macrobiotic | Say Yes to Salad

20 March, 201325 November, 2014

{Macrobiotic March} Some Macrobiotic Meals (at home and out!)

Those of you who have been following my blog since the beginning may have noticed the shift from eating at home often (probably 5 nights a week) to eating out… a lot. The shift happened slowly over time as I transitioned from my first job in CA, to freelancing in CA (part time), to working full time again when we moved to NYC, to working more and more! I’m not complaining about work. My career is going better than I could have ever dreamed. I love my job and I love my coworkers. I am challenged every day with real problems that I can solve.

BUT – with working so much, I just don’t make the time to cook at home. While I am sure I could make the time, it’s not a priority for me right now.

So I try to find healthy options for eating out.

Keeping with the theme of Macrobiotic March, here are some of my favorite macro meals I have eaten (out) lately. And one macro meal that I made.

A few weeks ago I got lunch with an internet friend (we go back years now) at a vegetarian restaurant in midtown called Zen Palate. The lunch and the company were great. This is what I ordered:

The dish is called Shredded Melody. It’s shredded soy protein stir-fried with celery, carrots, zucchini and pine nuts in a light garlic sauce. It came with a brown and red rice mix and 2 spring rolls. I ate most at the restuarant and had the leftovers at my desk a few hours later.

Another night, after dinner at Souen, Bobby and I shared the Cocoa Creamy Parfait: cocoa mousse with vanilla soy cream and granola.

Really delicious. I do prefer their scones though…

Another night I got takeout from Souen because I was in a rush. I had this meal after a vigorous yoga class at Pure:

Takeout Macro Plate: an ideal blance of steamed greens (collards usually), vegetables (carrots, broccoli), brown rice, beans (chickpeas here – my favorite), and hijiki seaweed.

I also got this dessert the same night…

A Macrobiotic Scone – the cranberry orange version.

Sometimes I do cook at home. One night I made this healthy fried rice variation:

Homemade macrobiotic fried rice with Trader Joe’s Healthy 8 Veggie Mix, Brussels sprouts, sesame seeds, and some teriyaki sauce. Steamed kabocha on the side, and yes I had seconds. I think this was another post-yoga meal.

Another night Bobby and I went to Hu Kitchen, a new paleo restaurant near his office. Hu Kitchen is on 5th Ave between 13th and 14th streets (right near Souen). Hu says, ‘For us, getting back to eating like humans means eating foods we would find in nature or foods minimally processed using only basic, mechanical methods.‘

I got The Herbivore: 3 veggie sides of the day. I picked creamed cauliflower with coconut milk, roasted butternut squash, and sauteed greens. That little brown thing you see is grain-free bread. All of it – absolutely amazing. I could have licked the plate. It’s a little pricey – this dish was $10 and it was not that big. We ended up getting a paleo dessert, too (chocolate chia pudding) but the picture didn’t come out well. It looked like ass so you will just have to trust me that it tasted delicious.

SO – that’s what I have been eating lately. I actually have some more macro meals but I will save them for another time. I have to get to work!

Couple other things I wanted to mention:

I have accidentally been pescetarian this month except for 1 meal (a pasta dish this weekend).
I have had diet soda only 2 times this month. (!) One day that I had it, later on I found myself at the cafe downstairs buying a cookie – the only time I was craving sugar in a few weeks. Coincidence? I don’t think so. I think diet soda makes you crave sweets.
Bobby and I are planning on doing vegetarian April! (Vegetarian = pescetarian for us.)
Elise @ Hungry Hungry Hippie had a macrobiotic-inspired meal the other day. MMM kale.
Heather made those yummy cookies I linked to last week.

Have you had any delicious macrobiotic meals lately? Are you a diet soda person? Do you eat meat and/or fish, or are you vegetarian or vegan?

15 March, 2013

Friday Five: My Favorite Macrobiotic Blogs

I haven’t done a Friday Five in a while, but it’s definitely time for one.

When I embarked on Macrobiotic March, one of the first things I did was look for new macrobiotic blogs. Here are my current (new) favorites.

