A month in reflection

It's amazing that it's only been 4 weeks since I've started the Wholesome Chef classes. This is going to sound cheesy, but the last few weeks have really been life changing. My whole definition of what it means to eat healthy has completely changed. Four weeks ago, I thought eating healthy was low carb, high protein, and monitoring fats. My definition of health eating has completely changed. Some of the highlights:

• changed from regular salt to sea salt
• no refined sugar in the house - all healthier alternatives
• no refined flour in the house - again, whole grain alternatives
• reorganized the entire kitchen to make room for all the alternatives
• bought enough tupperware to house all the yummy recipes to house all the food made with said alternatives
• read and learned more about a whole-food diet
• quit drinking coffee
• make a green smoothie every morning
• started this blog
• cut my hair (a good 6 inches off) this week
• created an organization of all my recipes so they are available on ipad and iphone for shopping
• learned a whole lot more about Kroger and Whole Foods with multiple trips each weekend
• ate kale, quinoa, swiss chard for the first time
• voluntarily bought brussel sprouts (to make this week!)
• ate 2 weeks of homemade food without almost any processed foods

Of course, I can't stop now! In order to keep and build upon all that I've learned, I have the following goals:

• take one Wholesome Chef class a month
• try one new recipe each week
• buy a for Elmwood Farm share (fresh organic vegetables for 22 weeks)
• keep learning

I imagine that I'll continue blogging about new recipes and new things that I have learned. But as with all things, I'll get a more balanced focus. So you'll start to hear more about my traithlon training, weight loss, as well as nutrition. 

A lot of people have told me that they have been trying the recipes on here which makes me super excited! I'm so glad that my journey has helped others find some good recipes. I know how difficult that can be.

Wholesome Chef Class #4

Today was the last class in the series at the Wholesome Chef. The focus of the class was on a cleansing. I had no idea what the purpose of "cleaning" my body would be. But it's a simple enough of an idea: to "clean" the body of toxins and giving it a rest. Translated, this means eating no animal products and eating only simple foods which does not take the body much work to break down.

Paula provides a week's worth of recipes and gave us a whole packet of information about cleansing the body. All of these recipes and the plan are available on Paula's webpage as the Post-holiday detox. If you're dying for more healthy recipes and have liked the ones I've posted so far (and check out the asparagus soup below,) please go check out the detox. She's put a lot of work and effort into finding these recipes, so I don't feel comfortable sharing them for free. The soup is just a hint of what goodies there are in the holiday detox. Here are some of the other recipes:

Quinoa stuffed acorn squash (yum!)
Roasted Vegetable Soup
Southwestern Black Bean Salad
Green SuperBerry Smoothie
Butternut Squash Soup
Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup

My goal is to make a new recipe each week so you can wait until I've made a few before decided. So far, Paula has offered only amazingly good recipes, so I'm not really worried that you will be disappointed. Since the class was January 18th, you'll get the recording of the class plus the eworkbook.

And now the Asparagus Soup (which I've already made!

Mmmm... just look at the color!

1.5 lbs asparagus
1 leek, white part, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
6 cups water with 2 vegetable bouillon cubes dissolved
 1.5 T EVOO or butter
salt and pepper to taste
a few drops of lemon juice


Slice asparagus. (Tip: break off the hard end of the asparagus by hand - it will break off at a "natural" place.)

Heat oil in soup pot. Add leek and onion and saute over medium heat for about 8 minutes. Add 1 cups stock and stew for 10 to 12 minutes. Add remaining stock and asparagus ans simmer for 12 to 15 minutes.

Puree with immersion or regular blender (be careful of regular blender - follow blender's direction on how to do this with hot soup.)

Add salt plus lemon juice. Service with  brown rice for a heartier soup.

Nina's 11

There's this 11 things Random Things making it's way around the blogs. 


The rules:

1. Post these rules.
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
3. Answer the questions set for you in their post.
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
5. Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them.
6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people.

You're supposed to tag 11 more people so they have to answer your questions. Sadly, I don't know 11 bloggers and the ones that I do know have all answered them. HOWEVER, in the spirit that it was meant, here are my answers:


Random things about me:

1. I'm the only person in my family left in the USA. Everyone else lives in Germany.
2. I played cello with Katherine Heigl in high school.
3. I have a cat with one eye. Turtle the Pirate Queen is her full name.
4. I spent a year in Freiburg, Germany during college which is still one of my most favorite periods of my life.
5. I collect small turtles from different places I visit.
6. I have a turtle tattoo (do you see a pattern?)
7. I am both entertained and repulsed by loud people in public places.
8. I knit everything but sweaters. They scare me.
9. Babies scare me. I've held a baby once. For 10 seconds. They're cute and all but no thanks. I'll play with them once they're 2 years old.
10. While I'm typically very laid back and tolerant, I have a tendency to become self-righteous at times. I find it one of my most annoying faults.
11. I sometimes fudge the town I grew up in. People who know my town often judge me for growing up there when they first me me so I try to avoid the topic until they've gotten to know me better. My town was an awesome place to grow up though and I'm proud of being from New Canaan.

