Black Bean Italian Flavored Burgers

https://www.facebook.com/groups/HealthyRecipeSharing/

Did not end up eating the pasta, the rest was plenty

Marjorie from the Healthy Recipe Sharing group on Facebook shared her Black Bean Burger recipe with me. It sounds really good, but you know me, I had to tinker with it a little bit. I happen to have some extra ricotta cheese laying around and was looking for recipes to include it in, so here's the tweaked version that I came up with:

Tips:
Since there is no meat in this burger, it is safe to taste the ingredients before pressing into patties and cooking. I would suggest doing just that to get the flavors the way you like them.
This might be a good recipe to try out with sprouted black beans, but since I couldn't wait to try it, will have to do that next time.

Black Bean Meatles Burger Mix looks a lot like Meat

Ingredients:
1 can black beans or 1 1/2 cups rinsed and drained
3 cloves garlic, minced/pressed
1 red bell pepper finely choppped
10 leaves fresh basil finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
3 Tablespoons already prepared marinara sauce
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup rolled oats
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Rinse and drain 1 can black beans (or 1 1/2 cup)
mash about 1/2 of the black beans with a fork, leaving the rest for texture
mince or press 2 cloves garlic
finely chop 1 red bell pepper
finely mince 4 leaves fresh basil
grind flax seed and measure out 2 tablespoons
Mix all ingredients, taste and add salt and pepper in whatever amounts you prefer
Form into patties and fry up in a tablespoon of olive oil  or bake in an oven at 400 degrees F for about 10 to 15 minutes (tho baking may make them dryer than you'd like, it will reduce the fat content)

Tested Various Patty Sizes, Liked the smaller ones

If you like hamburger buns go for it, or serve in 1/2 a pita or thin wrap bread to lower the carb count, or open faced with no bun to lower even further. Next time I might try this out with 1/2 the beans and replace them with some grated eggplant instead. I think this would be delicious with caramelized red onion on top.

I made these to go on the side with an egg replacer instead of the eggs: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/spinach-and-ricotta-dumplings-recipe/index.html#

Overnight (no cook) Breakfast Cereal

Overnight Breakfast Cereals by TheYummyLife.com

I am really enjoying Pinterest! Lately I've found some great recipes on there, and today I finally got up the guts to try sprouting some quinoa and making overnight breakfast cereal. Here's one of the main articles that inspired me to try my hand at this:
http://www.theyummylife.com/8_muesli_flavors

So first off let's get to the good stuff, here's the recipe.

Tips:
Sprouting the quinoa first is not necessary, but adds to the nutrients. I set mine out this morning after eating overnight oatmeal with the intention of making the overnight breakfast cereal I'm posting here.
Some people do not feel oats are gluten free. If you do not eat oats, you could make this with just the quinoa
Be sure to grind the flax seed or your body can't process it and you won't get the binding/thickening properties (I use a coffee grinder we have set aside for nuts, seeds, flax, etc)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sprouted quinoa
1/2 cup dry whole rolled oats (or you could sprout oat groats to use in their place)
1/2 cup apple sauce
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons coconut palm sugar
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1 dash of salt
1 cup coconut milk

Directions:
mix dry ingredients well, add to sprouted quinoa, then add 1 cup coconut milk (the light kind that is the same amount of fat and less carbs than 1% milk, not the whole fat kind that comes in a can although I'm sure that would be delicious as well)
Stir well, cover container and leave in fridge over night.

Makes 2 servings

Now to the cool (to me) part... how to sprout Quinoa. I have been wanting to learn to sprout various grains, seeds, beans, etc. for a while now, because it raises their nutrient value. It's a really cool little trick of nature, that when they start to sprout, apparently that's when the most nutrients are easily available to the body, because it's when the nutrients are trying to provide what the plant needs to grow. Obviously it's great to plant food and grow your own food, but if you're going to eat grains, seeds, nuts and beans, may as well eat them at the peak of their health impact right? Here's a neat little instructable on how to sprout quinoa: http://www.instructables.com/id/Sprout-Quinoa/ and here's a video using the same method: http://youtu.be/V0oam8VPFws plus there are some great kits out there, but all I used was a sealable plastic container, as shown above. It would probably be best to do this in a glass container now that I think about it, or anything but plastic. I put the quinoa in, put about twice as much water which turned out to be more than I needed, just need enough to cover the quinoa ... and then after the movie I got rid of the floaties, and put more water (from the filter) to just over the quinoa, then covered and let it sit all day, then rinsed again, and used it in the above recipe. They had started to sprout so I didn't feel the need to sprout them any further at that point.

Apparently some people do not do well with raw quinoa, so be aware of your body's response to eating such things, but I've never had a problem eating or processing raw foods. Actually, the entire meal could be considered a faw food breakfast, because nothing in it is ever cooked. I did heat mine up a bit in the morning just for a nice hot cereal feel, but it tasted just the same cold of course, so that's a personal preference issue.

