28 Day Healthy Eating Challenge

This month I am participating in the the Whole Foods 28 Day Healthy Eating Challenge, which is affiliated with their Health Starts Here work.

For five weeks, I will attend a class at my local store, with sessions to include: Whole Foods core values and wellness lecture, a healthy eating demo and a healthy eating on a budget store tour, navigating your way through a healthy lifestyle change, a cooking class with the store chef and a supper club with a panel of experts. Additionally, they will be screening the film "Forks Over Knives", but since I've already seen it, I won't be going to that session (but you should see it if you haven't! Fantastic film!). All this, plus a book and a bag of healthy starter groceries (lentils, quinoa, steel cut oats, Lara Bars, digestive enzymes, etc!), for just a $30 donation to their Whole Planet Foundation. This is the third time the store near me has ran this program, so if you are interested I would suggest that you see if a Whole Foods near you already is holding the class or let them know that you are interested.

At our first session this week, we reviewed what we should be eating during this time period by learning about their four pillars of healthy eating: eat whole, unprocessed foods, lots and lots of plants, healthy fats and foods with a high nutrient density. They are stressing eating a plant strong diet, which could include eating meat or dairy as as more of a garnish to a dish, but stated they aren't there to make everyone into vegetarians. While I know they are trying to not push people away, they are basing their course on the work of Dr. Fuhrman and Rip Esselstyn, so I wish they would at least touch on the benefits of a plant-based diet. They also brought in an expert on wellness who talked about reducing stress levels for a healthier lifestyle. He taught us a breathing exercise to try to combat cravings and explained how chocolate, dairy and sugar all temporarily increase your relaxation response, which is why you want to eat them when you are stressed.

This is supposed to be a challenge and I am sure that it will be. This month includes the Super Bowl, my birthday, Valentine's Day and a trip to New Jersey to visit my family. All of these are potential pitfalls for a healthy diet. However, I am hoping to learn some new things (such as more ways to cook greens!) in this course and apply them for the long term. For the next 28 days, I plan to follow their suggestions as closely as possible. It's time to go from eating vegan junk food to really focusing on eating good, whole, nutritious food. So far, after just one class, I have a lot of new information and resources. I'm looking forward to seeing where these next few weeks of class take me.

(Picture from the Whole Foods website)

Vegan Seafood

In my pre-veg early twenties, I very suddenly developed a severe shellfish allergy. I was forced to cut them out of my diet cold turkey (cold shrimp?). Now I wouldn't eat them even if I could due to ethical reasons, but I would be lying if I said there weren't times over the years when I missed shellfish. A few weeks back when I saw Sophie's Kitchen vegan seafood appear in our local market, I decided to give it a try, if only because my Mom developed the same allergy and I know she misses it badly.

They come frozen, so you simply thaw them out long enough for them to separate and then add them to whatever you are cooking.

For us, that meant a stir-fry with an orange sauce. I added them in during the last few minutes of cooking time.

We served our stir-fry over some brown rice. Since I accidentally bought prawns instead of shrimp, they were enormous. As for the taste, they were chewy and slightly gummy, but I think it's been so long since I had shrimp that I am not sure I was a good judge. Jesse really liked them, but I felt like I could take them or leave them. If I get them again, I think I will try the shrimp, which will be smaller.

I also picked up some vegan breaded calamari, which I will review here once I get a chance to give them a try.

Recommended Reading

Recommended reading from Gilt Taste: "When Being a Vegetarian Gets in the Way of Family"

by Allegra Ben-Amotz

Dinners Lately

Lately, I've been cooking lots and lots of bowls for dinner, meaning a grain or base of some sort, steamed veggies, a protein and a sauce. They are a perfect dinner, usually provide leftovers for lunch and are a great way to use up what you have in the fridge. I've been trying to cook gluten-free (more on that in another post) as well, so these bowls are good for that purpose too. If you pile on the veggies, it looks and feels like a ton of food for not a ton of calories. For great ideas, check out the section on bowls in the back of Appetite for Reduction (love, love, LOVE this cookbook!).

