Who knew a supererfood could look this luscious. At my local Whole Foods, Sambazon was promoting their organic Acai Berry smoothie packs, and OMG! I was blown away. The demonstrator made a simple blend of their Original Rio Blend Acai Berry + Guarana puree blended with banana and strawberries.
The consistency of the blend was just like frozen yogurt, and that's wonderful for people like me who are dairy allergic. This Acai Berry FroYo recipe is vegan, soy-free,and gluten-free, and uses only sweeteners from the Acai Smoothie pack and the other fruit.
Washing your food processor will take more time than to make this FroYo. This dessert is so incredibly simple and fast to make. Best yet, since the smoothie packs come in single servings, you have built-in portion control.
One serving of this FroYo recipe (Acai Berry, banana + strawberries minus toppings) is about 170 calories, so besides dessert, this FroYo could be a nice snack.
For topping, I added kiwi, cranberries, and walnuts. Visually, I love how the green of the kiwi pops against the beautiful purple of the Acai Berry.
Ingredients (one serving):
1 packet Sambazon Acai Smoothie Pack
1/2 banana
2 frozen strawberries
Put all three ingredients in a small blender or 3-cup food processor and blend until smooth. All done! If you want the FroYo to be a bit more solid, put your mix in the freezer for 5-10 minutes.
Lately, I have developed an utter fascination with purple vegetables and fruits. I am most enchanted with the purple vegetables like this beautiful kale, bell pepper, and cauliflower I found at the San Francisco Ferry Building Farmer's Market.
At The Herb Box in Scottsdale, I noshed on these most striking purple kale chips with a raspberry mojito. I was in heaven. The color purple or violet represents wealth, royalty and the crown chakra, spiritual awareness and universal consciousness. The shades of purple range from amethyst, eggplant, indigo, lavender, lilac, magenta, mauve, mulberry, orchid, plum, pomegranate, puce, royal, thistle, to wine.
At the Phoenix Public Farmer's Market, I found purple sage, purple top turnips, and purple Kohlrabi, a Chinese cabbage. Imagine what remarkable dishes you could make with a plethora of these purple vegetables. Smitten Kitchen has a most delicious vegan recipe for Fork-crushed Purple Potatoes.
The pigment responsible for the purple color in vegetables and fruit are called anthocyanins, a potent phytonutrient, or plant compound, acknowledged for its healthiness benefits. Studies show anthocyanins may help reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke and certain types of cancer. Anthocyanins are also known to help boost brain power namely learning and memory. And maybe can help boost crown chakra power too since they are the same color? I speculate.
Next time you hit vegetable boredom, try some purple vegetables, beautiful and disease-fighting, a powerful combination. If you do, take a photo of your dish and share with us, so we can eat vicariously!
I am a fan of Paula Deen. I know that may seem odd given that I am all about healthy eating and on a bad day Anthony Bourdain proclaimed her "the most dangerous person in America" because of her decadent cooking. Time.com created a slideshow of her 9 most gluttonous recipes. Fried Butter Balls, y'all!
Paula reminds me of that larger-than-life aunt who is always fun and the life of the party. You love her to death because her cheeriness is so infectious but yet you also know that she doesn't always make the best choices and who knows when she'll say or do something flirtatiously inappropriate. But that's okay, those are her quirks and we take the good with the "needs improvement." We all have a relative like that.
I love Paula's energy and her obvious love of family and friends. As far as her cooking style, to me she is the Queen of comfort food. I would never recommend Paula's food for everyday eating but when it's time for those 20% days, the times when anything goes, Paula knows how to do that well. Remember, we're all about 80/20 eating here at Noshtopia.
But Paula is not just a grandmother, mother, wife and daughter, she is a brand. She has a built an empire around her style of cooking and now that she has gone public about having Type II diabetes her brand will have to change. Her brand must change because people will not watch her continue to cook the way she used to and be almost complicit in her unwellness by supporting with ratings even if Paula (and we) like to believe that her style is about moderation. Watching a diabetic eat Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding on TV is just not going to fly. At that point, it is no longer entertainment auntie Paula.
What I found most telling in her interview with Al Roker when asked if she was going to change the way she cooks and the way she eats, Paula dodged the question like a politician and simply said, "I've always eaten in moderation." If the answer was yes, she would straight out say, "Yes!" So clearly, the answer is no. She has not changed the way she eats and with her new deal with Nova Nordisk, pharmaceuticals and exercise are her means of diabetes management.
