Flax Seed and Chia Seed

Yesterday, I wrote a post about my super-nutritious oatmeal breakfast. Most of the ingredients are commonly found in regular grocery stores.

Flax seeds have been becoming more and more common in recent years due to the widely acknowledged benefits of Omega-3 Fatty Acids. You can buy flax seed oil for making salad dressing or in capsule form as a supplement as well. (Flax seed oil needs to be kept refrigerated and can not be heated.) When taken as oil, you get a higher concentration of Omega-3 Fatty Acid but you lose some of the nutritional value from flax seeds themselves. Flax seeds are good source of fiber as well. I heard from a nutritionist that you can get more nutritional benefits from ground seeds than whole seeds. The problem is that ground flax seeds tend to go rancid rather quickly. You can keep them fresh longer by keeping them in refrigerator or freezer in an air-tight container.

But I much prefer the taste and texture of whole flax seeds better. Especially the roasted ones have really nice flavor. They may loose some nutritional value in roasting process...but, you know, I'm more likely to keep eating if it tastes good. I usually buy these roasted flax seeds from Trader Joe's. It's only around $3 for a 15oz bag, and t's in a resealable bag!

You may have never had chia seeds, but I'm sure you all are familiar with Chia Pets. (Yes, one of those things you hope you never get for a Christmas gift...) I had never had chia seed either until a friend of mine gave me a bag of ground chia seeds.

According to the Lifemax who sells MILA brand chia seeds, they contain 8x more Omega-3 than salmon, 6x more calcium than milk, 6x more protein than kidney beans, 3x more iron than spinach, etc. when compared gram per gram. They are very nutrition-rich seeds. They don't have a strong flavor, which makes it easy to mix them into a smoothie although the brownish color is not quite appealing to me in smoothies. Though they don't have much flavor, I don't put too much in my food since they get kind of sticky and gooey. Perhaps I should use as a thickening agent like nutritional yeast? I sometimes sprinkle them over my food after I finish cooking, just as I do with flax seeds or sesame seeds when neither of them seem to go with what I cooked.

Anyways, those tiny seeds are packed with lots of nutrition. Keep them handy so that you can sprinkle extra nutrition into your food!

Papadum

As I had mentioned in my last post, I challenged myself to cook Indian food everyday for a week. Luckily, there are several Indian grocery stores in Seattle area since we have a good-sized Indian community here. I was able to get all of the ingredients from one of the Indian grocery stores. I also found my favorite Indian flatbread there. One of the Indian restaurants I go to usually gives a crispy flatbread with some dipping sauce to every customer as we wait for our food. It's like the equivalent of bread sticks at the Olive Garden or tortilla chips in a Mexican restaurant... One day, I asked the waiter what the name of this bread was and all I remembered was that it sounded like 'paper.' As it turned out it's called 'papad' or 'papadum'. According to Wikipedia, "they are typically made from flour or paste derived from either lentil, chickpea, black gram (urid flour), rice or potato.

This is how the package for the one I bought looks like. (There were several varieties.) The picture of the kid on the package makes me think that eating this is some sort of punishment... but it really tastes good. (I don't know what the creepy bunny has to do with this bread either...)

My Indian friend taught me that the easiest way to prepare it is to just microwave them piece by piece. It's fun to watch this paper like dry dough turn into nice crispy flatbread. It's kinda like popping popcorn...?

I particularly like the ones with cumin seeds. If you have never had one of these, I hope you'll give it a try!

Spice Box

Last week, I challenged myself to cook Indian food everyday for a week. Why?

1. I love Indian food.
2. My husband is half Indian and grew up eating delicious curry dishes made by his mom.
3. I wanted to learn how to incorporate a variety of spices into my cooking
4. Since I had to buy several new spices, I wanted to make it worthwhile by using them for several dishes at least.

As a starter, I followed recipes exactly from my cookbook. Most of the dishes turned out just okay, not great. The best way to describe them was 'something is missing...', so I'm not ready to post any recipe here on my blog yet. I think I can do better now that I've tried different recipes and have a better understanding of the flavors of spices. Maybe I'll have another week of Indian food between holidays...

When I visited my Indian friend a while ago, I saw her using a beautiful spice box to store all of her basic spices. Since she uses so many different kinds of spices in one dish, I thought it was really practical that she didn't have to open and close spice jars for each spice. The spice box has always been in the back of my mind, so I finally got one for myself!

