotic resistance). You may want to know that 325,000 people are hospitalized annually due to food borne illness and that on average 5,000 of them will die. Additionally food pathogens cause an average $14 billion in medical costs and lost wages per year. Poultry tainted with campylobacter caused 600,000 illness/year and 7,000 hospitalizations. Did you know that US farmers can’t sell farmed fish from the US in Europe because we don’t meet their standards? I gave up eating tilapia years ago after interviewing for the CFO position at an aquaculture farm and this was long before I went vegan in case you wondering. The take home message is that conventionally raised animal foods are not healthy for humans. According the doctor, “eat locally when possible and if you chose to eat animal protein make it pastured and sustainably raised.”

Did you happen to pick up the overall thread from the day? Every single session came back to lifestyle choices. All the doctors felt that the best thing you could do for yourself was to be aware of your habits so that you could make informed choices.

Overall the conference was good and it was nice to see so many women getting together to improve their health and the health of their families. Mary and I chatted during lunch and she came down for the second time from New Jersey for this conference. Many people were there for CEUs I am sure. However there were a lot of people there like me (and Mary) for their edification only. If you are local or close to local you should consider attending next year. If nothing else is a nice gathering of people (99% women) who are concerned about their health. I find the energy at this conference very uplifting.

Other Stuff:

Recently I attended a day and half conference put on by the Institute of Medicine on the topic of Cancer, Obesity and Physical Activity. It was a good conference but there was a lot of information that came out. I have 30 pages of notes to go through and summarize for you soon. There were some very interesting “tid-bits” that I picked up that even impressed the MD I was discussing it with last week. The conference was for medical doctors but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I know… I am not right. ;-) However as my friend Louis says often but I am harmless to others. Thanks for the good line Louis. Hugs!

In addition to the conferences I have been attending I have almost finished up my most recent nutrition certification. I am sure most of you are going, “huh, what is she talking about?” No you didn’t miss anything I hadn’t mentioned it until today. However I will be finished by early December and once I am I will tell you all about it. This is what prompted me to start thinking about a part-time career in nutrition/health. I have been busy working to finish up school and start a business. There will be a lot of fun stuff coming. I hope to have my website finished and my first newsletter out next month. Additionally I am also working on my first teleseminar which will be free. My goal is to be a resource for anyone that wants to improve their health of the health of their family. As I do here I am going to focus on providing a lot information for anyone who wants it.

I am also taking a 6-week “online seminar” led by Dr. Joel Fuhrman covering his book “Super Immunity”. For those of you who keep asking me to write a book I highly recommend this one. It is very similar to the book I would write. This post is getting long so I will review the book later in a separate post. However what I love about this book is that it focuses on what you can do to be healthier independent of weight loss. Great book!

Finally we have been busy preparing for an upcoming surgery at the end of the month. There has been a lot of preoperative appointments and testing to get ready for the big event. Even though I worked in hospitals for nearly 2 decades the idea of surgery is still scary. However the surgery will take place at Johns Hopkins and the surgeon is one of the best, if not the best, in the world at what he does. We couldn’t ask for more capable hands to be in. As you may have guessed this will keep me off line for a while but it is my intention to let you know before the surgery and ask you to send positive thoughts our way. Additionally I plan to let you know once everything is good. Please don’t expect a long post for either of those. I may end up putting on this Facebook only but I will try to get it up on the blog too.

Happy thoughts:

I know it has been a while so I will try to keep this short. However it is a wonderful problem to have that there is too much to mention. :-)

• While life has been crazy busy it has also been wonderful. Everything has been going very well and for that I am extremely grateful.

• I loved the conference at IOM and learned more about the impact of lifestyle and cancer. It is wonderful to have the time in my life to learn these things so that I can pass them on to all of you. If I can help just one person avoid cancer I will feel like a made a difference in the world.

• I am very grateful to live near one of the best hospitals in the country. Since Johns Hopkins is a few miles away I think most of the locals take it for granted. However when you have an uncommon problem to deal with you can’t ask for a better resource. Here is one very exciting piece of news. The surgeon actually commended us on our diet. Yes you read that right, the surgeon was onboard with our vegan diet and had no problem allowing food from home to be brought into the hospital. Love that! It makes me feel like the medical profession is beginning to move in a more holistic direction. Better late than never I say. :-)

• Both Dan and I are thankful to have our friend Louis. He has taken the day off and will be here for the big day. Louis you are best! Thank you so much for always being there. I hope you know how much you mean to both of us.

