The China Study Cookbook

Good morning and happy Monday friends! As promised I would like to share some of my very favorite cookbooks that I am working from now to prepare healthy, whole food and plant based meals for myself and my family. The China Study Cookbook is inspired by T. Colin Campbell's best selling book, The China Study and includes delicious recipes that focus on whole, unprocessed foods. I have to say that this has been one of my go-to cookbooks since the summer and it served as my inspiration to get back on track with eating a mostly vegan and totally nutritious diet!

Although I started eating a vegetarian diet months before reading The China Study, I have to say that that was the very book that got me most inspired and fed me with the science behind why a plant based diet can reap benefits for your long-term health. It motivated my husband to also join me in crossing over to the dark side of green leafy vegetables and juicy fruits, among other things, and convinced me that my son can still grow healthy and strong without whole milk and chicken every day.

This cookbook takes the principles and conclusions reached in The China Study and transforms them into delicious, edible combinations that you can feel great about eating. And better yet, the recipes are fairly simple and don't require a lot of exotic ingredients (which can sometimes be an intimidating problem in some vegan cookbooks). Perhaps my favorite dishes in this cookbook come in the salad section and I tried a lot of them during the summer when produce was at its best. For example, there is a Lemon Tahini Quinoa Salad that I made quite a few times and even served to our non-vegetarian friends and even they enjoyed it! The entrees are fabulous as well and some of my favorite here include African Vegetables, Eggplant Bake, and Fettuccine with Broccoli and Cashew Sauce.

In our house, however, nothing is more popular (especially with the five year-old set) than the Panana Cakes! Yes you read that right--Panana! CJ absolutely loves these and I love making them for him. They have a nice flavor and they freeze well, which definitely comes in handy on our busier mornings. I'll make these pancakes on the weekend, freeze the leftovers and pull them out to heat in the microwave when we are getting ready for school. I'll include this recipe below if you'd like to try it, but I have to say, of all the cookbooks I've worked from recently, this one is definitely worth picking up!

Panana Cakes

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 banana, mashed
1 cup water
1 cup nondairy milk (I usually use soy but almond milk is good too!)
2 egg replacers (2 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal with 6 tablespoons of water)
2 tablespoons maple syrup

1. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, sea salt, and cinnamon in a medium mixing bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, mix mashed banana, water, milk, egg replacers, and maple syrup.
3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and stir just enough to remove any lumps. The batter should be pourable.
4. Preheat nonstick skillet or griddle.
5. Pour batter onto heated surface to the size desired and cook until each side is golden brown. Serve immediately.

The Whole Story

Sometimes when I go into a bookstore or a place like Whole Foods, I see an overabundance of books relating to diets. Which diet is best for you? Is it best to follow the Paleo diet or maybe just cut carbs out of your life? Should you follow Atkins-style eating plans (many people still do!) or go completely vegan? What are we to do to lose weight and be our healthiest?

Well, I am here to tell you that I am certainly no nutritionist or expert on the matter by any means. But here's what I do know...

Whole foods make a difference.

What do I mean by whole foods? I'm talking about foods that are in or closest to their most natural state. Foods the way nature intended them to be. Fruits, veggies, seeds, nuts, grains.

I think we need to get away from just following one particular regimen. If we focus on filling the majority of our diet with these whole foods, our bodies will certainly thank us for it. Our bodies are meant to eat a wide variety of colorful fruits and veggies, and when we make up to 80 or 90 percent of our meals from these wonderful foods we will feel and look healthy, happy and vibrant! Like I said, I haven't done any specific research on this topic. However, I do know that when I am personally eating like this (and taking care of myself in other ways) I feel fabulous. My immune system is functioning great and I have abundant amounts of energy. For the past two months, I've really been focusing on eating this way and it has become a treat to have some pineapple for "dessert" after a good meal. It's amazing how, when you consistently eat whole foods, your taste buds change. In the past if I've consumed more than enough sugary foods, I crave more sugary foods. When we sit down in the evening to watch TV or work on the computer, I used to make repeated trips to the kitchen to snack on either salty or sugary stuff. But as my taste buds and my body have changed I don't feel that way any more. My "sugary snack" might be a bowl of grapes or an apple. And I feel great that I haven't given in to the temptation of a snack that's just going to make me crash afterward. I'm not saying I never eat desserts or sugary things anymore. I enjoyed the most fabulous pumpkin pie mini indulgence from Seasons 52 the other night! I'm just saying I don't crave it as much anymore.

