Life (and death)

Mortality is scary.

I've been thinking a lot about life and death lately.

I've been reminded of the percentage; 100% of us die.

The things we do, no matter good or bad, don't affect that fact. Eating whole foods. Exercising our muscles. Using our brains. Feeling emotions. Avoiding stress. Releasing tension. Loving others and ourselves.

When someone gets close to the end of their life people say:

It's about quality of life now.

When isn't it about quality of life?

That's what it is all about. Living life the best way you know how, experiencing the best life you can in the amount of time that you have, whether that is 5 years, 30 years, or 80 years. I know I'm going to die. I don't know when.

I choose to live the way I do not to extend my life, but to improve every second that I have. Sometimes that means eating kale salads so I feel energetic and satiated. Sometimes that means I eat doritos with guacamole while sitting on my couch to give my tastes pleasure.

If the way you eat doesn't improve your life, maybe think about changing the way you eat.

Happy Eating.

Veggie Pesto Bowl

I ate this dinner in approximately 41/2 minutes. I inhaled it. It was delicious.

I modified the original recipe for the pesto, which is here.

I didn't modify much of the original recipe for the vegetables, which is here.

Making pesto wasn't as hard you might think it would be, with it's fancy name and all. You just pulverize some garlic, some toasted pine nuts, some basil, more basil, and a splash of olive oil and water to top it off. Not hard. Don't buy the kind in the jar, make your own.

You could add walnuts instead of pine nuts. Add flavored oils instead of olive oil. You could have family pesto night where you make a bunch of kinds and everyone tastes them all and votes on their favorite! That would be so fun if you had kids or foodie friends over for a cocktail party. I pretty much just cook for Chris and I at the moment.

Pesto:

1 1/2 Cups of Basil Leaves, Packed

2 tbsp Minced Garlic

2 tbsp Toasted Pine Nuts

1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 tbsp Parmesan Cheese (the real stuff!)

1 large pinch of Salt

1/4 cup of water

Blend the basil, garlic, and nuts in the food processor. It should be chunky. Then thin out the pesto with the oil and blend. Add the water little by little until you reach the desired texture. Blending in between additions of water.

Viola! Pesto. Delicious.

Veggie Bowl:

16 Purple Potatoes

2 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

5 Scallions Sliced

3/4lb Shelled Peas (I used frozen)

1 large bunch of Asparagus cut into 1/2" pieces

1 can of Cannellini Beans

Salt and Pepper to taste

4 tbsp Pesto

I boiled the potatoes. I think they would be really good in this recipe if they were roasted, although, that would add some extra oil.

Saute the scallions in the olive oil. I liked the scallions instead of onions, I don't normally cook with scallions but they add a subtle flavor and the green color was great in the green bowl of vegetables.

Add the peas and asparagus. Add a little water. Cook the vegetables for a little while, not too long or else they get mushy.

Add the beans when the vegetables are half way cooked.

Stir together and add salt and pepper.

Serve the vegetables in a bowl with the potatoes cut into quarters. Top with 1 tbsp of pesto.

Happy Vegetarian Eating!

Eggplant

How many times have you successfully cooked eggplant?

My number is 2.

Don't ask how many times I've attempted it, it's embarrassing.

Something about it.... that purple skin maybe, I don't know but it never seems to taste as good as I hoped it would. We went out to dinner to K Restaurant the other night. I ordered the eggplant something with cheese and tomato sauce, and holy cow was it stinking delicious. I wish I could make eggplant taste like that eggplant tasted. I secretly blame my lack of fryer, I think a deep fryer may be the key to scrumptious eggplant.

We had way to much fresh mozzarella cheese at our house a few weeks back. I bought it on a coupon/sale matching thing and then remembered we are two people and couldn't possibly eat that much cheese, even if it is seriously amazing tasting.

I decided to buy an eggplant.

Look at the pretty salad I made! I grilled the eggplant with a hearty pour of some olive oil. I used one of those cool pans made for making paninis. Have you seen those? It's like a skillet with raised grill marks in the bottom and it comes with a heavy squisher to make the marks on your food/press your hot sandwich.

I made mine look like a caprese salad, layered all together.

I reduced some balsamic vinegar for the top. Reduced balsamic vinegar is so good, I might add it every single thing I ever cook from now on.

Happy Eating!

Lentil Loaf

I've read other blogs about lentil loaf.

a lot of other blogs about it actually. You can use basically anything you want, it's a vegetarian meatloaf. Add breadcrumbs or oats. Add mushrooms or zucchini. Add walnuts or not.

I think reading about it made me more nervous to try making it.

Lentil loaf, evidently, can be somewhat difficult to make because it has a tendency to get crumbly. Some people use flax eggs to help combat that. I didn't have any fancy flax eggs. I didn't want to use real eggs though, to help with the vegan aspect of the loaf. I like vegan things.

Recipes are a guideline, a starting point, they aren't necessarily the only way something can be made. I used what I had in my kitchen. You could probably use what you have.

