offwhite food even a father would love

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My dad and I Christmas '09

Historically my dad is a bit gunshy about trying my offwhite food.  I kinda don’t blame him.  The first time I had my folks over for dinner was in college and I made ‘herbed chicken’ – without the herbs.  Turns out herbs are spendy and didn’t fit my college student budget.  After that I had a 2 year run where I attempted a number of cookies that had the taste and mouthfeel of hockey pucks.  I get why dad isn’t always fired up about trying his daughter’s latest concoctions.

My recent strategy is to simply give dad something and not tell him that it’s gluten-wheat-sugar-soy-casein-whatever-FREE.  Just serve it, say it’s delicious, and he’s more apt to dig in.

So, when I presented dad with these Ginger Bliss cookies (adapted from the Vegan Fusion Cookbook), I failed to mention the spelt flour, flax meal, molasses, and raw coconut.  Sometimes less is more 🙂

If you’re looking for a tasty and unique father’s day treat, try these cookies.  Approved  by at least 1 dad, so far!

ginger bliss cookies

DRY:

1 1/3 cup Spelt flour
2 tsp flaxmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon/nutmeg each
1/4 tsp sea salt
pinch of allspice and cardamom

WET:
1/2 cup unrefined sugar (sucanat)
1/3 cup safflower oil (EVOO does NOT work in cookies b/c of flavor)
3 TBSP molasses
2 TBSP grated ginger
4 tsp apple-sauce (no added sugar)
1/2 cup shredded raw coconut

Preheat oven to 400.  Mix WET ingredients and set aside.  Sift dry ingredients in a separate bowl.  Add to wet and mix.  Refrigerate for 10 minutes.  Form cookies by the spoonfull on a greased cookiesheet and bake for 10 min.  Cool for 10 minutes and serve.

I think they’d go nicely with Vanilla Coconut bliss ‘ice cream’, but I haven’t tried that.

5 things that help me stop sugar binges

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getting out of the house helps stop sugar binges

Today I was in a counseling session and it dawned on me (thanks to my kind counselor) that I have come a long way in harmonizing my relationship with sugar and carbs.  Looking back on the past few years, I feel like I’m in a pretty grounded place to offer some advice on what helped me personally win the fight against the urge to O.D. on sugar and carbs. Keep in mind this is not professional advise, per se, but rather the kind of insight that comes from the familiarity of going through something and knowing it intimately.

#1. Get support.  I always do best when I have a good friend to share my feelings with or am seeking professional support (counseling for me).  Groups like Over-eaters anonymous can be a great support network and there is no charge for joining.  Support that is non-familial has been key for me.  As much as  I love my family and husband, sometimes the issues that drive me to  crave sugar involve them and I have found that having a safe, non-biased place to express myself helps me trust my feelings and explore the core issues behind my sugar addiction.

2. Eat a balanced diet.  Okay, maybe this is the nutritionist in me, but it’s also just the experience talking.  When I eat protein at every meal, have veggies at least 2 meals/day, eat 2-3 fruits/day, and up to 3 servings of grains, I am good to go and don’t physically crave sugar.  I have to eat pretty substantial meals because I don’t like to snack (Snacking = trouble for me).  Also, include plenty of healthy fats like olive oil, some nuts/seeds, avocados, goat cheese or other cheeses that are strong enough in flavor that you don’t want over eat them.  Even butter has its place in my diet.  Milk is out for me, so I use almond milk and drink about a cup/day.    Protein really is my anti-sugar antidote, so I try to reach for protein instead of carbs first when I’m hungry.

3. Don’t eat trigger foods alone.  I have no business eating cake and frosting, ice cream, frozen yogurt, or cookies by myself.  It’s not that having these alone is inherently bad, it’s just bad for me.  When I eat binge food alone, even if it’s gluten-free or wheat-free, I’m way more likely to over eat.  Also, I have to ask myself why I’m eating alone in the first place?  Am I sneak eating or hiding something?  Big red flag for me!  If I’m not willing to eat treats out in the open, I’m not eating them for the right reasons.  On the flip side, when I do want to enjoy a treat and I’m with others I rarely want to eat in excess because my motivation is simply to enjoy a delicious something, not curb an emotion or numb out.