• We are also thankful for a great group of friends. Thank you to all of you that have offered to help out during this hectic time. We are very lucky to have you all be a part of our lives.

• I am also very thankful for all of you who have sent me email, texts or called to make sure that I am okay. I didn’t mean to worry anyone by not blogging. However it was wonderful hear from so many of you. You guys are the best! In all seriousness you really know how to make a girl feel appreciated. Thank you for your concern. I was very touched by the outpouring of concern.

• The boat is really starting to shape up. It definitely feels more like ours now. I have been busy personalizing it. Meanwhile Dan has been tracing waterlines and wires to get a better feel for the details. I am very fortunate to have such a brilliant, hard working and mechanical husband. I love you baby!

• It is fantastic to have school be coming to an end for now. It has been a long year. It didn’t help to have the new boat and now the surgery and school. However I have managed fine most of the time. Sorry that the blog suffered. But on the bright side that is mostly behind us now. Once school and surgery are over I will be back and soon in more than one place.

Signing Out:

Monday is another crazy day for me. I broke my glasses on Friday while we were at Hopkins. Thankfully I have prescription sunglasses but those will look a little silly inside so I need to get the ball rolling on a new pair today so I have them before surgery. It is always something isn’t it? On the bright side we get our glasses from Walid’s wife Jackie so I know she will do everything possible to them to me quickly.

In addition for studying for my final I also need to seriously clean the house in preparation for Thanksgiving. For those of you who haven’t been reading long I go overboard with Christmas decorations and it is a family tradition to turn on Christmas music after Thanksgiving dinner has been cleaned up. We begin decorating for Christmas late Thanksgiving night. This year it is more important that I pick up the pace so that everything is done before surgery.

As you can see the next two weeks are busy for me but I will do my best to talk with you again soon. For those you who are waiting for email responses I am very sorry about that. I hope to clean up my email in the next few weeks. Also I will get back to the fat series and book club blog as soon as I can. Life has gotten away from me lately as you can probably tell.

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday and a great week. Happy Monday everyone!

Fats 101: Part Two and Patrick Stewart

I was trying to sketch out a rough outline on what I was going to talk about regarding fats and I realized that this is a huge topic. Initially I thought I could cover it in one post, then a few. Now I am wondering how many it is going to take to do this topic justice. I am trying to keep this as simplistic as possible but still give enough details that it will make sense. Hopefully I am doing that. If not and you have any questions please let me know. Now let’s jump back in where we left off the other day.

Converting Linoleic and Linolenic Acids into EPA and DHA:

As we now know only to fatty acids are essential and those are both polyunsaturated fats specifically they are linoleic and linolenic acid. These fats are building blocks for other fats that our bodies can make. To convert linoleic acid into EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) your body needs to add carbon atoms (by elongation) and two double bonds (by desaturation). Additionally EPA is elongated and desaturated to become DHA. Both EPA and DHA are used for gene expression and epithelial function.

EFAs and Eicosanoids:

Essential fatty acids (EFA) are also converted into eicosanoids, which are a lipid-like substance. Eicosanoids are involved in the immune system. Prostaglandins are a specific type of eicosanoid that you may have heard of since they are necessary for healthy blood vessels and regulate blood pressure. Our bodies make both omega-3 and omega-6 eicosanoids. The omega-3 eicosanoids are anti-inflammatory and the omega-6 are inflammatory. There are many studies that suggest that the balance of omega-3 and 6 eicosanoids impact the diseases of affluence (heart disease, cancer, diabetes, etc.). If you want to read more about eicosanoids Dr. Barry Sears has written about them extensively and they are the basis for his Zone Diet.

Food Sources of EFAs:

Linoleic acid is abundant in the food supply. You can find it in nuts (walnuts), seeds, and oils like soybean, safflower and corn. However you know that I avoid oils and concentrate on getting my fats from whole foods like nuts and seeds which I will explain in more depth in this fat series.

