Nutrition DVDs from Dr. Greger – A review

For the last two days I have been watching these DVDs about recent studies regarding nutrition. I ordered these after one of you asked me if I had heard of Dr. Greger. Since I had not, I wanted to find out what I was missing and purchased the DVDs.

The doctor summarizes the relevant nutritional studies from the prior 12 months and presents them in a quiz show type of format. I have found the DVDs to be fascinating and thought a review was in order so you could decide if you want to purchase them as well. I will list my pros and cons in bullet order.

Positives:

• Information is presented in a format that makes it easy to absorb regardless of your current knowledge on the subject of nutrition (even my husband, the one that only wants nutrition cliff notes, found the DVDs to be both useful and interesting).

• The doctor does a nice job of summarizing the most recent studies and shows the cover page of those studies so that you can find the specific paper if you want more detail.

• DVD length appears to be based on the relevant science from that year. The 2009 DVD had 114 chapters while the 2008 was only 52 chapters. The first two DVDs were 90 minutes long the most recent was 3 hours in length.

• Content is not targeted to one disease; he covers heart disease, cancer, diabetes, fertility, dementia, etc.

• He also covers supplements, vitamins, specific foods, and nutritional deficiencies.

• The DVDs are packed with information. So much information in fact that I plan to watch them again this week to take notes and make certain that I didn’t miss anything. I also need to compile a list of articles I want to read in detail.

• Very reasonably priced and the purchase price goes to the Human Society.

Negatives:

• Those that like detail will feel that the information does go deep enough.

• I would have loved to get a list of the studies referenced by chapter to make them easier to find so that I can read the entire article.

Overall:

These DVDs were very well done. Much of the information they contain I have read before, but not in this format. Both my husband and I enjoyed the DVDs and found them to be useful. I am the information junkie in our house that reads this type of thing all the time. When my husband also found the DVDs interesting I knew they were well made. It isn’t easy to put something together that everyone will like, and I think the doctor has achieved that. If you are interested in nutrition, disease prevention, or vitamin supplementation these DVDs will contain something that you find interesting. I will be buying the future DVDs when they are available. They are a wonderful summary of the science from the prior 12 months.

If any of you have any specific questions about the DVDs please feel free to send me an email or comment here and I will be happy to respond.

Unrelated Note:

Regarding the almond milk yogurt experiment, the taste is quite nice. However, the texture is not like yogurt. I had hoped that it would get thicker in the refrigerator (like dairy yogurt), but it is still too thin. Since the flavor is good I think I can overcome the texture issue. I am going to work on that today. I have some ideas of how to correct the texture that will hopefully not change the taste. I will keep you all posted. With some luck the recipe will be ready to post tonight or tomorrow.

For now I am off to exercise. I will be back later today. I hope you are all having a great day. Where I am there is actually sun and little blue sky today. It may be a good day to get outside for some fresh air.

Green Tea and Soy

I have mentioned before that I have a small handful of roasted edamame when I drink my green tea. However, I had not given you the links to the articles that started this practice at our house. So I wanted to share those while I was thinking about it. Before you ask, this did occur to me as I was getting a mug of tea and a few edamame.

After reading that the very conservative Laboratory of Nutrition and Metabolism at Harvard wrote, “Our study suggests that soy phytochemicals plus green tea may be used as a potentially effective dietary regime for inhibiting progression of estrogen dependent breast cancer” I knew I needed to pay attention and put this into practice. Another study by the same group of scientists found a similar reduction of prostate cancer.  Here is the link to the abstract regarding breast cancer and the one regarding prostate cancer.  A more recent article by the same scientists studied the same combination of soy and green tea but looked at metabolic syndrome.  The article does a nice job of explaining why this combination may work, including a reduction in IGF-1 (a known tumor promoter).  That article is found here.

The bottom line of the studies is that preliminary animal testing suggestions that soy and green tea are more powerful nutritionally when consumed together. Since I read this we have been trying to have a handful of roasted edamame when I am having green tea. My husband and I don’t drink much soy milk or I may have tried adding that to the tea. Either way, it can’t hurt having a little soy with your tea.

Deconstructed Reuben Soup

Our trips to Café Atlántico in DC have taught me to think of food in unexpected ways. I love when they take familiar flavors and present them in very usual ways. This notion of deconstructed food inspired our dinner tonight.

When I ate meat my favorite hot sandwich was the Reuben. I loved everything about the sandwich, the crusty bread, salty sauerkraut, the gooey cheese. So how I am going to make this healthy you ask. Since I have all but eliminated oil and earth balance there is no point to include the bread. After much thought I remembered a sauerkraut soup that I saw in the October issue of Gourmet magazine. I used that recipe as a starting point and turned it into this soup.

Deconstructed Reuben Soup
makes 3 servings

Ingredients:
1 yellow onion, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced (allow to stand for 10 minutes so the allicin can develop)
2 stalks celery, diced
½ cup water
1 cup drained sauerkraut (5 ounces), rinsed
1/3 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for at least an hour, then drained
½ cup dry oatmeal, ground into flour
1 roasted red pepper
1 tablespoon tomato paste (to mimic Thousand Island dressing)
2 cups water, or as much as is necessary to get the texture you like
1 teaspoon coriander seed (to mimic corned beef flavor)
black pepper to taste
1 juniper berry (to mimic corned beef flavor)
Veggie bacon bits – for garnish (to stand in for corned beef)
Avocado - for garnish
Tomatoes, diced – for garnish
Sweet pickle relish – for garnish (to mimic Thousand Island dressing)

Directions:

Water sauté the onion, garlic and celery until the water is gone. Combine the onion, garlic, celery, sauerkraut, drained cashews, oatmeal, red pepper, tomato paste and water in your blender. Process until smooth. Pour the liquid into a saucepan and cook over low heat until it beings to thicken. If you have a Vitamix you can cook the soup in the blender, just process to hot.

Top the soup with veggie bacon bits, diced avocado, diced tomato and pickle relish. Serve hot. If desired you could serve this soup with crispy croutons on top to stand in for the bread.

Nutritional Information (doesn’t include the garnish ingredients):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 154.8
Calories From Fat (29%) - 44.69

Total Fat - 5.34g
Saturated Fat - 0.96g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 222.46mg
Potassium - 474.63mg
Total Carbohydrates - 24.34g
Fiber - 5.54g
Sugar - 4.53g
Protein - 5.34g

Comments:

This is one of my more unusual soup ideas. My husband is not a big fan of sauerkraut so I wasn’t certain what he would think of this. I intentionally kept the amount of sauerkraut low for my hubby, who actually liked this. He agreed that it is reminiscent of a Reuben but with much less fat. When I asked what he would do to make it more like a Reuben he had no idea other than to make a sandwich, which was or course not the point.

Overall we both thought this reminded us of the flavors of a Reuben in the form of soup. Obviously you will be able to tell it isn’t a Reuben but it does hit many of the flavors of the sandwich in a form you can enjoy more frequently since it is healthier. Next time I may make some crispy potato or tofu cubes for on top in place of bread. I may also now try to make a corned beef style tofu for this. I think there are a lot of ways this can be changed or expanded upon.

