Tofu Quinoa Fresh Rolls With Easy Peanut Sauce

I love the end of spring and beginning of summer. The beginning of summer is always filled with the anticipation of all the good things to come... Sunshine. Farmers market bounty. Picnics. Beach trips. The best action movies of the year. And all of the amazing summer food.

As the weather starts warming up, I naturally start craving lighter foods and wanting to spend less time in the kitchen and more time outside. Can you relate?

And that's where these fresh rolls come in. Fresh rolls are a popular Vietnamese dish and I love them in summertime when fresh basil and cucumber are are season. These fresh rolls involve thin strips of crispy tofu combined with quinoa for a hearty, protein-rich snack or side dish. I love enjoying these with a simple green salad while lounging in the sun. Hooray for (almost) summer.

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How to Sprout & Cook Beans

Eating healthy is expensive.

Cooking food from scratch is so time-consuming.

I don't know how to cook my own beans; it's really hard!

I don't like beans. Beans are really boring. 

I've heard all the excuses before.  And believe me, I used to be there.  Eating beans? That sounded like a punishment.  But, once you learn how to cook beans and realize that it's really easy to make them taste absolutely delicious, I promise you'll start making them from scratch.

First, let's start with why I love beans. Beans are a fabulous source of vegetarian protein and fiber. And as a bonus, beans are incredibly affordable. If you buy beans in the bulk section, organic beans usually cost $1.29 - $1.99 per pound, depending on the type of bean. A pound of beans could easily feed a family for several meals so making beans a staple in your household will lower grocery bills compared to using other sources of protein.

Many people complain about having digestive problems or gas after eating beans and so I wanted to share some of the best ways I have found to make beans more digestible:  

1. Chew beans thoroughly. Slowing down and chewing properly is always important (no matter what you are eating), but this is especially helpful if beans tend to give you extra trouble. 
2. Take digestive enzymes with your meal. Beano, anyone? :)
3. Add fennel or a little apple cider vinegar to the beans during the last twenty minutes of cooking to aid in digestion.
4. Experiment with different combinations of food. (Legumes tend to combine best with green or non-starchy vegetables.)
5. Experiment with different beans. Smaller beans tend to be easier to digest (e.g. adzuki, lentils, mung beans, and peas). Pinto, kidney, navy, black-eyed peas, garbanzo, and black beans tend to be a little harder to digest. And soybeans tend to give folks the most digestive problems. 
6. Add kombu during cooking to aid in digestion.
7. Sprout your beans before cooking. 

My favorite way to prepare beans is to soak them, sprout them, and then cook them with kombu.  I noticed a huge difference in my digestion after I started sprouting beans and for anyone who has trouble with eating legumes, I highly recommend the sprouting method. Sprouting also neutralizes the phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors, making it easier on your digestive system as well as allowing you to absorb more of the nutrients. And, who doesn't want a nutritional boost?

I know it might sound intimidating to sprout your own beans, but I promise it's not hard or time-consuming and in this post I'll show you step-by-step of how to get started!

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Roasted Fennel and Spring Vegetable Salad

Someday I'm going to write a book called 101 Ways to Make Tacos because tacos are what we have for dinner. Seriously. Every. Single. Night.

Okay, maybe not every single night, but certainly most weeknights. At this point, my partner has basically stopped asking what's for dinner because it's obvious: beans and something else that's going to go inside of corn tortillas. Any questions?

Someday I'm also going to write a book called 101 Ways to Make A Salad because salads are what I have for lunch practically every single weekday.

The key to making a good salad is this: it has to have a good protein source (I usually opt for beans or lentils), a variety of vegetables with complimentary flavors and textures, and a good dressing. For most salads, I usually dress the leaves in a little plain balsamic vinegar, but the classic balsamic vinegar and olive oil mix is fabulous for almost any salad.

And if you eat an oil-free diet, subbing avocado in for oil is a fabulous way to still enjoy a creamy dressing. This sweet and tangy mango salad dressing and this jalapeno avocado lime dressing are great oil-free options.