As I expected, it is very handy! The fact that I have most (not all) of my spices in one container and don't have to open/close each spice jar makes this spice box very practical. I'm sure this is probably a standard kitchen item among Indian families...

I put cumin seed (center), then clock wise from a red one; chili powder, turmeric, mustard seeds, onion seeds, cumin, garam masala.

I don't know if there is some kind of standard to which seven spices go into a box. I'm thinking about buying another one to create my Italian cooking spice box as well.

 

For the love of garlic...

If you have been following my blog, you have probably figured out how much I love garlic! (Didn't I just post a recipe for Peperoncino yesterday?) I usually throw in a few more extra cloves of garlic than what the recipe requires, so I go through my garlic pretty quick. Good thing they are fairly inexpensive... Around here, Fred Meyer has the best price for garlic, three for $1. Their size varies, but I guess it's true with any other stores.

Besides using fresh garlic for cooking, I also make garlic paste which is a really easy way to add garlic flavor to curry, soup, sauce, etc. All you have to do to make garlic paste is just to blend 4 ounces of garlic and 1/2 cup of water in the blender. You can keep it in the refrigerator in a glass jar for about a month. Whenever I feel like something is missing from my cooking, I just add a drizzle of this paste and it's an instant fix! I also have a secret recipe for a delicious garlic sauce, but that one remains a family secret... sorry.

Pickled Garlic from McSweet is another of my favorite! I sampled their pickles at a farmer's market this summer and I had to have them. The farmer's market season is over, but you can order samples from McSweet website for a small shipping charge. (They make variety of delicious pickles.)

Oh, and don't forget about Karam's Garlic Sauce!!

Grater/Zester

I've been cooking dinner almost everyday for my family for nearly 10 years and I finally invested in a quality grater/zester this year as I was switching my diet to nearly vegan. You may laugh at me for not having a grater/zester... I had a box grater which I mainly used to grate and slice cheese. I never enjoyed grating cheese though... Now, check it out! This is the one I use.

I know, I know, I'm being silly for getting excited about a grater. But this really changed my cooking experience! I can add lemon and lime zest as a finishing touch. I can easily add flavor to my dishes by simply grating a ginger root. And my favorite way of using this tool is to grate garlic! It's much faster than mincing and you get more flavor out of the garlic. Well, it has less texture compared with minced garlic, but it's perfect for adding an extra garlic kick towards the end of meal preparation. You can also add some grated garlic into soup, when you feel like something is missing...

This tool is something you apply force to, so you don't want to get a flimsy one. I generally avoid ones with rubber or plastic handles for my cooking gadgets, but that's just my thing, I guess... It may seem a little pricey, but I suggest investing in a sturdy one if you haven't had one yet.

 

Garlic Fries - Trader Joe's

The baseball season is almost over. Do I  really care? Not really. But I do go to see a Seattle Mariners game once or twice every year at Safeco Field. The best part is, I have to say, the garlic fries! I don't know if garlic fries are common in other stadiums, but definitely popular at Safeco Field. Thank you, Trader Joe's for making frozen garlic fries!

All you have to do is to stick them in the oven for about 20 minutes and mix with thawed garlic sauce.

One bag will make a light meal for 2 people or enough side dish for 3-4 people. My mouth is watering just looking at this picture!

Coconut Bliss Ice Cream - Vegan

This is my absolute number one favorite vegan ice cream!! Whether you are a vegan or not, you are missing out on some delicious ice cream if you haven't tried Coconut Bliss Ice Cream yet. It's available in Naked Almond Fudge, Pineapple Coconut, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Naked Coconut, Dark Chocolate, Vanilla Island, Mint Galactica, Cappuccino, Cherry Amaretto, Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge flavors. (I wish all the flavors are available at my local store...)

Better yet, coconut is good for you! If you just read the nutritional information on the package, you'll see a quite bit of saturated fat. But behold, saturated fat in coconut oil is different from saturated fat from animal products. It has no cholesterol and contains medium chain fatty acids which can be easily broken down and used for energy. It also has agave syrup as a sweetener, which doesn't cause a sugar rush followed by sugar crash like regular sugar used in regular ice cream.

