The Rubber Slipper Contessa & Big Spazz

Pumpkin Pie Spice Oatmeal

2012-01-26T10:48:00.000-10:00

I have a love affair with these Coach's Oats from Costco. It just fills me up and I'm not starving before lunch. Plus, I get to use my homemade pumpkin pie spice.

Ingredients: serves 3 or very hungry 2
1 cup non-dairy milk (soy, almond, rice - unsweetened, plain)
1 cup water
2/3 cup Coach's Oats
3-4 dates, pitted and chopped (gauge your sweet tooth)
1-2 frozen bananas, chopped (optional)
1/4 cup 100% pure pumpkin (1 regular sized can lasts for about 3 recipes)
1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
3 pecans, toasted (optional)

How to:
In a small saucepan, bring the water and soy milk mixture to a boil. I add the dates at this time too if it's a little dry. Add the oats (and dates, bananas if using), reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, toast nuts. Remove oatmeal from heat and allow it to sit for a minute. Stir in the pumpkin and spice. Yum!

I Show You How: Pumpkin Pie Spice

2012-01-25T12:38:00.000-10:00

I'm addicted to pumpkin pie oatmeal in the morning, but I never have pumpkin pie spice so I always have to end up making a spice mixture and keeping it a container to add to oatmeal or smoothies. I don't actually make pie but it may be ono with roasted sweet potatoes.

4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1/2 tsp. ground cardamom

1/2 tsp. allspice

Put it in a container and label it PIE :)

De-Clutter Monday: One Kitchen Shelf

2012-01-23T18:55:00.001-10:00

My food hoarding is connected to my clutter, which means that the more I de-clutter, the more weight I lose. In composition class, I call that false logic, but I'm sticking with it.

Last week's major accomplishment - organizing the cabinet above the microwave.

Emptied of its contents, my shelves over the microwave look like the junk drawer with weird odds and ends

Empty the shelves and start sorting

coffee singles in a bag from hotels

got rid of these coffee filters that belong to the coffee filter that we don't have anymore

via instant coffee packets

2 quart crystal light packets

hope it lasts for at least a month.

Challenge Week 1 Menu

2012-01-22T18:24:00.001-10:00

Sunday is our major prep for the week day so how are you prepping for the week?

We are also starting another 6-week Dr. Fuhrman Eat to Live Challenge, here's what we've been doing:

Big Spazz picked up enough veggies to get us to Wednesday's farmer's market (romaine, assorted lettuce, assorted choy, red peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, spinach, kale, zucchini)
Made three dressings: creamy miso, orange hummus, Akira wasabi
Cooked morning oatmeal: pumpkin pie oatmeal and I'll toast the pecans in the morning
Planned menu with Big Spazz
Made no-chicken broth granules, pumpkin pie spice, no-beef broth

Week 1 Menu

Breakfasts:
alternate oatmeal and green smoothie

Lunch:
Hugh Jass salads with alternating dressings, beans, nuts, peppers, cukes, tomatoes and greens

Dinner:
Monday: Our busy night with boy scouts and baseball - Dr. Praeger veggie burgers grilled on the Foreman and oven baked sweet potato fries with salad

Tuesday: Eggplant and Tofu in Spicy Garlic Sauce with brown rice

Wednesday: Thai curry with sweet potato and choy, brown sticky rice from farmer's market

Thursday: TVP tacos

Friday: chili sans carne with my slow cooker beans I made last week and froze in 1 1/2 cup bags

Saturday: jambalaya with corn muffins

Facing the Truth

2012-01-20T11:11:00.000-10:00

You never find yourself until you face the truth. - Pearl Bailey

Want the truth? Being a nutritarian is a LIFESTYLE change, and not a DIET. If it were a diet, Big Spazz and I would be total losers, not biggest losers.

The holidays kicked our ass. Why? Because we allowed it to happen. I have not stepped on a scale for a month, but my clothes are a little snug. See my mantra above: you never find yourself until you face the truth.

Here's my finding myself by facing MY truth:

We are joining the new challenge this Monday not because it's a diet that works, but because we want to make this lifestyle change (RIGHT Big Spazz???)
When I come across something that is unhealthy, I usually am good about saying no, but if I really want it, I eat it acknowledging that yes it is unhealthy, but I'm going to eat this one piece or 1/2 a piece and I will not lie to myself or anyone else about it
It's hard work, even now and there are only so many salads and fruits and smoothies that I can take on any given day, but we trudge on not for glory and praise and competition but for the individual conviction that life is worth living well

the 1/2 a taro malasada from Kamehameha Bakery was so unhealthy and full of sugar, but it was ono and soft and crunchy on the outside -- PAU

De-Clutter Monday: The Spice Rack

2012-01-16T17:31:00.000-10:00

My goal this year is to slowly de-clutter and stave the hoarder gene for as long as possible. I think part of my desire to eat junks has to do with the psychological hoarding of food, so de-cluttering my world is this year's goal.

If you're interested in the de-clutter calendar, here's the link. Last week's success story: discard old spices and organize the spice drawer.

1. Check the expiration dates on spices
2. Use something like a tiered shelf rack so spices are not all at the same level (try google product search under tiered spice rack)
3. I do what I did in my classroom for my thousands of books - I can't be bothered alphabetizing each book, so I'd alphebetize shelves. The shelf on the left has spices from A - L; the right has everything else. I also store the red pepper flakes below the racks.

Next week: tackling the pantry.

Sunday Shopper: Marukai and Palama Market

2012-01-15T16:25:00.000-10:00

We're lucky to live on the Big Island, but when we get to go to Honolulu as a family, we usually stop at the Asian specialty stores to get items we can't get at our local KTA or Kilauea Market. Today's Sunday shopper is from Marukai and Palama Market.

Marukai is a members-only Japanese foods and goods store, but the fee is only about 10 or 20 dollars so if Japanese food is your thing, it's worth the membership.

We bought some dried ogo for the sweet potato poke, Japanese toothpicks (I don't know how to describe it, but it's thicker than the usual and we like it), Italian seasoning for the Italian veggie tofu scramble and some veggie tonkatsu sauce for our Dr. Praeger's burgers.

We also hit Palama Market for the first time. They specialize in Korean food items (near Don Quijote).

They have a large selection of kim chees in their "salad" bar (probably one of the reasons why it smells when you enter), but we specifically went for these potato noodles for my vegetarian jap chae and Big Spazz wanted to try these dried radish strips in homemade kimchee.

We would love to learn how to cook nutritarian Korean. Find recipes? Send them our way.

Beyond the Same Old Same Old

2012-01-12T15:10:00.001-10:00

Even rabbits probably get tired of the same old shiitake mushrooms (or in their case, alfalfa and grass), so plant strong = GOOD.

SOS (same old salad) = JUNK!!

I saw a post on Peas and Thank You about salad in mason jars and it looked so festive, so I figured, maybe make the SOS, but make it different to fool ourselves into thinking it's a different lunch we're eating. I don't have mason jars and recycled marinara sauce bottles would look so recycled. I ended up putting it in our SOBs (same old bowls), but the change in look just made it more palatable and Big Spazz was excited about lunch.

Put a layer of dressing on the bottom (we used our Akira Kurosawa special with the wasabi samurai punch at the end) and then layered some garbanzo beans. Put the things that can be soaked in the dressing on the bottom and end with the things that you want to keep more dry on the top.

Garbanzo beans were followed by tomatoes that also got to marinade in Akira sauce.

A handful of chopped kalamata olives (a little salty but oh so good)

Other crunchy veggies for texture like bell peppers and carrots that can act as a buffer for the more delicate greens that don't want their bodies wet and limp in dressing.

Used about 3 cups of greens including some seasonal mizuna that has a mild flavor but nice crunch in its stalks.

Add some nuts and voila - an old lunch disguised as a new lunch.

Big Spazz had a hard time mixing the salad because I packed the container, but next time, I'll either pack less or give him an extra bowl.

Review: Salad for Dinner

2012-01-06T08:51:00.000-10:00

Author: Tasha De Serio

Publisher: Taunton Press (March 2012)

Paperback: 208 pages

In short: With the new year comes a new focus on eating healthy and eating fresh. De Serio, a chef, food writer, cooking teacher and caterer (Olive Green Catering), provides pictures, recipes and preparation how-tos to create sumptuous salads that are hearty enough for the main meal.

My thoughts: This is not a nutritarian, vegetarian, or vegan cookbook. The salad for dinner philosophy seems to revolve around salads with meat, fish, eggs and/or cheese plus a hearty serving of olive oil for vinaigrette. However, this cookbook does not tout itself to be a fat-free, vegan book.

The power of this book is not necessarily the recipes themselves (it was hard for me to find a recipe that I could use as is), but the "teacher" factor in both the text, the clean, reader-friendly layout and the corresponding pictures. De Serio is great at "I Show You How" from preparing and storing greens, to pickling your own beets and choosing the right tools for the job.

For example, I learned that baking sheets are useful for spreading cooked vegetables, grains, and legumes out to cool quickly so they don't continue to cook too much. The ice bath is not the only way to go.

I also like the how to cutting techniques that are spelled out for different fruits and vegetables. I now know how to dice versus slice a shallot and how to peel and segment a citrus to keep its shape. I don't know if my knife skills will improve, but at least I have a little more technique now. At about $13.50, this is a great resource for budding home chefs.

Source: This advanced reader's copy was provided by Net Galley (dot) com for an honest review

Wordless Wednesday: Carrot Cupcakes

2012-01-04T07:00:00.001-10:00

The recipe is here from the Happy Herbivore blog.

wet, goopy carrot batter

Toffutti cream cheese icing with walnut sprinkles

New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-03T23:53:00.000-10:00

Big Spazz and I are still trying to lose weight. In fact, we need to lose some of the weight that we already lost (then promptly gained again during the holidays), but this is a long term life challenge and not a new year's resolution. Once our middle boy goes back to college, we are definitely whole tofu and hugh jass salads back on the nutritarian lifestyle, but for now, our new year's resolution is to walk more (we're trying for the 365 miles challenge again) and I'm on a miss to follow the daily declutter calendar.

Yesterday's task: create a donation station

donation and returns

file and send

Today's task: Declutter your cabinets and dust. I actually spent a day organizing cabinets, so the entryway closet was what was left.

Thanks Dad for the Target gift cards. I picked up these storage bins for $8 each and I took advantage of our donation station to get rid of some clutter. Anyone want cowboy hats?

Guacamole with Chili Garlic Paste

2012-01-02T21:56:00.000-10:00

This is Big Spazz's last day of vacation relaxed look. Perhaps it's because we get free Starbucks coffee for the month of January, or that we have enjoyed our evening walks together, but more likely it's his capsaisin kick. He puts chili pepper water, wasabi paste, or sriracha on almost every meal.

The health benefits of eating spicy foods include (from SELF magazine) :

increased metabolism (the capsacin in chilies burn bonus calories for 20 minutes after eating)
reduce damaging effects of LDL (bad cholesterol)
cancer prevention
lower blood pressure
boost in feel good seratonin

In addition, spicy foods make his nose and cheeks sweat so it's like a sit-down workout with the benefit of clearing his sinuses.

We tried the Alan Wong Asian guacamole for a spicy alternative to the regular guacamole.

2 avocadoes, peeled, pitted and cubed

1 small sweet onion, finely chopped (Maui onion, red onion)

3 T lime juice

3 T rice wine vinegar

1 T green onion, thinly sliced

1 T finely chopped cilantro (or more)

1 T grated fresh ginger

1 t chili garlic paste (or sriracha

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mash gently to mix, keeping avocados chunky. Serve with pita chips or tortillas. Want more spice? No scared em.

Ozōni - New Year's Good luck mochi soup

2011-12-31T16:19:00.000-10:00

This is an old post for poetry month, but my oldest boy asked for his grandma's new year's soup recipe, so I'm reposting.

Akemashite omedeto gozaimasu, Mino-chan. (Happy 2012 Isaac No'eau Minoru)

The phone starts ringing at 6 am,

never mind that we've been sleeping for two hours,

never mind that we're thick headed with dreams,

groggy from days of food preparation for New Year's eve,

lightheaded from the sulfuric pungency of the firecracker showers,

the phone will keep ringing until we pick up.

"Soup's ready,"

my mother-in-law's voice on the other side

chipper and alert in that way that people that are retired

can be alert at 6 in the morning.

"Take your time. . .come when the kids get up,"

that's what she always says,

that's never what she means.

We urge each other out of the cocoon of blankets,

knowing that if we wait too long,

say 7 am,

the phone will start ringing again.

Eyes thick with maka pia pia,

ears still ringing from the fireworks,

the five of us obediently arrive

for our bowl of ozōni,

clear broth soup

with a soft mochi sunken under

bright green mizuna

and floating hokkigai,

a New Year's tradition,

a luxury of simplicity,

a samurai's sustenance on the battlefield.

We sip unconsciously,

let the hot saltiness of the broth

clean the residual sulfur in our throats,

nibble at the crisp mizuna stallks

that taste like lazy summer afternoons

and pull long taffy like pieces of mochi

into our mouth

feel the glutinous melting,

the satisfaction of stickiness.

Another year begins,

started with clear broth, water to purify,

greens to cleanse,

mochi to hold us together,

a familiar first step.

- 4/7/11

Grandma Ikeda's Ozōni (New Year's Mochi Soup)

5 cans chicken broth

1 can hokkigai (Japanese surf clams)

Mizuna (Japanese water greens) chopped and kept uncooked on the side

Heat the chicken broth and put in the hokkigai. Put the raw mizuna on the bottom of the bowl, the soft mochi on top and pour the hot broth over it.

