Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead Reboot

Have you seen the movie ‘Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead’?

(source)

It follows a man named Joe Cross, who is “100 pounds overweight, loaded up on steroids and suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease.” Continued from the movie website, “Joe Cross is at the end of his rope and the end of his hope. In the mirror he saw a 310lb man whose gut was bigger than a beach ball and a path laid out before him that wouldn’t end well— with one foot already in the grave, the other wasn’t far behind. FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD is an inspiring film that chronicles Joe’s personal mission to regain his health.

“With doctors and conventional medicines unable to help long- term, Joe turns to the only option left, the body’s ability to heal itself. He trades in the junk food and hits the road with juicer and generator in tow, vowing only to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice for the next 60 days. Across 3,000 miles Joe has one goal in mind: To get off his pills and achieve a balanced lifestyle.

“While talking to more than 500 Americans about food, health and longevity, it’s at a truck stop in Arizona where Joe meets a truck driver who suffers from the same rare condition. Phil Staples is morbidly obese weighing in at 429 lbs; a cheeseburger away from a heart-attack. As Joe is recovering his health, Phil begins his own epic journey to get well.

“What emerges is nothing short of amazing – an inspiring tale of healing and human connection.
Part road trip, part self-help manifesto, FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD defies the traditional documentary format to present an unconventional and uplifting story of two men from different worlds who each realize that the only person who can save them is themselves.”

(source)

My boyfriend and I watched this movie about a year ago now and, long after I went back to grad school in Denver, he decided to give the whole “juicing thing” a shot. Guess what happened to him? He lost 20 lbs. over a summer and, after adding exercise to the mix, has lost an additional ten pounds.

Think about it like this: Our puppy, Molly weighs 35 lbs. That’s approximately as much weight as Blake has lost over about a year (not really trying that hard after he was done strictly juicing.) So basically, before the juice reboot, he was carrying around a medium sized dog ALL THE TIME.

Chunky monkey.

Why I am telling you all this? Well, because he and I are doing this program right now! This is my first time doing it, so I thought I’d share with you my journey as a newbie to the whole “juicing thing.”

First things first– we are getting enough nutrients from this program. We are following the FS&ND ‘Classic Reboot‘ program, which combines juicing and eating whole vegetables together. It’s a 15 day plan, although we may stretch it out longer. It’s 5 days of juicing and eating whole foods, followed by 5 days of just juicing, concluding with 5 days of juicing and eating whole foods again.

After you’re done with the program, the website has guidelines (which, if you’re a vegan or vegetarian, you probably follow pretty well anyway) to keep yourself on track. Anyway, just to be sure, I’m monitoring my energy levels and continuing to take a B-vitamin supplement, as I have always done because, as a vegetarian, it is recommended.

So, what has our program looked like so far? Well, here’s what juicing looks like:

Fruit! Frozen fruit added to smoothies? Tastes like a pina colada…

Our juicer.

We juice mostly hard veggies in here– think: carrots, cucumbers (is that a fruit?), celery, green apples (definitely a fruit)… pretty much anything that’s really hard or crunchy goes in that. And yes, that’s my sweet dragon cup (made for children– don’t judge!)

A medley!

This is an all-fruit juice smoothie we made, but I will frequently include kale and spinach in my smoothies. Not pictured? The ground flaxseed I add to every smoothie for additional healthy benefits!

The finished product.

Our fruit smoothies will very in color– any where from this randomly brown-ish color, to bright green, to dark purple. Pretty cool!

And now, the thing you care about the most: Blake and I have been doing this for about a week so far, although sometimes we ‘fall off the wagon’ (see: Memorial Day at my parents). For the past 7 days, Blake has lost 5 lbs and I have lost 3 lbs.

I’ll be keeping track for you guys over the next month– we’ll be doing the 15 day strict reboot first, and then playing around with juicing for one or 2 meals a day throughout the rest of June. I’ll let you know how it goes!

‘Semi-Homemade’ Soup & Hula Hoop Cardio!