This picture was taken at the Healthy Living Fair in Issaquah, WA. I got to meet and chat with a really nice gal from the Coconut Bliss tasting team there. She gave me some sample bites, coupons and this fun brochure:

Until I read the brochure, I didn't know that the business was started by a couple in Oregon who are passionate about ice cream and bought a $1.50 hand-cranked ice cream machine at a Goodwill to create some vegan ice cream for themselves. Then they started having tasting parties at their house... and soon the stores wanted to sell them... and here they are!

I really appreciate their commitment to not only to create great taste but also to use the best organic ingredients. Their coconut milk comes from an organic family-owned farm in Thailand, and all their cocoa, chocolate, vanilla and coffee are from certified fair-trade sources.

For more information, you can visit their website, but I say "Tasting is believing", so please give it a try. If you don't like it, I will gladly take any left over ice cream from you!!

nucoa

Last week's success with 'Giant Bakery Style Double Chocolate Chip Cookies' got me into a baking mood. I found some other recipes from 'The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur' that I would love to try!

So, I put margarine on my grocery list and went to Fred Mayer yesterday. I grabbed a box of margarine from the shelf and started to read the back of the box just to make sure margarine doesn't have any dairy like I thought it didn't. Of course it doesn't, it's made out of vegetable oil, dummy! But you know what, I'm glad I read the label. Most of the products marked as margarine contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil... Remember that nasty stuff I talked about in my 'An aroma of popcorn...' article? No wonder it is so cheap! One box of margarine was somewhere between $0.79 and $0.99. I guess you get what you pay for, right? I kept checking out other butter-like products for baking and found 'nucoa'. (This is a different product from 'nucoa margarine'.)

This one says on the box "Non-Hydrogenated", "0g Trans Fat" and "Great for cooking and baking". Sounds perfect! Until I learn that something in it is actually not good for us, this one will be my choice. It was $1.39 per box. It's a little more than margarine, but not too expensive. I don't know how it tastes by itself, but I'm buying it for baking, so it really doesn't matter so much. And the cookies I baked with this came out pretty nice and buttery!

Veggie Chips - Trader Joe's

These are my favorite chips from Trader Joe's. I love their crunchy texture... they remind me of the BBQ potato snack chips I grew up eating, very often. They have a very subtle yet flavorful taste and they are so light and airy, yet satisfying. And the natural red, yellow, green and potato colors are so appealing to the eyes.

Lately, I've been experimenting with mixing chips and nuts as my snack. A veggie chips / almond combo was okay, but it's healthier and more satisfying than just eating a bunch of chips. (I like a 'sea salt and vinegar' chips / almond combo the best so far!) Hmmm, I should try mixing the veggie chips and kale chips...

The trick I use to not over-eat snacks like chips is to pour them in a cereal bowl. If I have an entire bag of chips in my hands, I know I will eat more than I should...

Vegenaise

I love mayonnaise. I probably have gone a little overboard with mayonnaise in the past... I could eat rice just with mayo... I've used mayo as salad dressing... I ate my hard boiled eggs with mayo... I would even dip my sushi into mayo... I spread mayo on my toast...I could eat pasta just with mayo and some toppings...

Fortunately, I got over my mayo-holicism since I moved to the US. Quite frankly, American mayonnaise just isn't that great. Sorry... I love Japanese mayonnaise! (Dutch mayonnaise is good too!) So, in a very unexpected way, American mayo made my transition into Veganaise much easier.

This is the one I usually buy at PCC. It is a vegan product, so it's egg free and dairy free, which means no cholesterol. It has no preservatives or GMO. When I was in the hunt for a vegan version of mayonnaise, I picked this one up because the main ingredient was grapeseed oil. It has soy protein listed on the ingredients list, but not as a main ingredient like some other kinds. Plus, grapeseed oil sounded more exciting than soybean oil... As it turns out, grapeseed oil is good for fryng since it has a high smoking point and it can be used to make dressings since it doesn't have a strong flavor. 

It is more expensive than regular American mayonnaise, but not much more than buying a bottle (or tube) of Japanese mayonnaise. I think it was somewhere around $5 a jar. 

Update: I just met a rep from Follow Your Heart (the company who makes the Vegenaise) at the healthy living fair in Issaquah, WA. He told me they are working on soy-free product now!! (9-12-2010)

Hemp Protein Powder - Trader Joe's

Since I talked about protein yesterday, I thought it would be appropriate to introduce my favorite protein powder. Granted that I'm still new to this plant-based diet, I haven't tried many other kinds of protein powders yet. But this is my favorite so far. I know myself... if I had to make a separate trip to a special store every time I needed a new bottle, I wouldn't do it. It has to be convenient, which means I can buy it from the same place I buy other items. It has to be reasonably priced since I have a limited budget for my groceries. I consider this a part of my grocery budget.

