Black rice... very nice!

blackrice_370x278

This past weekend, I tried black rice for the first time. I had never heard of, seen, or tasted black rice before. It tasted similar to brown rice, kind of nutty in taste and sticky in texture, but was a little chewier.  When it's cooked, black rice turns into a DEEP purple. Now, we know that brown rice has more nutritional value than white rice, but how does black rice compare? My curiosity got to me and I have done a little research on black rice and its nutritional value:

Benefits of black rice:

• has anti inflammatory properties
• has similar nutrient levels to brown rice
• has high amounts of antioxidants
• has high fiber and iron
• is packed with anthocyanins (Anthocyanins are phytochemicals that are found in foods with a deep purple color like blue berries. These phytochemicals are said to fight chronic disease such as cancer and heart disease.)
• has the same superfood properties as blueberries, but it is much cheaper
• has more fiber and less sugar than blueberries
• has the highest amount of protein when compared to white and brown rice and double the fiber of brown rice
• A 100g serving of black rice has 8.5g of protein, 3.5mg of iron and 4.9g of fiber 
• A 100g serving of brown rice has 3g of protein, 2mg of iron and 2g of fiber

NOTE: Different resources listed different amounts for protein iron and fiber for 100g of the black and brown rice. I took the average.

Have you ever tried black rice? What do you think? I am personally going to try to cook black rice more often!

homemade ice cream... no ice cream maker needed!

photo (6)

Who loves ICE CREAM?! With a little experimentation and fun I created homemade ice cream. Excuse the image quality, I was shaking with happiness when I realized what I had just made.

Ingredients:

* The following measurements are approximate. This is the first time I made this ice cream,  and I didn't measure anything. So feel free to switch around the measurements, and do what is best for you. My camera man did not think the ice cream was sweet enough but I thought it was fine. The first couple of bites might have tasted a little like play-dough, but whatever.. it was homemade and I was happy!

• 1/4 C almond milk (I bet you could use regular milk as well)
• 1 tbs vanilla extract
• 2 tbs sugar ( I did not use any, but if you like it a little sweet I would add some)
• 3 zip lock bags (freezer kind if possible)
• ice cubes
• salt (lowers the freezing point of the ice cubes)

Directions:

• Mix the almond milk, vanilla extract and sugar in zip lock bag. I would put it in a thick freezer kind, just so no leaks occur, but no big deal if you do not have them. Squeeze all the air out of the bag and seal.
• Place your zip lock bag in another zip lock bag. Make sure all air is squeezed out of both bags! Seal it up.
• Place both bags in ANOTHER zip lock bag, but to this one add plenty of ice and salt, so that it surrounds the other bag filled with the almond milk mixture. Seal.

photo (3)

Grab a towel to wrap around the zip lock bags and begin to shake, does NOT have to be furious. Just get the mixture moving a little. Do this for about 5 minutes. Then place in freezer for about 5 minutes, then pull out and shake for another 5 minutes. This is what I did and then end product was awesome. I am not sure if it is necessary to put back in the freezer, but I was tired of mixing it around and thought putting it in the freezer would be the best place while I rested before I started my mixing again.

Check the mixture and continue to move it around until you see it becoming more solid... it is such an exciting feeling when you realized you have made ice cream!!!

photo (4)

photo (5)

When your mixture is more or less solid(ish) take it out of the two bags, and then cut a little corner off of the last bag containing your ice cream . Squeeze contents out... and there you have it :)

root vegetables galore

ROOTS!

My mom once made this baked root vegetable dish, and it was quite awesome. Today we spent the morning together and decided to go to Russo's (an amazing produce place in Watertown, MA) and get everything we needed to make the "Root Vegetable Galore"!

photo (5)

Ingredients: (pictured from left to right)

• parsnips (eh it was OK)
• sweet potato
• jicama (never baked it, but SO good!!)
• carrots
• turnips
• celery root
• beets
• fingerling potatoes
• kohlrabi (forgot to get in "root vegetable shot", but separate image  is down below)
• garlic
• onion
• EVOO
• salt and pepper
• rosemary (optional)

photo (4)

directions:

• pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
• peel and wash vegetables (no need to peel fingerling potatoes)
• cut vegetables into cubes ( not too small, cut the beets a little smaller as they usually take longer to cook)
• cut onions into small slivers
• peel garlic and keep whole
• cover everything with  EVOO,  add salt and pepper to taste. Mix around to make sure all is coated *when it comes to the beets, mix them in a separate container, then add to the mixture. Beets will discolor everything!
• place vegetables, onions and garlic on a large baking pan and spread out

photo

• bake at 400 degrees for about an hour. Mix around vegetables every 25 minutes. Each oven cooks differently, so use your own digression. Vegetables should be tender and delicious!  ENJOY!

Below we have kohlrabi. I have never cooked with this vegetable before, but it is great!

photo (2)

photo (1)

Make sure you take off the stems and peel before you cut it.

