Mung date soup sprinkled with toasted pumpkin seeds

My last week of each month is devoted to doing facials on clients who request me and I often am working until 9pm and on weekends.  So, this week I made up a hearty, protein-rich soup which takes no time at all.  It was very impromptu – I just threw together what I had in my fridge and spice cupboard and tah-dah!  Thanks to the beauty of a slow cooker,  the actual investment of time was less than 5 minutes.

This nourishing soup is especially good for those of us feeling Vata and depleted as I tossed in some dates I had.  Not only is this rejuvenating, but it also adds a yummy sweetness to this savory recipe.

All you need is:

3 cups soaked yellow mung beans (soaked overnight and drained.  I always keep a bowl of soaked beans.  You can add them when cooking rice for added protein.  If you put 2 cups in a bowl with water they expand to about 3 cups).
6 cups of water (actually what I did was dump the bowl of beans into the slow cooker, then fill the bowl up twice with water for twice as much water to bean ratio.  Simple eh?  No measuring cups and no more dishes)
1 chopped onion
2 tbs of ghee (or sesame oil if you prefer)
1 heaping tbs of garam masala curry powder… and I mean heaping
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp cayenne (you can omit this, but remember that you have quite a bit of soup here – it won’t be too spicy)
7 dates
1 tbs braggs (or tamari.  Add this in after its cooked).

I put all these ingredients in a slow cooker on a medium temperature.  I got washed up and watched the Daily Show.  Right before jumping into bed I turned it down to low.  The soup will boil down and meld together, and in the morning I had about 4-5 cups of creamy curried soup.  I tasted it and added as much saltiness as I felt it needed (I used 1 tbs braggs, but you can use more or less).  Then I put it into a large mason jar.

You can eat some for breakfast as a hydrating start to your day (always thinking of my skin).  It is jammed with substantial nutrients which will give you heaps of energy.  Or you can pack some up in a thermos for lunch or dinner on-the-go.  Its as easy as 1, 2…

Delicious with no dairy, no sugar. Its modest look doesn't live up to its tastiness

This recipe is the kind of healthy dessert dreams are made of.  I would go as far to say that its better than the real thing – and I promise that I am not clouded by my own crunchy granola alter-ego.  My proof is that Ben (the most skeptical health dessert reviewer) can’t get enough of it.  He is my royal taste tester because doesn’t care if its made with the purest ingredients, it just has to taste great (usually I refuse to tell him what he’s eating until he has given me the verdict).  And him loving this healthy treat is even better because when we go back to England, Ben dreams of nothing more than a Sunday roast dinner ended off with his mum’s famous Lemon Crunch Pie (lemon cheesecake) – so I was determined to give him this experience in Canadia with a Holistic Vanity twist.  Its just a perk that its super easy.  His sister is a gluten-free veggie (we’re gonna be a happy picky family!) so I am planning on just making the filling and serve it as a custard when she comes to visit.

Filling Ingredients:
3 packs silken tofu (349 grams each)
1 cup agave nectar
2 eggs
4 tblsps fresh lemon juice
2 tblsps grated lemon rind
2 tblsps canola oil
2 tsps pure vanilla extract

Base Ingredients (you can half this but I like a lot of crust):
3 cups cookies (I admit I used regular graham crackers in the photo above bc Jean had extras left from when she was making a cheesecake.  But you can use gluten-free cookie crumbs.  I’m going to try blending spelt ginger cookies by Sha Sha in my food processor)
3 tblsps lemon juice
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup organic vegetable-based margarine – unhydrogenated source of cours! (You can use a plethora of other types of oils and fats.  Coconut oil would be interesting to try out but could make it taste too coconuty – and lemon and coconut don’t sit right with me.  I have also used ghee as it gives a buttery taste but without lactose and less fat).

Method:

1. Mix all “Base Ingredients” together.  Take this crusty paste-like mixture and press it into a lightly greased spring foam pan (I used a 9 inch) with a fork.
2. Put all filling ingredients into your food processor and blend until smooth.  Taste (this is good to do as you may want more lemon juice or more sweetener.  Orig recipe called for less lemon and more sweetener…well actually it used plain sugar (eew!).  You can also use 1/2 cup agave and 1/2 coconut sugar or regular sugar.  I like to use total agave but it the cake does start to slightly weep so you should keep it on a plate with a lip.  When you use half dry sweetener and half syrupy sweetener this does not happen)
3. Put in the oven at 200 degrees Farhenheit for 1 hour.  * Depending on the dish shape it can take up to 1 hour and 45 mins* - You’ll know its ready when the cake is firm but has a bit of wobble.  Don’t worry, its hard to overcook this cake.
4. Refrigerate overnight, then serve.

