Regroup – Refocus

Last week was challenging for me in almost every aspect.  I chose to believe a little cheat on my diet wouldn’t do too much harm.  Add dealing with my mom’s (Heavenly) birthday, dealing with meeting a new PCP (primary care physician) just to get a referral (which is BS in general), exhaustion, choosing to try takeout instead of making food and had a couple alcoholic drinks, I was a mess.

Needless to say, I felt even worse for my stray to my old ways.  My mind, working overtime, took my better judgement and drop-kicked out of the window.  I managed to gluten myself, eat food I knew better to consume or just plain didn’t eat.

Being gluten-free and (mostly) vegan, it’s not easy to just grab a snack.  I need to carefully plan my meals and snacks.  I tried to pretend I didn’t need to.  I know better than to think like that.

Yesterday, we got out of town, for the day, and went to Roseville.  It’s a city past Sacramento and where we eventually want to move to.  We chose to let Yelp choose where we would eat lunch.

I found this little gastropub, called The Brickyard.  It offered a bit of everything.  However, I was super excited to see they offered Beyond the Meat (vegan) and had gluten-free buns.  I could have sworn a light from above was shining on me and I heard the angels singing.  I have yet to find a restaurant where I don’t have to modify the food or just stick to a salad.

After a bit of confusion on malt vs balsamic vinegar for my salad (had to explain why I couldn’t have the malt vinegar) one of the staff and I were talking.  She was a complete stranger who completely validated my health concerns, eating a vegan diet and homeopathic care as she personally had experience in this are.

She is controlling her own illness through diet.  It was what I needed; understanding when most people aren’t.   I wasn’t a “problem customer” to her.  She was  someone who hasn’t seen me struggle or was taking pity on me.

My husband, at one point said, “you’ve cheated before, just eat the dressing”.  I had to remind him how sick I was last week and I can’t continue that behavior.  He goes along with my eating habits for the most part.  Although, I will eat eggs now because he was worried about my protein levels.  It wasn’t worth the nutritional argument.  It was his way of showing concern.  A couple eggs won’t hurt my diet.

We went shopping last night.  I bought food to prepare and more veggies.  Prepped all my meals today.  I even broke out the juicer and made some (mostly) carrot and pineapple juice.  I drank several cups.  It was if my body was saying, “ahhhh….that’s the stuff!”

Needless to say, I’ve regrouped and now am refocused.  We all fall.  We all have challenges.  We can let them break us or we can get fortify our mind, bodies and souls.  We can use that fortitude to help others when they stumble.

 

Air Fryer Brussel Sprouts

In my goal to be a good, ok, better vegan, I am trying vegetables and foods I never thought I would eat.  On the list of intimidating foods I don’t typically eat are brussel sprouts.

I made them a couple weeks ago in the oven.  They were ok.  Nothing to write home (or on a blog) about.

When I was at church this past week, someone mentioned making them in the air fryer.  Now why didn’t I think of that?  I use the air fryer for almost everything!

As it would happen, I purchased another bag of brussel sprouts a few days ago.  Their health benefits outweigh my desire to forego eating them.  I decided to give it a go in my air fryer.

I quartered the large pieces and halved the tiny ones.  I used a tiny bit of olive oil (maybe two teaspoons – max).  A sprinkle of salt, pepper and a dash of paprika.  I put them in a single layer in the air fryer.  Set the temperature to 400 degrees fahrenheit and cooked them for 8-10 minutes.

They turned out perfectly!  Nice and crispy.  I did drizzle about a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar on them after they were done cooking.

I highly recommend using the air fryer for these little cabbage-like veggies.  You can’t go wrong if you do.

 

Review: The Beyond Burger

It’s been about a month now; give or take.  I have been on a primarily vegan diet to treat my colon cancer.  I juice a lot, follow a gluten-free (did that before cancer) and now a vegetarian, if not vegan diet.

I would say that about 95% of my food intake is vegan.  I never thought I could give  up cheese.  Surprisingly, it hasn’t been as difficult as I thought it would be.  Since changing my diet, I have had goat cheese 4 times and feta cheese twice.  Not too shabby.  I occasionally will have either fish or shellfish.

I have also given up dairy and eggs, in addition to red meat, chicken and pork.  I will occasionally do honey; but limit natural sugar.  I rarely have any refined sugar these days.  My daughter always wanted a rabbit to join the family.  She will just have to accept me as a surrogate bunny.

Onto the review…

I saw a blog post about “The Beyond Burger” about a month ago about this alternative meat.  As soon as I read about it, I knew I had to try it as soon as it was available.

Earlier this week, when I was doing the weekly grocery shopping, I happened to stumble upon it.  It was nestled in the meat department, right about the ground beef.  I picked up a package to try, picked up pre-made burgers for the family (rarely do that) and was EXCITED to try it for dinner.

Last night, I cooked up their burgers in one pan and made my “burger” in cast iron pan.  They had a perfect sear to them.  The “burgers” are primarily made of pea protein and beets.  I have had pea protein milk before.  It’s a great dairy-free alternative.  However, it tends to be a bit more expensive then, say, almond or cashew milk.

I wish I had taken pics of the “burgers” before I added the avocados.  I opted to forgo the vegan cheddar cheese.  I didn’t put them on a bun, as I didn’t have gluten-free ones available and didn’t feel like going the lettuce wrap route.

While the “burger” didn’t taste like read meat, it “bleeds” while cooking because of the beets in it.  They are also a bit smaller than what I would call a traditional burger size.

A bonus for me is they have 30% of the recommended daily volume of protein.  I am continually anemic from my cancer.  To say, I love this plant-based option, wouldn’t be an understatement.  My husband and daughter thought I was nuts when I was so happy about my dinner.  You can read more about the nutritional content here.

I topped the “burgers” with avocado and dipped each bite in a bit of mustard.  I love mustard and I use it whenever I can.  I really enjoyed the taste.  I cooked it with just a bit of salt and pepper.  Nothing complicated.  I made vegan mashed potatoes.  The family wanted fries, which I made them in the air fryer for them, but I wanted mashed potatoes.

I don’t often buy pre-made meals for myself.  However, this is one option I will definitely do.  It makes prepping dinner a bit easier on my busy nights.

If your family does a meatless Monday or you’re trying to cut back on red meat, I would invite you to give this option a try.  I think this is now one of my new favorite foods.

Homemade Pesto

I made homemade pesto yesterday.  You only need a few ingredients for a wonderful sauce that can be added to pasta, sandwiches, salads, etc.  I can’t give exact measurements, as I tend to cook by sight and taste versus actual quantities.

As I am embracing a primarily vegan diet (usually about 75% of the time), this recipe works perfectly for that.  I know someone is thinking, ‘what about the cheese?’.  I have a response for that.  You can either omit it or you can substitute nutritional yeast.  It has a pseudo-Parmesan cheese flavor.  I will admit, I forgot to include the nutritional yeast in the picture.

In addition to being vegan, it’s also raw and gluten-free.  It’s full of flavor and blends up in seconds.

You can choose to lightly toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet for a few minutes or just buy them already toasted (what I did).

You can try this basic recipe or Google other pesto recipes.  It’s usually made with basil, however, I’ve seen a multitude of substitutions as well.

Ingredients:

• Basil
• pine nuts
• garlic clove(s)
• nutritional yeast (or Parmesan cheese; for the non-vegans)
• Pinch of salt
• Olive oil

Place all the ingredients into a food processor.  Blend (or pulse) to a smooth consistency.  Make sure to scrape down the sides as you go.  Either add to pasta that’s already cooked or store in the refrigerator to use at another time.

There is no need to heat the pesto sauce.  Hot pasta will actually warm it up. It’s a nice alternative to marinara or pizza sauce.

 

Can it!

Several years ago, I reacquainted myself with the soon-to-be lost art of canning food.  While I am definitely no expert, I’ve managed to can all sorts of food.