I don’t know if you have watched or heard about Sandra Lee’s Food Network Show, Semi-Homemade Cooking, but I thought it was an apt title for today’s meal. While Sandra typically combines fresh food with store-bought stuff, I unfortunately didn’t do exactly what she did, but close enough

In an effort to clean out the pantry and the refrigerator, I decided to mix my two favorite things together for a healthy and very filling meal: Trader Joe’s Soy Chorizo and Amy’s Black Bean soup.

(source)

PLUS

Amy’s Black Bean Soup

EQUALS

Yum!

Now I have to be honest… cooking soy chorizo is kinda gross. You have to cut off the casing and, especially if you’re a klutz like me, the actual soy chorizo stuff falls apart in your hands, leaving your hands/the counter/the floor/the cats covered in red coloring. Definitely unappetizing…

Cooking soy chorizo

I eventually got it into a pan along with a tablespoon of coconut oil, fried it up, and added half of this batch to half a can of Amy’s Black Bean Soup. You can use more soup or more soy chorizo if you like, but I find soy chorizo to be really spicy… plus I wanted leftovers for the next day

On further thought, you really could make this legitimately ‘Sandra Lee’ approved and add some fresh spinach or herbs to this dish. Make it your own! I promise, it is super delicious, very filling, and incredibly easy to make. The only ‘mess’ was the pan and the cutting board I used to cut off the soy chorizo casing. Super facil! (Super easy!)

On to awesome topic number two… today I went to Hula Hoop Cardio! A local fitness studio offers $5 drop in classes. The classes they offer include Zumba, Hip Hop Cardio, ‘Butts and Guts’ (haven’t been to that yet!), Zumba Toning, and now, Hula Hoop Cardio!

(source)

I had heard of hula hooping as a form of cardio, and several years back, I bought a couple of hula hoops. The roommates and I used them pretty frequently at first, but eventually the two other roommates got bored and stopped. I continued to hula hoop around the house intermittently, but when I moved away for grad school, the hula hoops got packed away. Needless to say, I didn’t think I’d really get back into hooping…

Enter: this class. When I saw in an email from the studio that they would be offering it this month, I got so excited. Let’s be honest, I also read this article in Shape magazine a while back about Marisa Tomei hula hooping, and I thought, ‘damn, I wish I were Marisa Tomei! She’s so cool! I should get a hula hoop.’ (No joke, this is in part why I bought a hula hoop all those years ago…) But back to fitness…

Why is hula hooping a good exercise?

• Other than being fun (thus upping the likelihood that you’ll stick to it, obviously a huge factor in exercise and weight loss), hula hooping doesn’t require any fancy coordination, nor does it require pricy equipment. If you can move your hips, you can hula hoop. (source)
• Hula hooping burns as many calories as step aerobics, boot camps, or brisk walking. (source)
• If you use a weighted hoop, not only will hula hooping be easier, but you will also burn more calories than using a store-bought hula hoop (that said, I used a regular plastic hula hoop and still got a killer work out). (source)

After today’s class, I am more determined to (one day) purchase a weighted hula hoop– they only had one, and a lady grabbed it before I did. She also was the best hooper in the whole class, and now that I know that weighted hoops are easier… well then…

I had a ton of fun and right now, my quads are sore– we did squats and lunges (yes, while hooping!) in addition to some dancing and walking around. I wasn’t the best hooper, but I was pretty darn good! The most important thing is that I am excited to go to class again next week (and I burned 400 calories.) Win win!

Have you ever tried hula hooping, either for fun or in a class setting? Would you be interested in hula hooping, or do you think it’s just a fad? (Definitely a possibility!)

Avocado Pesto Pasta

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a lovely Mother’s Day… if you didn’t celebrate with your Mom, maybe you celebrated with a Mom of some sort (pets count! I’m a Mom! ), or maybe you just got down with your bad self. I hope getting down with your bad self included either pancakes, waffles, or doughnuts/donuts… because there’s no better way to celebrate ‘Day’s’ then with SWEETS!

