What a Healthy Family Eats

A Review of the Hello Fresh Vegetarian Box and GIVEAWAY!

2016-10-18T14:36:00.003-04:00

First off, I want to make it known that I paid for this box, so this review is not biased from receiving free product. I did find a $40 off coupon which brought my total for 3 meals for a family of 4 to $69. Not a bad price to pay to try out the service!

These meal services seem to be all the rage and there are several companies out there besides Hello Fresh. There is also Blue Apron, Green Chef and Home Chef...and probably several more. But the question is, are they worth it? The meals, when broken down with shipping, cost about the same as it would to dine at a restaurant, but not as inexpensive as say Thai or Mexican takeout. Does it save time? Maybe. I'd have to try it out for a month to tell you that. Does it inspire creativity and the interest of trying new foods. It depends. It may be just as easy to surf the internet for new recipes. Is it exciting to get a box of super fresh food with recipes at your door every week? I think so!

I placed the order on a Monday morning and was able to receive the box by Saturday morning. I think I ordered after the time window where you can select exactly what meals you want in the box, so we ended up with the the following meals: One Pan Ravioli Gratin, Crispy Chickpea and Roasted Cauliflower Salad, and Black Bean and Farro Salad.

While the produce was not organic, it was super fresh and free of preservatives. The packaging we received the meals in was all recyclable except for the gel ice packs and the padding inside the box. The gel ice packs were not even reusable because they started to leak after they sat out overnight. But I was happy with the overall quality and the way the meals were separated out into individual boxes so that I didn't need to spend time hunting through the box to match the ingredients up with each recipe.

Just a heads up to anyone who is thinking about ordering the Vegetarian Box, with foods like Farro and Quinoa, it's definitely not the right "intro to vegetarian eating" for newcomers. Especially kids. So if your family is not already eating "clean" or "health nut" style, or if you normally include animal products in your diets, you might want to instead order the "Standard Plan".

The first meal we decided to cook was the Ravioli Gratin. This meal is not one for the kids to prepare themselves. Lots of time spent at the stove and putting the food in a hot oven. And the final result for us was that I dropped the entire pan onto the oven door because my hand slipped and touched the pan handle as I was pulling it out from under the 450 degree broiler. Holy ouch! And what a freaking mess. Luckily I had recently cleaned my oven so I had no shame in scooping the food off the oven door and serving it. I should have taken a picture of the mess but I immediately went into clean up mode. Food was also on the floor and the cabinets...it was one of those prize messes. Kind of like the time I turned the blender on high without the lid on. That happened a long time ago but I still remember the mess. Oh yeah.

This is how the Gratin looked after I scooped it off the oven door.... it was good. Just not very "pretty".

The second meal was the Black Bean Farro Salad. It was not a main course sort of meal. It was more of what I would serve at a picnic as a side salad. Just not very filling at all. But it was easy for the kids to prepare!

A half eaten messy looking plate of Farro...I'm such an awesome food photographer.

The third meal was the Quinoa. The kids and I enjoyed this dish, my husband who doesn't really like quinoa did not like it. He ate a bowl but no seconds. That's how I know when he doesn't like what I cook.

Also not a very appealing photo. Sorry, I just didn't want to put in the effort to make it look good. It did taste good though.

And that's it! Now for the giveaway. Who wants a FREE Box of Hello Fresh meals?! I'm giving away two of them. Comment under this post if you want to be entered. Two entries given to those who also comment on the FaceBook page. I'll do the drawing on Friday, 10/21/2016.

Vitamin C and other therapies for Pneumonia

2015-10-19T21:14:00.000-04:00

In May of this year, my 10 year old daughter came down with a really bad virus...right before her birthday. It started with vomiting and coughing and led to a high fever of 103. It went away within 3 days but then came back again exactly 7 days later. But the second time around, I feared pneumonia was coming on. (She had pneumonia when she was a toddler, so the symptoms were all looking familiar). Her cough was heavy and full of mucus, and she was very lethargic and listless from the high fever. She started to feel sick on a Saturday afternoon, so I had to make it through two days until I could get her in to see her doctor. I did not want to make a trip to the Urgent Care clinic unless it was absolutely necessary.

These are the things we did to help her body recover completely:

1. Intensive doses of Vitamin C. I only had access to oral vitamin C, and I could only get my daughter to take 2,000mg at a time, 3 times a day. I used the Trader Joe's Brand Vitamin C Gummies and Chewables. It's best to use non-GMO or Organic brands. The gummies are probably better for smaller kids to handle in their mouth. If you are not familiar with why our bodies need Vitamin C, you can listen to this lecture by Suzanne Humphreys.

You can also read this article from Green Med Info titled "Research Proving Vitamin C's Therapuetic Value in 200+ Diseases".

Within 48 hours of my daughter taking increased doses of Vitamin C, the fever had broken and her temperature came down to 99. The very next day at the doctor's office, her oxygen levels tested normal and her lungs sounded completely clear through the stethoscope.

2. Steam breathing treatments with a MyPurMist handheld steam inhaler. These really are so much better than a nebulizer. For one, it is almost silent. The nebulizer we had was extremely loud. You can adjust the temperature on the MyPurMist to make the mist warmer. We had my daughter use it every 4 hours during the day and it helped to make her cough more productive. It has an automatic cleaning cycle, so after it is used it is completely sanitary for another family member to use.

3. "Back Tapping". Directly after using the steam inhaler, we did "Back Tapping" to loosen up the mucus in her lungs. I would have her lay on a reclining chair with her arms crossed over her chest and her head and chest at an angle lower than the rest of her body. As I tapped her back with my hands cupped she would cough mucus up into a bowl. I know...that sounds yummy!

4. Lots of fluids with electrolytes. Coconut water is the best fluid for hydration! Make sure you check the label that you are getting 100% pure coconut water and not "flavored" water. Some brands add flavoring, and then you have to wonder what is hidden in the flavoring.

5. Sea salt inhaler. You can buy a sea salt inhaler or make your own. Basically you want to have large crystals of pink Himalayan sea salt, so that when you breathe in the air above the salt, you don't inhale salt granules. You can put the salt in a small jar and put your mouth over the opening of the jar and take a deep inhale, then exhale from your nose. The salt is cleansing for the lungs. It helps to speed up recovery of congestion and improve breathing.