Note: if using fresh pounded mochi, just put it in. If you're using frozen mochi, cook it in a separate water bath until the mochi is soft but not disintegrating, so don't do this until everyone is up and ready to eat or you'll have mochi water.

Easy Shabu Shabu

2011-12-30T22:21:00.000-10:00

Have some chopped up veggies and an electric skillet and you've got dinner - shabu shabu is a super easy Japanese version of hot pot. Serve it with some ponzu sauce and enjoy your family around the dining room table.

The broth: water, 2 large strips of kombu (seaweed), slivers of ginger, shiitake pieces (I also added some dehydrated daikon). Get the broth simmering in the pot to get the flavor out of the ginger and broth (about 1/2 an hour at a slow boil). Take out the konbu and ginger before serving.

The cooking options:
Any kind of choi (bok choi, choi sum, ung choi)
won bok, mustard cabbage, purple spinach
any kind of fungus (shiitake, wood ear mushroom, Chinese black fungus)
any kind of noddle (optional - glass noodle, udon, mochi strips)

Stir it in the broth, swish it around, let it cook, take it out and dip in ponzu. Choose to go vegetarian, or not.

Review: Pearl's Bakery in Mountain View

2011-12-28T15:13:00.000-10:00

As we head into 2012, here is what I learned about this nutritarian lifestyle:

I cannot live by non-oil, non-sugar vegetables at all times
Saying that, I also don't believe that eating sugar and grease and fat means that I have fallen off the wagon.
There is no wagon.
There are 24 hours in a day in which we try to do our best to listen to our bodies and take care of ourselves the best we can.
If we F*%$# up, tomorrow is another day.

When you're having one of those days, take a trip to Mountain View. Just outside of Mountain View, as you're heading to Glenwood is Pearl's Bakery and Cafe (on the left). They serve decadence on a dish and lots of it. The owners are super nice and there's seating outside for a leisurely coffee cake and tea or my favorite, the half order of biscuits and gravy with a white chunky gravy with homemade southern sausage. The biscuit is crunchy on the outside, flaky on the inside, and the gravy, OMG, addictive!

There's lots of parking and about 4 tables outside. You can also buy plant starters, and on the day we went, they had some fresh mahi caught that morning in fisherman boxes.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T08:29:00.001-10:00

Merry Christmas from our family to yours

Keahiloa (Ahi)
Isaac No'eau (DJ Frizel)
Kalamapono (Tom)
Ken (Big Spazz)
Cat (Rubber Slipper Contessa)

Wordless Wednesday: Thai Dinner

2011-12-21T07:00:00.012-10:00

Fried tofu for tofu lettuce wraps

Green onion bao

Stir fried eggplant with soybean sauce

Bok Choy with garlic and mushroom sauce

Red thai curry with choi sum, pumpkin, potato, onion, straw mushroom

Coconut Date Balls with PB Chips

2011-12-19T07:00:00.001-10:00

This holiday is kicking our butt - it's rainy and damp in the house, which makes us hungry for soup and pasta and other stomach warmers (not raw salad). And with all the holiday ads and recipes, we just want to eat dessert - cookies, fudge, brownies, cake, custard - all no-no's if I'm actually going to stay on my plateau and not fall off, so made these "gift worthy" coconut date balls to fool us into thinking we're eating decadence.

Makes a dozen:
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup raw cashews
5 Medjool dates, pitted (a little more than 1/3 cup)
1/3 cup unsweetened cherries
1t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. sea salt (this is the key for balance - reduce it, but don't eliminate it)
1-2 T. water as needed to form the balls
1/4 cup chocolate chips, rough chopped (dark, coccoa nibs, peanut butter chips)
unsweetened coconut

Put the nuts in a blender or food processor until it's chopped up fine, but not yet butter. Put the nuts in a bowl.
Blend the dates, cherries, vanilla and salt. Blend until almost smooth. Mix the date mixture in with the nut mixture and combine. Use water if necessary. Add the chopped chocolate and form into balls with your hands. Roll in coconut and put it in the freezer for a little while to solidify it.

Wiki White Bean Soup

2011-12-18T07:00:00.052-10:00

Even in Hawaii, we've been leaving and coming home in the dark, so I'm always looking for fast meals to whip up for dinner. This one gets its heartiness from the cannellini beans and the creaminess from taking some of the soup and beans and putting it in the Vitamix. I used some parmesan because we're not on a 6-week challenge right now, but when we are, I can just replace the parmesan with vegan parmesan. I promise with the parmesan it tastes like French onion soup without the fat and salt.

Ingredients:
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 t. dried oregano
2 cans (14 1/2 oz.) + 2 cups vegetable broth (I used 2 cups of water with 2 of my veggie bouillon)
2 cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
juice of 1 lemon
coarse salt and ground pepper (optional, I didn't use the salt)
1/2 a bag of spinach
basil for garnish, chiffonade
parmesan cheese for garnish

Directions
Water saute scallions, garlic and oregano until the scallions are soft.
Stir in broth, and beans; cook until heated through. Put about 2 cups of broth and beans into a blender, mix and put it back in the pot. Stir in lemon juice and spinach until it wilts. Before serving, sprinkle with parmesan. 15 minutes and dinner is on the table.

Cauliflower with Garam Masala

2011-12-17T07:00:00.001-10:00

Cauliflower used to make me gag because my mom loved cauliflower raw. Ugh! This is the same woman that ate asparagus in cans. Double ugh!

But then God's got a sense of humor and sends us children who love what we hate and hate what we love. Take our youngest. He loves, loves, loves cauliflower. He pops it in his mouth like candy, but I still can't stomach it so roasting is the only way I'll serve it. The roasting transforms the cauliflower to buttery, nutty goodness and is the only way I'll eat it.

We tried it with curry powder, plain with olive oil spray, and our newest exotic version: cauliflower with garam masala. Garam masala is a common spice in Indian foods and it has a warm exotic smell - cinnamon, cardamom, ginger - it's spicy but not spicy hot.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Rough chop 1 head of cauliflower into florets, put it in a pan and spray olive oil or use about 1/2 T. of olive oil and stir it around to moisten the florets.

Roast uncovered for about 25-30 minutes, or until the cauliflower pieces start to brown.

Sprinkle the roasted cauliflower with garam masala (about 1 T.) and toss again. Salt is optional, but we didn't need it. Yum.

Jambalaya with Vegan Corn Muffins

2011-12-16T07:00:00.001-10:00

The original recipe, here, is from the Peas and Thank You blog as well as her cookbook. She has a cute story about dating disasters, love and Disneyland (and how they all come together in this jambalaya).

My story is this: we tried it with the wrong sausage and it was just meh, so we adjusted the spices, put in the asked for Tofurkey sausage and adjusted the corn muffins to get rid of the sugar and oil.

Vegan Corn Muffins

Ingredients
1 1/2 c. cornmeal
3/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 c unsweetened applesauce (add a little more since I got rid of the 2T of oil)
2 T. of date paste
1 c. soy milk
1 t. apple cider vinegar
1/2 t. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix wet ingredients into wet ingredients and combine, but don't overbeat.

Put mix into a sprayed muffin tin by the heaping tablespoon. Bake for about 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Jambalaya

Ingredients:
2 Tofurky sausages (kielbasa), sliced into rounds - this is the key - try not to substitute
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped (we used the fire-roasted bell pepper from Trader Joe's)
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 cup of water and 1 veggie bouillon cube OR 1 cup vegetable broth
1 can fire-roasted tomatoes with juice
2 t. basil, dried
2t. oregano, dried
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 1/2 T. tomato paste

Saute the sausages until brown and add the onion, celery and red pepper (if using the roasted bell, put it in after the celery ad onion are tender). Add spices and garlic and let the spices and garlic get a tad crisp.

Add the tomatoes and broth, bring to a boil and turn it down and cover to a slow simmer for about 10 minutes. Add in the rice and tomato paste and let it simmer for another 10 minutes. Your muffins should be done and cooled, and dinner's on the table.

Big Spazz tip: tabasco or homemade chili pepper water will bring a nice kick to it. Sweating while eating is like exercising while sleeping - easy on the joints and still good for the body and soul.

Vierra's Sweetbread Banana Pudding

2011-12-15T08:11:00.045-10:00

Vierra's sweetbread out of Waimea is only sold as fundraisers. They sell sweet bread and cinnamon bread with white glaze. It must be good because people came up to us at our pickup site to try and buy loaves. We ended up selling loaves from the no shows.

We can't do our normal butter fried sweetbread (we already did that with last month's malasadas), so modified the Banana Caramel Bread Pudding from Choosing Raw.

Serves 8

4 large, ripe bananas (the riper the better)

1 cup date paste, packed

3/4 cup nut milk

3 tsp. vanilla extract

4 tsp. cinnamon

1 round of Vierra's sweetbread cut into cubes

coconut milk

10 ramekins for baking

Preheat oven to 375. Place bread cubes in a large bowl.

Blend bananas, date paste, milk, vanilla extract and cinnamon until smooth.

Pour over bread and mix well.

Divide the soaked bread evenly into 8 ramekins. Pour 2T. of coconut milk over the top of each.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until the bread looks golden and carmelized.

Big Spazz likes it because it has the strong taste of banana, without being overly sweet.

Wordless Wednesday: Calzones with whole wheat pizza dough

2011-12-14T07:00:00.000-10:00

Recipe here.

I Show You How: Date Paste

2011-12-13T07:00:00.002-10:00

Date paste is used for baking goods without sugar, sweetening dressings and sweetening smoothies. Unlike my date sugar which was an utter fail, this is pretty fail proof.

Take one cup of pitted Medjool dates and soak it with 2/3 cups of hot water

Let it soak for an hour, then put it in a Vita mix or blender to get one cup of date paste. It will be thick and gooey with a caramel taste.

Mushroom Soup with Barley

2011-12-12T06:30:00.000-10:00

Mushroom are my favorite go-to food. I love mushrooms in everything, but especially as an earthy, meaty ingredient in soups. This is a fast mushroom soup with barley that is hearty enough for dinner with a salad and if you want, some crusty bread.

Ingredients:
1 tray of white mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
1 medium onion, chopped (red onion only if you have it)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
coarse salt (optional) and ground pepper
4 1/2 cups vegetable broth or 4 1/2 cups water and 4 homemade veggie bouillon cubes
1 cup quick cooking barley (if it's regular pearl barley, just precook it and add it in)
1 T. fresh lemon juice
parsley (optional)
vegan parmesan (optional)

In a large dutch oven, saute mushrooms, garlic, onions and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until vegetables have softened.

Add broth and 2 cups water; bring to boil over high. Reduce heat to a simmer and add barley.

Cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, add parsley and lemon juice and serve with vegan parmesan garnish.

Sunday Shopper:

2011-12-11T14:59:00.001-10:00

Island Naturals' customer appreciation Sunday (15% off of everything but sale items and produce) is the best time to buy pantry items that are too expensive to buy without some kind of discount (prices are pre-discount):

Tofutti plain cream cheese $4.89 -- use for pantry scones, tofu ricotta gnocchi
Soyrizo $5.49 - for tofu scramble and slow cooker 'uala enchilada
Tofurky Italian sausage $6.29 for spaghetti diablo and sausage and pepper subs
Tofurky kielbasa $6.29 for quinoa jambalaya
bulk peanut butter $3.49/lb. for 'ono 'ono shake green smoothies, hail to the kale dressing with PB substitute
Wheat gluten $8.79/bag for making seitan
Almond Breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk $2.99 for vegan eggnog
Taaza's Jewel Dal (Indian convenience food) $3.99 on sale for 2 dinners

Kilauea Market

Green onion bao $2.89 for 9 pieces (for Sunday pupus)

KTA

coconut milk $1.79 (cheaper here than Island Naturals or Kilauea Market) for Thai curry and banana caramel bread pudding
konnyaku $1.95 for miso soup
mochiko (rice flour) for gift giving (Big Spazz's famous peanut butter mochi, peanut butter cup mochi or truffle mochi
straw mushrooms $1.29 for Thai curry
Hershey's baking cocoa $3.99 for 'ono 'ono shake green smoothie

Whole Wheat Pizza & Chopped Salad

2011-12-09T22:23:00.000-10:00

I've been slammed with my end of the semester projects so Big Spazz has been a champ taking all the domestic duties, including trying new, healthy recipes for us.

Here's his whole wheat pizza dough recipe:

1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp. instant east, or 1 package quick-rising yeast
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar
3/4 c. hot water
1 T. extra-virgin olive oil (he was going to leave it out, but he was concerned about the texture of the dough)
coarse cornmeal, for sprinkling on the cookie sheet

We used our stand mixer with the dough hook (above). In the bowl of the stand mixer, combine flours, yeast, salt, and sugar and whisk together. Combine hot water and oil in a measuring cup. With the mixer running on low speed, gradually pour in enough of the hot liquid until the mixture forms a sticky ball. The dough should be quite soft. If it seems dry, add 1 to 2 tablespoons warm water; if too sticky, add 1 to 2 tablespoons flour. Mix on low until the dough forms a ball, then increase speed to 2 for just a minute to knead.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface. Coat a sheet of plastic wrap with cooking spray and place it, sprayed-side down, over the dough. Let the dough rest for 10-20 minutes before rolling. (We put it in the refrigerator for a day)

When ready to make the pizza, place a pizza stone on the lowest oven rack; preheat oven to 500 or highest setting. Sprinkle the coarse cornmeal on the pizza pan. Lightly flour your hands. Flatten the dough with your palms, then pick it up and hold it by the edge, rotating the dough in a circle to stretch it out. Roll it out and put it on the pizza pan.

