Raw Broccoli Soup with a hint of Cumin

To accompany dinner last night we had a raw broccoli soup that I flavored with a touch of cumin. I like raw broccoli recipes since they are more nutritious than cooked dishes. This soup was born from that notion. I added cumin since broccoli and cumin work so well together. When you are making raw soup with onion and garlic they can quickly overpower the flavors of any dish. Some onions and garlic have a more powerful taste than others. I always start with less than I think I need and add more if necessary. Here is what I did.

Raw Broccoli Soup with a hint of Cumin
Makes 3 servings

Ingredients:

1/8 – ¼ peeled raw yellow onion
1 small or ½ large clove garlic, peeled
½ cup walnuts
3 cups water
6 cups broccoli florets
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon wine vinegar (or substitute fresh lemon juice)
Lemon wedges, for garnish and finishing - optional
Flaked smoked sea salt, for garnish and finishing - optional

Directions:

Combine the smaller amount of onion, garlic, with walnut and water in your blender and process until smooth. Add the broccoli, salt, pepper, cumin and wine vinegar and process again, until completely smooth. Taste the soup to see if it needs more onion, garlic and seasoning and adjust as necessary. Blend the soup until it begins to warm slightly (about body temperature).

To serve garnish with a sprinkle of flaked smoked sea salt for color and texture and include a lemon wedge to squeeze over the top of the soup. Both of these are optional but I think they add to the dish.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 214.13
Calories From Fat (54%) - 114.59

Total Fat - 13.71g
Saturated Fat - 1.34g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 397.06mg
Potassium - 769.65mg
Total Carbohydrates - 18.51g
Fiber - 10.85g
Sugar - 4.95g
Protein - 11.91g

Comments:

This is another one of my quick and ridiculously nutritious dishes. I enjoy this quite a bit and could it eat it every week. My hubby is not a big fan of cool or cold soups other than gazpacho. He will eat this, but has to fuss about it a little. I always remind him of the healthfulness of this soup and that is usually enough to get it to disappear. Something tells me he enjoys fussing, not that I pretend to actually understand men (or man in this case).

Each serving of this soup is packed with nutrition and contains approximately 3,200IU of vitamin A, 175mg of vitamin C, 205mg of calcium, 230mcg of folate, 250mcg of vitamin K, 230mg of phosphorus, and 90mg of magnesium. Aren't these amazing nutritional stats for a small bowl of soup?

Unrelated note:

Last night we had another later dinner, which seems to be our normal. I am still experimenting with veggie loaf recipes so last night we had a quinoa and black bean loaf. My veggie loaves are definitely improving but the texture is not quite right yet. As soon as I perfect the proportions to get the appropriate texture I will post the recipe. We had the veggie loaf topped with sun-dried tomato marinara and served with a baby spinach, grape tomato, cilantro and macadamia and pine nut ricotta that I dressed with wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

Today I have more research to do and errands to run. I will be back later today with at least one more recipe, possibly more since I still have a backlog to post. I also need to replenish the refrigerator with more vegan cheese (for salads), sun dried tomato marinara (for raw pizza) and nut ricotta (also for raw pizza). If there is time I will be making seitan sausages for the freezer as well, flavor to be determined. It is definitely going to be a busy day at my house. I had better get my behind in gear or I will never get through my list.

I hope you all have a great day and I will talk to you later.

Raw Cookie Dough Truffles

My husband has the world’s most vicious sweet tooth. Giving up sugar and agave his been really difficult for my husband. When we met, decades ago, the man put 6 packets of sugar in a small coffee. When I say he has a wicked sweet tooth I am not exaggerating. Periodically I make him a little sweet treat because he loves them so much. These are things that we eat one or two at a time and only immediately after a meal to keep blood glucose levels down since cancer is a sugar feeder.

When I read a comment that Raw Sierra posted on Vivacious Vegan’s blog about raw cookie dough I knew I needed to make a version of the recipe only with stevia. Instead of adding chips to the dough I decided to turn them into truffles by coating them in melted chocolate. Here is what I did.

Raw Cookie Dough Truffles
Makes 20 small truffles

Ingredients:

2/3 cups oatmeal, dry
1 1/3 cups raw cashes
1 pinch salt
1 pinch cinnamon, or to taste
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon water, or as necessary to make a stiff dough
Stevia to taste (I used 3 single unit scoops or 3 grams)
Approximately 4 ounces dark chocolate

Directions:

Place the oatmeal in your blender and grind into a powder. Add the raw cashews to the oat flour and grind those as well. Empty this mixture into a large bowl and stir in the salt and cinnamon. Add the vanilla, and as much water as is necessary to make a stiff dough. Using a small disher that you fill to a level with dough and form each scoop into one or two balls. I made small balls and got two truffles from each scoop. Roll the dough in your hands to form balls. Place the balls on a sheet pan lined with parchment or silpat and freeze until solid.

Depending on your freezer the balls will take about an hour to freeze. When they are completely frozen melt the chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave. I do this on 30% power and stir periodically until it is almost liquid. It will continue to cook from the heat of the melted chocolate and you don’t want to overheat it so stop a little before it has completely melted.

Dip the frozen balls in the chocolate, allow the excess to drip off and return to the cold, lined pan and return it to the freezer. When the chocolate is hard the truffles can be placed in a freezer bag for storage.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 75.86
Calories From Fat (55%) - 42.03

Total Fat - 5g
Saturated Fat-  0.56g
Cholesterol - 0.28mg
Sodium - 15.85mg
Potassium - 82.01mg
Total Carbohydrates - 6.74g
Fiber - 0.77g
Sugar - 3.21g
Protein - 1.76g

Comments:

These taste surprisingly like cookie dough. Thank you Raw Sierra for the cookie dough recipe. I think this basic recipe can be flavored in many different ways to make different recipes. If you have a craving for cookie dough and just want a little something this really hits the spot. Be warned this may be one of those recipes that are too good to resist. I plan to hide them in the freezer so my hubby doesn’t eat them all in one sitting.

Unrelated note:

Time for me to get back to my research. I will try to be back later today with another post regarding our dinner tonight, but realistically that will probably happen tomorrow. Have a great evening in case I don’t get a chance to say that later tonight.

Broccoli and Onion Flax Crackers/Bread

Why should you make flax bread instead of eating whole wheat bread? This was a tough issue for me. I really love baking bread. I love the smell, the feel, and of course I love eating warm fresh bread. I suppose you could say I have always had a love affair with things made with flour. However, if you are concerned about cancer and trying to keep your blood glucose levels in check (since cancer is a sugar feeder), things made with flour need to be an occasional treat. Darn it!