Each serving of this soup contains approximately 1,900IU of vitamin A, 7omg of vitamin C, 65mg of calcium, 150mg of phosphorus, 65mg of magnesium and 10mcg of selenium.

Unrelated note:

Tomorrow’s kitchen experiment is almond milk yogurt. I have no idea how this is going to work. But we will see. I hope to get the yogurt culturing early in the day so I may have a verdict on the results by dinner time. I will keep you posted.

I hope you are all having a great evening!

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Broccoli and Spinach Pesto

For Valentine’s Day my hubby wanted a pasta dish. Since I we don’t have pasta as often as we used to I obliged and made him a whole wheat pasta with healthy pesto. I used walnuts in place of pine nuts for the omega 3 fatty acids. I omitted the olive oil all together and used a little nutritional yeast to give the sauce a little cheesy umami in the background. Lemon was added to up the flavor in this low fat dish.

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Broccoli and Spinach Pesto

Serves 8

Ingredients:

1 pound whole wheat spaghetti, cooked until al dente
4 cups broccoli, lightly steamed
4 cups baby spinach, raw
1 lemon, zested and juiced
2 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
¼ cup walnuts
Water necessary to process
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine the broccoli, spinach, lemon zest and juice, garlic, nutritional yeast, and walnuts in your processor and process until smooth. Add as much water as is necessary to create a paste/sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Toss the hot pasta and pesto together until combined. If the pesto is too thick adds some of the pasta cooking water and continue to toss until the pesto loosens enough to evenly coat the pasta.

I served this with sun-dried tomato marinara and little sprinkle of my homemade vegan parmesan.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 253.69
Calories From Fat (12%) - 29.53

Total Fat - 3.47g
Saturated Fat - 0.42g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 36.34mg
Potassium - 401.4mg
Total Carbohydrates - 48.55g
Fiber - 3.04g
Sugar - 1.43g
Protein - 11.6g

Comments:

Most pesto recipes are loaded with fat from the olive oil, nuts and cheese. This pesto is crazy healthy compared to the traditional versions. If you use oil when cooking you may want to either increase the walnuts or add a little extra virgin olive oil. We found this to be great as it was.

Each serving of this pasta contained approximately 2,200IU of vitamin A, 50mg of vitamin C, 90mg of calcium, 120mg of folate, 135mcg of vitamin K, 210mg of phosphorus, 115mg of magnesium, and 44mcg of selenium. Not too bad for 2 ounce serving of pasta with a little pesto.

Unrelated Note:

I have a crazy dish planned for tonight. It is one of those things that could go either way. Hopefully it will be worth sharing. Even if it is bust I will let you know what I did since it may spark an idea for one of you. I will be back later tonight with the recipe.

Their highnesses the felines were all well behaved today for their grooming session. Since they have long hair they don’t enjoy being brushed. But today no one was ill tempered and tried to bite or scratch. Luck must have been with me today.

I came across this recipe this morning on the Vegetarian Times site.  Since I am going to try it I thought some of you may be interested so here is the link to a Dr. Fuhrman green smoothie.

Artichoke and Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce

Yesterday was a lazy and relaxing day for me. After I finished with my “must do” list I spent the rest of the day doing things I enjoy, specifically yoga and reading. It was a great “ all about me” day. I really need to do that a little more often.

Since I was so busy, doing nothing, I didn’t plan dinner. This is the sort of meal I make when I need something healthy that doesn’t take a lot of time. In the past I would have used olive oil and pancetta to sauté the veggies (but no more) and this would have been over pasta, and finished with parmesan cheese. My tastes have changed so much that I don’t miss the oil, pancetta or cheese at all. (Who am I?) I added the lemon to this to add fresh acidity to the dish for extra flavor since I have eliminated so many other flavorful components. Fresh parsley would have been great in this, but I am out.

This recipe works just as well with frozen or canned artichokes. I have even made it with marinated artichokes and that works surprisingly well and adds more acidity, which I love. If you need a quick dinner one night this is a good one. Here is what we had last night for dinner over brown rice.

Artichoke and Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce
Serves 2 hungry adults

Ingredients:

1 yellow or red onion, peeled and diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely diced (allow to stand 10 minutes before cooking so allicin can develop)
½ cup water
10 baby artichokes cleaned and quartered (or use frozen artichokes)
28 ounces fire roasted tomatoes, diced
1 tablespoon Chianti vinegar (or any wine vinegar)
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon dried thyme
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes
¼ teaspoon fennel seeds
Salt and pepper to taste
Lemon wedges – for serving
Brown rice or pasta to serve sauce over

Directions:

Water sauté the onion and garlic until tender. Add the artichokes, tomatoes, vinegar, and seasonings and simmer until the artichokes are tender.

Serve over rice or pasta with a lemon wedge on the side to squeeze over the dish for a little fresh acidic bite.

Nutritional Information (does not include the rice):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 240.39
Calories From Fat (7%) - 17.91

Total Fat - 2.14g
Saturated Fat - 0.41g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 619.26mg
Potassium - 1736.58mg
Total Carbohydrates - 52.67g
Fiber - 16.82g
Sugar - 4.08g
Protein  - 12.9g

Comments:

This is one of my go to sauces when I haven’t planned dinner. I like knowing that artichokes are very high in antioxidants. My hubby likes anything with a tomato based sauce, so we are both happy. Each serving of this sauce contains 2,800IU of vitamin A, 50mg of vitamin C, 210mg of calcium, 7mg of iron, 260mcg of folate, 260mg of phosphorus, and 140mg of magnesium. I also like that this dish is so high in potassium and fiber.

Unrelated Note:

Today my plan is to get one or two of my backlogged recipes posted and spend some time in the kitchen. I have a pound of white beans cooking now. I like to make beans ahead of time and keep them in the freezer in 1 cup containers to use like canned beans (which I gave up buying to try to reduce our overall BPA consumption). The white beans will be used for one of my “cream” soups without cream tonight.

Before Dan left for work today he saw the white beans soaking and immediately said, “Are you making white chili? I love your white chili.” (Big smile) Well, I wasn’t going to make white chili but it looks like I am now. He knows how to get his way doesn’t he? It must be nice to be king. ;) As he likes to say, “It is all about him.” Don’t tell him, but it really is all about him. I don’t want it to go to his head.

I will be back later with another recipe as soon as I get a few things accomplished at home. The feline royalty needs to be attended to now. Nothing like cat grooming to make my morning complete, and potentially bloody. Wish me luck.

Carrot, Celery, Apple, Lemon and Ginger Juice

Today I spent running errands and taking care of things before the next snow fall, which looks to be a non-event. Thankfully! Any time spring wants to get here is fine with me. I would like to see something other than snow.

Once I got finished which my “life administration” I spent the afternoon relaxing with green tea and reading. I had a very relaxing afternoon. I picked up a McDougall book since it was recommended by my new friend Laloofah. This M.D’s recommendations are very similar to Dr. Fuhrman. So far I am finding it interesting to read things from another perspective.

