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carrot falafel

Posted on March 27, 2010 by Jen

After the Sour Beer Tasting this afternoon, we were feeling like we needed a healthy dinner!  Luckily, I had some Carrot Falafel waiting for us at home which I had made last night.

I found the recipe on Gena’s blog a few weeks ago and have been wanting to try it.  Since the falafel are made with carrot pulp, I saved the juice pulp from the juice that I made the other day, which was a perfect amount for the recipe (2 cups).  My pulp contained carrots, celery, lemon, ginger and apple but the carrot was the main flavor.

I have been making a lot of juice lately, and feeling guilty about throwing away the pulp.  I would save it with the intention of making something delicious, but then it just sits in the fridge for weeks!  By that time, I figure the nutrients are gone, so I toss it.  This week, I went into the week knowing my plans for the juice pulp.

I also just happened to have the other ingredients needed on hand.  See the complete recipe on Gena’s blog, Choosing Raw.

This is a raw falafel recipe that she came up with.  As you know, I love to try out new raw recipes (and to get my husband to try them).  I just feel awesome when I eat raw foods.  I rarely feel too full after eating them, and I feel great about myself.  I do enjoy cooked food as well, and won’t stop eating them, but there are days when my body just craves wholesome raw food, so I go with it. 🙂  There are also days when I wake up and want a big bowl of oatmeal!  I love to listen to my bodies wants and eat what it tells me too because it normally craves the nutrients that you are missing.  On to this great recipe!

The recipe is so easy.  Mix all of the ingredients together, and shape into little patties.

I placed my 16 1-1.5 inch patties directly onto my dehydrator trays, but you could also cook these on a cookie sheet in the oven.  Of course, dehydrating them keeps more nutrients intact, but not everyone has a dehydrator and I know they would taste delicious either way!  The outside should be ‘cooked’, while the inside is still moist, similar to a fried falafel.

I ‘cooked’ the patties for 2 hours at 115°F, then flipped them over and ‘cooked’ for an additional 2 hours.  If you make them in the oven, set to the lowest temperature and keep the door slightly ajar.  Once done, I put them on a plate and stuck them in the fridge, since I made these the night before I wanted to serve them for dinner.  It only took 10 minutes to prepare last night, while I was waiting for my beets to cook for last night’s dinner.

Tonight when we got home from the Beer event, all I had to do was make the Tangy Tahini Sauce to go with the falafel.  We were starving, so this worked out perfectly!  The sauce contained sesame tahini, soy sauce, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, garlic, cumin and coriander.  See recipe here.  I put everything into my blender and it was done in seconds!

This recipe made so much sauce.  I have this whole container left over!  It was delicious though, and will be perfect on my lunch salads throughout the week.

I served our falafel with a small green salad topped with raisins, sprouted sunflower seeds and Tangy Tahini dressing!

Yum!  I loved this meal. 🙂  I think Brant did too!  The carrot falafel was really flavorful and a great texture.  It paired really well with the tangy tahini sauce, which had a bit of sweetness and tangy-ness.  So glad I have leftovers!

We decided to jump in the car and get Frozen Yogurt for dessert – a rare, but delicious treat for us!

I topped my Tangy Fro-Yo with Mangoes, Blueberries and Kiwi’s!

Hope you are having a great Saturday night!

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Filed under: Recipes | Tagged: , | 4 Comments »

sour power

Posted on March 27, 2010 by Jen

This afternoon, Brant and I went to a fun beer tasting at Gordon’s Wines & Liquors called “Sour Power“.  They have this run little tasting room behind their liquor store at their Waltham, MA location where the event was held.  It was a casual affair, where different vendors were set up with a sampling of different beers, all pretty sour!

Honestly, I never knew that there was a such thing as a “Sour” beer, did you?  I figured that they would just have a hint of sourness, and some did, but others were full on sour!  I loved that we just got little sips of each beer, so that I could taste more.  There were many different beers to try, but I probably tried about half of them.  Some I loved, some I didn’t even like the smell, so I dumped them out.

My favorite station was the fruity sour beers, but I enjoyed many others as well.

We even ran into Tina of Carrots N’ Cake!

