Day 95 -- It's The Great Pumpkin Smoothie, Charlie Brown

A few days ago, I posted some links for new recipes that I planned to try over the weekend.  I feel compelled to report back on one of those that I really enjoyed -- the Creamy Pumpkin Pie Smoothie.  Since I purchased my Nutri-Bullet, smoothies have become old hat for me.  But I prefer fruit-based smoothies. Until I saw this. It looked like a creamy milkshake.  And pumpkin is so good for you that I just couldn't resist trying it.  I'm here to report that it tasted as good as it looked.

The recipe includes a tablespoon of chia seeds.  Since I live near a small Midwestern city, I was hopeful that I might be able to find chia seeds in my local grocery store.  After all, they had flax seeds in two of the three stores that I frequent.  When I couldn't find them at my favorite store, I went to my second favorite store.  I couldn't seem to find them there either and decided to ask at the service desk.  And there they were, both packaged and in bulk!  I also tried to find harissa without any luck at either store.  I knew I was reaching with that one.

Chia seeds are high in Omega 3 which is something that I need to make sure I include in my diet.  I haven't been eating ground flax seed lately since I've been skipping my morning oatmeal and smoothies.  But chia seed has the benefit that they don't need to be ground to be nutritious, so they can be tossed in almost any dish.  I'll talk more about chia and flax seeds in a future post.  Here's the recipe for this yummy smoothie from the Oh She Glows website.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
1 cup almond milk

1/4 cup rolled oats
1 T. chia seeds
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 t.  blackstrap molasses
1/2  frozen ripe banana
1 t.cinnamon
1/4 t. ground ginger
pinch of ground nutmeg
1 T. pure maple syrup

1. In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the milk, oats, and chia seeds. Place in fridge for 1 hour or preferably overnight.
2. Add soaked oat mixture to blender along with the pumpkin, molasses, maple syrup,  frozen banana, and spices. Blend until smooth. Add about 3 ice cubes and blend until ice cold.

Day 94 -- Eight Dollars Worth Of Beets?

How far should one go to make a good recipe?  Should cost even come into the equation when one is making something healthy to eat?  And if so, how much is too much?

These are the questions I posed to myself as I stared at the bunches of organic golden beets.  I needed two bunches.  A total of six small to medium size beets. And at $3.99 a bunch, I was torn.  I could use red beets instead, but the recipe called for golden.  And these were organic.  The regular red beets were much less expensive and non-organic . . . but they weren't golden.  Yeah, vegan world problems.  It was late at night, the store about about to close and I couldn't make a decision.  It didn't seem pathetic at the time, I swear.

I began to think of everyone else in the store and what they were buying.  A decent steak would cost at least $8.00 and provide just one meal for one person. This dish would make at least three meals for me.  And I'd already been to one other grocery store looking (in vain) for golden beets.  I started to think that maybe this was a recipe that I ought to put away until summer, when I could get golden beets from my dad's garden or from the farmer's market.

But then I decided to splurge.  After all, in my former life as a carnivore, I used to spend that same amount on a piece of salmon or a steak.  Why should I deny myself now when what I was worrying over was healthy and nutritious?  If it were an $8.00 carton of gourmet ice cream, I would have said no.  But beets -- especially organic beets -- are good for you.

So, all this to make this dish --  Golden Beet Salad with Roasted Shallots, Parsley and Orange Miso Dressing.  It's from my new favorite website -- Oh She Glows.  By the way, it was fabulous and worth every penny.  The Orange Miso dressing (I made mine with just a teaspoon of sesame oil) is heavenly.  I used regular yellow miso for that.  And I served the whole thing on top of some baby greens and herbs.  Definitely something I'm going to make again -- once golden beets get cheaper.

Day 93 -- Another Blog About A Blog

My sister, L, has a real nose for a good blog.  I'm not sure how she does it.  Maybe it's all those late nights browsing the web or maybe she just has some sixth sense, but today she steered me to a wonderful vegan blog called "Oh She Glows."

