making friends with the enemy

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my first sourdough loaf

Healing comes in all shapes and sizes.  If you would have asked me a year ago if I thought that bread would offer me some kind of therapy I would have laughed at you!  I would have said  “no way, bread is what drives me to NEED therapy”.

But oh, how this universe likes to surprise us.  It all started when a classmate offered up some Amish friendship bread starter casually in class one day.  Intrigued by the idea of anything fermented and edible, I gladly accepted.  Now I’m hooked.

I’ve baking bread every 10 days since!  I discovered something magical about the process of baking bread.  It’s slow.  It requires patience.  Like a fine wine, the starter gets better with age, so every turn of the dough (10 days) offers up something new.  It’s kind of like creating a culinarly legacy.  I hope that over time I can create my own unique flavor of homemade breads.

The process of making bread is therapeutic in itself.  Diving my hands into the dough, feeling it run through my fingers is extremely liberating and just plain fun.  Working with my hands soothes me and it’s a great compliment to my studies, which get me caught up in my head way too often!

aah, the joys of kneading

And oh, how the house smells so warm and comforting when fresh bread is baking.  I love the responses I get from my hubby and landlord.  It’s like the pied piper calling when that bread comes out of the oven.

The best discovery of all is how good I feel when I share this bread.  I’ve given start to some friends and classmates…now we have fun chatting about it, swapping ideas, and going off on tangents about other edible creatings.  I’ve even sent some in the mail to distant friends and it warms my heart to think that they are keeping the process going.

Bread is one of the most fundamental foods of life.  We break bread together to nourish our bodies, but also our spirits.  I’ve realized that I was missing a deep sense of connection to people.  I’m around people all day, but that is not the same as being connected.  By making bread and sharing it, I feel like I’m doing some sort of kindness to people I care about, and in return getting kindness back.  Everybody loves homemade bread.  It’s something we can all relate to and to receive something hand made is a treat in this modern world.

So, me, the offwhite girl, must pay homage to the thing I’d gone without for so long.  Funny thing, the more I make it for others, the less I want to eat it in excess.  It’s too special to abuse with mindless eating or binging.

So, if any of you want some start, let me know.  It’s my own little brand of offwhite sourdough and it’s delcious!

vegan sushi

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Even omnivores will like this:

Vegan Sushi
This recipe is adapted from the Vegan Fusion World Cuisine cookbook

4 large collard green (or Swiss Chard) leaves, washed.  Cut off the long stem extending past the leaf.

1 cup of carrot almond paste (below)
1 avocado, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced Julienne style
½ cup sprouts of your choice
Carrot almond paste:

1 cup almonds,  soaked for 20 minutes and drained.
1 cup carrots, chopped
2 tbsp water
2-3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp each: ginger, turmeric, dill
pinch: cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper to taste.

Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth.  Add salt/pepper to taste as you go.

Cut each collard leaf in half, so each leaf is approx 4” tall and as wide as the leaf naturally is.  Spread about 2 tbsp of your carrot almond past onto each leaf.  Place 1/8 of an avocado (or more if you want!) on top of the past, spreading it out a bit.  Add 1/8 of your bell pepper and your sprouts as well.  Roll the leave around the ‘insides’ until it’s fully rolled and then place the rolls on a plate with the free end tucked under the roll so it stays.  Serve with tamari, soy sauce or any other dipping sauce you like.

Variations:  Julienne any veggies you like, including jicima, asparagus, zucchini, etc.

I made it for dinner this week and had leftover paste to to add as a salad topper or dip for my jicima.  Yum.

The good life

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Brown eye'd Susans at the Good Life Garden

You don’t have to be a gardener to enjoy an awesome garden.  So much inspiration for the UC Davis “Good Life Garden”.  I wish more organizations would support such an endeavor, as it beautifies their surroundings and offers the community a chance to learn, taste, and experience whole foods at their finest.

I wrote about it at Davis Life Magazine.  Click HERE to read that article.  It’s short with good pics!

This ain’t your typical dorm food

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creative menu options and nice presentation at the DC

tonight Matt and I ventured out to the Davis Dining Commons – the very same one I frequented as a college freshman oh so many years ago!  Dang was it GOOD.  I’m so impressed at how they integrate healthy options (quinoa burgers) and sustainability (Getting most of thier produce from the local campus growers).  I wrote about it for Davis Life Magazine (Check me out on Monday in “mindful moments”!) but thought I’d share the post with you too, as it won’t be up for a couple of days on DLM.

This reminds me of how tasty the food was at Willamette Univ in Salem too.  Apparently we weren’t the only ones who thought so because Rachel Ray even stopped by on her $40/day TV show back in the day.  So maybe this will inspire you to seek out some uncommon dining options in your neck of the woods.

tabouleh salad and quinoa, oh my!

Pop quiz: Where in Davis can you get two freshly prepared dinners that include burgers on whole grain buns, customized salads, curried fish pasta, drinks and dessert of your choosing for $12 a person?

