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Recipe: Maggie’s Macro Plate

Last night I got dinner with Laura, one of my oldest friends (from middle school). She was in town with her boyfriend just for the day and we managed to get together to have dinner. So glad we got a chance to reconnect. We were going to go to Souen, but I decided last minute to take them to Good Health Cafe, which is closer and a little bit less scary for non-macrobiotic people. We talked and talked, and before we knew it it was time for them to grab a taxi to catch the train back to New Jersey.

One thing that Laura mentioned during dinner was the fact that my blog is not so much a recipe blog anymore! I hadn’t realized it, but yes, it’s true – I don’t really cook as elaborately now, but I do make things. So it is time for me to share a macrobiotic re-creation that I’ve been having for lunches recently. It’s called a macro plate, and it is vegan and macrobiotic. I get it all the time when we eat out at macrobiotic restaurants.

My Macro Plate Tips (skip down for recipe):

  • This is very easy to throw together – you do not have to make everything at once; you can prep each ingredient in advance and just toss them together when you need a quick meal.
  • Roasting the squash – you don’t necessarily have to roast it, but I do. You could also steam it. For roasting I like a certain seasoning (oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame seeds – see below), but the way you roast (or steam, etc…) the squash is completely up to you.
  • Beans – sub in any kind of beans you like. I use canned beans because it’s quick, but you could make them from scratch as well.
  • Greens – again, you can use any kind of greens. I use pre-chopped ones from Trader Joe’s because it’s very easy that way.
  • Extras – other typical macro plate ingredients are: hijiki seaweed, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, and steamed carrots or daikon. Add as desired!

Maggie’s Macro Plate

Ingredients (serves 1)

  • 1/3 cup dry brown rice
  • 3-4 cups raw chopped greens (collards, kale, spinach, etc…)
  • 1/2 cup black beans
  • 2 cups uncooked winter squash (acorn, butternut, kabocha, etc… – this is acorn)
  • for roasting squash: sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame seeds (all optional except the oil)
  • ~1/4 cup of my miso-tahini dressing (click for recipe) (about 2-3 times the amount the recipe makes – just double or triple as desired)

Method

  1. Roast the squash: I first mix it with a few glugs of sesame oil, then sprinkle some soy sauce and rice vinegar over it and mix again. Top with some sesame seeds and cook at 375 for 1 hour (or at 450 for about 40 minutes). You can roast or steam the squash with whatever oil/flavorings you desire.
  2. Cook the rice: I cook 1 cup of rice at a time in my rice cooker. It comes out perfectly fluffy. Then I just scoop out about a third of it for my meal.
  3. Steam the greens: if you are lazy like me you can sprinkle them with water and microwave for a minute or so.
  4. Prep the beans: rinse and reheat as desired (I actually like mine cold/room temp so I don’t reheat).
  5. Make the dressing. It is so simple and delicious!
  6. Prep the plate: brown rice, beans, greens, squash, and any other extras (see above for idea under “tips”). Serve with dressing. I like to mix it all up and eat it together.

So that is the “macro plate” that I’m always talking about. I haven’t experimented with different dressings, but I keep meaning to. This plate is supposedly a “perfectly balanced” meal – protein, carbs, and fat, all in the right proportions.

Now here are some other macro plates that I have enjoyed…

Souen’s macro plate (also called the “balanced plate” or the “planet platter”) – kabocha, broccoli, kale, carrots, seaweed, beans, brown rice, and sometimes daikon:

Good Health’s macro plate – steamed squash, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, and kale; brown rice; black beans; hijiki seaweed; and tofu:

Ozu’s macro plate (review to come; kudos to reader Maria for guessing this!) – chickpeas, brown rice, carrots, yams, kabocha, and hijiki seaweed:

I love macro plates and macrobiotic meals 🙂

What is your favorite meal? Have you ever had a macro plate? Will you make this one?

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Yasai Yaki Soba Recipe {Project Food Blog}

Today’s post is my second Project Food Blog entry (see my first entry here). The challenge? “The Classics”. Each contestant must pick an ethnic classic that (s)he is unfamiliar with. We’re supposed to keep it as authentic as possible.

