Cilantro and Hemp Seed Dressing

I love Mexican flavors.  My husband will tell you that if anyone mentions Mexican food I immediately perk up and ask where and when are we going, often not dropping the subject until the date has been set.  Since starting the ETL 6-Week  Challenge last week, I realize that there probably isnt much for me to eat at a Mexican restaurant for the next few weeks.  Cheese comes on just about everything, the chips are deep fried, and the sauces, salsas, and beans are heavily oversalted.

BUT, that wont stop me from making dishes with some Mexican flavors at home!  Cilantro is a fantastic herb that can go well with many different cuisines, and I love it in Mexican dishes.  Since on the 6-Week ETL Challenge I have been eating big big salads and lots of steamed veggies daily, I thought I would make a yummy cilantro dressing to use throughout the week.

This recipe features hemp seeds (also known as hemp hearts), which are small seeds from a commercial hemp plant (related to marijuana plant family, but with none of the inebriating side effects).  I buy my hemp seeds in a large bag from Costco and I store it in my fridge next to my ground flaxseed and chia seeds.  To find hemp seeds where you live try Costco or your local health food store.  They can often be found in the bulk bin at the grocery store as well.  If all else fails, order them on Vitacost or another health/bulk food website.

If you dont have access to hemp seeds and HAVE to have this dressing right this minute, the hemp seeds can easily be replaced with raw cashews or raw sunflower seeds.

Cilantro and Hemp Seed Dressing
Time: 5 minutes
Servings: 4-6 servings

Here I enjoyed the Cilantro and Hemp Seed Dressing drizzled over
steamed green beans and topped with raw sunflower seeds.
Best way to get your 1 lb. of raw veggies in a day!

Ingredients:
        1/2 cup hulled hemp seeds
        1/2 cup chickpeas
        1/2 to 1 cup water
        1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro
        2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
        2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
        1 Tbsp your favorite no-salt seasoning blend (optional)
        1 tsp minced garlic
        1 tsp chili powder

Instructions:
1.)  In a high speed blender blend all ingredients starting with 1/2 cup water until smooth and creamy.
2.)  Add more water and blend for the desired consistency.
3.)  Serve on top of steamed vegetables, or chill and serve as a veggie dip or salad dressing.

Amys Notes:

Now, some people dont have a taste for cilantro, and thats fine, but for those of you who do, check out some awesome reasons to add cilantro to your repertoire today!

• Cilantro helps detox heavy metals from the body
• Cilantro is available all year round in most markets
• Cilantro is inexpensive at usually less than $1 per bunch
• Cilantro is an herb that goes well with Mexican (my fav!), Thai (another fav!), and Indian cuisines (another fav!... ok I just love all food!)
• Eating cilantro can have anti-anxiety activity

On another note, check out the gorgeous lavender I harvested from my garden earlier this week!
Some of it ended up in a vase in my kitchen and the rest is drying in bundles to be saved for tea and aromatic crafts.

Health and Happiness,

Amy

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Cranberry Dijon Dressing

I hope everyones week is going well.  We have had a busy whirlwind of the last week or so!  Kevin and I finally (FINALLY!) joined a local gym last week.  We have put this off for a while, (1) because we are still working on paying school loans and trying to save money wherever we can, and (2) we did not want to be part of that notorious "New Years Resolution" group that get gym memberships and crowd up the gyms at the beginning of the year, but soon lose motivation and get snickered at by the regular gym people.

So far, I love it!  It is a fairly large gym, but not so much so that you feel intimidated.  They have an approachable weight room, mats for stretching and floor exercises, an open cardio area, several basketball courts, a cycling room, a large studio room for Zumba, and a lovely relaxing yoga studio.  I have been doing 3-4 days on, 1-2 days off.  I also alternate between yoga days, and weight and cardio training days.  I have felt moderately sore in certain areas, but the yoga helps a lot to keep me from feeling too stiff.

Since we have started a routine of going to the gym in the evenings (I dont know if we will ever be morning workout people!), much of my nights are eaten up by working out, showering, heating up frozen leftovers or making a quick salad, reading or knitting, and then bedtime.  Yesterday, however, was a rest day and I had one of my best girlfriends over for dinner.  I made us a lovely salad with baked sweet potatoes on the side.  For the salad I decided to create a new dressing (Yay!  Finally a new recipe!).  Hope you enjoy:

Cranberry Dijon Dressing

Servings: 2 cups dressing, approximately 8-10 servings
Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup filtered water
• 1/2 cup raw almonds
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries (craisins)
• 2 Tbsp dijon mustard
• 1 Tbsp miso
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Instructions:

1. Place all ingredients into a high speed blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
2. If the dressing is too thick for your liking, add water by the Tablespoon and blend until you have reached your desired consistency.
3. Serve as a sweet and tangy dip, or on a nutritious salad of your choice.
4. Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week or so.  Add more water and shake if the dressing thickens after being stored.