Later I started watching the nutrition DVDs from a different M.D., Michael Greger. I will let you all know what I think once I have finished the last DVD. So far, they are interesting but most if it is information I have seen before. But, like the McDougall book it is always good to hear things from another perspective so I am glad to have the DVDs to watch. These DVDs were recommended by a commenter sometime before Christmas, and I can’t find the post to say thank you properly. Please know that I appreciated the recommendation and have enjoyed the first two DVDs. I even got my hubby to watch part of one with me this evening. Much to my surprise he seemed to enjoy it.

We had a quick dinner with baby artichokes tonight which I will post later this week. After dinner we had a fruit and veggie juice that even my hubby liked. I did use my juicer so I can’t calculate the nutrition with certainty since there was leftover pulp. Therefore I will only be telling you the components.

For the juice tonight I used 4 carrots, 1 apple, 2 stalks celery, 1/8 of lemon, ½ inch fresh ginger. The juice had a complex flavor. We both liked the little bit of acid from the lemon and the zip from the ginger. Both Dan and I seem to prefer juice that has a number flavors. This is a good combination that we will be having again.

For those of you that thought the pulp would make good cookies I did save the pulp in the refrigerator for a cookie experiment tomorrow or Wednesday. Once Dan (my cookie monster) approves of the experiment I will post the details.

I need to take care of few things, have my green drink and turn in for the evening. Tomorrow should be a day with more posts since my calendar is not as full as today. I hope you are all having a great evening.

Mushroom Seitan Cutlets topped with Lemony Mushroom Gravy

Today wasn’t my best day in terms of planning. It started with me asking my husband what he wanted for dinner. Of course he said seitan cutlets. That is the answer I get quite often. He knew I would want to test seitan with quinoa so he knew what to expect today, much to his chagrin. He really likes the cutlets with breadcrumb but quinoa is healthier so I am trying to make that substitution work in the recipe. We decided that a mushroom cutlet would be good so I made some dried mushroom powder earlier today to flavor the cutlet without leaving bits in the finished product. Here is what I did.

Mushroom Seitan Cutlet with Quinoa

Makes 11 medium cutlets

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked quinoa
2 cups water
4 tablespoons mushroom powder (more would yield a stronger flavor which would work)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cups vital wheat gluten

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees convection (or 375 regular) and line a half sheet pan with parchment paper or spray it with oil.

In your blender combine the quinoa, water, mushroom powder, garlic powder, Worcestershire, and pepper and process until combined. Pour the resulting thick liquid into a bowl. Add the gluten a little at a time until it has all been absorbed. If you are make the seitan with bread crumb you will notice this texture is softer, more sticky and wet. I think this is due to the quinoa since it is so different from the bread crumb version. Just wet your hands before making the cutlets and you won’t have any problems.

Heat a lightly greased cast iron pan until hot and sear a few cutlets at a time on the top and bottom. Move the seared and crispy cutlets to the prepared half sheet pan. Continue until all the cutlets are seared and crispy on both sides.

Add ½ cup of water to the baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Then remove the pan from the oven and rotate the pan (in case your oven has a hot spot), add another ½ cup of water. Bake the cutlets for another 20 minutes. After the second half of baking all the water will have evaporated and the cutlets will be cooked through. The bottom of the cutlets may be a little wet from the water. To recrisp the bottom you can return the pan to the oven until it dries out, or sear the cutlets in the cast iron pan before serving (which is what I do).

If you have made the cutlets ahead of time (which I always do), recrisp them in the cast iron skillet and then add them to the simmering mushroom sauce below 5 minutes before you are ready to serve.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 206.16
Calories From Fat (10%) - 20.83

Total Fat - 2.32g
Saturated Fat - 0.28g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 251.45mg
Potassium - 251.04mg
Total Carbohydrates - 25.05g
Fiber - 2.54g
Sugar - 0.41g
Protein - 21.65g

Comments:

The seitan has a nice subtle mushroom flavor. I like that there is no wheat taste from the bread crumb. The texture is almost too soft. Any softer and these cutlets would definitely be too soft. This texture is most like veal that will cut with the side of a fork (depending on how crispy the exterior is). If you want something that is closer to beef in texture you may want to add a little more gluten (maybe a ¼ cup). My husband would like this to be a little chewier so I will be increasing the gluten just a little to get more chew in the next batch. I was surprised that the quinoa works so well to make a tender seitan. It is more difficult to work with when it is raw but I think the taste and nutrition is worth it. My parents, who came over for dinner, both liked the seitan and each ate a full serving. Since it passed the omnivore test it must have been at least fairly good.

Mushroom topping for cutlets
Makes enough for half the cutlets above – assumes 5 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup yellow onion, finely diced
½ cup water
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 cups Crimini mushrooms, cut into quarters or eighths
½ teaspoon sweet paprika
¼ teaspoon thyme
¼ teaspoon salt
Juice of 1 lemon
3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon cornstarch (dissolved in water above)

Directions:

Water sauté the onion until tender. Add the Worcestershire, Crimini mushrooms, paprika, thyme, salt and lemon juice and cook until the mushrooms have given up their liquid. Now dissolve the cornstarch in the water and add it to the pan and cook to create the sauce.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 33.08
Calories From Fat (2%)-  0.8

Total Fat-  0.09g
Saturated Fat - 0.02g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 154.75mg
Potassium - 223.76mg
Total Carbohydrates - 7.48g
Fiber - 0.88g
Sugar - 2.5g
Protein - 1.16g

Comments:

The mushroom sauce was a big hit tonight. Everyone really liked this. My parents even asked what was in the sauce and if I would show them how I made it. I am certain they plan to use it on meat, but at least it isn’t packed with fat, sugar and salt so it is still better from them on that count. If I had vermouth in the house I would have used that for half of the water in the sautéing process to add flavor. However, these mushrooms actually had more than enough flavor as they were.

Unrelated note:

I am going to call it a night and finish posting our Valentine’s Day recipes tomorrow so that I can spend time with my Valentine. I hope you are all having a nice holiday.

Mushroom Powder

Have you ever been in a gourmet market and seen the very expensive little containers of porcini powder and thought about buying them? Well I have and now I feel a bit silly for doing so. It is so easy to make your own mushroom powder you are going to wonder why you haven’t been doing this for years. Once I realized how easy it is to make I have been making it home. I use it to coat tofu, stir into mashed potatoes, use in cheeze. I also like to make porcini salt which is porcini powder and sea salt. The ideas are endless.

All you need are dried mushrooms (any variety) and some way to pulverize them. Most often I use my Vitamix because I can do it in one step. Add the dried mushrooms to the Vitamix and process until you have powder. It is that simple. However if you don’t have a Vitamix, you can start them in your food processor to make much smaller chunks and move those to your spice grinder (in my case a coffee grinder I have reserved for spices, seeds and mushroom powder). It works just as well, but I use my Vitamix so I only have one appliance to clean.

The mushroom powder is going to tonight’s seitan so I wanted to let you know how I make it. If you find a unique way to use it please let me know. I would love to hear about it.

