Coffee

I gave up coffee a couple of years back, but a link to this slide show came to my email box, today. The slide show is called, Coffee: The Original Wonder Drug? 

If you're not a member of Medscape, you won't be able to see the slide show.  I recommend joining Medscape, not just to see this slide show, but to get access to peer-reviewed work in the world of medicine. 

I used to love coffee, but I gave it up because I thought it would be better for me to not drink it.  I still drink caffeine in the form of black and white tea.  However, after viewing the slides I kind of want to drink coffee again.  The benefits that are attributed to coffee include:

• lower risk of coronary disease--potentially because of antioxidants that reduce oxidation in LDL cholesterol; coffee drinking is also associated with lower inflammatory markers in the blood
• lower risk of stroke (a meta-analysis showed this)
• improved glucose metabolism and lower risk of type 2 diabetes
• increased ability to lose weight
• reduction in some types of cancer--potentially due to antioxidants and anti-mutagenic properties
• potentially neuroprotective (less dementia progression in coffee drinkers)
• lower risk for depression
• protection for the liver
• reduced risk for MRSA (also true for tea drinkers)
• helpful in dry eye syndrome
• reduced risk for gout

(As I said, get membership in Medscape!)

Coffee's not perfect as the slide show creators end with the associate risks:

• increased blood pressure
• causing or worsening anxiety, insomnia, and tremor  
• potentially elevated risk for glaucoma

What I want to figure out is how many of the benefits of coffee are also associated with tea because of the caffeine.  I may need to add both coffee and tea to my diet for the health benefits.

The slide show also notes that one risk is caffeine withdrawal syndrome; it is being considered as an entry in the DSM-5 because of the debilitating symptoms.  (Just don't quit?)  I'm not ever planning on quitting working out, so maybe it should be the same for caffeine.

Yum

 

Green smoothie (with stainless steel straw) in the coveted Apple mug.  Everyone LOVES drinking green smoothies out of this cup!

Lazy vegan weekend!

Last weekend was a lazy vegan weekend.  I didn't feel like cooking so I got vegan hot dogs and burgers at the store and the girls loved it.  They enjoyed these hot dogs* and these burgers,  while Nick and I enjoyed vegan chicken masala.   We got sprouted wheat buns for the girls and we ate our masala with kale (me) and brown rice (Nick).

These were super easy meals--we'll save them for those nights I just don't feel like cooking. I really prefer to prepare whole foods, but every now and then, a little break is nice!


*The girls are very excited by the hot dogs.  I'm not sure why.  We didn't eat hot dogs before going vegan, but I guess hot dogs =  happy kid food.  Life is good.

Weights

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/06/26/science/100000001622839/weight-gains.html

Great video!

Who needs to lift weights??  Everyone as they age!  About 3 years ago, I was doing a lot of Zumba.  I hurt my knee.  The reason why? Doing so much Zumba was causing me to lose muscle in my legs.

I now do 2-3 strength building exercise classes a week.  My goal for the coming year is 3-4 strength building classes a week.  I don't love the strength building the way I love cardio, but to keep me strong enough to do all the cardio I want to do, I hit the weights. 

(Almost my) Dad's spaghetti sauce

 

It's been a while since I got the recipe from my Dad and Mom, and now they are no longer with us so I can't double check with them, but here's what I do:

2 jars of tomato paste
1-2 teaspoons of olive oil
1-2 teaspoons of dried garlic or 1-2 cloves of fresh chopped garlic

Start with these 3 and saute the garlic for just a minute--I find that by adding the paste at the same time I don't overcook the garlic.

1 jar of the strained tomatoes
2-3 teaspoons of dried oregano (or more... I'm an oregano fan)
2-3 teaspoons of dried basil
Salt to taste (I usually do 1 teaspoon)
2 cans of the diced tomatoes with Italian herbs (or not if you don't like chunks--just use another jar of sauce sauce)
(Add red pepper flakes if you want a little heat... start with a 1/4 of a teaspoon?)

Simmer forever ...  Okay an hour or two.

Add "meatballs" if you can!

Serve over whole grain pasta (penne, spaghetti, or whatever you like best).  We usually do whole wheat.

You can add other veggies, like broccoli, carrots, kale, and / or cauliflower and turn it into a vegetarian feast, but my girls aren't quite ready for that so I mix chopped kale into my pasta and make a festive red. green. and white dish for me.  I'll add a picture next time I make this!

In the meantime, try it! It's a tasty way enjoy some lycopene!