Linolenic acid is also found in some oils including canola, soy and flax. However it is also in walnuts which most people enjoy.

What About Saturated and Other Unsaturated Fatty Acids?:

Saturated fats are not essential because our bodies can make as much as we need. There is no nutritional need to consume saturated fat. This includes not only animal saturated fats but plant saturated fats from things like coconut or palm oil.

Other than linoleic and linolenic unsaturated fats are not essential as the body can make it. There is some controversy regarding whether we are capable of converting enough linoleic and linolenic into EPA and DHA which I will address later in this series when we will look at some of the new science.

Monounsaturated Fats:

Monounsaturated fats (MUFAs) get their name because what makes them different from a saturated fat is that they have one double bond in the carbon chain. Basically saturated fat is a straight line chain of carbon that is fully saturated with hydrogen. However a MUFA is a chain of carbons that is mostly saturated. However, there is one (mono) double bond in the chain of carbon. In other words there are two fewer hydrogen atoms because of that double bond. The chemical characteristics of MUFAs are between saturated and a polyunsaturated fats. The best example of this is what happens to olive oil (mostly MUFA) when you refrigerate it and it gets thick and gloppy but canola oil (mostly PUFA) stays liquid.

MUFAs (monounsaturated fats) got a lot of press lately with the popularity of the Flat Belly Diet which has the impact of convincing women that they need to consume them. However it is important to remember that MUFAs are not essential fatty acids. The definition of an essential fatty acid is that we need to consume it because our bodies are not capable of making it. In other words if you follow the Flat Belly Diet you are supplementing your diet with MUFAs that your body is perfectly capable of making. This doesn’t make much sense to me. However if you are substituting MUFAs for SFAs that makes more sense. It would be a healthier choice just not the most healthy alternative. Does that make sense?

Fats in Foods:

Foods are always a combination of fatty acids. You hear people refer to olive oil as a “healthy monounsaturated fat” all the time but that is not the whole store (or even terribly accurate IMO). Olive oil like all fats is a combination of saturated (SFA), monounsaturated (MFA) and polyunsaturated (PFA) fatty acids. In fact olive is approximately 14% saturated fat, 78% monounsaturated fat and 8% polyunsaturated fat. From the information above we know that only two PUFAs are essential. But olive oil is most MFA so how is it good for us? Olive oil doesn’t really look like such a healthy choice now does it?

I am part Italian and always loved the flavor of a good peppery Tuscan olive oil so this news really crushed me. I have said many times it was easier for me to give up cheese than it was olive oil. However olive oil is not alone in its combination of fats all foods are like this. Even something like butter which we all think of as saturated fat is a combination of SFA, MUFA and PUFA. Fish is the same and is also a combination of fats it isn’t just omega-3’s as most people believe based on what they read in the mainstream media. Remember those omegas 3’s are in the PUFA category and provide EPA and DHA.

I am going to cut off the fat portion here so you have time to think about this and ask questions. My next fat post will build on the first two.

Sunday:

We started our morning at the farmers’ market like we always do. Rudy had asked if we could print something for him to hand out since his printer wasn’t working and we said yes and then we both forgot to take it with us. I keep telling you we aren’t morning people. You are starting to see that right?

Breakfast was a green smoothie for both of us. I have started to add vanilla extract to the smoothies and we both really like that. The green smoothies now contain: raw kale, frozen bananas, walnuts in Dan’s not mine, cinnamon, powdered ginger, ground flaxseeds, vanilla extract, water and ice. I sometimes add cardamom or nutmeg to mind depending on my mood. If you haven’t tried adding vanilla please do it changes the flavor more than you think.

Once we got home we hurried to get ready so we had time to drop the papers to him on our way to the boat. We got a nice thank you email from him on Monday. It is always nice when you can help people isn’t it?

We spent the day at the marina (surprise surprise) where Dan took many hours to go through a locker that was full of tools, spare parts and miscellaneous guy stuff and categorized it by type. The electrical stuff is together, that sort of thing. Good thing he knows this stuff because I am mechanically illiterate.

While Dan was organizing the guy stuff I was busy reorganizing lockers with my stuff in them. I also took time to write the last post and put a few comments on Facebook. If you aren’t following me there please do. I find that I update Facebook more than the blog because it is quicker for me to do.