Trader Joe's strikes again! I like their Organic Hemp Protein Powder because it is organic and soy free. It's only $9.99 and it has about 15 servings per container. Each serving gives you 9g of protein, which is almost a quarter of my daily requirement. It's high in Omega-3 / fatty acids and dietary fiber, and it's also gluten free. I've only tried their vanilla flavored one, but I believe there is also chocolate flavor available too. The only thing I don't care for is the color... The powder is a scary green color and turns everything you mix with into a swampy green color. Who knew that hemp could be such a good source of nutrition?

Fantastic Falafel - Vegan

I'm not sure if I can call this a recipe since it's straight out of box...but how often do we make everything from scratch, right?

I usually use a Falafel mix from Fantastic Foods. It's all-natural and vegan. All you have to do is to mix with water, shape and cook them. One box will make enough Falafel for 4 people.

I bought mine at PCC. You can also purchase directly from the company's website.

What goes in your body (vegan):

• Falafel mix
• Pita bread
• Mixed salad greens
• Tomatoes, sliced
• Karam's Garlic Sauce

You are going to:

1. Prepare Falafel mix according to the instructions on the box. (It will take about 30 minutes.)
   
   
   
   
   
2. Arrange salad greens, tomatoes and Falafel in divided pita bread. 
3. Top with Karam's Garlic Sauce

Secrets from the chef:

• You can create a low-carb version by serving as Falafel salad with pita bread on the side. 

Bon appétit! 

Karam's Garlic Sauce - Vegan

If you love garlic and creamy texture like me, Karam's Garlic Sauce will make you very happy. It has no preservatives, no artificial colors or flavors, no dairy and is gluten free. I'm a garlic junkie (if there's such a thing), so I don't mind having a little more garlic in it though.

 

I use it for cooking, dipping, marinating, etc. You'll probably see it being used in some of my recipes. This sauce is from Karam's Lebanese Restaurant in Seattle. I love their Baba Ghannouj and Hummus too, by the way. I bought my sauce at PCC. Here is a list of places you can find one.I hope you'll like it!

Mahi Mahi Burgers - Trader Joe's

The BBQ season can be challenging for non-meat-eaters. You often are greeted with "Oh, you don't eat meat?", which technically means "What's wrong with you?" Fortunately, I have a little more options than typical vegans and vegetarians because I eat fish. The Mahi Mahi Burgers from Trader Joe's are my absolute favorite!

Between this and some variety of good veggie burgers, I can fully appreciate BBQ season. I typically make my burger with lettuce, onion and tomato. I substitute cheese with thin slices of avocado. I serve with a spicy sauce to give a little kick to it. It's a mixture of a little bit of wasabi or abodo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers with my favorite vegenaise (vegan mayonnaise). Delish!

Salad Spinner

I got this salad spinner as a wedding gift 9 years ago. Whoever gave us this gift knew what they were doing. Thank you! I have been using it a lot. Love it!

It works so well for quickly washing and drying leafy greens and herbs. If you want to avoid having to dry them with paper towels or soggy salad, this is a winner.

All I need to do is to chop up my greens, toss them into the strainer inside, rinse them, put the strainer back into the clear outer bowl, and push the top nob down to spin. Voila! You have nice crispy greens.

There are many different kinds available. I would suggest buying a nicer looking one, though it may cost a little more. Because you can use the clear outer bowl as a serving dish for the salad you just made, if you need to take your salad to somewhere else, it also makes a perfect serving dish/transferring container with a lid. 

     

My favorite Tempeh - Trader Joe's

This is a follow-up post from my last week's post about Tempeh. I just wanted to share my favorite Tempeh. It's Trader Joe's "Organic 3 grain Tempeh".

 

Why do I like this particular one? Well, first of all, it's only $1.69 for an 8oz package. It's organic. It's fully cooked, but not seasoned, which means you can add to your recipe without pre-cooking it. When you make a dish like "Tempeh Tostadas", you can skip the steaming process. That saves about 20 minutes of my time in the kitchen! It contains barley and millet for more variety of nutritional sources.

I hope you enjoy it!

