Energizing New Breakfast!

I'd been eating the same breakfast for about 15 years or so (posted on April 1, 2009 in this blog under the title "Breakfast of Artists") and, kind of all of the sudden, I started to feel that it wasn't right for me. I started wondering if having less carbs in the morning would help me feel better up until lunchtime and even through the afternoon. So I thought about creating a new breakfast that was composed of the most super duper vitamins and nutrients I could think of, and also balanced in a way that would keep my blood sugar as level as possible for as long as possible. We have a turbo charged blender called VitaMix that sounds a bit like a jet engine at takeoff, but any blender will do. I made this recently for my father and his wife, using their blender which was very small and pretty unpowerful, and it worked just as well. So here it is!

Energizer Breakfast Smoothie

Serves One

1 heaping Tablespoon whey protein powder
1 heaping Tablespoon brewer's yeast
1 heaping Tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 level Tablespoon cacao nibs
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 to 1 inch chunk of raw ginger, sliced but not peeled
1/4 cup frozen cranberries
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
2 to 4 leaves of raw kale or collard greens
1/2 teaspoon organic virgin coconut oil
1 level teaspoon natural peanut butter
1 to 1 1/2 cups cold water

Blend all ingredients together until fairly smooth and enjoy! Your cells will dance with happiness for hours!

Anti-angiogenesis Inspired Dinner

Now that you've had a chance to watch William Li's TED Talk about angiogenesis (that I saw on boingboing and featured in my May 18 blog post) and you're feeling all fired up to try it out, I have just the thing to get you started! I wrote down the list of foods that his team is testing (shown at minute 12:55) and I made a meal with only those ingredients. I did notice that at the end of the list was "Others", but I decided that my challenge was to skip "Others" and only create the recipes with what he actually had on the list. In case you missed it, here is the list:
The meal I made consisted of Tomato Maitake Soup, Citrus Tuna Steaks, Anti-Angiogenesis Greens, and, for dessert, Chocolate Cinnamon Fruit Compote. How cool is that?! It's very cool, because Boris and I just ate it all and it was fantastic!

Note: all the recipes are for 2 to 4 people.

Tomato Maitake Soup

Finely mince 2 cloves of garlic and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes (increases potency of beneficial chemicals!) Also, in a bowl, soak one dried maitake mushroom in about 1 1/4 cup of water for about 10 minutes. Chop pieces when they are soft and save the soaking water. You should have about a cup of mushroom pieces and a cup of soaking water.
Saute the garlic in 1 Tablespoon olive oil.
Add 1 teaspoon turmeric and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Stir over the heat for a few seconds, then add the mushroom pieces. Add 1 28 ounce can of ground tomatoes, 1/2 can of water, the mushroom soaking water, and 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder (not instant cocoa, just cocoa powder!) Cover and simmer for about 1/2 hour or so.


Citrus Tuna Steaks

Start with 2 tuna steaks, about 6 ounces each, sliced 1/2 inch thin.
Mince 1 clove garlic, let it rest 5 minutes, and saute in 1 Tablespoon olive oil. Add the tuna steaks when the garlic is starting to turn light brown. Sear on both sides to desired degree of doneness (anywhere from a minute or two for rare to 8 minutes for medium well and cooked through). Set tuna steaks aside on a plate. Squeeze juice from 1 lemon into the pan. Add 1/4-1/2 cup orange-pineapple juice and one sliced red apple. Cover and saute about 10 minutes until the apples are just turning soft. Add the tuna back into the pan and, uncovered, saute for another minute to mix the flavors.


Anti-Angiogenesis Greens

In a saucepan with a lid, saute 1 minced clove of garlic in 1 teaspoon olive oil. Add 3 cups washed and chopped kale (I like Lacinato kale), 1/2 to 1 cup shelled edamame (Mukimame), and 1/2 cup brewed green tea. Cover and simmer about 10 minutes until the greens are tender.