So many of the recipes look like they're exactly what I'd want to eat so the blog writer, Angela Liddon, and I must have similar taste in flood.  I was particularly interested in her Creamy Pumpkin Smoothie.  I've always thought of smoothies as fruit-based -- or made of some unappetizing greens.  But a pumpkin smoothie sounds like a liquid version of pumpkin pie.  That's the kind of veggie smoothie I can get behind.

I also copied a recipe for Cozy Millet Bowl with Mushroom Gravy and Kale.  Of course, the word gravy was all it took to pique my interest.  I'm going to try this as well, but I'll substitute quinoa for the millet, since I have a lot of quinoa in my pantry.

Who could possibly resist this?  I'm off to the grocery store and will report back after I've enjoyed both of these new recipes!

ETA:  This recipe was fabulous -- but I didn't exactly make it the way it was intended.  First of all, I lost my kale somewhere between the produce department and home.  So this became a mushroom gravy sans kale. And I decided against millet and substituted whole wheat rotini.  I topped it off with a dollop of vegan sour cream and it became Mushroom Stroganoff and it was YUMMY!  I'll definitely try this one again.  The Crimini mushrooms were so good and this was very savory for a vegan dish.

Day 92 -- Unhappy Meals

I was reading a blog yesterday about the current state of nutrition in this country and the writer harkened back to an old Star Trek episode to make a point about our diet.  The Enterprise was called in to help get critically-needed medication to a population suffering a planet-wide plague. The medication controlled the condition -- but when doses wore off, the condition would resurge, up to the point of death.  A cartel controlled the manufacture and distribution of the medication and by the end of the episode, we learn that the plague was actually an addiction.  The drug cartel addicted everyone to their drug, then convinced the people that the drug was the only way to treat their illness.  Of course, Star Fleet saved the day.

The author, Dr. Michael Katz, went on to make the point that we in this country are like the people of that plague-ridden planet. "We have epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and other chronic diseases -- fueled by ever more calories, sugar, salt, atherogenic fats, and processed starch. But we need that sugar, salt, starch, bad fat and calories -- because we've been conditioned to crave them. So we 'treat' our condition with the very stuff that created it in the first place, and created epidemic chronic disease as a byproduct."

The blog referenced an article in the New York Times, written by Michael Pollan called "Unhappy Meals."  I'm not going to summarize the article because it is something that needs to read from beginning to end.  So, I will leave you with that.  It's long, but it will open your eyes about the role of food in our lives and the control that big business wields over our diets.

Day 91 -- Three Month Anniversary!

Today I celebrate three months as a vegan!  I started this plan on December 27th in the hopes that I might finally find a way to get myself healthier in the new year.  I was optimistic and truly ready to make a major change. But I had an enormous task in front of me and I'd failed at this so many times in the past.  But this would be different.  I was going to eat a vegan diet low in fat, but I wasn't going to restrict the amount I ate.  As long as it was healthy, I was going to eat as much as I wanted.  And I was going to blog about my experiences every day.

In the past 90 days, I've discovered a lot about food -- and a lot about my own attitudes about food.  Food and I have always had a antagonistic relationship.  I could both love it and hate it at the same time.  I used food to reward myself for any number of things -- a long day, a job well done.  I'd always find some excuse to eat some high-fat, high-calorie meal and then beat myself up afterwards because of my choices.   The food I ate and the mood I was in were inextricably linked.  So when I made this plan, I walked into it wondering how I'd ever deal with the cravings, my need for all those rich, familiar tastes that I'd enjoyed for so much of my life.

What I didn't expect was that getting better nutrition and eating a more balanced diet would make the cravings almost non-existent.  I've been able to eat everything I want and I rarely feel hungry enough to fall back into my old habits.  I do miss some foods I used to eat -- cheese, most of all.  But I'm not willing to give up the progess I've made just to eat something that tastes good.  Plenty of what I eat now tastes good!  So now, when my brain plays this little game of temptation with my stomach, I'm strong enough to fight it.