If you make this dish let me know how it goes and if you made any changes! XO

Clean Eating Recipe Ideas

I was so impressed by the overwhelming response for the 'TWO day challenge". For the past week, I have been excited to see what awesome breakfast, lunch, and dinner ideas would arrive in my inbox!  You have all sent me your menus for the two day challenge and now I will present to you my favorite breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu ideas! Breakfast:

• green smoothie (one banana, one apple, 2cups kale, 2 cups of water)
• "Quinoa porridge"- 1 cup cooked quinoa - 1/2 cup canned pineapples with juice (ingredients were only "pineapples, pineapple juice"- 1/2 c. blueberries - 1/4 c. skim/low fat milk

Snacks:

• "After work I had a meeting that provided cookies and cheese with crackers, but luckily I brought a pear and some almonds as an alternative."
•  1 oz. almonds, handful raisins
• almond butter and banana
• "4 oz unsweetened applesauce w/ cinnamon, 4 raw almonds (all organic)"

Lunch:

• "...lunch consisted of 1 hard boiled egg, hummus with carrots and green peppers. I was craving something sweet (like chocolate) but was prepared and grabbed a Clementine as an alternative."
• "Salad (Lettuce, Baby Spinach, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, White mushrooms, Plain hummus, Jalapenos, Shredded carrots, Kidney beans, Flax seeds, and a sprinkle of feta cheese, oops! – did it before thinking about it and stopped myself!). Dressed with olive oil & balsamic vinegar."
• "Quinoa with olive bits & tomato, Kale with sauteed onions"
• " Turkey Chili (homemade!) - 1 tsp EVOO, ground turkey, garlic, red beans, onions, peppers, cumin, chili powder, paprika, tomatoes, chicken broth; grapes for dessert"
• lentil soup- water, lentils, zucchini, carrots, celery, cumin, salt, peper, turmeric
• Salad with black beans and garbanzo beans and fresh salsa

Dinner:

• "...white bean and escarole soup. Ingredients-carrots, celery, onion, garlic, cannellini beans, chicken stock, bay leave, grated nutmeg, salt/pepper, escarole, olive oil"
•  "...small steamed sweet potato, two home made turkey burgers, bibb lettuce, tomato, 1/2 avocado"
• "Organic Whole Grain Quinoa Collard Greens, Mustard Greens, and Spinach lightly sauteed in extra virgin olive oil, with red pepper flakes, garlic, and some black pepper and a pinch of salt to taste 2 sunny side up eggs in the leftover oil from the greens"

Dessert:

• "...baked apple w. cinn/nutmeg and drizzled organic yacon syrup"

food blogs to check out:

http://www.101cookbooks.com/index.html

http://mynewroots.blogspot.com/http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/

(No sugar!) Cookie Dough Dip

Via chocolate covered Katie:

 It’s gluten-free, too.

Inspired by my blog’s most-popular recipe.

• 1 1/2 cups chickpeas (1 can, drained) (250g)
• heaping 1/8 tsp salt
• tiny bit over 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1 T plus 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup nut butter (You can get away with using only 3 T. If you use peanut butter, some people say it has a slight “pb cookie dough” taste, so you can sub oil if you don’t want that.)
• 1 and 1/4 cup pitted dates (I used SunMaid, from a regular grocery store)
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips (see link below, for sugar-free option)
• 2 T oats (You can omit)
• nondairy milk as needed (depending on the consistency you want. I used a few T.)

REVISED two day challenge

I have received a lot of emails asking questions on what you can or can not eat during the two day challenge. My original two day challenge was too vague so I have decided to revise the rules. Through the many emails I can tell that people are up and ready for this challenge, this gets me excited! RULES:

Challenge must be two consecutive days, and the new end date will be this Friday night (January 6th).

All produce is OK.

All fresh meat, polutry, and sea food is ok.

Hormone FREE eggs are OK.

IF your food comes in a package this is what you are to do:

1. READ the label.

2. Can you draw a picture of everything that is in the ingredients? If there is even ONE thing in the list that you cannot picture in your head, that food is NOT OK.

To test my new rules I looked through my own cabinet and started reading labels. I was surpised at some of the things I found. My WHOLE WHEAT Tuscan pane bread would NOT be ok to eat. I read the ingredient "Vital wheat Gluten". Because I did not know what Vital Wheat gluten was I looked it up and read:

"Vital wheat gluten is like a super-powered flour that is all gluten and very little starch. It's not technically flour itself, but it's made from wheat flour that has been hydrated to activate the gluten and then processed to remove everything but that gluten. It's then dried and ground back into a powder."

I also read the ingredients in my 'ORGANIX 42% CACAO' and this was NOT OK! I read the ingredient "soy lecithin"  and had no idea what it was! So I looked it up and learned that soy lecithin is a by product of soybean processing. I read THIS article and think you should to! It was really helpful.

My Old Fashioned oats are OK

My Trader Joes hummus is OK

My Greek Yogurt NOT OK

My multi grain pita chips NOT OK

Just because some of my foods are OK or NOT OK, does not mean that your particular food will follow suit. Everything is made differently. That is why I want you to READ your labels and ask yourself, can I really visualize everything there.  My advice to you is when choosing foods think, "What is the most orginal state this food comes in?" For example : a tomatoe VS ketchup. Keep it simple. Keep it real! Whole vegetables and fruits. If you have more questions please post them below or email me. GOOD LUCK. Start planning.

Breakfast can be tricky since many of us just grab for the cereal, or bars. Here are some breakfast ideas:

• diced avocado, cucumbers, tomato, EVOO, squeeze of lemon
• old fashioned/steel cut oats... READ YOUR LABEL
• eggs with sweet potato
• Fruit and nuts
• banana or apple and scoop of ALL natural almond butter/peanut butter (read the label; peanuts or almonds should be the only thing listed)

The reason for this challenge is to encourage you to start actively reading labels and for you to be aware of what you are putting in your body.

SIDE NOTE: you can have milk. It is processed but it is pasteurized to kill bacteria

DISCLAIMER: I am not a dietitian or a nutritionist. This contest is based on my own thoughts of a fun and creative way to bring awareness to reading food labels.