SASKATOON BERRY BASE

Ingredients:
3 cups Saskatoons
1/2 tsp Stevia – light liquid (Sunny Dew is best)
1/2 cup water

Directions:
1. Mix water and stevia together
2. Mix in berries
3. Place berry mixture in a baking dish

CRUMBLE TOPPING

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups rice flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 tsp. salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup rice syrup
1/2 tsp Stevia – light liquid (Sunny Dew is best)

Directions:
1. Mix dry ingredients together
2. Mix oil, stevia and honey and add to dry ingredients.
3. Mix thoroughly.
4. Sprinkle on top of fruit
5. Bake at 350º F. oven for approximately 40 minutes.

Oatmeal Nutrition:

Oats have lots of manganese, are a very good source of selenium, vitamin B1, dietary fiber, magnesium, protein & phosphorus.
1 bowl of oatmeal a day (3 grams of soluble oat fiber) typically lowers total cholesterol by 8-23%.

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Do you know the United Nations calculated the combined climate change emissions of animals bred for their meat and found it  was more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together?
 
In a recent article published in July 2010 by the Guardian.co.uk, leading journalist John Vidal reported how vegetarianism may help save the world by eating less meat.
 
Behind the majority of the joints of beef or chicken on our plates is a phenomenally wasteful, land and electricity hungry system of farming that devastates forests, pollutes oceans, rivers, seas and atmosphere.
 
We mostly breed four species (chickens, cows, lambs and pigs) which need vast amounts of water and food, emit methane as well as other greenhouse gases and produce mountains of physical waste.
 
During the past year, the United nations calculated the combined climate change emissions of animals bred for their meat were about 18% of the global total – more than cars, planes and all other kinds of transport put together.
 
A Bangladeshi family living off rice, beans, vegetables and fruit may live on an acre of land or less, while the average American, who consumes around 270 pounds of meat per year, needs 20 times that.
 
Academics have calculated that if the grain fed to animals in western countries were consumed directly by people rather than animals, we could feed at least 2 times as many people – and perhaps far more – as we do now.
 
Eating a steak or a chicken points to an extreme water consumption, that the animal has required to live and grow. Vegetarian author John Robbins calculates one pound of beef needs around 20,000 lbs of water.
 
Farming, which uses 70% of water available to humans, is already in direct competition for water with cities.
 
Industrial scale agriculture now dominates the western livestock and poultry industries, and a single farm can now generate as much waste as a city.
 
Farming animals generate manure and urine which is funnelled into massive waste lagoons sometimes holding as many as 40 m gallons. These cesspools often break, leak or overflow, polluting underground water supplies and rivers with nitrogen, phosphorus and nitrates.
 
A meat diet is normally considered twice as expensive as a vegetarian one. According to the Vegetarian Society, meat eaters get increased probabilities of obesity, cancer, heart diseases and other illnesses as well as a hole in the pocket.
 
So what now? How can we start contribute save our world?
 
Here a quick and simple recipe to find a good meat substitute:

Tofu and Green Onion Veggie Burger
 
This healthy tofu based veggie burger receive an extra nutritional boost from wheat germ. This recipe is both vegetarian and vegan.
 
Ingredients:
 
 * 1/2 container firm or extra firm tofu, mashed
 * 1 onion, diced
 * 3 green onions, diced
 * 2 tbs wheat germ
 * 2 tbsp flour
 * 2 tbs garlic powder
 * 2 tbls soy sauce
 * dash pepper
 * oil for frying
 
Preparation:
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Form into patties.
Fry patties in oil in a large skillet until brown and crisp, about 10 minutes.
 
Now it's all to you…
 
About the Author – Martha Volz writes for the  http://www.vegetariansupplements.org  her personal passion blog related to vegetarian healthy eating ideas.

P.S.  from Randy -  Martha contacted Real Food For Life after reading our Nice Cow, Baaad Cow article . You can see it contains many of the same ideas.  I'd like to hope that great minds think alike!

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Greens are full of vitamins A, K, D, and E which are fat soluble. To absorb these vitamins make sure to add a teaspoon of dietary fat, such as butter, olive or coconut oil, nuts, cheese or salad dressing. This will make sure your body absorbs all of the vitamins in the greens. Vitamin K helps calcium and phosphorus bind onto the bone protein matrix.

