Sunday Morning Rice Bowl and Smoothie

Sierra my brown mama dog says, "GOOD MORNING!!!!"


Today I am excited to be attending a 3 hour vinyasa yoga class with Elise Miller at Yoga Center Santa Cruz.  In order to prepare, I need to think about my food intake and eat enough now so that I am not too full from 1 - 4pm this afternoon. 

I decided a brown rice bowl and a big green smoothie were the perfect filling breakfast food - not too heavy, lots of protein, lots of fiber, and lots of fruit and vegetables to start my day off right.

I always try to keep cooked brown rice or quinoa in the frig so that we can add it to meals quickly.  This bowl is about a cup of cooked brown rice, 2 - 3 cups of sauteed spinach, a big scoop of Annie's cashew and pimento spread, and a generous sprinkle of gomazio.

We drink a green smoothie at least 5 or 6 times a week.  This particular smoothie has a very long list of ingredients - read the following list if you are interested!

3 cups water
1 scoop of raw vegan protein powder
1 tsp maca powder
1 tablespoon of Vitamineral Green
1 tablespoon flax seed
1 tablespoon chia seed
generous handful of raw cashews
1 frozen banana
dozen strawberries
handful of frozen blueberries
1 - 2 cups of frozen grapes
1 small orange
an entire bunch of lacinto (dino) kale
1/2 bunch of parsley
1 golden beet
1 big carrot
2 stalks of celery
big piece of fresh ginger
1 heaping teaspoon of turmeric

Our smoothies are always different but I tend to always use frozen grapes, banana, and a bunch of green - beet greens, collards, spinach, kale, romaine lettuce, lettuce mix from the Farmer's Market, chard, parsley,or any strange weird green I buy from one particular farmer at the market who always has interesting small bunches in these darling little baskets!

A note about parsley:

Parsley is rich in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber.  These help to control blood cholesterol, prevent constipation, and give our body protection from free radicals. 

Parsley is full of potassium, manganese, iron, and magnesium. Potassium is the chief component of cell and body fluids that helps control heart rate and blood pressure by countering the effects of sodium. Iron is essential for the production of heme, which is an important oxygen-carrying component inside the red blood cells. Manganese is used by the body as a co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase.

Parsley can be used in salads, in stir fry, and in smoothies. 

To saute the spinach, I sprayed a pan with a bit of oil and then dumped the washed spinach into the pan and essentially allowed it to wilt.  You could also steam your greens. It's super fast and super easy with very little clean up time and very little chopping/preparation time.

Here are the two prepared ingredients I used for my meal.  The Annie's is the bomb and I seem to never grow tired of it.  Someday I should really try to make my own.  The Gomasio is delicious - sesame seeds mixed with some salt and garlic.  Yum!

A note about brown rice:

A cup of cooked brown rice has about 216 calories, 5 grams of protein, and 4 grams of fiber.  I worry when people tell me they won't eat rice because it is a carbohydrate.  I think we all need to remember that the "problem" carbohydrates most of America is eating (or drinking, thank you very much) is added sugar in processed foods  and drinks like soda, "sports" drinks, ice teas, and energy drinks.  Eating whole food carbohydrates is essential for our health!

A cup of cooked brown rice topped with vegetables, nut spreads, seeds, nuts, or even fresh fruit is a delicious way to fill yourself up and give you amazing nutritional fiber, protein, and phytonutrients!  Long live brown rice!

From Taco Bar Saturday night to Black Bean Monday night! Eat Beans!

 

 

Saturday night we hosted a big birthday bash for my daughter who turned 18!  She requested a taco bar.  I made three kinds of beans - whole pintos, "refried" without the fry part , and whole black beans.  We chopped tons of vegetables, made guacamole, had hard taco shells, corn tortillas, and flour tortillas, and many other yummy yummy taco filling goodies.

Lately I have committed myself to using the food I have on hand.  This habit of returning to the market over and over must be broken!  So today when I was thinking about tonight's dinner I had the brillant idea to make a black bean soup with left overs.. because, really, how many tacos can we eat? We're about taco'ed out.  Kind of like tuckered out on tacos... hard to believe, I know.

