Continuing with the food theme as of late, I wanted to share some of the recipes we've tried recently, and also to comment that we have been very satisfied with our mostly vegan eating habits. We haven't felt that we are missing out on anything, and we have made some very delicious discoveries.
As I mentioned in the previous post, we were given The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook recently. It is (obviously) geared toward diabetics and those desiring to prevent spikes in blood sugar, but it has some really great healthy recipes for anyone. The one that we've tried so far, and have fallen in love with, is the vegan lasagna. I won't post the recipe in its entirety, as I'm sure that violates copyright, but I'll summarize the basic idea of it. I'm sure you can fill in the gaps, if you're really interested. It basically consists of layers of zucchini and eggplant, sliced thinly, in place of actual lasagna noodles. In between the bottom two layers is a verde sauce (raw spinach and a little red pepper, blended with water until smooth). In between the next several layers is a home-made tomato sauce. The key to the flavor of this sauce, in my opinion, is the balsamic vinegar that is included. It's really delicious. Under the top layer is a macadamia nut "mozzarella" (we actually used vegan "cheese" instead, as it was much cheaper than the nuts). On the very top is a cashew "Parmesan" (basically cashews, salt, and garlic, blitzed in a blender). On their own, none of the ingredients are all that impressive, but they combine in a magical sort of way to make something that is truly delicious. Both Rob and I were seriously impressed.
The other recipe that we tested out just tonight is the vegan/"raw" Pad Thai from The Present Moment Cafe's cookbook. (Please support local business and buy it yourself if you're really interested in trying the recipe. You can order it from their website or buy it on location... and it's a really well-designed book, so it's totally worth it!) We have recently discovered and fallen in love with this place, so we bought their cookbook, and our first recipe attempt was not disappointing. My new favorite (bizarre) food item is kelp noodles, which are called for in this recipe. They are nearly carb-free, and they have a really pleasing texture, pretty similar to thin rice noodles. The recipe is a little involved, but not difficult. Because it's "raw" (Google exactly what that means, if you're interested), the main steps in the process are basically to throw things in the blender together. I've learned that vegan cooking, especially "raw" foods, involves a LOT of cashews because apparently you can make just about ANYTHING out of them! Both the Pad Thai sauce, as well as the "sour cream," were made from a cashew base. You could probably use peanuts for the sauce, if you're really a fan of that flavor, but the cashews made it quite delicious.
Speaking of carb-free noodles, I also recently tried Shirataki Noodles (made from tofu). While the texture of these aren't bad, they smell disgusting! You have to rinse them to get rid of some of the smell, but it seems to linger even still. If you are looking for a carb-free option, I would definitely recommend the kelp noodles over these. I was able to find kelp noodles at our local health food store, Diane's, alongside all of the other seaweed/Asian-food items. P.S. "seaweed snacks" (like paper thin crackers) are quite delicious, as well! Who would have thought?!
Our new dehydrator will be here tomorrow so we can begin trying out other "raw" recipes. I'm really looking forward to trying my hand at the "sunshine burger" (made with sunflower seeds and, you guessed it, cashews). I'll let everyone know how those turn out. For now, I'm going to make some carrot juice. Good night!
Monday, March 25, 2013
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Part-Time Vegan
Much of my life lately has revolved around a cutting board, so I figured it was time to write a food post. Here's the summary of our family's recent eating habit overhaul.
There's not a real clear start date to all of this, so I'll just give a little background info that seems pertinent at the moment. I went back to work after 12 (glorious) weeks of maternity leave in November. The holidays were relatively normal, as was the start of the new year. Shortly thereafter, Rob went to have his routine blood work done, and his doctor recommended that he meet with an endocrinologist at Mayo to discuss some things relevant to his diabetes. After said meeting had occurred, Rob came home with some dietary directives from the doctor, which mostly can be summed up by the following:
1. Eat your biggest meal of the day in the morning. Eat most of your protein in the morning. Taper off your meals throughout the day.
