I'll Have the (Vegan) Bolognese

   Is there anything better than a man who knows how to cook? I think not.

   It's pretty common for one person in a household to assume the lion's share of cooking responsibilities; in our house that person is me. The familiar activities of chopping, sauteing and stirring are meditative to me. It's a no fail end of the day chill pill.

   I admittedly sometimes get into cooking ruts, as I think many of us who cook on a daily basis do, which is one of the reasons I love it so much when Steve decides to cook dinner. He goes into it with absolutely no idea what the final dish may be, searching cookbooks, websites and maybe even a few of my cooking magazines. Eventually he picks whatever looks tasty- even (perhaps especially) if he's never cooked anything like it before or it requires a trip to the grocery store. The recipe I have for you today is one such creation of his- delicious, unexpected and, perhaps best of all, prepared just for me.

   His fearless, no holds barred approach to cooking always reminds me of the rewards to be had when we venture outside of our comfort zone.

   One of the pitfalls of 'going vegan' is trying to replace familiar animal products with processed vegan alternatives. There is a vegan version for pretty much anything you can imagine- cheese, hot dogs, sour cream, ground meat. The list goes on. But just because it's vegan doesn't mean it's good for you- processed is processed. Whole foods are where it's at! This dish especially resonated with me because it doesn't rely on manufactured vegan ground 'meat' but rather a thoughtful combination of whole foods that resemble the richness and texture of a quality bolognese sauce. 

   Every component of this sauce is laden with goodies. Omega 3's from the walnuts, lycopene from the tomatoes, loads of mushroomy folate, plus loads of fiber and flavor.

   This recipe is just the thing when your brain is wrung dry and you've been on your feet for twelve hours. Step out of your pasta sauce comfort zone and maybe make it for your sweetie when they've had such a day- they'll worship you for it.

Pasta with Vegan Bolognese
Slightly adapted from Chloe's Kitchen

1 pound whole wheat spaghetti
1 cup walnuts
4 ounces crimini mushrooms, sliced
4 ounces shitake mushrooms, de-stemmed and sliced
1 15 ounce pinto or red kidney beans, rinsed, drained and allowed to dry (or pat them dry with towels)
1/2 white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 24 ounce jar marinara sauce
1/2 cup non dairy milk
1 tablespoon maple syrup or brown sugar
Chopped fresh basil, to finish

   Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the spaghetti according to directions on package. Drain and set aside.

   Meanwhile, prepare the sauce: pulse walnuts in a food processor until a fine meal forms (but not so much that you get a paste). Add mushrooms and pulse until mushrooms are finely chopped. Add beans, flour, basil, salt and pepper and pulse just until chunky and crumbly (do not over process).

   Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add in the mushroom/bean mixture, reduce heat to medium and cook, turning with a spatula, until it is evenly browned- 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in marinara sauce, soy milk and brown sugar or maple syrup. Heat through and serve over the prepared pasta, garnished with the fresh basil... extra basil if you love it as much as I do.

Serves 4 to 6.

Juice For Life

   I thought long and hard about a fantastic recipe for this year's Cinco de Mayo. This is a great weekend for rich drips, cheesy quesadillas and tacos of all different sorts as well as celebration in general. All good things, all things I love.

   But sometimes the 'ol stomach needs a break; every once in a while we need a 'pause' button when we've gone a little overboard with the dips and the chips. Enter the magnificent juice.

   I've never been much of a juice person; my mother essentially never bought juice when we were growing up. We equated store bought juices with soda- sugary, additive laden beverages that had no place in our daily lives.

   But recently I've discovered a new kind of juice: the home made vegetable variety. These elixirs are everything our bodies want and need not only on a daily basis, but especially when we've celebrated perhaps a bit too much. Unlike what you find in the store, home juicing ensures all the vital nutrients of the plant are kept intact- no added sugar, preservatives or destructive pasteurization allowed.