Produce Saver

I saw these "Rubbermaid Produce Saver Food Storage Containers" at a local grocery store several years ago. It got me interested enough to investigate more into them. I'm the kind of person who has to read reviews before buying anything. This was getting a lot of 5 star reviews at amazon.com. It looked promising. A part of the reason I needed something to keep my vegetables fresh longer was because my old refrigerator wasn't doing a good job, which I ended up replacing about a year ago. 

I bought a set of three, 2-cup, 5-cup and 14-cup sizes. I don't remember how much I paid back then. They turned out to be super handy! Especially now that I buy more vegetables, overflow items from my refrigerator's produce drawer can go in these. But even before I changed my diet, I saved a lot of money by not wasting produce I bought. It has vent in the lid which allows oxygen to circulate around the produce. It also has a tray inside to keep the produce elevated about a 1/2 inch away from moisture at the bottom. I know that the sooner from the harvest the better nutritional value you get from fruits and vegetables. Come on, I have a job. I can only go to the farmers market once a week! If you buy from the grocery store, you won't know how far and long it has been from the harvest anyways. The point is to keep them fresh while they await to be eaten by you.

It works extremely well with berries and leafy greens. A 2-cup one is perfect size for one pint of blueberries and a 5-cup one is a good size for 1lb of strawberries. You can fit a regular size head of lettuce comfortably in a 14-cup one. I also use a 2-cup one for keeping things like ginger and herbs. I don't remember ever using my entire ginger for a single recipe. 

I included some links to amazon.com. I didn't write this post for advertising purposes, I really love this product. But if you decided to give it a try, please use following links. By blog will benefit from your purchase. There are other varieties of this type of container. Since I don't own the other kinds, I don't know if one is better than the other. I hope this will save your produce and some $.

 

Tempeh - Vegan

Do you think it's ironic that I'm writing about Tempeh under "Must-have items" after telling you how I try to avoid soy products? Well, there's a fine line between "trying to avoid" and "avoiding", right? Actually my voodoo doctor told me that Edamame (fresh soybeans) and Tempeh are good options since they are not processed when it comes to eating soy. I would argue that Natto should be considered a good soy option as well, but I doubt any American would eat it. Natto is a slimy, sticky and stinky food made with fermented soybeans. It's a part of everyday breakfast for many Japanese people. I'm not a big fan of Natto, but I don't mind it.

Since my Tempeh Tostadas recipe got some of you interested in cooking with Tempeh, I thought it would be appropriate to talk more about it. Tempeh is an Indonesian food. It is also made with fermented soybeans and its retention of the whole bean gives it a higher content of protein, dietary fiber, and vitamins. Actually, the soy protein in tempeh becomes more digestible as a result of the fermentation process. It comes in cake like shape and has a firm texture. You can find it in the health food section of grocery stores, health food stores and Oriental food stores. Be sure to read the package since some that you see in regular grocery stores are precooked and flavored, you want a plain one if you are planning on seasoning it. It freezes well if you don't use a whole package.

I'm going to explore cooking with tempeh myself in the future since I only have a small repertoire. There are cookbooks out there dedicated to recipes with tempeh such as "The Tempeh Cookbook". I hope tempeh will become a part of your healthy food choice.

Frozen Okra - Vegan

Since the main ingredient from yesterday's recipe was okra, let me talk more about this wonderful vegetable. Okra is such an underrated vegetable around here...Growing up in Japan, I remember eating it quite a bit. I didn't like it as a kid because of the tiny peach-like fuzz on the skin. I thought it was kind of creepy...

Now, whenever I see fresh okra at the farmers market, I get very excited! But that opportunity is too few and far between. For most recipes I use frozen okra. There are some recipes I insist on using fresh ones though. This 12oz bag of frozen okra is $1.49 from the Fred Meyer. Last time when they were on sale for less than a dollar par bag, I stocked them up in my freezer. It's Kroger brand, I'm sure you can find it at other grocery stores as well.

My mom used to tell me that slimy food is good for keeping your blood clean. I really don't know what she meant by that. But Okra is High in Dietary Fiber, contains Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Thiamin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Manganese, Protein, Riboflavin, Niacin, Iron, Zinc and Copper.

Sounds pretty good for the body, huh?

By the way, I found this dehydrated okra at a grocery store in Charlotte, NC. They were so yummy!! I haven't seen them around here in Seattle.

Does anyone know where I can buy it?