It was a fun way to spend a cold Saturday afternoon!  We are feeling like a healthy dinner after our fun afternoon, so see ya after. 🙂

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manna bread & mangoes

Posted on March 27, 2010 by Jen

It’s a gorgeous day in Boston, even though it is much colder than I would like it to be!  I love getting my weekend days started early because I feel so much more productive.  My plan was to hit the gym to get a weight session in after a 2 week hiatus.  I ate some toast with almond butter beforehand in order to fuel up with carbs before working out.

This wasn’t just any toast with AB!  I spotted some Manna Bread in the freezer case at my local health food store last week when I was looking for Millet bread and I decided to try it out.  I tried their new flavor –Banana Walnut Hemp.

I had read about this bread on some blogs and in some magazines, so I knew that it was a sprouted bread, but I had no idea what it would taste like.  On their website they describe Manna Bread as a cake-like, sprouted bread, free of salt, no oils, no sweeteners, no leavening agents.  The ingredient list is awesome!

Ingredients: sprouted organic wheat kernels, filtered water, organic dried bananas, organic walnuts, organic flaxseeds, organic hemp seeds.

The loaf is small, but definitely filling (which I discovered this morning).  It is almost smaller than my hand!

Since the loaf is frozen, I popped the entire thing in the microwave for 30 seconds.  I was able to cut off a few slices without having the whole loaf defrost.  This is loaded with bananas and walnuts!

I toasted the bread and topped it with a little almond butter for staying power at the gym.  This bread was absolutely delicious!  It was moist and flavorful, unlike the Ezekiel bread that I sometimes buy.  Each loaf has 6 servings, which each contain 140 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, 27 grams of carbs, 12 grams of sugar and 5 grams of protein.  Spread with a little nut butter makes this a great snack!  I will absolutely buy this again, and I can’t wait to try other flavors because they sound delicious – Carrot Raisin, Cinnamon Date, Fig Fennel Flax, Fruit and Nut, Millet Rice, Multigrain, Sunseed and Whole Rye.  They all sound out of this world!  YUM.

Anyways, enough about bread and on to my awesome workout.

I started with a total body weight session (about 35 minutes), which felt awesome after about 2 weeks off.  I do my full body weights as circuits in order to burn more calories while lifting weights.  Plus, it keeps it more interesting!

Total Body Weight Session

  • 21’s (3 sets, 18 lb bar)
  • Deadlifts with upright row (3 sets of 12, 18 lb bar)
  • Chest press on bench (12.5 lb, 3 sets of 12) with Bicycle Crunches (3 sets of 15)
  • Squats with overhead press (10 lb weights, 3 sets of 12)
  • Lunges with side lift alternating with lunges with front raise (7.5 lb weights, 3 sets of 12 each leg)
  • Triceps extension (10 lb weight, 3 sets of 12) with Triceps dip (3 sets of 12)
  • Crunches on a ball (3 sets of 15) with Fly on ball (7.5 lb weights, 3 sets of 12)
  • Triceps pullback on ball (12.5 lb weights, 3 sets of 12) with Frog crunches (3 sets of 15)

I followed my weights session with a 5 mile easy run on the treadmill.  It felt awesome to run, but my legs still do feel a little tired.  I plan to take it easy for the next week as well because they do say to do easy workouts for 13 days after a Half Marathon (1 day for each mile run).  I can’t wait to fit in some more swimming and spinning next week.

After the gym, I whipped up a fruit & protein smoothie for recovery.  The star of the show was a Mango Amazing Meal packet.  I really like the Amazing Grass products.  This meal packet contains lots of green superfoods, plant based protein, phytonutrient rich fruits & vegetables, digestive enzymes and probiotics.  Everything that your body needs!  The 10 grams of protein in the packet make it a good post workout snack.  It contains 110 calories, so you could just mix this up with water or milk to get your protein.  I just like to add more to my smoothies to make them more filling!

And, some frozen fruit.

Mango-Strawberry Protein Smoothie

  • 1 packed Pomegranate Mango Amazing Meal
  • 1 banana
  • 1 cup frozen mango
  • 8 frozen strawberries (on the small side)
  • 1 cup almond milk

It was very good!  It had a very strong mango flavor with just a hint of berry.

I’m planning on some beet salad from last night on a bed of greens for lunch (the smoothie was awesome, but I’m already hungry again!), some study time, and then a fun beer tasting this afternoon!

See ya!

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