Oct 2009
Mini Pumpkin Dairy Free Muffins
10/27/09 Filed in: Muffins
Meatless Mondays posted a pumpkin muffin recipe yesterday from A Life Less Sweet and I have twisted it around to meet my twisted needs: dairy free, egg free, and refined sugar free. I have eliminated dairy from my diet. I am experiementing with an eggless existance, and I do not buy refined sugar in any form. I made a batch yesterday using stevia, but I was not in love with the after taste of the stevia (probably used too much.) Today I mixed it up again and I really like these so I thought I'd post them up for you!
I am also experimenting with flours these days so I made mine with a combination of gluten free four and spelt flour. The original recipe uses whole wheat flour and all purpose flour. Which ever you prefer.......
I also experiment with spices all the time. The first batch I used the pumkin pie spice that the recipe calls for and that was good, but this batch I used five spice, a chinese spice blend, and I liked it even better. I think it is the star anise in the five spice. If you do not have either blend use cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, etc to your taste.
Ground flaxseed and the applesauce are the egg replacer.
The dry ingredients:
1 cup gluten free flour
1/2 cup spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2-3 teaspoons five spice powder or pumpkin pie spice
2 tablespoons flaxseed
1/2 teaspoon salt
The wet ingredients:
1 can pumpkin (do not substitute pumpkin pie filling)
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup applesauce (natural and unsweetened)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 24 mini muffin pan or something comparable. You can use an olive oil mister or use a small slice of vegan butter and rub in the cups.
Blend these two groups seperately. Then blend them together until the flour is all mixed in. Spoon into the muffin cups until full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool on a wire rake and enjoy!!
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.
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Quick and Easy Thai Stirfry for Meatless Monday
10/26/09
It's Monday again and the focus is meatless in honor of Meatless Monday. Stirfry is a great way to use up a variety of aging vegetable in the refridgerator. You know the ones you bought with all those plans for cooking each night before life took control once again and now they are a little less than fresh. Yup, those are the ones. So for today's stir fry, I had some curly kale and asparagus that needed to be eaten quick.
Start by making the rice and letting it set so that it soaks up all the moisture. In a large pan, heat the peanut oil. Add the garlic and the red and yellow onion. Saute for 4-5 minutes until onions are becoming clear. Add the jalapeno and ginger and saute 1-2 minutes. Add red pepper and continue cooking for 2-3 minutes. Add the asparagus and green onion cook another minute. Add the kale and cook another 2 minutes. Once the kale is wilted and the asparagus is tender add the cooked rice and stir. Reduce the heat to low. Add the peanut butter and sesame oil. Stir until the peanut butter is well distributed. Mix in the liquid aminos or soy sauce. Serves 4.
This is a very easy and forgiving recipe. You can mix up the veggies to whatever is on hand. Carrots, broccoli, celery, green beans, spinach, peas, and edemame all work well in this recipe. You can make this with or without the peanut butter. If made without, add some salt to taste before serving and double the liquid aminos.
Here's more info about Braggs liquid aminos. I love this product and use it in place of soy sauce in asian dishes, and on top of steamed veggies or in salad dressings.
Ingredient List:
1 tablespoon peanut oil
3 cloves garlic minced
1/2 red onion
1/2 yellow onion
1/2 jalepeno (whole one if you like it hot)
1 heaping teaspoon minced ginger
1 red pepper cut into one inch pieces
1 bunch kale chopped
1 bunch asparagus cut into one inch pieces
1 green onions cut into one inch pieces
2 cups brown basmati rice-cooked
2 heaping tablespoon peanut butter (I used Valencia peanuts)
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
2 tablespoons liquid aminos
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.
Oatmeal Apple Pancakes
10/20/09 Filed in: Breakfast
Nothing makes any day feel like Sunday morning like pancakes. Indugent and comforting, pancakes hit a lot of those taste sensors that makes us grateful for slow, easy mornings. Padding around in our pj's and louging on the couch only compliment the joy of a tummy full of yummy.
This morning I was experimenting with oatmeal in an attempt to increase the nutritional content of my pancakes. They are heavier than a standard pancake, but they definitely passed the husband taste test.
Place all ingredients except the apple in a blender and mix until the oatmeal is all chopped. Slice the apple into thin pieces and set aside. Heat up a frypan on the stove with a little coating of cooking oil or vegan butter. Pour 1/2 cup of batter in the pan. Press two slices of apple in the pancake while cooking. When the edges of the pancake are brown and the batter is bubbling, flip your pancake and brown the other side.
