Sunrise Smoothie

It snowed last night. Again.  And now a lovely sleety ice rain is falling. Bleech! I would love to be on a tropical island again like Vieques, P.R. or back in Costa Rica but since I'm here in Rhode Island enduring what is hopefully winter's last hurrah, I'm making tropical smoothies.

I was at the market this weekend waffling over which fruits to splurge on and then I smelled the strawberries. I'll just give them a sniff I thought as commercial berries can be lacking in flavor, but ohhhh,oohh yes, sold!  Wafting up to my nose was the perfume of perfectly ripe strawberries.  Craving Spring and strawberry season, I had to have them.  

Blood oranges are also in season right now and I just love their deep rich flavor- to me they are the wine of the orange citrus world.  Don't get me wrong I love satsumas and clementines but their flavor is a delicate, ethereal grace note compared to blood oranges .

Sunrise Smoothie:

1 blood orange, peeled and cut into sections
handful of strawberries, washed and green tops removed
1 banana
So Delicious brand coconut milk
or Almond, Rice or Soy milk

Put ingredients into Nutribullet or blender of choice, blend and serve.Coconut milk (and by this I mean the milk you drink and find in the aisle with the almond rice and soy milks, not the one one that comes in a can and is used for making curries) contains some saturated fat but it's form is in MCT (medium chain triglycerides) which are thought to have myriad health benefits.  The Engine 2 Diet says not to use this if you are trying to lose weight. And there are some articles that recommend not using coconut milk if you are diabetic. Definitely work with a nutritionist , consult your doctor and do research so you can make an informed decision as to what's best for you if you have any health concerns. Almond soy or rice milk will work just as well in this smoothie. I

    For extra nutrition you could add flax meal or chia seeds to this . This will make 2 servings if the banana is really large and 1 serving if using a small banana.

A Request For Shepherd's Pie

With St. Patrick's Day this week Himself was feeling a bit mournful about having to fore go Corned beef and Cabbage. He asked if we could have Shepherd's Pie. There's a recipe for it in the Engine 2 book.  It's delicious and healthy and won't leave you feeling heavy from the gravy because there's no gravy and no oil in the recipe. 

As you can see this was devoured  as soon as it came out of the oven! See the Engine 2 book for  the full recipe- I'm just going to explain " Meat Crumbles" a bit.

Meat Crumbles are reconstituted textured vegetable protein ( the reddish brown stuff you see in the casserole dish here) and can be found pre-made and refrigerated or frozen or you can do it yourself.  It is easy and if you are trying to reduce oils salts etc .  Bob's Red Mill makes a dry package of Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) and  all that's in it is the defatted soy protein.  To reconstitute it, you just add the appropriate amount of boiled water or vegetable stock and stir. If you are making it ahead of time like I did, just cover it and refrigerate.  I made mine in the morning before work and then it was one less thing to do when I got home that night. There's a bit of chopping and sauteing involved in this recipe so if you are short on time , doing a few things beforehand can really make a difference.

If you can't have soy I would use quinoa as a substitute in this. Cook quinoa according to directions on package and then add it in place of the TVP in the recipe.

Hidden salts to watch for:  As I  put the peas in the steamer I saw that there was added salt in the package. Peas are so tender and sweet it baffles me as to why anyone would package them with salt but some companies do so check your frozen foods.   I bought Annie's Naturals Vegan Worcestershire sauce for this recipe and there is salt in that too.  There is often salt in canned tomato products so be careful there as well. 

This was a very enjoyable recipe and provided 5 dinners and 2 lunches for us.

Making Stock

Day 6   All this cooking takes a lot of dish washing and I have no dishwasher.  I dream about having one.  Just like the Anne Taintor  housewife magnets "I dreamed my whole house was clean..."  Someday I will have one.

Day 7  Making stock:    Creating lovely meals with lots of vegetables means lots of vegetable trimmings- don't let them go to waste - make stock.  The tomato cores, herb trimmings, outer layers of onion,  carrot ends, green tips from scallions and the ribs or stems from kale can all go into a big pot with about a teaspoon of  pepper corns , some thyme and dill, a few bay leaves, a celery stalk or two and some smashed garlic.    Just don't add anything moldy or slimy that has degenerated from  vegetable to UFO ( unidentifiable fridge object) and make sure it's been rinsed so there's no grit. Now you have complete control over what's in your soup stock. Most cookbooks recommend not using  a lot of carrot peels or broccoli family remains as these can make the stock too sweet or too bitter but experiment as you wish. 

