Green Smoothies and support my walk for MS!

Hey all...I have 3 friends with MS, and I want to do everything I can to support the MS Society to support them and others with MS. I am walking in the MS Walk in Ottawa next week., and to raise money, I have created a recipe book of Green Smoothies. If you support my walk for any amount, I will send you an e-copy of the book. It would mean a lot to me and you would get a great e-book that would help you meet Canada's Food Guide recommendations of 7 to 10 servings!

You can pledge me here: http://mssoc.convio.net/site/TR/Walk/OntarioDivision?px=1475391&pg=personal&fr_id=1909&s_locale=en_CA

More food...

Just a quick little post about healthy things this weekend. First - Mandolin + low heat convection oven for a few hours = apple chips. I'm addicted.

Another smoothy. Kale + mango + strawberries + milk + unflavoured North Coast Naturals Whey Protein. Creamy and not too sweet. A perfect way to start the day. (No, this is not paid advertising! I've tried a lot of whey, I really like this one.)

Dragon fruit. So pretty, but rather bland. More nourishment for the soul than the body.

Green smoothie shake up

I live with an autoimmune disease. It's been particularly bad lately, and I'm trying to help as much as I can through nutrition (in addition to a bunch of allopathic and complimentary medicine).

 This morning's green smoothie: Green mango lassie

1 cup frozen collard greens
1/2 ripe mango
1/2 cup whole milk yogurt
1 cup milk (or water, or juice)

Add all ingredients to your blender and mix on highest speed until smooth. Enjoy, knowing that you are filling your body with:
probiotics
fiber
vitamins A, C, K
calcium
protein
water
diindolylmethane
sulforaphane
(Note, vitamin K can modify the effectiveness of blood thinners.)

Sweet Potatoe Fries

It's been too long since I've last posted! I've got a back log of photos for tasty recipes to post about, and some thoughts about being well that I want to share. Things have been a little crazy up here in Ottawa due to a massive storm this past week (I got stranded at my parents' house!) and a variety of little things here and there.

But to keep you full of healthy food I bring you Sweet Potatoe Fries. These are delicious, and packed full of vitamins and fiber. Who needs fast food when you can bake these up in less time than it takes to drive to a fast food joint to get some less than healthy food that is no where near as tasty?

Source: http://www.couponclippingcook.com/french-fries-with-dipping-sauces/

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Get out a baking pan.

Take a big sweet potatoe and peel it. Slice it into 1/2 inch thick slices and then into fries. (i.e. first cut along the long end into flat pieces and then cut your pieces into strips).

Source: Me!

Put your sweet potatoe strips into a bowl and toss with 2 tbsp of olive oil, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of paprika and 2 tsp of rosemary. Spread onto your baking sheet. Pop into the oven, and roast for 20 minutes or until done. It you want to be really fancy, you can flip half way through the roasting time at 10 minutes. I usually don't bother.

Source: Me!

That's it! Now you can enjoy tasty  healthy, inexpensive sweet potatoe fries.

Biochar - interesting!

I found this project on Indiegogo this morning (Indiegogo has so many amazing projects, I want to fund them all!)

BioPreta Sample Project

I looked up biochar in wikipedia, and learned some interesting things about how the ancient technique of smoldering agricultural waste on farming land contributed to keeping the soil and environment healthy.

Source: http://www.biochar-nsr.eu/cms/

Sometimes I have to wonder if in many ways (not all!), our ancestors were so much smarter than we are. Or perhaps not smarter, but wiser. Why go through the trouble of producing chemicals to put on our land if we can use what we don't need to augment the soil instead. Seems like far less work (but alas, would contribute less to the "economy", oh my! note sarcasm in this sentence, which is not always easy to convey in writing).

Trepanation is one way that our ancestors clearly were not smarter nor wiser!

Caraway Rye

I got a bread machine at the Sally Ann a year or two ago, and use it for kneading my bread. I still like to bake the bread in the oven if I can, as I prefer the crust and shape of an oven baked loaf, and I can better control how it comes out.

Last night I made caraway rye dough, and this morning baked it up on my pizza stone. It is delicious!

150 ml of water
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp honey (for a lighter bread) or molasses (for a darker bread)
1 cup rye flour
1 1/4 cup white bread flour
2 tbsp caraway seeds (or more, if you like)
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast

Put in the bread machine in the order listed. Use the dough cycle.

