Tomato, Basil, Bruschetta

This has become our favorite appetizer. It is so good! This is from one of my favorite new books, by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau http://www.compassionatecooks.com/  On hubby's birthday he requested this dish and he feasted with a glass of wine while I made a light dinner to follow. We have served this many times and recently we took it to a neighborhood gathering (so it transports well) and it was gobbled up in no time. I like to let the minced garlic sit in the olive oil for 30-45 minutes to blend the flavors, but this isn't necessary if you are in a hurry. If you are going to a party transport the bread in a container and add to the tray when you get there.

Tomato Mixture
-2 large garlic cloves minced
-2 Tablespoons of olive oil
-a container of cherry or grape tomatoes quartered
-1 cup of fresh basil (you have to use fresh..it won't be the same otherwise)
-2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar
-4 cups of chopped arugula
-fresh ground pepper and sea salt
Mix everything together and put into a serving bowl.  Put aside while you make the garlic bread

Garlic Bread
-1 skinny baguette
-1 to 2 cloves of garlic peeled and left whole
-olive oil

Cut baguette into 1/2"slices and paint the olive oil on both sides.  Put on a baking sheet and broil each side for 1-2 minutes watching closely that it doesn't burn. Rub the garlic cloves generously on one side of the bread. 

On a big platter put the bowl of tomato mixture in the center with a serving spoon. Arrange the bread slices around the bowl.

Three months later.....

At the end of three months, I can report to you honestly that I love eating this way.  My blood sugar is under control for the first time ever, I have eliminated 3 medications, the arthritis in my hips has improved to the point that it doesn't consume my thoughts during the day, the nausea has disappeared, and I have lost some  weight without even thinking about it. The first month was confusing, the second month I felt that I was gaining understanding and after the third month I have collected so many recipes for plant based dishes, I don't know when I will get to them all. I have had some slips off the wagon into dairy products, but I haven't eaten meat, poultry or fish for three months and I can tell you that I haven't missed it.  I had some cravings the first month, but not since. I have accepted that there will be times socially, when I will have to make other choices, and I will include some dairy. That's ok as far as I'm concerned.  This isn't a religious commitment I have made, but a personal decison I have made to myself.  I have learned that when I eat this way I feel better, when I eat badly I feel badly. 

Hubby has willingly come along for the ride with me.  He is not as committed to vegan eating as I am but he has adopted some strong vegetarian habits, with some occasional chicken on the side.  He travels with his work, and I think that once out on the road he heads straight for the pizza parlor. But he has still made some amazing changes in his food choices. He likes desserts and so once a week I will make some type of dessert that doesn't include dairy and I was amazed how easy it was to do. I will post a chocolate cake, some oatmeal cookies and chocolate chip cookies that are all dairy free and I challenge you to tell the difference.  None of these treats are low-fat but they are vegan.  Low-fat is another post.

One of the kids asked me why I wasn't talking about any weight changes I have experienced.  There are two reasons.  The first reason is that weight loss was not at the top of my list of goals. Getting control of my health and reducing medications were the main targets. Feeling better, getting my life back were the focus.  I knew that if I concentrated on these things that the weight would take care of itself.  Daniel and Kelley have been the most involved in my progress and they will tell you that I have only mentioned my weight loss changes a few times.  My reports to them have been excitement sharing a recipe or talking about the health changes. The second reason I haven't talked about this subject is:  it's none of any body's business! 

I still have a long way to go in understanding what I'm doing and to get to the point where I feel really healthy again. But the changes have been so apparent and happened so quickly that it was fun to keep going and trying different  recipes. I have not felt deprived or had overwhelming urges. I have read some books and blogs from people who have been vegan/vegetarian for 10, 15, 20 years and I look at my three months and it's paltry in comparison. But everyone has a starting point and this is mine!

Awesome Garlic Bread

Awesome Garlic Bread  1 (not low-fat but oh so good)

-1 skinny baguette or any kind of french bread will do
-oil oil
-2 to 3 cloves of garlic peeled and left whole

Turn on broiler. Cut the baguette into approx 1/2"slices.  Paint both sides lightly with olive oil and put onto a baking sheet. (I have a good paint brush that i keep in my kitchen just for cooking) You can also spread the oil lightly with the back of a big spoon. Broil for about 2 minutes (watch it closely it burns quickly) you want it golden brown.  Take out of the oven and turn the bread over and return to the broiler for another 1 1/2  minutes or so until the other side is done.

