Menu for Vegan Week of 3/22 - Switching to a Plant-Base Diet

So over Spring Break, I read a book about the benefits of eating a plant-base diet: The Engine 2 Diet, and I must tell you that I am a convert. The book is written by an Austin firefighter and triathlete, Rip Esselstyn. The diet was conceived by his father, a cardiologist, and the arguments and data he shows are very persuasive. A group of 60 people got on this diet for 28 days. At the end of the 28 days, their average total cholesterol had dropped by 30% which totally makes sense if you are eliminating animal products, you are basically eliminating bad cholesterol! Mind you, the study was not "scientific" (ie, there's no control group, no statistically significant data, etc.) but still very convincing. Many of the participants also mentioned feeling an increase in energy shortly after starting this diet.

Then, when we got back home after Spring Break, we opened our Stanford Alumni magazine and there was a short, but inspirational article about an alum who at 40 realized he needed to go back to his athletic self (he was a champion swimmer in his college years). He switched to a plant-based diet and noticed how much more energy he had after only a week on the diet. He now runs triathlons and is writing a book about his experience.

So we thought, what the heck? What have we got to lose, but bad cholesterol? So we are trying out being Vegan for just a month. We are calling it our detox diet. :) We are not sure we are going to stay on it after the month, but are hoping it will help us lower our overall intake of animal products.

Our kids are not participating yet. They still love their chicken nuggets, ham, pork chops, milk, eggs, and cheese (plus all their veggies, fruit, and other healthy food), but we are hoping they will slowly make the switch with us, especially after we let them watch Food Inc. I don't think Nati will be eating meat if she sees a single animal in distress because of her eating habits.

So far, it is going well, but then again, it is only day 2! Below is our menu for this week, including breakfast and lunches.

Saturday:

• Breakfast - Cereal with soy milk and fruit
• Lunch - Falafels
• Dinner -Aloo Ghobi Masala (south east asian potato, cauliflower, and peas dish), Vegetables with dip, Mango Sorbet

Sunday:

• Breakfast - Pancakes made with soy milk, apple sauce, whole wheat flour, and Ener-G egg replacer instead of cow's milk, oil, white flour, and egg.
• Lunch - Sandwich made with avocado, tomato, cucumber, alfalfa sprouts, cilantro, lemon and cracked pepper. LOVE THIS!!!!
• Dinner - Potato and cauliflower soup with bread, steamed edamame, orange sections, veggie tray and strawberry sorbet (starting to think this stuff is too sweet for me!)

Monday:

• Breakfast - Corn tortilla tacos of scrambled Tofu with tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, turmeric, and dash of Tabasco sauce
• Lunch - My favorite sandwich (see yesterday's lunch!)
• Dinner - Leftover potato and cauliflower soup with homemade bread and salad with homemade peanut dressing

Tuesday:

• Breakfast - Corn tortilla tacos made with potatoes, soy bacon, and salsa
• Lunch - Bean burritos with corn tortillas, leftover salad
• Dinner - Linguini with Mushroom Stroganoff made with tofu and nutritional yeast

Wednesday:

• Breakfast - Scrambled Tofu a la Mexicana (with serrano pepper, tomato, onion)
• Lunch - Leftover Linguini
• Dinner - Black beans with toppings served over brown rice

Thursday:

• Breakfast - Oatmeal with raisins, almonds, bananas and honey
• Lunch - Leftover black beans and rice
• Dinner - "Cheesy" Broccoli Soup (made with cashews, nutritional yeast, and pimentos instead of cheese) - ANOTHER FAVORITE!!!!

Friday:

• Breakfast - Migas (scrambled tofu with tortilla strips, tomato, onion, pepper, mushrooms) with Refried beans and Tortillas
• Lunch - Leftover broccoli soup
• Dinner - Whole wheat pasta with Tomato Sauce and salad

This is so much fun!!!!

Going uptown on Groceries

The more I read food labels, the more I realize what junky food we Americans eat! Why does the box of cupcake mix have to have maltodextrin? Because it is cheaper to use than real sugar.
I checked the back of McCormick's "Pure" Vanilla Extract. It has high fructose corn syrup in it! Yuck.

Have you looked at the list of ingredients in any processed food lately? What are we putting into our bodies? Who knows what the side effects of this stuff is? The FDA is controlled by industry lobbyists. Therefore, anything approved for general use by the FDA must be considered suspect, in my mind, until proven otherwise.

In my quest to avoid processed food and chemicals, I have started making more things from scratch and buying organic fruit and veggies, especially strawberries because my kids loved them and I know that strawberries easily absord chemicals from the ground. I have been considering going with an all organic fruit and veggie delivery company, such as Greenling.com for quite a while, but have never made the plunge. Primarily because I am nervous about the quantity of items that will be included in the "local basket" of produce for which I will need recipes. But I guess that could be fun, too, right? What do you do with rhubarb besides make pies? I'm sure there are plenty of recipes out there. I think Greenling actually includes recipes for some of the not-so-well-known produce in the baskets it delivers. I must make the plunge.

I am also going to shop at Central Market today. My husband is not crazy about the idea because he thinks it will be more expensive, but I am going to try to stick to my original food budget of $100. This will be the real test, I guess. Can one eat healthy food on a budget?

We'll see how it turns out.

The Quest for the Healthiest Granola Bar

A dear friend whom I have known since seventh grade was rightly concerned about the amount of fat in my previous granola bar recipe post. She would like to find one that has 3 grams of fat or less. I spent a good number of minutes researching this yesterday and I found a new recipe which I haven't tried, but I have included below.

This recipe calls for no chocolate chips (which my kids love!!!!), and no butter. They substitute raisins and applesauce for those two ingredients. No one in my house likes soggy raisins so I think I will skip that substitution and stick to my chocolate chips, but lower the amount of sugar called for to 1/4 cup.