I pulled chopped red onion, tomato, cilantro, and bell peppers out of the frig.  I took out the huge bowl of whole black beans.  I added some garlic, carrots, celery, and spices to the list and began making soup.

In the little dish to the right is Mexican oregano (can someone explain to me what makes it Mexican?), cumin and green chile powder.  Oh, and there is a darling little bowl of small round yellow potatoes that I didn't end up using, but aren't they cute?

Here's a close up of the red onions, orange and red bell peppers sauteeing prior to adding all the other stuff.  All that color has got to be absolutely wonderful for your body!

Here's a list of ingredients I used for this soup:

1 red onion chopped
1 - 2 cups of chopped red and orange bell pepper
 1 - 2 tablespoons coconut oil for saute
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp Mexican oregano
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp green chile powder (has a little kick to it!)
3 carrots chopped
3 stalks of celery diced
2 cups chopped tomatoes
5  - 8 cups black beans (I am not really sure how many there were)
2 or more cups of corn - I used frozen roasted corn
6 - 8 cups chopped kale (put kale into everything - it is a wonder food!)
3/4 bunch of chopped cilantro
1/2 lemon
salt to taste

1.  Heat soup pan and add oil
2. Saute red onion, bell peppers, and garlic
3.  When onions look translucent, add the carrots and celery
4.  Add the spices and stir everything well while continuing to saute
5.  I added 8 cups water and about 3/4 of my cooked black beans (probably 4 or 5 cups?) and the chopped tomatoes
6.  I brought it all to a boil and then simmered for 30 minutes or so and went to practice piano while it cooked
7.  I used a handheld immersion blender in the pot and mixed it all up to a smooth texture - always be careful of the hot soup when blending
8.  I added the rest of the black beans (maybe 2 - 4 cups?), the cilantro, corn,and the chopped kale and cooked for a bit longer
9.  Lastly I added the lemon juice from 1/2 lemon and salt to taste

We served the soup over left over brown rice (yup, from the taco party).  It was really pretty good.  Next time I would use more salt and a little more chile or maybe some fresh jalapeno.  I would also chop some avocado into the soup for flavor and extra good fat.  (I had already eaten my share of avocado for the day - maybe tomorrow?)

I served a big salad next to the soup.  The salad had fresh baby lettuce from the Farmer's Market,  pea pods, chopped carrots, chopped apple, pepitas, chopped cabbage from the taco bar party and hemp seed.  I dressed it right in the bowl with balsamic vinegar, flax seed oil, a squirt of mustard, nutritional yeast, onion and garlic powder, and some flavored salt.  Lots of crunchy goodness in this salad.

Soup can take a lot of chopping but it's worth it.  We now have a delicious pot full of protein, fiber, and nutrients that will feed us for the next few days.  Did you know that 1 cup of black beans has close to 15 grams of protein?  I bet this serving of soup had close to a cup of black beans in it.  1 cup of black beans is only about 218 calories and those are nutrient dense filling calories!  I say... eat beans!

Simple Saturday Lunch!

I've just begun to teach a new yoga class on Saturday mornings.  I rise early, drink my lemon and water and then practice yoga before I head out the door. It's one of my favorite times during the week because my family is still tucked away in bed and while I practice the sun rises and comes through the windows.  It's a stellar way to start a Saturday.

 

 I take one of the three beasties with me in the car to work.  After teaching my class I  land in Delaveaga Park and the beastie of the day and I do our run/jog for the week.  It's a lovely lovely morning ritual and I am always happy when I come home.  I am also STARVING when I get home.

 

 Here are two of my beasties - Sierra and Harry.  Sierra is my much older Mama dog, adopted 10 years ago and Harry is her big boy son - we had a weak moment and took both dogs from the shelter.  Who could blame us?  Little did we know Harry would turn into a big 80 pound lug.

 

Last Saturday I decided to whip together a simple stir fry with brown rice. 

This is the yummy bowl of goodness!