Take out of the oven and using an oven mitt to hold each piece, rub one side the bread with the garlic cloves.  Rub a lot around the edges.....the garlic really catches along the edges. You can serve immediately or put back into the warm oven (broiler off) to keep for a few minutes.

**Variation:  to save some time you can cut the baguette lenthwise, and just paint the one side with olive oil and broil on one side only.  Cut into individual pieces and serve.

Roasted Garlic

For a long time, when I was experiencing the low-grade nausea that I refered to in my second post, I couldn't eat garlic, or any spice for that matter.  The smell made me sick, and by the time the meal was ready I couldn't eat it.  But with my improving health that symptom has disappeared....don't know why it was there in the first place...but all I know is that it is gone!  We had dinner one night at Mandy's and she cooked a dish with cauliflower and I got very sick.  This is the only vegetable that I haven't introduced back into my diet...just looking at it in the store reminds me of that night. Sorry Mandy, not your fault.

Garlic is something that I would buy once in awhile when we were having company and a recipe would call for it.  But other than that I would substitute garlic powder or that awful tasteless stuff in a jar that is chopped up and soaking in oil. In the grocery store I would see large bags of garlic and would wonder who would buy that much garlic....the one little clove that I bought would go bad before I finished using it.  Now I buy 3-4 cloves a week!  I love the smell of it cooking, the aroma fills the whole house.

Roasting garlic is absolutely new to me.  The flavor when it is done, is very mild, and not at all like the raw garlic taste that I was used to. If you haven't tried this, please give it a chance.  I am roasting most of my vegetables now and garlic is always a part of the process.  This recipes can be used to mix with vegetables, stirred into mashed potatoes (so good) and spread on a baguette for garlic bread.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/05/how-toroast-garlic/



picture and original recipe by: http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/

Quinoa Breakfast

QUINOA HOT CEREAL WITH APPLES AND RAISINS (instead of oatmeal!)
http://www.chetday.com/quinoa.html

See the attached link on the benefits of quinoa (pronounced Keen-wa). I am focused on protein, fat content, cholesterol and fibre content, and quinoa has all these benefits and more! I love that I can have it for breakfast and it has almost 1/2 of my daily protein.  Most grocery stores carry it in the health food section and of course the health food stores will carry it for sure. The most common is the bone colored variety, but it also comes in red and black.  This recipe is for the bone color. The uses for quinoa are endless and not just for breakfast.  You can add it to soups, stews, serve as a hot side dish with veggies, or there are lots of recipes for salad variations.  Think of it instead of rice or pasta.  I make this recipe and heat in up the next day and it is just as good the 2nd and 3rd time around.  Instead of raisins you could use dates, dried apricots etc. I like it best with a drizzle of maple syrup....but it has to be real maple syrup for me.

1 cup quinoa---rinsed in a fine strainer
2 cups of water
1/2 cup of slices apples (usually 1/2 an apple)
1/3 cup raisins
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
any non-dairy milk of your choice
top with a little honey, agave, brown sugar, or maple syrup

-bring the quinoa and water to a boil, then turn down temp and simmer for 5 minutes
-add the apples, raisins, and cinnamon and continue to simmer until the water is absorbed (about 10 min)
-serve with the milk and sweetening of your choice, but it's really good with the maple syrup.

The amazing results!

The second day, and I repeat, the second day, my blood sugar started dropping!  Not just a little bit but by big numbers.  Non-diabetics won't understand the numbers so I won't bore you with the technical details but I was ecstatic.  The evening of day 4, I started to feel shaky, sweating, and thought I was going to faint. I was in the bedroom and called Jim (poor baby had to pause the History Channel and put down the remote).  He got my testing supplies and my blood sugar was really low.  Diabetes numbers are usually high and that is why it is necessary to take medications that will lower it.  I took a couple of glucose tablets and it still wouldn't recover, so Jim ran and got a coke and finally after an hour I was starting to recover.  The same thing happened the next night,  and over the next 10 days. One night it was so low that we considered the emergency room.  But the coke again did it's job but this time it keep going up and down before it settled into a normal range. At this point we were jubilant!  The food was working so well that the medication I was taking at dinner time was too strong!  I called the endrocrinologist the next morning and he told me to cut the medication in 1/2 and if that didn't help to discontinue the medication.  That night it happened again and I stopped taking the pill altogether. Three months have passed and I continue to have normal readings without this pill.  I have another diabetic medication that I am still taking, and will discuss this on August 12th when I see the doctor for 3 month evaluation.

