Celebrating an all-natural lifestyle

Progress and Perfection

One of my favorite mantras–stolen from my friend Gil–is “progress, not perfection.” It’s a handy little proverb for people like me, who are perfectionists about everything, and it’s especially helpful to share with clients who are trying to improve their dietary habits. Most of my clients are perfectionists too, and they tend to envision the journey toward healthy living as a one-hundred-meter dash toward a spotless finish line.

The reality is that improved eating habits take time and practice, and that living well doesn’t mean living like a saint.

I’d also apply the “progress, not perfection” mantra to culinary skill. Six years ago, when I graduated college, I knew nothing about cooking. I could make sandwiches, salads, and pasta, and that was about it. I gazed at Chloe–who has always had a knack in the kitchen, an effortless talent for composing meals in her head–with envy and awe.

Now I’m hardly a Deb Madison or Matthew Kenney, but I like to think that I’ve accumulated some talent in the kitchen in recent years. The single most important lesson I’ve learned is that there’s no magical talent that good cooks have and other people don’t (though I do think that professional chefs have extraordinarily fine-tuned palates, and they’re better at conceptualizing dishes than most people). Cooking well, like most life skills, is simply a matter of practice, persistence, and fearlessness about making mistakes. The more kitchen disasters you allow yourself to have, the better: it means you’re learning something. I’ve had no shortage of catastrophic recipe flops, and each one has made me a more able cook in the longrun.

The buckwheat and almond crackers I made this week certainly don’t belong in the “kitchen calamity” category. But I can’t say that I would put them in the “resounding success” category, either. They were a first try, and they were respectable as far as first tries go. With a little fine-tuning (and some sea salt), I expect that they’ll soon be better.

Each time I mention a new nut milk recipe, a get about five emails asking me what I do with the leftover almond pulp that comes from straining the nut milk. My response is usually “get thee to Google.” If you google “almond pulp recipe” you’ll quickly see that there are plenty of suggestions floating around the ether, from cookies to nut burgers. I haven’t yet tried these myself (though I have experimented widely with uses for juice pulp), but I know they’re out there.

Last week, I decided to give almond crackers a try, using the pulp from one batch of almond milk. In order to add texture to the recipe, I added some buckwheat flour (which I make by grinding soaked and dehydrated buckwheat finely in my food processor). The texture of the crackers was just right: I wanted them to be thick and crunchy, and they were.

The flavor? Comme ci, comme ca. These crackers were seriously in need of salt, and next time I’m going to increase the amount I used (I’ve already increased it in the recipe). I also think that some Herbamare would have come in handy, or perhaps some sundried tomatoes. With that said, I finished them all and enjoyed them plenty: I don’t like heavily salted food, so the lack of it didn’t really offend me. More importantly, the crackers were a great way to use up what I otherwise would have thrown away. They’re cheaper than storebought raw crackers, and they’re pretty dense, so they add a lot to a meal. Here’s how you make them:

Almond Pulp Crackers (yields about 30 crackers)

1 cup almond pulp (well strained)
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/3-1/2 tsp salt (I used 1/4 tsp, but that isn’t enough)
2 tbsp ground flax meal
1/4 cup water (and more as needed)

Blend all ingredients in a food processor and process till smooth. Add water as needed: you may need more than 1/4 cup to get the right dough texture. The dough should be firm and hold its shape, but it shouldn’t be too dry to spread on a dehydrator tray.

Divide the dough in half, and spread till it’s about 1/4 inch thick on two teflex lined dehydrator trays. Score the dough into generous squares.

Dehydrate at 115 degrees for 5-6 hours. Flip the dough over and dehydrate for another 5-6 hours, or until the crackers are totally dry. Break them into crackers and serve.

These guys hover someplace in between “simple” and “bland.” I like bland food. If you don’t, then add some oregano, some sundried tomato, some cayenne, some nori — well, you get the idea. Experiment with flavors. And if you get a great combo, come back and let me know about it!

As with all dehydrator recipes, you can make these in the oven by baking them at 300 or 350 for 20-30 minutes (that, by the way, is a total guesstimate, so if you do this I suggest you keep an eye on the crackers to make sure they cook right).

If these crackers embodied the notion of “progress” (or at least, the potential for future progress), then the side dish I served them with was, I’m proud to say, a little whisper of “perfection.”

My pizza cheese, which I first made last spring, is one of my easiest and most foolproof recipes, and there’s nothing I would add or subtract to make it better. I love it just as it is. In fact, I was glad that the crackers were sort of bland, because they were a transparant vehicle for its flavor.

