Harmony on a NYC dinner plate

I've been meaning to write about my trip to New York a few weekends ago, and maybe now is the perfect time since most blogs are all about sweet potatoes and turkey basting today. While we all prepare for Thanksgiving, here's something I was thankful for: An awesome, healthy meal in the middle of NYC at about $8/plate.

So let me back up. I went down to New York because I'm obsessed with something called Journey Dance, or maybe some of you have heard of a version simply called Yoga Dance. It's a chakra-shaking dance party that admittedly sounds awfully weird, but whatever, I love it. How often do you get to dance like mad – minus an impending hangover, late night out, or a wedding DJ? Anyway, I went to New York for a Journey Dance workshop at the Jivamukti School and it was a lot of fun. Although honestly a lot of girls there seemed to be aspiring dancers who may have confused this workshop with an audition. But at any rate, right around the corner from Jivamukti, Max and I found a sweet macrobiotic restaurant called Souen.

Pictured up top is the vegetarian meal I got: Chestnut Polenta with winter veggies. And below is a picture of Max with his hardcore macrobiotic plate, all perfectly balanced (the menu said) for a temperate climate.


This place was the real deal, with kanten desserts and grain coffee. And to top it off, the prices were swell. $13 for my special, and $8 for Max's plate. I heart Boston, but no restaurant like this would survive here. Souen has been around since 1971 and the place was packed with people young and old.

Now enough of this restaurant talk, we all have homemade goods to whip up. So get to it and have a happy Thanksgiving!

Not too eggy

When I was a kid, the smell of egg salad always made me kind of gag. With this recipe, it's not a problem. Furthermore, the tofu in this recipe is free-range and did not have its beak cut off unhumanely! I really like this recipe because it's super easy, tasty, doesn't smell eggy, and when eaten as a sandwich it doesn't look suspicious to co-workers who typically see my lunches and gasp "NOW what are you eating???"

Eggless Egg Salad
adapted from The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics
1 lb. organic extra firm tofu
1/2 cup vegannaise
1/4 cup tahini
1/2 red onion, diced
1/2 cup alfalfa sprouts, chopped
1 stalk celery, diced
1/4 cup pickle, diced
1 Tbl. dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. turmeric
salt & pepper, to taste
other ideas to add:
splash of tamari
splash of mirin
splash of umeboshi vinegar
tomato, diced
mushrooms, diced

Cut block of tofu in half and place in pot, covered with water. Bring to a boil and let boil for 5 minutes. This improves digestibility. Next, cook onion in a pan until translucent. Remove tofu and onion from heat and let cool. In a bowl, combine all other ingredients. Add onion and chop or crumble tofu in. Mix thoroughly. Eat at room temperature if you are in a hurry, or chill in the refrigerator if you have time.

I Hate "Mock" Anything

That's what Max said when I proposed this recipe for dinner. And I understand. Tofurky is not my style. But I decided to give this Mock Greek Salad a try because it blended macrobiotic and raw diet ideas into one easy meal. Plus I had a head of Napa just sitting in the fridge...and well, Max can make his own dinner.

Mock Greek Salad
modified from the recipe found in The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics
4-5 cups of mixed greens (cabbage, swiss chard, collard greens, lettuce, etc.)
cucumber, tomato, peppers, etc. (your choice)
1/2 red onion (optional)
1 lb. organic firm tofu
6 Tbl. umeboshi plum vinegar
1 Tbl. tamari
approx. 14 kalamata olives
1-2 Tbl. ground flaxseed

Crumble tofu and mix with 3 Tbl. vinegar. Set aside.

Cut greens, and veggies into thin slices. Place in large, wide bowl. Add remaining 3 Tbl. vinegar and tamari and mix by squeezing with your hands until vegetables start to sweat. Place plate on top of green, and press the salad by stacking heavy items like canned soup on the plate. Press for 20 minutes. Add tofu, olives and flaxseed. (I added onion powder at the end instead of red onions.)

Don't expect feta! That's the big mistake with 'mock' foods. Just expect a cool salad with some yummy olives. That's more like it.

Meet Your Unprocessed Friend #1: Brown Rice

My mom always wanted me to eat brown rice and I always hated it and wanted white rice instead. When I got a little older and started cooking for myself, I still hated it. It took so long to make! I still wanted white rice, preferably instant.

So what's the difference between white and brown rice? At the practical, day-to-day level, not much. It takes a bit longer to cook. Taste-wise, it's a bit nuttier and more dense.

