warm berry snack

This is a little snack or dessert to finish off a meal. I like it warm in winter. Shown in this picture is blueberries.

Ingredients:

3-4 walnut halves (or any nut or seed), chopped (about 0.5 oz), (OPTIONAL)

1/2-1 cup fresh or frozen berries

1 Tsp shaved coconut (unsweetened), or more if you prefer

Combine in a bowl, microwave until warm.

I love me salads

I've posted this salad many times, but I just love it and it's so easy. It's just a bag of spinach, a bag of frozen mixed berries, some seeds (today was hemp), and some D'angou pear vinegar. Takes 5 minutes to prepare, including slicing the strawberries and thawing the berries for 30 seconds in the microwave. This is my favorite dinner these days.

I didn't take a picture of my lunch today. It was beans over steamed collard greens and brussels sprouts. It was very yummy. I felt I was missing something and I realized, it was salad. I've become addicted to salads. Cooked food is delicious but it goes down too quickly and leaves me wanting more. So I think to my cooked lunches I will add my other favorite salad, which is lettuce (or bok choy), raw veggies (such as broccoli, cauliflower, red bell pepper, zucchini), cut up green apple (with skin but not core), seeds, and D'angou pear vinear. Yep, I'm in kind of a rut, but it's an enjoyable one.

Brekky was my usual blended salad and sunflower seeds.

potato, corn, and pea chowder

This soup was inspired by a Potato and Corn Chowder recipe from the "Fat-Free and Easy" cookbook by Jennifer Raymond. But I modified it enough to call it a new recipe. And boy do I like it. It is rich and creamy and feels decadent.

Ingredients:

6 medium-large potatoes, peeled and cut

2 parsnips (optional, but adds sweetness)

1-2 onions or leeks

3 garlic cloves

2 red bell peppers

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp basil

2 cups frozen or fresh corn

2 cups frozen sweet peas

3-4 cups soy milk (unsweetened)

1/3 cup raisins (there's your sweetness, which makes a good salt replacement)

Cook some of the parsnips and onion in a separate pan in some water (about 20 minutes), then blend it up. At the same time, cook the potatoes, garlic and onions in some water (about 20 minutes). Mash them up some, but not completely so there are chunky bits. Add the red bell pepper. the blended parsnips/onions, and spices, and cook for another 10 minutes until the bell pepper has the desired consistency. Add the corn, peas and raisins and cook for another 5-10 minutes. Add the soy milk and heat up. Add the amount of soy milk to match your desired consistency. Don't bring to a boil or the soy milk separates.

weekend cooking and eating

Yesterday I made a week's worth of smoothies for housemate and myself (these get frozen). I nibbled on those for breakfast. Lunch was very late and I was starving so I ate a giant salad of romaine lettuce topped with broccoli, cauliflower, apples, sunflower & flax seeds, edamame, and d'angou pear vinegar. Then I was very full. So at dinner I wasn't very hungry and just ate these 3 delicious pink oranges. And then I was hungry in the middle of the night and didn't sleep well. I don't sleep so well when I'm hungry.

Today's brekky was a blended salad and some veggie juice I made for the beans I was cooking. And a few carrots and some sunflower seeds. The beans were sooo good, and I'll get to enjoy them all week. I mixed several beans, left in various jars: small red, white, split peas, and lentils. I juiced 5 lbs of carrots, plus some kale and celery, and a chopped onion. I cooked up a leek and big parsnip separately in water, blended them and added them in. Boy was it good. I got those started early in the morning and then was gone for several hours. By lunch I was very hungry and ate some beans over kale. That didn't quite fill me up since I shared it with housemate. So I also ate some raw broccoli. Then I made some potato-corn-pea soup for housemate. Boy was that ever good. I couldn't stop eating it as I was test-tasting it and adding things to it. Then I got really full. oops. Then I wasn't real hungry for dinner but had a yankering for some berries, and there was a little soy milk leftover from house-mate's soup, so made a sorbet from frozen mixed berries and soy milk. I didn't feel like having it sweet (I don't know why but it's a good thing), so didn't add any date sugar or sweet fruit to it. I really enjoyed it. It was just what I was in the mood for. It had the same texture as the frozen custard my companions were eating yesterday. In case you aren't from the midwest, frozen custard is a rich soft-serve ice cream. We were at this burger/custard shop with the kids we were babysitting. It was kind of interesting as I recalled how I used to enjoy a burger, fries and frozen custard. I had good memories of the tastes but fortunately didn't have a desire to repeat the experience. I could enjoy the smells and that was enough. Knock on wood!