I got the brown rice in the rice cooker and then gave myself a bit of time at the computer so the rice could get a head start. (HINT --- I always make way more rice than I am going to need at that particular meal so that we have a stock of it in the frig for eating throughout the next few days)  When I checked the rice cooker about 20 minutes later I saw that we were having an epic rice cooker failure!  The darn thing heated up the water and then seemed to stop.  So, the husband went out to the garage with rice cooker in hand. I moved to plan B - a package of "Chinese" noodles, the kind you use in Lo Mein or Ramen.  These are lovely "comfort food" kind of noodles and oh so delicious, but not nearly the nutritional value of a big batch of brown rice!

Here they are waiting for the glorious vegetable and tofu topping!

 

 

The Stir Fry of the day consisted of toasted sesame oil, brown mustard seeds, raw sesame seeds, carrots and yellow peppers from the Farmer's Market, lots and lots of bok choy, and prepared tofu. I also added in about a cup of cooked brown rice that was sitting in the frig from a couple days ago.  We served it on top of the white noodles (I love white noodles but rarely eat them - lots of comfort but little nutritional value :) ) YUM!

Totally blurry photo of the vegetables in the big wok cooking away.

 

Most of the ingredients of this simple stir fry lunch.

Black mustard and sesame seeds, prepared tofu, yellow onion, orange bell pepper, carrots.

SIMPLE STIR FRY DIRECTIONS 

1.  Wash and chop all the vegetables. Put the rice on to cook.
2. Heat the wok first and then add the toasted sesame oil, 1 to 2 tablespoons
3. Once the oil is heating, toss in the chopped onion.  I used a half white onion. 
4. After a minute or so, add about a tablespoon of black mustard seeds.  Then add the chopped bell pepper.  I used about 1/2 orange pepper.
5. Add the carrots.  Let this cook for a bit until carrots are just tender and onions are translucent.  Add the sliced/chopped bok choy and use lots and lots of bok choy, the more the better, the more the merrier, the more the better health!  Greens are the goodness of our planet filled with nutrition and dense with fiber.
6. Add 2 - 3 tablespoons of raw sesame seeds and cook until everything looks super yummy.
7. I add the prepared tofu chopped into small pieces at the last moment so it heats up.

Serve up and if it's a lovely day, eat outside in the sunlight.  Enjoy.



Bowl of Sunshine with a side of Pumpkin Cranberry Muffin and Sauteed Kale with Yellow Pepper

 

 

 

Last night I really wanted to make pumpkin muffins with cranberries and walnuts.  Ok, ok, I am a spiritless spook who had no intention of going anywhere near downtown Santa Cruz on Halloween.  So... what better place to be than in my kitchen up here in the hills making some amazing soul satisfying food?

 

 

One of my lovely yoga students turned me on to an amazing web site http://grandmadave.com/

 

This guy who is an amazing chef, unicycle rider, and life liver does a lot of work with cancer patients and has devised some outstanding recipes. I like his stuff even though it's not all vegan - oh well! Watch his videos to catch a glimpse of his totally bad ass knife skills ! Awesome skill. Simply awesome. I could watch him chop vegetables all day long.

 

I decided to try his "Bowl of Sunshine" which is basically a 6 ingredient recipe!  I bought two small just picked butternut squash at the Farmer's market for the soup.  I was thrilled to see the vibrant orange color of the squash flesh.  It seemed so different than when I buy a butternut at the grocery store where it probably was stored for a long period of time and then sat out awaiting purchase.  The squash I purchased was FRESH, FRESH, FRESH!  I am lucky.

 

 

 

You will need to chop a bit to make this soup.  1 yellow onion, 2 - 4 cloves of garlic, and 1/4 cup sliced fresh ginger.

 

 

1/4 cup of fresh ginger may seem like a lot but this soup can handle it and ginger has amazing anti-inflammatory properties!

 

 

Because I am totally food nerdy enough to watch a 16 minute video, I learned that it is actually pretty easy to slice the skin off a butternut squash and then pare it away from the seedy center rather than cut it in half and scoop the seeds and guts out.  Way easy, folks!

 

 

This is a photo of the squash added to the soup pot after sauteing the onion, garlic, and ginger and then doing a "deglazing" with rice wine vinegar.

