Ramp 101

Named allium tricoccum (use that three times in a sentence). Also known as spring onions, wild leek, wood leek and wild garlic. Ramps are a perennial wild onion veggie with a garlic smell and onion taste. The bulb looks similar to a green onion, except the tops are a leafy green.

Since it seemed like a cross between garlic and onions, I thought why not make it into a pasta sauce?

Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients

• 1 lb. gluten-free spaghetti
• 2 bunches ramps, washed and roughly chopped – greens too!
• 2-4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 lb. shitake mushrooms, sliced
• oil for sauteing (grapeseed, coconut)
• 1/4 cup soaked brazil nuts or cashews
• juice of 1 lemon
• up to 1/2 cup pasta cooking water
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. While the spaghetti is cooking, heat oil in a medium pan over medium heat, adding chopped ramps and garlic, including the ramp greens and saute for a few minutes until greens are wilted.
2. Transfer sauteed ramps to a blender, add brazil nuts or cashews, lemon juice, salt and pepper and begin to blend until smooth, adding a little of the pasta cooking water at a time to thin the sauce out.
3. Add the shitake mushrooms to the same pan you cooked the ramps in, season with salt and pepper and saute until cooked through (they will shrink to about half their original size).
4. When spaghetti is cooked (follow package directions), drain and return to the cooking pot. Add ramp sauce and stir to coat the spaghetti. Using the pasta cooking water will help the sauce stick to the noodles.
5. Plate spaghetti tossed with the ramp sauce and top with the sauteed mushrooms. Add grape tomatoes if you would like a little pop of color.

Did you know what ramps were before today? What do you like to cook with them?

Green for Life focuses not on what we shouldn’t eat, but on why our bodies were meant to eat mostly leafy greens, and Victoria Boutenko’s arguments and case studies make a really compelling case.

In this book she will take you through her research, through case studies, then serve up some great smoothie and pudding recipes – both sweet and savory.

After reading this book I was inspired to bump up the volume of leafy greens in my smoothie and drink at least one (sometimes two a day), doing this will change your life. I have been having at least one smoothie a day now for about two years and will likely do this for the rest of my life. This book also includes some great recipes for when you get tired of your same old kale and banana routine.

As part of my spring cleaning, I mentioned I would be giving away some of the cookbooks I no longer use. The book is still in great condition with a few dog-eared paged. If you are thinking about green smoothies, or already love them, you will like this book.

Click the link below to enter. You can enter once a day!

Overheard: “Nobody makes friends over salad”

This salad is my response to this statement. If you make this salad, you will not only make friends, you will make friends for life, maybe even lovers.

A potluck is a great place to expand your food palate and make friends. Would you like to go to a potluck and have over 100 dishes to sample from? Good news – you are here!

Welcome to the Virtual Vegan Potluck - May 2013 edition!  I hope you’re wearing your stretchy pants!  Today there are over 100 creative and passionate food bloggers from across the globe sharing their plant-based deliciousness just for you. I am super excited to be a part of this semi-annual event uniting vegan bloggers eager to make their way into your heart through your stomach.  Grab a soy latte, or glass of organic wine – depending on what time it is where you are, get comfy and browse all the yummy food this talented group of compassionate people brought to the virtual table.

This salad is the mother of all salads, a man salad, the mac daddy of salads, this is a steakhouse version of a salad. There are so many unexpected delicious flavors and wonderful textures going on in here.

Comfort food like roasted potatoes, everyone loves potatoes!

And my new favorite obsession – grilled avocado. If you liked avocado before, you will fall in love with it grilled. Slightly crispy on the outside and creamy and melty in the middle, it will blow your mind.

Makes 2-3 ‘hungry man’ servings

Ingredients

• few handfuls salad greens
• 2-3 portabella mushrooms, dirt and stems removed
• 3 cups roughly cubed potatoes
• 1 avocado, halved, pit removed and sliced
• 1 yellow or green zucchini, cut into wheels or half moons
• ½ yellow or white onion, sliced
• Few tsp. montreal steak spice
• salt and pepper for seasoning
• oil for cooking and marinating (grapeseed, safflower, truffle or coconut)
• roughly ¼ cup red or white wine (optional)
• roughly ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 roasted red bell pepper (jarred), roughly chopped
• juice from ½ lemon
• 1 tsp. prepared horseradish
• roughly chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. While the oven is warming, marinate portabella mushrooms in a coating of red or white wine and/or balsamic vinegar, about a tsp. montreal steak spice and a drizzle of oil in a resealable bag or container.
2. Toss cubed potatoes with a drizzle of oil and montreal steak spice, and roast for about 20-30 minutes, until a little crispy on the outside.
3. While potatoes are roasting, heat about a tablespoon of oil in large pan over medium heat, add onion slices, zucchini, season with salt and pepper and sauté until onions are translucent. Remove and set aside, but keep the pan warm for the avocado.
4. Grill avocado slices on each side until slightly browned, remove from heat, keeping the pan warm for the mushrooms.
5. Remove portabella mushrooms from the marinade and sauté a few minutes on each side until slightly browned, turning once or twice.
6. To make the dressing, combine chopped red bell pepper, horseradish, lemon juice, with a pinch of salt and pepper in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
7. Now the fun part – assembly! Plate a few small handfuls of greens, top with grilled portabella mushrooms, then sautéed onions and zucchini, grilled avocado, roasted potatoes and drizzle with the zesty red pepper-horseradish sauce.

