For the love of sauce...

What is so enticing about the photo above? You may not register it--except unconsciously--but it is that tiny drip coming off the right side of that delectable morsel of grilled steak. Rare steaks drip like that...but not everybody likes their food dripping blood.

That's why sauces got invented. They hook us into the ancient, primordial connection between our appetite and dripping blood--while catering to our squeamish modern sensibilities.

I love sauces. Food tastes so much richer with a sauce. The other day, they had the most scrumptuous tuna steaks on sale at the local grocer, and it made me think of a sauce I particularly loved that I'd eaten years ago. That tells you something--when a sauce is memorable from YEARS before. Of course, it could just tell you something about me. :)

The problem with sauces, for a fat girl, is that they are usually fattening or unhealthy in some way (full of chemicals, processed, unhealthy additives, too much sodium, too much cholesterol, etc.). I just knew this sauce couldn't have been good for me. It tasted too good.

But while I was eating that tuna steak (sauceless), I couldn't stop savoring the remembered flavor of that unforgettable sauce. So I emailed the restaurant where I'd eaten it. They were closed for renovations and from a quick scan of their online menu, they no longer served the grilled tuna dish anyway, but the corporate office got back to me with the recipe (in gallons). I did the math and brought it down to two cups of sauce (roughly).

The crazy thing is...it's not unhealthy.

It's awesome on grilled tuna so I imagine it would be good on any fish, but I'm going to try it on all kinds of things.

Beware, though, of one issue with this sauce. It's got beer in it. Now I put beer in my barbeque sauce (and sometimes in my gumbo) and I put wine in all kinds of things. Cooking with alcohol is normally not a problem because the alcohol cooks off and only the flavoring remains. It normally doesn't even bother recovering alcoholics (though you should always ask). Problem with this recipe is, you don't cook it. That's live beer in there. Now, I'm not a drinker but I don't have a problem with a splash of beer in my sauce. I respect, though, that you might. Your faith might be the reason, or maybe you are a recovering alcoholic, or someone in your family could be. Either way, just beware. Usually when people are substituting something for beer in a recipe, they use a vegetable broth. You could try that if the beer is a problem.

Have a go at it and let me know what you think. The recipe is simple.

The Unforgettable Sauce

Light Beer (your favorite brand)
3/4 cup

Soy Sauce (I like San J's organic wheat-free tamari)

3/4 cup

Colman's Dry Mustard

1/2 cup

Extra-Strong Dijon Mustard (I like Sir Kensington's organic brand)

1/6 cup (or more to taste)

Whisk it together and that's all there is to it. It's especially lovely topped with chopped green onions.

Go meatless, go raw (go bra-less, for that matter) every chance you get...

I read this recipe on the website of The Natural Food Market in Midland, Texas. I have a friend who lives there, and I was looking for a place that offers fresh vegetable juices. I shared the info with her, then I absconded with this recipe for you. I googled the recipe trying to find out where it came from... I found all sorts of variations. So I took a few liberties with this recipe and made it my own. Try it and let me know what you think. This is a great raw and meat-free meal.

All-Raw Thai Coleslaw

The slaw:
1 ripe mango, cut in small diced cubes

1 head white cabbage, shredded

1 cup purple cabbage, shredded

1 cup carrots, shredded
1/2 cup green onions
1 handful cilantro leaves

1 handful torn basil leaves

The Thai dressing:
2 tablespoons raw honey (or 1 tbsp and few drops stevia)
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 

2 tablespoons chopped ginger
1 large clove raw garlic

1 tablespoon red chili pepper (fresh)

2 tbsp Braggs Amino Acid

1 cup raw almond butter (or raw almonds)--with either being sprouted
Himalayan sea salt to taste

Garnish with whole raw sesame seeds and whole raw cashews (preferably sprouted)

Cut the mango into small cubes. Shred the cabbage and carrots. In a Vita-Mix or high-speed blender, puree the honey, lemon juice, ginger and red chili. Add the raw almond butter and blend at low speed to combine, to get a thick, cake batter-like consistency. Add water to thin if necessary. In a bowl, mix the cabbage and the raw almond butter dressing mixture really well. Add the raw cashews, sesame seeds, cilantro, basil and mango pieces. Stir well but don't overdo. Top with a few leaves of cilantro and basil and a few pieces of mango and/or carrots for colorful garnish.

