Organic Granny

These are tasty and really really really easy to put together Collard Sprout Wraps. I  stuffed the wraps with Broccoli Sprouts (low carb, high in liver-supporting sulfur compounds) but if you aren't into sprouting, you can use broccoli slaw (sold in bags). INGREDIENTS:  Collard Leaves ( I removed the tough spine and tore into small pieces for wraps that were about two bites worth) 1- 2  C.  Broccoli Sprouts 1/4 to 1/2 C. Tahini Juice from 1 Lime 1- 2 Garlic Cloves (or powder) Mince the garlic, if using, and add it and the lime to the Tahini, mixing until pretty much homogenous. You can add the sauce to the sprouts and mix, or use it as a sort of dipping sauce for the rolls.  I mixed them all up together, and rolled it up into the little collard pieces.  It was yummy and satisfying. SEE OTHER KETO FLEX RECIPES HERE

This very densely nutritious (i.e.,fills you up) Ketoflex shake is a combined recipe of the breakfast smoothie that I generally have every morning thanks to Chris Wark's anti-cancer regimen, and the keto ingredients (coconut milk, cacao, and peanut butter). I am satisfied that Chris Wark's recipe is low-carb enough and high fibre enough to be a good fit for this superfood shake / smoothie.  At the time I write this I am still struggling with the fat adapting part of this diet.  The original recipe did not have any fruit or berries in it and tasted quite flat and a little bitter.   So, I tweaked it with Chris Wark's recipe and with a cup of frozen blackberries from my fridge. If you are already using a ketogenic way of eating, you will know that you can work out your own fats+ proteins+ carbs ratio that fits for you.  If you are not on a vegan ketogenic diet, you can go to the tab above and click on My Ketoflex Recipes and read a little about what they are

Today we were taking turmeric and honey every hour (half a spoon full of a 5 T. honey/2 T. Tumeric mix) to build our immunity.  This wonderful immunity soup (curry is packed with those wonderful Indian herbs like turmeric and cumin with their medicinal benefits just slightly overshadowed by their warm electric flavours) seemed like a natural supper dish! This one of those warming soups-- I am not a big fan of HOT curry, but I love a mild curry that is kind of like coming in from a frigid walk in the winter and putting your feet up on the oven door (somehow can't believe we used to do that). The original recipe gave options for the oil used.  I chose coconut oil, since there is also coconut milk in here, and it seemed like a good idea to carry through with the "tropical" theme. I also subbed baby spinach for the kale that it called for.  It is a very light and lithesome soup.  It is the kind of soup I like to sip when I am feeling not quite 100%. But apart from t

We are a big oatmeal-eating family so naturally we checked out to see where oatmeal falls in a ketogenic diet .... and YAY, a "moderate" amount of oatmeal is okay!  We are not quite sure what moderate IS, so we also loaded the bowl up with bonafide ketoflex fruits and fats (no refined sugars).  These are low-glycemic fruits.  Lilly's chocolate chips are sweetened with Stevia.  If you feel guilty about this not being terribly strict, you can look at it as a transitional dish ! It's all good! So, to make a bowl like this, you can organize the following: soup ladel scoop of Steel-cut Oats , well cooked with some added coconut shreds Lilly's Dark Chocolate Chips (they melt on the hot porridge... yum) Fill up rest of space with a foundation of Coconut Yogurt (NOT dairy-- soy or almond yogurt are also fine.  Choose un-sweetened or sweetened with Stevia is okay Dried Apricots , unsweetened, unsulphured (these are Turkish), chopped and briefly soaked in hot

This is a Keto Flex SNACK, which means it doesn't actually work as a lunch, but if you can stop at one or two of these delicious little salted almond cups , you will have energy and burn off some fat. Of course I had planned to make some peanut butter snacks, but I found out that the recipe I had called for "peanut flour" which I did NOT have, so.... I DID have an untried, unopened jar of a powder called PB & Me Powdered Almond Butter .  Since its original use is as an almond butter, but it is also a powder (as in flour?) so I thought... well, you know.... recipe experiment time!  (You can still use the plain old almond butter if you want) I am happy to say that the recipe worked out just fine! Yummy-licious in fact. WHAT YOU NEED FOR THIS RECIPE: Parchment Paper Liners or candy cups 2 Muffin Tins 9-10 oz. dark chocolate (I used  Lily's Dark Chocolate Chips- 1x9 OZ  ) 3 T. Coconut Oil ( divided in 2 for the chocolate layers) 2 tsp. Cocon

This is my first recipe as an official KetoFlex person: Rice made from Cauliflower cuddling with Spicy diced Tofu.  Delicious!  If the rest of the food on the "diet" tastes this wonderful, I'm in! The ingredients list is below.   You might just want to do a scroll through this little tutorial to get a gawk at how to make cauliflower rice (very easy) and spice up your tofu (also easy): Start with a lovely organic cauliflower.  This is how it looks when it has had its leaves removed. Pulse it through your food processor until it resembles rice throughout.   Or, alternatively, you can grate it with a box grater. I like to dry it off so that it doesn't cook up too limp.  I just line a pan with a couple of layers of paper towel, pour in the 'rice', and let it sit a bit.  Then I soak up excess water with towels from the top. Cut a block of pressed organic tofu into cubes and dredge completely in   a Taco seasoning like Simply Organic Southwes

