The Green Smoothie

This is my new go-to drink as I try to make sure I am getting all the nutrients I need every day. I've been having two green smoothies a day. It sure makes getting greens into the diet a whole lot easier. I know, you're thinking "how good could that taste?" But, really it's very tasty, and extremely nourishing. It's packed with calcium, vitamin C, and potassium.

Simply combine the following in your blender:

- 3 cups chopped baby bok choy
- 1/2 organic apple or organic pear
- 1/2 avocado
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons fresh ginger
- 2 Tablespoons Salba seeds (chia seeds)
- 1 Teaspoon of barley grass powder (I'm using BarleyMax)
- purified water to create drinkable texture (use your judgment here)

Hot and Cold; A New Potato Salad

First of all, I want to thank you guys for the lovely comments and encouragement about my last post. Having you all as cheerleaders makes the process so much easier. It really does! Let's continue to spur one another on to a healthier lifestyle.

Now, let me give you a little "head's up" about this weeks recipes. During my marathon shopping tour this weekend (a full six hours of hitting up stores for the best deals) I found potatoes on sale for 25 cents a pound! Far out! I love spuds and purchased nearly 30 pounds of them. Subsequently, you'll be seeing a variety of potato dishes as the week flies past. In general, potatoes have gotten a bad rap in America, largely because they are too often consumed in the form of fast food french fries. However, these tubers are actually chock-full of potassium, protein, vitamin C, iron and fiber; not to mention the fact that potatoes are just good, old-fashioned comfort food.

To healthy-up our spud-fest even further (as in - lets get some greens in there baby!) we created this salad. It was super yummy and even the hubs declared it "blog-worthy." (Y'all would be entertained to hear the discussions and voting around here every time we make something new. No such thing as just eating. We are compelled to analyze everything for taste, texture, color, visual appeal and appeal to non-vegans - it's a hoot!)

The recipe is super simple. First, roast one head of garlic for each diner. Then, whip up your favorite version of mashed potatoes (we used vegan margarine and coconut milk). Wash one package of mixed spring or baby greens and pat dry. Stir half of the greens and all of the garlic into your mashed potatoes. Serve on a bed of greens topped with vegan cheese shreds or a creamy salad dressing (your choice). These are also terrific with some black-eyed peas stirred into the mix. Yum!

Making Progress & Before and After Shots

Alright friends. Time for some brutal honesty and serious vulnerability. See that um...(choke...cough) "lovely" lady in the photo with those great kids? Well, that's me...pre-vegan, pre-gluten-free. Yep. Truth hurts. Not sure what I weighed here. I stopped weighing myself when the scale passed 190 pounds and I was forced to wear size 16 clothes to keep my ample backside covered - and those were snug. =( FYI, I was never overweight until I reached the ripe old age of 33. Prior to that time I was usually quite thin..weighing in at just 130 pounds when I married and 139 pounds after the birth of my 6th baby.

What you can't see is that my face was horribly broken-out, I wasn't any too fond of myself, and I was constantly ill with one thing or another (pre-diabetic, IBS, pre-cancerous conditions, kidney stones, recurrent infections, not to mention winded whenever walking, and just plain worn out).

Granted, it's an old photo. 7 years old to be exact. But, there just aren't many photos of me in the family collection because I *SO* hated the way I looked. Not sure how this one escaped my flying delete finger! ;-) As the years went by my weight fluctuated by 20 pounds or so, up and down and up and down until I just couldn't believe I'd ever be thin, healthy, or happy with myself again. Looking back now it's hard to believe that's even me!



And...this is me today (taken on Thanksgiving), after one year of being completely vegan I feel as if I have "found" myself under that fat, sick woman who had taken over my body. At 45 years old and 5'9" I weigh 140 pounds, my skin is clear, I have no health complaints, and I just plain feel great!

My current goals are to begin exercising regularly and to level off my weight somewhere between 131-135 pounds, based on Dr. Fuhrman's recommendations in Eat To Live.

I'm currently eating about 50% raw foods. My goal in the raw realm is to eat 80% raw foods for the next 3 months, consuming just one cooked item during the evening meal. Then, in the spring, to reduce my cooked food consumption further.