Chocolate Cinnamon Fruit Compote

Peel a pink grapefruit, leaving most of the white part on, and chop it into bite-sized chunks. Put it in your serving bowl and add about a cup of sweet red cherries, pitted and halved, 1 cup sliced strawberries, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder. Mix it all together and refrigerate about 1/2 hour or more.

The Leftover Challenge

We recently had a little get-together with a few friends and I bought way too much hummus (for snackin'!), and now I'm stuck with all this leftover hummus. So I thought it would be a good ingredient to use for my Leftover Challenge. The Leftover Challenge is what I do when I have some odd ingredient and I want to think of a way to use it that is new and unexpected. I thought that it would be interesting to make a variation on Shepherd's Pie, using hummus mixed with eggs instead of mashed potatoes. It was fantastic! The hummus topping came out with a texture similar to cheesecake. You could use any combination of whatever vegetables you've got on hand for the filling, but here's what I did:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Saute a mixture of chopped onions, minced garlic, and sliced mushrooms until they're pretty tender. Add a few cups of chopped fresh collard greens and about 1/4 to 1/2 cup water, cover and cook until the greens are tender (about 5-8 minutes). Add a can of kidney beans that has been drained and rinsed.

Place this mixture in a casserole dish. In a mixing bowl, combine about 2 cups of hummus with 3 eggs. Using a whisk, mix it until it's evenly mixed and liquidy. Pour hummus mixture over cooked vegetables and bake, uncovered until the topping is firm and golden brown.

Agave AGAIN!

As many of you probably know, I like to regularly keep up with what Dr. Andrew Weil has to say about various health-related issues (why? because he's just so unbelievably smart AND flexible-minded, that's all!), and I've just read what he has to say about agave nectar (which we were discussing right here a couple of posts ago). Basically, while he may still have some reservations about it, he's not sold on the idea that it's as disastrously dangerous as Dr. Joseph Mercola writes about. If you use agave nectar or products containing it, please read both of their opinions and decide what seems right for you!

Agave Nectar = Not So Good, Maybe Very Bad

I just read this article by Dr. Joseph Mercola about agave nectar and felt that I MUST share it with all of you! I always felt that agave nectar seemed to be a little too good to be true and I've noticed that Dr. Andrew Weil (who's writings I always keep up-to-date on) has always had his reservations about it. Now I know why. It's just another super-refined, bad-for-you sweetener with fantastic marketing!

Dr. Mercola's article also includes a cool chart that tells you approximately how much fructose is in common fruits, etc. Keep in mind that the fructose in actual fruit is going to be made less harmful because of the fact that it's bound up with fiber and other nutrients. Just another bit of evidence that real food in its whole, natural, unrefined state is where it's at (as far as your body's health is concerned, at least).

Boris, Tony, Nonie, and me. Eggs make you crazy, but they won't kill you!

Forget about all that stuff you heard that eggs are bad for you and they'll kill you with cholesterol! Yay! The nutrition scientists have taken it back and now say that eggs are good for you. An egg a day is fine and gives you vitamins A, D, E, K, the highest quality protein, and that miraculous stuff we all keep hearing about, Omega 3. Especially eggs from organic free-range chickens. The fact that these chickens eat little bugs and things off the ground outside make their eggs a ton more nutritious as well as extra tasty.

So, a couple of days ago on Easter Sunday, Nonie (pictured above)--also known as the adorable Winona Nelson(the same Winona Nelson that does all those kick-butt character designs for video games)--came here with her really sweet boyfriend, our son, Tony Palumbo, to join us for dinner and she suggested we dye some eggs with food coloring. Actually, she and Tony did all the egg coloring, Boris and I just watched. But it was so fun and from now on, I'm going to color eggs every week. I'll just make a bunch of them and have instant high-quality, high-protein snack food waiting for me in the refrigerator. What a great plan!

