Let me know if you read my blog. I'd love to hear from you (emilie.v.parker@gmail.com). My wonderful friend Barbra who is a health writer encouraged me to write about my project to keep from getting diabetes. Douglass has pre-diabetes. I do all the cooking for both of us so I might as well have it too but I don't.
In case you've been following my blogging about the lentil sprouts I started a couple of day ago I wanted to let you know progress. The lentils are done sprouting and they are in the fridge. We eat them raw and they are fabulous as finger food and in salads. The taste is so rich and peppery.
I'm sprouting brown rice and it soaked overnight and it's been sitting on the counter growing all day. I can just barely see the sprout tips starting on the rice. I also started sprouting some sunflower seeds. Soaked them this morning and drained them this evening but there is no sign of the sprouts yet. They are just sitting now rinsed and drained on the counter. Regular raw shelled sunflower seeds will sprout. What an incredible deal they are. I buy em for $1.79 sometimes on sale.
Today our eating was not good and very little exercise. I think this is the kind of day that leads to pre-diabetes. We had "zippy breakfast" for breakfast. That's the only healthy thing about our eating today. The bad news is we had pizza and beer for a birthday lunch for our wonderful friend Sandy and pizza and beer again for a dinner outing with our 4year old twins and daughter, Alicia at a farm share organic farm. It was a wild and wonderful day. It ended with Alicia and the kids coming over to spend the night but the kids COULD NOT go to sleep. At 9:30 after stories, drinks of water, more drinks of milk, 10 trips to the bathroom we decided they would NEVER go to sleep and they got up and went home and I sat down to blog. I feel better.
I'm so enthusiastic about Zippy Breakfast. It's a regular event in our house. It is sprouted or regular whole grain cooked and topped with chopped tomatoes, avocados and The Spice Hunter's Zippy seasoning. This is one of Shelly Young's recipe's from the Ph Miracle Diet book. I did actually go to the trouble of ordering the Zippy seasoning online and waiting for it to come before trying this recipe.
Zippy Breakfast:
I make it a little different every time I make it. Shelly said she does it different every day too. Today I steamed vegetables and sprouts for 5 minutes instead of the chopped tomatoes in Shelly's recipe. I tossed the steamed veggies in olive oil, flax seed oil, Braggs*, and salt and pepper. That goes on top of the brown rice on each plate. Today our veggies were nappa cabbage, sprouted mung beans, and chopped parsley. On top of the veggies put some guacamole made from one avocado mashed with the juice of 1/2 small lime or 1/4 small lemon, 1/4 t. garlic powder, salt, pepper. Then shake a lot of Zippy or Old Bay seasoning on top. That is a really yummy, filling and healthy breakfast. If you don't just love this add more Braggs, olive oil and salt and pepper. The amount of grain should only be 1/5 of the dish so use a lot of the veggies. I tend to use more than 1/5th but I try to shoot for 1/5th.
Since it is Saturday I had a little extra time this morning to cook breakfast so we had some scrambled tofu with our zippy breakfast. Scrambled tofu is a recipe everyone should try about a dozen times. The first time I tried it I thought it was good but Douglass LOVED IT so I kept making it because it's so healthy. Now that I've made it a hundred times I just crave it and relish every bite of it. I've made it for my daughters and our 4 year old twins and my daughter's love it but the kids (age 4) don't eat it so far but I have high hopes that they too will like it.
Scrambled Tofu
Steam Fry about 1/8th of a large onion sliced then add the crushed firm tofu. Steam frying is just like frying but use water or broth instead of oil. It's healthier to add the oil later. To steam fry use the non stick skillet and put the onions in it with 1/4 cup water (just estimate it and add more if it dries too soon) and when the water simmers, steam fry them till the water is almost gone (about 1 or 2 minutes) then add the tofu. Use about 1 inch of a block of firm tofu for 2 people. Squeeze the tofu into the skillet so it breaks into crumbles. Stir it up for a little bit till it gets hot then turn off the heat and add olive oil, flax seed oil, salt, pepper and Braggs. This is cool because you get the richness in flavor that oil provides but it's not heated to a very high temperature...just warmed with the heat left over from steaming the tofu. Non heated oils are better for you. It's warmed but not taken to a really hot temperature. Don't try to limit good oils like olive and flax in your diet.
If tofu is a new ingredient to you remember to always pour out the water from the tofu you don't use and replace it with fresh water to cover the tofu. Do this every day or two and it will keep for a week or two in the refrigerator.
I use Braggs in so much of the raw food I make. It's an incredible seasoning. Use it to add flavor. I feel like it's the magic ingredient in the healthiest food I make. It looks like soy sauce. It's similar but it's not fermented and the flavor is even better. Most super markets have it and all whole food stores have it.
No comments:
Post a Comment