Prevention

We continue to give my daughter 500-1,000 mg of vitamin C per day for preventative purposes along with Juice Plus. Of course, we also make sure she is consuming plenty of fruits and vegetables. I now feel more confident that if she gets sick again, we have an established plan in place to get her to recover quickly. I hope this helps anyone who finds themselves in a situation where they cannot get in to see a doctor right away. You cannot give too much Vitamin C to a child or adult. It is a water soluble Vitamin and their body will excrete whatever they can't use. It's better to give too much than not enough, especially during an acute illness.

Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Become a Veggiecator Educator!

2015-06-04T01:46:00.003-04:00

About a month ago I ran across some videos on YouTube by Veggiecation. I found it interesting that the classes being taught in the videos were similar to what I used to teach when I was teaching nutrition classes for kids. Anyway, they are trying to build their network of teachers and are offering a training workshop every month to certify new teachers. You get a kit of supplies, posters, recipes, basically every thing you need to run a class on healthy eating for kids.

You can get 10% off this month by using this code: TastyLife2015 and going to the website at veggiecation.com. The workshop is actually tomorrow starting at 7:30pm, but if you are reading this after the start of the workshop you can email them and let them know you saw the discount on my blog and see if they will give it to you for the next training!

Naked Cafe in Solana Beach offers cute kids breakfast

2015-04-20T18:54:00.002-04:00

Since moving here almost 2 years ago I haven't done much with restaurant reviews. We've been to the The Naked Cafe in Solana Beach a couple of times. It sits directly across from Fletcher's Cove Park on the beach, so you can see the ocean from every seat in the restaurant. It's also very affordable and the wait has never been more than 15 minutes, making it the ideal place for a family of 4 to have brunch on the weekend :-)

My kids first response when they heard the words "Naked Cafe" was "do we have to be naked to eat there"? Ummm, no! Naked in this case means they are using fresh, mostly organic ingredients, no preservatives, and cooking most things from scratch.

Besides these cute little bear face pancakes, they offer a wide variety of healthy breakfast options with eggs and veggies, salads, a rice bowl, fresh baked bread, and a variety of herbal teas and coffees. I shared a large fruit plate with a friend and my husband had a breakfast burrito. This is my kind of restaurant. It's not too far to the super health nut side. It's in that comfortable place where we can all find something to eat and not be hungry afterwards.

If you ever find yourself in San Diego, I highly recommend it!

Healthy Eating Hacks: Mason Jar Base Salads

2015-04-06T15:54:00.001-04:00

We all need a hack when it comes to healthy eating, right? Welcome to "Salads in a Jar", if you've never seen them before. It's not a new concept, just Google the term or go on Pinterest. Lots of ideas exist on how to fill these jars!

Though the idea seems very basic, it's actually super helpful and time saving. A lot of times when I buy stuff for salads I end up not using half of it because I have excuses for why I don't want chop it up. I also tend to ignore stuff stored in plastic containers. These beautiful mason jars filled with colorful salads cannot be ignored! I started using these jars a couple of years ago for a raw food swap a friend started, and then got them back out again this year. Now I'm wondering why I stopped using them for salads and put all of my dry goods like rice, oats, etc. in them...

You can find a set of 32oz Bell Mason Jars at your local hardware store or grocery store or Amazon.com.

How to make your own "Base Salad":

Base salad meaning it serves as a base that you can add to and change up every day so that you are not eating the exact same salad every day...so that you don't start to feel like a cat or dog or someone on a special diet ;-) You can do these for the whole week if you want to. Depending on what you put in them, they should stay fresh...however 7 jars will take up a chunk of space in your refrigerator. That's why I only prep 3 at a time.

Pick a type of green. Maybe you prefer mixed greens or spinach over my choice of romaine. For three salads you need one bag of 3 Romaine Hearts, one bag of 10 to 12oz lettuce, or 2 big heads of Romaine from your garden
Pick a type of slaw. I like pre packed broccoli slaw from Trader Joe's. You could also make your own slaw with purple cabbage, green cabbage, carrots, or whatever...but that requires chopping ;-)
Pick a nut or seed or both...I like Walnuts and Hemp Seeds.
Chose a dressing. You can make your own or choose one with fewer ingredients and with olive oil instead of Canola. I like Tessemae's Green Goddess Dressing!
Pick an assortment of fruits or veggies like bell peppers, cucumbers, avocado, tangerines, apples, etc. to customize your salads.
Schedule 5 minutes on Sunday to make your salad jars for Monday-Wednesday. Then prep another 3 on Wednesday night for the rest of the week. Use my photo as a guide to layering the salads.
Pair the salads with soup if the salad will not be enough food for you. I often use Trader Joe's Lentil and Minestrone soups in their prepared foods isle near the produce section.

And that's it! Have fun!!

FREE viewing of the movie "Bought: The TRUTH about Vaccines, Big Pharma and Your Food"

2015-02-20T14:28:00.001-05:00

"Bought" is a documentary by Jeff Hayes. He had no opinion on the debate over vaccines, pharmacuetical drugs or GMO's before he started investigative work for the movie. After finishing the film, he has a definite opinion on all of these topics.

I urge everyone to watch this documentary whether you have kids or not. This information will never be taught in our public schools, it will never be reported on in the mainstream media because there is so much corruption to be exposed by these corporate entities that control the system. It is clear that PROFITS are more important than the safety or health of the American people.

To date there are no studies of safety or efficacy over the current vaccination schedule. There are no studies of safety in the use of GMO seeds. Most of the drugs that big pharma puts out in the market do not have proper clinical trials and even the Guardisil vaccine was rushed through FDA approval without proper clinical trials, causing major damage and killing innocent girls.

Watch the movie, do your research outside of studies funded by Big Pharma and Monsanto, and make the changes you see fit for your family.

This movie is only free to watch for the next 13 days so please make time for it!

