O_o ?What? July 8, 2011

Googily eyes…

Thanks to the vigilant eyes of my brother (My blog consultant. Checkout his blog http://twopieceandabiscuit.blogspot.com/) all of those funky little typos I had have been fixed. Most of my blog posts are done at work, oddly the only time I have free to post. Weird. So, I don’t take the time that I usually take to proofread and edit. Yes I know, shame on the English major. Anywhoville, blame the job and not my brian (brain).

Got to laugh at yourself sometimes.

At least I know how to write properly. They gave me a degree for it! LOL!

Peace and blessings!

Real Life July 8, 2011

Today I made the awful mistake of going to work without packing a lunch, or even a snack. I thought that my power-pack breakfast of grits, and a mushroom and spinach sautee would hold me over until I get off at 5:30. Wrong! And I know better! Don’t ask what I was thinking because I wasn’t. So here I am, literally, on the desk (I’m a librarian) and my stomach is eating itself. Miserably hungry.

Thankfully, earlier in the day I had a quick break and I was able to run out to grab something. But here is where the problem would usually come. I would sometimes run out to the Dunkin Donuts and grab an egg white flat bread and an Iced Coffee, and sometimes a donut. Not the best choice.

Today I decided to go to the grocery store. My preferable choice of late. I decided upon crackers (I was able to read and understand the ingredients!), honey goat cheese (a little splurge), 2 bananas, and 2 black plums. Yum! Fresh food always makes me happy. And get this: The money that I would have spent at the Dunkin Donuts would have been wasted on a one time fix, whereas the grocery food, though a little more pricey, will certainly last a few days.

So far I’ve only had time to eat one banana, 3 crackers, and a small corner of the cheese. Stomach still talking.

The point is, maintaining a healthy lifestyle requires preparation. If you are easily susceptible to caving into the junk food craze you need protection. Pack your healthy lunches and snacks ahead of time and you will be less likely to grab the unhealthy and unpleasant foods.

Thankfully I had the sensibility to not head for the sugar and transfats. I even turned down the weekly offer of free snacks from our vending machine man!

Eat well! Live well!

Powerful Powerhouse July 8, 2011

I think my recipes are coming with stories now and days. But I love to share!

Mom and I where on our way out one night. The plan was to grab something to eat and deliver it to my dad who has been working tirelessly on renovating our new church building. We could not decide where to go, and we did not want to spend too much money. So mom said let’s just go to the grocery store. I said, “great idea!”

I decided to make my fav sandwich,

the powerhouse!

(Imagine that with all the fancy echo sound effects.)

This sandwich I made was quite powerful.

I roamed the aisles of the grocery store and picked up a pack of ciabatta bread, clove sprouts, spinach, tomatoes, and a portabella mushroom.

I wanted a little more so I visited the cheese bar.

The cheese bar always overwhelms me. I’m not a cheese scholar, see the blog on my Fennel Quiche recipe. It’s just too much selections and I just don’t know what to do. And for the good stuff that I like, it is so expensive! But I decided on goat cheese. I’ve heard so much about it and I wanted to try it. Turns out, I’m in love with goat cheese! It’s so smooth and creamy.

Slice your veggies, rinse and dry the sprout and spinach, and pile it all on the bread. Spread the goat cheese on one half of your bread and close the sandwich.

It should look a little like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bon Appétit!

Cabbage and Brown Rice Salad July 7, 2011

Note: This cutest bowl in the whole wide world was purchased at Anthropologie. Adorable!

Yes I have been cooking. Or, creating. I am not doing much cooking because this weather just does not lend itself to a hot oven, or a heated stove top. Nope raw it is for me this summer.

But one day last week I was all geared up to sautee onions and cabbage for a quick meal. Seems like I do a lot of sauteeing. Note to self, learn new cooking method. LOL!

Immediately I put on the brown rice, as it takes FOREVER to cook. I don’t like the instant stuff, just personal preference. I pulled out the cabbage, onion, and broccoli and started to chop. The fresh veggies smelled so good! I just could not bring myself to cook all that freshness away. So I decided to keep it raw. Great idea for the summer. Cold food for a cooler core body temperature. As I decided to keep the veggies raw I thought, “what am I going to do with the rice? Do not want to waste it. I may as well toss it all together.”  And that is how this recipe came about.

You can add just about any raw veggie to this to personalize it to your particular taste: spinach, asparagus, sweet pea, peppers, squash, zucchini; you get the idea.