 

Here's the recipe:

 

1 - 2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 - 4 cloves of garlic sliced

1/4 cup fresh ginger sliced and chopped

1 large butternut squash (I used 2 small), skinned and chopped

1 cup rice wine vinegar or mirin

2 or more quarts of water (I bet you could use vegetable broth too)

 

1. Heat a soup pot until hot and then add the oil
2. Saute the onion, garlic, and fresh ginger until translucent (maybe 4 or 5 minutes)
3. Add the rice wine vinegar to deglaze and scrap up all the bits from the bottom (maybe another 5 minutes)
4. Add the skinned and chopped squash and cook for another minute or so
5. Add about 2 quarts of water or broth and bring the soup to a boil.
6. I think this soup cooked for at least 90 minutes on a slow boil.
7. Pull the chunky stuff out with a slotted spoon and place in the blender with some of the liquid.  Blend carefully because this stuff is hot.  I always fill the blender about 1/2 way and then hold a kitchen towel over the lid of my vitamix. Blend in batches and add water to desired consistency.
8. I added about 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the soup at the end
9. You can garnish the soup with chopped chives, cilantro, or orange or lemon zest

 

Isn't that BEAUTIFUL!  And it is delicious.

 

The husband and I had this vibrant soup with a side of sauteed kale and fresh yellow peppers and a pumpkin cranberry walnut muffin.  Would you like that recipe too?  Next blog post, I promise!

 

 

I have a thing for my red Le Creseut wok and my red knock off Le Creseut soup pan!  Look at them hard at work on my double burner Wolf island stove! (gifts of red dishware and pots and pans are highly appreciated - hint, hint!)

 

 

A close up of the side dishes to the sunny bowl of soup.  A good Halloween dinner was eaten by all up here! 

 



Breakfast for Dinner/Fried Potatoes with Greens and Tofu Scramble

It was cold today.  Rainy and cold.  It felt like the season of Fall finally fell upon us.  I love it!  This weather, though, makes me want cozy food.  For me, this usually means something delicious and full of complex carbohydrates.  To stave off the cold, I decided to make fried potatoes with chard and tofu scramble for dinner.  And...while I was at it, cook a big pot of red lentil soup which is a staple around our house. (I'll post my lentil soup recipe at another time)

To be completely honest, I usually purchase frozen hash brown potatoes for brunch or breakfast feasts.  Today I decided to actually use potatoes, boil them, chop them  and then fry them up.  It was more work but I had the time this afternoon.  We have extra cooked potatoes in the frig for later this week.  They can be added to soup or stew, used as a side dish with seitan and gravy, or maybe we'll fry them up again with some greens.

Well not, that's a pretty crappy photo!  I am still new at this here thing called "blogging" so please give me some space to take blurry photos!

I cut the boiled potatoes up into little cubes and then added them to half an onion I sauteed in oil.  I added some salt and pepper and let them slow cook until they started to get brown.  I highly advise using a metal spatula to turn things like this.  It really allows you to get the browned bits up off the bottom!

Near the end of the cooking time I added two huge handfuls of chopped red chard.  I am always looking for ways to get more green into our diet.  To help the chard cook I covered the pan.

While the potatoes were frying I sauteed some garlic in oil in a different saute pan.  I used about 6 cloves of chopped garlic.  I added 2 pounds of tofu using my hands to crumble it as I added it to the garlic. (I used 2 pounds so that we'd have left overs for my daughter to eat over the next couple mornings.  I'm all about left overs!) 

While that was frying I put together a little spice concoction from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's tofu scramble recipe.  If you are using one pound of tofu the recipe is:

2 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp tumeric  (I have read that tumeric really needs to be paired with black pepper in order for it to have the amazing anti-inflammatory effects.  I added black pepper as the potaotes cooked)

Put these spices in a bowl and add water to make a paste.  You want the paste to be a tad bit watery.

After the tofu had sauteed and began to have brown bits I added the spice mixture, salt, pepper, a bit of garlic and onion salt, and nutritional yeast.  For one pound of tofu, add 1/4 cup nutritional yeast.  Mix this all up in the saute pan. 

