I found this recipe on the Simple Veganista blog (listed in recipe websites below)
Made with chickpea (garbanzo) flour, this can be used as a pizza crust for all of your favorite toppings!
Ingredients
1 cup garbanzo bean flour (aka: besan)
1 cup lukewarm water
2 tablespoons olive oil + more for pan
1/2 teaspoon mineral salt
optional add-ins for variation:
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary or thyme
pinch of red pepper flakes
chopped basil
fresh cracked pepper
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
sliced shallots
In a medium size mixing bowl, add flour, water, oil and salt. Whisk until smooth, cover and let set for at least 15 minutes, up to 12 hours, covered, on the counter or overnight in the fridge.
Heat oven to 450 degrees F.
Place a well seasoned skillet on the middle rack while oven is heating (we want it to get nice and hot). Once oven is ready, carefully remove skillet, add 2 tablespoons oil and carefully twirl skillet so the oil coats the bottom evenly. Add batter and place back in the oven for 12—15 minutes, until golden on the edges and firm throughout. Once done you may like to add a more golden and rustic look, turn broiler to high, place skillet under broiler for about 2 minutes, until top starts to golden a bit.
Remove pan, let cool a few minutes, using a spatula gently push under and around the sides of the flatbread. Tip skillet to remove socca bread or carefully flip skillet over to remove. Cut into slices or pull apart and eat. Socca is best eaten right away.
Notes:
Using a 12 inch skillet, pan or baking dish will give you a thinner bread, while a 10 or 8 inch skillet will give you a slightly thicker bread. The one I have shown here is a 10 inch, bread was about 1/4 inch thick.
If you don't have an iron skillet, you can use any flat, shallow oven-safe baking dish.
Chickpea flour (aka: garbanzo bean flour or besan) can be found on-line, at most health conscious stores and at Indian and Middle Eastern markets.
Friday, July 10, 2015
Monday, June 29, 2015
Forks Over Knives Website
I love the Forks over Knives website. I actually get posts on my Facebook page. The website has research, articles, recipes and more.
I really enjoyed this article titled How a Plant-Based Diet Helped Me Become an Endurance Athlete.
It tells the story of a man who has struggled with weigh and fitness issues most of his life. He began participating in long distance running and ultimately found that switching to a plant-based diet has allowed him to tale his performance to a whole new level!
To read more articles go to Forks over Knives
Friday, June 19, 2015
FED UP movie on Nextflix
I just finished watching Fed Up a documentary about the childhood obesity epidemic in the U.S. and now around the world.
To say that I enjoyed it would be wrong. It was hard to watch, that is the truth. However, I think that as consumers, voters, parents, and eaters, we need to know that our culture of processed foods is killing our children.
If you have Netflix I urge you to watch this movie with your whole family. It will be long, a bit boring at times since there are no special effects and no young good-looking stars. What there will be is information that is critical to your well-being and that of your children and grandchildren.
Lets not let this be the generation where our children have a shorter life span that that of their parents.
Other great movies on Netflix are listed on this page the right.
To say that I enjoyed it would be wrong. It was hard to watch, that is the truth. However, I think that as consumers, voters, parents, and eaters, we need to know that our culture of processed foods is killing our children.
If you have Netflix I urge you to watch this movie with your whole family. It will be long, a bit boring at times since there are no special effects and no young good-looking stars. What there will be is information that is critical to your well-being and that of your children and grandchildren.
Lets not let this be the generation where our children have a shorter life span that that of their parents.
Other great movies on Netflix are listed on this page the right.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
My $1.50 a Day Challenge: Eating a Plant-Based Diet on an Austere Budget - article from Forks Over Knives
For those who think it is too expensive to eat healthy,
Read this article on how the author lived on a five-day $7.50 budget.
My $1.50 a Day Challenge: Eating a Plant-Based Diet on an Austere Budget
Summary of her article included what she purchased:
And her daily menu:
Read this article on how the author lived on a five-day $7.50 budget.
My $1.50 a Day Challenge: Eating a Plant-Based Diet on an Austere Budget
Summary of her article included what she purchased:
- 10 lb. bag of potatoes = 99¢
- 2 lb. bag of carrots = 99¢
- 1 lb. bag of brown rice = 99¢
- 1 lb. bag of brown lentils = 99¢
- 2/3 lb. of brown rice pasta = 99¢
- 2 cans of tomato sauce = 99¢
And her daily menu:
- Day 1: Masala mashed potatoes, lentil stew with spices, carrots and brown rice. Divided it into three meals, which was plenty for the day.
- Day 2: Oatmeal with carrots, boiled potatoes seasoned with salt and pepper, leftover lentil stew and fresh carrots.
- Day 3: Potato stew with tomato sauce, leftover brown rice and lentil stew, and fresh carrots.
- Day 4: Baked potatoes, brown rice with carrots, curry-flavored oatmeal with carrots, sprouted lentil dal. Sprouting the lentils made them taste fresh and light, and baked potatoes are so good! Added a lime this day for 33¢.
- Day 5: Pasta with tomato sauce, lentils, and carrots, plus baked potatoes. And spent the remaining 45¢ on ½ lb. of fresh organic spinach! There was enough pasta left over for lunch the next day. Ended up with about two pounds of unused potatoes.
Friday, March 27, 2015
Sunday, March 22, 2015
KC Food Circle’s Annual Eat Local (& Organic!) Expos
March 28, 2015
9:00 am - 2:00 pm
Johnson County Community College (JCCC) Gym
9:00 am - 2:00 pm
Johnson County Community College (JCCC) Gym
April 11, 2015
9:30 am- 2:30 pm
MCC Penn Valley Community College Gym
9:30 am- 2:30 pm
MCC Penn Valley Community College Gym
Do you know your farmer? Join us at our 17th annual Eat Local & Organic Expos
for a chance to meet and buy directly from some of the best local, organic, and
free-range farmers in the area. Snatch up early flower and garden
seedlings, fresh greens, herbs, free-range meat and eggs and get our free
Directory of local organic and free range producers. Getting a subscription to
a farm (a CSA) gets you top pick of the best food in town.