You will need:

Cabbage (thinly sliced)

1/2 small onion (thinly sliced)

Fresh Broocoli (chopped steams and all)

Lemon

Cilantro

The Trio (salt, pepper, Olive Oil)

Brown Rice

Dried Cherries (craisins, or any other dried fruit)

Cook rice according to package. When done rinse with cold water.

In a large bowl combine rice, chopped veggies, and dried fruit of choice. Season with lemon, cilantro, and the trio.

Fresh Veggie Omelette July 7, 2011

(Not my own image)

Last night I took a trip to the grocery story with my grandmother. She found a fancy new market in the area and could not stop talking about it. She made it a point yesterday morning to tell me she wanted me to see it, “You will like it. Organic food. And cheap.” So, to please my grandmom, because I think she is so adorable, I made a b-line home after the gym to go out with her. And was she right. Absolutely!

I tend to be the loyal type. I usually shop at the same place, as I believe other places are not good enough. But that’s just me. I walked into this gigantic place a little displease with the size because I hate large markets and stores, carbon footprint much? But as I walk further into the aisles I was pleased. The fruits and veggies where actually fresh. And I’m not talking about that sneaky tactic that some groceries us to cover the not so good produce with slightly more fresh, but equally not so good other produce. I flipped through the lemons and limes, smelled all the fresh fruit and got hungry. Everything looked so good. They even had raw almonds, a rarity in mainstream markets!

So, as I was starving after my workout I decided to shop. Bad thing going to the market on an empty stomach. LOL! But I was good. I decided to make a leafy green salad with a lemon/lime dressing. I purchased arugula, first time trying it, red leaf lettuce, a cucumber, lemons and limes, baby bella mushrooms, and a dessert; Edy’s single serve Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, my favorite indulgence. Prepared my salad that evening, just toss all of the ingredients together sprinkle with olive oil and the citrus juices. I also added tomatoes,onion slivers, and fresh spincah. I really enjoyed the earthy flavors.

The arugula was a taste that I had to get used to. The peppery taste caught me off guard. At first I thought my onion were too strong, but I quickly realized that the arugula adds that flavor. Interesting as it is.

All night I thought of ways to incorporate arugula in other recipes. I particularly wanted to keep it raw. I thought that the peppery spice of the arugula would be a great accompaniment to eggs. So an omelette it is! Or was!

You will need:

Arugula (chopped)

Baby Bella Mushroom (sliced)

Spinach

Onion (finely chopped)

The Trio (salt, pepper, Olive Oil)

Feta Cheese

Tomato (2 slices)

3 egg white and 1 egg

Basically the same ingredients from my salad the night before. This is a great tip for reusing new ingredients, just add them to a new dish and you will not waste anything.

Sautee mushrooms and onions with the trio. Be sure to add enough salt and pepper as this is the only time you will use it.

Mix eggs and add to pan. Add feta cheese. Turn burner to low and cover tightly with lid. Once the egg is firm add arugala, spinach, and tomato to one side. Flip other side. You do not want to cook the spinach and arugala; therefore, do not keep it in the pot until they are wilted. Make sure the egg is fully cooked before you add the other ingredients. Serve from pan.

My grandmother had a serving this morning and could not figure out what was the extra flavor. “What did you put in the omelette?” “Just salt and pepper.” “It had a different flavor to it. It was GOOD!” “Oh that may have been the arugala.” “It was good.” Indeed it was!

New York Times-Summer Sauces July 5, 2011

I love sharing information.
I came across this article in the New York Times. It gives great ideas for delicious summer sauces. Great for those mushroom and bean burgers. How creative can you be with these recipe ideas? Let us know!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/health/nutrition/04recipehealth.html

What Am I Going to Eat? July 2, 2011

Hey veggies and aspiring veggies!

Just wanted to share this post, Finding Vegetarian Spots in Carnivore Lands « Clutch Magazine, that I read on www.clutchmagazine.com.

Follow them on twitter @clutchmagazine.

I hope that this will be an inspiration for you to stand strong in your choice to be a veggie.

In my vegetarian story, http://soveggd.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/it-is-my-anniversary/, I shared my frustration with being the only veggie in my circle and being “leftout,” or made to feel odd whenever we ate out. “Hello waiter. May I have a cheese burger without the burger.” *Blank stare from the waiter*

I also hate ordering from the side menu and getting my food served on tiny individual plates. “Please sir/ma’am, put it all on ONE platter. Thank you kindly.”

Or that odd moment when at a resturant with my brother and he looked at the menu and looked at me with a very long face and said, “Awe Jaz. What are you going to eat?” Time stopped for a moment as everyone looked up at me and said, what seemed like in unison, “you’re a vegetarian?” Even still, I absouletly adored that moment! Adore it! Thanks big brother! LOL!

