Get your K, omega-3 and -6 and protein

NUTRITION

Omega-3 fatty acids -- 560mg
Omega-6 fatty acids -- 2781mg
Protein -- 16.9g
Vitamin K -- 41.4mcg


DIRECTIONS

Eat your edamame fresh out of the pods

OR

Boil your edamame and dip in soy sauce

OR

Pop out of pods and add to soups

OR

Boil edamame and blend with some oil + spices to make edamame hummus


Enjoy this nutrition-packed, yummy food as a meal or snack ... or anytime!

Make your own wild rice or grain blend

Tasty AND beautiful.



[ pictured: black rice, red rice, brown rice, whole oat groats and quinoa ]


Are you missing out on whole grains and rices because you think those blends are too expensive? Well, it's easy to make your own -- and you can include any or all of your favorites!

Oat groats, buckwheat, rolled kamut, millet, quinoa also cook at the same rate as the above rices, so add equal amounts or vary them. This way your mixtures will always change! Who wants their food to always taste and look the same? Yuck, right?

So enjoy any of these grains and rices by mixing your own. *If you add quinoa, I recommend keeping your mixture in the fridge to keep it fresh.

I think it will be perfect as a stuffing for my stuffed seitan! Don't you agree? I'll post an update next week. I plan to try this for our upcoming vegan potluck.

Beef up your stews

... without the beef. Oats and lentils really give your stew a thicker, hearty texture and flavor. Then, when you least expect it, the kale kicks it up a notch. Bam! [Zap Brannigan]

Oat groats, which are the whole oat grains, are great for men (and women, too) to lower bad cholesterol. Kale is great for women (especially as we age) to increase our calcium intake and absorption. Why not combine these yummy ingredients to share a healthy, scrumptious meal?

As always.. my recipes are easy! Basically, you just have to think about which ingredients need more time to cook. My times are approximate.






INGREDIENTS

1/4 c oat groats
1/3 c lentils
2 celery stalks
2 carrots
1 medium red potato
1/2 can diced tomatoes
1/4 c corn
2 large kale leaves
2 not-chick'-n bullion cubes
optional: extra garlic, salt, pepper, thyme


DIRECTIONS

Boil about 4 cups of water. Add diced potato.

15 minutes later add oat groats and spices.

20 minutes later add carrots.

20 minutes later add all remaining ingredients.

In 15-20 minutes it is ready! Remember to keep your water level higher if you want it soupier, let some of it absorb and evaporate for more of a stew. It'll be delicious both ways.

Enjoy in good health! Go vegan: get happy.

Need more calcium?

Because I've had a recent exercise-related back injury, I'm adding extra calcium into my diet to hopefully speed healing. Calcium, needed for strong bones, is found in dark green leafy vegetables, tofu made with calcium sulfate, calcium-fortified soy milk and orange juice, and many other foods commonly eaten by vegans. So don't worry.. it's easy.

Did you know that there is as much (if not more) calcium in 4 ounces of firm tofu or 3/4 c collar greens as there is in a cup of cow's milk? So, enjoy your calcium without saturated fats, cholesterol or suffering! Woohoo!




Sources of well-absorbed calcium for vegans include calcium-fortified soy milk and juice, calcium-set tofu, soybeans and soy nuts, bok choy, broccoli, collards, Chinese cabbage, kale, mustard greens and okra. Enjoy any of these foods mixed into your homemade soups. Here's a very yummy one we threw together with what we had on hand:


Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

1/3 c dry lentils
1 large red potato
2 carrots
3 celery
2 large kale leaves
2 cubes Not-chicken bullion
optional: add garlic, paprika, onion, splash soy sauce
Diced baked tofu


It's always nice to switch the brand of bullion cubes you use. They all have different flavors. You can also add other spices to change up your flavors. Don't be afraid to mix it up.. you really can't mess it up. I promise.

First, boil about 4 cups of water.

Now, dice your potato and boil. Cover. About 20 minutes later add your diced carrots and spices/bullion.

About 15 minutes later you can add your lentils, celery and kale.

Keep water level in pot an inch or so above the soup ingredients.

Your soup will be ready in 20-25 minutes. It's fantastic fresh off the stove. The lentils and kale give this soup a hearty flavor. I usually throw a few cubes of tofu into the bowls before adding the soup.

Dig in. Enjoy for your health (and your taste buds)!

