City | Life | Eats

A Quick Note

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 05:10:00 +0000

A quick note to say that things may look a bit different here when you visit in the next couple of days. I am in the process of moving to Wordpress.

Collard Greens with Tahini

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 05:05:00 +0000

While this dish may not scream Thanksgiving, it has the richness of creamed spinach, with a sweet-savory-tangy flavor profile that gives the dish a nice complexity and is perfect for a festive meal. I made the dish with tofu, as the recipe that inspired me used it, but I could see this working equally well with cannellini beans.

Speaking of my inspiration, the recipe is Hearty Greens and Tofu in Tahini Sauce from Gluten-Free Recipes for the Conscious Cook: A Seasonal, Vegetarian Cookbook – a truly fantastic cookbook (the use of eggs and dairy is minimal and most vegetarian recipes can be easily veganized). This recipe had caught my eye a while ago, but it contains ume plum vinegar (aka umeboshi vinegar) which, while delicious, is also one of the saltiest ingredients ever. So I tweaked and adjusted and changed the flavor profile and added more tahini it became a whole new dish. One that would fit right in at Thanksgiving too.

Collard Greens with Tahini (Gluten-Free, Vegan, Soy-Free Option) – Makes 6 hearty servings

If you use a dense tofu (such as Twin Oaks) you can skip the tofu pressing. If using canned beans instead of tofu, be sure to rinse thoroughly. Coconut nectar is a liquid sweetener with pepper and caramel undertones. You can substitute any other liquid sweetener, but may need to add a bit of pepper.

1 15oz or 16oz block tofu (try to use tofu made with organic/non-GMO soybeans) or 1 3/4 to 2 cups cooked cannellini beans or other small white beans (1 15oz can, drained)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium red onion chopped, about 11/2 cups
6 cloves garlic, finely diced
1 Tablespoon chopped jalapeño (optional)
2 tablespoon ume plum vinegar
1 large bunch collards, stemmed and deribbed, chopped into bite-size pieces (about 8 cups)
1 cup water
1 /2 cup tahini
2 Tablespoons coconut nectar or other liquid sweetener
2 Tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice (juice of one lemon)
1/2 cup unsweetened freeze dried cranberries or sweetened cranberries (for garnish)

Press tofu (either using a tofu press or two flat surfaces, paper towels and a heavy object) for at least an hour, though overnight is fine. Cut into bite-size cubes. Set aside.

Heat olive oil in large cast-iron pan or large skillet. Add the onions, garlic, jalapeño (if using) and vinegar and cook for about 8 to 10 minutes, until onions are starting to caramelize. Add the collards and water, stir, and partially cover. Cook collards for about 3 minutes. Push collards to one side of the pan. Add the tahini and coconut nectar and mix into the liquid in the pan until you get a rich sauce. Gently stir the collards into the sauce. Add the tofu or white beans and combine gently. Cook for another 3-5 minutes, until tofu or beans are heated through. Stir in lemon juice and turn of the heat. Taste for seasoning; you may want to add some additional sweetener or vinegar or lemon or, potentially salt. Garnish with cranberries and serve.

I am submitting this dish to two Thanksgiving events;

I am loving the second annual series sponsored by Amy of Simply Sugar- and Gluten-Free entitled A Gluten-Free Holiday. This upcoming week the challenge is Thanksgiving Favorites at Cook It Allergy Free

The theme for this month’s Go Ahead Honey It’s Gluten-Free,an event created by Naomi of Straight To Bed, Cakefree and Dried, and hosted by Brittany of Real Sustenance has a Thanksgiving theme.

I am also submitting this dish to the following weekly events:

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Art Journal Playshop, November Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 01:39:00 +0000

So, clearly, I am loving these art journal workshops/playshops led by Kimberly Wilson, considering this is the third one I have gone to this year (January and July recaps).

Here is Kimberly leading the playshop. I always have such fun and feel like I learn something new every time. Here are some takeaways:

art journal = visual journal = creative sketchbook
art journaling can be a way to process thinking while being more playful
a page does not have to be done in one sitting – one can add layers and date every layer
soft pastels are fun

I love these workshops because the energy is so positive and it is always wonderful to hear people’s stories and what brings them to art journaling. Plus, it actually makes me art journal, though slowly but surely, I seem to have incorporated more art journaling time this year. In addition to workshops, I have met up with friends a couple of times to art journal (once with Lisa and once with Julie and Jessica).

Speaking of Lisa, she was here today, as were bloggers Julia and Tiffany:

The afternoon was like an oasis amid a very packed weekend – and I loved how the sun was streaming in. Here I am art journaling intently, as well as the glorious spread of fun paper and supplies:

Kimberly always has a goodie bag at these events:

One of the prompts that resonated me was to create a gratitude page, so I did just that with this spread:

Such a nice restorative afternoon – and I am inspired to keep art journaling. I have only had one “full” art journal time at home but lately have spent some time clipping magazines here and there to have materials ready for more art journaling.

The Possibility that Comes with the End of Daylight Savings Time

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 12:57:00 +0000

I know – I have posts on healthy holidays, Shophouse, lunchbox updates and a few product reviews brewing- but instead, here I am chatting about the end of DST.

Can we say could.not.come.soon.enough.

Back in April, when I started thinking about trying to become more of a morning exerciser, I was very strategic – I started the habit when I was horrendously jetlagged and waking up very early anyways. I also figured the habit would be easier to ramp up to considering the sun would be rising earlier and earlier.

Sometime in May and again in August, I started thinking about how, eventually, there would be that two week period where the sun does not rise until past 7am, which would make things like 7am yoga really difficult. Other times in my life where I have had a semi-consistent morning movement routine, those weeks undid the routine at least once (though I think twice – this was a long time ago, pre. I promised myself I would focus on the fact the end of DST would improve that rather than stay hidden under the covers.

