Last Licks . . . Mama Pea's Mmmm Sauce and Roasted Sweet Potato Rings

The day is dangerously close when life as I know it will come to an end. Tomorrow my contractor is setting up a makeshift kitchen in my living room where I will be attempting to "cook" for the next 12 weeks (I'm NOT complaining!). If I make it through I will be blessed with the kitchen of my dreams (big smile and nervous laughter). It's either the best decision I have ever made or the stupidest financial risk. Time will tell. And I don't want to live a life that ends in regret.

You'd think that I would be spending my last few days with a full kitchen preparing elaborate vegan soups and casseroles that I could freeze and that would help get us through the duration. But if you guessed I was doing that, you'd be way wrong. It's more like I'm paralyzed with fear. I'm avoiding life like the plague--hardly blogging, e-mails piling up, watching far too much reality TV. Hey, even I get (mildly!) depressed.

I first saw today's recipe this morning when I was going through a few days worth of old e-mails. That's generally how I decide what's for dinner--some interesting recipe magically lands in my in box and today this was it. I noticed that Mama Peas' Mmmm Sauce called for 1/4 cup of canola oil so I asked Mama Pea what I should do if I didn't want to use any oil. Nice girl that she is, she almost immediately suggested avocado. I happened to have one that I needed to use up, so I substituted 1/2 of an avocado for the oil.

I whipped up the batch of Mmmm Sauce when I got home from work and tossed it into a big salad . . . it was just okay. Then I dipped a roasted sweet potato ring (my new go to side dish for weeknights) and it was magic! The sauce actually reminded me of one of my all time favorite recipes. It was Gena at Choosing Raw's Raw Curried Cashew Spread that made me sure I could go vegan and never look back.

If you haven't made Roasted Sweet Potato rings, here's how to do it: Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Line baking sheets with aluminum foil and spray lightly with cooking spray. Carefully cut sweet potatoes into 1/4" slices and lay on baking sheet in a single layer. Place tray in oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and flip rings. Place trays back in oven, but rotate oven placement of trays top to bottom. Bake for an additional 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before serving as is or with your favorite dipping sauce.

For another extraordinary use of Roasted Sweet Potato Rings, don't forget to give Chef A.j.'s Sweet Potato Nachos a try. Yum!

What risks have you taken lately? Is there anything that you want to do but are on the fence about?

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Salad & Son

I'm not gonna lie, I think my 3 year old and 6 year old are pretty terrible eaters. But one thing that I have found to hold true is that if you engage children in the preparation of healthy food, they are FAR more likely to taste something new. Like lettuce. Max is not a salad eater, yet, but get him engaged in the preparation of a salad and he's a pretty sure bet for eating some romaine.

I think he likes it!

As for the adults in this household, we prefer our salads with some dressing on it, so when a friend of mine mentioned yesterday that she had made a delicious "goddess" dressing from Mama Pea at the Peas and Thank You blog, I thought I would search out the recipe. I was excited to find that I had all of the ingredients on hand, including the avocado, lemon, tahini and xanthan gum (yes, xanthan gum--I keep it in the freezer). Get the full recipe here. It's garlicy and full of flavor and oh-so-yummy. And no guilt involved! Just how I like my food.

What's your favorite salad dressing these days? Do you stick with the same one(s) or do you try new one(s) regularly?

Is it from a bottle or do you make it yourself?

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Spinach and Sprout Smoothie--Yes, it's Amazing

What have you been eating for breakfast lately? I tend to go in major waves when it comes to breakfast. I will eat the same thing for months on end because it tastes so delicious to me that I just don't want anything else. This habit started with my breakfast sammy and transitioned into smoothies of all varieties.  I know a woman who has been eating oatmeal with 1 Tbsp. peanut butter, fresh or frozen berries, 1 tsp. maple syrup and 6 almonds (yes, six) for over 20 years. (I've tried it, it's AMAZING, and tastes like PB&J oatmeal.)

This photograph is of my new breakfast du jour. Does this look like a radical breakfast to you? I think it once would have to me!

It's been a slow and natural progression for me into the world of green smoothies. And this is my greenest one yet. It was inspired by the Green Goddess Smoothie I have been ordering from Organic Energy here in Cleveland and really enjoying. So I thought, 'Why have all of this green goodness only when I am at the restaurant?"

Now this green smoothie is probably not for the faint of heart. But if you are ready, go for it! It is totally delicious to me and has become my breakfast of choice for the past 4 days.

Very Verdant Smoothie
serves one

1 small apple, cut into large chunks
1 small frozen banana, broken into chunks
1/4-1/3 ripe avocado
1 very large handful fresh spinach
1 handful alfalfa sprouts
1/2 cup water
6 ice cubes
Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

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A Siesmic Revolution of Health

I know, I know, I mentioned this a few days ago. But here is a much better clip from CNN about Bill Clinton's recent healthy lifestyle changes, and this time with comments from both Dr. Esselstyn and Dr. Dean Ornish.



For those of you whom this information is not new, how has this information affected the way that you eat? What changes have you made to your diet? Do you feel like those changes are sustainable? Have you experienced any health benefits because of it?

One of the things that has really changed for me over the past year and a half is the way I view breakfast. Instead of a meal that I am trying to skip to conserve calories, I now view breakfast as two things: (1) a must, because if I skip it I find that I overeat later in the day and (2) a way to pack in a whole lotta nutrients and fiber. And the easiest way to do that is with a delicious green smoothie! Here was today's:

Rejuvination Green Smoothie

1 small apple, removed from core

1 medium frozen banana, broken into chunks

1 cup frozen spinach

1/4 avocado

1 cup unsweetened almond milk

8 ice cubes

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy!