Stuffed seitan

Thanks to the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen for the inspiration. I've been wanting to try this for months... it's about time I got to it. They used lots of nuts, oils and more nutritional yeast than I had on hand -- which is tasty, I'm sure! My version is low-fat but still exquisite. Trust me.




INGREDIENTS & HOW TO

SEITAN
1/4 c lentils + 1/4 c oats + 3/4 c water (or more to keep moist) overcooked
1 T nutritional yeast
1 t garlic
1/2 t thyme, onion
1 T soy sauce
1 1/2 c vital wheat gluten

STUFFING
1/4 c brown or wild rice, cooked (optional)
3/4 c cranberries
2 large celery stalks, sliced small
1/4 c peas
1 small/medium potato, diced small (I used red)
1/2 c water
1/4 c applesauce (optional but tasty)
1/2 t thyme, onion powder, sage
1 T soy sauce
1 T orange juice concentrate

BROTH
1/2 - 2/3 c water
1-2 T soy sauce
1-2 T orange juice concentrate
1 bullion cube
1 T basil, rosemary
1 t thyme
1 t olive oil (optional)


DON'T SKIP THIS STEP: Use foil. Keep each seitan loaf, whether you're making one large one or smaller separate ones or cooking seitan (wihtout stuffing.) Use the foil to keep it from sticking to your cooking dish. You can also use the foil to shape in a log or flat or whatever you prefer.

INSTRUCTIONS

Dice stuffing ingredients. Cook until most of the moisture has been absorbed and/or evaporated. This will smell delicious.. but try to hold out.

In a separate pot, cook lentils, oats and all remaining seitan ingredients EXCEPT GLUTEN. You will add this later. Don't have lentils? That's okay!.. you can probably use any legume you have on hand or even in a can. Lighter flavored legumes may work best. Just remember, canned foods are FULL of salt. So I wouldn't add salt or soy sauce if you do that. Honestly, I used lentils because they cook so quickly.

When lentil/oat mixture is almost cooked, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Continue cooking lentil/oats until they're OVERcooked and smooshy. Add small amounts of water as necessary.

Now, blend your lentil/oat mixture in blender until very smooth. Add a little water if you need to. Pour into bowl with gluten. Make sure your hands are clean and dig in. Knead, knead, knead. You may need to add a T of water at a time to blend mixture and keep it moist. How do you know how much water to add?.. just keep it looking wet.

Meanwhile, your stuffing mixture should be nearly cooked. Once most of the moisture is gone, let it cool so that you can handle it.

Put broth ingredients into another small pot. Heat until everything is melted.


Now comes the fun part:

Lay out your gluten mixture on wax paper or cutting board or just your clean counter. Roll until even and flat and thin.

Your stuffing should be cool enough to handle now, so put it on top of your gluten dough. Wrap the dough neatly around the stuffing. Pinch all holes closed.

Wrap your seitan roll in foil or use a dish that completely seals. Make sure to use enough foil to close it COMPLETELY. Pour broth over seitan and if using, keep it inside the foil. Wrap tightly. Place in cast iron skillet or pot with sides (to catch spills.)

Cook sealed in foil for 30 minutes. Turn the roll over (and re-wrap in foil if necessary). Add more water to keep moist. Close tightly and cook another 30 minutes.

Lower heat to 375 and remove foil. Add some water (or more baste) to your skillet and cook another 20 minutes on each side until brown and water is evaporated. **Keep the seitan sitting in at least a small amount of liquid the entire time for best flavor and moisture.

Slice.

Enjoy.

And enjoy again... and again... wow. You won't believe how lovely this meal is until you try it. Fantastic!


FOLLOW-UP: You can really use any stuffing ingredients and probably any spices that you want. Try this!

This was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. Try it with whatever you have on hand. Frozen, fresh, anything. These would make great seitan-pockets, too! Make the recipe and separate into 4 pockets for stuffing. Wrap each one individually in foil, baste and cook the same way. Just remember when re-heating at work to make sure it's in some water and I would even put a cup of water in the microwave while it's heating. Keep it moist.

How to stuff your face and lose weight

Simply take our 5-day health challenge!



We don't always eat perfectly (as you can see in some of our previous posts!) And even though we don't usually splurge on high-fat, junky foods.. we do. That means sometimes we need to make up for it. We may fall victim to cheesy dips, fast food pizza joints (yummy Papa John's white flour thin crust) and french fries or chips and salsa. They won't kill us - or you - but they're certainly not good for you - or us.

