A Starchy Week

So, how many different starches can you eat in a week?

Well, we weren't really intending to have a starchy week, but we wanted to reduce our grocery bill and thought potatoes, sweet potatoes, tofu, and beans were cheap, nutritious, and filling foods. We made some good meals and some were just ok; ultimately we realize that a balanced diet is the key.

What are starchy sources other than potatoes, beans, and bread?

• tortillas, pitas
  
• winter squashes
• wholegrain breakfast cereals
• lentils, peas
• couscous, bulgur wheat, cornmeal

Many people think starch is bad and causes weight gain. Starchy foods actually contain little fat and are rich in complex carbohydrates. Starch provides energy and nutrients such as calcium, iron, and B vitamins.


We first had baked potatoes topped with lots of sauteed onions. Easy, filling, and tasty! Served with collard greens, though we weren't as thrilled with them - we prefer spinach or swiss chard.


We also enjoyed a tofu stir fry served with short grain brown rice. We seem to always enjoy a stir fry every week - this one had snap peas, yellow squash, onion, red bell pepper, and mushrooms with the sauce adapted from the Thai Tofu Saute, but with ground ginger instead of curry powder!




More potatoes - sweet potatoes! We were hoping this would be good, because we love sweet potatoes (and well, anything orange), but these weren't good this week. So starchy and thick and we were stuffed with just a few bites. Next time stick to organic sweet potatoes - those always turn out great, juicy and sweet, and not so starchy. After this meal, we were getting tired of starch...

But oh, the next meal was 10 times better- cornbread and black bean soup!!

We've been dying for cornbread - moist, soft, slightly sweet cornbread - and that's what we got! We followed Crystal's recipe, and used spelt and kamut flours and honey instead of maple syrup. Did you know that kamut flour is highly nutritious (It has up to 20-40% more protein than wheat, up to 65 percent more amino acids, contains more healthy fatty acids, and is rich in magnesium, zinc, and vitamin E - reference)and more tolerated by those who are allergic to wheat? It has a subtle, nutty, and buttery flavor. For our cornmeal, we used medium ground, so it was slightly gritty and crumbly but in a good way. Sometime we'll try it with fine ground cornmeal for an even more melt-in-your-mouth experience.The black bean soup is now THE black bean soup we'll use. We've been wanting to replicate Panera Bread's Black Bean Soup because that soup is our favorite (also excellent with their whole grain baguette!)and we don't get to go to Panera Bread very often. After many trials and errors over the years, we finally found the right combination of flavors.

Black Bean Soup
1/2 c. onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3-1/2 c. green bell peppers, diced
3 15-ounce cans of black beans, rinsed
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 tsp or more chili powder
1/2 tsp paprika
3/4 tsp or more cayenne
3/4 tsp or more cumin

Sauté the onions, garlic, and bell pepper in a 1/4 cup of broth in a nonstick saucepan. Once the onions have become translucent, place in a large stockpot. Add the beans, broth, and spices. Simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Taste-test the soup after 20 minutes and remove from heat once the beans are cooked to your liking.

Speaking of using Crystal's recipes, we also followed her Pumpkin Pecan Pie. Overall, it was a great backbone for a vegan pumpkin pie without any evaporated milk or eggs or egg substitutes. We ended up using an oat pecan crust, but it didn't wow us. We love pumpkin pie with graham cracker crust, so we'll have to use that next time. We actually liked this without the crust, just as Crystal made hers. Also, we tried these Nature's Path Ginger Spice Cookies this week, and they were really good with this!


This week we also made homemade grahams and used the recipe from King Arthur's Whole Grain Cookbook. We used kamut and wheat flours and cut down on the sugar. They ended up being a little too thick and crispy and not as sweet, but a great snack that we enjoyed having on hand while at school.



Some products we've tried this week include:
Back to Nature Cherry Pecan Chewy Trail Mix Bars - these were ok - too sweet and the cherry flavor didn't seem natural tasting. Also small and expensive.
Soy Dream Green Tea Ice Cream- very rich - only needed a small serving. Won't get again; we'll stick to So Delicious soy ice cream.
R.W. Knudsen Blueberry Nectar Juice- soo good! Used in banana yogurt smoothies and it was like we had fresh blueberries!
Ryvita Dark Rye Whole Grain Crispbread- great crunch and good with avocado, tomatoes, or mushrooms. Would be good with bean dip.
Roasted Unsalted Almonds - we've been having these like every-other day, and these are so addicting. We may begin eating them everyday... they are one of the top foods to eat!


Anyways, what began as a starchy week (potatoes mainly), ended up as a balanced week full of different starches like crackers, breads, and beans. We had one non-starch meal, and it was so fresh, tasty, but very very filling just the same - a huge salad full of honeycrisp apples, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, and avocado.

