Think for a moment of a food from your past, one that makes you feel great after you eat it for no specific reason. Maybe it is macaroni and cheese, slow-simmered tomato sauce, ice cream cones or potato pancakes. Eating comfort foods (every now and then) can be incredibly healing, even though your rational brain might not consider it highly nutritious.
Food has the power to impact us on a level deeper than just our physical well-being. What we eat can reconnect us to precious memories, like childhood playtimes, first dates, holidays, our grandmother’s cooking or our country of ancestry. Our bodies remember foods from the past on an emotional and cellular level. Eating this food connects us to our roots and has youthening and nurturing effects that go far beyond the food’s biochemical make-up.
Acknowledging what different foods mean to us is an important part of cultivating a good relationship with food. This month when we celebrate lovers and relationships, it’s important to notice that we each have a relationship with food—and that this relationship is often far from loving. Many of us restrict food, attempting to control our weight. We often abuse food, substituting it for emotional well-being. Others ignore food, swallowing it whole before we’ve even tasted it.
What would your life be like if you treated food and your body as you would treat your beloved – with gentleness, playfulness, communication, honesty, respect and love? The next time you eat your soul food, do so with awareness and without guilt, and enjoy all the healing and nourishment it brings you.
In traditional Chinese healing, sea vegetables correspond to the winter season and to the kidneys, adrenal glands, bladder and reproductive organs. The strengthening, balancing and cleansing properties of sea vegetables are known to help these organs as well as the hair, skin and nails. Sea vegetables (or seaweeds) provide a variety of minerals and vitamins, including calcium, iron and iodine, and can help balance hormone and thyroid levels in the body. Eating too many processed foods or foods grown in mineral-depleted soil can result in a lack of minerals in the body, leading to cravings for salty or sugary foods. Adding sea vegetables to your diet can help balance your energy levels and alleviate cravings.
Recipe of the Month: Mighty Miso Soup
Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
Cooking Time: 10-15 minutes
Yield: 4-5 servings
Ingredients:
4-5 cups spring water
1-2 inch strip of wakame, rinsed and soaked 5 minutes
in 1 cup of water until softened
1-2 cups thinly sliced vegetables of your choice (see notes)
2-3 teaspoons barley miso
2 scallions, finely chopped
Directions:
Chop soaked wakame.
Discard soaking water or use on houseplants for a boost of minerals.
Place water and wakame in a soup pot and bring to a boil.
Add root vegetables first and simmer gently for 5 minutes or until tender.
Add leafy vegetables and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Remove about 1/2 cup of liquid from pot and dissolve miso into it. Return it to the pot.
Reduce heat to very low; do not boil or simmer miso broth.
Allow soup to cook 2-3 minutes.
Garnish with scallions and serve.
Note:
Any combination of vegetables can be used in miso soup. Here are some classic combinations:
onion-daikon: cleansing
onion-carrot-shiitake mushroom-kale: mildly sweet
onion-winter squash-cabbage: great in wintertime
leek-corn-broccoli: great in summertime
Variations:
Add cooked grains at the start of making the soup. They will become nice and soft.
Add a tablespoon of uncooked quinoa or millet at the beginning and let it cook with vegetables for 20 minutes.
Add cubed tofu toward the end.
Add bean sprouts toward the end.
Season with 1/2 teaspoon ginger juice for an interesting twist.
If using dry shiitake mushrooms, let them soak for 20 minutes, slice and add at the beginning.
I have been super busy lately working on finishing up my last month of IIN, focusing on my health coaching practice, working on getting our home fixed up and working on new projects for the blog. I am really excited about everything that has been going on and can’t wait to share more with you.
As for IIN I am now certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners which is all of a sudden making this feel so real. I am also working on some special rates for my husbands company which is a young, health conscious group and already have a number of healthy living initiatives so I am hoping my services will appeal to the group. I also am going to be coming out in the next week with a special readers rate so keep your eyes peeled.
For the blog I am working on a local product project to give you a feature of different vegan Vermont products. This month I will be featuring Nutty Steph’s and Vermont Soy– with that being said if you have specific questions you would like to know about these two places please email me lindsay@cookingforaveganlover.com or comment below. I also am working on another personal project that I am going to feature on the blog as well- keep reading and I’ll discuss this more at the bottom of the post.
With all these projects the Hubz and I haven’t spent much quality time alone together so last night we took the night off and went to The Farmhouse Tap and Grill to enjoy good beer and food. We also did a little shopping because well we both need an update. The Hubz got some new kicks and I got new jeans and a skirt from Ann Taylor Loft (only $12 for both SCORE!).
This morning I started things off right with a bowl of oatmeal with a little sample of Barney Butter (giveaway and review to come son), a banana and Bee-Free Honee (review and giveaway for this too!). I also had a cup of awful instant coffee- Tasters Choice- a free sample I applied for online somewhere- it was awful, then again I’m a coffee snob.
