Very Green Pretty Tasty!

Vegan

As I mentioned, since I try to err on the side of healthy, many of my green monsters can be disasters flavor-wise. This one's worth noting down. A variation on the Back On Track

In order of admittance:
1. Grind flax seeds
2. Add Turkish apple tea, then steamed greens. Blend.
3. Add diced Asian pear (also lightly cooked, since I avoid raw. I find it caramelized its flavor, too!), a tablespoon coconut oil, a few slices fresh ginger, scoop of Green Superfood or similar.
4. With the blender going, toss in a dash of cinnamon.

Voila!

Refreshing Green Smoothie

Vegan

I've just discovered romaine lettuce as a very neutral-flavored thirst-quenching base for green monsters.

This is (quick-steamed) romaine, fresh papaya, tahini, teaspoon green tea powder, flax seeds, fresh mint leaves and a herbal tea for the liquid: ginger-infused Celestial Seasonings Lemon Zinger.

The overall flavor is pleasant but fairly mild.

Green Love Rice Bowl

Mid-Autumn Festival
Vegan

This meal is fit for St. Patty's Day!
Brown Rice with Cucumbers, Green Beans, Avocado and
Mung Bean Dip: cooked mung beans, tahini, lemon juice, salt, olive oil

all dressed with a little extra lemon j and EVOO

Green Smoothie Pile-Up: Squash and Fresh Coconut

Vegan

I'll be honest with you, not all green smoothies I've been making have been of the "Mmmm... delicious" variety. Sometimes the flavors really didn't gel that well. Here's a thick, creamy,

delicious winner. It was so thick in fact, that it stood up above the glass rim. : )

Mustard greens add a zippy peppery taste.

Cooked squash, fresh coconut meat, mustard greens, peanut butter*, green tea powder*, Amazing Grass Green Superfood*, water

*can really overpower, less is more

Salmon Burgers with Arame and Steamed Kale

Pescotarian

salmon burgers recipe
subs: dill for parsley, fresh basil for dried

Arame is a Japanese dark and very flavorful seaweed. I followed the Fresh method of preparing it: soak in freshly boiled water for 15 min, drain and pour on their Simple Sauce to add loads of intense flavor - a little goes a long way! Note: this forum says the sauce recipe should call for roasted sesame oil.

Matcha Cookies

Ovo-Lacto (egg, butter)

Rescue Mission (use-up-so-can-buy-more-fresh): green tea (matcha) powder, dried cranberries

recipe

My first Green Monster!

Vegan

Inspired by the Green Monster Movement, among other green smoothie challenges out there - curious if a steady daily diet of these will really make me feel fab inside and out?

I don't do much raw or cold, due to lax digestive ability (hopefully aided by these creations!), so...
- cooked celery, some kind of Chinese green leafy veg, Asian pear
- flax seeds, warmed oat milk, scoop of Amazing Grass Green Superfood

Yum!

Ginger Mint Lemonade

Vegan (if you're ok with honey, or use another sweetener)

This guy's a winner! A very few steps, a bit of infusion time and voila, yummy refreshing hot-weather DIY lemonade.

from the garden: fresh mint

- into a jar: grated ginger and lemon zest, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, fresh mint leaves
- infuse in fridge for several hours, strain into glasses once ready to drink
- add to taste: sweetener, dissolved in hot water
- serve with ice cubes, a slice of lemon and fresh mint

Color and Couscous

Lacto-veg (added a dab of butter to the couscous)

Couscous is the meal-in-a-flash maker: in a bowl, add same amount of boiling water, salt and oil, stir and cover for 5 min, add a dab of butter and fluff with a fork - voila!

- finely chopped carrot in a pot w water to just cover, add pumpkin
- cinnamon, dried currants, couscous first prepped as per above, fresh mint and basil sliced into strips

Served with a creamy chai tea

Zucchini Spaghetti

Lacto-veg (cream cheese)

Inspired by this recipe

Alterations:
- diced green pepper instead of green peas, chopped basil and almonds for pesto
- added sundried tomatoes

Soaking veggies

Don't just rinse your veggies, bathe them!

Got turned onto this excellent way to ensure no dirt or bugs are left on my veg by an old roomie. Especially effective for leafy veg, which have all kinds of ruffles and dips for dirt and critters to cling on to.

 Step 1: For bunch-growing veggies, cut off the connecting bit at the bottom and separate the leaves in water. If you don't want the stems, eg. in spinach, pinch or cut them off first. (Spinach is often the dirtiest thing to come home from the market!)

Step 2: Add some salt to a bowl of water. I just kinda toss in about a teaspoon. Here is a recipe for a vegetable wash that calls for more salt, as well as vinegar, to remove pesticides.

Step 3: Plunge veggies in and stir them around a bit with your hands. Leave for 5-10 minutes.

Step 4: Discard water (your plants will love it!) and fill bowl with fresh plain water. May need to repeat several times until the water bath is clean. I give a final rinse in a colander and get cookin'.

This also works for root veggies like potatoes when they're especially mucky - soaking them first loosens up the dirt and you don't need to scrub as hard. I think it also gets them cleaner.

Blender Mornings

I have a recent guideline for eating breakfast, which is to have it by 9am. Beyond that, especially after 10am, it's getting much too close to lunch and will overload the body's natural digestive rhythms. (which are primarily focused on:

elimination 4am-12noon ** digestion 12noon - 8pm ** absorption 8pm - 4am,

which is why it's good to have your biggest meal at midday and taper off heavy eating by late evening)

So especially when it's getting later in the morning, or just to have a light, quickly absorbed and easily digested meal, I whip up a smoothie. Some recent creations have involved:

- warm Banana Oat Milk (from Fresh At Home cookbook)

- Papaya smoothies with non-dairy milk and mixed-grains powders (sold here in Taiwan as "hot cereals" to be mixed with boiling water for a super-quick snack or light meal, eg this kind of thing:)

the Chinglish description at the bottom makes it even more enjoyable!

- and today's creation, Banana Mango Smoothie with oat milk, soy protein and greens powder

It was going to be banana-blueberry, but I found the mango looking quite forlorn with black spots on one of its sides, so it was a rescue mission, and a tasty one at that, albeit it ended up being quite sweet, probably the whole-foods equivalent of a sugary breakfast cereal or muffin, so I don't recommend this combo for daily use or for anyone worried about diabetes. I munched some nuts along with it to offset spiking my blood sugar levels.

Then... I blended the rest of the very ripe sweet little bananas and very ripe mango with vanilla ice cream and plopped that into my popsicle molds. Taste test to come.

Carrot Cookies

Vegan
well-received : )
from Helen Nearing's Simple Food for the Good Life

Recent Ayurveda reading told me cooked honey is toxic, so maple syrup it is.
Oven 350-375C

Job's Tears Pudding

Vegan

For those of you begging the question: "Can you make "rice pudding" with Job's Tears?"

The answer is - why, yes, and it's delicious! Quinoa and all sorts of other grains work well too.

- cooked 大薏仁＋小薏仁 (from what I can gather, these are two types of barley, 小薏仁 is pearl barley and 大薏仁 is apparently known as adlay or Job's tears)
- apple, cinnamon, raisins, almonds

Kasha with Mung Bean Sauce and Fresh Tomato

Vegan
Successfully executed current ideal chow: whole grains with veggies and good-quality protein

ain't she a beaut?

Mung Bean Sauce