Jim and I were more enthusiastic than ever to continue, and I attacked the internet with vengence seaching out food and recipe suggestions.

Shopping for day One

On day one I headed off to the grocery store, so innocent, no naive! I live in a very small town in a rural area of Florida. But we have two fairly large grocery stores so I was confident that I would be able to find everything. In the vegetable department they had a pretty good variety and just about everything I needed, but forget trying to buy organic....the organic section was about 4ft square and everything looked pitiful and wilted. Same with the health food section where I was hoping to find some of the ingredients. This area was shoved into a corner and had little variety. Substituting milk was going to be another big hurdle for me.  Next to butter, I loved milk.  So I bought a carton of Soy milk and decided to start with that flavor first.  I have since used Almond, Rice, and Hemp.....and I also discoved that you can buy these in the non-dairy section and store them on the pantry. I was also able to find some agave nectar, and a few other mystery items.  Armed with my recycling bags and all this healthy food I felt like one of the club now.

The next day after work, I headed for the local health food store.  It was dusty, lighting wasn't  very good, and the people were border line polite. I got a few things that I needed otherwise I wouldn't have bothered.  I have not gone back there since.

But several weeks later I was in Orlando on business and scheduled in a visit to Whole Foods Market.  Well!....now I know how kids feel when they enter the gates of Disney World!!  I spent two hours there and never wanted to go home.  I wanted to sleep there.  I wanted to live there. 

Shopping has continued to be a challenge, and I can't make a two hour round trip to Orlando when I need things, but I am discovering more and more options locally now that I am more educated.  The stores here sell  pre-packaged vegetables, in quantites that are way too much for just Jim and I, unless that is all we eat for 3-4 days.  I wish they had open bins of loose vegetables like they do up north. But I started to rip open their packaging and putting what we need in plastic bags, or asking the vegetable employee to repackage a smaller quantity for me.....he even cut a head of cabbage in half for me. I found some Rubbermaid storage containers specially designed to keep vegetables fresher longer and that has helped.  http://www.rubbermaid.com/Category/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?Prod_ID=RP091261&CatName=FoodStorage

Butter

When I die and go to heaven, I will be able to eat as much butter as I like.  When we were growing up my mother's answer to any vegetable that we didn't want to eat was "put lots of butter and salt and pepper on it".  She was a good cook.....sometimes.  She didn't own one cookbook, not one!  I have a whole cupboard full of them. She would open the fridge and start cooking.  Sometimes things would turn out and sometimes not.  And we tended to have the same foods, and standard vegetables all the time, cooked the same way.  One of my new favorite vegetables is sweet potato.  We never had that once when I was growing up, and when my step-mother was visiting recently we had a discussion about vegetables and she said that she never had sweet potatos until the last few years.  Maybe it has gained only popularity recently?

Butter has gotten me into all kinds of trouble and when I started to make changes to a plant based diet I was most afraid of never having butter again. But I bought some Earth Balance http://www.earthbalancenatural.com/
and haven't looked back since.  My husband was a margarine snob and when I brought the Earth Balance home he had that scared look on his face, but he loves now too.  It has a nice light yellow color, it is great for baking, sauteing and melts beautifully on toast.  Any recipe that calls for butter you can substitute Earth Balance. Note of caution:  watch that you don't pick up Smart Balance by mistake.  They are generally beside each other on the shelf and Smart Balance is not vegan, nor does it lend itself well to substituting butter in recipes.

CAPELLINI POMODORO

CAPELLINI POMODORO

Omg I love this recipe! And I am not a pasta lover usually. I could eat this once a week, and it is so easy to make. Honest. I wouldn't label this a low-fat vegan recipe, but it is a nice treat once in awhile, and a great entertaining dish. The ingredients taste so fresh you'll never open a jar of pasta sauce again. This recipe easily makes enough for 6 people...8 people if you are serving a salad etc.  I usually 1/2 this recipe when just making for hubby and I, then we have leftovers the next night.

