How To Eat A Portabella Like A Hedonist

We have been eating with a vengeance, of late. I promise after this post I won't mention it again, but I've been gone for more than three weeks, eating rice and beans on friends' couches. So when we were driving to the beach last night and saw a sign for Fresh Sweet Corn, we couldn't resist stopping.

Kerstin had a great idea for a cilantro corn dish, which sent us to the market for fresh ingredients. While I was there I saw some big, fat portabella mushrooms that I couldn't stop my hands from fondling. When we brought them home I didn't have the willpower to cut my babies up, so I pan seared them whole, stuffing them with a bit of garlic. I sautéed some farmer's market zucchini in lemon juice and topped with avocado mousse.

Lemme tell ya, it was p-a-r-a-d-i-s-e.

After cooking the mushrooms in olive oil for about five minutes I covered the pan and let all the juicy goodness stew in there until they were tender and rife with flavor.

The mousse was half an avocado, two cloves of garlic, a pinch of sea salt, olive oil and lemon juice and a half teaspoon of umeboshi vinegar food processed together.

I served the portabellas on some wild rice from yesterday's dinner, leaned the zucchini spears on them, dolloped with mousse and served the cilantro corn on the side. Not only was it a decadent and gorgeous plate, it was one of the most delicious macro meals I've ever had. I may never slice up my portabellas again. They retain so much flavor and have such a satisfying texture to them when cooked whole.

We Don't Dine, We Sup.

Last night we supped.

I've been away in Minnesota for nigh on four weeks, and yesterday's evening meal marked the complete return. Eating alone or on the run has been one of the most difficult parts of being away from Kerstin, both from a macrobiotic standpoint, and an emotional one.

I brought back some hand-harvested wild rice that my father and I had reaped from Lake Minnewawa two years ago. We glided through the rice stalks, knocking off the heavy seeds into our canoe, loaded them into burlap sacks and had them roasted by a local Native American-operated roasting barn.

I added crushed walnuts, craisins, a touch of honey and brown rice vinegar to the rice and topped it with grilled portabello mushrooms, sautéed zucchini, onions and garlic—seasoned with oregano and thyme...and there's a wee little bit of farmer's market tomato in there.

Kerstin had made some lentils, which I added a light vinegar & oil dressing to. We ate it on the side.

Hubba hubba ding ding! Two happy little macros eating a simple gourmet evening meal once again.

Wild Rice

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Minnesota. The lakes, the rivers, the trees, the hiking, the canoeing, the Twin Cities. The list goes on.

I also love trivia: state tree, norway pine; state pickle, dill; state flower, ladyslipper. I could go on all day. But one of Minnesota's best is also a macrobiotic treasure, and Minnesota is one of the only places you can get it in its natural form.

I'm talking about Wild Rice, Minnesota's state grain. Boo ya ka shaw.

Wild rice was the staple in the diet of the Chippewa and Sioux Indians, native to the north central area of America. Like brown rice, the grain is actually the seed of an aquatic grass plant. Since wild rice grows in cold water and cold climate areas, its seeds (wild rice) need to store enormous amounts of energy to germinate in the spring. Because of this need, wild rice is high in protein, the amino acid lysine and dietary fiber, and low in fat.

Lucky me, growing up and living in Minnesota for most of my life, I have had the opportunity to harvest and roast my own rice on several occasions. I feel a all of the harvesting work behind every bite I take, I remember the clear days in the canoe, the click of the harvesting sticks, the itch of the seed husks on my skin and the splash of the guide pole in the water. If only all the food I ate had as much positive energy behind each bite...

While some commercial wild rice is grown, its best and tastiest form is still hand harvested, mostly in Minnesota's lakes and rivers in the traditional method.

The Need for Seaweed

Hijiki, wakame, kombu, nori...usually if I can't pronounce it, I don't eat it. But in the case of sea vegetables, I have to eat my words.

Like most normal people, when I think of vegetables I think of tractors and dirt and farms and all things earthly. Being macro has challenged that paradigm for me by opening my mind (and mouth) to the fruits of the sea.

Since we have cut out or dramatically reduced meat and dairy products and heaped up on whole grains and vegetables we have been enjoying more varied, complex proteins and carbohydrates. The thing that vegans and macros need to watch out for is deficiency in essential minerals and proteins. Whole grains cover many of these, but tacking on sea vegetables to your diet can give true balance to a no-meat and dairy diet.

Seafood is ancient, one of the first forms of life on earth, according to some, and is full of many of the bountiful minerals the ocean stores. According to Sundance Natural Foods, 1/4 cup of cooked hijiki contains over half the calcium found in a cup of milk and more iron than in an egg, important concerns for vegans, those who refrain from eating any animal-based products. They also contain vitamins A, B1, C and E, as well as protein and carbohydrates. The Eden Foods wakame sea vegetables we buy give us 100% of our iodine, 8% of our calcium and 30% of our magnesium in just one serving—plus it's a natural source of unprocessed sodium.

