A few of you have noticed that I mentioned chlorella in my recent smoothie posts. It showed up in my cherry vanilla smoothie last week, and it made an appearance yesterday, too, in my Down Dog smoothie (thanks, by the way, for the nice comments on that post—I love it when yogis unite!). It’s part of why that smoothie takes on such an incredible, electric green hue:

I’ve written about chlorella once before, when the Sun Chlorella company sent me a slew of their products:

It was great to have the portable powders and tablets (so easy for life on-the-go) and I also took advantage of the cream. I don’t think it reversed time or anything, but the nice fragrance and the silky texture made me smile.

Chlorella fans claim that this green algae is the key to numerous health improvements, including increased energy, mood elevation, and “detoxification.” It has, they say, been linked to the healing or reversal of the following conditions:

• Cancers
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Arthritis
• Depression
• Severe liver damage and liver disorders
• Asthma
• High blood pressure
• Constipation
• Infections
• Inflammation of joints and tissues
• Body odor / breath odor
• Degenerative diseases
• EFA deficiencies
• Magnesium deficiency

There you have it, folks. 75% of the Western world’s major health conditions. Of course, before we simply take these statements on faith, we should play a quick game of “what they say / what we know,” which I like to play in my head whenever a food is presented to me for its superpowers.

What they say:

• Chlorella aids on “detox”
• Chlorella helps to heal numerous health afflictions
• Chlorella alkalizes the body
• Chlorella helps to “neutralize bad air you might breathe in”
• Chlorella aids in digestion and elimination
• Chlorella can help to eliminate mold in the body
• Chlorella enhances the immune system

What we know:

• Chlorella contains B-vitamins, magnesium, and a terrific ratio of Omega-3 : Omega-6 EFA’s
• Chlorella is about 58% protein by composition; a typical serving is about 2 g protein, but those are two grams of complete protein, containing all of the essential amino acids
• Chlorella has been shown in some lab studies to aid in tumor shrinkage
• Chlorella has been shown in some research studies (conducted on patients with high blood pressure, fibromyalgia, and ulcerative colitis), to help reduce hypertension, support immunity, and reduce cholesterol

Of course, there may be gaps in my research, but this is what I came up with. As you can see, I couldn’t verify many of the famous claims, but I was able to find at least a few strongly suggestive studies. There’s never anything wrong with getting more animo acid and EFA bang for your buck, nor with boosting your B-vitamin and magnesium intake. So I put chlorella in the category of “superfood” that I’ll use when it’s available (that is, if I’ve been gifted with samples, or if I have been able to work it into my budget), and not worry about when it’s not.

If you’re eating a well rounded and healthy diet, smoothie add-ins like chlorella shouldn’t be vital to your health—count on the fruits, veggies, and plant protein for that. But if you have the means to experiment with new, fun ingredients, you can try chlorella out; think of it as an “added bonus” to your diet.

Note that chlorella must be labeled as “cracked cell wall” in order for you to assimilate the nutrients—otherwise, they’ll just pass through your system undigested. Hope that clears up any confusion!

While I’m on the topic of questions, a few of you asked how I made the hemp bread and hemp crackers pictured in my weekend lunches:

Pretty much a remake of my normal juice pulp crackers: I ground up 1/2 cup hemp seeds and 1/2 tsp sea salt in my food processor, added about 2 cups pulp and a little water, 4 tbsp flax meal, and let it all mix into a dough. I dehydrated it for about 3-4 hours on each side. Quick and easy—that’s what student cooking is all about!

Tomorrow, I’ll be back with a raw “wrap” recipe that made for a tasty lunch today. Stay tuned.

xo

Top image source

The summer of 2011 was a strange one. In spite of how many times I’d told myself it would be nothing, no big deal at all, to move from New York to D.C., I realized no less than a week into my life here in the District that it was going to be far more bumpy than I’d anticipated. I’ll never forget those early days of June: trying to decipher bus schedules; finding a new grocery store, a new pharmacy, a new dry cleaner’s; getting used to some of the DC vs. NYC cultural differences; and, most of all, coming to the conclusion that my post-bacc experience would be just as hard here as it had been at home.

As the weeks went by, I came to appreciate DC, and nowadays, I enjoy my life here. But those first few days of adjustment were shrouded in anxiety, melancholy, and a pinch of self-pity. And it was on one of those days that I decided randomly to walk into a studio I had passed in one of my “get acquainted” walks through Georgetown, and take a yoga class.