-1 pkg of Capellini Pomodoro pasta (or angel hair....capellini is the size between regular spaghetti and angel hair)
-6-8 medium tomatoes chopped
-10 fresh basil leaves (thank goodness I started to grow my own...another post)
-2 to 3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
-3 to 4 Tablespoons of olive oil
-fresh ground sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1. cook pasta (look at carton...I can't remember how long). Drain and return to the pan
2. cut tomatoes in 1/2 and scrape out the seeds.  Then chop them into smallish pieces
3. Lay basil leaves on top of each other, roll them up like a cigar, then slices them really thin
4. toss the tomatoes, basil, garlic and olive oil together
5. add the tomato mixture to pasta and gently toss while on a med-high heat to reheat everything.
6. serve immediately with a little vegan Parmesan cheese, and Awesome Garlic Bread

The First Few Weeks

When we arrived back to Florida I was ready for the plunge.  I was sick of feeling sick, tired of being tired, scared of all the medications I was taking (they wouldn't even fit into one of those pill organizing boxes) and tired of doctors.  Before we left on vacation I had met with my endocrinologist for my regular 3 month check up.  I had horrible blood test results, and he warned me that I had to do something.  And.....he gave me an additional  prescription for my diabetes.  While he was writing on my chart,  I mentioned a vegan diet and asked him if it was safe for me to try, and did it produce good results?  In a very off-handed manner he said "most people find it hard to follow."  That was it.  See you in three months.

We arrived home on a Saturday and on Sunday I cleaned out our pantry....threw out everything vegan offensive.  The fridge was already empty from our vacation, but I rummaged through the freezer and when Jim wasn't looking threw out all the meat (expect his frozen meatballs for his pasta). He grabbed his ice cream and held it protectively, and I agreed he could keep it....ice cream doesn't tempt me. While I had my head stuck in the freezer I was amazed at the things that I found it there!  I don't know how we got it all crammed in there.  I threw out hot dog buns that had been there since the Vietnam war.

With pantry and fridge gutted I headed to the grocery store with a shopping list clutched in my hand of things derived from recipes that I found in Dr. Barnard's book, and from the Internet.

The saga will continue but here is a recipe that Jim and I both love...Campanelli Pomadore

High-Protein Oat Waffles

High-Protein Oat Waffles

The ingredients in this recipes may try and scare you away, but they are delicious.  You just have to remember to soak the beans overnight, other than that they are really easy. Some of the grandchildren are visiting soon and I am going to give these a blind test and see what their reaction is.  Chock full of goodness and low glycemic ingredients.

1/2 cup dried cannellini, white kidney, or Great Northern beans  SOAKED OVERNIGHT.  I put them into a 2 cup measuring cup and fill with water then stick them in the fridge.  Cover them with lots of water because they expand quite a bit.

Assemble all the ingredients near your blender and turn on your waffle maker to heat up. These babies also take longer to cook than normal waffles so the hungry urchins at the table will have to be patient.



2 1/4 cups of water
2 tablespoons of sugar or 1 tablespoon of agave nectar
1 3/4 cup old fashioned oats (not the quick ones)
3/4 tablespoon whole flax seed
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon of salt.

1. drain the beans and place them into the blender along with all the other ingredients. Blend until smooth and light and foamy.

2. At this stage it depends on the size of your waffle maker.  I have one that is a round belgium maker and it makes one 7"waffle and for this one I pour about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of the mix on the waffle maker.  I another maker that makes 4 of the 4"waffles, and this one I pour about 2 cups.
3. Cook for about 8 minutes resisting the urge to lift the lid and check on them.  At about 7 minutes take a peak and if the lid is easy to life fork test and make sure they are crispy.  If not close the lid and continue for another minute or so.
4. briefly blend the mixture again in your blender for the second batch.
5. I freeze the leftovers and pop them into the toaster on another morning during the week for a fast breakfast.

The road trip home

One day on our vacation up north we were visiting our youngest daughter Mandy.  During conversation I mentioned that Kelley was dipping her toe into the vegan world of eating.  Instead of scorn, she said "I'd like to do that.... but I could never stick with it."  Her opinion mattered to me because both she and her husband eat in a healthy way, have a vegetable garden every summer, can their own tomato sauce, and eat a varied menu. I remember thinking that she seemed to be knowledgeable on the subject (which most people are not)and if she thinks it's hard then what chance do I have?  We talked about a vegetarian diet and once again it comforted me that I could probably work with that.  My daughter-in-law Cindy was encouraging and supportive and felt that anything to improve my health would be the good road to take. Our other daughter-in-law Michele said, "don't you have to be careful about how much soy you eat?  Doesn't it cause breast cancer?"  I remember thinking I don't know anything about soy.....is that the cornerstone of a vegan diet?  Having no answer for her I knew I was in over my head. All these girls are young and and the young tend to be informed about these trends and I felt conflicted.   This was sounding more and more complicated. Other meals I cooked for Kelley tended to be the obvious selections that we all cook....spaghetti without the meat in the sauce etc....and for heaven's sake, what about Parmesan cheese?  What is pasta without the cheese? But I knew it was going to be more complicated than just veganizing my old standard recipes. 

