Recipe: Bean Bourguignon

I was reading Runner's World recently, and found a very good looking recipe in it.  Generally, I find their recipe's too look great, but be way too high in sugar for my preference.  It's funny - usually they have naturally sweet ingredients (like fruit), but then add more sugar, honey or maple syrup on top of that, and I never know why they do that.  Of course, by, "it's funny," I mean, "it's sad and unnecessary."

So, with a bit of skepticism, I read a recipe for making a classic, rich, savory dish into one a bit healthier.  Bouf Bourguignon is an old French classic for a rich, flavorful, slow-cooked treat. If you've seen the movie Julie & Julia, you may recognize the dish's name.  Runner's World replaced the beef with white beans, so as to be more health-conscious while still providing lots of protein. Oddly enough, they add in prosciutto for flavor, thus dashing any hopes of this being a vegetarian or vegan dish.  My version kept with the meat, but I have a couple of ways to move further away from carnivority (if that's a word, which it isn't).

So, here's the Runner's World recipe, as it appears on their site, save for one edit.  They left out re-adding the mushrooms, so I've written that in below (see the blue text). This comes from http://www.runnersworld.com/recipes/recipe-bean-bourguignon.

Ingredients

Photo courtesy of Runner's World

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 package (10 ounces) baby portabella mushrooms, quartered, or cut into sixths if large
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large onion, chopped
6 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, minced
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup flour
1 cup dry red wine, such as cabernet sauvignon, burgundy, or merlot
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
3 cans (15 ounces each) white beans, drained
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

Instructions
Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms. Cook for about 6 to 8 minutes, or until liquid evaporates and mushrooms start to brown. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl and set aside. Add remaining tablespoon of oil and onion to the pot. Cook onion, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes, or until translucent. Add prosciutto, garlic, thyme, and bay leaves. Add the cooked mushrooms back in. Cook for 2 minutes. Sprinkle in the flour and stir. Whisk in wine and broth. Stir in the beans. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes. Stir in the parsley and serve. Serves 6.

Nutrition Information
Calories Per Serving: 377
Carbs: 44 g
Fiber: 9 g
Protein: 22 g
Fat: 11 g

It's a very simple dish, actually, with the toughest part being, well, just about nothing. OK, if you use fresh thyme like I did, picking it from the stems is time-consuming.  It's basically about throwing things in a pot, sometimes taking some out before adding them back in - but you could even skip that, and just add the onions after the mushrooms cook.  I wouldn't, but it's probably not that big of a deal.

So, what did I do to alter this?  Well, first, I don't drink, so the wine had to go.  This allowed me to make this recipe while sticking to my Clean14 pledge of no alcohol (along with other things). I was trying to think of what to use instead, and my wife had a brilliant idea - seriously brilliant - use pomegranate juice. It has a similar flavor profile and tartness.  It is very sugary, though, which is my only concern. A serving of POM Wonderful has over 30 grams of sugar. You could also use tart cherry juice. I just looked at a concentrate version on Amazon, and it has 14 grams per serving, so that would work nicely, too.

The second thing I changed was to ditch the white flour. That has the nice effect of making this a gluten-free dish, while also replacing wasteful carbs with more productive carbs and protein.  You can go several ways here, but I chose a mix of almond and coconut flour. The coconut flour is closer to white flour in consistency, while the protein and carb profile of almond flour is really nice. I also think it gives a richness to dishes while not adding rich stuff.  I was also a little concerned with the coconut flour giving coconut flavor to the dish.  I can say this didn't happen at all given how flavorful the other ingredients are, and how little you're using (it's only a 1/4 cup of flour, so even all coconut flour should't do much).  As always, I'd recommend Bob's Red Mill for your flour needs.  They're a great company with great products and great values.

Third thing I changed was to use natural, black forest bacon.  Nothing wrong with prosciutto if you're ok with meat (and pork), but the really good stuff without junk preservatives can be very costly.  I added 20 strips of well-cooked bacon (I bought pre-cooked, but you can cook it yourself - I just didn't have the time) for about 1/4 the price of 6 ounces of prosciutto.  This gave a lot of great flavor to the dish.

To avoid pork, you could easily use turkey bacon (I actually intended to, but the Whole Foods I went to was out of it when I went).  To go vegan, you can use vegan bacon. It doesn't have the same flavor, but it has a good flavor, and I think would definitely do the job. If you don't want to do that, you could add probably a tablespoon of liquid smoke to get the same effect.  Lastly, if you want to avoid adding something like that, you could use shiitake mushrooms, which have a nice, woody, smokey flavor to them.  I'd do another 10 ounces (so doubling the amount of mushrooms), and make sure they're nicely cut up to release as much flavor as possible.  To keep it vegan, you could easily use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth (as RW points out), but you could even possibly use miso soup (Whole Food's 365 brand has a miso broth that has a very light flavor, and could help make up for the lack of wine by adding a bit of fermentation to the dish).  I haven't tried doing it with miso, but a gentle miso broth could work nicely here.

My only other change was to add way more thyme than they recommend, and to do so with fresh thyme.  I love the taste of thyme, and it can help to make up for the lost flavors from rendering beef, wine or prosciutto.

The whole thing, including picking the thyme from the stems, took about 40 minutes, with 30 of that being cooking.

So how did it taste?  Honestly, unreal.  The house smelled amazingly, too.  I got three good-sized servings out of it, but I'm not sharing them with anyone because I'm stingy and like it took much.  This would go really well over brown rice or quinoa (tip - cook them in chicken, veggie or miso broth for an even better taste), or on its own.  I put it over a little bit of chicken-stock-cooked brown rice.  It would also pair really nicely with some rutabaga chips.