Avocados

I've been going crazy for avocados lately. I'm not sure exactly why, except for the fact that they taste fantastic and are extremely good for you. Yes, they're high in fat, (but it is very good fat that keeps your body sane and balanced), so you wouldn't want to overdo it and put on unwanted pounds. But, I find that if I keep my entire diet clean and consisting of whole foods, having fats that come from things like avocados and nuts don't cause a weight gain problem. I think one reason is that when you're not having lots of junky refined foods, your body is way better at communicating with itself and with you, so you end up eating only what and when you need to and not eating when you're not really hungry or in need of nutrients. Thinking about how smart my body actually is (as long as I'm willing to listen to it!) just makes me so happy. It's lots smarter than I am, for sure!

Anyway, back to avocados. They are anti-inflammatory to your system, contain lots of good vitamin E, B vitamins, and magnesium, and even help balance out your hormones. I like them a little on the firmer side of ripe, about like a perfect pear. You'll have to experiment and decide for yourself how ripe you like them.

When thinking of avocado recipes, most people think of guacamole first, so I'll tell you how I make it. I keep it VERY simple so that I can taste the rich avocado taste above anything else:

Place peeled avocado pieces from 2 avocados in a bowl. Sprinkle the juice of 1/2 a lemon or 1 whole lime over it, and give a few shakes of garlic powder or garlic salt. Chop it up a little with a pastry blender (or two knives). Don't attempt to blend it to a puree, just mash it up a little and leave lots of chunks of the avocado. It's ready!

Another way to enjoy avocados is to cut up 1/4 to 1/2 an avocado per person in a serving bowl and combine with chopped chunks of pink grapefruit. This is a bright and amazing flavor combination.

And, my favorite salad (which I have almost every day for lunch) is:
1/4 avocado, cut into chunks,
a handful of washed and chopped dandelion greens,
3 raw asparagus spears, chopped,
a medium-sized raw carrot, sliced
Combine all these in a bowl and give it a dash of apple cider vinegar. Mix it up and go for it.

Food For a Cold Night

It's freezing cold here tonight (around 14 degrees Farenheit) and we didn't feel like going out for new ingredients to make dinner, so I decided we should have an adventure with whatever I could find in the kitchen. It was SOOOOOO good that I had to tell you guys about it! Here it is:

End of January Dinner

Heat in a skillet:
1 Tablespoon of olive oil

Saute in the oil:
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium sized onion, chopped

When the garlic and onions are soft and lightly colored, add:
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 15 oz. can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1 lb. bag of frozen chopped spinach (still frozen is fine)
1 cup cherry tomatoes cut in half
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup or so of water

Cover the skillet with a lid and cook about 10 minutes until the spinach is all thawed and the tomatoes have begun to cook down a little. If you need to add any water to keep it all moist, feel free to do so, but not so much that it turns to soup.

Add juice of 1 lemon, squeezed

In a small bowl, beat two eggs with a fork, then add slowly to the spinach/bean mixture, constantly stirring everything so that the eggs cook evenly into the mixture. It should only take a couple of minutes for the eggs to cook.

Serve over hot brown rice (preferably brown jasmine rice!) and top with
fresh avocado slices.

I've Got A Cold

I have now officially joined the zillions of people out there who have a cold and it suuuucks! So what to do now? A few things that come to mind are:

Stay warm! Wear a warm hat when you go outside, wear warm socks, etc.
Drink tons of tea. I make a spicy tea (recipe below) with cinnamon and ginger.
Rest and sleep as much as you can, but, unless you have a fever, it's good to get a little exercise like walking to stimulate your immune system.
Eat more cooked vegetables and whole grains, less heavy protein and fat.
Avoid dairy products and sugar.

That said, I also favor the idea of calling it an official vacation and babying the heck out of yourself. I know it goes against the "no dairy" rule stated above, but when I was a kid, my Mom would give me soup and grilled cheese sandwiches and I would curl up in bed with a pile of comic books. Wow, that really sounds pretty nice about now. Boris said his mother would give him angel hair pasta with mashed potatoes on it. That sounds freakin' amazing. If any of you have any great comfort food ideas for a cold, I'd love to hear about it!