Because I need to stick to relatively low oxalates my green smoothies are made with lettuce or bok choy instead of higher-oxalate greens. Chia seeds have become my go-to food for calcium and omega 3's. I'm lovin' em! And avocados are my new favorite food.

As for the hubs and the kiddos...they are currently eating almost 100% vegan (sans holiday eats) with lots of raw food options available to them every day. It's been hard for them to adjust to raw foods with the temps falling below zero these days. I know this will be easier for them in the warmer months and just getting them healthier with a vegan diet is a wonderful thing. It's all about making progress, little steps, and enjoying life and each other along the way.

Okay, all that said, I hope you'll find my story and slow & steady progress encouraging. Do the little things that make you feel better every day and "just keep swimming" along. =)

HimalaSalt - A Short and Sweet Review

Melissa, at HimalaSalt sent me this lovely set of goodies to try out and review on our blog. Now, I rarely, and I mean really almost never (maybe once every two weeks) add salt to my food. But, I have discovered since eating mostly raw and making almost all of our food from scratch that there are days when I need just a tiny bit of salt to my food to stay balanced. I know my need for salt will increase a little bit in the hotter months too and I was in search of a good quality source of sea salt. Source found.

According to their web page "HimalaSalt is the only Ethically Sourced, Artisan Made Pink Himalayan Sea Salt that is Kosher Certified, Green-e Certified (made by 100% renewable wind and solar energy), sustainably packaged, with 5% of profits going to the environment and back to the source community." I, for one, was impressed by those statements. It's so important to me to support ethical producers who care about the communities where their products are created and who care for the environment as well.

Now, as for the products themselves, we really couldn't have been more delighted. The salts have true flavor. They don't burn the tounge like conventional salt and the littlest sprinkle embues foods with rich depth. The garlic salt contains only salt and garlic (no funky stuff). Our kids have been sprinkling it over their popcorn every night and just love it. (And the blue box of grocery store salt has been sitting untouched since the Himalasalt arrived.) The peppers are fresh and pungent. Really, there is nothing that we didn't like about these flavor enhancers. I love the purity, the taste, and the intact mineral content.

Mind you, they are not cheap, but I have yet to see a "cheap" source of pink sea salt and if I find one I will be suspicious. The best recommendation I can give is that when we use up our current stash of HimalaSalt products we'll be ordering more.

This weekend we plan to make a lower-salt version of sauerkraut and kimchi with Himalasalt. I'll keep you posted about how that turns out. =)

As a side note, I encourage you to read about Melissa Kushi, founder of Sustainable Sourcing. She's done and is doing some great things.

Vegan Biryani

As you've all probably noticed by now, we like to switch up our meals and dabble in all kinds of multi-cultural cuisines. We get bored kinda easily so we're always looking for something new in the ethnic aisles of the grocery store or checking out ethnic markets. So...this week...we ventured into the Indian culinary world. Just love the spicy-sweet mixture of flavors in Indian cuisine!

Biryani has been one of my personal favorites since we visited a glorious Indian cafe in Hong Kong years ago. Creating our own vegan version of this dish was a fun little adventure (especially since we really didn't have all the ingredients I wanted and had to improvise). All things considered this turned out to be a very nice meal, and we made mounds of it!

Disclaimer: This is most decidedly NOT a low oxalate dish. If you're watching your oxalate levels please omit the nuts and use white rice.

Vegan Biryani (Serves 10-12)

For the rice (combine and cook according to package directions):
- 8 cups brown rice
- 16 cups low sodium vegetable broth
- 1/4 cup saffron (we buy our very inexspensively at the local Asian market)
- 4 bay leaves
- 6 leaves fresh basil
- 2 Tablespoons cumin