Recipe: Kale Chips

Kale is perhaps the most talked-about, poster-child-food for healthy eating. Every serious and joke post I read about healthy eating makes some reference to kale. The thing is, it really is exceptionally healthy.  Wikipedia has a great post on kale and its nutritional value:

Kale is very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, and rich in calcium. Kale is a source of two carotenoids, lutein andzeaxanthin. Kale, as with broccoli and other brassicas, contains sulforaphane (particularly when chopped or minced), a chemical with potent anti-cancer properties. Boiling decreases the level of sulforaphane; however, steaming, microwaving, or stir fryingdoes not result in significant loss. Along with other brassica vegetables, kale is also a source of indole-3-carbinol, a chemical which boosts DNA repair in cells and appears to block the growth of cancer cells. Kale has been found to contain a group of resins known as bile acid sequestrants, which have been shown to lower cholesterol and decrease absorption of dietary fat. Steaming significantly increases these bile acid binding properties.

OK, so that's a lot to take in, but it's a very healthy vegetable.

A basic way to eat it is to steam, sauté or boil it, but my favorite way is to make kale chips. You can buy lots of different kale chips in flavors like parmesan, but I find the store-bought ones to be over-done in terms of flavoring, which typically means they're loaded with things you don't need to put in your body (ahem, clean14). You can make your own kale chips super easily, and make sure you don't get any of what you don't need.

FYI - if you would prefer this in video form, I did an episode of my podcast on kale chips, so check it out on YouTube or subscribe to the iTunes podcast.

First, you need to know a bit about the various types of kale. You can make chips with any of them, but I suggest lacinato kale, which is also called dinosaur kale. It has a flat leaf, unlike most other types of kale, which lends itself really well to making chips.


ingredients

• 1 bunch of lacinato kale (aka dinosaur kale)
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1-2 tbsp sea salt or himalayan (salt to your liking)
• Optional flavors - cayenne pepper, ginger, sesame, dill, cilantro, parmesan cheese, curry, etc - experiment with spices and flavors you like, but stay away from sauces - use the real spices behind the flavors

cooking for life

Step one is to make your oil and seasoning mixture so it has time to get well-flavored.  In a bowl, mix up your oil, crushed garlic and sea salt. If you want to experience with other flavors, go for it. My main guidance is to use the actual spices rather than a sauce. For example, if you want a hot, BBQ-style flavor, throw some garlic, cayenne and cumin into the oil - don't use BBQ sauce. The idea is to keep things light and flavorful, but also healthy.  Putting BBQ sauce on them would make them soggy, heavy and loaded with sugar. You won't have chips, but rather wet and soggy BBQ sugar kale. That doesn't sound very enticing to me, and certainly not keeping things healthy.

Step two is to separate the leaves and the central spine.  Kale has a spine in the middle which you can eat, but it isn't pleasant or easy, and it doesn't make for as good a chip experience, so you should separate it out. You can tear the leaves away, or use a paring knife to cut them free.

Wash and dry your leaves, really ensuring you rub each leaf to get any dirt that's stuck on them off of them.  Shake the leaves dry, and maybe even pat them dry.  The dryer they are, they better.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. You can use aluminum foil, but it's better to avoid the heavy metals, and also the parchment will help the chips end up lighter as they'll keep the chips from sitting in a pool of oil by allowing it to permeate away from the chips a little bit.

Once the leaves are dry, you can mix them with the flavored oil, either in a bowl or right on the baking sheet.  Really work the oil throughout the chips, coating both sides.  Then arrange the chips so that you don't have layers of plastered together chips.  It's ok for a chip to have another on top of it, but try to turn each layer so there's air between them.  This will allow them to crisp up.

Pre-heat your oven to 350˙ F.  While it heats up, the kale will get a bit marinated to enhance the flavor. Do feel free to let them sit with the flavor a bit longer, but not too long or the leaves will wilt a bit.

Cooking time is usually about 12-18 minutes, so start looking in on them at around 12 minutes to make sure they aren't burning.

That's it.  It's an easy recipe that doesn't take too long (the longest part is getting the leaves off the spines), and it makes a light, crispy, enjoyable snack or side dish that you can feel really good about eating.  As we try to change our lives to be healthier, it's great to find ways to do it that also are fun and enjoyable - proof that healthy eating doesn't have to be a chore or be joyless.

These healthy chips are one way to deliver on the clean14 challenge if you have vowed to cut out junk food from your diet.

Recipes like this really show how you can eat fun and tasty food while you enlighten.your.body.

Recipe: Cilantro Garlic Rutabaga Chips

Finding healthy ways to eat isn't hard. Finding healthy ways to eat that still including really enjoying your food can be tougher for some people.  The recipes I provide here try to give you truly healthy eating that also tastes good.  While tasting good is key, sometimes how a food eats is just as important.  We Americans have a need for crunching things, and those things can't always be raw veggies for most people.  The good news is, there are lots of ways to solve that need and still be healthy.  Case in point, Garlic Cilantro Rutabaga Chips.

FYI - if you would prefer this in video form, I did an episode of my podcast on rutabaga chips, so check it out on YouTube or subscribe to the iTunes podcast.

ingredients

• 1-2 medium rutabagas
• 1 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup olive oil
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1/2 table spoon turmeric
• 1/2 table spoon paprika

cooking for life

So what is a rutabaga, first of all.  It's a cross between a turnip and cabbage, and is a root vegetable.  It doesn't have too strong of a flavor, which makes it ideal for chip making.  Select medium-sized rutabagas with a firm feel to them. Some have purple on the outsides and some don't - don't worry too much about that.