Prepare for the love-fest.

To check out what my friends brought to the potluck, go back or forward in the buffet line to check out the creative deliciousness using the buttons below. If you like to start at the beginning, click on the Virtual Vegan Potluck icon at the top of this post. There’s no such thing as going the wrong way in this buffet line!

If you liked this recipe, please share the love with your friends. Then sign up to make sure you don’t miss my weekly updates by signing up below!

bon appetit!

1. less space = less stuff = more life
2. gift-giving guide – give presence not presents
3. this is embarrassing…
4. even less stuff = even less space = even more life

Inspired? I would love to hear your insights. In the comments below or on Facebook, share the ONE action you are going to take to TODAY to remove stressful clutter from your life. Bonus: sharing your one action will also keep you accountable.

Over the past few weeks I have been receiving a variety of beets, both gold and red in my weekly produce delivery. I love beets both peeled and roasted, raw and shredded, or in a smoothie. I love the red and gold varieties equally, so I wanted to marry them in a sweet morning smoothie. The soothing combination of vanilla and sweet, earthy beets is delicious. I could eat this smoothie for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Ingredients

• 2 cups filtered water
• 1 raw golden beet, peeled and cubed
• 1 raw red beet, peeled and cubed
• 4-5 leaves chard
• vanilla protein powder
• 1/4 cup frozen mango
• 1 frozen banana

Throw – or carefully place rather because you will be working with beets, into your high-speed blender and blend until smooth.

What is your all-time favorite way to enjoy beets?

Here are 10 of my favorite healthy plant-based recipes inspired from south of the border.

Hola Appetizers and Mexican Munchies

Looking for a simple and fun appetizer for cinco de mayo that will wow the sombrero’s off your margarita drinking friends? How does roasted mushrooms, creamy and spicy guac, melty pepperjack and hot sauce sound?

Mexican bites don’t get much better than this.

quickie guacamole

This is a super-fast guac I make when short on time.

• 1 ripe avocado, halved, pit removed and scored cross-wise as shown below
• 2 tbsp. salsa

stuffed mushrooms

• 8 oz. button mushrooms or baby bella mushrooms, stems carefully twisted off
• small handful daiya pepperjack shreds
• quickie guacamole (see above)
• oil for drizzling (optional) olive, coconut, truffle or grapeseed
• hot sauce and/or cilantro for serving (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. arrange mushrooms, stems removed, hole side up on a baking sheet, stuff with guac, then top with daiya or other vegan cheese and drizzle with oil if you like
3. bake for 20-25 minutes, for extra crispy vegan cheese, turn the broiler on high and broil for about 5 minutes
4. remove from oven and top with hot sauce and sprinkle with cilantro

Let them cool a little before eating or you will burn your mouth…I know it will be hard, but wait…trust me, I know this from experience.

Every Saturday afternoon I am like a kid on Christmas morning. This is when my local organic produce box arrives from Chicagoland’s Irv and Shelly’s Fresh Picks. The food is healthy, fresh, in-season, and leaps-and-bounds better than what I find in grocery stores.

About Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks
They support independent, local, sustainable farms that they personally know and trust, and who use growing practices that I can trust. These hard-working farmers grow food without the use of antibiotics, chemicals or hormones.

bye bye middleman
Did you know that in conventional farming, only 9 cents on the dollar goes to the farmer? While the rest goes to suppliers, processors, middlemen and marketers. Removing the middleman helps make sure that farmers are paid what they should be, so they can thrive and flourish. On their site you can find a list of all the farms they work with and find out what they grow.

They deliver year-round to the Chicagoland and Milwaukee area – so if you live in one of these areas, check them out, and tell them I told you!

On their site you will find a variety of produce box sizes and varieties to fit your need. They also offer a box of the month, and special boxes like cleanse boxes and boxes to build specific recipes – brilliant! For our plant-strong family of four, I order two boxes a week, usually a family box and one of the special boxes like an all greens box or a cleanse box.

the box is the center of our meal universe
My meal planning for the week starts with whatever fresh goodies I get in my produce boxes. Most often, the food doesn’t even make it into the fridge. I start dicing potatoes, peeling carrots and washing greens right away. This is the most essential part of turning my kitchen into a ‘fast-food’ restaurant during the week.