I then added 2 - 3 handfuls of chopped spinach (see, there are those greens again!), 1/2 can chopped artichoke hearts, and chopped Kalamata olives.  Oh my, what deliciousness!

Here's a photo of the two fry pans doing their business....

We added Kelly's whole wheat millet toast with Earth Balance margarine and a big bowl of organic grapes from the Farmer's Market and sliced apples from our trees.

This meal is packed with protein, fiber, antioxidants and phytonutrients.  You can always use less oil in any of the saute or frying applications if you are trying to cut back on fat content or calories.

Here is my basic Tofu Scramble Recipe:

1 pound of firm tofu  (I only use organic tofu)
2 - 3 tablespoons of oil
3  or more cloves of chopped garlic
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp tumeric
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
chopped Kalamata olives
chopped spinach (remember that spinach cooks down so be very generous)
water packed artichoke hearts sliced into quarters

Heat the oil in a saute pan and add garlic.  After about 2 minutes add the tofu and crumble by hand.  Cook until tofu begins to brown.  While the tofu is cooking, put the three spices together into a small bowl with some water to make a watery paste.  Add this spice mixture to the browning tofu and add salt and pepper. Add the nutritional yeast.  Stir this all around until everything is incorporated. Add the spinach, olives, and sliced artichoke hearts. Enjoy!

Hip Hip Hooray for Fiber!

I am curiously intrigued with nutrition.I've become even more interested in nutrition since I began to teach a lifestyle class at the local Community College called "Weight Management".  What I don't tell these folks is how many calories to eat or how many hours a day to exercise.  What I do suggest to my students is implementing a course of "healthy habits" including a strong dose of nutritional information.

Our healthy habit this week is to look at fiber intake.  We talked last week about soluble vs. insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber can dissolve in water and insoluble fiber can not.  Think apple - the inside is soluble, the skin is insoluble. The only food that has fiber is plant food.  That shocks a lot of people out there. Most people think that the stringy stuff they find in their meat is fiber.  But no, only plant food has fiber.  And we need fiber!  The average American only eats about 12 - 15 grams of fiber a day.  Doesn't take a genius to link this to why Americans may be so unhealthy.  Or at least it's one reason, right?  We need fiber to do all sorts of things in our lovely digestive system.  Like pooping.  Ok, enough, you get the picture, right?

I tracked some of my fiber intake this week so that I could use my diet as an example when talking to my students this week.  That's why I've decided to share my day of eating today.  I am fascinated with what I eat, what you eat, what all of us are deciding to put into our bodies.

This morning I was up early in order to make a 6:30AM crossfit class.  I began the day with a big glass of water followed by an Americano.  No fiber there, but oh my God does it make me happy!  In the car on the way to class I ate an apple and a small handful of almonds.  I need some energy and fuel to propel me through these grinding work outs, but if I eat too much I am in trouble.

After class and throughout the next 3 hours of my day I drank a huge smoothie comprised of the following items:

Water
Aloe Vera juice
raw vegan protein powder
almonds
walnuts
cashews
carrot
beet
celery
beet greens
spinach
kale and chard
parsley
chia seed
flax seed
hemp seed
banana
orange
strawberry
grapes
blueberries
green peas
Vitamineral green

I know, that's a bunch of stuff.  It's delicious and my tastebuds have grown to love the sweet earthy taste of our morning smoothie.  We make a huge vitamix blender full and usually we drink the entire thing.  If there is any left over, we carry that over to the next day's smoothie.

Our blender full of smoothie has about 90 - 100 grams of fiber.  That's 40 - 50 grams of fiber each.  WOW!

I didn't eat lunch until mid afternoon and I decided that a Big Ass Salad was on the menu.  I cut up two heads of Romaine lettuce, grated half a purple cabbage, and shredded 4 large carrots.  That is the base of my salad and there was plenty left over to use in the next couple days.

Today I tried to use my mandolin slicer.  That was a huge mistake and I now know why it lives, pretty undisturbed, in a cupboard hidden well behind the things I regularly  use like the rice cooker and crock pot!