Before we deal with the root itself, let's make the seasoned oil so it gets a chance to really take on the flavors we are going to add.  This batch is a cilantro and garlic rutabaga chip (with sea salt, turmeric and paprika), but you can really season them however you want.  I've done them similarly but with dill instead of cilantro.  You can put in sea salt and cayenne for a spicier chip.  You could make curry chips.   You could just do salt and oil.  It's really up to you and what you enjoy.  The key is to keep them healthy, so stay away from sugars (any kind of sugar, e.g. honey, maple syrup) or heavy sauces that likely hide a ton of sugar (e.g. BBQ sauce).  The idea is to get the flavor profile with the spices themselves instead of a sauce with spices in it. Most herbs and spices have health benefits (like turmeric for anti-inflammatory benefits, cayenne for metabolic and anti-inflammatory benefits, ginger for digestion, Ceylon cinnamon for sugar regulation, etc).  We're also going to use garlic, which is very healthful and good for your gut along with cilantro, which helps the body detox from things like heavy metals (which most people have too much of in their system in today's world).

Start by washing your cilantro, and then separating the stems and leaves.  We're primarily going to use the leaves, but the stems pack a lot of flavor, so I have a trick use for them before throwing them out.  Be sure to pat the cilantro dry before picking the leaves off or your job will be much harder and your seasoning will not mix well when you add the oil.

Oil and seasoning coming together

How much Cilantro to use is up to you - you can't really overdo it, but I suppose if you don't like cilantro (I know a few people who don't care for it), then you wouldn't want to use much (or use something else, like dill).  Set the leaves aside for a moment.  Take the stems into a bunch, and crack them in a few places to open them up.  Get a large bowl, put the stems in, and pour oil over them.  What kind of oil is largely up to you, but make a healthy choice.  Use olive oil, avocado oil, macadamia nut oil, coconut oil or sesame oil.  Stay away from canola and vegetable oil.  You don't need a ton of oil - it needs to be enough to coat the chips.  Usually a quarter to half cup is sufficient.  Add to this mashed up garlic (use a garlic press, or crush and mince it).  I typically use 3-4 large cloves.  Again, feel free to adjust this up or down to your taste.  Same goes for the spices.  I added about a table spoon of salt, and a half table spoon of paprika and turmeric.  Use the cilantro stems to stir it all up, taking care not to mix the stems in.  We need to pull them out soon, so don't make that job harder on yourself.

Chop up the cilantro leaves, and mix about 3/4 of them into the oil.  Again, stir things up.  Let that oil sit for an hour or so to really take on the flavors.  It's not mandatory, but the longer it sits, the more flavorful it will be.

Now back to the root of the issue.  You can't misspell rutabaga without root.  OK, that wasn't funny.  Use a peeler to take off the outer layer of the rutabaga.  Now you have to make chips, which you can do a couple of ways.  You can use the peeler and just peel right across the rutabaga.  That will make consistent but thing chips.  You can use a mandolin (a board with a blade you can adjust the depth of to make consistent slices) set to either 1/16" or 1/8", depending on how thin and crispy you want your chips.  If you use 1/16", be more vigilant while cooking the chips as they'll cook faster and can go from undercooked to burnt very rapidly.  As a note, you can peel or slice your chips right into the seasoning bowl, but if you do, pull out the cilantro stems before.  If you make the chips elsewhere, pull out the stems before adding the chips in.

Next, combine the chips into the oil and seasoning mixture, and work them together with your hands. OK, before doing that, wash your hands. Wait, go back to the whole beginning and wash your hands. OK, now wash them again before mixing things up.  Good work.  Now the key is to make sure that each chip is oiled/seasoned on both sides.  Be mindful of chips being stuck together.  Once you work everything through nicely, set the bowl aside for an hour if you have the time. Again, this isn't super necessary, but the longer they sit, the more flavorful they'll be.  I just made a batch of these with dill and let them sit for about 8 hours before cooking them, and they were out of this world.

Now, get the oil off your hands.  Stop for a moment and appreciate how nice your hands feel.  Wait, you have a piece of cilantro stuck to one of your fingers.  Got it?  Good.

Chips arranged on a baking sheet, ready for the oven.

Now we have to set the chips up for baking.  Preheat your oven to 350˙F and get out of baking sheet. Line it with parchment paper (I find this works better than aluminum foil as it lets the oil pull away from the chips rather than making them sit in a pool of oil, which leads to less crispiness and heavier chips that aren't as healthy for you. There also a benefit to reducing your exposure to heavy metals, so it's win-win.).

Try to avoid overlapping chips or piling chips on top of chips. If you do, you'll get softer, soggier chips.  this might mean you need two trays.  So be it.  If you have a wire rack you can bake on, you can use that, too, but be sure there's something under it to catch oil drippings, and make sure you can easily clean it (i.e. don't just use the oven's rack - and if you tried, you'd get all burned from trying to lay the chips on it when the oven is heated up).  Now is also the time to use any remaining cilantro to sprinkle some fresher (i.e. less oily) cilantro on the chips (as in this photo).  This is optional, of course.

Done. Some more so than others.
Be sure to rotate the trays to help avoid this

Once the over is at 350, pop the sheets in.  At 10 minutes, turn the trays around.  If you have two trays on different levels, also flip which is on top and which is on the bottom level.  The key is to help the chips cook evenly.  If you have a convection oven, that can be helpful here.

If you made chips using your peeler or cut to 1/16" with something like a mandolin, keep an eye on them every minute after 10 minutes.  If you cut them a little thicker, start your checks at minute 15.  For 1/8", I typically find them to be done around 18 minutes.  For 1/16", it's usually more like 14 minutes.

Nice, crisp chip

That's it.  They're done.  Let them cool for a minute or two (you can eat them warm or cool).  I don't recommend treating these like store-bought chips that will keep for a few days.  Eat them the day you make them.  You won't have a problem doing that.  They're really good, and you will likely be more concerned with wether you got enough and if it's ok to lick the parchment paper.  No, it isn't.

These healthy chips are one way to deliver on the clean14 challenge if you have vowed to cut out junk food from your diet.

Recipes like this really show how you can eat fun and tasty food while you enlighten.your.body.

