Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #16

I spent my weekend volunteering at the Engine 2 sponsored 2Forks Weekender here in Cleveland at the Downtown Marriott hotel. The amount of information was absolutely staggering. There were times that I felt such a disconnect to the rest of society, that such critical, lifesaving information is not more widely known. There shear amount of data demonstrating the overwhelming benefits of a whole foods, plant based diet is almost overwhelming.

Memorial Day Weekend 2016

Had Caitlin Hawkins​ and Barbara Hawkins​ over yesterday for Memorial Day, my birthday, George Hawkins’​ birthday, my graduation from Marni Task’s​ Jivasara Yoga Teacher Training and Caitlin's graduation from grad school at Case, the finding of an apartment, and landing a job here in Cleveland!

Since it was Memorial Day weekend, I wanted something "traditional". So I decided to try carrot dogs as a replacement for the typical hot dogs. To be honest, I was skeptical. In addition to the fact that I'm not really a fan of trying to recreate "meat" foods with veggies, since that's like an alcoholic drinking near beer (not really a good idea) I'd rather just go straight for a new thing altogether.

Much to my surprise, though, it was actually really good. The liquid smoke I think is really what makes it, but I topped it with arugula, mustard, Ketchup and caramelized onions.

I also tried out two new recipes this time from the PlantPure Nation Cookbook. Three actually since one them called for Tofu Cashew Mayonnaise also from the PlantPure Nation cookbook. The first was a Thai Tofu Wrap which was only okay. It'll be good if I can figure out something else but it needs a little more moisture, more of a kick, and more peanut butter maybe. It called for Sriracha which we didn't have so I used Cholula which we did, but probably not enough.

You can see the wraps on the plate covered in saran wrap. There's a pun in there somewhere.

The second recipe used a quarter cup of the Tofu Cashew Mayonnaise. For my fellow no oil friends, this recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon of tahini. I bought tahini that had no extra oil added but it was still quite oily. I like the flavor of tahini I just don't want the oil. But for yesterday I used 1/2 teaspoon of tahini.

Other than that though the tofu cashew mayonnaise was fantastic. Here's the recipe

Recipe

1/4 raw cashews soaked for 2-3 hours

7 ounces extra firm tofu

1/2 teaspoon sea salt (I used less)

1/2 teaspoon tahini

4 teaspoons lemon juice

1 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar

1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard

2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar (I bought the Braggs because of Theresa's comment at the last PlantBaseCle meeting)

2 1/2 Tablespoons Agave Nectar (I only used 2, but will probably use 1 next time)

2 Tablespoons Water

1/4 teaspoon xanthum gum (I didn't have any so I used potato starch as a kind of binder

Tweak to your heart's content, particularly perhaps just grinding sesame seeds up yourself will reduce the oil.

I used this mayonnaise for the Eggless Tofu Salad. For what it is worth I never really liked egg salad so I don't consider this a replacement :-) The Tofu Salad was fantastic, the dill adding it the perfect flavor. The bowl bigger bowl in the picture to the left is a Quinoa salad my wife Arisa featuring Chayote.

I used my friend Lori Palmer’s (website) suggestion to make "chips" out of Engine2’s Sprouted Ancient Whole Grains Tortilla (you only need to bake for maybe 5 minutes, I had mine in a just a little bit too long), and used them to scoop the tofu salad. Thanks Lori that was a fantastic suggestion!

For scheduling reasons we started earlier than we would have normally and we finished earlier as well. Which was just as good because by the time we would have normally just been settling in to eat we were inundated with rain.

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December Challenge and the Holiday Hold

Happy December!

With Thanksgiving behind us, and the evil black friday, it is time to get on with the Christmas season. Arisa wasted no time in decking the house out in boughs of folly. No, holly. If you ever struggle with a present for Arisa, a Christmas ornament will always be acceptable.

