My Adventure with Smoothies

Late in my mom's illness, there came a time when she wasn't very hungry so I started making smoothies for her. At the time there wasn't as much information out there on making them so I was making them by-guess-and-by-golly.

Most of the recipes I found online at the time wanted you to use a juicer and mom didn't have one, all we had was a blender. The strangest recipe I read was for Carnation Instant Breakfast (strawberry) and beer (ew!). I was having to make do with what we had so most of the smoothies I was making had to use vanilla flavoured Ensure or the occasional Carnation Instant Breakfast as a base. This tended to make the smoothies too sweet for mom and she got bored with them. I was running out of ideas on what to put in them so they wouldn't be as sweet. Mind you, I had come up with a smoothie that mom did like that she claimed tasted like a creamsicle. The strange thing was that there was no orange in it! I had made it with mangos and vanilla Ensure but I was unable to reproduce it because I wasn't writing down what was in it.

I had remembered that one of mom's nurses had mentioned making what she called "steak shakes" by basically blending what was for dinner with broth but here it was again, mom's taste buds were off, and she didn't like the smell or taste of meat also she didn't want to eat "baby food". That made this idea a no go.

Nowadays, there are more options out there and I would be making smoothies differently. First off, I would not be stuck with having to use just Ensure or Instant Breakfast as a liquid base. I'd go and get some unflavoured protein powder, hemp hearts or chia seeds for the protein part of the smoothie (I was already adding yoghurt and silken tofu to them). I'd also be adding greens to the smoothie. Admittedly this would involve some extra prep (who wants celery strings in their drink?) but at least the smoothie wouldn't be too sweet. I'd also try freezing broth (like the mineral broth recipe) into ice cubes so that the smoothie could be more savory. (I have no idea how this would taste but I just might try it as an experiment on myself). 

Some of the other things I'd be doing differently is writing down what I was putting in the smoothies, freezing any leftover smoothies in freezer bags and labeling them as to what was in them. The reason for this is that I think that the smoothies would be easier to get out of the bags rather than from tupperware which was a problem I discovered for myself. Also with the bags being labeled you would know how to make it again if the concoction you come up with proves to be a favorite. 

This infographic is a good beginning on how to make smoothies. Have fun and experiment.

Enjoy!

From: simplysmoothierecipes.com

Quick Tip

I don't know about you, but there are times (way, way too many) where I wake up in the morning and feel as if I have an hangover when I haven't even been drinking. You probably know what I mean, the headache, blurred vision, fatigue, groggy, fuzzy tongue and sometimes nausea. Well I decided to try and figure out why this kept happening to me. What I discovered was that I was probably waking up dehydrated! 

So this is my quick tip: The very first thing upon waking up, without even getting out of bed or very soon thereafter, have a glass or bottle of water. For an added benefit, add some lemon to the water. The lemon will help kickstart your digestion and apparently has an alkalizing effect on the body's Ph balance. Lemon also makes the water taste better. Because you are drinking water the very first thing in the morning, you are also rehydrating yourself before you have your morning caffeine jolt (caffeine is a diuretic) and you are also filling your stomach with something so you'll be less likely to eat too much for breakfast!

I've been doing this for about a week now (though I don't use the lemon myself) and I've found that I wake up faster (it used to take me over an hour feel like I was awake) and those hangover-like symptoms went away really quickly.

Mediterranean Diet Infographic

The Mediterranean Diet Meal Plan infographic

An Unusual Salad Recipe

This is a quick and easy salad that I created with stuff I had on hand. I was wanting to make a pear and blue cheese salad but didn't have all of the ingredients. I've made it for my mom and husband who don't like pears and they liked it (although it wouldn't be their first choice.) This is a good side salad with chicken or pork and is good for picnics and potlucks. 

I will let you know that all amounts are approximate as I usually eyeball and taste to get it right. 

Pear and Tomato Salad

1-2 Anjou or other firm pears (You can use Asian pears but not Bartlett's)
2-3 Tomatoes
1 Small Red Onion
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
1/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) or other mild tasting vinegar such as rice vinegar
1-2 Cloves finely chopped garlic
1 Teaspoon Dried Oregano
Pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon ground Black Pepper 
1/4 Cup Crumbled Feta Cheese

In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix olive oil, ACV, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper to make a simple vinaigrette dressing. Let sit to allow flavours to develop.