Here is the link: http://www.boughtmovie.net/free-viewing/

The Hijacking of My Grocery Bag Container Garden

2014-06-28T15:13:00.001-04:00

Rember my post about the grocery bag container garden? Well it's gone. And there he is. The man who hijacked MY container garden 6 weeks back. Pulled every single one of my plants out of the cloth grocery bags and then planted them directly into the ground in our backyard without discussing it with me. How dare he! He's a very, very bad man (imagine that being said in a thick Indian accent) :-)

Yes, I reminded him *again* about how we know nothing about the soil back there. For all we know the previous gardener sprayed Round Up and who knows what. So what did he do? He went and bought garden soil. The only kind he knows, which is Miracle Gro, in the non organic version. He must have talked to someone who knows something about soil, because he also got chicken poop. And does it look like enough for the huge area we are growing in? Of course not. OMG. Indian dude flexing his macho gardening muscle. I don't mind that he wants to do the gardening. I just don't like the way he does it!

And here is how the garden looks today. These are zucchini squash plants. We have harvested 3 large zuchini.

Tomato plants, I think only the grape variety...

Beets and rutabagas pulled out today!

I guess the good thing about moving the plants to this space is that we now have more space to garden....and if we move from this house, the next renters will have a nice bounty of fresh food. It's all good. Now we just need to build a fence around it so the dog will stop using it as his bathroom :-/

WAHFE travels again to North India- Part 1

2014-04-20T17:57:00.002-04:00

As I mentioned in my last post, we were in North India for almost a month, and wow, it's been over a month already since we returned! So here I am, determined to get this overdue post completed. I'm going to break it down into 3 separate posts because there are sooo many photos. "Part 1", is about our time in Roorkee. Part 2 will be Dehradun, and part 3 will be Delhi.

The above photo was taken behind the high school Vineet graduated from 30 years ago! He only spoke Hindi at that time because his curriculum was completely in Hindi and of course that was his only language at home. He was a fierce competitor in mathematics, which brought him to study in the US and complete a second Master's degree, a PhD, and an MBA. And he has since rocked the computer graphics industry. But enough about him!

When we visit India it's generally not a sightseeing trip. We go to visit family, and if there is time, we try to squeeze in a day or two of sights or see something new locally. It's a 22 hour flight and a 13 hour time difference, so we are generally exhausted the first week we arrive. We spend much of our time that first week sleeping during the day and wide awake in the wee hours of the morning. It's painful. You'd think after 6 trips I would have figured out how we can adjust quicker. But there's just no easy way.

This trip was important because it is likely the last trip we will be visiting my in-laws in their home in Roorkee. While we were there we had things set up for them to have help with cooking, shopping, cleaning and night time care for my father in law who gets up frequently. However, just one week back there was an incident in their home that I'm not going to explain here other than to say that it was traumatic and scary. So, they have temporarily moved to my sister-in-law's place in Dehradun.

This is the street my in-laws live on in Roorkee. Their home is the one with the light green walls and black gate to the left.

The picture above is a very typical scene from our journey between Delhi and Roorkee.

Now that my inlaws are aging to the point it's difficult for them to shop at the market, they have been relying heavily on the subjeewalla, or vegetable cart guy. It's so convenient!

These are my MIL's handmade noodles in a dish she calls "jave", pronounced jaw-vay. She always sends a huge bag back home with us. It's pure love in a bag because she rolls these noodles individually with her hands!

This is "bhang", or what we call Cannabis. It grows freely on the outside of Roorkee University. You won't find it inside the campus, but a short walk outside the main gates and there you have a forest of it. During our stay in Roorkee there was the festival of Shivaratri where everyone worships lord Shiva, god of cosmic destruction and dance. Bhang is a big part of this celebration because consuming it is supposed to help bring one closer to god. No, we didn't smoke it. I'm sure you are wondering. However, my MIL made Bhang Pakoras, which were batter dipped and fried cannabis. I didn't partake in it, but Vineet did. He said he didn't feel buzzed afterwards, just tired and hungry.

Here's what bhang looks like in the temple. Oh mighty Shiva...and bhang.

This is an Indian Coffee Pot. In India, the only coffee you will drink is instant coffee made in a pot on a gas stove with mostly milk. If you are addicted to Starbucks, I guess you will not enjoy your time here.

There are men who ride around on their bike and just sell specific kinds of fruit like Papaya. This is the "Pepitawalli". He will cut open the fruit and allow you to sample a taste before paying. He carries a scale to measure the weight of the fruit.

Having a typical North Indian lunch of "subji" (curried vegetable), rice, and chapati. We look forward to this food but then quickly tire of eating it after 10 days into our trip. We love Indian food...just not every day.

Vineet likes helping his mom in the kitchen. You'll never see this at our house because we don't make chapatis. If we had a gas stove, I might try to make them every once in awhile. They are messy to make because when you slap the excess flour off before throwing them on the stove, the flour goes all over the kitchen. Really.

Next up, our trip to Dehradun!

Feed Zone Portables, A Book Review

2014-02-22T22:55:00.001-05:00

Back in November I was looking through Competitor magazine and came accross a full page ad picturing these shiny little foil packets of food. Immediately I thought- "genius idea"! I've never loved using energy gels before during or after my runs. Many times I have ended up with an upset stomach, especially when trying out new brands. I had also been looking for alternatives to sending granola bars, both prepackaged and home made, for my daughter to take to her 3 hour gymnastics practice sessions. So I was super excited to give Feed Zone Portables recipe book a try!

I contacted the PR manager and was sent a free copy of the book. Please know that I only review books and products that I find interesting and helpful to my readers.

The idea behind Feed Zone portables was created by Dr. Allen Lim who teamed up with Chef Biju Thomas to make delicious portable foods for cyclists and other athletes looking for healthier options beyond gels and energy bars. You can read more about how Lim and Thomas got started with Scratch Labs at Scratch Labs.com.

Pictured above we have the first two layers of the oh so yummy Blueberry and Chocolate Rice Cakes. If the word "Rice Cake" brings to mind those hard, dried out hocky puck like things you buy in the grocery store, try to erase that image. These are nothing like store bought rice cakes. They are moist, they are flavorful, they are what a rice cake should be.