One last thought:
We are always striving to improve our ways, and this week we want to focus on motivation and optimism- "think positive and you will be positive". Think, “I am prosperous and healthy”, “God provides for me every day in every way” , and “Today is a GOOD day!” (Maria Palma)

Peace,
LK

Ups and Downs

So, this week, like every week and every day in life, consisted a little of everything - beauty, peace, struggles, stress, faith, courage, and determination. Everyone experiences roadblocks, and we learn along the way and try to find hope and courage to get through life. We've been studying nonstop (to prepare for 4 tests), which has been giving us stress and requires a lot of motivation, focus, and endurance! Also, I think that for the first time we may have failed an exam, and we both feel awful (and afraid to look in the eyes of our professor when she lectures...haha). This experience happens for a reason, like all experiences, and teaches us to have courage, accept failure, and realize that God has a plan for each of us. In spite of the frustrations, we have found time to relax and have hope. Of course, cooking and baking always boost our moods - we had fun baking homemade cracker and cookies and preparing our dinners. Also, we finally have cooler and drier weather (low 63, high 88, perfectly clear blue skies), so we have enjoyed listening to the birds sing, being among nature, and studying outside. A lot of other changes has occurred too; our friends are graduating or will graduate like us in May, and some are moving away and getting married! It makes us realize that life flies by too fast and that every person goes their own path.

Anyways, this week we have made a lot of great, simple, tasty, and cheap dinners (to reduce our grocery bill). Being vegetarian can be expensive, from buying frozen veggie burgers, processed organic snacks, etc....but we have been trying to make our own crackers, cookies, and veggie burgers. We also find that beans, tofu, and potatoes are filling and cheap for the main dish.

When we first walked into the grocery store this past week, it was a delicious haven of rows and rows of apples!
We love apple season and both miss apple picking, which we did last year when we were exchange students at the University of New Hampshire. What is the one thing you would grow and have in your own backyard if you could? We would definitely love to have our own apple trees! Also, tomatoes and watermelon would be awesome. What are your favorite apples? Some apples we love include #1 Honey Crisp, and then Braeburn, Fuji, Jazz, Granny Smith, Gala, etc...What was so crazy this week, was that the apples were the size of grapefruit! Here is a picture of an apple we enjoyed - it was bigger than our cat's head, like 3 apples in one!


Another great "fresh" thing we enjoyed was fresh herbs from our herb garden at home. We went home last weekend, so we got to pick basil and oregano and use them in our cooking this week! We made a macaroni pasta dinner with an impulsive mix of foods that came together rather well. We cooked fresh green beans, diced onions, minced garlic, herbs, a can of stewed tomatoes, a little bit of tomato sauce, a can of lima beans, and a small amount of TVP in a large skillet till nicely sauteed.





We also enjoyed the fresh basil in Tofu Basil Sandwiches, from Students Go Vegan cookbook. It turned out really tasty and addicting. It had medium tofu, crumbled, and Naynonnaise, organic ketchup, tons of fresh basil, garlic powder, chopped celery, and nutritional yeast. We served it on Great Harvest Bread Company Honey Whole Wheat bread, lettuce, and sliced tomatoes. It would also be awesome as a dip, with bell pepper strips and cucumber strips, or as "ricotta" on top of pizza or in lasagna.We brought leftover tofu mix to school and ate it for lunch with homemade "wheat thin" crackers (discussed in earlier posts), but this time we added toasted sesame seeds. They are awesome, better than any store bought cracker! We also enjoyed the crackers with some hummus and almond butter.


Another great dish in the works tonight for dinner includes baked sliced, breadcrumbed eggplant, with couscous and garbanzo bean saute. We have a great big, hearty, purple eggplant ready to be eaten!

*Update on the eggplant dinner - it was very filling and flavorful! We haven't used eggplant in a while, and it was tasty, with Italian seasonings, sesame seeds, a little olive oil, and homemade breadcrumbs, broiled for a few minutes. And the couscous is always tasty- Hodgson's Mills Whole Wheat Couscous with Flaxseed and Soy. The garbanzo saute was a unique flavorful dish, with diced celery, red bell pepper, onion, garlic, oregano, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and lots of paprika! It was creamy, crunchy, spicy, and overall wow.


Our dessert this week was simple, yet tasty - cinnamon applesauce cookie bites, veganized. They are light, fluffy, and soft, with flaxseed, margarine, cinnamon, brown sugar, wheat flour, and lots of applesauce. Such a healthy treat, with no eggs!