Maggie’s Favorite Macrobiotic Blogs

1. Macrobiotic Magic in the Kitchen. This is mostly a recipe blog, and with recipes like Winter Stew and Pumpkin with a Maple Miso Sauce, who could resist? Well – who can resist pumpkin ever? (Certainly not me.)

2. No Dairy No Sugar. This is a simple, pretty blog with lots of ideas for macrobiotic meals. I want to try her Quinoa Amaranth Veggie Mix.

3. She Cooks Macro. This blog is beautiful and truly professional. I wish I had found it in time to join the Chewathon! (I have been neglecting my chewing, again.)

4. The MacroChef. This blog is run by a natural foods chef who is (I think) based in the Bay Area (my old home). I really want to try his Gingery Peanut Butter Cookies or his Coleslaw Makeover.

5. Food Everyday, Everyday Food! This blog has so many beautiful pictures of inspiring macrobiotic meals. Check out these 4 days of macrobiotic meals. The dishes are so vibrant!

5 Macrobiotic Blog Runners Up (because there were too many to pick just 5)

1. The Macro Veg. This is a runner up because it’s infrequently updated. But I have to post it because there is a recipe for Kabocha Stuffed Stew.

2. Macro Mom. Another infrequently updated blog, but really nice. I want to try the Seaweed Nut Crunch.

3. The Blissful Chef. This blog is actually really lovely, but the recipes are way more complicated than I like to do. She has a lot of really delicious looking (but seemingly kind of labor intensive) foods like Orange and Rose Blossom Cake. (She’s also not strictly macro – there is stevia in some recipes – more of a macro-leaning vegan.)

4. Snackrobiotic. I am such a snacker, how can I leave this one out! I want to try the Carrot Daikon Drink.

5. The Dainty Pig. Last but certainly not least, Jess is a Macro March participant! Check out her Macro Mondays. The only reason she is not in my top five is because she is not a new find 😉

In other news, did everyone hear that Google Reader will close on July 1, 2013? Reading that announcement (via Hacker News, my favorite news source) must have been the saddest thing I read in… well, in at least the last few days. 😉 I have no idea what RSS reader I’m going to switch to. I wake up to Google Reader, I read it when I’m on lunch/break at work, I check in again at night – and it’s the absolute best way to organize my feeds that I have found so far. I never dreamed it would shut down. Even if I do find a good substitute, that just means yet another system to have to log into. I like keeping everything in Google to minimize the number of usernames and passwords I have to remember. Sigh.

Any feed reader suggestions?

What are your favorite macrobiotic blogs?

11 March, 201324 November, 2014

{Macrobiotic March Recipe} Sauteed Sesame Fern Bracken / Fiddlehead Ferns

A few weeks ago when my in-laws were visiting we ended up out in Flushing. Flushing (a town in the eastern part of Queens) has a huge Korean and Chinese population. We stopped into H-Mart (a Korean grocery store) just before heading back to the city and I ended up with quite a large haul. Queens prices < Manhattan prices.

One thing I picked up (it was on sale and I was curious) was ‘fern bracken’.

When I got home I discovered that ‘fern bracken’ is actually just another term for fiddlehead ferns. Fiddleheads always pop up at the farmers’ market around April. It’s good to know I can get them year round at H-Mart if I need to. If you’re familiar with Korean food, these bracken ferns / fiddleheads show up in Bi Bim Bap as well – they are the brown pieces of veggie.

Fiddleheads are high in antioxidants, and are a source of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. As most vegetables, they are high in fiber. They also happen to have vitamin A, niacin, vitamin C, riboflavin, phosphorus, and even iron.

Sauteed Sesame Fiddlehead Ferns (Bracken Ferns) – Macrobiotic Recipe*

Method (keep reading for recipe ingredients and instructions…)

We had our ferns with breakfast. I opted for eggs, ferns, takuan (Japanese pickle), and avocado. I believe Bobby had the same but with white rice, too.

(Eggs technically not macrobiotic; don’t think the avocado is either – but it sure was tasty!)

*Inspired by {this recipe}.