The point is, situations like this will make you run back to meat. However, with patience and a little creativity your vegetarian lifestyle will become the norm. I promise! LOL!

My personal method is cook at home and leave the entertainment for outside the home.

What are your veggie frustration? How do you combat them?

.

Are You Listening? June 27, 2011

 
 http://chestofbooks.com/food/science/Homemaker-Food-Facts/The-Organs-Of-Digestion.html

If you have not noticed by now, I am on this healthy eating/living rampage. Though I have been health conscious in the past, there is something distinctly different about the move to healthiness now. Basically, I am making a lifestyle choice. Health and fitness are becoming a part of my lifestyle. That means no more wavering between healthy and unhealthy choices, as it is coming to the point where the natural choice is to be healthy.

Some of you may be thinking, “I thought this was a cooking blog about Vegetarianism?” True, but as the name states, Vegetarian Lifestyle, this is about vegetarianism as a lifestyle and to me that equals health and fitness. My lifestyle as a vegetarian. Don’t worry, the recipes are coming. My recipe making methods are random and they happen spontaneously and I don’t realize I have something good until I’ve finished my meal and I sit back and say, “that was good.” I am, however, keeping a catalog of original recipes to be shared in the future. But in the meantime…

Ever pay attention to your body?

You know that feeling you get when you had a large meal? The heavy feeling that makes you want to sleep. The “itis”? Checkout the definition here at the Urban Dictionary http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=itis. (Scholarly folk, don’t rag on me for referring to the Urban Dictionary. LOL! It’s just to make a point and clarify the definition. LOL!) But isn’t that odd, we have a term, that is widely accepted, for overeating. That “itis” we get is our body breaking down all that food that we ate. And you feel sleepy because your body is working overtime to digest it all.

Get this, LeeAundra Keany describes in 20 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT DIGESTION “The three days of Christmas: It will take up to 72 hours to digest your holiday dinner. Carbs (stuffing and pumpkin pie) will be processed first. The dry, overcooked protein that is your holiday turkey will come next. Fat (gravy and whipped cream) will be the last to go.”

So it is taking your body three days to digest three days of food and in those threes of digestion you are adding to that process by adding more food, thus elongating the itis. We never give our body a rest.

Here is some personal proof:

One day this week I had a muffin (that was not REAL food in that it was oozing with so many artifical everythings) and eggs for breakfast with a cup a coffee. Usually I would have maybe oatmeal, or grits and eggs with tomatoes or something like that. But I was feeling a little…extra.  As a result of my extraness, I was awfully sluggish, cranky, and irritable. I felt drianed before the day even started. Before my body could breakdown and distribute the nutritious protein of the egg, it had to work hard to breakdown the muffin. Curse you muffin!

So between the stimulant of the coffee and the crashing effect of the carbs my body didn’t know what to do. Consequently, when it came time to workout that evening I could hardly run a full mile. And as I am trying to condition my body to run because I’ve never been a runner, it is not wise to eat nonnutritious heavy carbs. Yes carbs are needed, but the good ones are the ones I need. By nights end I was pooped, done for! But you live you learn.

The point is, your body tells you when it does or does not like something, but only if you listen. Try eating a protein and fiber packed breakfast, maybe the Black Bean Breakfast Burrito and some fresh fruit. You will be full longer. And your energy level will be maintained throughout the morning, instead of having a burst of energy from a carb laden muffin and then crashing mid-morning.

Here’s another tip to ensure that you are paying 100% attention to your body. Eat slow. Really, slow down. Take the time it actually taste the food. Have conversation with family and friends. Before you know it your body is signaled that there is food inside your stomach and your brain gets the message that you  are full, opposed to eating a lot real fast and having that stuffed feeling because of overeating. The idea is to not overeat and slowing down often helps with this.

Eat well! Be well!

My Point Exactly! June 27, 2011

Scrolling through my twitter timeline (@veggiesnpeace) this morning, I came across a tweet by @veggiesfest. I read the title and I almost wanted to scream YES! This is what I have been trying to say! Be a healthy vegetarian!

Odd that I would have such a reaction to a tweet, but that’s just how I am. I love conformation. Now I don’t feel like I’m making stuff up as I go.

Anyway, I think it is necessary for me to share this with you! How to Avoid Being An Unhealthy Vegetarian

Eat well! Be well!

Is that Real? June 24, 2011

Here is another video from Underground Wellness to accompany the JERF video.

Enjoy! I certainly did!