Posts Tagged Alicia Silverstone

Mochi, the Adult Version of Sea Monkeys!

Well hello blog world!  My how quickly a week flies by when one is immersed in all sorts of recipe testing and business related stuff!

Fortunately I did take some time out to relax a bit over the weekend and make a fun Sunday breakfast. Have you ever had MOCHI before?

mochi

I knew it existed, I had read recipes for things to make with it (muffins, pizza crusts, waffles), but I’d just never picked any up at the store.  Cory loves waffles and so I decided to see what this mochi was all about.

One thing I love about the original flavor is the ingredient list:  Organic sweet brown rice, filtered water.

That’s it!

I cannot take credit for this fun idea – I learned the technique from Alicia Silverstone in her book The Kind DietShe has kindly included the recipe on her website as well for those of you who want to give it a try.   I didn’t make the syrup in the recipe – I just used a little raw honey and sprinkled it with chopped almonds.

This is my kind of cooking.  You cut the mochi into strips, lay it on your waffle iron, and VOILA – it grows into a waffle like those crazy sea monkeys we used to add to water as kids.

They were pretty good!  Definitely chewy and you want to add flavor with some sort of topping because alone they taste like, well… rice.

I even had some strips of tempeh bacon that I’d made the day before.  It was a fun and FAST breakfast for a lazy Sunday morning.

Next time I’ll have to try the Raisin-Cinnamon flavor!

Have you ever made mochi?  How do you like to prepare it? 

– Shari B. =)

 

 

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Random Rambles

Hi friends!

Welcome to the random topics post!

First, I was MIA yesterday thanks to this book:  The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly.  When MSP and I went to see The Fighter last week, this was one of the preview trailers:

Wow, so many great actors in this film.  I have never read a Michael Connelly book, but I was dying to know this story after seeing the trailer.  I started this book Tuesday and was hooked.  It was GREAT!  I used to love John Grisham back in the days of The Firm and The Pelican Brief.  Then his books started losing my interest.  This Michael Connelly will be on my list of authors to read more of.   It even kept me up well after 11:00 last night because I just HAD to finish it – and that says a LOT when you know I’m a freak about getting to bed at 9:00 each night!  Highly recommended if you like legal thrillers.

Of course, I still woke up this morning at 4:30 even after getting to bed late.  My internal alarm clock just never lets me sleep in!

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We were blessed with yet another beautiful day yesterday before the cold and snow will hit us tonight – so we took the opportunity to use a L-O-N-G walk for our DDSD yesterday.  It was another 55 degree day with mostly sunshine.  Tonight they are saying we’ll get maybe 5 to 10 inches of snow.  I’m all for it, since I don’t have to drive anywhere till Monday.  Mother Nature can get it out of her system while I’m on break!

Thank you to everyone who continues to tough it out in the DDSD!  I know this is a rough time of year to keep up with even a little exercise, which is why I started the challenge.  And you ladies impress me every day!  We’re almost there!  I’ll do the drawing on Saturday to let you know who wins the book and the coaching session!

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On the food front, I made MSP the cutest little mini turkey loaves in a muffin pan for dinner the other night.

So fun!  I found the recipe on Delicious Living (click HERE for the recipe I used), knew it would be something he would like to eat, so I printed it off to make.  Then I see at the top of the printout that the recipe author was Lisa Turner.  Which is funny because Lisa Turner is one of my instructors at Bauman!  LOL!   I served it with a side of the hominy polenta we loved so much a few weeks ago.

Two thumbs up from MSP for the mini turkey loaves! (And I’m not just saying that because my teacher authored it!)

While he had that, I had Braised Daikon from Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet. I’ve seen this recipe around the blogosphere as “Vegan Sea Scallops” as well.   People give it rave reviews and while I like daikon, personally I didn’t really care for this particular dish, at least not as this recipe was written.  I love sea veggies too, but the kombu flavor overpowered this dish.  So I think I’ll play with the braising liquid and see what else I come up with.

They sure do look like scallops though, don’t they?

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Last but not least, since you almost always only see the GOOD stuff I eat, I think it’s fun to share the times when I go completely cuckoo and eat something I rarely do.  In this case, deep fried food.  I don’t know why, but yesterday I was craving chicken wings.  There is a restaurant nearby that does great boneless wings and you can choose from 30 different sauces.

Obviously I wasn’t going to eat CHICKEN wings since I don’t eat chicken, BUT I saw that they had mushrooms on their menu.  So MSP ordered up his boneless wings and I had mushrooms, dipped in wing sauce.  It was a fun little dinner, since we rarely ever have anything that’s been deep fried.  The meaty texture of the mushrooms completely hit the spot for my craving.

Hopefully I offset some of the heart damage by enjoying them with a glass of organic red wine… LOL!

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OK blog buds, that’s it for today!  Thanks for following along on this “all over the map” post!  Have a great New Year’s Eve EVE!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Review: The Kind Diet

As promised, I have finally finished reading The Kind Diet (Alicia Silverstone) and thought you might enjoy hearing a little about it, in case you are interested in her book or in moving to more plant-based nutrition.

