Food Santa Cruz

My Favorite Local Restaurants Today

2012-02-17T10:36:00.004-08:00

My husband and I both love to try out new places to eat, so we can add them to our list of favorites! Right off the top of my head, here are some of our favorite restaurants in the area:

Downtown Santa Cruz:
• Little Shanghai's (they've got brown rice that's delicious)
• Woodstock's Pizza (whole wheat vegetarian pizza is very good)
• Rosie McCann's
• Zachary's
• Walnut Avenue Cafe
• The Bagelry
• Noah's Bagels

On Mission Street (Highway 1):
Omei's Chinese Cuisine
Ristoranti Avanti's (fancy, delicious, innovative--I had my first dish of stinging nettles here, it was very good!)

Seabright:
Linda's Seabreeze Cafe
Seabright Brewery

Capitola:
Dharma's (They have the widest selection of organic whole grains and veggies of anybody!)
Gayle's Bakery & Rosticceria
Takara Japanese Restaurant

Aptos:
The Silver Spur

Felton, Highway 9:
The Cowboy Bar & Grill (yam pancakes for me; Michael likes their burgers)
Rocky's Cafe

Boulder Creek, Highway 9:
Boulder Creek Brewery (they serve veggie or meat burgers on hearty whole grain bread if you ask, and have great onion rings and sweet potato fries)
Scopazzi's
Old Mountain Inn (They have the best mountain porridge and buckwheat pancakes around.)

Also, worthy of mention: Every year in February they have a Clam Chowder Cook Off at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. You can buy a ticket to taste a bunch of entries and cast your vote for the best. I've never tasted since I'm allergic to clams, but I've had a lot of fun watching!

Related Blog Articles:
Boulder Creek Brewery & Cafe
Linda's Seabreeze Cafe
The Annual Clam Chowder Cook Off
Whole Grains In Restaurants

Have You Ever Had Wild Rice For Breakfast?

2012-02-10T11:56:00.001-08:00

It's delicious! This morning that's what I had for my breakfast: California Organic Wild Rice (from Lundberg Family Farms) with a few tamari roasted almonds and a little ume plum vinegar and maple syrup sprinkled on top.

I had rinsed and soaked a half-cup of wild rice overnight in one and a half cups of water, which I then used to cook the rice in. I brought it to a boil in a quart-size pot, reduced the heat to a low flame, covered the pot, and then let it cook for about twenty to thirty minutes. (At one or two points, I had to lift the lid to release some steam and keep it from boiling over.)

Before, I've always had wild rice mixed with regular "true rice," that is, Asian rice, and this morning I decided to try it by itself. I'm glad I did!

Wild rice is different than black rice, by the way. Black rice (or "Forbidden Rice") is a "true rice" that's black in color and wild rice (also black in color, on the outside at least) is not a "true rice" although it is a cereal/grain from the grass family. Side by side, a wild rice grain is longer and narrower with sharp pointed ends (more yin) while a black rice grain is shorter and wider with rounded ends (more yang).

There are many reasons why I love wild rice:
• It's a grain that's native to this continent.
• It's grown and harvested locally in my state. (Therefore it's closer to me and my center.)
• It's very fragrant, fluffy, and reminds me of the winter holiday season.
• It's a good substitute for yang acid-forming animal foods, because it still is yang, but much closer to a balance between yin and yang.
• It's not as yang as regular short-grain brown rice and is good when I need to lighten up a little!
• It falls in the yang acid-forming category of the four basic macrobiotic food groups, which is needed for a well-balanced meal.

Here's what wikipedia says about wild rice, and black rice.

Related Blog Articles:
Whole Grains For Centering
What Is The Macrobiotic Centering Diet?
Ten Macrobiotic Diets By George Ohsawa
Four Basic Food Groups — Yin—Yang—Acid—Alkaline

Four Basic Food Groups — YIN—YANG—ACID—ALKALINE

2012-01-26T07:20:00.000-08:00

Here is a broad list of foods derived from Herman Aihara's book, Acid & Alkaline (see pages 88 through 93) that divides food into four groups according to their yin and yang, and acid- and alkaline-forming properties.

To balance my meals, I choose foods from each of the four categories, making sure that I'm balancing the amounts with the opposite category (that is, Yin Acid-forming opposite Yang Alkaline-forming and Yang Acid-forming opposite Yin Alkaline-forming).

For example, I might choose a whole grain (yang acid-forming), a vegetable (yin alkaline-forming), a small amount of oil (yin acid-forming), and a small amount of unrefined sea salt (yang alkaline-forming). I might also make a small bowl of soup containing barley miso (beans, grain, salt) and wakame (alkaline-forming sea-vegetable that's also yang), and a cup of bancha tea (yin alkaline-forming).

Chewing my food at least 100-200 times per mouthful makes the acid-forming grain more alkaline because it mixes with ptyalin enzymes in my saliva.

YANG ACID-FORMING FOODS
Grains, whole (except for millet, which is alkaline-forming)
Animal foods (sea and land animals, salted cheese)

YIN ALKALINE-FORMING FOODS
Fruit juice, herb tea, bancha tea,
Coffee (organic, with caffeine — decaf is acid-forming)
Honey, spices, fruits, seeds,
Vegetables (with a few yang exceptions)
Seaweeds (with a few yang exceptions)

YANG ALKALINE-FORMING FOODS
Millet
Wakame and Kombu seaweeds
Lotus, Burdock, and Dandelion root vegetables
Jinenjo Japanese potato
Soy sauce (natural)
Gomashio (sesame salt)
Miso
Salted umeboshi plum
Salt (unrefined sea salt with its alkalyzing minerals intact)
Kuzu, Dandelion, and Mu teas
Yannoh (Ohsawa grain coffee)
Ginseng

YIN ACID-FORMING FOODS
Chemical drugs, pills, sugar,
candy, soft drinks, alcohol,
vinegar, beans, nuts, oils,
flour, noodles

Note: Quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat are not grains and do not necessarily fall into the Yang Acid-forming group. Quinoa and amaranth are neutral-to-alkaline forming, whereas buckwheat is neutral-to-acid forming.

These three books cover the four basic food groups in great detail and are available on the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation website:
1) Acid and Alkaline, by Herman Aihara
2) Acid Alkaline Companion, by Carl Ferre
3) Essential Guide To Macrobiotics (formerly, Pocket Guide To Macrobiotics), by Carl Ferre.

Related Blog Articles:
The Yin and Yang of Acid and Alkaline
The Benefits of Unrefined Sea Salt
The Importance of Chewing

Linda's Seabreeze Cafe

2012-01-06T13:12:00.000-08:00

Don't forget to soak your grains! I had some brown rice at Linda's Seabreeze Cafe this morning and could immediately tell that they had not soaked their rice overnight prior to cooking. It makes such a huge difference, believe me. Soaking makes the year's-old rice taste fresh and new again, tender and soft, clear-through to the center of each grain.

But despite this omission, the rice was delicious! And I am so grateful that they offer it for breakfast (as a substitute for potatoes). I sprinkled a small amount of their amazing salsa over the rice and was very happy. Added to my meal were two pieces of buttered whole wheat toast and a mug of Numi's Organic Jasmine Green Tea.

Linda's Seabreeze Cafe is located in Seabright — a neighborhood district in Santa Cruz, California. Extremely popular with us locals, they had to set up a special waiting place outside for the dozens of people who had signed up for breakfast or lunch. You can sit on the benches, lean on the railings, and spill out onto the parking lot and sidewalk in front of the restaurant. There's even a serve-yourself coffee station while you wait.

My husband and I like to come here every so often, because it is one of our oldest and most favorite places to eat breakfast. You can eat breakfast any time between 6:00 am and 2:00 pm or you could eat lunch instead! I think that this is one of the reasons why it's so popular. Of course, the main reason is because of the food.

Check it out! Be prepared to sign up on the list, wait outside for awhile, and then receive a warm and friendly, fun, and quite delicious meal.

And if the crowd of people waiting is too large, you might want to try out another restaurant, "The Silver Spur," which was started by the very same Linda. The food there is good too! (And the lines of people waiting can be equally long.) I don't think they serve brown rice, but they do have some delicious oatmeal, which I will vouch for!

Note: The web site for Linda's Seabreeze Cafe does not mention the brown rice, but the menu pdf that you can download from there does — in a footnote at the bottom of the breakfast menu it says, "*Brown rice or fresh fruit may be substituted for potatoes."

Related Blog Articles:
Whole Grains In Restaurants
Day Eight Of My Whole Grain Fast
The Benefits Of Whole Foods

Julia's Holiday Fudge

2011-12-15T09:03:00.003-08:00

I made some of Julia Ferre's "Carob Nut Fudge" yesterday. This has got to be one of the BEST candy recipes I have ever tried! When my husband took a bite of the fudge, he said "This can't be good for you!" But it is — by far — the most delicious and nutritious pleasure food I've ever tasted.

The ingredients include raisins instead of sugar, peanut butter and coconut oil instead of butter, and carob powder instead of chocolate. The recipe also includes walnuts, coconut, and rolled oats, as well as vanilla and sea salt. It goes without saying that I used all organic, and unrefined products whenever possible. (I found Sun-Maid's California Organic Raisins in my grocery store, but not on the web.)

In terms of yin and yang, this recipe is so much more balanced than your typical fudge, which contains butter, milk, and loads of extremely yin sugar!

Here is Julia Ferre's delicious recipe for:

Carob Nut Fudge

325ºF oven
15-20 minutes
9x9-inch baking dish (I used an 8x8-inch glass dish)

Step 1: Simmer in a small saucepan for 5 minutes and allow to cool:
1 cup raisins
1 cup water
1 teaspoon sea salt (unrefined)

Step 2: Using a blender (or food processor), grind into a coarse meal:
1 cup walnuts.

Step 3: Remove the ground walnuts from the blender, sprinkle half of them evenly over the bottom of the baking dish, and set aside the remaining half.

Step 4: Blend the cooled raisin mixture in the same blender and set aside.

Step 5: In a large skillet or frying pan, saute for 3 minutes:
2 tablespoons coconut oil and
1 cup of rolled oats
and then add to the pan, and saute for another 2 minutes:
1/3 cup coconut (shredded, unsweetened)
plus the remaining half of ground walnuts.
Turn off the heat and set aside.

Step 6: In a large 2-quart sauce pan (this will be the final mixing bowl), melt
2 more tablespoons of coconut oil
and turn off the heat. Then immediately add and stir:
1/4 cup carob powder

Step 7: Add the following, one at a time, to the sauce pan and stir each time:
2 tablespoons water
1/2 of the raisin mixture, and then the other
1/2 of the raisin mixture
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup peanut butter (creamy or chunky)
and all of the oats/coconut/walnut mixture

Step 8: Only if necessary, add 1-2 tablespoons of more water — but the mixture should be thick. I guess it depends on how much you cook down the raisins in the first step, but I didn't need to add any more water to mine.

Step 9: Spoon carefully into the baking dish, on top of the walnuts. (The ground walnuts help keep the fudge from sticking to the bottom.)

Step 10: Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. I baked mine for 15 minutes and then tested the center with a toothpick, which came out too wet, so I put it back in the oven for 5 more minutes.

Step 11: Allow to completely cool before slicing into small one-inch squares, and then serve!

Julia says in her recipe that the fudge should last until the New Year. I guess she means as long as you don't eat it!

You can find Julia Ferre's recipe in her article on "Seasonal Energy: Winter" in the November/December 2011 issue of the magazine "Macrobiotics Today."

NOTE: Next time, I'll try adapting the recipe for my friends who are either allergic to nuts or require even less amounts of sugar from the fruit. For example, instead of 1 cup of Sun-Maid's California Organic Raisins, which contains 116 grams of fruit sugars, I could use 1 cup of Trader Joe's Unsweetened Unsulfured Dark Sweet Cherries, which contains only 48 grams of fruit sugars.

Dates and prunes also have less fruit sugars per cup (75 grams and 42 grams, respectively). Instead of peanut butter and walnuts, I could use regular cow's milk butter, more coconut oil, and more coconut for the bottom of the pan. I could also try substituting the carob with melted baking chocolate (unsweetened), which contains more fat.

Related Blog Articles:
Trying Out New Cookie Recipes
Black Bean Brownies #3
No More Sugar

The Yin And Yang Spectrum Of Food, Part 2

2011-12-04T06:32:00.000-08:00

George Ohsawa, Carl Ferre, and others have devised extensive food tables that compare and categorize the yin and yang qualities of food.

Here is a long list of foods I've taken from Zen Macrobiotics, by George Ohsawa (see pages 115-117). I've superimposed it with Carl Ferre's list of broad categories (see The Yin And Yang Spectrum Of Food, Part 1) so that as you scroll down, you'll see the most yin categories first (starting with "Sweeteners").

Keep in mind that foods listed within each category although they range from yin to yang will still hold their overall yin or yang quality from their category. For example, although "goat milk" is listed as "2 yang," it is still in the "Dairy" category, which is very yin compared to the other categories.

