Do garlic-fingers bother you?  Not me.  I like knowing that I prepared and consumed something scrumptious and healthy.  And lately, garlic is in season, so I have a big supply of it from my CSA share.   I always always double (at least) the amount of garlic any recipe calls for.  As far as I’m concerned, you can never have too much.

Healthwise, garlic will be your best friend. It’s been shown to lower cholesterol and blood pressure; it’s anti-microbial, stimulating the immune system; has anti-inflammatory properties; helps fight colds and flu; and has been shown to inhibit the growth of some cancers.  The thing about garlic is: the stinky part is the important part.  The volatile sulfur-containing compound Allicin is what is responsible for the medicinal properties of garlic, as well as the odiferous ones.  And heat inactivates the Allicin (well, actually it inactivates the enzyme that is responsible for acting on Allicin’s precursor compound alliin to make Allicin), which is why cooked garlic is not nearly as stinky as raw.   So, fresh garlic is highly superior to aged or cooked garlic in terms of health benefits, and this is demonstrated in the scientific data.

Drs. Pizzorno and Murray, authors of The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, recommend garlic for the treatment of asthma and hay fever due to its anti-inflammatory properties; candidiasis (yeast/fungal overgrowth) due to its anti-fungal/anti-microbial properties; high cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure; diabetes (garlic even has blood-sugar-lowering properties!); and increased platelet aggregation (sticky blood) which promotes the formation of atherosclerosis.

Lately, during the change of the seasons which can wreak havoc on our immune systems, I’ve been trying to eat a clove or two of fresh garlic each day.  Yes, this is a somewhat odiferous endeavor.  My current method for getting them down is to smash the cloves up, mix them with some honey, then chase this down with orange juice.  If you know that your immune system is weakened or in need of a boost, I definitely recommend doing this, or else getting a quality garlic supplement (like Kyolic) and taking a double dose.  The fresh garlic is more powerful, but some folks can’t stand to get it down.  So if you’re set on choosing a garlic supplement, look for one that has a high allicin content, equivalent to that of a fresh clove.  A clove of fresh garlic has about 10 mg of Allicin, or 4000 mcg of Alliin.

But I’m going to celebrate anyway, of course.  I’m going to celebrate plants and fiber and phytonutrients and antioxidants and yummy tasty healthy food and making choices that are impactful even though I’ve been making them long enough so that they feel easy.

AND, I really really really really want to go to the San Francisco Vegetarian Society’s 11th annual World Vegetarian Festival that happens tomorrow and Sunday in Golden Gate Park!  And check out all the lectures I can go to!

Too bad Hubs is busy tomorrow.  Anybody wanna go with me?

With all the baking I’ve been doing, not to mention slathering the baby belly with coconut oil morning and night, I have been going through a lot of coconut oil.  A 54-oz tub from Nutiva, which costs anywhere from $25 to $33, used to last me several months.  But now I need a bigger tub.  A bigger, certified organic, cold-pressed, unrefined, fair trade certified, gallon-sized tub.  The shipping charges come to $10.62.  That comes to $0.39 per ounce for the gallon from MRH, as opposed to approximately $0.70 for the 54 oz tub on Amazon.

Score!  I love bulk buying.

What are you looking at?

navy beans
garbanzo beans
black beans
lentils
split peas
hemp protein powder
raisins
baking powder
demerara sugar
evaporated can sugar
panko bread crumbs
vital wheat gluten
instant refried beans
rolled oats
tapioca pearls
whole wheat pastry flour
cornmeal
thyme
rosemary
coriander
cumin
chipotle chile powder
oregano
tarragon
mama-to-be tea
shredded coconut
chocolate chips

…Just a sampling of what you can get in a well-stocked bulk section…

The great thing about yeast-free bread is that it’s QUICK.  No kneading.  No rising. No punching down, etc. It doesn’t turn out with that fermented fluffiness, though – it makes a denser, cakier bread that happens to be very yummy for breakfast with jam and butter or almond butter.

If I were doing this recipe over, I’d add a few tablespoons of ground flaxseed and honey to the dough for fiber and flavor.  I’d also make two loaves instead of the one, and freeze the second.

If you want to make a similar gluten-free loaf, try this recipe.  I haven’t made it, but I’d imagine it would turn out with a similar density and mouthfeel, even though the flavor of the grain would be slightly different. Many gluten-free bread recipes are ingredient-heavy and not-so-simple, but this one is very straightforward.   If you make it, post a comment and let us know how it is.

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Guess what happened to the other half.

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I’ll give you a hint:

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Another thing I like is that one of her objectives with minimalist cooking is to give people who wouldn’t consider themselves to be experienced or capable cooks confidence in the kitchen.  I’m on board with this goal.  I think that a lot of our national problem with obesity and ill-health stems from our collective move out of the kitchen and into the fast-food (by that I mean actual fast-food chains, but also big-box chains like Ryan’s or Applebee’s) restaurants.  Home-cooked food is usually healthier, less-processed, and contains less additives.

