Sunday, July 24, 2011

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead

Have you seen the documentary, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead? We watched it the other night, (currently streaming on Netflix) and I must say, veggies rocked his house! 

Juicing is a powerful form of cleansing and nourishing. By juicing your vegetables, you're making them extremely easy to digest by eliminating the fiber. Not that fiber isn't good, it is, but if your goal is to cleanse and/or to ramp up the nutrient availability, juicing is the way to do it.

In the film, I loved watching people's reactions to the idea of going on a juice fast. "I could never do that." "I like my cheeseburgers too much," and on and on. I think in Joe Cross's case, he liked his health and life too much NOT to! I admire that kind of viewpoint, don't you?

And then there was Phil, who was nearly suicidal, feeling rather hopeless about his health situation and the several hundred extra pounds he was carrying around. What a hard road he had to travel, but he did it, and I loved watching the transformation. A little juicing went a very long way for that man!

If you're curious about the benefits of juicing, here's a good explanation. Even if you're not needing or wanting to do a full juice fast, just adding fresh juices to your diet, especially veggies, is a great nutritional boost.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Roasted Potatoes with Tomatoes, Basil, and Garlic

 I had a hankering for something that I could make using the fresh basil from my garden. I also had a bag of plump tomatoes. So I thought to myself, "I wonder what I could find that had basil, tomatoes, and garlic, but no cheese." So I did myself a little Google search and came across this very easy and very DELIGHTFUL dish. We will definitely be having it again soon and likely more often when the garden tomatoes are ripe and ready.

Roasted Potatoes with Tomatoes, Basil, and Garlic
 
2 pounds red potatoes, chopped
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
3/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
3 cloves garlic, pressed
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary



Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray an oblong casserole dish with olive oil. Place the potatoes, tomatoes, basil, and garlic in dish and toss with the olive oil. Sprinkle with the rosemary. 


Bake 20 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, turning occasionally, until tender.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Quinoa and Vegetable Salad


A few months ago when my husband was quite ill, his diet was extremely restricted and we had a tough time finding things he could eat that weren't too plain. My friend made and brought over some quinoa salad from a recipe she found on the blog Oh She Glows. We loved it and have made it several times since then. It's perfect for summer weather!

I have adapted the recipe to fit our needs. Red quinoa is lovely but expensive. I found black quinoa quite a bit cheaper, and sometimes I'm kind of boring and just use the plain ol' regular stuff because I have a ton of it. Well, not a ton, but a 50 lb. bag! And my husband cannot do legumes, so we just leave the black beans out. I have listed them as optional here.

Quinoa and Vegetable Salad
 

 For the salad:

    1 cup uncooked red or black quinoa
    1 red pepper, chopped
    1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
    2 green onions, chopped
    1 cup fresh or frozen corn 
    1 small avocado, chopped into 1 inch pieces

    1 (14oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed (optional)

For the dressing:

    4-5 tbsp of fresh lime juice (2 small limes)
    1/2 tsp Real salt, or to taste
    1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
    1 garlic clove, minced
    1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
    1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
    1/2 tsp ground cumin, or more to taste

Directions:

1. Cook 1 cup quinoa according to package directions.

2. While quinoa is cooking, prepare the chopped vegetables and whisk together the dressing.

3. Allow quinoa to cool after cooking for about 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Add the vegetables (and beans, if using) and toss well.

4. Drizzle dressing over salad and toss well with salt and pepper to taste. Bring salad to room temperature before serving. Keep fresh in a sealed container for 1-2 days. Makes 4 - 5 cups.

Angelina's Easy Lasagne (Raw)

This recipe makes plenty! It filled a 9 X 13. Next time, I'd halve it.
I have so many cookbooks that I hardly know what to do with them all. Some of them are quite useful, some of them not so much. But I'm still searching and finding more cookbooks that fit my diet better, recipes filled with veggies and spices to tantalize my tastebuds.

Recently I came across the book, Alive in 5 by Angela Elliott. It seemed like a good fit because I like to incorporate A LOT of raw foods into our diet for their nutritional benefits. Gone are the days of thinking that having a few carrot sticks will fulfill your raw foods quota for the day. Alive in 5 is filled with some pretty straightforward recipes with easy-to-find ingredients. I'm looking forward to trying a bunch more recipes.