One of seaweed's most astounding and valuable health benefits is its ability to remove radioactive strontium and other heavy metals from our bodies. Sundance Natural Foods reports that whole brown seaweeds (not granulated) including kelp contain alginic acid which binds with the toxins in the intestines rendering them indigestible and carries them out of the system.

While it definitely pushes my comfort zone at the moment, eating more seafood is something that I am committed to. The first step toward change is knowledge, and with this valuable information, it will be hard to NOT eat more seaweed.

Cooking with Kale

Yesterday, we were in the produce section and the kale looked really good. So we got some.

I've mostly had kale in soups or mixed with other leafy greens in salads, but yesterday we decided to go straight-up kale.

We blanched it for two minutes, sprinkled some ground black pepper and rice vinegar on it and served with shoyu-grilled tempeh. The savory shoyu flavor and the zing of the light rice vinegar dressing was the perfect match for the juicy green chewy kale. If the color green had a taste, it would be kale.

We paired the kale/tempeh delight with some quinoa (which has become our staple grain). We're attracted to it's complete protein profile, quick cooking time, and nutty flavor. I added some onion, garlic, oregano and red pepper flakes to the quinoa to give it some guts to stand up to the kale/tempeh.

With a fresh organic carrot on the side to balance out the two flavor powerhouse dishes, this meal was well-balanced and delicious. In the right portion, this meal could keep me satisfied for hours after eating.

Shame On Sugar

"Of all the foods consumed today, refined sugar is considered to be one of the most harmful."

And with good reason. At the turn of the 20th century, Americans consumed about 20 pounds per person per year. Today, we eat our body weight in sugar, and then some—not including 20 pounds of corn syrup. That is both disgusting and amazing.

What's the big deal? Chew on this:

• Our programmed addiction to sugar costs us more than $54 billion in dental bills each year.
• Refined sugar contains no fiber, no minerals, no proteins, no fats, no enzymes, only empty calories. It leeches vital nutrients and minerals from our bodies including calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium.
• Americans are plagued by diabetes. The disease is caused by the failure of the pancreas to produce adequate insulin when the blood sugar rises. A concentrated amount of sugar introduced into the system sends the body into shock from the rapid rise in the blood sugar level. The pancreas eventually wears out from overwork and diabetes walks in right through the front door.
• High sugar diets increase the risk of not only diabetes, but cancer, free radicals, hypoglycemia and cardiovascular disease.

OK, you get it. It's bad for you.

The problem is that it is EVERYWHERE. Sugar is in thousands of processed foods, which Americans thrive on. A can of cola has 11 teaspoons of sugar in it! Take a look at the list of ingredients on the next Lean Cuisine you pop in the microwave, the next bag of crackers you open, of the next scoop of icecream of you plop in your bowl. It is almost a guarantee that corn syrup and/or sugar will be high on the list of ingredients.

Sugar has had a stranglehold on our economy since Columbus hit the West Indies. We are addicted and it is killing us—and not very slowly.

Easing away from refined and processed sugar restores the natural minerals and nutrients to the cells and bones of your body. That fact alone was enough for me to kiss the white stuff goodbye.

I never had much of a sweet tooth, though...

Tempeh Time

"Tempeh is a fermented food made by the controlled fermentation of cooked soybeans with a Rhizpous mold."

—quoted from www.tempeh.info

Rhizpous mold?—Nasty.

That sounds like something growing in the shower...or on my feet. Tempeh is really quite a treat, though, and when prepared properly is one of the most delicious macro tasties I've ever sunk my teeth into.

Last night I made tempeh reuben sandwiches for dinner—giving them another chance after I made them about two months ago. (You can read about that experience here).

Once again, I relied on a delicious recipe recipe from Hip Chick Jessica Porter. Here's how she taught me to love tempeh:

Tempeh Reuben with Russian Dressing

Russian Dressing
-2 tablespoons fruit-sweetened ketchup
-2 tablespoons organic relish
-1/2 cup Tofu Mayonnaise

Tempeh
-1 eight ounce package of tempeh
-1/2 cup water
-2 tablespoons shoyu
-Eden Foods sauerkraut

Mix dressing ingredients together by hand and set aside.
Chop block of tempeh in half. Simmer tempeh in water and shoyu until liquid is absorbed (about 15 minutes)
Flip tempeh at least once so that each side gets seasoned. Pan-fry tempeh in sesame oil until crispy. Slice tempeh in half and place tempeh, sauerkraut and dressing on two pieces of bread.


