Simple Summer Food

Sorry for not posting for so long. I haven't done much cooking this summer. Instead I've made very simple meals like this one. Which consists of a tortilla with a hand full of spinach, red & yellow pepper slices and carrot sticks. It was delicious as well as colorful.

Another favorite is to cook whole wheat pasta and toss with sauteed veggies. Anything will do spinach, zucchini, yellow squash, chopped red pepper, as well as lots of garlic and a touch of basil puree. Again it's colorful, low fat and very tasty.


My other go to recipes have been, Happy Herbivores egg less salad and mock tuna salad. Here is the link
http://happyherbivore.com/recipes/ Everything on the site and in her book have been wonderful.

I've been taking advantage of the library and reading some wonderful cookbooks. I'll have reviews and more recipes soon.

Happy Herbivore Italian Sausage

Sorry I've been cooking more than posting lately. I've been cooking my way through the Happy Herbivore cookbook l.

I've tried several of the recipes and love them all. So far here are my 2 favorites, we sampled them in class recently. Both were easy and quick to mix up and then steam.

What I like most is the consistent results, no that's not true what I like most if the flavor. The food disappears before I have a chance to take a photo.

Italian Sausage

½ cup pinto beans
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
2 tbsp Italian seasoning
½ cup textured vegetable protein (TVP)
½ cup vital wheat gluten
1 tbsp fennel seeds
¼ tsp black pepper
a dash of red pepper flakes
1 tsp paprika
¾ cup water
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce

Crush fennel seeds into a powder using mortar and pestle, set aside. Pulse beans a few times in a food processor or mash manually with a fork until no whole beans are left. Combine beans with all dry ingredients (add red pepper flakes to taste, a little goes a long way) and soy sauce in a large bowl. Mix with your hands to ensure even distribution. Add water and then knead dough about 10 times and set aside. Grab 5 rectangular shapes of foil and prepare your steamer (turn it on and get it ready). Divide dough into 5 equal parts and, using your hands, shape it into a log on the tin foil. Wrap each piece tightly in tin foil, twisting the ends to close. Steam for 40 minutes


Spicy Sausage
½ cup pinto beans
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp cayenne powder
1 tsp rubbed sage
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 cup textured vegetable protein (TVP)
3/4 cup vital wheat gluten
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
2 tsp hot sauce
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
1 cup water


Crush fennel seeds into a powder using mortar and pestle, combine with all other spices. Pulse beans a few times in a food processor or mash manually with a fork until no whole beans are left. Combine beans with all dry ingredients and soy sauce in a large bowl. Mix with your hands to ensure even distribution. Add water and then knead dough about 10 times and set aside. Grab 4 rectangular shapes of foil and prepare your steamer (turn it on and get it ready). Divide dough into 4 equal parts and, using your hands, shape it into a log on the tin foil. Wrap each piece tightly in tin foil, twisting the ends to close. Steam for 40 minutes.

I can't recommend this book enough. The recipes are easy , delicious and healthy. I've also tried the Hippie Loaf, Easy Marinara ( delicious with the spicy sausage) , Mock Tuna , Maple Cornbread Biscuits.

I've been thinking that I can even make hot dogs by tweaking the sausage recipes. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Muscle it does a body good

Do you want to increase you endurance?

Do you want to increase you balance?

Increase running speed?

Increase bone mass?

Burn more calories?


The answer to all above is add muscle. You don't need a gym either. Functional training using you own body weight will help you build muscle.

What is functional training? Well it's every day movement but adding resistance and repetition. Imagine picking up a ball and throwing it and similar actions.

You don't' need a gym or equipment either as we proved in class lately. Simple squats, lunges, push ups and plank will give you a full body workout. Do you want an interval workout alternate plank with squats or lunges.

It's been proven that the excess muscle movement ( I don't want to say flop but ....) the more the fibers are torn down unnecessarily, this is why compression shorts keep you from getting sore. Now imagine tighten and built those same muscles. Now the muscles hold themselves in place. Less movement =fewer muscle fiber torn and less residual soreness. Make sense?

Ginger Applesauce

I love simple recipes and this is about as simple as it gets.

Ginger Applesauce

6 apples cored and chopped in to large chunks

1 inch PC of ginger peeled

3 TBS lemon juice

water as needed.

Blend and enjoy.

I've been putting this on my oatmeal lately and it's been quite yummy. I like chewy oatmeal so I just add juice or fruit and let the oatmeal sit for a few min to soften.

