Hey all!

So happy you liked the cheesy red pepper hemp dip. I’m happy to report that I’ve been eating it virtually nonstop this week, and not only as a dip! This versatile dip/sauce/dressing has made its way into raw pasta dishes, a few wraps, a salad or two, and more than one snack plates since Monday. I love it, and I’ll be making a double batch on Sunday when I prep for next week.

Well over a year ago, I blogged about one of my favorite raw foods: kelp noodles. If you missed that post and you’ve never heard of kelp, let alone a kelp noodle, let me recap: Kelp noodles are made from all natural, raw kelp that has been stripped of its outer skin (leaving a clear, thin interior). They’re then preserved in sodium alginate, a natural salt that’s also seaweed derived. They require no heating, prepping, or soaking (unless you want to soak them), and they keep for up to six months in the packaging they’re sent in. Best of all? They’re crunchy, fresh tasting, and, unlike other sea veggies, they’re not at all “fishy.”

They taste so neutral, in fact, that they’re a downright ideal substitute for regular pasta. Unlike conventional pasta, however, they’re raw, vegan, gluten free, and boast all of the benefits of sea veggies, including thyroid function, metabolic support, and iodine (for more on my adoration of sea vegetables and some fun facts about iodine, check out this post). They also contain a surprising 15% of your DV of calcium! They are not, however, calorically dense (we’re talking 15 kcal for a serving), so you have to be sure, if you eat them, to eat them with a sauce or other food that provides some proper caloric density, or be mindful of it at other moments of the day.

You all know that I love my zucchini pasta, and I’m also very fond of many whole grain, vegan pastas, such as the Eden brand kamut spirals or the Tinkyada brand of rice pasta. But kelp noodles really might top my list. You can’t beat them for convenience — I can literally pull them out of the package and plate them — nor for texture and neutral taste. They’re also delicious boiled — they soften up, so anyone who isn’t into their usual crunch will find that they’re more palatable that way, if no longer technically “raw.”

The problem with kelp noodles is that they’re devilishly hard to find. I really prefer the Sea Tangle brand to all others, but I rarely ever see it in stores, so I always have to order online. And if you’re about to ask me how to get your hands on some of them, I have to give you the same advice: I don’t know of many stores that carry kelp noodles, so ordering them directly from Sea Tangle is probably your best bet.

Fortunately, I did happen to find kelp noodles at High Vibe this week. Ecstatic, I bought three package — kelp noodles for weeks! (That’s a lie: given how I eat, they’ll probably last me, oh, a couple days.) Last night, still in the first flush of love with my cheesy red pepper and hemp dip, I decided to use it as a noodle sauce. The result? This deliciousness:

Kelp Noodles, dressed with cheesy red pepper and hemp dip and served with a big kale and spinach salad:

I couldn’t have asked for a tastier way to bring kelp noodles back into my life! This dinner got two big thumbs up from me, and it’s definitely what’s on the menu tonight.

Speaking of menus, I’m in the middle of a desk lunch, and itching to focus on my food. Before I go, though, I wanted to share a little Q&A from my last set of comments. Reader Teresa wrote:

Your meals always look so good. I especially love the wrap paired up with a gorgeous salad. I have a question….I am fairly new in discovering a whole new healthy way of eating…Do you ever get tierd of eating so healthy? Any cravings like something out of the way you eat on a daily basis. I’ve omitted coffee but still like the smell of fresh brewed beans—-I’ve given up eating meat —-but I still crave them when I see others eating them. Just curious on your opinion.

I wrote back,

Hey Teresa,

Well, if coffee is what you’re talking about, I’m sure you’ll have seen the many posts where I talk about being a coffee fanatic, yeah? I drink it every morning, and I don’t find that it interferes with my health.

As for “unhealthy” food, I hope it’s not too annoying to say no, I really don’t. I haven’t eaten red meat since I was little (by choice), don’t have a taste for any popular processed snack foods (like Cheetos or whatnot), and don’t have a problematic sweet tooth. So the closest I get to junk food cravings is usually cravings for carob covered rice cakes, or the rare hankering for toffuti cream cheese. And if I’m ever dying for either food, I go right ahead and have it (ok, the Toffuti is less likely, because its partially hydrogenated and thus pretty nast to me, but the carob rice cakes, or perhaps some soy chocolate pudding? Heck yes.).

I get asked this question a lot, and I think that the real answer you’re looking for is this: I don’t crave “unhealthy” food because I eat three very substantial, very nutrient rich meals a day, and I snack when I feel like it. I heed unusual food cravings when I have them (like the above–I have zero problem indulging a craving that’s a little out of the ordinary), but to be honest, it’s once in a blue moon, and that’s simply because I never feel overly starved or deprived. Most women I see who crave stimulating foods — like processed foods or too many sweets — are simply not eating enough, period. They’re eating mini meals or skimping at various moments in the day, and compensating with snacky or junky cravings as a result. Satiety with nourishing whole foods is really, really key!

Gena

PS. Teresa, I also put “unhealthy” in quotes because I really don’t like talking about food in good/bad forbidden/allowed dichotomies.

I should also have added that I never, ever feel like I’m trying to “stick to” a healthy diet. I eat exactly in accordance with my tastes: you’ll never see food on this blog that I ate only because I thought it would be good for me, or that leaves me only half-satisfied and wanting more. You’ll also never hear me talking about food I lust after that isn’t a part of my diet, because there are no such foods: it’s safe to say that I eat a whole lot of everything I really like. And I feel so lucky that I have the means to fill my fridge with foods that give me pleasure.

So, raw kale salads, collard wraps, beans, greens, veganism: these habits don’t stem from a sense of duty. Well, that’s not entirely true: I do feel an ethical imperative to live a vegan life, so in that sense I feel that veganism is my duty as a person. But what I mean is that my sense of obligation to live the way I live is never an unpleasant one, or one that I resent: it’s in keeping with my desires. And in that sense I suppose it isn’t duty at all, so much as choice.

