Home made Longanisa- ish Food

My great grandmother, Rosenda Gonzales, of Bacolor Pamapanga made so much longanisa to sell when my grandfather was in college in the USA, that my Auntie Mody said it could have wrapped the world a few times. Longanisa is the Filipino sausage of memory.

I can't eat it while I'm eating a low fat vegan food plan.

Today I went on an internet search for "vegan longanisa" and was rewarded with several videos and recipes. I watched one recipe and then set out to make my own.

It was really easy...too easy. Goodbye Morningstar, hello home made!

Set your oven to 375 degrees.

Ingredients:

1 block firm lite tofu (I'm counting fat grams)
1/2 shitake mushrooms chopped finely. (I used about half a packed of shrooms).
1 T Bragg's aminos
1 T garlic powder
1 T onion powder
3 T Potato Flour (a Bob's Red Mill product)
1 package Hain Fat Free Brown Gravy
1 t ground pepper
1 T brown sugar
PAM baking spray

Start with the tofu, mash it into smithereens. Add in the mushrooms and all the other ingredients one by one mixing very well. You want something that looks like a homogeneous mess.

Spray a cookie sheet with Pam. Grab a handful of the mix and patty-cake it into a nice little disc. Line them up nicely on the cookie tin. Give the top surfaces a quick spray with the Pam. Put it in the oven for about 35-45 minutes. Flip them over half way through, to brown the other side.

Oh Yum! I had it with a PERFECT condiment. CJ Bibijo Hot and Spicy Korean Barbecue Sauce. Here's the link http://www.cjfoods.com/ I had mine with brown rice.

A highly delicious and virtuous low fat vegan meal.

Two Weeks of this...

Well, I fell off my plan and climbed back on. In between there were fried clams and fried chicken, and all sorts of sweet things. There was ice cream and quesadillas, and lots of guacamole and chicken adobo. All during it, my baseline blood sugar started to climb. It came down a bit on days I walked, but the good low levels I was so please with were gone.

Then I read about someone I knew who had a stroke, and someone else who had a heart attack and I realized, I only have one shot at this life. Then again, I looked at my youngest and was immediately reminded of how old I was when I had here, and what kind of longevity I needed to stick around until she was middle aged like me.

It was sobering. So I put away all the delicious food of the past, and embarked once again on this Low Fat Vegan Journey. I bought Dr. John McDougall's latest book," The Starch Solution" to reinforce myself. I read it through, and I know it all by now.

I knew exactly what to do.

Of all the ways of eating, there will be one that sticks well to an individual. For me, the hardest thing to give up are carbohydrates. I don't like eating masses of meat. It starts to bother me - as much as I love fried chicken and steak.

So I began again. Within four days, my blood sugar had settle down and was dropping. And it is a beautiful morning number once again. And I am enjoying what I eat. I really am.

I made a wonderful batch of bean soup.

Wish me luck, because I'm on a roll...again!

Quinoa Tabbouleh

This is really good. It sort of related to the Tabbouleh salad I love. But it fusion food because instead of cracked wheat we use quinoa, and instead of lemons we use limes.

It's got the low glycemic quinoa, the beans, the tanginess, the parsley. Oh, it is so good.

This is great to bring to a party or have some tonight and eat it every day until it is done.

1 cup uncooked Quinoa
1 can corn
1 can red beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can white beans
1/2 red onion diced
1 handful parsley washed and chopped.
4 limes (juice them)
3 ripe tomatoes or 1 can of good diced tomatoes, drained.
Some good salt.

This is what you do. Cook the quinoa. (I've used both a microwave and a rice cooker). When it's done put it in a big mixing bowl. Open and rinse all the cans of beans and the corn. Add off of the beans and corn to the bowl. Add the onion. Add the lime juice. Add the tomatoes. Mix it all up. Add the salt.

You can use any kind of beans, and you can use your favorite salsa instead of the tomatoes. It is very adaptable.

Enjoy!

For Margarita

My friend and Harvard journalism classmate, Margarita Persico runs a great blog called, The Healthy Dish http://thehealthydish.com ,asked for a smoothie recipe. Here it is! Super simple and so delicious.

I bought a new blender/food processor for my daughter, who loves smoothies.

Into it I put, rather cavalierly,

1 cup of almond milk
1 cup of blueberries
10 strawberries
1 banana

Then I hit the appropriate button.

Poured it into two glasses, and shared one with my antioxidant expert husband. It was delish! Antioxidants. Vitamins. Minerals. Simple and perfect.

I hope you make yourself a smoothie today, and go read Margarita's fabulous blog!

Steamed Potatoes and the Treadmill

I made a bunch of steamed potatoes for potato salad today. Last week we picked up a food steamer at a yard sale for $5.00. Super easy, and super perfect potatoes! They were cooked but firm.

Over the weekend we had a grand visit from one of my oldest friends, Baba. Baba lost 66 pounds by exercising. She is so full of joy and energy. "If I can do it, you can do it," she told me.

She did the San Diego half-marathon and I saw her pictures and video. Amazing change! What an inspiration. It's always great to be inspired by someone who know you!

So today I went back to the treadmill for over an hour. I watched a show and went at a good pace for my short legs. It was great!

I know I will sleep well tonight.

Chips

The other day while looking at recipes I saw an ad for a gizmo at http://topchips.com . I went over to Amazon to look for one and ordered it.

It arrived yesterday morning and so we've been having fun making fat free chips. They are great! You can season them a bit before zapping them - I use garlic powder and sea salt.

These ones were made with small red potatoes. Lots of crunch and once again, that virtuous eatin' feeling.

Otherwise, dinner was pasta with tomato sauce and nutritional yeast instead of parmesan. Lunch was a Boca Burger on an English muffin with ketchup. Breakfast was fruit and fiber cereal with almond milk.

It's an easy way to eat, lots of variety, two little rules. Nothing from animal sources and under 20 grams of fat a day.

So far, so good. Great blood sugar today!

Tomorrow I'm seeing one of my OLDEST friends. We were seatmates in 1969. Math class. I couldn't do math drills. She could. She saved me again and again. She's taking all of us out to dinner and we will be at the Waterfront Grille and I'll blog about eating successfully at a restaurant.

GOOD NIGHT!

Open Sesame

What a fun food day! Perfect blood sugar. Banana and two slices of fiber toast spread with local honey and cinnamon for breakfast. Beans and tortillas with salsa for lunch, and for dinner one of my favorite dishes, defatted and tweaked.

This is such a great dish. I love peanuts and sesame oil. Both foods are high in fat. There is a terrific product from Bell Plantation in Georgia. http://bellplantation.com

They make PB2, low fat peanut butter powder. It is THE thing to use to reduce fat in a peanut dish. It mixes up smoothly with water.

For this dish I made a sauce out of:

4 T PB2
1 T brown sugar
1 T soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 16 oz. package of whole wheat noodles - cooked.
1 package of green peas- cooked

I also had the leftover bits of plain steamed vegetables from last night, so I added that in. Get creative. It is hard to break this recipe.

It was so good. It's really good with hot sauce. Lots of texture, lots of flavor, protein, fiber. It's a highly virtuous dish! Makes me remember when I was in my twenties and cold peanut sesame noodles were waking up palates everywhere.