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Get Your Green On

November 5, 2008 in Personal Health by cooljuice | 5 comments

A recent post about kale sparked a conversation around dark leafy greens, and how and why a balanced macrobiotic diet needs to include several servings of them.

Why?

Because from a nutritional standpoint, dark green leafy vegetables (or Big Green, as I like to call them), calorie for calorie, are considered one of the most nutrient-dense foods available to humans. When it comes to minerals like iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium; vitamins K, C, E and B; and phytonutrients like beta-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin, dark leafy greens are the cream of the crop.

High in fiber, low in simple carbohydrates and full of nutrients, dark leafy greens aren’t just good for macros, they’re good for everyone.

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Weekend Chef: Vegan Crépes & Tempeh Breakfast Sausage

October 30, 2008 in Recipes by cooljuice | 1 comment

The Weekend Chef gives you great recipes a few days ahead of time, so you can prepare for a delicious macrobiotic weekend.

 

There’s nothing like a big, lazy weekend breakfast. We’ve been a little uncreative with our macro breakfasts, until this week when we purchased the Veganomicon cookbook at the Seward Co-op in Minneapolis. We were purchasing ingredients for the weekend, and saw the book sitting on the shelf with a little halo of light around it, and we knew our breakfasts would be changed for ever.

I didn’t end up using the new cookbook for the tempeh sausage, but Kerstin found and modified a sensational recipe for vegan crépes. We could hardly believe how good they were. Like…real crépes! Check it out:

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Cook This Way: Jessica Porter’s New Video Tutorial

October 29, 2008 in News by cooljuice | 1 comment

Macrobiotic Maven Jessica Porter is at it again—this time with a 3-video online cooking tutorial. You can view a preview on her blog.

Porter has been posting on-again-off-again with videos over the last year or so, and I always get a huge kick out of the way she uses humor and down-to-earth communication (she talks to you as if you were there, not at you as if you were anonymous). Don’t ask me how she does it, she just does.

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Farm Fresh: Snack Attack

October 27, 2008 in Farm Fresh by Andrew Lee | 5 comments

 

If I could give one bit of advice this week (to you AND to myself!), it would be this: Keep good snacks EVERYWHERE. In your desk, in your bag, in the car, at home, near the couch, EVERYWHERE.

Here’s the scenario: I ate breakfast at 8am. A nice big bowl of 7 grain hot cereal mix with walnuts and other seeds. Now it’s 2pm and I forgot to eat lunch because I got wrapped up in meetings all day. I’ve lost focus. I can’t concentrate. I can’t even decide if I need to go out and get food because I’m blazing with the anxious energy of a hungry body. Ever been there? I hit this place at least twice a week! So… instead of eating something, I click through about 75 blogs that I’ve bookmarked over the years and now its 4:45pm and my unfocus is much worse.

Macro snacks have begun to save me in situations like this.

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Weekend Chef: Ginger-Garlic Seitan

October 23, 2008 in Recipes by cooljuice | 6 comments

The Weekend Chef gives you great recipes a few days ahead of time, so you can prepare for a delicious macrobiotic weekend.

With winter just around the corner, finding foods that fill you up and keep you warm is essential. Ginger is a powerful ingredient that many people claim creates warmth from within your body. It also decreases joint pain from arthritis, settles the stomach, relieves nausea, prevents diarreah and may have blood thinning and cholesterol lowering properties that may make it useful for treating heart disease.

All that from a little ginger root!

Without further ado, here is a sensational ginger-based recipe that incorporates high-protein seitan for a double wammy awesome delicous dinner.

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What A Steel! Healthy Cookware

October 22, 2008 in Personal Health, Reviews by cooljuice | 3 comments

 

It’s a given that healthy, organic food is essential for personal health, but it is also important to consider how that food is prepared. Recent studies have shown that certain types of cookware can be harmful and leach chemicals and minerals into our food.

“You are what you ate yesterday,” and I certainly don’t want to be made of carcinogenic chemicals from my frying pan.