Broccoli and Onion Flax Crackers Topped with Mixed Nut Cheeze with Onion and Tomato

When I was making the carrot, apple, celery and ginger crackers I decided to make a savory cracker at the same time. Since I have now made flax crackers a few times I measure things any longer. It just isn’t necessary. I took about a cup of broccoli and tossed it in the food processor and processed it until was fine bits. I moved that to a bowl and did the same thing with ½ an onion and added that to the bowl with the broccoli. Next I added ground flax seeds until it appeared to be about half the total mixture. I add a squirt of liquid aminos for saltiness and enough water to turn everything into dough. Now spread the mixture on a teflex sheet and dehydrate at 105 degrees until the mixture is firm and dry on the top. Flip the sheet onto a cutting board (top down since the bottom will still be sticky). Cut into cracker sized pieces and return to the dehydrator, this time on the mesh sheet. Dehydrate until they are the texture you like. We like ours with a little moisture left. Store the cooled crackers in an air-tight container in your frig.

Why should you make flax crackers? I make them because they are another opportunity to get anti-inflammatory omega 3 fatty acids into my hubby. Also by having the flax crackers around we don’t miss crackers made from flour (which increases blood sugar and is the last thing you want if you are concerned about cancer). These crackers also contain both raw broccoli and onion. Since the nutrition in broccoli is heat sensitive having another way to serve broccoli raw is fine with me.

To go with the broccoli and onion flax crackers I made another quick nut cheeze. I have been experimenting with different nuts to see if they all work equally well. So far I like them all. Here is the nut cheeze I made yesterday.

Mixed Nut Cheeze with Sun-Dried Tomato and Dried Onions

Makes 8 - 2 ounce servings

Ingredients:

1 cup walnuts
½ cup raw pumpkin seeds
½ cup raw cashews
Water to soak the nuts
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
Water necessary to process the cheeze (I used approximately ½ cup)
Salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
6 sun-dried tomatoes, finely diced
2 tablespoon dehydrated onions, finely diced

Directions:

Soak the nuts for at least three hours and then drain thoroughly. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and garlic. Process to combine all the ingredients. You may need to scrape the sides of the food processor bowl once or twice. Slowly add water while you continue to process the nut cheeze. Add as much water as is necessary to achieve the texture you like. Add salt and pepper to taste. Dice the sun-dried tomatoes and onions and stir them into the cheeze so they remain in identifiable bits. Refrigerate until needed.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 188.89
Calories From Fat (73%) - 138.28

Total Fat - 16.15g
Saturated Fat - 2.11g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 34.8mg
Potassium - 248.35mg
Total Carbohydrates - 7.7g
Fiber - 1.88g
Sugar - 1.83g
Protein - 5.78g

Comments:

The color of this cheeze is not as white as when I use all raw cashew or macadamia nut. But the taste is more complex. I like the flavors you get when you combine different nuts. My hubby has been eating this cheeze on the broccoli crackers all weekend. It makes a nice meal with a spinach salad.

Unrelated Notes:

Dinner tonight is not totally planned yet. But there will be a new version of seitan cutlet made with dried mushroom powder and quinoa in place of bread crumb. We will be having a light whole wheat pasta dish, soup and salad. At least that is the plan at the moment. I need to finalize the details and get going. There may also be a little chocolate for after dinner since my hubby is a big fan of anything chocolate.

I hope you are all having a nice Valentine’s Day. I will be back later with the recipes from tonight’s dinner.

Moroccan Vegetable and Chickpea Stew

When the weather is cold, like it is today we seem to crave soups and stews. My husband has always loved my Moroccan chickpea stew. Today I decided to make a version of that stew with added vegetables so that it would be a one dish meal with a salad. By adding a lot of veggies to the stew I have increased the nutrition. I added the vegetables at the end of cooking to minimize the nutrient loss. Here is the soup we had tonight for dinner.

Moroccan Vegetable and Chickpea Stew
Makes 8 large servings

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, peeled and finely diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled, smashed and finely diced
1 cup water
28 ounces peeled diced tomatoes, no salt added
3 cups no salt added vegetable stock or water
2 cinnamon sticks
1 ½ teaspoons cumin seeds
1 ½ teaspoons coriander seeds
1 ½ teaspoons fennel seeds
1 pinch saffron threads
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
½ cup golden raisins
1 preserved lemon, rinsed and finely diced
8 cups frozen mixed vegetables (corn, peas, carrots and green beans)
3 ½ cups chickpeas, cooked without salt (equivalent of 2 – 15 ounce cans)

Accompaniments:

Quinoa, millet, or couscous – optional

Directions:

Water sauté the onion and garlic until tender. Add the tomatoes, vegetable stock, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, fennel seeds, saffron, paprika, raisins and preserved lemon and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the vegetables and chickpeas 5 – 10 minutes before serving. You only need to heat up the veggies and chickpeas.

Serve over a starch if desired. We had quinoa tonight with our stew.

Nutritional information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 477.7
Calories From Fat (8%) - 39.52

Total Fat - 4.87g
Saturated Fat - 0.73g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 1103.25mg
Potassium - 1546.43mg
Total Carbohydrates - 98.61g
Fiber - 28.35g
Sugar 12.12g
Protein - 23.41g

Comments:

This was another one of my food experiments. I was not certain what we would think of vegetables in this stew, but both Dan and I liked how this turned out. It is a very filling stew packed with fiber. We had this tonight with a baby spinach salad dressed with a little lemon juice, lemon zest, oregano and flax seed oil. Much to my surprise even my 80 year old father liked both the salad and the stew. I don’t think he is ready to eat vegan for every meal, but he has come a long way in his appreciation of vegan food. My mother is another story entirely. She would be happy to never have vegan food again. Too bad that isn’t going to happen unless she opts to not come over for dinner on the weekends any more.

Unrelated Note:

I made an interesting flax cracker with broccoli and onion that I need to post for you all soon. Both Dan and I thought they were quite good so I want to share.

This will probably be my last post for tonight. Dan and I normally watch a movie on Saturday night. We are such an old married couple. I will be back tomorrow with a recipe or two. I hope you are all having a great weekend.

Flax Crackers with Carrot, Apple, Celery, Ginger and Oat

This is another post that is about a method rather than a recipe. You will understand as you read the post. In keeping with many of my recipes this is another one that uses the by-product from making something else that most people throw away. I have never liked the idea of tossing potentially nutritious things into the trash. Here is the story behind these crackers.

I had wanted a juicer for a few years but never bought one because I didn’t like the idea of throwing away the fiber filled pulp that remained after making juice. However when I saw a post on Jordan’s blog about flax crackers with green juice pulp I immediately ordered a juicer. I have been making flax bread since I picked up Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen with great success. I have come to realize that making flax bread and crackers is a very simple foolproof process. You don’t actually need a recipe for them to turn out great.

Thursday night I made us a juice of Carrot, Apple, Celery and Ginger that we both really liked. To make the juice I used 6 carrots, 1 apple, 2 stalks of celery and ½ inch of ginger. I decided to save the pulp in the refrigerator and use it in crackers that I made yesterday. To make the crackers I combined the dry pulp, I cup of ground golden flaxseeds, ¼ cup of dry old fashioned oatmeal (for texture) and enough water to make “dough”. I spread the flax mixture on two teflex sheets (about ¼ inch thick) and dehydrated for about 5 hours. Then I turned over the crackers and cut them into pieces and returned them to the mesh screen of the dehydrator for another 4 hours. Then dehydrate them until they are the texture you like.