Soba noodles, black beans, steamed broccoli and zucchini with green onion miso vinaigrette from AFR.

Brown rice, steamed broccoli, sesame tempeh and peanut lime dressing from AFR (BEST SAUCE EVER!!!! I want to put it on everything everyday.)

Quinoa, steamed broccoli and green beans, baked tofu with spicy orange sauce (from a bottle).

Revelry Review: ShopHouse

This past weekend Jesse and I tried a new-ish fast food restaurant, ShopHouse, the latest creation of the founder of Chipotle. Touted as a "southeast Asian kitchen", you can either build a bowl or have a banh mi sandwich with a variety of possible fillings. I had been looking forward to checking it out for a few months now. If I had checked my expectations at the door, I might have liked this place better than I did. I had dreams of yummy warm green curry and firm chunks of tofu with a variety of delicious veggies.

However, as a vegetarian, there was no green curry for me. In fact, the only sauce that did not count fish sauce as an ingredient was the tamarind vinagrette. Okay, fine. I was disappointed but I figured I would just appreciate that they told me and move on. The tofu looked more like the tofu scramble I make at home than any tofu I have ever had at an Asian restaurant. It was very tumeric-y and SUPER spicy. I wish I had been warned.

When you are essentially eating a bowl of brown rice and tumeric-y tofu, it would be great if you were allowed to choose more than one vegetable. My sauteed long beans were delicious but I wasn't given that many of them. I would have loved to try the charred corn, eggplant and Chinese broccoli too. Chipotle lets me have whatever toppings I want and I wish this place did too. The saving grace was the green papaya salad, which provided some relief for my super spicy lunch.

Overall, I thought ShopHouse had large portion sizes and I appreciate having a new fast food vegetarian option, but I just wish it had been less spicy and contained more veggies. Hopefully they will refine their menu over time.

ShopHouse is located at 1516 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC.

Weeknight Meals

I often post my culinary experiments on this blog. However, the truth is that I only post the ones that I think are blog-worthy, meaning that they took a lot of work or are pretty to look at. Since I decided to reignite my mission to get healthy, I thought I would show you a typical weeknight dinner.

Here is last night's meal: a 365 brand fajita-sized tortilla from Whole Foods (I think it was red chile flavor...?), topped with Cava's spicy hummus (can't get enough of this stuff!), cucumber, red bell pepper and baby spinach. I made roasted brussel sprouts as a side. I never liked them until I had them roasted! Here's how you do it: Cut off the hard ugly bottoms, cut the large ones in half so that they are all roughly the same size, cover them in just enough oil so that they don't stick to the pan, sprinkle with your topping of choice (garlic powder and black pepper, though I've also used fresh garlic, lemon, a veggie spice mix and parmesan cheese at different times) and bake on 375 until they're soft. Perfection! This was a great, quick meal that left me more than enough time to get in a trip to the gym!

DC Vegfest 2011

This weekend was DC Vegfest! It's one of my favorite events to attend each year. Fantastic eats, lots of amazing organizations represented and thousands of like-minded people. What's not to love?!

Jesse and I arrived right as they opened at 11 and each got a tote bag of some goodies (coupons, flax seed, Vega, lip balm, Parma, etc.) Then we immediately headed for the Vegan Treats table. Every year it seems as this is the hot spot, so we like to get there early. Above is a small sample of some of the wide variety of treats they brought with them all the way from Bethlehem, PA.

This, my friends, is a vegan donut full of pumpkin-spiced cream and topped with a cinnamon glaze. Ohhhhhh yeah.

We hung out for a few hours, so we eventually got hungry for some lunch. I finally got to try the Fojol Bros. food truck! They called themselves a traveling culinary carnival and they aren't kidding. There are two trucks. One truck claims to be from the imaginary land of "Benethiopia" and the other from the land of "Merlinda". They play fun music and are dressed up in crazy costumes.