Speaking of sweets… I drove down to Tucson to spend the weekend with my parents, and on Mother’s Day, Dad and I took Mom out to breakfast and made her pay! Just kidding… not really… Dad paid for himself and Mom paid for me and her. We’re precious, aren’t we? (Don’t worry, Mom, I promise to make it up to you once I start getting a paycheck!) Anyway– I had waffles. That’s pretty much the best part of the story. Also, Mom got flowers, a card, and delicious See’s candy from Dad and me, which I’m sure she loved as well

Dad didn’t really do the best job of holding the phone still to take a photo, so this is the best we’ve got. Yay! And clearly, we dress fancy…

Anyway, on to the stuff you were promised!

No, not Molly!

Good try to distract me, but I’m not here to talk about the dog (even though she’s the best puppy everrrrrrr!)

Instead, Avocado Pesto Pasta , recipe from Chloe Coscarelli! We actually ended up halving the Coscarelli recipe and mixing it with Simply Organic’s Sweet Basil Pesto sauce mix. We also made one tiny change in the Coscarelli recipe, which you can see below…

Ingredients

• 1 lb. dried linguini (we used the pasta we had in the house– angel hair. Whatevs, it’s pasta (Italian-foodies, please don’t beat me!)
• 1 bunch basil leaves
• 1/2 cup pine nuts (okay, so check it: pine nuts are crazy expensive. I read online that you can actually substitute raw plain cashews for pine nuts, so that’s what we did! Same amount.)
• 2 ripe avocados, pitted and pealed
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 olive oil (we used coconut oil, because we’re out of olive oil and we heard it’s just as good of oil as olive)
• Salt to taste
• Black pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes (once again, we have a million tomatoes left over from the Market, so I chopped up 2 whole tomatoes and threw them in)

Directions (hint: it’s so easy!)

1. In a large pot, bring water to boil. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. While pasta cooks, in a food processor, blend basil, cashews or pine nuts, avocados, lemon juice, garlic, and oil. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Drain pasta. In a large serving bowl, toss pesto with pasta and garnish with basil and tomatoes. (This is also the point where I quickly brought the Simply Organic mix to a boil, stirred it, and threw it in with the Avocado Pesto.)

Pesto in the processor.

So my photo skillz (and phone) aren’t the best, so this looks gross, but I promise you, it tastes amazing! Also, since I have a tiny food processor, I had halved the ingredients… if you have a regular-sized food processor, you can blend up more pesto at once!

Yummm!

The finished product! I have to say, speaking as unbiased as possible, I liked Chloe Coscarelli’s Pesto recipe much more than just the packaged Simply Organic pesto, but that’s probably because a) the CC recipe was creamier and b) the CC recipe was fresh. I think if you substitute cashews for pine nuts, you could make this pesto really affordable… so do it!

Slow cooker Southwest Black Bean Chili

Well, I made my first attempt at making an entirely ‘on-my-own’ recipe… not following a cookbook or anything! I have to say, it came out pretty darn well. I was going for Black Bean Chili, but as you’ll see from the pictures, it came out more like soup. I think I know what I need to omit now…

Why did I attempt to make up my own recipe? One, I’ve always wanted to be one of those people who “experiments” in the kitchen. I’m envious of those who can see what’s on hand in the kitchen and make a delicious meal from it (my boyfriend is one of those people, which is great for using up old food, but he always shows me up! ) Two, since our Market on the Move trip, we’ve had a ton of tomatoes to use and I wanted to see if I could use the majority of them instead of freezing them.

What makes this southwest? The addition of some spicy ingredients… And, of course, because it was made here in the hot, wonderful, dry Southwest!

So without further ado, here is my monster creation!