The store bought varieties of bread can be much worse than homemade. Check the label of the bread you buy it may well contain high fructose corn syrup and/or carrageenan. We all know about high fructose corn syrup so I am only going to discuss the carrageenan. This is commonly used in baked goods, ice cream and soy milk and has been linked to both the promotion and spread of cancer. You will see this used in raw foods as well, it is also known as Irish moss. Dr. Weil recommended you reduce your consumption of carrageenan as far back as 2005. This is something that we have been avoiding. For these reasons commercial bread has been out at our house for a while. To satisfy our bread cravings I have starting making flax bread.

This is my favorite flax bread. I love that it uses raw broccoli, onions and garlic which keeps more of the nutrition intact. We use this in place of bread, crackers and pizza crust. It is simple and nutritious. I keep these on hand so that we can make a quick slice of raw pizza. They are also great with nut cheese or okara miso pate. Once you have them around you will find they are very versatile. Here is how I make them.

Broccoli and Onion Flax Crackers/Bread
Makes 1 tray in the Excalibur which I cut into 16 pieces

Ingredients:

4 cups broccoli florets
½ yellow onion, peeled
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 2/3 cups flax seeds, ground
1 cup water
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon oregano, dried
Freshly ground black pepper to taste (probably a ¼ teaspoon)
Kosher salt to sprinkle on top

Directions:

Place the broccoli in your food processor and pulse until has been obliterated. You don’t want many obvious pieces of broccoli, add the onion and do the same thing. Place the broccoli and garlic in a large mixing bowl and add the remaining ingredients through black pepper. Stir to thoroughly distribute everything. The mixture should be fairly cohesive.

Using your hands spread this on a teflex sheet. It will cover it corner to corner. I try to make certain the edges are reasonably square but this isn’t necessary. Place the “dough” in your dehydrator and “cook” at 105 degrees for four hours and then check it. If it isn’t too humid you should be able to flip the dough off the sheet (it will still be sticky on the back) and cut it into serving pieces. Return the crackers, sticky side up, to the dehydrator and “cook” until the top is dry (about an hour). I like mine a little undercooked so they are more like bread than crackers. But it you want yours more crisp the only change is to “cook” them longer.

I store mine in a covered container in the refrigerator. They seem to last a very long time, weeks in fact.

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

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 105.79
Calories From Fat (57%) - 60.24

Total Fat-  6.91g
Saturated Fat - 0.68g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 70.9mg
Potassium - 66.89mg
Total Carbohydrates - 8.16g
Fiber - 5.12g
Sugar - 0.17g
Protein - 3.94g

Comments:

This is something that I try to keep in the refrigerator at all times since we use it like bread or crackers. I like that it contains raw broccoli, onions and garlic. I also like knowing we are getting omega 3 fatty acids from the flax seeds. Inflammation is something that I feel is important to keep in check. If you like this recipe you may want to make two trays at once since this keeps for weeks in the refrigerator. We also eat this with our salad in place of crackers. It really is very versatile.

Unrelated Note:

I am going to run for now. I want to make my hubby some healthy raw cookie dough truffles which I am going to cover in melted dark chocolate. This recipe has been on my to-do list for too long so I want to cross this off. Assuming all goes well I will be back later today with the recipe. After that I need to get back to my research for a few hours this afternoon.

Where has that woman been?

Sorry I disappeared on you guys for a few days. Things are incredibly hectic at the moment but in a good way. Fingers crossed! However there is a lot of research to be done in a short period of time. I have been cooking a little but haven’t had time to document it let alone run nutrition numbers. I am hoping things will we back to normal sooner rather than later. You should know we have some things going on here that will result in my being mostly off line for about a week or so. But I will warn you before that happens.

Today has been busy again, but a little better than the last few days. I wanted to post dinner from last night, but as a method rather than a recipe. This is one of those things I make when I need a quick nutritious meal.

I water sauté onion and garlic and add a diced chipotle pepper, quartered crimini mushrooms, black beans and diced red bell pepper. Next add cumin, chili powder and cayenne to taste. I use this to top sweet potatoes that I cooked in the microwave. Next I topped the dish with fresh diced grape tomatoes, cilantro and squeeze of lime. I also added some avocado on the side to cool the heat from the chipotle and cayenne. If you need a quick meal this one can be ready in less than 10 minutes. Sometimes I need things that are no fuss like this. If you had tofu or cashew sour cream in the refrigerator that would also be great on top this.

Unrelated note:

My wheat grass seems to be doing well growing inside. There are many little shoots sprouting. It is too soon to call the project a success but I am definitely more hopeful than when I started. As soon as we have our first crop I will write a post on specifically how it is done and whether it is worth doing.

I need to get back to my research and also get my exercise in. But I hope to have more time this afternoon to make a proper dinner and post a recipe. That is my plan at the moment. Wish me luck. Cooking is something I find very therapeutic so I need a little kitchen time to help me get centered.

I hope you are all having a wonderful day. The skies are beautiful and blue here with hardly a cloud. I am going to try to spend a little time outside today. Talk to you again soon.

Cold Asparagus Soup with a hint of Dijon

Raw asparagus is something that Dan and I both like. It doesn’t hurt that is also known to inhibit cancer cell growth. In the spring we eat a lot of asparagus. Today we thought it would make a nice soup. As usual we used raw cashews to stand in for the cream. I added a little Dijon for a subtle background flavor. Morels were used for garnish because Dan loves morels, they are a spring fungus and they go well with asparagus. Here is what I did.

Cold Asparagus Soup with a hint of Dijon
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, finely minced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
¼ cup water
½ cup raw cashews
1 cup water, or what is necessary to process the soup
2 pounds asparagus
1 – 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard, to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
4 dried morel mushrooms, for garnish
Water to soften the morels
Salt or lemon zest for garnish - optional

Directions:

Sauté the onions and garlic in water until soft and water has mostly evaporated.

While the onions are softening remove the stringy ends from the asparagus and discard. Remove the tips and save for garnish. Cut the remaining asparagus stems thinly and place them in your blender. By cutting the asparagus thinly you should be able to avoid needing to sieve the soup. Add the cooked onions and garlic to the blender with the water, raw cashews and Dijon. Process until smooth. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper as necessary. Refrigerate the soup and asparagus tips until serving.

Meanwhile place the morels and a little water in a microwave safe bowl and heat until the water is beginning to simmer. The morels will be soft enough to slice thinly in about 30 minutes, but soaking them longer is also fine. These are used for garnish.

To plate the soup top with reserved asparagus spears, morel slices and finish with a little salt or lemon zest (if desired).

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 133.55
Calories From Fat (36%) - 48.61

Total Fat - 5.86g
Saturated Fat - 1.05g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 172.47mg
Potassium - 604.36mg
Total Carbohydrates - 16.75g
Fiber - 6.03g
Sugar - 6.28g
Protein - 8.04g

Comments:

This is a lovely light soup. Perfect for when the weather is beginning to turn warm are you are thinking of shorts and bathing suits. This soup has a very light flavor, but one that we enjoy. If you wanted to make something bolder I have made it with a touch of horseradish and that was also good, but very different. This soup is also nice with a dollop of tofu sour cream or silken tofu and tahini sauce.