  
 MIXED SUMMER GREEN SALAD  

Ingredients:
1 handful, Spinach
1 handful, Arugula
½ head, Red Leaf Lettuce
½  head, Green Leafy Lettuce
1 medium bunch of Parsley
3 Celery pieces, chopped
1 medium Cucumber, sliced in rounds
¼ cup pine nuts

Directions:
1.  Mix greens together in a bowl.
2. Top with celery, cucumber and pine nuts.
3. Serve with Mint salad dressing.

TIP:  If you are planning on this lasting for the next day, do not mix the cucumber in.  Put it in a bowl on the side and add to each serving of salad.  A mix of the basic ingredients without the cucumber will last 3 days in the fridge.

 Here is a salad dressing with greens already in it!  This is a refreshing tasty dressing with a little mint flavour.

LEMON-MINT SALAD DRESSING

Ingredients:
1 ¼ cups olive oil
¼ cup lemon juice
2 tbsp. fresh mint (or 2 tsp. dried)
Salt to taste
Few drops of stevia

Directions:
1.  Blend all ingredients.
2.  Add salt to taste and stevia to taste and re-blend.

Copyright © Diana Herrington  You are welcome to share this article with anyone who you think may benefit from this information as long as you give credit to Real Food for Life by including the link to the home page www.RealFoodforLife.com  or the direct link to this post.

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Cooking Beans & Lentils

Ingredients:
Dried beans or lentils
Water

Directions:
  1.  Wash beans in cold water and soak overnight in three times the volume of water.
 2.  Next day, pour off the water.
 3.  Place beans in a pot and cover with water 1 inch above the level of the beans.
 4.  Bring to a boil.
 5.  Let simmer with lid ajar.
 6.  Skim off the foam.
 7.  Add more water if necessary, as the beans should always be covered with water while cooking.
 8.  Cooking time will vary according to the type, size, and age of the bean.
 9.  Most beans will need approximately 2 hours cooking time.
10.  Beans should be soft.  This is the stage that you can salt and other seasonings.  Do not add salt while cooking as above.

Adzuki Vegetable Bean Stew

Ingredients:
1 onion, finely chopped
3 sticks of celery, sliced
1 zucchini, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
2 – 5 garlic cloves, minced
1- 2 inches of fresh ginger, chopped
1 1/2 cups adzuki beans 
3 pieces of Wakame Seaweed, rinsed and broken into pieces
2 – 6 tbsp. Tamari
Few drops of stevia (optional)

Directions:
1.    Cook adzuki beans for 1 – 2 hours (time is dependant on the age of the beans) according to recipe titled ‘How to COOK BEANS’ above.
2.    When beans are soft, add Wakame and cook for another few minutes.
3.    Then add onions, celery, zucchini, carrots, ginger and garlic.
4.    Simmer for ½ hour or till vegetables are tender.
5.    Add Tamari to taste and a few drops of stevia.
6.    Serve with a whole grain. 

Check out the Nutrition Facts on a Serving Size 1/4 cup (48g) of Adzuki beans!

Calories 160                  Protein 11g
Total Fat 0.5g               Potassium 600mg
Dietary Fiber 6g            Sugars 0g
Total Carbohydrate 29g

For Vegan Chili recipe:  http://realfoodforlife.com/veganchili/

Copyright © Diana Herrington  You are welcome to share this article with anyone who you think may benefit from this information as long as you give credit to Real Food for Life by including the link to the home page www.RealFoodforLife.com  or the direct link to this post.

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Lentil soup has all the benefits of lentils (see article) plus much more.  And by the way, it tastes great.

Ingredients:
1 large Onion, chopped
3-6 garlic cloves, chopped
2 pieces celery, chopped
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 cup green whole lentils, cooked with water cooked in.
1 piece Kombu*
2 carrots, diced
2 cups fresh (or tinned tomatoes but fresh is best)**
3-5 tsp salt
1 tsp each of thyme and basil
3 tsp marjoram
Fresh parsley

Directions:
1.    Sauté onion, garlic and celery in oil.
2.    Add remaining ingredients.
3.    Simmer for one hour, adding more water if necessary.
4.    Remove Kombu and chop; return to soup.
5.    Serve in bowls garnished sprigs of fresh parsley.