It was a fun cooking weekend as usual.

yesterday and today

When following Dr. Fuhrman's "Eat to Live" plan, you measure your food intake by weight rather than calories. Here's a brief description of his recommendations. Yesterday, out of curiosity, I weighed all my food. Here's what I ate:

Brekky: blended salad & 2 Tbsp sunflower seeds (I eat the seeds after my workout, and the blended salad when I get home)

Lunch: last of the kale-fennel soup on steamed veggies (broccoli and cauliflower) and baby bok choy. raw carrots for dessert.

Dinner: spinach & apple & veggie salad with edamame. raw carrots & celery.

This turned out to be 2 lbs or raw veggies (!), and about 1/2 lb of cooked; 4 servings of fruit, probably 1 cup of beans, and 1.5 oz of seeds. That's twice as many raw veggies and half as many cooked as recommended. So I guess it is pretty easy to eat the recommended amount of veggies. I woke up hungry today. I wonder if the raw veggies don't digest as well as cooked so less calories are used. So if you want to lose weight, eat more raw veggies. I don't need to lose weight but I really like chewing on the raw veggies.

Today I had the usual brekky (sunflower seeds & blended salad); lunch was raw veggies and black bean hummus. Visitor Kenny confirmed that this is his favorite meal. Dinner was a yummy salad with grapefruit and leftover raw veggies from lunch. And I am a little hungry again at bedtime. So I probably need more cooked veggies. But I didn't have much time today to cook. Tomorrow will be hectic too, but I'll try to cook up my kale.

salad with grapefruit & veggies

Lately I've been enjoying eating whatever veggies and fruit are available on my salads with seeds and flavored vinegar. Easy and good! Today at the store, the grapefruit was on sale and it looked good so I decided to have one with my dinner salad. And I had leftover raw veggies from lunch.

Ingredients

baby bok choy (or lettuce or spinach)

1 grapefruit (best is Texas Riostar)

raw veggies: broccoli, orange, yellow or red bell pepper, cauliflower

2 Tbsp blood orange vinegar

1-2 Tbsp seeds (hemp, sunflower)

Chop up the greens. Peel the grapefruit and cut up the pieces. Add everything else. yum! The grapefruit and vinegar are juicy. You could probably make this with raw kale and let it sit for hours (good lunch or dinner to take on the go) and it would get tender but not soggy.

salad with apples and veggies

Ingredients:

lots lettuce or spinach

2 small apples or 1 large, chopped

chopped veggies: broccoli, cauliflower, red, orange or yellow bell pepper

1/2 cup edamame or 2/3 cup sweet peas (optional)

2 Tbsp seeds (e.g., sunflower, hemp, ground flax, ground sesame)

2-3 Tbsp D'Angou Pear vinegar

Combine everything in a large bowl

Salad frenzie

I've been into salads lately. I've been having blended salads for brekky (and sunflower seeds); lunch has been leftover soup over salad (from last weekend and kale fennel soup the freezer); dinner has been salad with apples and veggies. I took a bunch of apples to a meeting this weekend and there were lots leftover so I've been eating them all week on my salads.

