Cashew Burgers!

I recently borrowed a copy of Thrive (thanks Mom and Adelie!), and I'm loving it so far. It's interesting to me that it's marketed as a vegan guide to Optimal Performance in sports and life...because it really is about so much more than that. The author has an excellent grasp of the things that tax our health, not just physical stressors, but emotional and nutritional stressors, and has developed some exciting recipes that are packed full of nutrition and taste surprisingly good too!

The recipe originally calls for almonds on this one, but I had cashews. It also calls for balsamic vinegar, but I had apple-cider vinegar. I'm not sure how much I would like these raw, but I was truly surprised at how delicious they were. I made a sesame ginger sauce for them from Dr. Ben Kim's website which you can find HERE or at the bottom of this page. I brought these to a friend's house the night I made them, and they were so tasty that I had to make them again later that week. (I'm used to leftovers and getting to eat everything twice I guess :)) Many of his recipes call for a food processor, which I don't have, so I make everything a bit more chunky than it calls for. I have a coffee grinder that I don't use for coffee, so I actually used it to get the cashew into a more usable form. I usually don't trust already ground flax seeds (because the oils can turn rancid quite quickly once you break the shell of the seed), so the coffee grinder does a great job of grinding just enough to use for each recipe.

The sesame ginger sauce is totally addictive to me. You could probably switch the honey to agave nectar if you are worried about a blood sugar reaction, or cut down the amount. The first time I made it I was just looking for excuses to use it, when really I just wanted to eat it by the spoonful. You can make it thick for a dip (it's great for veggies), or a little more runny for a dressing. The sesame makes it high calcium and the fresh ginger and garlic give it a nice kick and are excellent for the immune system and blood circulation. Here are the two original recipes, enjoy!!

Almond Flaxseed Burger

2 cloves garlic

1 cup almonds

1/2 cup ground flaxseed

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp coconut oil, hemp oil, or blend of healthy oils

Sea salt to taste

Put all ingredients into a food processor, blend to desired consistency. Form into patties. Serve raw or bake at 300degrees for 35 min. or lightly fry over medium heat until golden brown, flipping once.

From Thrive, Brendan Brazier

Sesame Ginger Sauce from Dr. Ben Kim’s website:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup raw, organic tahini

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

1.5 tablespoon organic honey

1 clove of garlic, crushed

Directions:

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor or a strong blender. For a thin, salad dressing-like consistency, add one tablespoon of water at a time as you blend until desired consistency is reached.

If you use just a tablespoon or two of water in total, the result will be a thicker sauce that can be used as a dip for a vegetable platter or a plate of steamed vegetables.

Why does Pizza make me so hungry??

So tonight was yet another night that I came home (from a grocery store, mind you) yet I hadn't thought of what I should eat for dinner. I started flipping through one of my cookbooks, and saw a recipe for a butternut squash pizza...yum. Then I realized I didn't have any yeast, or even any flour. But what I did have was an easy pizza dough mix that my mom had just sent me from her Wild Tree business (there's your plug mom). It was basically a mix of the flour yeast and sugar that you just have to add water to. Perfect! You didn't even really have to let it rise, it was super quick and easy, and kind of made me want to start making bread on a regular basis. I always forget how soothing the kneading part is. I think that's why I first loved making paper, there was such a lovely rhythm to it, that I could easily get lost in, alone, for hours.

I worked off of a couple of recipes, and put the butternut squash in some butter and oil with garlic and onion in the oven for 15 min while I prepared the pizza dough. I had thrown some quinoa in my rice cooker before I had decided what I was going to make, and it occurred to me at this point that a pizza is really just like a giant open faced sandwich. As long as you like the flavors together, anything goes. So I rolled out the dough, and layered quinoa first, then butternut squash mixture second, then bleu cheese last. Cooked it for about 12 min and it was great! Most of the flavor really came from the bleu cheese, but it felt like there was lots of nourishing goodness going on too.

Then comes the after attack. Part of the reason I usually avoid pizza as a dinner meal is that I get these intense sort of empty hunger pangs about an hour or so after eating it. This time, maybe an hour and a half later, I started having a sneezing fit. I sometimes get this when my blood sugar drops and I need to eat again, and I was starting to feel hungry. But it was a little more than that too, because I almost felt congestion forming in my throat too, like I was having an allergic irritation. (I don't want to say allergic reaction so much, because it wasn't as if my throat was closing up, it was more like mucous was forming...yum!) Then after the sneezing had calmed down, but I felt stuffed up, those kind of sharp hunger pangs came again. The kind that feel much more violent than just "hey you, I'm kind of getting hungry again down here"...more like "Why!!! Are we not EATing??? I will jab you til you fix this!!"

So I'm seeking advice on this one. Recently someone mentioned to me that wheat/gluten allergy can keep you from gaining weight, make you feel fatigued always, etc. I don't think I have celiac's, but it's one of those things I feel I should look into a little more. A sensitivity, or intolerance to some wheat perhaps? Kara, you are my expert on this one :)

Em, I'm calling on you as the expert on blood sugar here. Is there way that I could make this meal less empty feeling? Some better balance of protein to carb to fat? I'm wondering if I could just try out some gluten free pizza dough, which would take away the wheat and the empty carbiness of the flour and solve both problems.

The funny part is, I don't even like pizza that much, but this was so fun to make it would be a shame to have to avoid it always :)