I served these crackers today with a little walnut butter and apple slice. Even my hubby liked them, as much as he wanted to make some “funny” comment he couldn’t come up with one. All he could come up with was “they are really good, much better than I expected.” He did think they needed the nut butter and apple slice but he told me he will gladly eat them again. Success! I love that I have found another way to get flax into my hubby.

Unrelated Note:

Tonight I am making a Moroccan inspired vegetable soup. Somehow I don’t think my parents are quite ready for raw food yet. Healthy vegan food is about as far as I can take them for now. I will be back later with my soup recipe.

I hope you are all having a great day!  I am enjoying the fact that it isn't snowing.

Hummus with Ground Flax Seed

I would love to take credit for this idea but it isn’t mine. Yesterday I was chatting with Rose and she mentioned a hummus she made which included ground flax seeds so that she could get her hubby to eat more flax. I thought it was a brilliant idea and immediately asked if she was going to post the recipe. She was too busy so I offered to share the idea, giving her credit of course.

I used my standard fat-free hummus recipe but added 6 tablespoons of finely ground golden flax seeds to the mixture. The flax absorbed some of the liquid so I had to add more to the processor but other than that you couldn’t tell it was there. Adding ground flax is such a great idea I had to share it.

The addition of the flax seeds changes the nutritional information to (assumes the same large serving size):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 254.37
Calories From Fat (22%) - 54.86

Total Fat - 6.43g
Saturated Fat - 0.65g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 309.94mg
Potassium - 397.3mg
Total Carbohydrates - 38.65g
Fiber - 11.93g
Sugar - 6.28g
Protein - 12.7g

Comments:

If you are tired of adding flax seeds to your morning smoothie, oatmeal or salad this is another option. We couldn’t tell they were in there. This is definitely a technique I am going to remember when we get tired of having fruit smoothies with flax seeds for breakfast.

Lunch Today

This is the type of thing I have for lunch quite often. I don’t usually post it but in the spirit of the current challenge for Healthy Fast Food I thought I would share it just in case if gives anyone an idea to embellish or translate into something else.

I used the walnut and vegetable pate from yesterday and placed a tablespoon of that in a romaine leaf. I topped the pate or cheeze (what you prefer to call it) with fresh diced cucumbers, grape tomatoes and a few olive slices. To accompany the lettuce wraps I made a quick Mediterranean garbanzo and vegetable salad. I combined garbanzo beans, lemon zest, lemon juice, cucumber, tomatoes, grated carrot, diced onion and oregano. Since I only had to dice veggies and combine ingredients I had lunch on the table in less than 10 minutes.

This meal was more than enough for me for lunch. The hubby had the last piece of tofu lasagna to up his calories. The water content in the veggies made this a very refreshing meal. Walnuts provided healthy fat and garbanzos added a good amount of fiber and protein. This was a quick and healthy lunch.

Walnut and Vegetable Pate

I have been experimenting with a lot of nut cheezes recently. Today I decided to see what I could do with walnuts. I had originally intended to use this as salad dressing but then changed my mind and used the sprouted quinoa salad instead. After tasting this spread I knew it would be great with raw veggie dippers. It would also work well in place on mayonnaise on a sandwich. Here is what I made tonight.

Walnut and Vegetable Pate

Makes 16 servings – approximately ¼ cup each

Ingredients:

2 cups walnut pieces
4 cups filtered water to soak walnuts
2 stalks celery, cut into chunks
1 carrot, cut into chunks
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into chunks
1 clove garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons onion, peeled and chopped (start with 1 T if you aren't a fan of raw onion)
4 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped fine to help the food processor
1 pinch salt, or to taste
1 pinch freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
1 pinch celery seed, or to taste
1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste

Directions:

Soak the walnuts for a few hours and drain thoroughly. Place everything in your food processor and process until smooth. Serve cold.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 103.77
Calories From Fat (78%) - 80.43

Total Fat - 9.61g
Saturated Fat-  0.91g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 38.33mg
Potassium - 135.66mg
Total Carbohydrates - 3.71g
Fiber - 1.51g
Sugar - 1.35g
Protein - 2.51g

Comments:

This worked well with vegetable dippers but would also be a good salad dressing or sandwich spread. If you aren’t crazy about raw onion you may want to start with one tablespoon and go up from there. I happen to like onion, but not everyone does. This spread gets very smooth if you process it long enough. The texture is similar to whipped cream cheese. The color is close to salmon mousse. Next time I may season this will Old Bay and add dulse flakes to play with the salmon color.

Each serving of this salad contains approximately 1,150IU of vitamin A, 20mg of calcium, 20mcg of folate, 60mg of phosphorus and 30mg of magnesium. You can see how this would make a fairly nutritious sandwich spread in place of mayo that doesn’t contain any of those nutrients.

Unrelated note:

This is going to be my last post tonight. I hope you aren’t snowed in like us.  Have a great evening everyone.

Sprouted Quinoa with Apple, Celery and Miso Dressing

Once again we are being pummeled with more than another foot of snow. I used to love snow, since we hardly ever get any. However, now I can say I have seen enough snow to last me a few winters.

So what do I make when we are under a blizzard warning? Well raw food of course. Not logical you say. I know but I was in the mood for an easy meal so I went raw tonight for dinner. We had the last two raw veggie burgers, this quinoa salad and a walnut and vegetable pate (to be posted next).

I was reading “Everyday Raw” yesterday and noticed a sprouted quinoa tabouli. The idea of sprouted quinoa intrigued me so I wanted to give it a try. Quinoa does get softer when it is sprouted. It isn’t as soft as cooked quinoa but it is soft enough. It doesn’t absorb the dressing flavors like cooked grains but I am okay with that too. Here is the salad I made tonight.

Sprouted Quinoa with Apple, Celery and Miso Dressing
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa
4 cups filtered water to soak quinoa
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon agave
2 tablespoons white miso
1 gala apple, cored and very thinly sliced
3 stalks celery, thinly sliced on a diagonal

Directions:

Soak the quinoa for 8 to 12 hours in filtered water. Drain the quinoa through a fine wire sieve and allow to stand for a total of 24 hours (including soaking time) and rinse twice more and drain well.

Combine the salad dressing ingredients (vinegar, agave and miso) and whisk to combine. Add the drained quinoa, sliced apple and celery and toss to combine.

Serve the quinoa salad over the baby spinach. If you choose, walnuts would be a great addition to this salad.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 214.99
Calories From Fat (14%) - 30.58

Total Fat - 3.45g
Saturated Fat - 0.46g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 398.06mg
Potassium - 726.17mg
Total Carbohydrates - 38.37g
Fiber - 6.47g
Sugar - 5.14g
Protein - 9.07g

Comments:

This was definitely an experiment tonight. I had no idea what to expect since I had not tried to sprout quinoa before. It worked out better than I expected. The texture is not the same as cooked quinoa but more like wild rice that hasn’t bloomed. When I asked my husband what the thought of this he told me, “It is oddly good”. Of course I had to ask what that meant. He replied, “I like it, but I can’t admit it because it is weird.” Men, do any of you understand them?