We loaded up the car with Gracie and headed back on the road.  I always spend the first hour crying when we  leave the kids. We have gotten into a routine: lots of tissues,  Jim pats my hand while he drives not saying a word, and you can usually set the clock for 60 minutes. 

Before we left I downloaded a book onto my Kindle by Dr. Neal Barnard  http://www.nealbarnard.org/diabetes
This book grabbed me from the beginning.  I read it all the way home, and every chapter there was something that I was reading out loud ....something important that I knew hubby would need to hear! "Oh that makes so much sense doesn't it?" He would nod in that universal way that all men have....look right at me, nod, and have no idea what i just said to him.
While I continue to blab away here about ME, here is another favorite recipe I discovered
High-Protein Oat Waffles

The menu experimenting started....

While up north I started to experiment with a plant based diet.  I agreed to cook for my daughter in a vegan way, but I had convinced myself that the whole thing was not for me.  But looking back I realize that like most people who hear the word Vegan they think of food deprivation, and that's exactly what I was thinking.  I told myself that I could be a vegetarian....maybe.  A lot of vegetarians eat dairy and fish, so I consoled myself that when our vacation was over and I returned home, I would investigate that.  My daughter was also new with the subject and had only purchased one book, and this author was a really hard core vegan nut job. She tossed the book at me and pointed at the kitchen! I started to read it and browse through the recipes and to tell you the truth I was really confused.  There were a lot of ingredients that I had never heard of before but the pictures looked great! Tofu, brown rice syrup, tahini, agave necter, garbonzo beans, every other bean you can think of, quinoa, wheat berries, mochi, shoyu, tamari, vegenaise, veggie cheese, seitan, tempeh,and on and on it went.  I closed the book and never looked at it again during that trip (but I did ultimately get it from the library a month later when I became more acclimated with the changes).

I wracked my brain for familiar recipes that I could adapt without the meat and dairy.  The first night I made what I now call  Food Court Stir Fry. The food courts at the malls usually have a Japanese chain that does a stir fry with chicken.  I duplicated it without the chicken.  Everyone asked for seconds!

FOOD COURT STIR FRY

This is one of my favorite dishes adapted from the Japanese chains in the food courts found everywhere.  Using left over rice made the night before works best but if you don't have any around, cook the rice and let it sit with the lid on the pot for 15-20 minutes before you start the stir fry to allow the rice to dry out a bit. This dish cannot be made ahead of time because the vegetables get limp and mushy if they sit too long. So it should be served immediately....have everyone assembled and ready to sit. The sweet taste of the teryaki sauce makes it a hit with the younger kids. This makes enough for two people so adjust your ingredients to suit. If you don't have a food processor just slice and dice by hand.

-4 to 6 servings of brown or white rice ( if you want extra for something else)

-1/4 head of cabbage sliced thin

-2 carrots shredded
-handful of broccoli chopped small

-handful of sliced mushrooms per serving

-couple handfuls of bean sprouts

-2 T of chopped green onions

-sesame oil (you can use canola but the sesame really adds the nice Asian flavor)

-bottled teriyaki sauce

1. prepare rice if needed (see note above). I always make extra for another recipe the next night

2. using the thin slicing blade of your food processor, slice cabbage

3. change blades to the shredder and put the carrots through

4. spray a non-stick saute pan with vegetable spray and saute the mushrooms and broccoli until tender.  Don't over cook.
5. Heat a wok on medium-high (or large frying pan) and add about 2 tsp of sesame oil.  When really hot add the cabbage mixture and stri- fry quickly for about 1-2 minutes.  Throw in the bean sprouts and stir fry for another minute.  Add the mushroom and broccoli mix and stir quickly to reheat.
6. Put some rice on a plate and make a well in the middle.  Add some of the vegetable mix and sprinkle with some green onions, and put a few tsp of the teriyaki sauce on top or to taste.