Unrelated note:

When the weather turns warm my cooking tends to become lighter and more raw. In the middle of summer almost everything I make will be chilled. I don’t enjoy hot food very much in the summer time. This year I plan to try to live seasonally by minimizing our use of air conditioning and eating cool and cold food. We will see how long this lasts. I tend to be a bit of creature comfort seeker. But I am determined so we will see how long I make it.

This will be the last post tonight. Time to start winding down for the evening and get my tasks outlined for tomorrow. I will be back as soon as I have time to come up for air. Talk to you all again soon.

Spanish Flavored Barley Risotto with Mushroom

Dan and I tend to plan dinner together on the weekends. What this really means is that I am tired of planning what to have for dinner and am looking for suggestions. Plus Dan knows that what I make on Sunday will turn up in his lunch for a few days so he has a vested interest. In the morning after we have breakfast we start discussing the options for dinner. It usually starts with the fresh produce we have on hand and then we move on from there. We always make a big green salad, this is a given. Today’s salad was a simple one of baby spinach dressed with lemon juice, lemon zest, oregano, brined artichokes and red bell peppers. The salad was nothing too difficult so it escaped the camera.

Risotto is something that everyone loves so we opted for a healthy version made with barley. We had criminis in the refrigerator that I wanted to use so that is where this began. I decided to take it in a Spanish direction on a whim, but this turned out quite tasty. Even my parents asked for leftovers. So I would say this is omni approved and I added no oil to this dish. Here is what I did.

Spanish Flavored Barley Risotto with Mushroom
Serves 8

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, peeled and finely minced
3 large cloves of garlic, peeled and finely minced
¼ cup water to sauté aromatics (onion and garlic)
1 pound barley (dry)
Water necessary to soften barley (approx 8 cups)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon thyme, dried
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
14 ounces diced tomatoes
2 cups Crimini mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 lemon, zested and juiced
¼ cup fresh parsley, finely minced

Directions:

Water sauté the onion and garlic until soft and the water has been evaporated. Add the barley and cook it, stirring very often, until the barley begins to toast lightly (you will smell this before you see it, takes a minute or two at most). Begin by adding enough water to cover the barley by a ¼ inch. Stir it for a minute and reduce the heat and cook for five minutes during which time much of the water will be absorbed. Add more water to cover the barley by a ¼ inch, stir and cook for five minutes. Continue this for about 25 minutes. Then add the salt, thyme smoked paprika, tomatoes and mushrooms and check the barley for tenderness. You will probably need to cook the barley a total of 45 minutes but it doesn’t hurt to check it early. When the barley is almost finish reduce the heat to as low as it will go and cover the pan. It will absorb most of the liquid. Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, and parsley just before serving. Taste for seasoning before serving so you can add salt and pepper as necessary.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 225.28
Calories From Fat (3%) - 7.21

Total Fat - 0.86g
Saturated Fat - 0.18g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 252.93mg
Potassium - 414.5mg
Total Carbohydrates - 49.69g
Fiber - 10.17g
Sugar - 2.98g
Protein - 6.89g

Comments:

I have always been a huge fan of risotto. In the past I made my risotto from carnaroli rice. Arborio was always too soft for my taste. I guess you could say I was particular about my risotto. Changing over to barley was a big deal at our house (for me). I felt as though I was betraying some sacred Italian trust. But just as I gave up olive oil I have also given up white rice, even when it is carnaroli. This texture of barley made in the risotto style is similar to that made from rice. It isn’t the same, but it is close enough for us. If you like smoked paprika and lemon you will enjoy this dish. Those are the first two things I can taste in this dish. It is very filling and makes a nice entrée course that doesn’t require fat for flavor.

Unrelated note:

The day has gotten away from me and I still need to exercise. So I need to get that done soon so it doesn’t keep me up tonight. Tomorrow is another busy day with appointments most of the afternoon. After that I am going to run a couple of errands. The posts tomorrow may be sparse, or late.

I hope you all had a great weekend and I will chat with you again soon.

Dinner Out - First Day of Spring, Dinning Al Fresco and Sandals

Yesterday:

As planned we went out for dinner last night and let Ian do the cooking. The weather was gorgeous so we had dinner on the patio. With the heaters on patio we were able to stay out until 10pm and be perfectly comfortable. Not only was yesterday the first day or spring and the first dinner dining al fresco, but it was also the first day of wearing sandals.

Wearing sandals makes me a very happy girl and is a sure sign of spring at our house. I will be packing away my boots and most of my closed shoes on Monday. It is so nice to be wearing my sandals again. For those of you that don’t know I am sandal fanatic. I have at least 20 pair that I wear regularly throughout the season and add to my collection each year. Can you tell I love my sandals?

We had some of our usual suspects for dinner so I won’t bore you with the details again. But I did snap a picture of the dinner specials last night since they gave me inspiration for things to veganize so I thought they might do the same for some of you. Here they are:

I don’t want to frighten anyone but one of our favorite non-veggie options was on the special menu tonight. We could almost hear Ian (in his best Darth Vader voice) calling us to the dark side. We did not give in, but darn it we were tempted. He does make it tough to stay on the straight and narrow path. Having such a talented chef in the neighborhood makes life much more difficult when you are trying to eat healthy.

For our entrée we asked the kitchen to take the quinoa and veggie salad they were serving under the lamb chops and put it on top of a green salad for us. It was great, even though the chef thinks we don’t eat enough. Do you ever mix and match things on a menu in and non-veggie restaurant to make a meal you can eat? I find that most restaurants are more than happy to do this when the components are easy to swap in from other dishes.

As usual we had a wonderful time and spent far too long at the restaurant. When you have had 5 pots of green tea you know you were in a place a very long time. During the evening the Ian (the chef) sat down with us, as did Corey (the manager), Alan (one of the owners,) and Aimee (the sweetest “Pharmacist to be” you have ever met). I guess you can see why we feel right at home here. Somehow we spent over 5 hours at the restaurant. Alan was telling us that our “private stock” of good Brunello is still stashed away waiting for us. That too was incredibly tempting, but we managed to abstain. As you can see this was an evening of temptations but we made it through without giving in. This was a miracle I assure you.

My garden has started to return to life. The french tarragon has sprouted and is about 2 inches tall. The oregano has also sprouted. Oddly one of my parsley plants has little shoots sprouting forth. I can’t wait to see the dill, fennel and mint coming up. Spring is my favorite season. Somehow the renewal and return of life lifts my spirits every year.

Today:

Dan and I were just discussing what to have for dinner tonight. We seem to have settled on green salad with marinated veggies and lupini beans, with a cold asparagus soup and mushroom barley risotto. I doubt that I will get those all posted today so you can expect to see at least some of them tomorrow.

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. The weather here today is glorious again with sunny cloudless skies and temperatures expected to reach the 76 degrees Fahrenheit. I plan to take advantage of the weather since tomorrow we will be having thunderstorms. Talk to you all later.

Japonica Rice and Veggie Salad

This is another one of those quick, easy and healthy recipes that I have been making a lot lately. When the weather turns nice all I want to do is enjoy the fresh air. There is something about spring that just makes me happy. This is a simple rice salad made special by the beautiful mahogany colored rice. Here is what I did.

Japonica Rice and Veggie Salad
Serves 5

Ingredients:

1 cup black japonica rice
2 cups water
1 pinch kosher salt
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 teaspoon oregano
½ cup cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters
½ cup marinated mushrooms, cut into bite sized pieces
1 cup brined artichoke hearts, roughly chopped
1 cup chickpeas
1 cup cucumber, finely diced
5 servings vegan slicing cheese, cut into bite size chunks
10 cups baby spinach
salt and pepper, as necessary

Directions:

Cook the rice, water and salt according to the package directions. Add the lemon juice, zest and oregano to the rice as it is cooling so that it will absorb the flavors. Once the rice has cooled to room temperature add the remaining ingredients, except the spinach. Stir to combine. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as necessary. Serve the rice salad on a bed of spinach.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 363.21
Calories From Fat (15%) - 52.94

Total Fat - 6.33g
Saturated Fat - 1g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 349.73mg
Potassium - 1071.08mg
Total Carbohydrates - 71.26g
Fiber - 10.41g
Sugar - 4.24g
Protein - 11.7g

Comments:

I made variations of this all summer long. When the weather is beginning to warm I start to crave cold food. This salad has a lot of flavor from the marinated veggies. You can add any veggies you like, these are just the ones I had on hand but they all work. If you are going to add oil to the salad I suggest that you add it at the end when you are serving. This dish has so much flavor the oil is unnecessary, in my opinion.

Unrelated note:

My hubby has decided that we need to go out to dinner tonight to relax. I guess this is his way of saying I need to relax, although he is being more diplomatic about than I would be. So there won’t be a recipe from dinner tonight. I will try to remember to take my camera and get some shots of our meal this evening in case it inspires some recipes at your house.

I need to run and get a few things accomplished before our date. I hope all of you are having a good day too.

Mild Vegan White Slicing Cheese

The weather was gorgeous again yesterday. I didn’t realize how much I missed the warmth. It is by no means hot, but upper 60’s and low 70’s feels fabulous after the cold snowy winter we had. I just couldn’t seem to keep myself inside these last few days. The windows were open again yesterday and today and the felines were and are enjoying the fresh air. They are so cute sleeping in the windows in the sun.

Yesterday I was determined to actually plan dinner for a change. Let me tell you, reading books on health doesn’t help with that process. I get so caught up reading and then I don’t spend any time thinking about what we are going to have for dinner. Making dinner was much easier before I started sharing it with everyone. Now I feel a certain amount of internal pressure to make it something that is “blog worthy”. I know this is entirely self-induced and ridiculous but it is just the way it is. So once again at 7pm, I had no idea what I am making for dinner. Some things never change. ;-) Nothing like planning!

For some unknown reason I decided that I wanted to make some sliceable vegan cheese yesterday but wanted to make something different from the cheddar and mozzarella I have made previously. Since I didn’t know what I wanted to make I started with macadamia nuts and kept adding things to the blender until I liked the taste. I also decided to try a different method this time to see what impact that would have on the final product. In the interest of science I skipped the stove and used the microwave instead and cooked the agar for less time. Here is what I did.

Mild Vegan White Slicing Cheese
Makes 16 servings of approximately 2 ounces each

Ingredients:

½ cup macadamia nuts, raw
2 tablespoons sesame seeds (or tahini if you don't have a high powered blender)
1 ½ cups water
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder, or to taste
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard, or to taste
1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
5 teaspoons agar powder

Directions:

Combine everything but the agar in your blender and process until it is completely smooth. This happens in under a minute in the Vitamix. Taste for flavor and adjust before proceeding. Add the agar powder and process quickly to distribute it in the mixture. Allow the agar to stand undisturbed for 5 minutes before proceeding. After 5 minutes process again until it is completely combined. You will need to stop and stir the mixture as it will have begun to set, but it will still be soft.

Pour the mixture into a microwave safe bowl and heat on 60% powder stirring occasionally. You want the mixture to bubble for about a minute to activate the agar. According to Harold McGee in “On Food and Cooking” in order to make agar jelly you need to dissolve the agar in cold water and then bring it to a boil to fully dissolve it. The mixture will begin to jell when it cools to about 110 degrees (Fahrenheit).

Whisk the mixture before pouring it into a pan to set. I use a glass container. In the past I greased the dish but that doesn’t appear to be necessary as I didn’t grease it today and had no problems releasing the cheese. Allow the cheese to cool to room temperature (takes about an hour) before covering and refrigerating until needed. If you cover the hot cheese condensation will form on the top and make an unpleasant texture on the surface. I did that once. Be certain to let it cool before refrigerating. It will firm up considerably as it chills. Cut with a cheese knife or cheese slicer.

Also according to Harold McGee foods made with agar need to reach 185 degree Fahrenheit to melt. You may want to keep this in mind if you are trying to use this on top of pizza or pasta and want it to melt. I tend to use this type of cheese cold on salads.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 132.26
Calories From Fat (24%) - 32.05

Total Fat - 3.83g
Saturated Fat - 0.6g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 150.38mg
Potassium - 372.81mg
Total Carbohydrates - 26.14g
Fiber-  2.9g
Sugar - 1.13g
Protein - 2.48g

Comments:

I know you are wondering what this tastes like. It is similar to a mild white cheese, like mozzarella or provolone, but it isn’t exactly the same. If you have had dairy recently you will definitely know this isn’t dairy. However, it is good in or on food. It is a perfectly acceptable cheese substitute, in my opinion. I like that it approximates cheese both visually and texturally without the saturated fat with of the dairy original.

Unrelated Notes:

Heather had an interesting post yesterday that touched on blogger honesty. It was very thought provoking so you might want to check it out. I must say there are personal things about health that I don’t post on my blog. I suppose that I think that too many details about health and cancer don’t add to the conversation. When I started the blog I thought long and hard about its purpose. I considered gearing it to cancer patients and survivors but decided that may get too dark, if you know what I mean. I believe that a positive attitude is very important for everyone, but particularly those dealing with any type of health crisis. It is too easy to become defined by your disease. The doctors do this all the time referring to patients by their condition, “the appendectomy in 106B, the hip replacement in 227A”. That always felt so cold, clinical and wrong to me when I worked in healthcare. I think we are all more than the health issues we are trying to overcome.

Why am I mentioning all of this? In the interest of honesty I wanted to acknowledge that cancer is something that is always in the forefront of my mind. I do my best to plan our meals around what will nourish us so that we are in the best position to stay ahead of cancer. But we do not do everything right 100% of the time. We try, but everyone falls down sometimes. However the longer you eat a healthy diet the more it becomes a lifestyle and not something that you need to think about. The types of issues we have are eating too many grains or not making a fresh juice to go with dinner. No terrible problems, just less than ideal.  

