Overnight Oat Jars

Looking for the best rush-out-the-door summer breakfast? Try these make ahead oatmeal jars. As a fan of batch cooking, I assemble a few at a time so during the hectic moments in the morning, all you need to do is to open the fridge door and grab a jar. You can even eat it while you are dressing, on your way to work or when you are settled at your desk. Leftovers make a good afternoon snack!

A lot of my recipes are really formulas that you can customize to your liking. This is how it goes.

Choose an unsweetened, plain yogurt, coconut yogurt, cow or goat milk kefir. My favorite brands these days are Anita's Coconut Yogurt, Green Valley Organics lactose free kefir and Redwood Hill Farm goat milk kefir. I want to emphasize PLAIN and UNSWEETENED because most yogurt products out there contain 15-30 grams of sugar easily per 8 oz. serving.

Mix together 6 oz. of yogurt / kefir of your choice with 1/3 cup of rolled oats and 1 tsp. of chia seeds. Kefir tends to be runny but if you are using a yogurt that is too thick, add a little nut milk to create your desired consistency. Taste the mixture for sweetness.  Add a handful of shredded coconut and / or 1/2 tsp. of maple syrup / honey if necessary.

Put half the yogurt / oats mixture into the jar. Layer with mixed berries and chopped nuts. Repeat 1 more time.

Close the jar and refrigerate overnight or up to 3 or 4 nights.

Mix well and enjoy a no fuss breakfast the next morning!

Kelp Noodles

I have been obsessing with kelp noodles lately. They are called noodles but are actually not noodles at all! They are made from kelp, a sea vegetable instead of a grain. They are clear, crunchy and tasteless, much like the Chinese glass noodles.

You can use kelp noodles to substitute for any noodle or pasta dishes or in a variety of salads with different dressings. I also love to saute them with ginger, shitaki mushrooms, cabbage and whatever veggies on hand to make a delicious stir fry dish.

Depending on whether you desire a raw, crunchy or soft texture, you can soak them either in warm water or boil them for 10-20 minutes. Cut them with a pair of scissors to break them apart as they tend to be quite long. Rinse and dry.

To make a salad, julienne some fresh veggies like carrots, red bell peppers, scallions or cilantro. Add them to the kelp noodles.

Make a dressing, toss in with the noodle and veggie mix.  The dressing will soften the noodle further if you let it sit for a while. Here are my 2 favorite dressings that go really well with a kelp noodle salad.

Almond Miso Dressing

• 3 Tbl. smooth almond butter
• 1 tsp. miso paste
• 1 Tbl. sesame oil
• 1/2-inch chunk of fresh ginger, grated
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 Tbl. apple cider vinegar
• water to thin out dressing if needed

Walnut Miso Dressing

• 1/4 cup miso
• 1 cup toasted walnuts
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 1/3 cup white vinegar
• 1 cup olive or sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Combine ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth.

A Sensible Approach to eat sugar

Sugar is a confusing concept. We all need it, some are addicted to it, most of us try to stay away from it.

I hear this a lot, "I'm cutting out all sugars!"

Really, is that possible? If you're cutting out all sugars, you will be eliminating all plant foods because sugars, starches and fibers, as we know are naturally occurring carbohydrates in plants.

What we need to clarify is, what are sugars really?

Remember all the words that end in "ose"s? Glucose, fructose, lactose, sucrose and dextrose? They are sugars, or carbohydrates that are made up of chains of sugar molecules, from a single molecule like glucose (blood sugar) and fructose (fruit sugar) to two molecules like sucrose (table sugar) to hundreds of them (like a vegetable).

Every bite of carbohydrates, whether it’s rice, bagels, cupcakes, fruits or vegetables will eventually be broken down by our digestive system from more complex chains to simple sugar units. They all end up as glucose in the blood either after direct secretion from the small intestine or after a little visit to the liver for glucose conversion or storage.

We cannot cut them out from our diet because they provide a vital energy source for our body cells.

So what are the "bad" sugars?

The sugars that are processed, refined and concentrated - when whole grains are turned into flour products, sugar cane is turned into white sugar and fruits are turned into dried fruits. In other words, instead of letting our body's digestive system to do the work, complex chains of sugars are artificially broken down and concentrated during the refining process, causing rapid glucose absorption into the blood stream, blood sugar spikes, stress on insulin production and creating chaos in our body!

Bread and pasta made from whole grains are healthy, right?

Yes and no. Whole grains consist of minerals, vitamins, fiber, fats and protein that refined grains do not have. But every time a grain is pulverized (white or brown) and turned into flour to make flour products like bread and pasta, the sugars in them still enter rapidly into the bloodstream causing sugar spikes.

Maybe just stay away from "added sugars" then?

Not that easy! Unless you scrutinize every label or cut out all foods that come in packagings, chances are some amounts of added sugar will be sneaked into the food products.  Watch out for seemingly healthy foods like breads, soups, salad dressings, crackers, cereals, yogurts, sauces, energy bars and sports drinks.

How about using natural sweeteners or the non-caloric, sugar-free stuff?