Ingredients:

Lentils

Carrots

Sweet Yellow Onion

Jazz Apple

Mushrooms

Oats

Milk (you could use almond milk or soy milk for a vegan option, but I didn't have any of those)

Steps:

Start cooking your lentils.

Take a loaf pan and place aluminum foil or parchment paper through the pan so that it sticks out on either longer side. Spray with cooking spray.

Use a food processor and shred up about 3/4 of the apple. Put it in a bowl.

Peel and rough slice the carrots.

Dice the onion.

Put the onion and carrot in a pan with some olive oil and cook until the onions get translucent. Pull out the carrot and process them in the food processor.

Add both the onion and carrot to the bowl with the apple.

Clean and rough chop the mushrooms. Add to bowl.

Process some oats and add them to the bowl too. (I really don't like measuring) At this point the mush in the bowl will start sticking together. I wanted to add some nuts but upon opening my cabinet I had a total of 4 pecans left. I processed them with the oats. Can you count 4 pecans as an ingredient? Well, if you had a nut allergy you would!

Drain the lentils and process about 3/4 the amount you are going to use. Put the lentil paste in the bowl with 1/4 of un-processed lentils.

I added a splash of Guinness. Surprise! You could add the milk here too if it isn't sticking together enough.

Spread into loaf pan and smooth out the top.

Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour (I didn't even time it!) Just until it looks nice and baked with brown edges.

Let it cool! Maybe for another 30 minutes.

I made my lentil loaf the day before we were going to eat it so I put it in the fridge overnight.

Lift the foil and gently remove from pan and invert onto a plate. I used a serrated knife to cut slices. I served mine with mashed potatoes that were half potato & half cauliflower. I think it lightens up the potato a good bit, and I like the taste.

Mine didn't get crumbly, it was great. The key seems to be making sure your mixture is moist enough. It tasted so good. I wish I would have made a ketchup glaze for it though, so it would be a traditional meatloaf look-a-like.

Happy Eating!

Hello Food World

I haven't blogged in a long time.

an extended amount of time.

I can't even tell you why really.

I have some great recipes to share.

Bean Salads.

Rainbow Kale Salad.

Homemade Pizzas.

Lentil Loaf.

I don't even have any pictures or anything to show you. I'm going to tell you all about them though. Stay tuned!

Fighting

I can eat vegan raw for about 12 hours before I eat a chocolate chip cookie by accident.

I bought whole wheat chocolate chip cookies just in case that accident happened.

My wonderful puppy became a lady. A lovely lady, that is having her lady time and is moody and swollen and overall distraught at what is happening to her, and yes, I can tell.

I want to give her a chocolate chip cookie because I love them but, it would make her sick.

I get moody and distraught sometimes. If cookies don't help I normally pick a fight with Chris. (gasp!) It's true. Not about money or sex or religion or politics, but about what really matters... food. Our most stellar fights are about food. The last time we fought about food, I got roses. That's how you know it was a good fight.

Anyway, we found this very cool (could be vegan and raw) recipe that so far, we haven't fought about in the slightest.

SUSHI!

It's so easy people, that's the beauty of it, no fighting, no work... just YUM!

Ingredients:

Mild Miso ( I got mine from the refrigerated section in whole foods for maybe $5)

Raw or Toasted Seaweed Wrappers. I got toasted.

Carrots, Cucumbers, Avocado, Red Pepper. Basically, some veggies that you like.

Once we added some of that fake crab, it was okay.

Directions:

Get a rolling mat, it could be from the grocery store.

Lay a seaweed on top.

Smear a thin layer of miso on 2inches about 1/2 inch from one end.

Layer veggies on top of that. The hardest part is cutting them into a julienne. I used a vegetable peeler for the carrot to make it in long thin strips.

Avocado goes last.

Then quickly flip the mat and 1/2 inch of seaweed over the pile of goodies toward the long empty part of the seaweed.

Let the mat stay on top and Roll.

Wet the edge to seal.

Slice into bit size pieces.

Dunk in low sodium soy sauce and/or wasabi.

Then you enjoy being full of possibly vegan raw food and not fight with your spouse about what is for dinner!

happy eating!

Margaritas!

1 1/2 oz Tequila

1/2 oz Triple Sec

1/2 oz Agave

1/2 oz Lime Juice

Corse Salt for the rim of your glass

Cinco de Mayo is coming up and I thought I'd start celebrating a little early. Enjoy this delicious recipe! Party hats are not required.

I like it on the rocks or blended with ice.

Chris has a theory that we should go to an Irish bar on Cinco de Mayo and a Mexican bar on St. Patty's Day. I think it's a ho-hum theory and that Chris doesn't like crowds. What do you think? You could always just stay home and have your own party. So maybe as we get closer to the actual holiday I'll share my favorite guacamole recipe.

Happy Drinking!