The real difference is the nutritional value of brown rice as a whole grain vs. white rice as a processed food. They start as the same thing. If brown rice is milled to removed the bran and germ, it becomes 'white.' In the process, it loses most of its nutritional value. Eating brown rice instead will feed your brain with a steady stream of glucose and keep your blood sugar even throughout the day. It is close to a 'perfect' food, if there is such a thing.

Some ways to try brown rice:
-Brown rice sushi is available at many sushi restaurants
-Cold Rice Salad with corn, avocado, tomatoes, onions
-In bean burritos
-Fried Rice with egg, carrots, scallions

Hardcore Macrobiotic tips for brown rice (they LOVE this stuff)
-Chew each mouthful 50-100 times to get all of its nutritional benefit and see how it turns sweet in your mouth, even as you start to accidentally drool! Okay, maybe try that once, just to see what I'm talking about.
-Long grain is best for the summer months, short grain in the autumn/winter
-Try not to keep leftover rice longer than a day or so (it supposedly loses its energy and value)
-Microwaving is a no-no because it supposedly messes with the natural energy of the food. Instead, reheat in a pot with a bit more water.

I heart Jessica Porter

Miso is great for digestion, and Jessica Porter is a lot of fun to watch. So have at it:

Quit running on Dunkin

Drinking coffee is like wearing brass knuckles and punching yourself square in the adrenal glands.

Ralph T. Golan, ND, describes this unfortunate state in his book, Herbal Defense: "Caffeine forces your glands to secrete when they don't have much left to give, and they have to keep digging deeper and deeper, making you more and more tired over time. And over the years, it takes more and more coffee to get the same result. Some people reach the point of drinking half a dozen or more cups of coffee to get the same result and it's barely keeping them awake. That's severe adrenal depletion."


Grain coffee is an alternative drink recommended by macrobiotic diets. It resembles coffee in its appearance and roasted flavor. Made of barley and chicory (lettuce? super weird!) it's roasted and ground into a brown powder that dissolves in hot water. Tastes good with milk and sugar, (or soy milk and agave...) and won't leave you with coffee breath!

Find it at Whole Foods and here on Amazon.

I don't have cable

I haven't, for years. I figure internet access is expensive enough, and do I really NEED to watch every rerun of America's Next Top Model? (Yes, I do, but oh well) What happens is, I end up watching a lot of QVC and PBS.

So one day, not long after giving up dairy, I started watching a cooking show on our local PBS station. This woman was WEIRD. She was massaging cabbage I think. But I love cooking shows so I kept watching. At one point she dissolved some gross looking brown gunk in a cup of water and added it to soup. She started talking about the digestive benefits of fermented foods. Turns out that cabbage salad was becoming more digestible and able to supply nutrients by being massaged for awhile. My disgust turned to true interest at that point, and I looked her up on the internet. Turns out this lady, Christina Pirello, was talking about macrobiotics.

Ever since, I've been trying to live and eat according to macrobiotic principles because they just seem like common sense. Well, actually at first they seem totally nuts but then after you think about it for awhile it's like common sense. My favorite macrobiotic author, Jessica Porter, offers these beginner steps.

Filet-O-Fish

Another time I'll get into the why and how and blahblahblah of eating well. For now, I just want to document the recipe we had tonight because It. Was. Awesome.

Fried Fish with Coleslaw and Rice
Slaw:
3/4 cup Tofu Mayo
1 tablespoon or so each of sesame oil, umeboshi vinegar, & agave nectar
2 cups shredded cabbage
1 shredded carrot (including carrot top, chopped)
1 cup chopped cilantro

Fish:
1 lb. white fish
2 tablespoons-ish each of soy sauce, mirin, & brown rice vinegar
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 lemon
2 whole wheat pitas
2-3 Tbl. sesame oil for frying

Rice:
1 cup long-grain brown basmati rice
A few tablespoons of ground flax seed

Directions:
For slaw, mix all wet ingredients, then add vegetables and mix well. Refrigerate 1 hour or overnight. Cook rice according to package directions or in a rice cooker. When cooked, mix in flax seed. For fish, marinate in soy sauce, mirin, vinegar for 1 hour. Cut fish into 3" pieces and coat with cornmeal. Heat skillet over medium heat, add oil. When hot, add fish and fry for a few minutes on each side. Heat pitas in skillet. Fill with rice, fish, slaw. Serve with lemon.

This is adapted from an amazing book The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics