Tonight was a great example. We had a full spread of brown rice veggie sushi.  There was your typical mix, in addition to cooked mushrooms, and a sweet potato and kale role.  All around it was delicious and totally satisfying.

But since starting to focus more on nutrient dense eating, we’ve eaten/drank(en?) more smoothies than ever before.  We use our fabulous Vitamix to puree all sorts of alternative milks, frozen fruits, and greens.  Yes, you read that right. Like many of you may have seen around the blog world but not tried, greens are a great way to pump up the nutrition of your smoothies.

The one I’m sharing today is one of my most loved creations. I’ve shared it with green-a-phobes, kids, and foodies with great success.

If you’ve never tried spinach in a smoothie, I implore you to try it now. Spinach adds almost no flavor but gives a healthy boost to all types of smoothies.  It packs a punch – full of folate, iron, and calcium.  Interestingly, though, it also contains omega 3 fatty acids and has 5 grams of protein per cup which are two great highlights for anyone who’s cutting down on meat intake.

Greeña Colada
Serves: 2

1 cup coconut water
2 cups spinach
1 cup frozen pineapple
1 ripe banana

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. If you don’t have a strong blender, it’s best to put the liquid and spinach in first and puree them before adding the pineapple and banana.  This will ensure that everything is fully pureed.

While at work it’s quite easy to stick to the plan. We have a whole food bar with vegan, no oil added items that taste great. Some of my favorites include tempeh and greens, quinoa, and especially Mexican black beans.  I always leave lunch feeling full and satisfied, though wishing that I had thought to bring my own lunch to save some money.

However, even with traveling down to San Luis Obispo this weekend, we had some fun trying new foods and new restaurants.  We used happycow.com to find some veg friendly restaurants in the area.  And let me assure you, we at well! Tamales at the Natural Cafe, some delicious Thai food, and a fabulous brunch at the Smiling Dog Yoga Studio.  Tempeh salad with avocado dressing.  Delish!

And then for easter we made some great food with great friends -and fellow E2 dieters – on Sunday night.

First off, I made a macadamia nut cheese.  It’s basically a macadamia nut cream, fermented with healthy probiotics, pressed to remove water, and then it has nutritional yeast, onion powder, and more added to it.  In short, I ate far too much of this stuff along with some wholesome Mary’s Gone Crackers.

Crystal made some fabulous, oil-free Indian food, like lentil brown rice and curry with a secret ingredient (ahem, hash browns!).

And we finished off the night with a special treat — something I’ll have to dedicate a full post to tomorrow based on it’s deliciousness!!

How about you?  How do you stick to your healthy eating and/or special diets on holidays and while traveling?

Yesterday’s food consisted of brown rice pudding, a Larabar, two small gluten free burritos filled with guacamole, salsa, beans, and rice, a mango, some chocolate, a bowl of cereal. I’m sure that doesn’t seem like much since well the Larabar was lunch that I made up for with the two burritos.  But I sure did feel full and satisfied.

Unfortunately, though, I’m a bad blogger and didn’t even capture those burritos in all their glory for you. I promise to be better today…or try.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that I was responsible for getting 42 other people started?  Yes, it was a long and very full day.  Not the best day for undertaking a new eating program.  But at the same time, I did have plenty of practice in talking about the program and the different products that fit or don’t fit with it.

All in all, eating-wise, it was a pretty non-eventful day.  You’ve seen the breakfast on lots of other blogs before – a big bowl of oatmeal for breakfast.  Lunch was some Asian broccoli and a whole grain “fried” rice made by our team in the store.  Delicious and full of things like garlic, ginger, tamari, etc.  Dinner was more of the same as we were hosting a Supper Club.

But dessert was the start of the show, or at least I thought.  After seeing Gina over at Fitnessista make Kristen’s Chocolate Cherry Bomb numerous times (did you follow that?)  I decided to go with that.  I subbed almond milk for the water and left out the hemp seeds.  And the result? Delicious and satisfying.  No ice cream, chocolate bars, or baked goods needed for vegan dessert satisfaction.

When I last left you (if anyone is still even here or was here before) I had just quit my job for my dream job, gotten engaged, and made butternut squash soup.  And now?  I’m knee deep in said job (loving it!), planning my wedding, and Spring has sprung.

And I’m finally back.  Whew.