How do I love my weekly produce delivery? Let me count the ways…15 of them actually…

1. Adventure! I eat a variety of plants that sometimes I have even heard of
2. Creativity! I get to craft fun new recipes
3. Smoothies! We drink at least one green smoothie a day
4. Local! We eat seasonally – no blueberries in January
5. Organic! There are a million reasons for this, some of which are explained here
6. Community! Supports local business
7. The greater good! Supports sustainable farming
8. Fresh! Produce is delicious way longer than store-bought – some items are still fresh after more than a week
9. Ripe! Food is picked when it is ready
10. Flavor! It honestly tastes better
11. Service! Great customer support – if something is inadvertently damaged, I receive a credit
12. Convenience! I can manage my account online
13. Knowledge! I learn about what grows locally and how to eat seasonally
14. Greener! Less transportation and packaging
15. Suspense! Every week is like Christmas morning, when I open up the bin, I immediately start dreaming up new recipes

Watch this short video to discover who Irv and Shelly are and what they do at Fresh Picks:

While Fresh Picks is not Community Shared Agriculture (CSA), the idea of getting a weekly produce surprise is the same. If you live in Chicagoland and are looking for a CSA, check out The Local Beet - Chicago. The Local Beet is also my go-to resource for finding farmers markets and other green happenings around town. If you live outside of Chicago, check out farmigo.com. If you cannot find one in your area, do an Internet search for ‘local organic produce box’ as there are many places that run similar programs independently.

Do you order a weekly produce box? What is the weirdest item you received and had no idea what to do with?

Following my first three-day juice adventure, I had to ease back into the world of digestion. To do this, I crafted a super green smoothie that used many of the same ingredients found in the BluePrint Cleanse green juice.

This smoothie is so green and so energizing you will be ready to take on the world!

Makes two large servings

Ingredients

• 1 small cucumber, peel if not organic, otherwise leave the skin on
• 2 celery stalks
• 2 pears
• two big handfuls raw kale or spinach
• 2-3 tsp. peeled, fresh ginger (if you love ginger don’t be shy!)
• 2-3 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tsp. raw agave
• 3-5 ice cubes
• filtered water to thin if needed, adding a little at a time

Blend until smooth and feel nourished and alive.

Like this smoothie recipe? Check out my other simple smoothies by clicking on the one below.

And for more plant-based and gluten-free recipes, sign up for email updates at the bottom of the page!

To kick off the New Year I tried out Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Diet 21-day adventure cleanse. I found it was the same as my day-to-day diet, so calling it a ‘cleanse’ was a stretch. When I was done (for the record, after 10 days, not 21), I thought the next cleanse I tried would be a juice one. Kris Carr recommends juice cleanses in her book and I have heard of people having great experiences so I thought I would give it a go.

I considered doing my own but it seemed like a lot of work. For my first go I wanted to make it as easy as possible. Don’t let anyone tell you there is something wrong with easy! After some searching, a colleague recommended the BluePrint Cleanse, based in New York. They ship anywhere in the country (with a cooler and ice packs so the juice arrives ice cold). She had done the cleanse before and enjoyed it, so I was happy to have a resident expert nearby. I was also excited to have two lovely ladies to cleanse with.

The BluePrint Cleanse has three levels of juice cleanses: foundation, renovation and excavation. The excavation is supposed to be for the most adventurous because it contains the most green juice. You all know I love me some green juice, so excavation it was! I still giggle every time I say I did the ‘excavation cleanse’.

Before the cleanse

My diet is plant-based and gluten-free, so pretty darn clean, with the exception of my favorite vegan indulgences – wine, dark chocolate and French fries. I made sure to minimize these foods for a day or two before the cleanse.

What does a juice cleanse look like?

The cleanse includes 6 juices a day, numbered 1 through 6. You drink them in order beginning with one, start your next juice at least an hour after finishing the last one, and aim to drink the last bottle 2 hours before going to bed.

The round-up

Juices 1, 2, 3, 5 – Green Juice! They were a delicious green juice made with – romaine, celery, cucumber, apple, spinach, parsley, kale, lemon. Talia (19 months) tried to steal some of #5 – sorry baby, but this is mommy’s dinner and I am not sharing today!

4 – Spicy Lemonade! Made with water, lemon juice, cayenne and agave nectar. This was yummy, sweet, and slightly spicy. It was exactly what I needed by the afternoon and I will definitely be making this in the summer months.