Welcome to Down Dog. This yoga studio, which has locations in Herndon and Bethesda, too, has become my second home here in DC. Over the course of that strange summer, I fell in love with my practice at Down Dog. I sweated. I laughed. When I came to class stressed, I cried. I became a part of the community, and learned to carry the studio’s spirit and energy around with me to class, labs, and exams.

Down Dog isn’t for everyone; for one thing, it’s heated vinyasa flow, and it’s vigorous enough that I’d call it power yoga. For another, the sequence is typically the same in most classes, unless you take a restorative class, and the mood is often serious—no music, very little chanting. I’ve heard the studio described as “militant,” which strikes me as too harsh, but it doesn’t surprise me that the practice feels overly rigid or disciplined to some people (interesting, I find it a very creative and joyous antidote to Bikram yoga, which I have tried many times and never enjoyed).

Down Dog’s motto is “yoga with attitude.” I think is the perfect summation of the studio’s ethos, which typically feels more athletic than spiritual to me (of course, all yoga practice is a mixture of the two). This is yoga for people who like to get things done. It’s yoga for people want their hour on the mat to be a serious workout. I like to think that it’s yoga for Type A people like myself. Patty Ivey, the studio’s hilarious, warm, and no-nonsense founder (a fellow New Yorker, god bless her), describes herself as type A often, and comes from a history of marathon running. Though Patty’s Sunday morning class nearly always slays me, I make a point to go at least once every few weeks. I know that I can count on her to push me to my limit, and while I don’t need to hit that limit in every class, it’s nice to face it courageously in once in a while.

Classes at Down Dog do have range—Kendall’s Saturday class typically feels like a slow flow, which means that I’m forced to hold poses for a long time (good for me). Kelly’s weekday classes always feel like a mix of athleticism and fun. I can count on Colin to mask a stunning workout beneath a calm, friendly, and whimsical attitude. What all classes at Down Dog have in common is their difficulty. I’ve taken marathoners and longtime yogis alike to the studio, where they were impressed by the difficulty; among my post-bacc friends, committed weight lifters and army veterans have left classes exclaiming what a good workout they had. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nothing you haven’t seen in a typical vinyasa class. But the speed and the heat make it harder, to be sure.

When I first started practicing at Down Dog, it took some time to adjust to the sweatiness of the workout. Nowadays, I know precisely how to handle it—by hydrating well before and after. Green smoothies, rich in electrolytes, are my go-to drink after an hour or 90 minutes at Down Dog. Lately, this particular concoction stands out.

The “Down Dog” Smoothie (vegan, raw, soy free, gluten free)

Serves 1

1 small banana (or 1/2 large), frozen and chopped
3/4 cup fresh or frozen pineapple
1 1/2 cups spinach or romaine
1 stalk celery, chopped
A few chlorella tablets (optional)
1 scoop Vega whole foods optimizer in natural flavor (or any protein powder of choice; hemp would be great in this smoothie)
1 1/4 – 1 1/2 cups coconut water

Blend all ingredients together on high. Serve immediately.

Heaping with spinach, chlorella, and celery, this smoothie is a true green smoothie. It’s also a perfect re-hydrator: the coconut water is rich in electrolytes, including magnesium and potassium, and it, along with the fruit, restores blood sugar. The protein helps to regulate the absorption of sugars in the smoothie, and the celery (which I promise, you’ll barely taste) has some natural sodium to help replenish any that’s been lost through sweat. The taste is, of course, delicious, and reminiscent of the tropics.

The smoothie can be served with granola, with a piece of toast or raw crackers, or with my chia chocolate crumble. Or, you can simply enjoy it on its own.

Having been a reluctant yogi for several years (if you didn’t hear the story of how I discovered yoga, here it is), I can’t say that I’ve ever truly felt that a particular studio was home. Who would have thought that my offhand decision to visit Potomac street would have yielded this renewed love affair with my mat? Life is funny sometimes.

xo

So on Thursday, I mentioned that one of the ways to cut a weekly raw food’s grocery bill is to replace nuts with seeds, and dates with raisins (or prunes), and I gave you a raisin and seed ball recipe in keeping with the theme. Today, I’m here to talk about a purchase that is NOT budget friendly: frozen cherries.