Slow cooker Southwest Black Bean Chili

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium sized yellow onion
• 2 medium sized yellow bell peppers, seeded and chopped (you could probably use whatever bell peppers you have on hand– yellow is what we had!)
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 28 ounces (ish) crushed tomatoes (I pureed about 28 ounces of all the tomatoes we had in a blender, but I know you can buy canned crushed tomatoes, and I believe they come in that size)
• 2 cans black beans (I used Eden Organic Black Beans)
• 1 cup water (you don’t need this if you use more tomatoes, like I did)
• 2 jalapenos (more if you want it hotter!) – seeded or not, it’s your call. I seeded one and kept the seeds in the other- spicy!
• salt
• black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, bell peppers, garlic, and cook until softened (about 5 minutes). Stir in the chili powder and cook about 30 seconds to a minute longer.
2. Transfer onion mixture into a 4-6 qt. slow cooker (ours is a 4 qt., I believe). Make sure that you don’t fill it past 3/4s full, otherwise it could bubble over.
3. Add the tomatoes, beans, water, and jalapenos. Only add the water if you want it to be more soup-like, otherwise leave it out for a thicker, chili-like recipe.
4. Season with salt and pepper, cover, and cook on Low for 6 to 8 hours.

Want to make it chunkier? You can add some store-bought or homemade soy chorizo, like I did the next day for lunch, or you can cook up some plain couscous or quinoa and throw that in there to soak up some of the more ‘soup-like’ aspects of the chili.

Again, the great thing about slow cooker recipes is that you do all the work in the morning (or the night before, if you’re pressed for time in the mornings), throw it in the slow cooker for the hours you’ll be at work (most slow cooker recipes are 8 hours or so), and then you have dinner waiting for you when you get home!

I really want to investigate using the slow cooker for breakfast foods, and I also heard a rumor that slow cookers can make bread… say what? Stay tuned, I’ll keep you posted!

Vegan Mac and Cheese

Good news and bad news! What, you want the bad news first? You sicko! Okay, here goes… our Molly puppy is sick!

For those who want to know more, keep reading below. Otherwise, skip to the cute picture of Molly and continue on to the good news!

Still here? Okay, well it turns out Molly got two kinds of worms from the Humane Society, and girardia, which is an intestinal infection, and we found out yesterday from our vet. Side note: our vet and the vet place we take Molly to really, really suck, and I can’t wait until we’re done giving her meds and getting her shots from them… then we’re going to a real vet!

Anyway, we started Molly’s meds yesterday: she gets powder meds on her food once a day for the worms and pill meds once every 12 hours for the girardia. She is so not a fan of taking the pill meds, so Blake and I have had to get very clever with how we break up the pills to get her to eat them… so far, we cut them up and mix them in with her dog food. Today she figured out what we were doing and wouldn’t eat them, so I gave her parts of the pills one at a time with a piece of kibble… she couldn’t eat the kibble without also swallowing the treat!

She should be done and clean this Saturday, which is good timing because that’s when she’s going on a road trip to meet her “grandparents”, my parents, in Tucson. And yes, we do refer to Molly as our baby!

So close yet so far...

Time for the good news: vegan mac and cheese! Yes, that’s the good news I made some yesterday from Chloe Coscarelli’s book Chloe’s Kitchen (if you are vegan/vegetarian and looking for a new cookbook, I highly recommend this one! Her instructions make sense, aren’t hard to follow, don’t require a lot of time or fancy equipment, and taste really really good. I’d say it’s on par if not better than Lindsay’s Happy Herbivore books!)

Without further ado, the recipe (credit here and here) with my changes.

Ingredients

• 1 pound/box quinoa elbow macaroni (again, going with the low carb thing on Blake’s doc’s recommendation)
• 1/4 cup vegan margarine (I use Earth Balance)
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 cups soy milk (you can also use almond or rice milk)
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast (I love Bob’s Red Mill, but you can also find nooch in the bulk bins of your Whole Foods/Sprouts/natural health store)
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• Handful of grape tomatoes (or basically whatever veggies you want– I’m trying to use up the tomatoes we got from Market on the Move!)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon agave (I used the light colored agave)
• 2 tablespoons bread crumbs (I used Panko)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9 x 13 inch pan.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil (not too much salt when cooking with quinoa– I’ve noticed it tastes a little crunchy if you heavily salt it)
3. Add macaroni and cook according to pasta directions (if you’re adding extra veggies to make this healthier, especially hearty veggies like broccoli, add them in in the last 5 minutes and cook until tender). Drain and return to pot.
4. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, make a roux by whisking the margarine and flour over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Add your soy milk, nutritional yeast, tomato paste, salt, garlic powder, and tomatoes (if using) to the saucepan and bring it to a boil, whisking frequently. Reduce heat to low and let simmer until sauce thickens. Adjust seasoning to taste, and stir in lemon juice and agave.
5. Toss the noodles with the sauce and transfer into the 9 x 13 pan.
6. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top of the pasta and bake for 30 minutes or until the top is browned lightly.

And that’s it! Yum, huh? I had never made a roux before, and that was definitely what I had the most trouble with:

Yup, all those explosion-y stains on the stove top are from the roux… it bubbles so watch out! That said, it was very, very easy to make, and it thickened up quickly. You definitely have to keep an eye on it!

The final product:

I would say 4/5 stars for this recipe, definitely. It’s good but it’s actually a little sweet for my taste… I would leave out the agave for sure, and definitely add some more veggies to it.

I ended up pairing it with some roasted asparagus… yes, I love asparagus!

I’m currently in the midst of making my own black bean chili slow cooker recipe, so I’ll let you know how that turns out tomorrow!

 

Quinoa Pasta with TJ’s “Meat”balls!

Okay, lest you think the worst (that I’ve left the bf for someone named ‘TJ’ and he makes amazing meatballs), TJ stands for Trader Joe’s… and the ‘meat’balls are actually TJ’s “meatless meatballs” of deliciousness!!!!

Seriously, one of the best reasons to move back to Phoenix (there are few) is the fact that there is a Trader Joe’s less than 10 miles from where I live. Heck, even if the nearest TJ’s was 25 miles away, it’d still be better than Denver! Colorado doesn’t have any Trader Joe’s in the whole freaking state. Yes, I know, seriously… what the heck?? Whatever, Colorado…

(source)

So anyway, that said, yesterday I made some freaking delicious quinoa pasta – Ancient Harvest Quinoa pasta to be exact! Ever since Blake came back with the recommendation from his doctor that he cut back on refined carbs (including wheat bread, wheat pasta, brown rice… things we thought were healthy), I’ve been trying to find things that both satiate us the way carbs do, yet are still healthy for us.

The best part about quinoa?

• It’s a ‘complete protein’: “Quinoa contains all 9 essential amino acids that are required by the body as building blocks for muscles.” (source)
• It’s a good source of magnesium: “Since low dietary levels of magnesium are associated with increased rates of hypertension, ischemic heart disease and heart arrhythmias, this ancient grain can offer yet another way to provide cardiovascular health for those concerned about atherosclerosis.” (source)
• It’s also high in iron and calcium, so all of that combined makes it an “excellent food for vegetarians and vegans.” (source)

So basically, it goes without saying that quinoa is what’s up. However, how does it cut it as a substitute for whole wheat pasta? Well, pretty darn well!

(source)

PLUS

(source)

PLUS

(pasta sauce of your choosing)

EQUALS

Awww yeah! (Hey, a little math at night won’t kill you ) And these pictures are actually from today’s leftovers because I was too hungry to get pics when they first come out… yeah, they hold up pretty well

The meatless meatballs were sooo good too! Blake loved them and said they were the best ‘fake’ meatballs he’s tried, which is high praise… I guess… I also steamed some frozen veggies and threw them in the mix, to get some extra fiber and texture in there too.

All in all, I’m basically in love with Ancient Harvest’s quinoa pasta. They have all different kinds too: elbow pasta, spaghetti, bowtie… and maybe more, but that’s just what I saw at Sprouts. Definitely worth it!

Still alive!

Hey everyone– I thought I’d get a quick post in to assure you I’m still alive… barely! We’re in Week Six of school (out of 10 weeks) and, as this is my last quarter of graduate school, EVERYTHING is ramping up, and I am, as usual, overwhelmed!

So I thought I’d catch you up on a couple of cool things that happened over the break… 1) I finished the VegNews challenge! Some highlights of that were incorporating more broccoli into my diet (yum!) and finally learning how to use cabbage… which I didn’t learn very well, haha. So far I have put red cabbage into my ‘green drank’ (thus turning it into purple drank, which is not to be confused with the illegal substance! as well as using it in stir frys.