Here they are packaged in little BPA free baggies. A more affordable option than wrapping in aluminum foil and wax paper. They are not zip locked and they still held up well for a good 5 days in my refrigerator. I think the moisture of the coconut milk helps to keep the rice from drying out. My daughter has been eating one before practice and one after practice each day, along with a Trader Joe's Seaweed Snack. Besides the Blueberry & Coconut version, we have also enjoyed the Peanut Butter and Jelly and the Cinnamon Apple Rice Cake.

These muffin like things are actually mini gluten free Zuchini and Spinach Fritatas. They are made with Pasture Raised eggs, so no, they are not vegan. We have decided to allow two or three times a week, especially for Anika since her competive gymnastics schedule has her working out up to 16 hours weekly and she was having trouble keeping weight on her body through several growth spurts. I did not want to resort to vegan protein powders for her at this age, and since this is working we are feeling good about it.

I will do a follow up post on this book in the future featuring photos of more portables including the baked rice balls and sticky bites. I just wanted to get this review posted since I missed my own personal deadline due to some international travel which I will update you on by next month!

If you want access to the recipe for the Blueberry and Chocolate Coconut Rice Cakes along with the Table of Contents for the book, it can be found at the Velopress.com website.

Below is also a video of Chef Biju preparing the rice cakes...

Experimental Grocery Bag Garden

2014-01-23T16:12:00.001-05:00

And here it is...Our "Grocery Bag Garden"! As mentioned in my last post, we are renting a home here in sunny San Diego, so our best option for growing food is via container garden. My husband challenged me to do this on a super tight budget of less than $50. Since we had saved seeds from last year's garden, seed cost didn't count in the budget. After hours of looking for inexpensive containers, I found some fabric "containers" called Smart Pots on Amazon and even found those to be pricey for what they were.

So, I started thinking about what I already had on hand that resembled the Smart Pots and thought about the fact that I have TONS of fabric grocery bags, many that I received free from the grocery store or as a free "goodie bag" from Half Marathon races I ran. So I thought, why not use them?! They allow water to seep through the sides so the plants can never be over watered. However, I do need to remember to water them every day. These are not "self watering bags" as I wish they were ;-)

We started all of our seeds in a seed tray which you can buy for around $10 from Home Depot or Lowes. You can also recycle your egg cartons, or borrow them from a neighbor that eats eggs. Put Organic potting soil in them and place one seed in each egg place. I used Miracle Gro Organic Potting Soil for Vegetable container gardens. It's not the best, but it works for people who want to keep it simple in the beginning. You can also make your own soil by mixing together separately purchased bags of Humus (not to be confused with Hummus that we eat!), Azomite, Vermiculite, Worm Castings, and Compost. So some of our grocery bag containers will have the Miracle Gro and some will have the soil mix. I know the Miracle Gro soil will eventually need to be topped off with some of my soil mix as the nutrients deplete.

My husband planted some of the seedlings into the ground, which I warned him was a bad idea for three reasons. 1. The soil is most definitely lacking nutrients (and may contain chemicals!), as apparent by the near death of our existing rose garden. 2. The dog will definitely pee and poo on them. 3. The garden/landscaping crew will eventually forget that the plants are food/ mistake them for weeds, at which time they will be plucked and tossed....which actually already happened.

Let's see which group of seedlings does the best over the Winter/Spring seasons. If you found this idea helpful please leave a comment in the comments section below this post. You can also follow me on Facebook.

Back to Blogging in 2014!

2014-01-06T15:38:00.002-05:00

I'm back from blog death! Well, technically my blog didn't die, but it was dead here for six months of not posting.  My last post was in July 2013, right after our trip to Barcelona, where I announced we were getting ready to move to San Diego in August. Well, what a big change it has been for the whole family. Leaving all of our friends and family behind- all of the friends my kids have grown up with and homeschooled with, my daughter's gymnastics team mates, my close mama friends, and some of the neighbors we had become good friends with over the years. Here my husband and I are at mid life, thousands of miles away, trying to form a new circle of friends that took us years to create. It's really hard, really really it is. Our kids will be fine, they will make friends quickly. In fact, they already have, but for us big people, it's going to take more time.

In San Diego there is traffic and large crowds of people every where we go. It makes Orlando seem like a rural farming town. Even grocery shopping can be a rediculous time zapper.  But yes, it's beautiful here. You cannot beat the near perfect moderate temperatures and sunshine pretty much year round. Having access to lots of really fresh, organic food from mostly California farms. And being able to see the beach, the desert and the mountains all in one day. Its' really fantastic.

When we arrived in August we started out in temporary housing at a condo on the beach in La Jolla.  This was a really good thing but it also spoiled us when we started searching for long term rentals. Once you are on the beach, you really don't want to move to the desert. In fact, it doesn't even feel like you are living in San Diego from that side. Families choose to live in the desert because it is cheaper, and you can get a big huge house with a big back yard in a neighborhood full of kids. My husband and I will take living as close to the beach as possible in a shack over that option. And that's pretty much what we did. Though our home is not really a shack, it is just old, or what I like to call "vintage". It's a short 10 minute walk and a 3 minute drive to the beach! So we go pretty much every morning to walk the dog and catch at least two sunsets a week. And guess what that means moving forward? You will be seeing lots of beach photos like the one above! Hope you don't mind :-)

You might be wondering what we have been eating all this time, since this is a food blog not a travel blog.  If I have to summarize it, I would say we eat a lot of food from Trader Joe's. It's the best health food store here, hands down.  I can get in and out in under 45 minutes because the store is small and well stocked. I can fill my cart to the top including the child seat for $150-160 and it lasts the whole week. No need to go out for lunch or dinner. I might have to buy fruit from Von's because their fruit is priced better, but that's my only other stop for groceries during the week.

While not everything sold at TJ's is perfectly Organic and Vegan (or even Gluten Free), their prepared foods section is so crazy convenient. I mean who doesn't love their Japanese Style Fried Rice with edamame and carrots?   Their Spinach and Kale pies? And what about their Stuffed Tofu Turkey?   Not having to think too much about what to cook and relaxing the "food rules" some days has helped to make life here a little less stressful for us all in the the past 5 months.  Below is a recent photo of most of the food from a shopping trip. Missing in the photo are some sprouted wheat bagels, sourdough bread, a few packages of berries, a bottle of California wine called "Cocobon", sparkling water, hummus dip, frozen and fresh berries, bananas, and pomegranite "sherbert".

