Crock Pot Saag (Spinach) "Paneer" and HGK's Top Ten List?

Last night I gave a talk at my local Whole Foods. I titled it "Healthy Girl's Top Ten Tips for Plant-Strong Success." The audience was a group of adults who are participating in The 21 Day Weight Loss Kickstart based on the book of the same name by Dr. Neal Barnard.



I wanted to convey the message that it is important to keep up a healthy eating commitment long past the 21 days and also to give them lots of ammunition on how to stay Plant-Strong in America in the year 2011. "Thank you" to Ellen Darby of Whole Foods for allowing me to share my experience, strength and hope with people in this way. It really means a lot to me.

I know that staying plant strong can be very tough for many people. Beginning tomorrow, I am going to post my top ten tips, one at a time, for ten days. Sometimes with a recipe, sometimes not. I sincerely hope that each of you reading this blog will add your two cents in the comment section to every idea and concept that I propose. Together we can really help each other stay Plant Strong!

But before I begin, another recipe! I'd worked on perfecting a recipe for Indian Saag Paneer for over a year, first lightening it up to fit within the Weight Watchers plan, and then morphing it into a vegan Saag "Paneer" using baked tofu. A traditional Saag Paneer includes cubes of Indian cheese and heavy cream--not Healthy Girl friendly at all. Because it is my number one favorite Indian dish, I've now adapted it into a crock pot recipe so that I can eat it even while I have my makeshift kitchen.

Crock Pot Saag "Paneer" (Tofu)
serves 8

6 medium or 4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 Tbsp minced (or grated) ginger
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce (I used Trader Joe's low fat Marinara Sauce in the green can)
1 Tbsp garam masala
1 Tbsp ground coriander
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 can low fat coconut milk
2 16 oz. bags frozen spinach (or 3 10 oz. boxes), thawed
1 bag fresh baby spinach
2 packages marinated tofu-cut into 1" cubes

Place all ingredients except for fresh spinach and tofu into a crock pot. Let cook for either 4 or 6 hours, depending on when you want to eat.

Before serving, add fresh spinach and stir. When fresh spinach is wilted, puree entire mixture with a handheld immersion blender. Fold in tofu cubes and let warm in crock pot. Serve over brown rice or with naan.
Keeps well in the refrigerator for leftovers.

And speaking of my makeshift kitchen, here's a little peak on where we are at right now with Healthy Girl's Dream kitchen. Lights, walls and a ceiling! Next week . . . cabinets!!!!

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Crock Pot Eggplant Chick Pea Curry

Thank you for the generous responses to my post about healthy convenience breakfasts. I hope that everyone enjoyed my list of ideas as well as all of your additions in the comment section. It was a true group effort!

A few days ago, Julie Ann over at The Reduction Project was blogging about a recipe from Appetite for Reduction called Eggplant-Chickpea Curry. Imagine my surprise when I read on to find out that she had experimented with turning this normally stove top recipe into a crock pot recipe because she was in a time crunch.

As most of you know, I am currently relying heavily on my crock pot due to our ongoing kitchen renovations. Combine these personal needs with my deep love of anything Indian and I was immediately intrigued by Julie Ann's post.

I would say that the texture I achieved in my crock pot is A+ but the flavor is a B. I'm left wondering how to get that amazing Indian food taste without the ghee (clarified butter). Maybe this is the best it can be without the fat!

But my husband loved it! When I got home from an event at my daughter's school, he was raving about dinner and telling me that he ate three bowls full. He thought the flavor was great.

Crock Pot Eggplant Chick Pea Curry
adapted from a recipe by Isa Chandra Moskowitz from Appetite for Reduction

2 cups diced onion
3 lbs. eggplant, diced
4 cloves garlic. minced
2 15 oz. cans fire roasted tomatoes
3 cups vegetable broth
1 Tbsp mild curry powder
1 1/2 tsp hot curry powder (optional)
1 Tbsp garam masala
2 tsp cumin
2 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced
2 tsp salt (optional)
dash of powdered stevia

2 15 ounce cans chick peas, rinsed and drained

Place all ingredients, except chick peas, into a crock pot on low heat (my lowest setting is 10 hours, 8 hours would be plenty). Let cook all day, stirring once throughout the day if possible, but not necessary. Thirty minutes before serving, add chick peas and stir. Once chick peas are warmed through, the dish is ready.