Clearly I anticipated this months in advance, which was probably a good thing, as the last two weeks have been tough in terms of the whole morning movement thing. Cold weather has not helped. As I walked to the gym or to yoga, I kept reminding myself other people have done this for years, and there was no reason I could not. I did strange things like put a wool hat soon after getting up, well before I actually left the apartment to go exercise – somehow my head bein warm well before going outside really helped things. Whatever works, right?

And I reminded myself that come today, the sun would be up much much sooner. A few days ago, I even channeled that into the above art journal page.

Here is a picture I took around 7.30am this morning:

I am so happy about all this light! Now I just need to remind myself that while the days are going to keep getting shorter light-wise, the trend will start going the other way come December 22 or so. In the meantime, the end of DST makes me feel like mornings are full of possibilities instead of a mind-game to get myself out the door to move.

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Moop Comes to Washington, DC

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 02:12:00 +0000

Last Friday, I had the super exciting opportunity to attend a Moop pop-up shop hosted by Hemphill in Washington, DC. To say I am a Moop fan is an understatement – I have loved the beautiful bags ever since I first saw them on etsy when I still lived in New York. In fact, when I moved from New York to Washington, DC, to celebrate my then-new-job, I bought my much beloved Moop Market Bag in Gunmetal Grey. It has been one of my favorite bags for the last three years. Moop fans may have seen it peeking in many photos on the blog, like here.

Meeting Wendy, the creator of Moop, was a little bit surreal in that I have seen her on so many photos modeling the various bags, and there she was. She was wonderfully gracious and so passionate about the craft and design of the bags that make Moop the incredible handmade brand that it is. I remember when my friend Melita visited Moop in Pittsburgh a couple years ago she had a wonderful time meeting Wendy as well – and Wendy remembered her too!

In addition to the excited of meeting Wendy, it was really neat to see so.many.Moop.bags in one place – I had never seen the collection in one place, nor had ever seen any of the Moop bags made of waxed canvas – the Market Bag (as are some of the other bags) are made of a fabric-like canvas, while the waxed canvas is waterproof. I ended up completely falling in love with the Letter Bag in Red Waxed Canvas and bought it. I had been thinking lately of buying the Carrier, which is more tote-like, while the Letter Bag is more tote meets messenger bag (minus the traditional flap of a messenger bag). Either way, though, you can’t go wrong with a Moop bag. Here I am with my new purchase on Sunday morning (you can see the Dupont Circle Farmers’ Market in the background):

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Weekly Recap, Two Weeks Worth & Halloween Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:08:00 +0000

I am determined to not have another weekly recap which is actually three weeks’ worth – so even though this week is half over, here is a recap for last week and the week before.

Let’s start with the week before last and what I managed to fit into my free time:

3 yoga classes (including 2 7am ones), 1 restorative yoga class (much needed), 3 jaunts to the gym to use the elliptical
Attended Take Back Your Health and shared my thoughts, while also getting to catch up and spend time with the lovely Gena
Made grain-free vegan Rustic Cranberry Pumpkin Spice Biscotti
Dinner at Café Green with my husband as well as Sunday lunch at Shophouse (must.write.review on the later)

Last week was even more jam-packed at work, but I did fit in the following:

4 7am gym jaunts to use the elliptical (I had to be at work far earlier in the day most of last week, so 7am yoga was not an option most days) and 2 late afternoon yoga classes
The lovely Carolyn of Hang On Little Tomato was in town to attend the End Factory Farming Conference – we met up for yoga and catching up, which was wonderful. Carolyn has written two amazing blog posts about her experience attending the conference here and here
Also caught up with dear friend who is about to give birth to her first child in a few days
Met up with Julie (aka REM Runner) and Jessica (who just opened Chakras Reflexology & Spa) – we met at the Art Journaling workshop we all attended in July. It was lovely to journal and catch up with these two fabulous ladies. We had so much fun we forgot to take pictures. Julie, however, kindly agreed to let me use the above picture of one of her Halloween pumpkins instead – isn’t it lovely? It was part of a virtual pumpkin patch she sponsored on her blog
Attended Moop pop-up shop hosted by Hemphill in Washington, DC – I am now even more obsessed with the brand

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Horchata & Pumpkin Pie “Milk” Shake - Adopting Debi of Hunter’s Lyonesse

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 22:30:00 +0000

Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger, an event created by Sea of Book of Yum and hosted this month by Lauren from As Good As Gluten, snuck up on me more than usual. I adopted Debi of Hunter’s Lyonesse and had plans to make her Flourless Pumpkin Pie Cookies as well as her easy Horchata and Pumpkin Pie “Milk” Shake (made with the rice-based horchata) but as you can tell from the picture, I only made the beverages. The cookies are on deck for this weekend though, as they look scrumptious and easy, along with being grain-free and vegan. My kind of baking.

I discovered Debi through the supportive community that comprises gluten-free bloggers. She combines humor with seriousness and has addressed a variety of gluten-free topics on her blog. And the recipes are delicious. I love the easy approach to Horchata (I substituted agave for the honey). Somehow after a night, the rice milk had soaked in the agave and cinnamon, and become somewhat thicker. It was a lovely component of the pumpkin milk shake, which was a nice change from my usual pumpkin smoothies. My husband, who has had horchata more recently than me, pronounced Debi’s recipe on-point. I was too busy wresting the glass away from him so I could have more.

I am submitting this review of Debi’s blog to Linda’s Gluten-Free Wednesday over at the Gluten-Free Homemaker, as I think Hunter’s Lyonesse is a fabulous blog to read if you are interested in gluten-free recipes and issues of interest to the gluten-free community.

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Spiced Quinoa

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 01:51:00 +0000

Happy Monday and Happy Halloween… in the spirit of quick recipes and behind-the-scenes lunchbox-ing (no, I am still not sure what to do about that series… ahem) I wanted to talk about using my rice cooker as a shortcut tool. I find it particularly useful for quick quinoa dishes, in addition to cooking dried beans. This spiced quinoa has become a regular staple, showing up in several lunchboxes as I tweaked the spicing and other flavoring. It serve as a lovely blank slate for a variety of additions, such as mango (which is what you see in the photo).