If any of you are trying to clean up your diet and want suggestions on how to ease into it please feel free to ask. My hubby and I went from omni to vegan overnight. It was a shock to our taste buds initially and I found some ways to ease into healthy eating that made it easier for us.

Today is going to be a busy day at our house. I have a quick recipe to post from dinner last night. Beyond that I don’t know that I will have time to do much cooking and writing today. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  Talk to you again soon.

Food Update

Not much happening here today. Dan has gone to work and I have life administration to attend to. However I wanted to write a quick post and summarize breakfast and lunch for our new vegan reader.

This morning we had oatmeal with frozen mixed berries, ground flaxseeds and walnuts. This was accompanied by minced garlic (that I talked about here), fresh green juice and green drink powder. As I said, nothing special, just our normal breakfast. The oatmeal adds body, fiber and calories to the meal. The flaxseeds and walnuts provided healthy fat, the mixed berries provide ellagic acid. Garlic was included for its cancer fighting properties. Fresh juice adds a few additional servings of fruits and veggies and a lot of nutrition. Green drink was included because it is a daily ritual that seems to keep us healthy.

For lunch Dan took leftovers from dinner last night, baby spinach topped with garbanzo beans, trail mix with dry roasted edamame, walnuts and dried blueberries. I also had salad but with a small slice of raw pizza, which I pictured above (flax bread, topped with sun-dried tomato marinara and pine nut and macadamia cheese). One small piece of this pizza is enough because it is very rich from the cheese and flaxseeds in the bread.

I finally have wheat grass soaking so that we can starting growing our own wheat grass for juice. Reading so many stories about wheat grass mold I was slow to get started on this project. I will keep you all informed how this goes. I am not the best gardener so if I can do this anyone can. Well, only time will tell.

Tonight I hope to actually plan dinner, unlike yesterday. At the moment I don’t know what I making but will come up with something soon. I will be back later with a recipe. I hope you are having great weather and a wonderful day.

7pm and No Idea What to Have for Dinner

Okay so this actually happens much more often than it should. At 7pm I had no clue what I was going to make for dinner. Since dinner normally has some sort of grain I started some bulgur cooking while I decided what to serve with it. Then I remembered the walnut dressing that Laloofah recommended that was so good. I decided to make another version, this time with sriracha. Here is how I made the dressing/sauce, whatever you want to call it.

Spicy Walnut Sauce/Dressing
Makes approximtely 2 cups

Ingredients:

1 cup walnuts
1 cup water
1 large clove garlic, smashed and peeled
Sriracha to taste (I used about a tablespoon but I like heat)

Directions:

Combine in your blender and puree until smooth.  Keep this in a covered container in the refrigerator until needed.  It will thicken as it chills.

Nutritional Information (does not include the sriracha) given per tablespoon:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 29.6
Calories From Fat (83%) - 24.55

Total Fat - 2.94g
Saturated Fat - 0.28g
Cholesterol -0mg
Sodium - 37.31mg
Potassium - 20.4mg
Total Carbohydrates-  0.66g
Fiber - 0.3g
Sugar - 0.12g
Protein - 0.69g

Comments:

This is a nice sauce to use on cooked or raw veggies. It worked well tonight on steamed broccoli and bulgur. To be specific I used bulgur as the base and topped it with steamed broccoli and then a little of the walnut sauce. I added julienned carrot for some extra crunch and color. I finished the dish with a sprinkling of sesame seeds (black would have been prettier but I only had white). It was a quick, filling and nutritious meal. This dish is good, hot, warm, room temperature or cold. I prefer it at room temperature and Dan prefers it hot.

Unrelated notes:

Today was a gorgeous day with temperatures near 70. I have had ever window in the house open since early afternoon. With all the sunshine the ground is starting to dry out a little. The spring bulbs have peaked out from their long cold nap. The azaleas have buds and the red bud tree and dogwood should be blooming soon. All in all it has been a very good day. Tomorrow is a supposed to be a repeat weather wise. I may have to spend a little more time outside soaking up the rays, and getting a little exercise.

I hope you all have a good evening.

Quick Strawberry Soft Serve

Oh Vitamix how do I love you? Let me count the ways. Okay so that was a tad dramatic, but that machine is amazing. Who wouldn’t love a two minute fruit soft serve?

Today I wasn’t much in the mood for food. Salad wasn’t appealing to me, I didn’t want soup so ……. I decided to break out the Vitamix. This is something I make a lot in the summer since it cools me down instantly. It works with any frozen fruit. I like to use berries for their ellagic acid since they are linked to cancer cell death (apoptosis), and they taste good. I add cinnamon to assist the body in processing the natural sugar more efficiently. Orange extract was added for flavor and aroma. Here is what I did.

Quick Strawberry Soft Serve
Serves 1 as a meal

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen strawberries
1 cup soymilk, unsweetened
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon orange extract

Directions:

Put everything in your high powered blender and process until smooth. Serve immediately.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 241.76
Calories From Fat (17%) - 41.17

Total Fat - 4.6g
Saturated Fat - 0.52g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 130.11mg
Potassium - 734.94mg
Total Carbohydrates - 43.65g
Fiber - 8.41g
Sugar - 23.45g
Protein - 9.28g

Comments:

If you still use sweeteners you may need to add a little agave or stevia to this. In the past I had to add additional sweetener. Now that we have been off sweeteners for many months (sorry I lost track of how many) this tastes sweet enough to me. It tastes mostly of strawberries with a subtle hint of orange. You can leave out the orange extract but I think it adds a lot. Sometimes I make this with fresh mint in place of the orange extract.

Unrelated Note:

The weather is beautiful here today. The sky is blue and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. It is so nice to have temperatures in the upper 60’s. It is one of those days where you want to be outside as much as possible. On that note I am going to hit post and head back outside. I hope the weather where you are is lovely too. Talk to you all later.

Quick Stir Fry with Black Bean Sauce and Cashews

This post is about a method rather than a recipe. I received an email yesterday from a new vegan asking me what type of things we eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I thought I would make certain to include those details for a week to be helpful. Last night’s dinner was so fast and simple it wasn’t something that requires a recipe. I used the veggies I had on hand which included: onion, garlic, ginger, celery, carrot, snow peas, asparagus, red bell pepper, maitake mushrooms and cilantro.

Stir fry is something I make often because it is quick and easy, except for the brown rice. If you have a pressure cooker it can be used to make quick work of the brown rice. I find 16 – 17 minutes seems to be perfect for rice in my cooker on high. Otherwise you need 45 minutes for the brown rice.