Spicy Tea

1 quart water
1 inch peeled and sliced ginger
2 cinnamon sticks
sprinkle black pepper
2 tea bags (I like Tulsi tea for this, but you can use any kind of tea you like--green, black, white, oolong, rooibos, anything).

Bring the water to a boil in a pot and add the ginger, cinnamon, and black pepper. Cover and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the tea bags. Let steep for about 5 minutes. Pour and drink it up!

Balancing Food Cravings

To avoid pesky cravings, these two ladies should probably think about having less chrome and more vegetables in their diet.

We've discussed before that eating late at night isn't such a great idea (unless you're trying to gain weight), and I've just read some new information to add to the timing of what you eat. The information comes from a book called "Eat Your Way To Happiness" by Elizabeth Somer, who is a registered dietician. The book is mostly about how to maintain a positive mood and sustained energy throughout the day, but something that I found cool to think about is how what you eat for breakfast influences your choices at lunch and what you eat for lunch influences your choices at dinner. I read about this in Dr. Weil's December 2009 newsletter, which I subscribe to (you should too!).

When you've been sleeping for the past 8 or so hours, your brain releases a chemical called Neuropeptide Y. This chemical causes you to crave glucose. Glucose is the simple sugar that feeds your brain so that you can think and function. The primary way you get glucose is through eating carbohydrates which break down into glucose in your digestive system. So if your brain is craving glucose, it seems like you'd want something sugary like marshmallow Peeps on top of Froot Loops or something, right? Please don't. You'll get an initial rush of serotonin (which, yes, feels great), but you'll pay for it with a yucky, sluggish, even depressed feeling later on. This would probably make you want to reach for another quick boost of sugar for lunch, and so on, and so on. Up and down all day is not a good way to function. I've described what we eat for breakfast here, but just make sure you have good whole foods that include high-fiber carbohydrates, a small amount of good protein (an egg is pretty perfect), and a couple of servings of fruit or vegetables. This will keep your energy balanced up until lunch.

Then, by lunchtime, a different brain chemical called galanin comes into play and makes you want to eat fat. You should have some healthy fat with your lunch (along with a serving of protein and some more complex carbohydrates and, of course, fruits and vegetables), but don't overdo it with the fat, even if it's healthy fat. You'll overproduce galanin and it will make you crave more food than you need at night.

So at dinnertime, having a simple dinner of a lean protein, lots of vegetables, and a medium-small serving of complex carbohydrates (my favorite: brown rice and hulled barley mixed together) will be best. Too much carbohydrate will make you sleepy right after dinner (and we discussed why you shouldn't lay down to sleep right after eating in the last post, but too much protein will block your brain's ability to absorb serotonin (a necessary brain chemical that helps you to relax as well as keep a positive mood) and make it harder to sleep at bedtime.

Sheesh! There's so much to remember! Being a healthy human does take some effort and planning, but you can do it. And it sure beats the alternative!

Thanksgiving Recipe 4: Apple Grape Pie

Here is Dena Obaza (aka Dina Colada) looking so fine in her Thanksgiving mask. Will she remove the mask to eat her Thanksgiving dinner? Heck no! (Today is her birthday--Happy Birthday, Dena!)
The mask was made by Beth Zyglowicz--an artist we met at Illuxcon. What's that? You don't have a Thanksgiving mask? You'll have to get one from Beth!


Apple Grape Pie
Makes one 9 inch pie

Crust:
1 cup spelt or whole wheat flour
½ cup oat flour
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ cup canola oil
A little less than ¼ cup cold water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9 inch pie plate with Pam or other spray oil. In a mixing bowl, combine flours and sea salt. Add oil and stir with a fork. Mix until the mixture resembles corn meal. Add water a little at a time and stop just when the dough has enough water to form a ball. If you've accidentally added to much water, you can add a little of the oat flour. However, if you need more water, just add some! It should be a nice Play-Doh consistency. If you didn't play with Play-Doh when you were a kid, you need to get some now because it's pretty fun stuff.
Don’t knead the dough after this point, but let it rest for about 10 minutes.