[MOST YIN]

Sweeteners
• Honey — 3 yin
• Molasses — 3 yin

Water/Beverages
• Drinks containing sugar substitutes — 3 yin
• Tea containing dye — 3 yin
• Coffee — 3 yin
• Fruit juice — 3 yin
• All sugared drinks — 3 yin
• Champagne — 3 yin
• Wine — 3 yin

• Beer — 2 yin

• Mineral water — 1 yin
• Soda (carbonated water) — 1 yin
• Water (deep well) — 1 yin
• Thyme — 1 yin
• Menthol — 1 yin

• Armoise (mugwort, yomogi) — 1 yang
• Bancha (common, undyed Japanese tea) — 1 yang
• Chicory — 1 yang
• Yannoh (Ohsawa coffee) — 1 yang
• Kokkoh (grain milk) — 1 yang

• Mu tea — 2 yang
• Haru tea — 2 yang
• Dragon tea — 2 yang
• Yang yang tea — 2 yang

• Ginseng root — 3 yang

Dairy
• Yogurt — 3 yin
• Sour cream — 3 yin
• Sweet cream — 3 yin
• Cream cheese — 3 yin
• Butter — 3 yin

• Milk — 2 yin
• Camembert — 2 yin
• Gruyere — 2 yin

• Roquefort — 1 yang
• Edam cheese (Dutch) — 1 yang

• Goat milk — 2 yang

Oil
• Margarine — 3 yin

• Coconut oil — 2 yin
• Peanut oil — 2 yin
• Corn oil — 2 yin
• Olive oil — 2 yin

• Sunflower oil — 1 yin
• Sesame oil — 1 yin
• Corza oil — 1 yin
• Safflower oil — 1 yin
• Egoma (most yang sesame) oil — 1 yin

Fruit & Nuts
• Pineapple — 3 yin
• Papaya — 3 yin
• Mango — 3 yin
• Grapefruit — 3 yin
• Orange — 3 yin
• Banana — 3 yin
• Fig — 3 yin
• Pear — 3 yin

• Peach — 2 yin
• Lime — 2 yin
• Melon — 2 yin
• Almond — 2 yin
• Peanut — 2 yin
• Cashew — 2 yin
• Hazel nut — 2 yin

• Olive — 1 yin

• Strawberry — 1 yang
• Chestnut — 1 yang
• Cherry — 1 yang

• Apple — 2 yang

Seeds

Seaweed

Vegetables & Beans
• Eggplant — 3 yin
• Tomato — 3 yin
• Sweet potato — 3 yin
• Potato — 3 yin
• Shiitake mushroom — 3 yin
• Pimento — 3 yin
• Beans (except azuki beans, which are more yang) — 3 yin
• Cucumber — 3 yin
• Asparagus — 3 yin
• Spinach — 3 yin
• Artichoke — 3 yin
• Bamboo sprout — 3 yin
• Mushroom — 3 yin

• Green pea — 2 yin
• Celery — 2 yin
• Lentil — 2 yin

• Purple cabbage — 1 yin
• Beet — 1 yin
• White cabbage — 1 yin

• Dandelion leaf and stem — 1 yang
• Lettuce — 1 yang
• Endive — 1 yang
• Kale — 1 yang
• Radish — 1 yang
• Garlic — 1 yang
• Onion — 1 yang
• Parsley — 1 yang

• Hokkaido pumpkin — 2 yang
• Carrot — 2 yang
• Coltsfoot — 2 yang
• Burdock — 2 yang
• Cress — 2 yang
• Watercress — 2 yang
• Dandelion root — 2 yang

• Jinenjo potato — 3 yang

Grains/Cereals
• Corn — 1 yin
• Rye — 1 yin
• Barley — 1 yin
• Oats — 1 yin
• Cracked wheat — 1 yin
• Wheat — 1 yin
• Millet — 1 yin

• Rice (whole, brown rice) — 1 yang

• Buckwheat — 2 yang

Fish
• Oyster — 1 yin
• Clam — 1 yin
• Octopus — 1 yin
• Eel — 1 yin
• Carp — 1 yin
• Mussel — 1 yin
• Halibut — 1 yin
• Lobster — 1 yin
• Trout — 1 yin
• Sole — 1 yin

• Salmon — 1 yang
• Shrimp — 1 yang
• Herring — 1 yang
• Sardine — 1 yang
• Red snapper — 1 yang

• Caviar — 2 yang

Salted Cheese

Animal Products
• Snail — 2 yin
• Frog — 2 yin
• Pork — 2 yin
• Beef — 2 yin
• Horsemeat — 2 yin
• Hare — 2 yin

• Chicken — 1 yin

• Pigeon — 1 yang
• Partridge — 1 yang
• Duck — 1 yang
• Turkey — 1 yang

• Egg — 2 yang

• Pheasant — 3 yang

Miso

Soy Sauce

Sea Salt

[MOST YANG]

See also:
The Yin And Yang Spectrum of Food, Part 1

Related Blog Articles:
Ten Macrobiotic Diets By George Ohsawa
What To Eat And Drink On A Macrobiotic Diet
What NOT To Eat (Or Drink) On A Macrobiotic Diet

The Yin And Yang Spectrum Of Food, Part 1

2011-12-03T18:03:00.000-08:00

Everything has yin and yang in it. Those foods that have more yang than yin are called "yang." And on the other hand, those foods that have more yin than yang are called "yin."

Beginning with the broadest category, "food," we can say generally that all plant-based foods are "yin" because of their green-colored blood (chlorophyl) compared to all animal-based foods that are "yang" because of their red-colored blood (hemoglobin). (There are other reasons too, but this is the most obvious.) Also, sea salt is "yang" because of its high sodium content and water is "yin" because of its high H2O (hydrogen and oxygen) content.

Next, here is a broad comparison of foods taken from Carl Ferre's book, Pocket Guide To Macrobiotics (now revised and renamed Essential Guide To Macrobiotics) that starts with the most yin categories at the top of the spectrum and ends with the most yang categories at the bottom. Somewhere in the middle is a balance of yin and yang, just about where we see the whole grains/cereals category.

Comparison of Food Categories:

[MOST YIN]
Sweeteners
Water/Beverages
Dairy
Oil
Fruit
Nuts
Seeds
Beans
Seaweed
Vegetables
Whole Grains/Cereals
Fish
Salted Cheese
Poultry
Red Meat
Eggs
Miso
Soy Sauce
Sea Salt
[MOST YANG]

By looking at this list, you can see that fish is more yang than whole grains, whole grains are more yang than vegetables, and sea salt is the most yang of all. You can also see that soy sauce is more yin than sea salt, eggs are more yin than soy sauce, and sweeteners are the most yin of all.

Given that whole grains are considered as the center-most balanced food for humans, the macrobiotic diet concentrates on foods at the center of the yin and yang spectrum first and then adds smaller amounts fanning out from either side of the center depending on the yin and yang needs of the individual.

See also:
The Yin And Yang Spectrum Of Food, Part 2

Related Blog Articles:
Ten Macrobiotic Diets By George Ohsawa
What To Eat And Drink On A Macrobiotic Diet
What NOT To Eat (Or Drink) On A Macrobiotic Diet

The Colors Of Yin and Yang

2011-11-29T05:21:00.000-08:00

Color is one of the main tools for determining the proportions of yin to yang in something. The more red there is means the more yang it is; the more purple means the more yin.

The color spectrum ranges from red on one end to purple or violet on the other end — yang on one end and yin on the other end, respectively.

Red is yang.
Orange is less yang.
Yellow is even less yang.
Brown is a mixture of colors, yin and yang combined
Green is even less yin.
Blue is less yin.
Purple is yin.

The more warm, dark, or bold (saturated) the color is, the more yang it is. The more cold, light, or pale (unsaturated) the color is, the more yin it is.

Black is yang.
White is yin.

Everything is relative. To figure out how a particular food, for example, is classified as either "Yin" or "Yang," I'll start by looking at the broad picture and what the color is overall.

Animals are red-blooded, therefore animal foods are yang (compared to plant foods).
Plants are green-blooded, therefore plant foods are yin (compared to animal foods).

Within each of these two categories are layers of subcategories that range from yang to yin to yang again. For example, a tomato is a plant food, therefore it is yin. A green tomato is more yin than a fully ripe red one, which is yang. The red tomato is yang compared to the purple eggplant, which are both fruits on a similarly sized plant.

Related Blog Articles:
The Color Classifications of Food
Guidelines for Classifying in Terms of Yin and Yang

Whole Date Cookies With No Added Sugar

2011-11-22T16:51:00.000-08:00

Today I'm trying a new take on an old family recipe for Date Bars. I'm using whole organic deglet dates that I found from SunRidge Farms, certified organic by QAI (Quality Assurance International). And I'm omitting the cup of sugar in the recipe completely, without adding any other type of sweetener to take its place. I'm also using a mixture of whole oat flour, oat bran, and rolled oats instead of the white flour in the original recipe. These cookies have eggs in them; I'll try making a vegan recipe next.

Here is my new recipe for "Date Pecan Oat Bars":

325º F Oven, Preheated
8x8 glass baking dish, buttered
22 minutes (toothpick test comes out clean)

3 whole eggs
1/3 cup whole oat flour (Bob's Red Mill)
1/3 cup oat bran (Bob's Red Mill)
1/3 cup extra thick rolled oats (Bob's Red Mill)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder (non-aluminum)
1 cup dates, pitted and chopped
1 cup pecans, chopped

Mix the ingredients in the order listed above, spread evenly in the buttered (or oiled) glass baking dish, and bake in a preheated 325-degree oven for 22 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the dish before slicing into squares and removing.

And now let's see how they taste... My husband tried them first, "They remind me of Christmas!" he said. He found them to be quite sweet, and they certainly didn't need any of the missing sugar, but maybe they could have had less of the dates too!

I tried them next and wow that was good. Just the right combination of dates, oats, and pecans. It tasted like pecan pie, only more pure and natural. But very rich, even though the only fat was from what was in the eggs and the pecans. They're moist, compact, and can be cut into tiny squares or cubes to be eaten with one's fingers. These would make a good hors d'oeuvre, for special occasions!

Related Blog Articles:
Trying Out New Cookie Recipes
No More Sugar
In The Name Of Macrobiotics

What To Eat And Drink On A Macrobiotic Diet

2011-11-15T17:45:00.000-08:00

(Picture I took of a rice paddy in California.)

Here is a list of what's okay to eat and drink on a macrobiotic diet (see Chapter 5, "Ten Healthful Ways Of Eating And Drinking", in Zen Macrobiotics, by George Ohsawa):

1) Cereals — unrefined whole grains — as much as you like as long as you chew thoroughly (50-200 times). Whole grains are the foundation of a macrobiotic diet, and are called the "principle" foods. They should be a major part in every meal. Whole grains are better when they're rinsed and soaked in water overnight before cooking.

2) Vegetables — in season and locally grown (except for eggplant, tomato, or potato, which are too yin) — and wild vegetables — like dandelions, burdock, watercress, etc. — and wild seaweeds — like kombu, wakame, nori, etc.

Vegetables, wild vegetables, and seaweeds are "secondary foods" in the macrobiotic diet, and are usually eaten in smaller quantities than whole grains. Vegetables should not be soaked in water. Seaweeds, on the other hand, are dried (unless you get them straight from the ocean) and some are better when you soak them in water for 15 minutes before cutting them into pieces.

3) Animal foods that are free from chemicals (in the growing or processing of them), such as wild birds, fresh fish, shellfish, fertilized eggs, and organic dairy products, are "special foods" in the macrobiotic diet. They are eaten less frequently and in smaller quantities than principle and secondary foods.

4) Fruits, nuts, seeds, salads (raw vegetables), desserts, and beverages are also taken in smaller quantities than whole grains and vegetables. (See "Ten Macrobiotic Diets By George Ohsawa.")

5) Natural sea salt (unrefined)
6) Soy sauce, macrobiotic quality
7) Miso, macrobiotic quality
8) Gomasio — ground roasted sesame mixed with sea salt
9) Umeboshi plums, paste, or vinegar
10) Undyed, bancha or kukicha tea
11) Water that is pure, free from chemicals, with no additives or carbonation (no fizz!)

Cooking (boiling, steaming, pressurizing, sauteeing, frying, baking), drying, and aging/curing are all processes to make a food more yang. Adding water or oil makes the food more yin.

Some cooking oils are less yin than others, such as sesame oil (unrefined). This makes sense when you compare the size of a tiny sesame seed to, say, the size of an olive, which is also a tree fruit rather than a seed. (Small = yang, large = yin, seeds = closer to the ground/beginning of life = yang, fruits = further from the ground/ending of life = yin.)

See also:
Ten Macrobiotic Diets By George Ohsawa
What NOT To Eat (Or Drink) On A Macrobiotic Diet

Related Blog Articles:
What Is A Macrobiotic Diet, Really?
What Is The Macrobiotic Centering Diet?
My Notes On The Macrobiotic Centering Diet

What NOT To Eat (Or Drink) On A Macrobiotic Diet

2011-10-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

A basic macrobiotic diet is pretty much common sense, actually. Eat good, wholesome, nutritious food that's balanced between yin and yang. (We need a ratio of 5 yin to 1 yang for a healthy balance.) What we don't need are foods that are too much yin.

Therefore, here's a list of what we don't need (pages 51-52 of Zen Macrobiotics, by George Ohsawa):

1) No industrialized food or drink — no sugar, no soft drinks, no dyed foods, no non-fertilized eggs, no canned or bottled food.

2) No fruits or vegetables that are artificially produced with chemical fertilizers or insecticides.

3) No foods with preservatives.

4) No vegetable out of season.

5) No extremely yin vegetables — no potatoes, no tomatoes, no eggplant.

6) No spices or chemical seasonings (including commercial Japanese soy sauce and miso that is not made in the traditional, natural way).

7) No coffee, no tea with carcinogen dyes.

8) No chemically produced or treated meat or dairy products.

9) No yeast or baking soda (too yin, rapid-rising, expansive)

Obviously there are times when I'll eat some or more of the items on this list, especially when I'm traveling — however, I try to stick to it whenever I can and definitely when I'm sick or my condition is too yin.

For more information, see the following books, which are available on the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation website:
• Zen Macrobiotics, by George Ohsawa
• Essential Guide To Macrobiotics (formerly Pocket Guide To Macrobiotics), by Carl Ferre
• Essential Ohsawa, by George Ohsawa

See also:
What To Eat And Drink On A Macrobiotic Diet
Ten Macrobiotic Diets By George Ohsawa

Related Blog Articles:
The Difference That Eating Healthy Makes
Adapting To The Road

Ten Macrobiotic Diets By George Ohsawa

2011-10-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

Here are ten basic macrobiotic diets suggested by George Ohsawa for your health. (See pages 50-55 in Zen Macrobiotics.)

1) DIET #7 — 100% Cereals (whole grains)

2) DIET #6 — 90% Cereals (whole grains) + 10% Vegetable Nitsuke

3) DIET #5 — 80% Cereals (whole grains) + 20% Vegetable Nitsuke

4) DIET #4 — 70% Cereals (whole grains) + 20% Vegetable Nitsuke + 10% Soup

5) DIET #3 — 60% Cereals (whole grains) + 30% Vegetable Nitsuke + 10% Soup

6) DIET #2 — 50% Cereals (whole grains) + 30% Vegetable Nitsuke + 10% Soup + 10% Animal

7) DIET #1 — 40% Cereals (whole grains) + 30% Vegetable Nitsuke + 10% Soup + 20% Animal

8) DIET #-1 — 30% Cereals (whole grains) + 30% Vegetable Nitsuke + 10% Soup + 20% Animal + 10% Salads and Fruits

9) DIET #-2 — 20% Cereals (whole grains) + 30% Vegetable Nitsuke + 10% Soup + 25% Animal + 10% Salads and Fruits + 5% Dessert

10) DIET #-3 — 10% Cereals (whole grains) + 30% Vegetable Nitsuke + 10% Soup + 30% Animal + 15% Salads and Fruits + 5% Dessert

The way I measure out the percentages of my food is by thinking in terms of parts — where ten parts equal 100%, and five parts equal 50% or half. This way, I can use different sized tools to measure proportions for one or more meals.