If you have a warmer, keep your cooked pancakes in there until finished cooking to keep them warm and yummy. If you do not them place the cooked pancakes on a dinner plate and then flip another plate on top as a cover.
Also, if you have an electric griddle or one to put on the burners of your stove, definitely use it. It will reduce your cooking time as you can cook more than one pancake at a time.
Ingredients List:
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups soy or almond milk
1 ripe banana
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 apple cut into slices
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.
Homemade Dog Treats for Vegas
10/19/09 Filed in: Pet Treats
Has anyone noticed how expensive dog treats are these days? If you are an ingredient reader and are buying the treats with better ingredients, the price is outrageous. Vegas loves a particular brand of bones which are made out of all vegetables. She devoures them. Unfortunately, she doesn't get them very often because they are $16 for a bag of 6. That makes them more expensive than my protein bars!
So, I figured that I could make Vegas some healthy treats for a lot less. I read a lot of recipes that used a lot of things I didn't think Vegas needed, like sugar. So I experimented with some of her favorite flavors, like peanut butter and sweet potato. You can use any type of milk, I just happen to stock soy and almond and chose the soy. You can also use other flours, but I would stick with whole grain flours.
The picture is my Sweet Potato Oatmeal Dog Treats. I taste tested these treats by placing them down next to some store bought treats and the home made treats won! We could eat them as well, but we would find them bland without salt and spices.
Ingredients List:
1 cup oat flour
1 cup spelt flour
2/3 cup rolled oats
1 can sweet potato pulp
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup soy milk
Measure and mix your dry ingredients in a bowl. Make a well in the center of the bowl and add the wet ingredients. Mix all together. Drop by spoonfuls on a cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool. Store in the refridgerator. You can also freeze some of the treats for later.
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.
First Signs of Fall
10/13/09 Filed in: Muffins
Having lived in Florida for the last 20+ years, I no longer have the visual cues that Fall has arrived. In fact, our five day fall season can be easily missed if you are not paying attention. Unfortunately, it has not arrived im Miami yet because we are still having days in the 90's and the humidity has not dropped. (Sigh.) Maybe it will get here soon.....
One great sign I have developed, that tells me fall is here (besides the on-slaught of fall catalogs and Halloween merchandise in the stores) is the itch to bake. Well I must have been jonesing today because I baked and balked and baked!
In honor of Vegan Mofo, I made recipes from my two new cookbooks, Vegan Yum Yum, by Lauren Ulm and Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. These ladies also happen to write two of my favorite cooking blogs. I have used many of their recipes sucessfully so I tried out several of their muffins today. These are dairy-free, egg-free, and wheat-free. Also, I use spelt flour versus whole wheat flour in all these recipes.Here's a little food porn......
Lemon Cranberry Muffins from Vegan Yum Yum. Here I replaced the sugar with stevia as well as the vegetable oil with coconut oil. Otherwise, the recipe stood as written. The stevia cuts back on the sugar and calories and the coconut oil adds more health and goodness.
Almond Quinoa Muffins from Veganomicon. This one is my favorite. I made one batch with coconut oil and one with canola oil and in this recipe the canola oil did a better job. I also played with the spices in the second batch. I used chinese five spice instead of the cinnamon and cardomon, and the result was yummy. And, because I never leave anything sacred, I also played with the dried fruit. I had some dried mandarin oranges that I put in the first batch intsead of the apricots and that added some real sweetness. Isa and Terry give the reader two suggestions for sweeteners, agave and maple syrup, and I tried both (of course.) The maple syrup gave more depth to the flavor of the muffin and was the clear winner.
Pumpkin-Cranberry Scones from Veganomicon. These scones are perfect to herald in the fall season. They are spicy, moist, and hmmm hmmm good. I did not have any pastry flour so I substituted brown rice flour to keep it light and it seemed to work out perfectly.
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.
Just Say No to Sigg and BPA
10/09/09 Filed in: Chemicals in our Food
Bisphenol A is a building block of serval plastics and plastic additives. Suspected of being hazardous to humans since the 1930's, concerns about the use of BPA in consumer products have been regularly reported in the news media in the last few years. Today, I learned that the aluminum water bottle that I have been using for the last 2 years was not BPA free. The swiss manufacturer Sigg found trace amounts of BPA in the liners of its bottles last year. They changed the lining to a BPA free lining in August of 2008, but did not happen to mention it to their consumers. The bottles manufactured prior to that change were being shipped to retailers as recently as this August. Yes, folks, that is a full year after they made the chamge. Can you say sneaky and underhanded? I sure can.