Most macrobiotic counselors and books direct people toward stainless steel and cast iron cookware. These materials are non-reactive and corrosion-resistant, limiting the amount of metal that is absorbed by your food. Other more popular materials like aluminum and Teflon can pose health risks because they are less durable, reactive and, in the case of Teflon, can emit noxious gases.

The web site eartheasy.com gives a good overview of common cookware materials and their health risks. Here is the AGAD breakdown:

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The Macro-Effects of Macrobiotics

October 7, 2008 in Personal Health, Social Life by Nicole Gurgel, B.A. | 7 comments

At the risk of belaboring a week-long theme of macro slippage, I feel compelled to write about my long weekend of macro slippage.

I was at a conference in L.A. – a Thursday-Sunday brain marathon where I met some of my true academic heroes and took part in hours of intense conversations about academics and activism and the state of our country. An exhausting environment made more exhausting by the food we were served. The weekend’s menu relied heavily upon the five American food groups of salt, sugar, fat, meat and chocolate. Would you like a sampling?

Thursday breakfast: pastries, coffee. Thursday lunch: chicken, potatoes, butter-soaked green beans and a desert BUFFET. Thursday dinner: fried Mexican and Chinese treats and sugar-laden juices. Friday lunch: cheese stuffed white-flour pasta with cream sauce, meatballs and chicken breasts, iceberg lettuce and chocolate cake. And for our afternoon snack? M&Ms, brownies and raspberry tarts, coffee and unlimited cans of soda.

As we say in the Midwest: Ooof-Da.

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Fuel Your Body

August 27, 2008 in Personal Health by cooljuice | 2 comments

One of the best analogies I know of is the comparison of a human body to an engine that requires fuel. A car needs gas, a stove needs wood, a solar-powered generator needs sunlight, a semi-truck needs diesel fuel, etc. When these engines are given different fuel they either run poorly or not at all. They spew fumes, sputter, and damage themselves when using improper fuel. It is universal knowledge that our machines need specific fuels. It should follow that our bodies need specific fuels, as well. But more often than not, we got sputtering and farting and stomach-aching and constipating through our days wishing life was easier.

While reading about Macrobiotics before I began experimenting with it, I often thought of the fuel analogy. I also read a very thorough and convincing article published in the The McDougall Newsletter about the types of foods our bodies are designed for. Read the rest of this entry »

Quinoa-stuffed Eggplant with Avocado Mousse

August 21, 2008 in Recipes by cooljuice | 2 comments

 Yes, they’re a nightshade, but what am I supposed to do when I go to the co-op and see their fresh, shiny purple faces looking at me like puppies in a window? I just had to take an eggplant home with me, and once it was in the kitchen I couldn’t let it go to waste. When I saw the quinoa on the shelf and the half avocado in the fridge, I knew something delicious was about to happen. And, viola, one of our favorite recipes!

Quinoa-stuffed Eggplant with Avocado Mousse

  • 1 eggplant, cored and soaked in salt water for ten minutes, then rinsed.
  • 1/2 avocado
  • juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 1 cup quinoa, dry
  • 1 tablespoon shoyu or tamari
  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 2 cloves of minced garlic
  • 1/4 cup diced tomato (optional, and another nightshade!!!)
  • 1/8 cup crushed walnuts

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Raspberry Tart: A Delicious Raw Vegan Dessert

August 13, 2008 in Guest Post, Recipes by cooljuice | 8 comments

Today’s guest post is from our friend Ingrid at the Raw Epicurean.

A raw vegan dessert you say? Though this dessert was created under the guidelines of raw, it is a delicious fit for those who follow a macrobiotic diet.

This raspberry tart recipe is one I am particularly proud of and am happy to share with you. It is easy enough to make, all you need is a food processor and a couple special ingredients - agave nectar and rose water - and you are in business.

You can find raw agave nectar at natural health food stores or purchase raw agave nectar online. Rose water is available at Middle Eastern markets, specialty food stores, and at some farmers’ markets, or you can also buy rose water online.

One other thing, this recipe calls for raw almonds, if you don’t have raw almonds on hand, you can certainly use regular almonds. Read the rest of this entry »

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