Italian "meatballs"

We go to a local vegan restaurant and all of the fake meats are listed in quotes... We order things like, noble broccoli with "beef," or spicy sweet potato curry with "chicken."  Today, I made Italian "meatballs."  Maybe we should put the Italian in quotes, too. Here's the recipe:


Ingredients:
1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1 piece of sourdough bread
1 16-ounce package of super firm tofu
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
2 tablespoons flax


Ingredients are listed in the order we processed them in the the food processor.  We put the walnuts in first and made them very smooth--almost a walnut butter.  (I told my daughter a "minute" and didn't realize she was literal.  No worries, we went forward; it worked out okay.)   We added the bread and made it all crumbly and then added the rest of the ingredients: tofu, spices, and flax.  We pulsed this again until it was still kind of crumbly.

Previously, I tried making "meatballs" using extra firm tofu, but in the food processor with the extra firm, the mixture became too wet.  The super firm seemed to be able to handle the food processor and all the pulsing me and my two helpers gave it.  It was a little smoother than I wanted, but next time we won't do the extra pulses and it'll be perfect.

We made 35 little balls and baked them in oven on a convection setting at 300 for 30 minutes.  (I rolled the balls over about 1/2 way through and kept checking on them.)  (They may only need 25 minutes...)

Here's a picture of the "super firm" tofu:

Here are a couple of pictures of our "meatballs":

After baking...

Soaked in sauce...  (It's good to let them soak for a few hours, just like real meatballs.)

They are super yummy on sandwich, too!

Next up, my Dad's easy sauce recipe!

Hardly any sugar Peanut Butter Cookies

The recipe below isn't the one I've been working on that I mentioned here--I'm still working on it.  I hope to finalize the new one and share it this week. The recipe below is adapted from the PB cookie recipe on the "My Vegan Cookbook" site and mostly changed to make these less sugary.

My girls like them and it's great to have cookies that I don't mind giving them.  These cookies are SUPER easy to make; they don't even require getting out a mixer.

1/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 Cup PB2
2/3 Cup Ground Flax Seed
1/4 Cup Oat Bran (or you can grind up some oat meal in a food processor or just use oats)
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 Banana mashed up
1 Tablespoon Maple Syrup
1/4 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter

Note, for chocolate-y deliciousness, add 1/4-1/2 cup of dark (vegan) chocolate chip. Peanut Butter and Chocolate are my two favorite foods so I combine them whenever I can. If you want slightly sweeter cookies / bars, add a little more maple syrup or brown sugar.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix all the ingredients well. (You will really need to work at getting the ingredients mixed well by hand.)

Make balls of about 1 tablespoon size and mash them down some with a fork. They are VERY sticky during this phase, so don't expect criss-cross patterns to show on top!

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until bottoms are lightly golden. After they are baked, let them cool for 10 minutes. They will be soft out of the oven and crisp up as they cool.


Here are the nutrition facts for cookies (without the chocolate chips) if you make 12 cookies.  I like to make the cookies in the shape of granola bars and use them as pre-workout treats.

Other green stuff....

This week has been really busy.  My good intentions for posting a recipe became just that and alas, no recipe. (Also we had a lot of leftovers after our 4th of July celebration so I didn't feel like experimenting any more.  Our refrigerator was full!)

So, as we finish our leftovers, I'll share some of my favorite reusable products: the other green.

These plate / bowl covers are super handy for leftovers.  We use them all the time.  I'm on my second package of them.  We've been using them for a while--6 months?  A year?  I actually have no idea, time is a blur around here!  I bought mine at Target on a whim.  I love them.  I haven't had any break on me, nor have I tossed any, but some disappeared so we needed a second set.

These stainless steel straws are wonderful!  We've been using them for almost a year now; I estimate we've saved about 1200 plastic straws thus far.  We love to drink our green smoothies with these straws (I have some pictures of green smoothies with these straws, but they aren't on my iPhone and I'm too lazy to go download the camera right now.)

I suppose I could give you my favorite green smoothie recipe... hrm... (see below)

One more green product... We use stainless steel water bottles (Kleen Kanteen) all the time.  One day, for some reason, I forgot to have the girls pack their water bottles (and snacks) and we found ourselves out and about and thirsty (and hungry).  (I never forget water bottles and snacks as I've been "packing" for 10 years; I don't know what I was thinking!)

