One Green Voice

Chocolate Pudding

I’ve been making this for a couple of weeks now. I could go on about how all the ingredients are raw and how it is great for people who can't do dairy.  That is all true. But mostly I can't believe how simple it is to make and how delicious.  

The recipe is adapted from the Yummy Choco-coco Mousse recipe in Carol Alt’s Raw 50 cookbook.  She adds numerous additional ingredients like wild propolis extract, which are all super healthy, but I didn’t have them so went ahead with the basics.   

It works!

 

1 ripe avacado

3 tablespoons raw agave nectar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons coconut butter

4 teaspoons raw cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon Himilayan salt

 

Put all ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until mixed.  I use 2 tablespoons maple syrup in place of the agave.  You can also substitute 3 teaspoons of carob for the cocoa powder but only if you enjoy carob – they are NOT the same and carob does not have that decadent chocolate taste.  It does have more calcium however and if you are doing a spring cleanse and can’t have chocolate you can still have your puddin’.

The first time I made this I put it in the blender but now use the food processor because clean up is much simpler.   

Enjoy!

 

 

Sugar By Any Other Name Isn't As Sweet

Howard is a brave soul. He went to a nutritionist looking for guidance about his diet in the hope of feeling better and dropping a few unwanted pounds.  

The nutritionist asked him to go home, find every packaged food with sugar, fructose etc. listed as an ingredient and get it out of his house post haste. Our intrepid eater reports that by the end of this exercise he literally had no packaged food left!  This is a shocking but telling result and one that I suspect would be repeated over and over if many of us undertook a similar mission.

What can we learn from Howard's experiment?  First and most obvious is that we need to be vigilant about reading labels.  Second is to remember that whole foods are what our bodies know and crave and that eating a whole food diet is the only way to be sure we are getting real nutrition and not some conglomerate's impersonation of same.

Howard has shifted his diet to focus more on fruits, veggies, low fat proteins like eggs, meats and fish.  He is off sugar for the time being - except for a little brown in his morning coffee - but has been promised he will be able to work in honey, maple syrup and the like in time.  He is enjoying nuts, seeds, avacado and other healthy foods that he previously considered fattening.  He has learned that that there are fats and then there are healthy fats that are actually good for the body and have the added bonus of keeping him sated so he isn't reaching for the nearest candy bar all the time.  

Seems to be working.  The sugar purge was over 3 weeks ago and he has easily lost 12 pounds since...

Savour the fruits of your labour, Howard!  You are indeed an inspiration.  

 

 

 

 

 

Hide and Sneak

Sometimes good ideas come from an unexpected source. Other times they come from the usual well of wisdom. I am fortunate to have many wise people in my life.  My friend Lesley is one of them. Wise and creative. One of her talents is choosing a fantastic recipe and immediately seeing ways to substitute healthier ingredients that taste as good or better than those originally suggested.  

The other evening she told me how she is now substituting ground sunflower seeds and/or flax seeds for part of the flour in cookie recipes - simple ways to up your fibre and protein while adding all the good fats and other nutrients found in these seeds.  

A few days later it was time to make pizza crust. Borrowing a page from Lesley's book, I replaced 1/2 cup of flour with 1/2 cup of ground flax seed.  The end result looks a little different but, despite having replaced 1/6 of the flour in the recipe, tastes almost the same.  My son didn't even notice the difference.

Wish I could say the same for the millet/walnut/zucchini/mushroom et al eggplant rolls ups I spent way too long making this afternoon.  They were baked in tomato sauce and I smothered his in goat cheese.  I thought them divine.  My son did his usual "Yummy!".  "Yum".  "Uh, Mommy, do I have to finish this?"

Can't win em all. 

Facing the Facts about Coconut Oil

A few years ago, during a visit to Whole Foods in Toronto, I found myself chatting with a woman - she had luminous skin - who swore that the only thing she put on her face is organic coconut oil.  I thought this was interesting but didn't pursue it, for two reasons.  First, I was going through a "wash with water and stop there" stage due to my frustration at being unable to find 'clean' facial products.  I've written about this before and did eventually find a few options that were o.k.  