Add toppings of your choice (pizza sauce, stir fried peppers, wilted spinach, stir fried mushrooms and onions (we made a cheese one for the boy).

Bake the pizza until the bottom is crisp and golden, 10 - 14 minutes.

Servie with chopped salad with fat-free Italian dressing and marinated veggies and red onion.

Wordless Wednesday: Fat-Free Vegan Pumpkin Pie

2011-12-07T07:00:00.000-10:00

The recipe is here. Next time I'll use a real pie plate and bake it in a water bath so it doesn't crack so much.

Lazy Sunday: Violet Beauregarde Pancakes

2011-12-04T11:23:00.001-10:00

Our go-to vegan Violet Beauregarde pancakes are perfect for lazy Sunday mornings because all of the ingredients are in our pantry or in the freezer. A lot of things are optional depending on what you have around or what you want to get rid of.

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
3 T. "sugar" (Splenda, date paste, stevia, etc.)
3 T. baking powder
2 c. soymilk (or more for consistency)
1/3 c. frozen blueberries

Other add-in options:
3 T. Tofutti vegan cream cheese
2 fresh bananas, mashed

Stir the ingredients and adjust soymilk for the appropriate pancake batter consistency. Fry the pancakes without oil on a non-stick griddle and prepare the frozen blackberry syrup.

Blackberry syrup
Put handfuls of frozen blackberries in a medium pot with a little water and heat it up for a sugar free syrup. Breakfast is ready to serve in less than half an hour.

Portobello Mushroom Gravy

2011-12-03T22:25:00.000-10:00

Big Spazz makes the best sourdough mushroom stuffing - not mushy, not dry, and all made sans recipe (by taste), so no help on that, but we did try a super 'ono portobello mushroom gravy that is the most gray, grainy, gross thing to look at, but it's so 'licious -- promise!

We got the gravy recipe from Green Thyme's "Savory Mushroom Bread Pudding Smothered with Portobello Mushroom Gravy" recipe

Ingredients (for 3 cups)

1 large onion, diced
1 T. EVOO
2T. Earth Balance vegan butter
2 portobello mushrooms, chopped
3 cups vegetable stock
2 t. tamari
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pan, add onions to olive oil and butter over medium heat. Cook the onions for 10-12 minutes until they start to carmelize. Add 1 cup of vegetable stock and scrape the brown bits from pan. Add the mushrooms and cook for about 5 minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat. In a blender, blend the mushroom mixture with remaining 2 cups of vegetable stock. Return gravy to the pan. Add tamari and seasonings. If it's too thick, add more stock.

**This is not 6-week challenge friendly, but it is plant strong and nutritarian.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-30T07:00:00.009-10:00

Oil Less Turkey in the Fryer (for our ohana)

Stuffed Kabocha

Thanksgiving Lessons

2011-11-28T22:13:00.000-10:00

Scary things I learned about us:

Big Spazz is the Morimoto of Iron Chefs - in the original Iron Chef Japanese shows, Chef Morimoto always writes his menus down before he starts. Here's Big Spazz's planning papers

2. If I don't pay attention to the mail, suddenly new gadgets pop up for major holidays. Here's our oil free deep fryer that magically appeared in the garage

3. Muffin tins are the perfect size to roast whole heads of garlic wrapped in foil. Use it in garlic smashed potatoes.

4. Big Spazz may be Morimoto, but I'm no Martha. I believe in non-frou frou decorations, although Big Spazz did ask where his wooden spoons went. Once the foods on the table, nobody cares about decorations. Good. Because he used my kabocha centerpiece and "repurposed" it.

5. Here's the BIGGEST Thanksgiving lesson that we never learn. I think we're slow learners. We have no idea how to cook for less than twenty people. 7 people, counting 2 nutritarians does not equal two turkeys (15 lbs. and 18 lbs.)

The second turkey, this one smoked

Sunday Shopper: November 27, 2011

2011-11-27T21:06:00.000-10:00

Besides the turkey, everything else we made for Thanksgiving is plant strong, so not too much shopping this week. We have to deal with repurposing leftovers. This week's deals are at KTA - the one Hilo store I really missed while living on Oahu.

Fruits/Produce - it's a bad time for fruits but get your daily fruit intake with these deals

Pineapple - Dole 79cents/lb. Maui Gold 99 cents/lb. Use it for smoothies, stir fry, kebabs, salsa
Oranges - 79 cents / lb.
Bean sprouts - Taro Brand is on sale for 1.89, but it's cheaper to get the same amount of the Lone Palm brand for cheaper (I think 1.59) - we're using it for pad thai along with a sad looking baby bok choy

Non-perishables
Planter's roasted, unsalted peanuts 3.59 - for pad thai and green papaya salad
Pearl soymilk - 1.99 for smoothies

Spaghetti Diablo with Vegan Italian Sausage

2011-11-25T10:43:00.000-10:00

I really wanted to make quinoa jambalaya again, but Big Spazz used my Tofurkey kielbasa for breakfast and left me with the Tofurkey Italian sausage, so here's the concoction for spaghetti diablo. If you have little ones at home, this is probably too spicy - it was a little too spicy for me, but no one else was suffering so I had to man up.

Ingredients:
1 box whole wheat spaghetti (remember they were on sale at Longs)
1 package Tofurkey Italian sausage, sliced (we buy it when Island Naturals has their monthly 15% off sale)
2 cans of fire-roasted tomatoes
a lot of garlic, chopped (start with 2T, then add more until you feel like it's too much)
1/2 an onion, chopped
1/3 cup water
1 container of mushrooms, sliced
2 tsp. chopped chili peppers
1T. dried oregano
1T. dried basil
1 bay leaf
dash of sea salt
1T. dried parsley
black pepper
3-4 dashes of Tabasco (we use the Samura's homemade chili pepper sauce - shecret recipe)

Directions:
Cook the spaghetti

In another pan, cook the sausage (use a little bit of water or veg broth if it starts to stick). Set aside.

Saute onion, garlic and mushrooms in same pan. Add more broth or water to saute. When mushrooms are soft, add herbs. Add the rest of the ingredients except the sausage. Let it boil, then turn it down, add the sausage and let it simmer. It's going to seem too wet, but once the spaghetti is cooked and drained, put the noodles directly in the pot of sauce. Let the noodles absorb the sauce a little and dig in!

Serve with some vegan parmesan on the side (almonds and nutritional yeast in a food processor) and a huge salad with your favorite dressing.

Save a Turkey. . .

2011-11-24T06:00:00.029-10:00

Ride a linebacker. . .because in this household, we would never save a horse to ride a Cowboy. This is a Philadelphia Eagles house. . . so from our aerie to yours. . .

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Today is a cook our butts off day so I'm obviously posting ahead.

If you need something that is just as good, as the Caesar Chavez dressing, or the Akira Kurosawa dressing (Caesar Chavez with wasabi paste replacing the dijon), definitely try Chef AJ's Hail to the Kale dressing.

I didn't have the 1 cup of almond butter so I replaced it with unsweetened, unprocessed peanut butter which made it so ONO! The peanut butter, the lime zest, the thick consistency-- it was almost like satay sauce. Toss it with hot pasta for a Thai spaghetti. Marinate tofu in the sauce and broil it. Or put it on salad. Yummy.

Wordless Wednesday: Zucchini and Fruit Mini Muffins

2011-11-23T07:00:00.001-10:00

The recipe is here (I used zucchini rather than carrots)

Wet ingredients

Added dry ingredients

Ready for the oven

Slow Cooker Mushroom Casserole

2011-11-22T16:19:00.000-10:00

This casserole just tastes old fashioned and it's a great comfort food that doesn't take all day to make. The trick is to make the cashew sour cream ahead of time and leave it in the refrigerator.

Cashew sour cream:
1/2 cup cashews
1/2 cup water
2 t. lemon juice
Combine the ingredients in a food processor or blender until it's smooth and creamy. Store it in the refrigerator

cashew sour cream

Ingredients:
1 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 package (10 oz) sliced mushrooms
1 T vegan chicken-flavored bouillon or 1 homemade veggie bouillon
4 cups nondairy milk
8 oz dried whole wheat pasta shells
1 bag of soy crumbles or other vegan "meat"
1/2 t. oregano
1/2 t. basil
pepper
2 T. whole wheat flour, if needed
bread crumbs for topping

This will cook for 1 1/2 hours, so plan acccordingly.

In a skillet, saute the onion until translucent, 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic and mushrooms and saute until the mushrooms are tender. I used some veggie broth to saute, but water can also be used.

Put the sauteed veggies, cashew sour cream, bouillon, milk, soy crumbles, pasta (does not need to be boiled) and herbs in a slow cooker. Mix thoroughly and cook on high for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the pasta is al dente. I didn't even thaw out the soy crumbles.

If the pasta is too watery, add the flour and stir to combine. It works like magic. Top each serving with bread crumbs. I also added some fake parmesan (nutritional yeast and almonds ground together for a parmesan-like texture)

Another recipe adapted from:
The Vegan Slow Cooker by Kathy Hester

Sunday Shopper: November 20, 2011

2011-11-20T17:27:00.000-10:00

I blog because I need to write.

I write out of silence, to soothe the chaos in my head, to make peace with those things that I cannot control. I write to chase away the disease of forgetting that haunts my history and perhaps my future. I write to leave breadcrumbs in the clouds in case I get lost.

I also hate to write. I hate the visual white noise of a cursor blinking on an empty page. So I'm a lazy writer that needs to write. This is my new theme for Sunday in the same way I will try to do a Wordless Wednesday post.

Sundays are our planning days. It's where we do our shopping for the week ahead and it's usually the only day of the week that I can guarantee that I'm on island. Big Spazz and I will just share some of the deals we found and what we can do with them.

Our local Longs Drugs was the place to be today. Sunday is their first sale day of the week, so you have to be a little more aggressive with your cart in order to get through the crowded aisles.

Not in the pic, but bean thread was 2/ 99 cents. Use them in

Bamboo shoots 69 cents, water chestnuts 59 cents. Use them in

Thai curry
Hot pot (for a simple broth: 8 cups stock or water seasoned with garlic, scallions, ginger and soy sauce)
vegetarian wonton for wonton soup (Big Spazz is still perfecting this one)
pork/tofu/watercress (without the pork)

Mori-nu tofu (soft, firm, extra firm, lite) 99 cents. Use it in: EVERYTHING

Whole grain pasta 99 cents. Use it in pasta things.

Vegetable broth 69 cents. Use to stir fry, and use it in any broth recipes (here are some we're thinking of trying for Thanksgiving)

What's on sale in your area and what are you thinking of making on your Sunday Shopper day?

I Show You How: Veggie Bouillon in the Slow Cooker

2011-11-17T18:04:00.000-10:00

Adapted from The Vegan Slow Cooker

I guess it has to do with supply and demand, but vegetable bouillon is harder to find and more expensive than chicken or beef bouillon. It's also more expensive and harder to find vegetable broth. There's something wrong with that, so make your own bouillon in the slow cooker.

Ingredients:
1 large onion, cut into quarters
2 medium-sized carrots, chopped
1 tsp. dried oregano
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 tsp. dried parsley
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt (optional)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast

The water will look like a little plink in the bottom of the slow cooker. Don't fret. You're making bouillon, not broth. There's water in here, you just can't see it.

Cook on low for 8-12 hours. After cooking, add the contents of the crock pot plus the nutritional yeast to a blender or food processor.

Blend until smooth and either refrigerate it or put it in ice cube trays to freeze. Since our refrigerator has an ice machine, we don't own ice cube trays, but I do have my handy dandy Martha Stewart silicone mini cupcake liners, so the trick is to be able to put 2 T. of bouillon in each cup.

Whatever the recipe calls for in store-bought bouillon, just double up, so if it asks for one cube, or 1 T., use one homemade cube. If it asks for 2T of store-bought, use 2 cubes (4T.)

When it's frozen, just pop it out and store in a Ziploc for future use.

I just used one cube for the Chick'n Mushroom Casserole. Easy and convenient!

Pantry Scones

2011-11-14T21:12:00.000-10:00

I miss coffee, and if I miss coffee, then I miss scones. It's one of those if you give a mouse a cookie scenarios.

If you give me a cup of coffee, then I will want some cream.

If I get cream with my coffee, then I will want a scone.

But scones are full of processed sugar, so if you give me sugar, I will want a taro malasada,

and on, and on, and on.

I adapted this scone from Peas and Thank You

Basically, this cookbook is vegan, but not sugar free, so this is the glaze free, sugar free version. I also couldn't afford the fresh blueberries this calls for, so it's the whatever is in the pantry (not panty) version.

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

1/2 c. non-dairy milk
1/4 c. vegan cream cheese (Tofutti brand)
1 t. lemon juice
1/2 t. baking soda

In a small bowl. blend milk, cream cheese, lemon juice, baking soda, and set aside and watch the magic bubbles appear.

1/2 cup dates chopped fine or put into a bullet (I used about 6 pitted medjool dates)

I didn't opt for date paste because I didn't want to figure out the water or liquid adjustments. Scones dough should be fairly dry, just moist enough to form into a round or square, but not so moist that your hands are wet.

In a food processor, blend dates with
2 c. whole wheat flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt (optional)

Put the dough in a bowl (it should still be loose, don't panic or add soymilk)

Add 1/2 c. vegan margarine and lomi the margarine through the dough. I'm trying to figure out a good texture binder that can replace the margarine. Let me know if you find something.