Patagonia, a company who has pioneered business responsibility to the environment and individual health, announced on September 4th that it was terminating its co-branding relationship with Sigg as well as removing all Sigg products from its stores. Patagonia does not support the use of BPA in any of its products. Personally, I think they are just as mad as I am. Sigg is messing with their brand, and that is serious stuff!
Zreccommends.com has a great post on Sigg's less than forthcoming behavior. Personally, I will be putting my Sigg bottle in the recycle bin. I do not wish to support a company that knowingly withheld information that was important to its consumer base. In other words, they have lost my trust and my money. Kleen Kanteen here I come......
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.
Red Cabbage Slaw with Green Goddess Dressing
10/04/09
It's, Meatless Monday and I decided on a slaw styled salad for lunch today. The ingredient list is based on what was in my fridge so you can definitely make substitutions with the exception of the cabbage. That one is kind of necessary for slaw. Well, maybe not, who knows...... my favorite is the dressing anyway.
There is one unusual ingredient that you may not have hanging around. Kohlrabi is a funky vegetable that I have been experimenting with lately. It is from the brassica family so it is related to cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts. It has a fresh crisp taste (a cross between an apple and broccoli) and can be used raw like jicama. Try to buy smaller ones as they are more tender.
I have an avocado tree in my backyard that is dropping its fruit this month so I am adding avocado to almost everything. This salad is super easy. Just chop up all the veggies and toss with the dressing. If you have an immersion blender, use that for the dressing. It took me abourt 15 minutes to whip this up. Plate it on top of some freash spinach and enjoy!
Ingredient list for slaw:
3 cups shredded red cabbage
3 stalks celery thinly sliced
3 radishes cut into sticks
1 apple cut into sticks
1 small kohlrabi cut into sticks
3 carrots shredded
Ingredient list dressing:
1/2 avocado
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon tahini
1 small garlic clove
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.
Black Bean Coconut Soup
10/03/09 Filed in: Soup
I stopped at my local Whole Foods for lunch and a short shopping list yesterday. I planned my errands to end at this location so that I could enjoy the free internet and lunch. Nothing I had to buy was immediately perishable so I gathered the items on my list and then headed for the prepared foods area. I picked up a brown rice veggie roll and then went over to check out the soups. They have a large selection at this location and several are usually non dairy.
I happen to love soup. It is one of my favorite food mediums. Soups are a great way to clean out the fridge, mixing little bits of this and that veggie to a forgiving base like lentil or bean. Soups are also a great way to experiment with different spice combinations. I always walk down the soup aisle and take the lid off to allow the smell to rise up. I read the ingredients tag and pull up a ladle full from the bottom to appreciate the main ingredients. I decided on a black bean soup made with coconut milk. I also love coconut and was looking forward to the creamy flavor with the beans.
Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the black bean soup because the coconut taste was very faint. The soup was still good so I gobbled it up along with my roll and decided to make my own version at home. So here it is, the first installment of Black Bean Coconut Soup. It has the creamy texture and taste of the coconut plus some basic indian spices to add comfort and warmth.
First, take two cups of dried black beans and soften them in a pressure cooker or soak them overnight.
Place the soaked beans in a large soup pot with 4 to 6 cups of water depending on how dense you would like the soup. Add one can of lite coconut milk and stir.
In a seperate saute pan, add a couple of teaspoons of olive oil and heat. When the oil is ready add one diced serrano pepper and stir one minute. Add one chopped onion and saute a few more minutes. Add the curry, tumeric, and ginger to the pan and saute for two more minutes. Add green pepper and saute an addition two minutes.
Place the onion mixture in with the beans and add the salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered for 30-40 minutes. Taste and adjust spices if necessary. Add the chopped greens of your choice. I had some lovely greens from my beets which I used, but kale, swiss chard, or spinach would also work well. Cook until greens have softened.
Serve as soup or with brown rice. Add a squeeze of lime over the top for some added twang if you like. Enjoy!
Ingredient list:
Two cups dries black beans
1 onion chopped
1 can lite coconut milk
1 green pepper chopped
1 serrano pepper diced
2 teaspoons curry
2 teaspoons tumeric
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons salt
two to three cups chopped greens
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.
Building Your Immune System
10/01/09
It is flu season once again. Only, this year, we have the swine flue to deal with as well. Instead of avoiding all public places in fear of the dreaded flu bug, take action to improve your personal defense called the immune system.
