Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The best and the worst week so far!

Week 4

Monday, May 2

-1 c. curry leftovers  (2)
-pita and baba ganoush 1/4 c. (0.5)
-lunch: raw carrot ginger cashew soup (3 servings)

-supper: rest of soup (3 servings) with rye crackers

Total: 8.5


Tuesday, May 3

-samosa (2)- that's right that thing was FULL of potatoes and peas!, hummus and pita
-Kopi colada with coconut and pineapple (no real fruit here I don't imagine), bourbon
-quick but homemade chili with garlic bread (2)
-carrot (1)
-1/2 Crowbar 

Total: 5


Wednesday, May 4

-Breakfast at 2pm: tuno sandwich with 1/2 c.lettuce, tomato, kraut (1)
-supper: piece of toast with 1/2c. chili sauce  (1)
-another piece of toast, tapioca pudding. Kinda rebelling against myself today. 

Total: 2

Thursday, May 5

-miso soup with 1.5 c. carrot, enoki mushrooms, shitake mushrooms (3), 1c. spinach (1)
(That's right-- 4 servings of vegetables FOR BREAKFAST!)
 -guacamole (1), sweet potato dip with cucumber (2)
-Magaritas with fresh lime juice (1), 1 serving of organic blue corn chips (these are too healthy not to count (1)! Happy Cinco de Mayo!


Total: 9

Friday, May 6

-smoothie with 1 c. blueberry, 1/2 banana (2.5)
-1 c. red pepper/mushroom/garlic/spinach/garlic in stir fry (2)


Total: 4.5


Saturday, May 7


-leftovers from last night (2)
-pakora--cabbage and potato (1) + 1 c. vegetables in salad (2)
-1/2 lime in Margarita (0.5)-- I'm getting the official word on how much lemon and lime juice count for-- until then, I will count as such


Total: 5.5

Sunday, May 8

-BLT with 1/2 c. lettuce and tomato. I don't frig around (1)
-Fried tofu and vegetable stir fry from Robie Food (6) + veg spring roll (1)-- I ate this in two sittings


Total: 8


Daily average for the week: 6.07-- Best so far! 


Week 5 (this is where I really screwed the pooch):


Monday, May 9


-smoothie with 1 c. strawberry (2) + 1/2 banana (0.5)
-egg sandwich with 1/2 c. lettuce, tomato and green pepper (1)


Total total: 3.5


Tuesday, May 10


-BLT with 1/2 c. Fun Jen and tomato (1)
-Indian food combo from Taste of India (1.5)
-burger with 1/2c. Fun Jen, tomato (1)
-molten chocolate cake 


Total: 3.5


Wednesday, May 11

-cake (yup. for breakfast. don't tell anyone)
-Thai fiddleheads 1 c. (2) with rice and tamarind chickpeas
-more chickpeas and rice
-sufficient number of delicious cupcakes


Total: 2

Thursday, May 12

-BELT with extra lettuce (1)
-Crownola-- Crowbar granola
-red lentil soup with 1 c. carrot/beet turnip (2), 1c. spinach (1), 1/2c. peas/corn 
Total: 4.5


Friday, May 13


-miso soup with shitake, carrot (2), 2 c. spinach (2)
-hummus and delicious organic blue corn chips (2)
-margaritas with 1 lemon (1) Thanks, Cinco de Mayo!


Total: 7


Saturday, May 14


-hummus and chips
-pakora (1)
-tostada with lettuce, avocado, tomato (1)
-If I ate anything else it couldn't've had any vegetables because I didn't record it


Total: 2 yeesh!


Sunday, May 15


-smoothie with fresh mint and raw chocolate
-3 c. salad with tomato (3.25)
- scrambled eggs with 1 c. mushroom/green pepper, garlic (2)


Total: 5.25



Daily average for the week: 3.96


Week 1 Daily average: 4.93
Week 2 Daily average: 5.86
Week 3 Daily average: 4.88
Week 4 Daily average: 6.07
Week 5 Daily average: 3.96


Daily average overall: 5.14

Still not great, under what's recommeded by the most recent Canada Food Guide (7-8 min for adult Canadian women), but realistic. Apparently this is average for Canadians!  According to the Canadian Community Health Survey, In 2008, 50.1% of Canadian females (6.8 million) and 37.0% of males (4.8 million) reported consuming fruits and vegetables 5 or more times per day. Call me sceptical, but I think people are overestimating. In most cases, I'm doing everything I can to eat as many vegetables as I can. Every meal I make at home, I actually use measuring cups for accuracy! Nobody's perect, but I think I'm doing pretty well. 


How are you doing? How many servings of vegetables are you eating per day?


Thursday, May 12, 2011

Try fiddleheads! Thai fiddleheads!

Fiddleheads, fiddleheads in a dish... how many fiddleheads do you wish?
Gulai Pakis, Maritime-style, served with Tamarind Chickpeas.

Fiddleheads are a wonderful wild fern. You can't get 'em everywhere, but you can luckily get 'em here in the Maritimes. Friends of my brother's used to drive for 5 hours to get them each May when they weren't yet available in stores! At the time I thought that was ludicrous. Okay, I still kind of do, but at least now I get it. These awesome ferns are a rare, time-limited delicacy available in wet n' wild areas during parts of May and June around these parts. Although they're loaded with omega-3s and 6s, antioxidants, fibre and iron, they also have a natural toxin in them, so you should definitely cook 'em before you eat 'em.