Chop pears, onions and tomatoes into a rough dice and place into a bowl. The proportions of the onions, tomatoes and pears should be roughly equal but I usually use a little less pear because of the hubby.

Crumble feta and vinaigrette over top and mix gently. 

Serve chilled.

Options: Replace pear with watermelon. Can be garnished with walnuts for crunch.

Quick Tip

Courtesy of James Barker/freedigitalphotos.net

Buying frozen, fully-cooked, peeled shrimp may cost a little more, but they are quick and easy to use in salads and other recipes when you are just too tired to take the time to peel and cook them. Their only disadvantages are that they tend to be higher in salt, reheating them can make them tough and you can't marinate them for too long.

Proportions on My Plate

I just watched the documentary  "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" about this Australian gentleman named Joe Cross who decided to go on a 2 month juice fast. His goal was to get himself off his medications, particularly prednisone for chronic urticaria, and get himself healthier. 

What he was saying about his lifestyle choices kinda struck a note with me. Even though I'm an holistic practitioner, there are times when my diet is just awful - too many refined foods, meats and just plain junk (I do like my pizzas and take-out chinese food) . Even I tend to lean towards the typical western diet with its emphasis on meat and potatoes over veggies.

So today I've decided that the husband and I are going to be eating more of a Mediterranean/Vegetarian diet (even though he doesn't know it yet) with it's emphasis on fruits, veggies, legumes, lean proteins such as fish and nuts.(I can just hear the husband going "ugg, rabbit food").  Now I'm not going to be doing a juice fast (mostly because I don't have a juicer) but what the movie was saying about the proportions that the Western diet has in regards to a typical plate being 1/2 protein, 1/4 refined carbohydrate and 1/4 of over cooked vegetable just reminded me that this is what I've been doing for the last couple of months. 

One of the first steps I'm going to be doing is changing the proportions on my plate with 1/2 being raw or lightly cooked vegetables/fruit, 1/4 complex carbohydrate and 1/4 protein. This is going to be a fairly simple change and I'm hoping that it's going to help with my energy and skin problems. I also know that this is going to take longer than doing a juice fast but every little bit helps. Now I'm off to look through my cookbooks and get my shopping list together.

A Microwave Popcorn Recipe

Being movie fans, my hubby and I go through a lot of popcorn. I've been through Jiffy Pop, Orville Redenbacher's regular and microwave and a lot of others. Today I did an experiment with regular popcorn...I put a 1/4 cup of  regular popcorn into a brown paper bag and placed it in the microwave for 3 minutes. It came out perfect. No oil and just as good according to the husband. I personally think the trick is to make sure that the paper bag is large enough for the popcorn to expand. Enjoy.

Quick Tip

Use a muffin tin or mini muffin tin to make meatloaf, quickbreads or even breakfast egg dishes. This makes them easy to transport for lunches or snacks and the smaller size makes it more likely that the person will eat everything. I did this for my mom while she was undergoing chemo with banana bread and she'd eat 3 mini muffins while she was there. My husband is more likely to eat 2 meatloaf muffins than to eat a slice and I like the fact I can dump them into a container and take them for lunch.

A Recipe for Homemade Taco Seasoning

I had to recommend this recipe for homemade taco seasoning. I like the fact that you can make up as much as you want and that because it doesn't use salt it will be low sodium. I've used it just like the taco seasoning packets and the filling came out amazing. It's been so long since I used a taco kit I thought that it tasted just the same, except the saltiness of course. I also tweaked it by using Mrs.Dash Garlic and Herb instead of the garlic powder.

Enjoy!

More on Low Sodium Products and Special Diets

I have been updating my post on low sodium supermarket options and mentioned in my post about the hubby's diet that I was looking for a no-sodium baking soda substitute. Well, I found the substitute right here in Toronto at the Specialty Food Shop  in the Hospital for Sick Children.  I found out about them by calling Eat Right Ontario and speaking to a registered dietitian who happened to remember about them.