For the Vegetables:
- 2 large red onions, diced
- 1 pint grape tomatoes, cut into halves
- 1 head cauliflower, chopped
- 1 medium kobacha squash, cleaned and diced into 1 inch pieces
- 2 cups frozen peas
- 2 hot red thai chilies, minced (used gloves...those puppies are HOT!)
- 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
- 1 head garlic, peeled and diced
- 1 stick vegan margarine
- 12 Tablespoons Biryani Paste (we used jarred from the store, but it's really really salty...try making your own if you have the time and inclination and use less salt than recipe calls for)
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup mixed dried fruit and nuts
- 1 cup cashews

Melt margarine in large pan and saute vegetables (beginning with onions, garlic, chilies, and squash) until softened and cooked through, cooked the toughest veggies first and add tomatoes and herbs last. Add Biryani paste and water stiring to mix well. Stir in cooked rice, mixed fruit and nuts and 1/2 of the cashews. Serve hot topped with remaining cashews and a little cilanto, green onion and hot pepper as garnish.

Nada Pumpkin Pie

Today's post was a little delayed by our photographer being in college. So inconvenient for the blogging side of the family. ;-) Actually, Misha was just plain busy with finals being this week so I couldn't get this picture up any sooner, even though several people from the twitter-sphere were asking for the photo and recipe right before Thanksgiving. Sorry for the delay guys. Life happens. But, it's here...finally!!!

We created this treat as a substitute for pumpkin pie, which is, for the most part, off limits to those of us in the gluten-free, vegan realm because we just haven't met a gluten-free vegan pie crust that we like. Admittedly, I am not a big fan of "fake" food, even if it is touted as being healthy. I like to keep things as close to their natural form as possible.

So, since I was already hooked on NadaMoo Creamy Coconut frozen concoctions, and I was craving pumpkin pie with serious intensity, this little dessert was born. It's super easy to make and tastes fantastic. It might just be the perfect replacement for pie (at least in my life). =)

Nada Pumpkin Pie (Serves 4...unless one of them is me...in which case it serves 2) LOL!

- 1 pint NadaMoo Creamy Coconut ice cream, softened
- 1 15 ounce can organic pure pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon cloves

Combine all ingredients and serve chilled. Top with toasted coconut for extra coconut flavor. (plus it just looks pretty) ;-)

Yam Noodle Salad

And...we're back from our long Thanksgiving weekend. It was so much fun. DD24 made a fabulous feast and made sure that we had plenty of gluten-free vegan options. Sadly, we didn't get pictures of everything the way we planned, but I can tell you all about what she made.

For the vegan main dish she prepared our own vegan meatball recipe as individual loaves in cupcake pans and garnished them with colorful bell peppers. Side dishes included mashed sweet potatoes, mashed russet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, a lovely salad with walnuts and cranberries, gluten-free vegan rolls, gluten-free vegan stuffing, and a gluten-free vegan gravy. There was far more food than our plates or our stomachs could hold! She should be sainted for going through all of that work!

Now, since everyone in the cyber-world has been posting Thanksgiving recipes galore, I thought we'd veer off the beaten path a bit and offer you something a little lighter. While I loved thanksgiving dinner, I was also pretty anxious to get some lighter fare in my tummy once Friday rolled around. This Thai-style Yam Noodle Salad hit the spot for me.

Yam Noodle Salad (serves 8)

- 1 package Yam Noodles (fresh or prepared from dried)
- 5 Tablespoons Bragg's Liquid Aminos
- 2 Tablespoons 5 spice powder
- 1 1/2 tablespoons green curry paste
- the juice of one lime
- 2 large carrots, shredded
- 1 cucumber, peeled and julienned
- 1 small head Chinese cabbage, chopped
- 1 large handful fresh Thai Basil, chopped
- 1 large handful fresh mint, chopped
- 1 small bunch green onion, julienned
- 1 medium knob fresh ginger, julienned
- 1 bunch fresh long beans, steamed lightly and shocked in ice water to stop cooking

To prepare noodles combine Yam noodles with 1 Tablespoon Bragg's Liquid Aminos and 1 Tablespoons 5 spice powder. Arrange noodles and vegetables artfully on each person's plate. For dressing combine curry past with 4 Tablespoons Bragg's Liquid Aminos, the juice of 1 lime and a little water if needed to thin. Drizzle over salad and serve.