Tonight I put together the lasagne. It was different but delicious. Fair warning - you must start earlier in the day to soak the sunflower seeds and marinate the artichoke hearts (or cucumber slices, in my case). Also, this makes a large quantity. For my size family, I should have made half as much, but we'll share some with relatives and eat lots of leftovers, although I don't think they'll keep very long. So here goes:

Angelina's Easy Lasagne
Serves 8

Note: Start soaking the sunflower seeds 3 hours before you prepare this dish. This is what you'll do:

Place 3 12 C raw sunflower seeds in a medium sized bowl. Cover with water and allow to soak for 3 hours. Drain.

And, 1 hour before preparing the lasagne, start marinating the artichoke hearts (or cucumber slices).

Begin thawing frozen artichoke hearts.


To make lasagne, first prepare the marinade, then Presto Pesto and then the Olive Medley
Marinated Artichokes

1/2 c. olive oil
3 -4 T. fresh lemon juice
1 t. salt
1/2 t. Italian seasoning
1/2 t. fresh ground black pepper
1/8 t. cayenne
2 packages (12 oz. each) frozen artichoke hearts, thawed

Combine all ingredients except artichokes and blend. Add artichokes, stir gently, and set aside to marinade one hour.
Presto Pesto

1 C. fresh basil leaves
1/3 C. olive oil
3 - 4 T. fresh lemon juice
1 t. Real salt
3 1/2 C. soaked raw sunflower seeds (drained)
1/8 t. fresh ground pepper
1/8 t. cayenne pepper
(I added 2 cloves minced garlic)

Place basil, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt in a food processor with the S blade. Pulse to chop. Add sunflower seeds, garlic, black pepper, and cayenne powder, and pulse again until evenly combined.
Olive Medley

1 1/2 C. pitted olives
1 red bell pepper, diced

Place the olive and bell pepper in a food processor. Pulse until evenly chopped.
Lasagne ingredients

Presto Pesto
Marinated artichokes
4 large ripe tomatoes, thinly sliced
1/2 C. minced fresh basil
Olive Medley
2 T. nutritional yeast

Line bottom of a 9 X 13 dish with the Presto Pesto. Use cucumber slices or tear apart each marinated artichoke heart to make "noodles"  and place over pesto. Layer the tomato slices over "noodles", completely covering them. Scatter the minced basil over tomatoes. Evenly distribute the Olive Medley mix over the basil. Sprinkle with the nutritional yeast powder and additional salt and pepper to taste.


Serve immediately. Enjoy!


You can sort of see the layering.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Coconut Kurma with Vegetables


Coconut has gotten a bad rap over the years, but that is quickly changing, as you'll discover in many health food stores. There is coconut everything it seems: oil, "ice cream", canned drinks, canned or cartoned "milk", mixes for quick dinners that use coconut based sauces, and more. I grew up thinking I didn't really like coconut, based on shredded coconut flakes in baked goods and the like. That still isn't my favorite way to consume coconut, but I have since learned that I really like most everything that contains it. The oil alone has too many benefits to list. Coconuts are amazing!

Here's a recipe for an Indian dish that usually involves chicken, but I have substituted vegetables instead. I mean, after all, veggies really do rock the house!

Coconut Kurma with Vegetables

2 yellow onions cut in long shreds (like very thin orange segments)
1 large clove garlic, crushed
1 6 ox. can tomato sauce or 1 c. cooked tomatoes
2 - 13 oz. cans coconut milk
1/2  can (13 oz) water
1 T. curry powder
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. cardamom
1 t. fennel seeds
2 T. shredded coconut (unsweetened)
1/8 t. basil leaves


Saute' onion and garlic in 2 T. olive oil until onion begins to soften. Add tomato sauce and simmer 5 minutes. Remove 1 cup of this mixture and place in blender. Add the rest of the ingredients to the blender and puree. Pour blended mixture into pan with remaining onion mixture and simmer for 60 minutes to blend flavors. I added thick slices of carrots with the pureed mixture and simmered them for 10 minutes, then added broccoli florets, and frozen peas and simmered about 50 minutes more and served it over quinoa.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Zucchini Hummus

My friend at work always seems to have interesting things to eat. I walked past her desk and saw a container full of something greenish that I didn't recognize. I asked her what it was and she said that it was Zucchini Hummus. Hmmm. Interesting to me because I love humus, but neither my husband nor I can tolerate beans very well. She asked me if I wanted to try it; of course I wanted to! It was DELISH.