My personal challenge to enjoying salads is that I don't typically crave raw veggies because Seattle is cold most of the year. However, I can get around this by roasting vegetables and adding them (while still warm) to a bed of cold greens. This salad is my newest favorite and it's a fabulous meal during these cold, drizzly days of spring.

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A Guide To Buying Organic

I get a lot of questions from readers and folks in my personal life asking for one simple change they can make to have a healthier diet. My response is usually "eat less sugar and eat more greens." Many of us struggle to get enough vegetables into our diet, period, so I don't often talk about the importance of the kinds of vegetables that we choose. 

However, I want to spend some more time today talking about the importance of buying organic and how to easily and effortlessly make the switch --with the least amount of impact on your wallet!

For the past few years there has been a lot of buzz going on around organics: Is organic produce really better for you? Is organic produce worth the cost? Does organic produce have more nutrients than conventionally-grown produce?

Here is my answer: organic matters.

Organic produce is grown without the use of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and does not contain genetically modified (GMOs). Here in the United States, the USDA controls the organic certification and labeling process. They consider an item to be organic if:

• The food or other agricultural product has been produced through approved methods that integrate cultural, biological, and mechanical practices that foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. This means that synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation, and genetic engineering may not be used.
• The food contains a minimum of 95% organic ingredients.

I believe that organic matters for our health, the health of the farmers growing our food, and the health of our environment. From where I stand, the point of organic produce isn't whether it has more nutrients, but rather, that it does not contain the harmful chemicals that are used in conventional farming. When I hear about a study comparing vitamin levels between conventional and organic vegetables, I feel like they've missed the point.

Pesticides have been shown to cause liver, kidney, and blood diseases, as well as various forms of cancer. These chemicals build-up in our tissues over time, resulting in a weakened immune system. And, interestingly enough, researchers are finding out that many of these pesticides act as "obesogens" and are causing us to gain weight and keep it on. This makes perfect sense because many of these chemicals are stored in our fat cells as our body's natural defense to protect our organs. The last thing our body wants to do is allow toxins to float around in our bloodstream so it holds onto that fat to prevent this from happening. 

Many of my private health coach clients come to me because they struggle with losing weight and experience extreme "detox" symptoms as they do so. A lot of the resistance I hear from folks about buying organic is the cost. I'm not going to lie to you. Yes, buying organic is generally more expensive, but what is the price of your health worth to you? And, if you've been struggling with losing weight, think about how much money you might be spending on "diet" foods or products. 

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Roasted Baby Turnips with Spicy Mustard Dressing

No one should ever have to weedwack their entire lawn. Ever.

Unless, perhaps, you have teenagers and want to punish them... Unfortunately, I don't, so I got to experience the punishment for myself.

Earlier this year, my partner and I began renting a house from family members who are currently living overseas. I was excited at the thought of renting an entire house, however, it never occurred to me that with the amazing deal they were giving us, it also meant we had to do a lot of work.

It didn't even cross my mind that I would need to mow the lawn. That is, until I noticed that our grass was about a foot and half taller than the yards on both sides of us. Oops.

The grass was so tall, in fact, that the lawnmower repeatedly stalled when I tried to mow it. And that is when I came up with the brillant idea to weedwack the entire lawn and then mow it.  Two and a half hours of the most intense work ever, I felt like the biggest idoit on the planet. Well, at least I did until I woke up the next morning and saw how amazing my arms looked.

So, in summary, don't ever let your lawn get long enough that you need to weedwack it, but if you do, just know that you'll look great afterwards.

And, if any of you have suggestions about a smarter way I could have handled the lawn situation, I'll take 'em. Maybe I can even trade you a recipe for some landscaping advice... Roasted baby turnips, anyone?

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I'm changing my diet...

Today I have a big announcement to share.

I've written and rewritten this post over ten times now and each time I've struggled with what I want to say to you and how I want to say it. I finally boiled it down to this: Living a healthy, happy life should be about eating whole, fresh foods that make your body feel energized and good -- and it shouldn't be about what we call it.

I have always felt strongly that this blog is a place to talk about seasonal, delicious food and healthy living and I wanted our blog community to be a welcoming space open to anyone curious about eating better -- regardless of what they ate or how they labeled their diet. I believe that food and what we eat is an entirely personal choice. And, as I mentioned last week, I feel strongly that there is not one diet or one way of eating that works for everyone because each of our bodies are different.

