Shiitake Pasta. I am either going to have to make smaller salads or get a larger plate. I went to five stores until I found shiitake mushrooms, and the ones I found were dried, direct from Japan. How direct I will never know. Had heard more great things about shiitake since the one time I had tried them. Can be served in place of meat, and has all 8 amino acids found in meat and dairy products. A highly prized food in Japan. As support for medical conditions, it has been used successfully in cases of hepatitus, candida, enhancing resistance against viruses, cancer, and in ameliorating the effects of radiation or chemotherapy, among a number of other applications. A very detailed treatment of this amazing mushroom can be found here http://www.herbs2000.com/herbs/herbs_shiitake.htm and also at world’s healthiest Foods http://whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=122 A study done on the effects of shiitake on candida albicans concluded “the findings of this study have shown that L. edodes (shiitake) produces a fungistatic agent, which is able to control C. albicans (candida) multiplication”. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1517-83822001000300003 I boiled the shiitakes to wet-them-out (opposite of dry-them-out), together with the spaghetti, and then cut into very thin slices. Fried in part olive, coconut oil with soy burger, and the spices cumin, coriander, turmeric, black pepper, soy sauce, and one tbsp of fruit chutney which took the place of a butter sauce. Really enjoyed that dish, which is lucky since I have enough dried mushrooms for 10 more meals.

 Breakfast in a cup, except for the garnish. Just decided to make the plate environmentally green. This time, no baked-on, hard to get off oil in the pan because I did not put any in. With a good stainless steel pan this is possible. Be sure to put some oil in the cups (the top ones) before adding the ingredients. There is a fine line between burned on the bottom and cooked on top. The less often you lift the cover to check, the better. Which is why a glass cover is useful in one pan cooking. But, I do not have one, so often get slightly burned on the bottom. The muffins are amaranth, quinoa, pecans, walnuts, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds all ground in the coffee grinder, with a small amount of olive oil or coconut oil added afterwards. There is not a healthier muffin on the planet. Particularly when you factor in the charcoal at the bottom. 
 

 Who said there was no art in garbage. For those who are conscious of  environmental waste, and the profligacy of our society, some of these can be reused. But already they have served two purposes (the photo being the second), and who knows what else lies in store. Later note: Saved all of them except four. Stacked them and put in the freezer for next time.
 

 Garlic and Onion Eggplant With Raisins. Spices: pepper, turmeric, cumin, coriander, oregano. Fried in coconut oil (or olive oil). The super muffin? Space to fill and I have to get rid of them. Just ignore the carrots. Sort of difficult isn’t it. I try, but then remember how healthy they are, and give in. But not so much that I buy and intend to use them immediately or even in the near future. I freeze them. Don’t like pressure. This one was unfrozen two minutes ago. Scraped, cut, sliced (very easy if cut the length wanted, stand on end and slice top to bottom). Put slices into cup of hot water for 1 minute.  
 

 Cinnamon Q and A. Quinoa and Amaranth with sesame seed and an egg. If this looks unappealing, that’s because it is. But it has a lot of things that are good for you. Of course, that’s what they say about most things we don’t want. The topping of honey and cinnamon provides additional health benefits to an already powerful breakfast. 
 

 That was very good. I should reinstate my grading system. This is a four fork. Just to give perspective, a five forker is vanilla fudge ice cream on double chocolate cake. I am sitting here in a wet shirt. If you get turmeric on your clothes, immediately excuse yourself, and wash it, or at least the parts affected. The old idea of rubbing same cloth against itself doesn’t work on turmeric. I put the shirt back on and with a blue towel continued to rub it until gone. Does not have to be blue. The other option is to wear a bright orange top. Turmeric was and still is used to dye cloth. Potent stuff. Back to the dish. Spinach, carrots, broccoli, eggplant. This would make any alkalizing fanatic deliriously happy. They say that the foods you eat should be 60% alkaline and 40% acidic to keep a proper balance in the body. Check it out with this food chart of the two. Alkaline and Acidic Food Chart by www.essense-of-life.com at http://www.google.com/base/a/1389549/D6280858209555450942 After this you can eat all of the junk acidic food you want. The sauce is a garlic sauce with a small soy burger, and mushroom powder for cooking, water, small amount of flour, turmeric and black pepper. Other spices can be added (be careful with the salt). This dish as a whole, touches just about every red flag in the body and turns it green.
 
