Pumpkin & Pomegranate

This is not a blog to boast about what a wonderful Valentine’s Day I had (though it was the best I have ever had), it is more a reminder to me of why I eat the way I do, and hey if you want to feel better yourself you might just test it out for a month and see if you feel any better. Not saying it will work for everyone, but it might work for you.

This was my second Valentine’s Day ever to have a Valentine, and this was also our second Valentine’s Day together. Please forgive me for gushing a bit, I just have waited so long to meet someone so wonderful, and I am making up for years of lackluster dating, and never having someone to fawn over (or to fawn over me) on this day of romance.

Matt is really really sweet and wonderful to me, and so our weekend of romance started out on Friday when he picked me up for lunch. We went to this little Greek place near where I work. I absolutely adore their hummus and keep trying to make it myself (without success). I ALMOST have it, but there is still something missing. There is a little secret here, hummus isn’t traditionally served in Greece. It is a Middle Eastern dish that is popular in Greek restaurants in the USA (an perhaps other countries too), but not in Greece. In Greece they serve a dish called “Fava”, which has nothing to do with fava beans. It is made from yellow split peas and it also quite good. I made some 2 weeks ago just to test it out and I love it. I think that the hummus at my favorite little Greek place might be making their hummus as if it were fava. The big difference? No tahini and no lemon juice in fava. Plus, add some spices.  I am going to keep working on that hummus recipe. Anyway, so I had a Greek salad topped with hummus, and Matt had their falafel (which is the best I have EVER had).

On Saturday evening we went out to get sushi at Village Sushi. This was our “Valentine’s” dinner even though it was the day before. Like I have said before, on occasion I will have some grains, but it is only as a treat and not something I do often. I also allowed for some tofu (something I limit due to the phyto-estrogens).

We had the Agedashi Tofu:

Next up we had the Seaweed Salad:

And then we completely filled up on Veggie sushi:

I used to eat more fish on my sushi, but since Matt is a vegetarian I feel bad with him paying for it, and I don’t want him to have to watch me eat it either. Plus I try to stick with wild and sustainable fish, and the cleanest seafood as possible. There is only 1 sushi place in Seattle that is completely sustainable (and only 2 in the Country) and so I don’t feel comfortable eating fish at any other sushi place anymore.

So as you can see that is a lot of rice. Not my usual, but it is a rare event, and a special occasion.

We woke up earlier than usual on Sunday and went off to this fabulous little vegan and gluten free bakery that is in Fremont. Flying Apron offers a WIDE selection of baked goods, they are all vegan, all gluten free, and many use “alternative” sweeteners as well. Granted, my diet is even more restricted than what they offer on a daily basis, but again, as a treat, this is where I will be heading. Plus it is very close to my yoga studio so that is an added bonus. I am definitely going to purchase their quinoa bread next time they make it as it only uses quinoa flour. Anyway, we got a feast!

My selection was the Pumpkin cake square, Matt ordered the Berry Scone, and the Pecan Cinnamon Roll, and we shared the Indian Lentil Salad. Oh holy Heaven it was good! Absolutely delicious. My cake was sweet, doughy, and fabulous. I had a bite of Matt’s scone and cinnamon roll and I loved them both as well. The lentil salad was fabulous (might have to recreate that one at home).  The atmosphere here is also really cozy. The dark wood furniture and old style really makes for a nice experience. We even met up with a former co-worker of Matt’s, and it turns out she is good friends with another blogger I follow Hi Kristy! So that was a fun little reminder of how small Seattle really is (I run into people I know ALL the time, which never happened when I lived in Texas).  Anyway, I was sitting there thinking “you know, maybe I CAN eat some grains and not feel bad, these are all gluten free, and people who are gluten free still eat “normal” food, maybe I don’t need to be SO restrictive.”

Cut to an hour and a half later when I could barely keep my eyes open and I was telling Matt I couldn’t wait to get home so I could take a nap. My stomach also felt like it had a brick in it, and yes I did eat quite a bit, but I NEVER feel that way when I stick to my normal diet. I can probably blame the sleepiness square on the sugars in the baked goods (even though compared to the average American person these would be considered “health” food and not nearly as sugary), but that brick feeling was totally grains. Granted, I ate a lot. I probably could have shared the pumpkin cake with Matt and had half the lentil salad and would have felt full, but again it was a special treat. It just reminded me why I eat the way I do for 95% of the time, and why I save these little splurges for special occasions. It isn’t that I will gain 20lbs in one meal, it is that I feel sick after eating this stuff.

If food makes you lethargic, or if you feel tired a lot in general I really really recommend giving up the grains and sugar ( even fruit & sweet veggie juices) for a month. Just to see how you feel. Sometimes all I need is a wee reminder.

Oh and just for comparison sake, this morning I had about 2 cups of cooked buckwheat, with about 2 tsp. of date sugar, a banana, some raisins, and cashew butter and it is now about 3.5 hours since I ate that and 1. I am not hungry, 2. I am not the least bit sleepy,  and 3. no bricks in my belly.

Last night I wasn’t in the mood to hit up the grocery store so I just threw together some leftovers, and a sauce inspired by Mae (who I found through Heather). Basically Mae’s sauce is made with hummus and nutritional yeast. Well I had some hummus leftover from when I tried to make my own “Greek” hummus and so I mixed it up with nutritional yeast, roasted bell peppers, Kalamata olives, a clove of garlic, and some sea salt. Then I vita-mixed it and heated it up on the stove. Poured that baby on some roasted broccolini and had myself some dinner.

I liked the sauce, but felt it needed something extra. I am going to use the rest of it tonight on roasted broccoli and so I might doctor it up a bit more. The fry looking things next to it are leftovers from my Sunday night dinner of roasted broccolini and sweet potato and yam fries, recipe inspired by the Thrive diet. Let me take the time right now to mention something I may have mentioned before. You cannot copyright a recipe. You can only copyright what is written in the directions. In other words, anyone can take “your” recipe, re-write it, and publish it, blog it, whatever. They don’t have to give you a lick of credit as a list of ingredients isn’t copyrightable. Which is why many recipes will list ingredients and then say “spices” because for some reason they can get away with that and not have to disclose which spices they use. I am of the opinion that recipes (or ingredient lists) have for the most part been done before. We just switch things up a bit, add something here or take something away, and then write things in our own words. Recently I came up with a recipe that I never shared, and then saw almost the exact same recipe on another site. Cracked me up as it shows that everything has been done before, and just because you think you have come up with some new amazing wonder, someone else probably already did it, or is doing it as we speak. Anyway, so these fries are divine. I mixed together 3 T. of pumpkin seed butter with 3 cloves of garlic (minced or pressed), some olive oil, and a about 2 tsp. of Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb Seasoning. Then I chopped up 1 sweet potato and 2 yams into fry shapes and coated them with the yummy mixture. I then roasted them in a 425° oven until one side was browned, flipped them, and did the same with the other. Sprinkle with a little sea salt if you like, and delicious! Last night I re-roasted them so they were crispy again (did not add more oil) and then I used a little ketchup for dipping (Westbrae unsweetened ketchup is good but takes some getting used to).

Highly recommend the fries.

That was a long post! Yeesh I really have been tapping away here for a while. For those of you who made it through, I applaud you! For those of you who didn’t, well you won’t be reading this anyway will you?