Spiced Quinoa (Gluten-Free, Vegan, Soy-Free)

1 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 teaspoon curry powder (make sure it is gluten-free – I like Spicely for certified gluten-free spices)
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
1/4 teaspoon seasalt
1 cup crushed tomatoes (I like this brand)
1 cup water or vegetable broth

Stovetop instructions: combine all ingredients in a medium pot with a lid. Bring to a simmer and then reduce to low. Cover and cook for between 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit covered for an additional five minutes. Fluff and serve.

Rice cooker instructions: combine all ingredients in rice cooker. Depending on type of rice cooker, use any of the following settings: “high” (for about 15 to 20 minutes), “quick” (this is the setting on my rice cooker that works best for quinoa – I just walk away and forget about it until it chimes), or, simply “on” and check it after 15-20 minutes. Allow to steam an additional 5 to 10 minutes once the quinoa is ready and fluff before serving.

Now that you have a blank slate, here are some options, each for a batch of of the recipe above, but feel free to come up with your own customizations:

Mango Spiced Quinoa Salad (see photo, above): add 1 cup chopped mango (I defrost some frozen mango chunks and chop them into bite-sized pieces), juice of 1 lemon and 1/4 cup scallions. Top with raw cashews.
High-protein Spiced Quinoa: Steam an 8oz block of tempeh for 10 minutes. Crumble into quinoa.
Refreshing Spiced Quinoa: Add juice of one lime and one lemon and 1 1/2 cups chopped green and red peppers (a medium-sized pepper, deribbed and chopped, will yield about 3/4 cup chopped peppers). Combine and then add 1/4 cup chopped herbs.

I am submitting this recipe to the following events:

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{Today’s Lunchbox} An Update

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 03:09:00 +0000

Happy Sunday! As regular readers may have picked up, the lunchbox series has unofficially gone on a bit of a hiatus for a few… many reasons. Some of it is the bad light in the morning (can.not.wait.for.end.of.Daylight.savings), some of it is that after 13 months of nearly uninterrupted lunchbox blogging, I started running out of ideas, some of it is the fact that my growing blog inbox of messages needing responses is just growing, not to mention guest posts I have promised people.

Initially, my plan was to do a series of behind-the-scenes posts starting Tuesday November 1 and then resume normal lunchbox posts on November 7, but now I am thinking of pushing everything back a week, mainly because my behind the scenes posts might be a tad bit mundane.

By way of example, let’s look at this weekend. I knew I would be occupied for most of the weekend, so on Saturday night, I chose to make a dinner that resulted in four servings of leftovers (a comforting tahini-laced collards and tofu dish – recipe coming in a few days!) and tonight I came home to find my husband roasting butternut squash for both of us for the next couple of days, so promptly claimed a few slices to top with a miso-tahini walnut topping and roast a bit longer. I stashed the rest of the miso-tahini walnut topping in the fridge to use in a wrap later in the week. Incidentally, to save time, I used the Vitamix for the miso tahini walnut topping which, while less optimal than a mini prep or the small bowl of my food processor, meant I saved time by not having to pull out either of those appliances (you can see that the Vitamix just lives on the counter). Then, sine I had already dirtied the Vitamix, I also made a batch of these high-protein kale chips for both of us for the next few days. I started pulling out the juicer tonight, as I try to make green juice on Sundays for the next couple of days (I use this masticating juicer, which means I can make juice that lasts up a to a couple of days if tightly sealed and properly stored) but decided that would have to wait as I need some sleep.

In the meantime, what would you like to see in Today’s Lunchbox series?

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Take Back Your Health

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 12:20:00 +0000

Last weekend I attended the inaugural Take Back Your Health conference, an event organized by Robin Shirley and Ryan McGrath designed to be an educational platform about different alternatives and approaches to good health. You might remember that I wrote about this conference a few months ago when I offered a giveaway for a ticket to attend this conference. Gena of Choosing Raw also attended the conference, and I encourage you to read her recap.

I heard presentations by several well-known health experts, such as Dr. Joel Fuhrman, but first, a little context on my own perspective when attending such an event. As long-time readers may know, I have had my share of ongoing (and fortunately vastly improved) health issues, including lifelong joint pain, stomach and digestive distress, and chronic sinus infections. Add to that general lack of energy and extra weight and I spent most of my teens and twenties feeling very discouraged about my health. As someone who has always been very committed to her career, I invested my energy into that, but always needed a lot of rest and I had precious little leftover to do things that other people (no matter how busy they were) seemed to managed just fine – i.e. exercise, enjoy life, hobbies. I am no stranger to feeling like things.just.are.not.getting.better. Ultimately, three years ago, I decided to go beyond conventional/allopathic medicine and talk to a naturopath about my health issues. I strongly suspected my health issues were interrelated and figured I should seek out a practitioner whose training focused on the whole rather than the parts, which tends to be the case with allopathic medicine, though not always. Ultimately, I switched naturopaths when I found a medical practice that has both an MD and a naturopath working together - it is a good combination that works for me. As much as I believe in the power of diet and lifestyle to contribute to good health, I am also well aware that there are limits to how much the body can heal itself and prefer to draw from both conventional and alternative medicine for my own care.

When I was researching various alternative health practitioners and dietary approaches three years ago, the thing that struck me immediately (after realizing that health insurance rarely covers these alternatives) was the variety of theories and schools of thoughts different ones espoused. Take Back Your Health represented the same wide variety of approaches. On the dietary front alone, speakers represented raw diets, vegan diets, and heavily meat-based traditional diets.

Since pictures are worth a thousand words, here are some highlights of the speakers I heard:

Jason Wrobel, who was delightful in his high-energy approach to raw vegan foods. I love seeing people excited about eating nourishing food that tastes good, raw or cooked, so it was great to hear him.