For example, ten spoonfuls would equal 100%, as would ten cups, ten quarter-cups, or ten teaspoons. I could use ten handfuls for 100% or I could also divide a plate of food into ten equal sections (five on one side and five on the other).

So, if I were to use a 1/4 cup to measure my meal for "Diet #1," I'd have 1 cup of cereal/grains, 3/4 cup of vegetable, 1/4 cup of soup, and 1/2 cup of animal product (except that I'd usually substitute more vegetables instead of animal product!).

By the way, notice how the diet numbers for the first seven diets begin with a positive number and then they change to negative numbers as you introduce salads, fruits, and dessert to the diet. This applies to two (at least) theorems of the Unique Principle.

See also:
What NOT To Eat (Or Drink) On A Macrobiotic Diet
What To Eat And Drink On A Macrobiotic Diet

Related Blog Articles:
What Is A Macrobiotic Diet, Really? (5/5/2011)
What Is The Macrobiotic Centering Diet? (4/1/2011)
My Notes On The Macrobiotic Centering Diet (4/5/2011)
Diet #7 By George Ohsawa (2/12/2011)
Diet #6 By George Ohsawa (What Is Nitsuke?) (2/27/2011)

Boulder Creek Brewery & Cafe

2011-10-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

Recently we went to one of our old favorite restaurants for dinner, the Boulder Creek Brewery & Cafe, in Boulder Creek, California. They have several choices of freshly brewed beer and I've always been partial to any one of their stouts that they are featuring for the day — Black Sheep, Mudslide, Black Dragon, Oatmeal, or El Diablo Imperial Stout.

And because I'm such a lightweight these days when it comes to drinking beer, it pleases me that they offer a small sample-size glass of only a couple of ounces of beer — much more manageable for me! But even so, this time I didn't order any beer since they were sold out of their stout.

Instead, I had one of their "Lomond Burgers" substituted with a grain burger patty instead of meat and served with carmelized onions and gorgonzola cheese. (I don't know why they don't mention this on their web site, but you can substitute a grain burger for any of their beef burger entrees.) Instead of french fries, I had two humongous onion rings (and shared the other two onion rings with my husband). They would have served my grain burger on whole wheat bread but they were all out of that too, so I just ate it plain without the bun. It was really good!

Looking around at the place as I chewed my food, I thought of how its interior design could really benefit from some TLC and that reminded me of "Restaurant Impossible" and I wondered how was Hoffman's doing? Here's a link to Hoffman's Bakery Cafe web site, which now gives two followup news articles about the Food Network Makeover they received. (Evidently the reopening dinner was two hours late!) They're thinking that maybe the show will air sometime in January?

Related Blog Articles:
Whole Grains In Restaurants
Hoffman's Bakery Cafe

Hoffman's Bakery Cafe

2011-10-05T07:56:00.000-07:00

Oh boy! I just found out that Robert Irvine is doing a "Restaurant Impossible" mission/t.v. episode on a restaurant here in Santa Cruz and it's going to happen FAST. Like this weekend. Apparently, the restaurant will reopen on next Tuesday. That gives me some food for thought... Here's the news article from the Santa Cruz Sentinel: Food Network's 'Restaurant Impossible' to Remake Hoffman's in Santa Cruz.

I've been to Hoffman's Bakery Cafe before, but that was a long time ago, back when they first opened. I don't remember anything bad about the place, except that they didn't really have any food that I wanted to eat. (Everything was made with white flour, for instance.) And I don't remember it looking that bad — just kinda plain and nondescript. I guess you could say the food and the place altogether was sort of "Blah." Anyway, it quickly became a place that I forgot about.

It will be fun to see what Robert Irvine and the Restaurant Impossible team do to change the place. Here's an online article in wikipedia that tells you all of the restaurants that have been featured in the t.v. show so far: Restaurant Impossible.

Related Blog Articles:
Movies About Food (Monday, January 10, 2011)
Whole Grains In Restaurants (Thursday, March 3, 2011)
Dinner Impossible? (Monday, March 21, 2011)
My Dream Diner (Saturday, May 14, 2011)
Burger Number Seven — Concept For A Unique Restaurant Diner (Saturday, May 14, 2011)

The Cheyenne Cafe

2011-09-08T19:28:00.000-07:00

We had a nice lunch at the Cheyenne Cafe in the town of Joseph, Oregon before stocking up on food supplies for the cabin we’d be staying in at nearby Wallowa Lake. The service was friendly and the food was good. I had a classic garden burger with onion rings and hot tea. Which got me to thinking all over again about my dream diner and Burger Number Sevens.

We learned from our waiter that there was a rodeo coming up in a couple of days. Joseph holds an annual rodeo that’s really big, called "Chief Joseph Days," but this rodeo coming up was merely a small fund-raiser for the high school. Only local cowboys would be performing and the money was used for college scholarships. Last year they raised enough for three $1,000-dollar scholarships. That’s pretty good!

After lunch, we had a nice walk around town, picked up some brochures at the Information Booth on the sidewalk and some groceries at the local food market, and then headed out to our cabin on Wallowa Lake. The Wallowa Lake State Park web site has a video that illustrates some of the beautiful scenery there.

Related Blog Articles:
Eating On The Road
Adapting To The Road
Ten Recipes To Health And Happiness — Burger Number Seven’s Special Burgers

Stockmen’s Restaurant and Lounge

2011-09-06T19:54:00.000-07:00

Half-way to Hell and back, or to Hell’s Canyon anyway, in the tiny town of Halfway, Oregon we found a wonderful little Bed & Breakfast place to stay for a night and had dinner a short walk down the road at Stockmen’s Restaurant and Lounge. I’d say it’s more of a bar than it is a restaurant, which made it a rather dark place to hang out. The food was not that memorable, but it was pleasant and it satisfied our needs for the time. (I had a grilled cheese sandwich and plain green salad with no dressing.)

On the other hand, the Pine Valley Lodge was very memorable. For breakfast the next morning, we were served up a buffet of simple breakfast foods in their kitchen, such as granola, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, toast, do-it-yourself waffle iron and batter, and fresh fruit. Coffee, tea, and hot water were also available. This arrangement made it easy for me to make up a bowl of miso broth from my supplies. We carried our food out to the porch and had a nice, leisurely breakfast while looking at all the interesting decorations.

Apparently the lodge was built from many individual houses that had been moved to the site from other locations. The builder then stitched them altogether in the most creative way you can imagine, ending up with a beautiful work of art. Everywhere I turned my head I saw something interesting to look at.

Related Blog Articles:
Eating On The Road
Adapting To The Road

Breakfast In An Old Hotel

2011-08-21T07:26:00.000-07:00

One morning, we walked off the street in downtown Baker City, Oregon into the Geiser Grand Hotel and had a surprisingly good breakfast there.

Instead of the “Gluten Free Oatmeal” from Oregon’s Bob’s Red Mill, I decided to try their “Stone Ground Ten Grain” hot cereal instead. Their menu claimed that this was the hot cereal standard of the whole-grain world, made in Oregon with century-old millstones.

The list of ingredients was impressive: high protein hard red wheat, rye, triticale, oat bran, oats, corn, barley, soy beans, brown rice, millet, and flaxseed. And the large bowl of hot cereal that they placed in front of me was also impressive. It tasted good!

The hotel was built 122 years ago in the gold-mining year 1889 by a Czechoslovakian architect named John Benes. It claimed to have the third elevator west of the Mississippi.

After many years of grandeur, the gold mines closed down and the building fell into disrepair. It closed shortly after the cast from the movie “Paint Your Wagon” stayed there in the summer of 1968. Then, during the years 1993 through 1998 the building was completely restored costing six to seven million dollars. Here are links to a case study done by the National Park Service of Baker City and the rehabilitation of the Geiser Grand Hotel: Baker City page 1, Baker City page 2, Baker City page 3.

Now that I’ve been there and seen the countryside around the Geiser Grand Hotel, I want to watch the movie “Paint Your Wagon” again!

Related Blog Articles:
Eating On The Road
Adapting To The Road

Wallowa Lake Lodge Restaurant

2011-08-17T19:00:00.000-07:00

This old, historic, and freshly preserved Wallowa Lake Lodge is settled on the southern shore of the beautiful Wallowa Lake, near the town of Joseph, Oregon. A state park is nestled right next to it, with cabins and a campground, and the lodge has its own cabins too.

Evidently, they had to ship in all the materials via the lake to build the lodge, since at that time there were no access roads. According to the web site's history page, it was built in 1923. According to Wikipedia, that's about four years older than Yosemite's Ahwahnee Hotel in California.

We walked over to the lodge to take a look and decided to make reservations for dinner that night. It was very nice! Someone played the piano, lots of old timey music, while others waited on us like we were royalty traveling incognito. The diningroom was filled with interesting things to look at whenever we weren't looking out our window onto the beautiful grass lawn that rolled down to the lake.

The food was good too. Everything was fresh and beautifully plated, with lace doilies and colorful edible flowers. I had penne pasta primavera and Michael had a chicken salad. Here's a link to their sample menus for dinner and breakfast.

Related Blog Articles:
Eating On The Road
Adapting To The Road
The Difference That Eating Healthy Makes

Anthony's At The Old Mill

2011-08-17T18:59:00.000-07:00

We had dinner one evening at Anthony’s At The Old Mill in Bend, Oregon. The restaurant is situated alongside the Deschutes river and is a delight to look at — both inside and out. Everywhere I looked I saw interesting snapshots of color, contrasts, and design, all picture-perfect.

Our waiter gave us really nice service. He brought me a kid’s plate of plain pasta with a thin white sauce and a generous side order of steamed broccoli cooked just right. I also had hot tea (with my own tea bag). Michael had their special Sockeye salmon with broccoli and a glass of wine.

After dinner we walked around the Old Mill District, enjoying the shops and the park on either side of the river, connected by a foot bridge with colorful flags.

Back in the year 1916, two lumber companies from Minnesota set up mills in this district upriver from Bend, which grew to become the largest pine saw mills in the country. As they grew, so did the town of Bend, and they remained in operation as the community’s largest employers for over 60 years.

As the needs for lumber changed in the country, the mills slowed down, consolidated, and eventually shut down. We could see a few of the buildings that are still standing (one has 3 smoke stacks) from the last mill that closed in 1993.

Here’s a link to Anthony’s dinner menu.

Related Blog Articles:
Eating On The Road
Adapting To The Road

Hamley Steakhouse

2011-08-17T18:58:00.000-07:00

We left Hell's Canyon country and headed for Pendleton, Oregon, home of the famous Pendleton Woolen Mills and Hamley & Company (makers of horse saddles, cowboy hats, and other western wear).

Here we had a memorable dinner at the Hamley Steakhouse. The moment we stepped indoors out of the sweltering heat we were enveloped by gorgeous dark woods and sparkling lamps of colored light. The restaurant was really too dark to get any good photos without a tripod, but I did manage to take a few.

The food was of the highest quality and the service was very nice. I had their "Ranch Ravioli" appetizer — large egg-pasta cases stuffed with portabella mushrooms and served with sage butter, and Michael had their "Sunday Prime" steak with fresh green beans. I think this was his favorite restaurant meal on the entire trip! Here's a link to their dinner menu: Hamley Steakhouse menus.

After dinner, we had a nice walk around downtown, starting with the Hamley Western Store next door to the restaurant. They had some absolutely beautiful and expensive wares, including saddles for which they're famous. There's a link to their online Western store from the Hamley Steakhouse website or you can go directly to the Hamley & Company website. Check out their black beaver cowboy hat for only $999.95!

By the way, J.J. Hamley organized the first "Pendleton Round-Up" in 1910 and the rodeo has been a famous annual event ever since. (The Hamleys donated over 80 saddles for the winner's trophies.)

Related Blog Articles:
Eating On The Road
Adapting To The Road
The Difference That Eating Healthy Makes

Johnson's Steakhouse

2011-08-17T07:38:00.000-07:00

One day on our trip, we had a nice quiet lunch at a golf course in Weaverville, California, before we visited the "Weaverville Joss House State Historic Park" in the main part of town.

Sitting at our lunch-table in "Johnson's Steakhouse," we could see glimpses of the Trinity Alps golf course through our window, which looked very pretty and inviting. Our menu seemed rather old-fashioned, which meant the choices were simple, the food was predictable, and everything tasted good. The service, on the other hand, was also good! I asked for a side of whole wheat toast, which wasn't on the menu, and our waitress was very accommodating.

Besides the whole wheat toast (unexpectedly, they used a good hearty whole-grain bread), I chose a green house salad, and steak fries (large pieces of potato) served with tomato ketchup. (Definitely not my usual fare!) I also ordered a pot of tea and substituted my own bag of kukicha tea. The water in the tea pot tasted really good even before any tea was added. (Good water.) Although I didn't eat everything that was placed in front of me, I was well-satisfied with my lunch and had a nice time.

Here's a link to their dinner menu.

Related Blog Articles:
Eating On The Road
Adapting To The Road
Adapting Our Diets To The Situation

Logan's Roadhouse, Redding, California

2011-08-13T19:07:00.001-07:00

The floor is covered with peanut shells. They serve you small buckets full of peanuts and they want you to drop the shells on the floor. I've been to a Logan's Roadhouse before (there are 150 restaurants across the country) and I still can't get used to it. I'll usually start a little pile of shells somewhere on the table instead. But, seeing as peanuts and peanut butter have been my favorite food since I was a toddler, I felt right at home!

The other food choices at Logan's Roadhouse are reliable, well-prepared, and taste pretty good. Besides the bucket of peanuts, they bring you a small plate of honey buns and butter to tide you over while you wait for your meal.

After eating a thermos of whole grains earlier in the day, I chose "Rockin' Onion Petals," "Grilled Vegetable Skewer," and "Steamed Broccoli" from their menu for my dinner. The battered, deep-fried onion petals is one of their appetizer options and the vegetable skewer (grilled bell peppers and mushrooms) and steamed broccoli are side dishes. Because of the size of the onion pieces, I could easily remove the fried batter if I wanted. I also ordered hot tea, substituted my own tea bag (Choice's Organic Kukicha), and reserved their bag of green tea for later.

Logan's has a nice, friendly family atmosphere and is very comfortable. That's been pretty consistent at every restaurant I've visited of theirs. This one in Redding was cool and dark inside, with lots of pretty wood furniture and neon lights. Nice place to get away from the summer heat.