Looking back, I’m pretty sure that’s where the blog URL came from

What about you, dear readers? Where do your healthy food choices come from? And equally important: what are occasional cravings you like to heed? Does anyone else like carob covered rice cakes as much as I do?

I’ll be back later this weekend from upstate. I’ll be up there for a memorial, sadly, but with Chloe, which is wonderful no matter what the circumstance.

xo

First things first: I’m sorry if I had you all craving chocolate at your desks yesterday!

Any top chef fans out there? Though my loyalty to the show wavered significantly when they awarded the title to season 5′s aging frat boy, Hosea, I’m still a devoted fan. I’ve actually been enjoying this season. I’m rooting for Angelo. Why? Because he’s arrogant, and arrogant cheftestants are by far the most fun to watch. I still miss Stefan like crazy.

A cheftestant who I didn’t much like was season 3′s Sara: I thought she was whiney and childish. But if I’m correct, she did make a cool “upscale barbecue” dish at the start of the season, which was really just a spin on a familiar favorite: grilled beef lettuce wraps. (To be fair, I’m sure that I’m ignorant of the nuances of this dish, and that there are many varieties out there that I’m not aware of. So perhaps grilled beef lettuce wraps aren’t really the same as what Sara made. But work with me here.)

If you google “Asian lettuce wraps,” you’ll get a whole lot of recipes that look vaguely similar. They all involve lettuce cups (obviously), and most of them also involve a layer of rice, a layer of cucumbers, and a layer of beef–either ground beef, or grilled beef strips. This is one of the many dishes I discovered post-veganism, so I’ve never actually tried the original version, but I have to say that, if we can somehow ignore the whole beef thing for a moment, these guys look like my cup of tea. They’re simple, tasty, semi-raw, and feature clean ingredients and flavors. All of my favorite thigns.

So, when I found myself with some jicama on hand a few nights ago — jicama being the vegetable I most enjoy using as a raw “rice” base — I thought, wouldn’t it be easy to rawify and veganize Asian lettuce wraps? All that needs to go is the beef, really; these can be made with jicama “rice,” but regular rice would work nicely, too.

Here’s the dinner that resulted from this little moment of brainstorming. It was one of my favorite raw entrees of the past few weeks: a little sweet, a little spicy, and easy to make, if you put aside 8 hours of time to marinade your vegetables. It would also be a fun dish to serve with company: if you doubled the quantity, everyone could enjoy the process of assembling their wraps, and you could definitely add to or vary the toppings. Sky’s the limit!

Raw Vegan Asian Lettuce Wraps (makes 4 wraps, and serves about 2)

For the marinated cucumbers:

1 small cucumber, very thinly sliced
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp agave syrup
1 tsp nama shoyu or tamari
1 tsp sesame oil
Healthy dash red pepper flakes

Mix all liquid ingredients with the cucumber and add red pepper to taste. Let marinate for at least 8 hours. When you’re ready to use them, they’ll look like this:

For the portobello “beef”:

1 extra large portobello mushroom, or two small, sliced into strips
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp nama shoyu or tamari
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 clove garlic, minced (if you like! I don’t like, but lots of people do)

Combine all iquid ingredients and garlic if you’re using it, and submerge the mushroom strips into the marinade. Let sit in the fridge overnight or for eight hours, flipping the mushroom once or twice.

For the “rice”:

1 medium/large jicama, peeled and cubed
1.5 tbsp mirin. If you don’t have mirin or can’t afford it, use 2 tsp agave syrup instead
1.5 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1) Chop jicama in a food processor till it resembles “rice.” Remove it, and squeeze it through a nut milk bag, cheesecloth, or simply some paper towels to release a lot of excess moisture.

See? I just used paper towels. When you’re done, it should be relatively dry and crumbly.

2) Mix jicama “rice” with mirin and rice vinegar. If you think it needs salt, add a dash or tamari or nama shoyu.

For the wraps:

4 large butter lettuce leaves

To assemble the wraps:

1. Prepare the marinated cucumbers and portobello, and let sit overnight (or for eight hours) in the fridge.

2. Prepare the jicama “rice.”

3. Before you’re ready to eat, lay out the butter lettuce leaves. Top your first with some of the jicama rice, some of the cucumber (you’ll obviously want to remove them from the marinade!), and then a few strips of the mushroom (ditto!). Repeat with the three remaining lettuce leaves, and add any leftover fillings to the others, so that you have four fully loaded wraps. Enjoy!

See how cool they are?

A perfect, flavorful bite.

To go along with my wraps, I threw together a simple summer salad: 1/2 cup of garbanzos, 1/3 cup cucumbers, sea salt, lemon, fresh dill, olive oil, and 1/2 cup of the best cherry tomatoes I’ve ever eaten–no joke!–fresh from the farmer’s market:

Yum.

This salad almost vied with the wraps for the starring role in my dinner. But in the end, the wraps won:

What a fresh, easy meal! And perfect for this week long heat wave we’ve had.

Hope you guys are interested in giving this dish a shot. As I said, you could absolutely use a cooked grain if you don’t have a processor to make the jicama “rice,” and you can use any number of sauces, marinades, or veggie toppings with it. As with all of my favorite meal ideas, this isn’t a recipe so much as it is a template for you to run with.

I’m pleased to say that, as of last night, my internet is back up and running. I’m even happier to say that, at this time tomorrow, I will be wandering the streets of San Francisco!

A few words about the genesis of this trip: as you all know, I have a best friend. Her name is Chloe. Chloe and her husband, Knud, live in New Orleans. This is sometimes cool, because I get to visit The Big Easy, but most of the time it’s rather sucky, because I miss having Chloe nearby. Whenever she and I have a chance to hang out, I grab it. Chloe and Knud were supposed to come to NYC for Labor Day, but they realized that tickets to San Francisco were even cheaper, so they booked a weekend there. When I learned about this change in plans, there was only one thing to do: follow them.

