Mad About Udon

Sorry for the delay in posting. We went to Toronto for my BFF’s birthday party. Toronto (my hometown) is the best—and as far as I can tell, the only—city in Canada, and everything about it is 1,000,000 X superior to Ottawa, mostly because the entire city (Ottawa) supports the wrong hockey team!! That’s right, I said it. It is also probably the centre of the universe.  I knew I was home when we nearly got killed on the 401 highway by a Scarborough driver who decided to displace our car by veering into it without signalling or even checking his mirrors. Oh, Toronto.

But just to backtrack a couple days, we had celebratory smoothies on Tuesday. The celebration?? A new blender!!

You may recall in my last post, I made falafels and using an electric mixer instead of a blender. Life really isn’t so hard without a blender, with two exceptions: hummus and smoothies. I eat buckets of the former so we eventually caved and put $15 down at the ol’ Wal Mart on a blender.

Ingredients: frozen berries, bananas, Earthshake Soy and Oat beverage, cocoa powder, and Dutch chocolate vodka

I got those little umbrellas at the dollar store. Cute, no?

-Maureen

Maureen’s last post inspired me to make a noodle-based supper this evening! This recipe is based on the curry recipes found in The Ayurvedic Cookbook by Amadea Morningstar and Urmila Desai. It yields enough for two small portions of approximately 205 calories each, or one large portion of about 410 calories.

1 t sunflower oil
½ t black mustard seeds
½ t cumin seeds
½ t cumin powder
½ t fenugreek
½ t turmeric
½ t coriander powder
1 t curry powder
½ a medium potato
¼ c red onion
2 garlic cloves
¼ c coarsely chopped red onion
1 c water
¼ c chickpeas
¼ c frozen green peas
2 finely chopped brussel sprouts
1.5 oz spelt udon

Begin by heating the oil in a pan. Add the black mustard seeds, cumin and fenugreek and wait for the black mustard seeds to pop. Watch the pan to make sure the seeds do not burn! Once the black mustard seeds have begun to pop, add the turmeric, onions and garlic. Add ¼ c water. Let the onions brown, and then add the rest of your vegetables and ½ c of water. Cover your pan and cook on medium for 15 minutes or so. Add the rest of the water as necessary. After the 15 minutes is up, simmer uncovered for another 10 minutes. While the curry is simmering, prepare the udon as indicated on the package. Add the noodles to the curry, stir and enjoy.

The Ayurvedic Cookbook recommends that fruit is eaten alone, or at the beginning of a meal. I decided to make a fruit smoothie of approximately 125 calories to accompany my supper anyway. Here is the recipe:

½ a banana
½ an orange
¼ c unsweetened frozen pineapple
¼ c unsweetened frozen blueberry
½ c water

Add the ingredients to a blender and liquefy.

- Aly

I drink it! Here is another recipe inspired by the FFVK:

Kale and fruit smoothie:

½ c water
½  an orange
½  a banana
¼ c unsweetened, frozen blueberries
¼ c raw spinach
1 c raw kale

Liquefy the ingredients in a blender until the mixture has reached your desired consistency. According to the Dietitians of Canada’s Recipe Analyzer, this recipe has about 166.4 calories, 79.3 μg of folate, 776.9 mg of Potassium, 623.3 μg of vitamin A, 130.4 mg of vitamin E, 2 mg of Iron, 7.5 g of fibre, 4.3 g of protein, 1.4 g of fat, 39.4 g of carbohydrate, 46.1 mg of Sodium, and 22.5 g of sugar. I also added a packet of vitamin B12 supplement and a couple of goji berries (which were not included in the calorie count). I usually pour this, or some variation of it, in to my Thermos and drink it while at school or work.

- Aly

PS Check out the WHFoods‘ websites about kale, blueberries, oranges, bananas, and spinach!