A Little Q and L

ב"ה

Lately I have become convinced that the major problem with with the American diet is that people let too many other people cook for them. Instead of starting off with fresh ingredients or ingredients like unprocessed grains and beans, most Americans either order out or "cook" by warming up frozen meals or mixes. But there are always ingredients in these foods that can cause health issues, whether it's unhealthy saturated or trans fat or mono-sodium glutamate or some chemical that didn't exist in the 6 days of creation.

I have been reading a few things about diet. One of them was a link that keeps popping up on my Facebook page and the other was a Rodale Press (Prevention Magazine) book I just bought called "Diabetes without Drugs" and I decided that I'm going to make some changes in my diet by eating less processed food. I can still eat "Food for Life" sprouted corn tortillas since they are made only from organic sprouted corn, water, sea salt and lime. But the veggie burgers I've been eating have a problem -- they have canola oil which is one of the things that I am trying to phase out of my diet. So I made some burgers for myself last week with organic oatmeal, frozen mixed vegetables, some sauteed veggies (like onions and garlic), some water and a bit of whole rye flour to hold it all together -- then I sauteed/fried them in olive oil (which I sprayed from an oil spray bottle that one of my best friends bought me for a birthday present a number of years ago). After that, I wrapped them in aluminum foil and put them in the freezer. I put them between two of the sprouted corn tortillas in my sandwich machine for about 30 minutes.

So tonight, I decided to make something simple but different -- I took 1/4 cup each of red quinoa and red lentils. I carefully washed the quinoa (to remove the bitter natural substance that acts as a natural pesticide), put it with the lentils and 1 1/2 cups or so of filtered water. I added my favorite spices -- 1/2 teaspoon each of turmeric, coriander, ginger, garam masala, and 1/4 teaspoon cumin, paprika, fenugreek, and cinnamon. Meanwhile, I slivered up an onion and sauteed it in olive oil, also slivered up a few cloves garlic (which I let sit for 1/2 hour because that's supposed to release the good stuff in garlic). After the onion was soft and a bit caramelized, I added 1/2 cup sliced, frozen shiitake mushrooms and sauteed for a few minutes. After the garlic sat for 30 minutes, I added the garlic (I had turned off the onions and mushrooms to keep them from burning, so I turned the flame back on then added the garlic) and cooked for a bit, until all the veggies were cooked through. By then the quinoa/lentil mixture was done, so I added the veggies. It turned out delicious! I hope you all like it.

I would just like to add that I did a variation of this recipes where I used 1/4 cup each of red quinoa, wild rice, red lentils and black (French) lentils. I also added sliced zucchini and skinny eggplant to the veggies. Other than that, this was pretty much the same as before.

Check out my other blogs:

Israel and it's Place in the World
Jewish Singles
Strong Jewish Women

Check out some of my squidoo lenses (articles):

Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Why Be Vegetarian
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2
Why be Vegetarian?
Rosh Hashana
Quick Vegan Cooking
Creating new recipes from old
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
Witches and Morality
Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington