I made this salad for a special dinner the other night and it was a big hit. I was attending my first dinner with other board members of the HERA Womens Cancer Foundation – a great organization dedicated to cutting edge ovarian cancer research, as well as increasing awareness and education about ovarian cancer. So, I wanted to take a salad that was loaded with anti-cancer healing foods. This salad is very flexible – adjust it to suit your tastes. The key is massaging the kale with oil and salt to “cook” it.

What you need

• 1 bunch kale, washed and trimmed (cut the stalks out and compost them – aahh composting, that’s a topic for another day)
• 1 cup shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1-2 Tbsp olive or grapeseed oil
• 1/2 tsp himalayan or celtic salt
• 1/2 cup daikon radish, matchsticked or julienned
• 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
• 1/2 cup broccoli sprouts
  Broccoli is one of the most nutrient dense foods and eating it at a sprouting stage results in some truly power-packed cancer fighting action. Plus they’re just plain tasty. 
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

How to make it

First, chiffonade your kale. That’s a really fancy word for saying slice it in thin strips. Put the kale and mushrooms in a large bowl and add oil and salt. Massage with your hands until well coated. Set aside.

Prepare the rest of the vegetables and make yourself a dressing. I made Green Goddess dressing from one of my instructors’ books, Rawsome. Avocado, water, lemon and a bit of celtic salt. I added a bit of fresh ginger as well.

Add vegetables to the kale and mushrooms and stir well. Serve with dressing on the side. I don’t have any dressing recipes on the site yet. Maybe my friend, Gary, will help me with some. He makes fabulous, fresh healthy dressings that taste far better than anything you can find processed in the store. Stay tuned.

Tags: anti-cancer foods, healing foods, raw food, vegan

I made my first recipe for Tiger tonight. After all I’ve learned about the significant flaws and nutritional hazards of the mainstream human food production system, I became even more disturbed at what the state of the animal food production system must be. And I really think Tiger would enjoy eating real home-cooked meals. I thought about how great I’ve felt from enhancing the variety and healthiness of my own diet. Why wouldn’t it benefit Tiger the same way? I mean, really…can you imagine eating the same dry piece of bland crap every day, every meal? It’s no wonder he gets into the garbage. That’s an improvement from his food routine! Granted, I’ve been feeding him Newman’s Own, which I trust a bit more than the big grocery store brands, but it’s still the same old dry processed food everyday.

This recipe is inspired by a meetup I went to this past weekend hosted by the Vegetarian Society of Colorado. I modified it using some of the knowledge I’ve learned in school to enhance the nutritional profile. And yes, I tried it. It was a lot better than the Gravy Train I tried growing up when I wanted to see whether their gravy really was meatier. Don’t believe me? Great reason to try it for yourself!

Remember, you’re also trying to please your pet diner. So I let Tiger try this too. I made the recipe small to start. Once you know your pet likes it, you can always make more of it. Experiment with the recipe to suit your pets’ tastes. Next time, I’ll probably add some ground flaxseed as well. They will tell you what they like and don’t. You can buy these ingredients at most natural food stores.

What you need

• 1 cup dry garbanzo beans or 1 can cooked garbanzo beans
• 1/3 cup cooked millet
  Millet is a high protien grain that you can cook like oatmeal. It’s a major food staple for most of the third world. If you’re not ready to experiment with millet, use tofu instead. I cooked my millet with some fresh apples as well. Tiger loves apples. I’m eating the leftover millet for breakfast tomorrow.
• 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp kelp
• 1/2 tsp molasses
• 1 Tbsp olive oil

How to make it

If you buy canned beans, simply rinse your beans and throw them in the food  processor. If you use dried beans (they’re way cheaper!), then soak your beans overnight with a strip of kombu. Kombu makes the beans easier to digest and prevents gas (for both dogs and people).  Then rinse and put beans and kombu in a large pot of water. Bring to a boil and simmer the beans until tender and soft, about 2 -3  hours.

Next, combine all ingredients in the food processor and pulse until well blended and beans are mashed. Adjust seasoning and texture to taste. Your pets’ taste that is. But don’t be afraid to taste it yourself. 

Serve and enjoy. At first, I will be mixing this with Tiger’s dry food, but over the next month or two, I will transition him completely to homemade food.

Yummy.

Tip

Beans and grains typically have complimentary protien profiles, so combining them with regular variety will maximize your body’s health benefit.

Tags: homemade dogfood, natural dogfood

I learned this recipe in class and have made it multiple times, every time to rave reviews! Healthy and yummy.

What you need

• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 2 cups sunflower seeds
• 1 cup cashews, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup almonds, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup flax seeds, 1/4 cup ground
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 orange, zested

How to make it

Note: Soaking all your nuts and seeds in advance will make them more easily digestible and enable your body to get as many nutrients from them as possible. If you have time, soak!