Let me tell you—these were delicious. The last time I made these we didn't have the Russian dressing, because we didn't have any tofu mayonnaise, and that made a difference. I also baked the tempeh last time. I find that simmering it in the shoyu made it much more flavorful. We easily polished these off and were talking about making them again this week!

The fascination I have with the macrobiotic diet is reinforced by my new friend tempeh.
Tempeh is very nutritive and contains many health promoting phytochemicals such as isoflavones and soy saponins.

Apparently, tempeh fermentation produces natural antibiotic agents but leaves the desirable soy isoflavones and most of the saponins intact. Amazingly, is a complete protein food and contains all of the essential amino acids our bodies need. As whole grains and fermented foods become a larger part of our diet, I am constantly amazed at how they provide us with a much more varied and complete protein profile than our former diet.

Those beastly little isoflavones aren't just a fancy name for something that is "healthy," either. They strengthen bones, help to ease menopause symptoms, reduce risk of coronary hearth disease and some cancers.

And on top of it all, the natural fermentation of it helps you digest it better. This little bundle of beans really goes the extra mile.

The Amazing Qualities of Quinoa

This morning as I was surveying our ever-growing stash of bulk whole grains, I noticed that there were a couple of bags of Quinoa dispersed amongst the dried beans, millet, oats, rice, and almonds. I pulled them out, filled the glass canister on the counter that holds this delicious grain, and proudly announced to Jacob that "Quinoa is my favorite whole grain!" To which he replied, "really? brown rice is mine...." (not a surprise) "but quinoa is a close second." This brief interaction led me to do a bit of research on this fabulous whole grain, and to try to discover why it is that we share such a fondness for it.

Even before we were macrobiotic or knew much about this lifestyle, Quinoa was one of my favorite bases for cold salads, or as an accompaniment to seafood... It is light, has a delicious nutty flavor, and it is not sticky and doesn't get mushy like some other kinds of whole grains (rice, or millet, for example... or buckwheat). I prefer this lighter, less-sticky grain, because it simply feels good to eat it.

Now for the educational portion of the post... Quinoa is originally from the Andes in South America. It was a sacred grain to the Incas, as it is in our little attic kingdom. And it's no wonder - this is one nutritionally-sound grain! Quinoa has a very high protein content, for a grain, and it has a "balanced set of amino acids" according to Wikipedia - which means that it contains all eight amino acids that are necessary for human tissue development. It is high in mineral content such as iron, calcium, folate, manganese, vitamin E, and magnesium. It is gluten free, and therefore easier to digest than other grains.

To make it, we usually take a cup of the grain or so in a pot, put double the water in the pot with it, and bring it to a boil - much like the preparation of rice. Instead of covering it and letting it soak up all of the water, though, we let it boil without the cover & drain it using a wire strainer. It cooks pretty quickly - so it is nice to have when you don't have any rice or other longer-cooking grains prepared for a meal. I think it would make an excellent breakfast, come to think of it - and I may try that one of these days. Typically, we have it for dinner under steamed vegetables, or a lentil sauce with spices, or with seafood such as Tilapia. In my research I also discovered that there is quinoa flour - perhaps I will use that in some baked goods sometime soon.... so do yourself a favor and go get some quinoa at the co-op - leave your reviews as comments to this post if you'd like! We'd love to hear what you think.

Thai It, You'll Like It!

Biking through town today, I zoomed past one of the Thai restaurants that we used to eat at...and I had a pang of sadness. The sweet peanut sauce, the zesty lemon, the spicy zippy noodles! Oh!

So, I went home, busted out Lorna Sass's "Complete Vegetarian Kitchen" cookbook (which, by the way, you must get if you care the slightest bit about eating delicious vegetarian food) and started mixin' me up a mess o' Thai food—macro style, of course.

This woman isn't messing around. She knows her stuff. She is the author of 8 health-focused cookbooks that are loaded with oodles and oodles of delicious recipes—and I'm talkin' DEE-licious.

Point made. Lorna Sass kicks major macro booty. Moving on.

I thought this Thai business was going to be a complicated, messy, mysterious undertaking. And while it was a little messy, it wasn't complicated or mysterious at all. I started by making the Peanut Sauce on page 302:

Peanut Sauce (from Lorna Sass's Complete Vegetarian Cookbook)
.5 cup unsalted peanut butter
2.5 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
2 cloves of raw garlic, peeled and minced
.5 cup water
2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce (I used shoyu)
1 teaspoon brown rice vinegar
1 teaspoon maple syrup
Dash of cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes (I used both! hachi hachi!)

Blend or food process all of the ingredients together and season to taste. Brilliant.

The rest was just some thai rice noodles from the store, some steamed broccoli and carrots, sauteed onion, garlic and zucchini. When everything was cooked I threw it all in a pot and tossed it around like crazy for a minute, and garnished with scallions and lemon slice.

