Salad Pizza

First, I have to thank one of my besties for giving me the basis and idea for this recipe.  I first tried this salad pizza made my Heather when she brought it to a potluck, or to my house... or maybe at hers?  All I know is I've had it a few times and each time I've loved it more.  Since Heather has decided to up and move away on me (so sad), I had to find a way to recreate it, as I was seriously craving it.  The version I made is a little different than Heather's original but the idea is the same... a crispy golden crust with a zesty creamy lebnah spread and tons of crisp yummy chopped veggies.

Tonight's version is made using organic strained yogurt, called lebnah, mixed with some Italian dressing seasoning for the zesty spread but it just as easily could be made vegan by using a tub of vegan tofu cream cheese, either home made or store bought.  Our local bagel shop has a killer vegan cream cheese that my kids love.  It's been so long since I've had dairy (for health reasons) that I decided tonight was the night to indulge.

To begin, I made my favorite whole wheat pizza dough recipe.  I'm hesitant to give my recipe that I use because I totally eyeball it.  Just use your favorite recipe or even a pre-made pizza crust from the store or some whole wheat bread dough that all grocery stores are selling now.  Spread it onto an oiled pizza stone or cookie sheet, prick with a fork and bake in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.  Let it cool completely before adding the zesty lebnah, this pizza is meant to be chilled or eaten at room temperature.

The lebnah needs to be started early in the morning because it needs to drain.  Lebnah is a Middle Eastern yogurt cheese and is simply strained yogurt.  To make lebnah,  you take two containers of organic whole milk yogurt, add a dash of salt to both containers, stir and pour them into a bowl lined with cheese cloth.  The cheesecloth needs to be folded so it's at least 4 layers thick.  Then take the ends and gather them together and tie them with a rubber band.  Hang this bag of yogurt from a cubbord knob and place one of the yogurt containers underneath to catch the whey.  I let it hang and drain for about 5 hours and let it reduce by half.  When the yogurt container is full with whey to the tippy top, the yogurt is done draining and will be thick enough.  Remove the lebnah from the cheese cloth and plop it into the other yogurt container and stir.  Take half of  this lebnah, place it in a bowl and add a packet of Good Seasons Italian Dressing mix and mix well.  The remaining lebnah can be stored in the fridge in the yogurt container and eaten as you would cream cheese or plopped on top of berries or granola... it's so yummy!  If you don't want to go through this process of straining your own yogurt to make lebnah, you can just as easily use a small container of sour cream or even cream cheese mixed with the Italian dressing seasoning.  Some stores even sell lebnah already made if you are lucky enough to find it.  It comes in a container like sour cream and says... Lebnah.  lol.

Now to prepare the pizza.  Spread the lebnah/Italian dressing seasoning mixture onto the cooled pizza crust.

Top this with a generous sprinkling of sprouts, top that with mushrooms, shredded carrots, diced red pepper, sliced scallion and parsley and cucumber, or what ever veggies are your favorites.  Cut the pizza into portions with kitchen shears or a pizza cutter... 

NOW ENJOY!

Quinoa

I must admit, quinoa is something that has grown on me.  I didn't like it the first time I tried it and I think because I made it too mushy by adding too much water and cooking it too long.  But now, I am a quinoa master... well, it was good anyway.  My secret is half a vegetable bullion in the cooking water and a 1/2 cup less water than the box calls for... yes, I buy it in a box.  After this box is finished I have promised myself to try it from bulk.

Tonight I was so happy because my youngest son, the pickiest eater of my 3, loves quinoa and ate two servings. This makes me happy because quinoa is the only "grain" high in ALL amino acids... a complete protein as they say, high in iron, magnesium and fiber.  I say "grain" because quinoa is a psuedocereal... not really a grain at all.  I was surprised to find it is most related to beets, and spinach!

chopped salad with tahini lemon dressing, sweet potato fries and quinoa

My idea for tonight's dinner was to mix the quinoa with a chopped salad, a sort of couscous salad but with quinoa, but after it was cooked, it was just too yummy not to eat alone and hot.

My basic recipe for quinoa:
1 1/2 cup water
1/2 vegetable bullion
1 cup quinoa

mix all together, bring to a boil, cover and reduce to simmer, simmer for 14 minutes, fluff and let it sit for a bit.

