Introducing "Happy Herbivore Light & Lean!"

Hi Everyone!

Well, as I promised earlier in the week, here are the interview questions that I asked Lindsay and her replies. . . I hope you find something interesting and helpful to you!  Also, just to tempt your taste-buds just a little bit, I have been given permission to post for you one of Lindsay's new recipes that appears in "Happy Herbivore Light & Lean."  I was actually given a short list of recipes that I could choose from--but I could only chose ONE to share with you here.  SO, if you like this one, you just may have to go order yourself a copy of the whole book! :)  As I looked over the title of my recipe options, I decided to choose the "Meatloaf Bites," because--well--because Meatloaf seems the craziest thing to make WITHOUT MEAT, know what I mean???  Anyway, I haven't made this recipe myself yet, but I am planning on it!  And if it is anything like the recipes in the past three Happy Herbivore books, I know I will LOVE it! :)  And now, onto the interview!

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Susan:  I have heard that apples are a food that you should buy organic since the chemicals they are sprayed with accumulate in the peeling.  If a person cannot afford to buy organic produce, is it better for them to just not eat the peel?  The peeling has a lot of nutrition, but would it be more hazardous than helpful in this case?

Lindsay:  I'm not a scientist, nutritionist or other expert so I can't really say much except I think it's far better to eat a conventional apple than an organic potato chip. Don't get me wrong, I think organic is great, but if you don't have access to organics, or you can't afford them, that's okay. Just focus on eating plant foods. That's more important. Do the best you can.

Susan:  My daughter and I fell in love with the Banana Ice Cream Breakfast from the menu plan, and sometimes she asks for it every single day.  I am happy to make it for her, but sometimes I worry that maybe we are over doing it with eating so many bananas (the two of us end up eating around five frozen bananas when I make this, so 2 1/2 each).  Sometimes after we have eaten the Banana Ice Cream for breakfast, she will also ask for a banana based smoothie for desert at lunch time.  Should the daily/weekly number of fruits be limited to avoid raising your triglycerides?

Lindsay:   I'm thrilled to hear the meal plans are a hit with your daughter! Woot! That said, I'm not a nutritionist, or a doctor, so I can't say much. However, in my personal opinion, I think it's far better she's addicted to bananas than PopTarts. Variety is great, but I wouldn't obsess over it. Most kids are picky and go through phases with foods. They'll eat blueberry muffins nonstop and then never eat them again. It's just kids being kids ;) If you can get in some more variety, great, but unless your doctor is worried, I wouldn't be worried that a child loves a fruit :)  

Susan:  Sometimes my husband who is a teacher has literally 15 minutes to eat lunch between one class ending and the next beginning.    

He does not have time to eat a "real" meal, but could eat a small snack type food.  We want to avoid the typical potato chip route, but need something already prepared that is just as quick to grab--any suggestions?

Lindsay:  Sandwiches, muffins, precut vegetables, fruit, beans and rice, soup in a thermos, any of the lunches on the meal plan (getmealplans.com) since they're all made ahead and ready-to-eat. 

Susan:   I make my own bread with 100% whole wheat and leave out all oil, but I have heard that even bread made this way is not really a "whole food."  I have wondered why, since all the fiber from the grain is still remaining.  Any thoughts on bread/pancakes/crackers/etc.?  If they are whole grain and oil free, are they something we can eat a lot of or should we still be limiting them a bit?

Lindsay:   I look at things on a sliding scale. Yes, there is no such thing as a whole-wheat bread tree. Whole-wheat bread is not a whole food in the sense that broccoli is a whole food. Whole-wheat bread, or more specifically, the whole wheat flour used to make the bread, is a broken down grain. It's a very concentrated source of calories. Yes, homemade, 100% whole-wheat bread made without oil is light years healthier than the junky white bread at the store with a million ingredients you can't pronounce, but it's still not as whole as, say, an apple, or brown rice.

        I tell my clients to eat as many whole, unprocessed plant foods as possible. Really stick to whole grains like brown rice, beans, lentils, fruits and vegetables. Broken grains like whole-wheat bread or even whole-wheat pasta are fine as long as they accent the diet, but they should not be a staple, and they should be a small serving with a big serving of other whole foods. For example with the pasta, have a little bit of pasta mixed with a ton of vegetables, not just a big bowl of pasta.

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Meatloaf Bites from "Happy Herbivore Light & Lean"
by Lindsay Nixon

Makes 8

Gluten-free, Quick, Budget

One afternoon I grabbed what I thought was corn from the freezer but later realized it was mixed vegetables. Once they thawed on the counter I knew they weren’t going back in, so I looked for a new, inventive way to use them. A can of kidney beans started calling, and before I knew it I had a vegetable-filled meatloaf in the oven. Since this meatloaf is baked in a muffin tin (great for serving sizes and portion control), I call it meatloaf “bites” and, yes, leftovers are great as a burger!

1 15-oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tbsp chili powder (add another 1 tsp if you like it spicy)
3 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp Vegan Worcestershire Sauce (recipe in full cookbook)
1 c frozen mixed vegetables, thawed
6 tbsp instant oats

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or use nonstick. Mash beans in a bowl with
fork or potato masher until well mashed. Add remaining ingredients, except oats, and stir to combine.
Stir in oats. Spoon into muffin tin and pack down. Bake for 20 minutes until crisp on the outside and
fairly firm to the touch (firms a bit as it cools). Serve with ketchup, Quick Gravy (pg. 188), etc.