Here's a great source for sprouted nuts and sprouted nut butters, all organic. If you call or order, tell them Donnagail sent you. Maybe they'll send me a bag of nuts or something. Click on this link:

www.bluemountainorganics.com

Gluten-Free Ancient Grain Pumpkin Bread

“It looked like the world was covered in a cobbler crust of brown sugar and cinnamon.” 
― Sarah Addison Allen, First Frost

I love pumpkin, and if you haven't had much experience with it...well, 'tis the season. You know, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and all that. People joke about everything being pumpkin spiced this time of year. If you are like me and you love pumpkin, you should be encouraged to know it is a true superfood.

But if you don't like pumpkin, this pumpkin bread recipe doesn't have to include pumpkin. It can be made using apples or carrots or even butternut squash instead of pumpkin. A combination of apples and butternut squash is your healthiest replacement for pumpkin. Butternut squash is so filled with fiber and nutrients and I have not yet found a way to incorporate it into a dish I like. But what's not to like about a Butternut Apple Loaf. It's fall and 'tis the season for winter squashes, root vegetables and apple picking, so improvise.

This recipe is super-nutritious, packed with sprouted ancient grains and seeds, healthy fats, healthy sweeteners.

Healthy sweeteners? Yes, I use two of them in this recipe. The most healthy one is blackstrap molasses. Read my post on organic blackstrap molasses. It is a superfood in its own right. It's a tremendous source of magnesium and calcium and in the right ratio. My second sweetener is basically sugar, but it's a much healthier sugar than the white granular stuff you buy at the store. Sucanat looks like brown sugar but it is evaporated organic whole cane juice, filled with nutrients. It's basically what sugar is before all the processing. It's not as sweet as sugar though, but you can puree organic raisins, dates, figs or prunes to add sweetener

Keep in mind most recipes call for 2-3 cups of sugar to 3 cups of flour in a pumpkin bread recipe, but mine only uses 1 cup of succanat and 6 tbsp of the blackstrap molasses. I put twice (or more) the cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg in my recipe, and spices make it satisfying to me in spite of the mild sweet taste. But by adding pureed fruits to taste, you can make it sweet to taste and you'll be adding whole food and fiber to your pumpkin bread/muffins instead of empty sugar calories.

All of the grains and seeds used in this recipe are sprouted and organic. You can sprout them yourself or buy them already sprouted. Email me at theagelesslife@gmail.com and I'll send you links for purchasing organic sprouted nuts and flours.

Gluten-Free Ancient Grain Pumpkin Bread

Wet Bowl 

Soak your flax seeds overnight before using (or a minimum of four hours), then add the rest of your wet ingredients and blend it all together with an immersion blender:

1/3 cup fresh ground soaked whole organic flaxseeds
6 tbsp organic blackstrap molasses
6 organic figs and 3 organic prunes (they are both superfoods in different ways so I like to incorporate both but if you don't have them on hand, you can use organic dates or even organic raisins, pureed)
1/4 cup grass-fed butter
 *vegans can double up on the coconut oil and leave the butter out or replace butter with avocado oil
1/4 cup extra-virgin coconut oil
2 tbsp fresh grated ginger
1 1/4 cup organic evaporated cane juice (aka sucanat)
 *sucanat is dry but you want to blend it into your wet ingredients before folding in your other dry ingredients
3 pastured or organic eggs
 *some recipes call for 4 eggs, but soaked flaxseeds are an egg substitute, so use 3 or 2 or 1 or if you are vegan none, your preference, just be sure to add 2 tbsp of soaked flaxseed for every egg you omit
2 tsp vanilla
15-18 oz mashed cooked pumpkin or canned organic pumpkin puree (can substitute with two cans of mashed carrots, two cups of mashed cooked butternut squash, mashed fresh-cooked carrots or mashed cooked apples)

Dry Bowl 

Combine all of these ingredients together in one "dry" bowl and sift and mix well:

3.25 cups organic gluten-free ancient grain flour mix
 *see mix below
1 1/2 tsp Bob's Red Mill baking soda (the brand makes a difference)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp fresh ground cloves
6 tsp ceylon cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped organic sprouted walnuts

You can mix and match sprouted gluten-free flours however you like but this is how I make my "Organic gluten-free ancient grain flour mix" and it gives me an amazing mix of proteins and nutrients in a simple morning muffin--and it turns out perfect every time:

1/4 cup sprouted amaranth flour
1/4 cup sprouted buckwheat flour
1/4 cup sprouted quinoa flour
1/4 cup potato starch (or arrowroot)
1/2 cup sprouted organic sorghum flour
1/4 cup sprouted brown rice flour
1/2 cup sprouted oat flour
3/4 cup tapioca flour
3 tbsp ground psyllium husks

All my sprouted flours are organic. Email me for my latest "best source" for these organic, sprouted flours.