Next up on the first day was Dr. Joel Fuhrman. One of the things that has served me well for the last couple of years is not only eating a lot of raw and cooked vegan dishes, but also the concept of maximizing my nutrition as much as possible, so Dr. Fuhrman’s nutritarian approach was something that really resonated with me. I took a picture of the typical Standard American Diet breakdown he posted as I found it staggering.

Dr. Fuhrman covered a lot of ground in his presentation, and broke scientific concepts down in a very manageable way for the variety of viewpoints represented in his audience. I should add that part of his approach to good health does involve short periods of fasting – I consciously did not listen too closely to that part of his presentation as I find it triggering due to my own history with restrictive eating and other ED issues as a teenager. That issue aside, I really did appreciate how well Dr. Fuhrman framed the power of food and lifestyle contributing to good health, including controlling diabetes and heart disease through those changes, without overpromising the power of food and how it can heal.

Which brings me to Andrea Beaman. Part of the reason this post took me a week to finish is that I really wanted to think about what I wanted to say about her presentation. I had actually been really excited to hear Andrea Beaman discussing thyroid health and was, ultimately, disappointed. Had her presentation focused on thyroid health support alone, I would have found it useful, however Ms. Beaman highlighted a couple of things which I have seen over and over in connection with the alternative health community and which I cannot agree with: (1) she made statements specific to one health concern (thyroid) and stated that it was applicable to anyone, regardless of good or weakened health and health condition, (2) she over-stated the power of the body and diet - “there is no disease your body can’t heal” and (3) she made sweeping generalizations against the medical establishment, going as far as saying that cancer is often an “idea” that someone can’t let go of (as opposed to an actual diagnosis).

On a personal level, I am the first one to say that several conventional doctors completely missed the mark on helping me find good health – the process of being told, over and over, gems along the lines of “of course your stomach hurts, you are stressed out because you are in law school” and “lawyers are just low-energy types” is infuriating. I presented clear signs in my health history pointing to gluten being an underlying issue, yet that was dismissed because I was overweight. That said, I am not willing to wholesale dismiss the medical establishment and this mentality of “us against them” does not sit well with me.

I had a few slight echoes of that feeling in the following day’s Ayurveda presentation, though overall I did find Dr. John Douillard’s presentation informative and balanced. As someone who has done yoga for about 10 years and has spent a lot of time in yoga studios, Ayurveda is something I always hear about, yet only know very small parts of. After listening to the presentation, there are still parts of Ayurveda that perplex me and where I cannot find a logic I am comfortable with, but am glad I attended.

Speaking of discomfort, I did skip Sally Fallon’s presentation, which led me to have a fascinating conversation with Ryan, one of the organizers. Ryan is a vegetarian and disagrees with Sally Fallon’s nourishing traditions which, among other things, a focus on raw milk. When talking to Ryan, I fully admitted I would have been very uncomfortable listening to the presentation, mainly because I have read up on the approach and really disagree with it. That said, it speaks to how varied in perspectives Take Back Your Health is designed as an educational platform that it included speakers who supported a plant-based approach to good health, and other speakers who do not. It was lovely to spend some time thinking about the power we have over building our good health through food and lifestyle, and for that, I am grateful to Robin and Ryan for organizing such an event. There will be a Spring 2012 edition, with date and location being finalized this fall.

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Specific disclosure: I received a free ticket to Take Back Your Health and also offered a giveaway so that one of my readers could win a free ticket to the event. The views above, however, are my own and were not influenced in any way by this arrangement.

Rustic Cranberry Pumpkin Spice Biscotti

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:39:00 +0000

Happy Monday! Have a biscotti.

When I still ate gluten, biscotti were one of my absolute favorite things ever. I liked them crunchy and small and would eat them with chai lattes, or slightly larger and softer, though I would invariably rail a bit that a biscotti should be small and crunchy. Even then, I would still eat the softer version.

I have been mulling vegan almond-flour based biscotti for a while, but it was only when I saw Katie of Nourishing and Flourishing had successfully made some that I decided to take the plunge and play with a recipe of my own after, of course, making her version. My one goal was to remove the small amount of arrowroot starch and see how the biscotti would hold up using coconut flour instead.

They did hold up, though they are a bit more fragile than traditional biscotti, such that when you slice them you might have imperfect looking biscotti and a couple of broken ones. I plan to experiment more with variations on this recipe, but this version is really quite lovely and too good not to share – a warm pumpkin pie flavor combined with the tartness of the cranberries. I qualified their name as rustic, since rustic makes imperfect edges supposed to be there. Also, I kept them low in sugar, with just two tablespoons of agave and a sprinkling of palm sugar atop. You could skip the later, but that teaspoon really makes the sweetness of the biscotti pop a bit more.

Rustic Cranberry Pumpkin Spice Biscotti (Gluten-Free, Vegan, Grain-Free, Soy-Free, Sugar-Conscious) – Makes 12 - 16 biscotti. Ratios and method inspired by Nourishing Flourishing

As mentioned above, these are a bit fragile on account of the lack of starch. Feel free to swap half the coconut flour with a tablespoon of arrowroot starch. Also, you will have most of a can of pumpkin leftover. You could make this Pumpkin Ice Cream – it calls for a 15oz can of pumpkin, but the missing 1/4 cup will not affect it. For the cranberries, you have several options: I used unsweetened freeze dried cranberries which I tossed in a bit of stevia, but you could also use fruit-juice sweetened dried cranberries or Ricki’s recipe for Sugar Free Oven Dried Cranberries. A final note – while they do lose excess moisture if you store them only partially covered, these biscotti are not as crispy as regular biscotti, keeping a slight chewiness.