Most folks fry the fheads in butter, maybe with some garlic, lemon or vinegar. Maybe I just haven't been invited to the right parties, but this is the only way I've ever heard of them being cooked. Delicious sure, but slightly ho-hum. So I did a little search around the ol' internet, and found that in Thailand-- who knew they even grew there?-- they cook 'em up in coconut and other typical Thai seasonings in a dish called Gulai Pakis. I made a variation of this yesterday and it was pretty awesome. I used dried galangal, kaffir lime leaves, and turmeric, I used red curry paste rather than shrimp paste, and sriracha and red chili flakes rather than the fresh hot peppers, but otherwise, I pretty much stuck to the recipe. It was pretty damned delicious. If you know someone who thinks fiddleheads taste dull (as my bf does), stew this up! 


How do you serve this awesome spring fern?



Saturday, May 7, 2011

Howz about them fiddleheads?





I spent all day working my booth at the farmer's market. I worked alone but managed to duck out and score my first load o' fiddleheads of the season and some salad greens called Fun Jen. Thanks, Free Spirit Farms (and the ditch you likely picked the fiddleheads from)! Now, I will likely collapse and/or pretend to watch the Kentucky Derby but really drink bourbon. I'll cook these bad boys up later and let you know what I did with 'em.

Yes, my shirt says "Eat your f@#%'n vegetables!

How do you like to cook fiddleheads?

Thursday, May 5, 2011

AN UNBEETABLE GLUTEN-FREE CAKE!

This was our best effort at decorating the cake like the Type O Negative logo. The green icing was made with chlorophyll and the black icing was made from adding charcoal powder to a chocolate icing mix.

GUESS WHAT? You can put vegetables in your cake and it's truly delicious and not gross at all! Beets colour this cake a little red, but not much. The addition of fruit and vegetables make this cake nice n' moist. They makes me nice n' moist too. My pal Tracy and I adapted this from the least-horrendous (but still quite horrendous-- it called or gross Splenda!) gluten-free "Red Velvet Cake" recipe. Some people stoop so low as to add a bottle of red food colouring to their cake to make it red n' velvetty, but they're obviously not thinking clearly. Maybe they need a little iron? I suggest the consumption of beet cake, not weirdness-causing artificial dyes!

The cake was actually made to celebrate the life of Type O Negative's Pete Steele who died a year ago April, hence the gothiness and the lipstick made of black frosting.

Red Water (Christmas Mourning) Beet Cake

dry ingredients:
1 cup unrefined sugar
1 cup gluten-free flour mix or 1 cup other flour
1/4 cup cocoa (please use fair trade)
1 teaspoon flaxmeal
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

2c. shredded beets
1/2 an apple, chopped
1 tablespoon oil
1/4 cup applesauce or mashed banana
2 eggs or egg substitutes
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (only if using gluten-free flour mix)


Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.Prepare a 9x13x2 inch baking pan with vegetable cooking spray or two 9-inch cake pans. Sift together dry ingredients. Fold in wet ingredients (vinegar last) and mix just until combined. Pour into pan and distribute evenly. Bake for about 40 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. 

Eat this cake. Count it toward your vegetables servings. Tell your mama. 

This is probably the most PG photo that also shows the inside of the cake so you can check out the colour.



Sunday, May 1, 2011

Another week of counting vegetables. I need your input!

Friday, April 22

-2 c. salad mix (2)
-1 c. peppers, mushrooms, tomato (2)
-cake (1/2), cornchips (1) 

Total: 5.5

Saturday

-1 c. pineapple (2)
-sushi innards: sweet potato, avo (1)
-kimchi (1/2), sandwich (kraut, tomato, lettuce)-- (1)

Total: 4

Sunday

-1 c. pineapple (2)
-1 c. salad mix and tomato (1)
-1/2 c. blueberries in yogurt (1)

Total: 4

Monday

-bigass omlette (spinach, mushrooms, tomato)-- (2)
-1 serving pineapple (1)
-sandwich with kraut, tomato, lettuce, peppers (1)

Total: 4

Tuesday

-3/4 c. strawberries (1.5), 1/2 c. blueberries (1), 1/2 banana (1/2) in smoothie= (3)
-some cooked dish which I don't recall: 1/2 c. corn/peas (1), 3/4c. tomato = (1.5)

Total: 4.5

Wednesday: 


-1c. yellow/green peppers, parsnip, carrot (2), 1/2 c. peas/corn (1), 1/2c. spinach (1/2)

Total=3.5 What in hell I ate that day + why I only seemed to eat one meal is beyond me! 

Thursday

-Taste of India meal!=yellow cabbage, mixed vegetable curry, chana masala with tomato, green beans= approx. 1.5 c. pure vegetables (3 servings)
-1 c. yellow peppers, garlic, enoki mushrooms, spinach (2)
-2 c. beet greens/lettuce (2)
-1/2 c. sauerkraut on toast (1)

Total: 8


Friday, April 29

-1 c. various vegetables in omelette- yellow peppers, tomato, spinach-- (2)
-1 c.  beet greens + lettuce (1)




Total: 3. I expected to get fed a second time today ;(


Saturday, April 30


-1/2 c. sauerkraut (1)
-1.5 c. of various vegetables in Korean meal-- lettuce, daikon, carrot, spinach, sprouts, green onions, kimchi cabbage (3)


Total: 4


So, I realized part way through the week*  it might not really be that helpful to you if I didn't list my vegetable and fruit consumption in context of my meals and snacks. Often, as you can see, I get lazy and just list the vegetables and amounts, but don't make it appetizing by letting you know HOW I ate them or what that looked like. Am I right? Would you like full disclosure? Do you wanna see the rest of what I eat? Would you like more pics? More recipes? Please let me know. I'll be concentrating more on this blog in the coming weeks.

I want your input on how I can proceed. How can I inspire you to eat more vegetables?!


* This week I was merely recording my intake and not concentrating on it as I sometimes do, thus the high intake at the end of the day ;)