This will be my first trip ever to the west coast (east coaster that I am, I’ve never been further west than Chicago), so I’m very excited. Most of all, I’m excited to eat at some of San Fran’s amazing vegan restaurants, to visit its markets, to hang with my favorite girl crush, and to hug Chloe so often that she wants to strangle me by the time we leave. (Get excited, bun.) Some of you have asked if I’m planning a blogger meetup: to be honest, this is such a short weekend (2 full days, 2 travel days), that I really want to devote most of my time to being with Chloe and Knud. But I do have plans with some friends who I’ve made through blogging, and vegan dining aplenty is of course on my agenda. Get ready for some serious food porn!

I’ll check in tomorrow, then, from The City by the Bay. Have a great afternoon!

xo

So I had a breakdown on the phone with Time Warner Cable last night.

Perhaps “breakdown” is a strong word. I burst into tears and uttered the words, “please, sir, you can’t do this to me,” when I was told that no technician would be available to fix my modem until next Wednesday. Does that count?

In retrospect, this little episode should have been a welcome, and perhaps a cautionary, signal of how dependent my life has become on the whims of technology. But it didn’t feel welcome. It felt like a breakdown.

Before you decide to stage a “Gena, you’ve gotten a little too attached to blogging” intervention, let me ‘splain: it isn’t just blogging. I take a lot of work home, each and every night, and a lot of it needs to happen online. My counseling practice is, at this point, almost exclusively via email, and there are other parts of my work life that depend heavily on internet access. So, not having a working modem means a lot more than having to update my blog from the office. It means falling way behind on a lot of things I need to do in order to make a living.

And it wasn’t just that. It had been a long week: my work schedule switched around again to the insane rhythm I was keeping up at the start of this past summer. I had fifty dollars stolen from my wallet. And it’s that time of the month.

In short, not the optimal moment for my internet to go out.

Fortunately, my heroic mother was on the line when I got off with Time Warner, and she assured me that all would be well. (And it will be: thanks to my hysteria, I have an appointment with a technician on Thursday.) She also recommended I go to sleep immediately, which was the best advice I’ve heard in ages. I tidied up my little apartment, closed all of my books and manuscript pages, and went to bed at 9:57 pm. I woke up this morning, and for once I sipped my coffee without the distraction of emails and blog reading. Instead, I gazed out my window onto Columbus Avenue, and remembered that there was a time in my life (not so long ago, really) when my early morning ritual didn’t involve frenetic internet activity. It involved a quiet appreciation of the sounds of New York City waking up.

It was really nice.

I’ll never be a person who likes to “escape.” I like being plugged into the action at every moment. Even when I travel, one of my favorite moments in the day is the moment when I have some time to write emails and check in at the office. I can’t help it; it’s just how I am. There’s pressure aplenty in our busy age to unplug and go offline and empty our minds. This is fine, but it isn’t me: I like being “on.” Still, this morning reminded me that I am capable of appreciating quiet, if not constitutionally suited to enjoy it for very long. So in a way, I’m grateful to my internet for momentarily abandoning me.

Though if my modem’s not fixed by Thursday night, I can’t be held responsible for my actions.

On to the food. Recently, I saw that Brigid had made my tofu scramble, and that she really liked it (thank you, Brigid!). This reminded me of a reader request I’d recently gotten for “tofu burgers that won’t crumble and fall apart on the grill.” According to this reader, such things are a rarity. I’d never made tofu burgers before, but it sounded like an excellent challenge to me—especially since I’ve been on a burger kick lately (still haven’t tried my chickpea and sweet potato burgers? Do it!).

My goal was to find a way to bind the burgers together without making them too dense. My solution was to use a bit of whole grains (oats) and a bit of nut/seed butter (tahini). It worked better than I could have imagined. And the taste? Thanks to carrots, nutritional yeast, and a bit of nama shoyu, these were delectable. And not even a little crumbly. Here’s how it’s all done:

Gena’s Tofu Burgers (yields 4)

12 oz tofu, extra firm and pressed if possible
2/3 cup rolled oats
2 tbsp tahini
2 small carrots, grated
2 small stalks celery, chopped
¼ cup nooch
1 tbsp + 1 tsp nama shoyu, tamari, or soy sauce

1) Mix all ingredients in a food processor. You’ll want to begin by pulsing, and then let the motor go till it’s all well mixed and fairly uniform.

2) Shape into patties.

3) Heat a skillet or grill pan (or, if you don’t live in an apartment with the kitchen the size of a shoebox, heat up your grill), and grill the burgers until each side is crispy and golden brown.

4) Serve, if you’d like, with salad and avocado strips—because what isn’t made better with avocado?

These burgers were a shining example of how wonderful it is that I have readers who write in with requests for food. I’d never have thought to make them–usually, if I want a burger, I’ll make my sunshine burgers, raw or cooked—but now that I have, I imagine they’ll make a regular appearance in the CR kitchen. Thanks to all of you for continually challenging me to go outside of my routines!

And now, It’s back to work I go. I ask you all to cross your fingers and hope that I’m the proud owner of a new modem very, very soon. I already did away with my pride on the phone with Time Warner last night; I’d hate to think how pitiable I’ll get if there’s a “next time.”

xo

Ah, chia seeds. They never fail to elicit a reaction. Glad you guys are excited about Heathy’s pudding.

I’ve spent a fair bit of time at the Whole Foods salad bar in the last few weeks, sometimes out of necessity (lunches with friends or other publishing folk) and sometimes out of laziness (or rather, a failure to pack lunch). And then came the Summit, and two large salad beasts in as many days. One dish I’ve noticed at both the NYC and the Chicago WF’s is curried pineapple, cashew, and tempeh salad with quinoa. If I’m not mistaken, this is a whole lot like the pineapple-cashew-quinoa stirfry from Vegonomicon.

If you don’t have that cookbook, or you haven’t tried that dish, I suggest you remedy both oversights immediately. If you want to a dish that resembles Isa’s original—a flavorful medley of cashews, quinoa, pineapple, and curry—go to Whole Foods, and try their curried pineapple, quinoa, and tempeh salad. And if you like the sound of that dish, but you wish it were just a little more RAW, well then, you can try out the salad below.