Add 1 cup of dried fruits to the dough and lomi again (I used 1/2 a cup of craisin blueberries and 1/2 a cup of dried cherries)

On a cutting board, pat out the dough into a 1" thick round or rectangle. Cut into wedges and place on a parchment covered or oiled baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown on bottom.
I like the parchment paper on the bottom because it gives the bottom of the scone a nice, brown, crunchiness.

I used some vegan cream cheese on top with some leftover strawberries from yesterday's french toast.

The leftovers freeze well, or bring them to work and share.

Hungry Mama's Egg-Free, Dairy-Free French Toast

2011-11-13T17:41:00.000-10:00

I had exactly six pieces of bread and I woke up HUUNNNNGGGGRRRRYYY, like grouchy, rumbling, lazy hungry. My normal go to breakfast would be egg in a windows with the bread slices buttered on both sides, then I'd cut a circle in the center and pan fry the bread and "holes," grill it a little, then drop an egg in the window and fry it easy over.

Those days are gone, along with provolone or swiss grilled cheese sandwiches sprinkled with a little sugar.

What I did have - leftover thawed strawberries, soy milk, whole wheat flour, nutritional yeast. Perfect for french toast!?

6 slices bread (four is actually perfect to get the slices gooey, but then what would I do with two pieces of leftover bread?)
1/2 - 3/4 cup non-dairy milk (I used more because I didn't have non-dairy liquid creamer)
1/3 cup non-dairy creamer (I only had powdered, so more soy milk)
2 T. whole wheat flour
1 T. nutritional yeast
1/2 t. cinnamon
1 t. vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients except bread in a shallow dish

Dip bread on each side and place on a preheated non-stick skillet (don't put the heat too high or it will burn)

When it's cooked, serve with whatever toppings are around (or what you are allowed to eat)

Optional toppings:
sliced bananas
fresh berries
thawed and sliced frozen berries (I poured on the strawberry juice that came out of the berries when I thawed it in the micro)
vegan margarine
maple syrup
chopped nuts
powdered sugar
combinations of some or all, etc.

Slow Cooker 'Uala Enchilada with Soyrizo

2011-11-12T09:44:00.001-10:00

2 medium 'uala, thinly sliced (we used the Okinawan purple and the orange)
4 cups enchilada sauce (we could have added more)
1 package corn tortillas (Big Spazz wants to put more tortillas next time)
1/2 package soy chorizo (the package comes with two sausages - use the other one for breakfast with tofu scramble and chorizo/onion/pepper/hash browns)

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

Lightly oil bottom of the crock pot (optional, but our tortillas on the bottom stuck a little). Pour a layer of one-fourth of the sauce over the bottom. Cover the sauce with a single layer of tortillas. Top with one-third of the soyrizo, one-third of the 'uala, one-third of the black beans. Top with sauce. Repeat the layering, ending with a final layer of corn tortillas and the remainder of the sauce.

Cook on high for 2-3 hours or low 4-5 hours. This is a good Saturday afternoon dinner that is perfect when there's cleaning to do. We use a 6 1/2 quart crock pot, so next time, more sauce, more tortillas, but this was still a really great dinner.

Another Big Spazz tip, buy the chunky 'uala rather than the long, svelte one. It makes it easier to layer. In this case, size sometimes matters -- go for the short and wide versus long and thin.

The original recipe is from The Vegan Slow Cooker, p. 91

Eat it as is

Or Big Spazz style with fresh cilantro and salsa verde on top

Baked Penne with HH Cheese Sauce

2011-11-11T21:16:00.001-10:00

This is the other book I got from Amazon ($4.50 on Kindle, except that we're a Nook family).

Our newest keeper recipe: baked pasta with Happy Herbivore's gooey no cheese cheese sauce.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Ingredients:

1 box of your favorite good for you pasta (brown rice, whole wheat, whatever) - boiled and drained
bell pepper, diced
onion, diced
garlic
1 package soy crumbles
1 can/jar of homemade or veggie marinara sauce

Saute the onion, garlic and pepper until the onion and pepper are soft. Add the soy crumbles until cooked and add the marinara.

Put the pasta in a pan and mix in the sauce. Bake for 20 minutes.

While the pasta cooks, make the sauce

2 c. non-dairy milk

1/2 c. nutritional yeast

4 T. cornstarch

4 T. whole-wheat flour

6 t. lemon juice

4 t. mellow miso

2 t. onion powder

1 t. garlic powder

1/2 t. dry mustard powder

Whisk in a pan and heat on high until it bubbles.

Reduce heat and continue whisking until it thickens.

Put cheese sauce over baked pasta and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Was it good? See for yourself.

It evaporates!

Winner, Winner Butter Chick'n Dinner

2011-11-09T21:05:00.001-10:00

This is one of the cookbooks I ordered from Amazon - so excited to try it out. I love slow cooker recipes because there's nothing better than coming home and smelling dinner already made.

Our first recipe was a keeper: Butter Chick'n, p. 85. I don't know why it's called chick'n because nothing tastes like chicken, but we liked the garam masala and ginger in this curry. It tasted exotic and hit the spot now that it's getting colder here. I didn't modify the recipe so I can't print my modified version, but here's some pics.

Onion and garlic saute'ed until the onions are translucent. Yes, it still is a slow cooker recipe, but the author says it tastes better when you precook the onions, so I did.

I love fire roasted tomatoes. The magnified taste is worth the more expensive price, and Safeway finally has their own brand of fire roasted tomatoes so it's a little cheaper.

The rest of the ingredients are just mixed into the slow cooker, then everything is cooked on low for 6-8 hours. Unlike other slow cooker recipes, it's ok if you need to leave it in for 8 rather than 6 hours. I actually took it out a little early because we were hungry and it was fine.

The exotic taste comes from the spices: ginger, garam masala, cumin, turmeric

It was already good, but the special little oomph comes from nondairy milk (we used soy milk) and vegan Nature's Balance butter. It's not that much, but when you watch the 1 1/2 tablespoons of nondairy butter start melting into the curry and the thickening of the soymilk, it just feels complete.

The recipe asked for about 15 ounces of tofu, but all I had in the pantry was the box tofu which is about 12 oz so I just added enough kidney beans to make the 15 oz and it was fine. I could have put more kidney beans and it would have still been fine.

I served it over a bit of brown rice, but now that the weather is changing, my little family is eating more so when we ran out of brown rice, Big Spazz ate his seconds with crusty bread and that was ono too.

Wordless Wednesday: Chef AJ's Mexican Lasagna

2011-11-09T07:00:00.001-10:00

Recipe here.

Curry Pea Salad with Almonds

2011-11-08T19:17:00.000-10:00

We had a wonderful pea salad made by our friend Miss Kimi. Not only was it good that night, but the next day, it was wonderful over our salads as a "gravy." I knew what the make up of the ingredients were and the rest was just taste and adjust.

1 lb. of peas, thawed and drained
1/4 cup green onions, sliced

a couple handfuls of raw almonds, course chopped (this is my favorite nut chopper from Martha Stewart- it has measurements on the bottom container and it's easy to clean)

one can of water chestnuts, diced
Mix the ingredients in a large bowl

2/3 cup vegenaise
3 tsp. curry powder
mix the veganaise and curry powder in a separate bowl then mix it into the salad

The almonds give it a nice crunch and the curry makes it yum.

Treading Water "Fast Food" Mondays: Veggie Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries

2011-11-07T23:03:00.001-10:00

Mondays are hectic days for us. Besides the fact that it's Monday, we also have baseball and boy scouts before Pono and Big Spazz stagger home at about 8:30. That leaves dinner on me, and like I said, Monday. Ugh. I finally figured out in this whole plan ahead scheme that I can't make anything complicated for Monday dinner because all I want to do when I get home is collapse.

Mondays in this household are now officially Tread Water "Fast Food" Mondays. If I can't make it in half an hour, dinner will be a fail because no one wants to eat at 9:30.

Our staples:
Dr. Praeger's California Veggie Burgers from Costco (it comes in a box of 16 so it lasts us one month)
Alexia Sweet Potato julienned fries also from Costco
Oroweat Sandwich Thins

Possible add ons for the veggie burgers:
leftover guacamole
roasted garlic and vegannaise dipping sauce for fries
Manoa lettuce
raw onion
salsa
dijon mustard

and Kimi's curry pea salad (tomorrow's post)

We live to tread through another Monday :) (but if someone is going to Costco this weekend, can we get more Praeger's and fries?)

Sunday Dessert: Banana "Crack"

2011-11-07T07:00:00.000-10:00

Are you addicted to food? Is sugar your cocaine? Or salt? Scientists can't really agree if there is such a thing as a food addiction, but sugar and dessert is definitely my weakness. I obsess over dessert. I dream about gooey brownies with nuts or firm custardy creme brulee with thin iced sugar crackled on top.
Mostly, I miss pistachio ice cream with the right amount of cream and crunch.

Banana "Crack" almost broke my Vitamix, but it's my new obsession and it's nutritarian so it only tastes bad, but it's oh so good. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

Banana Crack (serves 3 - if you are worried about your Vitamix or you have another machine, do it in batches)
6 frozen apple bananas or 3 larger frozen bananas, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
handful of raw almonds

Blend until your Vitamix dies (you know it's dead when you can't hear the motor running). At that point, take a spatula and shove the pieces of banana out of the blade (it's what's keeping the motor from running). Go again until you get a gooey, yummy soft serve banana ice cream with bits of almonds. Scoop into bowls and enjoy your frozen Banana Crack!

Lazy Sunday Brunch: Tofu Scramble & Vegan Links

2011-11-06T22:01:00.000-10:00

Things I miss the most when I'm on the 6-week challenge:

raw fish, poke
scrambled eggs or spinach omelets on Sunday morning

Tofu scramble is our lazy Sunday answer and it makes the egg cravings go away. Look up tofu scramble and there's tons of recipes, so experiment and use leftovers. Serve it over brown rice, serve it on whole wheat toast or bagel thins, eat it with a side salad. I like mine with avocado slices. Big Spazz likes his with salsa. Pono likes his with a side of vegetarian breakfast links.

Tofu Scramble Basics

1 lb. container tofu drained and pressed

1 teaspoon dried thyme (I didn't have it, so I used dried oregano)
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric (gives the tofu its scrambled egg color)
1 teaspoon salt (optional)

2 teaspoons ground cumin

3 tablespoons water

Stir the spices together in a small cup. Add water and mix. Set aside. I find that this is a more effective way of adding the spice than to just put it in separately. When it's separate, the spices don't incorporate into the tofu as nicely.

3 cloves garlic, minced (or more, to taste)

1/2 - 1/4 of a red pepper (diced)

1/2 an onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

Fresh black pepper to taste

Saute garlic, onion and red pepper in a nonstick heavy pan. There should be enough liquid from the pepper that you don't need oil. If not, saute in some water. Cook until the onion is translucent. Add the tofu by crumbling and ripping the tofu into bite-sized pieces right in the pan. Saute for about 10 minutes stirring often so tofu doesn't burn on bottom of pan.

Our fresh tofu is really wet, so if there's too much liquid at the bottom of the pan, keep the heat up and let it evaporate. Add the spice blend and stir it into the tofu. If there are large pieces of tofu, break it up enough that the spices are incorporated.

Stir in the nutritional yeast and black pepper. Cook another 5 minutes or so.
While it's cooking, I heat up some vegetarian breakfast sausage for Pono and done.

Other add-ins:

Spinach - add about a cup of spinach at the end with the nutritional yeast and cook until the spinach is wilted
Broccoli - add about a cup of florets and sliced stems along with the tofu
Mushrooms - add about a cup of thinly sliced mushrooms along with the tofu
Avocado - peel and slice it to go on the finished scramble
Olives - chop up about 1/3 cup and add it at the end with nutritional yeast

Wordless Wednesday: Peas and Thank You's Cherry Chocolate Chunk Dough Balls

2011-11-02T07:00:00.001-10:00

The recipe here.

Why I Love My Hubby

2011-10-31T11:40:00.000-10:00

He is Po from Kung Fu Panda, complete with attitude

2. He shows up to all our children's events, both big and small, and keeps me in the loop when I'm not able to be there. (Pono playing saxophone in the band - his first football game performance - and I was sitting at UH Manoa in a statistics class). He's in the back, closest to the end of the tent playing the saxophone.

3. He brought me pretzels last night after I posted about the vegan chocolate fondue and how I wished that I had some low salt, semi-healthy pretzels to go with the fondue. They happened to be in his truck, partially eaten already and in a Ziploc.
Me: Hmmm, how come you didn't share these earlier honey?
BS: (Ignoring the question) See, I told you I read your blog.

So Big Spazz's choice for the perfect dipping pretzel to go with the vegan chocolate fondue. (According to him, it has less sodium than low sodium shoyu, which has less sodium than Braggs Amino, etc.

Happy Halloween to my Po! Love, purple Testris "T" girl.

Vegan Chocolate Fondue

2011-10-30T21:40:00.001-10:00

I despise Halloween!!!!!
I live for sugar and chocolate and I have no shame in stealing my children's candy. They know all peanut M&Ms are mommy's for fear of crankiness and pouting.

If I could, I would avoid the whole thing, but Big Spazz loves, loves, loves Halloween. He pushes himself to come up with a new costume for himself EVERY year. People expect him to make his own costume and he shows up at work in costume as if he were some kid. Seriously! Who shows up at the office wearing a costume? One year, he decided not to wear a costume and the secretaries almost rioted. He had to actually go home and put a costume on. Some of his memorable ones: The grape from Fruit of the Looms - with grape colored balloons (how did he sit down), a big blue Leggo, a cow complete with his fishing bell and udders (ok that one was a little obscene).