Recipe: Green Eggs

I've given a lot of breakfast advice over the past couple of years with a focus on getting 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking (read this Q&A post for some thoughts on the matter). This seems to be a real sticking point for people who aren't used to eating breakfast, or, if they are, they eat something fast, cold and simple (bagel, cereal, muffin, etc). The idea of cooking breakfast sounds way too hard, and the idea of having eggs every morning sounds way too unhealthy.  You have it backward in terms of the health point.  As for it being hard, yeah, you've got me there.  The good news is, I have a solution.

How is it that I eat a multi-ingredient omelet every morning around 5am without making so much noise that I wake up my whole household? How do I do it without having to cook on top of trying to workout, do some work, shower, get dressed and get out the door to get to my office?  The answer is really simple - I cook the omelet at night, and employ my economics undergrad degree a bit by leveraging economies of scale.  In non-dork terms, I make more than one omelet at a time.  Sometimes, I don't even make an omelet, but do more of a fritada so I can just stick it in the oven for 20 minutes and not even have to think about it (or clean the dish for a few days).

OK, here's the deal. You need an egg for each day you're cooking for, some egg whites, powdered greens (optional, but highly recommended since they're SO good for you), spinach, onions or scallions, chia seeds, mushrooms, cayenne, salsa, sea salt, a kitchen sink and anything else you want in your omelet. Be sure to skip cheese, milk and anything you don't want in your omelet.  I tend to make enough for five or six breakfasts, so I use that many whole eggs, and then probably another cup to two cups of egg white added in.

Start with cracking the eggs into a bowl.  Add a scoop of greens for each day's worth of breakfast (e.g. five scoops for five breakfasts).  I find stirring the greens in after each scoop is best for avoiding clumps. A mini whisk is ideal, but I fork will work ok.  If you get some lumps, don't worry too much, but generally try to minimize how many lumps you get. Also add any seasoning (salt, cayenne) at this point. After you have all the greens in, add in your egg whites, and stir it all together some more to help mix it and break down any remaining lumps.

In a sauce pan, sauté the veggies a bit as they won't cook sufficiently for most people's taste once in the egg mixture. Add the spinach (or kale, if you like) half way through.  Sprinkle chia seeds on top, and then pour the eggs in.  If you're doing this in a quiche dish as a frittata, pour the veggies into the dish, spread them, and then sprinkle on the chia seeds.  Chia seeds are a great source of fiber and energy. They're good to work into your diet, and this is an easy way to do so. A nice optional ingredient is salsa or pico de gallo. Just drain the liquid off, or let it burn off during the cooking process. Tomatillo sauce is also a nice addition. Really, just play around to suit your preferences and taste, and to help differ things from week to week.

Next, pour in the egg mixture. If it isn't enough to cover the veggies, add some more egg white.  I felt like a little more spinach was in order, so I pressed some down into the mixture, but that's basically it.  You can cover it and let it cook on medium or medium-low heat for 5-10 minutes (until the middle isn't liquidy), or stick the quiche dish in the oven at 375 for 15-20 minutes (checking that it looks cooked throughout).  The time will depend on the depth/thickness, so adjust for your situation. I find lower heat for longer time works better than trying to cook it hot and fast.

When it's done, let it cool, and then just cut it into wedges that look like a good portion for you to eat at breakfast.  Depending on the size of the pan or quiche dish and the thickness of the frittata or omelet, I find I get five or six portions out of it.  My breakfast routine consists of a wedge of that warmed in the toaster oven (15 minutes at 275 or so) or microwave (1:30 on high is usually good) plus a protein shake and a couple of newbodi.es 4hb slow carb bars.  Sometimes I'll also make lentils to along with it, and only eat one slow carb bar.

A tasty, good for you, protein-packed way to enlighten.your.body first thing in the morning.

Recipe: Egg & Gluten Free Baked Zucchini Crisp

I have been trying to think of creative dishes to make for my family that are gluten free, dairy free and egg free.  Something that is wonderful to have discovered is the wealth of GF flours out there - my favorites being coconut flour and almond flour.  The coconut flour has a great taste, but it doesn't substitute well for all-purpose flour - something in how it mixes and stuff.  I dunno, I'm not a baker.  Almond flour does much better.  Garbanzo flour works better, as does Buckwheat flour, but they both have strong tastes.  Bob's Red Mill has a huge selection.

That said, the trick has always been how to get it to bind - for example when breading chicken breast with it.  Eggs work like magic, but I am trying to avoid them in my cooking due to some allergies I'm working around (not for me, but one of the people I'm cooking for).  I've learned of flax eggs, and have tried those.  They're great, but don't see to work with breading.  Why?  Unlike an egg, flax eggs don't solidify when heated.  They're more like gluey stuff than anything.

So, this recipe came together almost by accident, but it's fantastic, and I have to share it.  It was my attempt at making zucchini latkes (since potatoes are out for me and my wife's diet, and I'd rather give my son something more nutritious than white starch).  I made the mixture below, tried to fry it but failed.  What I came up with instead is so much better than the latkes would have been.  My mistake is your benefit...and my wife's, who loves this stuff.

