Two Holiday Gift Ideas that Keep on Giving

Have you noticed how much I am loving my copy of Clean Food by Terry Walters? I got it a few short weeks ago and suddenly all of my other cookbooks are badly neglected. Clean Food magically has recipes for all of the food that I want to eat RIGHT NOW. What exactly does that mean? I want to eat high nutrient, low calorie, fresh, primarily vegetable dishes. And this cookbook covers an incredible variety of just that. With simple tweaking to lessen the already fairly low quantity of oil in her recipes, if not eliminate the oil all together, it's like Ms.Watlers wrote a personal cookbook just for me.


So imagine my excitement when my friend QB walked into my house the other day holding her copy of Ms. Walter's brand new book, Clean Start. It took me 24 hours to acquire my very own copy and another 24 to make my first recipe from it, Sauteed Greens with Leeks and Garlic. Let's just say, I might die right now and go to heaven!

Both incredible cookbooks to give yourself or a loved one who is on a health quest, it would be truly magnificent to present your gift with a container of something that you prepared using one of Ms. Walter's recipes. Hence, my second holiday gift idea . . .
When I cook, I tend to make a lot. I do this because my time in the kitchen is really limited and I want to eat great, healthy, whole, real food all of the time. Oftentimes, because I double most recipes that I make, I have so much that even I can't keep it all. That's where my friends and neighbors come in handy! They are always happy to share in the bounty. So it got me thinking, if a large batch of soup is the gift you give yourself that keeps on giving, it could also be the gift that you give for the holidays that is creative, unique and certainly more useful than, well, most of what we give for the holidays! Just make a big pot full, freeze it in plastic containers, and it's always ready to pop in a gift bag whenever you head over to someone's home for holiday festivities.

Healthy Girl's Take on Goodness Soup

adapted from a recipe in Clean Food by Terry Walters

2 thumb-size pieces kombu
3 tbsp vegetable broth
1 large onion, chopped
1 pound mushrooms (any type), chopped
5 carrots, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 cup hulled barley, rinsed
1 cup lentils, rinsed
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1 Tbsp dried basil
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup mirin
2 Tbsp tamari
12 cups water2 15 ounce cans beans of your choice (kidney beans, canellini beans, really any beans will be fine), drained and rinsed

1 large bunch kale, rinsed, removed from stems and chopped
sea salt and pepper

Place kombu in a bowl with enough water to cover, soak for 10 minutes or until soft. Drain, mince and set aside.

In a large soup pot over medium heat, saute onion in vegetable broth for 4 minutes. Add chopped mushrooms and stir. Cook for 3 more minutes. Add carrots, celery, barley, lentils, parsley, basil, bay leaf, mirin and tamari. Stir to combine, add water and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low, add kombu and continue cooking covered for 2 1/2 hours (it's okay if it cooks longer, it will not hurt the soup). Add beans and chopped kale and continue to simmer for 30 minutes. Taste soup and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately or store in refrigerator (for up to 1 week) or in freezer (in airtight containers) for gift giving!

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A Vegan Trifecta

Last week a cookbook was recommended to me by a friend, Scott, who is a far better cook than me. In fact, he's really a chef, only he's a lawyer who cooks just for fun. He is also a self-proclaimed meat addict. But he really put himself outside of his comfort zone and signed on to do the Whole Foods 28 Day Engine 2 Challenge. I'd like to think that I had something to do with inspiring him to try out this plant strong way of eating, after seeing my transformation. We'll never know.

I think Scott considers himself officially "plant strong" now, if not completely vegan. He's gone through quite a transformation himself, both physically and psychologically. Not only has he dropped more than 30 pounds since dropping the meat, he's dropped the emotional ups and downs that he used to experience. His testimony is actually quite moving.

So when Scott told me about a cookbook that he was getting a lot of inspiration from, I ordered it that day from Amazon. It's called Clean Food and the author is Terry Walters. If you are looking for an incredible variety of easy, fast vegan recipes full of unique, healthy ingredients, this cookbook is a must. There are four sections, one for each season, so you can even stick to eating what is in season if you'd like. The only thing that could make this cookbook better is photographs, but I guess I'll have to supply those for us!

In one day, Ms. Walters has already inspired me to cook my own aduki beans (instead of using canned), purchase a pomegranate, use up the millet that was in my pantry and much, much more. I just picked three things from the book that seemed appealing to me and figured I would serve them all up at once for dinner. The results? Beautiful, tasty, filling and ultimately nutritious.

Millet, Aduki Beans and Corn with Lemon Dressing

Warm Greens with Citrus Dressing and Pomegranate

Curried Parsnips

I do want to mention that Ms. Walter's recipes often include olive oil or grapeseed oil. I chose to eliminate it altogether and opted to saute in broth instead for the Curried Parsnips. In the case of the other two recipes, I reduced the amount of oil called for the in the recipe by 50%. None of the recipes that I tested seemed affected at all by these changes, which is generally what I find with all recipes!



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