If you’re a new cook, and you’re just starting to get your kitchen legs, remember that the education of a home chef is lifelong. I’m a better cook than I was six years ago, when I didn’t know how to flip a pancake or chop an onion (gross, but a necessary kitchen skill), let alone make fermented nut cheese or raw falafel. I’ve come a long way, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t frequently make recipes that are, well, nasty, or that I don’t sometimes mess up recipes I’ve made perfectly in the past. At the risk of echoing the same tired cooking/life metaphors that we’ve all read in every intro to every cookbook we own: cooking, like life, is a journey.

And if you happen to make something perfect along the way, so much the better.

Speaking of really good cooks, my friend Ani is in NYC right now, and she’s got some fun events planned. If you’re a local reader and you want to hear more about her awesome new book, I suggest you check them out!

Happy Friday guys!

xo

Avocado, Chocolate, and Sweet Potato Pudding

Last September, when I posted my much adored recipe for chocomole, I got a ton of enthusiastic responses. Since then, I’ve seen many stellar renditions of the recipe around the blogosphere, as well as a few variations. My favorite of these is Ashley’s choco-banana-mole, which you check out here!

This week, I made what I think is my favorite variation so far: choco-sweet-potato-mole. Or, to abandon these disgustingly cutesy nicknames, avocado, sweet potato, and chocolate pudding.

The seed of this recipe was planted when a client asked me whether or not chocomole would make for an appropriate breakfast. My thought was, “not exactly.” It’s loaded with simple sugars and healthy fat–both of which are crucial for energy–but I’d say that it would have a lot more staying power as a breakfast option if it also had some complex carbs. I, and many others, have a hard time making it to lunch without them! An obvious option is to spread chocomole on sprouted grain toast, which I love to do. But how about a breakfast pudding that’s got some polysaccharides in it already?

Enter the mighty sweet potato. Full of energy yielding starch–not to mention a ton of beta-carotene, Vitamin C, and Vitamin B6–sweet ‘taters are a nutritious and hearty breakfast food. Couple them with the healthy fats in the avocado and the sugars in the dates, and you have a veritable energy powerhouse in a bowl! See for yourself:

Avocado, Chocolate, and Sweet Potato Pudding (serves 3-4)

1/2 medium sweet potato or yam, cooked
1 medium avocado
4-6 dates, pitted and soaked
2 tbsp carob or chocolate powder
1/4 cup water + more for blending

Combine all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse till they’re getting mixed. Turn the machine on, and with the motor running, drizzle in more water until the pudding is 100% smooth and creamy.

Serve with toast, with fruit, or alone. Any way you serve it, the stuff is heavenly. I might go so far as to say I like it more than my original!

This will be the autumn of potato puddings!

On another note, do you remember a week or two ago, when I wrote up my review of The Pump? I noted in that post that one of my culinary dreams is for omnivorous restaurants to start offering at least two or three vegan entrees on their menus. Dearly though I love to eat at vegan restaurants, I find restaurant segretation a bit counterproductive, because it can contribute to the idea that veganism is “other.” What would set a new example would be for all restaurants–including gourmet spots–to show their patrons that meals composed entirely of plant foods are every bit as satisfying and demonstrative of culinary creativity as other foods. I don’t think that the public will get comfortable with the idea that a “real meal” doesn’t have to revolve around an animal protein until that message is drummed home in restaurant culture. And at the moment, too many chefs and “foodies” do their best to share the opposite message, mocking vegans whenever they can.

Well, one restaurant experience I had this week gave me a lot of hope. It was a steamy night in the West Village, and a friend of mine and I were ready to settle on a dinner spot. We happened upon Smorgas, a Scandinavian restaurant; a quick glance at the menu suggested that it had plenty of salads. Great, I though, this’ll work.

What I didn’t realize till I sat down was that the vegan options went well beyond salad! There was a vegan burger, a portobello mushroom dish, and–the kicker–a vegan spin on the restaurant’s in house Swedish meatballs, made with kasha (for those of you who are on the website, I know it says “vegetarian,” but I was careful to confirm that these were, indeed, vegan). Not only that, but the soup of the night was a cold beet soup, and with the simply removal of sour cream garnish, that was vegan, too.

Where do I begin saying how cool this was? For once, I had the luxury of choice at a restaurant; typically, my meal is decided for me by what’s available. And I loved that the restaurant’s signature dish–meatballs–were offered in an omnivorous AND vegan form. “Look,” the menu seemed to declare, “all beloved dishes can be made with animal or plant foods. Which do you choose?”

I really hope that more restaurants start to follow this kind of example. It’s no fun when I go out to eat and feel as though the only thing I can have is a grilled veggie plate or salad; it’s equally un-fun when my omni friends feel forced to eat dishes they don’t enjoy at vegan restaurants with me. Can’t we all just get along?

