Diet #6 by George Ohsawa (What Is Nitsuke?)

Today I broke my whole-grain fast (Diet #7 by George Ohsawa) at lunch. Instead of having 100% whole grains (usually brown rice or quinoa), I decided to have a meal based on Diet #6 — which is 90% whole grains and 10% vegetable nitsuke. First, I had to figure out two things: 1) How do I measure out 90% grains and 10% vegetables? and 2) How do I prepare nitsuke?
What is nitsuke? It's a Japanese specific way of cooking a food in a pan with oil, salt, and sometimes a little water. I found several recipes in Mr. Ohsawa's book, Zen Macrobiotics, for preparing various types of vegetable nitsuke on pages 68 and 69. Here are a couple of descriptive terms he provides in his recipes:

• "All nitsukes are prepared slightly salty."

• "The various kinds of nitsuke mentioned above should not be juicy. Foods that are juicy cannot be called nitsuke."

I decided to cook carrot nitsuke and medium-grain brown rice for my lunch today. It was delicious!

I washed and grated 6 small carrots, figuring that using a grater would make the smallest possible cuts, and if that ended up being too much carrots, I could save the leftovers for another meal. I cooked them in a small frying pan with unrefined sesame seed oil and sea salt, on low heat and covered. I checked them frequently and stirred them with a wooden spoon to prevent burning (although I like them to be slightly burned on the edges).

Okay, so how did I measure out 90% grains and 10% vegetable nitsuke? I used a small 1/4-cup-size metal measuring cup and scooped out nine cupfuls of cooked brown rice, and then I scooped out one cupful of the cooked carrots. I noticed that the volume of the carrots was greatly reduced after being cooked. I ended up having just the right amount for my 10% requirement! Now I have a pretty good idea of what 90% and 10% looks like, so I won't need to use the measuring cups again. I can use a serving spoon instead.

Zen Macrobiotics, by George Ohsawa, is available on the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation website.

The Village Baker's Wife — My Fifth Most Favorite Cookbook

The Village Baker’s Wife — The Desserts And Pastries That Made Gayle's Famous, by Gayle and Joe Ortiz, with Louisa Beers, © 1997

If I never could visit Gayle’s Bakery in Capitola, California again, I think I would survive as long as I still have this wonderful cookbook. Everything in it is delicious, extravagant, and a work of art!

The "Pecan Schneckens" on page 68 are my absolute favorite, no matter if I get them at the bakery or make them myself. The cooking instructions are top-quality. I don't think you'd could get anything better, even in a cooking school.

This is definitely one of my top ten favorite cookbooks. I keep it in mind for when I want to create something special, for a special occasion. And I also keep a note to myself to eliminate or substitute the sugar amount with a different sweetener like Sucanat whole sugar or brown rice syrup and reduce the amount by at least half!


Related Blog Articles:
My Top Ten Favorite Cookbooks
No More Sugar
Trying Out New Cookie Recipes

Manhattan Non-Clam Chowder

Here's my second recipe for a red "non-clam" chowder that I made last year on George Washington's birthday. The tomato paste is what made it red. It turned out to be pretty tasty! Originally, I tried using whole wheat berries instead of oat groats, but they were not soft and chewy enough, so I'm sticking with whole oat groats.

MANHATTAN NON-CLAM CHOWDER

IN A LARGE SOUP POT, SAUTE:
1 large onion, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil

ADD TO POT AND CONTINUE TO SAUTE:
6 small stalks of celery, diced

ADD TO POT AND SAUTE 10-12 MINUTES:
3 large carrots, diced
3 small red potatoes, diced

ADD:
2 cups water
3 tablespoons organic tomato paste mixed with
1/4 cup Finest Fino Sherry
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
3 half-pieces (about 3 inches long) of kombu seaweed
1 cup cooked oat groats (rinsed and soaked in water overnight and then cooked for an hour or longer using the same measurements as for cooking rice)

COVER THE POT AND COOK ON MEDIUM HEAT FOR 33 MINUTES, CHECKING OFTEN AND ADDING WATER IF NECESSARY.