I have been a bit lax on canning while I’ve been dealing with my health, the time for resuming preserving food is at hand.  Over the last few days, I have made and canned vegetable broth and tomatoes.

The vegetable broth is really a piece of cake.  I take the veggies I have, whether from storing them in the freezer or from the fridge, cut them up, put them in the crockpot, add some filtered water and cook on low for 10 hours.  Remove the veggies, drain the broth through a fine mesh sieve and some cheese cloth and then canning commences.  If you’re into composting the cooked veggies can be composted.

The tomatoes, on the other hand, are one of the most tedious items to can (imho).  Yet, there are so many options for canning them.  For this particular canning, I chose to use remove the tomato peel by blanching the tomatoes in boiling water.  Then the tomatoes go into ice water to stop the cooking process.

After removing the skin, I rough chop the tomatoes and place in a blender and pulse it a few times.  I complete several batches of this and all the tomatoes are placed in a pot and brought up to temperature so then can be ladled into hot jars and canned.

I have a pressure canner, which I can double as a water-bath canner.  At one point, I had both, but it took up a lot of space.  I will note that certain foods (normally acidic, jams, jellies) use a water bath while other foods require the use of a pressure canner (stocks, vegetables, meat, soups).

With my change in diet and for the health of my family, I will work at diligently canning more foods to have on hand.  I typically only can what we eat within a year (typical shelf life of home-canned goods).  It’s a great way to use seasonal fruits and vegetables, while they are affordable.  I love opening a can of tomatoes in November that I canned in the summer.  You can still smell the vine.

 

Falafels via the Air Fryer

I’ve seen and heard about falafels for years.  They are a Middle Eastern dish made up of chickpeas and a variety of herbs and spices.  After taking a rest for a couple hours (or overnight) in the fridge, the mixture is ready to be rolled into balls and dropped into hot oil and fried to perfection.

Hold up…that won’t work for me.  Frying is almost non-existent in my house.  I do however, use an air fryer, which has to be one of the best kitchen inventions…EVER!

I followed a random falafel recipe.  Soaked my chickpeas overnight.  Some of you might be unfamiliar with chickpeas.  I know I was.  I had consumed them at my favorite Indian restaurant.  I even found them in the Indian spice shop I often go to.

Before I decided to make the falafels, I had purchased a large bag of chickpeas.  Remember when I said I was unfamiliar with them?  I had it in my head, I would just grind up the chickpeas and make my own gluten-free, chickepea flour.  My food processor wasn’t up for the job.  My little spice grinder hates me now.  Who knew you had to soak the chickpeas first?  OOPS!!!!   Well, now I know and you should have gotten a chuckle from my culinary ignorance.

Back to the new-to-me dish.  I looked up the cooking time for air fryer falafels.  It was just 12-minutes, on 370 degrees, turning halfway through the cooking process.

I will say, I could kick myself for not trying these earlier.  They were DELICIOUS!!!!!!  Perfectly crispy on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside.  I guarantee, these are on my permanent menu.  They fall in line with my plant-based diet.

Note:  depending on how many people will be eating these little crispy delights, you might want to halve the recipe if it’s just for a couple of you.

Lentil Taco “Meat”

In an effort to stay on a (mostly) meat-free, cancer-fighting diet, I thought I would make some lentils in my Instant Pot.  I used this recipe as a guide, however, I halved the recipe because I was cooking just for me.

I did adjust the ingredients and used the following:

• 1 cup red lentils
• 2 cups water
• small red onion; diced
• (2) cloves of garlic; minced
• half a can of diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• pinch of black pepper

I did saute the onions in a bit of olive oil and added the garlic once the onions were just about done cooking.  Added the rest of the ingredients, gave it a stir and set the Instant Pot to 15 minutes.  Quick release when the time was up.

The lentils were full of flavor.  Sadly, I was out of avocados and gluten-free tortillas, but I still plated and consumed them happily.  These definitely are a great substitution for meat.