I call this dish a stir fry but it isn’t really since I don’t use oil in the dish. I quickly sauté the veggies in water, rice wine vinegar or mirin until they are hot. The cooking process is finished in less than 5 minutes since I want the veggies to be as lightly cooked as possible. Start with the harder (or stronger) veggies like onions and carrot and add the more tender ones at the end. I stir a little black bean and garlic sauce into the veggies and maybe a little liquid aminos (if it needs it) and top with cashews. Dinner in 20 minutes (assuming you have a pressure cooker). If you don’t own a pressure cooker you can always cook a large batch of brown rice and store it in the refrigerator or freezer and reheat it in a steamer or your microwave.

My hubby took the leftover for lunch today with a baby spinach and chickpea salad like I had yesterday for breakfast. I also packed him a small bag of trail mix with walnuts, raw pumpkin seeds, dried blueberries and slivered almonds.

Unrelated note:

I need to run for now. However, I will be back later.  I hope you are all having a wonderful day.

Green Tea Linked to Increase in Oral Health

Is there anything green tea can’t do? I write so many posts about the various health benefits of green tea I may have to change the name of the blog. As many of you know I love my green tea. Both my hubby and I drink it all day long. I am sipping my second cup of the day as I write this.

According to this recent analysis of 25,000 people there is a reduction in tooth loss in those that drink green tea. Studies have indicated that the catechins in green tea inhibit the oral bacteria associated with periodontal disease. This is not very surprising since there was another recent study linking a reduction in oral cancer with green tea consumption

This is another study in a long line of studies that indicates that green tea may just be the healthiest beverage on earth. Given all the studies that link green tea consumption with a reduction in many forms of cancer it has become an important part of our lives.

Personal Notes:

As many of you know I adore my green tea. Pictured above is my beverage of choice, a double green tea with fresh sliced ginger, and vitamin C powder with dry roasted edamame. Both Dan and I have this at least three times a day. For those of you that are new readers I wanted to highlight a few things that I do in relation to green tea.

When choosing green tea the Japanese varieties contain more EGCG, we buy matcha. To get the maximum benefit from the tea it is important to brew it for 10 minutes and then consume it within two hours as the antioxidants deteriorate with time. Vitamin C powder is added to keep the EGCG available longer in the body so more of it can be absorbed. We add ginger for taste, antioxidants (gingerol) and for its anti-inflammatory properties. We consume dry roasted edamame with our green tea because soy and green tea have been shown to have a synergistic effect.

Is this a little bit of overkill? Maybe. But my theory is that if we can develop little habits like this we provide our bodies with things it needs to stay healthy or heal every few hours.

Pineapple and Cilantro Salad with Miso Dressing

We first had pineapple and miso at Café Atlántico in DC and it is flavor combination that I have loved ever since. It is wonderful used in salsa or as a salad like I had it today. I could eat this salad every day. This is a very simple recipe but one that is better than the sum of its parts, in my opinion. Here is what I did.

Pineapple and Cilantro Salad with Miso Dressing
Serves 1

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon white miso
2 teaspoons mirin
2 cups fresh pineapple chunks
¼ cup cilantro, roughly chopped

Directions:

Whisk the miso and mirin together until the miso has completely dissolved. Add the pineapple and cilantro and stir to combine. This is best served cold.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 85.28
Calories From Fat (3%) - 2.93

Total Fat - 0.39g
Saturated Fat - 0.05g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 111.76mg
Potassium - 239.99mg
Total Carbohydrates - 23.45g
Fiber - 2.49g
Sugar - 15.45g
Protein - 1.29g

Comments:

This is a fast salad that has great flavor. If you want to change this a little it is also good with diced cucumber, jicama, water chestnuts, orange and/or red onion added.

Unrelated Note:

Sorry for the short post. Today has been a little frenetic.

Breakfast of Champions – Salad!

This morning my hubby left the house at 7am. Since I am not a morning person (an understatement I assure you), I made him breakfast and then slowly woke up after he left. By the time I had breakfast at 9:30am I wasn’t in the mood for traditional morning food. Instead I made myself a nice salad. Here is what I had.

Spicy Garbanzo Bean and Veggie Salad
serves 1

Ingredient:

2 tablespoons tofu and pine nut mayo
Sriracha to taste (I used about a teaspoon but I like things very spicy start with less so you don't overdo)
2/3 cup garbanzo beans, cooked without salt
½ cup seedless cucumber, chopped
½ cup cherry tomatoes, chopped
4 cups baby spinach, roughly chopped
Approximately ¼ teaspoon dulse granules (for salty taste and iodine)

Directions:

Mix the mayo and sriracha. Add the garbanzo beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes and toss to coat everything evenly with the flavored mayo. Place on top of the baby spinach and sprinkle with a little dulse for iodine.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 293.38
Calories From Fat (25%) - 72.11

Total Fat - 8.61g
Saturated Fat-  0.78g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 218.45mg
Potassium - 1383.95mg
Total Carbohydrates - 42.03g
Fiber - 12.8g
Sugar - 10.36g
Protein - 16.83g

Comments:

I thought this made a nice breakfast, but you might prefer it for lunch or dinner. Sriracha gives this a nice bite that I particularly enjoy. The tofu and pine nut mayo worked really well here. With the sriracha, veggies and beans I couldn’t taste any tofu flavor.

This salad is packed with nutrition. It contains approximately 12,000IU of vitamin A, 50mg of vitamin C, 220mg of calcium, 7mg of iron, 450mcg of folate, 600mcg of vitamin K, 335mg of phosphorus, 190mg of magnesium, and 7.5mcg of selenium. I found it interesting that my breakfast contains as much fiber and magnesium as the average American consumes in a day. If you pack your meals with veggies and beans you can’t go wrong.

Unrelated note:

Today is going to be a little hectic here, in a good way I hope. I will definitely be back later with at least one post, and hopefully more.

I hope you all have a great day!

Magnesium May Decrease Colon Cancer for Men

According to this study published in the Journal of Nutrition consuming at least 327mg of magnesium reduces a man’s risk of colon cancer by 52% when compared to those men that consume less than 238mg. The same results were not observed in women. Interestingly the RDA for magnesium is between 400 and 420mg for men (310 – 320mg for women). It would be curious to know what impact reaching the RDA would have on colon cancer risk.  In animal studies a magnesium deficiency has been linked to bone tumors and lymphomas. The average American consumes approximately 200mg of magnesium per day, far less than the RDA.

For those of you that want to make certain you consume an adequate amount of magnesium here are good sources of magnesium:

Nuts (almonds, cashews, peanuts)
Beans (soy, lentil, black eyed peas, kidney, pinto)
Spinach
Oatmeal
Wheat Bran and Germ

For more specifics on how much magnesium foods contain check out this list from the NIH. If you consume alcohol you should know that it can cause a loss of magnesium.

From my perspective this is another study that shows the benefits of eating a healthy varied plant based diet.