At the Merlindia truck, you could choose from such Indian-inspired delights as pumpkin curry, a delicious eggplant mix, mixed veggies, lentils, and spinach and cheese. They are served over rice.

Here is Jesse's Benethiopian lunch: Collards, lentils and a mix of carrots and green beans over injera.

My Merlindian lunch: curried mixed vegetables, lentils and eggplant over rice.

Doron Petersan was the emcee for the Sticky Fingers Bakery cupcake eating contest. Doron's cookbook comes out in February.

The contestants getting their cupcake on. The first to finish five cupcakes (without using their hands!) won!

Highlight: Colleen Patrick-Goudreau talking about The 30 Day Vegan Challenge. If you've never heard her podcasts, cooked from one of her cookbooks, heard her speak or had her garlic and greens soup, I suggest you do all of these things immediately. I really believe that she's changed my life.

Colleen signing books immediately after signing mine! I left Vegfest inspired to keep a vegan house (we were very close anyway, but we're getting rid of the few things that remain) and to do more for the animals. I'm in awe that I get to live in such an amazing community.

Delicious Dishes

Miso Udon Stir-fry from Appetite for Reduction. Let me yet again proclaim my love for this cookbook. It gave us a bowl full of yumminess: udon noodles, broccoli, azuki beans, swiss chard, green onion, miso, and assorted spices. It also taught me a new method for cooking broccoli, which I know I'll use all the time.

White bean and artichoke salad from Color Me Vegan. This one will be making many a repeat appearance in our kitchen. It was perfection.

Jesse made a southwestern shepherd's pie from Vegan on the Cheap. Another book full of winners. This was hearty, spicy, comfort food at its best.

A vegan peach galette, courtesy of Chloe Coscarelli's website. Very easy and very tasty.

Delicious Dishes: Papa Pea's Jambalaya

Earlier this week I told you about my discovery of the Peas and Thank You blog and how Mama Pea's new cookbook arrived at my door recently. My first foray into cooking from it happened to be in the form of Papa Pea's Jambalaya.

I try to make recipes close together that have similar ingredients so that nothing goes to waste (i.e. two things with cilantro so I don't buy a bunch and only use a tablespoon). This week I used celery in my very favorite lentil soup recipe, so I searched for some other way to use the remaining stalks. Enter Jambalaya! I was leaving for a work retreat for a few days, so this was the perfect way to help stock the fridge for Jesse before heading out of town. It includes meatless sausage (in the form of Field Roast chipotle sausages) and since I hate meat substitutes (an entire post in and of itself for another day), this was a perfect time to try this one. I love that it only needs one pan too, if you used pre-cooked rice.

The final dish:

Delicious Dishes: Summer Succotash Quesadillas

Last week I was scouring the interwebs looking for some dinner inspiration when I came across the Peas and Thank You blog. Mama Pea's writing style is hysterical and full of delicious-sounding things to cook. Her girls are absolutely adorable and I aspire to one day have a family like hers that likes to eat healthy, veggie food. I recommend checking out her blog if you like any of the following: veggies, little kids or laughing.

I immediately pre-ordered her new cookbook (and it arrived late last week--more on this later!), and in the meantime, we tried this recipe from her blog: Summer Succotash Quesadillas with Mmm Sauce. First, you cook up zucchini, red pepper, onions, corn and lots of yummy spices.

You also blend up the Mmm sauce. I wasn't crazy about it on its own (I don't love the taste of nutritional yeast), but it was delicious on the quesadillas.

You heat up a pan with some cooking spray and lay down one whole wheat tortilla. Put on some Daiya, some of the mix and cook away. It was my first experience with pepperjack Daiya. It's melty and yummy.
Cut it up and then you're all set! It's a quick and easy weeknight meal. Here's Jesse's dinner: the quesadilla plus a big salad of baby spinach, edamame, cucumbers and carrots.