Check out their extensive menu online, Logan's Roadhouse.

Related Blog Articles:
Eating On The Road
Adapting To The Road
Adapting Our Diets To The Situation
Peanut Butter — My Oldest Most Favorite Food

In The Name Of Macrobiotics

2011-08-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

Macrobiotics is all about balancing the yins and yangs in life. I think the easiest way to do that is to rely on nature, which has the art of balancing already mastered!

Whole, natural food is already balanced within itself. As soon as you start to deconstruct it and eat the food in parts, you are moving away from that balanced center, and probably introducing an imbalance to your body. Also, when you add preservatives, or grow the food using pesticides and other chemicals, you've added something unnatural and unwhole to the food.

I was so excited the first time I saw "MacroBars" on the grocery store shelf. Finally, a healthy organic snack food I could buy that would be balanced and contain whole ingredients! Alas, this was not to be entirely the case.

The list of ingredients gave me the first clue, telling me not only which were whole foods or not, but also how much of each ingredient there was compared to the others (listing the ones with the largest amounts first). What the list does not say, however, is what the actual amount is of each ingredient. And that's where the trouble begins.

Out of a total of ten different flavors of MacroBars, five of them begin with the ingredient brown rice syrup — obviously not a whole food, and not so obviously, way too much of it in proportion to the other ingredients. Most of the other five flavors contain either brown rice syrup or agave nectar as the second ingredient, with the first ingredient being either a nut butter, or in two cases, rolled oats.

MacroBars do have some good things going for them: The ingredients are organic (yay!). There are no artificial ingredients. Many of the ingredients are whole nuts, nut butters, seeds, and fruit. I chose the "Granola With Coconut" flavor because the first three ingredients were rolled oats, puffed brown rice, and walnuts, followed by brown rice syrup, coconut, raisins, dates, and almond butter. A pretty simple recipe — just unfortunately, much too sweet, too much yin. Sigh.

MacroBars are made by a company called GoMacro. They have lots of interesting information on their website about how they started the company and based it on macrobiotics. Somewhere along the way, however, they got detoured by someone's sweet tooth!

Related blog articles:
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No More Sugar
Trying Out New Cookie Recipes

Black Bean Cherry Brownies #3

2011-08-10T16:23:00.000-07:00

I made these brownies on the day before we were going on our trip, placed them in the freezer to keep until we left, and then forgot to pack them! And so they were waiting for us when we returned. They tasted so good that I've made them several more times since then.

For this recipe, I used unsweetened cocoa powder instead of baking chocolate, which turned out to have a more delicious, intense flavor. I missed the opportunity to use fresh cherries this year, but next year I'll be ready to jump right on it! I think it would also be interesting to try different kinds of dried fruit, like raisins or currants, as well as different kinds of nuts. I did try about a teaspoon of cinnamon once, but its flavor was hidden by the other strong flavors. That's okay — it doesn't really need it.

Black Bean Cherry Brownies #3

325 degrees F. oven
22 minutes
oiled 8x8 glass baking dish

Step 1, mix together:
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup black beans, cooked and pureed (including cooking liquid)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon agave nectar

Step 2, add and mix:
1/4 cup + 1/8 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup whole oat flour

Step 3, add and mix:
3/4 cup dried cherries, cut into tiny pieces
3/4 cup walnuts, cut into pieces and toasted

Place mixture in an oiled 8x8-inch glass baking dish and bake in a preheated 325-degree F. oven for 22 minutes or until a toothpick test comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan before cutting.

It's a pretty simple recipe, easy enough to remember, and easy enough to make quickly. The brownies store well in the freezer. Cheers!

Note: I'm not claiming that any of my recipes for Black Bean Cherry Brownies are "macrobiotic" and they certainly are not "vegan"! I made them for my husband who wanted something chocolate with no sugar and very little sweetness to them. That's the beauty of making cookies — they're so easy to create according to the specific requests of the people you love!

Related blog articles:
Trying Out New Cookie Recipes
Black Bean Cherry Brownies #1
Black Bean Cherry Brownies #2

The Difference That Eating Healthy Makes

2011-08-03T13:47:00.000-07:00

I've been on trips where I ate and drank with reckless abandon, anything that struck my fancy or was currently available at the time. This was before I knew anything about macrobiotics or the Unique Principles of Yin and Yang. Back then, I never made the connection between what I was eating and how I was feeling on the trip, but now it's so obvious!

Then, it was almost always guaranteed that I would get sick with some kind of flu bug or virus either during or after the trip, or maybe I'd get a bladder infection, or constipation, or "the runs." Other problems that occurred I would just chalk-up to being female and resign myself to their inevitability.

Well now, after this most recent trip, I know what a difference it truly makes to eat healthy. I had zero ailments, zero problems, high energy, and I was able to thoroughly enjoy the experience of everything around me! I made the following self-imposed rules and now I'll surely use them again for next time!

Carry miso, gomasio, and kukicha teabags with me. Have a cup of miso broth once a day whenever possible.
Do not eat anything with sugar in it.
Do not drink any alcohol.
Avoid coffee; especially don't drink it more than twice (two days) in a row.
Never indulge in the same thing more than twice in a row.
Chew every mouthful of food 100 to 200 times. (This is really important.)

I think that because I tried to eat healthy all the time that I was traveling, I was able to draw on my powers of intuition, make wiser decisions, and find more healthy food along the way. If a little voice in my head said "Don't eat/drink that!" or "Eat/drink that; it'll be good for you!" I not only was able to hear it, but I acted on the advice as well.

At first I thought that I'd feel deprived, unhappy, or unable to enjoy myself if I didn't indulge in the food and drink that I considered as pleasures, and then I was surprised that I actually enjoyed myself more than I would have, had I indulged. So there you have it. Every day is a new experience, something new to learn, something new to appreciate. I am just so grateful for the tools I have now that help me keep in balance during my travels through life!

Related blog articles:
Adapting To The Road
Eating On The Road
No More Sugar (Saturday, January 1, 2011)
The Importance Of Chewing
Adapting Our Diets To The Situation
Lessons From A Coyote

Adapting To The Road

2011-08-03T09:05:00.000-07:00

Everything is constantly changing. I'm back now from two separate journeys: one was a road trip to seek out new places and to visit old friends; the other was a temporary move to the front part of the house while the back part was getting new floors. On both journeys I was able to have my "kitchen" with me and eat good, healthy food. But sometimes you can't always follow the original plan. You have to be flexible and willing to adapt to the situation.

I went on these journeys with the intent to be adaptable, flexible, and not to worry if I were to come across some unexpected food choices. I was prepared for the reality that I wouldn't always be able to find what I was looking for — food that was organic, for example — but I would be okay with that — I can adjust. With this in mind, I started out healthy and happy, ate and drank what I was able to cook or find along the way, and ended up today also healthy and happy! I relaxed and enjoyed myself — I was on an adventure, and had given myself permission to eat foods that I don't usually eat.

Over the years of traveling, I've developed a "basic food kit" that's easy to bring along with me and use in standard hotel rooms if necessary. I then supplement my diet with whatever I can find in restaurants and/or grocery stores. If I know that I'm going to be staying at a place with a kitchen, then I'll bring Part 2 of my basic food kit.

Basic Food Kit, Part 1:

My wonderful Zojirushi traveling size (3-cup) rice cooker, with paddle and measuring cup (small enough to fit on a hotel room's bathroom counter)
Rice-rinsing and soaking utensils (a bowl, wire-mesh strainer, and storage container)
Packages of rice, quinoa, rolled oats, wakame, and kukicha tea
Bottles of ume plum vinegar and Ohsawa soy sauce, wrapped inside zyploc plastic bags.
Bowls, silverware, and mugs for two
Kitchen towel(s), dish soap, and nylon scrub pad (Clorox S.O.S. Tuffy scrubbing pad)
Duffle bag that holds everything listed above, including the rice cooker, perfectly
Bottled water
Wide-mouth hot thermos bottles (Cooked grains with a couple of ume salt plums will last all day long in a thermos, and then any leftovers can go right into the hotel room's refrigerator.)
Package(s) of barley miso and whole ume salt plums, to go inside a small ice pack or ice chest and transfer to the hotel room's refrigerator when possible.

Basic Food Kit, Part 2 :

Large ice chest with re-freezable ice bags for storing any perishable foods (If the hotel room has a refrigerator with an ice compartment, then I can re-freeze the ice bags in it.)
Large frying pan, lid, and metal spatula
Storage containers with lids (Glass containers make it easier to store the cooked grains if they're still hot.)
Additional eating utensils and dishes
Travel-size water filter and pitcher
Can and bottle openers
Box of strike-anywhere matches
Knife and cutting board
Extra dish towels, soap, scrub pads (I can always use the towels for wrapping things.)
Box of organic food staples, including cooking oil, more tea, homemade muesli, crackers, seeds and nuts, peanut butter, dried fruit, applesauce

Eating On The Road

2011-07-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a wonderful 3-week trip through parts of California, Oregon, and Washington states! As far as food goes and keeping to my vegetarian macrobiotic diet as much as possible (while still remaining flexible), I'd have to say that the trip was a success.

We carried with us an ice chest and a portable electric rice cooker that is small enough to use in a hotel bathroom if need be. Most of the time, we ate picnic-style in our room or somewhere outside depending on where we were, picking up fresh food in the local grocery stores. At other times, we had lunch or dinner at a restaurant.

Here's a list of some of the places we ate at along the way.

Logan's Roadhouse, Redding, California (They have 180 restaurants across the country. Here's a link to their menus.)
Johnson's Steakhouse at the Trinity Alps Golf Course, Weaverville, California (Here's a link to their dinner menu.)
Anthony's At The Old Mill, Bend, Oregon
Stockmen's Restaurant And Lounge, Half Way, Oregon
The Historic Wallowa Lake Lodge, Joseph, Oregon (Here's a link to their dinner menu.)
Hamley Steakhouse, Pendleton, Oregon
La Conner Seafood & Prime Rib House, La Conner, Washington
Nell Thorn Of La Conner, La Conner, Washington
Jimmy's On First (in the Silver Cloud Hotel), Seattle, Washington — close to Safeco Field baseball stadium (Here's a link to their menu.)
Anthony's Beach Cafe, Edmonds, Washington
Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar, Chehalis, Washington (Here's a link to their Chehalis Menus.)
Cafe Zenon, Eugene, Oregon (Here's a link to their menu.)
Oberon Grill, Eureka, California (Here's a link to their menu.)
Wildfox Mesquite Fired Kitchen, Novato, California (Here's a link to their dinner menu.)
Murray Circle restaurant, at Cavallo Point Lodge, Golden Gate National Park, San Francisco Bay, California

Black Bean Cherry Brownies #2

2011-06-12T10:38:00.002-07:00

Right after I made "Black Bean Cherry Brownies #1" and set them to cool on the countertop, I made a second version of the recipe. I decided this time to introduce some whole grain into the brownie and add a little sweetener. I had leftover cooked oatmeal and whole oat flour to use up, and a bottle of agave nectar in the refrigerator, so this is what I did:

Black Bean Cherry Brownies #2

325 degrees F. oven
22 minutes
oiled 8x8 glass baking dish

Step 1, melt on low heat and mix:
1/4 cup olive oil (half of what I used in version #1)
2 squares (ounces) unsweetened chocolate

Step 2, add and mix:
2 eggs
1/2 cup cooked and pureed black beans (including the cooking liquid)
1/8 cup (or about 2 tablespoons) agave nectar
1/2 cup leftover cooked oatmeal
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon whole oat flour

Step 3, add and mix:

3/4 cup (about 4 ounces) dried cherries, cut into tiny pieces
3/4 cup walnuts, cut into small pieces, toasted

Spread mixture into an oiled 8x8-inch square glass baking dish or round pie plate, and then bake in a preheated 325-degree F. oven for 22 minutes or until a toothpick test comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan before cutting.

I liked the way this second version of the brownie turned out. It was less crumbly and held its shape better, and it had a more cake-like consistency. But it was a little too sweet — that agave nectar is pretty powerful stuff! Next time, I'll reduce the amount a lot more.

Here is the list of my favorite cookie recipes I made in the past couple of weeks:

Black Bean Cherry Brownies #1

2011-06-12T10:38:00.001-07:00

I created this brownie recipe back in March of 1992 for St. Patrick's Day based on another recipe I had for a flourless cake. This time, I wanted to make a sugarless version of the brownie by omitting the cup of Sucanat completely. For a little sweetness, I used dried cherries, cut up into tiny pieces. Because there is no sugar getting in the way of your taste buds, or flour for that matter, you'll be able to really taste the chocolate.

Black Bean Cherry Brownies #1

325 degrees F. oven
20 to 30 minutes
oiled 8x8 glass baking dish

Step 1, melt at a low temperature:
2 squares (ounces) unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup olive oil

Step 2, add and mix thoroughly:
1/2 cup black beans (including the liquid), cooked and pureed
2 eggs

Step 3, fold in:
1 cup or 6 ounces dried cherries, cut in tiny pieces
3/4 cup walnuts, broken into little pieces and toasted

Place the mixture in an oiled glass 8x8-inch pan or round pie plate, and bake for 20-30 minutes in a preheated 325-degree oven, until a toothpick test comes out clean. Allow to cool before slicing.

And that's all there is to it! You may have to experiment a little with the amount of bean liquid in the mixture and the amount of time you bake it. If it comes out too dry, try drizzling a little syrup mixed with boiling water over the top while the brownies are still warm. Also, it ages well in the freezer and the flavors just get better. There's all kinds of syrup you could try — maple, agave, brown rice, or homemade fruit syrup! And since there is no other sweetener inside the brownie besides the dried cherries, the syrup won't overpower it with too much sweetness.

Here is the list of my favorite cookie recipes I made in the past couple of weeks:

Related Blog Articles:
The Benefits Of Whole Foods
No More Sugar
What Counts As Sugar?
Trying Out New Cookie Recipes

Cindy's Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

2011-06-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

My friend Cindy gave me this recipe back in our college days. That was way back when we were only just beginning to hear words like "vegan." I've adapted the recipe by cutting it in half and replacing the brown sugar with a smaller quantity of brown-rice syrup, but it can stand to be even less sweet than it is here. Reducing the syrup by half again wouldn't noticeably affect the consistency or texture of the cookie, so you can adjust it to suit your sweet tooth however you want. And to make it more interesting, try using barley-malt-sweetened chocolate chips (not vegan) or vegan carob chips.

