Gigi's Life Changing Salad

Last night, at her Not-a-Superbowl-Party, Gina made the most beautiful, amazing salad pictured to the left. The title of this post is not an exaggeration: this salad totally changed my life.

Most of you know my life-long issues with raw foods, as well as how much I've grown in the past few weeks alone since beginning E2L. Last night, though, was the final turning point for me. Gigi's Salad taught me everything that a salad can be. In just one bite, it got me over any and all issues I've ever had with texture, and totally enhanced the world of my kitchen from now on.

Here's why:

1. There was a wide variety of textures and colors and flavors, as well as a variety of raw with cooked...all combined, it was like a party in my mouth. I think I'm remembering all the ingredients (G, let me know if I missed anything). Raw: mustard greens, cilantro, mint, green pepper, celery, scallions, avocado, and beets. Cooked: quinoa and chick peas.

2. Everything was pretty finely chopped, and mixed together really well. This allowed all of the flavors and textures to beautifully combine.

3. Goddess Dressing (Annie's Naturals). I didn't even use a lot, because I wanted to experience the beauty of all the other flavors together, but it was indeed a wonderful finishing touch.

I am so blessed to have a friend like Gina...someone who not only knows all of my freaky hang-ups and loves me anyway, but who also can teach me, with infinite patience, about the great things in life that I've been missing. Now that I really know what is possible, I'm so excited to create my own salads. Thank you, Gigi! xoxoommm

"Super Savory Meal of Recovery"

To counteract the sugar shock of this afternoon's candy making, first of all, I've been drinking a lot of water, and secondly, I needed a super nutritious dinner. I'm in the midst of a LOST rewatching marathon, so I wanted to just throw something together as quickly as I could.

I water-sauteed the following:
5-10 stalks of white asparagus, chopped (yummy yum yum!)
1/4 of an orange pepper
a few broccoli florets
one leek, chopped
a few crimini mushrooms, chopped
edamame

All of the above was seasoned with some garlic powder, basil, oregano, a little bit of Vogue Vege Base, pepper, and a pinch of salt. Toward the end of cooking, I added a few splashes of brown rice vinegar to brighten up the flavor a bit.

Meanwhile, I also cooked up some quinoa. All of this was served over a bed of fresh spinach. Delicious and nutritious, and combined with all the water I've been drinking, I'm feeling a lot better.

And now, back to season 1, episode 6 of LOST.

Sugar Coma: A Learning Experience

So, with Valentine's Day coming up, my friend Gina enlisted my assistance in making homemade veganlicious sweet treats to send to her man. This brought up two issues for me: 1, allowing someone else to share space in my kitchen with me (I love Gina, so it was actually easier than I thought it would be), and 2, consciously allowing myself a cheat day from the strict E2L rules (in the moment, it was delicious, totally satisfied my sweet tooth, but I felt lousy--headachey and lethargic--afterward...it was a great learning experience, and a great way for me to see how much my taste-buds and my body have changed since starting E2L).

Nevertheless, we made some pretty amazing treats, all courtesy of Claryn over at Hell Yeah It's Vegan! (click on "candy" in her index, and you'll find all of the recipes we used).
First, we made the Crystallized Ginger--it was a super cool process, and it was incredibly tasty. There's a wonderful sweetness at first, followed by that incredible spicy kick of gingery goodness.The Chocolate Covered Marzipan Balls were super cute and one of the easiest things I've ever made. They look really fancy, but they only took about 10 minutes, and I did them while on the phone with my grandmom!
In my "pregan" days, my most favorite candy ever was Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I grew up 20 minutes from Hershey, PA ("the sweetest place on earth"), and Reese's, well, they just taste like childhood to me. I was a little heavy-handed on the chocolate part of these Peanut Butter Cups (big shock there, right?!), but the PB mixture was unbelievable--totally tasted like the real deal!
Finally, we made Coconut Cups. Going so far overboard with the chocolate in the PB Cups was a great learning experience, and the Coconut Cups turned out WAY better.

I spent the rest of the day recovering from this sugary, chocolaty explosion by rewatching LOST from the beginning on HULU (the season premiere this week was phenomenal, and I felt like I needed to start over from the beginning to have that enjoyable feeling of putting together so many pieces of the puzzle, knowing what I know now...one thing is for sure, I miss the John Locke of season one). I also threw together a super savory meal of recovery which I shall blog about momentarily.

A Well Balanced Indianlicious Lunch

For today's lunchaliciousness, I used a favorite old cookbook (Veganomicon) and a favorite new cookbook (The Indian Vegan Kitchen).