I will note, the original recipe says it’s vegetarian, but that’s only if you use water and she uses chicken stock.  If you use water to cook the lentils, it actually becomes a great tasting, vegan dish.

Give it a try…I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Black Rice Salad

As part of my psuedo-raw, vegan, vegetarian diet I made up this dish.  I thought it would be great for lunch and it was!

I started by making just half a cup of black rice.  Yes, I know, they look like little ants in a salad, but it’s SOOOOO good.  That, and you can use it to freak out your kids.  Either way, it’s a win!  Sorry…couldn’t resist; ok, I didn’t really try either.

Then I cut up some veggies to add to my salad:  Cucumber, mini bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, a bit of fresh cilantro, fresh basil and fresh dill (I put that one everything), shredded carrots and a few beets.  I made up a light dressing to toss it in.  Mixed everything together and divided into two portions.  I had lunch for two days.

I will say, adding avocado to the salad, right before you eat it, will take it to a whole new level.  I am going to be making more for my lunches.  It is definitely better than the standard lettuce salad.

This salad was vegan, gluten-free and DELICIOUS!  I modeled it off a recipe I have been making for years (not my personal recipe).  You can make either or make it a combination.  Either way, it’s salad season…

Omega Cube300R Juicer

I have purchased a new juicer to aid in healing my cancer naturally.  I currently own a standard, auger juicer, but through research, a quality, masticating juicer is recommended.  The throw-away pulp is actually dry instead of wet.  More nutrients are extracted from the vegetables and fruits.

Part of my diet change is consuming more vegetables, especially greens.  Until I am 100% used to vegetables on their own, I will be using a few fruits to balance out the flavor.  My health is in God’s hands, but I need to make an effort to make my body healthy inside and out.

I have given up red meat and pork.  I will have a little fish and chicken/turkey here and there.  Minimal milk products; mostly plant based milks instead.  I will be consuming more raw food as well as baked vegetables.

Picture from bedbathandbeyond.com

After watching a video review of this particular juicer, I was hooked.  I have limited counter space and even less space between the counter and shelves.  This is the perfect, somewhat compact item for my needs.

I chose to order it from Bed Bath and Beyond.  There was a computer error that said it was eligible for a discount (and it wasn’t).  Luckily, I had proof what their website said, emailed it over and received the discount.  Additionally, I started the purchase through Ebates and received cash back on this purchase.  All in all, my savings was over $50.  I couldn’t be unhappy about that, right?

I’m excited for the juicer to arrive, which should be in two days.  I have plenty of produce on hand to give it a good trial run.  If you are interested in this product, you can visit the Omega website for more details.

Bottom’s up…here’s juice in your eye!

Fruit Platter

Sometimes I wish I didn’t have a background in catering; esp. when I have to bring something to a potluck. However, I do and that’s why I can’t just pick up pre-cut fruit, and bring it to where ever I am going.

Recently, I made a fruit platter for our VBS (Vacation Bible School) potluck bbq. I had envisioned using a cored out pineapple as the center of the dish; however, this was not meant to be.

I laid down some red-leaf lettuce. One, it provides a nice garnish but also covers up any blemishes on the platter. When I can, I prefer to use purple kale and I like the color contrast, but I had to use what was available.

I then cut a watermelon in half and sliced the half. This gave me some straight pieces of watermelon, which I halved again and created watermelon triangles. I placed them on the border of the platter and added a second layer.

I had cubed some cantaloupe melon and made a small layer, adding it between the watermelon layers to hold up the second layer of watermelon.

Added blackberries, opposite each other, did the same with some grapes and added cherries in the center. After all, everything is better when topped with a cherry (or cherries, in this case), right?

Last touch was to sprinkle some blueberries over the entire platter.

All in all, I was pleased with the outcome. To me, it ended up looking like a flower was in bloom.

Homemade fruit platters aren’t the cheapest to make, but they are gluten-free, fresh tasting and provide a healthy alternative to some of the items that normally accompany a bbq.