Ingredients

• 4-6 zucchini (I prefer organic), peeled and grated, then pressed in a strainer to get as much water out as possible - the more the better
• 2 flax eggs (each egg is: grind 1 table spoon of flax seeds and add 1 table spoon of water, stir, let sit and thicken, stirring occasionally - don't hesitate to add a touch more water until it has almost (but slightly thicker) the consistency of a raw, beaten egg) 
• 1-2 tablespoons of minced garlic - go with your taste preference
• 1-1.5 cups of almond flour (the amount will depend on how much zucchini you use, and how wet it is)
• Seasoning to taste per your preference (I used turmeric and sea salt, chopped cilantro, and would also throw in a touch of cayenne if this was just for me and not my wife and 4 year old)

Directions

• Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, really working it through with your hands so there are no areas of flour or flax egg bunched up, nor any zucchini left out of getting coated
• Spread onto a cookie sheet with some tin foil that you lightly coated with olive oil (this is healthier than using a Teflon coated cookie sheet, but do as you like); spread it so that it isn't too thick across or high/deep, this will ensure it gets crisped throughout. A trick I figured out was to leave a gap in the middle so you get more 'edges'.
• Bake at 400 for 15 minutes, and check on it.
• Keep baking until it's got a nice brown color around the edges, and has started to get more golden throughout. This will vary by oven, cookie sheet, thickness of the spread, etc. The first time I made it, it took 20 minutes.  The second time took 27.
• There's no such thing as over or under cooked. You aren't using raw egg, so there's zero health risk to undercooking, so you're really going for the level of crisp that you want. That said, crispier is better.  If you like it less crispy, you're wrong. Stick it back in and cook it longer. :)

That's it. This is such a fortuitous mistaken discovery. Enjoy, and make your own cooking attempts, failures and triumphs as you enlighten.your.body.

Review: I Ate Green Tea from EatGreenTea

The build up

I was going through recent followers on Twitter to see if they would be good to follow back (I generally do follow back, but some accounts don't really warrant it, like those who follow me to pitch making me the top person on Twitter and getting my site millions of hits a second). I saw an account called @EatGreenTea that intrigued me. I have green tea extract in a supplement I take, and have long been aware of the benefits of the high antioxidants content of green tea.  There's a great breakdown of the benefits of green tea on this page.

The premise of EatGreenTea's products is that you can get far more benefit by eating green tea leaves than by drinking water that steeped in it. In fact, they claim you get 30x the antioxidants in a serving of their product vs a cup of green tea.

I was intrigued, and decided I'd try both of their products out as I could see different uses for them.
 

What it is & How it Works

They offer two ways to get your green tea fix - a powder and loose leaves. To me, the powder was ideal to add to my morning protein shake, or to mix into my omelet (along with my greens, mushrooms, spinach, onions and spices/seasonings). The loose leaves sounded perfect to add into dinner dishes, and I put it right into the vegan chili I made.

My impressions

It's easy to use this stuff - just add it to whatever, and you're done. A daily dose of the powder is ideally a teaspoon, and ideally a tablespoon for the leaves.  My chili made 10 servings, so I added about 10 tablespoons (or would have if I didn't plan to get a teaspoon a day in my protein shake...I ended up adding 5-6). For the chili (or I'd imagine for a pasta sauce, stir fry, etc), it basically vanished into the mix of veggies and spices. For my protein shake (which is white), it instantly colored things green.

Do I feel better? Well, it hasn't been that long, and I've had other things going on that wouldn't help me feel better (very little sleep lately, for example - though that's unrelated to the green tea, which can be a stimulant), so I wasn't necessarily expecting this to suddenly be a cure-all.  It is very easy to use, relatively cheap per serving (eat product is only $25, and I'd imagine there are 20-30 full servings of each in the bag), and there's no debate that green tea is good for you, so I'm sure it's beneficial. Whether it's markedly better than drinking tea is where the debate would be, and would probably center around whether your body can use the higher dose of antioxidants. I'm in no position to debate that point. I do know I don't feel worse, and not having issues (digestive, sleep, etc), so I doubt there's anything wrong with eating green tea, but do consider it relative to your medical situation rather than just going by what a blog says.

 

Update: Anthony, the founder of EatGreenTea followed up with some information on the issue of absorption of all the additional antioxidants:

Much of the research that you see around the documented benefits of green tea involves subjects who consume the equivalent of several cups of green tea per day. The reason is because the amount of antioxidants consumed in a single cup of brewed tea typically isn't enough to make a measurable difference in the body. The body really needs the additional antioxidants found from eating the green tea leaves.
We don't question if the body can handle all the nutrients from eating a spinach salad, or if there are too many antioxidants in blueberries. While agreed that too much of any one food is not a good thing - people are not in danger of getting too many antioxidants from eating a tablespoon of EatGreenTea. They are however, at risk of not getting enough antioxidants from just drinking a cup of brewed tea.

I can't see adding the powder to the chocolate version of my protein shake as I think the tastes would go to war and leave me as a casualty. For me, while I feel better about the powder (like I'm getting more of the good stuff), I think the leaves make more sense in terms of innocuously getting the benefits of this product into my day.

I also want point out that I firmly believe that the company and how it's run value-wise is as important as the product being sold. I had a couple of back and forth emails with Eat Green Tea's founder, Anthony Codispoti, and was really impressed with the responsiveness - both speed and quality of response, and speed of shipping (I got the green tea a day or two before my most optimistic estimate). The company also went the extra mile and wrote some really clear guidance on daily dose targets on my invoice to be sure I knew what to do when. I found the packaging to be clear enough (and nice looking overall), but it's touches like these that imply a general approach to doing business that mean something to me. It's what makes me choose one company over another, and why I'd stick with a product despite potential price differences.

My depressions

Honestly, my only issue is how strong the powder is flavor-wise. I don't dislike green tea, but I don't love its flavor. My protein shake is pretty strong flavored, too, and this totally overpowers it. I don't really care, but it's definitely worth knowing. As a result of my experience with the powder, I was nervous that it would totally change my chili or my omelet to add the leaves, but they are totally indiscernible in either. It's not really a problem, but something to be mindful of in your use cases.

 

Update: Anthony followed up on this point, too:

The powder does impart a lot more of its flavor (and color) into food items. I personally prefer to use the whole leaves in my smoothies (and most other things) because I'm not a big fan of the flavor either. Powder works well for baking (where even color distribution is desired), and mixed drinks (in my opinion).

