Easy Everyday Mujadara and Moroccan DIY Spice Blend

A few months ago I mixed up a batch of chai spice blend to liven up my green smoothie making. There really isn't a simpler or more economical way to wake up your food than to make your own spice blends. You probably already have tons of individual spices if you are preparing your own healthy meals. And those little dashes of spice used in each recipe mean that oftentimes jars of spices need to be replaced before they ever get used up. Why not mix up spice blends for yourself and even for gifts?

The second homemade spice blend to scream my name was a Moroccan Spice Blend. I made it at 5 am this morning. Sad, I know.

Moroccan Spice Blend

makes 8 Tbsp

5 tsp ground nutmeg
5 tsp ground cumin
5 tsp ground coriander
2.5 tsp allspice
2.5 tsp ground ginger
1.25 tsp cayanne pepper
1.25 tsp cinnamon

Mix together and store in an airtight container.

What to do with this you ask? How about a big batch of Mujadara? It's a Lebanese dish that, if you make this way, is extremely low in fat, is full of fiber, protein and iron, AND is exceptionally delicious! If I have frozen brown rice and packaged cooked lentils on hand, it's the easiest thing I can cook up for dinner when I'm tired and I just don't feel like cooking. In fact, this dish has become quite a staple in my house for just those reasons!

Ridiculously Easy Mujadara
Makes about 10 one cup servings

Printable Version

2 large sweet onions, diced
vegetable broth
2 1/2 cups brown or green lentils (Not red lentils or french lentils! I used one package of Trader Joe's cooked lentils.)
4 cups cooked brown rice (Trader Joes and Whole Foods sell frozen brown rice)
2 Tbsp Moroccan Spice Blend
salt to taste

Heat the largest skillet you have over medium heat and cover the bottom with vegetable broth. When broth starts to bubble, add chopped onions and saute, stirring every few minutes, for 35-45 minutes or until onions are very, very soft. Reduce heat and/or add broth to deglaze the pan as onions start to stick too much. Do not let the onions burn. Buy the end of the process, your heat will likely be on low and your onions will be very soft.

Meanwhile, cook the rice and lentils separately according to the package directions. If you have the TJ's packaged lentils, just open the package! If you are cooking your own lentils, they should be tender but not smushy or soupy, they should retain their shape.

When onions are ready, add brown rice, lentils and Moroccan spice blend and mix well.  Heat everything together until fragrant, warm and combined.

You can serve Mujadara with some toasted pine nuts or chopped parsley.

Have you made any of your own spice blends lately?

What do you make for dinner when you want some good food but are too tired to make a complicated dish?

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Unprocessed: Chef Aj's Disappearing Lasagna Recipe



In the past few weeks, Chef Aj and I have struck up a nice little friendship on Facebook. I have been reading her new cookbook Unprocessed and been really blown away by her personal story, which is the first 52 pages of the book. I couldn't put it down.

When she asked me if I would like to blog about and publish some of the recipes from the new cookbook, I was like, absolutely! To be honest, I was going to make a bunch of her recipes and then write a review of the book anyway, so getting her permission to publish the recipes along with the review is amazing.

Me: "I would love to start with your favs. I did hear that your lasagna is out of this world!"

Chef Aj: "I think the lasagna (especially the bean/kale variation) is the best recipe in the book. I also recommend the Sweet Potato Nachos and the Spicy Peanut Noodles!"

So yesterday morning I set out to make this famous Disappearing Lasagna. I do want to warn you, this is not a recipe to start when you are in a time crunch. I recommend a lazy Sunday morning for this one! The smells that will permeate your kitchen are delightful.

So without further adieu, here is the first recipe from Unprocessed.