See, I tasted the Whole Foods salad a week or two ago, and I was very impressed. But the raw veggie fiend in me couldn’t help but wish that it were more about the raw veggies, and less about the quinoa. (Not that I don’t love quinoa. I think we know that I do.) I wondered whether or not I might steal the trio of curry, pineapple, and tempeh, but turn them into a dinner salad, rather than a pilaf.

Mission. Accomplished. This killed two birds with one stone fed two birds with one scone (thanks, Mama Pea and Bitt!): 1) I created yet another fruity salad dressing and 2) I did justice to the Whole Foods dish while all the while upping the veggie factor at least threefold. I love it when recipe development is this easy.

I don’t much like pineapple, so at first I questioned whether or not to include it as an ingredient at all. But I couldn’t deny that the pineapple chunks had added a nice flavor to the WF dish. Rather than chopping up fruit and throwing it in the salad, I figured I’d make a pineapple dressing for my veggies: pineapple flavor, but not too much of it. As it turns out, this is one of my favorite new dressings, and an added bonus is that I got to use some of the lovely Spice House curry powder that I got in my HLS swag bag.

The salad itself, while perfect for this dressing, is a fresh and healthy mix that would work with any old vinaigrette (it would be especially fun with my spicy Thai dressing!).

Curried Pineapple Salad with Tempeh (salad serves 1; dressing yields 2 cups)

For the dressing:

2 cups pineapple, chopped
5 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp nama shoyu
2 tsp curry
1/4 cup cilantro

Blend all ingredients in a blender till smooth.

For the salad:

1 cup watercress
1 cup baby arugula
1 grated carrot
1/2 cup grated red cabbage
small handful pea shoots, chopped
4 oz baked tempeh (instructions below)
1 tbsp almond slivers

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Take 4 oz of raw, cubed tempeh, and toss it in 1 tbsp nama shoyu mixed with 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar and 1 tsp agave. Place tempeh in a baking dish and bake for 30 minutes, till cooked through.

2) Mix all salad ingredients, including hot tempeh, together. Dress with a few tablespoons of pineapple curry dressing, and serve.

See how full of green this salad is? Far more interesting than a uniformly beige sea of quinoa and tempeh:

This is a great example of a high-raw dinner: more focused on raw veggies than a typical dinner entree might be, but featuring one warm ingredient. If you’d like to make it all raw, you could simply add more almonds to the dish for density, or you could try crumbling a Larabar on top of the dressed salad. That sounds pretty amazing to me, and I think I’m going to try it out in the next few days! I always enjoy the challenge of taking an almost all cooked meal and making it just a little more raw. It’s an easy way to get more of the crispy fruits and veggies I love into my diet, and also to impose some creativity on my kitchen routines.

Before I go, a survey: who’s already tried my dehydrator-free energy bars, and found that they turn into crumbly granola, rather than bars? A lot of you, I know, from recent feedback. Has anyone tried them and had the same results (solid bars) that I did? I’m polling because I want to tweak the recipe this weekend so that it holds together better, but before I do that I want to get a sense of the your home results. (Note that, if you added more fruit to the recipe, it definitely will fall apart, so your results probably aren’t representative if you did.) Lemme know, so that I can adjust things!

Have a restful evening, bloggies.

xo

Thanks, as ever, for the sweet and thoughtful responses to my last post. Yes, my mother is a remarkable woman. And yes, there’s a faint resemblance!

A few days ago, I mentioned that staycation week featured one stellar dinner. This is it. I developed and tested the recipe a few days before heading to my mom’s, and I was thrilled when it held up to a second try. It’s delicious, filling, versatile, easy, and high in protein, and it’s perfect for omnivores. It features two of my favorite foods — sweet potatoes and chickpeas — and you can make it either in the oven or on the stovetop. Impressed yet? The recipe is for sweet potato and chickpea burgers, and it’s destined to become a staple for me.

Most of the bean burgers I’ve experimented with have been make with whole or mashed beans. This recipe features chickpea flour (I used the Bob’s Red Mill brand, but you can probably find others), so that the texture of the finished burger is crispy on the outside and slightly soft on the inside. Could you substitute actual beans? Probably, but you’d probably have to tweak the recipe in other ways, so if you want to make this particular burger at home, go ahead and invest in the chickpea flour. It’s very versatile; if you have leftover, you can make some socca!

Sweet Potato Chickpea Burgers (yields 2 burgers — enough for 1 or 2 people, depending on appetite)

2 small yams or sweet potatoes
1/3 cup chickpea flour
2 heaping tablespoons flax meal
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp dijon mustard (optional)
1/4 cup fresh parsley, or 1 tbsp dried parsley (optional)
Dash pepper

1) Bake or steam sweet potatoes till tender. Remove skins, and scoop flesh into a food processor fitted with the S blade.

2) Add remaining ingredients to food processor and pulse to combine. Scrape the sides of the bowl down and process again, adding as much water as you need to make the mix smooth and uniform. Careful here! If you add even a tablespoon too much, you’ll end up with a dough that’s too soft to form into patties. Add the water sloooowly.

3) Stop as soon as the mix is even, and shape it into two burgers. You can either

• bake the burgers at 375 for about twenty-five minutes, or
• spray a pan with coconut oil and grill them on each side till crispy and cooked through. I prefer the texture from baking, but either works!

4) Enjoy!

My mother was mighty dubious when I told her we were having sweet potato burgers for dinner; lord knows what she expected! So I watched with nervous anticipation as she began to eat. You can imagine how thrilled I was when she looked up, smiled, and, with a mouth still full of her very first bite, exclaimed “mmmm!” Success! It always makes me happy to feed my mom something that she loves.

The fact that I also loved the taste was a nice bonus.

If you’ve already tried and enjoyed my homemade sunshine burgers, I suggest you start rotating this recipe into the mix. It won’t dissapoint!

So tomorrow at noon I head out to the Windy City for the HLS. I can’t believe the weekend has snuck up on me so quickly! I can’t wait to see so many of my blogger friends, and to meet quite a few others with whom I’ve only corresponded so far. I can’t wait for the weekend to begin.