Preheat oven to 350. Oil a cookie sheet and lay down parchment paper. Put half the maple syrup in a bowl. Add sunflower seeds. Mix well, until coated. Add remaining nuts and seeds and spices. Fold and mix well. Add remainder of syrup and coat thoroughly.

Spread mixture on cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, until nuts are toasted and hardened in the midddel off the cookie sheet (not soft and sticky).

Cool, break into pieces and serve.

Feel free to add nutmeg, cardamom, dried fruit or coconut, or any type of nut and seed combination that interests you. Have fun exploring!

Tags: healthy, vegan

What an exciting week. School has been fabulous. I just bought my first broccoli sprouts. They’re adorable and tasty and more than thirty times more nutrient rich than their mature broccoli counterparts, which are already one of the most amazing anti-cancer foods around you can eat. Heavenly. I’ve also become a kale convert. I still like a good spinach now and then, don’t get me wrong. But kale – like broccoli – is one of the best anti-cancer agents out there and provides for a much more interesting twist than spinach. Plus it’s really fun to strip the spine of a large dino kale leaf. Ever tried it?

I also visited one of the largest landfills in the country (right in our very own backyard, Denver – yippee!), a local organic composting facility, and a recycling center. The recycling center processes 500 tons a day. Pretty cool, huh? The landfill processes 80,000 tons a day. But guess what? There’s good news. It won’t fill up for another 100 years and garbage is cheaper to dump here than anywhere else in the country. Now that has to make you feel good about calling Denver home, huh?

On to my nuts – last night, I soaked some almonds and macadamias so that tonight I could experiment with nut milks and cheeses. My first macadamia nut cheese. I’m taking it to the restaurant tonight to put on my fajitas instead of sour cream and cheese. This will be the first time I’ve brought my own cheese to a restaurant. We’ll see how it goes. Next time, I may bring my own almond milk. I see a new trend starting. Imagine the conversations that will start. Imagine how many people will start realizing there are alternatives to artery-clogging hunks of cow cheese. I may be on to something…

Check out the recipe for macadamia nut cheese.

Yum.

Tags: anti-cancer foods, broccoli sprouts, kale

I’ve had a recipe for macadamia nut cheese bookmarked for about a year, but never got around to making it. I was going to make it tonight, but when I pulled it up – I realized that it instructs you to leave the nuts in a warm, dark spot for more than 24 hours. Hmmm. I have not been able to reconcile this with the fact that bacteria thrives between 40 and 140 degrees – what my school chefs call “the Danger Zone”. You’re supposed to avoid leaving foods at this temperature – cooling or heating them as quickly as possible. So I couldn’t do it. Instead of relying on colonies of millions of bacteria for that “tanginess” the recipe author described, I use nutritional yeast, lemon and garlic. It’s more nutritious and less … “tangy”.

What you need

• 2 cups macadamia nuts, soaked overnight (soaking enables you to absorb more nutritients and digest them more easily)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 lemon, juice and zest
• 2 tsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 small bunch broccoli sprouts (or other herbs, optional)

How you make it

This one is all in the wrists – otherwise known as a food processor. First, rinse the soaked macadamia nuts through a strainer and add to your food processor. Begin to process while slowly adding water. Be sure not to use too much liquid. You are looking for a cream cheese like texture. Scrape the sides down and pulse and blend until a good paste is formed. Add the other ingredients, continuing to scrape the sides of the processor, pulsing and blending, until all ingredients are well blended. Taste and adjust ingredient amounts as desired.

You can use this recipe for crackers, pasta dishes or as a dressing for savory main dishes as I did here, or adjust using sweet spices like cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg for a dessert or fruit appetizer accompaniment.

Enjoy!

Tags: healthy, vegan

I started my Natural Chef Program at Bauman College last week. It’s been a whirlwind. In less than two weeks, we’ve learned from three different natural chefs – a raw food specialist and a macrobiotic chef as well as a classically-trained culinary expert. All skilled and knowledgeable and eager to share their insight with students who are so passionate about learning about what they’ve come to share.   You’ll see many more posts inspired by school in the coming months. Stay tuned. In the meantime, I wanted to share the top 10 tips I’ve noted since starting the class. And we’re less than 10% of the way through!

1. Soaking stuff is good.
All sorts of stuff is easier to digest if you soak it in water first. Nuts, beans, quinoa, seeds…and it will help your body absorb more of the  nutrients these foods offer.

2. Heating oil is bad.
Lots of oils create free radicals at high temperatures. Free radicals can cause cancer. Lots of high temperatures and oils exist in the mainstream processed food industry. You do the math. Know your oils and their maximum temperatures and stick to it! Coconut oil is best for sauteeing at high heat. Extra virgin olive oil also works well at medium or lower heats.

