Something Different

                    So, I have been having some pretty bad luck with cooking lately. I'll admit it. A lot of what I've made for the last 2 weeks has been either disgusting or very mediocre. Whenever I make things too complicated, even just slightly, it never works out. I get excited about trying new things and start adding a bunch of ingredients. I try this and try that and end up with a meal that tastes, well, boring or way too funky. The flavors aren't allowed to stand on their own or combine with just 1 or 2 other flavors harmoniously, because it's far too busy and crowded. This creates an imbalance = unsatisfying meal. So, I think I learned my lesson: keep it simple. That's my style, and that's what works for me, so I better roll with it.
          I've also been thinking about my health lately. I have been very stressed for a while now and I'm trying to slow things down. My health has suffered and I feel undernourished. I truly believe that our diet and lifestyle need to be adaptable, we are each different and we each go through different stages and phases at different times in our life. In other words, our needs are individual and will change. So, what nourished you when you were 12, may not nourish you when you are 28 and what made you feel great yesterday, may not make you feel good today. I'm trying to become skilled at listening to my body and interpret what it is telling me. I'm seeing this principle at work in my own life. For example, a couple months ago...ish I felt like I needed greens, dark bitter greens like kale and swiss chard. I ate those and felt satisfied. Come summer, I felt attracted to the color red and kept thinking of radishes. So, I bought radishes, ate them and loved it! (I want to point out that I couldn't even remember the last time I had eaten a radish, or even if I had. Not a familiar food!). I also felt a very strong pull towards honey, blueberries and cashews. Again, I followed these feelings and enjoyed eating those foods, they made me feel good!
          For a while there I felt a need to eat more cleansing and plant based foods; fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, honey, water etc... I didn't buy meat for months. I started to feel a shift however and was a bit slow in responding to it, I kept eating according to how I was feeling before. I noticed the implications that had on my physical and emotional health, as well as on my success with cooking! I've been feeling undernourished and unsatisfied. I haven't really been enjoying my food, myself or my life much. I haven't been nourished on all levels by what I have been giving myself. Oh and I got a cold! My high stress has definitely contributed to all of this, in fact it could very well have caused it, or vice versa. At any rate, I came to the conclusion that, right now in my life, I need to eat joyfully and I need to eat building foods! I've been feeling attracted to things like dairy, pasta, red peppers, goat cheese, goat milk, eggs, carrots, chicken, fish, smoothies, berries, beans and vibrant more flavorful herbs and seasonings. So, today I went and bought these types of foods. I enjoyed it! I felt brighter, happier, stronger and more alive just from shopping for them. Tonight I made pasta with red in it, because that is one of the things I've felt drawn to. It was goood! I didn't take a picture because I was a little leary of it not working out, but it ended up tasting so good and satisfying to me. I will share the recipe with you and just let you use your imagination.
         I cooked up some durum wheat semolina linguine, and sauteed some sliced red pepper with sliced zucchini, and sliced green garlic in some water, olive oil, a few sprinkles of dried parsley and powdered dulse and sea salt at medium heat, at the same time. Olive oil can be heated at a low to moderate temperature without hydrogenating (as opposed to most other oils except coconut oil and butter) and adding some water gives you more cooking time because the heat will get the water first. I added chopped up swiss chard at the end, only sauteing until it was half wilted. I drained the pasta, poured the sauteed veggies on top with a little extra olive oil and then sprinkled some goat cheese feta on top! Deeeeeeeeeliscious! I ate a bit too much but I definitely felt builded! I felt an increase in energy and a sense of overall satisfaction and nourishment almost immediately. Yay for listening to your body! It knows what it needs! Of course, if it's telling you you need hordes of chocolate, ice cream, sugar and white bread you might want to re-think what it's really trying to tell you! I thought this was a valuable experience to share. Hopefully it gave you some insight.
       One of my textbooks for school: "Food and Healing", by Anne Marie Colbin, has a chart called "The Five Phases of Food", a theory in chinese medicine. It gives a breakdown of different seasons, elements, flavors, organs, food categories, moods etc... and their connection to each other. Here is an example, http://macrobiotics.co.uk/five.htm. It's part of the thinking behind the macrobiotic diet as well. When I saw this chart I was struck by how closely it matched up to my experience. I'm still going to listen to my body first, not a chart, but it was nice to be validated by one! Chinese medicine is some pretty amazing and intelligent stuff! Take a look at the chart, perhaps it could help you in making your food choices. Well, that's all for today folks. Cheers!