Let bread do final rise in a oblong shape. I rise it on a silicone matt so I can just pop it into the oven with no fuss. Preheat oven to 400 C. Heat pizza stone

When the bread is doubled in size, pop in the oven. Pour 1/4 cup of water into the bottom of your oven (please please please check your over instructions and follow them - this is fine in my oven, it may not work in yours). Bake until the bread sounds hollow when tapped, for me about 30 - 40 minutes in my convection oven.

Delicious plain, or with butter or honey.

uBiome project

In December I got my own genome partially sequenced to help me better understand the health issues I am dealing with. I also learned a lot about my genetic history, including my matrilineal line (that is, where my mother's mother's mother's mother's mother's ... mother came from ).

I have a new arthritis diagnosis that is associated with inflammatory bowel disease. I don't have IBD, but I am curious about the bacteria in my gut. Gut bacteria are really important to health, and provide a variety of functions such as assistance with digestion, vitamin production, and synthesis of a variety of substances. Gut microbes have been associated with a number of disorders, including depression, autism, several types of arthritis, eczema and even sinusitis!

So, along came uBiome, which I found on Indiegogo, a crowdsourcing website. I'm going to get my gut biome sequenced and see what they find. Should be very interesting! In the meantime, I continue to try to eat food that are wholesome and healthy, close to their natural form, and have a wide variety of naturally occuring microbes such as kefir, yogurt and saurkraut.

Two books that will help you cook more healthily in a microbe friendly way are Wild Fermentation and Nourishing Traditions:

Oatmeal for breakfast

Just a quick update, here is pretty much what I eat everyday for breakfast. These are large flake oats because I ran out of steel cut, but the general idea is the same. Cook up several days of oatmeal at a time, and just reheat in the microwave before adding your goodies.

The oats are topped with pecans, hemp hearts and some brown sugar. Depending on how thick the oatmeal is, I'll add some milk or soymilk on top as well. Delicious!

Hearty oatmeal with pecans, hemp hearts and brown sugar

Warming roasted squash soup with apples

1 roasted acorn or pepper squash, mashed
1 apple chopped
1 onion chopped
2 stalks celery chopped
2 carrots chopped
1 L chicken or veggie broth
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp all spice
1 tbsp canola oil

Saute onion, apple, carrot, celery in canola oil over medium heat in a medium pot. When onions are translucent, add mashed squash, broth and spices. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove 3/4 of soup and blend on low speed for 20 - 30 seconds (we like a soup that is not too smooth). Mix in with the unblended soup and serve with whole wheat bread and Havarti cheese. Excellent dinner on a cold Saturday night.

Eating well in a rush

I'm a busy person. We're all pretty busy. It may be kids, it may be dogs, it may be our jobs, our hobbies, or other things in our life.

But, if we don't take time to eat well, we won't have the right type of energy to keep up. I have a habit of esorting to coffee to keep me going when I'm running on empty, which isn't really a healthy or sustainable choice. Coffee is great and everything, but shouldn't be what keeps you moving.

Here are some quick snacks I keep handy to eat when I'm in a rush. Having them around makes it less likely I'll reach for a cup of coffee and a cookie to push me through a low point.

Steel Cut Oats - every Sunday I cook up a pot of steel cut oats. 1 cup of oats to 4 cups of water, simmered until they are soft and tender. I keep this in the fridge and take out single portions (about a quarter of the batch) at a time. I reheat, chop some banana on it, and sprinkle some walnuts. A sprinkle of brown sugar and a splash of milk, and I have a breakfast or snack in two minutes. This keeps me going for a good three hours before I need to eat again. Oats are also a good source of fiber, including soluble fiber which can lower cholesterol. Oats are also the only food source of GLA (gamma linoleic acid).

My family's yogurt muesli with berries

Yogurt muesli - My mom adapted this recipe from the Movenpick restaurant's delicious Swiss Muesli (Before they were bought out by Peachtree foods in Canada).

2 cups of plain yogurt
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup currants
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 cup of frozen berries
1 apple, grated or finely chopped
1 tbls honey

Mix all this together and store in a contained in the fridge for up to 3 days. Add a bit of milk if it is too thick for you. Makes a delicious snack, breakfast or dessert. My family also traditionally makes this on Christmas morning, so that the family can eat at their leisure while we are opening presents.

