Posted on

{Recipe} Cream of Broccoli Soup

Cream of Broccoli Soup Recipe

Veggies cooking in the pot

Ingredients

  • 1 Tablespoon butter
  • 2 huge scallions, chopped (or 3-4 smaller ones) – you could probably use a leek instead if you want
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (or chopped fresh garlic)
  • 1 head broccoli, chopped
  • 4 cups chopped [purple] cabbage (1/2 a large head)
  • 2 teaspoons dried basil
  • 2 cups whole milk (you could use skim – it wouldn’t be as rich)
  • 1 cup water + 1 serving bouillon (powder or paste)
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • pinch of allspice
  • 3 Tablespoons parmesan cheese + extra

Method

  1. Heat the butter in a large saute pan or pot. Toss in the scallions and garlic powder; cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  2. Add the broccoli, cabbage, and basil. Saute for about 8 minutes.
  3. Add the milk, water, boullion, pepper, allspice, and cheese. Bring to a boil and then let it simmer for ~20 minutes (covered).
  4. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Puree with your Vitamix or other blender.
  5. Garnish with more parmesan. Add salt+pepper, to taste.

I actually based this on a vegan recipe – but mine is most certainly not vegan! I am hoping to do a soup round-up sometime soon, so if you want me to feature one of your soup recipes just drop a comment below.

What is your favorite kind of soup?

I have two: clam chowder and corn and chicken chowder.

Posted on

8 Foods I Couldn’t Live Without

Ages ago, MDA did a post with almost the same title. ^^ (He did 10 foods.)

So, being the copycat that I am, here are my 8 foods! (They change all the time, but really, these ones are here to stay for good.)

1. Kabocha Squash (you knew that was coming)

Kabocha, also known as Japanese Pumpkin, has been a favorite of mine for several years now. I even turned orange at one point because I was eating so much of it. It’s high in beta carotene and vitamins C, B1, and B2. For more on kabocha, read my kabocha FAQ.

2. Bacon

Bacon is the food that always keeps me from being a vegetarian. At the moment I am assuredly not a veg-head, but I’ve flirted with vegetarianism, veganism, and macrobiotics in the past. And then I remember bacon, and it’s all over. One important thing to note about bacon though, is that you have to eat the kind without nitrates and nitrites, and preferably organic/hormone-free/antibiotic-free. The nitrates and nitrites especially can contribute to stomach cancer later on in life (something I am genetically predisposed to).

3. Broccoli / Brussels Sprouts (it’s a tie)

Apples and Brussels Sprouts

Apples with Brussels Sprouts

I love cruciferous veggies! They’ve been linked to cancer and heart disease prevention and they’re filled with vitamins and nutrients. Plus, they taste really, really good. When Bobby and I first started dating I turned him onto Brussels sprouts. After hating them his whole life, it turns out that he just didn’t like the mushy kind. When I cook them now I steam or saute them so the inside is barely cooked – no mush.

4. Sunflower Seeds (and sunflower seed butter)

Ahh, sunflower seeds. Growing up I would eat these at my dad’s softball games so they always conjure up that image for me – sitting on the bleachers, reading, but staying alert enough to avoid stray foul balls. Sunflower seed butter is a more recent discovery of mine, but it ranks up there as well. (Aside: I would have put peanuts up here until a week ago, but after keeping a food log for a week – doctor’s orders – it looks like some of my stomach issues come from eating peanut butter alllll the time. Oops.)

5. Apples

Maggie picks and eats an apple

My favorite fruit. Should have in moderation because I break out from eating too much fruit (or sugar in general). However, bad at moderation = lots of apples (wah, skin).

6. Dark, dark chocolate.

My favorite dessert. Also should have in moderation because I break out from eating too much chocolate (unless it’s 99% dark – which probably just means I break out from the sugar in it). Lots of antioxidants, lots of deliciousness. You know what’s really good? Bacon chocolate.

7. Eggs

Scrambled!

I also like them fried, hard-boiled, and in a salad.

8. Butter!

Of course I need something to cook all of the above in. Love butter! Hooray for healthy fats.

