Category: Healthy Living

Maryland: Snow in April and Raw foods

Aynaria 1 Comment

Yesterday, if you lived in Western Maryland you might have received snow…

We didn’t receive where I lived, but the temperature didn’t rise above the mid 40’s, and so I bundled up my daughter in her winter coat when I took her to school. You know, it feels strange to be still wearing winter clothes…

What’s even stranger is looking at our garden, and still seeing a lot of tilled earth. Because of the unseasonably cool weather, we have been holding off planting crops, we usually have a bit more in the soil by this time. I’m hoping that we’ll soon have stable temperatures, so or planting can resume. 

I’m relieved we didn’t receive snow in our area. It’s not because I dislike snow, I don’t. I love it, but I definitely don’t want the crops we’ve planted to be affected. 

I didn’t get around to making any raw food pasta yet…but I have raw veggie wraps, raw soup, and made some fruit, and vegetable smoothies. For my daughter, I made chicken and rice.

So yes… yesterday was an all raw food day (for myself). I mainly drank water throughout the day, but I did make some raw juices and smoothies too. Incorporating vegetables into your juices or smoothies is an excellent way to boost your vegetable intake, especially if you or those you’re preparing meals for, aren’t used to eating a lot of vegetables. For my daughter and myself, we love vegetables, but it’s nice to have variety too.

Yesterday, homemade fruit pops were made, and my daughter happily consumed one today; even though we had chilly weather. She likes them because they taste great. I like them since it doesn’t have a lot of junk she doesn’t need. Making your own homemade fruit pops is a healthier, and it can be a cheaper alternative to purchasing   all natural fruit pops from the store. 

I’m definitely happy that I’m taking a break from cooked foods. I decided to switch to raw foods for a little while. I’m not doing it for health reasons. I’m in great health, not doing it to lose weight, I’m at my ideal weight, and I exercise daily. I’m swapping to raw foods, simply because I can. 

Hopefully I’ll get a chance to include pictures of the fruit pops (along with a few recipes) before the week is over.

Fun with Raw foods

Aynaria 21 Comments

For myself, there’s nothing like biting into a ripe peach, juicy tomato, or munching on some dark leafy greens; pure heaven!

We eat plenty of raw foods in our household. I’ve always enjoyed eating foods fresh from the garden. The flavor is miles ahead of what you find in the grocery store. I realize that I’m fortunate to be able to have a garden filled with organic produce.

The beauty of gardening is that you don’t need a lot of area to grow vegetables, so even if your in an urban setting you can have a garden, it just won’t be as big.

Colorful vegetables

Raw food made easy

A  few years ago, I decided to go raw for thirty days. no reason really, it’s something I never tried, and I wanted to eat lighter meals. Eating raw foods was the perfect option.  I’d already eating a lot of raw foods, and I thought it would be interesting to see how I’d manage during that month. Well, a month turned into a year. Initially, it was challenging creating food in a different way, but I soon learned simple is best;  occasionally I’d make elaborate raw food meals, but they were rare.

Over the course of a year, my eyes were open to numerous raw food delicious dishes that I prepared while experimenting in the kitchen.

When I gradually started introducing cooked foods into my eating lifestyle, my raw food pasta maker, Kitchen Aid food processor, and Vita Mix blender, received a permanent spot in the kitchen; because they are amazing.  Six years later, and those machines are still doing well. Foods that are constantly in our rotation are raw collard wraps, vegetable pasta, raw sandwiches, and a variety of homemade butters; raw almond butter is my favorite.

I’ve always had a lot of energy, I did notice an increase while I ate only raw foods, which amazed my friends, since they know the amount of energy I had before. Afterwards, my love for dark leafy greens increased, and you could actively find me trying to include raw or lightly steamed portions into my daily routine.

These days, I still eat a high amount of raw foods, but I have been thinking about eating only raw food for a time. During that time, I’ll share some of the recipes here at Celebrate Life. Today, I believe I’ll be making some type of raw food pasta dish, and so I’ll be sure to take a few photos of whatever I create.

In other news…

WordPress: Disappearing comments

Ghost animated

It appears like some of my WordPress comments have disappeared. Uh oh! Crochet and knitting diva, Nicole, and a brand-new reader (who’s name I can’t remember offhand) have gone missing. After a lot of research it seems that I’ll need to log into phpMyAdmin and repair the comments database, and so I’ll be taking care of that later today.

Once repaired, the comments that disappeared should reappear. Yeah!

Sauteed vegetables: Cauliflower, broccoli, baby carrots, and sweet corn; vegan

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I adore food, but I never overindulge…

I only eat when I’m hungry. In our household we mainly eat whole foods; eating as close to the natural food source as possible, so you won’t see to many prepackaged meals here.

Vegan vegetable stir fry 04 19 12

What you will see is foods bursting with nutrition, flavor, and color;  healthy foods, such as shown in the above photo.

With the exception of the carrots, all the food pictured came from a local farm, so they were fresh. It won’t be long before we’re harvesting our own fruits and vegetables.