Chef A.j.'s Disappearing Lasagna

Printable Recipe

2 boxes of no boil rice lasagna noodles (I used 1 box of whole wheat from Whole Foods and followed the directions on the box, boiling them for 4 minutes and then rinsing each noodle well in cold water)
6 cups oil-free marinara sauce

Filling No. 1:
1 box extra firm tofu, drained and wrapped in paper towel to remove excess moisture OR 2 15 oz. cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 oz. fresh basil leaves (I used 2 Tbsp dried)
1 cup pine nuts, raw cashews or hemp seeds
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup low-sodium miso (I used regular miso)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
2 pounds frozen chopped spinach or 1 pound frozen chopped kale

Filling No. 2:
2 pounds sliced mushrooms
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup tamari
1 large red onion

4 oz can sliced olives, rinsed and drained (optional)

Faux Parmesan:
In a food processor, grind 1 cup raw cashews or almonds, 1/2 cup nutritional yeast and 1 Tbsp of salt-free seasoning, until a powdery mixture is achieved. If you like it more chunky, process less.

Make the filling in a food processor fitted with the "S" blade, by adding tofu, basil, garlic, lemon juice, miso, nutritional yeast, nuts and red pepper flakes. Puree until smooth. Add drained spinach or kale and process again.

In a large non-stick saute pan, saute chopped onion in 2 Tbsp water or broth until translucent, about 8 minutes, adding more water if necessary. Add garlic, mushrooms and tamari and saute until browned. Taste mixture, adding more garlic/tamari according to your taste. Cook until mushrooms appear to be glazed and there is no more liquid left in pan.

Pour 3 cups of the sauce in a 9"x13" lasagna pan. Place one layer of noodles on top. Cover noodles with half of tofu/spinach mix, then with half of mushroom mix. Place another layer of noodles on top and add remaining halves of tofu and mush. Place one more layer of noodles on top and smother evenly with remaining sauce. Sprinkle olives on top of sauce and sprinkle with faux parmesan. (I put black olives on top of half of the casserole for my husband and put thinly sliced red peppers on my half).

Bake uncovered 375 degrees for one hour. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

I decided to add a layer of extremely thinly sliced zucchini, 'cause I had one in the fridge that I needed to use up. It was a great addition! Next time, I'd make sure to have two zucchini around so that I could add it as two layers. The more veg, the better. 

When we ate it for lunch my husband exclaimed, "This is the best lasagna ever!" I told him to get on Facebook and send Chef Aj a message 'cause he owes it to her!' I will definitely be making this again, most likely for special occasions when I want to feed a crowd. It really is that delicious!

Check out Chef A.j.'s book and the reviews over on Amazon . . .



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Jeff Novick/Barbara Rolls Volumetrics Review and a Volumetric Recipe from Clean Food

Volumetrics. It's a concept that revolutionized the way that I eat, but something that I haven't talked about that much here on HGK. I was first introduced to the concept by Bethenny Frankel, you know, that famous New York Housewife who writes those books about being "Naturally Thin." She's got some interesting ideas in her books, but none so powerful as the one I am focusing on here today. It's such a worthwhile topic and there are quite a few new readers of HGK that might not be familiar with it that I am dedicating this post to it. (Please forgive me if this is review for you.)

"The Volumetrics Eating Plan is based on a basic fact: people like to eat. And if people are given the choice between eating more and eating less, they'll take more almost every time.

Unlike diets that are based on deprivation, the Volumetrics diet doesn't try to fight this natural preference. Its creator, nutritionist Barbara Rolls, PhD, argues that limiting your diet too severely won't work in the long run. You'll just wind up hungry and unhappy and go back to your old ways.

Rolls' approach is to help people find foods that they can eat lots of while still losing weight. The hook of Volumetrics is its focus on satiety, the feeling of fullness. Rolls says that people feel full because of the amount of food they eat -- not because of the number of calories or the grams of fat, protein, or carbs. So the trick is to fill up on foods that aren't full of calories. Rolls claims that in some cases, following Volumetrics will allow you to eat more -- not less -- than you do now, while still slimming down.

Rolls doesn't ban food types as part of the Volumetrics diet. She doesn't divide foods into the good and the bad. But she does urge people to evaluate foods based on their energy density. This concept is crucial to the whole diet.

