hello again.

Sorry I’ve been MIA. Nothing really to report. I’ve been eating salads and smoothies and oatmeal. And I would share a second original recipe that I concocted today–which happens to be another veggie burger–but it really wasn’t that great. So here’s the picture:

it looks better than it tasted.

There was nothing wrong with it, there was just nothing spectacular.

However, I decided to blend some frozen bananas with a splash of soy milk for a late night treat. And not only was it pretty, but it tasted delicious!

It tasted just like soft serve banana ice cream! I couldn’t get it out fast enough: my family ate it right from the blender. Next time I’ll add some cinnamon.

And that’s it. I’m moving back to school in 12 days, so hopefully I’ll have more interesting things to share then.

-B

Original Veggie Burgers!

This recipe is 100% original! I did not use any input from anyone, anywhere. Proceed at your own risk.

Ok so the burger is very small because I wanted to make two, one with spices and one without. And that crushed up mess in the back is my second burger (with spices). The reason it became a crushed up mess is because I didn’t have enough “dough” to make a second burger, so I added more chickpeas without adding more of the binder. Oh well.

I really wanted a burger for lunch, but didn’t have most of the ingredients called for in the recipes I found. So I decided to really simplify the process. From what I could see, all you really needed for a bean-based veggie burger was the bean and some kind of binder. Since I’m not a huge fan of frying things in oil, I was looking for something else. And what do I find in my cabinet? Peanut Butter!

I also didn’t trust my haphazard method of adding herbs and spices–just throwing different ingredients in and being forced to eat the spicy outcome–so I made two burgers. They turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.  The first burger, which had more peanut butter, stayed together better and was slightly moister. The second fell apart, but had an awesome, kickin’ taste! So when I had to eat my concoction, I smooshed the two burgers together in between two pieces of bread and voilà!

looks messy, but tasted delicious!

Ingredients:
half of a 15oz can of chickpeas
1 1/5 tbsp peanut butter
handful of crushed almonds
Spices: (no measurements, just pinches and shakes)
oregano
parsley
garlic powder
basil
curry powder

The curry powder was the most prominent taste and added the most flavor to the burgers. I didn’t even really taste the other herbs. You can add as much or as little as you like. I didn’t taste the peanut butter or the almonds at all, so next time I will either add more almonds or leave them out.

All you have to do is mash up the chickpeas with the peanut butter and the almonds, add the spices, form into burgers and cook at 350° for 10 minutes on each side.

Good luck!

-B

healthy vegan hash browns

recipe found here

I don’t think I kept the potatoes long enough in the oven. However, they were still delicious. I made them with onions, green pepper and black pepper. Next time, I want to try slicing the  potatoes into smaller pieces after boiling them. And maybe add some vegan margarine.

Nothing exciting to report except that I partially destroyed the lid of the blender. The small cap in the lid fell into the blender while it was running and lost a few chunks.  Tomorrow morning I’ll have to get creative.

-B

the feast of Fruit

This was the sight that I woke up to this morning in the house that I work in:

It was beautiful.  They bought me blueberries, cherries, strawberries, apricots, white peaches, plums and avocados. I was so excited. It reminded me of a thanksgiving feast. But all fruit.

So I’m good with fruit for a while.

For lunch, I tried something different in my salad. In addition to my customary romaine, green peppers, raisins and dried cranberries, I added some herbs. Oregano and garlic powder, plus some black pepper. It added a pretty nice and distinctive flavor. I would definitely do it again.

baking the Vegan Way

This weekend, I was on a mission. I really wanted to bake something that was entirely vegan and mostly healthy, without following a recipe exactly. And of course, it happened to be on a day when it was 93° outside. And using a recipe that required the oven to be preheated to 400°. My mom was not happy.

So first I attempted to make date sugar.  All recipes I have found online say that you either have to heat the dates at an extremely high temperature (400° +) or use a dehydrator.  Since we don’t have a dehydrator in my house, we chose the oven. It was much harder than we thought.  In my first batch, the dates were burned to a crisp.

We took the second batch out earlier, but they weren’t hard enough to be ground into sugar in the food processor. So we let them cool off and harden a little. Then we tried putting them in the freezer. Although it wasn’t perfect, the end result was similar to a slightly gooey dark brown sugar. It is definitely something I want to continue experimenting with.

Finally, once the “date sugar” was finished, it was time to start the cookies. I based them off of the recipe found here. However, I really wanted to make linzertart cookies, so I used almonds instead of cashews.  My mom wouldn’t let me deviate too far from the recipe because it was my first time making it.

Linzer Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups raw almonds
1 cup oats
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup date sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/8 cup granulated sugar
unsweetened raspberry jam
lemon zest

First, I ground the almonds and the oats in a food processor until the consistency was like flour. Then I mixed together all of the ingredients, except for the jam, put the lumps of dough on a greased cookie sheet and created little wells in the center with my fingers. Next, I put a teaspoon of jelly in the center of each well and cooked them for 15-20 minutes at 350°.