TURN OFF HEAT AND ALLOW TO REST, COVERED, FOR ABOUT 15 MINUTES.

Notes: Bob's Red Mill products include organic whole oat groats.

See also:
Boston Non-Clam Chowder
The Annual Clam Chowder Cook Off
Santa Cruz Non-Clam Chowder


Related Blog Articles:
Organic Farmers and SOS-Earth
Adapting Our Diets To The Situation

Boston Non-Clam Chowder

Here's my first recipe for a vegetarian "non-clam" chowder that I made last year, on George Washington's Birthday. It does have dairy in it (butter and milk), so it's not vegan. I'll try making that next!

The key ingredient in my chowder is cooked whole oat groats, which were soaked in water overnight and then cooked for an hour or longer, using the same ratio of grain to water as used for cooking rice. I only used a cup of the cooked oats for my recipe and saved the rest for something else.

BOSTON "NON-CLAM" CHOWDER

SAUTE IN A LARGE CHOWDER/SOUP POT:
3 pieces of wakame seaweed, pre-soaked in water 10 minutes
3 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, chopped

ADD AND CONTINUE TO SAUTE:
6 small/thin stalks of celery, diced

ADD AND CONTINUE TO SAUTE:
4 small yellow (Yukon Gold) potatoes, diced

ADD:
2 cups water

COVER AND COOK 33 MINUTES, MEDIUM HEAT.

AFTER 20 MINUTES, ADD, AND CONTINUE TO COOK:
3 dashes of unrefined sea salt (available from Gold Mine Natural Foods)

MEANWHILE, MAKE A ROUX IN A MEDIUM 10" FRYING PAN:

ROUX:
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup milk (Straus Family Creamery's whole milk)

ADD TO THE ROUX:
2 1/2 cups milk (Straus Family Creamery's whole milk)
1/4 teaspoon unrefined sea salt
1/4 teaspoon fine-ground black pepper

STIR AND COOK OVER LOW HEAT UNTIL SMOOTH AND CREAMY.

REMOVE SEAWEED FROM THE CHOWDER POT AND SET ASIDE FOR A GARNISH.

ADD TO THE CHOWDER POT:
• Roux
• 1 cup oat groats, cooked

HEAT, AND SERVE (WITH SEAWEED GARNISH)

Notes:
• During reheating, the soup thickens up rapidly — need to add more milk each time.
• Straus Family Creamery doesn't add anything (like fake "Vitamin D") to their milk or butter, and their products are free from any GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms).
• Oat groats give a nice chewy texture to replace the clam pieces. My husband liked them. He said he couldn't tell the difference between my soup and regular clam chowder. Wow!
• Bob's Red Mill products include organic whole oat groats.

See also:
Manhattan Non-Clam Chowder
The Annual Clam Chowder Cook Off
Santa Cruz Non-Clam Chowder


Related Blog Articles:
Organic Farmers and SOS-Earth
Adapting Our Diets To The Situation

The Annual Clam Chowder Cook Off

It's about that time of year for the Annual Clam Chowder Cook Off at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. (Tomorrow, the 26th of February, rain or shine!) Anyone can enter the contest. You bring your own food, cookware, and burners. The Boardwalk provides a table, water, and other stuff. Last year, when my husband and I went to photograph the event, they provided cream (or actually, the dairy company provided it, I think) and french bread.

You're allowed to set up your table fairly early in the morning and do all your prep work, like chopping up vegetables, but you can't actually start cooking until a specific time. Then, at another designated time, visitors (your judges), are allowed to start tasting your chowder(s). For $8.00, visitors can get a tasting kit that includes a bowl, a spoon, 5 tasting tickets and 2 "People’s Choice" ballots. At the end of the day, the votes are counted and the winners are announced.

The fun part is looking at all the different displays around each table. Contestants can decorate any way that they want and provide a "theme" to help "sell" their chowder.

