Thinking of the Environment with your Diet and Exercise

I came across the below infographic and felt compelled to share. Remember that fitness is about your health. Another aspect outside of diet and exercise is the environment that you live in. I remember being in Beijing, China a number of years ago and coughing due to the air pollution there.

On another note, keep in mind that Dairy production also has an impact on Carbon Dioxide emissions. 

Also if you are a glutton for punishment and/or like reading actual sciency stuff ( like me ), then here's a published study on agriculture and Carbon emissions done at Penn State.

Sweet Potato Chips

This is quite possibly the easiest recipe in the world!

I have a toddler who is a "Picky Eater" (This is actually a huge understatement. He will not eat anything that is not crunchy. This means all vegetables have to be dehydrated... Every. Single. One.).

In order to have a quick snack on the go my wife and I came up with these.

1 Large Sweet Potato

Get out your helpful mandolin slicer, slice fairly thin until you have no sweet potato left. Pop into the dehydrator at 125 degrees overnight, and there you go, a quick snack to go.

Being Vegan in a Hostile Environment

For those of you outside the United States you have to understand that when I talk about the South I mean Florida, Georgia, The Carolinas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia . I grew up in the South. At age 11 I decided to become a vegetarian. My parents were supportive, although I'm sure they thought it was just a phase and it was probably a pain in the ass for them to figure out meals.  

The interesting thing about growing up in the South is that there is literally meat products in EVERYTHING. I mean traditional southern cooking involves vegetables being cooked in pork fat! So as you can imagine being a vegetarian posed some problems. There have been times when I have been unable to eat at a restaurant because even though they had vegetables on the menu, they weren't vegetarian vegetables.

The fact that I even had to write the phrase "vegetarian vegetables" kind of epitomizes the idea of a hostile environment to a vegan diet. When you have to question the green beans at a restaurant, you really do have to wonder how the hell you can keep a animal product free diet.

There are two ways to go about handling this. One is to question everything, and I mean literally everything. You will be a royal pain in the ass, but you also will only have to ask the questions once. If you don't want to ask at a restaurant then call ahead and ask. We live in a wonderful age where we have the Internet in the palm of our hands. Usually you can look up a menu and a phone number within a few minutes, and take care of your dietary needs even before you walk through the door. It's a lot easier than what I had to do growing up, and you can feel safe in knowing that you actually talked to someone who knows, versus the waiter, who depending on their mood may lie to your face (I've had that happen).

The second way to handle it is to just not go out to eat. Pack your food and bring it with you. I'm pretty sure I could live for two days with the food I have at my desk at work, and not necessarily in a totally unhealthy way! I have a fruit bowl, soups, protein powders, soy milk, raw vegan meal replacement bars, and cereal. My work bag always has a vegan meal replacement bar in it, as does my workout bag.

Bottom line, like everything about living a healthy lifestyle, you have to plan ahead a little bit. Know what you are getting into, where you are going, and think of your needs. Don't be afraid to be a pain in the ass, and don't be afraid to say no. It's your life and your health, choose what's important to you!

The Unhealthy Vegan

I've heard many people say being a vegan is unhealthy. As a general rule I find this to be an odd phenomenon. Generally when you dig into this person's statement about veganism being unhealthy, it usually ends up being due to one of two things. Either they have are completely misinformed about nutrition and veganism in general, or they have a friend/family member/acquaintance who is a vegan and is unhealthy. They then proceed to base their entire outlook of this lifestyle on this unhealthy individual.

There are some seriously unhealthy vegans out there. Being a vegan does not directly equate to being healthy, just as being an omnivore does not equate to being healthy. The human diet is far more complicated than that. If you are going to "go vegan" for health reasons, just cutting out the animal products is not going to make it so!

Look, I've met the unhealthy vegans too. The ones who live on white refined bread, candy, white rice, semolina pasta, french fries and processed soy products. Refuse to eat any kind of vegetables because they don't like the taste. You know what? If you added meat to that diet it would still be unhealthy!