Delicious Dishes: Jesse edition

Jesse cooked last week and it was so delicious! He made the Chimichurri tofu from Appetite for Reduction, which I think is my new most favorite tofu recipe. If you like cilantro, you will love it. That cookbook is simply full of winners. If you want to eat healthier but still have things that are extremely tasty, definitely purchase it ASAP. We've tried a lot of the recipes and not a single one was anything less than stellar.

As sides Jesse prepared mashed sweet potatoes and a salad. It was so nice to come home and have dinner nearly finished. He also did the dishes! What a man!

Sweet & Natural

Jesse and I are always on the lookout for new veg-friendly places to eat in the DC-metro area. We particularly miss The Uptown Juice Bar, which is (was? I heard the may have closed) a vegan juice bar and restaurant in Harlem, NY that serves all sorts of yummy vegan soul food. We went all the time when Jesse lived in NYC. Here in DC, we've tried Soul Vegetarian many times (oh that macaroni!) and Everlasting Life Cafe (delicious!), but a co-worker recently told me that Sweet & Natural opened a small vegan eatery in Mt. Rainier, MD. I've long enjoyed their baked goods at places like Java Green and Roots Market so upon learning that they had a rotating menu of deliciousness, I needed to give it a try.

We got there just as they were about to close for the night on a Saturday (which I believe is 8 pm). I thought we might be out of luck but they still graciously served us dinner to go. I had the fried chicken, vegan gumbo and cauliflower gratin. A member of the staff asked me if I wanted to try their barbecue tofu too and when I said yes (how could I not?), she piled it on. I also got hot sauce for my "chicken". AMAZING. It's been many years since I stopped eating our feathered friends and the only thing I occasionally missed was tenders and hot sauce. NO MORE. This is sheer crispy crunchy spicy perfection!

When we patronize new veg restaurants, I feel a responsibility to really patronize them. So we ordered: two of these giant entrees (see picture), cornbread, banana bread, a lemon raspberry cupcake and a jelly thumbprint cookie. One of the staff members thought that they cupcake in the case wasn't fresh enough, so he went to the back to get me another one. And a different staff member insisted we take two of their veggie beef hand pies home to try. All of this vegan deliciousness? $30. We can barely get two salads out somewhere in this city for $30.

I want to sign the praises of this place from the rooftops! Please make the trip out there so that this place stays open! It's delicious.

If you go: Sweet & Natural is located at 4009 34 St., Mt. Rainier, MD. Warning: There is a lack of signage out front, so be on the lookout for it. It's located near Glut natural grocer. Their menu rotates and they don't have a website as far as I can tell, so be prepared to be surprised!

Weeknight Dinners

It is *hot* here in the metro DC area. The heat index is at 111 today and supposedly will be even higher tomorrow. During these impossible days of summer, I never feel like cooking, particularly not after dealing with public transportation. Lately I've been experimenting with mixing some homemade food with packaged food for dinner, a la "Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee" (I hate that show with a passion, but I digress...)

Last night's dinner? Dry pan-fried tofu cooked via the method in this recipe, green beans, zucchini and red pepper cooked with Seeds of Change's Jalfrezi Simmer Sauce. I made basmati rice via a traditional cooking method I learned in my Northern Indian Vegetarian Cooking Class last Spring (it has been worth every penny I spent on it, locals!), which requires zero attention once you get it going. I also heated up some frozen tandoori naan from Trader Joe's. It made more than enough for Jesse to get a few lunches out of the leftovers as well, which is crucial in our house.

Simple, delicious and minimal hands-on cooking required. Perfect! What are your secrets for quick weeknight eats?