Two varieties of clam chowder are featured: The "Red Chowder" (Manhattan) and the "White Chowder" (New England), one being tomato based and the other being milk or cream based, respectively.

Last year, after taking pictures and watching the event from start to finish, I decided to try making my own vegetarian style recipes for red and white chowders. Instead of clams, I used whole oat groats, which turned out pretty good!

See also:
Boston Non-Clam Chowder
Manhattan Non-Clam Chowder
Santa Cruz Non-Clam Chowder

The Benefits Of Whole Foods

Today is Day #9 of my whole grain fast. I've decided to limit my meals to simply brown rice, a little unpasteurized soy sauce, and kukicha tea.

I think the drizzle of maple syrup I was having on my quinoa was too yin for my current situation (it's snowing, for example). Also, maple syrup, although natural, is not a whole food — obviously — the whole food would be the entire maple tree!

Whole foods, by definition, are perfectly balanced within themselves. Once we remove a part of the food, it is no longer whole. When we introduce food that is not whole into our bodies, we're introducing an imbalance that the body will automatically try to correct. This can be good or it can be detrimental depending on the current situation.

My goal here is to achieve a balance within myself. Therefore, it makes sense to choose only foods that are whole, and already balanced, giving me a head-start towards my goal.

Whole brown rice reportedly has the perfect ratio of potassium to sodium, 5:1, for the human body, providing us the perfect balance all by itself. Right now I want to get as close to the center, my center, as possible. Thus, my decision to eat only brown rice for a while.

Think about it. What foods are whole? Certainly not a steak! or a chicken leg! How about an egg? Or a sardine?


Related Blog Articles:
Diet #7 By George Ohsawa

Day Eight Of My Whole Grain Fast

So far, my whole-grain fast is going pretty well. I've been eating basically short or medium grain brown rice and quinoa. I'll eat it either fresh from the cooking pot or warmed up in my trusty Revere Ware double boiler/steamer pot or small frying pan with lid and a little sesame oil (1/2 to 1 tsp.). I've been seasoning my bowl of grains with a little ume plum vinegar or ground gomasio and sometimes a little maple syrup.

The staying-power of my meals has been stretching out to longer periods of time before I get hungry again. That's so nice! And for last night's dinner I was satisfied with only a half of a bowl of grains. I've learned that I should always try to eat no later than 3 hours before going to bed because my stomach requires gravity (being in an upright position) in order to pass the food down to my intestines. Evidently, there are no muscles inside my stomach that can push the food out. Knowing this makes it clear to me why I would get indigestion/gas pains after going to bed with a full stomach.

I'm planning on continuing with Diet #7 of 100% whole grains for several more days, maybe even a week more, and then I'll probably switch to Diet #6, 90% whole grains and 10% vegetable nitsuke. I'll probably start with carrots because they're more yang than most of the other veggies and they sound good to me right now. Of course, I don't know how they'll sound to me a week from now, so we'll see how it goes!

"Fatso"

This is the name of a movie starring Dom DeLouise ("Fatso" 1980). I heard that the movie was about food addiction, so I checked it out.

It's a story about a very nice man living in New York City, beloved by many friends and family who try to convince him to go on a diet. The story begins with all of them at another man's funeral, a friend who was extremely obese and probably died because of it.

We watch our hero, Dominick, as he desperately tries to avoid eating all the foods that he loves and then fails miserably. It seems that the only thing that can save him is his love for a woman.

I kept finding myself looking at the food he's eating and wishing that he knew about Macrobiotics. Because if he did, then he would know why he was craving spaghetti with crusty white bread and olive oil, and then next be craving a whole roasted chicken, and then next be craving cream puffs or chocolate cake. He would understand that Yin is attracted to Yang, and that the size of the attraction is in direct proportion to the size of the Yin or the Yang.

He would learn that white bread and foods with sugar are extremely Yin. And that because they are not a balance of Yin and Yang within themselves, his body would immediately demand something extremely Yang after eating them. Something that would create a balance with the white bread and sugar, something like meat and salt, perhaps.