2 1/2 cup blanched almond flour
2 Tablespoons coconut flour (I used nutsonline coconut flour which is similar to Bob's Red Mill )
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (I used this one)
2 Tablespoon agave (feel free to experiment with other liquid sweeteners)
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup pumpkin (I used this organic canned pumpkin)
1/2 cup unsweetened freeze dried cranberries or sweetened cranberries (see notes above for substitution ideas)
1/8 teaspoon vanilla stevia (omit if using sweetened cranberries)
1 tsp coconut or palm sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a sheet pan or cookie sheet with parchment paper. Combine almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, salt and pumpkin spice in a large bowl. Separately, mix agave, vanilla extract and pumpkin. Add to dry ingredients and stir to combine. It will seem too dry at first, so just keep stirring. If the mixture does not come together, you can always use your hands to stir and form a thick dry dough. If using unsweetened cranberries, toss with vanilla stevia in a small bowl (skip this step if using sweetened cranberries). Add cranberries. Then, once dough is formed and cranberries are incorporated, wet hands and separate dough into two oval-shaped balls. Place each ball on parchment paper and, using wet hands, shape into two logs, preferably about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. Wet top of each log with wet hands, and sprinkle each log with 1/2 teaspoon coconut or palm sugar. Bake at 350F until edges have browned (12 to 18 minutes). Remove and let cool for about 30 minutes, Using a sharp knife, slice diagonally, and lay biscotti on sides on the parchment paper. Lower oven to 300F and bake an additional 10 to 15 minutes, but watch closely. If you would like crispier biscotti, leaving them out overnight partially/lightly covered will help them lose any excess moisture.

I am of course submitting this to several blog events:

Kelly of The Spunky Coconut is hosting a Spunky Holiday round-up for Halloween. I associate pumpkin with so many parts of fall, including Halloween.

The theme for this month’s Go Ahead Honey It’s Gluten-Free, an event created by Naomi of Straight To Bed, Cakefree and Dried, and hosted by Noosh of For the Love of Food is gluten-free spiced desserts. The warming pumpkin spice here fits right in, and these biscotti are lovely with a cup of tea for dessert.

The monthly Sweet or Savory Challenge is back, and hosted, as always, by Ricki and Kim. The SOS ingredient this month is cranberries, including dried cranberries!

Ricki also hosts the weekly Wellness Weekend. The concept behind Wellness Weekends is “any good-for-you, whole foods, especially those with antioxidant properties or “functional foods” (ie, offering naturally medicinal or health-promoting qualities–such as garlic, coconut oil, all vegetables, fruits, herbs, etc.).” Here we have pumpkin and almond flour and cranberries.

A blog event hosted by Flip Cookbook called Sugar Free Sunday, which includes sweet and savory dishes made with non-refined sugars.

Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays

Gluten-Free Wednesday at the Gluten-Free Homemaker

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{Today’s Lunchbox} New Obsession

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 19:16:00 +0000

This was this past Thursday’s lunchbox – you can see it has a kale salad and some of the components from lunchboxes earlier in the week (grey hummus, curry-spiced quinoa, leftover squash). The highlight of my lunchbox, though, was the roasted sweet potato topped with Protein Fluff, a concept I saw on Gina’s blog, Fitnessista. New obsession alert! Incidentally, the first time I saw the protein fluff concept, I thought it was unappetizing, but then, a few months later, ie this week, I was preparing a usual snack of roasted sweet potato and Sunbutter, and realized I was a little low on protein for the day. It was late in the day, and the roasted potato was already ready to be eaten, so protein fluff came to mind. I doctored up the basic concept with cinnamon and was pleasantly surprised with the results! It is like an airy version of vanilla cinnamon flavored nut butter. Yum.

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{Today’s Lunchbox} Can we say grey is purple?

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 19:15:00 +0000

Yes, I know, there are grey ~~blobs~~ dollops in my lunch. Mauve grey dollops, so maybe purple? Purple dollops sounds marginally better than grey blobs. Those dollops/blobs are hummus made with black beans and white beans. I actually debated skipping posting this lunchbox, but here is the thing: it was actually a really good lunch. Super satisfying. I am definitely making this hummus again, but I need to figure out a way to make it less grey. Or just use classic hummus.

Here are the contents of this lunchbox:

Red pepper and green pepper boats with hummus.
More hummus, with a side of crackers from the Cafe Gratitude cookbook. This is the pizza/flatbread recipe, but I tried to substitute some of the oil with more carrot juice – while the crackers are delicious, they are definitely far crispier than the original recipe. Also, I forgot to score the crackers which is why they are misshapen.
A repeat of Monday’s salad

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{Today’s Lunchbox} Merry Tuesdays

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:28:00 +0000

Happy Sunday! I am slowly but surely catching up on my lunchbox posts for this week. I have an idea for how to change things up with the lunchbox series but first, here is this past Tuesday’s lunchbox:

Chopped lettuce topped with a variety of leftovers and another experiment with curry-spiced quinoa (recipe coming next week) – towards the end of the cooking time I added some spinach and crumbled steamed tempeh, and then stirred in the leftover roasted broccoli and butternut squash.
Crackers from the Cafe Gratitude cookbook. This is the pizza/flatbread recipe, but I tried to substitute some of the oil with more carrot juice – while the crackers are delicious, they are definitely far crispier than the original recipe. Also, I forgot to score the crackers which is why they are misshapen.
A side of raw red pepper
Hail Merry Chimayo Chile Pecans – I recently received a package of samples from Hail Merry. I had had the macaroons before, but the pecans were new to me. I am going to write a longer review of all the items once I have tried them all, but these pecans were a-ma-zing. They are raw/soaked/dehydrated and seasoned with a bit of chile and coconut sugar.

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Specific disclosure: I received Hail Merry products free of charge. I have received no additional compensation nor am I required to write a review of their products. Any opinions or reviews on Hail Merry products are my own and not influenced in any way.

Weekly Recap, Three Weeks’ Worth, A Birthday and Cupcakes

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 02:59:00 +0000

So yes, I fell off the weekly recap phase – that said, I tend to write my weekly recaps as much for my own recollection as for you all, so I decided to do a mega recap of three weeks’ worth. My birthday was in the middle of these past three weeks, so there were gluten-free vegan cupcakes too!

