Inspired by the Jamaican tradition of peanut shakes (although, protip: Guinness ain't vegan), I've been experimenting with high-protein, high-nutrient (esp. iron) shakes.
Two rounds so far:
vanilla soymilk
peanut butter
almond butter
almonds
cashews
walnuts
blackberries
spinach
hemp protein powder
ginseng
plain soymilk
almond butter
oats
broccoli
agave syrup
four-fruit jam
hemp protein powder
ginseng
Friday, April 8, 2011
Friday, December 17, 2010
Dieting vs a healthy diet
When I watch most people struggle with their eating habits, nutritional health and body weight, I often find that those who are most concerned just wind up developing a hatred for or alienation from food. People pit themselves against their food rather than forming a positive relationship with positive food.
By "restricting" myself to a low-fat, plant-based diet, I discovered an expansive world of foods beyond my original diet. I developed a passion for cooking as a result.
I don't have any love-hate relationship with any food I eat - I love all of it. I eat as much as I want, all the time, and it's incredibly delicious. My body weight has remained steady around 150 lbs (6' tall) for this entire time, with the only 'packing on' happening when I consciously increase protein intake and exercise muscles regularly. I gain little to no fat regardless of what I eat.
My mom is constantly looking at caloric counts and avoiding all forms of sugar like the plague with the intention of controlling her weight...
I keep trying to point out that I never even think about this stuff, nevermind check it, but my diet is low in fat and consists more of food cooked from scratch (even if not by me) than things churned out by factories, and I never think at all about my weight while she's struggling.
I'd much rather make and eat a pile of cookies than have my diet regularly consist of "health bars" and other things with a dozen different chemical ingredients on their labels... I think people focus entirely on the wrong parts of nutrition when they try to eat healthier.
I'm sorry, but buying a Diet Coke with your McDonald's isn't a diet, it's a joke.
Just follow the vegan food pyramid and quit obsessing about simple sugars that might be turned into fats and instead focus on the stuff you're putting into your body that is already fat! A vegan diet is a zero-cholesterol diet, and oils used are typically highly fluid unsaturated fats, very far removed from lard grease.
Veganism seems (not medical advice by any means!) to mean that you can eat so much dessert that you give your dentist your house and hardly gain a pound, by just eliminating grease-soaked meat and fat-filled dairy. But odds are you won't crave that much dessert once your body adjusts to actually being properly nourished with a balanced diet.
Look, I grew up on McDonald's and KFC.
Earlier in the same month that I went vegetarian, I ate 14 (small) steaks in one sitting, with brownies at the 11-steak mark.
I loved food, but it was a problem.
Veganism has allowed me to make my gluttony into a good thing for my body and the world, and something that I don't feel any sense of guilt about. The fact that it doesn't involve killing animals is a nice touch, but the animal rights debate shouldn't take focus away from the fact that this is a really excellent way to eat delicious, interesting, nutritious food and can be done quite cheaply once your "weening" phase is done and you stop buying overpriced faux meats. (But do stick with the fortified soy milk, it's an excellent way to ensure you're getting good doses of vitamins, minerals and protein.) It's also probably the best single thing an individual in North America can do towards reducing their ecological footprint, but I digress. It doesn't have to be for anyone else, it's a great thing to do for yourself!
By "restricting" myself to a low-fat, plant-based diet, I discovered an expansive world of foods beyond my original diet. I developed a passion for cooking as a result.
I don't have any love-hate relationship with any food I eat - I love all of it. I eat as much as I want, all the time, and it's incredibly delicious. My body weight has remained steady around 150 lbs (6' tall) for this entire time, with the only 'packing on' happening when I consciously increase protein intake and exercise muscles regularly. I gain little to no fat regardless of what I eat.
My mom is constantly looking at caloric counts and avoiding all forms of sugar like the plague with the intention of controlling her weight...
I keep trying to point out that I never even think about this stuff, nevermind check it, but my diet is low in fat and consists more of food cooked from scratch (even if not by me) than things churned out by factories, and I never think at all about my weight while she's struggling.
I'd much rather make and eat a pile of cookies than have my diet regularly consist of "health bars" and other things with a dozen different chemical ingredients on their labels... I think people focus entirely on the wrong parts of nutrition when they try to eat healthier.
I'm sorry, but buying a Diet Coke with your McDonald's isn't a diet, it's a joke.
Just follow the vegan food pyramid and quit obsessing about simple sugars that might be turned into fats and instead focus on the stuff you're putting into your body that is already fat! A vegan diet is a zero-cholesterol diet, and oils used are typically highly fluid unsaturated fats, very far removed from lard grease.
Veganism seems (not medical advice by any means!) to mean that you can eat so much dessert that you give your dentist your house and hardly gain a pound, by just eliminating grease-soaked meat and fat-filled dairy. But odds are you won't crave that much dessert once your body adjusts to actually being properly nourished with a balanced diet.
Look, I grew up on McDonald's and KFC.
Earlier in the same month that I went vegetarian, I ate 14 (small) steaks in one sitting, with brownies at the 11-steak mark.
I loved food, but it was a problem.
Veganism has allowed me to make my gluttony into a good thing for my body and the world, and something that I don't feel any sense of guilt about. The fact that it doesn't involve killing animals is a nice touch, but the animal rights debate shouldn't take focus away from the fact that this is a really excellent way to eat delicious, interesting, nutritious food and can be done quite cheaply once your "weening" phase is done and you stop buying overpriced faux meats. (But do stick with the fortified soy milk, it's an excellent way to ensure you're getting good doses of vitamins, minerals and protein.) It's also probably the best single thing an individual in North America can do towards reducing their ecological footprint, but I digress. It doesn't have to be for anyone else, it's a great thing to do for yourself!
Your mileage may vary, I am not a nutritionist, but I'm not just feeling healthy and easily staying slim, I have a perfectly healthy psychological relationship with my food too, and I feel like the biggest issue people have when trying to diet is that they hate it.
There ain't no hate in this kitchen.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Freezing bananas
If you have bananas that are getting close to going bad but you don't want to use them right away, you can freeze them - but peel them and maybe even slice them before putting them in a bag/container and into the freezer.
Don't just toss them in and freeze them in the peels or you'll have the worst time getting frostbitten fingers trying to peel the frozen bananas later on.
Don't just toss them in and freeze them in the peels or you'll have the worst time getting frostbitten fingers trying to peel the frozen bananas later on.
Button Soup - preamble
Stone Soup is an old folk story in which a hungry stranger tricks a reluctant town into giving ingredients one-by-one to add to a soup started with only water and a stone.
In varying traditions, the stone has been replaced with other common inedible objects, and therefore the fable is also known as *button soup*, wood soup, nail soup, and axe soup.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_soup
In varying traditions, the stone has been replaced with other common inedible objects, and therefore the fable is also known as *button soup*, wood soup, nail soup, and axe soup.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_soup
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