I served the peanut sauce on the side, and we had ourselves a tasty, healthy Thai dish without the greasy gut ache that usually follows.

I seriously can't get enough of the peanut sauce. I might drink it as a protein shake.

Brown Rice

I know I already wrote about my love of brown rice a few days back, but after thinking it over I have decided to give it another go 'round. This stuff is really amazing.

One of its most amazing characteristics is its pervasiveness. The diets of nearly every culture include it and it is produced in vast areas of the world regardless of season. In some languages, the word "to eat" literally means "to eat rice." Rice is a food source that is available all year long and supplies nearly half of the daily calories for half of the world's population.

Brown rice is also less processed than white rice. Brown rice only has the hull removed, maintaining most of the grain's nutritional value. White rice is hulled, milled and polished—a process that ends up destroying huge percentages of vitamin B, manganese, phosphorus, iron, fiber and essential fatty acids.

Yikes.

As a matter of fact, white rice actually have to be "enriched" with vitamin B and iron to increase its nutritional value. Kinda backwards.

Difference in color is the least of distinctions between brown and white rice. Rice is layered with a hull, bran, germ and aleurone layer. The majority of the grain's nutritional value is contained in these layers. When white rice is fully polished and bagged it is basically a refined starch with little to offer other than looks.

If that still doesn't sell you on brown rice, I don't know what will. It helped me to know that rice is super old—like 7,000+ years old. But I like obscure facts. I've learned most of this from the World's Healthiest Foods web site.

Light & Lentilly

Yesterday for lunch Kerstin made a quinoa and lentil salad. She tossed quinoa, lentils and canned tuna fish together and topped with grated carrots and sliced cucumbers.

While we were eating I realized that I have macrobiotics to thank for what I was enjoying—before going macro I would have needed much more salt or seasoning to make the salad tasty. But the ability I am gaining to taste subtleties is growing. The unique flavor of lentils has never been so apparent to me. Having just a touch of tuna in the salad gave it a zing that was countered by the carrots and cucumbers. It is a summer salad I hope we eat a lot more of.

Vegetable Variety

One of the things about the Macro diet that I am having a hard time adjusting to is finding balance in the vegetables that we eat. I still have the mindset that if it's a vegetable it's good for you and you basically can't get enough of it.

Knowing now that different vegetables have different alkalinity and acidity, yin and yang properties and nutritional properties, I am confused (on a good day) and outright frustrated (on a bad day). Right now we're just playing it safe with steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. We also eat onions, leeks and beets. But compared to the cornucopia of vegetables that I am accustomed to eating, it doesn't seem like much.

I'm enjoying the vegetables that we eat— I am just afraid they may become old hat.

If anyone has macro suggestions about how to diversify vegetables in our diet, please share. I am very interested in how other macros approach this part of their diet.

The grains continue to be a delight. I actually find myself daydreaming about them, thinking about how my body is balancing and leeching out the nasties I've put it in for so long. I know that sounds kind of wonky, but it's true. Just thinking about rice makes me smile. True love?

Feast

Two days ago we found ourselves wandering around the grocery store, wondering what we were doing there, when we looked at each other and decided that the day needed to include a feast. We decided on tilapia fillets, quinoa salad with tahini/miso dressing and tomato chutney, and tempura vegetables.

We snagged all of the ingredients and busted out our cookbooks when we got home. With each passing week we are taking more creative control of our meals. When we started a month ago, we had enthusiasm, but were eating a lot of rice and beans. Don't get me wrong, rice and beans are good in their own right—but we've come a long way. I could seriously get used to eating like this more often.

Kerstin crusted the tilapia with crushed walnuts and baked it in light sesame seed oil. The tempura batter was easy to make, just some flour, water, cornstarch and baking powder. I believe this is one of our best balanced macro meals, and we will definitely be having it again.

We Judged This Book By its Cover

We got a book, because it looked delicious. And let me tell you—it is friggin' delicious. The recipes in love, eric & sanae are from two genius macro minds. These people can cook macro like it's their jobs...well, I guess it is...
Check it: Whole wheat filo dough wrapped snug around ginger cauliflower, sautéed portabello mushroom stuffed with garlic/carrot/onion millet, drizzled with golden beet sauce. Wowza. I mean...seriously... What a delight.

I had a great meal in Minneapolis with D and MB, as well. I was there doing research for most of the week, eating rice and beans on my own. Thankfully they saved me with whole buckwheat groats, caramelized onion/mushroom sautée, honey vinaigrette beets and a garlic avocado "mousse" We started with brown miso soup and a light salad. Really a grand meal.

Macro is so much easier now that we are armed with some creative recipes and a second wind of energy. Last night we went out for Portugese food, which was a bit of a cheat, but not too much. It's all about balance, right!