The Vegetable Diet

 I was at the gym the other day and bumped into an old friend, and after exchanging news of our families we started discussing our workouts and "new year" diets.  She mentioned that she was on an all-fat diet.  Huh?
It triggered something familiar in my memory, I remembered reading about an all-fat, or carbohydrate restrictive, diet as a a method to put the body into a state of "ketosis", sometimes used as a way to control treatment resistant epilepsy.
It seems to me that the old Atkins diet, which is also carbohydrate restrictive, is another name for a ketosis type diet.  Do you remember that diet from the 70's?
I have other friends who follow the Paleolithic diet, which basically seems to be a diet in which only foods that could have been hunted or gathered by our Paleolithic ancestors are consumed.

Neither of these diets would work for me because I don't eat meat (Paleo) and if I had to become a cave person suddenly and go out and kill a wild boar or a chicken (did they even have chickens then?) I would not be very successful.

Eating a diet that restricted carbohydrates would probably have me fainting pretty quickly, never mind the fact that when I eat fatty things I feel... fat.  I guess it goes without saying that meat would be a large component of a carbohydrate restrictive plan?  As far as its effectiveness in treating epilepsy, well I'm just grateful that the type of epilepsy my daughter has is responsive to treatment.

So it's safe to say that I'm on The Vegetable Diet, and I have to say I really love it.  I feel good, I spend less money on food and my kitchen is filled with colour and joy.

Yesterday morning our deliveries from our local organic vegetable source began again, they take a two week break every year over Christmas and New Year's and I really missed them.
I have changed up my vegetable delivery a little bit, we're now buying lots of local vegetables as well as a few imported from the south (things like greens, which are not available here this time of year, though our cabbage is still local).   We were buying more things like bananas and apples, which weren't being consumed after Middle Rascal left home in September.

Once the vegetables are unpacked from their box I do a quick scan and immediately start menu planning for the week.  The goal is to use every vegetable by the following Monday, and while some items will have obvious uses, others require a bit more thought (and some recipe searches).

So excited to see these beautiful mushrooms!
Risotto with marsala and mushrooms is on the menu.

 The first thing I cooked with the vegetables was a big stew to have for lunch.

I sautéed a large yellow onion in olive oil, adding in a teaspoon of ground turmeric.  Then I threw in about 6 roughly chopped and peeled carrots, several new potatoes, half-peeled (only the bad bits) and chopped, and an entire bunch of spinach.  I threw in about a cup of red lentils for some protein.

 Saute all, then cover with water, adding in salt and pepper:

 Simmer down the stew for about 30 minutes or so, and you'll have a delicious and nourishing lunch.

So simple, and it keeps well in the fridge too.

What sort of diet are you on?  (If you had to give it a name that is.)  Do you have friends whose diets vary quite differently from your own?
Happy Wednesday to you,
xoxDani

Cinnamon and Ginger

 I really like the colour of the underside of these dried magnolia leaves.  Don't you think it's the exact shade of cinnamon sticks?  Dried bits of stuff in this large vase are the perfect easy centrepiece for the piano in the foyer, requiring no upkeep whatsoever
The orange tree is another story, I had placed it on our bar cart during the holidays and sort of forgot about it.  I'm a terrible plant-owner to be honest, I never should have brought this orange tree home.  I doubt it will make it, the way it's been ignored.  I finally noticed it yesterday afternoon and gave the poor thing some water, and moved it to this sunnier location.  Fingers crossed for it!

I did another gym session yesterday and before I left the house I put together a bit of homemade granola.  I've been trying to incorporate hemp hearts into our diet: they are super high in protein and in omega 3 and omega 6, making them a terrific post-workout boost.  Mixed with some oats and almonds, and eaten with fortified almond milk they would also make for a densely nutritious breakfast.

Homemade granola is so easy, and in my typical slapdash fashion I don't do any measuring while concocting mine.  For this  granola I used approximately 1.5 cups of hemp hearts, 2 cups or so of oats, and 1 cup of sliced almonds.  I stirred through a teaspoon each of ground cinnamon and ground ginger.
On the stove top I heated up about 3 tablespoons of maple syrup with a tablespoon of olive oil, then poured that over the lot, giving it a fairly good stir before spreading it out on a parchment lined baking sheet.

 I baked it at 325 for about 15 minutes, just until it was perfectly golden.
I don't care for dried fruit in granola for some reason, I prefer it rather plain.  But I did add some chopped apricots to about half of this granola before packaging that up for Middle Rascal to take with her back to school.  You could also add raisins, dried cherries or blueberries, whatever you fancy.

If you're on the East Coast I hope you've been surviving the Frozen Bomb Cyclone.  Yesterday at the gym Laura and I saw an old friend of ours with her Uni aged daughter, she won't be getting back to school in Halifax this weekend by the looks of it, it seems many flights were already being cancelled.
Tuck in and stay warm and safe Tooties!

Happy Friday,
xoxDani