Mixed unsalted nuts - I always keep a jar of unsalted mixed nuts around. A handful of these have protein, fiber and healthy oils, everything I need to give me a mid afternoon energy boost. I'm careful not to overeat nuts, as they are also calorie dense. But, they beat a chocolate bar any day.

Banana shake - I often have a bottle of plain kefir around, which I don't like on its own but I love blended with a ripe banana and a small scoop of cocoa powder. The sweetness of the banana balances the sour of the kefir, and makes a refreshing, filling and tastey snack on the go in under 2 minutes. Have I mentioned I love probiotics, and I try to get a variety of different ones into me on a regular basis (thus the yogurt and the kefir).

All of these choices are also easy on your budget, when you compare them to what you would pay to eat a snack outside of the house. $2-3 for a toasted bagel, add another two for a coffee, and you have lightened your purse but not filled your body with much that will really help it.

A tofu story: Soy milk continued

1. Boil your mash. So, you've now got a bunch of soy mash boiling on the stove, with a total of 454 grams, or 1 pound, of soybeans and about 22 cups of water. Cook this for about 20 minutes on medium. Stir frequently, as the soy will stick to the bottom of the pan. You want to avoid this from burning. If your soy mash threatens to boil over, stir or add a little cold water. Your soy milk is ready for the next step when the solids have separated from the milk. It should look like the picture on the right.


2. Strain your milk. Line a colander with muslin, or use a fine meshed strainer (like I did!). Carefully pour the mixture through the strainer to separate the soy fibre from the soy milk. It's best to use muslin so that you can squeeze all the soy milk out of the mixture and to avoid any graininess in your soy milk. 


3. Enjoy your milk! If your aim was to make soy milk, then you are done. Soy milk in this manner won't keep as long as that which you buy at the grocery store as it has no preservatives. I have never tasted a better cup of soymilk than my fresh soymilk with a touch of maple syrup and a splash of vanilla!

 I'll add the instructions to make tofu soon.

You will have a bunch of soy fibre left over, and shown on the left. This is called okara. Don't throw it out! It contains a lot of fibre, and a good amount of protein. Okara can be stored in the fridge, or frozen or dried for future use.

I'll do a post in the future about okara uses, but as a quick idea, you can use it to bulk up your morning oatmeal, cutting calories and increasing fibre and protein. I made oatmeal with 1/2 cup rolled oats and 1/2 cup okara cooked with about 1 1/2 cups of water (or more, depending on how long you cook it for and how moist you like it). This oatmeal is rich, creamy and very delicious!

These instructions are my variation of those found in The Tofu Cookbook by Bauer and Andersen and by Makiko Itoh at http://www.justhungry.com/2006/03/milking_the_soy.html 

A tofu story: Starting with soy milk

This weekend I undertook making my own tofu. I had found a fabulous book at the used book store on Tofu, from the early seventies (before I was born)! It didn't look too difficult, and since I've already made cheese, and the process is fairly similar, I was game. The first step is to make a batch of soy milk.

First step: Find your ingredients. Dried soybeans and some sort of coagulant. I found gypsum at T and T in the spice section. You can also use epsom salts or nigari.

Second step: Soak your beans (I did 454 grams or 1 pound) in lots of water overnight. Drain the water, and rise the beans one more time in hot water to warm them up.


Third step: Prepare your pot and gather your blender and kettle. NOTE! I used the Cornell University process to grind my beans which requires boiling water. This reduces the "grassy" or "beany" flavour of the resulting soymilk (which is an intermediate step in the tofu making process). If you choose to use boiling water to grind your beans be VERY careful. You can also just use cold water, it will just result in a stronger tasting soy milk.

Put about an inch of water in your very large pot. Heat this up until almost boiling. Wrap your blender in a towel if you are using boiling water to blend the beans. IF you are using boiling water, please make sure you are using a high quality blender that can handle the heat and will not crack or break. If you are not using boiling water, there is nothing to worry about!