 

 Solid Soup. Have suddenly had these hives for about a week. Trying to figure out what is causing them by elimination of things which don’t set it off. So far, water is ok.  People like soup. Oh, you don’t? Well then, most people like soup. Living alone, who else am I going to talk to? One of the things I dislike about soups are the spoonfuls of water you have to wade through to get to the good stuff. This is the epitome of solid soups – no water. Plus, it is very healthy and green. Spinach, broccoli, carrots, and garbanzo beans. And the real health? Three cloves of garlic plus turmeric, crushed black pepper, and rosemary. The sauce is mushroom powder for cooking, flour, powdered coffee creamer (or milk) and water.

My thought for the day: When I think of all the things I could do, and all of the various things I have done, I begin to realize the enormity of the world I inhabit and how small it is the place I actually circumscribe for myself. Our dreams are always greater than  our realities but it is only when we attempt to close the gap that we truly live.
 

 Highland Omelet. Tried to get all of the beans into the center. Could have used a good sheepdog. The swath of chutney/sweet chili sauce is the ribbon of excellence.  The brown beans were soaked over night, then initially boiled. After boiling for about 5 minutes, poured the water off and renewed for final stint. This step really helps. Combination of coconut and olive oil for frying, with the 2 eggs poured on top of the beans. Garlic thinly sliced. An alchemy of basics.
 

 Just The Normal Spaghetti Except do not put hot paprika on cucumber. Just does not work. Add oregano, sage, and mushroom powder if you have them. Cook the garlic whole so that it gives its flavor to the dish, and those who have not eaten my last 5 meals, can enjoy it for its benefits, but can leave it if they are already super healthy, or have a close quarters board meeting.
 

 Chocolate and Peanut Butter Plus Ground Nuts On Top Chutney Inside Pancake. That’s the recipe. Use butter in the pan to fry, or you will never get it off the bottom due to the fruit chutney.

 Sweet Potato Pies. You are seeing this only because I believe in spreading my failures as well as my successes. Technically, it came out perfectly. But taste wise, I could not even finish them. You know that has to be a sign of terrible. This, in spite of my motto “You will like it no matter what because you cooked it”. Basically the problems were: Added no spices or sweeteners to the sweet potato. Added no spices to the white sauce. Added no spices to the pie crust. I forgot my own admonition about everything must stand on its own in terms of flavor. Nothing did. Pie crust was too thick and looked totally unappetizing. So, from the stand point of appeal, I may as well have served the meal in a paper bag. This could be fixed by sticking it in the oven for a couple of minutes, or, pan frying the tops to a light brown before putting them on the mashed sweet potato and white sauce. On the technical side: Sliced the sweet potato very thin, put coconut (olive) oil in the cups. Used a small glass to cut out pastry bottoms from hand flattened dough, heaped up the sweet potato/onion mash (if you want to turn them over to pan brown the top, make it flat), covered the top crust with a thin layer of oil or butter. After this meal, I will have to go back to basics. It’s very good to do that every once in a while. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the za’atared leftover-dough which I pan fried.

 Sweet potato mash with onions, before putting on the crust.
 

   My Choice. Pan fried tortilla, melted swiss cheese, raw sweet onion, cherry tomatoes, fried champignon mushrooms (read warning), fried sliced garlic, coriander, basilicum. This was really a delight to eat, aside from the yellowish color of the photo which makes it impossible to see the swiss cheese. But I didn’t have to look at the photo while dining.

 Desayuno de Joan Miro. You should see me when I get serious. The bread chips toasted in butter are a sliced-while-frozen roll.