Amys Notes:

I used this dressing on the salad pictured below, which contained mixed salad greens, broccoli, carrots, red onion, chopped almonds, raw pumpkin seeds, and craisins.  So Yummy!
Also, please forgive the lower quality of pictures!  I have been working with my iPad camera, and have been testing out different Photo editing apps to get the best quality for my time and money.  Remember that all my images are Pin-able now too!

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Orange Carrot Cashew Dressing

Have I mentioned that I am making my way through Dr. Fuhrmans new book, The End of Dieting? Probably not.  Im a gruelingly slow reader and I often cheat abandon take breaks in the middle of books to read short fun things on the side.  Lately Ive been switching between The End of Dieting and Are You there, Vodka? Its me, Chelsea, by Chelsea Handler (hilarious!).

Although I have read Eat to Live (thrice?), Super Immunity (twice), and watched most of Dr. Fuhrmans PBS specials, I felt like I wanted a refresher with The End of Dieting book.  It has been just that: motivation to get my butt back into gear with eating more vegetables.  A lot of times I get caught up in the "Oh! This is vegan?" or "Awesome! That is plant-based?", that I forget to make it my focus to eat high nutrient-dense vegetables.  It has helped me to remember that, although foods like one cupful of dates is technically vegan and plant-based (which I have used this amount in a dessert recipe before, yikes!), it is a ton of sugar and I would get so many more nutrients AND feel fuller on a quarter of the calories and five times the volume of cooked and raw vegetables.

Do you find yourself falling into the "well I guess this is vegan and technically plant-based" trap?  What helps you to get motivated to start adding back in more veggies?

Im a little over halfway through EoD, and I was inspired to make this dressing that is similar to one of Dr. Fuhrmans favorite dressings that he talks about in just about every book he has written. Rather than bothering to look up a recipe this morning, I just threw this together with what I had on hand and sounded good.  In the rush of the morning I let this dressing blend while I was chopping salad ingredients (kale, red cabbage, red onion, carrots, broccoli).  I stopped the blender to check the consistency and taste after a while, and O... M... G... this dressing is amazingly yummy and satisfying!  I just had to share it with you :)

*Note: I have provided an Amazon link to The End of Dieting book below.  If you happen to want to purchase it and you use my link, I get a tiny bit of money from the purchase, which goes towards a new camera for the blog that I have been saving up for.

Orange Carrot Cashew Dressing
Time: 5 minutes
Servings: 6-8 servings

Ingredients:
        1 orange, peeled
        1/2 cup raw cashews (sub white or cannellini beans for less fat)
        1/2 cup plant-based milk, more to thin
        1 raw carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
        2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
        2 tsp ginger paste, or 1 inch fresh ginger

Instructions:
1.)  Throw all of the ingredients into a high-speed blender and blend on high until smooth, adding plant-based milk to thin to your desired consistency.
2.)  Serve chilled as a dip or delicious salad dressing.

Amys Notes:
Here is my salad from this afternoon that I topped off with the dressing.  I cant remember the last time I looked forward to a salad this much!

How was everyones 4th of July holiday weekend?  I watched the Spokane fireworks from my downtown office balcony with some friends.

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One Two Dressing

I dont know why, but this work week seemed to drag on for me.  I had a really bad nights sleep Monday evening and it has seemed to throw off my whole week.  I had one of those nights that I kept throwing off the blanket being hot and sweaty, only to be freezing and grabbing for it again 10 minutes later.  The reason my mother would give me (the reasons she gives me for most things) is: hormones.  Growing up and even now, she would always tell me to "Blame it on hormones."  If I had a day where I just felt like crying - hormones.  If I felt forgetful or unfocused - hormones.  Even if I was clumsy and spilled food on my favorite shirt - hormones.

I dont think I want to blame my bad nights sleep fully on hormones this time.  Spring weather in the inland northwest is my least favorite of all.  It is nice that the weather gets warmer and sunnier, but it still seems to hang on hard to that winter chill.  Probably the reason for my hot sweat-then cold night of sleep was just Spring being Spring..... and hormones ;).

In an effort to catch up on my sleep, Ive been going to bed decently early and sleeping in a bit more than usual, leaving little to no time to make or pack much of a lunch.  So, one morning this week I threw together in a large tupperware container some fresh spinach, a whole cucumber, and a whole avocado to be chopped and prepped at work.  For the dressing, I grabbed my jar of almond butter, scooped a bit into my to-go dressing container, topped off with balsamic vinegar, and ran out of the door.

To my surprise, it ended up being a dang good salad!  The best part was the dressing, so I thought I would share with you guys how simple and easy it is to make it.