Cinnamon Applesauce Cookie Bites
1/4 cup margarine, softened
1/3 cup Brown Sugar Splenda mix, or 2/3 cup regular brown sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 1/4 cup various grain flours (did 1 cup Kamut, 1 1/4 cup Spelt)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp or more ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp flaxseed, ground

Directions:
In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, applesauce, and flaxseed until smooth. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Add to the applesauce mixture, stirring by hand just until you have a soft dough.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Roll dough into 1 - 1 1/2 inch balls and place on cookie sheet coated with cooking spray. If desired, flatten the balls slightly.
Bake the cookies for 9-12 minutes, checking every few minutes and covering with foil to avoid getting too hard or overbrowned on top. Cool and enjoy!
Makes ~15 cookies.
(Could make bigger to be extra soft and fluffy, and add currants or dried cranberries)


So, this week, let us think of all the great things in our lives and not let the bad things bring us down. Let us all find time to enjoy life, either through cooking, reading, praying, etc.., and keep on doing the best we can. We shouldn't hurt others and be the person to bring their day down either. "Sometimes we need to look hard at a person and remember that he is doing the best he can. He's just trying to find his way. ~Ernest Thompson" (The Attitude of Gratitude blog, 10/06/07)

Smile!, LK

Another Nutritious Week

Howdy everyone (as we say at Texas A&M),

Ready for another nutritious lecture?

This week we made awesome colorful fresh healthy foods.

We made tofu scramble again and used mushrooms, spinach, and bell peppers. We also made Rosemary Lemon Tofu Wedges from the Students Go Vegan cookbook, which were simple and refreshing. We love tofu because it is versatile, simple, tasty, and healthy. Tofu is very low in cholesterol and sodium, which is good for the cardiovascular system. It is also a good source of calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus and copper, and a very good source of protein, manganese and selenium - all important for energy production, antioxidant function, and bone health.


To try something new, we used tempeh. We've tried it many times before, when we were on exchange at the University of New Hampshire last year, but we've never actually cooked with it, and it is difficult to find here. We got some at our health food store finally, and made Tempeh with Sweet Potatoes and Swiss Chard. We used a red wine vinegar sauce, which complimented well with the ingredients. A great mix of flavors and textures. We diced the sweet potatoes really small and they cooked fast that way. Tempeh is a good source of soy protein, riboflavin, phosphorus, copper, manganese, and fiber important for energy production, protein synthesis, GI and heart health.


We also enjoyed a summer-grill feast, with portabella burgers and carrot fries. Juicy thick hearty mushrooms marinated in balsamic vinegar made a great healthy burger. We made our own wheat bagels and used a bagel as our bun. Great chewy bagels - no need to buy any! The carrot fries were divine - a keeper! We are carrot lovers (surprised we're not orange yet!), and loved the spicy fries that resemble somewhat like sweet potato fries. Carrots are a good source of Vitamin C, A, K and B6, folate, iron, potassium and fiber important for eye, lung, and heart health.
For our weekly dessert Easy Pleasin' Oat Bars from Vive le Vegan. Great bar that's not too sweet. We used hearty four grain oats, oat bran, and some honey. Very hearty, and would be good to try different variations, such as cranberry orange, pecan, or oatmeal raisin. We actually liked them best with Dalfour Royal Fig Fruit Spread!

Finally, we enjoyed a hearty breakfast - Brown Rice "Oatmeal" with Pears and Cinnamon. We had excellent juicy pears and decided to cook them over the stove. We added cinnamon, and topped short grain brown rice for breakfast. The short grain makes it more creamier than long grain brown or white rice. Excellent and you wouldn't think rice would be a creamy alternative to oats. Brown rice is an excellent source of manganese, selenium, magnesium, and fiber, which help with GI health, energy production, and heart health, along with many other benefits.

So next time you eat, think about the nutritious components in your food and all the healthy benefits they provide!

- LK

Nothing Disappointing

A week of new recipes from some of our favorite cookbooks - no disappointment whatsoever!
From the Mother Nature's Garden Cookbook, we made Potato Leek Soup and Sweet and Sour Tofu with Pineapple. We have been really enjoying this cookbook - there are so many tasty creative recipes (but too bad we had to return it since it was due at the library).

The Potato Leek Soup was hearty and filling, a great recipe to make on those cold winter days (too bad it wasn't cooler here - it's still 90's here). It was a first to try leeks, and we both really liked them. Spicy like radishes and chives but slightly mellow like Brussels sprouts. The soup was pretty easy to make - just chopped up 3 medium-sized baking potatoes, 1 bunch of leeks (4 stalks), some celery, garlic, and onion, and spices- and put in the crockpot. Crockpot is great for busy students like us! We had leftovers enough for 2 more times and then put the rest in the freezer. A cheap meal too!


The Sweet and Sour Tofu with Pineapple dish was delicious. It was a different way to make sweet and sour sauce - instead of a tomato based sauce, the recipe had maple syrup and white vinegar. Great combination of flavors and textures - pineapple, onion, green bell pepper, tofu, and asparagus. We served it with whole grain couscous.