 Smart Seed

Burnt Bean Tortillas. This is for everyone who has burned something. Guess that means 99.999% of the world above the age of let’s say 6. Before that, you are simply a recipient. It’s somehow comforting to know that you’re in good company. Tasted one of the beans. Interesting… so they all went into the mix. The tough part, if it isn’t just interesting, is cutting the burned part off of a bean. I pass. Now, after pan renovation, the garlic was sliced and fried. The burned beans, smashed, were added back into the pan with a small amount of water, 2 heaping tbsp of mushroom power for cooking, and about 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, 1 tbsp sweet chili sauce. This was followed by the most important part – the spices: Thyme, coriander, oregano, turmeric, black pepper. Food has become, for me, merely a carrier for spices. This is where our normally humdrum food substances meet the exotic world of taste, the type of heat which does not burn, the truly medicinal, the taste and smell of other worlds. The more I learn, the more I realize that the natural world was created to provide interactive support for each living entity. We have moved so far away from our roots in this regard, that we have lost the folk wisdom gleaned from millions of years of being truly immersed in the living world around us. Modern drugs can only attempt to mimic the power and healing of the natural world. Our drugs heal only partially because the break down and synthesis has stripped the basic support of all of the vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and factors which we have still not identified, from the living organism in which it was immersed, giving in the end only partial healing, partial protection, and lack of fulfillment. Our ancestors knew the effects of certain plants on the system. And as we have moved away from nature over the years, we have begun to lose this knowledge. Much of it is already gone, and the last vestiges are fading. We have lost so much. And then I ran into Annie’s Remedy – Essential Oils and Herbs. http://www.anniesremedy.com/remedy_use14.php
 

 Cinnamon Honey Tortilla Cuts. Living alone, I am not above taking all the help I can get. This was started as a rich mushroom soup powder to which I added, milk (creamer), real live mushrooms (champignons store bought), peas, and coriander. Served with cinnamon/honey tortilla mini-folds. The tortilla was cut (actually bent and folded to break) before putting them in the pan with small amount of olive oil. Do not try to cut once hot and in the pan. One side slightly toasted, turned over, and folded with two utensils after inserting the cinnamon and honey. Need to work fast here in a hot pan so they do not burn. That’s the biggest challenge I’ve faced all day. Of course, it’s only 8:00am. If not up for the challange that early in the morning, take them out before folding. As you can see, a machine did not make those.
 

 Tomato Paste Egg. If you have never tried this, you really should. Two eggs shaken in a jar and poured in. Cover and when it has cooked on top, add the tomato paste (should be slightly sweet). Pour sesame seeds or za’atar (sesame seeds, thyme, sumac) on and cover to finish.
 

Enhancing Your Immune System. Natural News.com One of the best online personal health newsletters I have found. This particular link talks about enhancing the immune system, emphasizing natural products and plants available. 
http://www.naturalnews.com/Report_Anti-Viral_Remedies_Influenza_0.html%22%3EThe Five Best Anti-Viral Products to Beat Influenza, Swine Flu, Bird Flu and SARS
 

 Quinoa/Amaranth/Flour/Nut Super Pancake. Think I have found where the idea of jigsaw puzzles came from. Also, why raisins were developed – to fill in the holes, of course. As you can see, I am very bad at these kinds of puzzles, but found the result delicious. And very healthy. A nutty crunch and favor which made it one of the best pancakes I have ever eaten. Don’t take my word for it – try it. Made of 1/3 flour, 1/3 quinoa, and 1/3 amaranth (see discussion of amaranth on previous posts). Almonds and walnuts added to the grinder when the quinoa and amaranth were ground to a powder (do not put the flour in at this stage). Add a small amount of oil to the batter after flour and water have been added to the desired consistency. Best to use butter to fry the pancake because some of the ingredients can cause the dough to stick. I used only olive oil here, hence the photographed result. Have not tried other oils, so there may be many alternatives to butter. 