Frozen cherries appear in supermarkets rarely, or so I’ve found. Having never been a fan of cherries until I first tasted my berry, cherry, and PB bliss smoothie, I’ve since come to see them as a very special, very precious treat. Fresh cherries from a farmer’s market in the summer are indulgent enough, and quite costly; frozen cherries in the unseasonal dead of winter are a true, true luxury, and one I only treat myself to rarely.

As it turns out, I did get my hands on a precious frozen bag, right before the Christmas holiday—a little “get through finals” push, if you will. I’ve used it sparingly, so sparingly that I had just about a cup left yesterday morning, when I went to make a smoothie (true to form, I’ve proven that I don’t crave warm foods more in the winter this week with a ton of smoothie breakfasts). I also had some Vega Sport Vanilla protein (a leftover sample from the kind Vega folks), some spinach, and plenty of fresh, homemade almond milk. From that combination, this delicious green smoothie was born.

Cherry Vanilla Smoothie (raw, vegan, gluten & soy free depending on which protein powder you use)

Serves 1

1 heaping cup frozen cherries
1 serving vanilla protein powder (I like Vega or Rainbow Light Protein Energizer)
4 ice cubes
1 heaping cup baby spinach
2 chlorella tablets (optional–just enhances the green power)
1 1/4 cups almond milk

Blend all ingredients together on high. Serve, sip, and bliss out.

This is a perfect “intro” green smoothie because it’s so sweet, and the vanilla makes it reminiscent of a dessert! You won’t taste the greens in this indulgent treat. Try it soon, and let me know what you think.

Before I go, the lovely Heather (recently featured in Green Recovery) tagged me in a game of 7 random facts. Here are mine!

1) The only vegetables I dislike to the extent that I’ll barely eat them are radishes. So bitter! I’ve never understood the appeal.

2) You guys have probably heard this one before, but I lived in the same 40 block radius for the first 28 years of my life. True story. My move to DC was the first time I’ve ever left New York for more than a month or two.

3) I studied Latin until the age of 16. Salvete! I don’t remember much, but it comes in handy for crossword puzzles.

4) 80% of my wardrobe was purchased on eBay. For real. This is in part so that I can reduce waste, in part because a lot of the materials in faux leather aren’t environmentally friendly, so I prefer to buy them used, and mostly because I just don’t like spending too much money on clothing. I have zero reservations about wearing used clothes and shoes.

5) I went to an all girls’ high school. A lot of people who share this history feel traumatized by it, or as though they didn’t have a “real” high school experience. I absolutely loved it. It’s true that I didn’t really socialize with a member of the male gender until I was eighteen, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat, in part because the female friendships I formed were so strong and so important, and because it taught me to value the company of women.

6) Among the foods I’ve “warmed up to” because I write a food blog are: onions, garlic, eggplant, parsnips, and most fruits aside from bananas and apples. Writing Choosing Raw has broadened my taste buds a lot!

7) My favorite hours of the day are 6 am to 10 am. Everything is so peaceful, so bright, and the day is still so full of promise. I’m a dedicated morning person.

(source)

I’m not tagging anyone in return, because it’s too hard to pick out recipients, but I invite anyone who reads CR to jump in and pass the game on with seven facts of his or her own!

Back to studying I go. I hope that many of you get tomorrow off, and that you enjoy a lovely long weekend!

xo

Happy Thanksgiving, to all of my US readers!! I hope you are having lovely holidays thus far. Thank you to everyone who commented on my two versions of vegan stuffing; the leftovers of both batches are safely tucked into my freezer, and I can’t wait to devour them next week.

Since last night was my true Thanksgiving feast (and what a feast it was—wonderful food and the company of family), I woke up this morning with no schoolwork, no classes, and, most importantly, no cooking to do! I adore making holiday food, but two days straight in my kitchen were a little exhausting. Rather than turning on the oven, dehydrator, or stovetop, I set about making a cool, sweet, and simple smoothies. Much to much surprise, I was out of berries (this is an unusual event in my house). But I did have frozen, organic peaches that I’d gotten in case Thanksgiving called for peach pie in addition to the many, many varieties of pumpkin pie I’ve been laboring over. It didn’t, and so the peaches have been neglected. This was the moment to fix that.

This smoothie is a winner. Mellow, creamy, and a very easy way to get some greens into your diet. I find that green smoothies work best with sweeter fruits, and so the banana and peach in this recipe is quite ideal. The hemp protein and milk can all be varied, of course, according to your tastes.