What inspired my return?  Well I had to tell you about the challenge I’m leading at work.  It’s called The Engine 2 Diet and it’s a plant-strong, low-fat 28 day challenge.  Basically vegan. And no oil.  Yeah…

Obviously this is a far cry from my usual stance of moderation in everything, but it’s 28 days and I’m doing it with over 40 other people.  I still can’t believe that many people were interested in participating!

So here’s to the beginning of a big adventure.  I’ll be blogging about it here – and may ask my friends to join in.

So, has anyone ever tried this or any other vegan diet?  What was your experience like?

Hello again, friends. My apologies. Amidst the job change and engagement, I haven’t been doing much blog worthy cooking and as a result posting.

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but the location of my blog has actually changed. As part of my change of jobs, I am now officially starting up my personal chef businees, so that has now taken over the www.deliciousbynature.com domain.

The good news? All you have to do to get my blog is go to www.deliciousbynature.com/blog. Plus, your feed readers should update automatically, which means you’ll still be getting all of my updates!

The bad news? The switch over has changed all of my links. So if you’re trying to get to a specific recipe that you’ve saved or linked to it will no longer work. Hopefully, though, you can just use the search functionality up top without feeling too much pain over the transition.

As you may guess, with all of my busyness I have been keeping it simple. Butternut squash soup happens to be one of my favorite meals – straightforward and in this case all made in one pan and a blender. Doesn’t get easier than that!

Roast Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
Serves 4
1 small butternut squash, cut in half and seeds removed
1 small onion, diced
2 small apples, diced
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 cups vegetable stock

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Sprinkle a little olive oil, salt, and pepper on the squash, onions and apples. Place squash cut side down on a baking sheet. On the other side, spread out apples and onions.

Roast 30 minutes until squash is tender (can be pierced with a fork) and apples and onions have browned. Meanwhile, heat up stock. Once done, scoop out squash flesh into a blender. Add apples, onions, and stock. Puree until smooth. Taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper (or red pepper flakes) as needed.

You know it’s really fall when butternut squash and pumpkin are showing up pretty much everywhere.  In the past, you could also be pretty darn sure that I was ecstatic any time that this is going on. Well now, I want to erase any doubt.  I will be thrilled any time butternut squash is overflowing farmstands and menus because it has new meaning for me.

This lovely dish is the one I ate the night I got engaged to the love of my life. It happened this past Friday after delicious food, beautiful music, and some very sneaky planning as I found out.  And since the weekend turned into being all about us it was filled with food and friends and family.   So right now I am feeling like the luckiest girl around…not only will I be marrying an amazing man but I also got to eat some rocking butternut squash risotto.  I see a repeat of this meal and many other amazing new ones in our future.

And now onto planning the wedding food…

I used to be a cereal addict, and I’m not afraid to admit it.  In the hay days of college, while others were bingeing on alcohol, I could eat a whole box of cereal in one sitting.  I mean, I had standards of course…or at least I thought I did.  I chose what I considered “healthy” cereals since I knew I would eat it all.  Sometimes this included things that blurred the lines though – fatty and sugary granola, Chocolate or Vanilla Almond Special K, Kashi Go Lean Crunch (though you know you shouldn’t eat too much of this fiber-filled baby if you’ve done it before!).

Gradually, though, I’ve moved away from cereal.  I realized 1. that I had no willpower around it and 2. it was usually filled with ingredients I didn’t really want to eat. I’ve felt even more sure of that decision after hearing some of the not so pretty facts on cereal.  Personally, I think these are pretty extreme, so take it with a grain of salt, but information is power (or you can ignore it if you think ignorance is bliss ):

• Most of that cereal you’re chowing on s extruded to make it all puffy and fluffy like that.  This entails processing the ingredients under really high heats and high pressure
• Unfortunately, this combination of heat and pressure damages the proteins of the grains being used, destroys the amino acids, and apparently even destroys those silly supplemental vitamins they add in to make up for the lack of nutrients in the ingredients
• Much of this information was supported by a very interesting experiment in which four sets of rats were fed different diets:

One group received plain whole wheat, water and synthetic vitamins and minerals. A second group received puffed wheat (an extruded cereal), water and the same nutrient solution. A third set was given only water. A fourth set was given nothing but water and chemical nutrients. The rats that received the whole wheat lived over a year on this diet. The rats that got nothing but water and vitamins lived about two months. The animals on water alone lived about a month. But the company’s own laboratory study showed that the rats given the vitamins, water and all the puffed wheat they wanted died within two weeks—they died before the rats that got no food at all. It wasn’t a matter of the rats dying of malnutrition. Autopsy revealed dysfunction of the pancreas, liver and kidneys and degeneration of the nerves of the spine, all signs of insulin shock. source