***

I am now off to a yoga class.

What are your top 8 foods?

Posted on

Experiment: My IBS Management Plan

This title sounds like the title to some kind of report I might write for work. Or school. I hope it goes as well as some of my papers did for school 😉 I used to do fairly decently in my classes.

The problem: I’ve been eating well recently (meaning not much late-night eating, minimal overeating, not too many salads, etc…), but my stomach is really bothering me. It’s been worse than usual ever since I moved to New York back in November. I was diagnosed with IBS ages ago, but never took it seriously – so I’m doing some research.

The solution: use diet to treat and manage my IBS. I’m reading Heather Van Vorous’s book, The First Year: Irritable Bowel Syndrome . While it’s not my first year, it’s the first time I’m actually going to try to treat it. The book has rave reviews on Amazon and I picked it up at Borders this weekend with my 33% off coupon.

Overview:

People with IBS have very sensitive digestive systems. The slightest things can set us off. Here are the basic things that I *must* follow if I want relief.

  • Don’t let myself get too hungry
  • Never eat anything but soluble fiber on an empty stomach (more on this below)
  • Follow a low-fat diet, high in soluble fiber, being careful with insoluble fiber, and avoiding my IBS triggers (like whipped cream and frozen yogurt)
  • Keep stress levels low (includes doing yoga and getting enough sleep)
  • Drink herbal tea (peppermint, ginger, chamomile)
  • Soluble fiber supplements

Let’s talk about soluble fiber. Soluble fiber foods are things like white bread (not wonder bread!), sourdough, white rice, pasta, oatmeal, potatoes (white and sweet), squash (yay! kabocha squash), turnips, carrots, beets, applesauce (or peeled apples), papayas, and avocados. These are supposed to be the basis of an IBS-er’s diet. Eat these before anything else and your stomach will thank you. They should make up more than half of each meal.

As for insoluble fiber, you should only eat this after eating the soluble fiber. Insoluble fiber would be things like whole wheat breads, bran, popcorn, berries, oranges, greens, peppers, celery, broccoli, cauliflower… you get the idea – non-starchy veggies, basically. And these should preferably be cooked before eating for easier digestion.

Fats – be careful. Avoid them in large quantities. Stay away from fried things, dairy, red meat. I already stay away from most of these things; the fats I eat a lot of are butter and nut butters (and whipped cream, which really really makes my stomach hurt).

Let’s look at today’s lunch as a good example of an IBS-friendly meal. I went to Burger Heaven with Bobby and I got a baked potato with sauteed veggies (broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, and cauliflower). I started off with the potato. It looked pretty much like this, but more humongous:

I had some plain, then added a little butter, ketchup, and pepper. After I let that settle into my stomach, I ate the veggies, which were delicious. I didn’t stuff myself (I took part of the potato home, but ate it almost as soon as we got back). I had the soluble fiber first, then the insoluble broccoli et al. I am pretty sure broccoli is another trigger for my stomach acting up.

I will *definitely* keep y’all updated on this.

I’m feeling hopeful. I want my stomach to feel great while we’re in Miami visiting the family 🙂 I am so tired of missing things because of my tum!!

What are your plans for Memorial Day weekend? (We have a wedding to go to – my coworker’s.)

Posted on

Gourmet Park and Nutty Butter Fats

The other day I got a package from Maranatha – 2 jars of nut butter. They sent me one jar of no-stir peanut butter and one jar of no-stir almond butter.

feb 18 2010 007

Let me tell you – I thought I didn’t really like almond butter… I was so wrong. This almond butter is great. Both the almond butter and the peanut butter are slightly sweetened with organic cane sugar.

feb 18 2010 011

Thanks, Maranatha! I can’t wait to experiment with these. So far I’ve just had them plain, in oatmeal, and on rice cakes.

I work long hours so recently I have been going to Gourmet Park for dinner. My favorite thing to get is the unlimited topping salad for $6.95. You pick a base (I get romaine), one “meat’” (I get either bacon or shrimp, depending on my mood), and unlimited gourmet toppings.

feb 18 2010 002

This one had (I think I’m forgetting some): roasted oily eggplant, roasted oily Brussels sprouts, broccoli, roasted peppers, corn, peas, water chestnuts, baby corn, mandarin oranges, artichoke hearts, sprouts, and probably some other things. I always get the honey mustard dressing on the side.

