The Kind Diet

"When diet is wrong medicine is of no use.  When diet is correct medicine is of no need." Ancient Ayurvedic Proverb

Alicia Silverstone is out to create world peace with her new book, The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet.  For some this might be a highly radical idea, but this is something that I think about every day as part of the yogic principle, ahimsa.  Ahimsa can be translated as "non-violence" or non-harming." For those following the yogic philosophy, ahimsa must be upheld over all other principles.  It's kind of like the Hippocratic oath, "First, do no harm."  Many yogis believe that you should be a vegetarian or vegan to uphold this principle, as does Alicia Silverstone.

Although she does believe strongly in veganism, she doesn't come off too preachy or judgmental, which is nice to know that she practices what she preaches (kindness!).

The first part of the book is filled with tips and nutritional information about veganism and the vegan lifestyle.  Some of it I've heard many times (factory farms are the devil, etc.), and some of it all new.  A little voice in the back of my head (a librarian, I think), kept wondering why she wasn't citing her sources for information and if she was an authoritative source herself.  Regardless, there are good tips and information in the first half.

In the second half of the book are the recipes.  I've made 4 of them already and my husband liked all of them, and A.J. liked most of them.  I loved them all.  Unfortunately, I only got one picture during all this cooking.  That's the way it goes sometimes when you are cooking with a toddler.  Fortunately it was a picture of my favorite recipe in the book so far:  Pecan crusted seitan with rustic pasta!

Pecan Crusted Seitan

Marinade

3/4 c. tomato paste
1/4 c. umeboshi vinegar
1/4 c. dry red wine
1/2 c. freshly squeezed orange juice
1/4 c. shoyu
1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp. minced fresh tarragon or 1 tbsp. dried tarragon
2 tbsps. minced fresh rosemary

Combine all the ingredients for the marinade into a blender and blend until smooth.  Transfer the marinade to a shallow dish and add 8-10 pieces of seitan.  Turn to coat on all sides.  Cover and marinate in the refrigerator overnight or at least 3 hours.

When finished marinating, mix together 2 cups of flour, 1/2 tsp sea salt, 1/2 tsp. pepper, 1 cup ground pecans (I ground mind in a mortor and pestle.  A food processor would probably work well too.), and 2 tbsps. finely chopped rosemary in a shallow bowl.  Dredge the seitan in this mixture.

Heat 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil in a pan,  and add the seitan to the pan.  Saute until golden brown on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes per side. 

Rustic Pasta

1/4 c pound pasta
2 tbsp olive oil
2 large onions, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped or thinly sliced
2 celery stalks, diced or thinly sliced on a diagonal
1/4 c. shoyu
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 head green cabbage, thinly sliced
5-6 tablespoons marinara sauce

Bring a large pot of water to boil for the pasta.  Salt the water and add the pasta; cook just until al dente.  Drain the pasta.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat.  Add the onions and cook for 7 minutes until softened, then add the garlic and saute for 3 minutes longer, until the onions are transparent and turning golden.

Add the celery to the skillet and aute for 3 or 4 minutes.  Stir in the shoyu, salt, and garlic powder, the add the cabbage; saute for 4 minutes.  Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes longer.  Add the pasta to the skillet with the sauce and toss together.  Cook over medium heat for a minute or two and serve.

Beans, beans, the magical fruit...Alicia Silverstone and Flatulence

God, I still cringe inside when I think of my mom singing this famous ode to flatulence.  Like most people, I'd like to ignore the fact that we all do have gas, but I admire Alicia Silverstone's frankness about the subject in her new book, The Kind Diet.  (There will likely be many more posts on this book, as the recipes in the book are fabulous!).  She has a section called, "Beans and Fartiness"  in the book that details some tips on how to cut down the farty factor of beans.  I have just in the past year or so started using dried beans and was not aware of some of these tips. 