That's why I decided we should eat completely healthily for 5 full days. This means eating only fruits, vegetables and spices for 5 days (NOTE: we are having a watered-down cup of coffee in the morning because we are a bit addicted to caffeine from our daily cup of joe.)

DAY 1
Breakfast: coffee, banana, apple

Lunch: steamed russet potatoes, carrots; smoothie made of strawberries, prunes, spinach and banana



[Check out these cranberries! They're scrumptious over boiled sweet and russet potatoes. My favorite! See day 1.]

Dinner: boiled/diced sweet and russet potatoes, water-grilled asparagus, boiled corn, cranberries cooked with juice of 1 orange and zest and a dash of ginger until gooey; smoothie made of strawberries, prunes, spinach and pear

Dessert: pomegranate arils



DAY 2
Breakfast: coffee, smoothie made from mixed pineapple, strawberries, spinach
Lunch: salad with barbacoa jackfruit and grape tomatoes, smoothie made with apple, strawberries, spinach

Snack: cup of tea + lots of seaweed

Dinner: sweet potato, russett potato, brussel sprouts, corn, leftover barbacoa jackfruit and zucchini + lots of spices. Seriously -- the more spices, the better. (Cook potatoes longer to soften. Add other veggies later. Simmer/boil the heck out of it!)



DAY 3
Breakfast: watered-down coffee (Yep, that's it! Amazingly, my appetite isn't what it usually is. Apparently, high-fiber, low-fat foods keep your fuller, longer -- even through the morning!)

Lunch: boiled/marinated sweet potato and russet potato with bullion (yummy!) with steamed broccoli, orange cauliflower and carrots; smoothie with pomegranate, strawberries, spinach and apple

Snack: apple, hot tea and seaweed snacks

Dinner: hot, hot, hot soup of green beans, red potato, corn, carrots, celery and lots of spices with fresh avocado on top (the avocado calms the heat of the soup)



Dessert: blended strawberries + bananas -- frozen for two+ hours and thawed for half hour before eating. Makes a great all-fruit, slushy dessert! **Keep leftovers in freezer. This time you may have to thaw for an hour before eating.



DAY 4
Breakfast: coffee, banana, apple

Lunch: soup made of 1/2 can of diced roasted tomatoes, red potato, two carrots, celery and broccoli; smoothie with pineapple-mixed fruit, spinach, cranberries, banana and water

Dinner: jackfruit seasoned with taco seasoning on top of a bed of spinach, grape tomatoes, diced boiled sweet and yellow potatoes - delicious!

Dessert: Tyler finished the frozen dessert from yesterday and I boiled strawberries, cranberries and blueberries. Cook until strawberries are a gooey mess and cranberries are open. Eat while still warm. BEWARE: Your teeth and tongue will turn very, very blue. So rinse with water soon after and brush well. But trust me, it's totally worth it!

DAY 5
Breakfast: coffee, apple

Lunch: soup to-go -- we're meeting our tax guy today so I have to send something easy back to work with Tyler for his last day of completely healthy eating. We've almost made it! Hot soup + Tyler gets his own avocado. (Since I am actually trying to trim down, I'm eating my sans avo. But yesterday's avo we split was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. Personally I love when we can split them.)

Dinner: avocado sliced, wrapped in seaweed (I find it funny that I ate an entire avocado for dinner immediately after mentioning that I like to split them. Well, normally avocado is added to a meal so I don't want an entire avo. But this time it WAS the meal. And a damn great one. I highly recommend it. Directions: Sprinkle avo with salt and pepper, warp with pieces of nori. Devour.) I didn't take a picture because it's not exactly aesthetically-pleasing. You'll get it all over your fingers. You'll moan while you eat it. Yes, it's that good. You'll just have to trust me.

Dessert: banana



NOTES:

We're calorie-restricting without even trying. Off and on we've both been a little tired. Not exhausted, just a little tired. But no matter how much you eat when you're eating this way -- you get hungry every few hours. That's the beauty of eating good food! You really can eat as much as you want.

THOUGHTS:

I'm sure you all know that one week of completely healthy eating doesn't make up for weeks, months or years of junk. There is no magic medicinal pill you can take that will allow you to eat at your favorite fast food restaurants or even most of the chain restaurants in America. Let's just accept that and move on.