Peaches n Green Smoothie (raw, vegan, gluten and soy free)

Serves 1

1/2 frozen banana
1 cup frozen peaches
1-2 ice cubes
3/4 cup tahini milk (or any nut/seed milk you like)
2 large leaves kurly kale
2 tbsp hemp protein
1 pitted date or 2 drops stevia (optional)

Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender till smooth, using the tamper to keep things moving. If you use regular almond milk in place of the tahini milk, you may want to add a tablespoon of hemp seeds or nut butter for creaminess.

What a wonderful way to infuse your Thanksgiving with a little green!

Now, if your family is like many families, you may have guests or other family members spending the night this Thanksgiving eve. Which means you’ll be waking up to company. Why not treat them to any number of quick, easy, and delicious vegan breakfasts? Thanksgiving week is a week of indulgence, and rightly so, but there’s no reason not to meet it with equal parts nutrition and taste.

1) Sugar Plum Muffins

2) Classic Tofu Scramble

3) Green “Eggs” and Hmmmm

4) Banana Carmel Bread Pudding

5) Chocolate and Zucchini Smoothie

6) Classic Blueberry Pancakes

7) Vegan French Toast

Zucchini Date Muffins

9) Banana, Oat, and Chia Seed Muffins

10) Chia Power Pudding

Before I go, I was just reading over my “I Am Thankful” post from a few Thanksgivings ago. My, was it touching! My life has changed so dramatically in such a short period of time, but I can say for certain that everything I was grateful for then, I’m grateful for now.

Happy T-Giving, folks!

xo

My name is Gena, and you can call me the reluctant superfoodie.

Ever since I first began writing this blog, I’ve shared openly my skepticism about panaceas, health “gurus”, and superfoods. This is not to say that I’ve never enjoyed those foods—maca, spirulina, chlorella, goji berries, lucuma, yacon, acai—that are often given the label of “super.” It simply means I’ve always wondered what the difference between these and other nutrient dense foods is, aside from a hefty price tag.

This summer, however, my skepticism was tempered by my discovery of my friend Julie’s book Superfood Cuisine, which inspired me to reevaluate the unique properties of many “superfoods,” and to appreciate their tastes. Now, a small love affair with superfoods is being fueled by some recent gifts from my friends at Navitas Naturals, who wanted to share a few of their new products with me:

That’s yacon syrup, mesquite (a favorite of mine!!), and two of their new portable snacks:

These remind me of “chunks of energy,” which many of you have probably tried at health food stores, but they’re less dense and (frankly) dry. The citrus chia flavor is very bright and tasty, though if unsoaked chia bothers you, you’ll want to try the goji cacao instead. Both are totally delicious, and I’ve been enjoying these little bursts of superfood goodness as both daytime snacks and desserts.

My favorite new Navitas offering, however, is their “superseed blend,” which is an Omega 3 and 6 rich blend of flax, chia, and brown rice.

I usually alter between chia and flax in my cooking: in my juice pulp crackers, for example, I’ve used both flax and chia as binders and bases. In the end, I like them for different reasons: flax makes my crackers crunchier, and chia makes them a little more neutral tasting (for more of a side-by-side comparison, check out this post). With this new blend, I don’t have to choose! The texture ends up someplace in between, and it’s a perfect happy medium for me. Brown rice, meanwhile, adds a little heft and nutritional density.

It’s often the case that foods compliment each other nutritionally: I think we all know the famous example of rice and beans pairing up to offer the full spectrum of essential amino acids. I like that Navitas is thinking synergistically lately: in this case, the combination of raw, sprouted and organic chia and flax makes for a fairly ideal EFA balance.

So far, I’ve used this blend in smoothies, in some raw tomato flatbread, and even as a salad topper. But my favorite application is obviously this:

Those broccoli/carrot/beet/cucumber pulp crackers came out of the dehydrator only moments ago, and I absolutely can’t wait to pack them up for school tomorrow!

If you’re looking for a very easy way to incorporate more EFAs (essential fatty acids) into your diet, if you’d like a binding agent that’s someplace in between chia and flax, or if you simply want a break from the usual flaxseed in your morning oats, I highly recommend this new blend! You can look for it in Whole Foods, or check out the Navitas website for more info.

Tomorrow, I return, with yet another raw nori roll to die for!

xo

Hello from Phoenix! I’m posting mid-travel to Portland, where Vida Vegan Con is just starting to kick off. It’ll be such an exciting weekend of blog posts, and I hope you’ll be tuning in!