So in addition to the usual – work, grocery shopping, farmers market time – here is a recap of fun stuff over the last three weeks:

Two weeks ago (aka week before my birthday):

3 7am yoga classes, 2 morning gym jaunts for the elliptical, 1 long walk in the rain on Saturday
Delighted in creative inspiration at Crafty Bastards, despite the rain and the fact that I spent a large chunk of the weekend working at home
Gluten-free vegan pizza (with Daiya) at Pete’s Apizza (review of a past visit) followed by a visit to Sticky Fingers (vegan bakery) – the gluten-free cupcake option was mint chocolate and looked lovely but was only ok (that’s ok, the following week I had a gluten-free vanilla cupcake at Red Velvet)
Discovered Shophouse, twice! (review coming soon – but you will see it is my new favorite habit – almost everything on the menu is gluten-free)

Week before this past week (birthday week!):

Celebrated birthday on a Tuesday with a day off from work, lots of movement, including a 6 mile walk, lunch at Jaleo and a tofu scramble at Open City for dinner (see past review of Open City) – so glad both my husband and I could take the day off work
Dinner at Café Green with Gena and Katie
Birthday baking extravaganza thanks to Katie’s recipes
Saturday walk to Georgetown for Zumba, followed by lunch at the new Whole Foods and much-needed naptime
Saturday night his and hers dinner sitting outside of SweetGreen/BGRs Burger/Shophouse (love the fact that the outdoor tables seem to be for all three restaurants!). Giant salad for me (SweetGreen has become pretty allergy-friendly) and new favorite burger from BGR for husband
Saturday evening walk downtown to check out the new Anthropologie and have a White Velvet cupcake (GF and Vegan and vanilla bean-flecked all-vanilla cupcake) at Red Velvet
2 Zumba classes, 4 7am yoga classes, 1 7am elliptical session, almost 20 miles walking in one week
Attended TranquiliT fall launch Sunday morning
Sunday lunch from Shophouse (yes it is habit-forming! Husband and I ate sitting in Dupont Circle enjoying the sun) before walking around to Georgetown (second time in two days!), where I found two casual dresses at Patagonia (who knew! all eco-friendly too) and a dress for work at Banana Republic
Basked in the gorgeous weather, both on my birthday and over the following weekend
Randomly discovered Das Ethiopian restaurant in Georgetown could handle gluten-free dining (note: most Ethiopian restaurants have gluten-free options, but the injera is often not 100% teff and the language barrier always makes me nervous) and so we tried it out. I got the vegetable sampler (all gluten-free and vegan). Next time I will skip the white rice and bring my own injera, but this was promising. I was pretty thrilled as I used to really like Ethiopian food, before losing my liking of it. It might be a returning favorite:

This past week:

4 7 am yoga classes (Beth joined me for one), 1 7am gym jaunt to use the elliptical, and 2 long walks
An impromptu 5th yoga class, on Saturday late afternoon, at the suggestion of a friend. with a substitute who was more intense than the usual intense teacher – the woman behind me asked me afterwards “was he trying to kill us?”
Quick catch-up with dear friend pre-yoga
Saturday night his and hers dinner sitting outside of SweetGreen/BGRs Burger/Shophouse – exact repeat of the previous week
Sunday lunch at Shophouse (yes,I promise, review coming soon)

And I think that covers most of the last three weeks. While I wish I had gotten more (any) meditation in, and some art journaling, I did get to spend a lot of time outside, which was my biggest wish the last few weeks. Along with a couple of birthday cupcakes!

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{Today’s Lunchbox} A Sunday Lunchbox on A Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 01:17:00 +0000

Happy Monday – I did not bring a lunchbox to work today, so I thought I would share instead a Sunday lunchbox from a few weeks’ back, which included kale topped with curried quinoa (I think I finally have my spice ratio settled on this – recipe coming soon!), miso, cashews and chopped peppers, along with a giant crackers from the Cafe Gratitude cookbook. This is the pizza/flatbread recipe, but I tried to substitute some of the oil with more carrot juice – while the crackers are delicious, they are definitely far crispier than the original recipe.

So I don’t know about you, but I am kind of bored with the lunchbox series – I have a couple of ideas on how to shake things up a bit though.

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On Birthdays and Types and Movement

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 23:09:00 +0000

It was my birthday last week. I celebrated my 33rd birthday, a birthday which I anticipated with a lot of trepidation. I know aging is something I should embrace gracefully, but I don’t. Part of it is fear, and part of it is identity. I started school early, graduated from college at 19, and, even though I took several years off before law school, was still on the younger end of my law school class age demographic. At some level, until my late 20s, I was almost always the youngest, and it became part of my identity.

All of that has changed, obviously.

Leaving aside the identity issues, let’s talk about fear. One of the hardest things for me in the past about birthdays was that they were often a reminder of how my health, perplexing and not very good, had usually gotten worse in the past year, which is kind of sucktastic generally, but especially unexpected when you are in your 20s. I think many others who react to gluten or other foods and/or who have chronic and/or autoimmune health issues may relate. From age 27 to 30, I steadily got worse, but very incrementally, so milestones like birthdays were what would really drive it home. Joint pain that had started around age 7 (which doctors stopped calling growing pains by the time I turned 20) was getting worse. I would inexplicably get horrible ankle and knee pains, yet have no recollection of actually injuring myself. Splints and sneakers would help a bit, but not much. My carpal tunnel got much worse, far faster than using a blackberry could explain it. I had sinus infection after sinus infection. And that’s before I even start thinking about how my digestion was (not) working.

The hardest birthdays for me were 29 and 30, though by 30 I was just happy that the epic sinus infection that had started around my 29th birthday was finally gone, after a year of antibiotics, endless doctors’ appointments and steroids. However, I was still wheezy, had put on 30 pounds in that year (on top of being 30+ pounds above any sort of normal weight range for my height), and just generally felt worse than the year before, and the year before that. You get the idea.