My friend played cameraman for me with his phone. As you can see, the dish was hearty and generous:

As I was eating, my friend asked a good question. “Would you know if it tasted like meat?” he said. Well, yeah, I think I would. I may have stopped eating red meat ages ago, but I haven’t entirely forgotten what meatballs are like! Honestly, though, my memories of the texture and taste of meal are really hazy.

Curious, my friend asked to try one of my meatballs. After a short of pause, he burst into laughter.

“Don’t worry,” he said with a smile. “That definitely isn’t meat.”

Well. No one said that alike and equal were the same, now did they?

If you’re a veg-heavy eater and you’re wandering around the West Village in Manhattan, I highly recommend stopping in Smorgas. It’s sweet, tasty, and neither you nor your dining companions will feel deprived!

xo

Eating For IBS: Soluble Fiber

Hey guys!

Seems like the general consensus is that you’re pleased with my balance of higher fat and lighter recipes – though requests for more calorically dense recipes have been noted!

I got the following email yesterday:

Hi Gena,

Cindy

Thanks for asking, Cindy! I am indeed familiar with Heather Van Vorous’s book (though the last time I looked at it, I was in college). I tried a number of her suggestions at the time; they were many in a long succession of things I tried.

The main premise of Eating With IBS is that soluble fiber is the key to IBS management. Van Vorous posits that eating too much insoluble fiber and not enough soluble can immediately aggravate IBS symptoms (I think she’s right). She also takes care to emphasize that one must get a balance of soluble and insoluble fiber through diet: insoluble fiber can be an irritant, but it can’t be avoided.

So what exactly are soluble and insoluble fiber, and how are they different? To explain this, I’m afraid I’m going to have to get a little graphic on y’all: soluble fiber’s main function is to form a viscous, gel-like substance in the large intestine, which coats waste matter as it passes through the GI tract. This gel prevents emptying that is either too fast (diarrhea) or too slow (constipation). It also adds bulk to your stools, which is important regardless of whether you suffer from diarrhea, constipation, or both. Soluble fiber also prolongs stomach emptying, so that food is digested more slowly (this is part of why oats keep us full for so long!), and it binds to fatty acids (which is why barley and oats are famous for helping to lower bad cholesterol).

Soluble fiber isn’t found in the foods we most readily think of as fibrous (such as raw greens or vegetables). Instead, it’s most predominant in starchy foods, including oats, barley, sweet potatoes, winter squashes, and white breads. Other sources are:

Rice
Pasta (white, not whole grain)
Soy
Quinoa
Corn meal
Carrots
Turnips
Rutabagas
Parsnips
Beets
Avocados
Bananas

Insoluble fiber, by contrast, can’t dissolve in water. It lends bulk to stools, but no viscosity, which means that, eaten in excess, it can slow elimination down. It can also cause elimination to speed up too much (because our bodies can’t handle that much bulk at once). It’s what we find in raw veggies, whole wheat foods, bran, granola, crucifers, and most fruits.

According to Van Vorous, IBS management is contingent upon

(a)    getting soluble fiber at each meal
(b)    eating soluble fiber before insoluble fiber
(c)    avoiding excess insoluble fiber

I’m in about 65% agreement. I tried this method for a while in college, and found it generally helpful. It’s hard to say whether or not that’s because my body responds well to starchy food (which it does) or because I was experimenting at the same time as I was eating more plant based foods (which definitely helped).

More specifically, I find that soluble fiber is instrumental in keeping my digestion regular, and I also feel that excess insoluble fiber immediately slows my digestion down. One of the most common complaints I hear among new raw foods lovers is that they’re bloated and not eliminating well, even though they’re eating a ton of raw veggies. The problem often seems to be that they’re eating tons of insoluble fiber (in the form of raw fruits and veg), without any soluble fiber to balance it (because they’ve fearfully abandoned all starches and grains). Eating just a bit more whole grains, legumes, and starchy foods is often an immediate source of relief.

I’d counter Van Vorous by saying that, if you suffer from IBS-C (which I did), insoluble fiber is crucial in management—more than she implies. Yes, it’s best for IBS sufferers to avoid insoluble fiber in excess, but it’s still absolutely essential. The real goal is to get both kinds of fiber in good amounts, and to avoid eating too much of one at the expense of the other.