• Discard the water which your beans have soaked in!
• Cook beans with a small piece of kombu sea vegetable or bay leaf (Score!  I bought a bay leaf wreath for Christmas this year and I have tons of dried bay leaves, even after I discarded half of the leaves.)
• Bring beans up to a boil in an open pot or pressure cooker and skim off any foam in the first ten minutes of cooking.  Alicia calls this "farty foam."  You can return the lid to the pot after 10 minutes and continue to simmer the beans until they are done.

In addition to the cooking techniques, Alicia recommends chewing the beans well.  I was hoping that she would talk about digestive enzymes, as my knowledge is limited on them.

I hope to blog some more about the book and the recipes in the coming week....

Baked Oatmeal

A.J.’s Waldorf teacher shared a baked oatmeal recipe in her monthly newsletter a few months ago, and I tried it out recently. It was a huge hit! It’s very easy to make and so satisfying on a cold, winter morning. The cinnamon is great for getting your agni (digestive fire) going in the morning. You could try other warming spices too, if you don’t care for cinnamon. I made it with rice milk and a vegan butter substitute called Earth Balance, but the original recipe calls for cow’s milk and butter, so either will work just fine. A.J.’s teacher like to serve it with a bit of milk (like oatmeal), but I like it just like it is! If you’re not a fan of cranberries, try raisins or other dried fruit.

3 cups rolled oats
½ cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup rice milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup melted Earth Balance
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup dried cranberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. In a large bowl, mix together oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Beat in milk, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Stir in dried cranberries. Spread into a 9x13 inch baking dish.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes.

Valentine's Day Strawberry Pizza!

There are so many things in my brain that I want to blog about, but I'm going to blog about something more timely.  A.J., Greg, and I made these fun, strawberry heart-shaped  pizzas for Valentine's Day. Quality time and service were my two primary love languages from The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman.  Greg hates to shop, so I am always welcome to receive the gift of his time, rather than something tangible.  So when I saw this recipe in Kiwi magazine, I roped Greg into making them with me as a Valentine's Day gift.

The first step is to take 6 (10 inch) tortillas and either cut them into a heart shape, or use a cookie cutter (which is what I did).  Then line them up on a baking sheet wrapped with tin foil (okay, okay aluminum foil!).  I did this during A.J.'s naptime.  Slice up about 12 strawberries and grate 2 ounces of white chocolate (also done during naptime).

Once A.J.'s naptime was over, we got to work on assembling our pizzas.  With 1/4 cup of melted Earth Balance (the recipe actually call for butter, if you want to substitute), A.J. and I "painted" the butter on the tortillas.  As soon as he saw the pastry brushes (which he has never used before - as far as I can recall), he said, "painting!".  He's sooo smart, and I'm not biased at all.  He did really well with the process, especially considering he's only 21 months old.  He did drip "butter" all over the floor....

and he did get distracted and decide to mark his own pizzas by taking a bite out of them, but overall really well.

So, once the hearts have been "painted," you sprinkle about 3 teaspoons of turbinado sugar on the hearts.  The turbinado sugar is the same thing as "sugar in the raw.'  It gives it a nice, little crunch.  When Greg saw A.J. do this, he was very impressed, and said, "Wow!  He's gonna' be a chef!"  Greg then helped Aidan sprinkle the cinnamon over the hearts.  You'll need about 1 teaspoon.

 

Once the cinnamon is added, the pizzas go into a 350 degree oven for 3 minutes.  Once they have cooled a we bit, you spread about 1/2 cup of seedless raspberry jam over the hearts, and then spread the grated white chocolate on the hearts.  Send them back to the oven for another 2 minutes.  Place the sliced strawberries on top of the pizzas and serve.

I thought they were delicious and I think this would work well on bread too, maybe even better!  Greg liked them too!  A.J. hardly ate his because he filled up on strawberries as we were making them.  That was probably better for him nutritionally anyway.  This is a fun recipe for kids!!

Lucky Layla Farm

A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of visiting the Lucky Layla Farm in Plano, Texas.  I have long been a fan of their delicious yogurt smoothies/drinkable yogurts.  They come in many flavors, and my favorite are the tropical flavors (Pina Colada, Passion Fruit, and another one I can't remember!).  I've been buying them on and off for years at the Whole Foods in Plano, and just in the past year at the Mckinney Farmer's Market.  They also make a mean cajeta too!  Muy dulce...

