Green Options

There’s so much more to the wonderful world of noodles than old-world durum semolina pasta. And no, I’m not talking about substituting stringy spaghetti squash or strips of summer squash for pastalicious goodness.  Did you know there are gluten-free noodles made from rice, soy protein, quinoa, and even sweet potato starch?

If you are a vegan and want to build up your protein intake here is a guide to grains, beans, nuts, and veggies that will help. Remember to seek out local and organic whenever possible.

 Grains and beans are a truly remarkable way to add protein to a meat and dairy free diet. Quinoa (pictured in a field above) has nine grams of protein. Tempeh is a vegan food that has 41 grams of protein in a cup. Sometimes it is made from cultured organic soybeans, water, organic barley, organic brown rice, and organic millet, like this lightlife tempeh. Here are more grain facts:

• Quinoa (shown growing in the image above) has 9 grams of protein
• Bulgur, cooked into cup has 6
• Brown rice, cooked into a cup has 5

Sunflower seeds make great additions to salads. 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds (pictured below) has six grams of protein.

In my article Vegetarian Sex Health- Sexy Veggie Food for Sexual Enhancement, I explained how simple it is to eat vegetarian or vegan and still get all the vitamins and minerals you need for a healthy sex life. I will be posting some “Sexy Veggie Recipes” that incorporate these sexy foods so you can get started cooking healthier, eating greener and getting your groove on tonight.

VEGETARIAN COOKING for Mommies is an aesthetically pleasing book, as you can tell by the cover, by Laura Theodore, the Jazzy Vegetarian. The focus of this vegetarian cookbook is making fruits and vegetables the “star” of your meals.

Whether a dedicated vegan or serving an occasional vegetarian meal, this book offers over 60 healthy and delicious alternatives to “store bought” fare.

There are so many reasons that women (and men) should be vegetarian or eat a mostly vegetarian diet (I admire those folks who practice animal husbandry, as I could never butcher an animal and eat it).  From the environmental impact of cutting meat from your diet to the health benefits, VEGETARIAN COOKING for Mommies makes it easy to go veggie.

I love how the recipes in VEGETARIAN COOKING for Mommies are organized:

1. 5 Minute Prep
2. Quick Prep
3. Advanced
4. Vegan
5. Dairy

We eat a lot of organic brown rice in our family, which sometimes gets boring. That’s when we remember quinoa!  Quinoa is a “sacred, super crop“:  sacred to the Incas, super crop to the United Nations for its high protein content.  My family likes its nutty flavor, as well as its quick cooking time.  It accompanies almost any meal, and it provides a complete protein containing all nine essential amino acids, which is important to a vegetarian family. Quinoa contains the amino acid lysine and is a good source of manganese, magnesium, iron, copper and phosphorous.

Quinoa is actually not a grain, but is related to beets, chard, and spinach. Quinoa is the seed from chenopodium quinoa, and I love it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It is good in porridge, served in soup, or by itself as a side dish.  We buy it in bulk and eat it weekly.

Cooking Instructions for Organic Quinoa

To make three cups of cooked quinoa:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 1/2 cups water

Ok, so according to the calendar, it may not be summer quite yet, but in California, the avocados are just starting to ripen, which is how I mark the start of the season. And when the weather starts getting warmer, I start turning to lighter, fresh meals. This quinoa-based salad is easy to prepare, and contains so many of my favorite healthy ingredients.

I’m always surprised that quinoa hasn’t caught on mainstream, given how easy it is too cook, and its high nutritional content. Despite the fact that in cooking it’s treated like rice or barley, quinoa is actually a seed, not a grain. Known as the staple of the Incas (and also a staple of the vegans, as it’s a complete protein), this crop originated in the Andes Mountains. It’s used more often in Mexican dishes, but I really enjoy it in this Asian-inspired salad.

The kale is chock full of iron and the nori is rich in calcium and iodine. If you opt for a fat-free dressing, then the only fat comes from the avocado. (Which is, you know, a good fat… at least that’s what I tell myself when I’m scarfing down guacamole.) Here’s the full recipe:

It’s Monday, and in the Green Options office that can only mean one thing: Soup Day!

Every Sunday evening I cook up a great big pot of veggie soup for our small team in San Francisco, and others bring bread or drinks. Not only does it add a little spice to an otherwise not-so-fun day of the week, but it also has some environmental benefits.

How so? Simple: less waste from take-out.

When you’re busy running a startup, it can be tough even for the greenest among us to bring lunch from home every day. So we end up consuming a lot of takeout. Even with more restaurants greening their packaging, you still tend to end up with way more napkins than you need, extra utensils, and more. Wouldn’t it be better to simply not worry about packaging at all?

I can bring in a big tupperware container of soup, and use the dishes and silverware in our kitchen, rather than disposables. Beyond that, when I cook from home, I know where every ingredient comes from. I try to use organic when possible, and everything that comes out of my kitchen is vegan-friendly.

So why not try some communal lunches in your office? Even if you work with a much larger group, start up a lunch club, where colleagues can alternate bringing in home-cooked meals. I’d love to hear about other ways you’re eating better in the workplace!

And of course, I’d be a tease to go on and on about soup without offering up a recipe. Without further adieu, here’s this week’s soup:

Some of the most wonderful aspects of eating a plant-based diet is choosing from the huge variety of foods at your disposal and experiencing a change in your palate. My favorite foods today were definitely not my favorite foods 25 years ago (my father owned ice cream stores), or 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago. It’s so exciting to continually eat better, learn more, and feel healthier all the time. It just

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I live on the Palouse (a region of eastern Washington and northern Idaho), which is famous for its rolling hills and crops such as wheat and lentils. When I think of eating locally-grown foods, lentils instantly come to mind. In fact, lentils are taken quite seriously here. In nearby Pullman, Washington, there is even an annual Lentil Festival celebrating the lovely legume. No, I'm not kidding.

The Palouse is known as the most

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