Frankly, I'm put off by the pharmaceutical endorsement but I get it, it's a business decision, and it's Paula's choice. As someone who also promotes a certain eating style, I have found it educational to read the tweets and posts reacting to Paula's diabetes announcement. People are definitely looking for consistency, authenticity, and accountability. Paula Deen has definitely disappointed many but she's also captured compassion from many others. The spectrum of reaction is wide, but clearly, the obvious is that we all now expect her cooking to change and evolve with her health.
Idealistic eating wellness wish
I would love Paula Deen to watch movies like Forks Over Knives and see that her Type II diabetes can be reversed with food versus pills - the Farmacy versus the Pharmacy. She can still eat okra, just sauteed instead of battered and fried. Of course, that would be an idealistic situation and Paula is not ready for nor desires that kind of change, obviously, at least for now. But we'll see what happens with her show ratings and product sales going forward.
Paula is in a wonderful position right now, if she chooses, to show how food can heal and affect a demographic of people especially in the Southern states where Paula is from where obesity and diabetes rates are highest in our country. Many can relate to Paula and the lifestyle changes she has to make for her health.
What did she bring to the table
Out of curiousity, I visited her new co-branded site with Nova Nordisk, Diabetes in a New Light. Of course, the first place I went to investigate was the recipe section. Now being a former marketing/advertising Pro who has done many launches, I was expecting at least a half dozen recipes to get people started. I was curious to see what these lighter Paula Deen recipes would look like.
Surprisingly, there was only one recipe. Just one, and the solo recipe was for a lighter version of her Lady and Sons Lasagna. More shocking to me was that the lasagna recipe listed 7 cheeses in it: Ricotta, Cottage, Parmesan, Mozzarella, Gruyere, Sharp Cheddar and Neufchâtel. Granted, the recipe called for no-salt, fat-free and reduced fat versions of these cheeses, and I'm no dietitian but really, 7 cheeses?
You can make delicious lasagna with just 2 of these cheeses. In fact, you can make an awesome dairy-free lasagne. The recipe does list nutrition information: Per serving: 260 calories, 9 g fat (5 saturated, 0 g trans), 55 mg cholesterol, 380 mg sodium, 23 g carbohydrate, 3 g fiber, 23 g protein. Before eating though, you have to cut the lasagna in 12 pieces to ensure you are getting a single serving size. I'm thinking these servings are very small and most would easily eat 2-3 servings for a dinner portion.
What I found off-putting about the Diabetes in a New Light website is that I wanted to sign-up for the newsletter to get future recipes but Nova Nordisk makes you list your home address and asks you a whole bunch of health-related questions that felt intruisive to me obviously to data-mine and create a database to let me guess, sell us more drugs and services. Dear Nova Nordisk, to get more people to sign-up just ask for the email at sign-up. Let us mingle with the recipes first and like the value we're getting. You can hit us up later for deeper information.
I wish Paula Deen all the best with her healing and health. Indeed, it will be fascinating to watch what she does on her shows and other ventures going forward.
For Christmas, a bunch of my friends got together for a potluck. The host @KenScheer gave me the challenge of making a stuffing that was gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free and egg-free (basically vegan minus gluten and soy) because he and several of the guests had food allergies.
I was one of the guests with the dairy and egg allergies. I am also gluten-little and soy-little meaning last year I cut down my gluten and soy consumption by 80%. I eat gluten-free and soy-free as much as possible because I just feel better when I eat less of it.
I also love challenges, and my creative juices got going with this one. The big challenge with the stuffing was to make croutons. My bar is high so I wanted to make croutons that have the taste and texture almost identical to regular croutons. Making things even more complicated, most gluten-free breads are made with egg and can contain soy. Finding gluten-free, soy-free AND vegan breads is near impossible. Luckily for me, the key word is near not completely (impossible.)
I was able to taste test some of the gluten-free, soy-free, vegan breads made by Food For Life, and although the breads are tasty, they all had the texture of dense bricks - not working for me. Bread has to have some level of fluffy or soft to it. With croutons though, you get some texture leeway because croutons are recognized to be crunchy and heavier than say eating a slice of wheat toast.
I looked at making my own bread from scratch, but nixed that idea because mostly, I didn't have the patience to make a loaf of bread from scratch. I'm not a chef or baker. I'm an eater and my style of cooking is more assembly than from scratch.
So, I looked at pre-made bread mixes and found this Chebe brand Focaccia mix that was free of almost everything: gluten, soy, corn, rice, potato, yeast, tree nuts, iodine, sugar, dairy, peanut and GMOs. That focaccia sounded like allergen heaven! The mix called for egg but said you could use an egg-replacement. I made the focaccia using the Ener-G egg replacement.