One of the few vices I have in life is that I eat out… a lot.

Its not that I particularly love restaurant food, its that I love the convenience. Like many young professionals, Ben and I often work late (when I am not actually physically at work, my time is swallowed up by the constant flow of emails that my narcissistic streak allows). We often go for runs or take a yoga class after work to try to stay fit, take night classes and spend time doing extras (like blogging). Usually 7:30pm will roll around when we start to think about preparing dinner (which project actual eating time at 8:00 or 8:30pm). But by that time, along with the fact I don’t think eating late is good for digestion, the idea of pulling out the double steamer and wooden cutting board couldn’t appeal less.

My dilemma is that I know how important eating well is to maintain a healthy body and healthy skin, but eating out is laden with tasty but unhealthy ingredients hidden in sauces and marinades.

So, upon my return home from our epic Paris-Dublin-Worcester-London trip, I did a smart thing and hired a meal service. For those of you who don’t know what a meal service is, it is a company which prepares your meals and delivers them to your door. The ultimate in convenience – you don’t even need to wait to be served or spend time deciding on what takes your fancy. I thought this was an especially fabulous idea to aid us while we waded knee-deep in work. Ben did not.

After a bit of online research, I found Toronto-based “Green Zebra” – a vegan, macrobiotic and raw foodism-inspired meal service which even pre-soaked their legumes (!). This also did not particularly excite my Ben. Neither did their declaration that they were “100% vegan, 90-100% organic and local when possible.” He was looking at the priciness of it all (what do you expect with organics?). But after much prodding (we won’t call it nagging) I got my way and filled out the convenient online order form, choosing the 9 meal option for $155- which I tallied up to be 4.5 meals each (or 3 meals each and lots of snacking for me).

To my delight, any initial order is 25% off and it appeared they threw in a jar of soup. As soon as we got our cooler of goodies, I read aloud the menu “oooh“ing and “mmmm“ing at Ben as if to say “See? See!”.

Our menu included: Smoked Tofu with Barbecue Sauce, Roasted Yams and Cauliflower with Maple-Dijon Dressing, Basmati Rice with Spicy Kim Chi and Arame, Broccoli Squash and Quinoa Salad in a Cashew Sesame Sauce, Black Beans with Onions, Peppers and Cinnamon-Cilantro Dressing, Grated Beet, Carrot and Apple Salad, and Roasted Corn and Tomato salad, Adzuki Beans with Golden Vinaigrette. The Soup was Potato Leek with Fresh Herb and the weekly dessert was a quartet of Banana-Maple Pecan Cornbread Muffins. Yum! Just as good as homecooking (?). This list came with a complete ingredients list which I appreciated.

Well, let me tell you it was much more than 4.5 meals each. I was eating the stuff for breakfast and lunches (and I’m ashamed to admit, but would not bother warming it up eating it cold as salads)– it saved me from my bad habit of delaying eating to fit in more work, then becoming an uber-wench when I realize that I am starving but also incredibly picky.

And to my surprise, Ben was enjoying it too. He was probably also enjoying not having to deal with the mood swings that come with me being hungry (he calls it the spirit of “Angry Girl”).

Now this isn’t something I want to do routinely. Firstly, I was raised in a family that doesn’t believe in eating left overs…ever – but in all honesty, the food I was eating out-and-about may not be all that fresh either (an employee of an unnamed high-end, organic grocer whispered to me that their prepared foods are usually about a week old…gross). Secondly, despite finding the meals truly tasty, I felt they were simple enough that I could’ve made them myself.

“…But you didn’t,” Ben said to my surprise. “…I don’t want to waste what little free time we have cooking. Let’s order again next week.”

www.greenzebrakitchen.com

Calling me a picky eater is an understatement. I pity the waitstaff of any restaurant that my mother and I eat at because we have a list of things that we will and will not eat… and they differ.

I don’t eat dairy products as they make me puffy and my tummy hurt, I won’t eat refined sugar as it causes inflammation (and wrinkles!), I cut out gluten years back (before falling off the wagon when I moved in with Ben – now we’re both not eating flours – smile), and red meat is a no-no for my Pitta constitution (I used to be a vegan but decided I really liked walking down stairs without my legs shaking, but was too disorganized to monitor my protein). But along with specific foods I won’t eat, I also have characteristics of foods I won’t eat. Like Drying foods (pop corn, rice cakes, too many seeds etc) — they not only dry out my skin but also are Vata increasing so often make my bloated. Or food that isn’t fresh: I don’t like food that has been sitting out, uses too many preservatives or is defrosted. According to Ayurveda, food which has been frozen causes dampness and toxicity in our bodies and some Ayurvedic doctors say they may be the cause of many modern diseases.