 Before Reconstruction
 

  Bean Pasta Co. This is close to the healthiest dish you will ever eat. So I guess the phrase ‘drop dead delicious’ would not be appropriate. The crowning sauce is a combination of nuts and seeds, mushroom powder, milk, butter, flour (very little), coriander, oregano, turmeric, crushed black pepper, rosemary (for information on this spice – checkout summary and the precautions at the bottom of the page if you plan on using a lot of it http://herbalmusings.com/Rosemary.htm) Also, check out  http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/learn/rosemary.php  I added about 1 heaping tbsp of brewer’s yeast for the B vitamins. The ground nuts and seeds are almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds. The base is garbanzo beans (chick peas) http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?dbid=58&tname=foodspice, mung beans often used in the Far East and the Asian Subcontinent as a main dish, as a preparation for desserts, and the basis for sprouts (It is also called green bean, mung, moong, mash bean, munggo or monggo, green gram, golden gram, and green soy  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mung_bean), and the final ingredient, butterfly pasta. The spinach you recognize. The beans, nuts, seeds, mushroom powder, and spinach just about gives everything you need to operate efficiently. Keep this level of protection up, get your 10 minutes of vitamin D sunshine a day, and you are covered. Wait, don’t cancel your health insurance, but you may find that you won’t be needing it much. Four comments on the cooking: 1. Be sure to cook the spinach 2. Soak the garbanzos over night, drain and put new water for several hours, boil and dump water before adding the pasta and spinach. For the mung beans depending on recipe and source, either soak over night or just start boiling for some minutes, rest for 1 hour, change water and cook until soft, or just cook until split and ready. One way to look at it http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Suresh7.html (a yoga instructor in the Bay area). 3. Put the milk or water for the sauce into the pan first, and then start adding the mushroom powder and flour a little at a time. Once you have the sauce the consistency you want, add the ground nuts and seeds. Be sure to have water or milk available for adding to the mixture as necessary. 4. Add the rosemary to the initial milk or water so that this spice has a chance to become pliable and fully integrated. Other spices can be inserted as you go – but, the earlier the better.
 

A compact conversion chart for just about everything except money http://www.vrp.com/chart.aspx
 

Herbs and Spices
One of the most complete treatments of herbs and spices which I have found. http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/bulkherb/bulkherb.php Mountain Rose Herbs Gives origin, contemporary information, folklore, and photo for each.

Some quick reference charts of herbs and spices
Most complete treatment of herbs and spices found is http://www.herbs2000.com/herbs/1menu.htm  herbs2000.com

The actions of herbs and spices (quite good) http://www.herbs2000.com/h_menu/1_actions.htm Particularly helpful as it gives the common names of herbs and alternative names used for each to help in finding an herb

List of ailments http://www.herbs2000.com/disorders/1_symptoms.htm

Herb and Spice Charts Gives basic food groups and give herbs and spices applicable http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blmisc2.htm

Gives the herb or spice and on which dishes used http://www.foodandnutrition.com/Appendix/spice_chart.htm

51 herbs and spices and on which dishes used  
http://www.recipes.ubr.com/home/cooking-tips-page/herb-directory-herb-chart-herb-information-spice-directory-spice-chart-spice-information.aspx

Best descriptive for each herb or spice http://www.chef-menus.com/herb_and_spice_chart.html
 

 Cinnamon, Honey and Raisin Tort with cold Strawberry Jam Yogurt. Says it all. With added Ginger. Taste wise, I can’t decide whether the ginger is a good thing, but as for the possible effects of ginger on the body, it’s a very good thing.
 

 Egg Salad with Burnt Bean Tortilla Stand-in. The salad is the center piece,  made in the usual way so I will not bore you. Was going to show several ways of making an egg salad, but this is the best one and the one I was going to use as my finale, so why waste time on the others. My heart was in this one. p.s. bean tort is one I saved from last night and is still frozen here. One of the things photos do not tell you.

 Nut and Seed Pasta (formal attire). The important ingredients here are the ground nuts (pecan) and seeds  (sesame, sunflower) mixed with the soy burger before adding it to the pasta and pouring on the coriander, basilicum, and oregano. A teaspoon of sweet chili can be added. The burger and grounds were fried in olive and coconut oil. The butterfly pasta visually makes this dish.