We are not sure how much of a garden we will be able to build since we have a rental, but I assure you, we will have a garden!! We have space in the back yard, but we cannot build anything permanent. So I'm looking into an idea I have about creating some planters out of something I will reveal in a future blog post.

Some other projects I have been busy with and may write posts about in January/February include:

Providing feedback to the proprietor of Panda Packs, a vegan kids meal service. (I won't be writing about this because the company is starting up and it's proprietary information, but you can check out their FaceBook page!)
Reviewing the book "Feed Zone Portables", a brilliant recipe book of portable packets of yumminess for athletes.
Writing a product review for Viva Labs Coconut Oil.

And that about wraps things up! Thanks for reading this far down :-) I'm going to Home Depot tomorrow to get all the things I need too make awesome soil for the planters, so stayed tuned on FaceBook or subscribe to my feed!

Adventures in Barcelona...and announcement of our move!

2013-07-12T12:19:00.001-04:00

This post is long overdue! We took a 10 day trip to Barcelona back in May and upon our return Ksenia got sick, then we started preparing for our move with a major decluttering/organizing the house project....along with a house hunting trip to San Diego. Yes, we are moving to San Diego very soon :-)

Barcelona was a really great place to take the kids, even though they complained a lot about walking everywhere and being tired from the time zone change. There was lots for them to see and do and we found the city to be "kid friendly" with lots of parks and play areas scattered throughout the city.
In our pre-kid days we would have had some train trips out of the city and probably a very heavy sightseeing agenda. With kids, pretty much you need to stay in the city and see all that can be seen (it will be less than half of what you think you want to see!) on a light schedule. There were days where we didn't see much and spent time in the room resting, and that was okay. Vacation is also about relaxing, right?

If you are going with kids, I highly recommend NOT staying in a hotel, but instead renting a flat. You can find hundreds of options on a website called "AirBnB". We rented a one bedroom flat with a futon in the front room and a full kitchen and bathroom. It also had a nice little terrace. No view, except for water on one side, but a very short walk to the beach, to restaurants, to a large grocery chain and fresh market. The bus stop was also close by, the metro was probably a good 10 minute walk.

Be careful where you eat! Stay clear of the heavily trafficked tourist areas, you will over pay for pretty average tasting food. This Paella was 45 Euros and the reason why is they charged extra because it was meant for "2 plates", so there was an extra 20 Euro charged for two extra plates. On top of that there is NO differentation between eating Paella with meat vs. vegetarian. So we paid the same price as the Paella loaded with seafood and sausage. Really you should never pay more than 15 Euro for vegetarian Paella. It's rice and veggies!

The trip up to our room was 6 flights of stairs, there was no elevator! The kids thought it was fun, but man it was a workout for me and my husband.

Here's the view from our room to the right side....

The beach was a 2 minute walk from our flat. It rained a lot while we were there, but the sun finally came out on the day before we left!

The narrow streets of Las Ramblas. It's safe to walk them during the day, but it's still creepy. We were told by the owner of our flat to not walk them at night as it is frequented by pick pockets and criminals.

Not exactly a healthy breakfast, but part of enjoying our vacation was experiencing the bakeries and coffee shops of Barcelona. It was sugar overload, but fun.

In Spain, you will find tapas on every menu. It's a large "appetizer" type dish to be shared. Pretty much the only vegetarian options are fried foods. So here we have "Spicy Potatoes" and "Fried Artichoke". We ate a lot of this sort of fare along with a big salad. And of course, a lot of vegetarian Paella!

Vineet and Anika enjoyed the Salmon with veggies.

More vegetarian Paella....Ksenia says "that was yummy".

We drank mostly Cafe Americano coffees at the cafes. We like bold coffee so this was the best tasting and less pricey option compared to other coffee drinks. Also remember to read your menu carefully since outdoor seating commonly has an extra "tax" as well as "bread service". That's the bread they bring out to you and assume is free of charge here in the United States. You will be charged for it so always refuse it unless you want to pay an extra 3 to 5 Euros.

So so tired girls....and this was day 5 or 6 of our trip!

Wonderful salad we had at a Japanese fusion noodle house called "Noodles and Fun" in the heart of Barcelona.

Vegan Thai curry that Vineet ordered at Noodles and Fun. This was an entree! So little food for 12 Euros.

Veggie Pakoras at Salcafe on the Barcelona Beach.

Not so exciting hummus and pita chips and salad at SalCafe

"Chocolate Lava" from a cafe in Badalona. I think it was just chocolate and heavy cream melted together. There wasn't any left, so I assume it was good.

We stumbled upon this graffiti on the wall as we walked toward downtown Badalona. Apparently there are a number of vegans and vegetarians in the area...

Lunch with our extended family in Badalona. They were awesome tour guides and hosts. We really enjoyed our time with them and can't wait to see them again :-)

And last but not least, this was the thing my kids enjoyed the most. They requested to play on it every day. There is one on the Barcelona Beach and Badalona Beach.

Visitor in the garden....

2013-04-28T11:55:00.000-04:00

A cute little turtle from the lake was crawling through our garden this morning. We went searching online to figure out exactly what type of turtle it is and we think it is a Florida Redbelly Cooter.
What do you think?

Pea Shelling Saturday

2013-04-21T13:44:00.001-04:00

Look at all the beautiful snow peas we harvested from the garden yesterday! Looks like we will be making lots of tofu muttar in the next few weeks. These are really good raw, on top of a salad too!

Blueberry Buckwheat Mini Parfaits with Vanilla Creme

2013-04-19T00:35:00.001-04:00

As mentioned in a previous post, we are cooking out of "Crazy Sexy Kitchen" this month, and I am loving it so far. These lovely little treats were inspired by the "Mango-Raspberry Parfait with Vanilla Creme" on page 103.

Because I am a freak about overconsuming even "good fats", I decided that we would make the recipe into mini parfaits since the Vanilla Creme is made entirely from raw cashews and coconut milk. Yummy yes, but OMG, it's like 90% fat!