They sell lots of their products at their farm store, and you can now buy raw milk by the gallon there too. (They only take cash or check!)    From the research I've done, I've found that raw milk can be extremely beneficial to you, and most of the concerns are public health issues. A.J.  is drinking goat's milk and rice milk right now, so I have not bought any there yet. Greg and I don't really drink milk.  The little that I use is generally in cooking, and the heat, as it does in pasteurization, destroys most of the benefits of raw milk.

Anyway, regardless of whether or not you buy their products, it's nice to check out the farm.  They have tours most days at 3:30, and you can check out the baby calves anytime.  We saw one that had just been born a few days before. We didn't do the tour, as I was with 4 other toddlers and 1 other adult that day!  I hope to go back and take the official tour some day.

 

They also have picnic tables where you can have a snack or enjoy lunch while you watch the cows graze in the fields.  There's a slide for little kiddos and some hay bales.  But watch out.  The fence is electric.  We learned that the hard way!

 

Failures?

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." ~Colin Powell

"The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.” ~Sven Goran Eriksson

I have been cooking up a storm these past few weeks, especially since I got my new Waldorf Soup Cookbook.  However, I am sad to report that none of the new recipes that I've tried in the past few weeks have really been blog worthy.  Some were just not great recipes, while others had potential, but I botched the recipe.

First, there was the pea soup (pictured on the right).  I might attempt this recipe again, since it wasn't too bad, and A.J. and Greg liked it.  I cooked it in my beloved Le Crueset dutch oven that I got at the Le Creuset factory outlet store 2 years ago for a steal.  I love it, but it can get and stay very hot, so you have to be mindful when cooking.  And, as those of you with toddlers know, this can be difficult sometimes.  If it's just you and your toddler at home while you are cooking, there's no way to get out of multi-tasking.  At the time I was cooking this, I actually had 3 toddlers and another adult in my home, so the soup cooked at too high a temperature and dried out a little bit.  Come to think of it, this soup pretty much cooked itself, as I only checked on it to stir it sporadically amidst the toddler induced pandemonium at my house.  It ended up being fine, since that made it easier for A.J. to pick up and eat with his hands!

The second recipe was borscht, which I thought I would love since I love beets.  I've never had it before, but this recipe was very bland. It was served with sour cream and dill, and that didn't even help liven it up.  A.J. wouldn't touch it!

I also made the minestrone recipe from the Waldorf Soup book with , and even though it  was really good (and vegan), it wasn't better than another recipe that I have been using a while.

I'm committed to only adding recipes to this blog that are worth making again and again.  Food that will not only nourish you, but that you will also relish.  I'm giving the Waldorf  Soup Cookbook one more shot.  Next week is Adzuki bean and peanut soup!

Well, my failures in the kitchen have not only been soups.  I made some museli oat bars that were dry and not that tasty.  I also made some "lotion" that was complete mush.  I wanted to make some lotion for the Mom's Night Out program that I am doing at the library.  As part of the program, I am guiding 32 moms through the process of self massage for the hands.  I really want to make sure that my actions align with my principles, and so I didn't want to use some cheap lotion full of parabens and other things that should not be place on or in the body.  As our budget it somewhat limited, I thought I would save some money by making my own.  Sounds great, right?!

I found a very simple recipe on the web, and ordered some beeswax, and once it arrived set out to make the lotion.   I melted the beeswax and mixed the oil and water together, and ended up with a bowl full of mush!

So many failures in such a short time.  It was a little discouraging, of course.  If I had just been starting to experiment with cooking, I would have thought, "I'm not a good cook.  I shouldn't cook ever again!"  Fortunately, I know that "failure" is part of the learning and growth process.  Growth can be challenging when we look at the world in such a polarizing way.  Instead of seeing things as "failures," perhaps we can seem that as opportunities for growth and expansion. This shift in perception can be helpful, not only in the kitchen, but throughout life.