Some people like to dehydrate their quinoa and use them in baking, or as the crispy part of foods like to make cookies have a crunch, on top of yogurt, to coat fish, etc. I'll try that out after we finish building our solar dehydrator and let you know how it goes! In the mean time, give this super easy breakfast cereal a try. It made it really great this morning when we were in a hurry to get out the door because I had a healthy breakfast all ready to go. Once my vegan protein powder arrives, I'll probably add that to it as well.

What is your diet?

First of all, let me just point out for those who haven't been keeping up with this food blog, that I am not dieting. I am working on finding delicious foods that contribute to my health. I also am not on a weight loss plan although I am losing weight, and will probably continue to do so for a while. Part of getting healthier is weight loss for me, tho not for everyone, and I certainly have no intention of ever being skinny or muscle bound. I would like to be a nice healthy weight and to improve my musculature, but I do not want to over do in any area.

Secondly, I will sum it up for you like this. I am eating twice as many vegetables, and half as many carbs with  at least 8 cups of water a day. Most days I drink 8 -10 cups of  water. Of course that is not the entirety of what I'm doing, but that's the simple description, and if that were the only thing I did, it would have improved my health. I am also avoiding most processed foods, and limiting those processed foods I do eat, to mostly things with as few ingredients as possible, and that those ingredients are things easily pronounced such as whole wheat, salt and water = egg free pasta or rice, basil, water as the ingredients on some simple crackers. Things made with whole foods are more likely to end up in my grocery cart than highly processed foods, and whole foods themselves are the most likely to end up there. This along with eliminating foods I am allergic to or intolerant of has made a huge difference in my health.

I use sparkpeople.com as a free food and exercise tracking device, and I also use their site for getting recipe ideas, networking with others who are working on their health. Sometimes I take a day or week off from tracking food, but during that time I still eat in the same basic manner. If I don't feel like measuring things out with actual measuring cups, I use this plate planning method: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/csi/obesity-plate-planner-13.pdf which is basically 1/2 a plate of vegetables, a fist sized portion of protein and a first sized portion of carbs. Sometimes I have a piece of fruit or glass of milk with it. Often I save my fruit for dessert.

Healthy fats. There are a lot of disagreements out there about what healthy fats are, but I have noticed that when I eat more plant based fats I lose more weight, and my cholesterol has been lower, so I've been sticking to that. If I want to eat something higher in carbs, I make sure it's combined with protein and healthy fats, as I learned from the Prevention Magazine titled DTOUR, and later in the DTOUR diet book. I do not follow the DTOUR diet and exercise plan 100%, but I have used it to help me plan my meals. The cook book is great,  so I'm hoping to get that in the future. Every recipe I've gotten from them is pretty easily altered to avoid allergens, and the cookbook has helpful lists of replacement foods for just such a situation. (I scan it every time I'm at a book store) it's really helped me to manage my diabetes and so far I've been able to get off 2 medications since starting to eat more vegetables, less carbs, and all the rest I said above.

Avoiding chemicals has also been really helpful to getting rid of my migraines and reducing my chronic pain. I'm still having a difficult time during Monsoon season, but other than that I have been seeing some great changes. Some are gradual, and some are almost instantaneous. For example the hives I have suffered multiple times a week for my entire life, haven't happened in quite some time. They stopped as soon as I eliminated all allergens and foods I'm intolerant of. Since then I have been able to add some foods from the intolerance list back in carefully bit by bit, but others I haven't been able to add back in. I've come down to a list of about 30 things to avoid. It used to be a much longer list. That, the addition of stretching and relaxation techniques, and avoiding flashing lights, I have greatly limited my migraines which used to be chronic cluster migraines which affected me daily for almost 2 years in a row, but now are much milder and happen much less frequently. I had a migraine the other day after accidentally eating some dehydrated meat with chemicals in it, and then seeing lightning. So they do sometimes still happen, but at least it was only a couple days of being sensitive to light and having a headache instead of months worth.

Two new things I've been trying are natural sweeteners with a lower glycemic index than fructose or sugar, and sprouting things to get higher nutrients from them. In 2 weeks I'll meet with a dietitian to discuss I will write separate posts about each of those as I come to some conclusions.

Hope that helps answer some of the questions people have had. :) Please keep asking questions, and I'll keep posting my experiences. And please feel free to share what has helped you to be more healthy! I'm just learning as I go.