Last few days

It's been a busy few days so no time to post. Yesterday was my first nutritarian meetup. It was fun. However, I stupidly ate too much while preparing so I wasn't hungry during the meeting. I didn't even eat the ice cream, which I was looking forward too all week. oops! I made West African lentil okra stew (a Fuhrman recipe). It wasn't as good as I was expecting but maybe that's because I used boiled peanuts (ground in the blender) instead of peanut butter (which is roasted). So I'm curious to try it again. We get really good fresh-ground peanut butter at my co-op. Other people brought great salads and fruit. Dessert was banana walnut ice cream (with some date-cashew cream and vanilla for a little extra treat). Then we made another batch that had frozen bananas & cherries, cocoa and (raw) cacao powder, coconut, vanilla and date-cashew cream. Date-cashew cream is just cashews, dates, and water blended in the blender (which is one of the things I taste tested a bit too much of before the meeting). The ice cream was a big hit.

I also made a big batch of sweet potato/peanut dip but didn't like it so much. I put in too many peanuts. I didn't think you could ruin it by putting in too many peanuts, but you can. The boiled peanuts mixed with water are a bit on the bland side, so it's better as a minor component of the recipe. So I didn't bother to put out the dip and didn't bother to cut up the raw veggies I was going to include with the dip.

Anyway, the meetup was good. There were lots of questions about Dr. Fuhrman's program, and lots of sharing of experiences and advice.

Feb. 10

Brekky today was blended salad, an apple and a kiwi.

Lunch was beans & kale and leek and onion and 1 Tbsp ground sunflower seeds. The kale and leeks and onions cooks up in a few minutes in the pressure cooker so this is a quick and easy lunch. This was really good, because the beans were really good. I think it was those parsnips I blended into it. They have a sweet and spicy flavor. These beans were leftover from weekend before last (frozen). My dish is on the left. Housemate's (on right) has potato in it.

I finished this off with some carrots as usual.

Dinner was spinach salad and carrots, as usual.

Tonight I was at a meeting and watched people eat cookies. Then I went grocery shopping and wondered if I was going to be tempted to have my own splurge as a result. But rational thinking won this time (I wasn't hungry and splurges never satisfy, they just keep going and going, like the energizer battery). Still, it's interesting how easy it is to get influenced by watching other people eat.

broccoli stalks

I've always thought of broccoli stalks as garbage or compost. Here's a picture:

Does that look edible to you? Well, I heard the inside is tender and tasty. So I peeled of the outer layers with a potato peeler:

and guess what, it does taste good. It's quite tender. Who knew!

Feb. 9 food

Brekky: boy was I hungry after not eating too much yesterday and then biking in the snow to and from my exercise class. This doesn't look like much maybe but lunch was only 2 hours away so it was the perfect amount to eat: blended salad, apple, and carrots.

Lunch was leftover red beans and rice over veggies. The veggies were broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and asparagus, pressure cooked for 1 minute on high. It was shared between 3 people so the leftovers are all gone now, as are the veggies. Time to go grocery shopping. Dessert was a delicious sweet orange bell pepper, while housemate and guest ate chips and salsa.

Dinner was my usual spinach salad. Yep, I'm in a rut. This was followed by a raw carrot, my usual finisher.

Feb. 8 food

I wasn't hungry for brekky after eating all the red beans & rice yesterday.

Lunch was blended salad and cabbage salad.

Dinner was spinach salad only I used a whole head of romaine instead of spinach. That was a lot of lettuce. That was topped with seeds, a bag of frozen mixed berries (thawed 30 sec in the microwave) and spicy pecan vinegar. I love this dinner, though I do get cold afterwards, so I have to finish it off with a cup of warm herbal tea. I also had 3 carrots and a little bit of raw broccoli and cauliflower leftover from yesterday.