Take about 1/3 of the dough and flatten it into the pie plate, pressing some up at the edges. Poke the bottom with a fork a few times. Set the rest of the dough aside for now.

Filling:

3 apples (I like Gala or Fuji for this recipe, but any apples will do), cored, but not peeled, and sliced
About 1 ½ cups washed, halved grapes
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ cup brown rice syrup

Mix all the filling ingredients in a large bowl until it looks pretty evenly mixed with the cinnamon and brown rice syrup. Pour into the pie plate that has the dough pressed into it.

On a wooden cutting board, sprinkle about a Tablespoon of oat flour, then put the rest of the dough on it and roll it around a little. Now roll it out with a rolling pin to a circle about 6-8 inches in diameter. Pick it up and put it on the apples that are in the pie plate. It might fall into about a million pieces, but don’t worry about it, just put the pieces together like a puzzle with spaces between them.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 30-40 minutes.

Thanksgiving Recipe 3: Vegetables!

Okay, what? Tony Palumbo has always loved spaghetti and meatballs, so this is his vision of a perfect Thanksgiving meal. It's true, meatballs aren't vegetables. But I'll post a recipe soon (after a little kitchen testing) for a vegan version.


I always say that if I had to only pick two vegetables to have on a desert island (assuming there was an oven to cook with), I'd pick sweet potatoes and broccoli. They're just two of the best Superfoods in terms of nutrition as well as taste. And they're in the list of the Clean 15 that don't require as much pesticide to grow, so even if you don't get organic ones, you're okay.
And salad! Well, you can't beat salad because anything goes! Having some crunchy raw vegetables with your meal is not only refreshing and balancing, but it helps your digestion along. Also, as everybody knows, it keeps you from eating too many total calories in your meal because of the high fiber and water content.
You just can't go wrong with vegetables!

Sweet Potatoes
People often want to know what’s the best kind of sweet potato. I say any kind of sweet potato is the best kind! I love the garnet yams, jewel yams, yellow ones, orange ones, all of them
The simplest way to have them is to just wash them and bake them in their skins, uncut, at about 425 degrees for about an hour to an hour and a half, or until they’re soft. How long it takes really depends on how big they are. Once they’re baked, they’re so delicious hot, cold, or anywhere in between.
But, if you’d like to get a little fancier with them, here’s a good recipe:

Fancy Sweet Potatoes
2 – 4 medium sized sweet potatoes or yams
Wash and cut into chunks an inch or so big. Don’t peel them.
Toss with:
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons Mirin or other cooking wine
1 Tablespoon olive oil

Spray a baking dish with Pam or other spray oil and add the sweet potatoes along with all of the other ingredients. Bake at 425 degrees, turning them every so often with a spatula, for about an hour or until tender.

Simple But Delicious Broccoli
Serves 2-4
The trick here is to clean the broccoli properly. Just cut off the end of the stem, then
peel off the skin with your knife all the way up to where the branches start coming out
at the top of the broccoli. Now chop the stem into 1 inch pieces, then take apart the crown
into serving size pieces.

Mince 1 clove garlic and let it sit for a few minutes. In a cooking pot with a lid, place 1 Tablespoon olive oil with the minced garlic. Heat until the garlic just starts to brown a little. Add the broccoli pieces, 1/3 cup of water, and a sprinkle of sea salt. Cover and cook just until the broccoli is a little tender (about 8 minutes or so). If you find that the water has evaporated before the broccoli is cooked through, add a
little more water. At the end of the cooking time, you can remove the lid and let the water cook away for a few minutes.
Serve!

