What's in your rice cooker? (and other miscellaneous thoughts)

This weekend I was in Guelph with Khalid, where his parents made me the best cabbage ever and my favourite rice dish, brown rice with mung beans. That got me thinking about rice cookers. I have had lots of friends and family tell me that they would never buy a rice cooker... but why?! Unless you are a raw foodist, a rice cooker is such a great addition to your kitchen! (and a slow cooker too, but that's probably another blog post). You can make just about any grain in a rice cooker, including legumes like red/green lentils and split peas. If you are trying to go gluten-free, get yourself some grains and embrace your rice cooker.

Here's what's in my rice cooker tonight!

 Ingredients:
-1 cup washed red lentils
-2 cups washed green lentils
-Handful of fresh spinach (not washed, because I never wash my produce... worst microbiologist ever)
-Handful of frozen rapini (I made a trip to MacMillan farms today and went crazy in the frozen veg aisle)
-*Fresh ground black pepper, coriander seed, cumin seed and sea salt
-**1 tsp olive oil

...just add water! (6 1/2 cups for me)

 *If you are corn-free, like myself, do yourself a favour and invest in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle. Most packaged (ground) spices contain cornstarch to prevent clumping, or even dextrose in the case of iodized salt (dextrose... read corn!). I just bought a mortar and pestle from Winners today for $10 and ground my spices fresh (there's nothing compared to the fragrance of freshly ground spice).

**Khalid used to tell me when my rice cooker bubbled over it was because I didn't wash my rice well enough (how insulting, I wash EVERYTHING so well...), but actually the secret is to add a little oil. Who knew? Now you do, and you too can make froth-free rice.

 

Last week I bought some split peas from bulk barn and got totally gluten-ed. Unfortunately, bulk barn is not a gluten-friendly place, and the wheat flours have a way of floating into bins where they are not welcome. I usually don't have a problem, but maybe I've just been lucky so far! So, I took my upset psoriasis to the Superstore in search of some packaged beans/lentils. I found this brand, Bella Tavola, which looks safe (avoid NuPak, they process their beans/lentils on the same equipment as wheat).


I have some other leafy greens to make smoothies and salads out of for Monday and Tuesday lunches. I picked up some sesame seeds, raw olive oil and apple cider vinegar that I'm hoping to make some salad dressing with tomorrow (I'll let you know how it goes!). Did you know that in 2006 the makers of Mastro EVOO were convicted of false advertising because they were mixing in 50% sunflower oil? What a scandal. What was I talking about?

Here's a salad I ate last week (in the spirit of trying to share my eating adventures with you). It had romaine lettuce, carrots, almonds, green peppers, cucumber, avocado and hemp seeds. I rarely use dressing on my salads anymore, and it's definitely not necessary when you have creamy avocado mixed in there. Note that if you are going to make yourself a salad, do away with the dinky "soup" bowls and get yourself a behemoth popcorn bowl, or even a mixing bowl. I can't even fit half my lettuce in those puney side bowls... clearly they were designed by carnivores.

In closing, I wanted to send a big shout out to my Australian friend Nicole who just went back to Nepal and did a great job of raising money for HCCH! Naturally this has made me super nostalgic for my past travels with such wonderful Aussies. In the spirit of our beloved snacks, I've been eating carrots and peanut butter for the past few days. Don't knock it till you've tried it, mate! Make sure to buy the natural peanut butter, otherwise you're just eating glorified icing sugar.





How are your New Year's Resolutions going? It's been a week since I've been to the gym, but at least I had a salad. Right? Right?!

I'd better go do some push-ups...

Ewwww, Brussel sprouts

I forgot to bring my camera with me a few times over the past few days, so you are definitely missing the giant burger I had at Lonestar... but it was bunless and I got a house salad on the side! (but it had cheddar cheese and bacon... call it a draw?).

For lunch I threw some leftovers from New Years in the pan, and in went some old Brussel sprouts. I so regret the Brussel sprouts! I clearly did not cook them for long enough so they were hard, and they had that nasty Brussel-sprouty taste (you know the one I mean). Usually I'm a huge Brussel sprout fan, but then I usually cut them into halves so they cook better. Oh well, the rest was a success.

Today (January 3rd) was grocery shopping day, check out my haul! Thanks go out to my wonderful inlaws who gave me a President's Choice gift card for Christmas (is there anything better than free food?). Those cucumbers were only $0.25/ea. I know! Okay, enough excitement for one day.

I made some red cabbage with onions, using my massive new electric skillet (thanks, Khalid!). I got too lazy to do the green beans next, so I just threw them on top as is. It looks pretty boring, but I'm bringing along some nuts and dried fruits.. and I'll put an avocado on top, because all the cool kids are doing it. But Vicki, what will you have for breakfast? Enter... Green Smoothie!





Some of you may know that for Christmas I got a Blendtec blender from my wonderful Aunt and Uncle. I've been using it to make smoothies for Khalid, but I've been patiently biding my time for when I could blend a MASSIVE HEAD OF KALE! Why are you making that face? Get excited! These Green Smoothies get totally addictive. In addition to half the head of kale I threw in some pears and frozen blueberries. It took great restraint not to drink it all tonight. (and to wash the blender, you just blend water and dish soap. I love this thing!)

That's all for today. What New Year's resolutions did you all make? Would you like to see photos of me doing hilarious work-outs at the gym? Because that might be a thing in the spirit of being healthy in 2013. Perhaps a short video of my step class? 80's headband included.

Happy cucumbers,
Vicki

2013, getting started!

So it's 2013! My New Year's resolution this year is to try a number of "greeny" diet programs and chart how they affect my psoriasis. At this point, I know that gluten, corn and sugar are big no-nos, and I'm hoping that by blogging this year I will be able to stay the course of healthy eating. My inspiration came from a recent trip to the St. Lawrence market where I found Cruda Cafe, a totally raw vegan (and gluten-free!) take-out restaurant. I had their Pizzeta, which they describe as follows: "tomato flax thin crust topped with our house creamy cheese, tomato, olives, avocado, sprouts, paired with a small salad." And you know what? It was delicious!

For dessert I had raw vegan cheesecake. Yes, you heard that correctly! They get the "cheesecake" texture by using raw cashews. How clever. Of course, next time I will suggest that they don't serve it to me on a corn husk... but we live and learn :) (even Khalid gave this cheesecake an 8/10 on the vegan cheesecake scale.)

Now, you know that it's really easy to find excuses to cheat, especially around the holidays, so New Year's Eve was a big test for me. Usually we have steak (yum) and lobster (bluh), so I made sure that I had lots of veggies around. I even splurged and bought myself some whole walnuts, avocados and colourful carrots (I'm sure they have a specific name, but I couldn't tell you what it is).

So here was my meal! Carrots, asparagus and sliced cucumber with raw cashews, hemp seeds, fresh walnuts and half an avocado. Always come prepared!

 (and here was my contender, staring me down)

And we can't forget dessert! I had some almonds, organic dried figs and pomegranate. And at the end of this meal I was totally content, I didn't even get into the cherry ice cream in the freezer (which probably would have happened if I hadn't planned dessert for myself).

You don't have to have psoriasis to enjoy these posts, maybe you just want to see how someone else is getting their recommended intake of veggies and fruit, or maybe you have a similar resolution! If you have any recipe ideas, please send them my way (I have green smoothies and homemade raw vegan cheesecake in the works, so stay tuned!).

Hello and Goodbye from January 1rst, 2013
Vicki