Health for Life Cooking in April

No-Chicken Pot Pie

A combination of my favorite pot pie ingredients, peas, carrots, potatoes, and broccoli, covered in a creamy cauliflower sauce, covered with a whole wheat no-oil biscuit crust. Talk about comfort food that is healthy.....this is it!!



Garden Fresh Collards and Black-Eyed Peas

Fresh from my garden collards steamed to perfect tenderness with some garlic, onion, and celery and then mixed with home cooked black-eyed peas. This is a lot like my Kale and Black Bean recipe but the flavor is very different. This is so amazingly delicious and it's one of the healthiest dishes you could eat.

Tapioca Pudding Parfait

Simple, delicious, and beautiful!! My extremely easy, no cook Tapioca Pudding recipe layered with berries is a delicious way to top off a meal.

This dessert has zero fat and no processed sugars!

There you have it! Health for Life Cooking in the month of April. Hope to have you for dinner!

April

Health for Life Cooking in March - Whole Food Goodness

Orange Spinach Salad w/Orange Vinaigrette

With navel oranges in peek season, I wanted to come up with a salad that included this delicious winter time fruit. I literally dreamed about this salad one night so I put it together the next day and was very excited. Sweet Navel oranges together with an orange vinaigrette is the perfect topping for a simple spinach salad. Sprinkle on a few chopped walnuts and this salad is like dessert!
The kids might even try it!


Luscious Lentil Soup
My husband isn't a huge fan of lentils so I've been trying to come up with some lentil recipes that he would enjoy. This Luscious Lentil Soup is packed full of high nutrient veggies and protein packed lentils. At 31%, they have the highest percentage of protein of the most common legumes, grains, nuts and seeds. However, it's not as high as broccoli or spinach at 45%! Never the less, this soup is a perfect and complete meal all by itself!



Vegetable & Red Rice Pilaf

I love rice dishes but it seems I have to add a lot of sodium to make it taste good. So I decided to cut back on the rice in this recipe, which I got out of Vegetarian Times magazine over 10 years ago, and use more corn which is a more flavorful grain. I kept a small amount of rice and used red rice instead, which has 10 times more anti-oxidants then brown rice. Mix in some young asparagus, zucchini, peas, and carrots, season with your favorite herbs and spices and you have a very filling nutrient packed meal.

Lemon Pie w/ Oat Nut Crust

I have fond memories of my moms Lemon Meringue Pie. I'll never forget the one that ended up on the ground outside the kitchen window where she had set it to cool. Lemon Meringue was one of my dad's favorite pies and is one of mine. So for years I've been wanting to come up with a healthy vegan version. It's pretty hard to mimic meringue without egg whites so I decided to just leave it off. The lemon part is the best part anyway. I have to admit this tofu based pie is a bit different then the Lemon Meringue Pie of my youth, but it's still tangy sweet and delicious!


And there you have it! Health for Life Cooking in March. I hope to see you in class!
April

Health for Life Cooking goes Mexican!

My absolute favorite food is Mexican! So I love to do Mexican cooking classes. The dishes I will be demonstrating for the month of February are, as usual, high nutrient and low in fat. Nothing like their traditional counterparts.

Because green smoothies are such an important addition to any diet, I feel it's important to occasionally demonstrate how to make them, no matter what the menu for class will be. So we will start off with an appetizer of one of my favorite winter time smoothies, the Green Navel. This is packed with vitamin C, calcium, protein, and thousands of other phyto nutrients to boost your immune system and fight off the winter cold.

The main dish for the evening will be this easy to prepare Deep Dish Tortilla Pie. This pie is chock full of veggies that will provide a ton of nutrients, but is also full of that spicy (but not too spicy) Mexican flavor. Between each layer of filling is an Ezekiel Sprouted Wheat Tortilla. Sprouted grains are much more nutritious and easier to digest. I top the pie off with a tofu/cashew "cheez" sauce that is creamy, cheezy and delicious!



My all time most favorite quick and easy Mexican dish is on the menu as well. I feel like I'm going out on a limb with this one because it doesn't look very good but taste? I can't get enough of it! I make these Kale and Black Bean Tacos every chance I get. When cooked enough, the kale becomes very soft and combines so well with the black beans. Also, when the kale is cooked, more of the phyto nutrients are made available for absorption. Beans and greens together make a perfect high calcium, high protein meal. Serve this in some sprouted corn tortillas and top with some left- over cheese sauce from the pie and it's truly heaven!!

