Wednesday, March 7, 2012

What I Ate Wednesday--7 foods


Are you ready for this?  I can hardly believe I have been surviving off 7 foods for 7 days!  Now, only approximately 3 more weeks to go!
7 foods:
Spinach
Sweet Potatoes
Almonds
Tofu
Avocado
Oats
Apples

Additional notes: I allow light salt on my food, and heavy cinnamon.  In the book, An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess, Jen allowed salt and pepper.  Given the foods I am eating, I thought cinnamon a much more appropriate fit.  I have also allowed lemon on one or two occasions and olive oil in small doses is ok.

Cheats? There have been a few.  On the way to church on Sunday I popped a mint.  Whoops!  I also took a small bite of a vegan cupcake my bestie Melis made me yesterday.  The rest are in the freezer.  I couldn't be rude after all. 

So how am I faring?  Am I getting creative?  Above pictured is steamed spinach topped with a tofu patty, mashed avocado and sweet potato chips.  Second is an Apple Green Monster, and of course my staple, apples and almond butter. 

So clearly I have created variations on many of my 7 foods.
Almonds have become almond milk and almond butter, almond slices and almond meal.
Homemade Almond Milk

by Tanya Kummerow
Prep Time: overnight + 20 minutes
Keywords: blender beverage vegan gluten-free almonds

Ingredients (4 cups)
  • 2 cups raw almonds
  • water
Instructions
Measure 1 cup of almonds and cover completely with water. Soak overnight or up to 24 hours.
Drain almonds and place in blender (any blender will do). Add 4 cups of water and blend until the liquid is a consistent white color. There will be almond pulp still in the liquid.
Using cheesecloth and your best method, pour almond milk into container straining out any pulp through the cheesecloth. I used two containers and did this several times to eliminate most of the pulp.
After the liquid drained through the cheesecloth, I squeezed out all remaining liquid until I was left with very dry almond pulp. I then smoothed the pulp onto parchment paper on a cookie sheet and baked until it was a cracker consistency. Very good!
Store almond milk in fridge for 5-7 days, stirring before use.
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Sweet potatoes are being cut into fries and chips and hashbrowns and simply baked.
Oats have turned into oatmeal, overnight oats, and granola and cereal!
My favorite creation by far has been the granola!

Apple Cinnamon Granola

by Tanya Kummerow
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Keywords: bake dessert snack gluten-free sugar-free vegan oats

Ingredients (3 cups)
  • 1/2 cup fresh apple juice (or organic apple juice with no other ingredients added)
  • 1 tablespoon almond butter
  • 2 cups rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup dried apples, diced
  • 1/4 sliced almonds
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
note: all the ingredients I used had no added ingredients if pre-packaged and not fresh
    Instructions
    In small sauce pan bring apple juice to a boil. Add in almond butter and cinnamon and simmer for 5 minutes constantly stirring. Your mixture will begin to caramelize and thicken. Remove from heat.
    Mix together oats, almond slices and dried apples in a large bowl. With wooden spoon or spatula stir in apple juice mixture until completely coated.
    Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly oil. Spread oats onto baking sheet in a very thin layer.
    Bake for 15 minutes. Use a turner to flip oats on tray and bake an additional 15 minutes until crunchy and golden brown.
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    There was also a sad attempt at a tortilla...which turned more into a cracker but still satiated my desire for bread.  I used almond meal and oat flour with water and a dab of olive oil.  After I fried it on the pan I topped it with mashed avocado or almond butter and it was perfect!  Not pretty, but it works!
    It is possible to eat only 7 foods.  It has actually been enjoyable.  Creating recipes out of such a small ingredient list is challenging but fun.  Eating only 7 foods has been simple and as expected has opened my eyes to the excess in my life.  Especially in the food category.  I feel so blessed to be able to choose my 7 foods, to create new recipes every day with those 7 foods, to have the kitchen equipment necessary to chop, grind, melt and bake things to perfection.
    At the Royal School in Uganda the hundreds of children line up each day for their meal.  On their plate are usually two things...beans and posho (a cornmeal substance).  The next day: beans and posho.  And again the next.  They don't get bean burgers, and bean dip and bean tacos and bean chili.  Nor do they get fresh corn and corn on the cob and polenta and roasted corn and corn salsa.  They get beans and posho.

    How lucky am I then that I got to choose 7 foods and then make them into a hundred different foods?  So many have commented on how little choices I have, and I would have agreed.  But now I feel like I have an infinite of choices and am so blessed!  Oh, and they don't get salt on their corn and let me tell you it isn't fun to eat without!

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