I know all 5 of my regular readers were waiting for the big announcement of what Pam and I were going to do to torture ourselves nutritionally through the month of January as we usually do. We talked about doing something and quickly came to the realization that we have been eating so cleanly for the last year or more that no crazy plan was necessary.
Here is what we do now.
We eat an almost vegan organic diet. Almost takes into account the small amounts of Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano that we use for pasta dishes and airpopped popcorn - recipe below. We also occasionally will eat some wild caught fish or organic chicken, but I can count on one hand the amount of those occasions from last year.
The less meat I eat the better I feel. When I do eat some I usually regret it for a couple of days. I feel out of balance or something.
The same can be said for cheeses. When we order a veggie pizza somewhere and forget to tell them to go really light on the cheese I am a phlegm bomb for a day or two after.
What we have added in the last couple of months is some barley grass which we get in a powdered form and mix in our daily veggie juices. It jacks up the nutrient load and adds to the zip I get from the juice.
We recently saw a documentary where a guy explained why juicing is effective. Ideally, you would eat the veggies instead, but eating 8-10 carrots, a beet with greens, a cucumber, 5-6 oz of kale, 2 inches of ginger root, a green apple, a pear and 1/4 of a fennel bulb with stalk would take a while and if would be hours for the nutrients to begin their work. When you drink the juice it is 15 seconds before they start to work. Nice, right?
It is actually easy to convert most recipes to vegan. You switch any chicken or beef stock with veggie stock - Trader Joe's Organic Low Sodium Stock in $1.99. For chili you can use diced eggplant as a meat substitute. If you make your chili right you can't taste the meat when you are done anyway. It is all about the spices.
Marinara is a vegan sauce unless you mess it up. It is Tomatoes, garlic and basil traditionally. I add onion to mine as well. You take that base and add some chopped - not sliced - crimini mushrooms and the sauce tastes nice and meaty.
The only thing that will make vegan food seem unfulfilling is a lack of imagination of the person preparing it. You need to play with your food.
Decidedly Not Vegan Popcorn Topping
I keep a small jar of Olive oil mixed with Dried Oregano and Minced Garlic that I add to as needed. It is great for brushing on some bread to toast for going with pasta or whatever or using as a dip for bread as well.
I add some fresh grated Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano with a some of the olive oil mixture and stir it well to blend and soften the cheese. The amount is up to your batch. We usually make a batch and a half - which requires you to shake the popper to get the kernels moving - and my mix has about 2 tbsp of the cheese and enough oil mixture to cover.
As the corn is popping you drizzle the mixture with a spoon and then when the popper is done I toss the corn until it is all evenly coated. It is good enough that you won't miss butter at all.
That's what I have for today. Tomorrow we snowshoe up at Mt Rainier so there should be some great pictures coming.
Be very well and more soon....
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