One-Two Dressing
Time: 1 minute (Ha! Not even!)
Servings: 1

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp almond butter
• 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1+ Tbsp water to thin

This was a salad that I made for a good friend and I before we went on an outing together today.  In the salad was mixed greens, shredded carrots, thinly sliced red onions, and french lentils with my one-two dressing.  Yum!

Instructions:

1. Put the almond butter and balsamic vinegar into a small, airtight tupperware container with about 1 Tbsp of water.
2. Secure the lid and shake the tupperware.  Open, and assess if you want to add more water.  Continue to add water if needed and shake until your dressing is smooth and the consistency that you like.
3. Serve on top of a green salad.

Amys Notes:

I couldnt believe how simple, easy, and delicious this dressing was.  It was easy as one, two... yep, that is it.  These two ingredients go so well together to give a nice balance of savory and tangy.  For those of you who dont have a high powered blender, or dont want to make a big batch of dressing that goes bad before you can use it, give this dressing a try!  The fact that this dressing takes just seconds to prepare (and gives your arm a little work out (haha!) makes it that much better!

Here was the salad that I had earlier this week with this great dressing.  Spinach, avocado, cucumbers and one-two dressing.

How much time do you spend prepping your lunch each day?

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Vegan Caesar Dressing

I hope everyone has been having a splendid week.  Kevin and I got the keys to our new apartment yesterday and are moving things over at a bit of a leisurely pace, which is very nice.

The day before that, Tuesday, I ended up going to a doctors clinic for what I thought was an ear infection coming on.  On my drive to the clinic, the pain in my ear had spread to behind my right upper cheek bone and eye socket.  I tried to breath deeply to lessen the pain, but when I breathed in too much, sharp pains shot up into the right side of my face.  By the time I got to the clinic and was taken to a patient room, the pain had worsened to the point that my right cheek was numb.  This really scared me to the point that I came close to fainting several times because I thought something worse was happening to me.  It turns out that I have TMJ (mandible joint problems) that flared up some sore muscles and tendons (think knee joint pain but in your face!).  The pain and anxiety caused my face to go numb, which snowballed into me panicking to the point of nearly fainting.

In the end, my doctor just recommended relaxing, breathing steadily, and taking Advil when I feel the pain start to come on in the future.  Essentially, I was having a massive migraine that was brought on my TMJ pain and stress.  The TMJ pain probably flared up in the first place because of stress, from clenching my jaw and not knowing it.  I went home and spent the rest of the day in bed with no lights and no sounds for the most part.  Kevin was so sweet and made me dinner (Mac and cheese, dont judge, it is my sick food sometimes), and he laid in bed helping me relax and watching some Netflix comedies to cheer me up.

In conclusion, migraines suck.  I have never had one before, but have seen my mom deal with them for years.  I just hope that they are few and far between, especially now that I am paying attention to how my jaw in working when its at rest and when I am eating.  Overall the thing that scared me the most was my face going numb from the pain and anxiety.  My mind started racing uncontrollably thinking "what if something is neurologically wrong?" or "what if I have a stroke and my face will droop?"  I know, crazy questions, but in that moment, your brain thinks of anything and everything.  Thinking this way just made me panic and become more numb and faint.

After the whole ordeal was over, I just had to remind myself exactly why I eat the way I do and try so hard to be healthy: to have a long and healthy life free of disease.  This desire seems more and more real to me now.  At first when I began eating a nutritarian diet, I did it all for weight loss.  Over the last two years it has developed into doing it to feel good, have energy, sleep better, and to boost my immune system.  Now Im seeing it in a whole new light to protect me from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and dementia later in life.  I couldnt imagine living with the fear of those diseases looming over me for life, and with a Nutritarian diet, I dont have to.

How has your reasons for living a healthy lifestyle changed over time?

Now onto something I have been excited to post since this weekend... I finally made a vegan caesar salad dressing!  I have been wanting to give this a try since this summer when I successfully made Vegan Ranch Dressing and Vegan 1000 Island Dressing.  For Caesar, I had no idea where to start.  I knew I wanted it to be nut based, have no oil, and very little to no sugar or salt.  I started this weekend by looking at the ingredients in my husbands Caesar dressing bottle, then started looking up how Caesar dressings are traditionally made online.  It turns out that a common ingredient in Caesar dressings is anchovy paste.  If that doesnt want to make you gag, I dont know what will!  If this slight fishy taste went into the dressing, I decided I could use a bit of dried kelp.  That would add a little bit of sodium to the taste as well.  Parmesan was also a main ingredient, so an easy fix was to use nutritional yeast.  Overall, I think I achieved the taste I was going for, and especially the consistency.  Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup raw cashews
• 3/4 cup water, more to consistency
• 3-5 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp roasted garlic cloves
• 1 Tbsp dejon mustard
• 1 & 1/2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 dried date
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt or dried kelp
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp onion powder