Fourth step: Grind your beans. Take your blender, and put a cup of soaked beans in it. Pour in enough boiling water to cover the soy beans (about 1.5 cups), and blend on a middle range speed.If the mixture is too thick, add some more water. Stop blending when you have a creamy (although grainy) mixture.


Fifth step: Add your beans to the pot.  Pour the bean mixture into the pot that has water almost boiling in it. Add enough water so that you have added a total of 22 cups of water for your 1 pound of soaked beans.

To be continued!

These instructions are my variation of those found in The Tofu Cookbook by Bauer and Andersen and by Makiko Itoh at http://www.justhungry.com/2006/03/milking_the_soy.html

Healthy, tasty grain-free breakfast cookies

These cookies are super yummy, full of energy, and have no added sugars. Dates and fruit are used to sweeten. Almonds, coconut and eggs provide healthy fats and protein.

• 1 chopped apple with skin
• 1 banana (without skin)
• 1 cup raw almonds
• 1 cup shredded coconut unsweetened
• 2 Madjool dates
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp of coconut oil, melted
• 2 eggs

Preheat oven to 375 C.

Chop the red apples coarsely, and add them to your food processor. Pulse until they are uniformly chopped into small pieces. Put into a mixing bowl.

Pulse almonds, coconut and dates until they are a uniformly chopped into small pieces. Put into mixing bowl.

Mix dry ingredients well. Mix vanilla, melted coconut oil and eggs. Beat together. Add to dry ingredients and mix until well combined.

Drop cookies by large spoonful onto baking stone or baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool for five minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Adapted from: http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/grain-free-goodies/apple-banana-cookies/

Lazy Saturday bread

Continuing the theme of waste not, want not, I had some leftover oatmeal in the fridge that needed to be used up this morning. I wasn't sure...should I make muffins? pancakes? And then I remembered that I ate the last of my homemade bread yesterday, and thus, needed a new loaf.

I found a recipe online for bread machine bread made with cooked oatmeal. While my oats were not steel cut (these take too long in the morning, so I opt for large flake oats on weekdays), the recipe looks like it should yield a nice loaf. I used a cup and a half of spelt flour in place of part of the regular flour, and brown sugar instead of honey or maple syrup, and added some butter.

My "new" recipe now looks like this:

Cozy weekend oatmeal bread

1.5 cups of cooked large flake oats
1 cup of water or whey (from my cheesemaking activities, this is a great way to use up your leftover whey)
1.5 cups of spelt flour
2 cup of white or whole wheat flour
1 tbsp of brown sugar
1.5 tsp of real salt (I use salt from Utah that is full of trace minerals)
2.5 tsp of bread machine yeast
1 tbsp of butter (I like to add a little bit of butter or oil to my breads, as it adds to a lovely crust)

Assemble ingredients in the order listed in your bread machine. Choose grain setting if you have it. If the dough is not pulling cleanly from the sides during the kneading cycle, add a little more flour. Flour quantities vary depending on its moisture level.

Enjoy, warm, with butter and honey, or homemade apple butter. Yumm!

It's in the machine now, and will be ready this afternoon, just in time for a late lunch. I will post a picture later.

What a cozy way to start the weekend!

In the Left Coast

The great thing about Vancouver -- Cafe Artigiano. I'm in town to give a workshop on a super geeky topic...but off hours I hope to geek out on food.

I still remember the coffee from my last business trip over two years ago. I wish I could find coffee this good back in Ottawa!

Maybe on Friday night I'll be able to get to the Granville Market. Tonight, dinner was from the grocery store. Hippy food - balkan yogurt, bananas, blueberries and meusli...and Mighty Leaf tea to top it off. Heaven. And now, I'm off to bed. It may only be 8 pm in Vancouver, but it is past my bedtime back home.

It's Friday! Veggie box time...

I love Fridays. On Friday, I get a few days of family time. I also receive my organic veggie box and that makes me happy! Having a box of healthy fruits and veg delivered to my door every week means that as long as  I have staples on hand (cooked beans or meat in the freezer, tofu in the fridge, rice, noodles or bread), I can always whip up a healthy meal.