Today, my very lovely and talented friend Clotilde has featured me on her blog as part of her “cooking on vacation series.” Other bloggers who have contributed while Clotilde is traveling are Heidi Swanson, author of 101 Cookbooks, and Molly Wizenberg, author of Orangette. These blogs, along with Clotilde’s, house some of the finest food writing and recipes on the web, so I’m pretty flabbergasted to be in their company. Thank you, Clotilde! If any of you are interested what tools and ingredients travel with me on vacation, what my fondest vacation cooking memories are, or if you want to hear about my most traumatizing food experience was, check it out!

While we talk about Chocolate and Zucchini, I thought I would share my favorite new smoothie recipe, which employs both. This smoothie is essentially lifted from an ingenious smoothie concoction that Valerie made just a little while ago, and which you can find here. Given my propensity to put green vegetables in just about anything, and sneak my carrot pulp into smoothies, it actually surprises me that this never occurred to me before. Valerie made her chocolate and zucchini smoothie with zucchini pulp; I just grated 3/4 cup zucchini and froze it. You could certainly do either: the result will be a delicious, filling, and veggie-ful smoothie no matter what!

Chocolate and Zucchini Smoothie (raw, vegan, gluten free, soy free)

Serves 1

1 small frozen banana
3/4 cup grated zucchini, frozen
3/4-1 cup almond milk
2 tbsp cacao nibs
1 tbsp cocoa or cacao powder
1/3 cup blueberries (optional, but I needed to use them up before I left for NYC)

Blend all ingredients on high, and top with whatever your’e in the mood for. More cacao nibs would be great, though I was personally in the mood for the granola spin on my no-bake sunflower oat bars. It was delicious!

This recipe could, in theory, qualify as an entry for Valerie and Victoria’s chocolate and zucchini blog party:

A fun chocolate/zucchini recipe round up that’s going on from now till the second week of September. But since I basically copied Val’s excellent smoothie, I’ll need to come up with something a little more creative! Maybe you guys can help me with suggestions.

On that note, back in the air I go. Back with dispatches from the Pacific Northwest soon!

xo

Well, guys, here we are. The day after. For me, summer starts today, now that my Gen Chem II final has come and gone. (Grades arrive tomorrow.) Do I feel terrible about it? No. Do I feel the way I hoped I’d feel after this class ended—that is, confident and proud? No. Those are sentiments I rarely feel in my post-bacc life. With any luck, I’ll do decently enough to enter my two and a half week break with a clear conscience, and that will just have to be enough.

Next Thursday, I’ll head to NYC for a week, where I’ll naturally be blogging about my daily meals, adventures, and impressions of the city. You can expect a ton of dining out, because this blogger is aching for NYC restaurants! After that, it’s off to Portland, OR, which some might call the vegan capitol of the world, for the exciting Vida Vegan Bloggers’ Conference! The conference features an all star line up of some of the brightest and most talented vegan bloggers in the business, including many friends I’ve yet to meet in “real life.” It will be a blast to send you live dispatches from the road! For the next week, though, it’s all about rest: reading, relaxing, catching up on lost sleep, and cooking.

And it all begins with a smoothie.

For the last five weeks, I’ve been smoothie disabled. Each morning, I went straight from the gym to class, and so portable chia seed puddings were my reliable mainstay. On weekends, I was running hither and yon, and rarely able to enjoy breakfast at home. The upshot was that my smoothies—an early morning staple for me—were put on hold for over a month. Today, as I woke up and settled into the peculiar sensation of having time on my hands, I decided to celebrate with a creamy, nutrient dense morning beverage: my strawberry and pumpkin seed smoothie.

My friend Brendan is very candid about the fact that—in spite of what his success with Vega would suggest—his first shot at veganism was a bust. He was tired, weak, and missing key micro and macronutrients. Among these were iron and essential fatty acids, and one of the small changes he made to remedy his oversights was to add pumpkin seeds, which are good sources of both, to his morning smoothies. I often do the same: pumpkin seeds inexpensive, tasty, and add creaminess to smoothies in a totally whole food form. They’re a nice break from nuts and nut butters, and they’re quite a bit easier to make work in a student budget. Combined with summer strawberries and this:

…which is one of my favorite new vegan proteins, it made for a delicious, vanilla flavored treat.