You only need to remember to soak your groats and cashews the night before and then you can bake the "groat crunchies" in an oven at low temperature in the morning. Not using a dehydrator makes this so much faster, and because of that you can eat them first thing in the morning for breakfast or for an after lunch treat.

Serves 4
6oz container blueberries
1 cup cashews soaked in water overnight
2 raw medjool dates soaked in water overnight (or 2 tbsp of Agave Nectar)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract or Vanilla Bean paste
1/2 13 oz can Thai coconut milk
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup raw buckwheat groats soaked in 3 cups water overnight
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Prepare the Vanilla Creme
Blend all creme ingredients in a blender- cashews, coconut milk, date, vanilla, water. Scrape the sides of the blender with a rubber spatula while blending to ensure that the creme is silky smooth. Place in refrigerator while preparing buckwheat crunchies.

2. Prepare Buckwheat Crunchies
Rinse soaked buckwheat well and toss with cinnamon and sea salt. Spread out thin over a tray. I used a flat strainer tray so the buckwheat would cook on both sides. This was something I bought in India and I have no idea if you can find anything like it here. I used a convection toaster oven that allows me to set the cooking temp to as low as 75 degrees! Since I wanted to get this done somewhat quickly I chose to cook at 150 degrees for 1 hour. You could probably raise the heat to 250 to save time, maybe it will finish in 30 minutes at that temp. Either way, make sure you stir the buckwheat around at least once to make sure it cooks evenly.

3. Assemble Parfaits
When the buckwheat is done you can now take out your vanilla creme and start pouring it into your glasses. I used small wide mouth mason jars. Toss your crunchies and blueberries on top and you are good to go!

Meatless Chickpea Curry with Roasted Cauliflower and Tomatoes

2013-03-29T08:27:00.000-04:00

Here it is! One of the most voted for recipes from my Meatless giveaway. I made one modification to this recipe and that was to use no salt vegetable broth in place of the EVOO when cooking the onions. Enjoy!!

Toasting the curry powder with other aromatic ingredients before adding the liquid intensifies the flavor of this quick take on chana masala. You can roast the cauliflower and the tomatoes a couple days ahead; cool, cover, and refrigerate until ready to use. Serves 4

Ingredients
1/2 head cauliflower (about 1 pound), trimmed and cut into florets
2 tbsp plus 2 tsps extravirgin olive oil
1 1/2 pints cherry tomatoes
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1 large yellow onion, cut into medium dice
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp minced peeled fresh ginger
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp curry powder
3 cups cooked chickpeas (canned or soaked and cooked)
2 1/2 cups baby spinach
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Toss cauliflower with 1 tsp olive oil and arrange in a single layer on one side of a rimmed baking sheet. Toss tomatoes with 1 tsp olive oil and arrange on other side of sheet. Season with salt and pepper. Roast until florets are browned in spots and tomatoes are soft, about 25 minutes.

2. In a medium pot, heat 2 teaspoons oil over medium-high. Cook onion, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, ginger and curry powder and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute.

3. Add chickpeas, tomatoes, and 2 cups water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer 8 minutes.

4. Add cauliflower and cook until warmed through and chickpeas are tender, about 8 minutes. Stir in spinach and cilantro and season with salt. To serve, divide among 4 bowls (over rice, if desired).

Recipe reprinted from the book Meatless with permission from the publisher. Copyright © 2013 by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, a division of Random House, Inc.

Winners of "Meatless" and April Book Giveaway

2013-03-25T10:16:00.001-04:00

The winners of the drawing for a free copy of "Meatless" are....Chris Robinson and Michelle Moore Summers! Please get in touch with me to get your copy of the book. I can mail them out today :)

I was at the library over the weekend and picked out my next book giveaway for April! I am super excited to be reviewing and cooking out of Crazy Sexy Kitchen by Kris Carr with Chef Chad Sarno.

I love this book and I promise you will too! It's beautifully organized and full of gorgeous photos of high nutrient/high raw food. There are recipes for raw juices, smoothies using raw nut milks, creative raw salads, soups and stews, "sexy sides", and desserts.

I can't wait to jump in and start cooking...and uncooking!

Here's the video trailer for the book and you can also get some sneak peak recipes on Kris Carr's website. And bonus! You get free cooking classes with the book as well :-)

Review of the book "Meatless" and BOOK GIVEAWAY

2013-03-22T09:03:00.000-04:00

I have been provided complimentary copies of the book "Meatless" by the publisher of Martha Stewart Living. I only review books and products that I think my followers will have an interest in and I will always give an honest review.

For the past three weeks I've been cooking from the book "Meatless" by the publisher of Martha Stewart Living, with a promise to the publisher to give my honest review. I was somewhat hesitant to take on this project because the book is primarily filled with Lacto-Ovo vegetarian recipes, and well, this is a vegan blog. But I wanted to give the book a chance because I think it's huge that Martha Stewart has her name on a cookbook that has no meat in it! Can we all just stand up and give her a round of applause?! Seriously people, this is HUGE.

Upon opening the book, I was excited to see that there was a beautiful color photo for every single recipe. There's a wide variety of dishes catagorized as "Small Plates to Mix and Match", "Stovetop Suppers", "Soups, Stews, and Chili", "Casseroles and other Baked Dishes", "Substantial Salads", "Sandwiches, Burgers and Pizzas", "Pasta and other Noodles", and "Simple Side Dishes".

I appreciated the many gluten free recipes, though I did need to modify a bit on the oil and dairy. The ingredients were easy to find and the recipes simple to follow. The serving size and macronutrient information are all there, but I would have liked to have had a notation about the total time from start to finish.

If your family has been "eating clean" or tossing around the idea of giving up meat at least one day a week, this would be a great guide. If you are a seasoned vegan or vegetarian cook the book may or may not give you some fresh new ideas but it's worth a look. I didn't find that the recipes pushed vegetarian cooking to the edge like Isa's Moskowitz's recipes do, but it definitely has it's place in the mainstream world of new vegetarians or new plant based eaters. Again, I give Martha and her staff a big high five for recognizing that palates are changing, and for the better :-)

Below is the Versitile Vegetarian Chili on p. 146. The basic chili has 10 ingredients, but there are suggestions for toppings (I chose raw corn and avocado), varying the beans, changing up the vegetables, using tomatillos in place of the canned tomatoes, and broiling the veggies to maximize the flavor.

