Sweet Potato Pie - Made Better!

To make it easier for you to make that switch to building stronger bones with veggies, here's a super recipe for one of the bestest bone builders out there, sweet potatoes. 

Recipe: Vegan Sweet Potato Pie

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2 cups cooked sweet potatoes
1 cup soymilk
1/2 cup maple syrup
3 Tbsp oil
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp powdered ginger
1/4 tsp powdered cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

Mash or blend sweet potatoes in food processor. Add remaining ingredients and mix completely. Pour mixture into unbaked vegan pie crust. Bake at 400 degrees for 50-60 minutes.

 VEGSOURCE.COM | SABRINA NELSON | 11/09/09
http://www.vegsource.com/news/2009/11/vegan-sweet-potato-pie.html

Review: Hospital Food Comes to Furrs!

For those of you who reminisce about a past vacation spent in the luxury of a hospital, enjoying four-star service and five-star cuisine, have I got good news for you! Furr's "Fresh Buffet" Cafeterias are now offering hospital fare for their valued customers who have gotten tired of the same old home style cooking at other family restaurants.

As vegetarians (I'm stricter than my wife is), we used to eat at Furr's occasionally, because of their vegetable and salad variety. Imagine our delight when we recently went back to Furr's (in our home town of Fort Smith, Arkansas) and found an entirely new buffet menu had been adopted.

As a 90% of the time strict vegetarian, I stick to fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds almost all the time (as advised in Genesis 1:29). However, on the advice of my very understanding and very wise doctor, Phil Agent, MD, I will occasionally eat fish for the omega 3 and 6 oils that seem to be so important. When we go out for fish, we aim for a variety, staying away from catfish, which has very little food value, and heading for either Furr's or Long John Silver's - depending on our appetite ... and our bank account!

Generally, Furr's has supplied us with a great salad selection, lots of properly done veggies, and several fish dishes to choose from. Generally.

However, as I said before, on our last visit we were very disappointed. I made notes:

• The cajun baked tilapia was almost completely flavorless, which is pretty remarkable for anything cajun!, and it was very dry, despite swimming in butter.
• The featured and advertised butterflied shrimp was so over cooked it wasn't crunchy, it was hard! And flavorless.
• The usually reliable baked cod was almost cold and ... greasy! Now how do you make baked cod greasy?? Oh, and hard around the edges. It wasn't flavorless - it tasted greasy.
• I gave up and tried the fried catfish despite it's lack of food value (at this point I was just hungry for some decent fish!) and, much to my surprise it was cold, chewy, and overcooked. (The surprise comment was sarcasm.) And it was, y'know, flavorless.

The highlight of the meal was the tartar sauce which was tangy, creamy, and worked wonderfully to conceal the awful fish dishes. The salads were still good. It's apparently very difficult to ruin pasta, carrot and raisin, and plain lettuce and tomato salads.

Overall, we should have gone to Long John Silver's. And we probably will the next time we go out for fish.
Unless, you know, we're longing for hospital food.
But then, the hospital cafeteria is cheaper.

Stick to the veggies.

Ginger! Who'da Thunk it!

I've just made a late-in-life discovery: Ginger is a healthful nutrient! I knew about using it for seasoning, and I watched Gilligan's Island, so I knew about the hair color, but I never knew the following facts. Now we can all benefit from this great gift ...

Ginger, whole, sliced, grated, in crystals, or dried and powdered is beneficial for:

• Relieving nausea - doesn't cause drowsiness like some meds, especially useful after surgery or chemotherapy.
• Ease motion sickness when riding or flying.
• Reduce dizziness, i.e. from motion sickness, and in older adults.
• Control chronic pain by reducing inflammation and lowering natural pain-causing Prostaglandins. Relieve muscle strain and pain from arthritis (swelling joints, etc.) - using ginger oil for massages.
• Limit flatulence by soothing the digestive tract. (Also important when traveling long distances in close quarters!)
  
• Lessening symptoms of common colds, allergies, and other respiratory problems. It's a natural decongestant!
  
• Improve blood lipid levels by raising HDL (good) cholesterol, lowering LDL (the bad one) and reducing triglycerides.
  

So grab some hot ginger tea, ginger ale, or a ginger beer and some ginger snap cookies and make your mouth as well as your body a lot happier!

Natural Sea Salt Versus Table Salt, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

By Willie JonesWillie Jones

If you have read other health articles that I’ve written you know that I am not a believer in Man messing with Mother Nature when it comes to the food we eat.  In this article I want to address a common spice we all use on a daily basis.  Salt!

Salt as we know it is a pure white free flowing spice that we find essential to flavoring our daily foods.  Usually one doesn’t even think about it much unless we have a medical condition where a doctor will tell us to decrease the amount of salt intake.