* Kombu makes beans more digestable but you could easily leave it out.

** Uusally I do not make this soup with tomatoes any more which makes it into a stew.

Copyright © Diana Herrington  You are welcome to share this article with anyone who you think may benefit from this information as long as you give credit to Real Food for Life by including the link to the home page www.RealFoodforLife.com  or the direct link to this post.

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NUT LOAF

Ingredients:
½ cup cashews
½ cup almonds
10 almonds for decoration
2/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
½ cup walnuts (chopped)
1 cup short grain brown rice
1/3 cup soya flour
4-6 tbsp soya sauce
1 onion
2 pieces of celery
¼ cup water
2 tsp basil
2 tsp. marjoram
2 tbsp flax meal

Directions:
1.    Lightly roast cashews, almonds, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds in the oven.
2.    Chop and sauté onion and celery.
3.    Chop all the nuts and seeds.
4.    Mix all the ingredients together and moistening with water.
5.    Pat mixture into a well-oiled bread tin.
6.    Decorate top with 10 almonds and line bottom of tin with grease proof paper.
7.    Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes.
Serve with mushroom or onion gravy.
   
Usually the problem with cranberry sauce is that it is full of sugar. Here is my version of the popular Cranberry Sauce without any sugar which is no easy thing when is comes to cranberries as they are so tart.

CRANBERRY SAUCE (sugar free)

Ingredients:
1 Package whole, organic cranberries (fresh, not frozen)
1 Organic Apple, cored and chopped
1 Cup Apple juice
1/4 Cup Organic, Brown Rice Syrup
1 tsp Stevia (Sunny Dew is best)
Pinch of salt

Directions:
1.    Put all ingredients into a sauce pan and let simmer for a few moments.
2.    Remove and let cool.
3.    Taste and add more Stevia or Brown Rice Syrup if you like it sweeter.

Nutritional Tips: Cranberries are high in vitamin C, and have antioxidant and antibacterial effects in the body.

In clinical studies cranberries have been shown to help maintain a healthy urinary tract and be especially beneficial to the eyes (significantly improve symptoms of cataracts, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy)

ASPARAGUS WITH LEMON JUICE

Ingredients:
1 pound asparagus, washed, trimmed, and cut diagonally into 2 inch lengths
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 lemon juiced
Dash of Spike seasoning

Directions:
1.    In a large frying pan over low heat, heat the olive oil
2.    Add Asparagus and cover and cook for 5 minutes.
3.    Add Spike and stir cook an additional 1 minute.
4.    Add lemon juice stir well and serve.

Nutritional Tips: Asparagus is full of nutrients!  It is a very good source of vitamin K, the B vitamin folate, vitamin C, vitamin A and also numerous B vitamins (B1, B2, B3 and B6) as well manganese, copper, phosphorus, potassium and protein.

 
Here is a simple dish to make and have in the oven at the same time as your nut loaf.
 BAKED SQUASH WITH VEGETABLES

Ingredients:
1 medium squash
2 sweet potatoes
2 medium carrots
2 parsnips
10 very small onions
3 – 7 cloves garlic, sliced (optional)
1 tsp rosemary
3 tbsp. vegetable oil or butter
Salt to taste

Directions:
1.    Cut carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes and squash into 2 inch pieces.
2.    Remove skins from onions and leave whole.
3.    Place all vegetables into a glass casserole dish.
4.    Mix in sliced garlic, rosemary, vegetable oil, and sprinkle with salt.
5.    Bake in 450º F. oven for 35 to 45 minutes till tender.
6.    Stir occasionally while baking.

Copyright © Diana Herrington  You are welcome to share this article with anyone who you think may benefit from this information as long as you give credit to Real Food for Life by including the link to the home page www.RealFoodforLife.com  or the direct link to this post.

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I've created more new dishes from my kitchen in the last few days than in the last few years.  I'm the 'test cooker' for Diana's new recipe book filled with Powerfoods.  That means I get an advance copy and see if I can easily follow all the directions and come up with great tasting meals.

