I’ll start by talking about my new smoothie recipe which includes about 100 ingredients. I made one tonight and my husband thought it was so good asked me to make one for him as well (rare.)

The Insane Smoothie recipe
(I show amounts but I usually make it to taste)

• 2 oz. coconut milk
• 8 oz unsweetened soy or almond milk (I’ll use soy if I need to up my protein for the day)
• 1/3 c unsweetened shredded coconut
• 3/4 c frozen organic strawberries
• 4-5 frozen organic blackberries
• 4 T hemp protein powder (I think this is the best protein powder for vegans)
• 1 T raw cacao nibs
• 1 T organic maple syrup
• 1 t chia seeds
• 1 t almond butter
• handful of pecans
• a couple of dashes Himalayan salt
• greens icecube (see below)

A few notes… of course you can use fresh fruit but using frozen means you get a smoothie without adding ice which definitely makes for a better smoothie. For the greens icecube, Katie taught me to saute greens for about 3 minutes and then put them in a food processor with a tiny bit of water. I used kale and collards. Add the mixture to ice cube trays and you have a readily available greens icecubes whenever you want a smoothie – you don’t have to constantly keep fresh greens in your fridge and again, the frozen-ness of these makes for a better smoothie.

I also buy most everything in bulk: salt, nibs, coconut, nuts, maple syrup, etc. I need to find coconut oil in bulk.

I have to be creative with smoothies because I am allergic to bananas (we ended our relationship during the summer of ‘09) so coming up with ingredients that make for a smoothie without adding ice are a little tricky. The awesomeness of healthiness in this smoothie is insane. Add or subtract whatever to it. Sometimes I add coconut water and subtract a few ingredients. I just started adding the salt and OMG it makes this smoothie.

The Insane Smoothie (includes the kitchen sink)

I myself have a pretty large compost bin in my backyard but I know people who live in apartments or houses without room for one that still want to compost. And composting doesn’t smell if you put the right things in there! These little countertop bins are a perfect solution.

Here is how the prep work leading up to dinner went:

• Turn on oven to 350.
• Cut acorn squash in half, seed, and place cut-side down in casserole dish with about 1 inch of water. Set timer for 30 min and put in oven.
• Run zucchini and yellow squash through food processor to slice. Sprinkle liberally with salt and let sit.
• Start a large skillet on low-medium heat with several (3 or 4) tablespoons of butter. Chop an onion and toss it in. Look in fridge for fresh garlic (none there); pull roasted head of garlic out of leftover roasted chicken from yesterday, pluck out the garlic cloves and add to pan. Leave to caramelize.
• Rinse meat and season both sides with salt and pepper.  Leave on counter so it can come to room temp before cooking. (Note: this may be against food safety recommendations, but I prefer to cook my meat from room temp.) I did not trim any fat or meat off the chops to make them into lollipop style – it seemed like a waste of meat and flavorful good fat.
• Peel, seed and chop butternut squash.

…Pour a glass of wine! I had to wait about 20 min for everything to cook, stir the onions occassionally, and think about dessert…

I got to chatting with my mom and suddenly everything was ready for the next steps!

• Put the butternut squash in the pan with the onions and garlic and add 6 cups of frozen homemade chicken stock (I meant to defrost it but forgot), put the lid on the pan and turn up to melt stock, then bring to boil gently.
• Take out the acorn squash, flip them over, fill each with about 1 tablespoon butter, 1 teaspoon muscovado, and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Put back in the oven.
• Skim butternut squash soup if needed after chicken stock has come to a boil.
• Rinse the zucchini and yellow squash and lay on a towel to dry.

The final cooking and pulling things together was all done nearly simultaneously, alternately flipping, stirring, and blending as needed:

• Heat a skillet on medium and add 2 to 3 tablespoons of butter. When the skillet is heated through, add the lamb. Cook 5 min each side using the timer. I had 2 racks, or perhaps one rack cut in half? Each was about 5 by 6 inches. As each is finished cooking, place on a plate covered with foil to rest.
• Melt about 2 tablespoons butter in stainless steel wok. Add zucchini and cook on medium until cooked through. This took over 10 minutes – perhaps because there were 5 squash total and the wok was deep.
• Use hand blender to puree butternut squash soup.
• Repeat (Flip rack, stir zucchini, puree some more… Put second rack in pan, stir zucchini, puree some more…)

Finally, the soup was blended, the zucchini was cooked through, and the acorn squash was ready to come out of the oven. At the last moment, I added sour cream and mustard to the pan the lamb had been cooked in, and stirred it on medium heat for about 2 minutes to create a delicious sauce.

Butternut squash with lots of pepper and a spoonful of sourcream

Closeup of the acorn squash - these were divine!

Zucchini and yellow squash, a happy and colorful pairing

Rack of lamb, sliced into chops

Everything was delicious, with just a bit of zucchini and soup leftover. After clearing the plates and letting everyone rest for a bit, I pulled together a quick dessert. But that will have to be a different post.  In all, it was a fine fall feast!