I served the quinoa tonight with sweet potato fries that I tossed in a bit of olive oil, garlic powder and kosher salt, a chopped salad that had grated carrot, yellow pepper, cucumber, tomato, chopped parsley, juice of one lemon, two tablespoons of tahini, kosher salt, and a bit of pepper.  The kids also got a slice of meatloaf made with grass fed locally raised beef.

Eating Animals

I'd like to simply post a few excerpts from the book Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer.

‎"We have grander legacies than the quest for cheap products. Martin Luther King jr. wrote passionately about the time when 'one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular.' Sometimes we simply have to make a decision because 'one's conscience tells one that it is right.' These famous words of King's,... are also our legacy. We might want to say these social-justice movements have nothing to do with the situation of the factory farm. Human oppression is not animal abuse. King and Chavez were moved by a concern for suffering humanity, not suffering chickens or global warming. Fair enough. One can certainly quibble with, or even become enraged by, the comparison implicit in invoking them here, but it is worth noting that Cesar Chavez and King's wife, Coretta Scott King, were vegans, as is King's son Dexter. We interpret the Chavez and King legacies - we interpret America's legacy - too narrowly if we assume in advance that they cannot speak against the oppression of the factory farm." 

‎"If we are at all serious about ending factory farming, then the absolute least we can do is stop sending checks to the absolute worst abusers. For some, the decision to eschew factory-farmed products will be easy. For others, the decision will be a hard one. To those for whom it sounds like a hard decision (I would have counted myself in this group), the ultimate question is whether it is worth the inconvenience. We know, at least, that this decision will help prevent deforestation, curb global warming, reduce pollution, save oil reserves, lessen the burden on rural America, decrease human rights abuses, improve public health, and help eliminate the most systematic animal abuse in world history. What we don't know, though, may be just as important. How would making such a decision change us?"

‎"It might sound naive to suggest that whether you order a chicken patty or a veggie burger is a profoundly important decision. Then again, it certainly would have sounded fantastic if in the 1950's you were told that where you sat in a restaurant or on a bus could begin to uproot racism. It would have sounded equally fantastic if you were told in the early 1970's before Cesar Chavez's workers' rights campaigns, that refusing to eat grapes could begin to free farmworkers from slave-like conditions. It might sound fantastic, but when we bother to look, it's hard to deny that our day-to-say choices shape the world. When America's early settlers decided to throw a tea party in Boston, forces powerful enough to create a nation were released. Diciding what to eat (and what to toss overboard) is the founding act of production and consumption that shapes all others."

Snack Time

Last week I had a crazy craving for some nachos!  It all happened while I was shopping and I saw a bag of organic blue tortilla chips with flax seeds.  Of course I had to buy them... they were ORGANIC!  When I got home I made myself this lovely plate of ooey gooey nachos!  Here is the recipe.

-layer of blue tortilla chips with flax seeds

-1/4 can of black beans drained and rinsed

-generous sprinkling of Daiya cheese 

-salsa

-chopped tomatoes

-some fresh thyme from the garden

Assemble first 3 ingredients and microwave for 1-2 minutes until cheese is melted.  Add salsa, tomatoes, and thyme... then ENJOY!

Blood Work Results

So, I just got the results of my blood work... AMAZING!  All my numbers have improved and I am not even on the radar as any where near a risk factor for heart disease, heart attack, stroke, type II diabetes, some forms of cancer...  Thanks be to God, and Mash'Allah.  I give all thanks to my creator who is making my diet fun, easy, tasty and worth the effort.  Drum roll please... here are the results and a reminder of what a plant based whole foods diet can do for your health, these numbers can be anyone's numbers too.


Total Cholesterol 146 (under 200 is desirable)
LDL ,aka the bad stuff, 67 (under 160 is desirable)
HDL ,aka the good stuff, 69 (above 59 is desirable)
Triglycerides 51 (below 150 is desirable)

Aloo Gobi

So, a couple of weeks ago I was having a love affair with Indian, Pakistani food.  I couldn't get enough!  Last week I made one recipe that was very, very, tasty that I would like to share, it's called Aloo Gobi, or Potatoes and Cauliflower.  I used this recipe for Aloo Gobi.  The only modification I can think of  is that I did not use the hot pepper in mine.  I didn't want to kill my children with spicy food, although my oldest son loves to add Tabasco and Red hot to lots of random things, so adding a hot pepper probably would have been ok, also, I used a bag of frozen cauliflower.  Here is the recipe that is provided in the link above and a photo of my results!  I served it with some plain bastmati rice and some cucumber, mint yogurt. Tasty!!!!