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The PROS:

The book is beautiful

Right off the bat you can tell that she cares how her message is presented.  The paper is thick and sturdy.  It has a very nice, easy-to-read layout with full-color photos throughout.  If you decide that you want to purchase this book, be sure to get the actual book and not the Kindle version.  You’ll really be missing out if you do.


The message comes through in a friendly way

One of my favorite quotes from this book is:

“When you make this journey in your own way, there’s no such thing as failure.”

That seems to sum up her attitude throughout the book.  I was welcomed in by her conversational writing style and felt like a friend was educating me on a topic for which she has a lot of passion.

She offers many facts and informational sidebars, without coming across as overly “preachy” about a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.

It is applicable to various levels of eating styles

She divides it into three eating plans of  Flirting, Vegan and Superhero.  People who are Flirting are learning about the lifestyle and aiming to cut down on their animal-product consumption (but not necessarily intending to go veggie) and she gives you a long list of ‘transitional’ foods that will help you switch out some of your favorites with something similar as you are getting started.  Her Vegan section includes rich and flavorful foods to show that you can still have things like cupcakes and tacos while enjoying a vegan lifestyle.  She also takes it one step further into what she calls the Superhero plan, where one learns to let their palate begin to appreciate the natural essence of vegan foods without many added spice or condiments.

I was pleasantly surprised to catch myself going “Huh… I didn’t know that” as I read along.  I learned a few new things, which is I appreciate. For example, I’d already been looking for miso that was NOT powdered and learned she recommends BARLEY miso (aged for at least two years).  Supposedly that has the highest level of “medicinal properties” when compared to other types of miso.  Additionally she taught me that you never want to add miso to the water or broth when it’s boiling or it can kill the enzymes so you want to add it at the end of cooking and simmer it for 2-3 minutes.

Chewing and digestion are important points in this book

And you know that makes me happy, because I am a stickler for wanting peeps to CHEW THEIR FOOD!  Myself included, because it’s easy to forget.  But good digestion starts in the mouth and I was tickled to see that Alicia touched on this a few times.

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The Not-So-PROS
(I didn’t want to call them full-fledged “CONS”)


Many recipes call for Exotic Ingredients

She does have quite a few ingredients listed throughout that won’t be found at a ‘regular’ grocery store, so if you intend to use the book for recipes, hopefully you have a specialty healthfood store nearby.  Our local Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocer does now carry Umeboshi Plums (salt plums) and I just found them the other night.

Overuse of Two Obnoxious Words

“Yummy” and “sexy” were used all too often throughout.  I don’t really think of my food as sexy.  And I know foods needs to taste good and be yummy.   But those two words appeared a lot more than they needed to and it started to become distracting to me.

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Recipe Tests:

Azuki Beans with Kabocha Squash:

This recipe was chosen from the Superhero recipe section of the book, so that means not a lot of spice action.  And to be honest you could tell.  As I had not yet found a Kabocha Squash at the time of making this recipe I subbed in Butternut (which the recipe mentioned would be fine.)

I made my beans from SCRATCH instead of relying on canned for probably the first time ever – and even soaked them with some Kombu seaweed as per the recipe:

It made a very hearty dish that provided me with plenty of easily reheatable lunches to-go for the week.  But I did have to add a few pinches of sea salt and nutritional yeast for some flavor each day because apparently I have not yet earned a Superhero’s taste buds.

Quinoa with Basil and Pine Nuts:

Again, I had to make a substitution because the pine nuts at Whole Foods were ridiculously expensive.  So MSP and I looked at each and said, “Who needs pine nuts??” and decided to use some sunflower seeds that we had on hand instead.  Wow was this dish aromatic.  I LOVE to use fresh basil in recipes – it smells amazing in the kitchen.  Because this was also a Superhero recipe, it too was a little bland so we had so give it some S&P the first night.  But the leftovers were REALLY flavorful because the basil had time to infuse with the rest of the dish.  So my tip would be to make this the day before you want to eat it.

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Overall I have to say I really loved this book.  I want to go have tea with Alicia – she seems very fun to be around!  She is so passionate about animals and health that it’s hard not to get excited along with her.  This will be a book that will have a place in my kitchen, that I will refer to often, and will be all marked up with sticky notes.

Alicia has started a website (The Kind Life) which includes her blog as well.  I noticed yesterday she posted one of her recipes from the book, Radicchio Pizza with Truffle Oil, for you pizza lovers out there.

It retails for $29.99 but Amazon.com sells it for almost half that at $17.54.  I’ve added it to the FitFeat Faves Store, so if you want to check it out you can click HERE.

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Have you read “The Kind Diet”?  If so, what were YOUR thoughts? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section.

Hope you are having a SUPER Saturday, friends!