I have made brownies using applesauce before but they never turn out tasting as good as the ones using butter, but in the name of health, I will do a full substitution and if it doesn't work out, I'll have to slowly add more butter back in. :) Hope you like it!!!

Playgroup Granola Bars

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup wheat germ
3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cups raisins (optional)
3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup honey
1 egg, beaten
1 cup applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease 9 by 13 inch pan.
2. In large bowl, mix together oats, sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, and raisins (if using), and salt. Make a well in the center, add honey, egg, applesauce, and vanilla. Mix wet and dry ingredients thoroughly. Pat mixture into prepared pan.
3. Bake 30 -35 minutes in preheated oven. Cool for five minutes and cut into bars.

Failed Yellow Cupcakes from Scratch

How hard can it be to bake yellow cupcakes from scratch, right? That's what I thought especially since I was using the yellow cake recipe (on page 674) from The Joy of Cooking.

Well, it must be really hard or I mis-measured. It took forever to cream the butter, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla and then add the flour, baking powder, salt, and milk and then forever to actually bake the cupcakes and when they were supposed to be done, THEY WEREN'T. I kept putting them back in the oven hoping they would eventually cook all the way through, but they never did. The tops browned beautifully but the inside was chewy and raw.

Oh, it makes me so angry to have to throw out food, but I had to do it. Isabella cried because she "helped" me bake the cupcakes. (she kept herself busy by playing in the sink with water and a squirt bottle.) I'l have to find a new recipe so we can do it again. I am so bummed.

More later...

Menu for Vegetarian Week (March 7 - 13, 2010)

My husband has been asking me to make more vegetarian dishes because we could both use less meat so I thought it would be fun to go a whole week eating delicious vegetarian food that does not involve pasta or lentils. (I can't stand lentils. Their consistency feels very strange to me.)

Based on what I have in the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer, here's what I have planned for next week:

Sunday - Roasted Vegetable Salad with Dijon Dressing (whatever vegetables I have in the fridge and I still have some Romaine Lettuce Hearts that need to be used up), grapes, cucumber spears with dip.

Monday - (Baseball Night) - Cheesy Broccoli Soup and Spinach Salad, Pineapple Chunks

Tuesday - Dinner at a Friend's house. (Bringing wine and cheese.)

Wednesday - Crepes with Caramelized Onion, Feta, and Spinach Sauce (I hope it tastes as good the ones sold by the Crepe Ladies here in Austin!), Apple Slices, Carrots with Dip

Thursday - (Soccer Night) - Aloo Gobhi Masala, an Indian recipe with cauliflower and potato in a spicy sauce, and Jasmine Rice. (I can make it in advance and have dinner when we get home from soccer. ) Steamed Edamame, Melon Wedges.

Friday - Portobello Mushroom Burgers, Spinach Salad (if we have Spinach Leftover otherwise, steamed broccoli), and Strawberries

Saturday - Falafal Sandwiches (if we haven't left on our Spring Break mini-vacation)

Can't wait to try all this food!!!!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

My husband's cousin Carrie cooks and bakes with her kids regularly. Inspired by her enthusiasm for sharing the joy of cooking with kids, I decided to try a new recipe last night with Daniel: energizing muesli bars.

I found this recipe in a book called Cookies! by Pippa Cuthbert and Lindsay Cameron Wilson. It was so easy to make and the girls loved it. After all the time that Daniel spent stirring everything together and tasting the mixture every few minutes, he decided it tasted too much like peanut butter for him. My hubby thought they were too sweet. I agree with him. The sugar content is kind of high so we will have to modify the recipe so it has less sugar. Here it is:

Energizing Muesli Bars

Makes about 24 squares

1 stick butter, melted
generous 1/2 cup light brown sugar
3 heaped Tbs of creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup honey (the recipe calls for corn syrup, but we are trying to be healthy right?)
2 cups dry quick oatmeal
1/2 cup wheat germ
3/4 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut
5 1/2 oz. chocolate chips
generous 1/2 cup Rice Krispies
generous 1/4 cup sunflower seeds (or any nuts, chopped)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a medium-size bowl stir together melted butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and peanut butter until smooth. Combine remaining ingredients together in a separate bowl. Add the peanut butter mixture and mix well until combined.

Press the mixture into a greased 9-in square pan. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the top is golden. Allow to cool, then cut into squares.

We didn't put the coconut or the sunflowers in it, but used crunchy peanut butter instead. My kids didn't want to put in the coconut.

Enjoy!!!!

Asian Chicken Salad

We had so much lettuce leftover since our plans changed last weekend, that I made a huge salad last night for dinner. A friend makes it a lot and hers is very tasty, but the dressing I found on epicurious is my favorite so far!

Asian Chicken Salad

For the salad:
4 Romain lettuce hearts, washed and cut (or 8 cups of torn Romain leaves)
1/4 bunch of cilantro, chopped
1/2 bunch of green onions, chopped (not the white parts)
12 oz. can of chicken breasts in water, drained and flaked (or use whatever shredded chicken you have)
12 oz. can of mandarin oranges, drained
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted

20 square wonton wrappers
canola oil, for frying wontons

For the dressing:

1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 tsp pepper

The recipe calls for fried wontons which taste pretty good, but I didn't have them and it didn't affect the recipe. I also didn't "toast" the sesame seeds or almonds and it was still great! You are supposed to cut the wonton wrappers in strips and fry 5-6 at a time in hot oil for 30 seconds, turning over once with a slotted spoon. Let sit on paper towels while you get the other ingredients ready.

Place all salad ingredients in large bowl. Whisk dressing ingredients in small bowl. Pour over salad and toss thoroughly. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!