The key words here are easy and practical. I've done my own cooking for a long time but I don't tend to use cookbooks because they are so fussy and particular. I find that I can go to all kinds of work getting the ingredients for just a single recipe and not use it a lot, therefore wasting the ingredients and my time. Because of this, I end up eating a limited set of meals I know I can make well and fast.  It HAS to be simple, easy and useful.

It's great therefore to learn new possibilities and master new skills – and that is what this book was intended to do.  It gives a new person starting into a healthy way of eating the basic knowledge and skills to get on a healthy diet. One that was easy to prepare. 

Diana has carefully planned out every possible meal for more than two weeks.  It includes a shopping list of easily available food items that will be used several times thought the program, special getting ready sessions that allow a person to prepare several aspects of the weekly routine ahead of time,  and then the actual recipes themselves with plenty of nutritional and cooking tips included.

The reason I like this book and think it would be great for others is:

• Gives a new person an easy simple start to eating and cooking healthfully – so they don't get discouraged or overcome.

• Shopping lists filled with Powerfoods can be bought almost exclusively at the local grocery store so that a person is not spending a lot of time buying unknown (read weird) stuff that they are not sure of.

• Many of the meals are simple meals that a person has already experienced or heard about. They are included because they are already in a healthy category or they have been slightly adjusted to make them more healthy

• Carefully planned out the meals for maximum efficiency have been created by Diana. For example she plans you to make extra rice for your evening meal because she has a menu that uses that rice for the next day's salad or a dessert. This kind of efficiently saves both TIME and MONEY.

• Book is filled with nutrition tips and preparation tips.

• The meals taste great. Do I need to say more?

• Once a person has mastered these meals – there will be more advanced planners to keep it all interesting and more refining in terms of balancing the body.

Using this cookbook has even made my daughter more polite!  My just-past-teenage daughter Asha usually kind of ignores or avoids my cooking whenever she can.

Just last night for example I had asked her if she wanted to eat with me but she said she was in too much of a hurry and was going to eat with her friends.  As soon as she tasted the peanut sauce  I had just prepared from the book though, suddenly she had lots of time to hang around the stove and dip steamed vegetables into the sauce with her fingers … and eat up a large portion of my meal!  This kind of thing has happened several times since I started on the book. I'm sure she was just being polite. The only other explanation would be that these meals actually TASTE better than my own regular fantastic meals …..but that is impossible of course. Yes it's most certain that her personality has changed.  It's amazing

The only problem with being the 'test cooker'  is that I am no longer  the 'test taster' for these meals which I used to be.  Diana would cook the meals herself and I got to feast with the only requirement that I give her feedback.  That was one of the better jobs in my life!   Oh Well…..I look forward to the next book – the one with the more advanced recipes – with a little more gourmet quality integrated in – and more tasting!  I'm also looking forward to the rest of THIS book – since Diana only gave me the first week.

This nutrition/recipe book is not yet available but will be soon.   We will let you know.

Feel free to share this information with anyone who you feel may benefit from it.

P.S.  Those of you who know me (Randy) know that the picture is a joke.  I'm not that scary!

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OK, so maybe I went a little overboard with my 'Dandelion Madness', ….not with last week’s article – but with eating dandelions themselves!  It happened because I was out at the farm where the plants are so much bigger and there are SO many of them.  Instead of spending 5 minutes digging up a few young plants– I can go out with a knife and in 10 seconds gather a shopping cart of mature leaves.  After throwing a large bunch into the blender, and forgetting my article advise to just make the dandelions a small addition, I drank my supercharged mixture.

No I didn’t collapse, or even throw up. In fact I finished the whole thing.  Those last few mouthfuls were getting very very strong though. I normally clean out the last few drops from the blender (Did I mention I was thrifty?) but this time I was glad to wash it down the sink.

I wanted therefore, to EMPHASIZE the part about moderation and add a few other smoothie hints and facts.  They are as follows:

1.  Keep the taste agreeable. This is not just an obvious statement that only madmen (like myself) might ignore but touches on a safely concern that some hard core raw food enthusiasts take seriously (see Below).  If your body loses its attraction for a particular food that you have been eating a lot of,  just ease off.  You don’t know specifically what your body is telling you but it’s a good thing to follow anyway.  This is one of the main principles of regeneration – to keep in touch with your body.