– Shari B. =)

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The Day of Many Dates

Hi friends!  Happy New Year’s Eve:)   My eyes popped open at 4:03 a.m. this morning – oh boy, midnight seems like a L-O-O-O-N-G time from now.  I have a feeling I’ll be celebrating on East Coast time and out like a light at 10:02;)   That is, if MSP is driving us home from the party.  If not, I better borrow some toothpicks from the marinated mushrooms I’m taking so that I can keep my eyelids propped open long enough to drive home.  Then it might me more like 10:32.

Yesterday was a great (if not super busy) day.  I had dates with a couple of “new friends”, Tanya and Alicia.

First Tanya.  She is the instructor on the “Physique 57″ DVD.  Still doing my ‘try lots of new exercises till I can get OUTSIDE for a run’ game.

There is only ONE reason really that I chose to purchase this DVD – this little lady right here:

(Photo Source)

I have a little “fitness crush” on Kelly Ripa.  So if SHE does it, I wanna try it too.   Her transformation through the years has been fun to watch.  She’s said in the past that she goes to classes at Physique 57, so now that it’s available via DVD I wanted to see what it does to my body, being someone who already works out with weights and runs.  I’ll keep you posted for sure!

My second date was with Alicia Silverstone:

It was a short date, only enough time for one chapter.  I’ve been coveting this book since its release.  And I took a good long look through it at Borders the day after Christmas.  It has a beautiful full color format and a lot of great recipes.  And as much as I wanted to take it home that day, I knew it was half the price on Amazon.  The first chapter and the intro are great – I have a feeling I’ll love this book.  I’ll give a better review when I’ve read it and tried some recipes.

I also had dates with Costco, Vitamin Cottage, Safeway and Whole Foods!  (Any guesses on what I had for dinner? Yep, Gigande Beans at the WF Food Bar!)

And last but not least I had a date with my kitchen.  It was a messy date, can ya tell?   :)

When you are in the mood for new recipes that are healthy, raw and vegan, head on over to Choosing Raw.

Gena’s blog always inspires me.  She has a style of writing that I could read all day.   And recipes that I could try all day as well.  This week, I tried her Raw Zucchini Hummus and her Cashew Cheese with Meyer Lemon & Cherries.  Except that my hummus wasn’t completely raw, and my ‘cheese’ didn’t have meyer lemons OR cherries in it.  But you work with what you’ve got, right?

The zucchini hummus is genius.  I love it.  I will love it even more when the tahini that I currently have in stock is GONE (because it’s roasted AND salted) and then I can buy the raw unsalted version.  This brand I have in the fridge has an almost burnt flavor that is too strong in this hummus, but luckily it has mellowed out in the fridge the last few days.

Per Gena’s recipe notes I did NOT add the sesame seeds so in turn I also left out the olive oil. It came out with a perfect hummus consistency.  ;)   Yesterday I smeared it on Wasa crackers with some mashed avocado and leftover black bean burgers halves for lunch at my desk.

I know, I know, again with the blurry iPhone photo! How 'bout that snazzy legal pad placemat too?

And the sweet Cashew Cheese?  Amazing.  It reminds me of neufchatel cheese with the subtle tart and sweet flavor.  I couldn’t find Meyer Lemons (so I used regular lemons) and I didn’t have dried cherries (so I added a small palmful of raisins), but it’s fantastic nonetheless.  It made me want to smear it all over a cranberry bagel.  But that would defeat my ‘clean eating’ somewhat.  So instead I’ll probably put it on some Ezekial toast or a sweet wheat cracker that I happen to have on hand. It would also make a perfect breakfast crepe filling.

Gena's Cashew Cheese with Lemon

Part of the excitement in trying this cashew cheese?  Getting to use one of my new xmas gifts from MSP:

A microplane superfine zester!  It rocks!!  I’ve been using a teeny tiny thing that only takes off one piece of zest at a time, so I was SO excited to find this inside some gift wrap under the tree!!  (Isn’t MSP the best??  I’m certainly a lucky girl!)

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I’ve been reflecting on what an interesting year 2009 has been.  It started off a bit on the rough side and is ending beautifully.  Isn’t it fun to rewind the year and consider all of the changes that you never would have expected?  If you’d asked me last December 31 if I thought I’d:

  • walk away from my job with the really NICE salary and benefits during an economic recession
  • stop eating chicken, beef, pork and cow’s dairy and finally be someone who eats veggies because she WANTS to
  • eliminate soda, artificial sweeteners and a list of other ‘health thieves’
  • go back to personal training
  • start a fit living blog (and actually STICK WITH IT for more than 2 days!)
  • make new & wonderful friends all over the country from that blog (I love you guys!)
  • be able to go off ALL medications (and it was quite the laundry list)
  • recover from chronic insomnia
  • go on an RV adventure with my mom and grandma
  • and much, much more

I would have said you were talking crazy talk.

But lo and behold, that is what this year has included.  How about you?  What’s the most ‘surprising’ thing that’s happened this year that you would never have expected when you started 2009?

It has been an absolutely ENLIGHTENING year.  And I can’t WAIT to see what 2010 brings!

Have a very HAPPY NEW YEAR celebration tonight!  I’ll see you back here tomorrow!

– Shari B. =)

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