pb & j!

peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat saltines is a glorious combination. that is all.

sweet and sara: vegan s'mores!

the other day, i thought to myself, "why not buy a vegan s'more and see how it tastes?"

and, really, why not? yes, it was $3.29, but i've spent more for treats that were far worse for me. and i wanted a treat. and i've always been curious to see if vegan marshmallows were possible.

sweet jeebus. this was possibly the best thing i've ever eaten. expensive - yes; but, on the other hand, it might prevent me from buying them very often. which, if my local health food store doesn't continue carrying these babies, i can do from the comfort of my home computer.

want more.

right now.

migraine rant!

i started this blog in order to keep track of recipes, note my eating habits, and discuss overall health in general. so far, i've held up the bargain with the first two, but haven't really written about my overall health and life in general.

today marks my first blogger rant, in response to an article on the homepage of today's huffington post: "how to eliminate migraines and headaches in less than a week," by mark hyman, m.d. - who is listed as a "pioneer of functional medicine. please, go check out the article by clicking here.

i don't usually like to go into great public detail about this, but i, too, am a migraneur and need daily preventatives, and carry a purse full of various abortives and rescue drugs. drugs that, at their worst, require me to inject pain and anti-nausea filled needles into the back of my gluteus maximus. it is not fun, it is not cheap, and i would do just about anything to not have to go there. when i'm feeling upbeat, i call that category 'monster migraines.' when i'm not in the mood, i call them the 'i want to kill myself' migraines. migraines have completely changed my life, i have been forced to learn a new kind of life in order to function with them and still be a productive member of society.

dr. hyman's thoughts on responding to - and therefore preventing - various triggers are certainly useful, and i appreciate the fact that he calls this an actual disease (because it is), and believes in treating causes and not symptoms. however, it is NOT an "almost entirely preventable" disease that can (in reference to the title of the article) disappear within a week. that's simply absolutist and insane. i'm a work in progress to making these things disappear, and its one of the reasons i try to track my diet. i eat meat a few times a year and try to make unprocessed, whole foods the staples of my diet. i try consciously to eat a lot of vegan meals. i practice yoga and have tried guided relaxation and biofeedback. unfortunately, red wine is off the market for me, and i've only had a few beers since this all started a few years ago, followed by a lot of water.

the tendency towards migraines is indeed genetic, and, for the record, none of my triggers fits neatly into any of the categories laid out by dr. hyman. triggers which have been worked on for a few years with various neurologists and which I must pay a lot for with my not-so-great insurance. also, for the record, I often get migraines in relation to barometric pressure - something which is NOT preventable.

i resent dr. hyman's insinuation that, if migraineurs simply paid attention to their symptoms more clearly, we could stop costing society billions of tax dollars. this article made me really fucking angry when i read one of its closing sentences, "The bottom line is that this problem -- which affects one in five Americans and costs society $24 billion a year -- is almost entirely preventable, simply by following the principles of Functional Medicine and UltraWellness." NO disease is that reductive; in fact, everything i've read and every doctor i've spoken to has told me that the cause of migraines (which can produce completely different symptoms for each person affected) is NOT COMPLETELY KNOWN OR UNDERSTOOD *(side note, for a great source on migraines, go read 'the migraine brain').

the worst part is the assertion that we're somehow feeding off society and taking money that could be better spent in the health care system. you know - if i tried a bit harder, then it will go away, and its my fault if i don't. and - perhaps most damaging of all - is the fact that migraines are, for the most part, misunderstood by those who don't get them, and this articles contributes to the feeling that we're somehow faking it and/or don't have a high tolerance for pain. as a physician who must know that this disease comes with the stigma of not being believed or taken seriously from everyone to our peers to those working in emergency rooms, he should be ashamed.