2. Get as close to a no-carb lifestyle as you can.
I am always a fan of better health, especially when it involves my husband, so I wanted to do whatever I could to support him in making some major changes to the way he/we eat. So, naturally, I turned to Pinterest. I started pinning high-protein breakfast recipes for inspiration. In so doing, I came across a link to a book called The Big Breakfast Diet: Eat Big Before 9A.M., and Lose Big For Life, by Daniela Jakubowicz, M.D. I was intrigued by what I read about it, so a few days later, I went out and ordered it at Barnes & Noble. This book really helped us begin the journey we are currently on. Because of the meal formulas laid out in the book, we learned how to start shifting when we eat certain foods. We also began deliberately incorporating a LOT more vegetables into our diet, so as to adhere to these meal formulas.
After that, I began looking into the MANY food-related documentaries available on Netflix. The first one I watched was Forks Over Knives, on a quiet Thursday night by myself. This one was very eye-opening as to how negatively our health can be impacted by the high animal-based diet we often have, and about how quickly you can turn some of that around by switching to a high plant-based diet. Very informative and interesting. I would definitely recommend this one.
One night after Rob and I put the children to bed, I came down stairs and put on another documentary. When Rob came down and asked what we were watching, I chuckled as I told him the title, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, knowing the kind of eyebrow-raise this would get. Despite his lack of enthusiasm, he watched the whole thing with me. This one is about a guy with a severe auto-immune disease who, despite the large amount of medication he takes each day, continues to get worse instead of better. He is also pretty drastically overweight, partly due to poor diet, and partly due to the steroids he is on. He decides that nothing else has worked, so he will attempt to heal himself through an all-natural, whole-foods, plant-based diet. To kick-start this drastic change in eating habits, he commits to go on a 60-DAY JUICE FAST! Every meal, every day, for 60 days, he does nothing but juice fresh vegetables and fruit. (The film explains in great detail the benefits of juicing.) Both the weight loss and the health improvements are INCREDIBLE, to say the least. He meets a guy along the way who has the same disease as him (very rare) who is also very obese. This guy gets inspired by him and decides to follow suit. His changes were even more amazing. By the end of the movie, Rob had decided that we should buy a juicer and try a 10-day fast (as recommended in the film). This shocked me, but made me very optimistic. I knew Rob was on-board for some major changes.
I knew that I couldn't do a juice fast at this time because I am breastfeeding and would need more protein and nutrients than juice alone would provide. But I did agree to the challenge of doing a 10-day vegan diet with no processed carbs. We got started the very next morning, which was Sunday. By Tuesday, we had come into possession of a juicer, so we bought a truck-load of produce and juiced away. We are entering day 13 of this eating plan, and we are both surprised at how little we miss the meat/dairy/carbs that we had been used to eating. I have been able to find some really great alternatives that I probably would have never tried before. We have not committed to being "full-time" vegans permanently, but this has provided us with a great opportunity to learn about some healthier options that we can incorporate into our normal routine.
Some other sources of information that I have looked into are the film Hungry for Change (very inspirational, if you're ready for a similar journey), and The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook by Mark Hyman, M.D. This one provides more information about getting rid of the processed carbs in your diet so that you can naturally prevent spikes in your blood sugar (very important for Rob). It does a great job suggesting ways to replace those carbs with healthier options, and it has some really great recipes, both vegan and not. I made the vegan lasagna recipe, which was absolutely amazing! I was very impressed.
If you're looking for some very informative sources to inspire you to eat better, I would recommend all of the above. One that I would NOT recommend is the film Veducated, unless, of course, you enjoy feeling like a terrible human being because of all the animals you have slaughtered. But if that's the kind of motivation you need, then by all means, go right ahead.
In summary:
1. Eat protein early in the day.
2. Get rid of processed carbs.
3. EAT MORE VEGGIES!!!!
The end. I welcome questions.