Each serving of this salad contains approximately 5,800IU of vitamin A, 120mg of calcium, 210mg of folate, 300mcg of vitamin K, 250mg of phosphorus, and 140mg of magnesium. Not too shabby for a side salad.

Unrelated note:

We have been under a blizzard warning since 10pm yesterday and I am starting to get cabin fever. Today it was balmy 22 degrees with a wind chill of 5 degrees. Darn that ground hog.

I should be back in a little while with another recipe from tonight. I hope you are all having a good evening.

Raw Garden Burgers

Yesterday was a very busy day at our house. We had an appointment that we needed to keep so we had to brave the elements and get one of our vehicles out. Once we got out of the neighborhood the roads were in great shape. Since the weather service is calling for another foot of snow overnight tonight we stopped at Costco while we were out. Much to our surprise Costco is now selling organic milled flax seeds, a 2 pound bag for $7.99. I usually buy our flax seeds whole but I grabbed a bag any way. I like to buy these things when Costco has them so they continue to offer similar healthy products. It will be a pain to keep the big open bag in the freezer. But as much as I am using flaxseeds these days the bag won’t be full for long.

When we got home from running errands I mentioned tofu lasagna, and the hubby responding with a quick, “that sounds really good.” So last night we had tofu lasagna, salad and leftover braciole for dinner. A couple of quick notes on last night's dinner. I used brown rice flour in the lasagna in place of whole wheat and the substitution worked great. I have made a note on the original recipe. Also, I seared the cut slices of braciole in my cast iron skillet so they had a little crust on the outside. The hubby really liked the exterior crunch and thought it was a great addition to the dish.

For dinner tonight I had no idea what I wanted to make but since we have all those ground flaxseeds I thought why not use them in dinner tonight. I thought a raw veggie burger would be good with a big salad for dinner. This burger is a combination of a few different burger recipes from Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen. For those of you that are interested in raw food but haven’t really tried it yet her book makes raw food very accessible. I have only made a few things from it so far but I am already feeling much more comfortable making raw food after reading her book.

Raw Garden Burgers
Makes 4 burgers

Ingredients:

1 cup dried ground almond pulp, from making almond milk (or raw almonds ground in your food processor until fine)
½ cup golden flaxseeds, ground
2 carrots, grated
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
1/3 yellow onion, peeled and grated
1 cup water
2 teaspoons dulse granules, or to taste (I use this to cut down on our salt consumption)
1 teaspoon oregano, dried
¼ cup raw sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, lemon juice or red wine vinegar (I used wine vinegar)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and finely minced
Black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Combine everything and mix until completely combined. Taste for seasonings and adjust accordingly.

Form into four patties and dehydrate for 3 hours at 105 degrees. After 3 hours they should be firm enough to flip over and “cook” for another hour to dry out the other side.

I served these with avocado and salsa tonight but sun-dried tomato marinara of a little nut cheeze would also be good on top.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 415.95
Calories From Fat (64%) - 266.1

Total Fat-  31.45g
Saturated Fat - 2.74g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 57.87mg
Potassium - 602.14mg
Total Carbohydrates - 25.39g
Fiber - 13.31g
Sugar - 5.6g
Protein - 14.1g

Comments:

This is a big burger, just under 8 ounces before it is dehydrated. It is very filling either due to its size or the fat content, I don’t know which. We had it tonight with salsa and avocadao on top and a big green salad. It was great dinner packed with nutrition. Each burger contains approximately 7,900IU of vitamin A, 50mg of vitamin C, 125mg of calcium, 10IU of vitamin E, 60mcg of folate, 300mg of phosphorus, and 120mg of magnesium. Pretty amazing nutrition for a burger I thought. Can you imagine a comparison of this to a beef burger?

Raw burgers have a texture that is very different from other veggie burgers. When I first had one at the health food store I wasn’t certain how I felt about them. But they have definitely grown on me. However, I think they need a sauce or avocado on top to make them a little moister. Maybe I need to try dehydrating them less in the future.

Unrelated note:

It is snowing again at our house. My husband’s office has already told people to log in and work from home. We are expecting another foot of snow and possibly a little more. The snow from last weekend is still on the ground so this is more to add to the pile. For a place that goes many winters with nothing more than a flurry we are getting clobbered this winter. I will try to get more snow pictures tomorrow, when I am not busy shoveling snow that is.

I hope you are all having a good evening.

Excalibur Dehydrator Model 3900 – Review

I want to start this review by stating that this is not something that was sent to me to review. We purchased this dehydrator. I decided to post this review because I received a few emails asking me what we bought and if we would recommend it or not. I have good and bad things to say about this machine, but overall I am happy with the purchase. I will try to make it easy to see the pros and cons by making two separate lists with bullets.

Positives:

• The machine has a variable temperature control that so far it true to the setting. I have tested it using my laser temperature gun and the actual temperatures have been within 2 degrees of the setting. Pretty good I thought.
• Nine trays give the machine a higher capacity than this family of two has needed yet. However in the summer when tomatoes are plentiful I imagine I will be giving this baby a work out.
• Good warranty. We bought the model that had a 10 year warranty which is much longer than most small appliances.
• Exterior remains reasonably cool so I am not worried about it catching anything near it on fire.
• The teflex sheets are very easy to clean.
• It is easy to remove a tray if you need to make something that is taller than the space between the racks.
• All the trays are removable. This is nice so that you can remove one of two trays from the bottom and place a shallow container in the base of the unit and warm a sauce. I did this with the sun –dried marinara for pizza and it worked great.
• BPA free plastic.  Always a good idea.

Negatives:

• Price. This unit is not inexpensive. By the time we bought it and the teflex sheets it was over $250. A little more than I thought it should cost, but everything is getting more expensive these days, so maybe I am too frugal.
• Much more noisy than I expected it to be. You constantly hear a very noticeable motor noise when it is on. This does tend to ruin my Zen mood on occasion. I have gotten used to it, but it did take a while. There is a constant hum when it is on.
• Big. This unit takes up a lot of counter space. I don’t have that much room so I didn’t set mine up the kitchen. The nice thing is that you can set it up anywhere since it doesn’t produce heat or cooking grease like a stove. I intentionally photographed it next to my big coffee maker so that you can see how big it is. I couldn’t find a ruler but I am guessing it is 16 by 16 at the base and about a foot tall.
• The Teflex sheets are coated with Teflon. I wasn’t too crazy about this, but without the sheets the machine isn’t that useful. Thankfully the sheets are cheap so if they begin to deteriorate they can be replaced at a low cost.

General Thoughts About the Machine:

I have learned that the machine is less noisy when you aren’t using the teflex sheets. But so far I have needed them for most of the things I have made.

While I haven’t used all the trays at one time yet, I have used 5 and had to remove two, for height reasons. I think having 9 trays is a good plan. I am happy I didn’t get one of the smaller dehydrators. I think I would have outgrown it quickly, and there are only two of us.