Table salt is normally rock or ocean salt that is mined, heat blasted, chemically treated, and then anti-caking agents and iodine added to it.  What you have left is table salt that is basically dead.  It is now just dry sodium and chloride.  Once again man is cheating us of one of Mother Natures most perfect foods.  Processed salt is now devoid of all the essential minerals and macrobiotic nutrients that our bodies need to survive.

Consider this, when you cry your tears are salty, and if you’ve cut yourself and tasted your blood, you know it is salty.  The fluids in our bodies are like an ocean environment.  Salt is essential for life and yet our bodies cannot make it so it must come from an outside source.  Most often it comes from meat or regular table salt.  The problem is that our bodies don’t really know what to do with processed salt.  Years of processed salt intake can damage almost all areas of the body such as the heart, kidneys, muscles and bones and it is processed salt that bloats us and causes water retention.  Processed salt can put a body out of balance.  According to Dr Langre’s book, people that have an aversion to salt or tell you they dislike salt most likely have too much sodium chloride attached to their organs and tissues, are really telling you that they are sick and are in need of essential minerals.

100% natural sea salt maintains its integrity.  Quite frankly, natural, organic sea salt is completely unfooled around with and is still harvested the same way it was done 2000 years ago by French salt farmers.  It is hand raked and left in the sun to dry.  All of the trace and micro-nutrients are fully intact.  The correct balance of sodium and chloride are present as well as calcium, magnesium, potassium and 90 other trace and micro-nutrients.  These are charged minerals that retain a lot of moisture and are grey in color.  If your sea salt from the health food store is white and free flowing then it is processed and should not be used.

When natural sea salt is ingested, it immediately works with the saliva in the mouth (amalese in particular) and starts the digestive process.  The more minerals present in the mouth the more digestion takes place.  Digestion continues in the stomach.  Natural organic sea salt has been known to lower blood pressure and decrease water retention.  It enables the liver, kidneys and adrenals to work much more efficiently.  It can boost the immune system.  Natural sea salt has all the elements of the ocean and this means that the survival potential of a body is much greater than if you remove these vital elements.

Do your body good and get natural grey sea salt.  It won’t pour like table salt because of the moisture content, but the health benefits can be significant.

Willie is a freelance writer and researcher whose own health problems prompted her to take responsibility for gaining as much information on health as possible and to share that knowledge with others.  She is co-owner of http://www.cleanbodydetox.com a site that focuses on health and detox through ionic foot baths.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Willie_Jones http://EzineArticles.com/?Natural-Sea-Salt-Versus-Table-Salt,-the-Good,-the-Bad-and-the-Ugly&id=502186

Jo's Homerun Medley

Jo Donna hit a homerun at dinner last night with this veggie medley dish.
NOTE: this does contain some oil, but not much. If you wish, you can substitute water or vegetable broth for the oil (EVOO)

Here's how ...
* Dice 1 medium yellow (sweet) onion
* And slice 4 large button mushrooms
-- saute these in about 2 tsps of water until the onion starts to caramelize and the mushrooms begin to darken;
* add in 3 peeled and very thinly sliced medium red potatoes - stir together
* mix in about 1 1/2 cups of frozen (or fresh if you have them) sliced yellow and zuc squashes
-- add tiny amounts of water as necessary to keep the veggies from sticking
* season with 2 tsps of EVOO, salt, pepper, and gomasio
* toss until everything is crispy done
* sprinkle with 1/2 - 1 cup of either shredded soy mozzarella cheese or organic creme cheese

Jo brought this to the table where I was crowing about how wonderful my vegan Spinach pizza was ... I wound up jealous of her medley over my pizza! Whatta girl!!

c ya!

Tofu basics AND Bar-be-que Riblets

Jo and I have officially fallen head-over-heels in love with tofu! This stuff is great - you can basically do anything with it, from baking a knock out bar-b-que to scrambling "eggs" for breakfast to even making mayo or sour cream substitutes. But first you gotta know how to work it, and work it right!

When I get that initial "ewwww" yucky face response to tofu from the unenlightened, I tend to follow up with a simple example question: "but do you like potatoes?" I ask all innocent-like to draw them y'see. Which always gets a " why sure I do." response. Then I hand them (if I have one handy) a raw, unpeeled potato and say, "well here you go, dig in!" "B-b-b-ut I can't eat this, it's raw!" they stutter (they always stutter when faced with superior reasoning, don't they).
Same thing with tofu. Raw, unpeeled potato equals raw, unprepared tofu. Both need preparation to be tasty.