The more healthily you eat, the better your food will taste.

You may have to adjust to it in the beginning but after some time, after your taste buds have had time to heal and learn to taste food again, you'll be amazed at how wonderful these simple meals will taste.

You'll be even more amazed at how wonderful you feel (and look!)



Go vegan: get happy.

Rotel vegan-cheese dip

Superbowl sunday junk food:



We were craving a rotely, cheesy, gooey dip. This one was surprisingly easy --- and A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Cholesterol-free, low-fat, spicy and absolutely delicious. We actually ate this entire bowl by ourselves!

INGREDIENTS

Follow Your Heart cheddar
Nutritional yeast
Almond mylk (original unsweetened, just 30 calories per cup)
Rotel
Salt

Basically I put a rotel can into the pot on the stove. Add about 3/4 c nutritional yeast. Mix.

Meanwhile, dice your Follow Your Heart cheddar. Smaller pieces melt faster. Now, add them bit by bit to your dip. Keep stirring, allowing everything to melt.

Here is where you make it how you want:

You want it gooey and moist, so begin adding almond mylk (or soy or rice mylk) to keep it wet and melting. ** Did you add too much mylk? Just boil a while and it'll melt off. Or add some more nutritional yeast. ** Dip too thick? Add a little more mylk at a time.

Salt to taste.

Enjoy with chips and veggies! Also great in burritos.

If you're going to enjoy comfort food -- you might as well make it as healthy as you can. This is full of b-vitamins (from the nutritional yeast) and no saturated fat (because this isn't made from anybody's breast milk.)


I promise you will LOVE this.

Vegan butterfingers

The chocolate is still wet and gooey... put in the fridge for a few minutes to firm it up. Enjoy!



This isn't really a recipe but here goes:

1) Buy chick-o-sticks.

2) Melt chocolate in double-boiler. Fill a pan with a few inches of water to boil. Put your chocolate chips or chocolate bar pieces into a coffee mug. Place mug in the boiling water. Keep stirring until chocolate melts. Dip your chick-o-sticks into the chocolate. Cover if you want or just dip.

3) Leftover chocolate? Add it to banana chips or anything you want!

Seriously easy. Not exactly healthy -- but cholesterol-free, of course (because it's vegan) and it's intensely dark chocolate. Wow. Hits the spot.

Be sure to share!

Darkest-chocolate cupcakes for two

It's very easy to work with the previous post: cupcakes for two.



Change it to be fruity cupcakes. Make them chocolate. Like vanilla?.. make them super-vanilla! The possibilities are endless. I even made a boston-cream cupcake by mixing silken tofu + raw sugar + vanilla to make the center cream and melted some chocolate chips for the topping. Easy! Use your imagination.. and please post what you've made! I'm always looking for new ideas.

Don't see something you want? Post and I'll try to make it. The fun part of experimenting in the kitchen is that sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't... but either way it's quite fun. Sometimes you make something you didn't intend -- and it still ends up wonderful and yummy.


INGREDIENTS

DRY
1/4 t baking soda
2 T + 1 t whole wheat flour
2 t gluten flour
1 t ground or whole flax (optional)
1 T chocolate powder
2 T raw sugar (I use more sugar in the chocolate cupcakes -- but remember: SAD commercial cupcakes use at least 1:2 sugar:flour, sometimes 1:1 -- so work your way down to less and less sugar.)
pinch salt

WET
5 T almond mylk (to make runny batter)
1 t almond oil (it's sweeter than olive oil and great for desserts)
1/2 t vanilla
3/4 t apple cider vinegar

** Put a few chocolate chips on top of each cupcake during the last 2 minutes of baking for a smooth, chocolately coating/icing.
** Sprinkle some flax for extra nutritional benefits.
** Add extra almond mylk if your batter isn't runny.
** For a fattier dessert, add up to an extra t almond oil.
** Using whole wheat flour isn't just healthy... it's delicious. Who even buys white flour anymore?
** Add 4-5 berries to your muffin cup.
** Add 4-5 chocolate chips to your muffin cup.

Preheat your small toaster oven to 350 degrees. (Why use a huge oven for such a small meal?)


DIRECTIONS

First things first: make your buttermylk. Just mix wet ingredients in a small bowl. Stir. Let curdle for up to 10 minutes.