I love that Modern Family episode where Mitchell is told that everyone will dress up at the office and he shows up in a Spiderman costume but no one dresses up. It's a prank. He goes into the bathroom to try and change, ends up wearing his suit over the costume and squeaks when he walks. That's my greatest fear and why I'm not a big costume wearer. It's always a risk for me. Will I be the only one? Big Spazz is the only one and he don't care. One of the reasons why I love him.

Since Big Spazz is serious about it and actually made our costumes, I wanted to serve a dessert for Halloween that could still be fairly healthy and satisfied my monster of a sweet tooth. This slow cooker fondue had the two grandmas licking their plates, it was that good. They actually went for thirds and we had a really big dinner, so it's definitely a keeper recipe.

Slow Cooker Vegan Chocolate Fondue
12 ounces semisweet vegan chocolate chips
3/4 cup soymilk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Put it in a slow cooker on high and cook until the chips are melted and the sauce is smooth.

The sauce looked really thick, but I've screwed up when trying to thin chocolate out, so I resisted the urge to thin it out with more soy milk. If I had some pretzels it would have been a good sweet and salty taste profile, but it was just as good with banans and strawberries.

Pretzels are not on the Fuhrman plan, but I wonder what else I could dip in this fondue for a crunchy texture that will go with chocolate?

Or is there such a thing as fat free, salt free vegan pretzels? I'm really ono for pretzels now.

Linguini with Rainbow Chard and White Beans

2011-10-27T19:59:00.001-10:00

Despite my major date sugar making failure (maybe more on that later after I get over my irritation), I was able to modify a recipe that will go into our roundup of recipes AND I was able to use the rainbow chard that my friend Liana grew AND I was able to find the cannellini beans on sale at KTA. Tasty, and cheap. My favorite combination.

Rainbow chard is nice stir fried but it's really nice with pasta, cannellini beans and some leftover grape tomatoes I had that we were tired of eating in our salads.

While the pasta is cooking, chop up the rainbow chard and put the tops and the the tougher stems in separate bowls.

Rinse and drain a can of cannellini beans and quarter a cup of grape or cherry tomatoes. Chop up two cloves of garlic.

Dry saute the garlic, add the tomatoes and stir fry until the tomatoes start to release its liquid.

Add the rainbow chard stems, some herbs like basil, parsley, oregano and a little bit of salt. Cook until the stems soften and add the greens and the beans.

I put in about 1/4 tsp. of red pepper flakes and stir everything until the leaves soften like wilted spinach.

Add the pasta and top with fake parmesan (raw almonds and nutritional yeast ground together into a parmesan like consistency).

Enjoy!

I Show You How: Konnyaku Twists

2011-10-27T07:00:00.002-10:00

My family loves miso soup as a fast comfort food, but like salad, miso soup is best when you change up the goodies.
Our favorite goodies include:
shiitake mushrooms
edamame
soba noodles
wakame
hijiki
dehydrated daikon
tofu
and now konnyaku

Konnyaku is the ultimate diet food. The whole block of konnyaku (found in the tofu section) is about 5 calories, probably because it's about 97% water. The rest of it is ground konnyaku corms (in English they say it's yam, but it's closer to taro than to yam) and calcium. Don't be afraid of the texture. It's a firm, gelatinous, tasteless substance, but when it's made into noodles (shirataki) or sliced up and put into brothy dishes like sukiyaki or miso soup.

It's packed in water, so like shirataki noodles, rinse it first or the smell is a little off putting.

Japanese food is about appealing to all the senses, so although you could just cut up the konnyaku and put it in the food (like above), it's much more appealing to take a couple seconds to make the fancy cut.

Cut the slice of konnyaku in the center leaving space on the two sides (enough so it will twist without breaking apart)

Take one end and feed it through the center

As long as the initial piece is thick enough, the konnyaku will hold its shape in the broth and like a sponge, it will take on the flavor of the liquid.

Wordless Wednesday: HGK's Pumpkin Pie Birthday Treat green smoothie

2011-10-26T10:15:00.000-10:00

The recipe and a big list of smoothies recipes here.

Prepping for November 1st with new goal

2011-10-25T11:12:00.000-10:00

Just for kicks, I decided to take a "Type A" personality test online and out of a score of 100% (with 100% being totally Type A), I scored an 83%. If this were a grade in school, I would be totally irritated, but since it's not, I have enough control to say, "I'm ok, you're ok, we're all ok." See, that's why I'm not a totally Type A person.

Things that I do have:

time urgency - I want results NOW!
highly competitive
ambitious
controlling
results-oriented

That's why when I'm watching the weight go down for Big Spazz and I'm not hitting my 10% at the same time, I get a little irritated - NOT because I'm not happy for him, but because I want the same results within the same time period.

In order to tap into a more harmonious, peaceful me, especially since I'm only competing with myself, I vow to not worry about my weight for the new 6-week challenge starting on November 1. Instead, I'm focusing on a more important goal: fit into my vintage peacock dress.

This dress is older than me, but I got it at a church bazaar about ten years ago and if my memory serves me right, I think I have approximately ten pounds to go before the middle part of this dress no longer bunches up. It's totally zipped but it has a full cotton liner in the dress and I'd have to pull down and suck in or wear some spanx in order to actually smooth this dress out.

So this is pre November 1 challenge goal. Hopefully, at the end of the 6 weeks, I can take another picture in this dress (and clean my room) and it will fit better.

If you're interested in joining the fun, like my friend's Facebook page: So Duck Soup and let her know you're interested in Eating to Live.

My new fave smoothie: Green papaya ice

2011-10-24T11:08:00.000-10:00

The Healthy Girl's Kitchen blog has compiled a big list of smoothies, but this is my new favorite go to morning smoothie: green papaya ice.

I don't normally buy papayas, not because I don't like papayas, but my mother-in-law used to be the secretary for a papaya company and she'd bring home a box of papayas per week. When she retired, I just couldn't see myself paying for something we always got for free, but at Saturday's farmer's market I saw a big bag of almost overripe papayas for $1, so I cut it up and put it in mini muffin cups and froze them for smoothies.

I have these silicone mini muffin cups that I never use because I don't bake as much, but I just scooped papayas in the cups for easier clean up and stuck it in the freezer.

Once the papaya ice is frozen, I just popped them out of the cups and bagged them for the morning smoothies.

The papaya in the green smoothie is nice and sweet, and the papaya gives the smoothies a rich creaminess.

Today's concoction: spinach, a couple dates (the papaya has enough sweetness so I could do without the dates), a frozen banana and about 4-5 pieces of papaya ice. Add soy milk, ice and/or water (I watered it down a little because my first try was a little too thick. It was like making green papaya sorbet). Yummy!

After the Show

2011-10-16T16:52:00.001-10:00

We started the Dr. Fuhrman 6 week challenge on September 1 and it wouldn't be a true challenge if there weren't some obstacles that we had to overcome. Our first one started on the first weekend when I flew to Molokai to sail with Nainoa Thompson and Ken went camping near South Point. Homemade kim chee, pipikaula, sausage, bacon -- we still survived. We survived both of our birthdays and the dreaded "what are we going to eat for dinner" dilemma.

Since I forced Big Spazz along, I felt it was time to interview him to really see how he felt.

RSC: how did you do?
BS: It was tough in the beginning, but I got used to it, it wasn't bad. (He won't say, but in the 6 weeks, he lost 10% of his body weight)

What was your biggest obstacle and how did you overcome that obstacle?
Trying to figure out what to eat, and I found a lot more things to eat than I thought I'd find, but I don't think I've overcome that challenge. I'm always thinking about it.

What did you feel was going to be difficult, but really wasn't?
I thought the hardest thing was going to be eating the one pound of raw and one pound of cooked vegetables per day, but it wasn't a problem because I never did get there.

What was the first thing off the list that you ate after the challenge?
Sushi

What's your next step?
Trying to mix the nutritarian lifestyle with normal stuff in moderation, continue exercising, take salads for lunch and continue eating this way for the majority of our meals (plus drink coffee again unless we're on another 6 week challenge).

What were some of your favorite things to eat on the challenge?
Chef AJ disappearing lasagna
miso
veggie summer rolls
peach and mango salsa
homemade tortilla chips with guacamole
no oil hummus
veggie chili
date-chocolate-cherry balls
fruity green smoothies

What advice would you give others looking into this type of lifestyle?

Ummmmmmmmm - it's not that bad. There's actually a lot of good things you can eat; just be creative.

We've still got a long way to go, but it's been a pretty good start.

The Vitamix Divide

2011-10-01T18:01:00.000-10:00

With all this renewed energy from eating a nutritarian diet, I decided to go back for my doctorate in education, so put that down as another perk of eating healthy -- diminished decision making that's attributed to an over exaggeration of one's full capacity to "grab the bulls by the horn." After all, this eating stuff or rather this NOT eating stuff that's bad for us is so "DUCK SOUP." It's already the 5th week. I could go another five years, so the logic then is that every challenge in life now is duck soup too.

Yeah. . . no.

I dare you to sit in my statistics class for three hours on a Friday night and tell me that from the thirty pages of data you can write a coherent 5 page recommendation report based on some box plot and a roaming t element that can either mean a t score, a t test or a t statistic.

Ok, enough whining.

The point is for everything I'm learning, I try to connect it in as many different arenas of my life as possible. I try to make the connections for my students, and I try to make those connections with myself. My tech class essay was on the digital divide - that seeming wall between the haves and the have nots in regards to technology and access. What I really wanted to write about, though, was the Vitamix Divide -- that seeming wall between those who have no Vitamix (me when we started this challenge, Macanas', Brownies) and those who have a Vitamix (Hondas, Bakers, Langs?? and now me).

As someone who has been on both sides of the divide (mainly for financial reasons - you know doctorate, private school costs, one more son in college, the audacity of the government to NOT see that we deserve financial aid because what we make on paper is strictly theoretical - voodoo economics and all that), I must say the grass (or green smoothies) really are better on the other side.

To ease the shock of the investment (I'm not going to lie, it's expensive - like sell a kidney on the black market expensive), I have been dutifully using it every morning and sometimes twice a day.

It will blend pretty much everything - this was one morning's green smoothie ingredients: peach, spinach, carrots, broccoli, frozen bananas, frozen strawberry, prunes, oranges, soy milk - basically any leftover raw veggies or random fruit go into the smoothies and some days are better than others, but that's breakfast. I have to get better at color combinations - it's like mixing watercolors - if you're not aware of the color combinations, everything you make looks like baby doodoo brown - but it's the taste and nutrition that counts.

I don't want to be some elitist Vitamix snob, but I do love, love, love my red Vitamix. It's like the red Porsche I never had. So if selling your kidney is an option, I'd think about it.

I Show You How: Summer Rolls

2011-09-27T15:30:00.002-10:00

This story has two parts, but it really started from a blog post on vegetarian summer rolls. The picture accompanying it was the messiest, most kakio bundle of hot mess. This blogger may have gotten the recipe right, but the art of summer rolling and what the bundle should look like was a little lost on them.

Story 1:There was a show on the Food Network titled How To Boil Water with Tyler Florence (now on The Great Food Truck Race) and some blonde gal who was just a drama major. Tyler would show her how easy it was to cook fabulous dishes even if she didn't know how to cook.

It actually was a silly show. It seemed so basic. But now that we're on this new journey, I can't rely on my food memories to cook. I realize that I spent a lot of time in the kitchen absorbing from my grandma and my mom, but this kind of cooking is totally new to me, so I feel like the blonde girl on the stool.

Story 2: We took the kids to Canada one summer and we were coming out of a pretty busy parking structure. We had to turn left, but there were three lanes of fast moving traffic to get through and it was a little mission impossible. This man behind us kept honking his horn, but we couldn't go anywhere. Suddenly, he went into the entry only lane, went around us, and as he passed my window he yelled out in a very thick Chinese accent, "I SHOW YOU HOW!!" - and then proceeded to stick his car into traffic forcing the cars to stop until he could make his left turn.

Whenever Big Spazz and I have to figure something out, and one of us gets it, that's been our mantra, "I show you how!"in that same thick accent.

I figure I'm not the only one who doesn't know the inside scoops for cleaning the ho'io so that there's no slime, or making a decent summer roll that won't fall apart, so recipes are great, but sometimes, I'm the blond on the stool so if I don't write it down, someone is always going to have to "show me how," most times Big Spazz. I keep wanting him to apply for Next Food Network Star but he hasn't figured out his point of view yet.

Vegetarian summer rolls - the best thing about summer rolls is the taste explosion that happens in your mouth from a squishy, transparent bundle. You get the gelatinous noodles and the gummy wrapper hiding crunchy pieces of cucumber and bean sprouts, and then the strong herbal smell/tastes of the thai basil, cilantro and mint. It's almost as if you face planted in a forest, but in a good way.

My first solo attempt, though, was the same hot mess I saw on the other blog.

I did one thing right and two things wrong:
The right - got all my "guts" cut into the right size pieces and put into containers for easy building.

green onions split in half, sliced and flattened to size
shiitake mushrooms - softened in hot water and sauteed with some garlic and vegetarian oyster sauce (not too much)
Japanese cucumbers cut into thin slices to size
bean thread, cooked and drained (not long rice)
bean sprouts, blanched
cilantro, chopped
thai basil
mint
large pieces of green lettuce to use as the base
warm water for my rice paper wrappers

The wrong -
1. The rice paper wrappers should only be wet in the warm water. Soaking it for even 15 seconds will make it too flimsy and you'll have rips in the paper (the picture is of Big Spazz trying to salvage my first and second attempts)

2. According to Big Spazz, it's actually easier if you don't put the bundle in the middle (like a burrito), but put it at one end (like sushi).