Today I got around to whipping out a batch, and I have to say that it was not only delicious but it was SO SIMPLE. It comes from the book, Raw Foods Made Easy by Jennifer Cornbleet.


Zucchini Hummus


1 zucchini, peeled and chopped (about 1 1/2 C)
2 T. tahini (sesame butter)
2 T. fresh lemon juice
1/2 t. crushed garlic (1 clove)
1/4 t. ground cumin
1/4 t. paprika
1/4 t. salt


Place all ingredients in a food processor fitted with the S blade and process until smooth. Stop occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator. Zucchini Hummus will keep for about 5 days.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Grilled Ratatouille Boats


I got a free one-year subscription to Every Day with Rachel Ray magazine through some special offer nearly a year ago. I thumb through them when they arrive in my mailbox and see some pretty delicious-looking dishes, but I think until now I haven't made a single one. Why? I don't exactly know!

This month's magazine arrived and I did my usual scan and came across these zucchini boats with cheese on top. My first thought was, "What kind of meat do those have in them?" but as I read through the ingredients, much to my delight I discovered there wasn't any at all, and the only thing I'd need to adapt was the type of cheese, and that was simple!

So tonight my husband and I whipped these out and snuck over to the neighbor's house to grill them (they were out of town, and we just party it up over there when they're gone!) Unfortunately, I didn't follow my own rule of reading carefully through the directions before launching forth, but fortunately they still turned out great. I'm excited to make them again soon and actually follow the directions. What a concept!

Here you go:

Grilled Ratatouille Boats

2 zucchini, halved lengthwise
3 T. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlice, minced
1 eggplant, cubed
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/4 C. chopped parsley
1/3 C. shredded mozarella cheese (I used vegan cheddar)


1. Scoop balls of flesh from center of zucchini to create boats (use melon baller - it works great!) Preheat grill to medium high.


2. Heat 1 T. oilve oil in a large skillet over medium heat; add the onion and cook for 5 min. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the remaining 2 T. olive oil, the eggplant and zucchini balls; cover and cook for 8 minutes. Then add the tomatoes and cook, stirring until the mixture is thick, about 5 minutes. Stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper. I accidentally dumped in too much pepper, but in the end, I loved it. I'll add plenty next time, for sure!

3. Fill zucchini shells with the ratatouille, sprinkle with cheese, and grill, covered, over medium high heat until the cheese is melted and shells are slightly softened.


Oh, my, my! These were delicious and so good for you. You could substitute all kinds of different veggies. Plan for at least two boats per person.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Coconut Nice Cream

Oh, yummy! It's Sunday, so because we don't go out to the store, we make do with what we have if we haven't planned ahead for a dessert. Tonight's "make-do" creation was SO YUMMY! (If you're not sure why I called it Nice Cream, read here. Scroll down near the bottom of that post and you'll see it.)

Last week, one of my co-workers was eating a coconut "ice cream" bar (no dairy) and told me how good they were. She was headed down to the little herb shop to get another one the other day, so I asked her to pick one up for me. It was every bit as good as she said. I looked at the ingredients and decided I could make something sort of similar, and I was guessing that the magic ingredient was coconut extract. So I picked some up the other day. Good thinking on my part!

What we had on hand was silken tofu and a can of full fat coconut milk, so I tossed them in the blender, added coconut extract, stevia, and a little honey, and gave it a whirl. Then I stirred in all natural shredded coconut and put it in the ice cream freezer.

The temperature today was 101 degrees, and can I just say that a little coconut "nice cream" really hit the spot? This is definitely going to be one of our regular desserts. It was fantastic!

Sweet Chili-Lime Tofu with Spinach and Quinoa

 The other day I decided to look around for new ways to use the dry fried tofu and happened upon this. It looked fabulous, and I was heading to work that day, so I asked Aubrey if she'd be willing to prepare it for dinner. She LOVES tofu prepared the dry fry way and is quite good at using the method herself. She agreed to give it a shot. Back a few posts, you'll find the directions on how to dry fry tofu, a most excellent way to prepare it.

