Easy, Healthy Cellophane Bean Thread Noodle Soup

I think I might have perished when I gave up pasta (and all things wheat) except for the fact that I discovered Cellophane Bean Thread Noodles!

From Wikipedia: Cellophane noodles (also known as Chinese vermicelli, bean threads, bean thread noodles, crystal noodles, or glass noodles) are a type of transparent noodle made from starch (such as mung bean starch, yam, potato starch, cassava or canna starch), and water.

Cellophane Bean Thread Noodles are cooked by soaking them in warm to hot water for 10 minutes. What i do is boil water in my tea kettle and just pour that water over the noodles in a glass bowl.

To make soup, I just add vegetables that will either cook very fast in standing boiled water or will at least blanche and leave a lovely crispy veg in my soup. In this case, I used beet greens and carrot curls, but spinach would also work. You could also add tofu if you aren't avoiding soy. You could also add fried tofu at the end of the process.

So I place the dry noodles, the veggies, some chopped fresh garlic into a big glass bowl. Then I pour enough boiled water over the ingredients to cover them.

Then I season - in this case I used chili sauce and soy sauce. You could use of course - use Tamari or Miso. If you are avoiding soy, you could use a veg stock cube, fresh herbs etc. It's really up to you.

Let all the ingredients stand in the glass bowl for 10 minutes. I like to use a fork to put the noodles and veg into the serving bowls first and then pour a small amount of the broth on top. This is because the noodles and veg absorb more of the flavor and I only want a little broth so I can keep the flavors concentrated.

The great thing about this dish is it is fast, versatile. It is gluten-free and diary-free.

Warm up your salads :)

My favorite thing to do now is to combine cooked and raw foods to make "warmed up salads". Whether it's a cooked veg or a grilled tuna steak, having something warm just adds a heartiness that makes the raw food shine even more. And don't forget to make your own vinaigrette - store bought dressing is so depressingly toxic. However if you really have to buy it, Newman's Own is pretty good. Here are some recent creations.

A lovely baby sweet potato warms up this mesclun salad.

Steamed peas give a hug to the carrots, hummus, and red leaf lettuce perfectly. 

This Salad Was Almost a Cheeseburger

So....ever since I ended my 60-day juice fast three weeks ago, I have prepared every meal that I consumed except for two meals. It is aggravating that there is virtually no "fast health food" and the only way you can stay on course is to be forever chopping and marinating and cooking. I mean it just gets to you some days. So today I was hell bent on having a cheeseburger - part of it was the craving for all the things I don't eat anymore - cheese, bread, mayonnaise.....and since my husband had to give up meat, I haven't really been eating meat. But a major part of it was also just the fact that I could go out and get it and put it in my mouth.

Sigh. It is at these times that you have to go into the kitchen and stuff a tomato into your mouth - kind of like a roasted pig. Just cram the tomato right in there and let the natural sweetness calm your mind. While you are in this mute and satisfied state, breathe through your nose and lift up your culinary baton and begin orchestrating. I started with some mesclun greens, tomatoes, avocados, cucumbers, and onions. Then I tried tweeking my salad dressing by adding tomato paste, hot sauce and very finely chopped fresh tomatoes to the basic olive oil and vinegar mixture. I tossed the salad with the chunky dressing really thoroughly so the avocado could break down some and all the flavors stick to the greens. I then decided to steam some baby sweet potatoes - 9 minutes in a steamer bag in the microwave.  I chopped up the sweet potato and added it nice and warm to the fresh salad. The sweet potato really took it over the top.

I'll probably want a cheeseburger again tomorrow. LOL. But for today, I fought the good fight and won - and look at all these beautiful colors!!!  :)

Prawn (Shrimp) and Lime Salad - From My Sis-in-Law :)

My sister Toni is living in France with an adorable Frenchman!  Mais Oui! She was inspired by the Shrimp lettuce wrap recipe to put her own spicy twist on it. This sounds and looks delicious! I love the lime dressing idea.

Toss avocado, prawns (that's shrimp to U.S. folks), chili paste, sweet chili sauce, peanuts, baby leaf mix (mesclun greens), tomatoes. Salad dressing is simply lime juice with a little bit of chili paste.

I can't wait to try this!

Yummy Shrimp lettuce wraps!

Lettuce Wrap with Shrimp, Avocado, Hummus, and Tomato :)

Veganville Skit with Justin Timberlake on SNL

I just had to share this incredibly funny skit with Justin Timberlake rapping about being vegan. It is hilarious!

Link to Video

I'lll Be Your Beard Anytime! Great New Food Blog

During my 60-day juice fast, food blogs became my new pornography. I would google my favorite food dish and invariably it would lead me to some great food blogs. One of my favorites was this one:

The Food In My Beard - cute name, huh?

http://www.thefoodinmybeard.com/2013/03/sloppy-tofu-arepas.html

The food on this blog is a perfect mixture of health-conscious and gourmet. Check out the Sloppy Tofu Arepas and the Portuguese Peas and Eggs. This blogger's taste is impeccable and his techniques are solid.