31 arrived so fast after 30 that I barely had time to have identity angst over it. Losing over 45 pounds and a long elimination diet was putting me back on a road of feeling better, though now, another 2 years later, I am realizing just how far I had to go. Interestingly, I just went back and looked to see if I had written anything on this blog around my birthday that year and found this post, where I had a picture of this collage:

I had completely forgotten about this collage. In fact, this was completely one of those this-is-why-I-blog moments – it allows me to easily find stuff like that in the past. I only wish I had done something similar around my 32nd birthday, though that birthday was a bit of a fiasco, which was redeemed by celebrating it for the subsequent month. I bought some new clothes, since I had lost another 15 pounds that year, and generally had a nice birthday, three weeks after the fact.

And, it is kind of neat to look back at what images and words attracted me. The “Toss Your Type” quote is particularly interesting to me – several times in my life, doctors, after listening to my list of “I work 10-12 hours a day, gets lots of sleep, yet I am always achy and tired and my stomach hurts” would tell me things along the lines of “you’re the smart type who doesn’t exercise enough” or “of course your stomach hurts, you are stressed out because you are in law school” or “lawyers always have these energy issues and they don’t like to exercise.” I think the worse one of all of them was the “you are just one of those smart, but low-energy types.” It was frustrating – I truly did not feel like I had enough energy to exercise.

When I cut out “Toss your Type” to put on the collage, it was because I was sick of all my clothes. As it turns out, though, other things have changed. I used to be far from naturally inclined to move, much less exercise. Over the last three years, this had gotten better, as I wrote about in this piece on self-care and movement. That said, I always considered birthdays to be a day where exercise was not mandatory, and this year I decided to change that. Instead of sleeping in (I took the day off) I got up and went to 7am yoga (when I got home from yoga I did get back into bed after showering and having a Red White and Blue Smoothie). Then my husband and I went for a very long walk around the city (he also took the day off), had lunch out, enjoyed walking around in beautiful weather. Then, I went home, changed, and went to Zumba, which has become one of my favorite things this year. Post-Zumba (which was a wee bit intense), my husband picked me up and we walked another 2+ miles to go to dinner and back.

So on my 33rd birthday, I went to a 7am yoga class, walked a total of over 6 miles and did an intense Zumba class. That is more activity then I could or wanted to do in a week 3 years ago, and was a nice way to celebrate a new year. I am still the type to prefer a good book over exercise, but I do get a lot of satisfaction out of knowing I have the energy to move more and that continues to give me the incentive to keep moving, as does the fact that I have found a combination of exercise (lots of yoga, long walks, Zumba and the elliptical) which is fun and works for me.

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{Today’s Lunchbox} Reinvention

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:28:00 +0000

After two lunchboxes of Speedy Butternut Squash and Black Bean Salad and Masoor Dal, I needed a change this week, so I did the following:

Blended up the Masoor Dal with additional turmeric and some chickpeas, along with lots of black pepper, and turned it into a soup
Massaged kale leaves with hummus and lemon, topped with nutritional yeast, carrots, leftover roasted okra, and the very last of the butternut squash and black beans from the salad

Despite using leftovers I had had two days in a row, these felt different enough to make this lunch not another redux of the previous ones.

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{Today’s Lunchbox} Redux

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:15:00 +0000

I ended up not eating the crackers in this lunchbox, so this lunchbox is very similar to the one from the previous day:

These crackers are, incidentally, really amazing if you like pesto, which I do. Even though they are raw and vegan, they have a nice parmesan edge to them, which I really enjoyed.

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{Today’s Lunchbox} New and Old Favorites

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:10:00 +0000

This lunchbox includes a couple of new favorites and some long-standing ones:

Speedy Butternut Squash and Black Bean Salad
Masoor Dal
Living Spoonful crackers, leftover from my September trip
Raw cacao nibs and raw cashews – last time I brought these in a lunchbox, I had added a few drops (maybe 7?) vanilla stevia to the combination, but that had softened the cashews by lunchtime. This time, I sprinkled the stevia over just the cacao nibs (which, let’s face it, can use some softening) and put the cashews on top. It worked perfectly. No softened cashews. Yay.

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Speedy Butternut Squash & Black Bean Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:23:00 +0000

I love roasting squash, usually with cumin, but the downside is that it takes a long time. On Monday night, when I got home on the early end, I also wanted to eat dinner on the early end. So I steamed the squash. I did not want to lose the cumin-y sweet-savory goodness that roasting squash involves, so I incorporated those flavors into the dressing. This salad is hearty, lemony and a bit sweet, with a hint of spice from the jalapeños.

Speedy Butternut Squash & Black Bean Salad (Gluten-Free, Vegan, Soy-Free) – Makes 2-3 meal-sized salads and 4-6 side salads/

Squash is dense, so when cutting it raw, I just cube it into large cubes (about 1-2 inches on each side). Then when it is steamed, I cut it into bite sized pieces. As for seasoning, because I topped the salad with guacamole, I did not need additional salt beyond what I used to massage the kale leaves, but use your discretion with additional salt and pepper, particularly if you skip the guacamole. The combination of squash, black beans and avocado is absolutely divine, so I do recommend avocado slices or guacamole, but another great topping would be some crunchy cashews.