Rice paper wrapper should go in just to wet it, then put it on the cutting board and press it down in a circular motion until it gets soft.

When putting the bundle together, place the green leaf near the bottom, but not too close to the bottom or sides. Have everything fit onto the base by building up, then roll and tuck sides in.

When making a lot, separate the layers with damp paper towels so they don't stick together.

We found this super addictive vegetarian oyster sauce at the Asian market (it's called mushroom sauce) - yum

Ho'io Salad

2011-09-25T08:28:00.000-10:00

Fern shoots or fiddleheads grow wild in the rain of Hilo so they have been abundant at the Farmer's Markets. On the Big Island they are called ho'io. In Maui they are called pohole and the Japanese name is warabi. Plan to make this at least a day ahead. It tastes better when it has time to marinate together.

1 bunch of ho'io, prepared

I enjoy eating it but I've never made it, so with all things I'm timid about I had to ask a lot of people for their inside secrets. So inside secrets for prepping ho'io - (thanks Liana, Kanani, Shigeko, Pua)

Snap the stalks at their snapping point (like asparagus) and just use the tender parts
Put your nail in the groove of the warabi and take out the slimy part
Cut into bite sized pieces
Boil the water, drop the ho'io in and prepare an ice bath - at that point the ho'io will be done - bright green and not overcooked.
Drain and immediately drop into ice bath to stop the cooking, drain again when cool

Once that's done, prepare the rest of the ingredients

1/2 Maui onion, julienned

Hamakua tomatoes, diced

sliced shiitake mushrooms

Fresh shiitake mushrooms were on sale at Safeway for $2.99/lb., but by the next week, it went up to $12.99/lb, so if you have to use dry shiitake, soak it in hot water until it softens, cut off the stems and slice the caps.

1/2 or 1/4 bag of the pea shoots, azuki mix

Lone Palm Farms out of Kohala, HI sells bags of pea, lentil and azuki shoots mix. Find it in the produce section by the other sprouts.

one triangular piece of aburage, sliced

Find the aburage near the kimchee or Japanese pickles in the produce section of KTA or near the tofu.

hijiki, soaked and drained

Hijiki is a dried seaweed sold dry in the oriental aisle. Soak it in cold water for about half an hour and drain. In Japanese foods it's normally served with shoyu sugar and aburage for New Year's, but it doesn't have a taste by itself. It will just soak up the flavors from the salad.

Hand mix all the ingredients and make the sauce.

Recipe for ho'io salad:
1 bunch ho'io, prepared, cut into bite-sized pieces and blanched
1/2 a sweet onion, julienned
2 1/2 cups tomatoes, diced
3-4 shiitake mushrooms, julienned
1/4 - 1/2 a bag of mixed lentil, pea, azuki shoots
1 piece of aburage, diced
handful of hijiki, soaked and drained (they will expand when sauced)
2T toasted sesame seeds
Mix

Dressing: I made a huge amount, so I ended up doubling this sauce recipe, but here's what I started with, let it marinate, try it and adjust as needed. After I marinated it, when we had it the next day, my husband wanted more acid in it so I added about 1 T. of balsamic vinegar and remixed.

1 T. light soy sauce
2 T. rice wine vinegar
1 T. sesame oil (optional) - I know it's not on our eat list, so don't put it or put a little less. It gives it that oriental flavor

I like to mix it by hand and the aburage and wakame will absorb the "shiru" - gravy.

Stuck on 4: (or who the hell is Hugh Jass?)

2011-09-17T21:55:00.000-10:00

Now that we're done with the 2nd week of the challenge, I must say, I'm a little fartless (not literally, I'm actually quite gassy).
I have been stuck on 4 pounds total weight loss for 2 weeks.

Here's what made me more mad:
Big Spazz (BS): I've been stuck too.
Me: Really, you've been stuck on 11 while I've been stuck on 4?
BS: No, I mean I've been stuck for two days on 18.
Me: [silence. . .then nothing]

I have decided to go back to THE book and read between the lines, but I don't need to infer. In plain black and white it says to try and eat 2 pounds of veggies minimum. I know I'm not eating two pounds of vegetables per day. Is anybody? How?

My two part plan for week 3:
Commit to looking at salad as the main dish
do more cardio exercises

I found the recipe for the Hugh Jass salad from Peas and Thank You, It's got a huge amount of salad for the base, other raw vegetables, a little bit of protein, a little bit of extras and a little bit of dressing.
Lunch time has been a challenge to actually finish this Hugh Jass salad, probably because it has been weighing in at about half a pound.

Me: Who is this Hugh Jass anyway? Is he a collegue of Dr. Furhman? I'm not trying to be pushy, but this Hugh Jass better get me off this 4 pound plateau. I'm not ingesting half a pound of raw veggies for nothing
BS: [laughing] say it fast.
Smart Jass!

Vitamix Practice

2011-09-13T20:35:00.000-10:00

Big Spazz got me a big, red refurbished Vitamix for my birthday to go with my favorite red rubber slippers! Fun, fun, fun!

With a glut of veggies and fruits all threatening to go bad at once, I've been putting anything and everything in the Vitamix. Some have been good and some have been fails, but even with the fails, the verdict from Big Spazz is, "that thing blends the hell out of everything." He finally knows what my green chai smoothie is supposed to look like, although he kind of misses the dregs of dates in his cup from our old machine.

In the blender: carrots, onion, garlic, veg broth, silky tofu, minced ginger

Carrot ginger soup with clouds of floating silky tofu

A real chai smoothie, no furikake kale to get stuck in my teeth

Leftover fruit salad from this weekend, 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 4 cups of ice

Melon ice

I'm so amazed that the mixer actually makes the soup hot. When I lifted the cover steam actually came out. Magic. The carrot soup was really nice and creamy. It tasted like it was salted even if it wasn't. The problem was that the ginger, even in small amounts made the soup so spicy that we couldn't finish it. Next time, I'm trying it without the ginger.

The kale chai smoothie was nice and creamy and with the bigger container, I had enough to save for another day.

The melon ice was a winner. It tasted fresh and cool on this muggy night and even though I don't like any melons, this hit the spot.

We loves our Vitamix :-)

Tricky Labels

2011-09-12T19:46:00.000-10:00

I think a few things should be mandatory in life:

Health food stores should not smell like incense or other funkiness. I don't know what I want them to smell like, but "normal" is a start.
It should not take graduate degrees to read a food label.
Chocolate brownies should be on the unlimited list.
Vegan cheese should feel more like cheese and less like firm tofu.

Here's what we learned after reading and doing all kinds of math: go for the low sodium shoyu. It's cheaper and it has less sodium

1 Tablespoon (15 ml) is 620 mg. A lot

Tamari - 1 Tablespoon (17g) 710 mg. Still a lot, only more.

Liquid amino bragg 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) 160 mg. Looks like less until you do the conversion.
1 T. is 6 times more than 1/2 teaspoon (15 ml/2.5 ml)
So 1/2 teaspoon of low sodium shoyu would be 103 mg
and
1T. of liquid amino bragg = 960 mg Yikes!

Getting Better One Day at a Time

2011-09-11T10:32:00.000-10:00

10 out of 42 days down and we're finally getting better at buying and cooking. We actually had enough food in the refrigerator to have some variety for breakfast this morning.
Big Spazz had fruit salad topped with cranberry granola
Boy 3 had miso soup and brown rice
I had oats cooked with blueberries and dates topped with fruit salad, chia seeds and some soymilk.

Ken even went to a UH football watching party and brought his own snacks: fruit salad, homemade baked pita chips, babaghanoush, mango/pineapple/cilantro salsa, no oil hummus and guacamole.

When we tell others what we're doing, a lot of people say, "oh I could never do that, I'd miss my meat."
We both can honestly say we don't miss the meat. We don't think about it. What we do miss is the convenience of food. It's so easy to eat junks. It's so easy to take a slab of ribs, put it in the slow cooker and douse it with barbeque sauce. When we get home, dinner is ready. We miss the ability to try special things, and not necessarily the specific everyday things that we'd normally just shove in our mouth mindlessly.

Now when we get home, everything is made fairly fresh so there's a lot of preparation and a LOT of dishes. Big Spazz is consumed with what we'll eat next and that continues to be a challenge.

What's your biggest challenge and what do you miss?

A Different Kind of Food Lesson

2011-09-09T20:56:00.001-10:00

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. -Chinese Proverb
---------------------------------------------------
We hope that our change in eating habits will transfer to our children, but for Big Spazz and I, our kids are already grown except for one. It makes changing the eating habits that we raised them with a little difficult to monitor. We can only model it through our own choices.

Have we created children that are starving themselves by overeating on the wrong foods? Have we been exposing them to chemicals and carcinogens? It's not out of spite. Just out of ignorance. All we can do is change what we're doing.

But besides what we're learning, there is a different kind of food lesson Big Spazz has been teaching his boys: sustainability and self-sufficiency.

Our boys could snorkle before they could actually swim. The intent was for them to feel safe in the ocean. The first knots that they learned were those knots they needed to set up their pole or to secure the boat.

Big Spazz is not a hunter. He's actually quesy at the sight of blood. He's not a farmer. We don't even do our own yard. But he taught his children to fish and to harvest from the sea so that they could be self-sufficient. He taught them to be picky about what they take, to take no more than they could eat, to take only what they needed, to harvest correctly so that the source could replenish. So despite our attempt to eat plant strong, when Boy 3 set up a pole and caught a "keeper," daddy felt obligated to teach him how to cook his fish.

Eat well, son, lesson learned.

Pad Thai Experiment #1

2011-09-08T19:46:00.000-10:00

This recipe is not done. It's good, but it can really be great, so this is our first attempt with notes for modifications.

This recipe is huge and fills the wok. It's enough for two dinners, so divide if you want.
Ingredients:
16 oz. dried pad thai rice noodles (Island Naturals has brown rice pad thai noodles)
1 box of silken tofu
8 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 round onion, thinly sliced
3-4 heads of baby bok choy
1 bag bean sprouts
green onions, sliced
1 bunch fresh cilantro, to taste
1/2 cup ground almonds, peanuts or cashews
PAD THAI SAUCE:
1 1/2 T. tamarind paste
1/2 cup hot water
6 T. low sodium soy sauce
1 t. of chili sauce or to taste, or 1-2 Hawaiian chili pepper, seeded and cut or dried Thai chilies
8 dates soaked in hot water and made into date syrup
OTHER:
vegetable stock for cooking onions and for sauteing bok choy
lime wedges for serving

Directions:

Bring a pot of water to a boil and remove from heat. Soak noodles in the hot water for 6-10 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Tip: Noodles are ready to drain when they are soft enough to eat, but still firm and a little bit "crunchy". The noodles will finish cooking when they are fried.
Dissolve tamarind paste in the hot water. Put the dates and hot water into a mixer and add the tamarind paste and hot water the date syrup and blend. Add the other pad thai sauce ingredients and add as much or as little chili sauce as you prefer, but don't skimp on the date syrup. Taste it and if the tamarind is still too sour, add another date or two.
Place your wok (or large frying pan) over medium-high heat. Add 1-2 Tbsp. broth plus the garlic and onion. Stir-fry 1 minute to release the fragrance.
Add the bok choy plus more stock. Stir-fry 2 minutes, or until bok choy is bright green and slightly softened.
Push ingredients aside and add 1/2 Tbsp. more stock to the center of the wok/pan. Add the tofu to the wok by breaking apart like scrambled eggs.
Push tofu aside and add a little more stock to the middle of the wok/pan. Now add the drained noodles and 1/3 of the sauce. Stir-fry everything together for 1 minute using 2 utensils and a tossing motion (like tossing a salad).
Add a little more sauce and continue stir-frying in the same way for 1-2 more minutes, or until the noodles begin to soften and become sticky. Reduce heat to medium if they begin to stick and burn.
Add the bean sprouts plus the remaining sauce. Stir-fry to incorporate everything together for 1-3 more minutes, or until noodles are done. Noodles are cooked to perfection when they are soft but still deliciously chewy and a little bit sticky.
Sprinkle with green onion and ground nuts. Serve cilantro on the side, or if everyone eats it, add it to the dish. Add wedges of fresh-cut lime on the side along with some Thai hot sauce.

Notes for going from good to fabulous

1. Don't use the stock to saute the onions and bok choy because it made the noodles too wet.

2. Cut the bok choy into large bite size pieces and use more. If it's cut too small, the veggies tend to dissolve.

3. Save some bean sprouts on the side to serve raw on the pad thai.

4. Don't substitute peanuts for other raw nuts like almonds. Peanuts = pad thai

5. We didn't have limes, but limes are NOT optional. Go to the store and get some.

Chasing Away the Blues with Comfort Food

2011-09-07T20:54:00.000-10:00

Big Spazz was a sad, sad, puppy last night. His body is reacting to too many carrots and he feels like he's going to hurl if he has to eat one more bite of salad. With not even one week down, I felt like I needed to really take care of his spirit by taking care of his tummy.

I went back to his roots by making his version of "chicken soup" - Miso soup with goodies and buckwheat soba.

I usually use dashi to make miso soup, but that just adds salt and MSG. I just used water and started it boiling as I rehydrated my dehydrated daikon (from Marukai) and dried shiitake. When the veggies are rehydrated, slice and put back in. Besides the miso, I added cut up slices of sushi nori and tofu. We used the miso soup as a broth for the soba noodles. Up the veggie count by adding mustard cabbage, bok choy or pak choy blanched.