About Juicing and The 60-Day Fast

After watching Joe Cross's film http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com , my husband and I decided to go on an epic journey. We lived on nothing but vegetable and fruit juice that we created ourselves in a juicer for 60 days.

(This juice was sweet potato, carrot, red, yellow, and orange bell pepper, cucumber, oranges, and ginger)

Consuming the juice had an immediate and very satisfying affect on our health. My first glass was a beet combo and I actually felt my face tingle like crazy as the concentrated vitamins zoomed into my system. For weeks we lost nearly a pound a day.  We felt lighter and brighter and knew we were getting more nutrients than we had ever had before.

We had great fun experimenting with juice combinations. For some reason staying with the same colors usually resulted in complimentary flavors - like carrot juice, orange bell pepper and orange juice - or beets, red bell peppers, and strawberries. Nearly every juice we made had 80% veg and 20% fruit, nearly all had some carrots and some cucumber.

We juiced 3 times a day - each time making a 16-20 ounce glass for each of us. You can drink more juice but there comes a point where you just don't really have the time.

I won't say it was all roses. The second half of the 60 days definitely became more difficult. But I have to say that the consistent weight loss was usually enough to pull me through.

If you don't have a ton of weight to lose, you could do a shorter fast and still get the benefits. Some do 7 or 10 day fasts. The shorter fasts will still help you reset your tastebuds and put you on a healthier craving path.

One last note: 3 months prior to the fast, I had quit smoking. Whatever cravings I still had were greatly reduced during the fast. Maybe food just took the priority in craving but it was a great bonus.

If you have anymore questions about fasting, just let me know.

Guilt Free Apple Walnut Tarts

These tarts were a special treat that I created for my husband on his birthday. They are white sugar free, dairy free, and gluten free. You will need 4 granny smith apples, cinnamon, 1/2 a bag of walnuts, tahini, honey, and a box of gluten-free pie mix.

Guilt Free Apple Walnut Tarts!!!

Firstly, I thought I had a head start on this recipe because I found a gluten-free pie crust mix in my local health food store. Unfortunately, the mix called for adding eggs and butter and all kinds of things my hubby no longer eats. Lesson 1: Gluten-free doesn't always mean healthy.

So this is what did. I took the mix (which was basically rice flour with a few other ingredients like guar gum) and I dumped it in my food processor. I started the processor and started adding tahini - in total, maybe 3/4 of a cup. And then I added about a 1/4 cup of honey. The mix did not form a dough ball or anything that could be rolled out with a rolling pin, but I could feel with my fingers that it would clump enough to press into a tin. So I got out a cupcake tin and creased the tin with vegetable oil. I then grabbed some of the dough, rolled it into a ball about the size of a golf ball and placed it in each cup and then pressed it out until it made a dough cup. As you can see from the pic, the crust was about 1/8th of an inch thick.

Next, I peeled and cut up granny smith apples - about 4 apples - and placed the slices in a bowl. I added about 2 tablespoons of honey to the apples and a teaspoon of cinnamon. You could definitely add other spices or even raisins of you want.  I stirred the mixture together. I then spooned the apple mixture  about 3/4 full in the cups. Then in the former apple bowl, I put walnuts that had been crushed to smaller pieces and again added enough honey to coat the pieces. I then added the walnut mixture to each cup to top it off.

Place pan in a 350 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until poking a cup seems to indicate that the apples have cooked - if necessary, after 20 minutes, cover with foil so that the nuts do not burn and the apples can keep cooking. Allow to cool completely before carefully removing cups by sliding a knife around the edges.

Note: There are many controversies about the differences between white sugar and honey. I personally believe that honey affects me differently and while you may not want to eat these everyday - they can be a really nice treat. They also go great in school lunches (or my husband's lunch).

In the future: I plan to try other fruit and nut combinations - blueberry and pistachio? Banana and almond? Experiment and let me know what you come up with.

An introduction to this blog...

After my husband and I completed a 60-day juice fast, I knew that learning to cook and eat in a healthier way would be a challenge. I am a self-confessed pasta and cake addict. Having worked in catering and owned a restaurant, I was not a stranger nor was I adverse to healthy foods - but I was often drawn to the dark side. I love to cook Italian, loved to season everything with cheese.  Before the fast, I weighed 250 pounds, after and currently, I weigh 214 pounds. I am on a journey to reach 150 and know it will take many more months of healthy eating. So I decided I would share what I learned in this blog in the hopes that someone else might benefit from it.

One last thing - many of my recipes will be descriptions of experiments and may not contain exact measurements. If you are a cook that needs that kind of surety - you might need to look elsewhere. If you are someone who peruses cookbooks in bookstores and says "oh that's how you do that" closes the book and doesn't buy the book - this blog is for you.