Also, the packaging could be better. There's a little resealable inner bag within a foil bag, and I can't for the life of me get the powder's inner bag to reseal without losing a bunch of powder as smoke or on my fingers. Big deal - I just rolled both bags' tops together and rubber banded the whole thing. Yes, I am essentially McGyver.

 

Update: Anthony is a step ahead of me on this, which just shows my point on his customer service ethic. This is a company focused on quality and a quality experience for customers.

We acknowledge that the packaging for the powder in particular needs to be improved. We've been working with our farm to find a solution but haven't yet settled on one.

There's also the question of the stimulant effect of green tea.  I don't feel jittery or any more or less awake, and, as I mentioned above, my sleep issues aren't the product's fault (I am getting woken up by outside, powerful yet adorable 4 year old forces and kept awake later than I'd ideally prefer). It's worth a look at the issue of green tea and stimulants, especially if you have issues with caffeine.  A quick Google search can help, but here are a couple of links I found: Natural News: Green Tea and Caffeine, Wikipedia Green Tea Article.

I emailed the company about this, and got back a really helpful response that I wanted to share (another great example of their customer service):

I get that question a lot Bryan. While there is an increase in the amount of antioxidants you're ingesting - there is not an increase in caffeine. Caffeine is very water soluble so when you brew a cup of tea you're getting all the caffeine from it. Antioxidants are not as water soluble - so when you brew a cup of tea most of the antioxidants remain inside the leaves / tea bag.

When it comes to caffeine, the benefit of ingesting the whole leaves is that the caffeine is absorbed more slowly into the body (as opposed to ingesting a cup of brewed tea). So you don't get that energy peak and crash. Instead its more of a sustained energy lift throughout the day.

I'm not really qualified to evaluate this statement, but it sounds reasonable to me, and my experience would suggest that it's true.

To buy or not to buy?

This isn't a clear situation. I think there's no harm in using this stuff, but that's my view and coming from my body. You need to understand how your body reacts to green tea and its active components before deciding that for yourself. Millions of people drink it, and it's largely regarded as a healthful thing, so the odds are in your favor. As for the benefits of this product over drinking green tea, I can't say whether they're material or hypothetical. I do know I don't drink green tea, so this was a great way to get its benefits into my life quickly and easily. For me, that's a win, and means I'll at least be buying the leaves again to add into my dinner dishes. If that sounds appealing to you, then you should consider giving it a try.

In the end, the fact that I'm still using them, and plan to keep using them should stand as my overall view and recommendation. I just ask that you think about your health situation and your diet before blindly following my actions (or not).

Antioxidants are great, and learning more about their benefits and then incorporating them into your life is a great way to enlighten.your.body.

Recipe: GFV Maitake Spinach Flatbread Pizza

I'll preface this by saying that I am not living a gluten-free or vegan lifestyle.  That means two things:

1. I'm going by what the products I used say rather than my own deep understanding of what makes something gluten-free or vegan.
2. If I loved this food, it's not because I don't 'know any better' - that is, I have eaten 'normal' pizza recently, so loving this recipe is solely because it's damn tasty

OK, now that I've gotten that out of the way, let's get down to business.  This is a super-simple, super-tasty, super-fast flatbread pizza recipe.  It uses many pre-made products, but you could do some of it from scratch (the tortillas, for sure; the vegan/soy-free/GF cheese?  Not so much).  It didn't cost a ton, but the price will vary based on what ingredients you add.  The most expensive component is really the 'cheese'.  The recipe I made is a maitake mushroom and spinach flatbread pizza, but you can obviously switch the toppings as you please.  You'll see my son's pizza in the background, which had spinach instead of the maitake's, though he did put four pieces of mushroom on his pizza, and had a mushroom-heavy bit of mine.

I made these tonight with my son, and we both loved them.  It was literally the fastest dinner we've ever had - he's normally a slow eater, but he scarfed this faster than 'real' pizza.

Ingredients

• 1 package Galaxy Nutritional Foods vegan mozzarella.  It is vegan, soy-free and actually melts (it actually gets gooey and sticky, unlike real cheese, but I've never seen fake cheese that can melt)
• Food for Life brown rice tortilla - 1 tortilla per person (or half if you're a 4 year old, like my dinner date was)
• Pizza sauce - I used Whole Foods prepared organic pizza sauce, but feel free to make your own, substitute another brand, skip it, etc.  You could also just brush on olive oil with some sea salt and minced garlic, which I've done in the past and loved
• 1 package maitake mushrooms (enough for 2-3 tortillas, depending how densely you top them)
• 1 hand full of baby spinach per pizza

Constructions (how my son said 'instructions' when he was younger...much cuter, and perhaps more appropriate)

• Lay out the tortilla, and spoon on 3-4 tablespoons of sauce, spreading around nearly to the edge.  Add more or less, depending on your preference, but be mindful of making the tortilla so wet that it falls apart.  Also be mindful of little kids who like to keep spooning - my son's pizza had 8 table spoons of sauce.
• Sprinkle 'cheese' evenly over the top of the sauce
• Put down baby spinach leaf by leaf, covering the pizza
• Sprinkle chopped up maitake mushrooms over the spinach
• Lay down a bit more 'cheese', or have your four-year-old just turn the package upside down and make a huge pile of it.
• Laugh, and say, "Wow, thanks!"
• Spread the pile of cheese more evenly
• Bake in a wire rack for 8-10 minutes on 350, but watch it to be sure the cheese is melting and the tortillas aren't cracking too much.  Both of ours developed big cracks, but I used that as a guide for cutting them.
• Laugh.
• Eat.
• Hope your kid doesn't finish all of their pizza so you can have more.
• Laugh.
• Remind kid how fun it was to make these, and thank them for their awesome work.
• Clean the sticky, gooey 'cheese' stuck to your fingers while laughing.
• Clean up.
• Done.