The bottom line is this, just being a vegan does not make one healthy. It helps as usually it does force you to eat more vegetables. However if you do not cut down on processed foods and continue to eat like crap then not eating animal products is not going to help. So next time you meet someone who has a friend/acquaintance/coworker/family member who is a vegan and is unhealthy, ask a little bit more about their dietary habits. Perhaps you can educate them a little more about the importance of a balanced diet, even as a vegan.

No Sugar Added Gluten Free Protein Vegan Waffles

1/2 cup of gluten-free flour (I use Bob's Red Mill - Gluten Free "Sweet" White Sorghum Flouror Bob's Red Mill Organic Buckwheat Flour)
1/2 cup of Vanilla Pea Protein Powder (I use Pure Vegan Pea Protein Dietary Supplement - Vanilla )
1/2 teaspoon gluten-free Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of Milk Alternative (I prefer soy, but this works with Almond and Coconut as well)
1 Tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar ( I like Bragg's Apple Cidar Vinegar)
1/4 cup of Ground Flax Seed
1/4 cup of Bakeable Blend Stevia Sweetener
2 Tablespoons of Coconut Oil

Sift all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Place milk into a separate bowl and add apple cider vinegar. Whisk the wet ingredients and leave for a minute. This makes a non dairy buttermilk. Proceed mix all the wet ingredients into the milk mixture, and then add that to the dry ingredients.

Follow the ingredients for your electric waffle maker. I personally have the Oster Belgian Waffle Maker.

Gluten Free Vegan Protein Pancakes

1/2 cup of gluten-free flour (I use Bob's Red Mill - Gluten Free "Sweet" White Sorghum Flouror Bob's Red Mill Organic Buckwheat Flour)
1/2 cup of Vanilla Pea Protein Powder (I use Pure Vegan Pea Protein Dietary Supplement - Vanilla )
1/2 teaspoon gluten-free Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of Milk Alternative (I prefer soy, but this works with Almond and Coconut as well)
1 Tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar ( I like Bragg's Apple Cidar Vinegar)
1/4 cup of Ground Flax Seed
2 Tablespoons of Agave ( I like Agave In The Raw )
2 teaspoons of Coconut Oil

Sift all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Place milk into a separate bowl and add apple cider vinegar. Whisk the wet ingredients and leave for a minute. This makes a non dairy buttermilk. Proceed mix all the wet ingredients into the milk mixture, and then add that to the dry ingredients. Mix until non lumpy. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Raw Tortilla Chips

This recipe was a Hail Mary to try and make something for my very picky toddler. We've tried to keep him as close to a raw food diet as possible. Sometimes he just would not eat what we made him.

Luckily we made him this and he loves them! He will easy a whole tray if we let him :-)

I've even made since variations on this recipe since then to include different vegetables.

2 cups of Sweet Corn
3/4 cups of Ground Flax Seed
2 cups of water
1/4 Teaspoon of salt
(optional) a little lime juice

Put all of the above ingredients into a blender (I use a Vitamix, conceivably this recipe could kill another blender, due to how much the flax seed thickens the mix during the blending process). Poor onto a few dehydrator trays and spread it around to thin it down to a couple of milimeters thick. Dehydrate at 115 for 10 - 12 hours.

Enjoy with Raw Salsa!

Using Protein Powders in Recipes

If you are like me, you like to give in to temptation sometimes and eat something delightfully decadent, and yet not good for you waist line. You may also have children (like me) who are vegetarian and yet you do not feel they are getting sufficient protein. I submit the following solution! Substitute some protein powder for flour in some of your baking recipes!

I know this sounds too good to be true, but I promise you it works amazingly. Doing this I have actually made some pretty tasty waffles, pancakes, donut holes, cakes, cookies, breads, and muffins! My current personal preference is to use Pea or Rice Protein. It's quite easy to do, just substitute part of the flour that you are going to put in the recipe with an equal part of one of the above proteins. If you are making something sweet I recommend the Vanilla flavor. If it's something savory I recommend the unflavored. That's all there is to it!