*steps off soap box*

minestrone/pasta e fagioli

two days ago, i slightly adapted a minestrone/pasta e fagioli from mark bittman's awesome 'how to cook everything vegetarian.'

i began with with chopped onion, carrot, and celery. you will notice that the celery is in large blocks so that i can remove it later, because, as we all know, celery is evil.

after a bit of cooking, i added a bit of potato, parsnip, and turnip.

plus some awesome hard cheese rind. yes, it is locatelli, because i have italian blood in me and therefore i am a snob about such things.

and, finally, two cans of chopped tomatoes and about seven cups of broth.

after this cooked a while, i decided it was rather unsophisticated, and needed the help of my trusting sidekick, the immersion blender.

oooh, smooth!

then came some zucchini (which i would leave out next time, as the final texture didn't seem right), and some green beans. plus full cup of ditalini pasta and a can of beans. the kale went in a few minutes before serving.

so did the minced garlic.

this was good - leftovers were better. must make again.

egg white lunch wrap!

i happen to have zero skills when it comes to cooking eggs. they always taste just fine, but they never turn out the way i want them to. exhibit a: these were supposed to be two egg whites. not, two egg whites with a splash of yolk (which you can clearly see) thrown in for kicks.

i knew i wasn't going to get something closely resembling an omelette, so i tried for scrambled egg whites. and this is what they looked like AKA not scrambled.

but at least the hard part is now over. i now give you the easiest lunch ever, starting with healthy whole wheat high fiber tortilla.

next, smear of remains of an avocado.

plus shredded cheese.

and the egg whites

finished off with a touch of salsa.

none of this looks remotely appetizing as is, which is where the whole 'wrap' thing comes in.

some of you may be asking yourselves, 'why is she showing us a step-by-step tutorial of something easy and obvious?' the answer, my friends, is that its important that i show you a more balanced, unbiased look at the things i cook. its not all fancy cookies and homemade pasta - sometimes its unattractive egg whites.

and, while we're at it, i'd like to share with you all that, once, in high school, i took a public speaking class. and we were assigned a 'how to' speech. and i chose, 'how to make a bowl of cereal.' seriously. i made diagrams of how to correctly hold one's spoon and everything. i think i thought i was amusing.

and, interestingly enough, i've taught public speaking the last four years to undergraduate students. real circle of life stuff. i think i'm getting emotional.

chocolate jay robb smoothie!

i think i'm officially on the jay robb protein powder bandwagon. i've tried the whey protein powder in vanilla, and the egg white protein powder in chocolate. i'd prefer to be trying the brown rice protein powder in anything, but my supermarket doesn't have any and the jay robb website is OUT OF STOCK of all things brown rice. side note: how does this happen?

either way, i can officially say that, so far, jay robb rocks. breakfast was the chocolate powder alongside a banana, a few organic frozen berries, a handful of organic baby spinach, some light vanilla soy milk, and a few ice cubes:

i wouldn't go so far as to call this "dessert-like," but its definitely true that you can't taste the spinach. even though no one believes me. yum!

p.s. happy birthday to my aunt! you're awesome and i love you - cheers!

fruity oaty bars!

i couple days ago, i made 'fruity oaty bars' from the beloved 'vegan cookies invade your cookie jar.' i'd been wanting to make them for a while, but had a little setback in that these are uber-healthy things which require ingredients that i didn't have and/or never heard of. as it was, i still couldn't find two of them, but one does get by.

this dry mix contains things like oats, spelt flour, ground flax seeds, and wheat bran (was supposed to be wheat germ - but the store was out).

the wet mix began with fresh orange juice:

and, naturally, i needed some extra for myself, because fresh oj is nice. p.s. naval oranges are NOT the right kind for juicing. note to self.

the wet mixture contains things like brown rice syrup (purchased for the pecan bars from last month) and pure maple syrup that was supposed to be barley malt syrup, which i am convinced does not exist.

either way - no added sugar and no fake sweeteners here, which is quite nice. instead, we have mix-ins. everyone loves mix-ins. here, they were: sesame seeds, green pumpkin seeds, cranberries, and a cup of mixed, dried fruit. i tried for organic and no-sugar added wherever possible.

because, if one is going to employ such ingredients as spelt flour and brown rice syrup, one might as well go the whole hog. which is a weird expression, and i don't really know what it means.

here is a close up out of the oven, in the middle of the 'cooling for at least 45 minutes' stage.

everything was fine until i began to cut it up - then all heck broke loose. HECK! everything fell apart. here is one of the prettiest-shaped chunks:

and here is the pile of little chunks/crumbs. however, there is a reason that these crumbs are placed on some foil, and not in the trash. this is because they were too tasty to waste. this, despite the fact that being seen scooping and eating crumbs from leftover foil is quite undignified.