Kenny's Famous Salsa is a family favorite. Kenny is my brother and when ever he comes to visit his Utah family, they ask him to make salsa. While he was here over Christmas, he made bottles of it to give as Christmas gifts, so I had the opportunity to observe. And it's very easy to make. It's a cooked salsa, so it goes against my belief that we need to eat as much food as we can raw, but during the winter when their are no good tomatoes available, this is a nice change. I'll add some fresh avocado, green onions, and cilantro to make it chunky and oh so good! I'll serve it with baked corn tortillas.

I'm not sure if they eat brownies in Mexico but because of Valentines Day, we must have chocolate! So Brownies it will be for dessert. These are moist, rich, and chocolaty!....and, believe it or not, they are a good source of nutrients.

And there you have it! Health for Life cooking for February. I hope to see you at class.

For more information or to register, contact April at health4life07@yahoo.com.

Health for Life cooking in January 2010: Quick & Easy, Low in Fat, and High in Nutrients

I consider myself extremely diligent when it comes to my diet, and since I've been eating a plant based diet for so long, I'm really not even tempted by the unhealthy foods that come before me every now and again. However, it seems that I'm weakened just a bit during the holidays, so I'm always glad when it's all over and I can get back to my normal routine and be done with all the unhealthy goodies. And I'm sure that many feel the same way, thus, New Years resolutions are in full swing.


That is why the theme for my January Health for Life cooking classes is "Quick & Easy, Low in Fat, and High in Nutrients." Quick & Easy" because most people just starting out on a plant based diet don't want complicated recipes calling for unfamiliar ingredients that are hard to find. "Low in fat" because at the beginning of a new year, everyone seems to be interested in losing a few pounds. And "high in nutrients" because high nutrient foods increase your body's ability to remove toxins (and the holiday "gunk") which will assist in the weight loss.




So the menu for January will include 4 quick and easy, low fat, high nutrients dishes. Creamy Butternut Bisque, Lemony Quinuo, Spicy Spinach and Chic Peas over brown rice, and to satisfy the kid in all of us, Eazy Cheezy Potatoes. I decided to by-pass the dessert this month since we've all probably had plenty of them over the last few weeks.


I've been excited to do the Butternut Bisque ever since I visited a vegetarian restaurant in Canoga Park California during the Healthy Lifestyle Expo which I attended with my friends from the Vegetarian Society of Utah last October. (http://www.healthylifestyleexpo.com/) The restaurant is called Follow Your Heart (http://www.followyourheart.com/marketandcafe.php) and the food was fabulous! I ordered their Pumpkin Bisque and it was so good I had to see if I could come up with something similar. The recipe I came up with is made with butternut squash, which I like better then pumpkin, and it's a little bit easier to work with. Baking the squash at a low temperature until very soft intensifies the delicious sweet flavors of the squash, and blending it with some soy milk and the right amount of seasonings makes this soup heavenly! It's creamy, delicious, and very satisfying on it's own!


If you need a little something to go along with the soup, a nice companion to the Butternut Bisque is Lemony Quinoa. I made the soup and the quinoa while my brother was visiting for Christmas and he mixed the quinoa right in with the soup. Quinoa is considered a "pseudo grain" because it is actually a seed. Pseudo grains don't contain gluten, which makes them easily digestible, alkaline-forming, and suitable for those with an intolerance to gluten. It's 20% protein, high in lysine and is a good source of iron, potassium and B vitamins. It has a light, fluffy texture and a mild earthy taste. It can be cooked like you would cook rice or sprouted and eaten raw. It takes about 20 minutes to cook which is just enough time to chop up the veggies and toss the remaining ingredients together. For class, I'll be serving this dish warm but it would be delicious cold as well.



The Spicy Spinach and Chic Pea recipe comes from Dr. Joel Fuhrmans web site (http://www.drfuhrman.com/an.com/) and it had many great reviews. The recipe calls for garam masala which is a spice combination popular in India that can be found at any grocery store. This plus a small amount of green chilies added to the tomatoes, chick-peas, and spinach brings great flavor and an excellent combination and large amount of phyto nutrients. Serve it over brown rice and you have a perfect quick and easy meal.


Your kids are going the love the Eazy Cheezy Potatoes! The "cheez" sauce is made with cauliflower and carrots which will up the nutrient level of the other wise low nutrient potatoes. Add frozen peas and carrots to increase the nutritional level higher and/or add steamed broccoli to increase it even higher! Or for the really picky eater who wont eat any vegetables, leave the visible veggies out and the cauliflower and carrot based sauce will still provide a healthy meal. For my Christmas dinner, I served broccoli with this "cheez" sauce, and my 28 yo daughter, who lives on burgers, burritos, and mac-n-cheese, said "the cheese sauce is pretty good!" That's a great accomplishment if I can get her to eat anything healthy.