Now you can go out and make some delicious treats for yourself (maybe your kids too. If they're good :-) ) and feel somewhat good about it knowing that you are adding some protein to the recipe, you know, for health! Heck you can even enjoy a protein cookie after a hard workout!

I posted my Pancake and Waffle recipes!

Where do you get your protein?

A question that I get asked a lot when I tell people that I am vegan, is where do you get your protein? The truth is it really isn't that hard. Generally I don't eat crap food, and the crap food I do eat is usually some kind of protein bar.

So first of all lets focus on what it is that we do need. According to this study by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academics, a grown adult only needs about .4 grams of protein per pound of body weight to basically keep breaking down muscle mass. So lets add .1 for good measure for the following calculation. As a 160 lb man, I would need 80 grams of protein per day!

So then how do we get to the magic number of 80 grams a day. Well for me, I always like to start my day with a protein shake. It was something I started when I began to focus on the nutrition aspect of weight loss, and I've just kind of kept up with it. I vary which one I use on a regular basis, but I usually rotate through the Vega One Nutritional Shake-Berry, Vega Sport Performance Protein Vanilla, Vega One Nutritional Shake-French Vanilla, Garden of Life Raw Organic Meal - Vanilla, Sunwarrior Warrior Blend Powder - Vanilla, and some other Hemp, Pea, and Rice proteins that I come across. So that's usually good for about 20 grams of protein in the morning. Hey look at that I'm already a quarter of the way to my daily protein intake and I haven't even chewed yet!

Now where do I get my protein when chewing? Well this part is easy. I eat food, mostly plants. That means I don't eat that prepackaged frozen food. and I really don't eat much pasta or bread! So lets look at some nutritional facts.

1 cup of spinach has a 1 gram of protein.
1 cup of kale has 3 grams of protein.
1 cup of chopped broccoli has 2.6 grams of protein
1 cup of chopped carrots has 1.5 grams of protein
1 cup of shredded cabbage has 1 gram of protein
1 cup of shredded onion has 1 gram of protein
a cucumber has 2 grams of protein
a tomato has 1 grams of protein
1/2 cup of corn has 8 grams of protein

HOLY CRAP IS THAT A 20 GRAM OF PROTEIN SALAD BEFORE DRESSING!?!  Now add some black beans (21 grams for 1/2 a cup!), or lentils (25 grams for 1/2 a cup), or even on the lighter side some sunflower seeds (7.25 grams for a 1/4 cup), and you have just made some protein awesomeness!

 But for the sake of this article lets not add beans to the salad because guess what were having for dinner! That's right, lentils and quinoa! If you've never tried it, its awesome and as easy to cook as brown rice. Give it a try its awesome. Anyway a cup of quinoa and a 1/2 cup of lentils, and boom! 49 grams of protein.

So lets add that up shall we? 20 grams from the morning shake, 20 grams from my awesome lunch salad, and 49 grams from dinner! Look at that I'm over my requirement! I'm not even taking into account the fact that I put soy milk into my coffee, or that I have a protein shake after I workout, or that I sometimes have a shake or a Cliff Builder Bar or ProBar Core Bar if I get hungry during the afternoon! I've also been known to eat an apple and almond butter as a snack! Trust me I get WAY more than 80 grams of protein a day and I don't even try!

That leads me to the athletics side of things. I've read in a few places that you should aim to get 1 - 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight if you are "an athlete", and that consequently that's why its so hard to be a vegan athlete... I submit the above as testimonial, that in reality its not that hard. It does however require planning and forethought. Now one other thing to mention is the fact that vegetable sources of protein don't have the "essential amino acids". These are the ones the body can't produce. But there's a simple solution to this! You eat a variety of plants, which each have different amino acids, and presto you can ensure that you get the variety of amino acids that your body needs! Well hell our salad was a good mix! In fact I don't think we had any protein from the same source all day today! So bottom line is that it can be done. So eat vegan and thrive!

A Raw Thanksgiving

Well I know its a few days late but hey it was Thanksgiving! I saw friends and family and had a whole lot to be Thankful for! I've spent the last few days still enjoying raw leftovers, and running around after my newly crawling infant.