Gradually pour dry ingredients into wet bowl until mixed well. Pour into two loaf pans and bake for 40-50 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool for one hour before slicing.

Also, you don't have to pour it into two traditional loaf pans... You can make three thin cake layers using cake pans and drizzle the healthy icing (below) on top and in between to make a three-layer "cake." Or you can pour it into a bundt pan and drizzle the icing on top and slice. Or make muffins.

Remember, all the varieties have different cooking times. The thin cake may take only 20 minutes, muffins may take 25-40, depending on how big you make them, and the bundt pan will take 40 minutes to cook a pumpkin bread.

I like pumpkin loaf to eat that night and pumpkin muffins to eat the next few days (and freeze) and this recipe makes 1 pumpkin loaf and 12 small-medium muffins.

Remember, overcooking your muffins can make them too dry and hard the next day, too many eggs can make them rubbery, and overmixing or leaving out the baking powder can make them lose their fluffiness. You don't want pumpkin rocks, you want pumpkin muffins.

My pumpkin bread and muffins are truly not very sweet, but when I bring some to my daughter who insists on super sweet pumpkin bread, instead of adding sweetener, I prefer to make a healthy icing with organic cream cheese slowly melted in a pan with virgin coconut oil, then mixed with organic raw honey after allowing it to cool some (you don't want to overheat raw honey and lose its benefits). The coconut oil and cream cheese both will stiffen as they cool and become harder to mix, so don't wait too long to add in the honey, but it will give you a stiffer icing without having to use powdered sugar or cornstarch. If you slather it onto the top of your warm pumpkin loaf, it will slightly melt into the loaf and then stiffen back up as the loaf cools.

Popeye was wrong!!!

Yes, greens are great for you, but I'm sorry, spinach is not. What I don't understand is why it is one of the most highly-promoted of greens when it's practically the most problematic green you can eat.

I'll tell you why in my next post which will be entitled "Bad greens, good greens, good grief..."

Chocolate parfait, anyone?

I know I'm always talking about  chocolate, but did I tell you the latest thing? I found out it can reverse the build up of plaque in your arteries. No lie.

Here's a way to get your healthy unsweetened cocoa, along with a few other superfoods, in a healthy chia pudding:

You can eat your superhealthy chocolate pudding by itself, or make a superfood parfait like the one pictured above. Make a whipped cream from a can of coconut milk (see this blog post describing how to do it: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-whipped-cream-from-152490). Or you can mix bananas and coconut milk and blend them together to replace the whipped cream. Add your favorite fruits and nuts. Voila!

Do NOT use milk or real cream or yogurt. Did you know that if you eat your chocolate with any type of dairy, it will negate most of the health benefits of chocolate. That's why milk chocolate is NOT good for you.

Note: I customized this chocolate pudding recipe from a recipe in Wellness Mama's blog, and you should check it out if you need a primer on why chia seeds are good for you: http://wellnessmama.com/4981/benefits-of-chia-seeds/

Superfood Meltdown Chocolate Chia Pudding

Ingredients

2 cups of coconut milk or rice milk

1/2 cup chia seeds

4-6 tablespoons cocoa powder (I like organic raw cacoa)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon or more sweetener of choice (I like organic succanat)

Mix all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Place in a covered bowl in your refrigerator and it should thicken after roughly 15 minutes (although I like to make it before bed and leave it overnight to eat the next day).

On the subject of Fall superfoods...

Turnips?? Really?? Yeah, turnips. They're one of the little known superfoods--in fact, Dr. Mercola includes them in his list of Fall superfoods.

Like my okra dish, this low-cal, high-fiber, super-nutritious meal is one of my go-to meals when I am afraid I'm going to binge, and I need to fill myself up on something that is good for me and hits my satiety quotient. This dish will leave you so satisfied, you won't be able to eat anything else--and it's so good for you, you could probably eat as much of it as you want.

One bowl of this stuff will give you over 60% of your RDA of Vitamin C and over 90% of your Niacin RDA, plus a host of other vitamins, minerals and fiber.

Now, don't throw away the turnips greens atop this nutritious root, because they are even more nutritious. Read my earlier post: Thank God for good directions and turnip greens...

