Pesci-Vegetarian Life style

[Accountable for Me]

Pesci-Vegetarian Life style

Oh, and I LOOOVE Hummus. I always have loved it. I love chick peas/garbanzo beans in my salads or even on their own.

[lushy]

Pesci-Vegetarian Life style

I would really recommend checking out the Black Forbidden Rice that Imatree suggested. She turned me onto it and I LOVE it. It is chockful of iron which is great for woman, very nutty, very chewy. I am fortunate in that they carry it at my grocery store, but you can also order it online.

[Accountable for Me]

Pesci-Vegetarian Life style

I will have to see if we have it here. I will add that to my list. Great suggestions all!

[imatree]

Pesci-Vegetarian Life style

Here's the link to the company - Lotus foods - that imports that black rice. I believe Whole Foods carries it, try also other healthy food stores. It's much less expensive if you can get it from a bulk bin. Their red bhutanese rice is also wonderful
Lotus Foods - Lotus Foods - Home Page

[slightlysuze]

Pesci-Vegetarian Life style

Oh yep...black rice....I love it! Looks fabulous with red beans and brocolli mixed in

A thought about nuts and seeds.....maybe you all know this...but soaking them for several hours before you use them makes them extra yummy...more sweet, almost like a fresh nut or seed. Also I think I read that it makes them more easily digested as it removes the sprouting-inhibiting enzymes from them. Anything from 2 hours to overnight does it....keep in the fridge if the weather is hot. I love to soak a mix (pumpkin seed, sunflower seed, almonds, macadamias, cashews) and then add tamari to them. This goes great over rice, quinoa or veggies. Also great added to soup :h

Yum....I'm loving this thread too!:thanks:

[beatle]

Pesci-Vegetarian Life style

Good tip suze. I didn't "know" that about nuts and seeds but I noticed that if I let my granola (very nutty & seedy) soak in the rice milk for a long time in the morning (this usually happens by accident as I get distracted by other demands when I'm about to eat), it tastes much better, so I do it on purpose now. I thought I was just a goof (I also like burned popcorn and cheese/seaweed sandiwches) but it porbably is better for me that way, I guess. Also good tip on the tamari.

[Flip]

Pesci-Vegetarian Life style

Please see my new thread in Recipe Corner please!

[Accountable for Me]

Pesci-Vegetarian Life style

Oh.... I love burnt popcorn. When I was little, we had these 'hippies' staying beside us for the summer (we use to live right on the ocean) and they made popcorn and sprinkled a bit of yeast on it. It was so good.

I have to buy some of that rice milk. What do you think about rice milk??? I am not too crazy about soy milk but don't mind it in my coffee. My daughter likes the Vanilla or Chocolate version but I don't want her to get into the habit of asking for chocolate milk.

I looked everywhere for that brand of the black rice and couldn't find it. I did go to a farmer's market and found black rice so I will try it. I know I will like it, because I like 'different' things. I did buy a package of long grain white with some black rice in it for the rest of my family.

Today I am making split Red lentil soup. I have made this before in the past several times - very good. The vegetarian spaghetti sauce I made last night was a hit. My daughter didn't notice the diff without the meat and hubby scarfed it back and said it was good.

This may be easier than I thought it would be for them to transform.

I saw a commercial last night about a local grocery store grilling veggies, including egg plant. I totally forgot about egg plant. I think I am going to do some veggie grilling this weekend for labour day.

[beatle]

Pesci-Vegetarian Life style

Rice milk is good. Everyone in our family loves it, even those who were sceptical at first. I think it is much better than soy milk-- milder and a little sweeter (naturally). It also comes fortified, so you get the same nutrition (plus more) as cows milk. Popcorn with brewers yeast is also delicious. Sounds horrid though, especially that first word.

[imatree]

Pesci-Vegetarian Life style

Oooh, Suze, I forgot about soaking nuts. It does indeed improve digestibility, and highly increases nutrient content. A dry nut is a dormant seed, with it's life potential asleep. Soaking it wakes up that life, activating all that potential life - for an almond, theoretically, has inside it the potential to become an almond tree!! - and so of course when you eat it you get a lot more. I'd say it's more about qi - or life force - than nutrients, actually, as when you soak the nut it becomes, literally, a live food.

I do the tamari thing too with almonds. Delish for snacking!!
Soaking to reawaken the nuts' dormant life only works with whole (and raw) nuts, by the way. Though of course you can soak any nut to soften it. You could even, after soaking overnight to wake them up, let them begin to sprout which really gets the qi going.

[lushy]

Pesci-Vegetarian Life style

I have never heard of soaking nuts. That is the oddest thing. Going to do it right now!!!

[beatle]

Pesci-Vegetarian Life style

An almond is a fruit (actually the pit of a fruit-- has anyone ever seen the fruit?). But I'm sure it still helps to soak it.

As you probably know, there's a lot of this kind of stuff in Macrobiotics. One of the basic tenets involves "live" foods-- foods that are capable of growing anew, like seeds, grains, potatoes, etc. There is also a philosophy about how the food grows (in the ground, on a bush, on a tree, etc.) and in which direction, that gives it certain characteristics affecting our health and emotions. Very interesting, delicious and healthy.

[imatree]

Pesci-Vegetarian Life style

I've never looked much into macrobiotics... I think it just seemed, from the outside, so complicating. But I learned so much about good eating when I was a "raw foodie" for awhile. That is of course all about Live Foods. And I'll tell you what - I'd be happy to feel half as good as I did when I ate nothing but raw food. It was phenomenal, the physical, emotional, mental and even spiritual changes that transformed me... Everyone who saw me raved about how I glowed and that I looked younger every day, and begged for info on what I was doing.
(hmmm... so why am I sitting here eating potato chips feeling fat and sluggish years later??)

[slightlysuze]

Pesci-Vegetarian Life style

Imatree...I did the raw food thing for a while...it was great, but sooo difficult to stick to if you eat out or with friends...you probably have raw food restaurants over there but in the UK there are a few in London but nowhere else that I know of. That's what put me off being 100% really. Now I try to eat quite a high percentage raw...lots of salads.

Should have said about soaking nuts and seeds....if you soak them for longer than a few hours its good to change the water every now and then. I like them sprouted but I find they go mouldy very quickly. But sprouted lentils......easy, peasy and very delicious! And live too

Hazel nuts (filberts, cobs) are the ones that, imo, show the enormous difference that soaking makes.....do a trial for yourself....soak some in the morning and try them in the evening, next to unsoaked ones....amazing!!!

Er....can anyone tell that I love food??????:H

[imatree]

Pesci-Vegetarian Life style

Yeah Suze, the raw food diet does take tons of discipline. I'm not much of a social person, so that wasn't a problem. But I do work in the food business... and so am exposed to all kinds of very good food all the time, so yikes...
AH- I forgot about soaking lentils!! Love those in salads! And about the soaking water - it has extra nutrients (according to a sprouting book I had around years ago) so use it on your houseplants etc rather than pouring down the drain.

Last night I made tofu in such a way that I think might turn any tofu hater into a tofu liker at least... I'll try to post in recipe section later...