Micro Chip Jump start eating plan

Jump start Day one: 3 meals of whole grains and fruit. YUM. I usually do oatmeal because it's easy but there are many options. Here is a very simple baked brown rice recipe, it turns our perfect every time. Double it if you want enough for several days. Baked Brown Rice 1 cup brown rice 2 1/2 cups boiling water Place rice in a 9x9 baking dish. Pour in the boiling water cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. You can use a little soy, rice or almond milk on your grains also you can use cinnamon, nutmeg and other spices. You'll be surprised how sweet these spices are all on their own. Enjoy

More smoothies

Remember Orange Julius? Not what they serve now but the ones that actually tasted like oranges? Well here is my recipe.

Orange Julius

3 peeled oranges

1 cup soy milk

1 cup ice.

Blend and enjoy.

Post Exercise Juice

2 apples

1" pc of ginger

3 stalks celery

1/2 cup unsweetened juice.

Blend and enjoy

This one was actually a little thick. We used to make this combo in regular juice but I really like the whole juice concept because you retain the fiber.

Sunrise Citrus Smoothie

One of my favorite places to eat is One World Cafe. There are so many vegitarian and vegan options. I haven't had a bad meal yet. I love their Sunrise Citrus Smoothie and I came pretty close to it the other day .

Sunrise Citrus Smoothie

2 peeled oranges

4-6 frozen strawberries

1" pc of peeled ginger

a splash of unsweetened cranberry juice.

Toss everything into the Blendtec and push #4. In 40 seconds you have a wonderful drink.

Tonigth I'm going to try a cashew cream sauce in the blender. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Karen's Amazing Smoothie

I fell in love with this smoothie when Karen first made it for he sabbath school class. I have waited to make it until we could get our new blender.

Finally after a year+ we have the perfect blender and smoothies are just that smoooooth. No more odd bits and pcs surprising you as you drink.

Here's the recipe:

Karen's Amazing Smoothie

1 banana
1 cup soy or almond milk
2 dates ( I left these out and it was still very sweet)
2 Brazil nuts
1 tablespoon raw sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds
6 almonds
Blend and enjoy.


The first time I made this I put in the soy milk and then decided to double the recipe. I forgot to double the milk and we had a very nice pudding. :-) The 2nd time I made it correctly and then tossed in a couple of frozen strawberries. It was delicious.

I can't wait to use the blender for my cashew cream.

CHIP Day 1

Coronary Health Improvement Project.

We've been feeling a low on energy and well fat. So we decided to pull out our CHIP books and revamp our eating. We're starting with the first week which is a cleansing eating program. I remember when we went through the program and how good we felt within 2 days.

Our bad eating days are so much better than our good days used to be but I know we'll still feel an lift from this.

Day one and 2 are oat meal or other whole grain cereal and fruit. You can use a small amount of water or soy/nut milk to moisten. I'm trying it this time with unsweetened fruit juice. It doesn't sound like much but it will fill you up.

The great thing about this is that after the first week with no salt, no fat, no sugar, no caffeine, you don't want those things.

Still breakfast will be grains and fruits for most of the time so here are some variations.

oatmeal, raisins, cinnamon
brown rice, cinnamon,
cornmeal mush with fruit on the side
7 grain cereal with cinnamon and fruit on the side
oatmeal with frozen mixed berries you can even add cinnamon to this.
quinoa either alone for mixed with other grains
barley makes a good breakfast cereal.

It doesn't have to always be oatmeal and the cinnamon gives a hint of sweetness without sugar. If you usually like butter on your oatmeal you can add a sprinkle of Molly Mc Butter.

We started out this morning with oatmeal. Mine was cold with fresh strawberries. Tom had his cooked with raisins, cinnamon. We each had an orange so we're off to a good start.

Now what shall I make for lunch........

Simple Soup

Sorry for the lack of posts. I have lots I want to share with you but the first one is a simple soup. I tossed this together the other night and then have made a couple of variations since. I wanted a minestrone soup but did want to take the time to look for a recipe. So off to the pantry I went to look for ingredients.

Quicky Veggie Soup

1 can stewed tomatoes

1 can veggie broth

1 can water

1 leek finely chopped

2 carrots finely chopped

garlic to taste

italian seasoning to taste

Saute the leeks and carrots add all other ingredients and simmer until carrots are soft. If you want the rich taste of minestrone add 1 tbs of vegan margarine and sprinkle with vegan parmasan topping.

Variations
1 . add 2 cups beans
2. serve over macaroni
3. blend until smooth
4. add quinoa - this will be the next experiment