Serve over brown rice with chutney if you've got it (I really like the Trader Joe's chutneys).

Do you like to make no-added-fat  Indian Curries? Have you ever had a no-added-fat Indian Curry that was as good as Indian food from a restaurant? 

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Getting to The Point of No Return and My New Chai Green Smoothie

Thank you to everyone that volunteered to save my butt during my kitchen renovation! I will be contacting you all personally by e-mail within the next two weeks.

Today I want to talk to you about something that is really coming into focus for me at this point in my journey: the amount of fruit in my diet and how it is affecting my weight.

At PEERtrainer (http://www.peertrainer.com/) they have a program called The Point of No Return. I'm not here to sell you on a program (although it is worth WHATEVER nominal amount they are charging for it).  I mention this now because the concept is extremely important in getting you to and keeping you at your happy weight.

So what is "the point of no return"?

For me, it is the state of mind and body where maintaining a healthy weight is not confusing, mysterious, difficult or scary. For those of you who have dieted and failed time and time again, I think you know what I am talking about. You might have an enormous amount of fear and uncertainty regarding your physical and emotional health.

I know that I did. So when I came upon PEERtrainer, their method really spoke to me. They focus a lot on a concept called "diet fusion," which in essence means that it is up to each and every one of us to find our own individual way of eating that gets us to our own Point of No Return. For me, it is a no-added fat Vegan diet free of most processed foods. For you, well, only you can find that magic combination.

Which brings me to the point of all of this: Finding your way takes TIME. I have been laser focused on getting to my point of no return for almost two years. And I am slowly getting there. But I am getting there. It takes an enormous amount of trial and error.

For example, one of my trials along the way was The Raw Food Diet. I was introduced to it, thought it sounded intriguing (who wouldn't want to eat all of those yummy looking desserts every day?), read up on it and started preparing interesting raw food dishes and desserts right away. At the time, I didn't really quite get that the heavy reliance of many raw recipes on highly caloric ingredients like nuts, oils and dried fruit would not be offset by the also heavy reliance on raw vegetables. So I dove right in and failed. I think I gained ten pounds pretty quickly.

But that was party of my journey, my own personal trip to my point of no return. I can't have any regrets because I learned so much from the experience. For one, raw desserts rock! And if and when I do indulge, I want it to be a raw concoction. I feel that I am getting maximum nutrition as well as flavor from a raw dessert, even if the calorie count is through the roof. Sometimes I am just going to indulge. Secondly, there would have been a "right" way for me to go raw, and that would have been without the oils and nuts. But thinking of an uncooked diet without those things left me less than excited, so I returned to a balance of raw and cooked food, and I'm content with that today.

Another one of my experiments, which has lasted far longer than my raw experiment, and continues to this day, has been drinking a green smoothie for breakfast almost every morning. My first green smoothies consisted mainly of a lot of fruit with a handful of fresh or frozen spinach and some flax or chia seed. Somewhere along the way, I experimented with adding more green things (and even carrots) but the fruit component remained high. Lately, and this is the key to what this is all about, I am working on using as little fruit as possible in my morning smoothie.

For example, take a look at my original Chai Green Smoothie. Two dates and one large banana made that smoothie pretty high in sugar, probably more than the entire daily recommended amount of sugar. And lately, my food choices have been heavily influenced by ideas about sugar that are continually coming into my awareness. It started back in December with this article from Disease Proof on the ill effects of sugar. Then  Debby the Healthy Librarian hit me with Dr. Lustig's video Sugar: The Bitter Truth. Soon after, Chef A.j. was mentioning on Facebook that if she had written her cookbook today, she would have done it differently, based on her new level of awareness regarding sugar, dessert and the health value of smoothies.

