Kate’s Review of an Oh She Glows Recipe from my Cookbook Giveaway!

10 years ago • 1 Comment • Live Well

I received my second Oh She Glows recipe review from my Christmas Cookbook giveaway! Thanks to Kate who blogs over at Mama Needs a Run for her willingness to try a new recipe 🙂

Enjoy the cookbook, and here’s to a healthy 2015!

Here are her photos and comments below!

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Morning Kelly!
I hope you are staying warm. I have already had enough of this cold winter weather. I could really go for spring!
Last night I made the first recipe (of many I know!) from the Oh She Glows Cookbook. I made the On the Mend Spiced Red Lentil-kale Soup. I love soups and stews and I would eat one every day for lunch and dinner if my husband would agree to it but he hates soup. Weird I know. He also was not a fan of my suggestion of eating a recipe a week out of this book and having a meatless meal once a week. I could not have married a more meat and potatoes kind of guy. He loves a gigantic meal every night (so the opposite of me) so anyway.

I found this recipe to be fast, simple and mighty tasty. My almost 4 year old ate his whole bowl and said I quote “Mama you made nice soup tonight” and my 8 year old ate 2 giant bowls. She and I both for that matter. We loved it. We were all super full, warm and satisfied. My husband worked late and out in the cold (12 degree) weather and was happy to have a nice warm bowl of soup to come home to. I will add he is a big guy and again requires meat so he made a couple sandwiches to go with it. Could he have been filled up if he ate normal amounts YES! It was a thumbs up from all of us though. I will say it says it serves 3 and it fed us 6 big bowls plus there are 4 in the fridge for leftovers so not sure how much a serving should have been.
Thank you for this book and the opportunity to step out of our usual menus! I can’t wait to try others. Next up is the sweet potato black bean enchiladas!
Regards,
Kate

Sent from Mama Needs a Run

What’s the next step? A lesson from running.

10 years ago • 5 Comments • Live Well

One of my favorite lessons from running half marathons is that while you’re running, you should not think about the entire race, but to live in the moment and focus on a half mile at a time. Before the race, you need to think about the whole 13.1, set a reasonable finishing goal, decide how you will pace yourself, etc. But during the race, you’ll be miserable if you spend every minute thinking about exactly how many miles you have left, what pace you need to run them, and whether or not you’ll make them. When you’re in the thick of it, often you need to just buckle down and focus your energy on getting through the next steps, rather than thinking long term and getting overwhelmed by all the things in front of you.

I apply this strategy to my life on almost an hourly basis, and it reduces how often I feel overwhelmed. Before I start a task that I’m dreading, I take a step back and look at it, and think about how to tackle it and what needs to get done. Once I’ve started, I try to focus on all the next steps rather than looking around me and becoming depressed by everything left.

Yes, I said I sometimes do this on an hourly basis. If you could see the mess I’m capable of making in the kitchen, you’d understand.

I’m not overwhelmed by massive, important, crazy things – but a pile of unfolded laundry, a stack of unwashed dishes next to a full dishwasher, an empty fridge and no plans for dinner at 4 p.m. when I have two cranky kids during cold season is pretty overwhelming. I can literally get panicked when I think about the number of individual tasks I need to accomplish in order to get the household in order, all while trying to minimize sibling rivalry without excessive use of screen time.

So, yeah… I get into the zone pretty regularly, once I’ve stepped back and prioritized the most critical tasks and determined which ones are secondary. But once I’ve made the decision to empty the dishwasher first, then get the soup cooking, then move onto laundry, there’s no sense pausing every three minutes to agonize over the amount of dirty dishes or socks that need to be paired. Then it’s just next step, next step, next step all the way through, no waffling, until time is up. One step at a time.

Speaking of… I’d better go clean up from lunch.

My New Year’s Resolutions

10 years ago • 4 Comments • Live Well

Reducing the amount of plastic in the world, one bulk item at a time.

This year, my New Year’s resolutions are all focused on improving my existing efforts. No major life changes. No goals to race a new distance. I love the direction I’m going, I just want to see how far down the road I can get 🙂

My New Year’s Resolutions

I will continue to eat a whole foods, plant-based diet and share resources with people who want to incorporate healthy meals into their lives.

I will keep exercise a regular part of my life, stay in half-marathon shape, improve my 5k time, and keep encouraging and connecting about running with others. I will run the Chilly Half Marathon next November, and it will be a PR.

