Bucket o' veggies

Sorry the picture is out of focus.  I made a bunch of cooked veggies for the week.  I filled two large pressure cookers full of veggies.  They cooked down, but this is a large bowl too.  These veggies fit into 6 2-cup containers and went into the freezer.  They taste quite good.  Here's what I put into pot #1:  eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower, yellow zucchini, green zucchini, red bell pepper.  In pot #2 went an onion, a bunch of collard greens, and mushrooms, topped with some dried herbs du province and fines herbs.  After they cooked up, I added 2 16-oz cans of tomatoes.  The tomatoes came from the garden and that contributed a lot to the delicious taste.  The collards were just a bit bitter so I added some lemon juice.  I was surprised how good the final result tastes.  I guessed well what veggies and herbs to use.  The only problem is I tend to overcook veggies in the pressure cooker.  Well, the greens pot was just right.  Next time I will use a lower setting for the veggies pot.   I drank the broth leftover from the tomato jars and steaming to reclaim the vitamins lost in the water.   It was good.  I look at it like drinking a rich cup of tea.

I also prepped beans which I'll cook tomorrow.  I juiced a 5 lb bag of carrots (about 36 oz) and am soaking a lb of beans overnight in this juice (in the refrigerator).  Tomorrow I'll make a pot of collards, onions and mushrooms, and add those to the beans after the beans cook.  I'll divide into bowls to freeze for next week.  Then I just need to make a salad every day.

This is pretty much my standard meal plan.  I'm following an easy guideline, Dr. Fuhrman's GOMBBS acronym:  Greens, Onions, Mushrooms, Beans, and Seeds/nuts (in the salad).   The extra B is for berries which I eat a few times a week.  I add other fruit to my salads this time of year:  apple, orange, pomegranate seeds.  It's the same as the post I wrote here, without the asian pear.  I might have a small bowl of frozen cherries and mangos for dessert when I get home from work.

mango-cherry ice cream

Today I was messing around with desserts.  I confirmed once again that I am the worst baker in the world!  I was trying out a "chickpea blondie" recipe that someone posted on the Fuhrman forums.  It was okay but, well, I didn't follow the instructions exactly (this is why I'm the worst baker in the world), and it was dry and just not my favorite treat.  Then I tried my own variation which was 10 times worse.  This had cherries and pinto beans and walnuts and dates.  It was a purple gooey glob of so-so.   so a few hours later I saw those dates lying around and I can't resist a good date (which is why I don't buy them very often!).  So I thought, oh, why not some old fashioned ice cream.  Now this turned out good!  I didn't measure anything so I'm just guessing below:

Ingredients:
juice of one orange
1 medjool date
1 cup frozen sweet cherries
1 cup frozen mango (vary ratio of mangos and cherries to your preferences)
a few walnut pieces (1/2 oz at most)

blend the date and walnuts and orange juice in a high-speed blender.  Add the cherries and mangos; blend until smooth, or not if you want it chunky.     Serves 2.

Nutrition and Depression

This video by Neil Nedley was very interesting.  He listed the typical nutritional deficiencies that can contribute to depression.  He also argued for a plant-based diet in the process.  I'm not going to list those arguments but I encourage you to watch the video if you are interested.  I'm just going to list some of the nutritional deficiencies that can cause depression for future reference for myself:

• Tryptophan, an amino acid.  He also mentioned tyrosine another amino acid.  You can find this in sesame seeds, almonds, walnuts, tofu, black eyed peas, and more.  Meat has tryptophan too but you need carbs for it to absorb, so don't go on a high-meat, low-carb diet!
• omega-3.  best source is seaweed or a supplement.  Fish are too contaminated with mercury.  Flaxseed and walnuts can be converted to omega-3 but not everyone's body does this conversion.
• folate, thiamine, very abundant in my veggie-based diet
• iron.  good sources are avocado, green peas, mangos.  Yea, I love all those things!
• B12.  take a supplement!

He also recommends bright light therapy.  

