What Is Left To Eat? -- a Food Journal by Laura Bracken

I don't think I even TRIED a Brussels sprout until I was in my 50's.  As a child, I loathed vegetables (maybe it was the way they were cooked/served).  And now practically 50% of my diet is veggies.  (That doesn't mean I'll be including beets or mushrooms anytime soon... I know mushrooms aren't a veggie, but I lump them). For me, roasted Brussels sprouts are second only to roasted cauliflower . I will admit that when I look at the progression of photos (below), I do feel badly about taking this bright green gorgeous vegetable and charring the heck out of it.  But I've not yet embraced a fondness for raw Brussels sprouts, so for now roasted it is. They are like little cabbages, though, and I love coleslaw, so maybe I'll try them raw someday. Roasted Brussels Sprouts 17 organic Brussels sprouts sliced in half 2-3 tsp organic extra virgin olive oil 1 Tbl organic fresh lemon juice ½ tsp organic garlic powder (or granules) ¼ tsp salt First...

Spent most of the morning running errands.  My friend and I were going to eat lunch out but ended up not doing that, so when I got home at 2pm, I was not only hungry but I was dehydrated because I hadn't had much to drink either.  Solution?  Smoothie! There are different ways to make smoothies and I will post some variety.  For today's smoothie I wanted refreshing and very liquidy but at the same time I wanted a bit of substance to hold me over until dinner (going out tonight). Spinach and Fruit Smoothie 2 cups of organic fresh spinach (a large handful) 200 grams of organic unsweetened frozen cherries (2 smaller handfuls) 7 pieces (70 grams) of organic unsweetened frozen mango (can't find a link to the company but this is what the package looks like ) 1 Tbls organic flaxseed meal  or flaxseed 1 Tbls organic hemp seed 11.1 oz of coconut water Tap water to just over the level of the contents Add to Nutribullet and liquefy.  This is not a lo...

Pistachio-Crusted Chicken with Tahini Dipping Sauce Served this the other night and the next day and it was a hit with both of my visitors.  Good to know leftovers work for company.  Of course, it helps to have the nicest friends in the world. So what you see in this pic is the pistachio-crusted chicken (link to recipe below), with pesto rice (recipe below), and garbanzo bean and spinach salad ( I posted the recipe a few days ago ).  Not shown in this photo (but photo below) is the tahini dipping sauce (link to recipe below). Without further ado, I'll show you where I got the recipes and what changes I made. The chicken recipe and the tahini sauce recipe are in the same place.  They are from Kelsey at LittleBitsOf.  Here's the link for those recipes . Here are the changes I made to the chicken: I don't really know what a pound of chicken tenders is so I used what I had which was three chicken half-breasts (I use Coastal Range Organics from Costco...

Well, "where to find them" is a bit of a mislead because I prefer to show the maker's website rather than any retail outlet where I purchase.  But once you see and know what product to look for, you should be able to find it easily. I like sharing a direct link to the maker's product for two reasons: 1) You can see the packaging without a doubt and usually get the nutritional info and ingredients list.  And 2) I am not here to tell you where to shop.  I may tell you where *I* buy something but I do not want to link to items that may disappear off the shelves and then I have a dead link. So without further ado, in alphabetical(ish) order: Blueberries, frozen (these are grown without pesticide; sometimes I use these )  Butter, vegan Coconut aminos, organic Containers, plastic (particularly waterproof, making them excellent for emulsifying dressing)  Cooking pot, Revereware Garlic press/masher/slicer Instant Pot Oats, organic steel cut  Ma...

This is a very hearty salad, in my opinion.  Because of the beans and carrots, it's not low carb, but I consider it very healthy and good in moderation. I paired it with a pseudo-Italian dressing.  Basically I just made my standard salad dressing but jazzed it up with some Italian spices. Friday is cooking day at my house.  I only have one or two cooking days a week.  We always do dinner on Friday nights.  I have a neighbor friend who comes over and Mom comes downstairs and we eat dinner and watch guilty pleasure tv (usually Property Brothers then Ink Master). Serving this salad tonight along with a few other foods, but I feel it could totally stand alone as a meal. Since today is cooking day, this is not a 10-minute dish.  Cutting up the veggies and making the dressing doesn't take too long but it's certainly more than 10 minutes. When I take the time to prepare food, I like to do it big... meaning there's enough left over for a few days.  ...

Instant Pot Orange Chicken Over Low Carb Riced Cauliflower Veggies Today's recipe is a hybrid of something I found on the internet and something I created in the kitchen to go along with it. The chicken portion of the recipe is this . But I had taken a screenshot of the recipe so I didn't have the link to the rice portion of the recipe. Here's what I did to make the rice (although free free to follow the recipe in the above link too).   I felt like chicken over riced cauliflower didn't sound like enough of a meal so I picked up some broccoli and bok choy for this. Had my usual "Friday company" coming over for dinner so was a little nervous about trying this out on company first, but I'm glad I did.  It came out fabulously.  MMmmm... Asian Style Riced Cauliflower with Vegetables One head of organic cauliflower, riced (see below) One head of organic broccoli, cut into large bite-size pieces (I don't know if they...