Vegetable Stir fry

As you can see, there are variety of vegetables combined in a stir fry; cauliflower broccoli, carrots, and sweet corn. A small amount of olive oil was used, a few cloves of oven roasted garlic, was introduced to add to the sweetness of the cauliflower, carrots, and sweet corn.

A simple meal, but alive with flavor.

 

Breakfast; Tilapia with Pasta and Lemon ginger sauce

Aynaria 10 Comments

We don’t always eat the traditional ‘breakfast food’ for our breakfast, in fact traditional breakfast foods rarely make an appearance in our household…

Tilapia pasta

Tilapia with Pasta and Lemon ginger sauce

This is what my daughter had for yesterdays breakfast…

I added a few ounces of tilapia (fish) to the dish. I also added broccoli, cauliflower, sweet onions, with some herbs and seasonings. I thought about adding grated carrots for additional color, but in the end… I left it as is.

I made a fragrant lemon ginger sauce, to pour over the dish.  The sauce was delicate, and complimented the other ingredients nicely. My daughter loves lemons.  My daughter enjoyed her dish, and asked for seconds, and later thirds.

Of course, I made a vegan version, but mine didn’t have tilapia.

This healthy meal, made a delicious breakfast. What’s even better? From start to finish, this meal was on the table in less than fifteen minutes.

 

Chapati; Indian flatbread? No… more like Indian pancakes

Aynaria 7 Comments

Chapati

After my daughter’s grief for her guinea pig subsided, I decided to do some experimentation with chapati.

I love chapati aka Indian flatbread, but haven’t made it in a few years. Which is kind of strange, since I absolutely adore the bread…

Besides, the common ingredients that are found in chaptis (or rotis) I also added chopped onion to the ingredients. I also included some of the dhal I’d made yesterday, and although it turned out well it wasn’t exactly a flatbread, more like a savory pancake.

If I’d let the dough sit for an hour or so, and rolled the dough balls out into thin circular sheets, it would have resembled the chapati you see in this post. But even with its flaws, my daughter absolutely adored them, and ate two of the chapatis.

It’s nice to see that her grief hasn’t ruined her appetite… the girl is always hungry! My daughter calls what I made, ‘Indian pan bread‘. I think it’s an appropriate name, don’t you?

Tomorrow, I’ll post a picture of my ‘Indian pancakes’, but now I’m off to hang with my daughter.

Word of thanks

Many thanks to those who offered there condolences to my daughters furbaby on Facebook and here, she really appreciated all the kind words.

Healthy food, prepared correctly, is delicious

Aynaria 2 Comments

Indian spices

Creating tantalizing meals that are simple to prepare, nutritious, and delicious, is something I’ve always enjoyed. Meal creation is one of my favorite activities.

I’ve been cooking since I was four years old, even then I liked to create my own meals — without following the directions aka recipe laid out for me, and that part hasn’t changed.

The majority of the meals my mom prepared were healthy, however, she didn’t stray from traditional food preparation, whereas I wanted to explore. Living on my own, gave me the opportunity to use the foods I was used to in different ways. It also gave me the chance to try new things.

I’ve always enjoyed shopping for food, that would enable me to create the numerous dishes While frequenting my favorite foods stores, in my early twenties,I developed a friendly relationship with some of the employees.

Because of my age and working in the corporate environment, some of the older male employees (probably in there 60’s) were shocked, that I adored cooking. A few would joke with me that I couldn’t possibly be a good cook. Too which I promptly replied, “You’re only saying that, because you want me to bring in some of the meals I prepare, and sometimes I would.

Some people dismiss healthier food options, simply because the food they tried was cooked incorrectly. Thanks to technology, those who want to learn how to prepare a food properly can easily access that information via articles or an online video.

Lord Krishna’s Cuisine: The Art of Vegetarian Cooking, is one of my favorite Indian cookbooks. It serves up a tantalizing mix of recipes along with facts about the various ingredients that to into making the dish. I rarely follow recipes, and so this cookbook (like my others) are mainly a resource I turn to get ideas, or inspiration.

Ginger honey garlic sauce over chicken and brown rice

Aynaria 6 Comments

Yesterday was one of those days…

Those who love to cook, might be familiar with it… you enter the kitchen with every intention of making a specific meal, but your creativity leads you in a different direction. Well that happened to me yesterday. It actually has happened quite often. I let the vegetables, spices, and yes… meats tell me what to prepare.

My daughter and father (mom was still in Texas) loved the dish so much, they ate every morsel of meat. The chicken had been marinated the night before in a sauce that I’d prepared, and the chicken made its final resting place in a honey ginger and garlic sauce. However, the only picture I have to show, is my daughter eating leftovers today.

Sauce Chicken brown rice 03 31 12

Of course, the above picture is beautiful. After all,  it features my daughter. But, it’s not quite the lovely photo I had in mind… I had a great presentation, but my daughter didn’t want to wait — and started eating the food before I could take the picture!

The brown rice had been cooked in a light herbal tea blend (I rarely cook rice in plain water) accompanied the dish. The rice was placed in a bowl, and the thick rich sauce was spooned over the chicken and rice. It made a lovely photo. To bad I didn’t take that picture. Ah well, next time…