Questions from Bluegrass Tri Chick:

1. Morning or Evening Workouts? Right now evenings but I want to bring back the morning workouts.
2. Vanilla or Chocolate? Chocolate!
3. Dogs or Cats? Dogs although I have a cat.
4. Summer or Winter? Summer in a cooler climate :)
5. Pool or Open Water Swim? Pool! I used to swim all the time in school and the pool is my friend.
6. Drive or Fly? I have decided to fly anywhere more than 8 hours away. It safer for everyone!
7. Magazines or Books? Books - I can't stop reading!
8. Fiction or Non-Fiction? I read a ton of romance novels interspersed with books about nutrition or working out.
9. Comedy or Drama? With my line of work, I have all the drama I need. I like comedies!
10. Mountains or Beach? Both - although I have been more to the beach lately to visit my parents.
11. Racer or Cheerleader? Racer - I never was that flexible.

For a week, I looked for people to tag and everyone in the blogging world that I know (which I can count on one hand) has been tagged - so no tagging of others for me. But enjoy!

Vegan Chocolate Mousse

If there is no other recipe that you try, try this one! It looks like chocolate mousse but I argue that it is better than any chocolate mousse I have ever tried.

1/4 cup pitted dates (soak these for about an hour to soften)
1/4 cup agave (softer cookies) or maple syrup (crispy cookie!)
1/2 t vanilla extract
1.5 avocado
1/4 cup + 2 T unsweetened organic cocoa powder
1/4 cup water

Chop the dates, agave/maples syrup, and vanilla in food processor. Add in avocados and coca and blend until smooth. Add water and blend briefly. Scrape the side of the processor as needed. Chill and serve.

I made this recipe this weekend and it didn't end up so good because the avocados that I bought were too hard and it wouldn't blend with all of the other things. BUT it still tasted REALLY good!

So far, this is my favorite recipe!

More musings about cravings

After last week's cooking class, I headed to the local bookstore to find a decent book discussing the basics of nutrition. I didn't want at textbook and I didn't want to buy something that aligned too much with one focused diet. I ended up buying a book that I later figured out is the same person who taught Paula - the Wholesome Chef teacher! The book is called Integrative Nutrition and it is written by Joshua Rosenthal.So much of what I have been reading is the foundation of much of what Paula has been teaching us. I'm still reading it with an academic view (don't trust the assumptions without seeing the research yourself) but there is a great amount of informative information.

There is a whole section all about cravings. If you read my last post about cravings, you'll understand why this sentence was so powerful for me:

"We have been taught to believe our inability to stick with a diet is our fault, a flaw of our body and our will....To [stick with a diet] we must develop deep discipline over our natural instincts." (page 130.) And just a paragraph later "It's never the program's fault; it's always our fault. Or so we think. It never dawns on us that there's nothing wrong with us, that maybe the diet itself is flawed - that it actually sets us up to fail, and then unfairly lays the responsibility on our shoulders when we do." (p 130-131.)

"Cravings are the body's solution to underlying imbalances, and food becomes a kind of medicine to regulate our inner state." (p. 131)

Now, he goes on in some detail about what the different cravings may be signaling to you. Between the book, the discussion in the Wholesome Chef classes, and my musings, I think that my sugar cravings are a result of several things: a diet high on sugar, emotional eating (including boredom,) and habit.

While the cravings haven't disappeared since I've been making more healthy choices, they certainly have diminished in both the frequency and the intensity. I'm hoping that with my latest sweet class, I'll be able to really diminish the amount of refined sugar I eat.

One of the problems of trying to get away from sugar, your body just craves it more!! AAGGHHH... but the cookies I made are an awesome and filling way to healthily provide some food for those cravings!

Wholesome Chef Class #3 - Sugars!!

In one word, the class was amazing! It was my favorite one, mostly due to the fact that I have such a sweet tooth. But we had THE MOST AMAZING chocolate mousse. I immediately went home and remade it. Mine doesn't look as pretty but it still tastes fantastic!