Cindy's Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

370-degree F. oven
10 minutes
ungreased cookie sheets

Step 1, mix together:
1/4 cup oil (organic peanut oil)
1/2 cup brown rice syrup (or less)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Step 2, add and mix:
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons water

Step 3, add and mix:
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped (or other type of nut or peanuts)
1 cup raisins or mixture of raisins, barley-malt chocolate chips, and/or carob chips
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
3 cups rolled oats (regular or extra-thick)

Mix everything together in a large bowl with a wooden spoon or use your hands. Then cover the bowl and allow to rest for at least ten minutes; longer is better. Shape into balls and slightly flatten on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes in a preheated 370-degree oven. Enjoy!

Here is the list of my favorite cookie recipes I made in the past couple of weeks:

Oat Biscuits With A Little Dried Fruit

2011-06-12T10:36:00.000-07:00

Julia Ferre has a recipe for biscuits on page 153 in her book, Basic Macrobiotic Cooking, that inspired me to make this delicious cookie that's not too sweet. These cookies are so good, they can be eaten for breakfast! Next time, I think I'll add cinnamon to give it a bit of spice.

I was surprised at first when I mixed the ingredients together, because instead of the firm biscuit dough that I was expecting, I got a thin batter. I was worried that the cookies wouldn't stick to the pan or that they'd all run together into one big blob. But that didn't happen at all — in the end, everything turned out even better than I was expecting.

Oat Biscuits With Dried Blueberries And Cherries

350 degrees F. oven
35-40 minutes
well-oiled cookie sheets

Rub the following together with your hands until smooth (it takes a long time!):
2 cups oat flour
2 tablespoons peanut oil

Then add:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 teaspoon sea salt (and next time I'll add 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon)
1/4 cup dried cherries, chopped fine
2 tablespoons dried blueberries

Add last, and mix thoroughly:
1 1/2 cups water

The mixture will be watery, like a thin pancake batter. Allow to rest for 30 minutes and then be amazed to see how it thickens up in the bowl. Drop by spoonful onto well-oiled baking sheets with space around each cookie to allow for spreading. Then bake in preheated 350-degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes. These are good, good!

(You can get Basic Macrobiotic Cooking by Julia Ferre from the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation website.)

Here is the list of my favorite cookie recipes I made in the past couple of weeks:

Oatmeal Fruit And Nut Cookies (Including 1 Egg)

2011-06-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

These cookies are sweetened basically with chopped dried apples and only a tablespoon of agave nectar. Of course, agave nectar is extremely potent and a tablespoon will go a long way. You might want to reduce it even more after you taste this amount.

My recipe was inspired by Julia Ferre's recipe for "Oatmeal and Walnut Cookies" on page 171 in Basic Macrobiotic Cooking (available on the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation website).

Oatmeal Fruit and Nut Cookies

350 degrees F. oven
22 minutes
oiled baking sheet

1/4 cup unrefined organic sesame oil
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 egg
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon unrefined sea salt
2 1/2 cups oat flour (Bob's Red Mill Whole Oat Flour)
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/4 cups (4 ounces) dried apples, chopped into tiny pieces
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped tiny, some ground, then toasted

Mix dough, then let sit for 15 minutes.
Roll into balls (gently), then press flat with fingers onto the oiled baking sheet. Bake for 22 minutes in preheated 350-degree oven.

Here is the list of my favorite cookie recipes I made in the past couple of weeks:

Related Blog Articles:
The Benefits Of Whole Foods
No More Sugar
What Counts As Sugar?
Trying Out New Cookie Recipes

Half-recipe of Sweet Nut Butter Cookies (Vegan)

2011-06-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

During this recent cookie-making expedition, I happened to have some almond butter in the refrigerator that I wanted to finish up, which turned out to be just enough for a half-recipe of Julia Ferre's "Sweet Nut Butter Cookies" (page 171 of Basic Macrobiotic Cooking — available from the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation's website).

The ratio of sweetener to flour was very different than your traditional sweet cookie. For example, a typical recipe for peanut butter cookies might have anywhere from 1 to 1 1/2 cups of sugar and only 2 cups of flour, whereas Julia's recipe has only 1/4 cup of sweetener and 3 cups of flour!

Sweet Nut Butter Cookies (half recipe)

350 degrees F. oven
15 minutes
oiled cookie sheets

1/2 cup almond butter
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups whole wheat flour

Mix the ingredients together in a bowl. Shape into tiny balls with your hands and flatten them with a fork dipped in water on top of an oiled cookie sheet. Then bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for about 15 minutes.

The result? A very intense, solid cookie, just sweet enough to satisfy and hearty enough for a small mini-meal! Next time, I'm going to use freshly ground flour and a half teaspoon of almond extract to intensify the flavors even more.

Here is the list of my favorite cookie recipes I made in the past couple of weeks:

Trying Out New Cookie Recipes

2011-06-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

All my life, I've loved to bake cookies and give them to my family and friends. In the last couple of weeks I've created a few cookie recipes for two types of people — those who normally don't want to eat cookies at all because they're usually too sweet and those who are only familiar with the traditionally sweet cookies, which they like to eat.

For the people with a sweet tooth, I started with a basic cookie recipe that had the same amount of sweetener as the typical sugar cookie, but would be made with healthier, more wholesome, ingredients. I wanted to give them something they'd probably be familiar with and a cookie that I could use as a measure for determining what recipes to try on them next. If they liked this cookie, then maybe they'd be more open to trying something more different and less sweet the next time.

Oatmeal Coconut Drop Cookies
For this cookie, I used a high ratio of fresh organic butter (Straus Family Creamery) and an organic sweetener called Sucanat (Wholesome Sweeteners, and Now Foods) — also known as Rapadura (wikipedia), or "Whole Cane Sugar" (Rapunzel Organic Fair Trade Foods) — which, unlike white sugar, is less refined and made from dehydrated sugar cane juice that retains much of the molasses and minerals.

To this, I added eggs, whole oat flour (Bob's Red Mill), rolled oats, and Let's Do Organic unsweetened coconut (Edward & Sons). And that's it — a pretty simple cookie. I baked them on lightly greased cookie sheets for about 11 minutes in a preheated 375-degree oven. The cookies were extremely rich, buttery, and delicate. They could easily break apart in your hands.

As I offered them to my friends, at first there were a few protests from one who especially didn't like to eat a lot of sweets. The others started tasting right away and assured the protester that he would like the cookies too, because they weren't too sweet. (I think that's because Sucanat, combined with a whole-grain flour, tastes different, more balanced, than refined white sugar with white flour.) They all said that they liked the cookies, and that they shared the cookies with another friend who really had a sweet tooth, and apparently he liked them too.

From there, I created my next recipes using ingredients I had on hand in my cupboard and basing some of them on Julia Ferre's recipes in her cookbook, Basic Macrobiotic Cooking.

Julia Ferre's cookie recipes give you a really good idea of what proportions you can use to come out with a more well-balanced cookie — one that is not too yang (she uses no eggs in her recipes) and not too yin (the sweeteners are either fruit or certain syrups or nectars, in much smaller amounts).

So here is a list of the cookie recipes I made to satisfy a not-so-sweet tooth in a gentler, more balanced way:

Using Kokkoh In My Dream Diner Burger Recipes

2011-05-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

I wrote earlier about Kokkoh, a special grain-milk powder, which I think would be an excellent ingredient to include in the burger recipes for my dream diner, Burger Number Seven. It's a flour mixture of roasted ground grains, seeds, and beans that you can prepare ahead of time and then add to your soups, desserts, and breads as needed.

For Burger Number Seven diners, Kokkoh could be used as part of the "soup" and "dessert" ingredients in the burger recipes and would act as a binding agent to keep the patty's shape and form. It could also be used in the sesame buns and side dishes on the menu, such as cookies, brownies, and even a beverage.

This is going to be fun, experimenting with new recipes. I'll have to see what's already out there — what things other people have already made using Kokkoh!

The following recipe for making Kokkoh grain-milk powder is from Julia Ferre's cookbook, Basic Macrobiotic Cooking, 20th Anniversary Edition.

Kokkoh — Roast separately, page 62 [dry roasting directions]
Cool and mix together. Yield: 2 1/2 cups

1 cup brown rice, roasted
1/2 cup sweet brown rice, roasted
1/2 cup whole oats, roasted
1 Tbsp. sesame seeds, roasted
2 Tbsp. azuki beans, roasted

It would be interesting to try using other types of grains, seeds, and beans in this recipe too.

Cheers!

Related Blog Articles:
Kokkoh — A Special Grain Milk Powder
Ten Recipes To Health And Happiness — Burger Number Seven's Special Burgers
My Dream Diner

Turkey Plus — A New Name For My Organic Turkey Burger #-3

2011-05-28T16:26:00.000-07:00

"Needs salt," my husband said. I had just created my first "animal" burger recipe for my Dream Diner — Burger Number Seven and given him the resulting burger to taste. But I forgot to add the miso to the recipe, thus the reason for his comment. To make up for the needed salt, I also served him some delicious lemon miso sauce from Julia Ferre's recipe for "Lemon Fennel" in a recent issue of "Macrobiotics Today." And then he liked the burger. He said it was good, and that he could taste the turkey. (I had tasted a tiny tiny bit of it from the pan and it tasted strong to me.)

Now I'm wondering if next time I should add miso to the lentils at the end of cooking as I had intended? Or, since I had used a little salt when I cooked the lentils, the squash, and the onions, maybe it would be better to give the customer the option of adding more salt by way of a miso sauce instead? Something to think about...

Anyway, since I started with only a half-pound of ground turkey, I was surprised that it came out to three good-sized patties. I think he was too. One half of a pound of ground turkey is equal to 1 cup, not 1 and 1/2 cups like I was guessing, and so I changed all the amounts in order to keep the same percentages that correspond to George Ohsawa's Macrobiotic Diet #-3.

Here's the final recipe:

1 cup organic ground turkey from Diestel Family Turkey Ranch [30% meat]
1/2 cup cooked onions (nitsuke style)
1/2 cup cooked mashed Hokkaido squash (a.k.a. kabocha or sweet Japanese pumpkin) [onions + squash = 30% vegetables]
1/3 cup cooked brown basmati rice [10% whole grains]
1/3 cup cooked lentils with kombu [10% "soup"]
1/2 cup ground, lightly toasted walnuts [15% nuts]
3 Tbsps. apple, tiny dices fried in sesame oil with slightly burnt edges [5% "dessert"]

plus olive oil (organic, extra virgin olive oil from California) for frying and 2 Tbsps. whole wheat flour for dredging

I placed all the ingredients, except the oil and the flour, in a large glass bowl, mixed them well together with my hands, and shaped the mixture into three round patties, being careful to not compact them too tightly. (I must remember to bring everything up to room temperature first because the ground turkey was still cold from the refrigerator and that made it harder for everything to stick together.)

The patties were quite soft but still manageable — they stayed together — and I gently dabbed each one in a plate of flour before setting them into my prepared frying pan on the stove, which I had already added the olive oil to and preheated. By having the pan and oil already hot, it helped to quickly form a crust on the outside of the patties, and thus keep their shape.

In the end, the recipe was a success, at least as far as my Taste-Tester was concerned. I asked him if he had any ideas for a name and he said "How about Turkey Plus?" Not bad! And so here's the first burger for my dream diner, Burger Number Seven.

"I'll have a Turkey Plus, please!"

Notes:
Julia Ferre's recipe for Lemon Fennel can be found in a printed copy or PDF download of the March/April 2011 issue of "Macrobiotics Today," available at the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation website.

Related Blog Articles:
Organic Turkey Burger #-3
6. Ten Recipes To Health And Happiness — Burger Number
Seven's Special Burgers
My Dream Diner

Moosewood Cookbook — My Sixth Most Favorite Cookbook

2011-05-25T08:32:00.000-07:00

Moosewood Cookbook, by Mollie Katzen, © 1977

This is one of my favorite cookbooks even though I hardly ever use it. I like the way it makes me feel when I read it. It’s so down-to-earth, comforting, and creative. It sticks with me — after I’ve made one of the recipes once, I’ll never forget it or need to refer to it again. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

One weekend just last February, I had a butternut squash that got accidentally dropped and cracked open at the grocery store checkout stand. I decided to try a soup recipe with it. Perfect for a cold and wet wintery day!

RECIPE: for Butternut Squash soup — modified from ""Curried Squash and Mushroom Soup" on page 12 of Moosewood Cookbook

Part 1:
1 medium butternut squash*, baked for 1/2 hour (30 minutes) in 375ºF oven
1 1/4 cups water

Blend the above ingredients together until smooth (in a blender or cuisinart) and add
1/4 cup juice from an orange.
Set aside.

* (To prepare the squash for baking, cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, place the two pieces of squash face down on a baking dish on top of two separate pieces of foil. Gather up the foil around the edges of the squash to make a bowl shape with a partially covered lid.)

Part 2:
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 small clove of garlic
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Saute the above ingredients in a soup pot until onion is translucent.

Then add to the pot:

3 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger

Cover the pot and simmer for 10 minutes.

Part 3:
Add the blended squash and orange juice to the soup pot and gently heat everything together. Taste it and add lemon juice and/or cayenne pepper as desired.

This turned out pretty good!

Related Blog Articles:
My Top Ten Favorite Cookbooks

MACRO TALK

2011-05-25T06:55:00.000-07:00

I came across some interesting web sites and/or blogs as I was searching for veggie burger recipes (for my Dream Diner). Here's a few of them:

• I found a Black Bean-Grain Burger recipe on the Smith's Vegan Kitchen web site that looks pretty good!

"We are not writers," they say on their web site, "nor are we chefs or professional cooks, just food lovers. We enjoy cooking, experimenting and sharing recipes and ideas with friends. We hope others will share their recipes as well!!" They got this recipe for black bean-grain burgers from The Chicago Diner Cookbook, and they also recommend the restaurant in Chicago. So I decided to see if the restaurant had a web site too, which it does:

• The Chicago Diner, Meat-Free Since '83

Vegetarian and/or vegan restaurants are great places to find macrobiotic food when traveling. The Chicago Diner has two "Check Please!: Chicago" videos on their web site's About Us/Gallery tab, which gave me a pretty favorable impression of the restaurant. Made me hungry just looking at their food! I thought the news article about how the restaurant started was pretty interesting too — and kinda romantic! (See the History tab on the web site.) I will definitely keep this diner in Chicago on my places-to-visit list.