Next, mix dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl.

Once your mylk is ready, simply pour it into your dry ingredients. The batter should be wet and a bit runny. If it's not, add 1 t mylk at a time until it is semi-runny.

Now, pour into your silicone muffin cups. Fill almost full - but not completely! Your cupcake will rise as it bakes. ** If using fruit, put them into the wet batter in each muffin cup. We don't like the same fruits so I put my blueberries into my cup and raspberries or cherries into his cup.

Bake 350 degrees for 21 or so minutes. ** For some reason the chocolate takes longer to cook than the vanilla cupcakes. But still remember to not overcook. Cooking times vary by oven. Check at 18 minutes with a toothpick. ** You want your cupcakes a little moist but completely cooked. Remember, it'll continue to cook for a few minutes even after you've turned off your oven.

Delicious!

Vanilla cupcakes for two

I've decided that I'm tired of cooking and having leftovers -- or worse, eating too much! (Or more likely, my husband eating too much because he doesn't think there's enough for leftovers.. and then saying that he wants me to make him eat less!) Does this happen to you?

Fresh food is ALWAYS better. So, I'm trying to create recipes that a couple can share together. Not in a couple?.. share with a friend you love! What better way to help someone become vegan than by cooking a delicious AND healthy meal for them? I can't think of any.



[picture: cherry vanilla cupcakes]


Keep in mind that this serves TWO PEOPLE only... (maybe three if you make smaller cupcakes.) The measurements are going to be small. So, get out your two silicon muffin cups, two small mixing bowls and enjoy!


INGREDIENTS

DRY
1/4 t baking soda
3 T + 2 t whole wheat flour
1 t gluten
1 t flax, ground or whole (optional)
1 T + 2 t raw sugar (though commercial cupcakes use at least 1:2 sugar:flour, so you could use up to 2.5 T or even 3 T of sugar to satisfy a SAD eater)
pinch salt

WET
5 T almond mylk (to make runny batter)
1-2 t almond oil (it's sweeter than olive oil and great for desserts)
1/2 t vanilla
3/4 t apple cider vinegar
Optional: a few berries per muffin cup (I prefer blue or cherry)


Need three cupcakes? Use more fruit and spread out the batter into 3 silicon cups.

** Add extra almond mylk if your batter isn't runny.
** For a fattier dessert, add the extra t almond oil.
** Using whole wheat flour isn't just healthy... it's delicious. Who even buys white flour anymore?



DIRECTIONS

Preheat your small toaster oven to 350 degrees. (Why use a huge oven for such a small meal?)

First things first: make your buttermylk. Just mix wet ingredients in a small bowl. Stir. Let curdle for up to 10 minutes.

Next, mix dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl.

Once your mylk is ready, simply pour it into your dry ingredients. The batter should be wet and a bit runny. If it's not, add 1 t mylk at a time until it is semi-runny.

Now, pour into your silicone muffin cups. Fill almost full - but not completely! Your cupcake will rise as it bakes. ** If using fruit, put them into the wet batter in each muffin cup. We don't like the same fruits so I put my blueberries into my cup and raspberries into his cup.

Bake 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes max. ** Don't overcook. Cooking times vary by oven. Check at 18 minutes with a toothpick. ** You want your cupcakes a little moist but completely cooked. Remember, it'll continue to cook for a few minutes even after you've turned off your oven.

Delicious!

Homemade zesty burgers for two

This recipe makes 3 small patties or 2 large ones.



INGREDIENTS

1/2 block tofu
2 T ketchup
1-2 t marmite
1 t garlic powder
1/2 t onion
1 T basil
1/3 c wheat gluten
Up to 3 T water
Topping: coarse cornmeal + thyme + salt (total about 1/8 cup)


DIRECTIONS

Cut your block of tofu in half. Squish and squeeze out ALL of the water. Use firm+ tofu.

Mix ketchup, marmite and spices together. Add to tofu. Squeeze and squish it together. Break all of the tofu apart. Now add your wheat gluten. Squeeze and squish some more.

Start adding the water 1 T at a time. Squish the patty mixture together. You want the mixture to be moist but not wet.

Squeeze into patties. Squeeze hard.

Once you form the patties, dip into the batter mixture. Spray with olive oil spray.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Flip patties and cook another 20 until browned.