Lunch was a simple soba noodle soup with veggies. I have been keeping dried mushrooms on board so that I can make simple dishes with a “meaty flavor”. Additionally I love that mushrooms boost the immune system. That simple fact alone is enough to get me to add them to every meal we eat. However I can’t say that I think Dan is going to put up with mushrooms in his green smoothie. LOL

By the time dinner rolled around I was not much in the mood to cook so I made a simple antipasto plate of curried mango hummus, carrot “chips”, tomato wedges, marinated mushrooms with garlic and thyme and artichokes with dill. Dan had his with whole grain toast.

Monday:

Monday was one of those days that was a flurry of activity. I have been so behind in everything in my life it was day to try to get caught up. Unfortunately when you get as behind as I am catching up takes a long time. At the rate I am going I may have things somewhat under control by Thanksgiving.

I took this picture in the morning on my way to the PO Box. It is starting to look a lot like fall here now.

When I got to the PO Box there was a nice surprise waiting for me. Dr. Greger sent me a copy of his newest CD along with a sweet note because I took some pictures for the CD. What a nice man he is!

Once I made it to the marina I found out that my little duck friend loved the whole grain Cheerios that I bought for her when I went for a cat kibble run. I had allowed us to run low on cat kibble so I bought a store brand and Mr. Binky was having none of that. Early in the morning he wrapped himself around my ankle as I walked by the bowl of offensive cat kibble to voice his displeasure. Are you starting to see what a little brat cat he is? Good thing we love him. *shakes head* Mr. Binky does think Newman’s Own cat kibble is an acceptable store brand for any of you with equally picky felines. It was good to have one crisis crossed off my list.

Dinner at the boat was a simple meal that I tossed together based on what I had on hand. I used whole wheat fettuccini, cauliflower, red onion, garlic, thinly cut green beans, artichokes, cashew queso and salsa. I know it sounds like an odd combination but it worked. ;-)

Tuesday:

It was another day of trying to get caught up at home. I am making slow but steady process on things though there is still a long way to go.

The weather was as gorgeous on Tuesday as it was on Monday so I had planned to spend the afternoon sitting in the cockpit writing this post. My precious little duck friend had other thoughts. She has learned that if she gets up on our finger pier that I feed her off the swim platform so that is her new trick. I know that Dan will not be happy if there is duck poop on our pier which is why I am encouraging her to stay in the water. However this also meant that four times I ended up feeding her in the span of a little over 2 ½ hours. Needless to say I didn’t get much done. Looks like not only cats but now ducks are telling me what to do. LOL

Patrick Stewart in DC:

I want to share as much of this as I can because the evening definitely exceeded our expectations. I knew as I was sitting there that I really needed to pay attention so that I could tell you all about it and actually took notes on my phone of different things he said because it was that thought provoking for me.

I am sorry that I don’t have a good picture to share. Seated in the row behind me was a dreadful and unhappy woman who wanted to appoint herself the picture Nazi. I was able to get one really bad shot with my cell phone but that was it. Let’s just say I am really happy this woman isn’t my neighbor or I would be in jail. ;-) Fortunately I was able to let this go and enjoy the evening.

I was able to find a picture of Patrick from earlier this year and he really doesn’t seem to be aging does he? He looked very agile and young last night too. I really want to know his secrets. LOL

Patrick Stewart is a fascinating man. I had no idea how funny he is but I spend most of the evening laughing and that is the sign of great evening if you ask me.

When he was asked how life has changed since he became Sir Patrick Stewart his response was “I get better tables in restaurants now”. It was so obvious that he doesn’t take himself very seriously which is very refreshing.

At one point he was asked if acting is difficult and his response was priceless. He said, “Acting is easy, life is hard.” Given some of the weeks and months I have had I agree with him.

I had not realized that he grew up in an abusive home. His father would abuse his mother on the weekends when he drank. As a result of that he is now a patron for a charity for abused women which I found commendable. Additionally he said that he started acting to escape reality and that he felt safer on stage than at home.