Here's how to prep the tofu (figure out the potato your own self!):

* first, get organic tofu. (chemicals bad!)
* also first (first.b) get the freshest tofu package you can find - dig to the back of the counter to find the latest stocked items (I learned that when I worked at a grocery store in 1977!)
-- later at home--
* pierce the top of the package and drain the water the tofu is packed in
* slice the tofu into whatever size pieces are appropriate for your intended recipe (you'll understand when you get going)
* slip these tofu chunks into simmering, almost-but-not-quite-boiling water for about three minutes (slipping prevents splashing and the resulting burning, screaming and dropping of tofu which is painful to even watch)
* after simmering for three minutes, remove the tofu slices with a slotted spoon, and lay them out on a cloth (cheese cloth, tight-weave dish towl, paper towels, old t-shirt, etc)
* fold the above referenced cloth over the tofu and press it to squeeze out as much water as possible - this isn't a strength contest, don't smash the tofu - it will be fairly firm, so press firmly

This batch of tofu is now ready for whatever culinary masterpiece you have in store for it! such as ...

Bar-B-Que Riblets!
[NOTE: no animals were harmed in the making of this dish. Isn't that nice? Yeah.]

"Hey now! If going vegan or vegetarian means giving up muh real Texas bar-b-que, y'all can color me outta here!"
Ah, how many times have we heard that bucolic refrain ringing across the back yard grill? Too many to count, right? Well invite your neighbors over for an old-fashioned (but really new-fashioned) bar-b-que they'll talk about for months.

* Prepare tofu as you know how (see above) and cut it into riblet-sized and shaped pieces - approximately 1 inch thick and about two inches wide.
* mix up your favorite bar-b-que sauce - I like a good, bold bottle off the shelf to which I add chopped onions, crushed garlic, cayenne pepper, Tabasco© sauce - basically whatever Jo will let me get away with. The idea here is to get real close to making yourself cry from the heat without overshadowing the taste.
* pour 1/2 the sauce into your baking dish, place the tofu slices thereupon, and pour the rest of the sauce over, making sure all surfaces of the tofu are covered (don't be stingy! Remember the old saying "a penny saved ... is just flat-out cheap!")
* place the aforementioned baking dish into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes
* turn the riblets, making sure, again, they are all covered with the sauce
* return to the oven for another 15 - 20 minutes, depending on how chewy you want your riblets

* Serve with bbq beans and something cold to put out the inevitable (if you fixed the sauce right) fire - cole slaw is good, so is grape juice - fermented or not.

* Most important part: don't forget to invite me for dinner!!!!

Super cornbread - non-dairy

And here's the corn bread we've been eating like two starving heathens:
(basically, we just follow the recipe on the side of the Gold Medal Yellow Cornmeal bag, but make substitutions which make the resulting super version.)

two cups of corn meal (NOT mix - it has flour in it)
FOUR teaspoons of baking powder [NOTE: this has been changed as of 3/1/08]
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (lower sodium but same salty flavor)
-- mix the dry ingredients well --
1 1/2 cup of vanilla soy milk
* two heaping tablespoons of Nayonnaise mayonnaise substitute (this is the egg replacer and the "secret" ingredient that makes it so good)
2 tablespoons of EVOO
-- mix all together well--
Pour into a 9 X 9 glass baking dish which has been sprayed with non-stick spray
Bake at 400 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes

eat it hot with Smart Balance Light with Flax Oil!

You can also add vegetarian imitation bacon bits, or corn into the mix. I like to place jalapeno slices on top before putting it in the oven ... but Jo says it's too spicy for her!

"Oh Man!" black bean & corn on the cob soup

When Jo Donna says something like, "Oh! Bobby! You've got to taste this!" I know it's going to be good. Last Saturday she said just that after taking out of the fridge the beans we'd put in just the night before. I took a sip from the spoon she was holding and agreed that this was a winner - and somehow all different from what it was the night before.

We started out with dried black beans - I just tolerate the canned black beans because they're supposed to be so healthy, but the taste is blah - and, after soaking them and rinsing them half a dozen times, cooking them to tenderness, we started the seasoning adventure that makes cooking fun. Since we'd never made black beans from scratch before, we sort of played with the seasonings. We added maybe a teaspoon of sea salt and some Mrs. Dash, and then chopped two medium sized yellow onions for good measure. I was rummaging around in the fridge for ideas and saw some frozen mini-ears of corn in the freezer. Why not? So we popped two of these into the soupy beans and let it cook, covered for another half hour. Then we turned them off and let the pot cool before popping it in the fridge overnight.

The next day, as I said before, was eye-opening! The corn cobs had boiled/steamed/melted into the beans and the flavor was so rich it almost tasted like we'd dumped cream into them! I ate mine over crumbled dairy free cornbread (I'll post that recipe, too), and Jo had hers by themselves. Either way was heavenly. In fact, as we were eating, I was continuing grace in sort of a mumbling, zen mantra thing about "Oh Lord! thank you for this wonderful stuff you made and let us mix together. I wish you could share some of it with us! Hey, can we add this to the feast table menu in heaven?"

Try this - guaranteed satisfaction or your money back ... and I'll eat what's left over!