Ethnic food? Nothing new to me. Authentic ethnic meals? Okay, now you’re onto something. I make a lot of so-called “ethnic” dishes, but they are not usually true to the traditional recipe. I’m always modifying and Maggie-fying dishes, sometimes to the point that they are unrecognizable by the end. I always enjoy the outcome, but I will admit that I can’t follow a recipe to save my life. So this challenge is very… well, challenging for me (as it is supposed to be). The main reasons that I usually change a recipe are:

  • I don’t have all the ingredients and I make substitutions
  • I healthify recipes by reducing the amount of oil or adding extra vegetables
  • I simplify recipes to make them quick and easy

My Challenge: Yasai Yaki Soba

Japanese food is a definite favorite for me, but I rarely make traditional dishes. I use a lot of Japanese ingredients, but I don’t make a lot of Japanese dishes. I leave that up to Bobby’s mom (one of my two favorite cooks – my mom being the other one). In my googling I came across a few recipes for Yasai Yaki Soba. I had to pick it because Bobby and I have an inside joke about Yakisoba (it involves a hysterical commercial they used to play on California TV). Turns out that I had almost all the ingredients needed and I only had to run out for 2 things: the garnishes.

Yasai Yaki Soba: What does it mean?

I know there are linguists out there (Lauren and Amber Shea!) that share my passion for words, so let’s break down this recipe to see exactly what Yasai Yaki Soba is.

Yasai = vegetable. Yaki = from yaku, which means “to bake or to grill”. Yaki appears in a lot of Japanese dish names – teriyaki, sukiyaki, takoyaki, okonomiyaki. Soba = buckwheat noodles. I had a lot of trouble finding Japanese etymology resources online, so all I can offer are these definitions. (If you know of a good resource please let me know!) So this is a veggie noodle dish that is “grilled” in a wok (fried). This version happens to be macrobiotic (if organic eggs count) and vegetarian.

Yasai Yaki Soba: The Recipe & The Details

I set about setting up my ingredients.

The main source of panic for me for this recipe? The vegetable oil! I never use that much to stir-fry things. I got over it though; I had to follow the recipe to be authentic. That is the point of this challenge.

Yasai Yaki Soba Recipe (Serves 2)

Ingredients

  • 6 ounces soba noodles (dry weight)
  • 1 green pepper, sliced and chopped
  • 1 large thinly sliced carrot (I used a mandoline)
  • 1/2 cup sliced onion
  • 3 garlic cloves finely chopped
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Seasoning Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon rice wine (mirin)
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil

Yasai Sauce Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons rice wine (mirin)
  • 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger (or 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder)

Garnish Ingredients

  • pickled ginger
  • sesame seeds (black or regular or both)

Method

  1. Cook the soba noodles according to the package (usually 4 minutes in boiling water). Immediately rinse with cool water to stop cooking. Set aside.
  2. Beat the 2 eggs and mix in the seasoning ingredients. Add the veggies (pepper, carrot, onion, garlic) and then add the noodles (gently so they don’t break).

  3. Heat a wok over high heat for 1-2 minutes until it’s very hot (almost smoking), then add the vegetable oil. Add the noodly veggie egg mixture and cook for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mix together the yasai sauce ingredients while the noodles are cooking.

  4. Remove from heat, add the yasai sauce (while still in the wok), and mix. Divide between 2 dishes and top with the garnishes – ginger and sesame seeds.
  5. Enjoy!

Yasai Yaki Soba: What was challenging?

I had a few difficulties with this…

  1. I followed the recipes to a T – I actually went out and bought the specific garnishes that the recipe called for. And those garnishes made this dish exactly the classic dish I was hoping for! I don’t usually do this, but maybe I am missing out. The little things really do make a difference.
  2. The oil content. When I stirfry I don’t usually use this much oil. I use enough, but I never take the risk of using too much and making it soggy with fat. I used the amount it called for, but it turns out I was probably right – Bobby and I both prefer it less oily.
  3. It didn’t have as many veggies as I usually use, and I was tempted to add more in. When I make noodle-veggie dishes, I always use at least half veggies (in terms of volume). This had more noodles than veggies, but it made me appreciate the simple flavor of the soba.

So this challenge was awesome in that it made me appreciate the fact that I am actually a very good cook (Bobby loved it), I don’t have to always make uber-healthy food, and it solidified my love for true Japanese cuisine. Thanks Project Food Blog!

I will remind you how to vote for me tomorrow. I will also be back either later today or early tomorrow with my weekly roundup – I was out all day yesterday and didn’t get to it.

What’s your favorite ethnic dish?

Mine is papaya salad, duh. I would have made that except I’ve already made that lots of times.

*Note: I combined elements of 2 recipes to get this recipe. See here and here for my inspirations.