Strawberry Pumpkin Seed Smoothie (raw, vegan, gluten and soy free)

Serves 1

1 frozen banana
1 cup frozen strawberries
3/4 cup almond milk
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
1 scoop vegan protein powder of choice
1 handful greens (I used baby spinach)
1 tsp cinnamon

Blend all ingredients on high till rich and creamy. You may need to add a bit more milk if you don’t have a high speed blender! Top with fresh strawberries, and serve.

My smoothies are most definitely meal-sized, and always go in a breakfast bowl:

Heaven.

And now, it’s back to clients and reading for me. But first, a winner of my “super giveaway!!” I got a total of 502 comments on this awesome giveaway, and am happy to announce a winner, generated by random.org.

The winner is…#347, the lovely Veronica of Happy By Nature!! When asked what she thinks about superfoods, Veronica said, “I am uberly in love with superfoods – healthy and wholesome, there is nothing better! My current superfood obsessions include chia seeds, hemp powder, and the classic quinoa. They are staples in nearly every meal I eat!”

Veronica, I’m thrilled to help you deepen your superfoods love affair!! Please email me so that I can send your grand prize

xo

Last week, I told you all about my lovely friendship with Kathy, who is one of the most enterprising and talented vegan chefs I know. I also alluded to a special project that Kathy and I were cooking up, which I’m ready to unveil today: The Kathy and Gena show!

Yes, that’s right: I’m banishing my camera-shy side to the curb. All of you who’ve asked me to do cooking videos, your wish is granted! Now you get to see just how goofy and awkward I am in person.

Of course, none of this would ever have been possible without Kathy, who is a tech mastermind and has the patience of a saint. In spite of the fact that we faced a number of tech issues in this, our first video, Kathy plugged away at the editing process and left us with two fun, entertaining, and beautifully put together videos. Kathy, you are amazing! Thank you for this, and for your watermelon frosty recipe, which is possibly the best thing I’ve tasted this summer so far.

So what was the theme of our video? As you’ll see in a moment, our goal was to share some raw and cooked, vegan summer recipes that would be quick and easy for entertaining, but pretty to serve, too. Most of all, we wanted to give you a few useful how to’s, including:

• How to “massage” kale salad (finally! I owe you guys a demo)
• How to wrap a wrap (seriously, how many of you don’t quite know how? I’ll be the first to admit that Kathy blew my mind here)
• How to make a summery frosty that doubles as a margarita base (AND succeeds in making Gena, the Watermelon Skeptic, love everyone’s favorite summer fruit)

Excited yet? I hope so!!! Todays featured recipes include two CR classics: my hemp hummus (which appeared on the blog this week in some cute zucchini wraps) and my massaged kale salad with outstanding miso sesame dressing, which I’ve eaten nearly every single day for a week! It also includes Kathy’s amazing frosty and photos of her bruschetta trio, which didn’t make it onto the video intact, but were absolutely delicious. The recipes can be found in Kathy’s recap! Our recipes come together in this amazing wrap: the GK wrap! Stuffed full with hummus, kale salad, mango chunks, and shitake mushrooms, it’s a cornucopia of flavor and texture! Wrapped to perfection by the wrapmistress herself, Ms. Kathy.

Enough talk: it’s time for you to see for yourself how all this stuff comes together. Let us show you!

Video 1: Hemp Hummus, Kale Salad, and the “GK Wrap”:

Video 2: Kathy’s Watermelon Frosty!

That’s it, guys! The “real me!” As you can see, I’m more of a goofball than the measured prose would suggest!

And if you need a refresher on the recipes:

High Protein Hemp Hummus (vegan, gluten free, soy free)

Makes 4-5 servings

1/4 cup shelled hemp seeds
1 can chickpeas, drained, or 2 cups freshly cooked (heat before blending for ideal consistency)
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
2-3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp tahini (optional)
1/2 tsp cumin
Water

1) Place the hemp seeds in the bowl of a food processor and grind till powdery.

2) Add the chickpeas, salt, lemon, garlic, tahini, and cumin, and begin to process. Add water in a thin stream (stopping to scrape the bowl a few times) until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

3) Garnish with hemp seeds and serve.

Outstanding Miso Sesame Dressing (high raw, vegan, gluten free)

Makes 1 2/3 cups

1/2 cup mellow white miso
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup tahini (raw is preferable, but roasted is fine, and less costly)
3-4 tbsp tamari
1/2 inch fresh ginger (or 1/2 tsp dry)
1 1/4 cup water

1) Blend all ingredients together on high. Add more water if the mixture is too thick.

