Vegetarian Pastitsou

When I met my American Greek husband he loved eating meat, fish and shellfish. He also loved the Greek food he grew up on. I am vegetarian and John showed me that, since meat used to be an expensive commodity, a lot of Greek recipes are meat-free and based on beans, grains, goats’ cheese and yoghurt, fruit, vegetables and olive oil. We ate very well and John surprised us both by deciding to become vegetarian. However, he wanted me to taste his favourite food that his Mom and Yia Yia made for him. It is pastitsou, traditionally made from minced beef, onions, Greek pasta, Greek parmesan cheese, béchamel sauce and delicious herbs and spices. We experimented and eventually came up with courgettes (zucchini) and broccoli as a replacement for the meat. We later added Quorn (a great vegetarian mycoprotein) which can easily be used in recipes to replace meat. Our resulting meat-free pastitsou is so delicious that our meat eating friends ask us to make it for them. Here is the recipe: Continue reading “Vegetarian Pastitsou”

“Crazy Sexy Kitchen” Produces Plant Based Excitement

Several years ago, there were only a handful of vegan cookbooks. Today, there are dozens, and I recently learned there are 200 new vegan cookbooks on the way!

Great news, unless you are deciding which cookbook to add to your library. Fortunately for me, I did not have to choose, as I received a hardcopy version of Crazy Sexy Kitchen as a gift. With the subtitle “150 Plant-Empowered recipes to ignite a mouthwatering revolution”–and avoiding the word “vegan”–Crazy Sexy Kitchen educates us about the many benefits of plant-based diets (for animals, the environment, and health) and declares that any step toward a “plant-passionate diet” and away from the Standard American Diet is a positive one.

Continue reading ““Crazy Sexy Kitchen” Produces Plant Based Excitement”

Tara Stiles – Teaching Us About The Yoga Lifestyle

Some may not realise that yoga is not just the practice of asana, but a whole lifestyle. The Yoga life includes the asana which is usually practiced to stretch the body before meditation, the meditation itself that is a whole new world and many other things. Part of this lifestyle is that we do not harm others which incorporates not eating meat or flesh. A vegetarian lifestyle can be very fulfilling and rewarding, but we do need to be sure that we get all the nutrients we need.

When I first tried vegetarian foods, I was bored with baked or steamed vegetables, but there is a lot more out there. There are some ideas in here that I would never have thought of, but they really work.

Continue reading “Tara Stiles – Teaching Us About The Yoga Lifestyle”

Lose Weight, Lower Blood Pressure and Cholesterol with the Show-Me! Diet

If you would like to find out whether you are one of the 80 percent of people who can control high blood pressure or cholesterol with diet alone, have your doctor give you your current numbers. Follow my Show-Me! Diet for just two weeks, then have your doctor re-check your cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure.

The only foods you eat on the SHOW ME! diet are oatmeal for breakfast, and whole-meal salads for lunch and dinner (see the recipe below). You won’t need to go hungry, because you decide on the portion size. Don’t stuff yourself, but eat until you are comfortably full and satisfied. If you prefer frequent small meals and snacks, that’s fine, too; just divide your salads up and eat as often as you like. You can also have oatmeal at other times of the day if you wish. Continue reading “Lose Weight, Lower Blood Pressure and Cholesterol with the Show-Me! Diet”

Do I Have a Choice?

Do I have a choice?

Man, there’s a question that’s been bugging me for years. And I know it’s been bugging many of you, as well.

It’s a question closely related to the matter of confidence. Because confident people have a mindset of abundance, possibilities and proactivity. Whereas non-fident people have a mindset of scarcity, limitations, and re-activity.

Confident people not only see a variety of options to choose from when making choices. So they rarely, if ever, pick the wrong option; and they always find a way back out if they do. Continue reading “Do I Have a Choice?”

6 Reasons Why People Become Vegetarian

While there is no one single form of vegetarianism, what all forms have in common is a lifestyle that abstains from the consumption of meat, fish, and poultry. One the more moderate end lacto-ovo-vegetarians eat both dairy and egg foods and products. On the other extreme there are the vegans who do not eat or use any animal byproduct, (i.e. meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy, honey, leather products…etc.). In between these two extremes are ovo-vegetarians, who eat eggs but not dairy, and lacto-vegetarians, who eat dairy but not eggs.