So with that, I want to share that I have recently changed my diet and don't feel that the "plant-based" label fits anymore, even though I'm still eating a ton of plant-based meals. When I found my way to being vegetarian in 2006 and plant-based in 2007, I was at a complete breaking point with my health and found myself rushing in and out of ERs due to gallbladder attacks. Being plant-based changed everything for me.

However, for the past year and a half, something has been feeling off in terms of my health and I finally decided it was time to switch some things around in my diet. This was really hard for me to consider because I had always believed that being plant-based was what my body wanted. In January, I began adding eggs back into my diet and last month I started eating small amounts of poultry and seafood. To my surprise, my body responded really well to it and I noticed I was feeling a lot better.

If I am being completely honest with you, then I have to share that I went through a period of time where I couldn't talk about this with anyone because I was an emotional wreck. Even though I had found my way to this diet for health reasons, along the way, being plant-based had become an immensely spiritual and emotional decision for me. I felt strongly connected to this earth and all of the creatures and beings on it. I never liked eating meat or eggs growing up and I didn't have any cravings for them. I certainly never thought I would go back to including them in my diet. I'm still coming to terms with this in a lot of ways because it's such a huge change for me, but I feel really strongly that this is the right decision for me at this time.

I am so grateful for my journey and everything I have learned on it. Over the last seven years I've learned the importance of eating real, whole foods, eating seasonally, and choosing quality food. I am excited to continue this journey through this blog and keep inspiring each other to live a healthy, happy life that we love.

So, even though I'm ditching the labels around my food choices, I'm excited to continue sharing my recipes with you that will always focus on real, whole foods, and seasonal veggies. Here's what you can look forward to:

• More creativity around grain-less meals. (If you're gluten-free or grain-free, I've got some recipes for you!)
• Lots of seasonal veggie recipes! We're heading into summer soon (my favorite season) and I can't wait to share some of my favorite summer dishes with you.
• More "how to" tutorials. (Including how to soak and sprout legumes and some dairy-free cheeses!)
• More posts exploring DIY green beauty remedies and ways to live a healthy, sustainable life. 
• And eventually, even a few recipes here and there including eggs or meat.

As I mentioned in my post on my three philosophies around food, health, and life, I'm not here to tell you what's best for you and I've never been the kind of person to be preachy about my diet. I think we all need to make the right decisions for ourselves and trust our guts when it comes to our health.

Wishing you the best in health and happiness,

Sonnet

Easy & Affordable Green Juice

I fell off the juicing wagon for awhile. I think this was the first time in over four years that my juicer sat in a corner of the kitchen, unused for over six weeks.  And for some reason, I felt compelled to pry myself out of bed at 6 am on a Sunday and rush to the market to find some veggies for juicing. Now that's dedication.

This morning I was thinking about the struggles I hear from folks around juicing. Most of the time, challenges are associated with time and money so today I wanted to create a simple and easy green juice with only 3 ingredients (but packed full of nutrients!) and was affordable.

Here's how this juice breaks down in terms of cost:

• 1 small bunch (about 8 stalks) organic celery: $2.68
• 2 large organic kale leaves: $.99 ($2.98 for the bunch)
• 1 organic lemon: $.99

This comes to a total of $4.66 for a 16-oz juice which isn't that bad considering you are essentially getting two 8-oz juices for $2.33 each. I bought my produce at the market closest to me out of convenience, but I know that the co-op a few miles from my house has celery that is about $.50/lb cheaper than what I bought and Whole Foods often has deals on kale for 2 for $4 and sometimes 2 for $3. With this calculation, this could actually bring the price down to $2 (or less) per 8-oz of juice. That's more affordable than a morning latte!

A typical juice bar here in Seattle can run you around $6 for an 8-oz juice and around $10 for a 16-oz juice. Yikes. Juicing at home is much more affordable option over time, especially if you pick the right juicer. (If you're just getting started with juicing, see my guide for Picking The Right Juicer For You.)

So now that we've solved those dilemas, let's drink some juice!

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