To make the kale salad pictured, begin with:

1 bunch curly kale
1 large beefsteak tomato, chopped
1 large bell pepper (or 2 small), chopped

1) De-stem, chop, and wash kale well

2) Add about 1/3-1/2 cup of the miso dressing to the kale. Using your hands, "massage" dressing into salad well, till it’s a little wilted in texture.

3) Add tomatoes and peppers, and toss. Serve!

And now, time for some feedback! What do you want to see more of from the Kathy and Gena show?? We’re so excited about future episodes and want to take reader requests. Send them now!!

And now, I’m returning to what has been a so far blissful first day home in NYC. Tomorrow morning, I’ll start recapping all of my dining adventures for you!! See you then.

xo

Every now and then, I treat you guys to a little meltdown post. They’re fun, right? The last one might have been when I got my first semester grades back. Or there was the one right before I dropped physics lab, which I wrote right after a good tear fest on the phone with my mother. My personal favorite is the one about breaking down on the phone with Time Warner, which graced the pages of this blog last summer.

Yeah. Bad weeks happen.

Glancing back over this week’s blog posts, I realize that my tone has been determinately optimistic. My lessons from DC post was nothing if not glass-is-half full, and I was all about counting my blessings in my recap of lunch with Kathy. These sentiments have all been honest, but this has also been a rocky week for me otherwise, and it culminated last night with the stuff that usually tips me over the edge: tech breakdowns. Thanks to a walloping summer storm, there was a blackout on my block, which meant no power, no light, no internet…and things melting in my freezer. Meanwhile, I was about to start editing photos when I realized that the memory card that I thought had been in my camera for a week had in fact been sitting on my bookshelf. So that’s a week’s worth of tasty food photos, lost to the sands of time.

Ah well. This move to DC has taught me nothing if not resilience. And so I decided to make the best of things today by focusing on the good stuff, which includes, but is not limited to:

• My neighbors, Anne and Ben, who called me mid-blackout and invited me to Tryst with them for some study time and some free outlets. Anne, a nursing student, dug into her studies as I dug into mine, while Ben, a freelance editor, read some Sense and Sensibility. My kind of peeps.
• My cousin and I saw Incendies yesterday. Classical tragedy at its finest. Things could always be worse.
• I’ll be in NYC in about three days
• Coffee with Valerie this morning!
• Speaking of Valerie, and the juice pulp she always donates to me, I combined a few of my favorite things into a single smoothie this morning: banana, carrot/celery/apple pulp, mesquite, lucuma, freshly made cashew milk. It was an outstanding and fiber-rich breakfast, and here’s the recipe:

High Fiber Carrot and Banana Smoothie (raw, vegan, gluten and soy free)

Serves 1

1 banana, frozen
1 heaping up carrot, celery, and apple pulp (other sorts of juice pulp will work here, but I love the carrot in particular)
1 tsp mesquite
1 tbsp lucuma
1 tbsp hemp seeds
3/4 cup cashew, almond, or other non-dairy milk
1 tsp cinnamon

1) Blend on high till creamy and smooth. Try not to use too much liquid, as this smoothie benefits from being really thick. Just check out the texture here:

A few additional notes about this delightful treat:

First, the lucuma and mesquite are totally optional. I was lucky enough to get a little care package from my friends at Navitas recently, which meant having some superfood to spare, but the smoothie will be good without them. If you do have them, use them, because they’ll all a smoky, vanilla-like flavor that’s irresistible.

Second, part of why this smoothie works so nicely is that I used frozen juice pulp. For those of you who juice on the reg but can’t possibly use all your veggie pulp fast enough, try freezing in marked ziplock bags. And then, if you do want to use them in a smoothie, it’s as good for texture as using pre-frozen fruit.

Third, carrot and banana are a wonderful combination, but this isn’t the only way to make it happen. Try using carrot juice rather than almond milk as a smoothie base, or using whole, chopped carrot (if you have a VitaMix). Always wonderful results!

Finally, what a wonderful reminder this smoothie is of how delicious, economical, and healthy it is to eat raw! I always get a kick out of conserving my juice pulp to add fiber to other dishes, and I especially love the combination of that and homemade nut milk. It’s what I always say to folks about eating raw: forget enzymes. Raw foods give me joy because they connect me to the building blocks of food. They strip away a lot of the artifice that we pile upon our ingredients, and remind us where our food comes from. And they also remind us—lest we forget—that nature’s bounty tastes pretty good just the way it is.