They tasted better after they had been cooled off in the fridge. My mom loved them and I thought they were okay, but nothing special. Pretty oatmealy, which I think was because I didn’t keep the oats in the processor long enough. Next time I want to try to get a little more creative. But I guess it was better to try the original recipe first to get a feel for it.

But on a more positive side, you definitely could not tell that these cookies were vegan. That has to count for something, right?

-B

Health Update

So I realized after I posted yesterday that I forgot to include the thing that I had most wanted to write about.

To get to the city, we decided to take the train. And just like the typical American family with younger children, we were late. As we were parking in the far end of the parking lot, the lights were blinking and the gates were coming down because the train was approaching the station.

We sprinted.

And of course, it wasn’t our train. It was a train going to Eastern LI; not the city. Awesome. However, this did make me realize something. I was not gasping for air because of my run to catch the train.

Even when I was in high school and in shape from running and conditioning during cheerleading season, I would always breathe heavy after running. Short distances or long, sprinting or jogging, my cheeks would turn bright red and I would pant for a few minutes until my breathing slowed down. I liked running, somewhat, and I wasn’t in terrible shape. I also had the stamina to run a mile, even if I looked like hell as soon as I stopped.

But not at that train station yesterday.

When I stopped running, I was breathing at a completely normal rate. After sprinting across a parking lot that was pretty big. I was shocked.

Later on, I noticed a similar situation. Stairs. Like I said, even when I was in shape, running up a quick flight of stairs to my room got my heart beating and my lungs heaving. I never knew why my body was so sensitive. I have come to the conclusion that it was my diet. Although I worked out at college, it was nowhere near the same amount or regularity that I did for cheerleading in high school. Since I’ve been home, I have been to the gym once. Clearly, I am not in any better shape than when I was younger. Yet, for the first time, I was able to run without looking and feeling like a couch potato.

It was amazing. I can’t wait to see what happens when I start spinning again at school with MKF. Imagine when I actually exercise and eat right.

Anyway, my meals today:

Breakfast- green smoothie with a frozen banana, blueberries, pineapple, strawberries and spinach.
Lunch- salad with romaine, a cucumber, a banana, raisins, dried cranberries and walnuts.
Dinner- I made a salad from the salad bar at Ruby Tuesday. It included green peppers, peas, edamame beans (<3), cucumbers, chick peas and dried cranberries combined with a mixture of spinach, baby greens and romaine.  Topped off with a tiny bit of oil-free balsamic vinaigrette.

The verdict? Eating a diet that happens to be vegan but, more importantly, is high in vegetables, fruits and beans while low in salt, sugar, fat and processed ingredients seems to be good for my health. Or if health is too broad of a term for you, than at least it seems to be improving my breathing/heart rate after exercise.

Happy Weekend!

-B

on the road (or train)

Dionysos - the ancient Greek god of wine, theater and fertility

Today I went to the city with the family that I work for. I lovee the city, so I had a great time. We went to the Met and stopped in Central Park before heading back home. My favorite exhibit was the Ancient Greek and Roman artwork (I’m double majoring in classical history and psych, so obviously that would be my fav). That statue of Dionysos I posted above was actually at the Met; it’s not some random pic I found online. Awesome!

However, going to the city posed a few problems for my new vegan-ish diet:
1) I had to get the kids up and ready by 9am. We woke up at 8:30. There was not much time to make breakfast.
2) I had to make my lunch in advance. I didn’t know if it would survive the trip.
3) I am a slight germaphobe. Therefore, I had to make something that could be eaten without me touching it. I also couldn’t bring something too messy.
4) Did I mention I had no extra time for any of this?

I made my breakfast smoothie in record time and literally inhaled it. I didn’t think it was possible to get a slight stomachache from drinking fruit too fast, but apparently you can.

For lunch, I threw together another wrap. Yay for wraps! This time, I used veggies instead of fruit. Iceberg, green pepper, cucumber, shredded carrot.  Despite the fact that my wraps are too thin for me to work with, it was still in relatively good shape by lunchtime. It tasted especially delicious since it was eaten on the steps in front of the museum!

Throughout the day, the kids were snacking on milkshakes, taco bell and ice cream sundaes. Plus their lunch. But I survived on my salad wrap and felt all the better for it. =) I learned my lesson the hard way this week. No more dairy for me.

When we finally got home, I was pretty hungry. So I prepared a beautiful salad that was kind of like a modified version of the modified avocado wasabi salad that I made the other night. First I sautéed some broccoli and red onions in water. The onions made the broccoli taste so much better in the salad. But I love onions, so this was no surprise to me. Then I added some leftover chickpeas into the pan to heat them up, since I discovered I like them better warm. I added that to the rest of my salad: romaine and iceberg lettuce, shredded carrot, chopped walnuts and sliced almonds. It was the perfect end to a day in the grimy city. And I’ve found that I don’t really mind having my salads without any dressing.

-B