healthy

Meatless Nomming Pt. II – Pasta Dish

~ PB34 ~ Leave a comment

For this recipe, I was in the midst of dealing with company (not my doing) and deciding my dinner with other tummies in mind. With a fresh garden at my fingertips and a stock of pasta and tomato sauce, I decided to have at it. And so did everyone else…

Meatless Spaghetti and Sauce

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

No meat doesn't mean boring. Let's brighten this plate.



Ingredients

  • 1/2 a box of Veggie Pasta
  • 1/2 a box of Whole Wheat Pasta
  • 1 Onion
  • 2-3 fresh tomatoes
  • 1-2 Fresh Basil Leaves
  • 1-2 Fresh Rosemary Sprigs
  • 1 can of Tomato Sauce (I love Heinz!)
  • Minced Garlic (2 cloves)
  • Oregano
  • 1 tablespoon Vegetable Oil
  • 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
  • Meatless Features: Olives and Mushrooms (Shiitake or Portobella)

Directions

  1. Prepare your ingredients – Dice your tomatoes and olives, mince your basil and onion, and chop your oregano, garlic and mushrooms. Prepare your sprigs of rosemary, and oregano and set them aside. Separate each into various bowls or holding spaces. Like a cutting board or a clean counter.
  2. Boil fresh water in a large pot, add a pinch of salt.
  3. Prepare a large pan – Add vegetable oil
  4. Heat the pan – Add your garlic and onions and let them cook for a minute or two.
  5. Add your sauce – Stir in all of your veggies and herbs. At low heat, simmer for at least 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
  6. Cook pasta in the boiled water. Most pasta is finished between 8 to 10 minutes. The longer boiled, results a softer noodle.
  7. Drain, and toss pasta with olive oil
  8. Check that sauce! Can you smell it yet? Prepare to add it to your pasta.
  9. Throw it all together! – Toss pasta and sauce into a large dish.

And that’s it! If you’re not vegan, add some of your favorite cheese to add to the top of any plate.
Happy Nomming! 

Meatless Nomming Pt. I

~ PB34 ~ 1 Comment

In this edition, I highlight how slight hunger and ingredients around the house, can make way for a simple, yet affordable meal.

Jasmine Rice & Pigeon Peas

servings = 1-2, time = 15-20 minutes, difficulty = easy

A light, savory and simple Asian inspired dish, perfect for lunch or supper.

Meatless feature: Pigeon Peas

By User:C.L. Ramjohn (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons
By User:C.L. Ramjohn (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.htm)

Ingredients:

1 Can of Pigeon Peas
1 cup of Jasmine Rice or the microwaveable version
1 tbs of chopped green onions (scallions)
less than 1 tsp of minced hot pepper or a similar powdered variant
less than 1 tsp. Minced ginger
1 tbs of vegetable oil

Choose your rice:

If you are cooking from scratch, you must boil the water first THEN add the rice. The more water, the softer the rice and vice versa. Add any butter or salt for additional taste! Follow the bag’s cooking instructions, but most rice generally cooks between 15 to 25 minutes.

Add everything together:

1. Heat a pan with your vegetable oil
2. Add the minced veggies and spices
3. Add your rice and let it warm up for a minute or two
4. Add your peas (a balanced ratio between rice and peas)
5. Stir the ingredients together

Additional tips: Add a teaspoon of sesame oil and soy sauce during the final mixing for a more authentic taste!

And you’re done! Happy Nomming!

Trying to be Fit & Lazy: Tips for working out when you don’t feel like it

~ PB34 ~ Leave a comment

When I was a first year, I was really excited about getting to be so close to a gym and actually using it. Then I started using it. I quit my fitness perspective about four weeks after being on campus due to worrying about germs and eyes during my workout. During my sophomore year, my roommate and I experimented with evening jogging. This was okay so long as the weather wasn’t too cold.

Who wants to jog in this? Not I. By Victorgrigas on English Wikipedia
Who wants to jog in this? Not I. By Victorgrigas on English Wikipedia

By junior and senior year I made no effort to work out as much as I used to. So many excuses among us both; we were too cold, too tired or the gym was too crowded.
Overall, being active shouldn’t be because you want to look great for the summer thus attracting a fling of some sort, but because you want to live longer and feel great on the inside!
My roommate and subsequent added figured out a plan – we’d carry on activities that didn’t make it seem like we were doing too much strenuous activity.
One of them was holding a Zumba session two times out of the week for at least thirty minutes. It was an activity that worked into our schedules and actually made it feel like we weren’t doing anything too intense. I also love dancing so with a great beat and enthusiastic participants this was a great start for us.

As the weather grew warmer, we grew interested in using the newly installed track field, as well as walking around our campus after dinner. Our appetites caused dinner to be around 3:30pm, leaving enough sunlight to walk around in peace. 

In my room, I’d stretch after getting dressed walking up and down the stairs for at least twenty minutes even though we chose the first floor to avoid this.

Overall, the access one has to college workout equipment and spacious lawns is something to take advantage of amidst busy schedules. Although I find it easier to use trails and a sturdy bike to get my solitary fix of fitness when I’m off-campus. 

 

Managing Adult Acne & Your Diet: Products & Food to help

~ PB34 ~ Leave a comment

Let’s face it: acne sucks. That wasn’t just an attempt at a cliche, but my honest feelings.

Ever since I was a teenager, I was a sufferer of acne. Still am. Adult acne is very real and unless you have the insurance of a goddess, sometimes it’s not always easy to keep it at bay.

Overall, adult acne is usually due to an influx of hormones that can be inflamed by stress, chemical make-up or simply your diet. There are a variety of sources that tout different ways to ‘cure’ it or manage it. 