This is the Roasted Beet-Garlic Soup on p. 142. I love me some Borsht soup, so this was not hard to make and eat. The only thing I did wrong was to not roast the garlic in the oven, I simply pan sauteed it because I failed to read ahead in the directions and had a time constraint for getting this one done. I think roasting it is necessary to give it the depth of flavor. It was still very good! My kids enjoyed it too, but they aren't picky eaters so that's not saying much.

I was at Whole Foods to buy the veggies for the ratatouille and mentioned to one of the employees what I was making. I got a nice story about how he worked on a farm one summer and there was always lots of fresh tomatoes, so he made ratatouille several nights a week and never got sick of it. And since then it has become his "favorite meal". I almost felt as if I needed to extend him an invitation to dinner!

I had not made Ratatouille in years, so I had forgotten how wonderfully simple it is to make. I think the Roasted-Vegetable Ratatouille on p.141 one will become a regular in my meal plan rotation.

It's not a big surprise that we are big ethnic food eaters at our house since my husband was born and raised in India. So, of course I had to make the Curried Red Lentil Soup with Dried Cherries and Cilantro on p. 126. Vineet insisted on serving his over Basmati rice and adding mango pickle. He ate two bowls of it- a sign that his Indian palate enjoyed it. I have made similar soups but never thought to add the cherries (well I used cranberries) but it does add a nice dimension to the soup! And I like the idea to drizzle the coconut milk for garnish. Not my best photo, but you get the idea...

This is the Chickpea Curry with Roasted Cauliflower and Tomatoes on p. 133. I have made many a curry with cauliflower but never had I thought to use roasted cauliflower. Roasting cauliflower gives it an almost buttery/cheesy taste. We had purple califlower growing in the garden, so that's what I used here. This one is also a definite keeper!

Lastly, the Zucchini-Ribbon Lasagna on p. 155 was made with both zucchini ribbons and gluten free noodles. I ran out of zuchini, so I had to improvise. I thought this one lacked a bit in flavor when I compare it to Isa Moskowitz's lasagna recipes. I think making the tofu into a ricotta with cashews and spices would have helped make the dish more flavorful. Still, we did enjoy this one.

I'm not done cooking with this book! I still want to try the Quinoa Veggie Burger, Green Vegetable Curry, Marrakesh Stew, Sweet Potatoes with Pomegranate Coconut and Lime, Lentil and Cashew Hummus, Baked Polenta Fries and more.

Also, I am giving away a copy of Meatless! All you have to do is comment below on which recipe you'd like me to get permission from publisher to print here on my blog! You can follow me on FaceBook and also enter the contest there. I will randomly select a winner using random.org. Good Luck :)

Leprechaun Pudding

2013-03-18T11:03:00.002-04:00

I'm so sorry I didn't get this recipe up before St. Patty's Day! I made these for my husband and kids the day before I had to drive to Sarasota to run in the Sarasota Half Marathon, so there was no time to blog!

Leprechaun Pudding
Makes 4, 1 cup servings

4 large Haas Avocados
8-10 large Medjool dates soaked and drained (soaked for 2+ hours)
3/4 cup soaked and rinsed cashews (soaked for 2+ hours)
1 tsp Vanilla extract or Vanilla Bean paste
2 tbsp cocoa powder (I used raw cocoa)
2 tbsp raw cocoa nibs (optional for garnish)
1 tbsp pumpkin seeds (optional for garnish)

Put everything except the cocoa powder in a high powered blender and blend on high until smooth. Add water as needed to keep from overworking your blender. This is really thick pudding!

Scoop out half of the pudding and put into glass canning jars (or whatever containers you want to use). Now add the cocoa powder into the blender with the remaining avocado pudding. Blend until combined and scoop over the top of the "green pudding". Garnish with raw cocoa and pumpkin seeds.

Enjoy! I hope everyone had a fab St. Patty's day :)

Super Simple Raw: Banana and Nut Butter "Milkshake"

2013-03-13T12:27:00.002-04:00

Sometimes when I'm taking photos, my kids will run over and pop their heads right into my photo :) This is one of her favorite raw milkshakes, and it really hits the spot when you are craving a thick and creamy shake. I don't always make it 100% raw, sometimes I use Almond Breeze for the nut milk but using the raw nut milk definitely delivers more of a "wow factor" to the tastebuds.

This shake comes from my Uncooking 101 Jump Start, with some adaptations. I use less nut butter than the original recipe and I use cocao nibs to make it like a chocolate chip shake. You can find raw cocao nibs at your local health food store. Check the bulk section for the best prices. If you live in the Orlando area, you can get them at Hoover's Market in Apopka.

Banana and Nut-Butter "Milkshake"
Makes 1 large Nut Milkshake

Ingredients
2 Frozen organic bananas (use frozen for an extra thick shake)
2 tbsp of raw nut butter (I use Woodstock brand Raw Unsalted Almond Butter)
1 cup nut milk (DIY Cashew Milk, Almond Milk or store bought Almond Breeze)
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp Cocao nibs

Instructions
Blend until smooth, then top with cinnamon.

A tip on storing raw nut butters and nuts- they will last a lot longer if you keep them all in the refrigerator! If you find they are getting too hard to scoop out, you are keeping your refrigerator set a too cold of a setting. I also like to drain the oil off the top of my nut butters. There's plenty of fat in the butter, no need to keep the extra oil :)

Vegan Valentine's Day Dinner at Infusion Tea

2013-02-19T12:24:00.000-05:00

I've been asking my husband to take me to the Very Vegan Valentine's Day Dinner at Infusion Tea ever since they started offering it. He has had an excuse every year, including the popular "I only like YOUR vegan food" excuse. Well, last week while he was in San Diego I finally decided to just go. I took my mom and my younger daughter as my "dates" and we enjoyed a 5 course dinner with a room full of couples. Kind of awkward, but whatever! I think we had more fun :-)

The lights were dimmed and the added touch of a soloist singing soft romantic songs was really nice. It was enough that we could still have a conversation without being overpowered by singing or the music.