My recipe for cucumber mint yogurt.
1 grated organic size cucumber
1 tablespoon dried mint
dash of garlic powder
dash of salt
2 or 3 cups of yogurt, depending on how much you would like to have.
mix together and serve.  (Note:  I did not eat the yogurt ;p)

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seed
• 1 small onion, quartered then sliced
• 2 serrano chile peppers, minced
• 1 teaspoon ginger paste
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
• 2 medium baking potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 head cauliflower, cut into florets
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice

Directions

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat in a large pot. Fry the cumin seeds for a few seconds until they turn golden brown and begin to pop. Reduce heat to medium, stir in the onion, and cook until lightly browned. Stir in serrano pepper and ginger, fry for 1 minute. Season with coriander, paprika, turmeric, cayenne, and garam masala; cook for 30 seconds until fragrant.
2. Stir in potatoes and salt, cover and cook for 5 to 7 minutes. Add the cauliflower, cover, and cook until the cauliflower steams in it's own juices until it's tender, about 20 minutes. Stir in lemon juice, then pour the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil around the edges of the pot. Increase heat to medium-high and fry for 3 to 5 minutes to brown, stirring gently to avoid mashing the cauliflower.

I haven't posted in a while, so needless to say, I've got some food pictures to share.

Friday was not a good food day!  The food I ate sure tasted good, but was NOT at all good for me... at all!  My son had a band competition away and after the competition, we all went to Canobie Lake Park for some fun, rides, and amusement park food!   Let's just say, my stomach is still angry with me.  Ok, I'll confess what I ate, the whole dirty truth.  I ate a whole fried dough boy with powdered sugar and cinnamon by myself, I ate my share of french fries (my second helping, the first was at lunch!), then to top it all off, I ate a soft pretzel.  This was all AFTER lunch.  For lunch we were all starving and stopped at Burger King.  I and my two youngest children had fish sandwiches and fries... my husband ate a whopper.  My youngest son was not happy and kept telling him to please not order it again, not to support factory farming... This out of the mouth of my 6 year old!

Today we are back on track, well, at least I am but believe it or not my body hurts, my joints to be exact!  Especially my knees and my knuckles.  Since being on a plant based whole foods diet, I've noticed that on the days I eat animal protein (the fish fillet and a piece of koofta on Saturday which is ground beef (NON factory farmed) and spices to be exact), the next day my joints ache!  The only thing I can think of is an inflammatory response to the "invading" proteins... hmmm.

Today I started my day with my favorite meal of the day, breakfast! I had two slices of sprouted grain bread toasted, with natural peanut butter and raw honey.  For lunch I cooked up some sliced tofu dredged in nutritional yeast, I call these tofu eggs because they taste like a slice of cheesy omlet, thanks to the flavor of nutritional yeast. I placed two of these tofu eggs on a whole wheat tortilla and topped it with some organic salsa.  It was good.  Then I ate some "tofu eggs" as is... they were even better.

Tofu egg!

Tonight for dinner, my husband grilled some left over chicken that we took to a pick-nick yesterday.  I was NOT having any of that so I made myself a pesto pizza on a whole wheat crust with mushrooms, yellow peppers, onions and Daiya cheese!  It was so good.  I ate a grilled ear of corn with it and I am stuffed!  That is until later when the pizza starts calling my name!

For my pesto recipe, I used a bag of organic basil.  I added the leaves to my food processor with a handful of pine nuts from my freezer and about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a dash or two of kosher salt.  I pureed it until creamy and spread it on my whole wheat crust added the chopped veggies and sprinkle of Daiya cheese and baked in a 425 degree oven for about 20 minutes.  Any recipe for whole wheat pizza crust will do.  There is nothing special to mine, except I add about 1/4 scant cup of vital wheat gluten to up the protein and make it more chewier.

I almost forgot to take a picture, my grilled corn was halfway gone before I remembered!

Well, that is all for now.  I still have some more pictures to blog so hopefully I will get around to doing just that!