Salad Extravaganza
Wash salad greens. My favorite mix is arugula, baby spinach, and chopped dandelion greens, but feel free to make it your own and use romaine, boston, whatever you like.
Slice a couple of carrots into coins and add those.
Add 6 pieces of fresh asparagus, uncooked, cut into 1 inch chunks.
Add any other chopped pieces of vegetables that you enjoy eating raw (could be cherry tomatoes,
sugar snap peas, green beans cut really small, broccoli, gobo root, lotus pods, mushrooms, etc.)

In your serving bowl, put 1-2 Tablespoons olive oil, 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar, and 1 Tablespoon brown mustard.
Add a handful of chopped raw walnuts and a handful of raw pumpkin seeds.

Now add the salad greens and vegetables. Mix it all up and serve.

PS This is also good with chopped apple or any other fruit added to the mix!

Thanksgiving Recipe 2: Lemon Thyme Polenta with Mushrooms

Yep, that's chicken and waffles, not lemon thyme polenta. I asked David Palumbo what he'd like for Thanksgiving and this is what he drew.


You could easily substitute any kind of mushrooms for the dried ones I've used here, but shiitake and maitake mushrooms are so extremely good for your system that I like to include them in recipes anywhere I can. A good place to get them for a great price is Mountain Rose Herbs. You can get the Lemon Thyme from there as well. It's a great source and they have the best prices.

Lemon Thyme Polenta with Mushrooms

Preheat oven to 400.
Lightly oil an 8x8 inch glass baking dish with olive oil and set aside.

Soak 1 large dried maitake mushroom,
3 dried shiitake mushrooms in
2 cups boiling water for 20 minutes.

Remove mushrooms, reserve broth. Let the mushrooms cool on a cutting board, then chop them up.

Add the chopped mushrooms back into the broth and bring the broth to a boil again.
Add ¾ cup polenta and
½ teaspoon salt.

Stir and cook until thick and soft (about 15 minutes). If it becomes too thick to stir, add water just
a little at a time. Add
½ teaspoon garlic powder and
½ teaspoon dried or 1 teaspoon fresh lemon thyme. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a bowl, beat
3 eggs, add
1 to 2 ounces of grated cheddar cheese.

While stirring the polenta mixture, slowly pour in the egg and cheese mixture (it’s easiest if you have a
helper here). Pour the whole mixture into the baking dish. Bake at 400 until it puffs up a little in the center.

Thanksgiving Recipe 1: Broiled Salmon with Miso Tahini Sauce

Boris had originally thought he'd draw a salmon eating a little person's head, but when he started drawing the face, he changed his mind. So now the salmon's eating a little round cake of mochi ice cream.


As many of you know by now, Boris and I don't eat meat from creatures that have legs or wings. This includes turkeys (as well as gryphons, centaurs, and minotaurs), so it makes you wonder "what to do for Thanksgiving?". Well, we do eat some creatures with scales (including some flying dragons, but not ones with wings, only the serpenty-ones with those crazy big eyes and fins that fly from magic powers rather than wing power), but dragons are pretty hard to catch because they're so smart, so we usually have salmon for festive dinners. Okay, enough silly stuff. Sorry! I could go on like that all day.

I'm not so crazy about the fake meats made from soy (especially since they have ISP--isolated soy protein--as a main ingredient) or "turkeys" made from tofu (although I love tofu and eat it often, I just don't like the way the taste or texture of tofu turkeys), so we just decided to ditch the whole idea of turkeys and have fish instead.

Broiled Salmon with Miso Tahini sauce
Serves 2-4
One pound fresh salmon fillet, preferably wild salmon
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
Black pepper
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 rounded Tablespoon sweet white miso (favorite brand, South River)
1 rounded Tablespoon tahini sauce
2 scallions, with both green and white parts chopped
hot water

Rinse and pat dry salmon fillet. Leave the skin on.
Cut the salmon into serving-sized pieces. These could be either one
larger piece for each diner or cut into smaller pieces (maybe 1 ½ to 2 inches or
whatever size you’d like to have).
In a glass bowl, put the olive oil, minced garlic, chopped ginger, black pepper, and
soy sauce. Coat the salmon pieces in the marinade and let it soak, covered, in the
refrigerator for anywhere from ½ hour to several hours.