Personally, I’ve seen quite a few dermatologists (which you’ll need to do during your meatless journey, trust me and to determine your remedies) and used nearly every acne system on the market…It was frustrating and expensive. 

If I ever thought my skin was finally clearing up, that one HORRIBLE breakout ruined my esteem or any progress I felt I had made. In my opinion, why was I paying to have everything ‘clear it out’ and then start over until I ran out of said supply? I still had to go out in public after all. 

Out of the things that were prescribed to me, Retin-A and Acanya gel were a nice combo. However I was still dealing with breakouts from time to time. 

I’ll list a few of the methods that helped during the Rx and after it ran out that seemed to keep my breakouts to a minimum. 

  1. Witch Hazel – I always used this in high school, but I started back using it less than a year ago and ‘adding’ it with my current toner. Anything alcohol-free is vitally important as inadvertently causing more oil or sebum to produce could produce more break outs. I use it as soon as I get out the shower in my problem areas on my body or face and let it dry. 
  2. Black Soap – Another product I was experimenting with when I got financial freedom. This is touted as the ‘end all be all’ to any sort of skin issue, but personally it depends on what and whom you’re buying it from. Be careful ordering batches of these, as you want something that can’t be misidentified as a small child or bits of glass due to a lack of proper processing/filtering. Made from  palm ash, tamarind extract, tar and plantain peel and other natural sources that give it a dark brown or light brown color. The ‘dirtier’ and less uniform it looks, the more authentic the soap. I used this at night and washed it off with cold water. Don’t get this in your eyes, I repeat: DON’T GET THIS IN YOUR EYES! 
  3. Water – How many times can this be repeated? The times where my skin looked the most flawless was when I “kept drinking like a fish,” as my college roommate called it. 
  4. Apple Cider Vinegar & Green Tea – I always loved tea, and green or black tea was how I chose to wake up in the mornings. After mixing the ACV with hot water and honey and not tasting very good, I decided to just throw a tablespoon into my green tea. Best idea ever. I get the nutrients of both and the health benefits cited from the ACV. Apple cider vinegar with the ‘mother’ is said to be the homeopathic ‘thing’ that can help with anything. Again, that’s all hearsay unless medically proven, but it does help with my energy, and the more that I’ve consumed, the more of a glow my skin seems to have. I can’t explain it quite simply but it’s doing something and I like it. Just don’t drink this by itself – tooth erosion is real. 
  5. Colorful foods – as mentioned in my previous post, the more color in your diet, the better your diet. The better your diet? 

Hopefully these are some things (other than sleep when you finally graduate) that can help ease your journey when making a drastic change that will affect your internal and external appearance. 

Happy Nomming! 

Develop a Natural Sweet Tooth: Healthy snacks and food items to munch on

~ PB34 ~ Leave a comment

Ever since I decided to go meatless, I really got into the various snack items that can be found in any co-op or store on a hill. Here are a list of things you can chose to add to your diet and make people feel bad about their own simultaneously and I really really like.

Toasted Coconut Chips

These are light and buttery. Strips in a spaceship bag made of heaven.

Dried Mangoes

They’re pretty sweet due to the added sugar…But who cares. Have five strips and be awake for anything!

Dried Seaweed – You can usually find this in the ethnic food aisles in any store or those stores on the hills…but be careful with this! Eating too much made me feel a bit light-headed. But the added salt in some brands can make you think they’re just chips. Newsflash; they’re not. One or two sheets are good or you can use them for some home-made sushi rolls instead…

Trail Mix – No picture needed as it’s an age-old snack. You can either pay to buy a wholesale bag to last you through the months or you can make your own. Try to stay away from too much of those chocolate pieces!

Smoothies – You don’t need an expensive piece of equipment. Get a blender or mixer from any store and call it a day. During my mornings or afternoons in between classes, I added strawberries, blueberries and mangoes with any kind of nectar juice and a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.

Fruit Bars – Any thing “apple,” is a go-to of mine, but feel free to experiment! However always be aware of the ingredients!

Happy Nomming!

Vitamins & Color are your Friends: Being nutritious using the brightly colored food items

~ PB34 ~ Leave a comment

As mentioned in my first blog post, my mother was highly concerned with how my dietary needs would be met, after taking out an important staple like meat. She harped with our doctor to look for things I could take or do in order to keep up my healthy balance.

For a while, I was taking the brand name supplements, also throwing in some extra Vitamin C for good measure. It seemed like it was working until ‘that day…’

See ‘that day,‘ consisted of my latest shift at the campus cafeteria. It was a slow and boring shift but easy money. However, although I was sleeping enough prior before getting up, walking around etc. I still felt very tired. Almost as if I imagined myself falling down and never waking up. 

After consulting with the nearest doctor, I was told I was borderline anemic and I needed to start working on my iron and B12 levels. 

Great and gross…Iron water smells like blood if you don’t mix it right.

So I tried out iron pills and continued to have huge bowls of dark greens during lunch and dinner, or just as an evening meal. 

In the morning, I’d have bright red grapefruit, and bright orange cantaloupe after a bowl of cereal or scrambled eggs. Nothing but bright red tomatoes or a bowl of dark red beets. Very blue blueberries or bright orange carrots as a snack – I could go on! 

Do you see what I’m doing here? All of these colors are not just to tie a fancy abstract writing piece but to show how Mother Nature signals the ‘good stuff’ depending on the color. For instance, according to Fruits & Veggies, More Matters, the more colorful your diet, the more phytonutrients, or antioxidants you consume.

Here is a post for the different nutrients found in the above foods I mentioned (beta-carotene, lycopene etc.) and more!

On the bright side, the majority of these things taste good so keep using pure supplements (try to stay away from synthetic oils) and colorful foods. 

Happy Nomming!