Unrelated note:

Sorry I didn’t come back last night for a dinner post. Dan called me at 6pm and told me to be ready at 7:30pm for dinner. We had dinner with our architect friend Phil from Missouri who was back in town this week. It was a great evening as always, Ian cooked which always means yummy. I was so busy getting ready that I forgot to take my cell phone. Sorry, I didn’t get any pictures. But I did get some good ideas for things to veganize. Ian is always such a great inspiration!

This morning the sun is shining and I am anxious to get outside in the fresh air. I will be back later this morning with another recipe from the back log. I hope you are all having a wonderful morning.

Tofu and Pine Nut Mayonnaise - Version 1

This mayonnaise came about as a reader request. The goal was a no oil tofu mayonnaise that tasted like the popular vegan refrigerated mayonnaise we all love. Was I worried, darn straight I was! Even tought I had cracked the code on the full fat version I wasn’t too certain how easy a no oil version would be to make. My fears were well founded. I first tried an all tofu version last week that was a total no go. No matter what I tried it just wasn’t right, it always had an overpowering tofu flavor.

Last night I decided to try adding pine nuts for fat since they have such a mild flavor. That helped quite a bit. This mayonnaise still has a bit of tofu taste in the background. But it isn’t much at all. Especially considering it is less than 30 calories per tablespoon. I wanted to post this recipe now in case any of you devotees of Dr’s. McDougall, Fuhrman or Esselstyn are missing mayonnaise and wanted to give it a try. I will post the final version when I have finished tweaking the flavorings. That may take me a while since we don’t eat much mayo here. For now, here is the pretty darn good version of no oil mayonnaise with an update to come.

Tofu and Pine Nut Mayonnaise - Version 1
Makes approximately 23 tablespoons

Ingredients:

½ cup pine nuts, soaked at least 4 hours and drained well
7 ounces extra firm water packed tofu, drained well (1/2 block)
¼ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
¼ teaspoon agave
2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoon dry mustard
Water, as necessary to blend not much maybe a tablespoon
salt and white pepper, to tase

Directions:

Combine everything in your food processor or blender and process until smooth. You may need to add a little water to get everything smooth. I added about a tablespoon.  Add salt and white pepper to taste.  The flavor improves and blends as it sits in the refrigerator.

Store in an air tight container in the refrigerator. Should keep for a week.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 27.85
Calories From Fat (76%) - 21.04

Total Fat - 2.51g
Saturated Fat - 0.19g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 0.83mg
Potassium - 29.77mg
Total Carbohydrates - 0.61g
Fiber - 0.15g
Sugar - 0.16g
Protein - 1.26g

Comments:

The texture is similar but not exactly like mayo. However without all the oil you wouldn’t expect it to be as smooth. The flavor is close, but needs a little tweaking. I can taste a subtle tofu background. When it is combined with other foods, since mayo doesn’t get eaten alone, the flavor is fine.

Since I like flavored mayo I will be adding something to ours, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted garlic, wasabi, tapenade, sriracha or dijon. These are additions I have used in regular mayonnaise so I know they will work well here.

Unrelated note:

Can you believe this is my 800th post? I was shocked when I realized this. When I started the blog I had no idea how I would think of anything to write. Apparently that isn't a problem any more.  Thank you all for reading, for your comments and emails with well wishes and questions. They mean more to me than you know. :-)

I hope you having a fabulous nearly spring day where you are.  I am going to head outside to enjoy more sunshine.  Talk to you all later.

Lemony Pine Nut and Macadamia Ricotta

Today was a little hectic at my house, as expected. I almost didn’t get even one post written today. Then I remembered this recipe from last weekend. Everyone enjoyed this nut cheese, even my elderly parents. I can safely say this was omni approved if you are looking for something that you can make for both vegans and omnis. Here is what I did.

Lemony Pine Nut and Macadamia Ricotta
Makes approximately 28 tablespoons

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups pine nuts, soaked for at least 4 hours, drained well
2/3 cups macadamia nuts, soaked for at least 4 hours, drained well
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 clove garlic, smashed and peeled
2 tablespoons miso (I used white)
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
Salt and pepper to taste (preferably white pepper)

Directions:

Combine everything in your food processor or blender and process until smooth. Depending on your machine you may need to add a little water to help it process. The resulting nut cheese will be very thick and rich. I am a huge fan of lemon so this is definitely a lemony ricotta. If you aren’t a lemon lover you should start by making this with lemon juice only and see if you want to add the zest. The zest adds a lot of lemon flavor.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Nutritional information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 71.98
Calories From Fat (83%) - 59.74

Total Fat - 6.89g
Saturated Fat - 0.71g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 56.49mg
Potassium - 56.45mg
Total Carbohydrates - 1.88g
Fiber - 0.62g
Sugar - 0.51g
Protein - 1.3g

Comments:

Dan had this again today in his lunch. He used carrot sticks as a utensil. We like the thickness of this nut cheese and the tang from the lemon. It also worked really well last weekend when I decided to make Seitan parmesan. It would also be great on raw pizza which may happen tomorrow. ;-)

Unrelated Note:

Tomorrow should be a more typical day at our house. I hope to be back to blogging as I normally do. Fingers Crossed!

I am still behind on responding to email. Thank you so much for patience. With a little luck I will be able to respond to all the outstanding email tomorrow. One email that came today posed a great question that may turn into a post later this week. I am always blown away by the fantastic questions you ask. One of the best things about blogging is sharing ideas and I am fortunate to have so many intelligent readers that take nutrition very seriously. Your questions and comments make me better, I learn so much from all of you. Thank you so much!

Talk to you all tomorrow. I hope you had a great day today!

Kitchen Gadget Shopping March 13

As I mentioned last night we had a very productive day shopping yesterday. Let me set the stage for you. Dan and I met our friend Louis at the Lancaster Outlet malls. Our friend Louis is actually a professional shopper. Louis and I met when we worked at a hospital together where he was the director of pharmacy and materials management which meant that he purchased everything for the hospital. He is a fabulous shopper so we always have a great time on these excursions. When we go shopping with Louis there is always a contest to see who will win. Normally it is either me or Louis but yesterday Dan had the most stuff. To be fair his was entirely clothing and he needed to replenish his wardrobe. Yes I am making excuses, but I came in a close second so that had to be a reason. ;-)

We started at the kitchen gadget store. There is a large shop in Lancaster called “Reading China and Glass” that exclusively carries home goods. It is the size of a small chain grocery store so there is always something to find. Yesterday I hit the motherlode of stuff. Here are some of the more interesting things I picked up:

Tasting Spoons, because you never know when you want to make something decadent and just a little bite of it will be enough.

Jelly strainer for making almond milk and soymilk. I can’t take credit for this it was an idea that Bryanna came up with and it seemed so great I wanted to give it a try.

More sushi molds well, for sushi of course.

If you haven’t tried magnetic measuring spoons these things are great. I have another set and use them all the time.

When I saw this silicon egg poacher I started thinking of what I could make in it with tofu or okara. This is definitely something for area 51. Not exactly sure what yet, but I will figure it out.