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Tasty Tuesday: Peanutty Jap Chae Recipe with Soba Noodles

Welcome to any new readers! Check out my links in the sidebar to the right (must reads), or my tabs above (the salad story, yoga + fitness, recipes, and my recommendations).

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I updated my recipes page. All recipes are waist-friendly, most are vegetarian or vegan, many are raw or macrobiotic – there are tons of options. I will be updating the layout of the page soon (I hope) to make it more navigable and sortable, but for now I am so happy that ALL my recipes are actually listed. Go look! There are 214 recipes on there as of today. I am really happy that I have that as a history of my cooking for the last 3 years. Here is #214.

Korean Recipe Rehab: Healthy Jap Chae Recipe

Last night we ate in, and I cooked. I cooked! I have not truly cooked in ages and I have missed it so. I read Women’s Health this weekend and they had a recipe for Jap Chae (a traditional Korean recipe – it’s a noodle dish) and I wanted to make my own version of it. I used to make Jap Chae all the time, but that recipe is different from this one. It’s lower calorie, but not as filling.

Since I’m not trying to lose weight I’m going to stick with this soba noodle jap chae recipe (which has a peanutty Pad Thai twist). Here is my Very Low calorie Jap Chae recipe. The one I’m about to post is still not that hefty either! It is certainly a waist-friendly recipe. (Note the options in parentheses after ingredients that can make it a lower calorie recipe – the mods are simple and shouldn’t change the taste.)

I opted to do this in typical Maggie fashion: a fusion Asian dish – soba noodles (Japanese), jap chae sauce (Korean recipe), and the addition of peanut butter (Thai) – it was awesome. Bobby agreed. This dish is even kind of macrobiotic; I approve of eggs on a macrobiotic diet.

Peanutty Jap Chae Soba Noodles (AKA Spunky Soba with a Twist)

Ingredients (serves 3-4, depending on appetites)

  • 8 ounces soba noodles
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon (organic turbinado) sugar
  • 1 teaspoon chili flakes (could do less)
  • 3 tablespoons PB2 or 2 tablespoons peanut butter (could do less but this makes it tasty)
  • 1-2 tablespoons peanut oil (could do less; could use sesame oil if you don’t have peanut)
  • 1/2 large onion, chopped
  • 5 cloves of garlic, crushed and roughly minced (could do less)
  • 2 medium carrots, sliced
  • 2 (non-recalled) eggs
  • 3-4 celery stalks, sliced
  • 1 medium zucchini, julienned

Method

  1. Prepare the veggies. You will add them in the order listed above.
  2. Prepare the noodles according to the package. (Usually boil for 4 minutes then drain.)
  3. Mix the sauce while the noodles are cooking: soy sauce, sugar, chili flakes, PB2/peanut butter. (Do not need to dissolve the sugar yet.)
  4. Heat the peanut oil on high heat in a wok or large pan. Add the onion, garlic, and carrots. Saute for 3 minutes.
  5. Beat the eggs with a fork. Push the veggies to one side of the pan; add the eggs and scramble them there. It is ok if everything mixes together.
  6. Add the other veggies: celery and zucchini. Saute for 3-4 more minutes.
  7. Add the noodles (drained) and the sauce; stir a few times then turn off the heat. You can continue to mix to make sure everything is distributed evenly.
  8. Serve! This jap chae recipe is perfect alone: protein, carbs, and fat. Yum yum yum.

For dessert I had grapes; Bobby had a nectarine. I haven’t been into sweets lately. So strange.

What’s your favorite noodle dish?

Here are some of my other noodly recipes:

Enjoy, bookmark, share 🙂 Let me know if you make any of them!

P.S. Did anyone notice that Chrome had an update? I like it.

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Melissa: Make Your Own Sushi (on the cheap!)

Today’s guest post is dedicated to my wonderful husband, Bobby. Bobby is half-Japanese and has a passion for sushi. Sometimes we make it ourselves (make your own sushi) and sometimes we go out searching for great rolls! Thanks again Melissa for your post. Melissa was one of the first bloggers I started reading regularly. I’ve been enjoying her “side notes” recently. So without further ado…

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So, I know you probably go out for sushi and cringe at the sight of the bill after enjoying your meal…but have no fear! I’m here to teach you how you can make your own rolls at home and spend probably half the amount you would at a restaurant! And you can make them anyway you want!

I made a simple vegetable roll to demonstrate (and I apologize beforehand for the pictures, color and angles, since my kitchen lighting is horrible and I had to photograph my own demo) but I’ll provide some nice add-ins you can use that won’t be too foreign!