For the first time I was actually able to make a full raw spread for Thanksgiving. Last year I made a couple of raw deserts: A raw apple pie, and a raw key lime pie. The raw Key Lime Pie wasn't quite a hit, but the Apple Pie went over very well and was made again this year with a little modification to the crust.

The rest of the spread was made courtesy of recipes from Jackie and Gideon Graff of Sprout Raw Food. I had the honor and privilege of attending their class on Thanksgiving and I must say that I very much enjoyed it. Since most of the recipes were created by Jackie and Gideon, I wouldn't feel right about posting them up online without their permission. After all, the recipes are their intellectual property.

The Apple Pie though I have absolutely no problem sharing :)

Raw Apple Pie
4 Large Fuji Apples cored and cut into fourths.
1 and 1/2 cups Medjool Dates soaked for an hour in filtered water
1/4 cup of raw honey or agave (make sure this is raw. Many of them say they are raw, but it might not be true. I recommend Ohgave! Matthew Kenney RAW Blue Agave Nectar, 46-Ounce Bottles (Pack of 2).
3 cups of Almonds (preferably soaked for 12 hours then dehydrated (I use a Excalibur 3900 Deluxe Series 9 Tray Food Dehydrator - Black))
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

1. In a Food Processor using the "S" blade (I like Cuisinart DLC-2009CHB Prep 9 9-Cup Food Processor, Brushed Stainless but whatever you have will work)  process the three cups of almonds. When the almonds are broken down into small pieces add 1/2 cup of dates, salt, and honey or agave. This will process into a sticky "dough". 
2. Remove the "dough" and press into an 8 inch pie pan to form a crust.
3. In a blender (I can't say enough good things about my Vitamix Turbo Blend 4500 64 oz capacity), put 1 cup of dates and puree.
4. Clean the Food Processor and put in the shredder attachment. Drop the apples in one at a time. Remove and place into a mixing bowl. Add the pureed dates from the step above, and the cinnamon. Mix well.
5. Pour the Apple, Date, Cinnamon mixture into the pie crust.
6. Enjoy!

I would have a picture, unfortunately it was gobbled up before I got a chance!

The rest of the menu included:
Curried Butternut Squash Soup
Noasted Nurkey
Squash Casserole
Spinach Casserole
Wild Rice Undressing
Apple Orange Cranberry Sauce.

Nutritious, Delicious and gone now :) Guess I better start getting ready for Christmas!

Unfried Rice

The origin of this recipe was actually pretty simple. I was hungry, I wanted something quick and I wanted something raw. I had just played around with the idea of using cauliflower as a rice substitute earlier in the week and I remembered that way back in college I had regularly made refried rice. 

I always enjoyed it then, but since I had stopped eating eggs years ago when I became a vegan I decided that it may be time to try something new. 

1 head Cauliflower
1/2 cup Edamame
1/2 cup Peas
1/2 cup Corn
1/2 Red Bell Pepper
1/4 cup Tamari
1/4 Flax or Hemp Oil

Process Head of Cauliflower in Food Processor to “rice” like texture. 

Remove and add to serving bowl.Process Red Bell Pepper in Food processor. 

Add all veggies to serving bowl. Mix throughly.

Needless to say it was a hit. Just keep in mind that cauliflower has a strong odor, and tastes a little different when it is left out for long periods of time. So gobble this up the day you make it!

Buen Provecho!

Introduction

I think the titles say it all!

I'm finally starting thinking about sharing what I know. Its not much but hopefully it should fill a few posts every now and again.

I have been gradually converting over to a more raw food diet. Ive created a few recipes of my own, learned a few others, and discovered resources along the way. I'm hoping that by blogging about my findings and learnings that it will be easier for me to go out and eat raw, so this blog is as much for me as it is for you.

In addition as quickly as I find and create recipes I have a tendency to lose them. By putting them on the web, they are here for the world to see.

So until next time.

Buen Provecho