   Home vegetable juicing is nothing super new to me, my little brother has been doing it for years with a centrifugal juicer that my mom purchased when we were little. She intended the gift for my dad but he wasn't very interested; my brother on the other hand immediately developed a life long juice habit. He still has that ancient juicer and tells me his favorite recipe is based on red cabbage. That boy is going to live to be 100.

   For some reason I wasn't compelled to get on the juicing wagon until I read about it in Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Diet. I was so intrigued and talked about its benefits so much, my mom generously bought me a juicer (unlike my brother's, mine is a masticating slow juicer). Have I mentioned how awesome my mom is?

   As soon as that puppy arrived in the mail Steve and I haven't looked back. We juice at least 4 days a week, seven when we have time. Juicing extracts all the lovely minerals, vitamins and other micronutrients from vegetables and fruits and presses it away from the fibers and solid parts of the plants. It is incredibly easy to digest and basically equals a super easy on your gut explosion of veggie and fruit goodness for your skin, immune system and energy level.

   That said, it is totally possibly to make a disgusting juice. I've made a few that were so herbaceous and strong and just, well, so powerfully 'green' that I could handle only a few sips. But take heart: with a bit of experimentation (and a few sources of tried and true recipes) it's very easy to find a formula that works for your tastebuds. Kris Carr suggests a ratio of 3 : 1, veggies : fruit in juice and I find this works best for me as well.

   If you don't already have one, I highly suggest investing in a juicer. It amounts to an investment in your daily well being as well as your long term health. It just doesn't get much better than that.

   This juice is my most recent favorite.

My Morning Green Juice
Adapted from The Big Book of Juices 

1 large handful kale
1 large handful green lettuce
2 carrots
1 small ruby red grapefruit

   Wash the kale, lettuce and carrots. If you have a slow juicer, cut everything into 1 1/2 inch pieces. Cut away the skin from the grapefruit and slices out the wedges of fruit- as shown here. Juice everything and enjoy over ice.  Serves one.

Memories and Flavor

   We've all heard of the idea that every person has what is called an aura. The theory goes that our aura is sort of like our personality thumbprint; instead of being left behind on things we touch, it hangs around us like our own personal light source.

   I'm not a particularly mystical person- perhaps I have too scientific a mind for it- so I don't put a lot of stock into this sort of thing. But I do believe that people leave their own individual imprint when they come in and out of our lives. There are all different kinds of ways to interpret this imprint. Some of us associate it with a feeling or prominent memory; others may call it an aura.

   Personally, the important people in my life always bring images of different kinds of food when I think about them. Perhaps this is odd, but certainly no stranger than seeing auras.

    Snow peas make me think of Steve- probably because we ate so many of them when we first started dating. I prepared them in all different kinds of ways: fresh in salads, lightly blanched on top of grilled fish, sauteed and steamed. They were fantastic that year and we got every last tasty bite we could out of them. I will always remember these meals with great happiness and fondness; the plates hastily thrown together in his poorly outfitted bachelor's kitchen, ironically perfect and appealing.

   My sister conjures images of big, comforting bowls of minestrone soup. It was one of my go to recipes when we lived together in college and she loved it so much that the leftovers sometimes pulled her out of bed for a midnight snack! She is one of the most caring and nurturing souls I know; it feels highly appropriate that I associate a soup thick with fresh vegetables and beans with memories of her.

   Radishes always mean my dad. For whatever reason, my earliest food memory I have of my father is watching him take a bite out of a crisp, peppery radish- so impossibly bright white and red. He loved them and they never lasted long enough in our house to be anything other than a snack, snagged fresh from the fridge and eaten whole. To me they were impossibly sharp and spicy; I could never handle more than small nibbles of this potent root vegetable. Now, they are one of my favorite foods and I think of him every time I pull one of the stout bundles from the produce shelf.

   I think he would like this salad. I hope you do too.