I'm thrilled to be using my new garlic press and my new strainer today.  The garlic press worked like a charm and I'm happy to report it was very easy to clean as well.

  I found them at my favorite local culinary goods store Stock on Hope St.  www.stockpvd.com
Cover these leftovers with water and simmer away for about 20 minutes.

  Then let cool and pour through a strainer to filter out the vegetable dregs.
Pour into airtight containers and label and date them.  These will keep in the freezer 6 months and in the fridge 1-2 weeks. Now you have stock of your own to make soup.

The Joy of Cooking has all sorts of recipes for stock from vegetable to seafood and  meats. The herbs will vary depending on what your base is and what your purpose is.  Tamar Adler has some wonderful words on this and using other bits and pieces in her book  An Everlasting Meal. It's really wonderful to get a second life out of all these unused pieces of vegetable and if you have a compost bin you can reuse the vegetables a third time to make compost ( just to be clear if you are making stock with meat or seafood those veggies should not go to the compost after).
The broth I just made is so yummy I'm having a bowlful now!

Day 1

Day 1
 I stocked the pantry last night ( note to self : shopping on Sunday night is a feeding frenzy - don't do it again) and made kale and lentil soup from the Engine 2 Diet cookbook. The book says it feeds 10 hungry firemen and that's right- it will take us all week to eat this!
 The soup is good and hearty especially with a slice of Ezekiel bread or a whole wheat and no oil pita. The hardest part of shopping was checking on ingredients in packaged foods like stock, chips and bread in the middle of a crowded shopping aisle - Sorry folks, I tried to be fast! Anyhow Whole Foods small pita pockets are safe, no oils used. The big Whole Foods pitas have oil in them.
 Why no oil you ask?
 Well according to Rip Esselstyn, the author of the Engine 2 Diet, oils are plant extracts not whole foods and if you are trying to lose weight and lower bad cholesterol levels you need to eliminate oil or consume a miniscule amount. If you have to grease a pan he wants you to use Pam spray. So far this is my only complaint about the book.
 I REFUSE to use Pam. It's genetically modified canola oil and the propellant can be any combination of propane, food grade alcohol, butane, and/ or petroleum gas. Yuck! Why would you want that in your food??? I plan to get a Misto ( a pump oil spritzer) and use that with olive oil for the few times I really need any oil.  A little water in the pan or vegetable broth works fine in place of oil for many things.  The soup is lovely although the recipe calls for no seasoning except ground pepper. It tastes much better on the second day too ( and the third and the fourth...) I'm thinking maybe oregano and thyme and basil the next time I make this soup.

In which we go vegan...

Two weeks ago my boyfriend( henceforth referred to as Himself or my fella as he wishes to remain anonymous) decided out of the blue that he wanted to try a vegan diet to shed some of the winter weight he's carrying. This from the man who loves his eggs and bacon and porterhouse steaks. Me , incredulous,- You're going to give up bacon? And, um, cheese ? Himself, -Yeah, I can do that. Me - Ok then let's do it. ( Internally mourning cheese before we even get started. Did I mention I really love cheese?) I've done the vegan diet before in college when meat was often well beyond my student income. I eat about a 70% plant based diet now and this means that Himself has been exposed to a more plant based diet since we've been together. Some fish ( mostly sushi), occasional burgers,eggs enjoyed as a weekend treat and often accompanied by their frequent dance-card partner, Bacon , drift in and out of my menu but cheese is pretty much a constant. But if Himself can give up meat then I can go without cheese and truth be told I need to. A persistent bit of eczema that refuses to respond to topical creams indicates there is some underlying allergy happening in my body and this is one way to find out if it's dairy- related. So after getting out all of my Sarah Kramer vegan cookbooks including How It All Vegan and La Dolce Vegan,( Yes I'm afraid I'm a bit of a cookbook addict, a friend mentioned The Engine 2 Diet. I picked up the book and had the brain flash that the author was the son of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn from Forks Over Knives, which I watched on Netflix not too long ago . I also remembered that I sat next to a relative of his on a plane last October who told me that the diet was profoundly transformational for everyone in his family that's gone on it. OK, Cool beans! The diet focuses on whole plant based foods, low sodium, whole grain and cooking with no oils ( yes it's really doable). So I told Himself we would be doing the Engine 2 Diet 28 Day challenge and he was on board. - Welcome to our journey!