The good news: Big Spazz asked me to make him a salad for lunch so back to happy puppy.

Open Letter to Big Spazz

2011-09-06T22:51:00.000-10:00

To my honey,

This is an open letter to my Big Spazz who I am so proud of. After just five days, you have already dropped 11 pounds to my 1.5. You have survived the temptations of camp:

Fried kole


Smoked meat

Fried rice with homemade kimchee, steak, kalbi, stuffed salmon, sheepikaula, BBQ sheep ribs, apple turnovers and pumpkin pie. Instead you ate your veggies, fruits, oatmeal and no coffee. You are on your way! Now that you are an expert at weight loss, I need your help. Here's three reasons why I NEED a Vitamix.

Reason #1: You wouldn't send me to work with my panty showing right?

Our 20-year old Osterizer blender does not chop up kale into smoothy goodness. Instead, it chops it up into curly parsley that finds every single crack and crevice of my teeth. Not a pretty sight. Do you see those parsley sized pieces of kale in my cup? Poor me.

Reason #2: Everyone is doing it
Here are some of my blogspirations and they ALL use Vitamix.

Yummy Diet Food
Green Monster Movement
Healthy Girl's Kitchen
Dr. Fuhrman
Chef AJ
Everyone is doing it, so why can't I?

Reason #3:Boy 3's birthday, my birthday and your birthday are in the challenge window
What better birthday treat than to make non-ice cream ice cream, strawberry sorbets or almond butter, banana and cocoa smoothies? It will be the best birthday(s) ever and the ice cream will go great with your sugar free vegan carrot birthday cake.

Please think about this small $359 request. What's $359 in a 6 week challenge? That's $60/week which would normally equal the amount of money we spend on meat alone. By not buying meat, we're already paying for the Vitamix machine that we don't actually own.

Love,
RSC

Day 1 Dinner Failure = Day 2 Dinner Success

2011-09-02T22:08:00.001-10:00

Our first go at dinner was a total bust, not for lack of trying. We tried the lentil stew from Dr. Fuhrman's book, for no other reason than we pretty much had the ingredients. Big Spazz realized as he started the recipe that unless some miracle happens to the lentils, this recipe has absolutely nothing that will give it any flavor.

Still, as 6:30 turned into 7:30, we just had to scoop up our brown rice, put the lentil stew, now expanded to the whole pot into our bowls and hope for the best. Luckily, I had a big salad with garbanzo beans and grapefruit because the lentil stew was a flavorless slimy, chewy beany thing with no flavor but a little bit of bite. Don't know how it can be both spicy and tasteless at the same time, but it was. We tried putting Mrs. Dash, nothing. In fact I think that's where the spicy nothingness comes from.

Tried miso. Wrong taste profile. Just tasted like miso hiding stuff that looks like baby poop.

Day 1 dinner was a failure. Oh well. Live and learn. These recipes don't fit our flavor profile. It's ok. We march on more determined to make things we want to eat and that are healthy for us. The next time I see a lentil, perhaps we will be on speaking terms.

One good thing was that I was full. I didn't even want a smoothie dessert. I had lentils filling up my stomach until I just could not fit anymore baby poop in my mouth. I didn't even finish my bowl; actually had the nerve to bring it to school for lunch and then opt for a plate full of salad and a shared clementine. If you would like to try Lisa's Lovely Lentil Stew, please let us know. I will fly back from Molokai tomorrow to drop it off.

Made up for it with a green smoothie breakfast and apple.

Chocolate green smoothie: (per serving)

1 T. flax seed

1 frozen banana

2 cups of packed greens (I used spinach)

2 dates

1 T. unsweetened cocoa

soy milk and a little water

Day 2 dinner was also a winnah winnah chicken dinner (without the chicken). No pics We were starving, rushed (2 meetings, both at 7pm) and heading out the door.

Day 2 dinner - Bocca burger burrito

4 Bocca Burgers, grilled, fried, put into Foreman grill

meanwhile, stir fry (no oil), chopped round onion.

When the burgers are done, chop it up into bite size pieces, put into pan with onion. Add half a can of rinsed black beans and half a can of corn (saved the rest for the salad), and one chopped tomato

Stir in cumin, garlic powder and about 1/4 cup or so salsa (read the labels for salt content - we used Newman's) to taste.

Serve on a whole wheat burrito and use the salad greens to wrap into burrito. Much better! Boy 3 even had seconds.

Our Labor Day Weekend is a bit difficult with Boy 3 and Big Spazz going camping and my flying to Molokai and sailing to Oahu. I'm not cooking nor am I providing the food, so I just have to try to make good choices.

As Big Spazz says, "we're trying our best, right?" Yes.

Ken I. the Science Guy

2011-09-01T14:57:00.000-10:00

My day started off pretty good until I went to take my blood pressure test. I am normally a low blood pressure kind of gal and all of sudden I am on the borderline of needing meds? Glucose - fine; weight - I've been heavier; height - shrinking; but blood pressure - "go see your doctor."

Can I be less busy? Not really, so this diet is the key for me. Suddenly the stakes are higher. Good. A little pressure is a wonderful motivator.

Speaking of motivation, Big Spazz has finally embraced the challenge and in true Ken I. fashion, he is taking on this 6-week challenge with the logic of a scientist. He is actually reading every word, getting corroborating evidence from other food blogs and in true chef fashion, making lists and menus. I on the other hand, since I am the reading specialist, skim for what I need today and skip the chapters that look too much like science or math. I have faith in other people's reading abilities and the fact that it's not on the best seller list because nobody read it.

Big Spazz, mad scientist, is very strict on the rice or oatmeal option because if he sways from the plan, then the experiment is ruined. He also made some apples for snack today and then called to tell me that he read in the book and on other food blogs that under this plan snacking is not encouraged because you must learn to listen to your body and know the signs of hunger versus boredom.

Well I have pre-cut apples in a bag and they look nice and juicy, so now I'm hungry and I'm going to eat them. I am not bored. In fact, I am very busy and almost harried. He will tsk, tsk at my not heeding his phone call and as he strictly adheres to the parameters, and promptly loses more weight than me, I will have a lasting memory of an apple, crunchy, sweet and gone.

I really can't complain. My complacency at knowing what I want to do but not really going all out to preplan has opened up the way for his need to make sure that dinner is on the table at a certain time. Last night, he had a list of all the veggies and fruits on sale for the week at the three major supermarkets. Today he is pre-scouting the health food store so that we can return again tonight. I'm sure he is using our taxpayer's time to scour menus so he won't have to fall off the band wagon when he goes camping this weekend.

I hope everyone is so lucky to have a supportive partner in this challenge. Good luck and happy eating.

Ready or Not

2011-08-31T23:36:00.000-10:00

With 40 people on this challenge so far, most of us busy working moms, time management becomes just as big a challenge as changing our menu. We are spending a stressful night trying to figure out what's for breakfast/lunch/dinner tomorrow?

No breakfast until after my glucose and weigh in so making enough Coach's Oats to go, putting some nuts in containers and putting some oats in containers so Big Spazz can take it camping this weekend. I'll put the fruits in tomorrow. Packing some decadent loose herbal masala chai tea to replace my mug of coffee.

Lunch: lots of salad, and hot veg of the day with homemade balsamic vinaigrette
Snacks: edamame, apple, banana

Dinner: Big salad, Lisa's lovely lentil stew and Big Spazz will have his one serving of brown rice since he'll probably have a smoothie instead of oatmeal tomorrow morning. His planning ahead has to do with to rice or not to rice - that IS the question and whether tis better to give up the oatmeal forever for a promise of brown rice for dinner.
Other questions to ponder from page 216: "The Six Week Plan"

If white potatoes are limited to one serving, and rice (with no ethnicity marker) in front of it is also on the list, does that mean that white rice or hapa rice is actually a limited and not an off limits item? Does the ethnicity designator on the rice actually count? What about wild rice? Does its untamed nature keep it as a whole grain or could it be a sprout? Or a legume?
Where does quinoa fit in? Is it a whole grain when it is small enough to look like a seed?
Chia seed is equivalent to flaxseed, but if you sprout the chia, then does it become a raw veg?

And finally, with all the emphasis on unlimited beans and legumes, why does the book not talk about the flatulence issue? Jonny O in his jonnyogoesvegan blog talks about his "Mount Big Sexy" erupting and his Grandfarter Clock going off at night, but Dr. F doesn't hint at the storms coming and nobody else I know who has been on the challenge talks about how they deal with the mighty winds. Is it not a problem? Does your body suddenly absorb bean gasses into its system? Is it the farting that cleanses the colon and prevents colon cancer? Have you seen my office? It's a cubicle with no air circulation. I'm alone in there. There is no blaming the dog. I'm freaking myself out now and this fasting is making my stomach gurgle. Can I recall that mass email I sent to the staff offering my help with their goals and letting them know that they should just stop by my office? Scary.

3 day countdown: RIF

2011-08-30T16:10:00.000-10:00

RIF - reading is fundamental -
Uh oh, perhaps I should have started reading earlier. I realize that this is a plant strong menu. I just didn't realize HOW plant strong.

Expected minimum food consumption per day--
1 pound of raw veggies
1 pound of cooked veggies
at least 4 fresh fruits
1 cup of beans/legumes

That's an OBSCENE amount of food to try and eat and digest!

2 out of 4 fruits for the day - that's about one and 3/4 pounds of grapefruit and only half the required intake.

Two whole bags of green beans - 1 bag to be eaten raw, 1 bag cooked still only gives me 1/2 a pound of raw and 1/2 a pound of cooked out of the expected two pounds.

Is there such a thing as vegan spam and beans?
Lo and behold, found me a recipe for vegan spam, but I'll post the pilfered photos, and have at it if you dare.

Here's the ingredients for vegan spam, and to make the shape, you use a tin can to form the concoction.

Need to start saving my cans so Big Spazz can eat vegan spam and beans. :) Got donations of clean cans?

4 Day Countdown: "What is six weeks?"

2011-08-28T21:48:00.000-10:00

After spending the weekend in Honolulu at graduate classes, I had to let my friends and family know that we were going to change our eating habits come September 1. What was great was that although we got some funny faces, and, "ugh, I could never give up. . ." everyone was very supportive. I'm on tap to cook Sunday dinner next week so my mom asked what vegan dish I was going to make. . . Chef AJ's disappearing lasagna. I could see the cogs in her head turning and by the time she was in the kitchen washing dishes, she had decided what vegan dish she was going to make for the next Sunday. With all the support, we have no choice but to succeed. The pressure is on.

Like Liana says, "what is six weeks?"
Well, six weeks is
42 days. . .1008 hours. . . 60,480 minutes. . . 3,628,800 seconds
Whoa - that's long!

So what can you do in six weeks?

In six weeks, Lifehacker Fitness says they can take you from zero to one hundred push ups.
If you've been pregnant for six weeks, your baby looks like this -

A fetus only a mother can love.

According to psychologists, it takes 6 weeks to form a good habit, and hopefully that's how long it takes to break a bad habit.

At six weeks, a puppy should be weaned and ready to adopt.

It takes six weeks to recover from major surgeries like back surgery, hysterectomies and heart surgery

And finally, in six weeks, Big Spazz and I will hopefully be leaner, meaner, plant eating machines.

The next four days will be spent on menu planning and staples buying. More on Thursday.

Countdown: 7 days - Dip the Big Toe In

2011-08-25T20:28:00.000-10:00

Today was the day for fire drill action - just go through the motions as if this were the real event, so bought me some kale (because if I were actually growing my own kale it would be dead already anyway), and tried out the chai green smoothie just to see if I could actually get myself ready, harvest my make believe, but very successful crops on FarmVille, and make the smoothie for breakfast. Like a fire drill, the intent is to learn what went well and what needs to be tweaked.

First batch was fine, but I have an old Osterizer blender that may be older than me, so after the first batch the engine was a little pooped.

This recipe makes enough to bring to work: now I need glass jars.

The verdict: It's like teaching for the first time. The trick is to try and stay more than 10 minutes ahead of the kids and then hopefully it gets better and you stop standing in front of the class (or the refrigerator) wondering what to do now. Boy 3 said it was OK, but Big Spazz said he's not a fan of chai. He really should have said something last week when I was raving about it. More for me.

I need to own this figurine. Seriously! Tried yoga today at work in anticipation of all this upsurge in energy we're going to get on this new journey. Breathing = good. Stomach getting in the way and left knee starting to shake under the strain = bad. The motto for yoga today: do not fart.

My last endeavor, try a product so I can figure out how to modify it for the challenge.

Tofu shirataki fettuccine noodles is a favorite of Hungry Girl and I hear Ming Tsai. Instead of eating complex carbs or learning to tolerate the weird texture of whole wheat pasta, this is an alternative. You find it in the tofu and konyaku area of the supermarket. It's made out of tofu and water. Period.

The trick is to drain it well, put it in the microwave for a minute. This will get rid of the fishy smell of the noodles. Otherwise it smells like ika. Blech.

For the original recipe (to be experimented on more later), I used 2 tablespoons of fat free cream cheese, 2 tsp of Parmesan and 1 tsp of sour cream. Season with a little salt and pepper. Mix with the dried noodles and put it in the microwave for one more minute. Done. Fake fettuccine Alfredo.

The verdict: the texture is a little more chewy than real fettuccine, but like tofu, it takes flavors well. Next time, maybe Thai peanut style or in Asian broth, some lime, cilantro, chilies, mushrooms, coconut milk, ginger, garlic, little shoyu. . .smells good already.