Ingredients:

  • Rice (long grain/Japanese Botan Rice)
  • Nori (dried seaweed, large squares)
  • 1/2 Avocado, cut into strips
  • 1 Carrot, sliced into long strips (I use a peeler to make it easier to handle!)
  • 1 Cucumber, sliced into long strips
  • Small glass/bowl of water to dip your hands in periodically

Directions:

  1. Cook rice according to directions either on the stovetop or in the rice maker. For mine I used 1/2C of rice for two servings with 1.5C of water, all in the rice maker.

  2. While the rice is cooking, take this time to cut up all the veggies.

  3. After the rice is done, let it sit for about 10 minutes and then remove it to let it cool (it being hot will cause the nori to cinch up and get rubbery).
  4. Lay out the nori piece on a DRY cutting board (I’ve found this to be the best surface where stuff doesn’t stick).
  5. Place about a 1/2C of rice onto the center on the nori.
  6. Wetting your hands, spread the rice out thinly leaving about a 1/2-1 inch gap at the top and bottom.

  7. Stack all the contents you want inside your roll at the bottom of the nori sheet where there is no rice. I normally start with the cucumber on the bottom to help make rolling easier, then cucumber, other vegetables then the meats/avocado/tofu and such.

  8. Now comes the part everyone is so afraid of: the rolling. This isn’t as hard as you think and can be done the first time without a bamboo roller. The easiest way to roll the sushi is to get your thumbs underneath the nori and use your other fingers to tuck and push everything together. Keep the insides as smashed together as possible without causing them to shoot out the side, and keep rolling over the rice layer until the opposite empty side of the nori.

  9. When you reach the other end dab your fingers in the water and apply some to the end of the nori to help it all stick together. Lay the roll on the seem to help it seal.

  10. The next hard part comes with cutting the sushi. This is where many have a hard time and it causes their sushi to get smashed and fall apart. The key thing is a WET knife and quick, concise strokes. I like to put my hands around the roll like a claw and cut very quickly with the knife. I use a wet towel between slices to remove all the gluten and rice to ensure easy cutting.

  11. Then voila! You have homemade sushi!

Of course this is a very simple variety of sushi, but you can also add a variety of other ingredients too.

For veggie rolls I also like to add:

  • Bean Sprouts
  • Steamed Zucchini
  • Green Beans
  • Bell Pepper Slices
  • Asparagus
  • Daikon
  • Eggplant (cooked of course!)
  • and anything else you might like!

For protein you can add:

  • Egg (pan fried like an omlette and cut into strips)
  • Tofu (baked/pan fried)
  • Any kind of meat (chicken, port, steak), cut into small strips
  • Fish
  • Shrimp
  • Octopus

Other add-ins include:

  • Cream Cheese
  • Japanese Mayo
  • Dressings
  • Peanut Sauces
  • Sweet Potato Puree

The world is your oyster when it comes to the variety of rolls you can make for sushi rolls! And it doesn’t take long to make either; the hardest most time consuming part is chopping up all the ingredients for the inside of it!

I hope this was easy enough to understand but if you have any questions, feel free to email me (trying dot to dot heal at gmail dot com). You can view my other three sushi tutorials here, here and here.

Enjoy!

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Thanks again Melissa! I hope to use your tutorial as soon as we get back 🙂

What’s your favorite sushi?

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Saturday Secrets: Best Vegetarian Restaurants in New York

My first Saturday Secret is not a secret – it’s my fiance Bobby’s birthday. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!) We had so much fun last night, first going to Kenka and following it up at Falucka Lounge (that’s really what it’s called!). We were with a few of our good friends and it was really fun. We ate things like this (both pics from Yelp):

The first thing is okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake-frittata-egg-thing-with-lots-of-mayo. See my healthier okonomiyaki recipe from April of last year (2009).

The second thing is omu-rice, which is fried rice hiding underneath an omelette (with lots of mayo). Kenka is one of Bobby’s favorite Japanese places – it’s essentially Japanese bar food. And it’s absolutely delicious, I might add. Not the healthiest place I have been to, but certainly delicious.

My second Saturday Secret is that you have until Monday to enter this contest. (Now closed.)

My third Saturday Secret is actually many Saturday Secrets. Here is a list of vegetarian/vegan/veg-friendly places that I either have been to or want to go to in New York:

Now I am off to take Bobby to brunch at this place. He doesn’t know where we are going yet.

What’s your favorite vegetarian restaurant? (In any city!)