Honey, maple syrup and blackstrap molasses contain more nutrients than white sugar, but they are still concentrated sugars. Non-caloric sweeteners, whether it's  Sweet n' Low or Stevia, are often sweeter than real sugar. They perpetuate our cravings for sugar by sending a sweet taste to the brain but never delivering any real energy. They hijack our taste buds and dull our senses to make real food taste really bland. Natural or artificial, caloric or non-caloric, use in moderation.

Here is a more sensible approach to eat sugar:

Eat naturally occurring and unprocessed sugars that are high in fiber and low in glycemic index- vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes.

Cut down on processed sugars that are low in fiber and high in glycemic index- flour products like bread and pasta, concentrated sugars like juices and all sweeteners, and most of all, junk foods.

Guilt and Grain Free Banana Bread

I never got into baking because I cringe every time a recipe calls for sugar, 1/4 cup, 1/2 cup at a time. My hand is frozen and wouldn't pour the crystals into the batter.

I am finally learning to make treats with no "added" sugar. This banana bread is sweetened only by dates and well....bananas. I think it is absolutely delicious. But I don't like too much sweet to start with. If you are used to loads of sweets, your taste buds might require more to feel satisfied. If you start cutting down your sugar consumption, you might in time be sensitive enough to taste the subtle sweetness of this bread.

Wet Ingredients:

• 5 Medjool dates (pitted)
• 5 Tbl. warm water
• 3 very ripe large bananas
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 3 eggs

Dry Ingredients:

• 2 cups almond flour
• 1 Tbl. coconut flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Unsweetened coconut flakes for garnish

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a bread pan with parchment paper.
2. In a food processor, combine dates with warm water (make sure dates are pitted). Process until you have a nice date paste. Add bananas, vanilla and process until just combined.
3. Add coconut oils and eggs. Process until evenly distributed.
4. In a large bowl, put in almond flour, coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
5. Combine processed wet ingredients with dry ingredients.
6. Pour batter into the bread pan and sprinkle coconut flakes on top for garnish.
7. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until edges have browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Cut and serve.

A Tour of the American Pharmacy

Let's play a game! Guess where all these aisles of products eventually lead to.....

Start with the soda aisle.....

followed by the chips aisle......

sweets and candies.............

sugary cereals............

junk food......

more junk food.......and the final destination is.................

DIABETIC SUPPLIES! What an ingenious design?

Home made oat bars

If you are just as fed up as I am with most energy bars out there due to their extremely high sugar contents, I urge you to try these simple oat bars. No added sugar whatsoever and only a fraction of the sweetness. Trust me, you can train your taste buds to tolerate less sugar by consuming less. Eventually you will desire less, without the need to call upon your willpower.

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl:

• 4 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 2 Tbs ground flax seed
• 1 1 /2 cups of raisins and pumpkin seed mix OR slivered almonds and raw cacao nibs (try mixing in chocolate chips if you want to lure your kids into eating them)

In a blender or food processor, mix 1/2 cup of almond milk with 4 large, ripe bananas.

Combine the dry ingredients with the banana mix. Press into an oiled 12x9 baking dish and bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes.

When cool, slice them into bars. Although they are crunchier straight out of the oven, I store them in the fridge as a go-to snack for the whole family for as long as they last.

Coconut Water Kefir Experiment

Kefir is a probiotic beverage made with either kefir grains or a powdered kefir starter culture. Most likely originated from the Caucasus Mountains,  "kefir" is said to stem from the Turkish word "keif" or "good feeling".

There are two types of grains, milk kefir grains and water kefir grains. They both contain beneficial bacteria and yeast existing in a symbiotic relationship. Kefir grains are not actual "grains" like wheat and rye, they are a gelatinous mass and are called grains because they are small and numerous, like grains of sand.

I was given a bunch of water kefir grains by my fermentation teacher Cheryl a couple of weeks ago. I left them in the fridge and sort of got busy and had totally forgotten about their existence, and the fact that they are actually living organisms and need food to survive. I was so sure that I killed them all until Cheryl reassured me that all I needed to do was to feed them lots of sugar. So I put the grains in a covered jar of water with 3-4 tsp of melted sugar and let the them feast in it for two days.

At the end of the two days, I rinsed them out and strained them. They came back alive and looked pretty healthy to me again!

Time to crack open a young coconut!

I put the juice from two young Thai coconuts in a quart-sized mason jar, added in the kefir grains, covered the jar with a cloth and let it sit for two days.

Once the culturing process was complete, I removed the kefir grains and fed them back in a jar of sugar water so they could replenish in between batches. (And I promised not to starve them again!)

I pour myself a glass of my experimental ferment - honestly I still don't quite know what it is supposed to taste like - mine is a little sour like yogurt, slightly thick but it's good enough for now!

To learn how to make coconut water kefir the proper way, visit Cultures for Health website.

Tempeh Crash Course

Most of us have heard that tempeh is a healthy fermented food, probably one of the best plant-based protein sources. But what exactly is it? Where did it come from?