Talked about a small role he played with Rod Steiger years ago that he said he shares often with young actors because it made such an impression on him. They were shooting a scene in a car and they were finished with Mr. Steiger and told him he could break for lunch. He asked “What about Mr. Stewart?” and when they said they needed to a more shots with him and would use a double he lost it. Rod Steiger was enraged that this stage hand would “disrespect him and tell him he could leave the set while a fellow actor was still working on the same scene.” I thought this story said so much about Patrick Stewart’s character that he shared this often.

His favorite movie is “On the Waterfront” which I haven’t seen but after hearing his story I need to. Apparently Karl Malden was in it and Patrick loved his work in the movie. Patrick was invited to a dinner party in LA and begged the hostess to seat him next to Karl Malden which she did. He said he couldn’t stop asking questions about his portrayal in the movie. What he really wanted to know was what the motivation was when he lit a cigarette at a certain point in the film which Patrick thought was genius. According to Patrick Karl looked at him a bit confused and said, “I don’t’ know, I guess I just needed a smoke.” *LOL* He also said Karl Malden was extremely gracious as he probably wanted to enjoy dinner and I was bothering him all through dinner. He acted out what he was doing and it was a riot.

Last play before “The Next Generation” the director (or producer) wanted someone in the lead role that people had heard of. Patrick Steward said that made him go “ouch” since at that point he had been acting for 27 years. Can you imagine? He is so well known now it is hard to believe he was ever an unknown actor.

It was a fluke that he got the Picard role. He was doing a friend of his a favor. The friend was a drama teacher at University of California and asked him to read something on stage and one of the people behind Star Trek was in the audience. It took over 6 months to get from that to role.

Gene Roddenberry didn’t want Patrick to play Picard. But at the end the studio and many of the other people did and he got the role.

He talked about a screen test he did in a toupee and with a French accent that is in a vault somewhere. Wouldn’t we all like to see that? He said he sounded like Inspector Clouseau and then did a few lines from the opening of Star Trek in that accent and it was hysterical. I was laughing so hard tears were rolling down my cheeks.

When he was telling the story about the final audition there was another pearl of wisdom that he shared. He said that after every audition he does forgets about the role knowing that he did his best and now things were out of his hands. Wouldn’t we all be happier if we viewed things in life that way?

When the artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company asked why he returned to the stage once he was well known the answer was touching. He said that when he lived in Hollywood he had to stop reading the London papers because when he read the reviews of his contemporaries on stage he would get sad because he wasn’t with him. This is when he knew that he had to go back to the stage since it is what he loves.

There was a lot more than this but I don’t want to bore you with all the details. Suffice it to say it was a great evening and much better than either of us expected.

Dinner at Jaleo:

Fortunately for us the garage where you usually park when we go to Jaleo was just a few blocks from the Shakespeare Theatre so you know where we decided to go for dinner right?

We seem to be getting the same server every time lately. I really need to learn his name. We had the same guy who was talking to us when the earthquake hit the last time we were there.

We started with the veggie paella which we don’t get often but were in the mood for carbs.

Next we ordered our favorite dish the mushrooms with garlic, herbs and lemon. I really love this dish.

We also ordered the fennel and apple salad with walnuts but had them leave off the manchego cheese. When I make this at home I might add a few thinly sliced olives for salt which was left out by eliminating the cheese.

After these three dishes we were both starting to feel full but once I heard the sorbet was house-made and vegan (you have to be careful some places add egg white for some unknown reason) we ordered a serving to share. It had a very intense orange flavor and was only slightly sweet, I thought it was perfect.  I didn't ask but I am sure the cookie wasn't vegan so we didn't eat it.

The dessert menu got my wheels spinning on things to make a healthy vegan version of so I took a few pictures so I didn’t forget. I thought it might do the same for you which is why it is included here.

This is the tea menu. I had the apricot cinnamon tea and Dan had our usual blood orange.

Happy Thoughts:

Life has been pretty good lately so I will just try to hit the highlights here.

• Dan and I both are getting a lot of relaxing time in on the boat. It is very hard to be stressed when at the marina. Why did we go without a sailboat for so long? Oh well, live and learn right?

• It was great to be able to help Rudy out with the print outs he needed for the market. I also appreciated his nice thank you email. Who says there aren’t many nice people anymore?