As you can see, my focaccia looks pretty good on the outside although on the white side. I added some garlic, rosemary and sage on top. On the inside, however, it was a rubbery mess. My bread did not look as near fluffy as it did on the box. I was sad :( The outer crispy edge was tasty, so had this focaccia been made with egg, I have no doubt the bread would have been delicious.
When I got to Ken's house, I told him of my bread experiment disaster and so he figured that we were not going to have stuffing for Christmas dinner. I still had not given up so I asked him if I could go through his pantry and fridge and see if maybe he had any bread like foods I could work with. Ken remembered that he had these Brown Rice Food For Life English Muffins in his fridge. I took a bite and instantly got excited. Actually, I said "OMG! This just might work!"
Why? Because the English muffin had a lighter fluffy texture to them compared to the breads that Food For Life makes. More excitedly, the English muffin tasted and had the texture like a regular bread.
I made the croutons and then had a couple of the guests who didn't have food allergies try the croutons. They had no idea that the croutons had no gluten, egg, soy, or dairy. The croutons turned out crunchy just like regular croutons, and I love using the soy-free Earth Balance because it doesn't leave an after taste like the soy versions do.
We're talking major win my friends and now I share this crouton magic with you! You can use these croutons in any stuffing recipe of your choice. These croutons are amazing for salads, stuffing, and French Onion soup. Oh the delicious allergen-friendly foods we shall eat!
Makes about 2 cups of croutons:
Ingredients:
3 Brown Rice Food For Life English Muffins cut into crouton shaped squares
1-1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1-1/2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary and sage (combined)
In a large saute pan, melt the butter on medium heat. Add in the garlic and saute in buttery spread for about a minute.
Toss in the bread crumbs to coat with the buttery garlic.
Sprinkle on the rosemary, sage, and sea salt.
Toss a little more to ensure bread crumbs are well coated with the herbs, salt, butter, and garlic.
Spread the croutons on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until crisp and dry. Keep an eye on the croutons so they do not burn. I baked mine for 19 minutes.
I have never tried to do anything for a year long before, so I decided that since I really love taking food shots on my iPhone I am going to take at least one photo everyday this year and post it on Instagram. I'm tagging each photo with each day number (#day7) and the hashtag #yif12.
If you're on Instagram, you can follow me at: stephaniequilao.
If you're not on Instagram, here are options for you to follow along:
Hello cookies and rice milk! @jenmyronuk is excellent at finding sweet treats that are allergy-friendly for us. I was most excited when she introduced me to these Adean Dream Quinao Cookies that are gluten-free, soy-free, vegan, corn-free, and gum-free.
One of the issues I am discovering with gluten-free baked goods is that many recipes and products call for gums like Guar Gum and Xanthan Gum for thickening and binding.
My stomach and gut are not reacting well to the gums. In fact, I was reading here at WebMD that Xanthan Gum can cause flatulence, bloating, and laxative-like effects. With Guar Gum, if you don't drink enough liquid, the GG can cause intestinal blockage.
As soon as I hear "blockage," I think poopis interruptus and me no like.
These Quinoa cookies are awesome! Dip them in rice or coconut milk and even better. The cookie texture is close to a soft biscotti so it's a hard cookie not a soft one. Even nicer, the cookies are low in sugar. In fact, there is only 5g of sugar per serving size which are two cookies. As a point of reference, one packet of Sugar in the Raw is 5g of sugar.
Quinoa is one of my essential power foods because it's packed with protein, so in a cookie, well, I'm in heaven. The Quinoa used in these cookies is sourced from Bolivia and is Fairly Traded. To buy, look at your local Whole Foods Market or you can buy online.
I was out at happy hour with some new friends a couple months ago, and I ordered french fries with bacon and a big IPA beer from tap. When my food arrived, I was completely focused on gleefully dipping that first crunchy potato stick in ketchup and then into my mouth.
Oh how I love french fries!
As I continued in my blissful fried noshing, being the energy sensitive that I am, I felt glaring eyeballs digging into me. I looked up and noticed that my three companions were holding their cocktails in silence staring at me with jaws practically dropped. It was like a scene in a sitcom.
"What?! I'm a chick who digs beer and bacon. Doesn't that make me cool?" I joked, as I continued to dip and munch my fries with bacon.
Girl holding raspberry martini says, "Um, aren't you Miss healthy living? Why are you eating fries and worse topped with bacon."