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Vegan Sushi Salad

I'm getting more and more ambitious in the kitchen.  I just read The Skinny Girl Dish, Easy Recipes for Your Naturally Thin Life by Bethenny Frankel and actually, I have been really inspired by the author's style of cooking. And it is not a vegan cookbook. It's very focused around ingredient substitutions that make cooking in your home more practical and more economical. She's even got a chapter called "Channeling Your Inner Chef" and, well, I'm starting to do that.

You see, I didn't go to culinary school and I have never worked in a restaurant.  Everything that I know about food came from watching and helping my mom in the kitchen, a little bit of home ec in 7th grade, a shit ton of time in front of, yes, The Food Network (and now, my new cooking resource, The Cooking Channel) and my own trial and error. So you'll have to excuse me if I am slow on the output of original recipes. I just don't have that level of kitchen confidence . . . yet. 

But the absolute best thing for me about Bethenny Frankel's new book is a sub chapter entitled "Your Fix-It Guide." It explains very simply how to season food with the three basic flavors: salt, sugar and acid. I won't give away her tricks, but I will tell you that I have saved many recipes now with her guidance.

Last night was one of those ultra-busy nights where I had to prepare dinner, feed my family and race into the car to get to my oldest's play performance by 6:45. No sweat though, because I had a moment of culinary genius earlier in the day when I knew just what to do!

In my refrigerator sat a bunch of leftovers from the sushi that I had made a few days ago, including cooked short grain brown rice, spears of cucumber, carrot, and mango. I also had a ton of roasted beets and some avocado. It was a risk, but I threw it all together and dressed it with rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame seeds and agave syrup and BAM! a winner was born. My husband said it was one of the best things he has ever tasted.

Healthy Girl's Leftover Sushi Salad

All quantities are approximate and can be easily tailored to your tastes. Just throw in whatever veggies you want to use up.

6 cups of cooked brown rice

1 1/2 ripe avocados, diced

3/4 cup small diced carrots

3/4 cup small diced cucumber

1 cup diced mango

1 cup small diced roasted beets

1/4 cup raw sesame seeds

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1/8 cup soy sauce

1 tbsp agave syrup

Toss all ingredients together and enjoy!

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Blog Subscriptions and a Raw Vegan Chocolate Mousse

When you are trying to lose weight, or even trying to maintain, there's just something really nice about subscribing to a variety of healthy weight loss/eating blogs. This has probably occurred to you, but in case it hasn't, I'll suggest it here. Subscribing puts each new blog entry into your e-mail inbox from all of the blogs that you have happened upon that really speak to you. And it's really easy to unsubscribe if you just don't love that blog that you thought was so cool at first glance.

Here's what subscribing to blogs does for me: it keeps me motivated and it keeps me inspired. How? Well, I'm going to my e-mail multiple times a day and I'm guessing you are too. New blog postings from bloggers with the same goals as mine are a great and positive reminder to stay the course. And I need that reminder continually. There are positive thoughts and things to aspire to. Most people with food issues can connect with each other on a deep level, even if they don't know each other. These blogs are a way to tap in to that energy.

In addition, healthy recipe blogs are a zaftig foodies best friend. There's just no excuse to fall back into bad eating habits when the world of healthy eating and recipes is so available to everyone right now. Just this morning I was reading a new posting from a blog called Loves Veggies and Yoga (http://www.lovesveggiesandyoga.com/) and a recipe for Raw Vegan Chocolate Mousse caught my eye. I happened to be going over to a friend's house for dinner tonight and I thought it would be fun to try it out on the crowd. I tweaked the original recipe a little by adding 25% less agave syrup than the recipe called for and it was plenty sweet for me.

This dessert is incredibly rich and decadent tasting, and highly caloric, but is made with nutritious ingredients. A little goes a long way, so you don't need to eat a lot to satisfy a sweet tooth, chocolate tooth, or cream tooth!

Raw Vegan Chocolate Mousse

4 ripe avocados

2/3 cup organic cocoa

1 cup real maple syrup

1.5 tsp vanilla extract
 
Place all ingredients in a high powered blender and blend until smooth.  Put mousse in refrigerator until time to serve. Any extras can keep in the freezer for a frozen chocolate treat.

I plan on serving the mousse with strawberries. Here's to hoping it's a success!

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Tomato, Corn, Black Bean and Avocado Salad

Hello Healthy Girl readers! Glad to have you here today. And while you are here, why not stop by and say hello in the comments section at the bottom of this posting. I will love you if you do!

Here's a great article from The New York Times (yeah!) about how the nutritarian way of eating is catching on:
http://www.livemint.com/2010/06/14221940/Eat-a-8216nutritarian8217.html?h=C

And if you've got as many pot luck functions to attend this summer as I do, you may be interested in the following salad recipe! If you are making it for a large crowd, you probably want to double this recipe.

Tomato, Corn, Black Bean and Avocado Salad

2 ears corn (husk and silk removed)
1 pint cherry, grape, or pear tomatoes, halved or quartered if large
1 avocado, halved, pitted and diced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
4 tbsp fresh lime juice
coarse salt and ground pepper

Stand ear of corn in a large wide bowl. With a sharp knife, carefully slice downward to release the kernels. Discard cobs.

Add tomatoes, avocados, scallions, black beans and lime juice to bowl.  Season with salt and pepper and toss gently to combine.

Serve as is or over a bed of salad greens.

Tomato

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