Wow: this post ended up being more optimistic than I anticipated. The therapeutic effects of blogging, I suppose! Sorry for the gloomy start, guys, but thanks for always listening when I need to talk myself out of a funk.

Happy J4 to my American readers, and see you guys back here tomorrow!

xo

My friend Kristen has a very famous smoothie recipe entitled the “chocolate cherry bomb.” This concoction made its way through blogs everywhere a summer or two ago, and with good reason: it’s rich, decadent yet healthy, and totally delicious. In fact, it’s so delicious that it made me into a lover of cherries, which is something I never could have said before (Elizabeth, I know this is a deep affront to you and your summer cherry love affair!). The following smoothie recipe is entitled the “cinnamon cherry blast,” and it’s entirely in homage to Kristen. While not quite as decadent as her shake, this smoothie manages to feel equally worthy of a healthy breakfast or a fruity dessert, and it’s a wonderful way to take advantage of summer produce.

Now, I know that many of us are on budgets, and that organic cherries are not budget-friendly. For this reason, your really should view this smoothie as a special treat, and something to be savored. Do, though, look out for deals and steals on frozen cherries; they aren’t local and seasonal, so your smoothie won’t feel quite so virtuously in keeping with the environment as if you were to use pitted, fresh ones from the farmer’s market, but you may find a good sale at a health food store or Whole Foods (to wit, I once got three packs of frozen cherries for $4.00 each at my health food store in NYC; good thing I was reading the sale labels!).

No matter what, remember that good food is something to celebrate, especially when it’s in season, and so if you happen to take an extra $3 or $4 out of your budget for this or any other cherry recipe, that’s OK. The joys of eating for pleasure and health justify the means sometimes.

Cinnamon Cherry Blast (raw, vegan, GF, soy free)

Serves 1

1 small banana (or 1/2 large), frozen
3/4 cup frozen or fresh and pitted cherries
1/2 tbsp coconut butter
2 tsps cinnamon
1 cup almond milk
3-4 ice cubes

Optional add-ins: hemp, pea, or rice protein powder, cocoa powder, spirulina, fresh greens

Blend all ingredients on high till the smoothie is creamy and thick. Serve with fresh or frozen cherries on top!

Delicious. Seriously. Worth making as soon as you can get your hands on some cherries!

Moving on: thank you so much for the incredible outpouring of birthday love yesterday! I was very touched by the tweets and comments, which made celebrating the big almost-30 in a new city a lot less strange and daunting. As I mentioned on Monday, one of the reasons this birthday was particularly nice is that I got to spend it with Chloe and Knud, who are visiting D.C. from New Orleans this week. Chloe made a big point of having dinner together last night, even though I messed up royally in the last two years and missed her birthday date (ack!). That’s Chloe—generous, mature, and graceful, even when I’m a scatterbrained mess.

Chloe, Knud, M and I met up at Busboys and Poets, a D.C. institution that I’ve been dying to try for it’s large selection of vegan and vegetarian food. With its funky, eclectic, artsy décor, wide array of salads and vegan appetizers, and fun cocktail menu, this place did not disappoint. There were a few hitches in the meal—Chloe’s Greek salad, for example, was not, as our server promised, as much “stuff” as “lettuce,” but aside from that, we were all really happy. I began with a yellow tomato gazpacho (raw!):

It was a little salty, but very good, and I liked the avocado garnish!! I then got a big roast pear salad and order of hummus and whole wheat pita. Someone please report me to hummus addicts anonymous? If they don’t exist yet, I’ll be a founding member.

Chloe got the ful salad, which was a spin on the Egyptian dish Ful Medames—a delectable fava bean salad that I should post a recipe for sometime. It was great:

And the Greek salad with not-enough-stuff:

Knud started with some nachos, and then moved on to a non-vegan dish I’m forgetting (sorry!):

And M dug into a tempeh panini and sweet ‘tater fries, which looked great:

Gotta love tasty and cruelty-free comfort food!

So grateful to the special people in my life for a nice day and evening—and that includes you all. Right now, it’s time to cram for my daily chem lab, and then some more house-making back in Hobbit-ville. See you back here tomorrow!

xo