Including more whole foods in your diet is not the only important step to take toward great health. Getting rid of all the processed foods that surround us is just as important. I was looking at some ingredient lists at the grocery store today and the amount of crap that is in some of the foods we consume is unbelievable! Perhaps you've heard this before, but when you shop, focus on the outside aisles of the grocery store. Focus on fruits and vegetables and if you are lucky enough to have a store with a bulk section, stock up. This is a great place to get a stash of nuts and seeds, dried beans, oats and other healthy grains.

The most important thing to do is think. I'm not saying we have to eat perfectly. Perfect is boring! Just focus on having more whole foods than processed foods in your diet and see the difference it makes.

(In my next several posts, I will talk about some recipe books I love that can help you integrate these whole foods into nourishing and delicious meals for your whole family! Of course, my cookbooks will focus on vegetarian and vegan dishes but a lot of times you can add some lean meat or fish to the recipes if you choose.) 

Share

I saw this on Huffington Post yesterday. Words of wisdom!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-bartolotta/happiness-tips_b_3956114.html

I Promise Myself

Hanging up in my very favorite Kansas City juice spot (T Loft!) is a poem/statement/affirmation by Christian D. Larson called "I Promise Myself." As I waited for my juices to be juiced yesterday, I read the poem (which I've read several times before) and thought about the encouraging things it says and how, just standing there reading it, I automatically shifted my mind toward positivity. Here is a link to the poem:

http://masteryofyourself.blogspot.com/2007/08/i-promise-myself-by-christian-d-larson.html

I wondered, if I started every one of my days by reading this, what would happen? You know those mornings when you wake up and you're not quite sure if you are ready to start the day? What if, instead of dreading the day, I kept this poem by my bedside to read upon waking? What if you took one line of the poem each day and just focused on it? One of my favorite lines is "To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person I meet." This is a great one to think about as you interact with others throughout the day. It's not always easy to carry through with this. Everyone can get dragged down by negative events in the world or enticing gossip--I'm totally guilty of this! But to have something like the lines of this poem to focus on can bring you back to a state of mind that brings and cultivates happiness in both yourself and others. 

Stay Present

I'm not against cell phones, smart phones, tablets and computers. There is a time and place for each. But check this out... I see what's in this short video happening all the time. Guess what? Life is happening too, all around us. Choose to stay present as much as you can...

http://www.trueactivist.com/after-i-saw-this-i-put-down-my-phone-and-didnt-pick-it-up-for-the-rest-of-the-day/

Think about it. 

Hemp, man...

For our nutritional tidbit of the day, I would like to share some info about Hemp Seeds...

I love to sprinkle a few tablespoons of this nutty little seed on my oatmeal, salads, and tofu scrambles and you can basically add it to anything you want. It provides a subtle nut-like flavor to whatever you might be dining on. But the best part is the nutritional value in this little powerhouse. First of all, hemp seeds are a good source of vegetarian protein, providing up to 10 grams per serving. Also, it is a terrific source of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids which (in the correct ratio) are so important for cardiovascular and immune health. Hemp has been known to help people with autoimmune diseases possibly for its immune strengthening properties. Finally, hemp contains some vitamin E and other minerals that are important in overall health. The best part about hemp seed is that it's easy! All I do is sprinkle a little out of the bag and into whatever I'm eating and voila! Good stuff with little effort=happiness. An added bonus in our household too is that I can put this in the oatmeal our son eats and he gets all that goodness in his growing body too. You can usually pick up a bag of hemp seed in any grocery store now. Of course stores like Whole Foods carries it but the health food sections of mainstream stores have it now too. Check it out!

All it takes is 5 minutes...

Sometimes meditation can seem completely intimidating. You mean you want me to sit still, by myself, with my eyes closed, thinking of nothing, with no gadgets to distract me?

Well, that's exactly the point.

We are always so busy, physically and mentally. Our lives are filled with distractions, messages, images and it can often feel like our brains are on overload. This busy-ness can stress us out, make us crazy and affect our sleep. Stillness, quietness, and meditation is the answer.

Now if you hit the bookstore shelves, you'll find a million books that talk about the different "methods" of meditation. "How to" books are wonderful, and if you are serious about learning a particular type of meditation, by all means help yourself. But here's what works for me... I sit down in a quiet spot, close my eyes, and breathe for 5 to 10 minutes. That's it. It's not complicated. I breathe in and out for five minutes, just listening to the air go in and out of my lungs. And if my mind gets a little nutty and I start thinking about the things I need to get done today or the jerky who cut me off in traffic, then I start counting in my mind. As I breathe in, I mentally count to 7 and as I breathe out, I do the same. It's that simple.