6 – Cashew Milk! (AKA liquid heaven) Made with cashews, water, cinnamon, vanilla and agave nectar. It was soothing, sweet with warm undertones from the cinnamon. Of course the kids loved this one too. Jacob asked me ‘mommy, when are you going to make me some #6?’

Day 1 - testing the juicy waters

I wasn’t sure what to expect. Normally I start my day with warm lemon water, followed by some green tea, then a green smoothie. I usually have liquids until lunch, so I wasn’t worried about the morning. Our juice arrived to the office around 9am and we were excited to get the party started and have some green breakfast!

I felt great most of the day, not at all tired, and surprisingly I had random bursts of energy where I had urges to run around the office or go outside and run around the block. I felt like I was jacked up on caffeine except less jittery. It felt like energy from a clean, G-rated source – not from a Starbucks latte or a big ol’ glass of wine.

I felt hungry for about 5 minutes around 4pm. I finished the spicy lemonade and was fine a few minutes later. That was all the hunger I experienced. I really felt like there was A LOT of juice and was worried I wouldn’t get through it all. In between juices I enjoyed herbal teas; dandelion, licorice, green, chamomile.

Overall I feel good, light, cheerful and optimistic.

Day 2 – pumped

After almost 9 hours of sleep I woke up feeling rested and energized. I did some dry brushing (which I do daily – highly recommend!) and had a shower with only the light of the nightlight on – very nice way to wake up.

When I came out of the shower Ryan was at the gym and the kids were sleeping so I took the opportunity to do a little mediation. Some much needed practice.

To get my digestion machine up and running, I had some hot lemon water followed by some green tea. Even by the time I got to work over two hours later I wasn’t hungry yet. So I had some more tea, then my morning juice. I thought I would wake ravenous, but that was definitely not the case.

I hit what is typically my hungriest part of the day between 4 and 6pm. I had signed up for an intense conditioning class at the gym that night, and I planned on seeing how I felt, and going only if I felt good. I was a little hungry, and I knew the workout would be intense so I could have easily sat on the couch for the rest of the evening sipping my tea and juice. I needed to get some pent up energy out though so I went, and I killed it. Disclaimer: I had a little cheat and had 2 tsp. of raw agave before I headed to the gym. I figured agave was in drinks #4 and 6 and if I was going to be throwing kettlebells around and flipping tractor tires a little agave was allowed. Permission granted.

Chasing my workout with the sweet cashew milk (AKA number 6) hit the spot. I just had to hide it from Jacob since he tried to sneak some when I was in the shower.

Onto the last day!

Day 3 - excavation

I am pretty sure I peed every few hours during the night. Did I mentioned the cleanse I chose was the ‘excavation’ level cleanse? It should be called ‘pee-cavation’ – because that’s what I did.

The third day went great, I still felt good, but I was getting excited for some more food variety.

I celebrated the end of the cleanse with a massage and grocery shopping for green goodies: kale, spinach, cucumbers, except I was going to chew these ones and I was going to enjoy it.

After the show ended

According to the BluePrint guide, they say to not go from ‘zero to prosciutto’. While prosciutto isn’t on my list of foods to indulge in, I did want to ease back into other foods. This is what they recommend in the days following the cleanse:

Day 1 – fruit, water, fresh squeezed juice, cucumber, avocado, celery

Day 2 – fruit, raw or steamed veggies, mostly greens, seeds, raw nuts

Day 3 – salads, more raw than cooked, slowly phase in brown rice or starchy veggies like sweet potatoes and squash

Day 4 – meat, fish, salad and veggies (so in my case, more salad and veggies)

Day 5 – back in business! But my body taught me some important lessons.

I eased back into the world of digesting again by sipping on green tea and made a huge green smoothie with cucumber, pear, celery, parsley, lemon and ginger.

Get my breaking the cleanse recipe here; you’re really going to love it! Lunch was a massive spinach salad with some cucs, radish sprouts and a whole heck of a lot of avocado. I was full until dinner!

What this juice feast taught me

Overall, this cleanse was a valuable adventure. My attitude towards food continues to evolve, and I saw just how much my body loves raw and unprocessed foods. I am going to be incorporating more raw goodness into my daily feasts. The more nourished you are, the less hungry you are.

While I was super productive in other areas of my life, I missed playing in the kitchen, so I am looking forward to getting back into the kitchen and all the raw soul-food I am going to make for you!

Update! one month after the cleanse

I think the most benefits came in the weeks following the cleanse. My digestion was improved, needed smaller meals and I continued to feel light and clear-headed.

Would I do the BluePrint Cleanse again? Definitely! Cheers!

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Juice party time!

Have you done a juice cleanse? What did you love about juicing adventure? Let me know in the comments below.