Unfortunately, sugar is so extremely yin that there is no food that can create a balance with it, not even meat, and certainly not salt, unless you ate a cup of salt for every cup of sugar maybe, but then you'd probably be dead. And so you find yourself constantly hungry, because your body is still demanding that counterbalance. And you eat and eat and eat, trying to find balance. Trying to find peace.

If he knew about Macrobiotics, he would know that whole grains, whole vegetables, and pure, natural water would give him the balance that his body craves. And he would be in control of his own body. He would be able to eat his favorite foods once again, because this time, he would understand what was happening and he would be able to correct the situation.

There is a whole community of people who study and practice Macrobiotics (all over the world), some of who give help by marketing good, nutritious, whole foods for our health and well-being. They offer us new and different kinds of foods to help us regain our balance, like whole-grain miso, unpasteurized soy sauce, and ume plum vinegar. Others grow the food using natural organic methods. Others provide counseling and guidance. And others provide the books, instructional material and a great deal of food for thought. For more information, go to the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation website.

The Importance Of Chewing

It's Day #4 of my whole-grain fast. I'm feeling pretty good. Two things I've noticed:

1) Wow—I was eating a lot of food before this fast! During the first day and part of the second day, I was hungry for more after my meal. But maybe it really wasn't hunger, but more like habit. What I had gotten into the habit of doing (without even realizing it had become a habit) was eating a snack or "dessert" after my main entree—both at lunch and at dinner. It was usually a handful of barley-malt sweetened chocolate chips or Zen Party Mix (salted nuts & white-rice crackers) or salty oily sunflower seeds or a sesame snack bar of some kind. Also, I'd gotten into the habit of cooking most of my vegetables with sesame oil rather than boiling them in water or steaming them, which was probably fine during the hot summer months, but not so fine during the fall and winter.

2) The second thing that I noticed was that I have not been chewing my food enough times even though I had assumed that I was. And the reason why I wasn't chewing enough was because I wasn't paying complete attention to my eating. And the reason for that was I had gotten into the habit of either reading a book or watching a show on my computer while I was eating my meal. During these past four days I've intentionally counted my bites during my meals, still reading or watching my computer, and was surprised that I was swallowing before I barely reached fifty chews. And when you know that bowl of rice is supposed to last until the next meal, believe me, you want to chew as much as you can!

Chewing your food, especially whole grains, allows you to get the maximum energy out of your food. Carbohydrates are digested in your mouth, unlike fats and proteins, which are digested in the stomach and intestines. So what you don't chew just goes down the drain, so to speak.

Another thing about the importance of chewing grains is that chewing gives the enzymes in your saliva more time to alkalyze the otherwise acid-forming grains. When you're on a whole-grain fast, you're missing most of the foods, like vegetables, that provide an alkalyzing balance with the grains. Herman Aihara's book, Acid & Alkaline, plus Carl Ferre's book, Acid Alkaline Companion, are two great books that explain the effects of acid- and alkaline-forming foods in our bodies. Highly recommended. They are both available on the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation website.

Related Articles:
What Is True Fasting?
The Yin and Yang of Acid and Alkaline

Diet #7 by George Ohsawa

I started a ten-day all-grain fast today, otherwise known as Macrobiotics Diet #7 designed by George Ohsawa. The purpose of my doing this is to clear my head, simplify my food intake, give my body a rest and a chance to heal, give my mind a rest, and give myself a chance to slow down and observe what has been going in and not necessarily coming out of my body.

It has been awhile since I've done this fast, but I still remember some things to expect during the process, including the unexpected! For one thing, I can expect to not feel so good as my body starts to heal and rids itself of toxins and excess waste. But to what degree I may feel ill, I cannot predict. Hopefully not too much, because hopefully I haven't binged too far off the deep end.