• In a New York State of Black Bean Burger — this veggie burger recipe is from the Sustainable Pantry Cooking Blog.

Oh boy, oh boy! Not only have I found a recipe that calls for whole oat groats (which is not a very common ingredient to be found in recipes) but I've also found a good food blog! You can click their "About" tab to learn that Sustainable Pantry is "about cooking whole, seasonal food at home..."

• Carmelized Onion & Chickpea Burgers — the article from Saveur magazine made the burger sound really appetizing; the recipe comes from Chow. I was already familiar with Saveur magazine, and now "Chow" has become a new source for finding recipes. I found another veggie burger recipe there that sounds good to try, which is vegetarian and vegan:

• Black-Eyed Pea Vegan Burgers recipe from Chow.

Related Blog Articles:
Burger Number Seven — Concept For A Unique Restaurant Diner
Using Kokkoh In My Dream Diner Burger Recipes
Manhattan Non-Clam Chowder

Organic Turkey Burger #-3

2011-05-22T02:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a recipe I'm developing for a special turkey burger for my Dream Diner. It's based on George Ohsawa's Diet #-3, that is:

Burger #-3 = 10% grains, 30% vegetables, 10% “soup” (beans, seaweed, miso, flour, etc.), 30% animal (meat, egg, dairy), 15% fruit, nuts or salad (raw or salt-pickled vegetables), 5% "dessert" (fruit, nuts, flour, oil, etc.)

I have a half of a pound of organic ground turkey from Diestel Turkey Ranch. For the purposes of measuring out the right proportions, let's say that's equal to one and a half cups of turkey (1/2 cup = 10%):

1/2 cup of whole grains (rolled oats, brown rice, etc.)
1 1/2 cups of cooked vegetables (onion, radish, squash, etc.), nitsuke style (not juicy)
1/2 cup of "soup" (cooked beans, seaweed, miso, etc.)
1 1/2 cups of ground turkey
3/4 cup combination of fruit, nuts, and salad (vegetable greens, and/or pressed salad such as pickled cabbage)
1/4 cup of "dessert" (such as whole wheat flour, apple, raisins, and nuts)

I don't think this recipe will need any other seasonings, since there's plenty of salt in miso, or pressed salad, and I can cook the whole grains and vegetables with a little unrefined sea salt.

Since cooked ground turkey usually turns out drier than ground beef, I think I'll use raw walnuts and olive oil in the recipe. The nuts will add texture, and so would chopped raw salad. I might use some fresh apple too, for sweetness. I'll check out some soup and dessert recipes for more ideas in Zen Macrobiotics, by George Ohsawa.

Okay, this is a start! Let's see what turns out in the kitchen... and then I'll give my turkey burger a special name.

Related articles:
My Dream Diner
Ten Recipes To Health And Happiness — Burger Number Seven's Special Burgers
Whole Grain Barley Miso
Turkey Plus — A New Name For My Organic Turkey Burger #-3

The Benefits of Unrefined Sea Salt

2011-05-19T04:53:00.000-07:00

My Dad asked me last night to do some research for him about salt. Is it good for you? Is it bad for you? How much should you eat? I think that Herman Aihara gives a good answer in his book, Basic Macrobiotics. In his chapter, "Sea Vegetables and Salt," he says:

"Salt has had so much bad press lately that many people are now under the impression that it is harmful to the human body in any amount. In reality, we cannot live without a small, but crucial, amount of salt. All red-blooded animals must have a continual supply of the essential elements salt naturally contains in order to maintain a strong and healthy condition."

He goes on to talk about the dangers of today's common refined salt that has been heated in temperatures as high as 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, which is high enough to alter salt's chemical structure. "This structural change of salt is one of the reasons that degenerative diseases, such as heart disease and arthritis, have become so prevalent in this country."

"Many people consume large quantities of animal food, which contains relatively high amounts of naturally occurring sodium. Those who eat animal foods frequently should greatly restrict other sources of salt, but seldom do. However, those who don't eat many of these foods need to be sure that they have a good source of high-quality salt."

What is high-quality salt?

Mr. Aihara goes on to say, "The common table salt commercially available today is purified sodium chloride, or NaCl, with dextrose sugar and an anti-caking agent, usually a silicate, added. Natural sea salt is also mostly NaCl. However, the big difference is that it still contains about 4 percent of various minerals, which are extremely important for body function and development. This is a serious matter today because the minerals in topsoil, and thus food, are being depleted by commercial farming techniques, in which farmers no longer cooperate with nature."

He then provides his recommendations for a more balanced macrobiotic use of salt, including the reasons for not eating plain or raw salt at the table and directions for making gomashio, a table condiment containing roasted sesame seeds and natural sea salt.
— see pages 131-142, Basic Macrobiotics, by Herman Aihara

Notes:
• Eden Foods provides a selection of condiments, such as natural unrefined sea salts as well as organic gomashio (also spelled "gomasio").

• Selina Naturally (The Grain & Salt Society) provides a selection of salts, including unrefined, finely ground Celtic sea salt.

• You can get the book, Basic Macrobiotics, by Herman Aihara at the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation website.

7. The Seasonal Shopping List For Burger Number Seven

2011-05-14T06:38:00.000-07:00

(Still under development — Part 7 of my Dream Diner Proposal)

At this point, having no idea of how to run a restaurant or plan its shopping list, say, for a week, I can only guess at quantities or amounts. But as I continue to develop my “Dream Diner,” I plan on doing some shopping of my own — for advice and suggestions — from other restaurants and groups who plan food events!

Organic Food Staples:

GRAINS:

Barley
Brown rice
Buckwheat
Corn
Millet
Oats
Quinoa
Rye
Wheat berries
Wild rice

FRESH ORGANIC VEGETABLES:
This list will change with the seasons and on what's available locally. An example of the basic vegetables that will always be kept in stock whenever possible include:

Onions
Carrots
Garlic
Daikon
Parsnips
Turnips
Squash
Kale
Lettuce

FOOD ACCESSORIES:

Cooking oils (sesame, coconut, olive) — What’s the best type to use for deep frying?
Unrefined sea salt
Sweeteners (such as brown rice syrup, maple syrup, agave syrup, and honey)
Condiments (including organic unpasteurized soy sauce and gomashio)
Fresh, pure water

RESTAURANT EQUIPMENT AND COOKING ACCESSORIES:

Flour mills/grinders
Pressure cookers
Deep fryers
Steamers
Grills
Ovens (for sesame seed buns and strawberry shortcake!)
Salad presses

What else?

Seven-Part Proposal:

HOME — My Dream Diner — “Burger Number Seven”

6. Ten Recipes To Health And Happiness — Burger Number Seven’s Special Burgers

2011-05-14T05:42:00.000-07:00

The recipes for the burgers at Burger Number Seven diners are based on George Ohsawa’s Ten Ways To Health And Happiness. That is, the ingredients are macrobiotic, and the proportions of grains, vegetables, and animal products are the same as they are in each of these ten macrobiotic diets. Five of the burger recipes are plant-based, vegetarian, and vegan. The other five burger recipes have meat, egg, and/or dairy ingredients (such as beef, turkey, fish, egg, or cheese). All ingredients are organic, fresh, and locally grown whenever possible. With the exception of “Burger Number Seven,” the names of the burgers will probably change to reflect their unique recipes. Burger buns, sauces, and condiments are to be determined.

Five “Plant-Based” Burgers:

Burger #7 = 100% whole grains
Burger #6 = 90% grains, 10% vegetables (nitsuke, possibly)
Burger #5 = 80% grains, 20% vegetables
Burger #4 = 70% grains, 20% vegetables, 10% “soup” (beans, seaweed, miso, flour, etc.)
Burger #3 = 60% grains, 30% vegetables, 10% “soup” (beans, seaweed, miso, flour, etc.)

Five “Animal” Burgers:

Burger #2 = 50% grains, 30% vegetables, 10% “soup” (beans, seaweed, miso, flour, etc.), 10% animal (meat, egg, dairy)
Burger #1 = 40% grains, 30% vegetables, 10% “soup” (beans, seaweed, miso, flour, etc.), 20% animal (meat, egg, dairy)
Burger #-1 = 30% grains, 30% vegetables, 10% “soup” (beans, seaweed, miso, flour, etc.), 20% animal (meat, egg, dairy), 10% fruit, nuts or salad (raw or salt-pickled vegetables)
Burger #-2 = 20% grains, 30% vegetables, 10% “soup” (beans, seaweed, miso, flour, etc.), 25% animal (meat, egg, dairy), 10% fruit, nuts or salad (raw or salt-pickled vegetables), 5% "dessert" (fruit, nuts, flour, oil, etc.)
Burger #-3 = 10% grains, 30% vegetables, 10% “soup” (beans, seaweed, miso, flour, etc.), 30% animal (meat, egg, dairy), 15% fruit, nuts or salad (raw or salt-pickled vegetables), 5% "dessert" (fruit, nuts, flour, oil, etc.)

Seven-Part Proposal:

HOME — My Dream Diner — “Burger Number Seven”

Related Blog Articles:
Organic Turkey Burger #-3
Turkey Plus — A New Name For My Organic Turkey Burger #-3

5. The Special Staff Of Burger Number Seven (And Their Uniforms)

2011-05-14T05:09:00.000-07:00

The basic requirement for all employees who work at a Burger Number Seven diner is that they are healthy and they eat the same food that is served to the public.

Management Staff:
The head chefs, sous chefs, and/or managers are trained and accredited in macrobiotic cooking, whether it be from a personalized trainer, an institution, or online school. They work with the owner(s) to decide on the menu and shopping lists, and introduce new recipes for review by committee. They also hire and train the cooking, serving, and cleaning staff.

Possible schools/training:
• Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts
• The Natural Epicurean Academy of Culinary Arts
• International Macrobiotic School (joined with the Holistic Cooking School)

Serving Staff:
The serving staff takes your order, places it with the kitchen, and serves it to you over the counter. They have eaten everything on the menu at least once and have a growing knowledge of the cuisine. They are responsible for keeping their area of the restaurant clean.

Kitchen (Cooking & Cleaning) Staff:
The cooking staff (including sous-chefs) receive their training and daily instructions from the head chef. They also have eaten everything on the menu at least once and have a growing knowledge of the cuisine. They are responsible for keeping their area of the kitchen clean. The cleaning staff are responsible for washing pots and pans, dishes, vacant work-surfaces, and any incidental messes as needed. They also are in charge of the cleaning supplies inventory, have eaten everything on the menu at least once, and have a working knowledge of the environmental impact of all that they do and cleaning materials that they use. The cooking staff and the cleaning staff can receive training to rotate positions as mutually desired.

Special Cleaning Staff:
These people are responsible for after-hours cleaning of the entire restaurant, including floors, windows, eating areas, grills, deep-fryers, kitchen sinks, bathrooms, etc. They receive their orders from the management staff.

Everyone working at Burger Number Seven wears a uniform over their personal clothing. Staff uniforms are black or white cotton tops (t-shirts and/or chef jackets) with the company logo above the breast pocket. The rest of the outfit is personal clothing (pants, shorts, or skirts) in the opposite black or white color of the top.

Mascot, Friend, and Teacher:
Chewy, the Happy Turtle is a special member of the staff here at Burger Number Seven. He shows you the benefits of eating your food slowly, by chewing at least 100 to 200 times per bite! He has eaten every item on the menu at least once and has a growing knowledge of the cuisine. He works together with the promotional and advertising staff to devise chewing games, contests, and free toys in his own image.

Seven-Part Proposal:

HOME — My Dream Diner — “Burger Number Seven”

4. Promotional Ideas And Kid Appeal For Burger Number Seven (A Free Toy)

2011-05-14T04:57:00.000-07:00

(Still under development — Part 4 of my Dream Diner Proposal.)

Ideas include:

Kiddie Menu (for Kids Of All Ages):

corncats (deep-fried corn-batter mini-burgers — an alternative to the corndog)
corndogs (deep-fried corn-batter tofu sausages)
macro-mini burgers (ten tiny little burger types for a buck each)

Chewing games, quizzes, and puzzles from the restaurant's mascot, Chewy, the Happy Turtle.

A Free Toy (for Young Kids):

Chewy, the turtle toy

Contests for the next great burger recipe or sesame seed bun.

Promotional visits to group events like baseball games or community socials to distribute free mini-samples.

A brochure that lists all the Burger Number Seven diners across the country.

Seven-Part Proposal:

HOME — My Dream Diner — “Burger Number Seven”

3. Burger Number Seven — A Menu For All Seasons

2011-05-14T04:43:00.000-07:00

Strawberry shortcake!

In general, the menu for my dream diner, Burger Number Seven, will feature ten different types of burgers that correspond to George Ohsawa's Ten Ways To Health And Happiness, each with its own unique name (such as "Burger Number Seven"). You can get the burger with or without the bun, lettuce, or pickle, and choose from a variety of sauces/spreads. Condiments will be available on a separate counter.

In addition, side orders will include single servings of rice or other grain-of-the-month, cooked vegetable, soup, fresh fruit (seasonal), and a simple dessert (like a cookie or brownie or applesauce).

The rest of the menu is TBD...

Seven-Part Proposal:

HOME — My Dream Diner — “Burger Number Seven”

2. The Face of Burger Number Seven — Its Logo, Design, and Name

2011-05-14T04:31:00.000-07:00

Name: “Burger Number Seven”

Possible slogans:
“A happy burger diner”
“A happy burger place”
“Home of Chewy, the Happy Turtle”

Company Logo: Circular pictures of a whole grain patty and a green head of lettuce placed within the shape of a yin/yang black and white symbol.

Mascot: Chewy, the Turtle
Chewy is a turtle who takes his time eating his food. He’s a slow-moving, thoroughly chewing, happy guy!

Design and color themes:
The interior and exterior designs of the restaurant diner use simple, clean lines, and a balance of materials such as wood, metal, clay, glass, plaster.

The black & white color theme is reminiscent of a 1950’s Black-and-White Diner with accents of reds & greens, or blues & yellows. Incorporating some life into the interior design would be good too, such as potted plants or a fish aquarium, or screened windows that can be opened and look out onto trees, a garden, or flower beds.

Shibui:
simplicity,
implicitness,
modesty,
silence,
naturalness,
everydayness,
and
imperfection.

The staff uniform is a black or white cotton top (t-shirt and/or chef jacket) with the company logo above the breast pocket. The rest of the outfit is personal clothing (pants, shorts, or skirts) in the opposite black or white color than the top.

Food is ordered and served from a counter that separates the dining area from the kitchen; customers carry their food on trays to the table of their choice (first come, first served).