Now, in the recipe below, you can omit the chicken if you like and it's just as delicious. Really. This is one of the meals on my Vegetarian (Sort Of) list. It's a way to make a meal out of vegetables. You can eat it by the bowl, alone, or on a plate over rice.

You can also pick up a rutabaga or two to replace some of the turnips, and it will give it an even sweeter flavor, and add a different (but similar) breakdown of nutrients. Both are cruciferous vegetables in the brassica family. My dish photographed is not exactly the recipe below since I replaced one turnip with a rutabaga. You don't have to peel the turnips, but since rutabagas are waxed, you definitely want to peel them.

We all know cruciferous vegetables, especially those in the brassica family, are super-good for us, but among all those commonly-eaten mega-health veggies, Dr. Mercola points to research that shows turnips have the highest level of glucosinolates, which are "sulfur-containing compounds found in turnip sprouts, may also have anti-cancer, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, and antibacterial benefits. According to the November 2012 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, turnip has the second highest level of glucosinates (next to white mustard sprouts) among nine different cruciferous vegetables studied."

Both turnips and rutabagas made Dr. Mercola's list of fall superfoods:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/10/27/15-best-fall-superfoods.aspx


Superfood Meltdown Buttery Cajun Chicken &Turnips

This is the kind of everyday dish Cajun grandmothers cook at home on a weekday. It never makes it onto the cooking shows or cookbooks. But they don't know what they're missing. If you've never had turnips, they turn kind of sweet when you cook them, especially cooked with onions. This dish has a lovely sweet-savory blend of flavors. If you can't stomach the idea of turnips, try replacing the turnips with sliced carrots or chopped cabbage. All three ways, it works. Grandma used whatever was available from the garden. C'est bon!

Ingredients

Turnips, 3 cup, peeled and cubed
Onions, raw, 2 cup, choppedScallions, raw, .5 cup, chopped
Chicken Breast (cooked), no skin, 2 breast, bone and skin removed (ideally organic)
Grass-Fed Butter salted, 1 pat (1" sq, 1/3" high)
Tony Chachere Cajun Seasoning: you can find it in most national grocery store chains and it makes this dish. It has more pepper than salt in it. If it's not salty enough for you but it is peppery enough, you may need to add salt instead of adding more Tony's. (And of course, if you can't find Tony Chachere, just salt and pepper to taste)

Directions

Season chicken breasts with Tony's and cut into bite size pieces, and sautee in saucepan with pat of butter. While chicken is browning, chop turnips, onions and scallions. When chicken is browned, add onions and bring them almost to the point of carmelization before adding turnips and 1/2 cup water (or chicken stock/broth). Season mixture with more Tony's, cover and allow to simmer. Add water or chicken stock as necessary to keep mixture moist and simmering but not soupy. When turnips are tender, taste to see if you need more salt or more Tony's. Stir in chopped scallions and turn off heat. Dish can be served over rice (I like it with brown basmati rice), but if you're watching your carbs, just ladle it into a bowl and dig in.

Serving Size: 3 hearty bowls, eat 1 freeze 2 (or share with others)

Below is what it looked like raw, when I was just getting started, and the photo above is when it was done and about to be served. And yes, I ate the whole plate. That looks like a serving platter, but it was actually turnips-and-chicken-for-one. And for way less calories than one single child's hamburger (no cheese) at McDonald's. I was stuffed and filled with nutrients and this meal didn't make me fat or unhealthy.

Food Porn and Going Vegetarian (sort of)

While I'm fasting and can't eat, all I can think about is food. Late at night, I can spend 20 minutes just gazing at images of my favorite dishes on Google. I am SUCH a food addict. God help me.

Look at these pictures I've been salivating over. And these are the healthier ones. Some are just too binge-inspiring to share on a health-journey blog.

I've been craving ribeyes, raw oysters, roasted turkey with mashed potatoes and oodles of gravy, pork tenderloin slices awash in pork gravy, hamburger steaks with grilled onions and mushrooms, salmon grilled with a sweet Asian sauce, fried catfish, fried seafood platters, grilled whole flounder topped with lump crabmeat, and catfish courtbouillon (one of my favorite Cajun dishes). My most persistent craving is for bbq brisket.

Meat protein and saturated fat is the theme here. This is not only true for me when I'm fasting but when I'm bingeing. I'm a meat addict. I don't understand the physiology of my addiction, but it is at the root of my eating disorder. I eat way too much protein, protein converts to sugar, and it feeds my diabetes. I can stay away from cinnamon rolls, but not brisket.