Sauteed Sesame Fern Bracken / Fiddlehead Ferns

Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 3-4
Difficulty: easy
Recipe type: appetizer, side

Ingredients:

1 bag of boiled bracken fern (750 grams or 1.65 pounds). I know they sell bracken fern in a dried form, but I have not tried this recipe with the dried fiddleheads.
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon salt (or more, to taste)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (or more, to taste)
1 tablespoon of ground black sesame (toasted pre-grinding). Feel free to substitute regular sesame seeds, and the grinding is optional.

Directions:

Drain the bracken ferns and thoroughly wash them.
Chop the fern pieces into 1-2 inch pieces. Add the garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, and pepper. Mix well and make sure all the pieces are coated in the sauce.
Heat a wok on high heat. You do not need to add any oil, since there is oil in the ferns already. Saute on high heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently (I like to use chopsticks for stirring).
Add about 3-4 tablespoons of water to the cooking ferns, turn the heat down to medium, mix again, and cover the wok. Let the ferns cook for 10 more minutes to get nice and tender.
At the end, there may be a little bit of water left – you can either continue cooking to let it boil off (uncovered again, and high heat), you can leave it in, or you can dump it out. It’s ok for this dish to have a little bit of water.
Turn off the heat under the ferns. Grind your black sesame.
Serve the fiddlehead / bracken ferns topped with sesame; mix before serving.

Have you had fiddlehead ferns? What’s your favorite way to prepare them?

6 March, 2013

{Macrobiotic March} CHEWING!

First, thanks so much for all the enthusiasm about Macrobiotic March! I am just as excited to learn as you guys are. This is a great excuse for me to really dive into the theory of macrobiotics and learn as much as I can.

Here are 2 Macrobiotic March posts from participants so far:

Top 3 Macrobiotic Ingredients (Macro Mondays @ The Dainty Pig). I’ll tell you one of them because I love it so much – seaweed.
Grains & Veggies (@ Heather Eats Almond Butter). Heather and I share a love of butter that would prevent either of us from going full on macrobiotic.

If you post about Macro March and I miss it please let me know.

Onto today’s topic… It is an important one…

(I hope he chews that before swallowing!)

Macrobiotic CHEWING

When I first started talking about macrobiotics a few years ago, everyone I mentioned it to started asking me about chewing. I had no idea what they were talking about. Somehow I’d missed the main macrobiotic principle – you have to chew everything really really thoroughly. Like, 100 bites per mouthful thoroughly.

No, I’m not exaggerating. And yes, when I found out, I was shocked.

Jessica Porter recommends between 50-100 times per mouthful.
This article also says a minimum of 50 times, with 100 being the ideal.
Souen recommends chewing at least 30 times per mouthful.
The Kushi Institute recommends chewing at least 50 times per mouthful.
Mama Tomiko says to chew 100 times per mouthful.

Benefits of Chewing Your Food Thoroughly

Savor, taste, and enjoy the food you have been so lucky to receive.
Digestion starts in the mouth. The better you chew, the better your digestion will be. Suffer from bloating or cramps after eating? Maybe you are wolfing your food. I know I am a quick eater and probably get only 5-10 chews per mouthful – no wonder I have a tummyache all the time.
Maximize the nutrition you get out of your food. Again, because digestion begins in the mouth (grinding the food but also the enzymes in saliva start to break down starches), the more you can do with chewing, the more easily your body will get nutrients out of foods (especially grains).
Reduce digestive stress by chewing more. Again… the more digestion you can do in the mouth, the less work your stomach and intestines have to do. Chew chew chew (x50-100).
If you tend to overeat, you may start eating more moderately if you chew more. It will get too annoying to chew 100 times per mouthful and instead of continuing to eat, you might get bored when you are full and just put the fork (or chopsticks) down.
Chewing is the most important part of digestion for grains. (Meats require stomach acid to be fully digested, though meats are discouraged on a macrobiotic diet.) To get all the nutrients you can out of grains you have to chew them well.
Chewing activates your brain – it can improve alertness and activates at least 8 areas of the brain.
You’ll eat more slowly. It’s polite.
Chewing activates your salivary glands, and saliva actually does more than just help start digestion. Saliva can remineralize teeth and it keeps your mouth healthy.
Chewing relaxes the muscle at the bottom of your stomach (the pylorus) and helps food move as it should through your digestive system. For more on how chewing impacts the digestive system, I suggest reading this article.
Thorough chewing can promote and cultivate better self-awareness and a sense of calm. Chewing is like doing yoga in your mouth.