Per my Holiday Hold post, the goal is to maintain or lose weight through this Holiday season. I weighed in at 167 (clothes on at weigh in for the Hyland Holiday Hold) on the 24th of November. This morning I was 160.4 just before jumping into the shower, so I'm guessing 164 clothed. But I have been at this weight for the last couple of days. Which is a little frustrating. Well, just a little but perhaps more pressing because I am so close to the 150s. I've seen it a couple of times after losing water weight from a workout. But not at a legitimate weigh-in.

Progress to Celebrate - Kinda Sorta

Last night we had great Thanksgiving dinner. We had traditional Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes covered in gravy. We added some #plantstrong dishes as well. I added the Sweet Potato Bowl from the Engine 2 Diet. I also saw some really good looking recipes on +forksoverknives (Forks Over Knives Plant-based Thanksgiving Recipes post). I was going to make a couple of them then realized we had way to much food so I just picked the Brown Rice Casserole with Lentils. So we had that for dinner.

Wrap Up - Engine 2 Diet 28 Day Challenge

Tuesday was the final day of the challenge so I had my blood test done again on Wednesday morning. The numbers pretty much speak for themselves actually. But I like to babble so you will have to wait. ;-)

So the 28 Day Challenge ended on Tuesday night but Wednesday was a busy day besides getting my blood work done and meeting with the Dietitian. So I treated it pretty much like any other day of the 28 day challenge. Thursday night though we went to Pacific East in Coventry in Cleveland Heights for our year end Board of Directors Meeting for the Japanese Association of Northeast Ohio (JANO). Reality is that I really like sushi and if I had not been mindful I would have eaten way more than I should have.

One of the take aways I have from the Hyland sponsored nutrition classes I took this summer, meeting with the Dietitian, but most of all through implementing it during the 28 Day Challenge is being aware of eating when I am eating. So Thursday night with literally a miniature boat of sushi placed in front of my I started to go into shark mode - a mindless feeding frenzy. Until I caught myself and realized that I was stuffing my face as fast as I could - so I slowed down and noticed that I was actually full. So I stopped eating. VICTORY!

And So It Begins [28 Day Challenge]

Happy Sunday, Go Browns!Welcome to Day 5 of my Engine 2 Diet 28 Day Challenge.
I as I said in my last post I am taking the Engine 2 Diet 28 Day Challenge. I started a hybrid version prior to kicking off on last Wednesday to get in the mindset and learn how to prepare some of the meals so the challenge wouldn't be such a shock. Actually, in the 28 Day Challenge there is a Firefighter version and a Fire Cadet version. The Firefighter version is cold turkey immersion into a plant-strong lifestyle for 28 days. The Fire Cadet version is for those fainter of heart and removes various things over the first three week. For example, the first week is no meat or processed foods, the second week implements no dairy, and the third is to eliminate extracted oils.
What I did was similar in that I drastically cut back on everything - I haven't really had milk that much if I had soy milk around. Even had some of the Engine 2 meals for dinner which means I wasn't having meat. I didn't really do the regimented way of eliminating the E2Diet non-compliant foods but cut way, way back on them replacing them with fruit and vegetables.

Fuel Right Program

I don't post much about work. And this post isn't really about work but about food and health. It starts off with Hyland though. This last week Hyland kicked off Good Nutrition Month. The basic goal of the month is to give up drinking soda permanently. Basically the idea is that soda provides two and half donuts worth of sugar with each glass (8oz?) and that by giving it up people would be that much more healthy.

Hyland has won company with the best perks in Northeast Ohio for several years running. As part of that Hyland provides free soda drinks for everyone. There is an irony that this month's wellness program is to get people to voluntarily give up one of the benefits. And this month's program so far has been impressive! Today, for example, we got free fruit (see picture above) and a cup for drinking water. The picture below was my take today! Tomorrow I get a free lunch!

But it really kicked off last week when on Wednesday, we had Kristen Kilpatrick, MS, RD, LD Wellness Manager at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Center (website, google plus page (+Cleveland Clinic, +Cleveland Clinic Wellness) kick off the month with a presentation. It was a tremendous presentation with an huge amount of information.

グリーンハウスターバンでの誕生日会

East 4th Street

12月には我が家族では多くの誕生日があります。兄貴ダンが12月2日、母が15日、ありさが19日、甥っ子が20日だ。ありさの父も12月です。この誕生日がお月にクリスマスがあります。今年はババラさん（母: +Barbara Hawkins ）とありさ( +Arisa Hawkins の誕生日を一緒にお祝いするということでダウンタウンクリーブランドに行って外食するという形にしました。

母の家に行ってピックアップして高速道路にのってクリーブランドのダウンダウンに行きました。日曜日の夜だったのでクリーブランドブラウンズの試合が何時間前に終わっていて試合を見に行ってた方々既にダウンタウンから離れていたので簡単に駐車が出来ました。

This Week's Garden Pics

This weeks garden pics. The fifth and sixth pictures in the slideshow below should be our Bak Choi and Mizuna(perilla) harvest. We have a ton of mizuna.

The corn continues to do fairly well, as does the jalepeno and other peppers. The sun flowers are doing really well if you ask me.

I cleared out most of the mizuna and bak choi and will be planting soy beans, peas, some more lettuce including romaine, iceburg, cabbage, and endive. Adding some more herbs, dill and rosemary in particular. It'll be interesting to see if I can get the rosemary going since I read somewhere that it's hard to grow from seed.

The tomatoes continue to impress.....lots of tomato sauce meals coming up here soon. Yum.

7/19 This weeks garden pics

Okay, here's the weekly pics of the garden. Focus on the sunflowers, pumpkin and jalapeño.

The pumpkin has been flowering non-stop. We may get a pumpkin or two out of it. Looking forward to trying the jalapeño.

I think last week's title was mistaken. Ah well, not worth changing at this point.

July 12 Garden Pics

I took some pics of the garden today. It's coming along very nicely. I noticed today that of the six garlic cloves I planted, the 6th and final one is actually coming it. 100% success rate on the garlic.

After I took the pictures I went out and harvested some beans, lettuce, mizuna, and bak choi. Quite a bit of it in fact:

I also grabbed some of the seed pods for the Mizuna. Going to see if we can get some seeds for next year(not that I really need them as we still have a lot left over), as well as mixing it with regular mustard seeds to make mustard.

I wonder what's for lunch...ramen with bak choi!? Sounds good to me!

Quick Garden Pics

Just a quick update on our backyard garden, which is mostly vegetables.

Grow Your Own

p>今年は、レモンタイムを植えました。　成長ぶりとかはまったく分からないですけど、小さな花が咲き始めているから一応生きているんだな。　今年はハーブが結構植えましたが、他のハーブはどのように使うのかは分かっていますけど、レモンタイムが分からないので、
レシピーをグーグルしました。そうすると、美味しいそうなレモンソベットのレシピーを見つかりました(英語）。　これをやってみようと思っておりますけど、アイスクリーム機会がないので諦めるかもしれません。

そのページを読んだらこのGrow Your Ownというブログイベントを見つかりました。　なんか、このアイディアが非常に面白いなと思って参加しようと思っています。

参加ルールは非常に簡単です。 第一条件として、自分のガーデンの野菜などを使ったレシピーを自分のブログに投稿します。　ようは自分が育ったものをなんらかの形でレシピーで使うことです。 例えば、今月の初め頃に「Garden Report」という記事を書いたのですが、その中でうちのガーデンから収得したレタスとChives(ニイラ？）を使った「生春巻き」を作ったという内容でした。　一応、そのぐらいにレシピーを加えれば、GYOの条件を満たすわけです。 ブログにアップしたら、300x300以内の写真と簡単なブログ紹介をホストにメールします。　ホストは持ち回りに8月中旬まで決まっていて、リストアップされています。　（ホストは自分のブログに全員のブログ内容をまとめて紹介する役割です。　毎回、担当変わるのでそんなに重くならないような仕組みになっています。

JANOでもこのような形式でなんかやっていいかなと思いますね。 　

僕はこのGYOに参加しますけど、　どのレシピーでやるかはありさと相談しないと。。。。