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 F.  Line a cookie sheet with foil and place several cloves of garlic, detached from the bulb, but not unwrapped fully.  Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the cloves are able to be pierced with a fork.
2. While the garlic is roasting, prepare the other ingredients.  Boil enough water to cover the cashews in a small bowl, pour, and let sit for ten minutes before draining and adding it to the blender.
3. Add the remaining ingredients to a high power blender.  Once the garlic had roasted, peel off the outer layer and add approximately 2 tablespoons of roasted cloves to the blender.  Start with 3/4 cups of water and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice and add more by the tablespoon to achieve the consistency and taste you desire.
4. Blend on high until smooth and creamy.
5. Store in a refrigerator for a bit before serving (remember the cashews and garlic that went in were hot or warm, which will make the dressing not quite the temperature you want).
6. Serve on top of any salad, or for a Caesar Salad, have it on lettuce, sprinkled with nutritional yeast and croutons on top.  Enjoy!

Amys Notes:

• If you have a nut allergy to cashews, try making the recipe with sunflower seeds, pine nuts, walnuts, almonds, etc.  Or a combination of any nut/seed you would like.  Overall, it will give you a similar taste.
• If you dont have dried kelp, it is not a major ingredient and can be easily left out.  I would suggest blending all of the ingredients together before adding salt, for you might not need it.
• Be careful to add your water tablespoon by tablespoon.  I found the exact right consistency for me somewhere between 3/4 and 1 cup of water added.

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Berry Poppy Seed Dressing

My two favorite parts of a grocery store are the produce section (for obvious reasons) and the bulk bin section.  Bulk bins are getting much more popular these days and carry just about everything including dried beans and legumes, whole grains and flours, nuts and seeds, as well as spices.

Buying items in bulk is great for getting as little or as much as you want of an item.  I also appreciate how it cuts down on packaging for sustainability reasons.  I find that when I shop in the bulk bins I save money on items in each section, but particularly on beans, whole grains, and spices.  When bought by the bag, beans can cost $2-$3 per pound, whereas I find them in the bulk bin around $0.50-$1 per pound.  Grains are about the same ratio in price differences as beans.  Spices are often where the biggest difference is.  Some tiny spice jars can cost $4-$8 depending on what you are getting, but in the bulk section can be a quarter of those prices or less.

Some of my favorite items from each section that are staples in our house are as follows (because I love making lists!):

• Dried beans/legumes: pinto beans, small red beans, garbanzo beans, black beans, black eyed peas, brown lentils, red lentils, yellow and green split peas
• Whole grains: rolled oats, steel cut oats, brown rice varieties, wild rice, pearl barley, millet, quinoa
• Flours: whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, chickpea flour, almond flour, smelt flour
• Nuts and Seeds: (all raw) cashews, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, chia seeds, hemp hearts, and ground flaxseeds
• Spices: cumin, coriander, chili powder, cayenne pepper, dried basil, dried parsley, dried thyme, dried rosemary, dried oregano, dried ginger, dry mustard, onion powder, garlic powder

Last time I loaded up in the bulk bin section, I thought I would try something new and decided to get poppy seeds.  I thought a sweeter poppy seed dressing sounded wonderful and remembered that I had froze some raspberries and blackberries a week ago when they were on sale at the produce market.

Berry Poppy Seed Dressing
Time: 5 minutes
Servings: 6 servings

Ingredients:
        1 cup frozen mixed berries
        1 cup unsweetened plant-based milk
        1/2 cup raw cashews
        4 pitted dates
        3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
        1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
        1/2 tsp ground dried ginger
        1/2 tsp dry mustard
        1/4 tsp cinnamon

        1/4 cup poppy seeds

Instructions:
1.)  In a high-powered blender, blend together all of the ingredients except the poppy seeds.
2.)  Blend until smooth and creamy, adding additional plant-based milk to reach desired consistency.
3.)  Add in the poppy seeds and blend on low to mix.
4.)  Serve chilled over a salad or as a sweet, tangy dip.

Amys Notes:
In my recipe I used a mixture of frozen raspberries and blackberries.  You could also use blueberries, huckleberries, strawberries, or any mixture of your favorite berries.  I also used unsweetened soy milk, but feel free to use whatever plant-based milk you like best.  Because of the sweeter nature and the acidic ingredients in the recipe it has a slight yogurt-tangy flavor.

For my pictured salad below, I served the berry poppy seed dressing over a bed of green lettuce (from my neighbors garden, score!), shaved carrots, fresh strawberries, sliced radishes, diced avocado, hemp hearts, and ground flaxseed.  Yum!

Health and Happiness,

Amy

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