The problem lies in the fact that I, like many professionals living in the concrete jungle, am incredibly time-poor and usually running from one end of the city to the other with very few options along the way to satisfy my palette. But because I loooove eating, I will not be sacrificing tastiness. I once read a veggie cookbook which suggested snacking on cucumbers which have been drizzled with lime juice (Yum?). So, because of being uber stubbourn, I will simply wait until I can get something I can eat (plus often have enough work to distract me), which can lead to my famous hunger moods.

So, if you are anything like me, below are a few snacks for survival. These options are quick to make, use three ingredients or less, are sugar-free, gluten-free and dairy-free, and won’t make you dehydrated (I can’t take another dried out protein bar).

Simple Shake

Ripe Banana(s)
Carob Soymilk or Chocolate Rice Milk (I used Edensoy’s Carob Soymilk because it doesn’t have evaporated cane juice added. And the Rice Dreams Chocolate Flavour was the only other product I could find without sugar — all Chocolate Soymilks were laden with it)
Cinnamon

I make things real simple and scrap measurements. Pour approximately 3/4 of the cup you are drinking out of with the “milk”. Add one banana unless its ginormous, then use half. Add as much cinnamon as your taste prefers. Blend. According to Ayurveda, the cinnamon will lighten the heaviness of the banana to make it less Kapha. You can also throw in a couple of soaked dates (soaking dried fruit and nuts will help you digest them) to this shake for extra sweetness. Dates are excellent for helping you fall asleep, so it makes for nice evening treat.

Old-skool Celery Boats

Celery Stalks
Almond butter
Raisins (ideally soaked)

Remember this treat from Preschool? Mmm. A starch-free, protein-filled snack from the good ol‘ days when we had time for snack time. Fill as many stalks with Almond butter and then top it off with the raisins. I think we used to call them Ants on a Log and used peanut butter instead of almond. Those were simpler times, before the awareness of peanut allergies and the fact that preserved peanuts are usually candida causing as they have a moldy quality. The celery is also great for anyone with sensitive skin or break outs as it is an excellent blood cleanser.

Stewed Apples

Apples – (Stick with the red variety so they are not tart like Granny Smiths)
Whatever baking spice or spices you have at home: Nutmeg/ Cinnamon/ Cloves

Peel and slice as many apples you want. Sprinkle them with spices. Bake in a dish you can cover at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. This is a nice warming breakfast.

Spicy Almonds

Blanched Almonds
Garam Masala Powder (curry)
Ghee or Olive Oil

Place the almonds on a baking sheet which has been greased with ghee or olive oil. Put them in the oven at 400 degrees (preheated). After 10 minutes, turn them over and very lightly sprinkle the curry powder over them. Leave them for another 5 minutes and take them out. Almonds should be good and browned, if they are not leave them in for another few minutes (or longer if you like them really dark and roasted). You can salt them if you like. I have tried making these with soaked almonds, but though I like to soak most dried foods because it makes them easier to digest and less drying, it makes them a weird texture in this recipe. If you are more of a purist than I, I encourage you to soak them – they simply will not be very crunchy. These almonds are tastiest when right out of the oven, but I usually eat them as an on-the-go snack as they are very portable and easy to eat in transport.

Its hard to stay on a good diet plan when you are in love – every night becomes date night. And it becomes even harder when you move in together. What was once an evening treat has just become a sweet fourth meal.

When I first moved in with Ben, I was on a strict diet of no meat or dairy and low sugar, low starch. But now, I’m a chip dipping, gelato devouring, ice tea drinking little piglet.

I have heard the same from countless girlfriends of mine. Unless you are lucky enough to hit it off with a crunchy granola type, its so easy to slip into bad habits. Its kind of like the freshmen fifteen. The common-law ten? Doesn’t have the same ring to it. And while Ben will deny this to the death, when we first met, he was pretty much a meat and potatoes guy (we have even argued over if potatoes are vegetables).

So recently, I decided that enough was enough. I was going to kick it off with a cleanse and get back to the real me. So for those of you in the same situation, I found the following steps have helped immensely:

1. Put your foot down – my therapist says in every healthy relationship the woman (or feminine energy) dictates its direction. He says in all of his years of practice, he has observed that the most functional relationships have occurred in the ones in which the female is clear and reasonable about her requests while the male complies. You know why I like this therapist eh? So I made it known: All shared meals had to follow my diet’s guidelines or at least have options that would.