Boiled Egg and Support. Believe it or not, boiling an egg has been placed on the list of cooking which is planned, and therefore not part of the foods normally available to me. I have tried to determine just what it is about hard boiling an egg which places it out of the range of instant cooking, and came up with two factors. First, I cannot just boil one egg. It is a waste of heat and of the time involved, hence it becomes a preparation stage for further meals, and therefore becomes planning. Secondly, one cannot see the transformation taking place. Hence, the inability to monitor progress and be on top of the process. This means that time is no longer an active part of an ongoing procedure, but becomes an abstract entity, meaning quite simply that one does not stand there and watch an egg boil. You leave the room to do other more important things, and inevitably forget, ending up with burnt pans and eggs. Hence the egg timer. However, this time I did remember and came back just as the eggs were congealing (I hoped). Ate the first one, just to be sure, and the second you see as the center piece for butterfly pasta and peas in a mushroom powder sauce. The third and fourth eggs… well, we’ll see. Have no plans at the moment.
 

Non-dairy dish #19
End of everything. Half potato left over from 2 days ago, quarter of a cauliflower (which leaves 1/4 left for tomorrow) from 2 days ago, red cabbage left from 4 days ago, last of the tofu, last minus 4 of the soy dogs, clove of garlic, salad (not shown). Fried together (except for salad). No spices except for salt. Was just not in a spice mood. Mushroom-soup-powder-because-I-had-run-out-of-rich-mushroom powder-for-cooking-flour-water sauce. Today is one of those days.

Non-dairy dish #20
Amaranth Stir Fry. What is Amaranth? I’ll get to that. There are perfectly good recipes for it but I just decided to pour it in on top of my frying onions, tempeh and sunflower seeds. And added water, and more water, and more water. Found out it cooks much like rice. At the end you get soft grains with a bit of resistance which is actually not bad. Not bad at all. Added mushroom soup powder, basil, herbs de Provence, salt and let it steep. O.K. what is it? It is a grain which is purported to be one of the few full protein grains in existence and 30% higher in protein than other grains. High in manganese and a lot of other minerals and vitamins. Used all over the world although not much in the U.S. Is most famous for having been the main stay of the Incas and of the Aztec empire before the Spanish Conquistadores arrived. Besides the seed which is from a purple/red to gold flower. I repeat here a list of links I sent to my niece. While I fully enjoyed my dish, I suggest that you look at some of the recipes. Has some really amazing properties. From Wikipedia below “Besides protein, amaranth grain provides a good source of dietary fiber and dietary minerals such as iron, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, and especially manganese”. From whfoods.com and  Description from Wikipedia.  From About.com - Amaranth: a Healthy Grain for Vegetarian Recipes giving nutritional data. One word about the leaves which are in many cases a different species.  The leaves contain high amounts of oxalic acid which inhibits calcium absorption by the body. Boiling and throwing away the water reduces the amount left but those with certain medical conditions should probably avoid eating the leaves, or do so in moderate amounts. Also, like spinach, it is best not to reheat the cooked leaves. All of this only applies to the leaves and not to the amaranth grain.

Special Olive Oil Breakfast. Says it all.  “It turns out that people who use olive oil regularly, especially in place of other fats, have much lower rates of heart disease, atherosclerosis, diabetes, colon cancer, and asthma.”  World’s Healthiest Foods
And if you really want to eat healthily and are just not faking it for a while (like I tend to do every once in a while):  Health Tips and Avoid List by Mike Adams
There are the experts in this world, and then there are the eaters. I’m an eater. These were very good. Experts are excellent at what they do and know, but their knowledge often gets in the way of the sheer experience of something. Not me. But, there have been some things learned. For instance, there are two secrets here. One, if you are using a frying pan, turn them before they burn and that is long before you think that is going to happen. Two, when they are still not done, cover and turn off the flame and let the pan do the cooking. Otherwise, it will form this moonless night crust and the inside will not be done. Three, yeh, yeh, I know, make the batter with as little water as possible so the dough just hangs together and then roll small globs in dry flour before putting them in the hot pan with a little olive oil. Then press in a nut on top. Ingreds (because I don’t know if its an e or an a in the end and I hate to correct): Flour, sugar, vanilla, salt, raisins, nuts.
 

This time it’s the mushrooms. Next time it’ll be something else. The amount? Number? Lots. You will find yourself looking for them in the rice/amaranth crushed tomato/tomato paste bowl. Don’t let your search be in vain. Everything else is a sideline. Pictures don’t lie? Believe me. They’re there.