Surprisingly, cabbage lasts a really long time in the fridge… I didn’t even wrap it up in anything special, but so far it’s lasted for a week. I hope this is normal?

2) I found my favorite go-to meal when I’m in a crazy hurry/have a long day ahead of me… the night before, I’ll stir fry broccoli and cabbage (and maybe spinach and asparagus), make some couscous, and heat up either Gardein ‘meat’ or Boca ‘chicken’ pieces (for protein)… throw that in a tupperware and get a move on! It’s especially good for Wednesdays (like today!) when I’m busy rushing from work to class!

Yum!

Yes, I know this has some processed food in it and might not be nutritionally complete, but damn if it doesn’t fill me up for a solid 4-5 hours… which is exactly how long I need it too!

3) Blake and I also celebrated our second anniversary (Feb. 2!) Woohoo!

2nd anniversary celebration at our favorite place

No, our favorite place isn’t the hotel… haha. Our favorite place is Gallo Blanco, a restaurant inside the hotel. Delish!

Blake surprised me with a trip to the Glendale Chocolate Festival while I was in Phoenix visiting him… oh boy did we gorge on chocolate!! He’s the best, because he knows I DIE for chocolate! I’m definitely a sweet tooth type of person This is how we celebrated Valentine’s Day, since we won’t be together on the actual day (boo long distance!)

4) I’m sorta transitioning back to being vegetarian vs. vegan. Blake did not help my willpower when he made one of my favorite things… bean and cheese burrito!

So delicious but full of cheese!

I think after my VegNews challenge, I will go back to being vegetarian mostly, and vegan when I cook for myself. As much as I enjoyed the challenge, I’m just not ready to 100% commit to being vegan all the time. That’s something I’ll have to ease my and Blake’s relationship into…

5) Finally… I got to see and play with my favorite little monkey while I was back in Phoenix… Maddy!

Trying to hit the camera phone

She looks possessed in this photo… I have a couple better ones of her, but since she is a possessed kitty, I thought I’d share this one with you all. As usual, while I was back in AZ, I took more photos of our kitties than I did of either Blake or me… haha, I’m an animal lover for sure!

So there you have it! I’m still alive, although unfortunately I won’t be updating daily as I did in January. February is going to be very busy… I’m not saying that to get pity, just to give you a heads up.

I promise when I am done with grad school, you will see many exciting new posts! Or stressed posts, depending on whether or not I find a job… ay Dios mio!

Day 20: Get schooled!

Can you believe it’s day 20 already of my challenge?? You probably can, but I can’t! It seems like this has gone on… forever! Being vegan is a lot harder than I imagined. Well, actually it’s not really hard when I’m at home cooking for myself, but when I’m being lazy/poor/rushed, I definitely fall into the vegetarian trap. Example? The other day I was at Safeway with my roommate (we were there for staples like milk, orange juice, ice cream (for her) (it’s a staple)) and I saw Safeway’s ‘Bella Minestrone’ soup… o.m.g. my favorite soup in the whole world!

Seriously, I would marry this soup

(source)

I grabbed it and, without checking the ingredients, threw it into my cart. “Are you sure that’s vegan?” asked my roommate (she didn’t say it to be helpful… she likes to point out how hard grocery shopping is with me) “Of course it is!” I said, “It’s vegetarian!” Knowing that vegetarian and vegan aren’t the same thing, I checked… and lo and behold, ingredient 12 or 15 was ‘cheese.’

W.T.F. Why is there cheese in my minestrone?? Is there always cheese in minestrone?? How did no one ever tell me this before? I was crushed… but I bought it and went home and ate it with toast and (Earth Balance) butter.

I know, I know, I know… minestrone soup is probably the easiest soup in the world to make if you have any random veggies and some vegetable stock. I mean, come on. It’s just veggies and soup. And maybe some tomato sauce, I don’t know. But I bought it. (Let’s leave out the fact that I spent $4 on a soup that I’ll get 2, maybe 3 servings out of).

And that’s, my friends, what brings us to day 20 of the VegNews challenge: Get schooled. As VegNews describes it:

Want to know all the ins and outs of eating for health? Consider getting a certificate in plant-based nutrition, designed by co-author of The China Study, T. Colin Campbell, PhD. It’s available as an online program from Cornell University.