High cholesterol contributes to depression.  The most harmful cholesterol is that exposed to air (it oxidizes).  The most harmful foods as a result are:  custards and ice creams, pancake mixes (!), parmesan cheese, and lard.  Why pancake mix?  It usually contains dried egg whites which are ground up, so as exposed to the air as you can get.  Parmesan cheese is ground up.  ice cream I guess is exposed in the stirring process?  same with lard creation?   Vegan ice creams, while not healthy, are not nearly as harmful as the animal product.  Interesting, huh?

Year-end Reflections

Here are ome things I learned in 2011

1)  I learned a few things about my job.  One is that I can get away with goofing off at work, but I don’t feel good about it when the day is done.  The other is related and has has to do with my attitude towards my low self-esteem.  Sometimes I think I’m not good enough to be pursuing my profession and that I’m no longer relevant and I should free up the space/funding for a younger person (yes, all dumb thoughts but fairly common in my competitive field).  I decided that whatever I think of myself, I should still try to do the best I can, because I feel a lot better about myself after a good day’s work, than after a day of goofing off at work.  So my plan for 2012 is to be the best astronomer I can be.  And if I’m irrelevant after that, then I will happily pursue something else.

2)  I had my own version of a happiness project (the name of a popular book, which I am reading now too).  I read several “positive psychology” and meditation books in the spring and summer.  I’ve posted about some of these here.  The meditation books were by Mingyur Rinpoche.  He is the first meditation author that got through my dense brain in a way I could understand.  I’d previously learned the concept of mindfulness but I didn’t learn to meditate.  Whenever I tried it, I got bored within a minute, and wanted to do something else, and quit.   Two things got me going on finally starting a practice: First, I learned from Mingyur Rinpoche’s books that meditation is simply learning to being aware of your thoughts.  You don’t have to empty your mind or reach nirvana, you just have to watch the thoughts go by, and when you forget and then notice it, you say, oops, and the more you say oops, the more you are aware.  One advantage I noticed about meditation is that you start to see fallacies in your thinking, for example, negative thoughts about yourself.   The second thing that got me going in my practice was that a tergar practice community started up this Fall in my town with meetings once a week right across the street from my office!   This tergar community is based on Mingyur Rinpoche’s teachings, the same guy whose books I had just read!  I think I felt so lucky about this that I jumped in with both feet.  I worked on daily meditation and eventually found I can consistently do a 20 minute practice right after I get up in the morning.  I worked up to that, starting with 2-3 minute practices.   I’m very happy with my adventure into meditation and I plan to continue this in 2012.  Even though I still feel like a novice, I can see that it has helped me a LOT already.  Our next class module is about meditating on loving kindness.  How awesome does that sound?

3)  I had the best holiday season ever.  On the outside, it was no different than any other.   But on the inside I had a completely different attitude than before.  I cherished my time with friends and family.  I adored our tree full of ornaments from friends, family, vacations, full of memories.  I considered our tree a piece of art.  I enjoyed listening to Christmas music.  Contrast that with my cynical attitudes from previous years:  I endured my family time; I viewed the decorating and shopping as dumb chores forced on me by society to boost the economy;  I viewed the whole season as something to get through and then get back to my life.  What a difference an attitude makes!

4)  I learned something about emotional eating.  I learned what we all already know:  I feel worse when I eat the wrong things and overeat for emotional reasons, than when I don’t.  Easy to say, hard to change.  But worth trying because each time you succeed, it gets easier next time.  I also learned that for me, making certain foods forbidden is a bad idea.  Even Dr. Fuhrman says in his books that nothing is forbidden.   I have a goal to go 12 weeks without eating sugar or refined grains because that is the time it typically takes to break a food addiction according to Dr. Fuhrman.  But it’s just a goal.  I told myself I can have an occasional treat, as long as it’s with the Eat to Live parameters, that is, under 5-10% of total calories.  I figure the really unhealthy stuff should be well under 5% of calories.  I’ve been doing this long enough that a once-a-month treat is enough to satisfy me.  The funny thing is, since it’s not forbidden, it loses a lot of its appeal, or maybe the downside becomes more apparent:  e.g., the cookies I usually crave are actually kind of dry and not all that tasty, etc.  I’m about 5 weeks into this 12-week abstinence goal, and don’t have cravings, but even during this time, nothing is forbidden.  If I really want a cookie, I can have one.  This was an important insight for me.  I’m hoping in 2012, that not just my eating, but my behaviors and attitudes toward eating will be measured and healthy.