 

I hate the mandolin slicer and today I retired it to the Good Will bag in the garage!  I'm terrified that I am going to slice my fingers off and really, the damn thing just doesn't work for me.  I watch those folks on "Chopped" and they seem to handle it just fine.  Not me.

 

 



I changed over to my 25 year old Cuisinart and I had small chopped purple cabbage galore!  I also have all my fingers!

Here's my Big Ass lunch salad.  It's comprised of romaine lettuce, chopped cabbage, shredded carrots, sunflower sprouts, chopped cucumber, chopped yellow bell pepper, avocado, chopped apple (from our trees!), sunflower seeds, and hemp seeds. I dressed it with some flax seed oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic and onion powder, organic flavored salt, black pepper, and nutritional yeast.  Oh boy, was it good and did it ever fill me up!

 

 I prepped enough that I have this huge bowl of "base" salad for the next few days.  My daughter had a big bowl for dinner tonight.

 

For dinner tonight we had "Beans, Greens, and Grain".  This is a common meal for us.  Really simple "go to" meal comprised of pinto beans which I soaked all day, and then cooked in the slow cooker overnight with a chili and some adobo sauce, a teaspoon or so of cumin, and 1/2 an onion.  I cooked up a bunch of quinoa in the rice cooker and then the husband did up a stir fry of chard and kale from our garden sauteed in red and yellow pepper and shallot.  Super simple, super nutritious and yum yum good.

 

 

I'm sorry to say that I did not take a photo of the frozen blueberries I had for dessert while watching the Presidential debate.  I love frozen desserts and these little delectable delights that I bought at the Farmer's Market earlier this summer and froze for later consumption are the bomb when I'm craving something cold and sweet!

 

It was a delicious day full of amazing nutritious food and I believe I ingested close to 100 grams fo fiber!  Yay me!  Yay healthy body!

 

 

 

 



Blueberry Corn Cakes

 

 

A couple summers ago we went College "shopping" in the Pacific Northwest.  This gave us the opportunity to spend some time with our yoga friend, Kristen, in Portland. (Don't even get me started about the amazing vegan food I ate in Portland - OMG!)  One morning we walked down to a lovely breakfast spot and ordered corn cakes.  I have been looking for the perfect corn cake recipe ever since.

 

The perfect recipe was right under my nose (actually up on one of the many shelves filled with cookbooks in my pantry).  Veganomicon is written by two of my all time favorite vegan cooking icons, Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.  I actually want to do one of those "Julie and Julia" things where I make a recipe a day from this cookbook.  It is simply fantastic!

 

Sometimes I really have my shit together and everything gets set out and ready for the actual preparation!

 

 

What I love most about this recipe is that the corn cakes have blueberries scattered about within the pancake which is actually thinner like a fat crepe.  I used blueberries that I bought earlier in the season at the Farmer's Market.  I spend a bit of money on blueberries so that I can wash them, freeze them in gallon bags, and have them all year long. Open the freezer door to bags of fruit not available in the winter - best ever!

 



 

When we bought this house it came with a huge 1980's Chef's Kitchen.  Totally outdated but filled with really fun things like a huge griddle between the 4 burners of the Chambers stove.

 

 

 

Recipe for Blueberry Corn Cakes

(adapted from the Veganomicon cookbook)

 

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal (i have also used corn flour and it was fine)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp canola oil or other mild flavored oil

1 1/4 cup plain soy milk

1/4 cup water (recipe calls for 1/3 cup but I thought the batter was too thin)

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp pure maple syrup

1 cup blueberries

 

Sift together the dry ingredients.

 

Stir together the rest of the ingredients (excpet blueberries) Stir to combine.  Don't over mix.  Add blueberries.

 

Pour 1/4 cup batter onto an oiled preheated skillet or griddle.  Cook on medium high heat until both sides are golden brown.

 

Personally, I don't think the "cakes" need any additional syrup.  They are sweet and savory and delicious with more fresh fruit on top!

 

I have now served these to my sweet husband, my daughter, my sister-in-law's, two nieces, and my parents.  There were never left overs!