So far I have made raw burgers, bread, pizza, dehydrated onions, flax crackers and spiced nuts. I have just begun to scratch the surface of raw food preparation. With all the snow we have now I have not been too inspired to cook a lot of raw food recently. But we are trying to eat more raw food for nutrition so here is hoping the weather turns soon. I think this will be great to have come the heat of summer when I don’t feel like turning on the oven.

We did purchase this from the linked provider above. We also bought our juicer from the same place. Both items shipped quickly and were received in good condition. I would buy from coolshinystuff.com again.

If anyone has any questions on either the machine or the seller please feel free to ask, either by comment or email. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

I would recommend this unit but you should know both the pros and the cons. I was not prepared for the level of noise it makes and I considered returning it for that reason. I have gotten used to the noise, but it would have been nice to be prepared for it.

Consuming Sugared Soda May Be Linked to Pancreatic Cancer

According to this abstract of an article published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention consuming two or more sodas a week appears to double your probability of pancreatic cancer. They think the sugar in the soda is responsible for the increase. However the soda drinkers studied also smoked and consumed red meat. Based on the soda drinkers that I know, they aren’t the most health conscious bunch so that may account for the increase. In either case it is a good reminder that consuming sugar does increase your probability of cancer in general because that is what it feeds on. This is something I always think of when we are tempted to eat food with a high GI index. Having those foods occasionally, and with low GI foods to keep the average down is probably fine absent other risk factors. We are a little more diligent due to the known risk factors we always need to keep in mind.

Vegan Braciole Made with Beefy Seitan – recipe in process

Today was an experiment in the kitchen day. My hubby used to love braciole and has been waiting for me to make a vegan version for a very long time. Today I decided to give it a go. What was the worth thing that happened, it didn’t turn out? No big deal, it wouldn’t be my first or last mistake.

For those of you that aren’t Italian, braciole is traditionally veal or beef that is stuffed and cooked in marinara sauce. My normal stuffing was golden raisins, pine nuts, parsley, parmesan, pancetta and breadcrumbs. Obviously I left out the parmesan and pancetta. I also decided to leave out the bread crumbs since it isn’t E2L friendly. When I looked at my original recipe it also called for egg, which I could have substituted with pureed tofu. But I opted not to use that today. I added a few julienned sun-dried tomatoes for additional savory flavor. The entire stuffing amounted to approximately 1 ½ cups.

I used an entire recipe of my beefy seitan for the veal, but with a few changes. This time I omitted the oil and replaced the bread crumbs with cooked quinoa. I have to admit I was surprised that it worked so well. The texture was still nice and tender. Quinoa will be used in my seitan going forward.

The part of the process that had me a little stumped was how to make the meat in a roll, but get the interior of the seitan to cook completely without making the outside tough. I decided to try searing the outside of the seitan on my cast iron griddle pan or both sides and then steam baking it for a while (30 minutes) before stuffing it and baking it more. I used the cooking method from the beefy seitan cutlets.

I learned a few things during the process:

• It is really difficult to move an 11 by 14 inch raw seitan slab to a hot cast iron griddle pan by yourself. Next time I will elicit help, or use my metal pizza peel, which my brilliant hubby recommended after the fact.

• Also difficult is flipping the partially cooked seitan.

• Baking the seitan for 30 minutes is not enough to make it easy to roll up with the stuffing. Next time I will start with 45 minutes before stuffing.

• It is important to both tie the rolled seitan and then wrap it in the aluminum foil before putting it back into the oven to bake for another 45 minutes. Using both the ties and aluminum foil keeps it together while baking. The ties make it easier to cut if you decided to speed up the process half way through cooking (which I did).

• Quinoa makes a wonderful substitute for breadcrumb in the seitan.

• If the braciole in its whole form and is taking too long to cook it can be cut into serving sizes and baked as slices to speed up the cooking.

The results were quite tasty, but this was definitely a bit unwieldy to deal with by myself. Next time I will make involtini instead (individual servings of rolled stuffed “meat”).

I am not posting the specific directions since I wasn’t taking notes this time when I cooked. I knew this was going to take me a time or two to get the cooking method down. However, I have a good start on it and will be playing around with a few changes in the coming weeks since I now know that I can make tender seitan without bread crumbs.

Vegetable and Cheeze filled Nori Wraps

As those of you that read often know I have been trying to reduce our flour consumption. Friday night I made a little appetizer that used nori in place of bread of a cracker.

First I made an easy nut cheeze. This is another method, rather than recipe. I combined raw pumpkins seeds, raw cashews and raw macadamia nuts until I had one cup total of nuts. Next, the nuts were soaked in 2 cups of filtered water for a few hours. I drained the nuts and moved them to the food processor. Next I added a peeled garlic clove, two tablespoons of white miso and turned the machine on. I drizzled water into the processor until I liked the texture of the cheeze. You may need to stop the food processer and scrape the sides of the bowl. Taste again for seasonings and adjust as necessary.

Smear the cheeze on the nori and add whatever veggies you like (we used red pepper strips and avocado). I also added a few raw sesame seeds for texture. Roll the nori like sushi and slice into bite size pieces and eat. If you have felines be aware they seem to be attracted to nori. We ended up eating our nori rolls standing up to keep the felines at bay.

I wouldn’t call this sushi, but it is similar to sushi. It would also be good with wasabi in the cheeze if you like spicy food. This will be something that I make again. It was easy and different. It solved two issues for us, no bread and more sea vegetables.  We thought it was a winning concept worth sharing.

Banana Soft Serve with Walnut Butter Swirl

This is another post about a method rather than a recipe. It is something I saw on Dr. Kim’s blog. He used frozen bananas to make a pie filling. As soon as I saw it I thought why not just skip the crust and make ice cream. Since we bought a masticating juicer as one of our healthy Christmas presents I knew I wanted to try this. I have been suggesting it to Dan every few days and he was completely uninterested. Today I decided I was making the “banana ice cream” whether he wanted it or not.

Tonight I put the blank plate into the juicer and grabbed the bananas from the freezer. I had frozen very ripe bananas (peeled) in a Ziploc bag weeks ago so that I could make this. I took bananas from the freezer and stuffed them into the chute on the juicer and an unnatural looking extruding mass came out the front of the machine. It wasn’t too appealing looking but I persisted with the entire bag (about 6 bananas). I tried the bananas and to my amazement it was the taste and texture of banana ice cream. The texture was so perfect I could not believe it. I then added a swirl of my homemade cinnamon walnut butter. To say this was good doesn’t do it justice. OMG this was amazing. Even my husband, who is not a banana lover, offered to go to the store for more bananas after a few bites. We didn’t need any bananas, but it was that good that he was willing to trek through the 30 plus inches of snow for bananas.

If you have a masticating juicer you really need to try this. We are both completely besotted by this concoction, as my new friend Laloofah would say. We will be making more of this very soon (as soon as we run out actually). This is absolutely mind blowingly delicious. Laloofah tells me you can make this with frozen bananas and a food processor with a little non-dairy milk if you don't have a masticating juicer.

Health Cooking Challenge - Fast Food

For the second Healthy Cooking Challenge we will be taking Aisling’s suggestion and making fast and healthy vegan food.