4. Get out of the house.  I spend a lot of time at home during all hours of the day now that I’m  back in school.  That kitchen calls pretty loudly sometimes, If I’m not careful.  I find that getting away to study helps me feel less isolated and more confident.  I’m not sure why, but it does.  If you find that you binge or eat mindlessly when you have too much unstructured time at home, it’s time to get out!  Structured time has also helped me stay away from derailing my flow with food.  If I have time goals or placed to be I’m much less likely to waste time eating mindlessly.

5.  The pleasure principle.  “All work and no play” makes me cranky and hankering for something to ‘sweeten’ my life…such as a donut or cookie.  When I make the pleasures of life a priority, I’m usually good.  I’ve learned that the emotional craving for sugar is often a calling for a break from the work or from the expectations I place on myself to always be doing something productive.  I like to hang with friends, cook with other people, go for a walk with my husband at night, chat on the phone, watch movies or do whatever to give myself a break.

I’d love to hear from you about what helps you avoid the pitfalls of sugar binges.

better buns

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whole grain italian bun dough

Recently my love affair with baking bread has spread into a personal challenge.  Steak buns.  Yes, you heard me!  I don’t really eat a lot of steak sandwiches, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity presented by Jen Scall,  on her Kitchen Bootcamp.  Oh, how I love a cooking challenge.

The deal was sweetened when she mentioned that this month’s challenge involves yeast (bread) and that she’s been inspired by her challenges from the book Professional Chef, from the Culinary Institute of America.  Lucky for me, my brother-in-law (a CIA graduate) gave me that book for Christmas a couple years ago.  Excellent!

My recipe is a unique blend of inspiration from Emeril’s Sourdough recipe and the bread start that I’ve been fermenting from the Amish frirendship bread I was gifted a few months ago.

I use rye and whole wheat bread flour for my mix, and 2% milk when I feed my start.  Today I learned (from my handy Prof. Chef book) that a yeast starter fed with sugar, milk and flour (mine) is an ‘enriched’ start, compared with those made with water, yeast , and flour (a lean start).  No wonder my breads come out dense and cake-like, which I find really pleasant.  So far no complaints from others either.

One thing I do to mediate the sweetness is I feed the start on day 6 and then bake on day 10, so the sugar and milk have been fermented.  Otherwise I’m to feed again on day 10 and THEN bake.  Delish for sweet breads, but not quite part of my off-white lifestyle.

Today, for creativity, I added some mediterranean spices during the kneading process because I hope to make these steakbuns to go with a mediterranean-inspired steak (recipe TBA).  mmmmm…….

spices to add flavor and flair

So now it’s a waiting game.  I rise the dough for a few hrs and then knead again, separate and form into cute little buns and bake.  I’ll keep ya posted on how it all goes.

It’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday…

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Today, while motoring down the I-80, the Boyz 2 men song “Its so hard to say goodbye to yesterday” came on the radio.  The station was asking for songs about your high school graduation, and some guy requested it as a memory to the Class of ’94, which is also my year.

Funny timing, because it was such a day of reflection for me. I  attended my Nephew’s Kindergarten graduation at Pleasant Ridge Elementary, where I had gone to school.   As I sat in the auditorium, 33 yrs old – a ‘grown up’, I rememberd what it was like to be a kid again. This tiny auditorium once seemed so big, and teachers seemed so powerful.  School was a sanctuary for me as a child.  My home life was littered with mixed messages, secrets, and confusion.  School made sense to me.  Friends made sense.  Academics made sense. Sometimes it was the only place where the world seemed safe.  Seeing those sweet faces walk up to the podiums today, proud and excited, made me just want to reach out and hug them and  tell them that no matter what they are beautiful, loveable, and smart, especially my nephew (which I did, much to his chigrin).