That my box costs me less than a meal out doesn't hurt, either. This week: bok choy, carrots, cauliflower, sweet potatoes (or yams?), tomatoes (two ways!), celery, parsnips, sugar snap peas, bean sprouts, oranges, apples, a lemon, blueberries, apples. I get my box from Ottawa Organics, and have for almost two years now. I've become really adept at not letting food go to waste, which takes some time to get used to, but is better on the budget and the environment and your health in the long run.
I've begun to realize that when I let food go to waste, I'm also tossing a long chain of effort and resources into the compost heap. There's nothing like a little reflection to figure out what is really important.

An awesome bean soup to warm your tum this winter

So the year of paying attention to the environment is going really well.

One of my big changes is cooking ahead of time. When you're trying not to buy beans in cans (extra packaging, chemicals in the liners, transport costs) and you're trying to use more beans, you need to plan ahead! Each week, I choose a different bean to use as the base of the soups I make for our daily lunches. On Saturday night I soak the bag of beans. On Sunday, I boil them up. I usually boil them until they are almost but not quite done. This way I can finish them when they will be cooked in their final form, usually a soup or stew.

I take a few cups of the beans for whatever I am cooking for lunches, and the rest get frozen into 2 cup baggies in the freezer. This way, I'm never out of beans that will be ready in a half hour or less and I have a wide variety in the freezer to choose from. My staples are chickpeas, black turtle beans, romano beans and great white northern beans (my favourite), but I am trying to find sources of funky heirloom beans and will likely grow some of my own this summer.

Winter romano bean and pasta soup

2 large carrots
3 stalks of celery
1 yellow or red bell pepper
1 onion
2 tbps canola oil
2 cloves garlic
2 pork bones* with meat
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp of oregano
2 l chicken or veggie stock
2 cups of almost cooked romano beans
2 plum tomatoes, diced
1 cup orzo or other small pasta
2 tsp salt

Heat oil on medium-high in a large pan. Chop carrots, celery, onion and pepper into 1 cm pieces. Saute until veggies begin to caramelize around the edges. Mince garlic, add to pan. Make some space in the middle of the pan and brown the pork bones until all sides have a pleasant brown colour.

Add 1I of stock, romano beans, bay leaves and oregano. Simmer on medium, adding stock as necessary to maintain coverage of all components at all times. When the beans are tender and the soup smells enticing, add tomatoes. Take out the bones, and remove any meat. Chop, and put back into the soup. Once the soup beings to simmer again, add orzo and salt. Simmer until orzo is cooked to desired firmness.

If you are on the Weight Watchers program, the Points Plus (tm) value of 1/8 of this batch is  3 points. Not bad for a tasty, high protein, satisfying soup!

Note: You will notice that I added the tomatoes and the salt AFTER the beans were tender. If you add these before they are fully cooked, they will take longer or may not become tender at all. Always add acids and salt after cooking beans.

Serve with homemade bread and a nice glass of red wine. Delicious, healthy and easy on the environment by using beans and pork bones.

(*You could use any type of bones with meat, as a way to develop the flavor of the broth and to make use of all cuts. I get all of my meat from my friends at the Manotick Village Butcher. I am committed to buying local, ethical, healthy meat.)

iPad ate my post...Grr!

Made stock using veggies scraps stored in the freezer.
Buying bulk legumes and cooking instead of cans.
Beans in meals several times a week.
Made blueberry jam out of blueberries past their snacking prime.
Made cheese instead of throwing out milk that was left out.
Going to try to make my own tofu!

And more ecofriendly, to keep track

1. Bought a microwave popcorn popper...no more bags.
2. Reduced drink boxes - only for outings and special occasions, not every day.
3. Switched to locally roasted beans (less travel, less waste, local).
4. Got sand instead of salt for icey steps and walkways.
5. Buying in bulk where possible (e.g. large bag o' flour).
6. Switching to lower bleach toilet paper.

List of things I've already done/planned

This is mostly as a placeholder, so that I can keep track. I'll blog about some of them later. Stay tuned...

1. Starting a Mason Bee colony.
2. Fixing the drafts around the front door and my son's bedroom window.
3. Making my own laundry detergent.
4. Cancelling any catalogues that come to my house (bye bye LL Bean).
5. Fake Christmas tree.
6. Planning a small veggie garden, and saving eggshells as starter pots.
7. Replacing household cleaners with environmentally safe ones.

One of the things I'm noticing is that most of my environmentally friendly actions are also money savers, which is not a bad thing at all.