As you guys know, I’ll also be presenting at the summit on Saturday afternoon (the schedule is online here). Caitlin and I are moderating a talk called Stop Staring Over Your Shoulder. The focus of our presentation will be the danger of self-comparison in the blog world. Can reading food blogs make us susceptible to food fads or diet pressure? Can they instill a sense of pressure to undertake superwoman fitness routines? How can they be directly linked to such conditions as orthorexia? We hope it will be a tough and hard hitting presentation, with tons of audience feedback (so if you’re attending on Saturday, start thinking of things to ask me now!). For those of you at home, the summit will be streaming live. I’ll be sure to post info on that after a full recap of my first day in Chi-Town later tomorrow night.

For now, enjoy your Fridays!

xo

Never invite me over to cook for you. I will take over your kitchen.

I will bombard you with grocery bags full of dark, leafy greens:

And exotic whole grain breads (Mom hates Ezekiel, so I brought French Meadow hemp bread):

And bizarre appliances (that’s my Tribest blender in there, get your minds out of the gutter):

I will spill nutritional yeast on your countertops, I will banish your Splenda, and I will replace your Smart Balance with Earth Balance. All in a days work.

My mother, on the other hand, greeted me with nothing but gentle kindness. Check out the kitchen spread that I arrived “home” to:

I love you, Mom.

I won’t lie: staycation hasn’t been all that restful. I worked later than planned yesterday, and I had to pop into the office today. It’s also hot as heck, which makes Mom’s and my enthusiasm for touristy stuff a little low. The solution, of course, has been to lie on the sofa all evening watching bad movies. And that is precisely what we’ve done.

Thank you for all of your wonderful dinner suggestions yesterday! I may not get to all or even some of these in the next day or so, but you can bet they’re all going into my vault of “must make soon” vegan food. I was also amused at how my readers and I seem to love so many of the same foods: hummus, tempeh, whole grain pasta, nooch, roast veggies, curries, etc. No wonder we all like to hang out virtually.

So what did I end up making for dinner #1? An old tried and true: stuffed peppers. What I wanted to do with this recipe was make it a little “cheesy”; Mom has cut down dramatically on dairy, and eats almost no cheese at all these days (go Mom!) but I sense that she still misses it. Since all raw vegans have made at least one “cheesy” sauce that involved nooch and red peppers, I thought I’d transfer that principle to a rice and bean medly, and then bake it in two bell peppers. It worked out well. Here’s the crowd pleasing recipe:

Cheesy Vegan Stuffed Peppers (serves 2)

2 yellow or red bell peppers
1 tsp coconut oil (substitute olive oil if that’s what you have)
1 cup brown rice, cooked
1/2 cup black or aduki beans, cooked
2 roasted and chopped red pepper halves (fresh is best, canned and organic is fine)
3 heaping tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp tomato paste (organic, por favor! I like Muir Glen)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp Bragg’s (or 1/4 tsp sea salt)
Black pepper to taste

1) Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Chop the tops off of your two peppers, and then remove the seeds and any white pith. Spray a baking pan and put the peppers on it. Stick them in the oven so that they can begin to cook.

2) Heat coconut oil in a skillet and add the brown rice, beans, and peppers, stirring rapidly until they’re warmed through.

3) Add 3-4 tbsp water to the skillet, along with the nooch, the tomato paste, the cumin, the Bragg’s (or salt), and pepper to taste.

4) When everything is well mixed, it ought to look something like this.

As soon as it’s thoroughly warmed through, remove it from the heat. Stuff the mixture into the peppers and return them to the oven. Cook for another 15-25 minutes, or until the peppers are starting to look soft and a little brown at the edges.

The resulting dish is flavorful and comforting. It’s also filling and loaded with protein, which means that moms who are used to eating omnivorously will probably feel satisfied with the dish! I know my Mom was.

I put hummus on top of mine. Why? Because I put hummus on everything.

For our sides, we decided on a summery and slightly Southern theme, alliteration not intended. First, Mom boiled some corn, which we served plain with a touch of Earth Balance.

And to get our greens in, I decided to make my “cheater’s” braised collards. These are collard greens that taste sweet enough to have been cooked for a good long time, but actually take no more than a few minutes. The trick is to flash steam the collards before you give them a sautee — this allows you to retain some texture and brightness while imparting plenty of flavor (there is nothing that creeps me out more than dark green/brownish collards–ICK).

Cheater’s Braised Collards (serves 2 people who really like dark leafies)

Begin with a small head of collard greens. Wash them all, remove the toughest and thickest stems, and then slice them into ribbons, like so:

Next, steam the collards in a colander or simply a sieve that’s been placed over boiling water until they’re still bright green, but still a little crunchy.

Heat a teaspoon or two of coconut or olive oil in a large pan. Swirl it around to coat, and add your collards. Once they’re coated with oil, you want to add a generous tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, a very generous tablespoon of agave nectar (or maple syrup) and tamari or sea salt to taste (I actually used about 4-5 squirts of Bragg’s). Continue to swirl them around till they’re well coated and taste salty/sour/sweet. Yum.

All together, it was a perfect summertime dinner. And Mom even loved her collards. (If I can get her to love kale next time, I’ll really celebrate.)

In the meantime, I celebrated with corn on the cob, and Mom celebrated by stealing my camera for embarrassing candid photos.

Thanks Mom.

The next morning, I awoke to the cozy and welcoming sight of my Mom’s lovely, light-filled kitchen. I love my little kitchen, and I’d never trade it in, but I have forgotten how nice it is to cook in the light of day (my kitchen window looks out onto a stuffy air shaft).

I had also forgotten (since I’m a French press snob) how nice it is to make coffee by flipping a switch.

And I had forgotten — but was grateful to remember — that Mom also likes coffee that’s strong enough to burn a hole in your stomach wake you up quickly.

After a brief gym gaunt, I got to making some blueberry vegan pancakes. I am not a baker or pancake maker by nature — I usually mess up — but these basic vegan pancakes have always given me a pretty generous margin of error.