I've lost 42 pounds in three months, I've lost five inches off my waistline, my acid reflux is gone, I sleep much better and I'm getting more active every day. I'm a quarter of the way to 365 days and if the next three months go as fast as the first three, then I'm in pretty good shape.  In another three months, I hope to have another 30 pounds gone.  That will be June 26th.  Summer can't come soon enough!

Day 90 -- A Fermentation Education

Everyone is talking about probiotics.  A commercial just informed me that 70% of a body's immune system is centered in the "gut".  Another article claims that the gut produces more serotonin than the brain does.  In order for the GI system to function properly, it needs the right balance of bacteria.  But with the use of anti-biotics, chlorinated water and everything else in our life determined to kill germs, we can't always maintain that balance.  That's why we should be using probiotics,  to make our gut healthier.

You can  either take probiotic capsules (which contain freeze-dried bacteria) or you can eat fermented foods which contain beneficial bacteria.  Many foods used to be fermented -- pickles, wine, sour cream, catsup.  But these days, all of those products are treated after fermentation (pastuerized) in order to kill the beneficial bacteria in them.  The best way to get probiotics is through naturally fermented foods.

Of course, there's the other side, "experts" who claim that fermented foods are bad for you, they contain too much salt, the by-products of fermentation are harmful, fermented foods aren' t as nutritious as fresh.  They believe that probiotics are just the next diet fad.  They believe that there are only a few reasons to replenish the bacteria in your digestive systems:  a course of anti-biotics, a severe stomach flu, or an intestinal disease like Crohn’s disease and celiac disease.  It seems that fermented food is almost as controversial as a vegan diet.

Until recently, I thought the only source of probiotics was Activia yogurt.  But after reading some vegan and vegetarian blogs, I noticed that many people believe in the power of probiotics or fermented food.  Since I already like a lot of the food on this list, I think I'll continue eating them while I learn more about probiotics.

Deli pickles and pickled veggies naturally fermented (no vinegar)
Fermented bean paste such as tempeh, miso and doenjang
Kimchi
Pao cai (Chinese pickled cabbage)
Sauerkraut
Soy sauce
Zha cai (Sichuan pickled mustard plant)
Artisan olives (olive bar, not canned/jarred olives)
Sourdough bread

Day 89 -- Overfed, Overweight and Starving To Death

My friend, E, passed this article along to me and I thought it was so interesting that I needed to post it here.  It's from the website Hungry For Change and the article is entitled "Are We Overfed and Starving To Death?"

The moment I read the title, it hit home.  This was me just three months ago.  I added the "overweight" to my blog title because that's exactly what I was.  I was eating way too much food but none of it was good for me.  Even through I was horribly overweight, I was literally starving for nutrition.  I ate too much processed food, too much fat and too many empty calories.  I felt miserable, sick and tired most of the time, plagued with acid reflux and other minor ailments.  I rarely got a decent night's sleep so I was also sleep deprived.  In fact, I was getting so little good sleep that I didn't remember dreaming for almost a year.

When I decided to take control of my diet, I never expected that I'd feel better so quickly.  Within a week, my acid reflux was gone.  I was sleeping better, I had more energy, I was happier and the veil of depression that seemed to hover over me was lifted.  I was regaining some measure of health.

It's been nearly three months now and I can testify that eating a diet filled with whole foods -- fruits and veggies, whole grains and legumes -- has changed my life.  I pay attention to nutrition now and when I make choices of what to eat, I do so with the knowledge that I need to feed my body first.  I no longer give into cravings or use food as a reward or a comfort.  Food is, first and foremost, fuel for my body.

I suspect that I will, for the most part, continue to eat vegan after my 365 day "experiment" is over.  But I'm not going to be so hard on myself that I can't enjoy a piece of fish now and then or a tempting sweet made with butter and white flour.  But those "cheats" will be few and far between.  This is what works for me and I'm pretty sure that it's the best I can do to improve my health.  I can honestly say that I am no longer overfed and starving to death.  I'm still overweight, but I'm working on that!