Eating smart can be fast, easy and delicious. You don't have to live on rice crackers, kale and water. You can have fun, involve your kids, and teach them to value healthful eating while seeing how easy and normal it is to do.  Enlighten them and you will enlighten.your.body.

Recipe: Optional Chili

There are a lot of great dishes with great names.  This is not quite one of these.  It's great, but the name I came up with leaves something to be desired, but it is fitting. See, this chili leaves a lot of room to experiment, adjust and meet personal preference.  I made it as a turkey chili, but it could be vegan, beef, pork or even seafood.  It has some heat (though not enough for my liking), but could be super hot or totally heat-free.  It's very low sodium, but could be much saltier.  The veggies I put in could be completely rearranged and replaced.  Etc, etc, etc.  Hence, "Optional Chili" - you basically can turn it into whatever you want.  I happen to like what I made (though I'd go hotter next time).

It's chili - of course it looks gross, but it tastes great!

Here's what you need:

• 1 large sweet onion
• 5 scallions
• 2-3 zucchini and/or summer squash
• 2 cups white button mushrooms
• 1 cup shitake mushrooms
• 2 jalapeño peppers
• 2 cups pico de gallo
• 1 cup salsa (find one with very low sugar, but with a good tomato sauciness to it)
• 2-3 cups of beans (I split 50/50 pinto and black)
• 4 cups water
• Seasoning
• Cayenne pepper (I used 1 teaspoon, but I'd at least do a table spoon next time)
• 1 tsp Turmeric
• 1 tbsp Sea Salt
• 1 tsp Ginger
• 1 tsp Coriander
• 2-5 sprigs of cilantro, chopped up
• 1-2 lbs of ground turkey (or other meat, tofu, nuts or nothin' at all)
• 1 cup millet, buckwheat, amaranth or other gluten-free grain if you want a little more meatiness to the chili (got the idea from a vegan chili recipe in Scott Jurek's great book Eat & Run)

2 portions set aside for eating now, 4 ready to freeze for later

Chop up the various veggies as finely or coarsely as you like, making sure everything is rinsed well.  If you are using dried beans, be sure to soak them for at least 8 hours.  I don't like to use canned vegetables due to the BPA exposure, so I picked up some Tetrapak beans from Whole Foods (365 brand has an organic option).  It's for this reason that I used salsa and pico instead of canned tomatoes, which are a common component.  I found that the pico and salsa worked really well anyway, so I would do this from now on regardless.  If you are using canned beans or ones like I used, be sure to rinse them until the water flows cleanly through them - no residue or you'll have gas issues.

In a large pot, cover the bottom in an oil of your choice, but I'd recommend coconut oil or olive oil.  If you can find and afford macadamia nut oil, that would work nicely, too.  Stay away from canola and general 'vegetable' oil.  Bring the oil up to a good heat (have on medium high), and add in the onions, scallions, zucchini and seasoning.  Stir around a lot, sautéing the veggies and spreading the seasoning around for 5-10 minutes.  You want the onions to start to get transparent.

Next, add in the rest of the veggies and mix everything up.  Make sure you're now on a medium heat, and break apart and add in any meat or tofu.

Add the beans, salsa and pico, and stir it all up.  If you are putting in hot peppers, now's the time to do that.  I recommend keeping them in big pieces so you can fish them out if you find the chili is hot enough.  If you want more heat, you can fish 'em out, cut them up, and mix 'em back in.  That's what I did after deciding I wanted more heat.

Just as gross looking in a single portion, but still super-tasty

Pour in 3-4 cups of water - basically, it should be enough to cover everything.  If you're adding a grain, throw it in now, and stir it all up.  Lower to medium low heat, cover, and let it simmer for at least an hour, but ideally two.

If you are adding meat, in a skillet, cook it with a bit of olive oil so you aren't sticking raw meat into a warm vat of veggie goodness that might result in salmonella risk.  I find this also adds a really nice flavor if you let the meat brown a bit.  Once it's cooked, make sure it's broken up, and drop into the chili and stir.

That's it.  If it sounds like a lot of work, look for pre-cut veggies to help out.  There are great diced onion options in the frozen veggie section, and probably others that would work well here (e.g. corn, though I don't want that much sugar in my food).  Whole Foods has lots of pre-cut veggies in their produce area, so if you have access to one, I'm sure you could find a good mix of veggies to use.

All in, it probably took me about 25 minutes of prep, and 10 minutes of clean up and storage.  I got 9 adult servings out of this.  I'm also uncomfortably full from this tonight.

So, go for it, enjoy the process and the result, but don't under-heat and overeat like I did, and you'll enlighten.your.body.

Sweet N' Spicy, Burning Coffee

What a title, right?  How appetizing does that sound?  Well, it's actually really good (assuming you enjoy coffee).  I rely on this flavor addition to black coffee to make it enjoyable, but also use it as the flavor basis for my unflavored casein drinks.

There are four things about this that make it good for getting the most of the Slow Carb Diet:

1. Cinnamon
2. Cayenne Pepper
3. Stevia
4. Coffee

As discussed in The Four Hour Body by Tim Ferriss, cinnamon is something Tim covers due to how it increases insulin sensitivity.  That's a good thing for helping your body process sugar rather than storing it.  That's a very good thing.  I put in about a teaspoon in a cup of coffee.  Tim really stresses the need for it to be freshly ground/grated as the insulin sensitivity boosting properties are tied to freshness (i.e. oxygenation ruins it).  I tend to use an organic cinnamon in powder form, so I'm not being good enough here, but I often use it on the go, and have a little thing of it, so I can't fresh-grind it often.  When I can, I do.