My hubby loves candy so I picked up a two more candy molds. Now I need to come up with some recipes for healthy candy. The recipes will be the hardest part of this process.

Of all the kitchen gadgets this gyoza maker is one my husband couldn’t believe I didn’t have. I normally make them by hand but that takes a long time so I wanted to try the mold in the hope that it is faster. We will see.

I am very short 5’2 ½” to be exact. As I say to my hubby that half inch makes a difference when you are as short as I am. Because I am vertically challenged I also have small hands and this makes it difficult to open jars. I was very excited to find this jar opener. Dan told me his grandmother had something very similar decades ago that worked like a charm. If this works well you will all know about it. This may be my favorite gadget today.

The taco shells mold are pretty awesome as well. I love the idea of being able to bake taco shells. However I plan to dehydrate them so we will see if this works. It is another experiment for area 51 but one that I am really looking forward to. I can be such a food geek.  Nicco (aka Binky) was checking them out as well.

Finally there was a tart maker. I had never heard of this before. But when I was reading the back and it said you could use phyllo dough I knew I had to give this a try.

After a few hours of kitchen and clothes shopping we stopped at Ruby Tuesday and got salad bar since it is always possible to stay vegan there. I did notice that the salad bar didn’t get much traffic while we were there. However I did see many plates of greasy fried food and quesadillas coming out of the kitchen. I am going to guess that healthy eating isn’t at the top of the list for shoppers in Lancaster. Once we finished lunch we went back to shopping and both bought more clothes before we headed for home.

We met Louis for dinner at Jesse Wong’s and had our usual, veggie sushi and Faux duck Szechuan style washed down with a big pot of green tea.

Then it was off the Wegman’s for provisions and home. By the time the day was over we had been running around for 12 hours. Dan and I were both very tired.

Today we spent lounging around and putting away all the “stuff” we purchased. It always seems like more when you have to put it away. Thankfully I had made some space for the new items. It looks like now I should make just a little more space.

For dinner tonight we had white bean chili with homemade seitan chorizo. It was quite tasty, but is now another back log recipe to add to the queue. I am feeling as though I am never going to get caught up.

Tomorrow I have a few things to do. I may not have a chance to post anything until dinner time. Until then, I hope you all have a great Monday. If I can sneak a post in between now and then I will. Talk to you later.

Quick Update

I didn’t expect to be out shopping for 12 hours today. We left the house at 8:30am and didn’t get home until after 9:15pm. To be fair we did have lunch and dinner while we were out so it wasn’t all shopping. I am tired (too much shopping) but wanted to give you a quick update. My kitchen gadget collection is growing again. I will share some of the specifics tomorrow and next week. Good thing I have been purging! What goes through my mind?  But at the moment they all seemed like NEEDS not wants.  I sure you will understand when I tell you what I bought.

A few cute light weight sweaters (great for spring) marked down for the end of the season just happened to jump into my arms. Come on, how could I resist them for $7.35 each marked down for $40.00? This was a no brainer in my book. A cute trench coat and some long sleeved T's for exercising also happened to make it into the car.

My hubby came up with quite the haul from Nautica, Under Armour and the Polo outlets.  But he needed to replenish his wardrobe. Maybe I can convince him to break some of the new exercise wear in tomorrow morning.  Fingers crossed!

All in all we were shopping fools today. It looks a little like Christmas here. This may have been one of our “more productive” outlet shopping extravaganzas. But now I am exhausted. I will fill you in on the food, shenanigans and most importantly the fun kitchen gadgets very soon (hopefully tomorrow).   The kitchen gadgets are the best part.  I definitely did some damage in the gadget stores.

I hope you all had as much fun as we did today. Other than our being little drowned rats from the pouring rain, it was a great day. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tabouli Style Quinoa and Veggie Salad

As you may notice this is another recipe from last weekend. It feels so good to cross a few items off my to do list. I am one of those people that don’t like to be behind schedule. Needless to say I will be very happy when I have all my back log of recipes posted so that I am just trying to keep current.

This is quick healthy salad that we like to have on top of baby spinach or with falafel. It is a versatile salad that is great packed for lunch. If I am making this for lunch for the week I will often double this recipe. In the past I made this with olive oil, but as part of the no oil dietary change that doesn’t happen here any longer. If you still eat oil whisk the vinaigrette before adding it to the salad. Since we gave up oil a while ago I don’t miss it anymore. The salad is so flavorful on its own the oil isn’t necessary. Here is what I did.

Tabouli Style Quinoa and Veggie Salad
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 cups water
2 lemons, zested and juiced
1 clove garlic, smashed, peeled and finely minced
½ teaspoon coriander seed, toasted and ground
1 seedless cucumber, finely minced
½ cup grape tomatoes, finely minced
1 cup cilantro, finely minced
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine the quinoa and water in a covered pot and bring to boil then reduce to a simmer and cook until the water is absorbed (approximately 20 minutes). Allow to stand for an additional 10 minutes, with the pot still covered so the quinoa will continue to steam. Then fluff the quinoa with a fork and move to half sheet pan to cool.

Once the quinoa is cool add the remaining ingredients and toss to combine. Refrigerate for a few hours so the flavors will absorb into the quinoa. Taste for seasoning and adjust before serving.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 183.14
Calories From Fat (14%) - 25.58

Total Fat - 2.87g
Saturated Fat - 0.32g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 15.87mg
Potassium-  495.06mg
Total Carbohydrates - 33.74g
Fiber - 4.59g
Sugar - 1.91g
Protein - 7.08g

Comments:

This salad is quick, easy and stores well. I think it gets better while it sits overnight in the frig. It is also good stuffed into a pita with some hummus. This is one of my go to grain and veggie salads.

Unrelated note:

I have an experiment in the dehydrator now. I finally decided to try to attempt to make something similar to Mary’s crackers. The commercial version is baked but I wanted to try dehydrating them because of the flax seeds. I also used milled flaxseed (no whole ones) so that the omega 3 fatty acids can be absorbed. I have no idea how this first batch will turn out. Keep your fingers crossed that it goes well. As soon as I have a reasonable facsimile of the original I will share it with all of you.

I assume since you are reading my blog you are interested in eating for health. Here is a link I came across a few days ago by a scientist whose work I find interesting. I think some of you may want to check it out. It outlines very specifically what to consume to reduce your probability of cancer. Some of the food (fish and olive oil) I don’t agree with, but overall I think it is a good summary.

Tomorrow we are planning to do a little outlet shopping with our friend Louis. We haven’t been to Lancaster in a couple of years so that is the plan at the moment. We will most likely have dinner out before heading home. I am mentioning this so you know why I won’t be too chatty tomorrow. I will try to get at least one post in though.

For now I am off to return to “project purge” to make room for whatever we may buy tomorrow.  Very logical right? ;-)  I hope to be back later today with another recipe.