I guess the reason I’m blogging this because today I got to go back to the place where Off-White really had it’s origins: My  childhood.  Just as school was a friendly escape from the things in life I couldn’t control, so was sugar.  It started young for me: obsession on easter candy, spending my $3 allowance on candy, and just wanting to avoid my feelings, unless they were happy.  It wasn’t until I was older that my emotional eating really took hold, but I know it all started with fears and unexpressed feelings I had as a kid.  I guess that is why I latched on to academics so much and made that, along with my friends, my entire universe.

So today when I stood there as my 33-yr old self, I felt some sense of peace.   I am not a scared child anymore.  I have tools to help me cope and language to express what I tried to tuck away for so long.  I felt like I’m actually OKAY.  I am beautiful, loveable and smart.

And guess what, I was even able to pass up the COSTCO white frosting cake (those who know me know this is BIG).  I simply felt okay in my own skin – the child and the woman in me all at once!

Thanks for listening bloggies!

“I can’t eat it, it’s fattening”

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Yesterday, when I was stocking up on produces at the Yolo Fruit Stand, I reached across my cart and grabbed an 85% dark chocolate Lindt bar off the shelf.  Last minute splurge?  Yes – I am going camping this week and ‘must’ make dark chocolate smores (this will be the second attempt at this.  The first time I was in Washington and some renegade mice lifted my Dagoba bar – no kidding!).

Okay, back to the story.  As I snagged my goodie, the woman behind me shouted “you can’t eat that…it’s fattening!!”.  She sounded very convicted, and almost scared.  I replied “I know, isn’t it great…..?”.

But it got me thinking: is chocolate intrinsically ‘fattening’?  To be fattening means that the substance will actually make you fat, like it has the ability to do that regardless of how much you eat, what else you eat, or how often you eat it.  It’s true that chocolate has calories, but are they any more fat-provoking than the calories in a salad?

My year of study tells me that nothing (except maybe HFCS because it may slow down the ability to burn fat – more research being done) intrinsically is fattening.  It’s all about how you eat it.  PLUS, I would argue that if anything is fattening, it’s something loaded with sugar because you’re more likely to overeat it, and large volumes of fast acting carbs make your body produce a lot of insulin, which goes right to the fat cells if not needed for immediate energy.

We have such a skewed view of food.  I am in this boat too.  I think a lot of women live in fear of getting fat just from taking a bit of something wonderful like dark chocolate (which by the way has 210 kcal/oz), but may generously sip low fat beverages or eat excessive fruit or fat-free yogurt…or whatever.  Food is “good” or “bad”.  Some foods make us skinny, some don’t – or so we think.

Dark chocolate, with 3g fiber, antioxidants, 5g sugar, 4g protein per serving, is not inheirently fattening.  It’s the over consumption of this food, and others, that is fattening.  Yes, if I eat 1 bar (2.5 servings)/day and don’t account for that by balancing my other calories, I will likely gain weight.  And it is true that an ounce of chocolate is not a lot of volume, so it could be easy to overconsume.

However, when you allow yourself to eat high quality, low sugar, chocolate, you might be less likely to overeat it because it’s so dang rich.  Even me, lover of all things chocolate, can only have a small piece a day, if any at all.

And no, I’m not worried it will make me fat 🙂

breakfast of champions

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http://www.oregonblueberry.com

Maybe its becauses I miss Oregon, or maybe it’s because blueberries are just delicious… or maybe its because I can sneak a load of spinach into my blueberry smoothie and not taste it.

Either way, I’m digging the blueberry-spinach-flaxmeal smoothies I whip up for breakfast.  They take about 3 minutes to make and they are full of protein, fiber, anti-oxidants, vitamin K, omega 3 fats and a bunch of other good stuff.

Having a tasty breakfast sets me up to not crave sugar, especially if it is a protein-rich breakfast.  Adding a serving of rice protein (or whatever you like) does the trick for me.  I add about 3/4 cup frozen Oregon berries from Costco with a scoop of Rainbowlight rice protein, a generous handfull of spinach, a tbsp of flaxmeal, and water.  Blend for 1 minute and you’re good to go.

PS: this is a Vegan recipe, but you could add yogurt or whey protein or whatever for a lacto-ovo experience!