I hope we all have a happy and healthy 2012! 

Christmas Tree Salad

I've been writing more in my journal lately than my blog, sorry.  I've got some internal work to do so may go missing more than usual in the next few months.  But I wanted to post this salad I've been eating and really enjoying.  I call it a Christmas Tree salad because it's green with red (pomegranate) berries that remind me of Christmas tree lights.

Ingredients:
1 head romaine lettuce
1/2-1 lb cabbage
1/4 -1/2 lb broccoli
1/4-1/2 lb cauliflower
1 apple
1 asian pear
1 orange
1 Tbsp spicy pecan vinegar
1 Tbsp riesling raisin vinegar
1 small pomegranate or 1/2 large
1/2-1 oz seed mixture

Chop the lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower in the food processor using the S-blade.   Put in a big bowl.  Blend the apple, asian pear, orange, and vinegar in the food processor.  Add to the bowl along with the seed mixture.  Extract the pomegranate seeds and add.  Stir.   I like this a lot.

Well, if you don't hear from me for a while, all you have to remember about healthy eating is this:  GOMBBS

G is for Greens
O  onions
M mushrooms
B beans
B  berries
S  seed mixture

That's what I remember when I'm making soup and veggies for the week.   Happy holidays!

today's salad, this week's food

Today my salad is so good it boggles my mind, because it is simple.   I just chopped a head of romaine lettuce, a half lb of cabbage, some raw cauliflower, added 1/2 cup frozen peas, 1/2 cup frozen edamame, a grapefruit, peeled and chopped (okay, a really good grapefruit from Texas called Rio Star), an ounce of my seed mixture, 2 Tbsp Dr. Fuhrman's D'angou pear vinegar.  Now it's true, the high quality ingredients is what makes this salad delish--the good grapefruit, and the d'angou pear vinegar add a wonderful taste sensation that is not sour.  Wow. This made two giant salads.  I also made a microscopic version for housemate.  I'll have these for dinner?  --in 2 stages for sure.

Next week, first the first 3 days anyway, my micro salads will have lettuce, cabbage, carrots, satsuma (small orange), asian pear (a honey-sweet apple), small pomegranate, flavored vinegar, and seed mixture.  I'm expecting that to be yummy!  My roasted veggies will be broccoli, cauliflower, a little butternut squash, a little beets, onion, with chives, sage and basil ('cause I have some in the freezer from the garden), and I'm still working on the marinate, but probably orange juice and no-salt mustard.  Breakfast will be light before exercise,  a bowl of frozen cherries, blueberries, mangos.  Lunch and dinner will be bean soup, micro-salad, and roasted veggies.  I'll probably eat my lunch bean soup early because I'll be hungry after exercise.  I still have lots of bean soup from two batches in the freezer so don't have to make any this week.  Yum, talk about eating like a king.  I am amazed that I sometimes go off plan to eat junk because I think I'm missing something.  This food is thousands of time better.  I wish I could remember that all the time!

humorous bumps in the road

Here are some funny health-related things that happened to me this week (all my fault!):

1)  I gave myself a treat of meditating in front of my gas fireplace one morning.  I have a routine to help me remember to open and close the flue, which is to open the flue before turning on the fireplace, and then when I'm done I put my yoga block in front of the fireplace to remind us to close the flue after 30 minutes.  That is about the time it takes for the ceramic blocks to cool and to help the remaining unburned warm gas goes up the chimney.  I did my usual routine, or so I thought.  Later on, housemate said, I see you closed the flue even though the yoga block is there.  I said, no I didn't, we need to do that.  She said it's closed, and I didn't do it, did you forget to open it?  I said, no, I distinctly remember opening it.  Come to think of it, I also remember smelling gas when I was done.  So either I distinctly remember wrong about opening it (maybe I remember intending to open it), or instead of opening it, I closed it further.  It was early in the morning and I was groggy.  I find it a little ironic that I managed to give myself CO poisoning while trying to meditate!   Thankfully it was only a 15 minute session.  