I started logging my food in gory detail on My Fitness Pal, a calorie/nutrition tracking application and website. I was looking for information on how much fiber I was consuming everyday, but I learned something far more valuable. I am consuming far too much SUGAR every day (and it wasn't from Twinkies!). So when PEERtrainer did a blog posting all about fruit in the diet (and sadly, fruit is very high in sugar) all of my confusion went away and I knew that limiting my fruit every day was getting me very close to my Point of No Return.

Ahhhhhh, progress.

New Chai Green Smoothie

serves 1

1 1/4 cups unsweetened almond milk

1 Tbsp ground flaxseed

1 small frozen banana, broken into chunks

1 large pitted date

big handful rough chopped celery

big handful fresh parsley

giant handful fresh spinach leaves

1 tsp chai spice blend

7 ice cubes

Place all ingredients in a high powered blender and blend until smooth.

Granted, this is still not a low sugar smoothie! But remember, it's progress, not perfection. I'm working on it! And I can tell you that watching the amount of fruit I eat each day over the past month has resulted in significant weight loss, so I think I'm really onto something that will really help me in the long run.

What new information have you learned that really helped you to progress to another level with your weight loss/maintenance efforts?

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Vegan Indian Eggplant Curry

Are we done with Indian food yet? Never! Here's the last of what I made for last week's vegan pot luck. It's very yummy. Great with some naan or brown rice and keeps beautifully in the refrigerator as leftovers.

Eggplant Curry

makes at least 4 cups

1 Tbsp coconut oil or vegetable oil (not olive oil)

2 medium onions, peeled and diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated on a microplane

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced

2 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped into 3/4" pieces

1/2 cup vegetable broth (or water)

1 large eggplant, peeled and diced into 1" cubes

2 red or yellow or orange (or a mix) bell peppers, seeded and diced into 3/4" pieces

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground fenugreek

1/2 tsp ground cumin

In a large saute pan, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the onions, garlic, ginger and jalapeno and cook for 10 minutes.  Add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes.  Add the broth (or water), eggplant, peppers, salt, turmeric, coriander, fenugreek and cumin and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 70 minutes.  Serve immediately or reheat before serving.

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Vegan Indian Saag (Spinach) Tofu

I've been working on perfecting this recipe for Indian Saag Paneer for over a year, first lightening it up to fit within my Weight Watchers plan, and now, morphing it into a vegan Saag "Paneer".  A traditional Saag Paneer includes cubes of Indian cheese and heavy cream--not Healthy Girl friendly at all. But because it is my number one favorite Indian dish, I'm practically obsessed with getting it right (ie tasty and healthy).  So without further adoo (how on earth do you spell that?), here is my Saag Tofu:

Saag Tofu
serves 8

Printable Recipe

2 packages firm tofu
Tamari or low sodium soy sauce
2 Tbsp low sodium vegetable broth
6 medium or 4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 Tbsp minced (or grated) ginger
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce (I used Trader Joe's low fat Marinara Sauce in the green can)
1 Tbsp garam masala
1 Tbsp ground coriander
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
2 16 oz. bags frozen spinach (or 3 10 oz. boxes), thawed
1 bag fresh baby spinach
1 cup unsweetened almond milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Open and drain packages of tofu. Wrap each block of tofu in paper towels (a few layers around) and place wrapped tofu block under a cookie sheet weighted with something a bit heavy on top of it. After 15 minutes, discard wet paper towels and cut blocks of tofu into 1" squares. Line cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. Place tofu squares on cookie sheet and drizzle lightly with Bragg Liquid Aminos or low sodium soy sauce. "Broil" the tofu squares for about 40 minutes, shaking the cookie sheet every 10-15 minutes, until the tofu is chewy and looks like this:

Remove tofu from oven and set aside.

Heat vegetable broth in a large skillet or pot on medium heat.  Add the garlic and ginger, stiffing frequently, until garlic just starts to brown.  Immediately reduce heat to low and stir in tomato sauce, coriander, cumin, garam masala and salt.  Partly cover and simmer for 8 minutes, stirring frequently.