P.S. I've lost 40 pounds since before I had children 2.5 years ago. I can't credit all of it to this way of eating, but this certainly has helped.
There's not a real clear start date to all of this, so I'll just give a little background info that seems pertinent at the moment. I went back to work after 12 (glorious) weeks of maternity leave in November. The holidays were relatively normal, as was the start of the new year. Shortly thereafter, Rob went to have his routine blood work done, and his doctor recommended that he meet with an endocrinologist at Mayo to discuss some things relevant to his diabetes. After said meeting had occurred, Rob came home with some dietary directives from the doctor, which mostly can be summed up by the following:
1. Eat your biggest meal of the day in the morning. Eat most of your protein in the morning. Taper off your meals throughout the day.
2. Get as close to a no-carb lifestyle as you can.
I am always a fan of better health, especially when it involves my husband, so I wanted to do whatever I could to support him in making some major changes to the way he/we eat. So, naturally, I turned to Pinterest. I started pinning high-protein breakfast recipes for inspiration. In so doing, I came across a link to a book called The Big Breakfast Diet: Eat Big Before 9A.M., and Lose Big For Life, by Daniela Jakubowicz, M.D. I was intrigued by what I read about it, so a few days later, I went out and ordered it at Barnes & Noble. This book really helped us begin the journey we are currently on. Because of the meal formulas laid out in the book, we learned how to start shifting when we eat certain foods. We also began deliberately incorporating a LOT more vegetables into our diet, so as to adhere to these meal formulas.
After that, I began looking into the MANY food-related documentaries available on Netflix. The first one I watched was Forks Over Knives, on a quiet Thursday night by myself. This one was very eye-opening as to how negatively our health can be impacted by the high animal-based diet we often have, and about how quickly you can turn some of that around by switching to a high plant-based diet. Very informative and interesting. I would definitely recommend this one.
One night after Rob and I put the children to bed, I came down stairs and put on another documentary. When Rob came down and asked what we were watching, I chuckled as I told him the title, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, knowing the kind of eyebrow-raise this would get. Despite his lack of enthusiasm, he watched the whole thing with me. This one is about a guy with a severe auto-immune disease who, despite the large amount of medication he takes each day, continues to get worse instead of better. He is also pretty drastically overweight, partly due to poor diet, and partly due to the steroids he is on. He decides that nothing else has worked, so he will attempt to heal himself through an all-natural, whole-foods, plant-based diet. To kick-start this drastic change in eating habits, he commits to go on a 60-DAY JUICE FAST! Every meal, every day, for 60 days, he does nothing but juice fresh vegetables and fruit. (The film explains in great detail the benefits of juicing.) Both the weight loss and the health improvements are INCREDIBLE, to say the least. He meets a guy along the way who has the same disease as him (very rare) who is also very obese. This guy gets inspired by him and decides to follow suit. His changes were even more amazing. By the end of the movie, Rob had decided that we should buy a juicer and try a 10-day fast (as recommended in the film). This shocked me, but made me very optimistic. I knew Rob was on-board for some major changes.
I knew that I couldn't do a juice fast at this time because I am breastfeeding and would need more protein and nutrients than juice alone would provide. But I did agree to the challenge of doing a 10-day vegan diet with no processed carbs. We got started the very next morning, which was Sunday. By Tuesday, we had come into possession of a juicer, so we bought a truck-load of produce and juiced away. We are entering day 13 of this eating plan, and we are both surprised at how little we miss the meat/dairy/carbs that we had been used to eating. I have been able to find some really great alternatives that I probably would have never tried before. We have not committed to being "full-time" vegans permanently, but this has provided us with a great opportunity to learn about some healthier options that we can incorporate into our normal routine.
