Oatmeal in Disguise

The Healthy Librarian's Cheezy Oatmeal with sundried tomatoes, mushrooms and spinach.

Not the most attractive dish, but very, very cool.

This morning on Debby's (aka the Healthy Librarian) Happy Healthy Long Life Blog I was introduced to the wonders of oatmeal. "Yeah, yeah, yeah" you're probably saying to yourself, it's all over the news, all over the packages of General Mills and Kellog's cereals. But hey, I'm a skeptic, and anything that is blown out by PR firms and advertisers I'm going to question. 

So I've kind of been ignoring oatmeal, eating it only occassionally when maybe I wasn't in the mood for a cold smoothie in the morning. That is, until now. Thanks to Debby and her wonderous ways of compiling and distilling information, I now know the secrets of this wonderfood. And I trust her a lot more than any big corporation any day! Read all about it here along with the recipe for Cheezy Oatmeal.

For the highest volume of creative oatmeal recipes check out the Kath Eats Real Food blog. Debby's oatmeal was based on a recipe from Angela at Oh She Glows. Seems like she's got a thing for oatmeal too. Confused about the difference between steel cut oats, quick cook oats, instant oats and rolled oats? So was I  until I read this insightful posting on The Sweet Beet. And last but not least, for the oatmeal die hards reading this, you've gotta give the Vegan Overnight Oats a try. Here's a great video tutorial about it by Angela at Oh She Glows.

What do you think of oatmeal? Do you consider it a staple in your diet?

Do you eat it plain or do you make all sorts of creative oatmeal?

Have you ever made a savory oatmeal dish? Vegan overnight oats?

Read more

Vacation Kale and Bean Saute

Just a reminder, don't forget to participate in my first ever blog contest and enter to win a copy of the newly revised Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman! Winner will be picked at random on January 1st.

Are any of you wondering why I've been so quiet lately? Probably not, but I'll tell you anyway. I'm travelling with my family, escaping the cold of frigid Cleveland, if only for a short time. We're lucky enough to stay in a condo on the beach in Southwest Florida, where I have my very own kitchen. And that makes this healthy girl a very happy girl! I've been cooking up this amazing recipe for greens from the Dr. Fuhrman Member Site.  Here's my variation on this winner:

Kale and Bean Saute
Inspired by a recipe on http://www.drfuhrman.com/
Serves: 4

2 bunches kale, tough stems and center ribs removed, chopped or 1 large bag of prewashed/cut kale
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes soaked in hot water for 30 minutes, drained and chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 cup shiitake mushrooms, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, pressed
vegetable broth, as needed
1 15 ounce can beans, any type, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 tablespoons fruity vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
red pepper flakes, to taste
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds or any type nuts (chopped if the nuts are large)
dash of salt

In a large skillet over medium heat, add vegetable broth to just cover the bottom of the pan. Broth sauté the onions and garlic until onions are translucent. Do not let onions burn. Add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.  Add kale and re hydrated tomatoes and cook, tossing with the onion and mushrooms, over medium heat , adding broth only as needed, until kale is soft.

Add the beans, vinegar, mustard and red pepper flakes (be careful!), then cook for 3 more minutes. Taste and season with only a dash of salt.

I know from a lot of people that the holidays are an easting disaster.They resolve themselves to eating food that they don't feel good about mentally or physically and commit to eating healthy again as soon as January 1st rolls around. Why don't I just do the same? I'm here on vacation, why not go on a healthy eating vacation? Because something in me has changed. Maybe it was the reading and rereading of Eat to Live. Maybe it's the way that a green smoothie makes me feel. The "old" food just holds no appeal for me now. Brainwashed for the better I guess.

What have you been cooking up this holiday week? Are you sticking to your plans or falling prey to the holiday offerings?

Read more

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!

Read more

Bill Clinton almost a Vegan? and Vegan Polenta Lasagna, Two Ways

Have you heard the big news? Former President Bill Clinton has adopted a plant based diet. See it here. I almost started to cry. It's incredible publicity for the work of both Dr. T. Colin Campbell, and his son, Dr. Thomas Campbell, authors of The China Study, as well as Drs. Caldwell Esselstyn and Dean Ornish.

On a lighter note, here's a great vegan recipe for entertaining a large crowd or just for feeding your family during a busy week. It's a variation on a recipe from Cooking Light magazine that I had to put my own twist on after my friend Lisa C made it and brought it to my vegan pot luck party this summer. I happen to really like polenta and I think that this polenta lasagna concept is super yummy. I hope you feel the same!

Wendy's Vegan Polenta Lasagna
makes 8 servings

vegetable broth for sauteing
1/2 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
16 ounces fresh spinach OR 2 medium zucchini, shredded
salt
pepper
25 ounce jar of your favorite pasta/marinara sauce
1 1/2 tubes prepared polenta, sliced into 24 rounds
4 or 8 ounces vegan shredded mozzarella cheese (I like Daiya brand)

Preheat oven to 350°. Can also be prepared and placed, uncooked, in the refrigerator for a day until ready to cook.

Spoon 1/2 cup marinara sauce into an 9x13-inch baking dish to cover bottom, and set aside.

Heat a few tablespoons of vegetable broth in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté, stirring frequently, 5 minutes or until onions are tender and translucent. Add garlic and cook 2 minutes. Add more broth, a little at a time as needed so the pan does not get too dry.  Add mushrooms and sauté 4 minutes or until mushrooms are tender, stirring frequently. Add spinach (1/3 at a time) OR all of the shredded zucchini and stir. When spinach is wilted OR zucchini is cooked, add 3/4 cup of marinara sauce; reduce heat, and simmer 1 minute. Season to taste with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Arrange 12 polenta slices over marinara in baking dish, and top evenly with half of vegetable mixture. Sprinkle 2 ounces of cheese (or 4 ounces if you want this more cheesy and thus higher in calories and fat) over vegetable mixture; arrange remaining polenta over cheese. Top polenta with the remaining vegetable mixture.  Place a spoonful of pasta sauce over each "mound" of polenta and vegetables. Gently press each mound and spread sauces with the back of your spoon.  Sprinkle with remaining 2 or 4 ounces of cheese.

Cover and place in refrigerator until ready to cook or cover and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes or until bubbly. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Gotta add more broth, onions are starting to get too dry!

Mushrooms are cooking down.

Spinach has all wilted down nicely.

Tomato sauce is now in; this is yummy enough to eat all by itself!

Here is the filling with the shredded zucchini.

Cutting the rounds is so much fun! Just use a big chef's knife. Slice the polenta in half and then half again, as the chunk gets smaller holding it from above with your thumb and forefinger on both sides. Keep slicing the chunks in half until you have 24 slices.

Layering this baby up!

Ready to be spread out with a spoon.

Ta da! Ready for the oven or refrigerator.

Read more