(Keep those teeth healthy – chew more! More saliva –> healthier teeth.)

How to Start Chewing More & Chewing Better

Begin by chewing at least 15 times per mouthful. Do this for 3-4 days.
Increase to 20-25 times per mouthful. Again, do this for 3-4 days.
Slowly keep increasing every 3-4 days by 5-10 chews per mouthful. Eventually you’ll get to 50. For what it’s worth, I think 50 chews per mouthful is plenty.
Soon you will be a macrobiotic chewing champ!

For good health, how you eat is just as important (or more important) than what you eat.

In Japanese, the word for chew is kamu (to bite, to chew): かむ. The noun form of kamu is kami (かみ), which also means spirit, or god. In Shinto buddhism, the deities (spirits) are called kami. (Kami can also mean ‘above’, ‘hair’, and ‘paper’.) We can see the word kami in other Japanese words and phrases – kamikaze (divine+wind, but later meaning the suicide pilots). More on the etymology of kami {HERE}.

How many times do you chew each mouthful of food? Are you going to try to chew more thoroughly? Do you have any chewing tips?

Like I said above, I am a 5-10 chew person (normally). However, this month I’ve been trying to chew more. It’s so hard to remember, and it’s hard for me to get anything above 30. There’s just nothing left by the time I get to 30 chews.

‘Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Love more, and all good things will be yours.‘ –Swedish proverb.

‘Nature will castigate those who don’t masticate.‘ –Horace ‘The Great Masticator’ Fletcher (1849-1919)

26 February, 2013

March: Month of Macrobiotics

Hello and happy Tuesday! Thanks for the responses to my French press exposé. I still haven’t decided which machine to get but in the meantime I’m filtering my French pressed coffee. Not the most elegant solution (I’m using paper towels), but it works. No more gunk at the bottom of my mug; I’m hoping that means some of that cafestol is staying out of my mug too.

Onto the topic of today’s post – macrobiotics. Long-time readers may know that I am a huge macrobiotics fan. Give me a plate of simple, traditional Japanese food and I am a happy girl. One of my favorite meals is a simple macro plate (a perfectly balanced mix of macrobiotic foods).

(One of my favorite macro plates, from Ozu on the upper west side)

What is macrobiotics exactly? Macrobiotics is not just a diet – it’s a lifestyle. The etymology of the word, from etymonline, is:

macrobiotic (adj.)
also macro-biotic, “inclined to prolong life,” 1797, from Greek makrobiotikos “long-lived,” from makros “long” (see macro-) + bios “life” (see bio-). The specific reference to a Zen Buddhist dietary system dates from 1936.

I don’t want to get into too much detail *yet*, because it’s not March yet, and March is going to be a month of macrobiotic-inspired posts and macrobiotic-inspired living. But I wanted to alert you guys that I am going to focus on macrobiotics next month, and if you have any questions about the lifestyle or diet or whatever, please leave them in the comments!

I came across macrobiotics for the first time about three years ago through Meg Wolff, a (two time!) cancer survivor who has by now written several books on macrobiotics. I am certainly not strictly macrobiotic but I love the food and I love the idea of the lifestyle. I would love to be more macrobiotic. 🙂

Anyway, I am going to try to focus on ADDING macrobiotic principles to my life in March. I’m not trying to change or remove anything I currently do, but I’m going to add good things.

(OK I lied – I AM going to try to remove diet soda – I slip up and have it at least 1-2 times a week. It’s totally NOT macrobiotic. Blah!)

So –

What are your macrobiotics questions?

What do you know about macrobiotics? What are the stereotypes you’ve heard?

Have you ever tried a macrobiotic diet or lifestyle?

Care to join me in Macrobiotic March?

If you want to join me, I’ll make a Macrobiotic March tab and put a list of participants. Just let me know! Contribute anything you want.