Vegan Blueberry Pancakes (yields 6 large pancakes, or 2 servings)

2/3 cup spelt or whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsps baking powder
1 tbsp flax seed dissolved in 1 1/2 tbsp water (this is what vegan bakers call a “flax egg”)
dash salt
2 tsps agave nectar
2 tsps coconut or olive oil
3/4 cup rice, soy, or almond milk (I like rice milk in this recipe)
1/4 cup blueberries

Mix all ingredients but the blueberries together till wet and incorporated, but not over mixed.

If you’re a perfectionist, you might want to add the blueberries to the tops of your pancakes as soon as they hit the griddle. If you’re not (I’m not, at least not with pancakes), add them once the mix is mixed.

Heat a griddle over a medium flame and spray with coconut oil or olive oil cooking spray. Drop the batter in 1/4 cup blobs onto the griddle.

The key to making perfect pancakes — or at least, pancakes that aren’t a giant mess — is to really try hard not to touch them for a bit once they hit the griddle. As soon as you see lots of air bubbles rising to the tops of the side that’s facing you, you can test the edges. If they feel solid, carefully pry your spatula underneath the pancake, and flip!

Leave it on side #2 till the pancake is obviously cooked through, and continue till batter is used up. You should have six large pancakes.

Serve with earth balance (if desired) and agave (Mom’s plate).

Or, if you’re me, smother them in banana and a touch of real maple syrup (yum).

My opinion was that the pancakes were pretty great. Mom liked them, but thought they had too many blueberries. I sort of agree, but then…the blueberries are my favorite part

Coffee, vegan pancakes, and a heated discussion about French literature. It was a standard morning in my Mom’s house.

After our chat, my Mom paused and said, “you made food you thought I’d really like last night. I appreciate that.” For a moment I wondered what she meant–don’t I always try to make her stuff she’ll like?–and then it was obvious: as much as I love to cook for my Mom, I do have the habit of infiltrating her apartment with heaps of raw kale, raw soups, and raw zucchini slices filled with cashew cheese. She’s pretty open minded, but some of my more “out there” uncooking–though dear to my heart–is a little hardcore for her. These crowd pleasers are better offerings to make, and Mom, I’ll be happy to make many more.

But you’re still getting massaged kale salad every Christmas eve, Mom. Sorry.

Stay tuned for more staycation 2010, and have a great Friday!

xo

Thanks for so many sweet words about the wedding photos. I’m glad you got to see how beautiful the ceremony was, and how exquisite Chloe looked. I’ll try to smile with my mouth open more often–in fact, I’m rather ashamed that my insecurities have manifested themselves in quasi-habitual lockjaw.

I definitely second Kathleen‘s request for a guest post from Chloe!

Now that the Choosing Raw epithalamium is compelete, it’s time to get back to our main interest: food. With only a few exceptions, I haven’t prepared much of anything in the last two days that isn’t a salad or doesn’t come in a plastic bag labeled “Food for Life” (i.e., Ezekiel sprouted grain products). Boring. After a long weekend with not enough sleep, I did replenish myself with my nutrient dense salad of the week:

That would be my own spin on Ani Phyo’s almond ginger pate (a similar recipe can be found in the demo here) along with Lydia’s crackers, loads of lemon juice, a touch of flax oil, radishes, and raw kale. Hit the spot!

Do you enjoy Chinese food? I can’t say I’ve ever been lucky enough to try any of the many authentic Chinese regional cuisines, but I, like most people, have tried standardized Chinese American takeout. It’s not my favorite on the whole, but there are one or two dishes I love the taste of–namely, sesame noodles. Now, according to my own fleeting efforts at research, cold sesame noodles don’t use much sesame at all. Instead, they’re made from peanut butter and sesame oil. There’s nothing wrong with this (aside from false advertising), unless you happen to be one of the estimated 3 million Americans with a peanut allergy. Then, the choice to cook with peanuts–or even to have peanut reside on your hands–becomes hazardous. Even if you’re like me, and you have no food allergies whatsoever, you may choose to be leery of peanuts. While I certainly don’t think they’re terrible for you, I do think that they’re a common GMO crop, and that they may be mucous forming. In all, I’m not terrified of peanuts when I happen upon them, but when it’s easy for me to make a choice, I’ll almost always opt for a different kind of nut or nut butter.

This choice becomes really easy in the case of cold sesame noodles, because I happen to be a tahini fanatic! With temperatures climbing up into the 90s, now is a perfect time not only for raw foods, but also for cooked foods served cool. I suggest you start here, with a sesame noodle dish that’s actually full of sesame. It begins with a sauce:

Sesame Noodle Sauce (serves 4)

4 tbsp tahini (I like the raw Artisana variety, but you can use roasted if it’s what you have)
2 tbsp tamari or nama shoyu
3/4 tsp ginger
1 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp water

Mix all ingredients by hand or in a blender.

This sauce is quite versatile–it would be just as lovely over a salad or stirfry or brown rice dish as it is over noodles. But over noodles I wanted it, and over noodles it went.

I’m often asked why I don’t eat more pasta, and whether or not I “miss” it. It’s a query founded upon the vexing assumption that I’ve “given up” pasta in an attempt to be a better saint–which I have not–or that I avoid it because of carbohydrate content. Let me quickly bat down that latter idea: I haven’t met too many starches (whole grain ones, that is) I didn’t like. I also don’t shun pasta because I think it’s unhealthy, or because it’s cooked. It’s just not something I think about very often, and I really do prefer zucchini pasta most of the time.

That said, most of the time is not always. Sometimes, I do have a hankering for a whole grain pasta. When I do, I like two brands: Tinkyada brown rice pasta (which is, in my opinion, the best whole grain pasta out there) and my personal favorite: soba noodles. These buckwheat based noodles are my absolute favorite, and I always have some of them in my pantry for nights when I’m not in the mood for quinoa, barley, rice, or millet. They’re terrific with steamed veggies, mirin, and nama shoyu, with my Asian dressing, or tossed in a vinaigrette. And apparently, they’re great with my sesame noodle sauce. Behold:

This was a single serving of soba noodles mixed with 1/4 sliced bell pepper, 1 small grated carrot, 1/3 cup peas, and 1/4 julienned zucchini, dressed in about 2-3 tbsp sesame noodle sauce. Paired with a salad, it was a hearty but light summer dinner.