Now some of my meat choices are healthy--like salmon or raw oysters. Even the meats would be healthy if they were grass-fed and in small amounts. But they never are. I never can eat that prescribed "palm-sized" cut of meat. When I eat meat, I eat meat.

The other day, however, my craving turned to turnips and onions. My mother used to make this wonderful dish where she cut up turnips in chunks and stir-fried it in onions and oil with chunks of chicken or pork or thin slices of smoked sausage. The sweet turnip and onion cooked down almost into a mush, absorbing the savory flavor of the meat, and it was to die for. Even by itself, without meat, turnips and onions stir-fried then cooked down in a savory butter-base is scrumpdillyicious.

Almost as good as meat.

I liked it that much. That got me thinking. What other vegetarian dishes do you like almost as much as meat? Some of them I can eat completely without meat, some of them I like to add cheese or eggs, and some of them I like to use a small amount of meat, but either way, they are better than bingeing on a pound of meat. I began to list them in my head:

1.   Eggplant parmesan
2.   Okra stir-fried with onion and shrimp
3.   Asparagus with homemade Hollandaise sauce
4.   Ratatouille
5.   Turnips and onion (by itself or with chicken or smoked sausage)
6.   Caesar salad with my homemade superfood Caesar dressing
7.   Avocado salad or guacamole (the way I make it) with cherry tomatoes on the side
8.   Brussel sprouts roasted in the oven with bacon and Balsamic vinegar
9.   Cream of Brocolli Soup
10. Roasted Summer Squash with Balsamic vinegar and pine nuts
11. Smothered cabbage with onions (with chicken or smoked sausage)
12. Bean soups (split pea, red lentil Dal, white beans or red beans with sausage, black bean, etc.)
13. Marinara over spaghetti squash "noodles" with Italian sausage
14. Certain Rastafarian vegetable medleys with their unique seasonsings
15. Vegetable curries
16. Greens and onions (seasoned with a smoked bone or nitrite-free smoked meats)
17. Vietnamese Pho
18. Grilled Mushrooms (especially as a sandwich on gluten-free bread with guacamole, grated carrots, melted swiss cheese and homemade mayonnaise)
19. Squash, onion, pepper mushroom and tomato shish-ka-bobs with small chunks of meat
20. Carrots and onions with Cajun seasoning cooked in butter, served over Jasmine rice
21. Cauliflower crust pizza with veggies and cheese
22. Grilled chicken salad
23. Cheese enchiladas with non-GMO corn tortillas and chunky superfood tomato chili sauce
24. Eggplants stuffed with rice, veggies and shrimp

If I ate those types of meals 5 nights a week and greatly minimized the meat, and only ate "meat-as-a-main-course" two nights a week, that change alone would make a tremendous difference in my  health and weight-loss goals. So that is my plan: to go Vegetarian-Sort-Of.

While I can't eat, I'm planning how I will eat when I come off the fast. This is what I've come up with so far:

Breakfast

High-Protein Pumpkin Spice Muffin made with coconut oil, sprouted amaranth and quinoa flours, pureed pumpkin, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg, pureed apple, organic black strap molasses, eggs, ground flax seeds and walnuts

Coffee with organic half-and-half or coconut cream

Lunch

Caesar Salad with my special superfood Caesar dressing
Cream of Brocolli Soup with grated cheese on top

or

My special superfood "Caterpillar Guacamole" with cherry tomatoes
One tin of tiny two-layer sardines (with the bones) in BPA-free can

Dinner

Choose one of my Vegetarian Sort-of Dishes on the List

On Friday nights, I think I will splurge and let myself have a meaty-meal for dinner (just for dinner), so I might have a grilled ribeye with asparagus and salad. On Saturdays (which is when I celebrate my Sabbath) I will fast from food and water. On Sundays after church, it will be a free day where I try not to binge, but allow myself to eat whatever I've been craving, maybe a bunch of roast turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy and southern-style green beans and bacon.

I'm going to try this plan when I come off my fast. I'm going to combine it with moderate weight-lifting 3 x a week and daily exercise for one hour (walking, swimming or elliptical), taking Saturdays and Sundays off.

It sounds really tasty and really healthy, but the question is: will I lose weight?

We shall see.



P.S. I'll eventually get each of these meals listed turned into links where you can see the recipes for them. Keep coming back to this post for updates.