28 June 2013
Semi Raw, Vegan "Stir Fry"
One of the lovely things about studying to be a health coach, is that we get exposed to different dietary theories. After all, if a client comes to you wanting to know about a certain way of eating, it's good to have a little experience under your belt. The above dish sort of fuses two weeks into one...
Last week we explored a raw food diet and this week we have been exploring a vegan diet. I have dabbled a bit with elements of both in my time but never all or nothing with either.
I must admit...I'm becoming a bit more of a vegetarian than I used to be. I still enjoy meat and don't want to cut it out entirely, but I am seeing that my body is happier overall with less meat in my system. I also don't want to give up eggs or cheese. They are bigger joys to me than meat. I could easily be a "Lacto-Ovo" Vegetarian before I could be vegan but I do see the health benefits of both and reducing the amount of animal protein we ingest. I think it is also very helpful to know the sources of our animal foods. Even having said that...my body simply doesn't do well on super strict diets. I get angry and willful and then want to eat everything in sight. So balance, it seems, is right for me.
I am loving that by tuning in to my body more...I am eating by intuition more and more.
It's pretty exciting!
So here is what I did for my veggie stuff. Last week I ended up having a cold and all I wanted was soup and broth...so after one raw dish (a cucumber and tomato salad) I fell off the wagon. I know, as a raw foodist you can have warm teas and broths still...they need to be heated under a certain temperature...but my herbalist training kicked in and things hit the boiling point.
When I was feeling better (something I also attribute to yoga classes) I decided to tackle a semi raw but certainly vegan dish.
I cooked a sliced onion, garlic cloves, crimini mushrooms and some purple peppers in some olive oil on low heat before throwing in some broccoli florets. I then added some soy sauce and covered the pan until the broccoli got that lovely shade of green we all want our broccoli to be. Then, I stirred in some carrot ribbons, black sesame seed and grated ginger (about 1/2 teaspoon). When it had cooled, I added half a jicama (sliced into sticks), some arugula and drizzled on some flax oil. That was that. The next day I added some teriyaki tofu to give it a wee bit more substance and protein. Not that I advocate eating a lot of tofu or soy, but we had some in the house.
Before
After
It was absolutely delightful!!!
XO