3. Eat with SOUL.
Try to adapt your recipes to use foods that are Seasonal, Organic, Unrefined and Local (SOUL). Visit the grocery store and seek inspiration based on what you find there. There’s even a local-only grocer in Denver I found out about in class.

4. Stay Alkaline Baby.
Most diseases thrive in acidic environments. Your goal is to maintain an alkaline balance (80% alkaline/20% acid).

5. Eat Your Way Around the World.
World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms offers volunteer assignments on organic farms around the globe. I’m sold. I just need to figure out when and where I want to go.

6. Know What You’re Eating.
I stopped reading the Nutrition Label when I went vegan and opted instead to focus on the Ingredients label. Now thanks to Nutrition Data, I can keep focusing on ingredients and refine my recipes to optimize the nutritional value. Amazing.

7. When You Soak, Soak with Kombu.
Kombu is a seaweed that I’ve only cooked with sparingly in the past, reserving it for Japanese soup dishes. Turns out the flavor is very mild and you can throw it in just about anything to provide a significant nutrient boost.  Soak and cook dried beans with kombu or throw it in with rice, chili, stews and soups. The leaf will get soft as it soaks. Cut it up at the end and add it right to your meal for an extra boost of nutrients and unique texture in your dish.

8. Paper or Plastic? I’ll Take Glass.
Store foods in glass jars. Label with ingredients and date. It cuts down on plastic waste and ensures the nutritional integrity of your food. Plus, it looks really good on the shelf and makes for much more organized, efficient cooking. BTW, did you know powdered spices have a shelf life of about 6 months? I guess I’m going to have to throw out the ones I’ve been lugging around for 6 years …

9. Move Over Morton’s. I’ll Take Something Meatier.
You are hereby forbidden to eat table salt, sea salt or any other kind of salt where the minerals have been taken out of it in order to create really expensive mineral supplements. Instead, explore the exotic flavors and textures of healthier salts – himalayan, celtic, black lava and more. Who knew salt could be a garnish? Try black lava salt on Carrot Mandarin Soup. That was one of our recipes from last weeks’ classes. Yum.

10. Say Goodbye to Boullion.
What? You can make your own vegetable broth? No more processed jars from the store, no more buillon cubes or carton waste. And wait – you can use a whole bunch of those vegetable scraps you’ve been throwing away or composting too? So yes, that means its’ free too. I haven’t made it yet. I learn that next week. More to come.

Tags: healthy eating, natural cooking

I was in Moab last weekend running a half marathon to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and stumbled upon a great little natural cafe on Main Street – Love Muffin Cafe. My mom and I had a fabulous baked tofu sandwich with vegetables and ginger but what really struck my eye was the red quinoa for breakfast. I’ve been searching for new breakfast recipes that are filling, but outside the traditional pancakes and french toast fair. So this morning, I whipped up a bowl of red quinoa for breakast. This is one that I”ll be making again. It’s easy to experiment with this one. Just use stuff you have in the cabinets. Let me know how it goes.

What you need

• 2 dried mission figs
• 6 dried dates
• 4 dried prunes
• 8 dried cherries
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 tsp agave nectar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup red quinoa
• 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut
• 2 Tbsp ground flax seed
• 1 1/2 cups almond milk

How to make it

First, soak all your dried fruit in the hot water for 5-10 minutes, until softened. Then chop fruit into bite-size pieces. 

You’re going to use the leftover water to cook your quinoa. I use a rice cooker, but you can also cook it in a saucepan just like rice. Add the agave nectar and vanilla to the water and stir. Then cook your quinoa.

While the quinoa is cooking, roast the walnuts in a frying pan. You don’t need any oil as long as you keep stirring your walnuts frequently. Remove the walnuts from heat when golden brown. Be careful not to burn.

When the quinoa is ready, mix it with the fruit, walnuts, flax seed and coconut in a large bowl. Serve in cereal bowls, with almond milk on top.

Makes 2-3 servings.

Tags: healthy, vegan

Remember the first day of school when your mom packed your lunch and sent you off to the schoolbus? I experienced the grown-up version of that today. The first time since I attended college. Today, I started the Certified Natural Chef Training Program at Bauman College. What an amazing day.  We get to cook and eat and talk about it all day long. And we’re learning about how to make healthy, delicious foods. I’ve found my place.

First, here’s a recipe that Chef Brigitte made for Raw Celery Soup. It was absolutely delightful.