The reasons people become vegetarian are many. It could be due to religious/spiritual reasons, like me with Buddhism, or for political, health, ethical, environmental, practical, or aesthetic reasons. Here’s a brief rundown. Continue reading “6 Reasons Why People Become Vegetarian”

Weekly Meal Plan – Low-Fat Raw Vegan

Complex combinations of food and raw food recipes are time consuming to prepare and extremely difficult to digest, so I choose to keep my diet very simple. I enjoy a low-fat, raw vegan diet consisting mostly of monomeals, so the following meal plan may seem a bit bland for you. As you progress on your raw journey, however, you will appreciate and even desire more simple meals. Remember, be kind to your bodytransition at your own pace.

Keeping your diet simple also allows you to spend more time and energy on other aspects of your life, such as fitness, work, and play. Many raw foodists spend enormous amounts of time in the kitchen dehydrating or sprouting this and that. Arent you relieved that you dont have to spend so much time preparing meals or loads of energy cleaning your kitchen after youve used just about every food processor or kitchen gadget you have? Continue reading “Weekly Meal Plan – Low-Fat Raw Vegan”

Broccoli Chatpata, a Healthy Way to Cook a Tasty Dish

Broccoli is very healthy in terms of nutrition. It has got vitamin C, one of the important vitamins that we require in our day to day nutritious diet. It is rich in fiber and also posses some anti cancer properties. In short it’s very healthy vegetable that’s available in market. I would say no other vegetable comes close to broccoli in terms of nutrition. This plant looks like a cabbage. Cabbage has white flower head instead of green.

May be this the reason, the vegetable”broccoli’ evokes a negative response from almost all the food lovers. At least in my experience…

We tried to grow broccoli in our garden but due to very hot summer, this year we couldn’t succeed. This vegetable does not like hot weather. Best time to grow broccoli is from early fall to late spring. Continue reading “Broccoli Chatpata, a Healthy Way to Cook a Tasty Dish”

Vegetarianism – Is it Really a Big Deal?

I have been a vegetarian since birth if I can say and so are thousands of people who were born in Brahmin community like me. In Hinduism, we are divided into different groups originally based on profession. Brahmins were typically the educated ones and were expected to teach others and were also priests. As the society evolved, Brahmins took up wider professions like minister, banker, business etc. Some say that in the Vedic period Brahmins were allowed to eat the meat of sacrificed animals. Then with the spread of Buddhism and Jainism, in order to slow down the conversions to these religions, Ahimsa or non-violence was being spread as the key message of Hinduism as well. Following this, several Hindus, especially Brahmins became vegetarian and this was not a particularly difficult change because they were only allowed to have sacrificial meat anyway and not other meat so it was not a big part of their life. This is also not to say all Brahmins are vegetarian as some remained meat/fish eaters. As far as I am concerned, I mean no harm to animals and am a vegetarian. Now, why am I talking about Hinduism, Brahmins and vegetarian? Reason is that to me it is a bit of a surprise to see people being warned about the ‘pitfalls’ of becoming vegetarian while that has been the way of life for me and for my ancestors with no second thoughts. Also a quick look at where I come from may help you understand why I am surprised. If you have ever been to India, especially southern India, you will find more vegetarian restaurants than non-vegetarian and typically the non-vegetarian ones will say so explicitly on their name board. On the contrary I am yet to come across a vegetarian restaurant in the western world where I live. Continue reading “Vegetarianism – Is it Really a Big Deal?”

Vegan Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Over the summer, I got serious about getting healthy and losing weight. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. A few minor changes, and I’ve lost almost 20 pounds since June! Yet, slowly but surely, as the holidays creep up, I have abandoned some of my healthy habits. So, in an effort to stave off the negative effects of a month of festive bingeing, I’m doing a two week health kick between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Because I’m not going to have desserts for two weeks, I’ve been squeezing in sweets wherever possible; cookies with afternoon tea, good dark chocolate after dinner, and plenty of Thanksgiving pie. Breakfast is the easiest meal to turn into dessert, especially with vegan chocolate chunk muffins.

Muffins have always seemed a special occasion breakfast to me, but I am continually amazed at how quick and easy so many foods are. I whipped up these muffins in half an hour and what was an average Wednesday morning suddenly felt like a special occasion! Continue reading “Vegan Chocolate Chunk Muffins”