Spinach Lasagna Rolls

My mom originally told me about these lasagna rolls she made. She raved about them. I looked them up online and tried to figure out how to make them. Frozen organic spinach is a pretty cost effective way to get organic greens plus I had a coupon.

Step 1: Make the filling.

It's 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella. I shred my own because preshredded cheese creeps me out. Some Salt, Pepper, and Basil. 1 cup part-skim Ricotta Cheese, one package of Cascadian Farms organic frozen spinach (thawed), and one egg white.

Mix it together.

Step 2: Boil the noodles according to the package. I used whole wheat noodles, Hodgons Mills and they worked very well. I made 12 noodles and the filling made enough for the 12.

Step 3: Spread the filling over the entire noodle. Don't put it on too thick, I used less than 1/4 cup per noodle.

Step 4: Roll the noodle up fairly tightly into a roll. I love how the ruffled edges look! It's not too difficult and I'm sure you could do it too!

Step 5: Arrange the rolls in a baking pan. I left the rolls a few centimeters apart. I also sprayed the bottom of the pan with some non-stick spray. Place the rolls in the pan seam side down.

Step 6: Pour some tomato sauce over the rolls. I used 2 cups of roasted garlic sauce and sprinkled 1/4 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese on top.

Step 7: Bake at 375 degrees for maybe 20 minutes. Make sure the cheese is melted and the rolls are heated through.

It's a fun way to eat lasagna that's already portion controlled! My approximate calorie calculations are here.

Happy Eating!

Lentil Love Story

I'm going to tell you all a story...

Long long long ago a bag of green lentils sat on the shelf at the grocery story. It was a nice grocery store, very clean and well lit, and the bag of lentils liked it there. Although one of the re-stocking boys tended to pick his wedgies in the lentil isle. Other than that, life was good for the bag of lentils. Days past. No one took the lentils home. Until finally, one day, a girl with a long list and a giant envelope of coupons came wandering down the isle. She looked at the lentils and made an impulsive, non-list decision, to buy the lentils. It was true love and the lentils were so happy you could say they smiled. Once back in the girls apartment the lentils were put in a pretty bowl on the top shelf of the pantry, not to be thought of for a long while. The lentils watched brown rice leave the bowl, quinoa came and left, even arborio rice left with high hopes of mushroom risotto. The lentils were unused and the girl thought of them sometimes but her impulse purchase left her without recipe ideas.

UNTIL TODAY!

Lentils, come down onto the counter and be apart of my kitchen and my food blog.

I have no idea how people eat lentils, besides a lot of soups which I wasn't craving.

I kept it simple.

I started with onions, I'm confident with onions. Onions and I have a long term relationship going. I know how they cook, how they burn and how to avoid the latter.

Then I added carrots. Carrots, although annoying to dice due to their rounded shape, are fairly easy. Carrots are predictable but have a more diverse flavor palate than onions. I used more carrots than onions and I sauteed them over medium high heat for a long time. I threw in a cinnamon stick for the heck of it.

Lentils have to boil, like pasta. I boiled them according to the package directions and then added them into the onions and carrots and removed the cinnamon stick. I added some dark vegetable stock and let them all get to know each other for a while.

And the lentils lived deliciously ever after, forever changing the girl's opinion about lentils.

The End.

Happy Eating!

Raw Kale Salad

I've exhausted most of my food documentary options on netflix.

I went to the internet, and I found good things! My favorite so far has been Jennifer Cornbleet's Raw Food Made Easy. It is actually fairly simple, unlike other raw food reciepes that include tons of healthy obscure ingredients I've never heard of before.

I have an obsession with how to videos. I mean, worse than documentaries. I could watch someone tell me how to uncork a wine bottle, get out a stain, massage your own hands, or perform acupuncture. Chris didn't want me to practice my newly learned acupuncture skills on him though.

Here is Jennifer telling you how to make the salad!

I changes a few little things. I didn't use red pepper, I used those smaller sweet peppers, so that I could have a variety of colors. Plus they must be in season at the moment because they're everywhere.

This is the organic kale before it's amazing olive oil and lemon juice massage. I rubbed and kneaded the oil into it's little leaves and look, what happened! It's shrank! Maybe that's why they say massage can remove cellulite...

Then I diced up the pretty pepper and threw them in too. Honestly, you could add anything you like, as with any salad but the lemon juice is acidic and you might want some savory or sweet flavors to balance it out. I used some "sprouted" almonds too (you just soak them in water for an hour or two and they get softer and delicious)

The Kale Salad was our lunch and I was nervous about how Mr. Wyoming would feel about it. I got his text message in the middle of the day, "Ok baby my lunch is freaking outstanding! i have no idea what is in it but it is amazing." Pretty rave reviews!

The kale is really filling and it requires a good bit of chewing (something I've been trying to be more aware of lately) but it's fun to eat lunch for your whole hour instead of scarfing it down in 10 minutes.

Let me know what you add to your salad and how it pared with the kale!

Happy Eating.