Energy density is the number of calories in a specified amount of food. Some foods -- especially fats -- are very energy dense. They have a lot of calories packed into a small size. Water is the opposite, since it has an energy density of zero. If you eat foods with high energy density, you rack up calories quickly. If you go with less energy dense foods, you can eat more and get fewer calories." http://www.webmd.com/diet/volumetrics-what-it-is

Very low-density foods include:
Non-starchy vegetables
Fruit
Unsweetened nut milk like almond milk
Soup broths

Very high-density foods include:
Crackers
Chips
Cookies
Chocolate/Candies
Nuts
Butter
Oils

If you are a more visual learner, than the next two Jeff Novick videos are for you.

A note about the blender/blended food issue: I drink a green smoothie almost every morning. Mr. Novick questions the benefit of that when the goal is weight loss. He brings up a very interesting point. Whole unprocessed foods are clearly the best as far as weight loss goes. Eating a whole apple is better from a weight loss perspective than a blended up apple.

But, the reality of that is another story. The contents of my morning green smoothie these days are spinach, celery, apple, grapes, kale, parsley, almond milk, ground flax seed and ice. Would I ever sit down to a bowl of spinach, celery, apple, grapes, kale, parsley in the morning? What dressing would I have to put on that bowl to make it palatable for me? Would I have the time and energy to chew all of that food given my incredibly rushed mornings?

My conclusion is this: even a blended green smoothie is healthier for me than any other breakfast I could consume. And it does fill me up until lunch. So, on that scorecard, even if eating the contents of the smoothie in their whole form would be BETTER for me than in their blended form, I would never be able to do it. So, in balance, a green smoothie is the best, most realistic option for me. I'm sticking with it.

But, if you are trying to lose weight, it is worth your while to consider what you are putting into your smoothies. Would you eat all of that food if it wasn't blended up together? It might just be something worth thinking about.

Here's a good example of a recipe that would be included in a Volumetric way of eating:

Cabbage Saute with Tart Cherries and Crisp Apples

from Clean Food by Terry Walters

get the recipe here

I served this over brown rice and both my husband and daughter loved it! The only changes to the recipe that I made were eliminating the oil and using broth instead and substituting maple syrup for the agave.

If Volumetrics is a new concept for you, you might want to investigate it even more. You can read reviews of Ms. Rolls' book here on Amazon:

Were you familiar with the Volumetrics concept prior to reading this posting? How has it impacted your diet?

Do you think about it when you choose food off of a menu in a restaurant?

Do you think about it when doing meal planning at home?

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Here for the Fight

Banana Walnut Softserve. Even better than the original with the addition of walnuts.

I'm sensing that there is a little bit of misperception about me out there in the blogosphere. It's pretty understandable, given the fact that I have a healthy food blog and all. That misperception is that I eat perfectly all of the time. There is no such thing that I know of.

I wish it were true, but it's absolutely not. I struggle with overeating on a daily basis. Just because I have finally figured a few things out about compulsive eating does not make me a "normal" eater. In fact, it just makes me even more aware of how abnormal my eating and thought patterns are.

But what is really important to note is that I am not throwing in the towel. The old me would have a bad day or a few bad days and just say, "What the heck. I'll never be able to stay on this food plan and achieve a healthy weight. I might as well eat whatever I want."

My struggles are new. No longer am I fighting with junk food. Anything that had a mother or a face turns my stomach to the point where it's not at all hard to say no. Refined sugar tastes way to sweet.

But healthy food, that's another story. I'm still struggling with eating too much of it. But the old me who would give up--she's long gone. This me is here for the fight. Just thought you might want to know that.  

Raw Banana Walnut Softserve 

serves 1

1 1/2 frozen bananas broken into chunks

6 walnuts

splash of almond milk

Place all ingredients in a high powered blender or food processor and blend, stopping to scrape down sides of container as necessary, until misture is the consistency of softserve. If using high powered blender, tamp down continuously throughout the blending process.