That evening she prepared the tofu and the sauce, and I cooked up the quinoa. In my hurry, I didn't pay attention to the fact that the quinoa was to be cooked with the spices in the pan, so I had to hurry and add them in at the very end. It was still delicious, but next time I'll know better. And next time we'll know to add about HALF the chili flakes in the sauce!

Nevertheless, it was so flavorful, and I adored the spicy lime-ness of it all. When we have it again (which will be soon!), I will make the sauce first, then wrap the spinach rolls, then start the quinoa,so it can just do it's thing while I monitor the tofu, which has to be constantly attended to. Did you catch that? I'll rearrange the order of things in the recipe so they make more sense (at least to me).

Sweet Chili-Lime Tofu with Spinach and Quinoa

Ingredients

1 lb. block of extra firm tofu

Sauce:
3 T sugar (we used turbinado, but agave, honey, and/or stevia would work)
2 T soy sauce or liquid aminos
2 T teriyaki sauce (or just use more soy sauce)
6-8 mint leaves, thinly chopped
2 t chili flakes (I plan to use 1/2 this next time!)
1 t chili sauce
1 clove of garlic, crushed and very finely chopped
½ inch ginger, very finely chopped
¼ zest of the lime (do twice as much and divide it; you'll need it for the quinoa, too)
2 T lime juice, freshly squeezed (squeeze more, you'll need it for spinach and quinoa)
¼ t salt 

Spinach:
2-3 packed cups of baby spinach
Pinch of salt
1 t lime juice

Quinoa:
¾ cup quinoa, rinsed in cool water and drained
¼ zest lime
½ tbsp lime juice
2 green cardamom, lightly crushed
½ inch cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
¼ tsp salt
1-1¼ cups water

Directions:

Start with draining the tofu, following these directions. While it's draining, proceed as follows.

Sauce:
Combine all the ingredients listed. Whisk the sauce till all the sugar and salt is dissolved. Se it aside.


Spinach:
Stack the spinach leaves one above the other and roll them. Slice the roll into 1 inch segments. Repeat same procedure till you get 2-3 tightly packed cups of spinach. Set in dish so that they're in tight against each other to hold them together. Set aside.


Quinoa:
Combine all the ingredients in a thick bottomed pot with tight fitting lid. Bring it to a boil, then cover and reduce the flame to low. Cook undisturbed for around 15-20 mins and turn off the heat. Let it sit covered for about 10 mins so that the steam is retained.

Tofu:
Cut and dry fry your drained tofu.Then heat a medium sauce pan on the stove, add the sauce you prepared and let it bubble up. Switch off the heat and let the sauce reduce and form a glaze. Make sure that the sauce is bubbling up nicely before you switch off the heat. Stir the tofu into the sauce.

Cook spinach:
Heat wok and add spinach, lime juice and salt. You can add about a tbsp of water if required. Cover and cook for 1-2 mins. Remember you don’t need to cook it thoroughly, just soften it some so that the greens are still a little crunchy.


Now for the fun and easy part!
Place cooked quinoa on a serving dish and arrange steamed spinach on top. Place saucy tofu on spinach, drizzling extra sauce on top.

Serve immediately and ENJOY!!!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Father's Day Food (albeit a week late)

We had our Father's Day celebration a week later than everyone else due to the fact that my husband had a gallbladder attack that weekend. No matter, we saved the foods we'd purchased and prepared them a week later.

On the menu:
California Grilled Veggie Sandwiches
Cucumber Salad with Fresh Raspberries
Raw Corn Tortilla Chips with Guacamole
"Nice" Cream (our own version of vegan ice cream)

Here are the recipes. I wish we'd taken photos, but we didn't think of it and we ate outside in the wind.

 (Not ours, but close enough, right?)

California Grilled Veggie Sandwiches

A co-worker of mine told me about these, and we'll most certainly be having them again SOON! They were incredibly delicious.