It's been awhile...

So, it's been awhile. I finished classes last week, which means that in 7 weeks I need to complete 14 case studies and study for my final exam. Wahoo! Being this close to the official title of "RHN (Registered Holistic Nutritionist)", feels surreal. So many decisions to make in so short a time. I can do it though, right? Tonight I would like to share some scrumptious meals I've created in the past several months. So, old stuff. Hopefully I can remember all the details of the recipes. You will notice that most of them have goat cheese in them. This was the beginning of my love affair with that particular food. We may make it permanent.

First we have "Sweet Quinoa Potatoes!" (You must say this the same way you would if you were exclaiming a curse word or phrase). This was a surprisingly delicious discovery.

                               1/2 cup quinoa

                               1/2 of 1 medium sweet potato

                               1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

                               4 tbsp coconut oil                           

                               1/2  clove of garlic                   

Slice half of a sweet potato width-wise. Combine 2 tbsp of coconut oil with 1 tbsp of cumin powder in a bowl and dip sweet potato slices in it. Place on greased baking sheet (use coconut oil again). Cook in oven for 15-20 min at 350. Flip over at the half-way point. Pour dry quinoa (quinoa soaked overnight cooks much faster) into pot and add double the amount in water - 1/2 cup to 1 cup water. Get it to a boil then turn down to medium-low heat. Once it starts to rise above the water and look less solid turn heat down to low. Once it seems to have soaked up most of the water and it looks cooked through, drain it. Mix in lemon juice, minced garlic,1 tbsp of coconut oil and 1/2 - 1 tbsp of cumin with quinoa. Serve with the sweet potatoes and enjoy! 

                                

Next we have a very vibrant, colorful and nutritious "Goat Cheese Salad". This recipe can be changed to use any variation of nuts, seeds and greens. The key ingredients are the goat cheese, beets, radicchio and dressing.

                          Bowl full of rinsed greens (chard, lettuce, beet

                          greens, radicchio)

                          3 handfuls of raw, hulled sunflower seeds

                          2 handfuls of whole, raw almonds

                          1/2 of a medium sized beet, sliced

                          A couple sprigs of  fresh rosemary

                          1/4 cup Lemon juice

                          1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

                          Goat cheese

Mix together all the ingredients, pour lemon juice and olive oil on top as dressing, sprinkle goat cheese on top and enjoy!

This one I am especially proud of. It was a complete kitchen experiment. I call it "Sweet Artichoke Stir-fry". I had it for breakfast.
                                      
                                      
                              1/2 sweet potato
                              4 asparagus stalks
                              4 Jerusalem artichokes
                              1/4 onion
                              2 handfuls of sprouts (your choice what kind)
                              1 -2 tbsp butter
                              1/2 - 1 tsp sea salt
                              Goat cheese


Lightly steam (until softened) sweet potato, and Jerusalem artichoke in a separate pot (water only needs to be an inch above the bottom of pot). Melt butter in frying pan. Add onions and sea salt. Add asparagus. Add sweet potato and artichoke. Add sprouts at very end. Leave 1-3 minutes between additions. Mix regularly throughout, so everything gets the butter and salt on it and the flavors really come through. Don't stir fry too long, should only take a few minutes. You want the asparagus to be softened but nut squishy. Sprinkle some goat cheese on top and enjoy.

This is a very simple recipe that can be changed up or added to very easily. The basis of it is some kind of base (bread, rice cake, cracker), a spread, some greens, and a topping. Since it is so variable, and I have done several versions of it, I won't give it a name. After all, what's in a name?

                                                                

                                          2 slices of whole grain bread

                                          Sunflower seeds

                                          1/4 small avocado

                                          1 1/2 - 2 tbsp Lemon juice

                                          1 clove garlic

                                          Spinach leaves

                                          Goat cheese

Make a sunflower seed pate. To do this blend sunflower seeds, lemon juice, a pinch of salt and pepper and garlic (mince it first) together in a food processor or blender. It will turn into a thick spreadable mixture. Spread this on 2 slices of whole grain bread, top with spinach leaves and goat cheese. You could add sprouts or slices onions to this as well. Yum!