The next day, I whipped up a raw version of the dish, subbing zucchini pasta, which I lazily made on my mandolin, rather than using (and having to clean) my spiralizer:

Same proportions: 2-3 tbsp dressing for the “pasta.” Again, I served it up with greens. And once again, it was absolutely delicious.

A simple tasty, and seasonally appropriate dish that can make equally tasty raw or cooked vegan dinners–what’s not to like?

I’m slowly easing back into life as usual post wedding, and hope that this week goes quickly. So far, it’s flying by. Have a great evening!

xo

Great responses to my dynamic wardrobe post, guys. I loved hearing your input, and I’m so glad that some of you were inspired to donate an ill-fitting garment or two!

I’m admit that when I shared my recipe for sprouted wheatberry salad last week, I wasn’t sure how much interest it would get. Sprouting isn’t for everyone; the very idea of it seems to freak some people out. So you can imagine my happiness when so many of you liked the post and expressed some interest in trying more sprouted grains. That’s great! I hope you do.

The following recipe is a great place to start. Why? Because it involves sprouting quinoa, which is one of the fastest and easiest pseudograins to sprout. It requires less soak time than wheatberries do (8-12 hours as opposed to 24) and sprouts in about a day. There’s really no simpler sprouting project for a newbie, and sprouted quinoa happens to be delicious, too. Unlike wheat and buckwheat, which can get a little bitter and starchy when sprouted, quinoa retains its lightness and nutty flavors. It’s a versatile and nourishing foundation for all sorts of meals.

In spite of our peculiar temperatures this June — superhot, super cool, and hot again — we still have some late spring vegetables pouring into the farmer’s market. I missed the zenith of this year’s asparagus and shelling pea crops (shame on me), but fortunately some of the bounty is still around. Traditionally, I make risottos, rice dishes, and grain pilafs with asparagus and fresh spring peas each spring, and I’m delighted that I have a chance to keep the tradition alive this year, if a month or two late. And since I had sprouted quinoa ready for the using last weekend, it was a perfect time to throw together what is possibly my very favorite grain dish. Here it is, in all of its light, bright glory.

Spring Quinoa and Asparagus Pilaf (serves 2)

1 cup sprouted quinoa (instructions below)
3/4 cup asparagus, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup green peas (fresh is best, but you can use frozen if you must)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped dill
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

To sprout the quinoa, soak 1/2 cup quinoa in filtered water in a mason jar for 12 hours. Rinse the quinoa, and return it to the jar (without water). Place paper towel, a cheesecloth, or a nut milk bag over the top of the jar, and secure it with a rubber band. Lay the jar on its side in a warm place and leave it alone for a day or so. When you return, the quinoa should be tender and have sprouted little tails, like so.

Store the quinoa in the fridge till you’re ready to use it, but note that it won’t stay fresh for more than another day or two.

When you’re ready to make the recipe, begin by blanching the asparagus and peas in boiling water for one minute, then transferring them to an ice bath (or cold running water) for another minute. Shake them dry. You CAN keep the veggies 100% raw if you like, but I prefer the slight tenderness that blanching will give them.

Mix the veggies, sprouted quinoa, and other ingredients in a mixing bowl. Serve!

This recipe proves more than any other that simple is best. Every time I make it, I feel as though I should add more ingredients or use more complex combinations of herbs. Then I put it all together–just grains, greens, salt, lemon, and dill–and realize that to tamper any more with it would be heresy. It’s perfect, just the way it is.

I hope you’re gearing up for a nice and sunny weekend. I’ve got a significant few days ahead of me: Chloe is getting married on Saturday (gah!), and I’m a bridesmaid. This means that I’m leaving for my happy place in less than twenty-four hours for what I am sure will be a fun, tearful, exciting, nostalgic, and generally beautiful three days. While I’m gone, you’ll be getting two lovely guest posts (full of tips for eating healthy on the go, as I’ve been all month). And you can expect a major photo recap next week, when I’m back. For those of you who want a sneak peek, I can promise you the following:

1) I’m getting a tasty vegan wedding dinner
2) Chloe’s dress is almost as exquisite as she is — I know, because I helped her pick it out
3) I will cry. A lot. I’m hoping not to get my pink frock streaked with mascara. We’ll see how well I do.

xo

Friday! Friday! Friday!

Thank you so much for the thoughtful responses to my conscious shopping post. What I’m hearing is that most of us aren’t carrying our conscientious food habits into our habits as consumers of clothing, shoes, and accessories. But it’s never too late to start!

Each month, I get countless emails about sprouting. What can I sprout? Why should I sprout it? Do I have to sprout it to get nutritional benefits?  How does one sprout something? Is it safe?

I’m delighted to see such a healthy interest in sprouting, though I also have to confess to you that I’m not an expert. Readers often assume that I sprout all of my nuts, seeds, and grains; they’re wrong! I often don’t. Sprouting is a wonderful practice, but I consider it an optional one. If you don’t do it, I assure you that you’ll survive.

What does it mean to sprout something, and why do it? Simply put, sprouting initiates the growth process of a seed, grain, or seed-grain. When a grain is sprouted, some of its complex carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugars, which are easier for our body to digest that long chains of starch. Some of the grain’s protein, likewise, is broken down into amino acids, which spares our bodies the labor of breaking it down later on. Most significantly, sprouting wicks away a grain, nut, or seed’s enzyme inhibitors and naturally occurring tannins; these are compounds that reside in the skin of the nuts, seeds, and grains, and they’re very slow to digest. The goal of soaking and sprouting is to “de-activate” them, so that our bodies face no barriers when they digest and assimilate the food.