No Recipes When you're eating a "whole foods" style diet, you don't rely on recipes for every meal (one of the reasons I don't blog here every day). Some (a lot of) foods are just "throw togethers" or even "single items". Like this morning, I cooked two small lobster tails for breakfast.  All I did was put them in my 8-inch non-stick pan with 3 smashed garlic cloves and a tablespoon of vegan butter.  Cooked 'em on low-medium for about 5 or so minutes, then cracked the shells and ate 'em. Then for snack between breakfast and lunch I had a small handful (probably about 9) macadamia nuts. That's a very protein and fat start to my day so the rest of the day will probably be mostly veggies and some sort of complex carbohydrate to maintain my blood sugar levels. And speaking of carbs... My Thoughts on Keto (and carbs) I am not going to do the very trendy keto diet for two reasons.  One is that I just couldn't fathom e...

Yeah, so everything in my blog is going to be gluten free, but I figure if I add it to the title it may help people find me who are using search engines. This was a super quick and easy (my food motto... healthy, quick, and easy) thing I whipped up for breakfast this morning.  Again, it was merely a case of looking around at what I had available. I'd just gone to Whole Foods and found these tortillas made from cassava flour.  Very cool.  A lot of gluten free foods have corn in them and since I'm avoiding corn for now, I love finding these other things I can try. My previous history with gluten free tortillas is they fall apart... VERY easily.  I bought these thinking I'd use them maybe for "taco night".  Didn't really have a plan yet, but then felt too lazy this morning even to make oatmeal so here's what I did... Gluten Free Banana Rolls 2 gluten free tortillas 2/3rds of a banana, sliced (I froze the rest for future smoo...

Rather than explaining some of these details in individual recipes, I'll try to describe my set up and methods here then I can just refer back to this post. My Recipes I honestly feel it takes longer to write (or read) my recipes than it does to make the food.  I am very serious about fast, easy cooking, and despite my narrative verbosity, you will see if you give the recipes a chance that almost anything I show you is a super fast, super easy, fairly healthy recipe. Organic You may notice that almost everything I eat is organic.  I know this is a hotly debated topic, but I'll explain my own reasonings.  While I know "organic" can still have pesticides, I'm hoping they are less or less toxic in most instances. Some people don't want to buy organic because the fruits and vegetables are often if not always smaller and more blemished.  That's fine by me.  First of all I grew up in the country (for the most part) so blemishes aren't something...

Quick Avocado Snack One avocado 3-4 ounces sheep feta 2 slices onion, chopped Ground black pepper Rice cakes Mash the avocado and feta in a bowl. Add the chopped onion and some pepper to taste. Spread on rice crackers. Easy peasy and full of fat and protein to keep you going for awhile. This avocado spread/dip is equally good on cucumbers, or with rice cakes and cucumbers, or as a dip for chips. Sometimes I make garlic toast for it. More comments means I post more recipes, so feel free.  Thanks! Click here for the index to my food blog Click here to see the sources for my commonly used products Have a recipe you’d like me to try out?   Let me know in comments.   So long as it’s gluten free, sugar free, yeast free, and corn free… I’ll have a look.  When leaving a comment, you may need to use the pull-down to change the selection from "Google Account" to "Name/URL" or "Anonymous"  Thanks!

It has come to my attention that I will have to start making my own broths (veggie, beef and perhaps chicken).  I get that companies want to keep their recipes secret (proprietary info) but that doesn't help those of us trying to steer clear of some very specific foods.  We need very specific labels. I was in Sprouts earlier this week shopping for beef broth.  The only two options were these (all the others actually stated either "sugar" or "yeast" in the ingredients). Upon further inspection, they do indeed have sugar ("organic caramel coloring").  And also worrisome is the ambiguous "flavor".  Flavor is not an ingredient.  Ha ha ha!   So I called Sprouts corporate headquarters.  They said they can't give me the list of ingredients since it's proprietary.  I said I understand, and would they tell me if the list of ingredients included either "corn" or "yeast". She said it does say "no co...

I went in last week for a routine physical. As part of the physical I had some lab tests run and here are the results compared with my previous physical. These changes are a direct result of me doing an elimination diet, finding out some of my food intolerances and steering clear of processed foods and all types of sugars. There's still a lot of room for improvement but to no longer be in the danger areas really thrills me. My LDL is the only result currently out of healthy (or normal) range and I'm still working to perfect my diet so I'm okay with continuing to tweak my eating habits. One of the biggest leaps seems to be my triglyceride level. I think that one is a direct result of stopping all forms of sugar. I do use about 1 tsp of honey every couple of weeks and about 1 Tbl of maple syrup once a week. Otherwise no sugar, agave, stevia, aspartame, saccharin, molasses, fructose, anything. I get plenty of easily metabolized sugars from the fruits and grains I ...

Index of my Food Blog   Non Recipe Posts A Smoothie Plan How to Break Through the Intimidating First Steps with Your Instant Pot Foods and Kitchen Utensils I Use Frequently and Where to Find Them Lab Test Results My Kitchen Set Up, Methods, and Staples   Recipe Posts Gluten Free Vegan Snack Avocado Toast with Sauerkraut Gluten Free Vegan Crackers Made from Leftover Almond Pulp Homemade Hummus and then Homemade Hummus Salad Dressing Moroccan Flavors Lentil, Spinach, and Sweet Potato Casserole Sweet Potato Toast with Hummus Ranch Dressing Vegan WFPB No Oil Seriously Good Bean and Rice Burrito WFPB Vegan Zucchini Soup and Arugula Salad Asian Buddha Bowl Impromptu Taco Lunch Gluten Free Whole Foods Plant Based Veggie Burger Whole Foods Plant Based No Oil From Veggie Stock Leftovers... or Burgers and Slaw Veggie Stock or Broth Whole Foods Plant Based No Oil Bean Soup Variation Whole Foods Plant Based Vegan Easy Instant Pot Recipe Burger...