Wine or tea was offered as soon as we sat down. Of course, I must have wine on Valentine's Day so I opted for the Pinot Grigio. My daughter had a red herbal tea!

First course was a sort of Borscht soup with the name "Apricot, Beet and Cumin Soup" and was very flavorful with a nice texture. I could have had two bowls of it, I enjoyed it that much. The bread served with it didn't really compliment it that well. I think a small side salad with citrus would have paired better.

The second course was a "Cedar Roasted Carrot Salad with Tofu and Carrot Pesto" and it was so nicely presented I dove in and started eating without thinking about taking a photo until my plate was almost empty...sorry, it really was that good!

So here we have the third course, a "Vegetable Wellington with Compari Tomato Coulis". The vegetables were well seasoned but the pastry itself tasted a bit dry. Maybe a "Vegetable Galette" would have kept a moist pastry crust...just a thought.

The final course was a "Cocoa Rose Mini Cake". This paired well with a Merlot wine, but the cake was more like a chocolate rose infused cupcake with too much frosting. I liked better the mini chocolate and berries served along side it as a garnish...I could have eaten two or three of those :-)

All in all, I think the Very Vegan Valentine's Dinner is a great place to take a Valentine's date, whether they are vegan or not. The atmosphere is casual yet elegant, and the service is excellent. A big thanks to the owners Brad and Christina for fitting us in at the 7pm seating with only 8 hours notice. I know how hard it is to work a kitchen when you have a restaurant full of people being seated all at the same time and I felt that the owner, the wait staff and chef handled this beautifully. I look forward to Infusion Tea's next 5 course dinner, the Vegan Fall Harvest Dinner...with my husband or not!

Raw Food Swap!

2013-02-02T17:51:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine started a "Raw Food Swap" last summer and we've been swapping on and off...well mostly off. When life gets hectic, this is the first thing everybody drops! So, we swap when we can and we are always glad that we did even though it can be stressful to try to prepare everything in time on a busy weekday. We put everything in these mason jars and bring them in a cooler to a local health food store for the swap. One of the friends has a truck, so we usually meet at the back of her truck!

The food gets prepared the day of the swap, or at least I prepare it the day of the swap...maybe others do the day before if they are using a dehydrator. It's so super fresh and everything looks so vibrant and delicious that it all gets eaten when I bring it home. Not by me, but by my KIDS and my HUBBY! Yeah, I have to pry it out of their hands. This is a good thing. I'm not complaining, but I am sort of because I'd actually like to have more than a taste of each jar I receive! Especially on the desserts :-)

Garden Goodness: The 2013 Garden has started!

2013-01-26T17:25:00.003-05:00

The 2013 Goel Garden is looking good this month. So far we are harvesting lots of turnips, sweet potaotes, kolrabi, and lettuce. We also have some english peas, snap peas and grape tomatoes. This year I want to help Vineet more with improving the soil quality. He likes to take shortcuts, like using Miracle-Gro fertilizers which basically deplete the nutrients from the soil, even though the nitrogen helps the plants to grow bigger faster.

So this month he laid down Black Cow Manure and our garden compost and I plan to do a PH test on the soil to see what's happening in some of the beds that are not producing much.

This year the kids will also have their own separate garden where they can choose what they want to grow.

Here are some photos of what's growing...

Cauliflower!

Turnips!

Kolrabi!

Baby Romaine!

Asian Squash "Tori"

Pumpkin Hummus

2013-01-12T17:54:00.001-05:00

We have a few cans of pumpkin left over from the holidays and since I'm always looking for ways to change up the flavor of hummus I thought I'd give the pumpkin try.

It's so tasty and a super easy way to increase the nutrition in your hummus. It really doesn't taste very pumpkiny, it has a wonderfully mellow taste. I modified the recipe from Dreena Burton's Plant Powered Kitchen, but I think I will make it with the white beans next time. It was a little on the lumpy side, though it could be because the blade on my food processor is getting dull.

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup Organic pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix!)
1/8 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1 medium-large clove garlic (adjust to taste, use smaller clove for kid-friendly)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 – 2 tbsp tahini (to taste)
3/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp (rounded) ground allspice
1/4 tsp maple syrup
1/ cup toasted pumpkin seeds (see note for toasting; reserve about 2-3 tbsp for garnish)

In a food processor add all ingredients except pumpkin seeds (and starting with 1 tbsp tahini). Puree until very smooth. Taste, and if you’d like to add addditional garlic or spices, add a little (and if you’d like a richer tahini flavor, add the other tablespoon of Tahini). Then, add most of the pumpkin seeds (reserving a couple of tbsps), and pulse through. Transfer mixture to a serving dish, and top with remaining pumpkin seeds. Serve with whole-grain pita breads, tortilla chips, warm whole-grain bread, etc.

Happy New Year from WAHFE!

2012-12-30T10:40:00.005-05:00

I've been really quiet on the blog this month but I thought I'd post our family photo from our "Happy New Year" cards that went out to friends and family on Christmas Eve. It's become a tradition that I send out Happy New Year cards after Christmas because...

1. I'm a procrastinator when it comes to getting a family photo done for the card and
2. My husband's side of the family doesn't celebrate Christmas because they are Hindu!

So it gives me extra time to get a photo done and seems more appropriate and cost effective that we send out Happy New Year cards so I don't have to get two separate sets of cards done.

I hope that all of my blog followers had a mostly great 2012 and are ready for a fresh new year of great things in 2013!

Some of the highlights of 2012 for me personally and on the blog include:

My attendance at the 2012 Food Blog Forum at Disney World where the chefs greeted me with wonderful vegan food and I got to reconnect with all of my Food Blog friends.
A weekend of workshops at the first annual Florida Herbal Conference in Ocala, where I gained new knowledge about the use of herbs for health.
My daughter's participation in the Portion Size Me Snack Wars Challenge
A week long trip to Paris with my husband as an early celebration of my 40th birthday

Joining the Raw Food Jump Start and Teacher Training at Eva Rawposa's Uncooking School.
And lastly, my daughter Anika's successful first year of competitive gymnastics and participation in the USAG state tournament...all in good health and free of injuries

So many great things happened, I feel truly blessed and ready to take on 2013!