The good news about these "cookies" is that a sugar addict can eat them without losing control! They are only slightly sweet and would make a great breakfast for someone on the go.

Lightly Sweet Banana Coconut Chocolate Chip Cakies

inspired by a recipe from Clean Food by Terry Walters

makes 2 dozen cakies

Printable Recipe

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup rolled oats (or 1/2 cup oats and 1/2 cup unprocessed wheat bran)

2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup shredded unsweetened dried coconut

pinch of sea salt

1/4 cup semi-sweet dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place peeled bananas in a medium bowl and mash. Add applesauce, maple syrup and vanilla extract and stir.

In a seperate medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients except chocolate chips.  Add the banana mixture to the dry mixture and stir to combine (do not overstir). Fold in chocolate chips.

Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Using a teaspoon, scoop heaping spoonfuls onto the cookie sheet and smush down a little. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until edges start to get brown and crisp. Remove from oven and place cakies on wire rack to cool.

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With Dr. Fuhrman, the Salad Really is the Main Course

Greens and Strawberry Salad with Cashew Currant Dressing

recipe adapted from a recipe courtesy of  http://www.drfuhrman.com/
Serves: 2-4

Printable Recipe

CASHEW DRESSING

1/4 cup raw cashews or 2 tablespoons raw cashew butter
1/3 cup unsweetened soy, hemp or almond milk
1 peeled apple, sliced
2 tablespoons dried currants or raisins

SALAD

1 head (about 6 cups) romaine lettuce
5 ounces (about 5 cups) organic baby spinach
8 med-large strawberries, washed, destemmed and sliced 

To make dressing, blend cashews or cashew butter with soy milk and sliced apples in a high powered blender until smooth. Add the currants and blend well.

Place the lettuce, spinach and strawberries in a large salad bowl. Drizzle dressing over the greens and berries and toss to coat.

How often is salad the main course of your lunch or dinner?

Do you consciously try to eat salad with every meal? As the meal?

Has salad as the meal helped you to lose weight or maintain your weight? 

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Roasted Cauliflower and Garlic Soup Recipe AND it's PRINTABLE!

You caught me! It's only Tuesday and already I'm cooking for Friday night. That's because I'm so excited that a group of my plant-strong peeps are coming over for dinner. First experiment, a new soup. This soup is special. Real special. And I'm thinking that it's going to taste even better on Friday.

I'm going to walk the line here . . . and provide you with the recipe. I changed it from the original Roasted Cauliflower and Garlic Soup in Terry Walter's Clean Eating. I "Healthy Girl Kitchened" it and it rocked! So here goes (oh, by the way, Ms. Walters, if you are reading this and you think that I have crossed an intellectual property line, just let me know and I will gladly remove the recipe part of this post. I will however keep the photo up and my rave review!).

I also have some very exciting news to announce. I finally figured out how to have a PRINTABLE version of a recipe linked to the blog. What a relief. I know what a pain in the neck it is to have to copy and paste recipes from a blog into a text document. See below for my first printable recipe.

Vegan Roasted Cauliflower and Garlic Soup

adapted from a recipe in Clean Food by Terry Walters

2 large heads cauliflower

coconut oil spray or olive oil spray

6 cups vegetable broth

1 head/bulb of garlic

1 large yellow onion

2 tbsp mirin

1 tsp dried thyme

sea salt

fresh ground pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Wash cauliflower well and cut into florets. If florets are large, cut them in half. Place cut cauliflower into a 9x13" baking dish or onto a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil and spray cauliflower lightly with cooking spray of your choice.

Cut off the top of the garlic bulb and place garlic onto a sheet of aluminum foil. Spray garlic with cooking spray and wrap foil around garlic bulb, creating a sealed up package. Place garlic onto baking tray with cauliflower and put in oven to roast for at least 1 hour or until cauliflower and garlic is soft. At that point, remove from oven and open garlic package and let it cool a bit.