Heat broiler and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spray the foil with
Pam or other spray oil, add the salmon pieces with the skin side down. Place them
a bit apart from each other. Broil until firm (depending upon the size of the salmon pieces, this could be anywhere from a few minutes to 10-12 minutes). Turn the pieces over and, if you’d like to remove the skin, now is a good time to do that. The brownish part between the skin and the meat is where lots of omega 3 oil is located, so it’s best to leave that part alone. If you slip a spatula between the skin and the brownish part, the skin will usually slip right off
once the fish is firm. Now broil the other side until it’s a little more cooked.

In a bowl that’s large enough to hold all of the salmon, combine the miso and tahini. Add enough hot water to make a spreadable paste. Add the chopped scallions. Add the salmon, folding it into the sauce carefully so that you don’t break up the pieces too much. If you have pieces that are very large,
you can just do this step on a serving plate.

Countdown to Thanksgiving

This painting was done by Winona Nelson (aka Nonie) while we were at Illuxcon! We're pretty sure the turkey is just stunned (see below).


In the next few days, I'll be posting a series of recipes that are healthy suggestions for a festive dinner. The emphasis is on healthy, a little fancy but simple, not too much trouble to make, and not super expensive.

I thought I'd make a menu that looks like this:

Miso Salmon
Lemon Thyme Polenta with Mushrooms
Salad Extravaganza
Sweet Potatoes
Broccoli with Garlic
Apple Grape Pie

You could add a couple of these dishes to your menu along side your traditional family favorites. And, remember, if you have kids, the foods you serve them at holidays are the ones they'll think of when they're grown as the kinds of comfort foods that make a holiday special. See? He's okay. Now he's telling her some jokes to take her mind off eating. And I know he was successful, because we just saw him out playing miniature golf with some ducks.

Asian Pear

What can I say about an Asian Pear that even comes close to the effect it has when you take a bite out of it? It's a little like taking a bite out of a crunchy rain cloud (without the lightning) that has been flavored with the perfect mix of sweet and tangy--a little like honey and lemon. Super clean, juicy and crunchy. Better than anything ANY pastry chef ANYWHERE in this world or any other world could ever come up with!

Addiction!

As if you didn't already know this, but did you know that junk food is literally addictive in precisely the same way that cocaine and heroin are addictive? Now we have solid, positive proof, thanks to researchers at Scripps Research Institute in Florida and their team of brave (now obese) little lab rats. The rats were given unlimited access to all kinds of high-fat, calorie-dense food that is commonly available in convenience stores. The rats because compulsive overeaters when pleasure pathways in their brains became less and less sensitive, causing them to gorge themselves more and more to get the same high. Even when they were subjected to a mild shock in order to have access to the junk food, they still went for it.
Then, according to Paul Kenny, an associate professor of molecular therapeutics at Scripps, "after 40 days of becoming more and more addicted (and obese), the rats were switched to a nutritious food pellet, they refused to eat anything at all, even though they were clearly starving."
The act of refining the food is what makes it so addictive. Our bodies evolved with whole foods that needed to be broken down through digestive processes before the foods' nutrients and sugars could be released. Cocaine is only addictive because of this refining process, too. The leaves, when chewed by natives, supposedly give a high similar to coffee. But, when refined, the same chemical becomes a life-consuming addiction. Same with heroin or alcohol, same with sugar, same with any refined product.
When you think about it, this principle applies just as well to experiences. Anything, really, that gives you a good feeling. Painting, music, conversation with someone you love, love itself, nature, anything.
So choose your addictions wisely! They're just another fact of life. Healthy addictions can be cultivated to your benefit and enhance your well-being.

Coconut Lentils

Marc Scheff, one of the participants in our recent artists' retreat,
not only took this crazy photograph, titled "Exquisite Boris", but also
made a huge (really huge) pot of Coconut lentils for everybody. The aroma
of fresh garlic, ginger, and jalapeno peppers was magically delicious.