Preparing Our Kitchen for the Challenge

2011-08-24T16:00:00.001-10:00

Most sensible, educated people will be reading the Eat to Live book and getting their pre-challenge physicals taken care of. Most intelligent people will also be cleaning out their pantry and refrigerator of those foods that leave us "overfed, yet malnourished" (the heading for chapter 2)

Big Spazz would probably be reading the book just to make sure that *gasp* his 3 cups of coffee per day are actually not allowed, however, our books are stuck somewhere in "Hebron" which means they are NOT in Honolulu.

As I am the sensible one, genetically proven because I am the one with the pake blood, it is up to me to clean out the kitchen, so breakfast and dinner on day 9 and 8 of the countdown consisted of my clearing out the kitchen and cooking our malnourishing food, because I am sensibly pake, so hell if I'm throwing it out. As my grandma would say, "ho, the poho that!"

Step one: Don't save the "good stuff" for later: bust 'em out!

This includes using our Honolulu Coffee Company coffee beans that my nephew TK roasted himself. Honolulu Coffee Company on the third floor of Ala Moana is always busy, and since they have no wi fi, it's just the coffee that brings people in. One of their baristas, Pete Licata, actually won the western regional barista competition and took like second in the international competition. Pete actually went to hand pick the beans on the Big Island from a small farm in Kona and Kau. According to my nephew, roasting is a very difficult skill to master because there's a fine line between ready and burnt. I must say we have been hiding this coffee and we may be down to this last bag, but we will enjoy it while it lasts.

Step two: Follow the advice of addicts and alcoholics

Take the concept of the nicotine patch. You get people off of their nicotine addiction by feeding them nicotine, and then slowly weaning them off the amount of nicotine they're accustomed to. Like methodone to get people off of heroine. They're both opiates.

Here's my drug of choice - bread. This one is a ginger-pineapple sweet bread. What better way to get off bread than to eat bread. Not only that, what better way to get off butter than to fry the bread with butter. And since I'm pake, may as well make the portuguese sausage in the refrigerator too so no waste.

We're leaving the reading to the young ones and those postal workers in Hebron that are holding up my books.

10 day countdown to changing our life

2011-08-22T20:10:00.000-10:00

Meet my husband of almost 24 years. We met when I was 18 and we have been together ever since. In high school he used to be called Spazz, and then he became Big Spazz. We are self proclaimed foodies. When we travel, our motto is "try something different." Trying something different means we never eat at franchises when we travel and we try not to eat at the same place twice. For better or worse, we have raised our boys to enjoy food. Big Spazz is also an expert chef. His fried rice and peanut butter mochi are legendary (along with his catch and eat dishes like uhu tempura, steamed moana kali, crispy papio, etc.)

Obviously from our wedding pics, we are a lot bigger now and yet at that point in our life, we were the heaviest we had ever been, except for my pregnancy weight. In this pic, I was already a new mom and our oldest was almost two months old.

We did not get obese overnight. We've been this way for a while. We've tried different plans, albeit half heartedly (Weight Watchers, exercise, diets). In the mean time, Big Spazz was put on high blood pressure medication and I have not felt comfortable in my skin for so long that I don't know if I've ever felt normal. I am always the biggest one in the group. I never used to be that girl, but I've been that girl for all my adult life.

We are committed to changing our life and we're starting with this little book. It won't be easy. In fact, there may be swearing, but I feel like I have to do it for us. After one year of living away from my family, I have come to realize that I missed my husband more than anyone. I want to make sure that we spend as many healthy years together as possible.

My grandmother said that words held mana. Once it's said, it carries its own power, so I'm saying it out loud. We will change our eating for life, not because we need to lose weight, but because we need to live strong. The change starts on September 1. There is no looking back.

Liana's Yumm-O Chai Smoothie

2011-08-18T09:53:00.000-10:00

We're actually working today, but my friend Liana, cheerleader extraordinaire and Dr. Fuhrman cult leader shared a jar of her chai smoothie that's chock full of kale! The chai spice makes this drink so rich and tasty that I don't even notice the kale.

This is definitely one for our new adventure starting on September 1!

Zucchini ribbon lasagna

2011-08-08T21:24:00.000-10:00

My son's tattoo clients sent him home with a box of veggies including a couple beautiful zucchinis so in my attempt to flirt with veggies, I replaced lasagna noodles with zucchini. I can make it even healthier by replacing the cheese and using soy crumbles instead of the turkey Italian sausage, but so far so good.

Ingredients:

For the sauce:

2 14.5 oz cans tomatoes (fire-roasted if it's on sale, diced with seasoning, stewed. . .)

2 T. extra virgin olive oil

1 red bell pepper, diced (or onion)

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

12 oz ground turkey, or one tray of turkey Italian sausage, or 1 bag soy crumbles

2 T chopped fresh oregano

1-2 diced garlic cloves

For the lasagna:

2 zucchini

1 container part-skim ricotta, or fat-free sour cream

Other shredded cheese

1. Make the sauce: saute bell peppers, flakes and oil in a pan until soft. Add turkey, cook until browned. Meantime, pulse tomatoes in a food processor until finely chopped. Add tomatoes and garlic; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until thick, about 20 minutes. Stir in oregano.

2. Make the lasagna: preheat oven to 375 degrees. Slice zucchini lengthwise into thin strips (about 1/8" thick). Place 1/3 of zucchini slices on bottom of baking dish. Top with 1/3 of sauce. Dot with ricotta and cheese. Repeat layers. Bake, uncovered, until lasagna bubbles and top browns, 50 - 60 miutes. Let stand for 10 minutes.

I had some leftover zucchini ribbons, so hubby made some zucchini toast.

Flirting with Veggies

2011-08-08T20:28:00.000-10:00

This past year, I have been on a faith journey. Basically, I believe that I just prepare for anything, and the neon signs will light up for me to show me the path that I need to take. My faith journey has found me teaching high school again for one year, moving to Honolulu, starting my doctoral studies, spending a year with my oldest son, teaching educators in South Africa. Not everything made sense, and I can't explain how I got all of these opportunities handed to me, except to say that I am on a faith journey.

Now that my year is over, I believe that I'm still being led by neon signs, I'm just not as swift to jump at it, but I'm still going to listen.

The neon sign that is loudly flashing in my life now: get healthy, eat healthy, live plant strong.

My friend Liana (So Duck Soup) has changed her life around and she is the most powerful cheer leader and motivational speaker I know. We've also been following Johnny O "Big Sexy"'s blog about taking on the 6 week challenge and going vegan. "Big Sexy" has a lot in common with my own "Big Sexy." Still, I am not at the point where I'm ready to follow the neon sign. For now, I'm just flirting with using more veggies, taking familiar recipes and trying out more healthy substitutions.

Yes, I will follow that sign. . .but first a little foreplay.

The miracle of an egg

2011-06-24T23:14:00.001-10:00

Originally uploaded by cathy.ikeda

While on assignment in South Africa, I have down time until my colleague returns from Ohio, so I've been stuck in this bed and breakfast, thwarted by the crime outside the gated walls and the 30 degree weather. I spend my days reading, planning, and eating.

This morning I had a perfect egg, hard boiled, but not dry. Hot to the touch, fresh without the tell tale air pocket of an old egg. The shell flakes off in tiny, dainty shells like rain. The inside was moist and firm, served in a glass egg dish and a small silver spoon.

There's something about an egg that keeps me from looking into veganism as an option. I spent almost one year without bacon, but we lived on eggs. I was reminded of home today, although I've never made such an elegant egg.

Bento Mania

2011-05-25T19:43:00.000-10:00

I can tell it's summer because I've been showing up to work with my rubber slippers on and putting on my shoes only at the last minute.

Summer means that my "sabbatical" in Honolulu is almost over and I can get out of my tiny basement apartment kitchen, so I went to Marukai to look for inspiration. I got stuck in the dishware and bento area and spent a large chunk of time in bento envy. I also found a super cute blog called Adventures in Bentomaking written by a local girl originally from Hilo, my soon to be home base again.

These are shapes you can make with your sandwich.

These are little cups you put inside the bento box to hold things like grapes, edamame, cherry tomatoes, etc. The shaped ones could probably be used to mold rice.

These look like paper punches for scrapbooking, but they're nori punches to make little nori shapes to put on the musubi.

These are shape cutters to create animals out of your food. Playing with your food bento box style.

These cute little pencil looking things are to "draw" nori paste designs on your rice.

Last but not least, they have bento boxes. It's a good starter. When I get more expert, there are online bento supply stores like All Things For Sale and Casa Bento.

Review: New Chiang Mai Thai Cuisine

2011-05-01T08:18:00.000-10:00

New Chiang Mai Thai Cuisine is a little Thai restaurant in Hilo. They've been open for a while, but we don't normally go to downtown Hilo for dinner, so we had a week day free and decided to try their lunch. The ambience was not ideal. When we went, I think they were trying to expand, so the chef/owner kept having to come out of the kitchen and consult with the contractor. This made lunch a bit long and we're glad we didn't have to go back to work. The homeless adults having loud, colorful conversations right outside our window didn't help either.

Food wise, I think Hilo has so many wonderful Thai restaurants, that this one was just ok. I judge restaurants by my favorite dish that is standard fare in that particular genre of restaurant. In the case of Thai food, I love, love, love green papaya salad. I like the fresh taste, the perfect balance of tang, salt and sweet, the crunch of the peanuts, the firm texture of the green papaya. The New Chiang Mai green papaya was a 3 out of 5. It was missing the lime tang which made it taste uneventful. I still rate it a 3 because I finished it. But I finished it hoping that it would redeem itself. The portion is generous, I just wanted more flavor.

The good - I don't want to only talk about bad, so the good is that they have really good sticky rice and they're more generous with their sticky rice than other Thai restaurants around town. If the curry had a richer balance of coconut milk and curry, it would be a perfect complement to the sticky rice.

If you've tried a better dish at this restaurant, let me know. Otherwise, I'll pass on a round two here.

NaPoWriMo Day 9: Picture Bride Blues

2011-04-16T08:36:00.037-10:00

Japanese style kitchen safe, Hawaii Plantation Village

Promised to a man
Across the deep blue sea
I carry his picture
And hope it's not a lie my mother fed to me

'Cause I'm so far from home
And there's no turning back for me

I get to Honolulu
All these faces staring at me
Someone calls my name
Aiya this old man is my husband

And I'm so far from home
And there's no turning back for me

My mother's chawan
in my kitchen safe
is the only comfort
in this foreign, dusty land

And I've got nowhere to go
This is home for me now.
-CKI

---------------
I went on an excursion for my graduate class to the Hawaii Plantation Village in Waipahu, Hawaii. Their intent at the village is to preserve Hawaii's plantation history from about 1850 - 1950. The houses represent different ethnic groups that came to Hawaii to work in the plantations and the houses are furnished with replicas of items taht would have been in a typical house. They also have other buildings like a community bathhouse, a barber shop, plantation store an Japanese sumo ring.

I found that while we were touring the houses, I kept focusing on the kitchens. The different kitchens just brought the history alive. I focused on this kitchen safe that used to be used to store food so that the flies wouldn't get to it, and it also housed dishes sometimes. My great grandfather was a master carpenter brought from Japan to work on the Pioneer Mill plantation manager's house. He made a tabletop safe that my grandfather still had when I was growing up. It was like a magic box to me even if when I was growing up they only used it to store pantry items and papergoods.

NaPoWriMo Day 8: Chazuke

2011-04-15T17:28:00.039-10:00

Win or Lose

Hot rice or cold rice,
doesn't matter,
hojicha, genmai cha, Lipton black tea, even hot tap water
furikake,
ume paste,
large ume, wrinkled, puckered unseeing eyeballs,
ochazuke nori packets with trading card pictures
of famous Mt. Fuji scenes,
takuan,
pickled mustard eggplant,
sanbai zuke,
shiso seeds floating like bright green flower buds
grilled salmon
misoyaki butterfish
day old sashimi soaked in ginger and shoyu,
slivers of rare steak.
My father-in-law wasn't really back from his
almost monthly Vegas trips
until he sat down with his large chawan
of chazuke
win or lose
a Vegas tradition.
-CKI

NaPoWriMo Day 7: Canned Corned Beef and Onion

2011-04-14T03:49:00.080-10:00

Serving Up Dog Food

The neighbor boy comes over
as I'm cooking my half an hour
start to finish
weeknight special of canned goods and rice.
Tonight it is canned corned beef
and onions
little oyster sauce kicker
and hot hot rice,
an end of the month special
when we're trying to live out of the pantry
until the next paycheck.

"What's that SMELL? Smells like dog food,"
the neighbor boy exclaims.
My son sniffs the air,
"That's not dog food,
that's corned beef and onion! My favorite."

I pop open another can of "dog food"
for my favorite boy.
-CKI
---------------
Slow Foods is a grass roots movement that encourages people to eat foods that are local, seasonal and sustainable. This is a way to be kind to the planet by cutting down on the petroleum needed to transport our food, but also to support local farmers and encourage sustainable living.

However, since we live in the middle of the Pacific, seasonal is relative. We have mango season, which is also lychee season, and not mango season, which is the rest of the year. Canned foods like corned beef and spam were luxury items in the plantation camps and we hold on to those ways of living and surviving on this island. Unless we are able to catch fish for our families, grow our own vegetables, hunt for our meat, our carbon footprint will always be a little larger because of our isolation. That's why when there's an imminent danger like a tsunami or a hurricane, island people rush the stores for the one item that will help them survive: ricetoiletpaperspamwater.

It is our own kind of sustainability.