You can actually ‘attend’ and enroll here. From the description of the course:

The first course in the series, Nutrition Fundamentals, identifies the true causes of degenerative disease – poor dietary practices – and offers scientifically based solutions to reduce disease risk. The second course, Diseases of Affluence, presents solutions to the crisis facing America’s health care system and a dietary solution for your own optimal health. The final course, Principles in Practice, demonstrates practical applications of plant-based nutrition in a variety of contexts illustrating the powerful effects of a whole food, plant-based diet on our society and the positive impact its acceptance could have on our future.

I think the part that I would be most interested in is Principles in Practice because I’m definitely a visual/hands on learner, and I think seeing concrete examples and applications of plant-based nutrition would be really helpful. Maybe if I were better schooled, I wouldn’t jumping on dairy train out of desperation… I’m still bitter about that minestrone!

Seeing as I’m already in school, and very close to being 100% stressed, I’ll skip the class for now, but I definitely think it’s nifty and, eventually, worth pursuing!

Questions for you all: What do you think about pursuing a plant-based nutrition course? Have you ever taken nutrition courses, and what has been the value of them to you? Also: did you minestrone has cheese in it?! Say WHAT?!

Day 19: Think Positive & product review

Hey everyone! Sorry to be MIA for a day or two… I’ve been sucked into some projects for school (I’m taking 2 really cool classes this quarter: Project Management and Professional Communications) and, while they’re a lot of work, they’re really fun, interesting, and practical for my future jobs. I’m learning so much already, and it’s only week 4! We’re on the quarters system, so only 6 more weeks of school left… then I’ll be finished with graduate school! Yes, I know, that’s blowing my mind too. However, I’ve had so much to do that I haven’t really been able to think about it much, which is good!

Anyway, on to Day 19 of the VegNews challenge: Think Positive. I find this challenge to actually be challenging for once… even though I’m a pretty optimistic person…

Leaving my family to go back to school in Denver

Smiling and laughing even though at that point I was leaving to go back to school after winter break (and, mind you, a terribly awkward photo because when I have to get on a plane, I always freak out and inevitably I always forget something I desperately need – like the phone charger!), but I haven’t been very optimistic lately.

I think one of the reasons for this setback has to do with the product review I have for today: Cherrybrook Kitchen. Here’s the back story: My roommate and I have been (good-naturedly) teasing our friend for not having any survival/adult skills, like cooking. To prove us wrong, he invited us and some friends over to his house for dinner. We accepted, of course, and volunteered to bring the dessert. I thought of making a chocolate cake, because apparently a friend has a great recipe, but timing didn’t work out and she wasn’t able to send me her recipe.

However, while I was trolling Whole Foods for vegan yummys, I stumbled across Cherrybrook!

Dairy free! Vegan!

(source)

And right next to, vanilla dairy-free, egg-free frosting. I couldn’t have been more excited! I went home and proceeded to make the cake exactly according to the directions: cake mix, vegetable oil, and water. Easy-peasy, right? So far so good! I didn’t have a cake pan, so I put it in a loaf pan, and when it came out and cooled, I put it on a cutting board because the cake was so long.

It sorted broke in transit...

The cake had a weird indent in the middle of it, but my roommate and I tried a piece and it wasn’t too bad.

Then came the frosting… oh, the horror. It was super crunchy, so I had to stir it vigorously for a couple minutes, but even after stirring it still looked atrocious.

No dirty minds, please! Or, if you weren’t thinking like that, sorry for bringing any bad images to your mind. My roommate and I haven’t quite matured when it comes to inappropriate jokes

Anyway, we persevered because we thought, hey, how bad could this vegan cake be? We diligently put the broken part of the cake back and covered the whole thing in frosting. In our optimism, we even lightly dusted the top of the cake with cocoa powder.

Final product...

So how did it taste? It. Was. Atrocious. That’s all I can say about it. I tried, and my roommate tried, to be fair. We really, really did. We said to one another, “this might be delicious maybe if it had more vanilla” and “what in the world is missing from this cake?” It was TASTE. The whole thing tasted like cardboard. I wanted to die.