And there you have it! Health for Life cooking to start the year off right! Hope to see you at class! For more information, contact April at www.health4life07@yahoo.com.

Health for Life cooking in November

Mashed Potatoes, Cornbread Stuffing, Broccoli w/Red Lentil Cheez Sauce & Cranapple Relish

Tis the season for holiday cooking! And for the standard American this means lots of processed white flour, sugar, and fat which equals weight gain. OK, so what's the big deal? You can just work it off in January right? If that was all there was to worry about I would say "tank up!" That's what I used to do! Unfortunately with that holiday splurging comes weakened immune systems which brings on colds and flues (as in the dreaded "swine flu"), re-visiting past addictions that are easily triggered, and my most dreaded one....lowered energy levels and just feeling lousy! No way, no thank you!!

Fortunately, when you are eating a nutrient dense diet, you lose the desire for those unhealthy high fat foods. However, because family traditions are important and you don't want to be a total party pooper, go ahead and fix your family favorites but just make sure they are Health for Life style.

In this months Health for Life cooking class I will show you how to do just that. I'm going to start off with my favorite stuffing recipe that I've made for my family for several years. Last Christmas my very picky hard-to-please Italian uncle who always has something to say about the way I eat, complimented me on it. I was excited! I think that was a first from him. Anyway, this stuffing recipe comes from one of my favorite restaurant cookbooks, Real Food Daily. It is made with home made corn bread which is what really makes it great. Added to the cornbread is a mixture of onion, carrots, and celery in a tasty broth seasoned with a Holiday Seasoning mix that you can make yourself. Then it's baked to perfection......at least that's always my hope. Cooking stuffing is a lot like cooking a turkey in that you are always a little concerned whether it will be too moist or too dry.

The potatoes for the Mashed Potatoes are mashed with a gravy made with cashews and a chicken style broth seasoning that makes them a crowd pleaser. They always disappear at my house!

With these two high starch dishes I have to include a high nutrient side dish of steamed broccoli topped with my favorite red lentil cheez sauce. (gotta get in those beans and greens!) I included this dish in my Christmas dinner last year and even the kids ate it.

I'm very excited about my new addition to the holiday meal; Cranapple Relish. This is a very healthy alternative to traditional cranberry sauce that is very high in sugar and/or high fructose corn syrup. This salad/relish is a perfect combination of apples, cranberries, dates, and walnuts that taste like a dessert. I've had it every morning for breakfast since I came up with it a week ago. It's simply delicious! And simple to make!

And then what's Thanksgiving (or Christmas) without Pumpkin Pie. (Sorry, not pictured) There is no milk, eggs, or tofu in this Pumpkin Pie. And there are no processed sugars! And the crust is not the traditional flour and oil crust. It's made with oats and is flaky and delicious. Top it with Cashew or Walnut Cream and you have the perfect dessert to top off your Thanksgiving Feast!

And there you have it! Health for Life cooking for your holiday feast! I look forward to seeing you in class!

Health for Life Cooking in October

Veggie Pizza, Caesars Salad, Rustic Italian Soup & Vanilla Ice Cream w/ chocolate syrup

With fall settling in, it's time to crank up the oven. I try to keep the oven off during the hot summer months to save on electricity, so when it starts getting cool, I'm ready for some oven baked goodness. And one of my favorites is pizza! In fact it's usually what's for dinner on Halloween. Not that I'm a Halloween fan and need a reason to "party." To be honest, I really don't like this so called "holiday" where kids get dressed up in scary costumes and go door to door asking for candy, which in my opinion, they get for breakfast, lunch, and dinner these days. But I guess I'm not a complete scrooge when I still have an urge to do something fun. So home made pizza it is!

Since my days of downing a whole small little Caesars Pizza in one meal are gone, thank goodness (!!!) I've discovered that pizza really can be a healthy food and when you make it Health for Life style and include a big green salad and healthy soup, you fill up pretty quick and couldn't possibly eat the whole thing! I start off with a 100% freshly ground whole wheat flour for the crust. This crust is so fast and simple to make and has no oil! I top the crust with a quick and easy home made tomato sauce, and than add toppings of choice. I'm pretty traditional and usually stick with onion, peppers, mushrooms and olives, but for class I'm going to add some sun-dried tomatoes and spinach to make it extra tasty and nutritious. Top it all with sesame parmesan and you have a pizza fit for a vegan king!