After breakfast I made the Hubz and I lunch; since we went out last night we had no leftovers from dinner (except yummy olives) so I was happy that Cedar’s sent me a few coupons for free products which allowed us to have a yummy Mediterranean feast see below:
After breakfast and lunches came my next challenge for this month- clean out the cupboards before summer. This is the month of the pantry challenge. My goal is to reduce packed items from out cupboards; there really isn’t a much but I am ready to make some changes and increase the dried beans and grains and fresh veggies. In addition to cleaning out the cupboards the real challenge will be to not purchase items that we are already trying to get reduce/crowd out. This is also a pantry challenge to hopefully save a little money on groceries this month because I am a natural food store-aholic- they are my favorite places to shop. So here is what we have to use:
Rice Vermicelli Noodles
Rice Paper Wrappers
Rajmah Spice Mix
Punjab Chole Spice Mix
Frontier Soups Wheat Berry Chili Mix
Sambhar
Jovial Brown Rice Pasta (also need to review)
Nature Burger Mix
Red Lentils
Green Lentils
Pearl Barley
Red Quinoa
White Quinoa
Falafel Mix
Whole Wheat Orzo
Canned Diced Tomatoes
Brown Rice
3 cans of chickpeas
2 cans of black eyed peas
1 can of cannelini beans
Taco Shells
3 cans black bean soup
WW Couscous
Dried Chickpeas
Red Rice
Sushi Rice
Frozen Artichokes
Frozen Mana Bread
Vegan Nacho Queso
Kaia Foods- pumpkin seeds, buckwheat granola, fruit leathers
Barbara’s Animal Crackers
Oatmeal
I know it is a nice long list of items and I hope that between Saturday March 5th (shopping day) and April 5th I will be able to work my way through these items and start to build the pantry that I really want. I am excited for this challenge as well because it is going to help me get back into creating recipes. Have you done a pantry challenge? Who else wants to participate?
Alright so that is the update around here now it’s time get ready for work!
Since the holidays I have been keeping busy working on a number of new projects for the blog and my health counseling; this, on top of attempting to have a social life and work my regular job as well. I am happy to say that after this Friday things should get back to their regular pace and I will have a number of really great blog posts coming at you. For now, here is a sneak peak into what I have been working on lately:
Health Counseling
I have been working hard at completing my modules as well as taking time to market myself. I have contacted a number of businesses about doing nutrition and wellness workshops which I hope will start up in February/March. I also have been working, rather the Hubz has been working on getting my website for my health counseling business (Health and Wellness with Lindsay) up and running
I am proud to say that the Vegan Cookbook Club is up and running and we have an number of participants for our first book Veganomicon. The start date for Book #1 is Jaunary 16th so if you are interested in participating please contact me.
Ebook #2
I have been working hard at creating recipes for my second ebook and with the help from my really amazing and dedicated testers it should be released the first week of February; one month ahead of schedule. There will be 25-30 recipes in this e-book featuring brunch, lunch & dinner recipes for the whole family.
Cook.Vegan.Lover. Survey
I have been spending time (when I have it) to go over the results of the Cook.Vegan.Lover. Survey in preparation to write a blog post discussing the results and the improvements that you will see on Cook.Vegan.Lover. You will not be seeing any huge changes but rather I will be attempting to improve what is already here. I really appreciate the open and honest feedback from all of you because it helps me to be a better blogger.
This year is all about setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals aka Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Tangible Goals. Last night the Hubz and I kept it pretty low key with homemade tempura veggies, martinis and too many episodes of House Hunters. We also took a minute to sit down and work on our goals for the new year.
I wasn’t quite as successful last regarding my goals- you can checkout how everything went here.
I know that this year I am setting goals that I can complete and look forward to the adventure.
1. Attend a blogger conference – this might be a slight cheater one but I will be attending Vida Vegan Blog Conference . After a long discussion with the Hubz we finally decided that we would make the trip to PDX for the conference and we are looking forward to it.
2. Do an overnight backpacking trip on the Long Trail- this is one of the goals the Hubz and I have together. He has developed a new found love for hiking and I am warming up to it as well. I have decided that this year I want to try new things and challenge myself and an overnight backpacking trip will definitely be a challenge worth doing. 3. Run a 5k- As you will see this is one of my goals from last year that I totally failed on. I decided that I am still wanting to challenge myself athletically and put this back on my list to give myself a second chance. 4. Blog with a purpose- I have decided that I really need to take more time with my blogging and write high quality blog posts. I do not want to pressure myself to write everyday but write when I want to and only submit post that I am proud of. 5. Embrace Health Counseling- I will receive my health counseling certification in April. I currently am able to counsel but I only have a limited number of clients. This year I would like to increase my clients, work on marketing my business and teach a health/nutrition related course at a local gym, co-op or health food shop.
Other things I want to do in 2011:
Create a “grown up” bedroom – one that has a bedroom set, a style, and is a place that the Hubz and I can retreat to; a space of our own.
Revamp my blog- make improvements to the layout as well as the features.
Update my health counseling blog….rather have the Hubz do it.
Get to my happy weight by trying new activities such as P90X, hiking, running and yoga.
Spend more time reading. Do you have any book recommendations?
Spend more quality time with the Hubz- make a conscious effort to have 1 date night a week.
Today my posts will be a little lacking because I really need to catch up on my Institute for Integrative Nutrition work (I am just loving my program only 4 more months left!) and then the Hubz and I are going to finish some Christmas shopping this evening. After that the Hubz is taking me on a dinner date- a surprise one! I love surprise dinner dates.
As for a blog update I have been combing through the survey results from back in October and the one that is currently open (they are similar but a little different) so that I can make some improvements on the blog. The improvements are honestly not just for you but for me because I know that at times this blog can seem a little crazy and I am ready to start the new year with new goals and a better blog, for me …well and for you because I love my readers. I am really loving your feedback and I am actually surprised by some of your responses, but I won’t get into that now because I am working on a post dedicated to discussing updates, improvements and what your likes and dislikes are. Thanks to all of you for reading, participating in giveaways and a special thanks to those who participated in the survey.
Now I am off to drink my tea and work on reading through more survey results.
Haven’t filled out the survey? Don’t worry you still can right here!
(Check out my Baked Pumpkin Mac and Cheeze)
3. Run a 5k- As you will see this is one of my goals from last year that I totally failed on. I decided that I am still wanting to challenge myself athletically and put this back on my list to give myself a second chance.