• Dr. Greger just made my week with the CD and nice note. It is comforting to know that there are many more gracious people in the world other than just those people we know and love.

• Tuesday was fantastic. We both loved Patrick Stewart and dinner at Jaleo was terrific as always. This is shaping up to be a wonderful week already.


Signing out:

I am running a little bit behind and want to get this posted before Dan makes his way to the boat for dinner. Talk with you all again soon. Happy Wednesday!

David Sanborn Concert

As you know we headed for Annapolis Friday night for a David Sanborn concert. Fortunately this time we were on time, unlike the Euge Groove concert a month or so ago. We also had a friendly couple at our table which also made for a nice evening. My seat was literally 4 feet from where David Sanborn was playing. I had to change out my lens from the telephoto one to the lens that I use for close ups because we were that close. It was definitely nice to be in the front row. Now if only I paid that much attention to all the upcoming artists at Ram’s Head so that I could be online when the tickets were first issued that would be great. However I know myself and I am just not that organized. ;-)

Rams Head On Stage has changed the menu a little but we were still able to order vegan food. They now have a vegan black bean soup which was okay. It was served with white rice, which would never be my first choice but I understand why they did it since most Americans don’t eat brown rice. However it was very mild, too mild if you ask me. Again I am sure this was to cater to the American palate. The next time we go I will make sure to have some hot sauce in my purse. Yes I really will do that. Sorry for the lack of photos of the food the lights had been turned down by the time it arrived at the table.

We also ordered the veggie wrap, which is another new menu item. We asked them to replace the mozzarella cheese with hummus and the server wasn’t sure that they would but they did so all was well.

The concert was very good and David Sanborn still has it. I felt so bad for him though. He had a terrible cold and could barely speak but somehow managed to play for almost 2 hours. Talk about a professional. I think I was more impressed that he didn’t cancel the show than anything else. I would definitely go to see him again the next time he is in town. His music is just so sexy.

After the concert we had to run by the boat because I didn’t remember checking to make certain the boat was locked when I left the second time. I was rushing because I had misplaced my cell phone and ran back to the boat to look for it on board only to realize that I had I all along. Clearly the purse I was carrying, which had my camera, flash cards and extra lens in addition to all my girl paraphernalia, had way too many pockets. See what I mean about not being that organized? LOL

Fortunately I wasn’t the only one who forgot things last night. Dan had left some paperwork in his office that he planned to bring home. Since Dan’s office is close to the boat we stopped to grab that on the way up the road. I hadn’t seen Dan’s new office (they moved about 2 weeks ago) so I went in with him and snapped a few pictures of the view. He has a nice view from his new office due to the two floors to ceiling walls of windows. The city at night is very pretty from his office I thought.  I also included a picture he sent me by cell phone before the furning arrived so you could see it during the day. I imagine his plants will love the windows.  ;-)

Saturday:

The Baltimore marathon was Saturday and ran directly by our marina which closed down access for a lot of the morning. Good thing we had stuff to do at home otherwise that would have been a little annoying.

We arrived at the marina mid afternoon and brought a few things to eat with us of course. Hey it is us and you know we are never going to go without food right? ;-)

I had green smoothies at home and got them semi frozen in two French market glasses with lids and brought those for our lunch. Drinking green smoothies (kale and banana) does get a bit of attention and not necessary in a positive way. ;-) Our boat neighbor Rubin was having some white wine while we had green smoothies. Culture shock anyone? LOL

Our dinner Saturday night had two courses. The first course was a simple salad which included: lettuce, tomatoes, marinated mushrooms and cilantro. The best part was the salad dressing which I made in the Vitamix. I used the cauliflower at Jaleo for inspiration. The salad dressing will be detailed at the end of the post.

In addition to salad I also made a whole wheat pasta dish, heavy on the veg since that is where the nutrition is located. This dish included: red onion, garlic, sherry vinegar, carrot, cauliflower, hot crushed peppers, lemon pepper and fresh cilantro. I finished the dish with chopped walnuts and it was great. Fast and healthy food at home doesn’t have to be boring or bland.