Yes or No music? (too personalized and distracting?)

Notes:
Wikipedia information on "Diners"
Little Augury interior design blog article "thinking Shibui" talks about House Beautiful's August 1960 magazine article called "Discover Shibui: The Word for the Highest Level in Beauty."

Seven-Part Proposal:

HOME — My Dream Diner — “Burger Number Seven”

1. Burger Number Seven — Concept For A Unique Restaurant Diner

2011-05-14T04:24:00.000-07:00

Here, at last, is a “fast food” diner where people can get a simple meal that’s based on healthy macrobiotic principles, while passing through town on their travels. That means the menu is dynamic, includes all-organic, GMO-free, seasonal foods (locally grown whenever possible), and offers whole grains as the principal food ingredient. The format is a variety of burgers that correspond to George Ohsawa’s Ten Ways To Health & Happiness, along with beverages and simple side dishes, such as soup, salad, fruit, and desert. (Sesame seed buns and condiments are optional.)

The restaurant can start out small, as just one diner, and is designed to multiply into a chain of many diners, individually owned and operated by other people. A common theme is visible throughout the chain that defines and complements each diner’s individuality.

The atmosphere is neutral, calming, and refreshing — a place to eat and rest before continuing on your journey.

Seven-Part Proposal:

HOME — My Dream Diner — “Burger Number Seven”

What Is A Macrobiotic Diet, Really?

2011-05-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

Some might say that it’s a strict diet with rigid rules, limiting you to only a few foods and depriving you of all the foods that you love — this is not true! Others might say that it’s a very specific diet containing very specific foods that you can eat only and nothing else — also not true!

A macrobiotic diet could be either one of those diets, at any given moment in your life, but really what a macrobiotic diet is, is a diet that you create for yourself based on macrobiotic principles and on what you need, given your current condition and situation, which is always dynamic. The diet is dynamic, changing every day, as you change every day and adjust it to what you need accordingly.

A macrobiotic diet is based on the following principles:

Eat natural, organic food.
Eat foods that are necessary for humans to sustain life — good air, water, sunshine (the three most important foods), whole grains, vegetables, beans, sea vegetables, and fish.
Eat foods that are traditionally eaten, locally grown, and seasonal in your particular location.
Eat whole grains as your principal food, that is, daily and at every meal. Eat all other foods and beverages less frequently, in smaller quantities, and with care. For example, pasta and flour made from organic whole grains are also eaten, but they are not the same as what Nature provides — the whole grain.
Eat vegetables and seaweeds to supplement the whole grains, but in smaller amounts and less often.
Eat fish (fresh) and other animal products in even more smaller amounts and less often. (Fertilized eggs are recommended over non-fertilized eggs, which are biologically lifeless.)
Dairy products, fruits, and nuts are eaten as pleasure foods, in smaller amounts and less often than animal products.
Drink, if possible, only what your body requires and no more. Water, bancha tea, or undyed natural teas are recommended. Do not drink coffee if you are sick or in a weakened condition. (Coffee is extremely yin, as is being sick or weak.)

In terms of yin and yang, whole grains form the foundation of a macrobiotic way of eating because they are a combination of both a seed and a fruit, abundant on this earth, economical, ecological, and a most nutritious food.

Related Articles:
What Is The Macrobiotic Centering Diet?
My Notes On The Macrobiotic Centering Diet
The Yin And Yang Of Acid And Alkaline
Diet #7 By George Ohsawa
The Importance of Chewing
What Is True Fasting?
Adapting Our Diets To The Situation
Diet #6 By George Ohsawa (What Is Nitsuke?)
Re-Reading "Zen Macrobiotics"
The Benefits of Whole Foods

Books About Macrobiotic Theory—Food For Thought

2011-05-04T01:13:00.000-07:00

Many books have been written about the “theory of macrobiotics,” the “Unique Principle,” and the “Order of the Universe,” by George Ohsawa alone, not to mention all the books written by his students and disciples. The George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation provides an extensive list of these books, and they are in the process of adding more as they bring the older books back into print.

Although these books are mainly about the philosophy or theory of macrobiotics, they also serve a practical purpose, whether it be guidelines for choosing what foods to eat, learning how to read and understand your body’s signals, or providing positive inspiration and encouragement.

These are my favorite books on macrobiotic theory, ones that I like to read over and over again:
1. Zen Macrobiotics, by George Ohsawa. (I’ve found this book to be the most practical and very inspirational. See my related article, Re-Reading "Zen Macrobiotics.")
2. Cancer and the Philosophy of the Far East (formerly called MACROBIOTICS: The Way Of Healing), by George Ohsawa. (I’ve found this book to be the most inspirational.)
3. Acid and Alkaline, by Herman Aihara. (This book provides a much-needed tool for dealing with illness and hazards today. See also, "The Yin and Yang of Acid and Alkaline.")
4. Acid Alkaline Companion, by Carl Ferre. (Less theory, more practical — a very helpful, useful book indeed. See also, "The Yin and Yang of Acid and Alkaline.")
5. Essential Guide to Macrobiotics, by Carl Ferre. (Formerly called Pocket Guide to Macrobiotics. This is like the “Cliff Notes” of Zen Macrobiotics. It’s very handy to carry around and gives you a quick refresher course instantly. Easy to understand; it puts everything into immediate focus.)
6. Essential Ohsawa, by George Ohsawa and compiled by Carl Ferre. (This is a grand compilation of the works by George Ohsawa, Philosopher, that includes the principles of macrobiotics as well as a sampling of his many other ideas. The book is arranged in three parts: 1) Foundations of the Body, 2) Principles of the Mind, and 3) Dreams of the Spirit. This is another book that is very inspirational to me. I especially like the sidebars containing the recollections of people who knew George Ohsawa personally.)
7. Philosophy Of Oriental Medicine: Key to Your Personal Judging Ability, by George Ohsawa. (This book, previously published as “The Book Of Judgment,” is the most comprehensive book on macrobiotic theory, including a thorough explanation of the Unique Principle, the Order of the Universe, and the Seven Stages of Judgment. It holds a lot to think about and ponder over. Keeping this book at the base of your macrobiotic studies gives you the key to your own independence and freedom. You are in control of your own life!)

Related Articles:
Guidelines For Classifying In Terms Of Yin And Yang
The Color Classifications of Food
The Importance of Chewing
The Yin and Yang of Acid and Alkaline
What Is Macrobiotics? (January 2, 2011)
What Is Macrobiotics? (January 23, 2011)

The Yin and Yang of Acid and Alkaline

2011-05-03T23:56:00.000-07:00

Herman Aihara and Carl Ferre have given us a wonderful set of tools to use for our health. Mr. Aihara’s book, Acid and Alkaline, explains in a clear, textbook style how specific foods (as well as a lot of other factors in our lifestyles) can lead to acidosis, the underlying cause of most illnesses today, while other foods that are more alkaline-forming can help us to get better. This book is the theory of macrobiotics in action, a true application of George Ohsawa's Unique Principle.

Carl Ferre has written a followup book, Acid Alkaline Companion, that provides a practical, easy-to-understand synopsis of what causes acid and alkaline conditions in our bodies. In addition, it contains a remarkable set of detailed food tables that show us specifically which foods are more acid-forming, more alkaline-forming, or more neutral. He also provides a list of references to several other books on the subject of acid and alkaline, along with a brief description of each.

Herman Aihara’s Acid and Alkaline contains easy reference charts that organize foods into four groups: Yin/Alkaline-Forming, Yin/Acid-Forming, Yang/Alkaline-Forming, and Yang/Acid-Forming. A well-balanced meal will contain a food from each of these four groups. Once I clearly understood the differences between these four food groups, it was easy for me to memorize the broad categories in his “Four-Wheel Chart” (page 88, Acid and Alkaline) and now it’s almost second nature for me to remember that:

1) Honey, coffee, herb tea, bancha tea, fruits, seeds, and vegetables are Yin/Alkaline-Forming.

2) Chemical drugs, pills, sugar, soft drinks, alcohol, nuts, and beans are Yin/Acid-Forming.

3) Radish pickle (dry), soy sauce, miso, umeboshi salt plums, certain sea vegetables, and sea salt (unrefined) are Yang/Alkaline-Forming.

4) Meat, animal foods, and whole grains are Yang/Acid-Forming.

From there, I just need to figure out details and quantities — how much yin is in this certain food, how much yang? — so that I can balance it with its opposite. Classic examples of food balancing: meat and potatoes, minestrone soup & croutons, or salty pork & beans with thick, rich coffee on the wagon train!

Although these examples are balancing foods from each of the four groups, they are on the more extreme ends of the yin-and-yang scale. To achieve an ideal balance, foods that are more towards the center of yin and yang as well as from the four groups would be better — that is, a meal that contains a vegetable, a nut or bean, a whole grain, and miso or a sea vegetable like wakame.

Notes:
Both of these books, Acid and Alkaline, by Herman Aihara and Acid Alkaline Companion, by Carl Ferre, are available on the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation website.

Related Articles:
No More Sugar
Hummingbirds and Seaweed
What Is The Macrobiotic Centering Diet?

MACRO TALK

2011-04-27T15:08:00.000-07:00

My topic for this very first issue of "MACRO TALK" is which macrobiotic web sites or blogs do I think give a better-than typical answer to the question, "What is macrobiotics?" By typical, I mean just giving a dictionary's definition of the word "macrobiotics" — big or large for "macro" and life for "bios" — without saying anything more about it. So...

What is Macrobiotics?

• Leslie at Macro808.blogspot.com (Naturally!) gave a really good answer in a February 9, 2005 posting that is worthy of inclusion here.

She begins by saying, "Someone left a comment asking, 'What is macrobiotics, anyway?' It is good practice for me to try and answer this question. To me, 'macrobiotic' means several things. From my experience, it is a diet, a philosophy, and a lifestyle."

And then she continues to do a really good job of explaining her statement. In fact, I thought her answer was so good that I decided to read the whole rest of the blog all the way up to the present day!

• From Leslie's Naturally! blog, I followed a link to Hawaiian Chef and Restaurateur, Alan Wong, and watched an interesting video of him explaining their "Farmer Series Dinner." What a great idea! To interact with the farmer from field to dining table... I like it.

Back to looking for people's better-than-typical answers to the question, "What is macrobiotics?"...

• Sharlene at "Macrobiotics and Me" has a wonderful blog dedicated to macrobiotics. She says in answer to the question, "What is macrobiotics?":

"For me, macrobiotics is so many things but essentially it is about reaching our full potential in life. It’s about becoming more balanced in all areas of our lives and gaining insights into one’s health (and when I talk about health I mean it in a holistic sense so that includes everything about a person basically – mental, emotional, spiritual, energetic and physical). It’s also about understanding how the universe operates, the natural laws and eating and living according to all of this."

Sharlene's macrobiotic blog continues to give a unique overview of how one person chooses to eat and live while practicing macrobiotics. Very enlightening. She also provides some interesting links to other macrobiotic web sites, including the following link:

• The International Macrobiotic School in the U.K. where they provide professional training courses and a Cookery Class Programme.

"What is Macrobiotics? ...Macrobiotics is an art of life in which you become more and more conscious.... conscious of the responsibility you have to give your life shape. The search for our deep nature is the first step in the greater search for our true self. Who am I? What am I doing here in this lifetime?" — Marijke De Coninck, What is Macrobiotics?

• The web site, "The Macrobiotic Guide," founded by James W. Trevana, says this in answer to the question, "What is Macrobiotics?":

"Macrobiotics is an approach to physical and emotional wellness through consuming foods that are balanced energetically (between yin and yang) and nutritionally. It is typically a well-balanced diet with high fibre, low fat, lots of vegetables and grains, vegetable protein, and limited meat, with an emphasis on eating seasonal organic food."

The web site is a collection of macrobiotic information written by different people. They have a special features section called "What People Say About Macrobiotics" that is a drop-down list of about a hundred people's names, linking to articles interviewing them. Each article asks them questions like, "How did you start macrobiotics?" and "How has macrobiotics helped you?"

A lot to talk about. A lot to think about. Much food for thought!

Related blog articles:
What Is Macrobiotics? (January 2, 2011)
What Is Macrobiotics? (January 23, 2011)
Lessons From A Coyote (March 8, 2011)

Organic Farmers and SOS-Earth

2011-04-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

Organic, safe, healthy food is important for all of us.

I just watched a short video on youtube.com of Phiya Kushi (son of Michio and Aveline Kushi) talking about the effects of the earthquake and nuclear powerplant problems in Japan on organic farmers and sea harvesters. He is going to start a new charity organization called SOS-Earth (Save Organic Suppliers), which will help organic farmers everywhere in the world, starting with Japan. I think that's excellent.

On youtube.com: Phiya Kushi Talking About Japan's Earthquake And SOS (about 8 1/2 minutes long)

I also think that even if we may not have the money to spare for a donation to SOS-Earth, we can still help the organic farmers, the Earth, and ourselves by buying organic food. The more we increase the demand for organic foods, the greater the public awareness and support will become, and the better it will be for the farmers.

So far, being organic means that the food cannot be contaminated by GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms), and so the term "organic" can protect us. The George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation website has a pdf article about GMOs by Dennis Willmont that's called "The Brave New World Of Genetic Chaos."

Note: Phiya Kushi has since started the organization "SOS-Earth" and its web site is currently under construction (as of 8/12/2011). Here is a link to the About page: SOS-Earth — About, Who We Are.

Related Articles:
Adapting Our Diets To The Situation
South American Quinoa And Potatoes

The Color Classifications Of Food

2011-04-24T04:08:00.000-07:00

Red apple, purple eggplant. Golden brown grains. Orange squash, green kale, white daikon radish. Red-blooded (hemoglobin) animals, green-blooded (chlorophyl) vegetables. All the beautiful colors of the rainbow are food for your heart and soul! You can classify all foods by their colors in terms of yin and yang to help you create a balance and become more centered.

Starting at one end of the color spectrum (or rainbow), the warm color RED is the most yang of all the colors. The colors then progressively become less yang and more yin, until you reach the other end of the rainbow with the cool color PURPLE or INDIGO, which is the most yin of all the colors. DARK SHADES of color are more yang than LIGHT SHADES of color, which are more yin.

Other factors — such as size, shape, and weight of the food, the direction that it grows (and whether its above the ground or below), the length of growing time, and the season, region, and climate of where it grew — can also be classified as mostly yin or mostly yang. By using all of these factors to determine whether a particular food is mostly yin or mostly yang, you can then use this information to balance it with other foods, and your current condition, and with the current situation around you.