How does a woman who has faithfully followed and eaten Low Fat Vegan for health and ethical reasons, suddenly flip over to the "high fat" keto diet that she has always been told was invented and propagated for "big money" by the late Dr. Atkinson? If you have been following this blog, you know that I have faithfully extolled the virtues of a Low FAT Plant-Strong diet for a good hunk of my adult life .  Besides feeling very strongly that eating organically-grown fruit, veggies, whole grains and beans is the way to go, I have also heralded the low (and no) fat trends among vegans who listen to and love the agenda of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine who almost all firmly condemn a "high fat" vegan diet.  How did this happen?                                       SEE THE KETOFLEX RECIPES I USE Well, a couple of things have happened to change my decision around the way I eat: 1. I am 67 years old at the time of this writing.  I have had

THE SWEET BUTTER TART COMPONENT My husband and I both grew up in households where oatmeal was almost a daily occurrence on the breakfast menu.  Once we got over our rebellion against eating it (the it's-good-for-you), as adults we have begun to eat it pretty regularly again. We love it.  I also love sweet desserts-- cookies, cake, pie, tarts-- and have been experimenting to make healthier copy-cat recipes that can be incorporated into porridge-- for us, that's a win-win. For someone who likes desserts but is pretty "meh" about porridge, these dessert-ifications might just be the bump needed into the healthy habit of eating oatmeal.  Just how healthy is oatmeal? A 30-gram serving of well-cooked Steel Cuts oats gives your body a balance of 66% carbohydrates, 17% protein, 7% fat and 11% fiber. Oats are also an excellent source of manganese and molybdenum, a very good source of phosphorus and a good source of copper, biotin, vitamin B1, magnesium, dietary

Recently I was at a social function where I found myself hanging over the dessert table and "sampling" more than one delicious Lemon-Coconut Square.   In my opinion, these "dainties" (what sugar-y confections at "Teas" were called in my youth) are the creme-de-la-creme of the dessert table.   But.... as much as I enjoyed them, I felt like a huge fraud, since (1)I am working to lose inches and (2)I profess to be vegan.  The eggs, fat and sugar in these Lemon-Coconut Squares are not dangerous in moderation, but if you eat 3 squares/bars, you are taking in something like 30 g of fat (saturated and unsaturated), as well as 450 calories of energy.   So, I went searching for a recipe that would allow me to enjoy the essence of this lovely dessert, while being low in fat and calories, and higher in nutritional benefits. Voila!  The Lemon-Coconut Porridge Recipe was born-- or REBORN maybe, in a vegan form. Start by making a fabulous VEGAN LEMON CURD (i.e

These whole food, plant-based orange walnut brownies are yummy, and compared to other brownies, pretty healthy. Here are the list of Ingredients: 1 C.      Pitted Medjool Dates 3/4 C.  Hot Water 1 C.      Rolled Oats 1/2 C.    Walnut Pieces 1/2 C.   Cocoa Powder 1/2 tsp . Baking Powder 3 T.        Maple Syrup 2 tsp.     Orange Extract (or Vanilla if you wish) Pinch    Sea Salt METHOD: Preheat oven to 350F/175C Pour hot water over the dates and let them sit in a bowl for about 10 minutes Drain the water off and then blend up the dates in a food processor, scraping down as you go Add oatmeal, walnuts, cocoa, baking powder, maple syrup, and sea salt. Process until smooth, scraping down the bowl as you go. In an 8"x8" pan, cover bottom with parchment paper and press in brownies Bake 20 minutes Let cool, and then cut into 16 pieces You may store the brownies for up to 5 days in the fridge (in an airtight container) Using the information at FitnessP

So, this summer when our little Fil-Can granddaughters visited we went out and bought a ton of rice-- brown rice, brown Basmati, Jasmine rice, and plain old white rice.  While potatoes and beans are our starches of choice, our grandies prefer rice.  However, this year they didn't seem to want to eat it as quite as often, even though the Instant Pot delivers it in a lovely, highly digestible and delicious form. So, this is to say that we have a LOT of rice left in our pantry.  I have been using it up in stews, for burrito filler, etc., but today I ran across a recipe for Champorado, a Filippino sticky rice chocolate pudding, and I thought, hey, I've got these ingredients in spades! And I have an opportunity to see if I can make it fast and easy in the Instant Pot. So..... Measure out the following: INGREDIENTS: 2 C. Rice , clean and soak it   (I used plain white rice, but glutinous rice is what is traditionally used) 3 C. Water 1/2 C. Cocoa 1/2 C.- 1 C.  B

Here is maybe the best Carrot Cake (read: virtuously low-fat, sweet, many-textured, moist and tasty to the max) that I have ever baked.  What a bonus that it is healthy!!  I found it so moist, sweeet and flavourful that I believed a frosting would have ruined it... but feel free to go for the traditional (vegan?) cream cheese frosting if you so desire. INGREDIENTS: 1 cup rolled or quick cooking oats 1 cup chopped walnuts 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt 1/2 cup unsweetened finely shredded coconut 1 cups grated carrots 1 cup pure maple syrup 1 cup pitted, chopped dates (I used Medjool- you could use raisins, etc.) 1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract --------------------------------------- Gratitude  makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.  If you are looking for a project to help you expr

This essay was written, along with various sketches, in the Summer of 2017 when our granddaughters, Alyza and Angelika, spent four weeks with us.