What you need

• 4 stalks celery
• Juice from 1 lemon
• 1- 1.5 tomato
• handful of cilantro
• 1 avocado
• 1 tsp celtic salt
• 1-2 cups water (don’t exceed the maximum water level of your food processor!)
• 1-2 tsp smokey paprika

How to make it

This one is beautifully simple. First, let your vegetables warm to room temperature, about thirty minutes. Then simply cut up your ingredients and combine them (minus the paprika) in the food processor. Pulse until slightly blended. You want some texture to the soup, but not more than bite size chunks. Finally, sprinkle smokey paprika on top. It’s a colorful dish and the flavors blended superbly. I’ll have to see if I can start taking pictures of all the food we eat.

Amazing foods I’m adding to my grocery list

• chia seeds – good for your kidneys and for libido
• nutritional yeast – lots of B12
• smokey paprika – lots of flavor and vitamin c
• celtic salt – more minerals and less processing than sea salt

Tags: healthy eating, raw, vegan

I went out with a friend last night to India’s Pearl and wanted to try something new. I chose Bhindi Masala – okra cooked with onions, tomatoes and spices. I envisioned something akin to the wonderful vegetable casserole dish I had while with my parents in Istanbul. What I got was a dish so salty that I couldn’t even eat it.

In questioning the waiter about it, he advised me that the dish is supposed to be salty and that Indian food uses a lot of exotic spices. I’m a big fan of exotic spices and have frequented my fair share of Indian buffets. However, I had never experienced this level of saltiness.

Rather than throw the leftovers away, my friend suggested “watering” the leftovers down by making a soup out of them. So that’s what I ate for dinner tonight.

First, I added two cups of water and one cup of vegetable broth. Then I added a 28-oz can of stewed tomatoes, a cup of cooked lentils and a 1/2 cup of red quinoa. The results were outstanding. I didn’t need to add an ounce of additional spices, let alone salt.

So before leaving your leftovers on the table and wasting both food and money, consider how you might be able to take a fresh spin on them.  The results might surprise you.

Side note: If you try visiting India’s Pearl and don’t like a lot of salt, ask your waiter for light salt in advance!

I find that the difference between a good meal and a heavenly meal is frequently the toppings. The few extra minutes required to make a special home-made sauce, or to chop up a few nuts or fresh herbs, will enable both your guests and your tastebuds to reap the rewards.

Tonight, I had one of those occasions. I chose Vanilla Bean Hempmilk Cream this time, but also enjoy rice milk cream or my favorite, coconut milk cream. Coconut milk cream is still an indulgence. I’d love to pretend it’s low-fat, but no such luck. Still, I’m fortunate. Because I regularly eat a healthy, whole-food, plant-based diet and exercise 4 or 5 times a week, I don’t really have to worry about fat. On average, I’ve found that my expeditions into the land of non-dairy desserts offer far superior richness of flavors and are far creamier than most of the traditional ice creams I’ve explored.

It’s really the leisurely visit to the ice cream store that I miss the most. I’m still waiting for someone to open a shop of non-dairy healthy frozen desserts that I can eat to bring that experience back to me. Ann?

In the meantime, here are ten healthy topping recipes I use at home to make vanilla “ice cream” go from good to heavenly. Still use ice cream? Learn about all the great reasons to explore the alternatives. Feel free to mix and match to find your own divine inspiration. I use a lot of molasses, because it’s loaded with minerals and just so darned good for you. If it’s too strong for your taste, try a milder natural sweetener like agave nectar, brown rice syrup or maple syrup. They’re much better at preventing those highs and lows that come along with processed, bleached sugars.

1) Morning Mint

• 1 Tbsp dark molasses
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1-2 sprigs of fresh mint leaves, chopped

2) Berry Tart

• 1/2 cup mixed frozen berries
• 1 Tbsp frozen apple juice concentrate
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup water

Bring all ingredients to boil and reduce to thick liquid

3) Coconut Cookie

• 1 - 2 Tbsp raw coconut flakes
• 1 – 2 Tbsp raw macadamia nuts
• 1 Tbsp dark molasses

4) Gingerbread Dream

• 1-2 Tbsp candied ginger, with sugar rinsed off and chopped
• 1 Tbsp molasses
• 1 Tbsp raw almonds or pecans, chopped

5) The Great Outdoors

• 1 – 2 Tbsp granola (check ingredients carefully – avoid heavy syrups!)
• 1 Tbsp goji berries, chopped
• 1 Tbsp currants
• 1 Tbsp cashews, chopped

6) Grandma’s Applie Pie

• 1 Tbsp apple sauce
• 1 Tbsp peanut butter
• 1 Tbsp coconut milk or light coconut milk
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Heat and blend all ingredients over low heat to drizzly perfection

7) Wait, did I say 10?

Insert your ideas here…

There are so many great ideas, I’d love to hear yours.

Drop me a suggestion and I’ll round out the last few.