Okay. So what does this Diet #7 entail? It's pretty simple, actually. And it's a great relief to do. Soak a pot of rice in water overnight, plus a pot of quinoa. Have a mug of hot water first thing in the morning upon rising. Cook the rice in the rice cooker with a little sea salt (it takes a little more than an hour) and eat it for breakfast with a mug of 2-bag Kukicha (twig) tea. It goes without saying that everything is organic, since the purpose is to eliminate toxins, not add them to my body! Then clean up the kitchen and be amazed how quickly getting out of the kitchen can be done -- lickity-split.

For lunch, I heated up some leftover quinoa and rice together in a covered pan with a little water. I also had a half-cup of 1-bag tea. Cleaned up and was out of there pretty quickly once again.

A couple of hours later, I had a 3-ounce mug of 1-bag tea.

For dinner, I rinsed and cooked the quinoa in the rice cooker. It also took a little more than an hour to cook. I ate a big bowl of it with a little ume plum vinegar sprinkled over it and I had a mug of 3-bag twig tea.

I don't feel hungry at all. We'll see how things go tomorrow...

Diet #7 is listed in George Ohsawa's book, Zen Macrobiotics. There is also a book called #7 Diet, which was written by one of his students, Francoise Riviere. Both books are available to buy from the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation.

Going on this diet is like meditating and praying. The purpose is to clear my mind so that I can make new decisions based from the center of myself. Already I can see the benefits.

I've put more rice (short-grain) and quinoa to soak overnight in the refrigerator. Oh yes! I almost forgot to mention this: I chewed each bite of food at least 100 times and enjoyed the experience entirely. Okay, that's all for now.

Green Vegetables

All night long, last night, I dreamed about green vegetables — washing them, cutting them up, and putting them into containers for cooking later. Vegetables like broccoli, tiny brussels sprouts, and dried wakame seaweed. I woke up a couple of times, remembered each dream, and then fell back asleep to dream some more. I'm not kidding you! So, of course, I had to do green vegetables today, and they were delicious.

Last weekend I picked up some beautiful tiny little brussels sprouts at the Farmer's Market. This is such a wonderful surprise, to be able to go to an outdoor farmer's market in February! And to find a pretty big selection of produce available too!

Today, I sliced some of the brussels sprouts in half and browned them in a little unrefined sesame seed oil (Spectrum Naturals organic, unrefined sesame seed oil) in a small sauce pan. Then I covered the pan with a lid and lowered the heat way down to a tiny flame and allowed the vegetables to steam in their own juices. Then I turned the heat completely off and allowed the vegetables to sit for another 15 minutes or so. Deee-licious!

I ate these with a fresh pot of quinoa — see my earlier post, "South American Quinoa and Potatoes."

Hot Cream of Rice Cereal

Happy Super Bowl Day! This morning I began my day by making some delicious hot cereal — Cream of Rice — from scratch. I remember having Cream of Rice when I was a kid, made from a box of Nabisco Cream of Rice Cereal. We also had Nabisco Cream of Wheat Cereal. Yum!

The recipe that I used today is from George Ohsawa's book, Zen Macrobiotics, page 62.

4 tablespoons of freshly milled, toasted short-grain brown rice
3 cups of water (I used filtered well water)
sea salt to taste

First, I toasted some organic brown rice on a pan in my toaster oven. To my surprise, some of the kernels actually popped like popcorn! And they tasted good too! Anyway, after I toasted the rice, I put some of it into a small coffee grinder that I have dedicated for grinding grain only, and I ground it into a fine flour. I figure that I'm not going to "burn" or over-grind the flour this way because I'm doing it in small amounts and not taking that much time to do it.

Meanwhile, I set a 2-quart-size pot (my beloved old Revere Ware pan) on the stove with three cups of water to boiling. The pot is tall enough, I thought, for the rice flour not to spill over the sides while cooking.

After I ground four tablespoons of flour, I poured it into the boiling water and added some unrefined Celtic sea salt. It immediately started to bubble and sizzle and rise up the insides of the pot. So I turned down the heat and stirred the contents with a spoon to calm it down. Then I set the timer for 22 minutes and kept an eye on it every once in awhile as it cooked on a low boil.