Some other sources of information that I have looked into are the film Hungry for Change (very inspirational, if you're ready for a similar journey), and The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook by Mark Hyman, M.D. This one provides more information about getting rid of the processed carbs in your diet so that you can naturally prevent spikes in your blood sugar (very important for Rob). It does a great job suggesting ways to replace those carbs with healthier options, and it has some really great recipes, both vegan and not. I made the vegan lasagna recipe, which was absolutely amazing! I was very impressed.
If you're looking for some very informative sources to inspire you to eat better, I would recommend all of the above. One that I would NOT recommend is the film Veducated, unless, of course, you enjoy feeling like a terrible human being because of all the animals you have slaughtered. But if that's the kind of motivation you need, then by all means, go right ahead.
In summary:
1. Eat protein early in the day.
2. Get rid of processed carbs.
3. EAT MORE VEGGIES!!!!
The end. I welcome questions.
P.S. I've lost 40 pounds since before I had children 2.5 years ago. I can't credit all of it to this way of eating, but this certainly has helped.
Friday, March 8, 2013
Recent Recipes
After a coworker expressed an interest yesterday for me to write a new blog post, I decided I probably could throw something together. So this is for you, Christina!
Here are a few Pinterest recipes I've tried lately:
Creamy Avocado Dressing. I doubled the amount of hot sauce because I was using Texas Pete, which is pretty mild. I had lime juice on hand, so I used that instead of the lemon juice. I used Greek yogurt instead of the mayo, which made the dressing really thick, so I also added some milk to thin it down a bit. It was very yummy! Not an overwhelming avo flavor, so even if you're typically not a fan, you might like this. Also, I knew I couldn't use it all up before it went bad, but I wasn't going to throw it out, so I froze the remaining dressing in an ice cube tray so I could thaw a bit at a time.
Mango Salsa. I didn't add strawberries, but it was really delicious.
Cauliflower Crust Pizza. First go around was a bit too soft. Second time, we added a bit more flour and cranked up the heat. That worked well! Really quite tasty! I'd also like to try this recipe that uses yogurt instead of flour, and the process is a bit different.
Collard Green Veggie Wraps. I had collard greens on hand from my weekly produce bag from The Neighborhood Garden. Although I'm a southern girl, I'm not so southern as to cook collards in the traditional manner and serve as a "side dish." Considering this fact, and that we are trying to reduce our carb intake, I went in search of another option and found this recipe. I didn't do the same fillings as this recipe (although they look really yummy), but I used this post as inspiration to use the blanched greens as a no-carb alternative to tortillas. For the filling, I copied the Tropical Smoothie Cafe Hummus Veggie Wrap fillings, although I didn't have any asparagus at the time. (And before you correct me, yes, I'm aware that hummus contains carbs and therefore my wraps were not totally carb-free. I am a part of a diabetically-aware household. We know how to count our carbs all too well.) My wraps turned out well. The main vein of the greens is still a little too thick and stringy for my taste, even after shaving it down, so I prefer to take it out completely at the thickest part. This leaves a gap in the middle of the lower side of the leaf, but once you roll it up, you can't even tell.
Zucchini Pizzas. Okay, this one was really a matter of convenience. It was an easy meal to throw together on a night when I was on my own with the kids, and I already had all the necessary ingredients. I didn't have a jumbo zucchini with a really large diameter, so I did it more of a zucchini "boat" style. Pretty tasty.
Broccoli Salad. This one holds a special place in my heart. Both my mom and mother-in-law are famous for making this for family gatherings. Each of them do theirs slightly differently. I followed this recipe, and added some shredded cheddar, in my MIL's style. I like that this one uses honey for the sweetness, rather than granulated sugar. Oh, and I use Craisins instead of raisins. I could eat this for days.
Balsamic Mushrooms. Let me preface this one by saying I am a cheese addict. My new-found favorite cheese is called Bella Vitano. It's a hard cheese that has been aged in balsamic vinegar, so the flavor has soaked into the outside. It is heavenly. I made these mushrooms and paired them with the cheese. This is what heaven tastes like. On their own, the mushrooms would have been much too strong, but they were great paired with the cheese.