The good news?  There are plenty of other breakfast options out there:

• Pancakes and waffles!
• Homemade granola
• Oatmeal
• Eggs and toast
• Almond butter and toast (or really almond butter and anything in this house)
• Brown rice or quinoa bowls (love this one by Michelle)

And now I present to you the “raw cereal bowl” as I like to call it.  This idea of what is essentially a fruit and nut salad topped with “milk” originally came from Brendan Brazier’s book “The Thrive Diet“.  I didn’t try it right away, but after letting it float around in my head for a while, one day I decided to try it and now it’s officially become a favorite for both me and my entire family.  Interestingly, it is kind of reminiscent of cereal though it doesn’t contain any grains or, in my case, dairy…but don’t take my word for it!

Raw Breakfast Bowl
Serves 1 (the one in the picture serves 5 and obviously is an easy multiplication…don’t want anyone to be confused)

1 small apple, cored and diced
1/2 banana, thinly sliced
2-5 dates, pitted and chopped
1/4 cup raw almonds or other nuts, chopped
2 Tbsp flax seeds
Desired amount of your favorite non-dairy milk (I’ve been using almond or cashew)

Place the fruit, nuts, and flax in a bowl and top with your non-dairy milk.  It’s really easy as, well, making cereal!

I know that you know that pizza at home is healthier and cheaper than the store bought or take out stuff.  You probably don’t need to hear why I adore choosing my own toppings and creating my own pizza.  In fact, many of your could probably teach me a thing or two about pizza.

No, this post isn’t just about pizza, but more importantly it’s about a better gluten free pizza.  When I recently went gluten free, I tried a few of the packaged pizza crusts and I must admit, they just weren’t cutting it for me.  They all have a bit of that “gluten free” taste which to me is vaguely reminiscent of tapioca starch and grainy brown rice flour.  I had nearly given up, until the other night when I was trying to find a new use for the teff flour wraps that I bought at Whole Foods.

On their own, these babies by La Tortilla Factory, are clearly gluten free, and I had a bit of trouble making them into a sandwich wrap as I had envisioned.  But as a pizza crust??  They are out of this world!  They create a nice crackery thin crust for the pizza and don’t have that “gluten free” aftertaste that I’ve struggled with from the other crusts.

In short?  This is my recipe for the “pita pizzas” of the gluten free world.  A quick, easy, pizza that you can enjoy any night and change to suit your tastes.  Here’s how I make mine – obviously this is just a template.

Gluten Free Pizzas
Serves 1

1 Teff Wrap, frozen (I keep mine in the freezer for longevity)

Tomato sauce
Mozzarella cheese
Pepperoni
Arugula
Zucchini sliced thin and sauteed in olive oil until brown and seasoned with salt and red pepper flakes

Preaheat oven to 450 degrees.  Place wrap on a cookie sheet in the oven for about 2 minutes until starting to brown.

Top with the toppings of your choice, then return to oven for about 3-5 more minutes until the crust is brown and crispy and cheese is melted.

For a while I’ve known that I wanted to help people live healthier through food.  I’ll tell pretty much anyone who asks about my thoughts on healthy eating – family and friends, colleagues, and anyone who takes the time to read this blog.  I find great joy in showing people that healthy food can be delicious food and that the two are not mutually exclusive.  And of course, like many, I’ve dreamed of turning this passion into a career.

Little did I know that my dream job would come along so soon.  When I say dream job, I mean dream job.  It combines my favorite company with my passion for education and my business background.  So it is with excitement and nervousness that I want to share that I recently quit my corporate job to work for Whole Foods as a Healthy Eating Community Educator.

I can’t even believe it as I type this.  I mean, I’ve dreamt of working for Whole Foods forever and now I’m really getting the opportunity to get out in my community and share the message of healthy eating with more and more people.  I’ll be responsible for educating customers, business partners, and team members about healthy eating and helping them to make good food choices.  I also think this will be a great use for my Natural Food Chef skills as I can teach people how to use the ingredients that that store has available.

As you might suspect, this change is a big leap of faith for me.  After all, I actually quite liked my current job, but when an opportunity like this arose I just found that I couldn’t say no.  In two weeks I will officially be making my dream my full time job.  (I’ll also be taking on personal chef clients if you know of anyone in the SF Bay Area…more on that to come later!).  I can’t wait to share this adventure with all of you!