I wasn't quite sure if her tone was judgmental or just confused. No matter, I was in bacon bliss.
The other two nodded in agreement and wonderment as they took sips of their Gin & Tonic, and Chardonnay.
Another asked, "I thought you were vegan. Why are you eating bacon?"
Looking back at the three of them, I took in everything in stride, and remembered that I have never been one to ever follow norms. This is one reason people find my blog and Twitter content interesting.
I explained to them in my most happy self because french fries just make me happy much like chocolate does for many others,
"Yes, I am Miss healthy living and I help inspire people to live healthier lives. However, healthy eating doesn't mean perfect eating. I'm not vegan, but I eat lots of vegan foods because I have a dairy and egg allergy, and vegan recipes are far more creative with the vegetables. I am so done with baby carrots and steamed spinach."
Honestly, one of my pet peeves about diet and wellness books, magazines, and sites is that they sell this notion that to eat healthy means a menu of only things like apples, brown rice, boiled spinach, and steamed chicken. And oh boy, once in a blue moon you get to eat a "free" food like pie or chocolate chip cookies like you've won a prize at the carnival for being "good" with your eating all week.
Living in America surrounded with all this decadence in the land of the food courts, Costco, and drive-thrus not to mention my mom's Filipino cooking, I do not think it is either realistic or doable to eat perfectly healthy all the time without feeling you're living on some program where food is constantly judged to be good or bad.
This mentality is why diets have failed for me every single time...it's about control and deprivation versus the enjoyment of food and how food brings vitality to your life. My psyche goes nutzoid the second I say something is forbidden and I end up wanting those "bad" foods more than ever.
So, I found that what works for me is this 80/20 rule-of-thumb where 80% of the time, I eat vibrant tasty dishes like kale and avocado salad with lemon juice, seared salmon with fresh tarragon, dairy-free rotiserrie chicken salad with mandarin oranges and walnuts, and Quinoa chicken "fried rice."
Then 20% of the time, I eat whatever the hell I want...without any judgements or feelings of guilt. Operating this 80/20 way has helped me keep off 35lbs for the last three years now. I get to stay in my skinny jeans and enjoy food! Most importantly, I no longer live with that anxiety of, "Oh shit! I effed up with my eating because I ate a glazed donut or a fried chimichanga."
Life is too short to not enjoy food, and I've spent way too many years being afraid of food and letting it control my life. Besides, there is a big difference between eating french fries every day and a couple times a month.
So today, as I sit here with you lovely people and eat my french fries with bacon and a frothy IPA, you are witnessing one of my 20% moments...and life is good!"
I also added,
"This morning, I ran 5 miles. So one of my compromises when I know I'm going to have a 20% type meal, I do an extra hard workout that day. It's a trade-off that is easy for me to do."
All three of my new friends nodded their heads as they thought about what I said, and chimed in with their own philosophies in how they maintain give and take with food in their lives.
We continued on with happy hour talking about dating and why reality TV is a sign of the end of times. I thoroughly languished in my fries with bacon.
For our Meatless Monday healthy lunch idea, try some of your favorite pasta with pesto sauce. Try a gluten-free pasta if you can. Trader Joe's makes some of the best GF pastas out of brown rice.
The cool thing with pesto is that it can be made with different herbs or greens. Traditional pesto is made with basil, but I've tried pesto made with cilantro, arugula, spinach, and sage. Yum!
I was at a Whole Foods in Chandler, and I was walking past their Japanese food station when I saw these grilled veggies skewers. I got excited and actually put my nose up close to smell them only to realize that the skewers and rice were all fake replicas of the dish.
I'm telling you, some of those companies that make these plastic display foods, are getting better and better. Heck, I couldn't even tell until I got up close, lol!
I enjoy Thai curry because it's on the soupier side and the aromatic spice usage is milder compared to Indian curry. Panang curry is also sweeter to me and I tend to the sweeter side.
Beef is not normally put in panang curry, it's usually tofu, chicken, or shrimp, but I was craving cow meat and the restaurant was nice to put in some beef. The curry is sittong on a bowl of brown rice.
In this dish we have coconut milk goodness, vegetables, fiber, and protein. This dish is also dairy, egg and gluten free.
and see that her Type II diabetes can be reversed with food versus pills - the Farmacy versus the Pharmacy. She can still eat okra, just sauteed instead of battered and fried. Of course, that would be an idealistic situation and Paula is not ready for nor desires that kind of change, obviously, at least for now. But we'll see what happens with her show ratings and product sales going forward.