The other reason was that I didn't yet understand that the coconut is much maligned due to its usage in a hydrogenated form in many products. The hydrogenation process is the problem, not the coconut.

Fast forward to a few months ago.  I started reading about coconut oil and its multitudinous benefits when ingested internally.  So I bought some and was dazzled by what it did for granola bars and chilli.  Then I remembered that woman's recommendation and tried it on my face.  Before long my first bottle had moved from the kitchen to my bathroom.  It goes on greasy so you don't need much.  But it absorbs quickly and has cured that parched, dehydrated look I used to sport.  

If you enjoy the smell of coconut, you might want to give the oil a try.  Where else can you get a year's supply of organic face cream, in a glass jar no less, for $10 or $12 bucks?  Worst case scenario?  It ends up in your kitchen.  I bet it won't.

  

Model Recipes

I knew I was preparing too many things at once yesterday when I added cumin, which I had just put into the chili, instead of cinnamon to my green smoothie.  Luckily, the kale was solo in the Vita Mix at that point so I was able to rinse it clean and start again.  Multi tasking can be dangerous.

I've been working my way through Carol Alt's The Raw 50 and quite enjoying the results.  The only recipe so far that ended up in the compost was a simple flax cracker recipe.  Flax seeds need to be ground in order to provide maximum nourishment.  Not surprising then that the unground flax seed recipe didn't work either. 

Miss Alt's other crackers, breakfast 'cookies', burgers and raw hummus are great.  Her desserts are even better.  A self-confessed sugar addict, I feel fortunate to be finding so many yummy meal enders (or sometimes beginners in my case) that don't rely on the refined stuff.  Miss Alt's pecan pie is one example.  It contains dates galore and is delicious. 

But then I tasted Cynthia's Divinely Raw pecan pie at the Bailey's Local Foods pick up on Monday.  My son was all over her chocolate macaroons* but I couldn't get past the pecan pie.  It tasted even better than its conventional cousin. Completely decadent.  Even I was surprised.

If you are in the SW Ontario area and have access to Divinely Raw products they are worth the effort. If you want dessert options that do not include sugar, consider trying some raw recipes.  Most are simple to assemble and you just might enjoy them.  

*In fact he decided that the spoon in the macaroons was the perfect size for shovelling the samples directly into his mouth.  Cynthia was very gracious when I fessed up and suggested she remove the spoon from the table...

 

Jamie Oliver Talks About Food in America

This is a video of Chef Jamie Oliver accepting a TED award for his efforts to educate America's children about food.  He talks about how obesity and diet related disease are shortening American lifespans. He dumps a wheel barrow full of sugar on the stage floor explaining that it represents the amount of sugar a  child receives from school-provided milk in a 5 year period. He shows video of young children who look at common vegetables, cauliflower, eggplant, beets and tomatoes and literally do not know what they are.

In my humble opinion, watching this video is 22 minutes well spent. 

Cookin' Without Gas

Howard called me out on the Spanx entry.  No, I admitted, Spanx have nothing to do with this blog's mandate.  Some things are just funny.

When not struggling into my Spanx I am busy, between working and numerous other projects, exploring the world of raw food.  Am having a blast.  This week I met a woman named Cynthia through an email conversation with one of the women who runs Bailey's Local Foods.  Cynthia is a raw food chef and entrepreneur who runs Divinely Raw.

During our email conversation Cynthia mentioned that she had made a chocolate/hemp shake.  After two days of wondering if it was appropriate to ask a chef for a recipe when it is her business to sell her wares I went ahead and did so.  Cynthia kindly obliged. 

I've since tried my own versions of this shake and am enamoured of the banana/chocolate version.  Even though all I changed was the fruit, it is a big deal to me that my vision panned out aka o.k it's delicious! as I in no way, shape or form even remotely resemble a chef.  I need a clear, functional recipe - unlike my parents who can just whip something up!

Cynthia's shake contains 1 cup of water, 1 cup mashed bananas (if frozen so much the better)(can sub any fruit you like), 1 heaping T raw cacao powder, 1T raw honey and 1/2 c hemp seeds.   My mixing advice is to add the hemp seeds after blending because they stick to the sides of the blender and are too precious to waste.