We went to Whole Foods to find some sustenance.  While we were there, I was delighted to find a way to buy a bottle of water in a reusable stainless steel water bottle.  While I wouldn't want to buy a new stainless steel water bottle all the time, it was great to buy one that day.  They aren't that expensive ($7) and for us, it's good to have an extra water bottle around the house in case we have company or in case someone loses their water bottle.  

Okay, here's how we make the green smoothie that we have every night as our appetizer before dinner... (If we're going out, I make it in the afternoon and give it to the girls before we go.)

3 - 4 cups frozen kale (or spinach)*
1 or 2 bananas
1 (or 2 if you don't use the Red Powder) 10-ounce package of frozen strawberries (or blueberries or a mixture of berries)
10 ounces of soy milk
(optional) A couple of scoops of Trader Joe's Super Red Powder (or a few scoops of Amazing Meal)
enough water / ice to make it blend well and make it a little less kale-intense.  It will still be thick.

Makes enough for 5 smoothies about 12 ounces (because of the ice/water)

We use our Vitamix to blend it and YUM!  If your kids won't eat veggies, try green smoothies. Here's hoping there's more time for blogging this week!

 

Look, a green smoothie with the stainless steel straw... Love the green!

*Note, we started with a few handfuls and worked our way up to very green smoothies.  I like kale better than spinach.  It's a stronger flavor, but it's more nutritious than spinach--you can google kale versus spinach and see why if you're curious.  Of course, if I don't have kale, I gladly turn to spinach, and for variety, I use spinach every now and then.

Why????

Did you know that Trader Joe's Mini Wheats have gelatin in them????  Yea, neither did we.  We were reading labels this morning at breakfast and learned this.

Really???   Why? 

Word on the Internet says Whole Foods has a brand that doesn't have gelatin.  We'll check it out. 

Summer fun

Summer days seem to fly by and I don't seem to find time to blog.  I keep reading other people's blogs where they are saying the same thing.  It's too hard to sit in on the computer when the days are so nice!  We've been swimming, taking walks, working on picking out tile for our new house (I'll tell you about that later),  doing more social things, e.g., dinner with friends, and just relaxing.  On Saturday, we went to see fireworks! (I've also been working a little.  I'm writing a paper (or two if I can get my act together) and I'm teaching a class in the fall and I want got to get the syllabus done.  It's almost done!)

In the kitchen, I've been trying out some new concoctions and soon I'll share.  I'm experimenting with chocolate to make an excellent vegan summer treat!  It's almost time to share it with the Internet.  I think we're on trial 10 or something like that.  Alas, all the research I have to do to MAKE SURE it's good.  It's a sacrifice. (You're welcome.) 

I've also been working on tofu "meatballs" and I'm close to unveiling that new recipe, too!  I'll even share my Dad's homemade recipe for pasta sauce.  We ate pasta a lot when I was a kid.  He'd make it with and without meat; without is what I do now and I pair it with whole wheat spaghetti--an excellent vegan dish with lots of lycopene for us.

Yesterday, I finally had time to make the tofu cashew mayonnaise that I've been reading about for a while.  It is so good!

My 8-year-old vegan has been missing her mayo; now we have a substitute!  She declared it excellent!  I'm thrilled.  I like it.  It doesn't taste exactly like mayo, or as I remember mayo, but I agree that it is excellent.  I made a 1/2 batch, to try it out, and I'll be making it again. I think the 1/2 batch is a lovely size.  It was enough for 5 sandwiches, plus I put it on two salads (with salsa as a dressing).  We still have a little, but not a lot. We'll get it all eaten in a today or tomorrow and then we won't have to worry about freezing it or anything.  LOVE!

I almost had "nothing" today, but I will share a new drink that I've been enjoying. I drink lots of tea.  I try to drink herbal, but I like and need my caffeine.  Each morning, I have a couple of cups of regular (white, black, or chai), but then I try to drink water or herbal.  However, I never like the herbal stuff as much as the regular, but....

I've just discovered that one lemon ginger tea bag soaked in ice water plus one packet of stevia makes the YUMMIEST lemon-ginger drink.  I'm drinking some now.   I could probably boil the water and make it stronger, with the tea bags, or even fresh ginger and lemons, but this is great--especially on lazy summer days! On my next trip to the store, I'll grab some fresh ginger and try to boil my own, but for now, I'm delighted to use up one of the many different herbal teas that I have!  (I have way too many kinds of tea.  I see new kinds and can't resist them and then I have lots o' tea.)

Here's hoping I can get a new recipe up in the next couple of days.  Wish me luck!!