Notes on ingredients for this meal:

Acorn, butternut, zucchini, and yellow squash were all local organic, purchased at the Saturday Austin Farmers Market. I’ll get better about getting vendor names to give them credit.
Rack of lamb is organic and grass-fed, also from the Farmer’s Market.
Muscovado is an unrefined sugar with a delicious flavor that I like to use in place of brown sugar. It should still be used in moderation, but is more of a whole food than commerical brown sugar.
The stick and a half of butter used on this meal was Organic Valley Pasture Butter
I prefer pink HimalaSalt in the grinder because of the flavor and the variety of the grind – some bits crunchy, others so small they dissolve
I’ll post about making homemade Chicken Stock on another day!

Recipe credits:

Acorn Squash – mom’s recipe
Butternut Squash Soup – adapted from Courtney’s vegan version
Zucchini – Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon
Rack of Lamb – adapted from Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon

Forget boredom with the eat local challenge, I started feeling like crap. It really started last Thursday and I blamed it on the constant Austin rain (weird, I know) but then after several days of no energy, complete exhaustion and not being able to concentrate on anything, I realized that my diet has been lacking. I wasn’t getting my normal nutrition and I definitely wasn’t eating enough. How could I be with a limited number of veggies, some olive oil and coffee every day? I decided during the day on Monday that I had to quit the challenge. I had a soccer game right after work and I played worse than I have in years. I came home and made tofu scramble and went to bed.

However, I don’t feel defeated. I definitely learned a lot and my weekly trip to the farmers market will continue. I will still buy local over non-local if available and will tailor my meals to include as much seasonal produce as possible. And I’ll keep you posted with my attempts to make homemade granola, pasta and pretty much anything else I would rather make from scratch than buying in a box.

I think the Eat Local Challenge is awesome though and would be lot healthier if I either wasn’t vegan or lived in an area that some of these proteins were grown locally.

Holy moly! How did all of this stuff sneak into my fridge!?  I’ve been keeping my cabinets pretty clear of *junk* food. And by junk, I mean foods that contain high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors or colors, artificial sweeteners, anything hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated, modern vegetable oils, soy and soy derivatives, preservatives, additives, stabilizers, and things that simply don’t belong in the product (case in point: PB&F? Why is there fish in your peanut butter?) With the cabinets mostly clear, I was surprised to find so many sneaky items still hidden in the back of my refrigerator, tucked in the bottom shelf of the door, and even in plain sight that had simply become invisible over time.

It was a little sad to throw away all of the contents of these jars and bottles because they represent money spent on attempts at low-carb diets, attempts to eat more salads, and a few honest attempts to buy something healthful before I got smart about reading labels. But I dutifully dumped them out, cleaned the containers and recycled or saved them depending on their re-usabaility. My cabinet of empty jars is now well stocked!

My fridge is clean and pretty now too, with lots of room for the new recipes I’m going to try and perishable, local, in season foods I’ll be buying. I need room to put the jars back in the fridge once they are full of new healthy foods.  A few foods I’m working on now include yogurt, kombucha, kefir, and mayonaisse.

You can see some manufactured items remain, mostly on the top shelf. I’ve tried to limit them to the better options such as jam sweetened only with fruit, roasted organic nut butters, organic maple syrup, naturally fermented soy sauce, and a few other items I’m not ready to let go of just yet.  For now, I am thrilled with the new space in the fridge and the big changes I have managed to maintain this year.

I rewarded myself for the fridge cleanout with a trip to the Container Store and replaced all of the plastic baggies that were crowding my bulk shelf.

I think the new labels are just the cutest! They are by Martha Stewart Crafts. Next step – reusable bags for purchasing bulk items and bringing them home.

Are you ready to clean out your fridge or cabinets? Fall is a great time to do the big cleanout. With the cool, rainy weather, what fun to stay inside and make room for the fall harvest!  Clean cupboards make it easy to find your aluminum free baking powder and spices for apple spice muffins, and a clean fridge means you have room for leftover pumkin pie. I would love to see before and after photos, or even just a picture of the yuckies you’re getting rid of. Remember to recycle the plastic empties and keep your glass jars!

My sister was (and still is) my inspiration to adopt a traditional approach to nutrition, to know where my food is coming from, and to pay attention to how I am fueling my body.  When we spend a week together, we spend the majority of our time talking about food, cooking, eating, and shopping for nutritious local whole organic foods. This week I’ll post about the way we snacked, the meals we prepared, our shopping expeditions, and our picnic lunch.

Today’s delicious semi-local and very nutritious breakfast:

• Sprouted sourdough toast with pasture butter
• Three local pastured eggs, scrambled in butter, and topped with yummy local artisan goat cheese – the Fiesta flavor is so good on scrambled eggs! (Farmers Market vendor: Maid in the Shade)
• 2 Cod Liver Oil / Butter Oil blend capsules from Green Pasture’s
• Sliced local cucumber with sea salt
• Fresh, whole, raw milk from Sand Creek Farm
• mug of Earl Grey with local Round Rock Honey and a splash of milk

The mug has a quote from Paper Source that I love: Do Something Creative Every Day

Time for a refill!