Stir in defrosted spinach (it is okay if it is not totally defrosted at this point). When incorporated and hot, stir in fresh spinach.  When fresh spinach is wilted, using a hand/immersion blender, puree mixture until smooth (or as smooth as you would like it, it's up to you). 

Simmer 8-10 minutes until spinach turns an olive green color.  Stir in almond milk.  Gently mix in tofu cubes. Remove from heat and serve. Great served right away with rice or naan and raita.  Keeps well in the refrigerator for leftovers.

Looks just like the real thing, huh?

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Vegan Indian Brown Basmati Rice Pilaf

It was an Indian cooking hey day in my kitchen leading up to my vegan pot luck dinner. The clear winning recipe was this one, so I decided to post it next. It was also tweaked/inspired from a recipe from The Candle Cafe Cookbook, More than 150 Enlightened Recipes from New York's Renowned Vegan Restaurant.  

Traditionally, rice pilafs in Indian cuisine are made with white basmati rice. I thought I would take a risk and substitute in a brown basmati rice, which is much healthier. The results were fantastic!  And there's lot's more vegan Indian dishes to come in the days ahead.

Indian Brown Basmati Rice Pilaf

Printable Recipe

2 cups brown basmati rice

1 1/2 tsp brown or yellow mustard seeds

1 1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds

1 Tbsp coconut or safflower oil or cooking spray

3/4 cup diced onion

1 Tbsp minced garlic

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 tsp whole cloves

1 Tbsp chopped or grated fresh ginger

2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp turmeric

3 1/2 cups water

blanched cauliflower florets from 1/2 head of cauliflower

1/2 cup shredded carrots

1/2 cup currants

1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds

2 Tbsp mirin (Japanese rice wine)

Rinse and drain rice to remove some of the starch.

Coat the bottom of a large pot with 1 Tbsp cooking oil or spray. Heat the on medium and add the mustard and cumin seeds.  Cook, stirring often, until they begin to pop. Add the oil, onion, garlic, cinnamon stick, cloves and ginger and saute over medium heat for about 4 minutes.

Add the rice, salt and turmeric and cook, stirring, until the rice is completely coated, about 1 minute.  Add the water, stir, cover and simmer over low heat about 45 minutes.

When the rice is tender add the blanched cauliflower, carrots, raisins, toasted almonds and mirin and stir well.  Keep warm until serving.

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Vegan Chana Masala (Indian Chickpea Stew)

I've got a group of friends that have been getting together for a decade and having pot luck dinners. This weekend  I'll be hosting one at my house that has been in the making for months. The theme? Vegan, of course!

So I decided to go crazy and make 5 vegan Indian dishes (have I told you that I was Indian in a past life?). I was inspired by a cookbook I just got called The Candle Cafe Cookbook, More than 150 Enlightened Recipes from New York's Renowned Vegan Restaurant.  This restaurant is beloved and I hope to get the chance sometime soon to visit.

Here's my first adventure, Chana Masala.  I am very impressed with the results. Quite addictive actually. 

Here's a photo of all of the ingredients prepped and ready to go before I started to cook anything. The french term for this is "mise en place" meaning "everything in it's place" and believe me when I tell you, this recipe moves along very quickly, so getting everything ready beforehand is a must.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_place

Vegan Chana Masala (Indian Chickpea Stew)

makes about 5 cups

1 tsp brown mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 Tbsp coconut butter or vegetable oil

1 large onion (about 2 cups), diced

2 Tbsp finely minced garlic

2 Tbsp grated (on a microplane) fresh ginger

1 cup vegetable broth (or water)

1 medium tomato (1 cup), diced

1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, quartered

3 cans (15 oz. each) chick peas, drained and rinsed

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp sea salt

Heat a large skillet over high heat.  Add the mustard and cumin seeds and cook, stirring often, until they begin to pop.  Lower heat to medium.  Add the coconut butter or oil and stir for about 1 minute.

Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook for about 8 minutes, until softened.  Stir in the broth (or water), tomatoes, chickpeas, cloves, cinnamon and cardamom.

Reduce heat and cook, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes.  Serve immediately or reheat gently before serving.

Yum!

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