Per Bite
Calories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Fat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.7g
Carbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.9g
Fiber. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6.5g
Sugars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3g
Protein. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5.8g
WW Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

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Hope you all have enjoyed this little interview and the new recipe!  Truly Lindsay's recipes have been such a blessing in my own life--I hope they are a help to you as well!

~Susan

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day Everyone!

Just wanted to take a minute and say a little "Howdy!"  

Life continues to be crazy busy, so of course if I totally wait until it slows down to post anything it will never happen.  Ever!  So thought I would share a bit of what today was like for us.  Remember I mentioned that our daughter had learned (finally!) to ride a bike without training wheels????  Well, along with this new skill has come a LOVE for riding.  And of course, just riding up and down on our road is no longer all that exciting any more.

So.

In self defense (I am NOT exaggerating here!) I realized I needed to buy myself a bike.

This was simply because I could no longer keep up with her with me walking along while she rides.

Not that I really expect to "keep up" with her on a bike.  But I DO want to "keep close" to her!

So I researched the bike.  I ordered the bike.  My sweet hubby put the bike together once it came.

Unfortunately, I guess the whole idea of having a bike is to RIDE the bike.  Or so I'm told. . . 

(Having a great bike just hanging out in the shed evidently isn't good enough for some people!)

WELL, so my lovely daughter and I have been riding a bit on our street.  And Sabbath I took her to our town's Greenway to ride--a lovely paved walking/biking trail stretching for around two miles from our college campus further into town.

It just so happens, that the place it ends in town is right at our public library.  Which is right next to our dentist office.

And we both had a dental checkup scheduled for today.

SO.  After riding it with her on Sabbath for a "practice run," she had such a great time she started begging to ride it again.  That girl would be happy to ride it every single day--which is a good thing, really.  Except that in this day and age you don't dare send your eight year old out by themselves.  Which means I am going to get a lot of use out of that new bike of mine, whether I feel like it or not! ;)

Just teasing.  It was a perfect day.  Absolutely perfect.  And it was a delight to plan our little excursion.

In addition to our dentist check ups, we had a class for her for most of the afternoon at the library.  We have a wonderful librarian who has a heart for home schoolers, and she planned a class on the Civil War for them.  While I do not like to focus too much on war, the fact is that every where you look in our neck of the woods you are looking at a monument or some sort of remembrance of the Civil War.  So you might as well teach your child about it--sad topic that it may be.  

So we planned our trip.  We would drive to the start of the Greenway--even though there is sidewalk going from our road, the road the sidewalk runs along is rather steep for children (and mothers!) not to mention the cars that go speeding by--and THAT piece of side walk is right along the street with no space between where the cars drive and the sidewalk with the people are.  So better safe than sorry, so we drove to the Greenway beginning and parked.  

A picnic lunch was brought along.  We would use "pedal power" to pedal our way to the dentist office, eat our lunch on a picnic table outside his office, then bike next door to the library to attend the class, then pedal power our way back to where our car was parked.  On your mark, get set, GO!

Oh yes, by the way.  I KNOW it has been over 25 years since I was in my "biking days," probably even 30+ years.  But I have GOT to keep up with that eight year old! :)

 Part of the absolutely lovely Greenway trail.  This is actually showing some foundation parts that are left from the old Brotherton Mill--a flour mill that used to operate in these parts years ago.  I would love to see pictures of it--sometime I will have to look for some.  You never know what you can find on-line these days!

 This is right across from the stream where the mill was.  This wagon was built and painted with the words "Brotherton Mill" on it.  I love the little things like this that one of the city workers has lovingly created to make the Greenway beautiful.

 Taking a closer look at the small waterfall that is in this bend of the stream.

 This was right outside our dental office--no cavities!  Yea!  And, we are both members of the "Clean Teeth Club" now!  I love shiny-from-the-dentist teeth! :D

On the way home!  Our one little problem we had was that we had fourteen library books we needed to return.  So on the way there, we distributed them between our two back packs, with me taking more as I really did not want a heavy pack to throw her balance off and make her crash.  Crashing was NOT in our plans for the day!  It felt SO good to drop them all off in the library drop box!  We talked about how we would only check out around 2-4 books this time, since we would be using "pedal power" to get back to our car.  Welllllll, you know that expression about the best laid plans of mice and men????  We walked into the library, only to be greeted by the librarian who told Alison that she had won a contest the library had recently, and her prize was a $5.00 Book Buck--free money to spend at the library book sale.  That was going on right then.  And children's books were ONLY 25 cents each!  What was that we were just saying about not overloading ourselves for the bike trip back????  Fortunately, the nice librarian said we did not have to spend it ALL today.  So Alison looked through, and we picked out only 13 books to purchase with it.  That IS one less than the number we biked in with us, after all. . .

Altogether, it was a lovely day.  While our outing was not planned specifically as a celebration of Earth Day, I thought it was very appropriate to drive just a bit less, and exercise just a bit more.  And with our round trip, we biked four miles today.  Not too bad for an eight year old kid, and a much more than eight year old mom!

Hope you had a wonderful day as well!

~Susan

P.S.--My favorite "Earth Day" verse!

"The earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
For He has founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the waters.
Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart. . . "

Psalm 24:1-4