Coconut Mango Vegan Ice Cream/Sorbet

A friend of mine was sharing a simple vegan ice cream recipe made of nut milk, salt, cinnamon and maple syrup. Sounded delicious, but I happen to have coconut milk and mango, so thought I'd try a different recipe. I did a search for home made coconut milk ice cream and found a few recipes:

http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2012/07/homemade-coconut-milk-ice-cream-recipes.html
http://www.godairyfree.org/recipes/dairy-free-desserts/basic-vanilla-coconut-ice-cream-vegan-soy-free-gluten-free
http://www.godairyfree.org/recipes/dairy-free-desserts/basic-vanilla-coconut-ice-cream-vegan-soy-free-gluten-free
http://alltheveganthings.com/post/19540741466/vegan-coconut-ice-cream#.UE2DQI1mRj4


of course one could always just buy one of these:
http://www.sodeliciousdairyfree.com/products/coconut-milk-ice-creams?gclid=CMWK5POpqrICFYJOTAodpE0AhA
http://coconutbliss.com/
http://www.nadamoo.com/
and we've done that, but I figured I would like to try my hand at making some from scratch. After all, I have a delicious mango and some coconut milk, why not?

Here's my first attempt at a recipe. If I tweak it, I'll let you know:

1 cup coconut milk (unsweetened)
1 mango (minus rind and pit)
1 dash of sea salt
1/8 cup coconut sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

I don't have a machine, so here's what I'm doing:
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2007/07/making-ice-crea-1/

Put a shallow metal pan in the freezer the night before, mix ingredients well, taste to make sure the flavor is what you want and adjust as necessary, chill over an ice bath, then pour into the frozen pan and stir. You can put it in the freezer about 10 minutes afterwards to firm it up if you want. The above link has much more detailed instructions and reasoning.

My first attempt at gluten-free scones

Found this old post sitting in the unpublished drafts section:

Inspired by the Gluten-Free Guru and memories of lemon scones made in college with a loved one, I absolutely had to try to make gluten-free lemon scones for breakfast. Besides, I had the rest of that lemon from the lemon oil cookies to use up! So here's my first attempt at gluten-free scones. 

12 oz GF flour mix
4 tsp guar gum powder
2 plentiful pinches of sea salt
4 tablespoons of brown sugar
3 oz of unsalted butter
4 oz mixed, dried fruit
2 large eggs
4 fl oz of fat free plain yogurt 
2 tablespoons myer lemon oil
zest of 1/2 lemon 


1 Preheat the oven to 375 f (190c)

2. Sift all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl

3. Using a fork, cut in the butter so that the mix resembles fine bread crumbs

4. With a wooden spoon, stir in the dried fruit

5. Whisk together eggs and yogurt

6. Make a well in the center of the dry mix and pour in the yogurt, egg and lemon juice

7. Turn out onto a floured surface and lightly kneed until the dough comes together and is smooth in texture.

8. Roll the dough out so that it is 1 1/2 inches thick, cut out with a small glass or cookie cutter

9. Place on a floured baking tray and cook in the oven for 10 minutes or so, or until brown and slightly risen.

Sweet Potato Quinoa Casserole

We were out of all vegetables and almost all fruit so we made a trip to the closest store. First I did a search for recipes with Quinoa, because a friend had mentioned it, and we hadn't made any lately, but I have a LOT of the stuff in my pantry.

This recipe  http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1905451  sounded different, so I bought all the ingredients for this, some things that were on sale, some organic leafy greens and such that looked delicious, and some cherry tomatoes that were on sale. It was a good shopping trip, not too much money for a lot of food. Ironically, Patch also decided to stop by the same store about an hour later on her way home from work.

We'll just have to make sure to eat LOTS of vegetarian meals and salads in the next couple of days. She also did much better at getting a lot of food for a little money, since she only bought things that were on sale in the 50% off section, whereas Carlie and I had some things we knew we needed for the week. It's all good, the house feels bountiful again, and the options for making healthy meals has greatly improved!

Sweet Potato Quinoa Casserole with Cantelope & Wilted Spinach

I actually modified the recipe since the original had a pretty high carb count:  http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=2227285 this one has about 1/2 the carbs, a bit less fat, and higher protein. It is vegetarian, not vegan like the original, so if you're vegan, use the original recipe :) Or at least use the things which I replaced with cheese. My recipe has more whole, unprocessed vegetables. Be sure to grate the sweet potato, and enjoy!

No Bake Coconut Chocolate Bars

I have a thing for chocolate, and recently I had gotten some coconut oil to try out in various methods of cooking. One thing I had heard you could do with it, is mix in cocoa and a bit of sugar to have a chocolate bar. Here's the recipe I used, and it turned out delicious.

3 Tablespoons coconut oil (solid at room temperature)
3 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
.25 cup of shredded coconut
plus 1 tablespoon shredded coconut to sprinkle over top

Made 8 servings about 1 inch square

Mix 3 Tablespoons coconut oil with 3 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder and 1 teaspoon brown sugar until smooth. Add a quarter cup of shredded coconut and mix well. Pour into shallow air tight container and spread across the bottom. Sprinkle remaining 1 Tablespoon shredded coconut on top and freeze. Easy-peasy!

We enjoyed these and they were ready about 20 minutes after putting them in the freezer. After that we moved them into the fridge, where they remained in good condition but didn't last long because we ate them up pretty fast.