At the end of the day, there is no single “answer” for a condition like IBS, which is almost always the result of numerous factors (stress, lifestyle, diet, hormones, etc.). No single book can offer every IBS sufferer an easy way out, especially since all cases of IBS are different. For me, the most important steps toward overcoming my IBS were learning to manage my stress better, and avoiding alcohol and nicotine. Being vegan—thus avoiding dairy and eating more fiber of both kinds—was also crucial. I think that being mindful of soluble fiber was an ancillary source of relief, and so, for a time, was food combining (though more because it offered me hope than because it was, or continues to be, necessary). I would never suggest that a single one of these habits was a foolproof answer, nor could I translate my experience into a treatment plan for someone else.

So, Cindy, my advice is this: eat soluble fiber at the start of your meals, and see if it helps. Be sure to eat insoluble fiber, too, and be mindful of how the ratio affects you. But don’t be afraid to try other things if these methods don’t help you. All books on IBS offer possible courses of action, but none of them offer definitive solutions. What matters is that you educate yourself about options, and keep an open mind until you begin to feel relief!

xo

Low(er) Fat Green Pea Guac

So happy you all liked my new cauliflower rice recipe, and the idea of weekend lunches in general. I’m excited to share them from now on. I doubt I’ll always manage to remember to photograph them, but the tradition will be good motivation to cook up tasty meals.

A few days ago, I got the following email:

Hi Gena

–Sarah in WI

Thanks for your note, Sarah! It got me thinking: I do spend plenty of time assuring my readers that fats can be friends, not foe, for good reason–not only do I believe that certain fats are wrongly vilified, but I also like to think I’m helping some readers who fear fats unnecessarily (such as women with body dysmorphia).

But my blog readers have varying needs. And I don’t ever want to exclude or forget some of you in an effort to be sensitive to others. I realize that many people who read my blog are struggling to lose weight–sometimes a lot of it. And it’s my duty to provide options for weight loss or maintenance, just as it’s my duty to encourage those who are gaining.

So, Sarah, today’s Sunday lunch was directly inspired by you. Readers, meet my shiny new guac recipe:

Green pea guacamole. Yes, it’s a direct spinoff of the Whole Foods stuff, and no, I don’t love it quite as much as my favorite guac, or even my green guac (which might also be seen as a lower-fat option). It does, though, offer a leaner nutritional profile than the regular recipe, and it also has a refreshingly different texture! Guac can be a bit too creamy: starch, not creaminess, is the defining characteristic of this version. The flavors, though, are vintage CR: sweet, savory, tart, and tasty. Here’s how it happens:

Lower-Fat Guacamole (serves 3-4)

1 cup green peas
1 large avocado
1/3 cup finely diced red bell pepper
1/3 cup chopped cherry tomatoes (mine were small, and I quartered them)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 heaping tbsp agave nectar
2 tbsp lime juice
1/4-1/2 tsp salt (adjust to taste)
Dash white pepper

Blanch peas in boiling water for about ninety seconds. Remove them and plunge into an ice bath. Drain them and put them into a food processor fitted with the S blade. Pulse until peas are quite mushy and broken down–almost a puree.

Cut the avocado in half, remove the pit, and scoop the flesh into the food processor. Give the whole mix–peas and avocado–a few pulses, until it’s all nice and mushy, but not quite without texture.

Remove the avocado and pea mix from the food processor into a mixing bowl, and add all remaining ingredients. Mix well. Check for seasoning, and adjust to taste.

I was in the mood for yet another memorable lunch, and so the question of how to serve my new favorite guac quickly arose. A brief glance in the fridge revealed some fresh, local arugula, basil, corn, and tomatoes. Arugula, I knew, would be my green base. As for the other ingredients, they morphed into this simple little salad:

Summer Corn and Cherry Tomato Salad with Basil Dressing (serves 2)

For the salad:

2 ears worth of fresh corn kernels (raw)
15 cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
1/4 cup parsley, chopped

For the dressing:

1/3 cup olive oil
3 tbsp white wine or apple cider vinegar
1 tsp agave nectar
10 basil leaves
Dash (each) salt and pepper

Blend all dressing ingredients in a blender till well and evenly mixed. Toss salad ingredients together, and top with two or three tablespoons of dressing. Serve immediately.

I served the guac and cherry tomato salad next to each other. They were harmonious neighbors.

And the meal was rounded out with some left over sweet ‘tater.

Yum. This was yet another wonderful weekend lunch. I wish they were always so good!

Hope you all try out the lower-fat guac soon. You could make it with beans, too (Mama Pea has one with white beans, and there are other versions with edamame), but I think the peas work particularly well because they’re so light. It really is a delicious twist on the tried and true, so thank you, Sarah, for asking.

What do you all think? Too many fats on my blog? Not enough? Am I striking up the right balance between calorically dense recipes and lighter recipes, or would you like to see more of one or the other?

xo

Next Page »