Prepare the following by cutting into strips:

Bell peppers
Onions (we used purple)
Yellow summer squash
Zucchini

Sauce:
1/2 C. Vegenaise
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 T. lemon juice

Olive oil with garlic (I just put some crushed garlic cloves in a jar of olive oil and let it sit awhile, or you could purchase it)

Foccacia bread, Raw Onion Bread, or other whole grain rolls
Feta cheese (for non-vegan version)

Mesquite charcoal

Heat charcoal or grill
Cut up all of your veggies (we underestimated and wished we'd had more!)
Mix Vegenaise, garlic and lemon juice together
Split focaccia or other bread and have ready to place on grill
Brush veggies with garlic oil and place in grilling basket (not absolutely necessary, but so much easier!)

Grill vegetables approximately 3 minutes on each side. Remove from grill.
There are several ways you can prepare the bread*:
#1 - Spread sauce (and a little feta for the non-vegans) on one side of bread, then place bread on grill with sauce side up. Cover and let grill for about 2 minutes, making certain it does not burn.
#2 - Spread garlic olive oil on bread and place on grill for several minutes. Remove and spread mayo sauce on.
Place grilled veggies between two slices on the bread and consume immediately! You won't be able to stop at just one.

*If using raw bread, just spread the mayo mixture on and skip the grill part

Cucumber Salad with Raspberries

3/4 cups cashews
1/2 T apple cider vinegar
1/2 t white miso
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup lime juice (about 1 large lime)
1/2 clove crushed garlic
1/8 cup fresh mint, chopped
2 med. cucumbers, thinly sliced
Fresh raspberries

In blender, mix first six ingredients until smooth. Stir mint into sauce, then pour sauce over cucumbers. Gently stir all together. Add fresh raspberries onto individual servings.

Raw Corn Tortilla Chips

I have to confess, this was not the recipe we used, but I wish that it was! The one we tried was rather lackluster, and this one looks so much more interesting. We will be using it from now on.

3 cups fresh corn kernels, cut from 2-3 ears, or thawed frozen corn
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow or red bell pepper
3/4 cup golden flaxseed, finely ground
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon ground chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
2 teaspoons ground cumin

In a food processor, chop the corn and bell pepper. Add the remaining ingredients and process until almost smooth.
Divide the dough onto two Teflex-lined dehydrator trays and spread to the edges using an offset spatula.
Dehydrate at 115 F for 3 to 4 hours. Flip the Teflex sheets over onto the tray and carefully peel away the Teflex. Place back in the dehydrator for about 2 hours.
When the tortilla is completely dry on both sides but still pliable, slice or cut into chips.

Use your favorite guacamole recipe. We're not picky. We just throw together some lovely ripe avocados, lime juice, chopped cilantro, chopped tomatoes, and sometimes a little fresh hot pepper. It's always good, no matter what we do or don't add.

"Nice" Cream (I have my son-in-law, Caleb, to thank for the name. Thanks, Caleb!)


I have tried several varieties of locally made raw ice cream. They're all good, and I'm still experimenting with different things myself. One thing I haven't yet tried, but hope to soon, is running frozen bananas (or other soft fruits) through the juicer with the blank plate on. I hear it's divine. I'll let you know as soon as I get around to it.

Most of the raw ice cream flavors that I have tried were made with young coconut flesh, which I love but those darn coconuts are so expensive these days. So I've tried other things that work well enough. Should I find coconuts inexpensively, I'd sure go with those every time.

Here's what we've done (all is approximate. We've just experimented every time):

Soak some raw cashew pieces (a cup of so) for 1 to 2 hours. Drain and place in blender.
Add the meat from one Thai coconut (reserving the coconut water to thin with) or use silken tofu. You could also add some canned coconut milk.

Add:
1/4 C. carob or cocoa powder
2 T. coconut oil
A teaspoon or so of vanilla extract
A dash of salt
Sweetener of choice (we've used agave, stevia, a combination of the two, etc.)
Coconut water for thinning

Whirl away until very smooth and creamy. Taste to see if you need a little more sweetener or vanialal
We have a Cuisinart ice cream freezer that has two pre-frozen bowls (handy when you want two varieties at the same time.) I pour the mixture into it and start it up. As it gets near the end, I sometimes add cherry pieces (tart is best, but hard to find) or other mix-ins. On Father's Day, we put sliced strawberries on top and attempted to make "whipped cream" out of coconut milk, but I had the wrong appliance in mind. You need to use a mixer, not a blender -  (better luck next time, Caleb. Sorry I misled you!)

Enjoy your Nice Cream and let me know what kinds of combos you come up with.
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