Asparagus and Radish White Bean Salad

4 cans cannellini (white kidney) beans, drained and rinsed
2 1/2 cups fresh parsley leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bunch radishes, washed and thinly sliced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
4 ears fresh corn
1 large bunch asparagus, cut into 2 inch pieces
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup white wine vinegar

   Bring a medium sized pot of salted water to a boil.  
   While waiting for the water to boil, place 1 1/2 cups of the fresh parsley and the olive oil in a food processor. Process until smooth. Scrape this into a large mixing bowl.
   When the water boils, boil the corn until bright and tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from the water and allow to cool. Place the asparagus in the same boiling water until just crisp tender (just 1 to 2 minutes). Drain and immediately submerge in an ice bath to stop the cooking and keep the crispness and green color. Once cooled, drain.
   Cut the kernels from the cooled corn cobs with a very sharp knife. Coarsely chop the remaining parsley.
   Add the radishes, scallions, beans, corn kernels, asparagus, chopped parsley, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper to the bowl which contains the pureed parsley dressing. Drizzle the vinegar on top. Toss to coat evenly.
   Serves 8. I like this best the day I make it, but it also makes delicious lunch leftovers.
  
   

Only (Rice) Salad Will Do

   Making new habits is a true puzzle to me. On the one hand, habits are incredibly, alarmingly easy to make. Before you know it, you hit snooze exactly three times every morning (and are therefore always feeling ever so slightly rushed getting ready for work). Suddenly, rather than studying two hours a day you've whittled it down to a consistent single hour without even noticing.
  
   But on the other hand, there are habits that feel so hard, so painfully difficult to develop- like healthy habits. Getting rid of coffee, or just the creamer and sugar, is like a stake through the heart every. single. morning. It can seem nearly impossible to see the light.

   But, so they say, if you stick with it, the day will come when you've had your coffee with soy, no sugar, and you don't even think for a second about what your morning beverage used to be. Exactly when or how this happens is impossible to say. To me, this vagueness is precisely why forming new healthy habits can be such a herculean effort- no one can tell you how long you need to stick it out before it doesn't feel like sacrifice.

   So I prefer a different approach. I like to be a bit gentler with myself when it comes to making better or healthier lifestyle choices. Rather than view my choice as a black or white new rule to live by, I chose to see things on a more immediate level. Just because I've decided not to have coffee this morning, doesn't mean I can't tomorrow. I don't feel like having a hamburger this week, but maybe next week or next month I'll want one. You never know. Suddenly, it's no big deal.

    Once you accept the idea that nothing is off limits, the choices and opportunities to expand your life and health become endless. It's sort of like revealing the Wizard of Oz- if you refuse to believe that a doughnut is a sinful forbidden food, you've taken away its power over you.

   To me, the key to well rounded living is a series of small choices. It not only amounts to the choices we make to better ourselves, but also occasional decisions to be indulgent and to simply enjoy. This is how our plant based eating experiment began- a gentle, nothing is permanent exploration. Before we knew it, plants made up 99% of our meals and we've never felt better.

   The next time you're faced with a small decision, such as taking your lunch to work or risking the cafeteria, or cream versus soy milk in your coffee, give this a try. Before you know it, you'll be making hundreds of small decisions that add up to one big change in your health. And you eventually won't even notice that you're doing it... I promise.

   Maybe start with this salad. It's bright and fresh, crunchy and creamy. I think you'll like it.

Edamame and Cherry Tomato Forbidden Rice Salad
Inspired by Bon Appetit

1 cup forbidden rice (also called black rice or black Japanese rice)
1 3/4 cups vegetable broth
1 pound orange cherry tomatoes (or whichever color cherry tomato is fresh and available)
juice from 1 to 2 large lemons (about 3 tablespoons)
14 ounces frozen shelled edamame
8 ounces green beans, cut into 2 inch pieces
Kosher salt

   Rinse the rice thoroughly in a sieve. Place the rice in a small saucepan, add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a mere simmer and cook 40 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to sit with cover on for at least 10 minutes.
   Meanwhile, bring a medium sized pot of salted water to a boil. Boil the edamame for 4 to 5 minutes or until just crisp tender. Drain and run cold water over them until cooled. In the same pot of boiling water, boil the green beans until bright and just tender, about 2 minutes. Drain and immediately submerge in ice water to cool. Drain again.
   Slice the cherry tomatoes in half. Place them in the bottom of a large mixing bowl. Spoon the warm rice over the tomatoes. Squeeze the lemon juice over the rice. Add in the edamame, green beans and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Toss everything to incorporate evenly. Serve warm or chilled.
   Serves 6, or 2 with leftovers for lunches.