Superbowl food

Today I had guests over for the superbowl so had fun making food for it. Before that though, I had a blended salad for brekky and cabbage salad for an early lunch. Then I prepared the superbowl food: red beans & rice, raw veggies and sweet potato/peanut dip (I love this!), sweet pea guacamole, and salsa. We also provided the following SAD (Standard American Diet) food to our guests (and housemate enjoyed it too): beer, tostado chips (salted), vegan hot cocoa, hot cider, and chocolate candy. So everyone was happy. I overate on the red beans & rice because I was tasting it a lot while playing with spices, and then, well, then I just ate too much of it!

Feb. 6 food

Yesterday I made 11 smoothies to freeze. ha. First I made 6 smoothies for housemate. There's a little bit leftover from each smoothie, so the snacking on the leftovers was my brekky. It was probably less than 1 smoothie, but enough. Then I went to yoga, came home, and made my blended salads. I only needed 5 because I had a couple leftover from last week. Again, snacking while making them was enough to call lunch, along with some carrots and raw veggies. Dinner was cabbage salad, and a little bit of walnuts and frozen sweet peas. So I've learned not to eat meals while making the smoothies. I enjoy snacking on them. They are like a treat, especially housemate's. But if I eat brekky and lunch in addition to this, I get overfull.

Feb. 5 food

Today was heavy on the salads, out of convenience.

Brekky: blended salad, apple

Lunch: huge salad consisting of head of romaine chopped, red bell pepper chopped, topped with sweet pea dressing. I ate this at a hamburger joint with 10 other people. They had burgers and fries. I should have started eating my salad before the food came because I was still eating it after we finished paying the bill.

Dinner: spinach salad with additional baby bok choy. I used spicy pecan vinegar and that was really good! And the frozen berries (thawed 30 sec in microwave) were a lot better than yesterday's fresh. Finished with some carrots and frozen peas and then felt too full. Didn't need the peas.

Feb. 4 food

brekky: veggie juice early. Then blended salad and grapes (too many) later. This was too close to lunch.

Lunch: raw veggies and leftover sweet potato/peanut dip (shared with housemate). steamed kale (2 minutes in pressure cooker) and beans. This was all good. Here's a picture:

I overate because of the late brekky (and because I overate). I noticed overeating makes me want to eat even more. So I ate another carrot even though I was full. Oh well, at least it was just a carrot (a big carrot).

Dinner: spinach salad followed by a couple of carrots even though I was full. Note for future reference: I used fresh blackberries and blueberries. Guess what, they weren't as good as frozen. They came from South America and that's a long trip to Wisconsin. Maybe it was just a bad batch. Anyway, I'm really full and it's 3 hours after dinner. I definitely ate too much today even though it doesn't seem like that much but it was clearly more than I needed.

Feb. 3 food

Brekky: blended salad, grapefruit, apple. I was at a restaurant with friends. Oddly, I wasn't jealous of their food. I felt like having my fruit.

Lunch: raw veggies and sweet potato/peanut dip. This was so good. I loved it. I love boiled peanuts and sweet potatoes, and together they make a great dip. And I'm starting to love raw cruciferous veggies, which is a new one for me.

Dinner: spinach salad. This version consisted of spinach, 1 bag blueberries, 2 Tbsp blueberry vinegar, 1 Tbsp coconut flakes, 1 Tbsp hemp seeds, and 1 Tbsp sunflower seeds. This was yummy.

sweet potato/peanut dip

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato

1/2 cup raw peanuts

1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional)

pinch nutmeg (optional)

Bake the sweet potato (350 F for 1 hour 15 minutes). Let it cool a bit, peel the skin (I eat it and it is good!). Boil the peanuts for an hour. Combine peanuts, water it cooked in, sweet potato, and seasoning in blender until smooth. That's it! It is really good. I had this with raw veggies for lunch today. yum!

kale with peanut/sweet potato/bean sauce

Ingredients:

1-2 bunch kale

1 bunch baby bok choy (optional)

1/2 onion, coarsely chopped

1/2 large sweet potato

1/4 cup raw peanuts

1-2 cups beans

Bake the sweet potato (1 hour, 350 F), cover the cut half with foil. Boil the peanuts for an hour. Cook the kale and onion (few minutes in the pressure cooker, or 10-20 minutes steamed). Blend the peanuts and sweet potato with cooking water (from the kale). Combine everything. It's like a kale stew. It's very yummy.