So we ended up going to Safeway at the last minute and bought a Tres Leches cake. And yes, I know leche means milk. This cake was not vegan. But, by the end of the night, I ate a piece because you know why? I was starving and my friend’s empanadas were terrible. Apparently the meat empanadas he made were good (according to my roommate) but he definitely burnt the heck out of my vegetarian ones and they were also cardboard.

Friday was a hard night, my friends. I came home and consoled myself with Silk vanilla soy yogurt and berries for “dessert”… and a glass of red wine. It was just one of those nights.

By the way! I’m instituting a new rating system! Instead of stars, I’m giving food/products/restaurants I review carrots. So what does Cherrybrook Kitchen get? One carrot!

Cherrybrook Kitchen's Choc. Cake and Frosting gets 1 carrot/5 carrots!

Apparently, I’m not the only one who didn’t dig this cake: check it. (And this reviewer looks professional so I take comfort in the fact that it’s not my horrid baking skills!)

Typically I’m a good baker so I’m taking VegNews’ suggestion to stay positive. I will bake again!

Day 18: Go Organic

Today’s VegNews ‘31 Changes in 31 Days‘ centers on eating organic. VegNews cites women who have been exposed to pesticides while pregnant deliver children with low IQ scores, but I think that’s only one small reason to eat organic. Considering I don’t plan on getting pregnant any time soon, that really wouldn’t convince me to eat organic… however, PBS has a great article about why to go organic, and they note that “certain types of organic produce can reduce the amount of toxins you consume on a daily basis by as much as 80 percent.” 80%?! Say what?!

(source)

However, as you’ve probably noticed by now, organic produce can be a lot more expensive than conventionally grown produce. And while you can say that your health should override your budget, when you’re a poor student like me, if it comes between putting gas in your car or paying for your medication/contacts or buying organic, you know you’re going with the gas/meds/contacts.

Lucky for us, the Environmental Working Group has put together two lists for us: the Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15. You may have heard of the Dirty Dozen… the fruits and vegetables on the Dirty Dozen list are produce that, when conventionally grown, test positive for as many as 67 different types of chemicals. Ick! This is produce that you should definitely buy organic, unless you like eating chemicals. I mean, I play fast and loose with my health sometimes (sometimes I wear my contacts for a week longer than I should!), but my food? Something I eat on a daily basis? That’s just crazy talk!

Here’s the full Dirty Dozen from the EWG:

1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Strawberries
4. Peaches
5. Spinach
6. Imported Nectarines
7. Imported grapes
8. Sweet bell peppers
9. Potatoes
10. Domestic blueberries
11. Lettuce
12. Kale/collard greens

(source)

On the other hand, the Clean 15 (posted below) are produce that, when tested, had little to no trace of pesticides and are safe to eat in conventional form. Aka… this is produce that you can buy on the cheap without shortening your life span!

1. Onions
2. Sweet corn
3. Pineapples
4. Avocado
5. Asparagus
6. Sweet peas
7. Mangoes
8. Eggplant
9. Domestic cantaloupe
10. Kiwi
11. Cabbage
12. Watermelon
13. Sweet potatoes
14. Grapefruit
15. Mushrooms

What makes the Dirty Dozen different from the Clean 15? Well, according to the article on PBS, produce like pineapples or avocado typically have an “outer layer of defense”- a shell, or some type of outer layer. Produce like berries or peaches are porous and basically soak up whatever chemical is added to them.

Whatever type of produce you buy, the EWG (and PBS!) recommend you wash your produce no matter what. There will always be some residue of something, so to be safe, wash your produce well!

Questions for you all: Had you heard of the Dirty Dozen or Clean 15 before? Do you buy organic produce regularly, or do you typically buy whatever is cheap/convenient? Do you think your habits will change (or did change, if you knew about it before) now that you know it is safer to buy some produce organic vs. conventional?

Coming up: I did some awesome cooking yesterday, and when I say awesome, I mean atrocious. I can’t wait to do food reviews for you in the next post!