Fresh Basil Means Pesto Tonight!

There's somthing about the smell of fresh basil that always gets me thinking of pesto. Every summer I have at least three huge pots of basil growing on the balcony. During the winter months I'm reduced to purchasing "fresh" basil in the grocery store. This is a very expensive way to get basil so when I discovered that a local Asian market sold basil at "a dollar a bag" I now make bi-weekly purchases.

The best pesto is home-made pesto. I've tried (several times) the pre-made stuff from the grocery store and I've never liked it—I find that there's a "chemical" taste to it; something not natural.

Here's a simple recipe that I use. I always try to have some in my fridge. It's great for adding to sauces, sandwiches (with goat cheese and roasted peppers) or to have straight on pasta.

Pesto Sauce
2 cups fresh basil (packed)
1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese (vegetarian variety)
1 cup of virgin olive oil
2-3 cloves of garlic (slightly chopped)
3 tbsp pine nuts

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until well mixed.
Store in the fridge, covered.

Edamame—Great for Snacking

A co-worker turned me on to Edamame. If you've never heard of it you are not alone.


Boiled Edamame




















Edamame is the japanese term for immature "soybeans" that are still in the pod. You purchase the pods (fresh or frozen) and boil them in slightly salted water. Drain, and let cool. Pop the pods open and enjoy the beans inside.

454 gram bag of frozen edamame


The only place I've been able to find edamame is frozen, in an Asian shop. I usually boil up half the bag and place the pods in a bowl for snacking. They are a great source of protein!

Nutritional Information for 1 cup of pods (155g)
  189 Calories
  8g Fat
  17g Protein
  16g Carbohydrate
  8g Dietary Fiber
  0mg Cholesterol
  9mg Sodium
Edamame is also a good source of Calcium (10%), Vitamin C (16%) and Iron (20%)

Dragon fruit

Dragon fruit

I've noticed that dragon fruits are starting to pop up in local supermarkets. They are very colorful and very beautiful looking fruits. I can't image what they would look like growing in the wild, but I can understand how they got their name.

Their colorful exterior gives promise of an exotic taste experience. Unfortunately, for me that experience fell very short. 

I wasn't to keen on the taste! I found it very...blah..boring. I expected tangyness or a sweetness, maybe even sour but there was nothing; an unfulfilling blandness that I had a hard time getting past.

One of the recommended serving methods was to blend it in a drink. I guess that is one way to give it some flavour! 

My usual rule of thumb is to try something at least 3 times. If I still don't like it after 3 attempts, I've earned the right to turn my nose at it. In this case, I couldn't bring myself even to finish the other half of the fruit.


Dragon Fruit "seedlings"



Instead of throwing the fruit out, I decided to try and plant the seeds. The seeds inside the fruit are similar in looks to black sesame seeds, maybe slightly smaller. I scooped out the flesh and seeds and stuffed spoonfuls of the stuff into the soil of a few pots I had sitting around in the garden shed.

It took a while to grow, but the resulting plant is very similar to cactus and looks great. The 1/2 of the left over fruit didn't go to waste!!

These plants are about 1-2 years old.

Sprouted Oatmeal Cereal

Here's another "raw food" recipe that I have used quite a few times. It's for another breakfast cereal made from oat groats.

 The first main problem I had was actually finding oat groats. 

Oat Groats




















Groats are essentially the hulled grains without much else done to them. It's easy to find rolled oats (oat groats flattened, pancake style), steel cut oats (the oats that Oprah is always talking about) but oats "aux naturelle"...no luck here. The closest I've come is toasted oat groats, which is not really what you want to use for raw food meals. No heat should be involved in the process...

Anyways, here's assuming you find them!


Sprouted Oatmeal
1 cup whole oat groats, soaked overnight in 2 cups of water then rinsed well before using
1/4 cup of agave syrup or pitted dates
1 tbp water
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup raisins
1/ 4 cup walnuts

Place the oat groats, syrup (or dates), water, and cinnamon in a food processor.
Process the mixture until it is well mixed;resembling cooked oatmeal. Stir in the raisins and walnuts.

Serves 2

Nutritional Breakdown Per Serving
   380 Calories
   10g Fat (22.7% calories from fat)
   15g Protein
   60g Carbohydrate
   9g Dietary Fiber
   0mg Cholesterol
   3mg Sodium

Flexitarian anyone?

In a past blog I wrote about some of the different "types" of vegetarian diets, flexitarian among them. I have to admit I was incredulous to think that someone would even bother to make the effort to eat vegetarian meals but then also meat. To me it has always been a clear cut decision—don't eat animals...period. I've had some time to mull over alternate views and I realise now that there are some really good reasons for eating meat sometimes.

Ease into it
It's a great way to ease yourself into vegetarianism—embrace "Meatless Mondays"

Convenience
Over at the "reluctant vegetarian" writer Emily talks about her decision to become a part-time vegetarian because her husband decided to becom veg and its easier to cook one veg meal (shared by two) than two separate veg and meat meals. Since this is exactly what I've been doing I can fully undestand the convenince aspect of this.

More compelling thoughts in Graham Hill's Ted talk on "Why I'm a weekday vegetarian". I'm not sure I agree with all his points, but I do believe that for those of you who can't see yourself giving up your steak or hamburger...weekday veg may be for you!