2)  I'm still experimenting with my roasted veggie routine--I'll post it when I get it just how I like, probably in another week of experimenting.  So I was at the co-op looking for some root veggies to add to the mix and I saw some Jerusalem artichokes.  Never heard of them.  That never stops me.  When I got home I cut them up, tasted them, yum, they taste good even before cooking!   They have a sweet flavor.  I cooked them up with lots of other veggies, and went and looked them up on wikipedia.  It turns out their starch is called inulin (not insulin) and it is not digestible by humans.  I think it converts to fructose and that's what gives it a sweet flavor.  So maybe the more it converts to fructose, the more digestible it is.  Well, that didn't stop me from eating them at lunch the next day.  Sure enough, I got a tummy ache for a few hours.  Here's the funny thing.  I then ate them again at dinner!  I was hungry and I was at work and this was what I brought to eat.  So I got another tummy ache!   doofus...  Here is what I wonder:  1) why would anyone eat this twice (besides me)?, so therefore 2) why would anyone grow them or sell them?   Maybe over time your body adjusts?  Here is a great quote about them from the English planter John Goodyear in 1621:

which way soever they be dressed and eaten, they stir and cause a filthy loathsome stinking wind within the body, thereby causing the belly to be pained and tormented, and are a meat more fit for swine than men.

haha!

3)  Today I went to my first spinning class ever and it was fun and hard!  This is where everyone rides a stationary bike and the teacher leads you in a ride with "hill" and intervals and resting downhill and stuff.  Very fun.  I walk to the gym and change my clothes when I'm there.  Well, I didn't wear or bring a bra (forgot my exercise bra).  So I thought, okay, I'll wear a t-shirt and my sweatshirt.  I'm just too embarrassed to jiggle in front of everyone, and I would have with all that spinning!   So it was a very hot and sweaty ride.  I'd better go drink some more water.

4)  This week I weighed myself at the gym and found out I weighed 11 lbs more than I thought!  Holy cow, my home scale must be wrong.  Holy cow, this shows how you can fool yourself.  I knew I had gained some weight because I'm wearing larger pant size than I was 6 months ago, but I fooled myself into thinking it wasn't much.  I ordered a new scale for home.  Today I weighed myself at the gym and realized I had made a mistake last time, and I weigh exactly what I previously thought.  Holy cow, I guess you can fool yourself into thinking you weigh too much too!  and that means my home scale is accurate too.  oops.   Ah well, it was good news today.

5) At my meditation class, we usually do a few sessions of meditation and have a little discussion with neighbors in between.  This week's topic was meditating on problems.  One of my neighbors mentioned the concept of inviting your problems to tea, as a start at befriending them.  So I imagined inviting "I hate work" and "I want a cookie" to tea.  (I hope no one from work is reading this!).  I started chuckling as I imagined our tea party.  I also imagined telling "I want a cookie" to take a seat behind "Papers 1, 2, and 3", some tasks I claim I really want to do at work.  Well, maybe you had to be there.  Just try it yourself.

6)  This isn't funny, just happy news.  After 3 or more years of very missed absence, frozen organic sweet cherries showed up at my co-op yesterday!   I bought all 10 bags of them!  I hope more appear.  We used to have them all the time, and then they disappeared.  We've discussed this on the Fuhrman forums and it seems to be a worldwide shortage of organic sweet cherries.  I hope they are back!   I ate a half pound today and they were luscious.