2. Give them a drawer. Or in my case, a three-shelf cupboard – Now, I couldn’t strip Ben of all his treats just because I have, so I gave him a snack space to call his own. Somewhere he could stash his Oatmeal Cookies and Miss Vickies, and I don’t go into…ever.

3. Keep tabs on yourself – My uber-healthy co-worker gave me this tip of keeping a food journal. Many Naturopaths have made me do this as well to track my eating habits. It is an excellent tool which can provide many insights like: I overeat when I eat too late, or Gee, I really don’t drink much water. It is also best for your body to eat at the same times everyday to regulate digestion, so this also helps you keep track of if you have eaten at the right times.

4. Buddy up – It is so much more motivating when you have a friend who is doing the same thing you are, and feels less bad when you cheat together… When Kat and I did our cleanse together, it was not only great to swap recipes, but also more fun. We made an activity of lamenting about our cravings together as well as discovered purple quinoa together.

5. Send them to your Naturopath/ Eastern Medicine Doctor – I paid for a consultation with Dr Sharma and it was the best $90 I spent this year. I have been telling Ben to lay off the bread for years (not for his weight – those who know him know he’s a strip of paint, but for his dehydration), but when it came from Dr Sharma, something new resonated with him. He has completely cut out drying breads and opted for Oatmeal in the morning instead of toast as well as hydrating, nutritious soups instead of sandwiches. Its also way easier for me to cut out bread because we no longer have delicious ciabatta buns around the kitchen.

Its true, I threw in the dish rag and stopped soaking lentils on day ten of twelve of the cleanse due to illness, but this decision came from the realization I needed to listen to my own body (something I was trying to ignore. And it is hard to ignore this when you feel like vomiting everyday). Now I may be a Pitta, but even my stubbornness has its limits. I didn’t want to admit it, but this cleanse just wasn’t for me.

But I did discover a few things that you may want to consider if you are thinking about this cleanse, or any other cleanse for that matter. The following are the factors which I think made me react the way I did.

1. Dehydration: These herbs were very dehydrating. Dehydration taxes the kidneys, and this can cause nausea as the kidneys dump toxins into the G.I tract. Kat and I also both found that this dehydration actually impeded our elimination (!). I find this odd because according to Ayurveda, cleansing should begin with moistening and oiling the internal organs in a process referred to as “ripening the body for detoxification”. This lubrication (through massage, sweating and ingesting butters) helps loosen build-up and toxins.

2. Bile Stimulation: The Biliherb pills made me feel the worst. And while others found it fine on their tummies, I think it is my high heat (Pitta) which caused this reaction. Pitta governs secretions and bile as well as digestion and assimilation, so this may have been overly-stimulation for my body type.

3. Eating Enough: I felt the sickest when I took my supplements with breakfast. And because bile breaks down fat and I was eating fruit for breakfast (no fat) this may have prompted how I felt. I still feel it is only part of the reason I felt sick — but I definitely suggest anyone taking a bile stimulant take them with a hearty meal.

But it was not just an upset stomach that yielded discovery. It also shed light on my addictions.

Now I thought this no flour, no sugar, no dairy, no fermented and processed food diet would have me daydreaming about lemon gelato and ciabatta buns, but to my surprise I was quite content with my Sunday brunch sans eggs florantine. This restrictive diet actually ousted a much more powerful dependency than one to sugar or carbs… my addiction to eating out.

And I love to eat out. It dates back to the early days of Pure + Simple when my mother and I would eat out at least five days a week (Does this mean I can blame my upbringing?). But while I have tried to cut back now that Ben and I have moved in together, I have to admit we often shrug off making dinner after a long day at work, unenamoured with my plans for steamed veggies and tofu. The idea of peeling carrots and zucchinis is enough to make me lose my appetite on nights like this.

Perhaps its peer pressure. More often than not we get an enticing text to meet up with friends for food or drinks giving us a perfect reason to abandon the boredom of our kitchen. And while some people are social smokers, I’m a social eater. I hardly ever get together with our multi-tasking friends without eating or sipping something. I mean, what isn’t more fun over Vietnamese cold rolls?

So during the Wild Rose my social life definitely took a beating as avoiding fermented and processed foods are difficult while dining out because you never know what they put in your sauces and side dishes. My mother dated a chef once who put spoonfuls of sugar in his meat sauces (We won’t say which resto he owns). And even the healthiest restaurants which tout organic produce and local ingredients will never measure up to a good home cooked meal because you make it fresh (even high-end restaurants will pre-blanch their vegetables to prep for a night of high volume) and know exactly what is in it. It was definitely a good thing to help me re-examine my habits. But I won’t lie and say I wasn’t craving conversation and curry at Rangoli.