Even though my pizza is quite healthy, it's still low on the anti-oxidant scale. Therefore, I always include a nice big green salad with the meal. For class it's going to be a Caesars Salad made with a creamy Caesar's type dressing. This dressing does contain cashews but could easily be made with sunflower seeds or other seeds which are less allergenic.

Along with the salad comes a nice warm Rustic Italian Soup. This recipe comes from my favorite southern California restaurant cook book, Real Food Daily. It's a tomato based soup with kale, white beans, and lots of garlic to keep the vampires away!! (and, unfortunately, my hubby) It's perfect for a cold Halloween evening.

And for dessert.....is it ever to cold for ice cream? I don't think so. What better way to top off a pizza party then with ice cream! I'll be demonstrating the basic vanilla cashew ice cream that I've done for years that many of you have seen and tasted, but many have not. Maybe I'll add on a topping of some sort. The possibilities are endless!!

And there you have it! Health for Life cooking in October! I hope you will join me for dinner!

Dr. Fuhrmans wife Lisa shared her healthy Halloween tips on Dr. Fuhrmans blog. I thought it was worth sharing.

http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/events-spooktacular-ideas-for-a-healthy-halloween.html#emailForm

Health for Life Cooking in September

As much as I love summer, I also love to see the signs of fall coming. It's great when it cools down just enough to where you can really enjoy a picnic in the park....or in your back yard which is where I often go. I have fond memories of family picnics at a local park in California where I grew up. We would get together with my favorite cousin and her family and it was always a great time! One of the best parts of the outing was the food! Kentucky Fried Chicken (and my favorite part was that "extra crispy" greasy skin) potato salad, pork and beans, chips, and what ever dessert there was. I didn't care. As long as there was sugar involved.

Those days of fried chicken and sugar are long gone since switching to a whole foods plant based diet almost 20 years ago. But the picnic with the family doesn't have to be. And you can enjoy some delicious picnic foods that aren't loaded with saturated fat and cholesterol.

And that is what Health for Life cooking will be focused on for the month of September. I'm going to set aside my high nutrient focus, just this once, to share with you 3 of my favorite picnic dishes; Potato Salad, BBQ'd Lentils, and Chic'n Strips w/Sweet Mustard Dip. To make up for the lack of high nutrients foods in our picnic meal, it would be good to start your day off with a high nutrient smoothie. Since peaches are in season, I have been making a Peaches and Greens smoothie that is fabulous and I'm very excited to share it with you! (Smoothie is not pictured)

My potato salad that I will be demonstrating is made with red potatoes, which are higher in nutritional value then the white russets. The dressing is made with cashews and sunflower seeds, blended with some lemon juice, vinegar, and seasonings for a delicious creamy almost like mayo dressing. The BBQ sauce for the lentils will be made in my Vita Mix in just minutes, with two of the best, most nutritious sweeteners. And the Chic'n strips...well these are going to be a surprise! There's no chicken in these little guys and they are really delicious dipped in this simple sweet mustard sauce that would also be great for a salad dressing. (For those with nut allergies, the Chic'n Strips have walnuts which you can omit from this recipe). And I'm sure you can guess what the Peaches and Greens smoothie is made with. I add a couple extra goodies to make this creamy and delicious. It's a great way to start your day.

And that's Health for Life in September. If the weather is nice, we just might make it a real picnic and take it to my back yard. Hope to see YOU at one of my classes!

Health for Life Cooking in August

Raw Zucchini Pasta w/ Almost Raw Marinara

Hoppin' John Salad

Jicama & Pepper Salad
w/ Snap Peas & Corn

I'm excited to be back in the kitchen! And I'm excited to share with you some of my most favorite summer time dishes. With the temperatures up in the triple digits, I prefer to keep my meals simple and use a lot of raw vegetables. Not only do raw fruits and vegetables contain live enzymes, they also have a high water content. Because of this, these foods are very easy to digest and they help keep our body well hydrated during these hot summer months. In his lecture on the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii web site (www.vsh.org) John Westerdahl Ph.D indicates that the water in the cells of plant foods is a great source of water for us because it gets absorbed into our cells more efficiently. That makes a lot of sense! Plant foods in general are what our body craves!

One dish that I'm really excited about is a Raw Zucchini Pasta (picture above) made with my favorite new kitchen gadget, the *Spiral Slicer. I top this with an almost Raw Marinara made with garden fresh tomatoes and spices. The reason it's not completely raw is because I can't find sun dried tomatoes, at a reasonable cost, that aren't packed in oil or that don't have sulfur dioxide as a preservative.