I look forward to meeting Cynthia on Monday when I pickup my Bailey's order.  She is now selling her products through Bailey's and will be there Monday offering samples.  If the rest of her food is anything like her shake we are all in for a treat!

I am of course making the shake in my beloved Vita Mix.  Cynthia does not share this devotion and, as you will read on her site, is a staunch proponent of the Blendtec blender instead.  I wonder if the Blentec pulverizes the hemp seeds because my machine does not.

Happy sipping!

Jack Lalanne Juicer Is A Dud

Well, not completely.  It makes great juice and I believe their claim that it makes 30% more juice than other juicers.  Unfortunately, I found the safety shutoff to be too much of a good thing.  The motor kept shutting down and I had to unplug it, take it apart and put it back together several times almost every time I made juice.  Its construction is also odd - the grinding plate has be screwed in to use it and screwed out for washing. 

There is no getting around it - juicers are high maintenance.  But I found the Jack Lalanne to be even more so than necessary.  Back it went to Costco.

The Hamilton Beach model is rated highly.  My Mom had one and loved it.  It is also very inexpensive.  I'm trying that one next.

Inspiring Your Child to Eat More Fruits and Veggies

Happy New Year!  I hope your holidays were peaceful and filled with good friends and lots of laughter.

You haven't heard from me because, among other things, I've been enjoying our son's time away from school and dealing with my newly diagnosed gall stone.  The school holiday ends tonight but alas, the stone is still with me.  Now I'm a gluten free vegan (except for my beloved organic salmon) who can't eat nuts and beans.  Makes for interesting times in the kitchen.  But that's o.k.  Am hoping surgery won't be necessary so I'm following my naturopath's advice and keeping my fingers crossed.  I will also consult a surgeon as my medical doctor recommends.  Its always good to cover your bases.

During dinner this evening I mentioned that I hadn't blogged in weeks.  My husband suggested I blog about my evil plan for inspiring our son to eat more fruits and vegetables.  So here I am.

Our son is extremely competitive. Wants to be the best and win at everything.  Not an uncommon trait, we are told, among six year old boys.  While not a lot of fun when he loses at Monopoly Deal, this trait has served our son well at the table. 

I simply began awarding him one point for each fruit or veggie he eats during the day.   This is working like a charm.  He is routinely downing his required number of servings and then some.  His success has even rubbed off on my husband who is also trying to up his intake. Go Dave!

I am excited to report that I am reopening my agency later this month - I place musical soloists with symphony orchestras.  Being back at work will mean less time for blogging but I will try to check in as often as I can.

In the mean time I wish you a happy, healthy and successful 2010.

T'is the Season - Delicious Desserts!

Came home late last week to find two pages from the December 2009 Canadian Living magazine in our mailbox.  The pages, headed "Special Diet cookies & candies" are filled with decadent holiday-worthy dessert recipes that were variously free of gluten, dairy, eggs and nuts.  All of these ingredients are not absent from every recipe but there is probably at least one option for most restricted diets.  I am hearted to see this in the main stream media and hope this feature signals the birth of a trend.  Thanks kindly for thinking of us Beth!

The recipes include Chocolate Goat's Milk Fudge (Egg, Gluten and Nut Free), Pignoli Cookies (Gluten and Diary Free), Gingersnap Cookies (Gluten and Nut Free), Apple Chocolate Chip Cookies (Diary, Egg and Nut Free).  I am especially jazzed to try the Bit-Size Fruit Balls (Dairy, Egg and Gluten Free) as they are raw, sweetened with honey and orange juice and look simple to make. Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup each dried cranberries and chopped dried apricots

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut

2 tbsp liquid honey

2 tbsp orange juice

1/2 cup finely chopped almonds

In food processor, chop together cranberries, apricots, raisins and coconut just until combined.  Add honey and orange juice; pulse just until clumped together.

Roll by heaping 1 tbsp into balls; roll in almonds.

Make-ahead:  Refrigerate in airtight container for up to 1 week.

Makes 16 pieces.

Enjoy!