Feb. 2 food

Brekky: cabbage, apple & raisins. without the curry and onion. here's a picture before cooking.

I cooked it for a couple of minutes in the pressure cooker. I think I'm more in the mood for the raw version, easy cabbage salad these days. That's surprising because it's winter.

Lunch was kale with peanut/sweet potato/bean sauce. It was soooo goood. Housemate enjoyed it too.

Dinner was my usual spinach salad with spinach, a bag of frozen mixed berries, a couple Tbsp of seeds, and blueberry vinegar. finished off with some carrots.

Five Major Poisons found in Animal Foods

This is an interesting article from Dr. McDougall's latest newsletter. The standard American diet is poisonous!

Jana Banana's Carrot Cupcakes with Cinnamon Raisin Icing

This looks good for a treat (from Jana's blog). I used to love carrot cake. Maybe I'll try this for one of my nutritarian potlucks sometime, or any gathering of friends.

yesterday and today

I'm having fun with my nutritarian meals these days. On Saturday, I did a lot of food prep for the week, so now my meals are quick and easy.

Yesterday, I wasn't hungry for brekky, and so had my blended salad and spinach salad at lunch along with some fruit (star fruit, kiwi, a few apple pieces). That was filling and then I got home late for dinner so didn't want to prepare much, and just had a bowl of raw stuff: red bell pepper, carrot sticks, baby bok choy, broccoli and cauliflower. I poured some blueberry vinegar on it. It was good and I enjoyed taking 30 minutes to eat it while conversing with house-mate and house-guest as they ate their weird Standard American food (have you noticed that it's mostly shades of brown in color?). So that ended up being an all-raw day, by accident.

Today, I had brekky at the co-op with a friend, after my exercise class. I brought my blended salad (thawed from the freezer), and bought a small apple and a small box of strawberries to eat with it. Lunch was really good. yummmmm. I made kale with sweet potato sauce, with variations: only 1/2 large sweet potato was baked, no pom. juice, and just a few raw walnuts (about 1/2 oz). I cooked kale and onion in the pressure cooker. Then blended the potato, walnuts, and cooking liquid. It didn't blend vary well because of the small amounts but that's okay. I combined that with my weekend beans and mixed it all up with the kale and onion. so yummmmy! I should have taken a picture but I just wanted to eat it. Dinner will be some sort of quick salad. I forgot to get spinach at the co-op, so I'll just use a baby bok choy and arugula, and dump some frozen berries, seeds, and vinegar on it, like the spinach salad. and I'll eat my raw carrots because I love raw carrots. I finish off most meals with carrot sticks.

chocolate mousse or blueberry pudding

Okay, there is a recipe for chocolate mousse in the Fuhrman website that has sweet potato, blueberries, and cocoa powder. Well, I can't handle chocolate, even cocoa powder (I get all hyper), so I tried it without. Here is what I did.

Ingredients:

1 medium sweet potato

1 cup frozen blueberries, let them thaw some (in microwave or bowl sitting out)

1/2 oz raw walnuts

1 Tbsp date syrup (optional)

1 Tbsp cocoa powder (optional, I tried it without)

Bake the sweet potato, about 1 hour at 350 F. Let it cool a bit, take the peel off (I ate it, it was good), then blend everything. It looks like pudding:

It was almost too sweet, probably due to the date syrup. I like sweet potatoes so much by themselves I don't see the point of combining them with the other stuff. I bet with cocoa powder, it does make a fine chocolate pudding or mousse so I recommend trying this if you are in the mood for chocolate.