The Cornmeal-Masala Roasted Brussels Sprouts (V'con p.107) were melt in your mouth delicious. To quote Linda Richman (Mike Myers--"Coffee Talk"), they were "Like buttah!" I did, however, modify the recipe. It called for 8 tablespoons of peanut oil--8!!! Isa Moskowitz is totally one of my heroes, but wow! My version had about 1.5 tbsp total. (I'm having so much fun modifying recipes to fit the E2L rules, and finding out how fantastic they still taste!)

The Quick Chickpea Curry (TIVK, p. 122) was also phenomenal. The only modifications I made were sauteing in 1 tsp of oil with some water (as opposed to 2 tbsp of oil) and using way less salt. It was delish, and it really was quick! I'm really stoked to have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

I also made some brown rice, and everything was served over some fresh baby spinach. Veganliciousness aplenty!

A Choir of Angels (And an E2L Update)

When I opened my email from Kenda this morning, I heard a Choir of Angels singing as I saw this picture she took for me at a huge shmancy Whole Foods in London. O the veganliciousness, as my sweet tooth joined in the song! (She told me later in IM that this photo was just a close-up of one section...the vegan sweets went on and on and on....)
Of course, with Eat to Live, I'm working really hard to teach myself to not be Little Miss Sweet Tooth anymore. And I'm proud to say that I'm doing a really good job! (We'll see what happens tomorrow when I help Gina make candy!)

The more I eat my raw greens, the more I actually like them! I've been doing smoothies every morning. They almost always have kale, spinach, ground flax seed, goji berries, blueberries, bananas, and soy milk. Other additions are carrots, celery, arugula, or watercress...peaches, cranberries, mango, or pineapple. They're always delicious and they're a great way to start my day. For lunch and/or dinner, I usually have a combination of raw greens, cooked veggies, and beans. I've been experimenting with a few cookbooks and recipes. Still madly in love with The Indian Vegan Kitchen, but I'm finding 500 Vegan Recipes a little disappointing (I keep trying with it, though, which is why there really hasn't been anything blog-worthy this week).

And here's the very best part. I suffered from acid reflux for a very long time, and I've been taking Nexium for a lot of years. I tried to stop taking it when I first became vegan, but my symptoms came back within a day. Now, with E2L, I'm eating and digesting so much more healthfully, that I'm working on weaning myself off of the Nexium. For two weeks now, I've been taking it every other day instead of every day, and I have had NO heartburn! It's amazing! I feel fantastic! I'm going to go another week or so just like this, and then work toward none at all. Wish me luck!

Subji Korma and Quick Rajmah

I made two recipes tonight from The Indian Vegan Kitchen and I'm super happy with how they turned out. Rather than serving them over rice, as would have been more traditional, I chose to keep within the principles of E2L by serving them over some dark leafy greens (spinach and arugula).

Over the greens, I started with the Subji Korma, or creamy vegetable stew (cauliflower, onion, green beans, peas, carrot, yellow pepper) (p. 102). I topped that with the Quick Rajmah, or kidney beans (p. 120). I garnished the whole dish with some chopped fresh cilantro. Nom nom nom....

With both recipes, I lowered the oil and salt content significantly. I've really gotten used to water sauteing, but I do like a touch of oil...I feel like it adds a little depth of flavor and texture, and I've realized that a little really goes a long way. Everything was delish, and I'm amazed at how quickly I've come to not mind the texture of the raw...when they're combined with the cooked, of course. ;)

I'm super proud of myself, and I'm looking forward to trying my hand at even more Indian food tomorrow!

New Cookbook Love!

Yesterday was the Florida Virtual School Barnes & Noble Open House. Across the state, FLVS teachers gathered at Barnes & Noble stores to meet their students in "real life," to share information with the public, and to raise money for our Foundation (which, among other things, provides laptops and internet access to some of our underprivileged students). Fortunately for me, our table at the Coral Gables B&N was set up right by the cookbook section! So, with my voucher to donate a percentage of my sale to FLVS, I bought The Indian Vegan Kitchen by Madhu Gadia!

I am madly in love with this book and I've not yet even made anything from it. First of all, it has 47 pages full of educational goodness before it even gets to the recipes. A lot of what I read, I already knew from being someone who has read quite a bit about Ayurveda and who spends a lot of time in the kitchen. But the glossary of Indian spices was phenomenal...and the section on nutrition rocked my world! When she referred to nutrient density, I did a little E2L dance of joy--this book is totally perfect for me!

After the first 47 pages, there is still more learning to be done. Every section begins with 2-3 pages of explanation and instruction, which is especially phenomenal in the dal (beans) and desserts sections.

I have a feeling that a lot of veganlicious Indian food is going to be coming out of Cafe Laura in the next few weeks...get ready!