If you're like me, you'll often find yourself neglecting homework for your calc/chem/etc. class late at night to instead watch food documentaries on YouTube in eight parts, justifying yourself by saying that it's just another form of education, and is equally as important. We could go back and forth about which is more important all day, and I'm definately not encouraging anyone to neglect their homework to sit in front of a computer screen for an hour or so, but if you have the time and you're interested, I would definately recommend watching these, they are the best I've found.
Food Matters
You are what you eat, and food does matter
The Beautiful Truth - This is in parts, all of which are on YouTube
All about Gerson Therapy, and how food can heal
Food Inc.
The unfortunate truth about food production in the U.S.
February 20, 2011
What To Do When You Have Loads of Buckwheat Lettuce
My trays of buckwheat generously gave me another full crop! The two crops combined are quite a lot of greens for one person to eat (my parents aren't very interested). So, what then do I do with all of these greens? Find as many different ways to consume them as possible.
1.) Make a sandwich: Toast some Ezekiel bread (or any other whole grain bread). While the bread is toasting mix together cashew butter, miso, and stone ground mustard, in a 3:2:1 ratio. The food processor works best for this, and you're going to want to make extra, if you want to make a killer salad dressing with it later. Spread the cashew-miso mixture pretty thickly on both sides, and then layer buckwheat lettuce, kale, and sliced tomato on one of the pieces of toast. Put the other piece of toast on top and you have yourself a huge messy sandwich!
2.) Make a salad: This makes a HUGE salad. Just warning you.
lots of buckwheat greens
a small handful of sunflower seeds
nutritional yeast
leftover cashew-miso-mustard dressing
1 tbls olive oil
1 tbls apple cider vinegar
1/4 avocado
1 large carrot, shredded
Put greens, avocado, as much nutritional yeast as you would like, and about 1/3 of the shredded carrot, and sunflower seeds in a large bowl.
1.) Make a sandwich: Toast some Ezekiel bread (or any other whole grain bread). While the bread is toasting mix together cashew butter, miso, and stone ground mustard, in a 3:2:1 ratio. The food processor works best for this, and you're going to want to make extra, if you want to make a killer salad dressing with it later. Spread the cashew-miso mixture pretty thickly on both sides, and then layer buckwheat lettuce, kale, and sliced tomato on one of the pieces of toast. Put the other piece of toast on top and you have yourself a huge messy sandwich!
2.) Make a salad: This makes a HUGE salad. Just warning you.
lots of buckwheat greens
a small handful of sunflower seeds
nutritional yeast
leftover cashew-miso-mustard dressing
1 tbls olive oil
1 tbls apple cider vinegar
1/4 avocado
1 large carrot, shredded
Put greens, avocado, as much nutritional yeast as you would like, and about 1/3 of the shredded carrot, and sunflower seeds in a large bowl.
Wisk leftover dressing (there was a bit less than 1/4 cup left) with olive oil and apple cider vinegar. Pour the dressing onto the greens and other things in the large bowl, and mix well.
Put the contents of the bowl on a plate, and put a handful of the shredded carrot on top of the salad, to make it look pretty. Then dust with nutritional yeast.
Give the leftover carrot to your dog, so that he can get some beta carotene. Or save it for yourself.
*I didn't add any, but I think that some powdered or fresh ginger would really accent this salad.
Look at him, just waiting for our picnic outside!
The finished product. Accented by my dad's pink post-it notes.
And now off to start that term paper...the one that's due in two days.
February 15, 2011
Microgreens: Buckwheat!
I've been growing and eating sprouts for a while. When I say a while I mean no more than two years, (I'm an eighteen year old, we think six months relationships are "long term") but nonetheless I've grown them enough to be familiar with them. Different flavors, textures, which are better cooked, better raw, which should never have been sprouted in the first place.
I go off and on sprout kicks, generally just motivated by what I'm craving. Lately I've been craving lots of raw, unadulterated foods. What can I say? They make me feel good. And they're much better of my sensitive digestive system than ToFurky or some gluttonous pasta. Enter buckwheat, which really just wanted to be granola. My work didn't have any hulled buckwheat groats, (the kind that doesn't have the hard, indigestible outershell) So I opted for the unhulled buckwheat, assuming that just like alfalfa, the hull would fall off during the sprouting process. Let me tell you, buckwheat is NOT like alfalfa. You think I would have done my research via SproutPeople, but I didn't. Turns out, unhulled buckwheat is used strictly for buckwheat lettuce, which is grown via growing trays, quite similarly to how wheatgrass is grown. That is , you sprout the grain in a jar, and then put the sprouts in soil and water them and they grow. So I had this buckwheat sprouting in a jar, still in its indigestible hulls, while the growing trays I ordered for my future wheatgrass was still in the mail. What's a girl to do? I put the buckwheat in the fridge, hoping it wouldn't die, and patiently waited until my trays came. When they did, I planted them, and hoped for the best. What a happy accident!
I go off and on sprout kicks, generally just motivated by what I'm craving. Lately I've been craving lots of raw, unadulterated foods. What can I say? They make me feel good. And they're much better of my sensitive digestive system than ToFurky or some gluttonous pasta. Enter buckwheat, which really just wanted to be granola. My work didn't have any hulled buckwheat groats, (the kind that doesn't have the hard, indigestible outershell) So I opted for the unhulled buckwheat, assuming that just like alfalfa, the hull would fall off during the sprouting process. Let me tell you, buckwheat is NOT like alfalfa. You think I would have done my research via SproutPeople, but I didn't. Turns out, unhulled buckwheat is used strictly for buckwheat lettuce, which is grown via growing trays, quite similarly to how wheatgrass is grown. That is , you sprout the grain in a jar, and then put the sprouts in soil and water them and they grow. So I had this buckwheat sprouting in a jar, still in its indigestible hulls, while the growing trays I ordered for my future wheatgrass was still in the mail. What's a girl to do? I put the buckwheat in the fridge, hoping it wouldn't die, and patiently waited until my trays came. When they did, I planted them, and hoped for the best. What a happy accident!
After two or three days. The little guys are popping up!
Right before the slaughter. They look like clover and have a subtle lemony taste.
So now I have a big bag of buckwheat lettuce sitting in my fridge, with a second crop (from the same tray) almost ready. They grow really fast, and they're a very inexpensive way to get some organic greens!
After this I'm going to be trying wheatgrass, which was the initial reason for buying the trays.
I've also tried making raw wheat bread, but (surprise) it has a very raw taste to it. Which is not necessarily what I'm going for. I love my Ezekiel bread, but it'd be nice to find something homemade that's less expensive and just as, if not more nutritionally satisfying. The batch I made was very standard: sprouted wheat berries, ground flax, sea salt, raw honey. I'll be experimenting with a cinnamon-raisin bread and an herbed bread. But for now, enjoy the greens!
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