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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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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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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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?

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Happy Birthday Blog Green Smoothie

The Healthy Girl's Kitchen blog officially turned one year old on January 23rd. Happy birthday to my blog! So why am I posting another recipe for a green smoothie? Because at this time of reflection for where I've been and where I'm going, this recipe seemed appropriate. I hope you can see by the ingredients that I'm upping the level of green intensity and LOVING it! Thanks to my friend and business partner Chris-Anna, who is new to the green smoothie revolution, but very adventurous, for inspiring this.

Super Green Smoothie

serves 1 hungry person

1 small cucumber, cut into chunks

1 fresh pear, cut off it's core OR large handful of seedless grapes

1 small frozen banana, broken into chunks

2 large stalks celery, cut into large chunks

1 large date, pit removed

1 handful fresh spinach

1 handful fresh or frozen kale

5 ice cubes

water--not too much

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smoothie reaches desired consistency.

Here's something very interesting:

Mark Bittman, right, with Chef Mario Batali, before becoming plant strong? I love Mario Batali, and I'm seriously worried about him.

Mark Bittman after becoming plant strong?

I received a blog birthday present from the universe. Debby from Happy Healthy Long Life clued me in about Mark Bittman's new ventures. If you don't know who he is, he is one of the most incredible New York Times food writers and cookbook authors. Seems like he's caught on to the healthy eating movement and he's making a big stink about it. Get the story here. He's leaving his old eating life behind and joining our ranks. Yeah Mark! Yeah universe! Can't wait to subscribe to his new blog.

Do you know who Mark Bittman is? Do you own any of his cookbooks?

What are your impressions of the public psyche when it comes to healthy eating? Do you believe we are on the cusp of major social change regarding eating habits? Or are all of the people around you seemingly unaffected?

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Good Morning! Basic and Sophisticated Green Smoothie Recipes

Thank you for the responses to my last post on the obesity epidemic! It's good to know there are a lot of people out there who want to see change and are passionate about the fight.

Now onto something less political, well, slightly less political: Green Smoothies.

I try to start every day with a green smoothie. Here are my reasons why:

1. I love sweet food, and they are sweet

2. I like to have a breakfast that fills me up and has staying power

3. I want to start my day with a nutritional punch, even a powerhouse

4. Green smoothies are easy to make--they do not require a recipe or measuring once you learn the formula

5. They are easy to clean up after

6. All of the ingredients can become kitchen staple items if you know what they are

7. Green smoothies are easy to take on my way out the door to work

8. I lost 50 pounds drinking green smoothies so I know they are a "safe" food for me

And here is a basic formula for a green smoothie:

frozen banana + greens + other fruit(s) + liquid + ice

optional, but highly recommended for regularity and nutritional goodness: ground flax seed or chia seed

Here are options for each component: use one or more from each category:

GREENS: fresh or frozen spinach, kale, collard, swiss chard, romaine lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, cucumber, carrot (okay, it's not green). I recommend starting out with spinach because you cannot taste it in the smoothie and then adding one other green in addition, a little so as not to be overly aggressive at first.

FRUIT: I always start with a ripe FROZEN banana because it adds the creamy texture to the smoothie. If you don't like bananas, just leave it out. Then add more fruit, any or all, fresh or FROZEN (that makes this very easy!) in combinations that you like: fresh pitted date(s), strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, mango, apple, pear, orange, clementine, grapes, canned pumpkin puree, young coconut flesh, sweet potato

LIQUID: water (believe it or not, it's all that you NEED), unsweetened nut milk-almond is my favorite (365 Brand from Whole Foods is great), soy milk, rice milk, hemp milk. I like to find the lowest calorie versions of any of these products.

Once you master the basic green smoothies, you are ready for some sophisticated combinations if you like that kind of thing. This morning I woke up to a great blog post from Gena at http://www.choosingraw.com/ about making your own Chai Spice Blend. I immediately cleaned up my kitchen and went to town (I mean work) on it.

Choosing Raw's Chai Spice Blend

Chai Spice Mix (yields about 1/3 cup spice mix)

2 tbsp. ground ginger
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. ground cloves
2 1/2 tbsp. ground cardamom
2 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. white pepper (I used black pepper because that's what I had)

Place all ingredients in a jar or baggie. Seal. Shake it like a Polaroid picture!

Proceed to yummy smoothie.

Healthy Girl's Chai Green Smoothie

serves 1

1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond (or other nut) milk

1 heaping tsp chai spice blend

2 large dates-pitted

1 large frozen banana, broken into chunks

7 medium ice cubes

1 Tbsp ground flax seed

1 giant handful fresh spinach

Place all ingredients into blender and blend until smooth.

For my taste buds, this chai smoothie ranked right up there with the best green smoothies of all time.

Do you drink green smoothies? Why or why not?

Is there something else that is your go-to breakfast?

What is your favorite green smoothie recipe?

"I wanna know, what you're thinking . . ." (another song lyric reference)

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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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