See http://www.npi.gov.au/database/substance-info/profiles/77.html)

I find tomato paste works very well in giving this sauce a rich flavor like the sun dried tomatoes would. And, if you heat the sauce just a bit, you hardly know it's not real spaghetti. One of the reasons I'm so excited about this dish is because I don't normally like zucchini. But because it's so nutritious, I've tried and tried to find ways to make it good. And this so far is the best!!

Another dish that I'll be demonstrating is a Hopin' John salad (pictured above). This is NOT a raw salad but more of a grain based salad using cooked brown rice and black eyed peas. The grains and beans together make a great hearty meal for the finicky man in your life, and when you pile this on a bed of romaine lettuce and garnish with garden fresh tomatoes, it adds the powerful anti-oxidants and phyochemicals that would normally be missing from this salad alone.

The third dish that I will be demonstrating is a Jicama & Sweet Pepper Salad w/Snap Peas and Corn (picture above). I've been making different versions of this salad for years and just love it! Because it's completely raw and contains a lot of high water content veggies, it's perfect for lunch when you don't want to eat something heavy that will take a lot of energy to digest. I need my energy for work during the day, not for digesting a heavy meal. With all the sweet veggies in this salad and the sweet vinegar dressing, you're sweet tooth will be satisfied and you wont want (or need) that late afternoon high sugar snack.

Are your kids asking for money for the ice cream truck or are they begging you to stop for a Shaved Ice after swimming? Instead, offer to make them a home made icy cool refreshing treat. Frozen Cherry's will be the fruit in this Lemon Cherry Slush (no picture yet) but any frozen fruit will work.

So there you have it! Whether you are into raw foods or not, this class will teach you how to make three delicious summertime dishes and will also give you ideas to incorporate into other traditional favorites that will help make the transition to a plant based diet satisfying and enjoyable. I look forward to seeing you at class!

*When I purchased my Spiral Slicer I bought 3 of them to get free shipping. The two remaining are available for purchase at my cost of $20. First come first serve!!

Chocolate Banana Ice Cream

I love ice cream!!! And it was the last to go when I eliminated dairy products from my diet. Once I discovered vegan ice cream options though, there was no turning back. There are several excellent options on the market, including one of my favorites, Soy Delicious. However, even though they are healthier then their dairy based counterparts, they are far from health promoting. They are high in processed sugars and extracted oils, which I have eliminated from my diet, other then the occasional treat or dinner out.

This home made ice cream treat that I came up with years ago has long been a favorite of mine and my husbands, as well as my, at that time, teenage daughter. And I recently made it for my 8 year old cub scouts and one of them liked it so much that he told about it at the next pack meeting.

If you have the frozen bananas on hand, it is so quick and easy. You can have soft serve ice cream in minutes. Here is how to make it:

Peel and slice spotted bananas and freeze in zip lock bags for at least 24 hours. I like to keep these on hand for smoothies as well. Add desired amount of frozen banana slices to a food processor and process with a bit of water, soy, or almond milk until smooth and creamy. You will need to stop the food processor a few times and use a fork to break up the chunks. Add cocoa powder to taste and serve. If you would like it sweeter, add a bit of agave nectar or other liquid sweetener in stead of the water.

There is another great home made ice cream option that I love to make but it takes a bit longer and it's best if you have an ice cream maker. It's called Cashew Ice Cream and the recipe can be found on the Vegetarian Society of Utah web site at www.vsutah.org. Go to the recipe link and find many more recipes as well.

Best of health to you! April

Vegetarian Society of Utah Food Demo

Myself and two friends from the Vegetarian Society of Utah (http://www.vsutah.org/) did a food demo for the VSU library program this month. The event was a huge success! It was standing room only with 90+ in attendance. It was a lot of fun and everyone seemed to really enjoy the demo along with the free samples.

Here is the recipe that I demonstrated along with a picture. This is one of my favorite summer time salads served with some home made corn tortillas. The chips are made with my favorite corn tortillas, Food For Life Sprouted Corn Tortillas. They make great chips as well as soft tacos. Cut each round into 8 wedges and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes or until crisp.

Texas Caviar

2 cups raw corn
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow or orange bell pepper, chopped
2 - 3 tomatillos chopped (optional)
1 small red onion, chopped
4 jalepenos seeded and chopped
4 or 5 roma tomatoes chopped
1 large clove garlic, crushed
2 - 3 limes juiced
½ - 1 tsp salt
fresh ground pepper
1 - 2 tsp chili powder
1/4 cup rice vinegar w/ 1 Tbsp Agave Nectar
1 large avocado diced
2 cups (or 2 cans drained and rinsed) black beans
Combine everything but the beans and mix well. Gently fold in beans. Gently mix. Let chill before serving.

I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Best of health to you! April