Also I am also slowly figuring out the whole boat food thing which means that it is now much easier to make meals with a more limited pantry than I have a home. Since a few of you have mentioned that you either own sailboats or want to I thought I should share a few of the things that I keep on board to make it easier to prepare food without dragging half my kitchen with me every day. Goodness knows I bring enough stuff as it is so any time I can bring less I am very happy.

Things I keep in the boat pantry for simple meals:

• Whole wheat pasta
• Soba Noodles
• Quinoa (perfect since it cooks quickly not to mention I love that it is a complete protein)
• Short grain Italian rice (so I can whip together risotto if we have guests stop by)
• Small containers (pill bottles to be precise) of commonly used spices and herbs
• Spice mixes (I have been keeping a Mexican, Indian and Southern Italian mix on board)
• Nutritional Yeast
• Pepper grinder
• Chipotle peppers
• Hot sauce
• Sun-dried tomatoes
• Jars of canned tomatoes (good for everything if you are Italian LOL)
• Dried mushrooms (great for soup, pasta or risotto)
• Dried fruit (good snack food or for adding to peanut butter filled veggies)
• Nuts (great for salad, pasta or snacks)
• Dried beans
• Canned beans (for when I don’t have time to pressure cooked the dried ones)
• Jarred artichokes
• Jarred roasted red peppers
• Roasted seaweed (fantastic trace mineral packed snack but also good to add to Asian dishes as a garnish)

Items I stash in the boat refrigerator:

• Hummus
• Salsa
• Onions
• Garlic
• Carrots (to dip into hummus or for salad)
• Something in the cabbage family (kale, cabbage, bok choy etc.) for slaw or soup
• High fiber whole grain bread (Dan likes peanut butter sandwiches)
• Homemade reduced fat peanut butter
• Fresh herbs (varies depending on what I have on hand but cilantro and parsley are common)
• Salad dressing I made a home (varies depending on my mood)
• Apples (these are great with sweet hummus or on a peanut butter sandwich)
• Brazil Nuts (so we get our daily selenium)

Once I had a decent pantry on board I now only bring perishable with me to the boat as well as replacements for the pantry items as I use them up. With this pantry I have been able to make a wide variety of dishes. Even I have been surprised by what I can whip up when we are here.

Fats 101 Series:

I don’t have any reference books with me on the boat to double check my facts which is why I didn’t continue the fat series with this post. So that you know what to expect I plan to write more about fats at least once a week, possibly more often, until I cover everything. If you have any specific questions please be sure to let me know what they are.

Jaleo Inspired Dressing:
makes approximately 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients:

1/3 cup raw sesame seeds (substitute tahini if not using a high speed blender)
1 cup water
Approximately 4 deglet dates (or 2 medjool dates)
1 ½ tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 clove of garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
¼ teaspoon cumin seeds (substitute ground if not using a high speed blender)
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine everything in your high speed blender and process until smooth. Store in a sealed container in your refrigerator. This would be good as a dressing for any veggies (particularly cauliflower) though we used it as a salad dressing first. If you want it to me more like the cauliflower dish at Jaleo add some minced olives for salty pops of flavor. We both liked the sweet and savory combination of this dressing.

Happy Thoughts:

• We are making fabulous progress on the boat now. Things are definitely coming together. Both Dan and I love crossing items off of our mutual to-do lists. The boat now really feels like ours which is a lovely thing. :-)

• The concert on Friday was very nice. I have been a fan of David Sanborn for decades so it was nice to see him live. My only regret and it is minor is that he didn’t play Bang, Bang which is the song I think of first when I think of him probably because it got so much air time. I imagine for that same reason he is sick of playing it.

• I love having good internet speed on the boat. That really does make a world of difference in getting things accomplished online.

• Being able to relax on the boat most nights has done wonders for my attitude. I thought I was laid back before but I wasn’t compared to my attitude now. For some reason being on the water puts me at ease. I love watching the sunlight dance on the top of the water. Additionally I love my little duck friend who comes when she is called. If only my felines listened half that well. Not like that is likely to happen…ever.

Signing out:

It is time for me to get back to be business of relaxing. I can hear a mug of green tea calling me out to the cockpit. Talk with you again soon, hopefully tomorrow. Enjoy what is left of your weekend.