COCO LENTILS by Marc Scheff
A goopy lentil dish made with coconut milk

I don't measure much, so most of this is approximate. Adjust ingredients for more/less lentils, and more/less spice. It's quite simple to make, despite my verbose directions.

If I were to guess at amounts I'd say

* 1 package lentils (I think they're 8oz)
* 2 ears corn, or 1 can
* 2 zucchinis
* 1 bag spinach
* 4 carrots
* 1-2 jalapenos (to your own levels of bravery)
* 1 onion
* 4 heads of garlic or more (I use as many as 8, I love it!)
* 1-3 inches of ginger

1. Soak lentils for ~8 hours (if you're making this for dinner, put them in a bowl in the morning with a few extra inches of water)
2. Drain lentils and place in a fresh pot of water
3. Bring to Boil, simmer for maybe 10 minutes

4. While waiting for lentils, chop up whatever veggies you want
I use carrots, zucchini, corn, onion, garlic, ginger, jalapeno, and a green like spinach or kale at the end
Experiment with other veggies like mushrooms, or peppers if you like
5. Take a pan with some oil and bring to high heat
6. Turn heat down and drop diced/sliced carrots in (carrots take longest to cook, so they get extra time)
7. Heat until carrots are getting crisped and a little soft

8. Drop in as much garlic/ginger/diced jalapeno as you like, and the diced veggies
This is where I add stuff like zucchini and onion that needs a little, but not a lot, of cooking time
9. Give a few squirts of Bragg's Amino
10. Cook until veggies are mostly crispy and/or cooked

11. Drop in corn and lentils. Add lentils slowly and stop when you have the right veggie/lentil balance for you.
12. Add 1 can of coconut milk and a dash more Bragg's to taste

13. When the dish tastes right and is cooked, add spinash or kale
14. Stir until kale/spinach is cooked

15. If you need it to be goopier, add more coconut milk and Bragg's

16. Serve and enjoy!

Cholesterol

I just HAD to put a link to this article by Dr. Mark Hyman MD for anyone out there with any kind of cholesterol concern. He talks about the real causes of high cholesterol, as well as whether it is actually something to be concerned about or not. One thing that I found worth pointing out is that the dangerous kind of high cholesterol comes from eating sugar, refined foods like white bread, and especially from high-fructose corn syrup, rather than fat. Not a surprise, really, when you realize that the worst damage comes from inflammation in your system--practically a certainty if you're regularly having high-fructose corn syrup, the highly-refined sweetener found in soda, most sweet drinks, and most processed foods.

Since many well-meaning but overworked doctors get much of their latest information from pharmaceutical representatives (who obviously have a product to sell!), they can sometimes come to conclusions that aren't always in your best interest. If you or anyone you know and care about are having cholesterol concerns or are taking cholesterol medication, please read this article!

Jennifer Oliver

This beautiful, lush painting that you are looking at was done by Jennifer Oliver at last year's Illustration Master Class. Since Jennifer sat next to me during most of the week's painting time, I was fortunate enough to see its development from the earliest stages as well as make a new friend. It's like the friendship and the painting were born at the same time!
And now she has sent me a recipe from her friend, Rhett Wickham, that I wanted to share with all of you. She had plans to try it with a sprinkling of cinnamon to push the exotic factor even further, but I don't know yet how that went. I suspect it was fantastic!

Rhett's easy goat cheese and pear pizza:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Fresh pizza dough
One large white or Vidalia onion, sliced and caramelized
Two pears, thinly sliced
Sliced goat cheese or feta cheese, crumbled
Basil Pesto
Raw Walnuts
Coat rolled out pizza dough with pesto, cover with the onions, goat cheese
and pear slices. Sprinkle with ground pepper, sea salt and chopped walnuts
to taste. If using feta cheese, omit the sea salt. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes for a thin crust, 20-25 minutes for a thicker crust, or until golden. Yum!