I will keep eliminating sources of trash, plastic, and environmental toxins from our home and finding new ways to buy in bulk, buy local, and reduce the amount of waste our family generates.

I will be a voice for good. I will use positive opposites to show better alternatives to things I disagree with, I will practice active listening, I will find a way to be more humble without losing my passion for the things I believe in.

I will embrace the power I have to shape my family’s daily lives, and challenge myself to plan ahead and reduce my stress-levels so I can be my best self with them, and have more time to do fun things as a family.

I will seek balance as I try to meet my personal, social, and environmental goals while simultaneously practicing stress management and protecting our family time.

I will treat parenting like a job that requires professional development and continued practice, and I will keep reading, reflecting, and practicing the Positive Discipline and Montessori principles that I believe in.

I will actively work towards growing my blog readership, because I enjoy writing, and worry that without a larger following I will decide my time is better spent elsewhere.

I will send birthday cards (recycled?), have coffee with friends, occasionally practice yoga, host a documentary showing with signature cocktails, write blog posts, volunteer, travel somewhere just with Greg, read the books for book club, and for the love of sanity I will figure out a way to get the kids ready and out the door peacefully. There will be waffles, kayaking, closet re-organizing, and lying on the grass.

I will continue to try to live my best life, and be a force for good in the world. (Maybe I could at least net even…)

What are your hopes for 2015, and how do you plan to accomplish them?

Cookbook Review: Afro-Vegan by Bryant Terry

10 years ago • 7 Comments • Live Well, Recipes

The Congo Square, a warm rum beverage inspired by the collision of Haitian and New Orleans cultures and the people who used to gather in Congo Square to preserve their traditions and be together.

Afro-Vegan by Bryant Terry: Add Bryant Terry to my list of favorite food authors. I recently purchased his cookbook Afro-Vegan, and was treated to a group of plant-based recipes that are rich in flavor and history. He takes the Afro-influenced cuisines of the Caribbean, American South, and South America and gives them a vegan update. His recipes contain the rich, comforting flavors and textures I grew to love while at school at Emory University, without the animal products or grease that have worked their way into Southern cuisine.

His food is beyond anything I ever ate in Atlanta or the Caribbean, filled with warmth, flavor and health. It’s opened my eyes to entirely new types of cuisine, adding a vibrancy to my meal-planning that was only possible by welcoming in a rich, new (to me) type of cuisine. His recipes rely on whole foods, and get their flavor from spices and fresh herbs rather than salt or fat.

More than just a cookbook: Each recipe has a description that shares Bryant Terry’s inspiration and the history of the dish or the people who brought it with them from the African diaspora.

The Black Bean and Seitan stew I made was inspired by feijoada, a Brazilian dish that legend attributes to the nearly four million enslaved Africans brought to Brazil by the Portuguese, people who figured out how to get the most out of their rice and bean rations.

Black bean and seitan stew, with salty lemon cream and parsley. The black bean stew was so good I almost started crying – have you ever tried a recipe like that? Will said “This is amazing! I could eat 100 bowls of this!” which is the highest culinary praise I’ve ever received from my four year old.

The warm rum beverage Greg and I savored one cold afternoon, called a Congo Square, pays homage to the shared history and connection between New Orleans and Haiti, with mention of Toussaint L’Ouverture and the Haitian revolution. Bryant Terry even includes a soundtrack pairing for his recipes, and for some, a book or film in addition. His recipes are not just food, they are a history lesson, a whole cultural experience.

This book is about the flavors, people, and history that originate in the African diaspora. It is packed with history that every American should know, and recipes that would enrich all of our lives and make us healthier. It brings a lot more to the table than just food.

Food Justice: Bryant Terry is a passionate advocate for food justice. In the words of Alice Waters, “Bryant Terry knows that good food should be an everyday right and not a privilege”. Reading the forward to his cookbook, I was struck by his commitment to helping African Americans in particular return to cooking plant-based foods that are not just culturally and historically theirs, but that could save their lives by way of healthy eating.

Bryant Terry said in his forward that “To be clear, Afro-Vegan is for everyone.” I agree. We all have much to gain from the history lessons and food lessons in Afro-Vegan. If you’re looking for another healthy cookbook to add to your shelves, Afro Vegan’s a great one.

Thank you, Bryant Terry, for bringing everyone this beautiful compilation of healthy recipes that are so rich in flavor and history.