Many foods have already been classified for you in such books as Zen Macrobiotics — enough to get you started on a macrobiotic diet of health and understanding. (See "Macrobiotic Table of Foods and Beverages" on page 115, Zen Macrobiotics, by George Ohsawa.)

But to really understand and practice the theory of macrobiotics, you need to study and apply your own Yin/Yang classifications to food, as well as to yourself and the world around you. George Ohsawa's book, Philosophy of Oriental Medicine: Key to Your Personal Judging Ability, explains how.

Related Articles:
My Notes On The Macrobiotic Centering Diet
Guidelines For Classifying In Terms Of Yin And Yang
Re-Reading Zen Macrobiotics

Kokkoh — A Special Grain Milk Powder

2011-04-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

What is this mysterious grain-milk powder, "Kokkoh," that I've been reading about and where can I get some?

According to George Ohsawa in Zen Macrobiotics, it is a mixture of roasted rice, sweet rice, oatmeal, soybeans, and sesame seeds that have been ground together into a powder. You use 1 heaping tablespoon of powder to 11 ounces of water, stir and boil for 10 minutes, and then you drink! But he doesn't explain the proportions to use for the powder, only that it's easiest to use the factory-made product. (305. Kokkoh, page 91, Zen Macrobiotics).

He says that "Kokkoh is recommended for everyone and may be used as the breakfast for an adult. It can also be used to make a large variety of cakes, drinks and deserts." (page 150, Zen Macrobiotics).

In Zen Cookery (formerly The First Macrobiotic Cookbook), by George Ohsawa, Cornellia Aihara, and friends, I found three recipes for a hot breakfast cereal, a soup, and a beverage, but again, no explanation for how to make the grain milk powder itself:

40. Grain Milk Cereal

1 cup grain milk powder (kokkoh)
5 cups water
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp oil (optional)

Saute grain milk powder in oil or roast in a dry pan until there is a nut-like fragrance. Cool. Add water gradually to prevent lumping. Add salt. Bring to a boil. Lower flame and simmer until thickened. Cook about 30 to 45 minutes. Serve with sesame salt or soy sauce.
— From page 23 of Zen Cookery (The First Macrobiotic Cookbook)

41. Grain Milk Soup

1 cup grain milk powder (kokkoh)
10 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp oil
Soy sauce

Saute grain milk powder in oil. Cool. Add water gradually to prevent lumping. Add salt and bring to a boil. Lower flame and simmer until thickened. Stir occasionally. Add soy sauce to taste. Variations: Serve with any whole grain noodle or macaroni. Garnish with chopped scallion.
— From page 24 of Zen Cookery (The First Macrobiotic Cookbook)

291. Grain Milk (Kokkoh)

This is a finely ground combination of roasted rice, sweet rice, oats, and sesame seeds, often used as a milk substitute. Use 1 heaping tablespoon grain milk to 1 1/2 cups of water. Stir and boil for 10 minutes. Serve hot or cold. It is a delicious snack time pick-me-up.
— From page 124 of Zen Cookery (The First Macrobiotic Cookbook)

And then finally, I found a recipe for the grain milk powder in Julia Ferre's cookbook, Basic Macrobiotic Cooking, 20th Anniversary Edition (page 246):

Kokkoh — Roast separately, page 62 [dry roasting directions]
Cool and mix together. Yield: 2 1/2 cups
1 cup brown rice, roasted
1/2 cup sweet brown rice, roasted
1/2 cup whole oats, roasted
1 Tbsp. sesame seeds, roasted
2 Tbsp. azuki beans, roasted

She uses azuki beans in her recipe rather than soybeans as mentioned in Zen Macrobiotics, but I suppose any type of bean could be used depending on how yang you want it to be.

Thanks, Julia. I think I'll try making some!

Related Blog Articles:
The Benefits of Whole Foods
What Is The Macrobiotic Centering Diet?
My Notes On The Macrobiotic Centering Diet

Other Waves Of Grain

2011-04-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

As I was doing a web search for "polenta," thinking that the term does not necessarily have to mean corn, I came across some interesting information about grains I've never heard of before.

Polenta evidently has been made from corn, chestnuts, semolina (using part of the wheat berry), farina (using another part of the wheat berry), and even crushed barley (which is where the Latin word, polenta, originated from). Polenta is a sort of "mush" or stiff "porridge" that holds its shape. When it's made from corn, you're getting the whole grain. I wonder if I could make a polenta with buckwheat groats? I don't think the groats are small enough for the right consistency, so I'd probably have to grind them up a little in my coffee grinder or flour mill first.

From reading about Polenta (according to wikipedia.org), my web search led me on to include various types of wheat berries:

Varieties of Wheat Berries

Durum — or Durum Wheat — The hardest of the winter wheats. Semolina flour from durum wheat is used for pasta—the yellow endosperm is what gives semolina its unique color.

Einkorn — or Einkorn Wheat — This type of "ancient" wheat is being revived and even has its own web site, einkorn.com!

Emmer — or Emmer Wheat, also known as farro or faro in Italy — This is another type of heirloom wheat that is being revived. You can get organic, whole-grain Emmer Farro on the Bluebird Grain Farms website.

Kamut — or Khorasan Wheat — has its own trademark and official website (kamut.com). You can buy organic kamut berries from Bob's Red Mill company, as well as other whole grains.

Red Wheat (hard, soft, winter, or spring wheat) — Here is a web page from Dr. Jim Beuerlein at Ohio State University that explains the different types of red, white, soft, hard, winter, and spring wheats grown in the United States: "Classes and Uses of Wheat."

Sorghum (wikipedia.org) — also, Sweet Sorghum — This small grain reminds me of amaranth in appearance, only larger. I'm familiar with sorghum syrup, or molasses, but I didn't know that the grain is eaten whole, mostly in other countries and especially in Africa. Here in the U.S., sorghum is used mainly for food or alcohol products and animal feed. According to the U.S. Grains Council, "Grain sorghum is the third most important cereal crop grown in the United States and the fifth most important cereal crop grown in the world." The council was established in 1960 to develop export markets for U.S. barley, corn, grain sorghum and related products. Purdue University has a Factsheet on grain sorghum, and there's more interesting info on the National Sorghum Growers website.

Spelt — also known as "dinkel" or "faro" or "farro" — Here is an article from "The New York Times" about the differences between spelt and farro: The Night Of The Big Spelt-Screw-Up

Triticale (hybrid of wheat and rye) — Here's an article about "what is triticale" in a food blog called "Chef In You , Making Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes Easy."

White Wheat (hard or soft winter wheat) — There is a Whole Grains Council that's dedicated entirely to whole grains and whole grain products. Here's what they have to say about white wheat: Whole White Wheat FAQ

There also is a website called the Wheat Foods Council that's dedicated entirely to wheat and wheat products (not necessarily whole grain products, however). In the FAQ section of their Grain Talk Blog, they talk about "What is Durum Wheat?" (September 2010), which is grown mostly in North Dakota because of the particular growing conditions required for this type of wheat.

Arrowhead Mills produces several whole grain products, including organic whole wheat berries.

As so there you have it — lots of information about grains!

Related Articles
• Whole Grains For Centering
• Whole Grains In Restaurants
• Lunch At P.F. Chang's

Parsnip, The Exotic Root Vegetable

2011-04-10T19:07:00.000-07:00

Parsnips help you get centered. Parsnips, which grow vertically under the ground, are another root vegetable from the most yang category of vegetables. In addition to a regular basic macrobiotic diet, they are included in the restricted list of vegetables for a macrobiotic centering diet. And they are delicious.

You can cook them like you would a carrot, or whip them up into a light and fluffy puree. And then there's my favorite, the parsnip chip. Julia Ferre has a good recipe for cooking baked parsnip chips in her cookbook, Basic Macrobiotic Cooking.

The first time I ever tasted a parsnip chip was in a bag of TERRA's Original Exotic Vegetable Chips from the grocery store. They taste lighter and more delicate than a potato chip, I think.

I like to cut parsnips up real small and cook them nitsuke style. And it's nice to know that I won't ever suffer from deprivation of tasty, delicious foods even when I'm on a centering diet!

Notes:
• TERRA's Exotic Vegetable Chips has an interesting web site, especially the page about how the company got started ("Our History").
• You can get Basic Macrobiotic Cooking by Julia Ferre from the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation's web site.

Related articles:
What Is The Macrobiotic Centering Diet?
Vegetables For Centering
My Notes Of The Macrobiotic Centering Diet

Beans, Beans, The Musical Fruit

2011-04-05T16:46:00.000-07:00

Most beans and bean products are extremely yin compared to other vegetables, with the exceptions of aduki beans, miso, and natural soy sauce. For this reason, these last three are included along with chickpeas and lentils (smaller, rounder, less yin than other beans) in the more restrictive macrobiotic centering diet.

And so my notes continue on the subject of beans in a basic macrobiotic diet and a macrobiotic centering diet, according to Pocket Guide To Macrobiotics (now revised and renamed Essential Guide To Macrobiotics), by Carl Ferre.

Beans fall into the category of yin, acid-forming foods, as opposed to vegetables, which are in the yin, alkaline-forming group of foods. (See Acid & Alkaline, by Herman Aihara and Acid Alkaline Companion, by Carl Ferre.) This is another reason why most beans/bean products are not eaten during a macrobiotic centering diet.

Beans in a Macrobiotic Centering Diet (3% to 10% daily):
1) Miso
2) Natural soy sauce
3) Aduki beans
4) Lentils
5) Chickpeas/garbanzo beans

Beans and Bean Products in a Basic Macrobiotic Diet (10% to 25% daily), listed alphabetically for convenience:

Group 1: "Extremely Yin"
bean sprouts
black soybeans
blackeyed peas
lima beans
natto
soybeans
soy milk
split peas
tofu
white Northern beans
whole dried peas

Group 2: "More Yin"
anasazi beans
black beans
black turtle beans
bolita beans
broad beans
chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
kidney beans
mung beans
pinto beans
red lentils
tempeh

Group 3: "Less Yin"
aduki beans

Group 4: "More Yang"
miso
natural soy sauce

For information on how to prepare beans for your meals, see Basic Macrobiotic Cooking, by Julia Ferre.

Related Articles:
Whole Grain Barley Miso
What Is The Macrobiotic Centering Diet?

My Notes On The Macrobiotic Centering Diet

2011-04-05T15:05:00.001-07:00

According to Carl Ferre in his book, Pocket Guide to Macrobiotics, a Macrobiotic Centering Diet is:
1) A restricted basic macrobiotic diet
2) Eating and drinking only what is necessary for your life
3) Eating and drinking toward the center of yin and yang balance

This centering approach allows your body to heal from within in a natural way.

Usually when we are out of balance, we are too yin or too acidic or both, and so we eat foods that are normally too yang or too alkaline by themselves, until we are centered and back in balance. Then we can go back to eating a more normally balanced diet, such as the basic macrobiotic diet. (See Carl Ferre’s Essential Guide to Macrobiotics, formerly called Pocket Guide to Macrobiotics, for information on the basic and centering macrobiotic diets. I guess it’s pretty rare to be too yang or too alkaline, unless we never stopped being on the centering diet? I don’t know. Anyway, the best advice is to follow it for a couple of weeks and stop the centering diet when it no longer benefits you.

Specific foods in a macrobiotic centering diet include:

12 whole grains
44 vegetables
5 beans
3 sea vegetables
soup
beverages
cooking oil and seasonings
table condiments

Everything else is avoided until you are finished with the centering diet.

Three things are very important to do while you’re on a macrobiotic centering diet to help your body in the healing process:

1) Eat and drink the best quality foods and beverages possible — organic, fresh, untainted.
2) Chew your food as much as possible — at least 100 times and more.
3) Avoid overeating and over-drinking — eat just until your stomach is not-quite full and drink only when you are thirsty, and after you have finished eating.

By doing these three things, you’ll free up your body so that it can focus on healing.

Notes:
• See Essential Guide To Macrobiotics by Carl Ferre for information about the macrobiotic centering and basic macrobiotic diets.
• See Basic Macrobiotic Cooking by Julia Ferre for information on how to prepare these foods for your meals.

Related articles:
What Is The Macrobiotic Centering Diet?
The Importance of Chewing
“Fatso”

Whole Grains for Centering

2011-04-02T18:39:00.000-07:00

I can think of at least twelve different kinds of whole grains, more if you count all the different varieties and grain-like seeds. Any and all of these grains are eaten in a macrobiotic centering diet in their whole state (without grinding into flour, or rolled into flakes, for example) — See page 86 and then page 18 in Pocket Guide To Macrobiotics, by Carl Ferre (now revised and renamed Essential Guide To Macrobiotics).

Most of the grains benefit from soaking in water overnight, some of which need to be rinsed prior to soaking while others are rinsed after soaking. Toasting or roasting the grains in a dry pan prior to boiling in water is another way of making them more digestible and more yang. Julia Ferre's cookbook, Basic Macrobiotic Cooking, is an excellent guide for preparing and cooking these grains.

If you're not used to eating whole grains or you have trouble digesting them, brown rice cream or whole wheat cream goes down much easier for breakfast in the morning. Recipes are included in Zen Macrobiotics by George Ohsawa and in Basic Macrobiotic Cooking, by Julia Ferre.

The more you chew whole grains, the better they taste — this is for real!

I've tried each of these whole grains at least once, and some are my favorites. I've listed them alphabetically here for convenience.

Amaranth*
Barley
Buckwheat Groats*
Corn (maize)
Millet
Oat Groats
Quinoa* (eaten like a grain, but it really is a seed)
Rice — Brown short-grain
Rice — Brown medium-grain
Rice — Brown long-grain
Rice — Brown sweet
Rice — Brown Basmati (basmati means "fragrant")
Rye
Teff
Wheat Berries
Wild Rice*

* Note: Amaranth, buckwheat, and quinoa seeds are technically not cereals/grains since they're not from the grass family. Whereas wild rice is a member of the grass family and therefore a cereal/grain, but it is not a "true rice" because it is not directly related to Asian rice. (And wild rice is the official state grain for Minnesota.) Amaranth is a relative of spinach, buckwheat is a relative of rhubarb, and quinoa is from the goosefoot family.

Here's what wikipedia says about: amaranth, buckwheat, quinoa, wild rice, and cereals/grains in general.

Related articles:
• "South American Quinoa And Potatoes"
• "Hot Cream Of Rice Cereal"
• "The Importance Of Chewing"