3 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash or about a 11/4 pounds of squash (I started with a medium squash that was about 1 1/2 pounds, peeled it and cut it)
1 bunch kale (I used lacinato), stemmed and torn into pieces (about 4 cups)
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup lemon juice (2 lemons, juiced)
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika (substitute:1/8 teaspoon cumin and 1/8 teaspoon regular paprika)
1/2 teaspoon coconut nectar or agave or other liquid sweetener of your choice (double for a sweeter dressing)
2 cups black beans (either cooked from scratch or 1 15oz can black beans, drained and rinsed)
3/4 to 1 cup chopped green pepper (1 medium to large green pepper)
2-3 tablespoons chopped jalapeños (1-2 jalapeños, ribs and seeds removed prior to chopping)
salt and pepper to taste
Sliced avocado or guacamole to garnish

Steam squash until tender, about 10 minutes (I use the steaming rack in my rice cooker but I know there are many different approaches to steaming, so pick your favorite). While squash is steaming, combine kale with extra-virgin olive oil and sea salt in a large bowl, massaging the oil and salt into the leaves. Set aside. In a separate medium to large bowl, combine lemon juice, cumin, smoked paprika and coconut nectar. Add black beans, green pepper and chopped jalapeños. Remove squash from steamer/rice cooker/pan and chop into bite-sized pieces. Add to bowl with black beans, peppers and dressing and gently stir to combine. Serve atop massaged kale and garnish with avocado or guacamole.

This is also my submission to this month’s No Croutons Required, a monthly vegetarian soup or salad event, which Lisa of Lisa’s Kitchen and Jacqueline of Tinned Tomatoes take turns hosting. This month Jac is hosting and the theme is squash.

I am also submitting this dish to the following weekly events:

Wellness Weekend, hosted by Ricki of Diet, Desserts and Dogs. The concept behind Wellness Weekends is “any good-for-you, whole foods, especially those with antioxidant properties or “functional foods” (ie, offering naturally medicinal or health-promoting qualities–such as garlic, coconut oil, all vegetables, fruits, herbs, etc.).” Here we have squash, black beans, and kale, all nutritional and fiber powerhouses, along with lots of lemon juice and jalapeños for spice and tang and, of course, Vitamin C.

A blog event hosted by Flip Cookbook called Sugar Free Sunday, which includes sweet and savory dishes made with non-refined sugars.

Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays

Gluten-Free Wednesday at the Gluten-Free Homemaker

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{Today’s Lunchbox} You Know It’s Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:23:00 +0000

I always know when it is Friday, usually because by then I am out of lunchbox materials and relying on the last of the leftovers. Above is a lunchbox from a couple of Fridays ago:

Comforting Tofu Tahini Scramble
Celery, no side of dip as I was out
A Double Dark Chocolate Doughball - have you seen my adoption post of Katie of Nourishing Flourishing?

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{Today’s Lunchbox} Return of A Favorite

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 03:50:00 +0000

I have been experimenting with kelp noodles in my lunchboxes off and on – I am still debating when to dress them – i.e. the night before, the morning of, or right before eating. Right now, I think I like the morning of approach the best – the noodles are still pleasantly chewy by lunch, but have soaked in the dressing. Here is a lunchbox from last week:

Kelp noodles dressed in Cheezy Red Pepper Hemp Dip with diced peppers, chickpeas (cooked in the rice cooker) and scallions
More Cheezy Red Pepper Hemp Dip with celery

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{Today’s Lunchbox} Tofu Scramble and Greens

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:03:00 +0000

So somehow, I sort of went on lunchbox hiatus – right after finishing up the Brown-Bag Challenge too (see here for my lessons learned). I usually catch up on posting my lunchboxes for the week over the weekend, but the weather was so glorious I instead somehow walked 10 miles in two days and spent no time anywhere near a computer. I plan to add more lunchbox posts this week and next but in the meantime, let’s start with this lunchbox from last week:

Comforting Tofu Tahini Scramble atop kale, which I did not massage with olive oil and lemon juice as I ran out of time – it was ok, but kale is better if it has been massaged a bit
Celery with Cheezy Red Pepper Hemp Dip
The very last of my Amande yogurt from my trip (I found one in back of the fridge) with cacao nibs

Have a great Wednesday!

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Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger: Katie of Nourishing Flourishing

noreply@blogger.com (Valerie @ City|Life|Eats) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 03:13:00 +0000

A friend recently asked me the benefit of cooking based on recipes found on blogs rather than cookbooks – don’t get me wrong, I still use plenty of cookbooks, but I like the connection of cooking from blogger recipes. And, if you find bloggers with similar palates to yours, it is like having a customized cookbook.

Katie of Nourishing Flourishing is one of those bloggers – I want to make every single recipe she posts. Beyond having a similar palate, she also cooks and bakes gluten-free, often grain-free, always vegetarian, usually vegan, with limited sugars, and always natural ones at that, and limits refined starches in her recipes. And, Katie is not afraid the way I am. I thought several times this year about trying to make almond flour recipes using a flax egg, but I always put it off. I think about biscotti with almond flour but put it off. I muse about a pizza base merging the chickpea flour concept of socca pizza with some almond flour.

Katie is so on the same wavelength and actually makes all these ideas (see for example this gorgeous savory tart with caramelized onions and roasted cherry tomatoes). This adoption was all about me benefitting from Katie’s wisdom with baking vegan recipes using blanched almond flour. I picked three recipes: Dark Chocolate Chip Almond Biscotti, Double Dark Chocolate Doughballs and Dark Chocolate Chip Doughballs. You can see them above on the picture. They were so so good. I used 100% unsweetened dark chocolate (from Scharffen Berger) instead of semi-sweet chocolate, but otherwise followed the recipes exactly as written.

I was trying to figure out if it was cheating on the concept of Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger (created and hosted by Sea of Book of Yum) that I had actually had both kinds of doughballs before, made by Katie herself. I was lucky to meet Katie at HLS in August where, in addition to being her fabulous self, she also brought three batches of doughballs. One thing I love about Katie’s blog is that she is both funny and very very wise, usually within the same sentence.

There are oodles more of Katie’s recipes I want to make (like these tea squares, and these zucchini fries, and these petite vanilla scones) – and her blog has also inspired me to pull out my almond flour and bake one of my ideas more often. Now that I have conquered almond flour vegan biscotti in one form, I see more recipes soon. Thank you Katie.

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