The Specialty Food Shop is for children and adults with special dietary needs such as Celiac, Cystic Fibrosis, dysphagia, food allergies, energy boosting and more. They have a website (see link above) where you can shop online and they deliver right across Canada (out-of-Provence rates apply). You can even email a registered dietitian about any nutrition questions you may have and the proceeds of sales go to support the Hospital for Sick Children. 

The other thing that the Eat Right dietitian mentioned to me was to ask my local supermarket to carry the products that I'm interested in and it was like "duh, why didn't I remember that?".  So, I'm going to be asking the manager of my local store to see about carrying the Mrs.Dash marinades for me (I'm thinking of asking for the Spicy Teriyaki first) and perhaps the baking soda substitute, mostly because I'm lazy and don't want to go downtown to get what I want (I don't drive so going downtown is a pain in the butt). My next chore is going to be tracking down a low sodium cheddar and other hard cheeses that are available here in Canada (I know Helluva Good makes one but they don't seem to ship it out of the U.S.) I'll let you know here how it goes.

A Diet Dilemma: Proper Nutrition for My Picky Husband

Even with having some nutritional training, having a husband with complex medical conditions can certainly make life interesting especially when it comes to diet. Currently he should be eating a higher calorie, low sodium, low glycemic, high fibre, lower protein diet. Normally this wouldn't be too much of a problem but he has these phases where he just doesn't want to eat certain foods, doesn't have much appetite and he's always been a bit of a picky eater anyway.  So here I am trying to figure out how to keep sodium and glycemic levels down, keep good protein levels, hide veggies and increase fibre in his food so that he'll have a balanced diet and that he'll also enjoy eating. I was even considering getting a juicer but I know he won't drink home made juices even though he'll drink ready made juice and vegetable blends from the store.

Well, one of the things I'm going to be doing is making a bunch of vegetable purees and put them in just about everything. What I'm hoping is that the sweetness of the vegetables is going to help offset any bitterness that the husband seems to perceive in the taste of food. This is going to be the most I've used my blender in a long time. I'm just hoping he's not going to ask me what I'm up to because I can just hear him in my mind saying "don't you dare". If I have to, I'll go and buy baby food to use. The trick will be to find ones that don't have added salt or sugar.

For fibre I'm thinking  going to go and buy some inulin fibre as it is tasteless and colourless or perhaps some psyllium or ground flax seed. I'll be checking with the husband's specialist first  as we don't want to affect his treatment but if it's allowed I'll be putting it in just about everything as well. If I choose the ground flax, it also has an added benefit of being high in omega 3 fatty acids which he needs. Hiding this in his food is not going to be as much of a problem as I have gotten him used to me putting things like All-Bran or rolled oats in his meatloaf.

I am hopeful that doing these two things is going to be useful, but with the husband's list of foods he doesn't like or thinks are icky it is still a challenge. It's very limiting when you can't use certain foods. His current list of dislikes are things like rice (he was never gassed about it anyway) meat, peas (my mom didn't like them either so I'm used to this one but I love them), beans, smoothies, wheat products except for stuff that's crunchy or too sweet like doughnuts, cooked spinach, celery, cucumbers, raw vegetables except for salads, anything in the cabbage family (important for their cancer fighting properties), nuts, seeds, tofu, yogurt, anything in a sauce, anything too soft like stews, leftovers, beet roots (good for the liver but he will eat the tops), and anything spicy so no curries and the turmeric in it with it's anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties. I'd love the husband to eat a more Mediterranean diet but then again there are foods in it that he won't eat. If man could survive on desserts alone, hubby would be a happy camper.

So, it's going to be desserts that I'm going to be starting with. These are going to be great places to hide things like extra fibre, squash and beets. Adapting the recipes is going to be a lot of trial and error but it should be fun. I think the first dessert I'll make is a red velvet cake as there are recipes online for ones made with beets, it's replacing the sugar with stevia and finding low sodium baking powder and soda (they do exist) that will be the experiment. I'll let you know how it goes.

Do you have any tricks and tips on getting picky eaters to eat things they think they don't like? Let's share.