Before I get started, let me go make a green smoothie so I can sip it as I write... ok, ready to type!

I want to first give a quick shot out to Paula who is the amazing teacher of these classes. If you wish you could have Paula's amazing and insightful help, you can! Virtually! Check out her program. I've met several ladies who Paula is helping and they are making great lifestyle changes.It's starting up again on February 1st!!

These were the tasty delights Paula prepared for us:

Vegan Chocolate Mousse - this was AMAZING!!!!
Sesame-Almond Cookies - making these today :)
Sweet Potato Surprise
Chocolate Smoothie Decadence
Breakfast Greens Frittata

And I'll be making ALL of them on here, so just wait :) Except for the frittata as I don't have a pan that can go in the oven. I already know what I want for my birthday!!

The first part of the class was focused on understanding how both refined sugar and artificial sweeteners can have a very negative impact on our eating and health. And the second half was all about how you can make amazingly sweet things that are HEALTHY! Without refined sugar and without artificial sweeteners. I don't want to make this a blog about all things that our wrong about the American diet, but lets just say that sugar has long been my downfall and now I'm understanding a little bit more of WHY!

Fun (and kinda sad) fact: McDonald's puts sugar in their french fry recipe!

After class, I headed to Whole Foods and once again invested a whole lot of money with the idea that this will make a big difference in the long wrong.  But friends, this is expensive! Between buying all the basics like brown rice flour, chia seeds, ground chia, sesame seeds, natural cane sugar, etc... I have THE most expensive and healthiest kitchen I have ever had in my life. I ended up spending almost 5 hours in the kitchen yesterday cooking and baking for the week.

They looks like regular chocolate chip cookies!

Recipe for the day: Decadent and Healthy Chocolate Chips!!

Mix in one bowl:
½  cup butter
½  cup olive oil
½  to ¾  cup brown sugar
½  to ¾  cup sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla extract

Mix in a second bowl:
¾  cup buckwheat flour
¾  cup brown rice flour
¼  cup ground flaxseed 
½  cup finely ground oatmeal
½  cup finely chopped walnuts
¼  cup chia seed
1 t salt
1 t baking soda


Mix it all together, add in 1 cup organic semisweet chocolate chips. Bake at 350° until medium brown.


The great thing about this recipe is that it is flexible. I used natural cane sugar in place of the brown and regular sugar. I also used steel oats instead of oatmeal and left out the flaxseed. 

Quinoa Salad

Good morning blogging world!

I am taking the dog to the vet this morning for her annual teeth cleaning and have a few minutes before I drop her off, so I'm taking advantage of the extra time and sharing the quinoa salad!

I actually made this recipe Sunday and have been eating it all week. I shared some with a co-worker yesterday who thought the salad was delicious! For those of you who haven't heard of quinoa or who haven't had much luck with quinoa, this is a great recipe to try!!

Quinoa Salad with Fennel (also called Anise) and Red Onion

1.5 cups quinoa (red and white mixed)
5 tbl extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
4 oz arugula
4 oz gouda, finely sliced (I left this out as I don't like gouda)
3 medium celery stalks, thinly sliced (did you know celery is on the dirty dozen list?)
1 large, crisp apple, diced (and so are apples! buy organic!!)
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup finely diced fennel
3/4 cup dried cranberies
3 tbl red wine vinegar (or exchange this for balsamic)
sea salt (healthier than refined salt)
pepper

Directions:
1. Quinoa: rinse and drain quinoa. Add 2.5 cups water and bring to boil in saucepan. Lower heat to simmer and cook, covered, about 15 minutes. When all the water is gone, turn off heat and let it rest 5 minutes. Then fluff with work

2. While the quinoa cooks, heat 2 tbl EVOO in skillet and saute onion until tender and slightly brown. Add 2 tbl balsamic vinegar and cook until vinegar cooks away. Remove from heat.

3. In large bowl, combine cooked quinoa, onions, arugula, cheese (optional), celery, apple, walnuts, fennel, and cranberries.

4. Dressing: in a small bown, whisk 3 tbl EVOO with 3 tbl red wine vinegar (or balsamic), 1/2 t sea salt and some black pepper. Add dressing to the salad and mix. Let rest then season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

A couple of comments:
The red quinoa has a little bit nuttier flavor than the white. I really liked the mix but the salad I made was only white quinoa. For those who don't like licorice and are worried about the fennel, you don't taste the licorice, I promise. I HATE black licorice and wouldn't eat this salad if there was even a hint.


This recipe came from the Wholesome Chef class.