The recipe said to "add water as necessary" so I figured that meant it would boil down quickly into a thick consistency, but I guess I didn't have it hot enough because it was still pretty watery after 22 minutes. When the timer went off, I turned the heat up and stood there with my spoon ready in case it started to boil over or got stuck to the bottom of the pot and cooked it for another 3 or 4 minutes. It turned out perfect! But I actually didn't know that until after I spooned it into my bowl and allowed it to cool. As it cooled down, it started to thicken up (or "gel") to the right consistency that I was expecting.

Well I can honestly say that this dish was very satisfying. Now we'll see how long it "sticks with me" before I get hungry for something else to eat!

Happy Groundhog Day!

I love this day! It always makes me think of Bill Murray, one of my favorite actors, in the movie "Groundhog Day." What a wonderful story. It's very inspiring. Gives me lots of food for thought.

I love the part(s) when he realizes that he won't have to pay the consequences of eating whatever he wants. We see him eating tons of fattening, sugary food, and lots of coffee, and stuffing it into his face like a maniac. I was actually looking closely at what he was eating and thinking to myself, "Oh, that looks good!" or "No, I wouldn't have chosen that!"

But I noticed that eventually the movie stopped showing him going to the diner and eating All You Can Eat, as he moved on to doing other things, like helping change the ladies' flat tire and learning how to play the piano. So did he stop eating altogether? Or what did he eat in order to have enough energy to carry out his very-busy days?

Today is not only Groundhog's Day—symbol for seeing the signs of Springtime's approach. It's also a New Moon day and the beginning of a two-week celebration of the Chinese New Year. This is the year of the White Metal Rabbit.

So here's a toast to the Spring, to New Beginnings, and to Creation — Cheers!

South American Quinoa and Potatoes

Quinoa is one of my most favorite grains in the world! It's a tiny grain, smaller than millet, but larger than amaranth. And it's packed with energy. I can eat a bowl of quinoa in the morning and work hard for 4 or 5 hours without getting hungry, tired, or weak.

Quinoa — pronounced like "keen-nu'wah."

The trick to eating quinoa is to prepare it properly. It contains a high level of saponin in it that gives the grain a bitter, soapy quality that is actually undigestible. In fact, plants high in saponin are used for making soap! Therefore, quinoa must be soaked in water overnight and then rinsed thoroughly until all the soapy bubbles are gone.*** Then it takes only about 15 minutes to cook it on the stove (boiled/simmered in water) or an hour to cook it in a rice cooker (using the same proportions as rice to water).

It's delicious as a hot breakfast cereal, mixed with fruit or nuts, but my favorite is as a savory lunch or dinner entree, with a little ume plum vinegar (Eden Foods) sprinkled over it and accompanied by a cooked vegetable of some sort (something fresh, locally grown, and in-season).

My very most favorite meal, however, is a bowl of quinoa with a bag of potato chips! But I am very much aware of how potatoes can add fat directly to one's mid-section. I used to always think that it was the deep-fried fat in potato chips that was so fattening, but all along it was probably the carbohydrates of the potato that was making my belly grow...

Quinoa and potatoes are mentioned in a recent article in "Macrobiotics Today" magazine (January/February 2011 issue, "The Brave New World of Genetic Chaos" by Dennis Willmont):

"The potato originated in the Andes of South America where it is still eaten in combination with very tiny whole grains like quinoa and amaranth to give people more vitamins and minerals and bring a better balance."

By the way, this article is a very important and interesting article that gives me many good reasons to buy/eat only organic food! The complete article is available as a free-download pdf on the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation website this month (February 2011).

*** Note: Don't let anyone kid you into thinking that you don't have to soak your quinoa in water overnight because it has supposedly been "pre-rinsed." The soaking process will pull out all the hidden saponin inside the grain, and in the morning the liquid will be dark-dark amber colored and frothy with soap bubbles. Also, an added benefit to overnight soaking is that the quinoa swells up and becomes too large to fit through the tiny holes of a wire-mesh strainer, making it much easier to rinse.

Related Articles:
Organic Farmers and SOS-Earth