In a soup pot or dutch oven, pour in enough vegetable broth to cover the bottom of the pot. Over medium heat, bring broth to a bubble and add onion. Saute onion, stirring frequently, until translucent, adding a bit more broth and turning down heat if necessary to prevent burning.

Add roasted cauliflower, the rest of the broth, mirin and thyme. Pick up garlic by holding it in one hand with the aluminum foil still wrapped around it's base and squeeze out all of the roasted garlic into the pot. Increase the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and, using a hand-held immersion blender, puree soup. Return to heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Taste soup and season with sea salt and pepper. Serve immediately or let cool and refrigerate.

Printable Version

For another take on a roasted cauliflower soup, check out Susan's recipe from Fat Free Vegan.

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Curried Sweet Potato Soup

I received a great question from a reader yesterday in the comments section, "Where are the recipes for these beautiful dishes? Tried to click on the names but goes nowhere! Help me please....."

I thought that my answer might be something that all of the HGK reader's should know: I am not (usually) an original writer of plant-strong nutritarian recipes. I am an avid home cook that tests and often tweaks other author's recipes. That means that I do not have the rights to publish the recipes on my blog unless I get permission from the author.

However, if I change the recipe enough and rewrite the instructions in my own voice, I can provide a recipe. It's a fine line that we bloggers walk and I try hard to maintain my integrity here and the intellectual property of others.

What does that mean for my readers? Well, we have to break it into the following two categories:

(1) RECIPES FROM COOKBOOKS

If I change the recipe enough or get the permission of the author, I can reprint the recipe. That was the case with yesterday's posting. The recipes were all from Terry Walter's Clean Start cookbook and I didn't change anything, so I cannot reprint the recipes. I did not ask Ms. Walter's for permission to reprint her recipes. In the cases where the recipes are from The Engine 2 Diet and Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, both Rip Esselstyn and Anne Esselstyn were incredibly generous to grant me permission to republish their recipes, and you will find many of them here on HGK.

I photograph and write about dishes that are successful for me and that I am enthusiastic about. I don't bash recipes or cookbook authors here. If it's a flop for me, you'll never hear about it! With no recipe what I hope I am providing is honest recipe reviews and hopefully, inspiration. Not just inspiration to make a particular recipe but inspiration to surround yourself with delicious, nutritious, beautiful plant-strong food. And maybe that cookbook that I keep talking about starts to call your name and you purchase a copy!

(2) RECIPES FROM BLOGS

This category is a lot less complicated because I will always provide a link back to the original recipe along with my photos and review. If I tweak a recipe enough, I will also publish the recipe for my tweaked version right here on the blog.

Here's a perfect example of this. Yesterday, I made a Curried Sweet Potato Soup from Melody over at http://melomeals.blogspot.com/. I really like Melody's blog because she is a very creative chef. But, many of her recipes do not fit into my eating choice box, so I can either tweak them to fit the no-added oil vegan style or just move on. I happened to be particularly intrigued by her Curried Sweet Potato Soup (remember I said I was Indian in a past life . . .) and I was not disappointed by this vegan cup of heaven!

Melody's Curried Sweet Potato Soup. Get the recipe here.

I did tweak this recipe a little. I eliminated one of the two tbsp of coconut oil, the cilantro (just because I didn't have any), the 1-3 tbsp of Sriracha and the additional salt and pepper (it was already spicy and so flavorful I didn't think it needed it) and the sour cream or yogurt (for obvious reasons).

Both my husband and I loved it. I would be proud to serve this to guests who like spicy food, but certainly not anyone and everyone. It was thick and rich and the flavors were so very complex. I could see it served as an appetizer at a posh party in shot glasses. I pulled out a Saki cup from my pottery days for the photo above and I totally enjoyed sipping it that way. It's an incredibly satisfying soup. Thanks Melody!

Thoughts? How do you feel about my nutritarian recipe review style of blogging?

If you yourself are a food blogger, what are you personal views on this subject?

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