Gourmet Park also has a sale on their prepared food after 6:00pm – it’s all half off. So I get prepared food for $4/pound (normally $4/half pound).

feb 18 2010 003

This one was some Asian-inspired cooked salad of broccoli, black sesame seeds (Coco likes these!), peppers, and some other unidentified veggies. Underneath (hiding) are a bunch of oily peppers. I’m really into oily veggies lately – they are so good. Fat is good.

Tonight I got a big dish of something with cauliflower. It was Indian-inspired, I think.

feb 18 2010 012

I topped it with some beef, salmon, and crab (salmon and crab are in that left corner). I also got some oily eggplant and some mashed potatoes. Very filling. Gourmet Park is helping me eat a variety of foods without having to worry about planning my meals.

In terms of exercise I’ve been sticking with my walking routine. Today I actually walked 4 miles instead of 2 because I walked home from work while chatting with my parents.

How often do you talk to your parents? Sometimes I talk to them every day and then other times I will go a week or even more.

Posted on

Bring It ON! (Fat, that is!)

Look what I had for breakfast yesterday:

This was:

  • 2 pieces of organic, free-range (pork) bacon (from Whole Paycheck)
  • 2 organic, cage-free eggs (also from Whole Paycheck) cooked in bacon fat

This meal was inspired by both Heather’s manly breakfast and my acupuncturist. It seems that my new motto is “eat more animal fat“, and it is working for me. Some people seem to do fine without – my sister is a vegetarian/vegan and my brother is vegetarian and experimenting with adding in more raw foods. My mom was a vegetarian for most of her 20’s (including when she was pregnant with me!) and my dad follows the accidental vegetarian diet because he lives with so many vegetarians.

My dad actually ends up eating more meat than the rest of them (in the form of lunch-meat on sandwiches, the occasional meat chili, and sometimes some bacon on the weekends), and… well – I take after my dad. We look alike, we talk alike, we think alike, and when we hang out together we usually end up working on some project (reorganizing something, or nitpicking about the way something has been put together, or making a mess unintentionally as we try to fix something) and not talking that much – but that’s how we like it.

Anyway, this is not about what we do, but rather how our food needs might be similar as well. That side of my family has digestion troubles (to put it mildly!) and I seem to have inherited them. They flare up when I am not eating meat. (Last time my stomach felt good was when I was driving across the country – and eating meat at almost every meal.)

Anyway, onto another meal (dinner).

This was…

  • organic ground lamb from Whole Foods (you actually can’t see it much, but I probably had 4-5 ounces)
  • garlic + frozen veggies (broccoli and an Asian stir fry mix) cooked in coconut oil
  • topped with cream cheese (this is full fat by the way)
  • spices: pepper, ginger powder, cinnamon

This is an acupuncture-inspired meal. He said to try eating lamb, lightly spiced. Also garlic (good for digestion), ginger (warming and good for digestion), and cinnamon (just good – I don’t remember why). He also recommended coconut oil, so I threw that in there as well.

I made this beauty for lunch yesterday:

It was…

  • veggies cooked in remaining bacon fat and coconut oil (frozen broccoli, fresh okra, green peas)
  • cream cheese topping

Coconut oil is a great source of saturated fat (NOT always bad for you), great for the skin, doesn’t create harmful byproducts when heated, reduces stress, and aids in weight loss (these are just google results).

Speaking of weight loss… Did I mention I lost 2-3 of those pesky intenSati pounds? This happened in one week, and I didn’t eat fewer calories (if anything I ate more). What I did was eat more fat (and meat) and fewer carbs (but not no carbs! I still had lots of oatmeal and rice, and of course many many veggie carbs). Fat can be really good for you.

I am actually off to a blogger brunch that has been postponed for far too long… So I’ll update on that later.

What are you plans for Valentine’s day? We actually don’t know yet!!