Salmon with Pomegranate-Balsamic Glaze. I love fish and grew up on it, but I'm not the biggest salmon fan, under normal circumstances. But I was determined to find a way to make it delicious. This is it! This was so fantastic!
So that's all for now. We've also really enjoyed the vegetable stew recipe from The Big Breakfast Diet book, but we puree it and season it like chili. Really tasty, but that recipe will have to wait for another time. Good night, all.
Here are a few Pinterest recipes I've tried lately:
Creamy Avocado Dressing. I doubled the amount of hot sauce because I was using Texas Pete, which is pretty mild. I had lime juice on hand, so I used that instead of the lemon juice. I used Greek yogurt instead of the mayo, which made the dressing really thick, so I also added some milk to thin it down a bit. It was very yummy! Not an overwhelming avo flavor, so even if you're typically not a fan, you might like this. Also, I knew I couldn't use it all up before it went bad, but I wasn't going to throw it out, so I froze the remaining dressing in an ice cube tray so I could thaw a bit at a time.
Mango Salsa. I didn't add strawberries, but it was really delicious.
Cauliflower Crust Pizza. First go around was a bit too soft. Second time, we added a bit more flour and cranked up the heat. That worked well! Really quite tasty! I'd also like to try this recipe that uses yogurt instead of flour, and the process is a bit different.
Collard Green Veggie Wraps. I had collard greens on hand from my weekly produce bag from The Neighborhood Garden. Although I'm a southern girl, I'm not so southern as to cook collards in the traditional manner and serve as a "side dish." Considering this fact, and that we are trying to reduce our carb intake, I went in search of another option and found this recipe. I didn't do the same fillings as this recipe (although they look really yummy), but I used this post as inspiration to use the blanched greens as a no-carb alternative to tortillas. For the filling, I copied the Tropical Smoothie Cafe Hummus Veggie Wrap fillings, although I didn't have any asparagus at the time. (And before you correct me, yes, I'm aware that hummus contains carbs and therefore my wraps were not totally carb-free. I am a part of a diabetically-aware household. We know how to count our carbs all too well.) My wraps turned out well. The main vein of the greens is still a little too thick and stringy for my taste, even after shaving it down, so I prefer to take it out completely at the thickest part. This leaves a gap in the middle of the lower side of the leaf, but once you roll it up, you can't even tell.
Zucchini Pizzas. Okay, this one was really a matter of convenience. It was an easy meal to throw together on a night when I was on my own with the kids, and I already had all the necessary ingredients. I didn't have a jumbo zucchini with a really large diameter, so I did it more of a zucchini "boat" style. Pretty tasty.
Broccoli Salad. This one holds a special place in my heart. Both my mom and mother-in-law are famous for making this for family gatherings. Each of them do theirs slightly differently. I followed this recipe, and added some shredded cheddar, in my MIL's style. I like that this one uses honey for the sweetness, rather than granulated sugar. Oh, and I use Craisins instead of raisins. I could eat this for days.
Balsamic Mushrooms. Let me preface this one by saying I am a cheese addict. My new-found favorite cheese is called Bella Vitano. It's a hard cheese that has been aged in balsamic vinegar, so the flavor has soaked into the outside. It is heavenly. I made these mushrooms and paired them with the cheese. This is what heaven tastes like. On their own, the mushrooms would have been much too strong, but they were great paired with the cheese.
Salmon with Pomegranate-Balsamic Glaze. I love fish and grew up on it, but I'm not the biggest salmon fan, under normal circumstances. But I was determined to find a way to make it delicious. This is it! This was so fantastic!
So that's all for now. We've also really enjoyed the vegetable stew recipe from The Big Breakfast Diet book, but we puree it and season it like chili. Really tasty, but that recipe will have to wait for another time. Good night, all.
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