Originating in Indonesia, tempeh is a fermented food made from cooked whole soybeans that have been treated with cultures (rhizopus oligosporus) and formed into a dense, chewy cake-like patty. It has a firm, meaty texture and distinct nutty flavor.

Can you still eat tempeh if you don't want to eat soy?

Soy is a rather controversial food these days because soy bean is one of the top GMO crops in the US. Though traditional tempeh contains only soybeans, many brands on the market these days are soy-free made from all kinds of  (gluten-free) grains, legumes and seeds like azuki beans, white beans, flax seeds, brown rice and buckwheat.

What are the nutritional benefits of tempeh? What is healthier, tempeh or tofu?

Tofu is made from soy milk that has been coagulated. Tempeh is made from the whole bean. That's why tempeh is considered more of a whole food, with a higher nutritional profile. A 4-ounce serving of tempeh provides about 18 grams of vegetarian protein, along with an impressive 8 to 10 grams of fiber from the soybeans. (Tofu has about 1/2 the protein content and no fiber). The fermentation process also makes the bean more digestible, adds pro-biotics and healthy enzymes to the food.

What is my favorite brand of tempeh?

I am very fortunate to be in Brooklyn where I found a tempeh artist who makes his products from non-GMO grains and beans from scratch, freeze-packing them without any pasteurization. The result is a fresh, living food that tastes way better than the vacuum sealed products you see in most markets. (But any tempeh is better than no tempeh at all!) You can find Barry's tempeh here.

How do I cook tempeh?

Tempeh is a dense, unyielding food with a distinct flavor, but it also absorbs whatever marinade or sauce you give it. For me, browning them in a cast iron pan gives it the best crunchy texture. A glaze or a rich curry sauce also works amazingly well. Here are my two favorite recipes:

Tempeh in Red Pepper Sauce

Sweet and Sour Glazed Tempeh

Sweet and sour glazed tempeh

This dish completely satisfies my hankering for the Cantonese blend of the sweet and sour taste. It reminds me of my Dad's sweet and sour pork!

Ingredients:

1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (no pulp)
1 tbs freshly grated ginger
2 tsp tamari
1 1/2 tbs mirin
2 tsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp ground coriander
2 small garlic cloves, crushed
10-12  ounces of tempeh
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 lime
a handful of cilantro

Combine orange juice, grated ginger, tamari, mirin, maple syrup, ground coriander, and garlic. Mix together and set aside.

Cut the tempeh into bite-sized squares. Oil a large frying pan over medium heat.  When the pan is hot, add the tempeh and let it brown on both sides. I really love my cast iron pan for this. It browns the tempeh nicely and gives it a "deep frying" firmness without calling for much oil.

When the tempeh is golden brown on both sides, pour half the orange juice mixture into the pan and let it simmer until the sauce has reduced to a  thick glaze. Turn the tempeh again, pour in the rest of the mixture, let the sauce reduce and caramelize.

Serve the tempeh drizzled with any remaining sauce and a squeeze of lime. Garnish with cilantro.

Sauerkraut making - introduction to lacto-fermentation

Contrary to what most people think of what sauerkraut and pickles are, lacto-fermentation does not involve vinegar. In fact, vinegar kills the good bacteria that we are trying to grow and eat here! So in this fermentation process, the acid comes from the naturally occurring lactobacilli on the vegetables that have the ability to convert the sugars in the foods into lactic acid.  Lactic acid is a natural preservative that inhibits the growth of harmful and putrefying bacteria and promotes the growth of healthy bacteria. It also increases the vitamin and enzyme levels of the foods.

In this sauerkraut recipe, only 2 ingredients are required - cabbage and salt.

It was April 2nd, my friends Liane and Emma came over for a sauerkraut making party.

We had 5 heads of cabbage. We patiently chopped them into thin shreds and put them in the biggest bowls I had in the kitchen.

We added sea salt to it (about 1-2 tsp for each head of cabbage) and gave the leaves a good massage. The salt draws the water out of the vegetables and creates a natural brine.

The fun part began - we started packing the cabbage down into a 1.5 liter ball jar with our fists to create an anaerobic environment by getting all air bubbles out. You can see that the cabbage was already softening and the moisture was coming out.

 We were pushing and pushing until the brine started to rise to the top of the cabbage. Can you believe that we pushed almost 2 heads of cabbage into this 1.5 liter jar?

Finally after much muscle building exercise, we created these 3 little musketeers, 2 big and 1 small. To keep the cabbage under the brine so that no molds could form, we put a jar filled with water to weigh the content down.

Done! We covered each jar with a cloth secured by a rubber band so no bugs could get inside. The best temperature to ferment sauerkraut is 55-65 degrees and the ideal fermentation time is 2-4 weeks.

For the first couple of days, the cabbage was bubbling nicely - a good indication that the bacteria was feasting on the veggies, producing lactic acid to preserve the food. Now we'll just have to wait!

Summer Bock, a fermentation guru once said, "If I had to pick one thing, one assignment for everybody to go out and do, it would be to learn how to make your own sauerkraut."