Make Your Own Greek Yogurt

I remember one day when I was living downtown and at my local Greek restaurant when the owner asked me to go to the store to get her a container of Astro's Balkan Style Yogurt.  She was making a B-I-G pot of yogurt for their tzatziki. It was a two day process, one day to make the yogurt, the second to strain it for the tzatziki. That's when I realized that I had been doing this for a long time but I had known it under another name -  labneh or yogurt cheese.

 All you need to make Greek yogurt are a couple of things: a glass bowl, a strainer, a basket type coffee filter or cheese cloth (paper towel will do in a pinch but I find it leaves a funny taste behind) and a yogurt that preferably doesn't have any fillers or thickeners like gelatin (powdered milk is OK as is whey protein concentrate but be aware that these are technically thickeners) .

Bowl, strainer, cheese cloth and yogurt

 What you do is place the strainer, lined with the coffee filter or cheese cloth, over the bowl and put the yogurt into the strainer. Place all of this into the fridge overnight or a bit longer (the longer it drains the thicker it gets). In the morning all the excess whey will have drained into the bowl and in the strainer will be your thickened yogurt. You can then take your yogurt an put it into a covered container. And that's all there is to it. I like doing it this way because regular yogurt goes on sale all the time usually for about $1.99 for 750 g and for my little bit of effort I've saved myself some cash.

My own Greek yogurt

For this batch I'm thinking of adding some protein powder I have lying about to some of the yogurt to see what the taste is like and to up the protein content, the rest I'm leaving plain so I can make tzatziki (just adding garlic and shredded drained cucumber) and a curry marinade. As I'm writing this I'm wishing I had fresh figs for a desert - figs topped with yogurt with some lemon peel and a drizzle of honey or balsamic vinegar-yum.

Have you ever done this and how do you like to use yogurt?

Some Low Sodium Supermarket Options Updated

Nutrition and sodium levels in food are a concern for anyone but particularly when you are ill or caring for someone with special dietary needs.  With chemotherapy, my Mom's tastes changed - she wanted nothing that was too salty or sweet and currently my husband is on a low sodium-diabetic diet.

 This makes life interesting when going shopping at the supermarket. 

According to Health Canada, you're to look for foods with  less than 360 mg of sodium in a serving or 15% of the Daily Value and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency states that foods containing 140 mg or less may be labeled as low sodium. Some of the words to look for are "No Salt Added", "Sodium Reduced", "Low in Sodium" and "Salt Free"

Make sure to read the nutrition labels because sometimes when they cut the salt they add sugar.

I have found these products in NoFrills, FreshCo, Loblaws, Grocery Gateway, and Metro but unfortunately not all in the same place.

I'll be updating this list periodically when I find new things that are low sodium so check back every so often.

Breads
There was a press release in February of 2012 by the CDC on hidden sources of salt in foods and bread was near the top of the list. I had figured this out a couple of years previous while trying to find a type of bread that was low in salt for Mom. 

Some good brands are Rudolph's Bakery, some of Dimpflmeier Bakery's and apparently there is a new line of breads by Dempster's called Healthy Way that has 110 mg of sodium per slice. Dempster's also has a sodium counter on their site.( I've not seen the Dempster's in my stores yet but hopefully soon.) I had also found a bread that had about 95 mg of salt per slice but I've forgotten the brand . I'll let you know what it was when I find it again.

Update: The bread that has 95 mg of sodium per slice is the Rigsky Bread from All Stars Bakery and their Baltic Rye Bread has 80 mg of sodium per slice.

I'll just say this, Rye breads, for whatever reason, seem to be one of the lower sodium options out there that are available in the supermarket. 

Salt Substitutes
Mrs. Dash original and garlic and herb blends are a staple in my kitchen but I wish I could find her marinades in the store (They're available online from http://healthyheartmarket.com/ and they ship internationally). I also use Club House No Salt Steak Spice ( I like it on my eggs) and a product called NoSalt which is potassium chloride (no good if you're on a potassium restricted diet).
Loblaws Blue Menu no salt added Sun-dried Tomato and Herb (my new favorite)
A.Vogel Herbamare Sodium Free Again potassium chloride but infused with 14 herbs and vegetables

Butter/Margarine
Unsalted butter and Becel's unsalted margarine

Bacon
Lou's Quick and Easy Traditional Slice (140 mg sodium per 100 g serving - way less than even sodium reduced bacon)  It's kind of like peameal bacon without the cornmeal and cooks in 2 minutes.