Sprouting, soaking, and germination aren’t the same things. When you soak nuts, seeds, and grains, you break down their enzyme inhibitors. You also reduce phytic acid, a compound that binds with minerals in the grain–such as calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, and zinc–and makes it difficult for our bodies to absorb them. Soaking neutralizes the phytic acid, and “releases” those minerals for our bodies’ use. Soaking initiates germination (growth), and if you then rinse grains and leave them in a warm, damp place, they’ll begin to sprout.

Which grains can be sprouted? The simplest grains to sprout are wheat, kamut, spelt, barley, and rye. The most sproutable “pseudograins” — or “seed-grains,” as some people call them–are millet, amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, and wild rice. I’ve experimented with sprouting all of these grains at home, and my favorites are quinoa, millet, and wheatberries (spelt and kamut are runners up!).

How often do I sprout grains? I’ll be frank: I don’t much like the taste of sprouted grains — at least not in comparison to cooked ones. And while I recognize the benefits of soaking and sprouting, I also believe that cooked grains still retain a great deal of their nutrient value; soaking and sprouting are means of optimizing absorption, but choosing not to soak or sprout won’t negate the value of your grains.

There are times, though, when sprouting grains becomes my prep method of choice. Surprisingly, I sprout grains most often when I’m busy. Why? Because once the grains are sprouted, they demand no prep time! If I have a sprouted grain on hand, I can literally throw it into a salad, mix it with veggies for a cold grain salad, or eat it plain; if I come home and want cooked grains, on the other hand, I need to put aside 20 minutes – 1 hour for the cooking process. And when it’s 9 pm after a grueling day of work, watching a simmering pot for half an hour is really the last thing I feel like doing. Having sprouted grains in my fridge means access to a meal component that’s versatile and nutrient dense; I can simply plate the grains and go.

As I battle my summer schedule, sprouted grains are making frequent appearances in the CR kitchen. Last week, I whipped up a batch of one of my very favorite sprouted grains: wheatberries. As a rule, whole wheat is less nutrient rich than some of my other favorite grains (such as millet, quinoa, or even kamut and spelt). Still, it’s a terrific source of fiber (which can help to manage cholesterol, contributes to heart health, and keeps us feeling sated), manganese (which is an enzyme activator and an aid in lipid synthesis), magnesium (which helps to keep bones healthy). In other words, it’s got tons of nutrient benefits. It’s also pretty tasty

Soaking and sprouting grains — whatever grains they may be — is far easier than you’d expect!

Today, I’ll offer a short grain sprouting tutorial:

1) Place one full cup of wheatberries in a large mason jar. Fill it with 2 1/2 cups filtered water. Let it sit, open, at room temperature for one full day.

2) 24 hours later, drain the wheatberries and rinse them well.

3) Return the soaked grains to your mason jar. Take a paper towel or cheesecloth, put it over the mouth of the jar, and secure it there with a rubber band. Turn the jar on its side, and leave it be in a room temperature nook of your kitchen.

4) Let the jar sit for 12-24 hours — I almost always give it a full day. At the end of this time period, you can remove the paper towel or cloth, and you’ll see that the grains have sprouted little “tails,” like so!

At this point, the grains are ready for consumption. You should have about 2 cups of sprouted grains at the ready. It’s. That. Simple.

See? No fuss! Sprouting is a cinch, and once you get used to it, you’ll love the process. Right now, I’ve got a jar or two of different grains sprouting or soaking almost all the time; it’s such a relief to have them at the ready when I need to toss a meal together on the fly. Note that different grains take different amounts of time to sprout; wheatberries take a long time, relatively speaking, but grains like quinoa sprout in a jiffy. As you get used to sprouting, you’ll get a sense of the times that different grains demand.

What to do with you sprouted grains? I’m glad you asked. As you know, I’m a big fan of throwing grains+avocado onto a nutrient dense salad. I also love mixing sprouted grains with banana and nut milk for breakfast. Sometimes, I grind sprouted grains and put them in cracker or bread dough.

Most of all, I love to use my sprouted grains in grain salads. These are, quite simply, big batches of sprouted grains mixed with raw veggies, oil, and a hint of acid in the form of lemon or vinegar. Here, friends, is one of my favorites.

Sprouted Wheatberry Salad (serves 4)

2 cups sprouted wheatberries
1/2 cup dried apples, chopped into small pieces
2 cups shredded dino or curly kale
1 cup chopped or grated carrots
1-2 tsp agave nectar or maple syrup
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp flax oil

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.

Happy weekend!

Those were some absolutely stellar responses to my post on reconciling veganism with intuitive eating! For those of you who commented early on, go back and check out some of the conversations that emerged in the comments section: really rad stuff.

Yesterday, my sweet friend Angela tweeted me to ask how my name is pronounced — like “Gina” or like “Jenna?” She was making a how-to video on her vegan overnight oats (which you should all watch) and she’d pronounced my name like “Gina.” The back and forth sent off a flurry of tweets from surprised readers; apparantly, most of you have thought of me as a “Gina” all this time! Well, I hate to break it to you, dear readers, but my name is most definitely pronounced like “Jenna.” I know the spelling is misleading–the only other Gena I know who’s pronounced like “Jenna” is Gena Rowlands–but there it is!

For the record, it’s short for Eugenia. Unfortunately. (Thanks, Mom and Dad.)

However you’d like to think of me–as a Gena, a Gina, a Jenna, or even Eugenia–I hope you think of me when you see food like this:

That’s zucchini pasta served over mixed greens with bell pepper, half an avocado, red pepper marinara sauce, and leftover roast kabocha squash. In other words, heaven on a placemat.

I’d forgotten how much I love to mush avocado into my zucchini pasta and marinara sauce–it makes the bowl so much creamier and rich. Yum! I think that signature meals like this are probably easier to remember than my short, yet confusing name, no?

I hope you’re enjoying a great start to the long weekend, friends. This is my last respite before a very busy two months descend, so I’m trying to prepare for the road ahead and get a little R&R in, too. I’ll be back soon–in the meantime, happy Memorial Day weekend!

xo