From the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking Cookbook (our favorite bread book), we made Wheat Thins! Our first time to make crackers, and we are thoroughly impressed! Very easy to make, just combined the ingredients, rolled out the dough, cut into pieces, and baked at 375F for ~6 minutes. We stored them in a tight container in the fridge, and they were still crispy and fresh tasting when we finished them (4 days). Great addicting snack! No need to buy expensive crackers now.The rest of the foods that we made were modified from our own recipes.

We made scones with currants, a different variation from the Graham scones posted here. We felt that the currants worked great for an authentic "English" scone.


We also modified our before-vegetarian-tuna-macaroni salad and made a macaroni salad with tomatoes, mushrooms, red bell pepper, zucchini, onions, celery, and lots of peas. We really like the Nayonaise spread!


For a great treat, we baked gooey divine vegan brownies! We used Goodbaker Chocolate Fudge Brownie Mix and it was the best brownies we've made in a long time. We like our brownies gooey and fudgy, and these definitely hit the spot (FYI we baked them slightly under). Great heated in the microwave - it turns out like thick brownie fudge sauce :)


Oh, we also made a delicious pear banana smoothie (love the gritty texture of pears!), and we tried heriloom tomatoes - the yellow and the red-purple ones! So juicy and fresh as if they came right from the garden!

Lastly, for a boost of gratitude and fulfillment, Maria Palma has great advice on "Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude". This week we are gratefully to be blessed with love and joy. We are blessed to have healthy nourishing lives and a loving family. What are you grateful for?

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” John F. Kennedy

Kind regards, LK

Our Daily Tortilla

Our main staple food for this week was tortillas! We bought some whole wheat tortillas, which comes in a pack of 12, so we had plenty of days to use tortillas in different ways. There are so many options to using tortillas, and it would have been nice to make enchiladas or a casserole, but we opted for easy cooking and used them mainly as wraps. If we didn't include tortillas for dinner, than the next day we would stuff our tortillas with the leftovers.

We didn't have "our daily bread"; instead, God gave us "our daily tortilla"! lol....

Tofu Stuffing
- We tried to make "Easy Veggie Tofu Cutlets" from Mother Nature's Garden Cookbook, but it turned out real crumbly. At first, we were a little iffy about what it would be like, but in the end it turned out very flavorful, with great texture! We just enjoyed it like stuffing, and it really tasted like stuffing! It had garlic, celery, onion, homemade breadcrumbs, mayo, mustard, soy sauce, and lots of dried oregano. We served it with lots of avocado and sauteed mushrooms.

Tofurkey chutney wrap
- This is so easy and flavorful! We used up the last of our homemade apple-pear-currant chutney and spread it on some Tofurky slices. Topped with sprouts and avocado, it tasted great!

Azaki beans and rice
- First time to try Azaki beans. They are mild in flavor, and like small black beans, only red in color. We mixed them with some wild rice pilaf and anaheim pepper. Cheap and hearty!
Veggie burger in a wrap
- We finally got Amy's California Veggie Burger, which is our favorite, but not available at our usual grocery store. We crumbled it up and added avocado and sauteed zucchini and mushrooms.











Tortilla chips (a form of tortillas!)
- Our favorite chips are Guiltless Gourmet Baked Blue Corn Chips! Crunchy, flavorful, and healthy!Black-eyed pea salsa
- From "Students Go Vegan" cookbook, this salsa was fresh, filling, and flavorful! It included anaheim peppers, tomatoes, and scallions/onions. It would be even better if we had lime juice, like in the actual recipe.

- We used the leftovers in a wrap and added edamames to make a protein-powered, healthy meal!


*Other foods we had this week that were simple and flavorful:

Banana peanut butter oatmeal! Extremely healthy and hearty, with steel cut oats - tried it for the first time!

Cherry Date Nut Balls from FatFreeKitchen - great simple snack similar to Larabar!





Chomp! Nutty Oatmeal Rayzen - tastes homemade with lots of spice!

Dr. McDougal's Apple Cinnamon Multi-Grain Cups - creamy and filling!

Palapa Azul Frozen Mango Fruit Bars - refreshing and tropical! It's still 90 plus degrees outside, so anything cool tastes great.


This week we didn't come home for lunch for some of the days. We were so busy at school, that we brought our lunches. We had two tests this week, followed by getting ready for career stuff. We just turned in a cover letter and resume to our department at school, which we've been working really hard on editing it all week! Hopefully we can get an interview and be accepted into the internship! Again, if you have any interview tips, let us know!

Oh, by the way.... be thankful that you all do not have to sit in a class for about an hour listening and seeing disgusting pictures about meat microbiology! This week our food bacteriology class is focusing on meat, and it made us nauseous and very upset to hear about slaughtered cattle! Yuck.

Praying that everyone has enough "daily bread" to sustain them each day....And, praying that society learns to appreciate and respect all forms of life!

Peace, LK