Canned Goods
Clover Leaf low sodium Tuna and Salmon, Eden Organic no salt added beans, refried beans, vegetables and tomatoes,
Campbell's no salt added broths, 

Condiments
Kozlick's Canadian Mustards a little pricey (and delicious) but only 35 mg sodium per 5 ml or 1% of the Daily Value for the XXX variety (they have over 30 types and they can be bought online), Heinz Easy Squeeze low sodium ketchup, Loblaws Blue Menu Low Sodium Ketchup Style Sauce , Kikkoman Sodium reduced soy sauce, Hellman's Mayonnaise  (95 mg per tablespoon) and Kraft no sugar, no salt peanut butter (tastes like regular Kraft peanut butter and no stirring). Liquid Smoke This stuff is great-it adds a barbecue flavor to anything you put it in. 

Cheeses
Unfortunately there is not a lot of choices out there. Cracker Barrel used to make a low sodium cheddar but they stopped, probably due to costs and no one knowing about it (I only saw it once at a Metro years ago) But there are some options such as Swiss cheese, Bocconcini and fresh Mozzarella in water. Some brands are better than others just make sure to read the labels. 

Cereals
Puffed rice, Quaker Harvest Crunch, Alpine Muesli, and Cheerio's Multi Grain, Multigrain Spooners Frosted (only 1 mg of sodium and 9 mg of sugars)

Snacks
Lay's Chips lightly salted, Hunt's Snack Pack Lemon Meringue Pie, and Dole Fruit Bowl in Gel, Triscuit Low Sodium Roasted Garlic and Herb (50 mg Sodium), Dare Breaktime Ginger Cookies (65 mg of Sodium)

Beverages
Ovaltine Chocolate Has 25 mg of sodium and 13 g of carbohydrates of which only 8 g are Sugars
Carnation Hot Chocolate Marshmallow High in Sugars (19 g)  but has 40 mg of sodium per 3 Tbsp

Miscellaneous
Manischewitz Matzo Farfel Basically unleavened crushed crackers that can be used for breading or stuffing and has 0 mg of sodium per 1/4 cup
Paxo Stuffing this is the lowest sodium box of stuffing that I have found so far, even lower than the reduced sodium Stove Top stuffing.

This list is by no means comprehensive but it goes to show that there are low sodium options available at the local supermarket. Happy Hunting!

A Useful Recipe

While my mother was undergoing chemotherapy, I was worried about getting nutrition into her because of the nausea and her lack of appetite. I mentioned this to her nurse and she loaned me a couple of books to look through until her visit the next week ( Thank You Nurse!). I busily copied some recipes out by hand and tried them out. One was for a vegetable broth that was quite tasty and I was still using it until I misplaced my copy  after reorganizing my home office (Oops) .

I wanted to share the recipe because it is a great base for any dish, nutritious, and tasty but I couldn't remember the author's name! So, today I decided I'd try googleing for the broth. I figured " you never know, everything seems to be on the net these days and perhaps someone else thought it was a great recipe too". Guess what....I found it! Here's a link to the recipe for the Magical Mineral Broth  (I thought it was called Super Broth but I found it anyway).  Now that I've found the recipe again I'll be making it soon and trying it out in the slow cooker, with a few other tweaks for the husband's dietary needs, and try to figure out what to do with the leftover vegetables (I hate to waste them, they are still full of fiber). 

Because I found the recipe, I now knew the author's name so I googled her and found her website http://rebeccakatz.com/ . She doesn't have a lot of recipes there but I'm going to be trying a few of them and probably get her book The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen which is where the original recipe was from. From what I remember (it has been a couple of years) it was full of stuff on portion sizes, snacks, balanced nutrition, what to eat when nauseous and other great advice. I also liked the fact that the recipes were great for anyone and not just people undergoing cancer treatment.

Enjoy!