Passions and Berries

   Hello, weekend. I love you.

   I read a lovely article the other day about the difference between having passion in your life and being passionate about your 9 to 5 job. We are fortunate to be living during a time in which finding your true passion in life and following it to a fulfilling and successful career is advertised as an achievable and admirable goal. While I don't dispute this, I think the message can be a bit of a double edged sword.

   I very much believe that most passions- writing, cooking, helping others, etc- can be turned into lucrative careers. But I also don't think it is a terrible thing if you chose a job that doesn't necessarily speak to your heart and soul on a daily basis. There was a time in my life when I was torn between medical school and culinary school, two careers that in many ways are polar opposites. The intensely creative part of me craved the endless combinations and possibilities that the kitchen offered. On the other hand, I had the tools and the ambition to become a doctor. Some of my family members were of the opinion that if you have the ability to do such a thing, you should. But one of the questions I often ask myself, especially since that major fork in my life, is this: just because you can, does it mean you should? Sometimes the answer is no.

   In the end, I put away my applications to culinary school and bought my first stethoscope. Now that all is said and done, I'm actually really happy that I didn't try to make one of my favorite hobbies into a career. I have the luxury of coming home at the end of the day and unwinding in front of the stove. My cookbooks, recipes and feelings about nutrition and flavors are all my own and I don't have to worry about what the world or my customers think of them. My pots and knives are a sanctuary from the demands of making my way in this world and I really love that.

   Steve and I both often talk about what it means to find your true calling in life and how exactly one deals with the occasionally frustrating and mindless tasks most work environments require. I liked the way the article distills such a discussion down to the simple fact that it is perfectly okay if your job sometimes just isn't the bees knees. It's your job plus everything else, in balance and perspective, that matters.

   I have come to love the analytical nature of my work. In a weird way, it's as though it serves as a catalyst for the other more creative parts of my life. It is a true relationship of yin and yang and I'm glad I happened upon it.

    I don't bake very much anymore, but this weekend the itch for a solid, just-this-side-of-sweet breakfast muffin hit me. I have been trying to think of a good way to use the slightly past their prime strawberries from our CSA this week (strawberry season is drawing to a close here in the south) when I stumbled across a recipe for roasted strawberry muffins. Roasting the berries sounds odd but it not only helps bring out the liquid- thereby making it easier to bake with this high water content fruit- it also concentrates and deepens their flavor. It perked the berries up in exactly the way I was looking for.

   These muffins are sweet enough to please but not so much that it feels like dessert. The cornmeal and whole wheat flour lend a sturdiness to them that is really delightful. Each piece of strawberry is like a berry jam explosion in your mouth and the lemon makes it all bright and fun with a hint of tang.

Corny Lemon Strawberry Muffins
Adapted from Annie's Eats.

1 pound strawberries, hulled and quartered (if large, they may need to be cut into 8ths- make the pieces about 1/2 inch)
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup greek yogurt
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted
zest of 1/2 and organic lemon
Milk, if needed (almond or cow's)

   Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with a sheet of tinfoil. Spread the strawberries over the tinfoil and sprinkle with the 1 tablespoon sugar. Fold the tin foil up to create a little open topped 'basket' for the berries (this will prevent the juices from running all over the sheet) and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and place the now softened berries and their juices in a fine mesh sieve set over a bowl. Allow to drain and cool.
   Meanwhile, reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Line your muffin tins with cupcake liners (this makes either 16 regular sized muffins or 12 regular sized and 12 mini muffins). In a medium sized bowl, sift the flours, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder together. In another larger bowl, whisk together the yogurt, eggs and vanilla extract until smooth. Whisk in butter and lemon zest. Whisk in 1/3 cup drained juice from the strawberries (if you don't have enough juice, add in milk to make up the difference). Fold in dry ingredients until just incorporated. Fold in berries.
   Fill muffins tins nearly to the tops of the liners. Bake the mini muffins for 15 minutes and the regular sized muffins for 25 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks.
   Makes 16 regular muffins or 12 regular and 12 mini muffins.