You scored an “A” if you said the Segundo Dining Commons on the UC Davis campus, and that is the very grade I’d give them too.

While dining there tonight (btw: I had the quinoa vegan burger, baked fries, salad and hot chocolate), I caught up with manager Mike Baldocchi to ask about the emphasis on health and sustainability at the DC.  Simple strategies like switching to baked fries, reducing the oil usage, offering a huge salad bar with lean protein and local veggies, eliminating trays at each station (to avoid overloading the tray with food), and offering a Farmer’s Market meal every 2 weeks are just a few of the ways that the DC helps its patrons enjoy a healthy, mindful eating experience.

Most impressive were the Vegan food sections, Gluten free breads, creative dishes, such as Chicken Afritata and Tabouleh, and the colorful presentation.  This is not your typical dorm food.  Portions were perfectly sized (about 8 oz/plate) and you have to walk all the way to the back of the DC to grab a soda (time to question, do I really need that?).

I especially enjoyed loading up on fresh spinach, garbanzos, beets, chopped egg and turkey meat during my trip to the salad bar, and was delighted to see 8 oz coffee cups (as opposed to 12 oz or bigger!) when I treated myself to hot chocolate at the end of my meal.  This place just screams balanced eating!  To be sure, there are your typical DC treats – pizza, regular burgers, cakes and cookies, but it’s nicely mixed with other options.  Even better, the DC get’s as much of their food as possible from local growers (even on campus) and they encourage patrons to be mindful of wasting food and napkins to support sustainability.

Oh, and most importantly the food is really good!  Seriously.  Go see for yourself!

Kickin’ culinary butt and taking names…

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I was lucky enough to partake in the UC Davis Food Science Food Olympics.  Think foodies and science geeks all crowded together in a giant cooking kitchen and lecture battling it out to be the next Food Olympics champion.  We had our hands on so many wonderful ingredients, and the cooking portion (only 1/3 of the event) was like being a kid in a  candy store.

Part of the cooking event is incorporating ‘secret’ ingredients into your meal.  Ours included lavender, matzo, celery root and a few others.  You have 15 minutes to come up with the menu and 1.5 hrs to cook 3 courses.

It was fabulous – a fury of ideas, food, frantic foodies running around…just like you see on TV.  Our team worked awesome together and came up with 3 stellar dishes:

Veggie pancake with lemon yogurt sauce
Lamb/turkey mini-pies over a bed of rice pilaf and mixed veggie salad
beet cobbler (SOOOO good!).

I’m bragging here, but the meat dish, which I headed up, got a perfect score. Yeah!

The pic is me having a proud moment with the mini ‘pies’ as I took them from the oven.  Try this at home:
In a large skillet, sautee in EVOO:
2 scallions, finely chopped
2 tsp fresh dried rosemary, crushed
salt, pepper to taste
2 tsp dried lavendar, crushed
Sautee for 2 minutes…

Meanwhile mix 1/3 lb lamb + 1/3 lb turkey (wanted to use all lamb, but there was only 1/3 lb left) .  Mix in one egg.

Add the meat to the sautee’d shallots/spices and mix.   Mix in about 1/4 lb of really strong blue cheese.  The stinkier the better! Cook until meat is just under done.
Place equal amounts into greased muffin tins and bake at 375 for about 10 min, DON”T OVER COOK!

While that is cooking, whip up some brown basmati rice, adding 1/4 cup of raisins, some bay leaf, and a touch of rosemary to the broth.

Serve the mini-muffins over rice and garnish with shredded veggies or a side salad.

The Good Life

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Recently I had a chance to reflect upon how the Davis Good Life Garden impacts me.   It’s a garden on campus that allows it’s ‘members’ to come and pick the bounty, while also being a vehicle for teaching, learning, and an event venue.  So cool, and it’s right on campus.   It got me thinking about the pieces in my life that really support me living an Off- White lifestyle.  This garden is more than just an inspiration to eat veggies, its a place that I find comfort and peace when I’m on campus.  School and life can cause me great anxiety, which causes me to want to turn to my vices like sugar to escape or numb out.

I really can’t maintain a balanced relationship with food unless my relationship with my life is in balance.  I am a high maintenance person that way and need multiple avenues for stress relief, inclulding being in beautiful outdoor environments, even if just for a short period of time.  I’m learning this about myself – this aspect in me that needs to be regularly grounded and calmed in order to manage the rest of my life.  It’s a good awareness, for sure!

If you’d like to read the article, click here.  While you’re at it, check out the Good Life Garden website in general, as it’s really well done.

Happy Off White Living,

Rebecca

Grubbing down (on burgers!) without breaking the calorie bankPi

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Tonight Matt and I had an adventure.  Tired of the same ol’ burger scene in Davis, we scoured the web for tips on finding a great burger joint in Sacto.  And boy did we!!  As mindful as I am about diet, in my opion, a quality burger is actually health food.  It was a bit of a dive, but the food was great, the meat was fresh, and there was a live band.  Who could pass this up?

But a burger as Health food?  Seriously?  Yep.  If you do it right.  Think about it.  Ground beef/turkey is chock full o’ protein, some healthy fats (grass fed moreso), and burgers  are a venue for fresh raw veggies….and if you play your cards right, you get real potato fries, like steak fries that aren’t as greasy.   Look at the picture again.  You can tell this burger was made from fresh ground steak and note the generous dose of mustard and hot sauce on the top.  Also note the extra veggies… Okay, so it’s not exactly the same I’d eat when I’m on a cleanse, but its better for me than eating something like pasta, which might trigger over eating of empty carbs, and definitely better for me than having dessert.

Here’s how I go from mindless to mindful indulgence when eating burgers:

  • Pick your spot.  Tonight it was Nation Wide Freezer Meats (yes, that is the name), which uses fresh ground steak.  Delicious.  Also, not full of added fats or salts.  Extra delicious.
  • There is no need to go ‘double double’ or any craziness like that.  Stick to one patty, even if you are hungry
  • Skip the cheese.
  • Ask for extra veggies, especially if you are not going to sub those french fries for salad.
  • Skip the ‘sauce’.  Add your own condiments when the burger arrives.  Sauce can be code for ‘fat/salt/sugar’
  • As soon as the burger arrives, take of the top layer of bun and discard or give it to your husband, who is happy to have another vehicle to consume his double-double burger patties
  • Use mustard instead of ketchup – less sugar, more tang
  • add a little hot sauce (like I did tonite)
  • Get the fries if they are steak fries and not dripping with grease.  Face it, they’re going to be a bit fatty, but there are good fries and there are those which are a waste of time
  • Skip the shake and soda.  Go water.  Confession: tonight I had diet coke. What can I say, it’s hard to eat greasy food w/o a little bubbly water
  • Know that this burger is not a daily, or even weekly occurrence and enjoy every last juicy,messy, greasy bite like I did.   No regrets, and no deprivation even with my modifications…

Almond Sunrise

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Divine.  Absolutely divine.  I may have found something that rivals my love of hot chocolate.  Serendepitiously, I discovered this drink when I reluctantly cracked open the box of Almond Sunset tea that mom gave me for Christmas this year.  Tired of the same old Chai and definitely ‘over it’ with the detox/liver cleansing teas I often drink, it was time for a change.

And boy was this a good idea…..The tea has a rich creamy flavor and really doesn’t need much sweetening at all (if any).  How fabulous?  The drink I put together is low in calories/fat/sugar but tastes decadant.  Funny thing was, as good as it tasted, I kept the secret all to myself this weekend  because I just didn’t want to share my Almond tea.  Suddenly this tea that I’ve been passing over for 4 months is my secret stash.  Hmm, something to work on there  but I will share this recipe with you because I know you’re not going to steal my tea bags ;).

Almond Sunrise:

1 bag of Almond Sunset tea, steeped in 12 oz almost boiling water (5 min)
1/4 cup of unsweetened almond milk, room tem
1 tsp molasses or honey
mix and enjoy…..

Kasha – it’s not just for breakfast anymore

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Kasha,

not to be confused with the cereal Kashi, are toasted buckwheat groats.  They have a light texture, cook quickly and have a very nutty flavor.  They are also high in fiber and gluten free.  I heart Kasha.  Usually it’s a breakfast option in my house, but as I get ready for the next week (school again), I wanted to do something different.

Thankfully, I turned to a favorite recipe book: Vegan Fusion World Cuisine for a little inspiration.  I pretty much took this recipe right out of the book, minus the bowtie pasta, which I don’t eat.  Had a bit for dinner- wonderful, especially with the fresh parsley I sprinkled in after it cooked.  You could probably replace quinoa in this recipe, or rice if you added 1/2 cup more water and cooked it longer.

Kasha Pilaf and fresh squeezed juice (totally unrelated but I cooked them together)

1 med onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp garlic, minced
2 tbsp EVOO
1 tsp sea salt
1.5 cups kasha (roasted buckwheat groats)
2.5 cups water or stock
1 veggie boullon cube (if not using stock)
2 tbsp flaxmeal
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp regular pepper
1 cup chopped parsley (optional)

In a large skillet, heat oil and sautee onions/salt/garlic for 3 min.  Add kasha and stir regularly for 2-3 minutes.

Add flaxmeal and stir 1 minute.  Add water and boullon.  Reduce heat to a simmer and cook @ simmer for 15 minutes, until water is 95% absorbed

Add cayenne and regular pepper.  Keep cooking for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and mix in chopped parsley.  Eat warm or cold.

Juicing…in the meantime, get out your juicer (I know you have one!!!).  Juice 1.5 cucumbers, 3 meyer lemons, 3 beets, and 1 tangerine.  Delicious.  I used the juice later to make some pulp muffins, as usual.  They turned out a hot pink color, which inspires me to use them in making Easter cookies later this week.