Portobello Salad

I've been slacking on meal prep duties so I had to grab lunch on the go today. Luckily, there is a pretty sweet salad bar at work. The salad pictured above is made up of a mesclun mix as the base with cucumbers, carrots, green peppers, broccoli, red beans, peas and - the piece de resistance - a marinated & grilled portobello mushroom cap. The mushroom is marinated in what seems to be shallots and garlic (and i'm guessing some olive oil too?) and it is dee-vine. Everything is topped with some nonfat balsamic vinaigrette too. Hello salad food coma.

Berry Smoothie

I have a killer sweet tooth. I could eat a cupcake everyday if I let myself (the chocolate vegan cupcakes from down the road at Kickass Cupcakes hold a very special place in my heart). However, I would be large and in charge if I allowed myself to do this, so I am always looking for alternative ways to get my sweet fix. Now that it is warm out I am all about smoothies. So fast and adaptable to any palate.

Ingredients:

1 bag or 2.5 cups of mixed frozen berries (unsweetened)

1 ripe banana

1 cup milk - could be from cows, almonds, coconuts, soy - whatever floats your boat!

1/2 cup water

Optional: tablespoon flaxseed or chia seed for extra health boost

1. Put in blender and blend until smooth. Can't mess that up. :)

Makes 2 large servings.

Tempeh Lettuce Wraps

When I am in the mood for something "meaty" I like to incorporate tempeh into my meal plan. I use Lightlife Organic Three Grain tempeh, which is made up of soybeans, brown rice, barley, and millet. Simple and delicious. Love the nutty flavor and the texture it has. Since the tempeh is dense and filling, I like to pair it with light veggies. In this case, I made lettuce wraps.

Ingredients:

1 package of tempeh, chopped into cubes

2 carrots, shredded (I used a vegetable peeler to make shavings)

1 head of lettuce of choice (something that will bend a little and be good wrappers for the filling)

Marinade:

1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce

1/2 water

3 teaspoons honey

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger

2-3 garlic cloves, depending on size and preference, diced

2 teaspoons cornstarch, dissolved in 1/2 cup water

1. Combine all marinade ingredients together except cornstarch mixture in a small sauce pan and start to heat

2. Once heated, add in cornstarch mixture to thicken the sauce. If it gets too thick, just add more water. If not thick enough, make more cornstarch/water mix and add to sauce. It's not an exact science and you have some room to play here. Don't sweat it - just depends on how thick you like your marinade.

3. When you get a consistency that you like for the sauce, let cool slightly. Then add enough sauce to cover tempeh fully in a bowl, cover and refrigerate for an hour or more. I let mine marinade for 24 hrs and the flavor was fully infused.

*I had extra sauce which I saved for another day in a air-tight container in the fridge. If you don't want extra sauce, you can reduce the amounts above.

4. After the marinade period is up, stir-fry tempeh on medium-high heat until fully heated.

Assemble wraps and dive on in.

Hands in the dirt

Garden update! Everything is growing so big that we had to do some rearranging yesterday. The yellow squash plants were taking over and covering the neighboring onions and carrots. We had to swap the cauliflowers and beets with the squash plants so everything had a bit more breathing room. I guess we should have listened to the planting instructions after all. Lesson learned. We had one causality (the mini squash pictured above). RIP mini squash. We also learned that we should have been eating the arugula all this time. I guess once the plant starts to flower, it is nearing the end of its season (getting too hot in herrre for it). Hopefully we can still get a salad out of it!

Mediterranean Quinoa

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is a delicious, easy way to add protein to the diet (it's protein content is very high - 12-18%). According to Wikipedia, it is a "grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a member of the grass family. As a chenopod, quinoa is closely related to species such as beets, spinach, and tumbleweeds." I use it instead of pasta and rice in lots of dishes, but here is a dinner that frequents the Woodsasana household.

Ingredients:

1/2 large red onion , diced

2 garlic cloves, diced

1 large zucchini, diced

1 tomato (I used vine ripened here), diced

6-8 white mushroom caps, stalks removed and caps sliced

1 can chickpeas, rinsed to get excess salt off (I usually buy low sodium and still rinse)

1 cup quinoa, cooked according to package

extra virgin olive oil

1-2 tbsp dried oregano

1. Sautee onion and garlic in extra virgin olive oil

2. Add in mushrooms, allow for them to soften and turn slightly brown

3. Add in zucchini and cook for a few minutes then add in tomatoes, continue to cook until zucchini is softened but still has some bite to it

4. Stir in chickpeas and heat through

5. Add in oregano, salt & pepper to taste

6. Once all the veggies are cooked, stir in cooked quinoa

Dish it and eat it!

Asian Edamame Stir-fry

My wok is my best friend in the kitchen. I cook with it all the time, even when I'm not making stir-fries (shh, don't tell. I feel like that's gotta be illegal in the culinary world). I like the size of it and how it cooks all the veggies evenly. One easy dish I made the other night was an Asian Edamame Stir-fry. I don't measure amounts of ingredients when I cook so I'll do my best to explain what I did. I cook for 2 people with hearty appetites (me and the bf) and we sometimes have leftovers for lunch.

Ingredients:

1/2 large red onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, diced

1.5 - 2 cups edamame

3 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 head of broccoli

couple handfuls of fresh baby spinach

rice vinegar

toasted sesame oil

low sodium soy sauce (you can sub in Bragg's liquid aminos or tamari if you are gluten-free)

Pam spray or cooking oil (vegetable or extra virgin olive oil) - whatever you sautee veggies in normally or what you have on hand

1. Heated up wok with Pam or oil on medium to high heat. Add in onions and garlic and sautee for a few minutes until softened and onions start to become translucent. Keep an eye on it to make sure the garlic doesn't burn - stir occasionally.

2. Add in carrots and broccoli and cook until starting to soften.

3. Add a dash of soy, sesame oil, and rice vinegar. I usually go once or twice around the pan with the soy and rice vinegar. The sesame oil is added in a smaller amount - usually a drizzle since it is powerful in flavor.

4. Lastly, add in spinach and cook until wilted down.

Enjoy!

Day 12 - The Garden Project

DAY 12 - May 21, 2011

My yoga for the day was one of service (and manual labor). We tackled the back garden and planted tomatoes, carrots (from seed), red onions, zucchini, yellow straightneck squash, cauliflower, beets, arugula, sweet peas, cucumbers and saved a thyme bush. Seed potatoes are also drying out and prepping for there home in the earth. I'm already dreaming of all the tasty meals that will be made from our homegrown veg.

Whether you have a green thumb or not, I think it is important to be aware of where your food is coming from. I am all about buying organic, local and sustainable food when possible. Check out what this means here: http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/eatlocal/#what.

Happy noshing.

Day 12 overall: As a former geologist, I felt right at home in the dirt. Pleased with all of our hardwork and eager to see what comes out of it. Since I spent all day with my hands in the ground, I guess this means I will have to double up yoga classes sometime before the 30 days is over!