Pigs, a Sanctuary

This past weekend Jesse, our friend Noel and I went to Shepherdstown, West Virginia to visit Pigs, a Sanctuary! A few months ago I was searching for farm sanctuaries to visit. We would like to make the trip to the New York location of Farm Sanctuary in the near future but also thought there might be something more local to us. I found this one and immediately wanted to make the trip.

When you drive up, there is a sign that says, "To the animals: You have nothing to fear and so your story ends. Your troubles are all over and here you have a home." The sanctuary is home to about 400 animals (including pigs, horses, donkeys, cats, dogs and goats). They came to the farm mostly as rescues from unbelievably horrible situations. The staff here not only feed and care for the animals, but work on socializing them with the other animals on the farm and, when appropriate, try to find the dogs and cats forever homes.

It costs the farm about $23,000 PER MONTH to stay open, so if you have it in your heart to donate, you can either make a donation via their webpage or purchase something from their Amazon.com wish list.

This guy is the first pig we saw. How adorable is that face?

These are potbelly pigs. The director told us that after the potbelly pig craze, many people were surrendering their animals once they got to be too large for a house or became agressive with the kids. PEOPLE OF THE WORLD: Pigs are not pets. They belong on big, beautiful farms with lots of land and other pigs.

This is Spanky. He is a Mexican hairless pig, also known as a Yucatan pig. He has cancer and his best friend recently passed away. The director said he showed signs of mourning for her. He was right at the fence and let us pet him. Such a sweetheart.

This is what a full-grown farm pig looks like. They can get up to 1,000 pounds. Very few people ever see full-size farm pigs because they are usually slaughtered young, before their meat gets too tough.

This is Walter. He's a farm pig that was bottle-fed as a baby by sanctuary staff. He is living with potbelly pigs at the moment so he can learn to socialize.

This is Walter's pen-mate, Kevin Bacon.

This guy is Jack. He was my favorite. I love those floppy ears!

This is Zeus. He is a mastiff that came from a rescue case. He has problems with his legs that cause him to sit funny and a big calcification on his head from being beat by a previous owner. However, he came right up to us to say hi. The resilience of these animals is amazing.

The sanctuary also has four separate areas for cats: one for cats that are up for adoption, one for feral cats that roam the fields, a house for cats that test positive for feline AIDS (these cats are usually immediately euthanized but can live happily for many years without being affected by the disease), and a small house for special needs cats. These guys above have CH, which causes them to lose their balance. They are sometimes also known as drunk cats. They are totally healthy other than the fact that they fall down often. And they are really sweet!

This horse was rescued from an Amish farmer. He was found with a severe leg infection and about 700 pounds underweight because he couldn't walk to his feeding area. Now is is living happy and free, roaming around the many, many acres at the sanctuary.

If you want to visit: Email Melissa, the sanctuary director, at melissa@pigs.org to arrange a tour. They last about an hour and the sanctuary asks for a minimum $12 donation in exchange for their time. Tours are available from June-October on the weekends and will be canceled in the event of inclement weather.

Saturday

In all of the years I've lived in this area, I've never been able to attend the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. This past weekend, however, Jesse and I made it happen! This year they were celebrating the Peace Corps, Rhythm and Blues and Colombia. The picture above is of a Peruvian woman weaving. Her training and business are supported by the Peace Corps.

Kenyan women making baskets.

Rugs made by Kyrgyz women.

These were made my a Colombian woman. I loved the colors!

Traditional Colombian dancing during carnival.

After the festival, we drove out to Clarksville, MD to go to Roots Market, our most favorite grocery store (think Whole Foods with lots of veg items and lower prices) and had dinner at Great Sage, the vegan restaurant next door. We started with the "Almost Raw Vietnamese Spring Rolls". They came with a delicious peanut sauce. So yummy.

Jesse had the udon noodle bowl with veggies and tempura tofu.

I had the Santa Fe salad, which has marinated tofu, tortilla chips, corn, black beans, tomatos, onion, guacamole, mixed greens and lime vinagrette. Amazing!