The immune system is an intricate network of cells, tissues, and organs that band together to defend our body against invaders. Invaders include bacteria, viruses, parasites, and even fungus. These invaders are everywhere we go. Our immune system first puts up barriers to stop these from entering the body. If one does get by, then the body produces white blood cells whcih attack and destroy foreign bodies.
So how does our immune system get out of wack?
Lifestyle is the biggest culprit in a changing immune system. Not eating a healthy diet, not exercising, and not getting enough sleep all contribute to the breakdown.
Sleep
Sleep is the number one thing we can do to protect ourselves from colds and flu this season. There is a scientific reason for this. Certain immune cells that modulate the immune system increase during sleep, so missing out on sleep means your resistance to infection drops. Some studies suggest that those who get just six hours or less of sleep have a 50% less immunity protection than those who get eight hours.
Exercise
Exercise boosts the immune system. Take a walk. Take the stairs. I am not talking about being a gym rat or running a marathon. All you need is 20 minutes several times per week to boost the immune system. Making exercise a regular part of your lifestyle is what is needed.
Nutrition
Quality counts. Eat a diet rich in antioxidant vitamins. This is easy to do if you think in colors versus calories. Dark green, red, yellow, and orange fruits and vegetables are packed with antioxidants. Eat berries, citrus, kiwi, apples, red grapes, kale, onions, spinach, sweet potatoes, and carrots just to name a few. Cook with garlic, which has antivirual and antibiotic properties. Limit sugar in the diet. When you digest sugar, there is a measurable slowdown in activity by a class of white blood cells involved in the immune system. It last just a few hours, but those who keep grazing for sugar might be experiencing constant suppression.
Other things that impact your ability to fight off foreign invaders are stress and supportive relationships. Managing your stress is important to a strong immune system. When under duress, the body produces cortisol and adrenaline, both of which weaken the immune system. A lifestyle which keeps constant stress your body will lower your immunity.
Relationships of a supportive and loving nature have also been shown to improve the immune system. Research shows that individuals with good support networks live healthier lives. Social support improves the bodies response to stress . In fact, having a familiar person around during times of stress will actually lower the body's negative responses.
Check out this article for 10 ways to boost your immunity. Or check out this book for great recipes with foods that support your body's immunity.
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.
The immune system is an intricate network of cells, tissues, and organs that band together to defend our body against invaders. Invaders include bacteria, viruses, parasites, and even fungus. These invaders are everywhere we go. Our immune system first puts up barriers to stop these from entering the body. If one does get by, then the body produces white blood cells whcih attack and destroy foreign bodies.
So how does our immune system get out of wack?
Lifestyle is the biggest culprit in a changing immune system. Not eating a healthy diet, not exercising, and not getting enough sleep all contribute to the breakdown.
Sleep
Sleep is the number one thing we can do to protect ourselves from colds and flu this season. There is a scientific reason for this. Certain immune cells that modulate the immune system increase during sleep, so missing out on sleep means your resistance to infection drops. Some studies suggest that those who get just six hours or less of sleep have a 50% less immunity protection than those who get eight hours.
Exercise
Exercise boosts the immune system. Take a walk. Take the stairs. I am not talking about being a gym rat or running a marathon. All you need is 20 minutes several times per week to boost the immune system. Making exercise a regular part of your lifestyle is what is needed.
Nutrition
Quality counts. Eat a diet rich in antioxidant vitamins. This is easy to do if you think in colors versus calories. Dark green, red, yellow, and orange fruits and vegetables are packed with antioxidants. Eat berries, citrus, kiwi, apples, red grapes, kale, onions, spinach, sweet potatoes, and carrots just to name a few. Cook with garlic, which has antivirual and antibiotic properties. Limit sugar in the diet. When you digest sugar, there is a measurable slowdown in activity by a class of white blood cells involved in the immune system. It last just a few hours, but those who keep grazing for sugar might be experiencing constant suppression.
Other things that impact your ability to fight off foreign invaders are stress and supportive relationships. Managing your stress is important to a strong immune system. When under duress, the body produces cortisol and adrenaline, both of which weaken the immune system. A lifestyle which keeps constant stress your body will lower your immunity.
Relationships of a supportive and loving nature have also been shown to improve the immune system. Research shows that individuals with good support networks live healthier lives. Social support improves the bodies response to stress . In fact, having a familiar person around during times of stress will actually lower the body's negative responses.
Check out this article for 10 ways to boost your immunity. Or check out this book for great recipes with foods that support your body's immunity.
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.