                                                                  

                                                                 

So, I discovered fiddle heads this spring. Fiddle heads seem to be a big deal out here in the maritimes, and they were in season, so I decided to try them. I searched some recipes online and combined a couple, and added an ingredient or two. This is what I came up with: "Fiddle Head Stir-fry".

                                                           

                        1-2 cups of fiddle heads

                        2 tbsp butter or coconut oil

                        1/4 cup walnuts

                        1/4 onion

                        1 clove of garlic

                        1/2 lemon (juice only)

                        1/2 tbsp honey

                        1 tsp paprika

                        Salt and pepper to taste

 Rinse fiddle heads and chop off browned ends. Chop onion. Mince garlic. Squeeze lemon juice. Melt butter or coconut oil in frying pan. Add fiddle heads, onion and garlic. Add lemon, honey and paprika. Add walnuts. Leave 1-3 minutes between additions. Walnuts only need approx. 20-30 seconds. Salt and pepper to taste. Mmmmmmmm! Way better than you might think. My roommate was shocked by how good it was. Just sayin'.

                                                              

                                                              

Waldegrave Farm http://farm.waldegrave.org/. Waldegrave farm is located in Tatamagouche, NS. I actually visited them back in April with some friends and was really impressed. They have some beautiful land and are passionate about what they do. They operate in a way that is environmentally friendly, sustainable, simple and clever. I never realized how spicy radishes were until I sampled these. They have a very fresh, spicy and zingy flavour. So, I incorporated them into a fresh summer salad which will be called "Radish Fiesta" because radishes make me think of fiesta's. Here goes:

                            2 or 3 radishes 

                            1/2 of 1 large yellow carrot

                            1/4 cup onion

                            2 or 3 handfuls of raw sunflower seeds

                            Bowlful of beet greens

                            1/2 lemon (juice)

                            1/4 cup olive oil

Slice all veggies. Toss into a bowl. Sprinkle on sunflower seeds. Pour oil and lemon juice on top. Mix. Time for a fiesta!

                                                         

             I went to see the documentary "Forks Over Knives" http://www.forksoverknives.com/ in theaters with some friends. It was a fabulous film all about the connection between diet and degenerative disease. I was most pleased that it was in theaters and therefore had the opportunity to be viewed by the masses. It was great to have the jist of what I've been learning in school be validated and explained so clearly and simply through scientific and clinical evidence. I encourage all to view it. It's already out on DVD!. Naturally, my friends felt very impacted and inspired and desirous to change their diets ASAP (that's how good it is). They also had alot of questions. So, I suggested that we gather some ingredients and make a healthy meal. We did just that and the result was me teaching them how to make a yummy and healthy, quinoa salad, including how to cook quinoa (funnily enough I managed to burn the bottom of the quinoa. Great teaching hey?!). A salad can be a full meal as you have already seen from some of my previous recipes. Add some protein or complex carbohydrate in the form of nuts and seeds, grains or meat and you have yourself a satisfying meal, believe it or not. The salad needed a tad bit more lemon, but tasted great. I think because we used endive, which is a very bitter green, it required more lemon than I've had to use with the greens I've been making meals with lately.

I bought this olive oil from a nun at the Greek Festival. How awesome is that? http://www.greekfest.org/

I thought this was pretty hilarious. I ate my extremely healthy salad in a bowl with pictures of extremely unhealthy desserts in it. Way to be.

      Bowlful of greens (we used endive, lettuce and swiss chard)

      3-5 radishes

      Several handfuls of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and sliced almonds

      1/2 a whole cucumber

      1/2 yellow carrot

      1/2 onion

      1 cup quinoa

      Lemon juice

      Olive oil.

Cook the quinoa. 1 cup quinoa to 2 cups water (like rice). Slice all the veggies, almonds and greens. Mix olive oil, lemon juice and dulse together in a small bowl. Add greens, then veggies, then nuts and seeds, then quinoa, then dressing. Enjoy your meal!

That's all for today folks! That took a lllloong time to write!