Saturday farmers market finds: portabellos, red bell peppers, okra, acorn squash, yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, prickly pear (Matt went this time and picked some up and we both agree we don’t like it the taste.)
Wheatsville local finds: olive oil, green beans, broccoli microgreens, bibb lettuce

And I’m not feeling that great. I don’t know if it’s the weather or lack of something in my diet but if it continues I will have to modify the challenge quite a bit. I know I have been eating very healthy but I am exhausted, I can’t concentrate and I have no energy. I have a soccer game today that I am dreading. Is it my diet? What should I do?

This challenge would be a lot easier if I weren’t vegan.

ROASTED PEANUTS, SUGAR, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: MOLASSES, FULLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OILS (RAPESEED AND SOYBEAN), MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, SALT], ANCHOVY* AND SARDINE OIL*, TILAPIA GELATIN, TOCOPHEROLS AND CITRIC ACID (ANTIOXIDANTS).

Seriously? I’m not saying this because I am vegan, but this is disgusting. Guess what? Did you know you can get Omega 3s from these other natural, whole foods?

• Leafy green veggies
• Nuts such as walnuts, brazil nuts, hazelnuts and pecans
• Seeds – just put flax seeds in anything you eat anyway. They are awesome in salads, granola, name it.
• Eggs (you know to only buy the good ones from local farmers, right?)
• Fish (I had to put this in there for pure fact)

Side note: Forget fish all-together though, the first 4 from the list will be just fine for you. Fishing practices are horrific if you didn’t know.

I can only imagine where Jif sources their sardines, anchovies and talapia for their fancy peanut butter.

What do you guys think about this?

Farmers market finds

Yesterday was a perfect sunny day at the Austin Farmers Market at the Triangle. Funny enough, I ran into Katie again! I need to start bringing my camera to the market. I saw the first signs of green with a few collards at one of the booths. I am totally over the hump of being frustrated with finding things to cook and actually cooking it. I am someone that for years has said that I hate cooking and I just don’t do it and when I went vegan a couple of years ago I told myself I would cook more and I did. But now I am falling in love with it and I look forward to coming home and putting together whatever I have to make incredibly healthy and surprisingly delicious vegan, local meals. I bought arugula and mushrooms from Animal Farm, butternut squash and okra from Ottmars and tomatoes from Engel Farms (none of these guys have websites but are normal vendors at the Austin market).

Tomatoes are one of my favorite things in the universe. I literally have them tattooed on my arm. I bought some smoked salt a few months ago for one recipe and I always forget about it but remembered I had it last night. I sliced up a couple of tomatoes and sprinkled some pepper and smoked salt on them and let me tell you, if you haven’t tried this stuff, run to your local store that carries bulk salt (I got mine at Whole Foods) and buy some and put it on everything. A little goes a long way and has an extremely strong smokey smell and flavor. I also added it to the sauteed arugula and mushrooms. I first learned about it from reading Isa Moskowitz’s Vegan Brunch (which is an insanely awesome vegan cookbook).

Here are some photos from dinner:

Black eyed peas with arugula microgreens and tomatoes with smoked salt

Sauteed arugula with grape tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic and smoked salt

Wheatsville local finds

In the beginning of September we went to Disney World for one of my best friend’s wedding. I knew I was starting the Eat Local Challenge in October so I was paying attention to the food I eat more than normal, I had added origin to my list There was barely anything a wheat-free vegan could eat but I got a bag of apple slices and saw they were from Chile. I don’t eat apples a lot but today I was in Wheatsville Co-op and they had beautiful apples from Farwell, TX. I stood there and stared at them and thought to myself “Well, they ARE from Texas while definitely farther than 150 miles away, I could just buy some and go home and explain my reasoning on the site.” I walked around the store and passed the apples on purpose about 4 times and didn’t give in. But it was really good to know that we can get apples in Texas in October. (Side note: Custom WF vegan dinner at the wedding was insanely awesome.)

Today’s trip to Wheatsville was pretty awesome because I was craving anything green. I bought green beans and a cucumber from Pedernales, Arugula micro-greens from Bella Verdi Farms , Sunflower and mixed sprouts from New World Sprouts and hydroponic Bibb lettuce. Notice the cotton produce bag and oddly placed phallic cucumber. Therefore, dinner was awesome and I don’t call myself a cook especially since Matt went to culinary school. I started with a salad of bibb, micro-greens, sprouts, tomatoes, mushrooms and cucumber (all local) with my homemade dijon vinaigrette. I sauteed some purple long beans and green beans with shallots and garlic (all local) and added 1/4 t of Chinese five spice. We have had it for several years and never opened it. I was surprised how great an addition it was and will definitely use it more often. I also mashed up a local sweet potato with a splash of soy milk and basil from my garden. Tonight actually made me feel a lot better about the challenge, but I still need snacking ideas. Thoughts?

Local salad

Inspired by one of my favorite movies

Oh and radishes from seeds!