I wrote a food plan today and stuck with it until dinner time. The afternoon turned cold, I was tired, and nothing in the fridge appealed ... you know how that goes. I really wanted a piece of toast, of all things! But I don't regularly keep bread in the house, and resisted the urge to make cornbread or biscuits. Instead, I made Virtuous Soup. And it was really yummy.
What is Virtuous Soup, you ask? Well, it's a little something I whipped up on the spot from stuff in the fridge. And it goes something like this:
Sautee a chopped onion and some leafy greens (kale, chard, spinach) in a tiny bit of butter and olive oil. The addition of a smidgeon of butter to your oil adds a lot of richness to the flavor. In my soup, I used only the chopped up ribs from the greens.*
Salt to taste. Add some chopped mushrooms (I used oyster) and about of cup of a whole grain of your choice (I used some brown rice left over from a visit to a Chinese restaurant). Add a package of Italian sausage style seitan, or some ground turkey, or some such. I'm a big big fan of Upton's Naturals.
Add about a cup of mushroom, beef, or veggie broth. My all-time favorite is Pacific Natural Foods Organic Mushroom Broth. Let that cook down, then add the rest of the broth and let it also boil down a little until you have a thicker soup.
*Earlier in the week, I made kale chips, and saved the tough ribs. I also had some rainbow chard, so I went ahead and stripped the ribs from that, too, chopped them all up, and put them in Ziploc in the fridge. The ribs are good to eat but you have to cook them longer than the leaves.
That's it. Start to finish it took 30 minutes, and it was AMAZING and satisfying and warming on a cold night.
But I still wanted something sweet. So I took a page from my amazing and beautiful friend Anya Matanovic's book and made truffles.This is my colleague who travels with her Vitamix (for which I still long and lust) and showed all of us in the Figaro cast how to make all sorts of yummies with it. But I still rely on the cheap but sturdy little Black and Decker food processor I've had since grad school; it doesn't get things as smooth as the Vitamix, but it works just fine.
CINDY'S VERSION OF ANYA'S HEALTHY RAW TRUFFLES
Grind about a cup of raw cashews (or almonds, or walnuts, or pecans) in your food processor until it turns into butter. Add about 1/4 tsp salt.
Add 1/2 cup dried unsweetened shredded coconut and a cup of pitted dates; continue to blend. Add 1 tsp vanilla extract and three tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (my gold standard is Scharffen Berger).
And then just roll the sticky mixture up into little balls. They're pretty rich so don't make them too big. They are the YUM. Yes, they have a lot of sugar because of the dates and fat because of the nuts, but at least it's a very natural form. Anya was always bringing these to rehearsal; only one reason she is such a popular girl.
In other news, I got in a good little walk this morning, while the dogs chased squirrels, but I did not go back to the group fitness class and I didn't do any other exercise. Well, tomorrow is another day.
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