Cayenne and other hot peppers can also juice your ability to burn (Tim discusses its ability to spike the thermogenic response).  The key with this is to use as much as you can tolerate without going nuts.  I typically put in one shake from a little glass herb container of the stuff I buy at Wholefoods, and I tend to get the organic kind.  Yes, it costs more, but an extra dollar becomes a negligible amount when the entire bottle lasts you several months.

Stevia is a godsend.  It's natural, and very sweet without tasting like a laboratory. Black coffee can be stark and sharp for many folks used to a creamy, sugary cup of Joe.  Stevia makes a big difference, especially when you consider that all other options either are essentially sugar (agave) or chemical (sucralose, aka Splenda, for example).  Tim goes into the negatives of the chemical sweeteners given their impact on lab rats and the potential they have to lower your insulin sensitivity.  Stevia suffers from none of that.  Just note that it tends to be sweeter than sugar ounce for ounce, so if you are a two-scoop-of-sugar person, don't assume you need as much stevia.

Tim also talks at length about the fat burning effects of coffee (caffeinated).  I won't rehash them, but it really does help burn fat/sugar, and is a staple of a smart Cheat Day strategy.  Power it up with these two burn boosters, and throw in the sweetness of stevia, and you've got a delicious and effective weapon on your side.

Hopefully this helps some of you who really feel the need to add milk to your coffee.  Milk isn't allowed on the SCD.  You could add almond milk, but I find it introduces too strong of an almond flavor without really impacting the creaminess of the drink, so it doesn't really achieve what I'd be going for in adding milk or cream.  The cinnamon adds interest to the flavor, and takes quite a bit of the edge off black coffee.  The cayenne is largely unnoticeable, but adds a little dimension to the flavor.  And then the stevia just adds the right sweetness for me.

Of course, if you drink black coffee today, you can skip the stevia, but you should consider adding the other two since they will benefit you.  Enjoy.  enlighten.your.coffee.

Quick Meal Prep Tip

I've been getting quite a few questions about meal prep and cooking.  People can't seem to find a quick, easy and, perhaps most important, recipe that is Slow Carb Diet compliant.  I did post a little PDF cook book on the newbodi.es links page, but people want more than that.

So, while I toy with the idea of doing a few meal prep videos, I thought I'd share a tip that's at the heart of much of my cooking.  Three basic veggies, some olive oil and a pan.

The three veggies are frozen diced onions and frozen shelled edamame, plus fresh baby spinach.  You can use baby kale, too, but I find the spinach to be really tasty.  I use organic options for each. The pre-diced frozen onions are great since dicing onions can take some time.  The trick is to throw some olive oil (or macadamia, if you can find and afford it) in a pan, throw in the frozen veggies, and start the heat on medium-ish.  Then, after it warms up, you have a decision to make - what else are you going to add, if anything. You could add more veggies, or perhaps another protein beyond the edamame. Cashews and almonds go well with this dish, as does some shredded or cut up coconut.  I typically add an animal protein (usually a piece of fish or shrimp), but you don't have to.  This setup forms the basis of a fast, complete and tasty meal.

If you're going to add something pre-cooked like canned tuna, hard boiled egg, pre-cooked chicken breast, etc, you should add the spinach now while raising the heat to a medium high level.  It needs about 2 minutes to cook while being tossed so the oil gets it well covered.  I typically fill the pan with spinach as it cooks down fast and dramatically.  When it's still visible as leaves but darker in color, throw in your pre-cooked item, reduce the heat to medium, and let it sit for a couple of minutes to warm the pre-cooked stuff. Move the pan around occasionally to keep things mixed, free from sticking and so things heat evenly.  That's it.

If you're adding nuts, the story is the same, but you should consider pan roasting them a bit before adding them. Throw in a little sea salt (unless they're already salted), roast them in a little bit of olive oil while moving them around in the pan for 2-3 minutes, and throw them right into your veggie mixture.  Is really just about combining at that point, so you can even plate the veggies, and pour the nuts over the top.

Another option is to add lentils - an amazing source of vegetable protein, very hearty, and pretty filling. I tend to cook a put of lentils each week, and spoon the into various dishes.  I put some cayenne and a little sea salt into the water when cooking them.  Throw about a cup per portion into this meal, and it is a really complete dinner.

If you chose to add a raw item, like fresh fish or chicken breast, first make sure it's not a huge piece, or better yet, cook it a bit in another pan while you were warming the frozen stuff and oil.  Then throw it in, cover the lid, and raise the heat slightly toward medium high.  Let it cook for 5-10 minutes depending on the size of the item and what it is (chicken will take longer than fish or shrimp, for example). Move the pan around occasionally to keep it from sticking.  Check it, flip it, cover the whole thing is spinach, and then put a cover back on.  Then let it cook until the raw stuff is cooked through as you like it.  Be sure to move the pan around occasionally, and check it now and then to see doneness.  Just don't check too frequently so you don't release all the heat that's building up under the lid too much.

All in, you're looking at 10 minutes including prep and clean up without raw animal protein, or about 20-25 with it. Not bad at all.  And it's a pretty easy meal to make in terms of intensity.

A couple of side notes.  First, I don't insist on animal protein at all.  This dish works really well as a purely veggie dish, and you'll see it has no dairy, so it's easy to make it vegan. One thing I do insist on (if I can be so bold) is to really load up on the portion size if you aren't adding animal protein. Spinach is awesome, but cooks down really fast, and isn't very dense or filling.  Diced onions are kinda worthless from a 'fill you up' standpoint. Edamame is better, but still not filling enough in small to medium amounts.  The only trick is the lentils, which will fill you more than the other veggies.  But, do keep in mid, this meal will be fueling you for many hours.  For me, I typically eat around 5:30pm, and have breakfast the next morning around 5:15, and I might even work out again at night. Just be sure you are respecting your body's need for fuel and not thinking a cup of cooked veggies is sufficient. I typically have a fully loaded plate of this stuff, with the load being about 2.5 times as big when I go vegan on it.