2.  Apples are IN, Mangoes are OUT. This could be an entirely subjective preference but again there is some logic behind this choice.  I’ve seen many people demonstrate green smoothes with mangoes and sometime bemoaned the fact that its hard to find good mangoes in Canada.  Recently the mango season was ON in Edmonton so I got a chance to try out some really good ones but they just don’t work that well with greens in my opinion; Mangos seem just too sweet.

3.  Salty Smoothie Soup. Trish Holder doesn’t like any kind of fruit so she substitutes apples with raw ONIONS  and sometimes a clove of GARLIC.  Since this is the ingredients for vegetable soup she then adds a tablespoon of salty MISO plus celery.  She also makes sure her soup is warm enough by using quite warm water.  I can’t testify to the taste of this mixture because I can’t handle raw onions or garlic but Trish is one smart lady who has helped a lot of people with her knowledge of food. 4.  Add some Zing with Ginger. At Real Food for Life we have promoted the benefits of ginger many times.  Here’s a chance to add some zing to your smoothie and beef up your digestion at the same time. Even one tablespoon of raw ginger is plenty.

When are greens TOO much?

Leafy green vegetables contain along with their abundance of minerals the possibility of traces of organic substances called alkaloids.  There are many different kinds of plant alkaloids but the famous ones are nicotine, cocaine, morphine, and caffeine. As you might notice these compounds have STRONG effects on the body and because of this they tend to give this class of compounds a bad reputation. Used properly alkaloids can have good effects but most people would rather not take chances.  Different plants produce different kinds of alkaloids. Therefore if you are eating a LOT of greens (as in ONE TO TWO POUNDS A DAY  as some raw foodists do) you are recommended to ROTATE your greens so you don’t get too much of any particular alkaloid.  Those large tubs of spinach are just one pound so you only have to concern yourself with this if you are going through at least one of those a day …which would be 4-8 smoothies.   Rather than concern yourself with all these small risk factors you can easily stay safe JUST by noticing your bodies reaction,  and as we stated above, IF you start not wanting a particular food than back off.

Share YOUR favorite smoothie!

I'm sure you have your own unique ingredients with smoothies.  Feel free to share them below in the comment section.  Also, feel free to share this article with anyone you feel might enjoy it!

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Here's one great cooking tip and recipe – please share yours.

This is an important thing in my life.  When I want to eat I want to eat within minutes so no fussy about and waiting 45 minutes for something to cook. I am hungry and simply would like to eat and something healthy is important to me.

At Real Food for Life we know we want to eat a healthy meal but there are times when we just don't want to cook.  We just want to eat within the next few minutes. I would like to begin a discussion where we share our recipes and tips.

Here are some  guidelines.  Please share a tip or recipe that is:

1. Healthy (no heavily processed packaged food, not microwaved, no chemicals and is mostly whole food)

2. Tastes good.

3. Ready to eat with a few minutes because when I want to eat I want to eat now not wait even in 15 – 30 minutes.

I will start.

TIP: Clean All Fruits & Vegetables Before Storing

One of the things I do is clean all of my fruits & vegetables with fruit and vege rinse before I store them in the fridge, so when I want one of them quickly it is one less thing to do.

This may sound like a lot of work or being 'fussy' but really it saves you a lot of work in the end and it saves you time when you need it the most.  Just do the math. Instead of spending 5-10 minutes each meal pulling out small amounts of food and cleaning them you spend just 10 minutes ONCE a week!

RECIPE:  Here is one of my favourite quick, easy and nutritious sandwiches.

 For the simplest,  use tempeh or tofu from the health food store already marinated or one that you have already marinated. Brush both sides with sesame oil, then either sauté or grill on both sides till golden brown.

This then becomes the main ingredient for the sandwich, put on a slice of bread ( I use rice bread), spread some mustard if you like or some healthy mayo. On top of the put a few leaves of lettuce, slices of cucumber and/or tomato. Then just put the other slice of bread on top and a yummy healthy sandwich.

Scroll down for these Tofu recipes that are quick and easy to make:

• Tofu Stroganoff  
• Tofu with Vegetables and Almond Cream

Copyright © Diana Herrington You are welcome to share this article with anyone who you think may benefit from this information as long as you give credit to Real Food for Life by including the link to the home page www.RealFoodforLife.com or the direct link to the post Meals in Minutes

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