Finding Our Food Identity

   There are more diets out there than you can throw a stone at. It can be very confusing and even more frustrating if you're trying to find your way to healthier living, lose weight or simply feel better.

   For me, any changes in diet or lifestyle that I've undertaken have fallen into the last category. Most of the time I'm happy with how I look and I feel as though I've fortunately never had what I would categorize as very unhealthy habits. But who doesn't want to feel just a touch more energetic, clear minded or peaceful? My mission as far as personal eating habits go have always been to feel my absolute best and also to know in my soul that I've done the best I can to make sure I spend as many active, healthy years on this planet as possible. I love life and I don't want to give up a single day if I can help it.

   Perhaps because I approach eating and exercising this way, I've never labeled my eating habits in any particular way. Steve and I have been eating a mostly vegan diet for several months now, but we are by no means 100% vegan. Although he tried giving them up for a while, Steve feels his best and most energetic when he has eggs for breakfast several times a week. Sometimes when we eat out, the local fish call my name and I don't feel that one serving of fish every week or two is going to harm me or the planet in any irreparable way- so I go for it.

   Mark Bittman, one of my all time favorite food writers, is publishing a book called VB6 which is his abbreviation for Vegan Before 6. He has adopted a vegan diet before 6 o'clock, or the dinner hour, for the past several years and was very pleased with his weight loss and overall boost in well being. I was very excited to hear that a well known name in the food writing world has happened upon this formula because it is essentially exactly what Steve and I have discovered and adopted. I personally don't feel compelled to eat animal products on a daily basis as Mr. Bittman does; I prefer to reserve animal sources of food for a single meal per week or less. But I think his general message is valuable and I deeply believe everyone can stand to incorporate more fruits and veggies in their diet; the weekly or daily ratio is up to each person individually.

   I can't emphasize the power of experimenting with vegan and whole foods enough. One of the most frustrating things for me, especially as someone in the health care industry, are the abundance of 'quick fixes' and temporary solutions available to people who are confused or dissatisfied with their health or weight. Throwing pills, synthetic concoctions and surgery at the problem is absolutely not the solution.

     Because, and I say this with conviction, it works. Steve and I both feel better today- more energy, clear mindedness and endurance- than we ever have. For those interested in weight loss, Steve definitely didn't complain when he suddenly realized he once again weighed what he did in his lean late teenage years. For me, I was already satisfied with my weight and more interested in the other benefits- like clearer skin and more stamina during my long work days. No matter your goal, there is something in this for everyone.

   The power to feel better inside and out is found in your kitchen and the produce aisle of your grocery store- not in a bottle or on a surgeons table.

   "Let food be thy medicine." -Hippocrates.

   This is a very popular quote, but I think it bears repeating because I find it to be so simple and yet profound. Perhaps our medical education and the reimbursement structure of healthcare hasn't caught up to this ancient belief, but I believe it will one day. And I hope by then most of us will already be ahead of the curve, healing our bodies one meal at a time.

   Today's medicine comes in the form of the humble legume. Nutrient and energy dense, beans of all types are one of my go to components when building a meal. Chickpeas inhabit a dear place in my heart as they are the first bean I remember eating as a child. Even at four years old, I knew chicken soup wasn't complete without them, partly because it made phonetic sense to my child's mind, and partly because I liked them better than the chicken! Thankfully, I had a mom who knew the power of the bean, and always accommodated my request for a can or two to be added to the pot.

Spicy Roasted Chickpeas
Inspired by Choosing Raw

   After their stay in the oven these chickpeas become a rich russet brown and adopt a slightly crunchy texture. The roasting deepens their flavor- it almost remind me of spicy roasted peanuts. We enjoyed them as a complete meal, sprinkled over my favorite salad base, which I added thinly sliced raw kale to.