Even the ADA is acknowledging that the simple act of cooking your own food can make you healthier.  Here’s an article from USA today that outlines some reasons why (it’s a bit old, but they still apply).  So I’m supportive of folks who want to make healthy cooking easier and more accessible to those who might consider it to be difficult in terms of time, money, or effort.

Stone Soup author Jules Clancy has also been challenging herself to eat for $2 a day.  Which I also think is cool.  Give her e-book a download, and let me know what you think.

…When they’re made of peanut butter, hemp protein powder, and maple syrup!  These lovely little treats invented by Averie over at Love Veggies and Yoga have been the perfect little protein-packed morsels for my pregnancy sweet-tooth.  I’m not really letting myself have things like cookie dough, any more than I would when I’m not pregnant (Pregnancy should be a good excuse to eat more healthily than ever, not less.), but I do have this voracious appetite to deal with.  So I try to contain it with ample fruits, veggies, legumes, and whole grains.  And every so often, a little healthy junk food is in order.

Enter, Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls.  They’re sweet enough that you can’t (or I can’t) really stand to eat more than one or two, but contain enough protein, fat, and fiber (especially if you make the high protein version) not to give you a huge glycemic spike, from which you’ll crash later.

I used plain hemp protein powder, which is my favorite protein powder on the market.  It’s high-fiber, complete, plant-based protein.  I’ve never heard of anyone who is allergic or sensitive to hemp.  Hemp also has a nice balance of omega fatty acids.  I add it to all my smoothies, and occasionally to yogurt as a high-protein snack.  The only downside to using the hemp in this recipe is that it is kindof a green color, and turns your cookie dough balls that dark green color.  So they end up looking a bit like large deer turds (notice I didn’t include a photo in this post.  I don’t want to put you off making this yummy healthy snack).  Fortunately, that doesn’t put me off, so I’ve been noshing on a couple a day.  They really do taste like peanut butter cookie dough. If you can’t stand your dough balls looking like deer turds, you should choose a different protein powder.

For those who are interested, these are gluten-free (as long as you use a g/f protein).  And if you’re sensitive to peanuts, you can always substitute almond or sunflower butter.  Like Averie, I used crunchy nut butter – I love the crunch of the peanuts.  And, as she mentions, you could substitute carob chips for the chocolate if you have issues with that. Another note: I found it easier to coat my hands in a little coconut oil as I was rolling the balls — much less sticky.

If you make these, let me know if you love ‘em!

The new VT has a spread on hummus, wherein they provide a basic hummus recipe, plus various ideas for flavoring additions.  They mention in the article that the basic recipe makes a large batch, but that the hummus freezes well (!).  You know how fond I am of freezing things.  Hummus is perfect babymoon food.  So I made the big batch (from dry chickpeas for all my eco-friends and budget watchers;  I use my pressure cooker for this.  The Pressure Cooker is also on my list of top five kitchen tools.If you soak the chickpeas beforehand, you have perfectly tender ones in less than half an hour.) and spice it with cayenne, lemon, a hint of truffle oil (a gift), and kelp flakes.  I recently wrote a paper on sea vegetables for my Food and Culture class, and have been obsessed with kelp flakes ever since; mmm, iodine. No really, start sprinkling kelp flakes everywhere; you’ll never know they’re there, and your thyroid will thank you.

And lastly, I turned my hand to this Leek and Brie Bruschetta, from Martha Stewart.  I have been jonesing to try this recipe for a while.  Leeks are not budget-friendly food, at least not in my neck of the woods.  Neither is brie.  In fact, the recipe calls for 6 leeks, but I could only bring myself to buy four for a whopping $6.  I would not ordinarily do this, but this recipe has been calling to me and I had to shut it up.  And 4 leeks were plenty.

But here it is folks: if you get your hands on some cheap leeks, SNATCH THEM UP.  Quickly make a run for the bread and brie aisles, grab some tomatoes (and a bottle of vino), then RUN home and make this bruschetta.

Nutritionally, it makes sense to eat cauliflower.  One cup has nearly a full day’s (according to the FDA) supply of vitamin C and only about 28 calories.  Being a cruciferous vegetable, it provides phytonutrients that we know fight cancer and aging.  So, it’s worth it to me to learn how to use cauliflower in tasty ways.

The soup is super-simple: a head of cauliflower, some veggie broth, an onion, some apple juice, and some herbs.  And super easy: chop, simmer, blend; less than half an hour.  If you have an immersion blender (which incidentally, is on my personal list of top five most useful kitchen gadgets), then you only dirty up the one pot.

In my opinion, VT’s recipe could do with some generous spicing up.  Which I did.  (They call for tarragon and coriander.  I used tarragon, thyme, sage, lemon, and cayenne; with the tiniest hint of allspice. The lemon was key.)  But the point is: It can be anything you want it to be.  You could use whatever spices you want.  You could add some adzuki beans for protein.  You could add some sweet potato or pumpkin.  You could use celery in place of (or in addition to) onion.  You could add cream or cheese if that’s how you roll.  You could serve it cold like gazpacho.  It’s like a potato, but healthier.

If you make it like they do, serve with a side of hummus and whole grain pita.  Of course, I’m going to see if it freezes well, too…