No time for breakfast?  Bologna – this takes less than 5 minutes and the recipe is very forgiving.  You can put it in your reusable coffee mug and drink it on the way to work or whatever.    It seems to hold me for about 3 hrs, or 3.5 if I push it.

Caution: it may turn your lips purple, so look in the mirror before you leave the house!

Diggin’ on Dorm food at UC Davis

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Recently I ventured back to my UC Davis roots and ate at the Dining Commons (yes, among freshmen!).  Back in the day the food was decent, especially by dorm standards.  However, now it’s off the charts great.  There is a lot of cool emphasis on mindful eating, healthy options and they have a gluten-free and vegan section that would blow your mind!  The old faves are still there, like pizza, but it’s not the emphasis.  Check out my Post on Davis Life Magazine to read more.

gluten gone wild

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Today I was reading the the UC Davis food blog and came across this post about improving wheat.   The benefits to this new wheat is better iron, zinc and protein.  Cool right?

Well, maybe.  Look closer.  Where does the protein come from? Gluten? Yep.
Now, is this a good thing?  With the prevalence of gluten sensitivity on the rise, should we be consuming highly glutenized wheat?  I get it that it’s resistant to insects, but maybe the vunerability to insects is part of the balance for natural wheat.

Is this another example of ‘too much of a good thing’ with science?  Just because we can increase the gluten of wheat doesn’t mean we should.

To me, this is just another reason to eat spelt, a  cousin of wheat that is not genetically modified like wheat is because it’s not as ‘important’ of a crop.  Wheat makes up a huge proportion of most people’s diets, so it make sense why farmers want to improve yield.  But Spelt doesn’t have those pressures, yet.

Is there ‘heirloom’ wheat?  Hmm.. I don’t know – maybe that is what spelt and Kamut and bulgar are – heirloom wheats that continue to become more and more distinct from everyday wheat as genetic modification expands.

Coffe Shop Kunundrum solved

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Reason # 1,295 that I love the Davis Coop: Almond Milk coffee drinks.  You’d think more people would have caught on to the idea that soy and dairy are two big allergens, and would offer something else.  But it’s a rare occasion down here for that to be th case.  The Coop is leading the pack with the revolutionary idea of offering almond milk in their coffee drinks AND having Stevia.

Why almond milk over rice?  For me almond milk is trumping rice milk because it is lower in sugar, calories and has a richer flavor than rice milk.  I currently stock up on Silk Almond milk in the half-gallon at Safeway when I’m making my own drinks, or buying a quart for $1.69 at Trader Joe’s in Sacto!

Other coffee houses, like Common Grounds, in Davis will make a drink if I bring the almond milk, but I still get charged full price, so it gets spendy.

yay for Coops!  They also make their own vanilla flavoring and use cocoa powder instead of sugary cocoa syrup.

What about you bloggies, what are your favorite coffee shop kunundrum solutions?

bloggies, you need to see this!

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Just read an article listing the 20 most sugar beverages in the USA right now.  Pretty s scary because we see them everyday at the store, in schools, at work, and maybe in our houses (gulp…hey, not shame here, I’m right there with you on the sweet warm beverage front).

I like how this article put the beverages neck and neck with some sugar foods, so you can see how the sugar content measures up.  There is this weird misnomer about beverages ‘not counting’ but really in a lot of ways they can be worse becuase  we don’t ‘count’ them as much, tend to over consume them because they don’t make us full, and they are a cheap form of lots of sugar!

I’m proud to say I’ve drastically cut my sugar sweetened beverage intake (aka, hot chocolate and sweetened decaf coffee drinks)  in the past month.  It was getting out of hand, and getting spendy.  Now I only have them on occasion, which I think is how they are supposed to be enjoyed.  What changed for me?  I guess you could say I was just willing and ready.  It had been far too long and it was getting far too ridiculous.  Almond milk, at $6/gallon, is too expensive to be guzzling a 16 oz hot chocolate everyday, and the other drinks are LOADED with sugar and who knows what else…and I get addicted.  So there it is.

now read this!