Here are the rules:

1) No animal flesh or animal products (aka vegan)

2) Emphasis should be on whole foods, such as veggies, fruits, nuts, legumes and unrefined grains...keep commercial products to a minimum when possible

3) No sugar (although stevia, agave, brown rice syrup, barley malt syrup, and maple syrup are okay)

4) As low fat as possible

5) The more veggies and fruits you use the higher the nutrition will be

6) Enter as many times as you like

7) Prep and cooking time should be 30 minutes or less. The goal is a “thirty-minute meal” but much healthier, and hopefully more creative, than Rachel Ray.

Judging Criteria:

1) 50% of the score: Healthfulness of the recipe as determined by overall nutrition. I will be compiling the nutrition for each recipe per calorie and looking at the overall vitamin and mineral profile compared to the RDA. Raw dishes will tend to score higher, as will things that are heavy on the veggies and fruit. Seeds tend to be more healthy than nuts, beans would be next with grains being the least nutritious. You may want to keep this in mind when working on your recipes.

2) 30% of the score: Creative use of ingredients. This can be either how your use them (example cabbage as noodles), or the specific ingredients you are using.

3) 20% of the score: Presentation. We will be looking at your presentation not your photography skills.

We will be using the same Flickr Group that Rose set up last month for people to upload their photos and describe their recipe (specific ingredients with measurements and instructions) and provide a link to their blog (if they have one). Flicker accounts are free, so participants just set up an account and join the challenge group. If anyone doesn’t want to bother with a Flicker account, they can send their entries directly to me (use the email on my profile page) and I will post them on the Flickr group page for you. Please remember to include a photograph since that is how Flickr works. Participants should upload their entries to the Flicker group page at their leisure, anytime before the deadline (February 28, midnight your time).

If anyone needs help with Flickr feel free to ask. I hadn’t used it until last month. It is free and easy to use. Trust me on the ease of use. If this old dinosaur could do it without many problems it must be intuitive. All you need is a yahoo email account and then you can log into the group (link above) and post your recipe and photo.

Depending on the timing of all the recipe submissions I may need a few days to calculate the nutritional information for each recipe and set up the spreadsheet to compare them all and confer with the other judges. Please be certain that I have a way to contact you (email or blog) in case I have any questions about ingredient quantities or serving sizes.

For judging, Rose and I will be standing judges, and there will be a guest judge that may change monthly, for a total of 3 judges. The judges may participate in the challenge by submitting recipes but are not eligible to win. We are targeting March 7 as the date to announce the winner.

The winner or winners will be announced in a blog post along with a link to the all the submissions. I will be compiling all the entries into an e-book and will email it to each participant. This would require each of you to consent to having your recipe “published” which you will be doing by submitting the recipe. It will only be published in the e-book for the challenge and nowhere else.

The prize for winning this challenge is a blog badge that you can put on the sidebar of your blog, similar to a blog award. Additionally each monthly challenge winner will automatically receive an e-book of recipes for each subsequent challenge this calendar year whether they participate in future challenges or not. Although of course we hope the winners will continue to participate.

As each of you submit a recipe I will be updating this post with a running list at the bottom of the post including the blog address (if available otherwise the name of the participant) and the specific recipe. That will allow you to double check that I have seen your recipe and begun calculating the nutritional information. I will check the Flickr page regularly for updates.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask. Additionally if you have an omni recipe that you would like to veganize and don’t know where to start let me know. I am happy to give you ideas.

Good luck to all of you, and I can’t wait to see your creativity!

Recipes Submitted:

Hummus and Bagel Sandwich - Mary (mygreendiet)
Taco Salad Lite with Mango Salsa - Rose (dandelion)

Healthy Cooking Challenge – Family Favorites Winner

We were so impressed with all the healthy recipes which were submitted. When we calculated the nutritional numbers there was no clear winner. We added categories for nine (9) additional vitamins and minerals and again no clear winner, but we were at least down to two recipes. The two recipes evenly split the vitamins and minerals each being the overall winner of three items.

Given this tie in nutrition we were hoping for a winner in creativity or presentation. Again, still no clear winner. We considered having two winners but decided that we just need to bite the bullet and get serious. Thankfully we had our third judge because it took three votes to come to a conclusion. A heart-felt congratulation goes to:

• Oraphan at Easy Veggie for her submission of Brown Rice and Kale soup with Tofu and Ginger. We love that she used brown rice instead of white, added tofu for protein, kale for vitamin A and K, and ginger for antioxidants.

Thank you again to all of those of you that submitted recipes. They were all wonderful and I know I am not the only one that was inspired to make my own variation of them. My husband thinks I need to make all the recipes so that he can choose by taste. Isn’t he helpful? See why I have to keep my eye on him?

Now that we have this challenge under our belts Rose and I will be finalizing the definition of the next challenge. We are definitely going with a fast food theme. Since I will be stuck in the house all weekend due to the blizzard (and possibly longer) I should have the next challenge posted soon.

I hope you are all having a great weekend!

Raw Cashew Hot Chocolate

With the three feet of snow at our house my hubby came in from shoveling wanting hot chocolate. Oops, I didn’t have any soy milk or almond milk in the refrigerator. I decided to try an experiment and make raw cashew hot chocolate. This hot chocolate is fantastic, rich, thick and very tasty. Now I don’t recommend this for every day, but it does make a great treat. Here is what we had.

Raw Cashew Hot Chocolate

Makes 4 servings (or three for Dan and one for me)

Ingredients:

1 cup raw cashews
2 cups water
5 dates, pits removed
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1 pinch salt
1 ½ tablespoons cocoa powder

Directions:

Combine in blender and process until smooth and hot. I used my Vitamix and we had a rich, thick and hot cocoa drink in less than 5 minutes. Both the hubby and I thought this was maybe a little too rich. Although he had 3 servings so it couldn’t have been too bad. Next time we will add a little cayenne to the mix for a background heat.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 166.18
Calories From Fat (54%) - 89.91

Total Fat - 10.74g
Saturated Fat - 2.02g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 79.81mg
Potassium - 265.54mg
Total Carbohydrates - 16.28g
Fiber - 2.37g
Sugar - 8.02g
Protein - 5.01g

Comments:

This cocoa was very rich and yummy. We liked the hint of espresso since we gave up coffee about 6 months ago. Now when we have coffee it is quite the treat. You will notice that I used dates to sweeten this cocoa. I decided to try using them since they also add vitamins and minerals. The cocoa was slightly sweet, but had a bit of a molasses undertone which we enjoyed.

Unrelated note:

Now it is time to clear the snow off the roofs of our two small additions. While this isn’t something that I like the sound of there was a roof collapse today in the news so it seems like it is necessary. Three feet of snow doesn’t belong on any roof.

Talk to you again later today. I think tonight is going to be split pea soup. Since Sarah posted her version at Ordinary Vegetarian I have had split pea soup on the brain ever since. With all this snow and shoveling split pea soup and salad will make a great dinner.

Snowy Saturday Morning

A quick post to share the snow.  This is what we woke up to this morning.

I hope you are all having a good day.  Clearly we will be spending our weekend at home since nothing could possibly be open if we could get out.