2 cans chickpeas, drained and well rinsed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 scallions, thinly sliced

   Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with tinfoil. Line a shallow bowl with paper towels and roll your chickpeas around in the towels until they are quite dry. Pour them into the tinfoil lined baking sheet. Drizzle over the olive oil and the spices. Roll around with your hands or a spatula until the chickpeas are evenly coated with the spices.
   Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Pull the sheet out, use your spatula to move the chickpeas around a bit. Sprinkle the thinly sliced scallions on top. Place back in the oven for another 15 minutes.
   Serve warm over your favorite salad or allow to cool and package up for a convenient snack.

On Meditation and New Life

   Steve and I recently got back from a much needed long weekend away from work and home. We dropped the dog off at her favorite doggy camp (she dislikes the word 'kennel') and hit the road to the more mountainous region of western North Carolina, a town called Asheville. Let's just say the beautiful landscape, fresh mountain air, delightful local micro brews and out of this world Indian food can expect to see us again, very soon.

   Taking time away from work always gives me a physical and mental energy boost. I suddenly feel inspired to complete projects, start new creative endeavors and my yoga practice is infused with new life. Many people, and I think especially people in medicine, can lose track of the importance of unplugging every once in a while. Leave the cell phones, iPads and lap tops behind and allow yourself time to focus on the things that really matter to you. It's amazing what we end up pondering or discussing when we don't have a news article distracting us every other 5 seconds. For me, these kinds of weekends (or longer if you can!) feel like one long stretch of meditation. The quiet and sense of calm achieved is practically narcotic.

    Meanwhile, here in the south, late winter's chilly breath has reached us once again. It seems almost fortuitous, seeing as I had a grocery bag filled with leftover root vegetables that needed to be used. I came up with this hearty quinoa dish that was so colorful and tasty we made it two nights in a row! Roasting brings out the peppery bite of the turnips and the deep caramelization that develops on the carrots is like candy- only better tasting and prettier. The confetti like nature of this meal seems fitting seeing as one of my closest friends had her first baby over the weekend...! It seems impossible to me that we've reached an age where bringing new life into the world is on the menu, but here we are. I couldn't be happier or more in awe of her and the beautiful family she's created. As we shed these last few days of light jackets and cozy winter blankets, celebrating new life in every way, I hope this dish graces your dinner table.

Quinoa with Swiss Chard and Roasted Root Vegetables

2 large turnips, scrubbed clean
6 carrots
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 3/4 cup plus 1/2 cup vegetable broth
1 teaspoon dried parsley
Turmeric
1 bunch rainbow swiss chard, thoroughly rinsed
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups spinach

   Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with tin foil. Cut the carrots and turnips into 1 inch chunks, spread them on the lined baking sheet and toss with the olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Bake for 40 - 45 minutes until very soft and caramelized.
   Meanwhile, prepare the quinoa (make sure you rinse it well in a fine mesh sieve to remove any silt). Place quinoa in a small saucepan and stir in 1 3/4 cups veggie broth, the parsley, several dashes (no more than 1/4 teaspoon) turmeric and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, reuce to a bare simmer, cover and allow to simmer for 15 minutes. Without taking the cover off, turn the heat off. Let it sit, covered, while you prepare the rest of the dish.
   When there is 15 minutes to go on the turnips and carrots, trim and discard the dried ends of the rainbow swiss chard.  Slice the chard into 1/2 inch ribbons, including the stalks. In a saute pan, bring 1/2 cup veggie broth and the minced garlic to a simmer. Add the swiss chard and cook, tossing occasionally, until just tender and wilted. Turn heat off.
   Place spinach in the bottom of a large mixing bowl. Scoop the hot quinoa on top of the spinach. Add the swiss chard, turnips and carrots and toss everything together, allowing the hot components to lightly wilt the spinach. Taste, add additional salt if desired.
   Serves 4.