I'm not saying there are never days when I sit for five minutes and it doesn't work! Of course there are days when my brain feels so distracted that it's hard to quiet down. But here's what I've learned: if I get irritated when this happens, nothing good results. When I approach it differently, I focus much more easily. I once read that during meditation, if you start getting distracted, simply say the word "thinking." This non-judgemental word describes what is happening and then you can get back to business.

It's important to remember that every single person has at least five minutes in their day to practice this. Even the busiest human being can find five minutes to be still! Certainly we can give up five minutes from checking Facebook to make ourselves quiet. To be honest, the more I practice this, the more I want to get back to that place of stillness and the easier it gets. Give it a try!

Another Yummy Combination

(Note: I wish I had a professional food photographer to take pictures of these recipes! They always make dishes look so yummy. Anyway, you'll have to take my word for it.) 

Another recent recipe my family and I enjoyed was a vegan version of sloppy joes with a side of heirloom tomatoes topped with a vegan cashew queso made by none other than my ever talented, cheese-making husband, Brian. The sloppy joe recipe comes from one of my favorite vegan cookbooks, Veganomicon. In the cookbook, it's actually called "Snobby Joes." Don't let the fact that it's not made of fatty, second-rate meat scare you away. This is not your school lunch sloppy joe. It tastes way better! With lentils, tomato sauce, onions, peppers and an assortment of other spices and flavors, this dish is one of our favorites to eat in the summer time. In the meal above, we were actually having leftovers so I put the Snobby Joe mix over brown rice to make it a gluten free meal. (Normally we put the mix on a whole wheat bun or a piece of Ezekial toast). Anyway, the mix is so delish that even CJ chows down on it.

As I've mentioned before, tomato season is one of my favorite times of the year. The last several weeks we've gone grocery shopping, they have had the most unbelievable heirloom tomatoes! You know, the ones that come in all kinds of crazy shapes and colors? OMG, I can't believe how wonderful they taste right now. They are too good to resist so for this particular meal, we sliced them up and topped them with Brian's cashew queso from Post Punk Kitchen (http://www.theppk.com/2011/11/cashew-queso/). The combination was fantastic! We also used the leftover queso and mixed it with a rice dish I made later in the week. We've tried several of these cashew-based cheeses and so far, this was the best one. (Check out other fabulous vegan recipes from Post Punk Kitchen! They have a fabulous list of meals to choose from).

Sometimes it can be intimidating to try new recipes that are so different from your norm when you are trying to incorporate more veggie dishes in you life. Just by picking up a good cookbook like Veganomicon or checking out the many blogs devoted to vegan cooking, you only need to choose one simple dish to try and work it in to your meal routine. Before you know it you'll be getting crazy and making vegan mozzarella to serve alongside your pasta with heirloom tomatoes and basil!

Layaway Angel

Love this story... There are wonderful people in this world!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/06/layaway-angel-kmart-back-to-school_n_3875740.html?ref=topbar

Juicin'

No, that is not a green beer I am enjoying for my morning snack today...

It is, in fact, green juice--one of my favorite healthy drinks and now a staple in our household. This concoction brings instant energy to your body that rivals the espresso drinks of Starbucks. The good thing about this drink, however, is it is filled with absorbable nutrients and doesn't give you the caffeine/sugar crash that happens when the effects of an espresso wear off.

There are lots of different combinations of fruits and veggies that you can put together to get a great tasting juice but we tend to stick with a base that works for us, randomly adding small amounts of other produce to get the nutrition without losing the taste we like so much. Today's juice included the following ingredients:

• 2 cucumbers
• 4 small celery stalks
• 1 bunch romaine hearts
• 1 green apple
• 1 small bunch kale
• 1 orange

We love this combination and I feel great drinking it. The advantage of having a juice over a smoothie (although a smoothie is great nutritionally in its own right!) is that the juice can be instantly absorbed. There is no fiber for your body to have to break down. Therefore, all the goodness of those ingredients go right to work in your body, making you healthier and stronger than you were before! 