So if you are thinking of doing a detox, unlike myself – do not have preconceptions before doing it. Kat and I were pretty disappointed to find we, unlike many others did not feel significantly different. But as the Buddhists say: one should not be attached to the outcome. I will confirm though, you definitely find out more about yourself, your body and the changes you can make for the better long term.

I recently went my friends’ wedding in Montreal, and while it was a terribly romantic service, I couldn’t help but be distracted by how fantastic the bride looked. She’s always been very attractive, but since the last time I saw her, her skin was more glowing, she had lost weight, and her eyes were sparkling and bright. So, when she told me it was due to the Wild Rose Cleanse, I made a mental note to start my own as soon as I got back to Toronto. How quickly I go from admiration to gimme, gimme (I better open the heart chakra and do more fish pose).

Now when I had acne, detoxing was a sort of past time of mine – the more extreme, the bigger the sense of accomplishment I would feel. I have done liver cleanses that required me to drink Epsom salt water followed by a concoction of olive oil spiked with grapefruit juice; I have done a series of colonics paired with daily drops of milk thistle, dandelion and burdock (too much info?); and I have done the classic Master Cleanse, a fast in which your main source of sustenance is water, laced with lemon juice, amber maple syrup and cayenne pepper. So this twelve day program of a cleansing diet and a few supplements didn’t scare me. It even came in a kit!

First thing I did was recruit a partner to keep me motivated, compare notes with and share the burden of food preparation. Luckily for me, I had committed Kat my neighbour, who not only was located conveniently, but more prepared than I, having bought supplies, researched online discussion boards and made notes on Wild Rose blogs by the time I had skimmed the basic do’s and don’ts.

And the these do’s and dont’s were very straight-forward: no dairy, no sugar (including tropical fruit), no flour of any kind (not even kamut or spelt), no fermented foods (or drinks), no inorganic meat (with lenience toward poultry and fish), and no processed foods. This sounds difficult, but it left us tons to eat (plenty of rice and other grains, most fruits and veggies and all the fish we wanted). The kit provided, contained three bottles of pills: a laxative, a general cleansing complex, a bile stimulant and a dropper of some sort of cleansing tincture. This was going to be great — I was even giving myself a break midway as I wouldn’t be able to uphold the diet on Saturday as we were accepting an ACCE award (Annual Chinese Canadian Entrepreneur) that night, and banquet food is always bad for you.

So pushing my cart through the aisles at Whole Foods, I had a plan, a cartful of outrageously expensive produce, and the feeling that I was on the road to optimum health!

But the first day I took the prescribed dosage of all four different types of herbs, I immediately felt nauseous. Kat blackberry messengered me that she was dizzy at work. We concluded that this meant it must be working. And you know what they say: cleanliness is Godliness, and I felt a little more holy with every mouthful of millet.

But in the following two days, my motivation started to wane as each time I took the herbs I felt as if I was going to throw up. And despite, Kat’s delicious latke-like chickpea squash patties drizzled with lemon tahini sauce, and my tasty grilled sole topped with roast almonds, I began to dread meal times as they included a nasty illness which lasted a good hour or two.

This puzzled me as no one else I knew had had my reaction. They cited cravings, dizziness, fatigue and stomach cramps, but no nausea. Kat suggested that I use a process of elimination to find out if one component was aggravating me. I found that the bile stimulant was what made me feel particularly sick. But while I started to feel less sick, I was definitely no a blushing bride.

“Maybe this generalist cleanse is not good for you. You need to do things which are tailored to your body and needs, ” my mother said while eating a Turkey pot pie in front of me. “…or maybe you’re just really toxic.”

During my weekly visit to Dr Sharma, he said nothing when I mentioned my cleanse -which usually meant disapproval (How Asian) – but did remind me that I had heat in my digestive tract.

I couldn’t decide if it was because it didn’t suit me or if it was the rough I needed to endure to achieve the prize of radiance. And I wanted that radiance, so I carried on feeling like I wanted to ralph up my quinoa salad everyday – twice a day – and dreamed about Saturday.

The night before the awards ceremony I skipped taking my herbs to be on the safe side. And in the morning I skipped them again. To my relief, I felt fantastic! Perhaps the effects came after the cleanse was over? Perhaps this small pause in the cleanse will spur the breakthrough I need, I thought over my breakfast of rice and mung beans. I was hopeful.

My body felt light and refreshed. And while a small part of me felt like a kid who snuck sweets in before dinner, I revelled gleefully in my mind’s clarity.

Needless to say, that night, I felt victorious for more reasons than our award.

Look forward to next post where we conclude the success/failure of this cleanse and why.