I also like to throw in a small bowl of raw nuts with my snack for added protein and healthy fats. Today that nut mix included cashews, almonds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds. We choose raw nuts because the nutrients in the raw versions of these are more preserved than when they are roasted. In addition to the protein and fat in nuts, this combination serves as a terrific source of vitamin E, manganese, and may even have anti-microbial and cancer fighting effects. 

Just for Smiles

Like I said when I restarted this blog... It's not just about healthy living and good exercise; it's also about putting some positive stuff out there when the world can seem so otherwise. There's a lot of things that can be going on around us that lead us to believe that the world is going to hell in a hand basket. Well, I don't believe that's the case and sometimes we just need things to pick us up and remind us that there is a whole lot of good in the world.

One thing I like to check out when I get tired of hearing about bombings, chemical weapons, and "Blurred Lines" is the "Good News" section on the Huffington Post website. Here is a link to it so you can read some uplifting stories...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/good-news/

Also, there's this Dave Matthews video from well over ten years ago that still makes me smile every time I watch it. Whether you like the Dave Matthews Band or not (although in my opinion, how could you not!) this video will brighten your day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXe8PFKsOIc

Quinoa for Breakfast

I've been trying different ways to make breakfast a little more interesting over the last two weeks since I haven't been eating eggs, bagels or English muffins. I found a recipe in Kris Carr's new cookbook, Crazy Sexy Kitchen, for quinoa cooked with almond milk, coconut milk, agave, vanilla, mangos, and/or peaches. It was pretty good but I also found that I didn't even need that many ingredients to make it a decent breakfast dish.

Whenever I have a few minutes (because really that's all it takes) I'll make a batch of quinoa and just keep it in the fridge. I also like to do this because I prefer to keep things easy in the morning. So this morning when I made this, I took the pre-made quinoa and put it in a small pot, combining it with coconut milk. Next I added some frozen mango chunks, covered the pot and let it simmer on a medium heat until it was hot--about ten minutes. Finally, I put it in a bowl and added cinnamon to taste. Breakfast is served!

I love using quinoa as a base grain for a lot of dishes. Although it is not my all-time favorite grain, its health benefits make it worth including in your diet and with the right mixture of ingredients it can taste great! Quinoa is rich in protein, fiber, iron, and magnesium, among other things. Also in this dish, mango is full of vitamin C, coconut milk has a decent calcium content, and cinnamon is anti-inflammatory. It's a healthy mix of food!

(Note: In this dish, I didn't really measure anything. I just added what I thought looked good and there you have it! Play around with the ingredients to find what you like.) 

Attitude of Gratitude

I've heard it said that a person cannot hold an angry thought and a thankful thought in their mind at the same time.

When you think about that, it can be very powerful. Sometimes it can be very easy to get caught up in a frustrating situation and lose perspective on what is truly important to us. We might get sucked into some juicy gossip, but for some reason feel pretty crappy about partaking in it after the fact. We may have just had a bad day at work or were ticked off because our kids weren't listening or the dog chewed up the furniture again.

Now, I'm not saying we need to always suppress feelings of frustration or even anger or especially sadness. On the contrary, it is important to let ourselves feel those emotions. But after an appropriate amount of time (and that time varies based on the situation), we need to turn it around and move forward. One of the most important and helpful ways to do this is through a practice of gratitude.

Since restarting this blog, I've been following my own self-directed cleanse, not only with food but with spiritual and mind-benefiting practices. One thing I've been doing is writing down five things I am grateful for every day. I've done this sporadically in the past and found that it has really helped me focus on what was really good about the really bad days or what was utterly amazing about the awesome days. And I can't even believe how much this practice improves my state of mind! For example, there was a day last week when I was getting ready to go to bed and I couldn't get this one silly yet frustrating thing out of my head. I was washing my face and thinking about it, brushing my teeth and thinking about it, reading my book and thinking about it. It was driving me nuts and making me mad, which is never a good mixture for a decent night's sleep! Anyway, before I went to sleep, I wrote down five things on my gratitude list, breathed deeply and relaxed. As I closed my eyes to go to sleep, I kept focusing on those things I was thankful for until I fell into a deep sleep. I found that this practice helped me get that peaceful sleep I was looking for. Because I was thinking about what I was grateful for, I had no room in my mind for that frustrating situation.

Try it! It takes all of five minutes to write down five things you are thankful for. It can be as simple as being thankful for your home or your family or something more profound. The choice is yours. But practice this on a consistent basis and see how it can help improve so many aspects of your life and your world view!