Some farmers can accept credit cards
and checks, but cash is preferred. There are several ATM’s near JCCC, and also
just east of MCC Penn Valley on Main Street.
Workshop for kids of all
ages: "Little Sprouts - The Joy and Wonder of Learning How Things
Grow"
10:00-10:45 am (at both Expos)
- Dayna McDaniel of SeedSavers-KC will welcome kids of all ages to this
introduction to seeds, pollination, fruit production and seed harvest.
Kids will plant a pot of seeds to grow at home. This hands-on nature
activity will give kids and parents alike the basic lessons in the magic of
gardening and will give them the tools they need to get growing!
Admission and parking are free. Families are welcome!
Friday, January 23, 2015
FatFree Vegan Kitchen - New Website for Your Enjoyment!
Looking for some new recipes to spice up this gloomy winter and maybe shed a few pounds?
Here is a recipe website I found by accident when I was searching for directions to make a laptop tray for my treadmill.
This is website created by Susan Voisin who eliminated all animal products from her diet and lost over 100 pounds.
Enjoy!
FatFree Vegan Kitchen
Here is a recipe website I found by accident when I was searching for directions to make a laptop tray for my treadmill.
This is website created by Susan Voisin who eliminated all animal products from her diet and lost over 100 pounds.
Enjoy!
FatFree Vegan Kitchen
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Mobile APPS for Nutrition Health
I haven't included links to each of the APPS but you can read through the list and check out the ones that look the most useful to you. At the bottom of the list are a few kid friendly website - not mobile APPS.
Please let me know which ones you like using the best!
Please let me know which ones you like using the best!
Calorie Counter and
Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal
The app tracks standard things like fat, calories, protein,
and carbs, but also potassium, iron, fiber, and calcium. At the end of each
day, the app calculates how much you'll weigh in five weeks if you continue to
eat the same way you did that day—an encouraging way to ensure you're on the
right path. The app's fitness database includes calorie expenditures for more
than 350 exercises. At the end of the week, you can check out your weekly
average for both fitness and nutrition, and view detailed charts and reports of
your progress.
Free for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phones.
Calorie Counter:
Diets & Activities
Calorie Counter: Diets & Activities is more of a
traditional food journal that will track nutrients, fats, carbs, protein,
cholesterol, calories, water intake, and exercise. Users can log their physical
activity and keep track of calories burned. They can also make their own diet
and fitness plan by setting goals for weight loss, gain, or maintenance. There
are more than 400,000 brands, varieties, and restaurants in the app's database,
and users can also integrate the app with their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Calorie Counter by
About
With all these calorie-counting apps, it can be hard to
stand out, but About's Calorie Counter has found a way: it logs by voice. With
Calorie Counter, simply say, "One bagel, one tablespoon of cream
cheese," and the app will log your meal. It's an extension of CalorieCount.com
and your information is synced between the two. Users can also take advantage
of other CalorieCount.com features on their mobile devices, including the
community of more than three million users that make up the site's numerous
groups and forums. The app also has a barcode scanner that scans UPC codes on
food packages to track food. Its local database offers offline support so users
can input food anytime. Calorie Counter displays a nutrition grade with pros
and cons each time a user looks up a product.
SparkPeople Food and
Fitness Tracker
SparkPeople.com offers free nutrition, health, and fitness
tools, as well as support and resources. If you want to take advantage of
SparkPeople's offerings while on the go, there's the SparkPeople Food and Fitness
Tracker app, which syncs with your online account. Includes customized meal
plans and graphs that show weight loss over time. Its calorie tracker is paired
with a database of more than one million food products, and the app also
features a way to easily view your calories eaten and burned throughout the
day. Daily meal plans are customized for your goals, and the app's fitness
tracker and weigh-in page help keep your weight on track.
Calorie Tracker by
Livestrong
The Calorie Tracker from Livestrong.com is also an excellent
resource. It has a large food database,
which contains more than 1.3 million food and restaurant items. It offers
complete nutritional tracking of calories, fat, cholesterol, carbohydrates,
sugar, sodium, fiber, and protein. PCMag rated it a 3.5 out of 5 for its
stylized interface and its good selection of physical activities in the
database.
Lose It!
Lose It! is a great tool for tracking daily calorie intake
and charting weight loss. Users input their height, weight, health goals (goal
weight and timeline), and Lose It! creates a plan, calculating how many
calories you should consume each day. According to Lose It!, the average user
loses 12.3 pounds, and 86 percent of active users have lost weight. If you're a
Fitbit Ultra user, connect it to Lose It! to automatically update your
activity.
Tap & Track –
Calorie Counter (Diets & Exercises)
Though it's expensive, Tap & Track is a favorite in the
iTunes App Store. With close to 20,000 four-star ratings, Tap & Track
doesn't require Internet access, making it easy to track food at any time. The
app's database consists of more than 500,000 food items from more than 2,000
food brands and more than 700 restaurants. Tap & Tracks also features more
than 180 exercises, including household chores like dusting. In addition to
viewing daily information on calories, fat, saturated fat, protein, carbs,
sugars, sodium, and fiber, users can actually set their own budgets for carbs
and fats. The app also allows numerous profiles, so more than one user can
track their food and fitness using the app. A nice plus: users can export
nutrition data to an email account and open it in an Excel spreadsheet.
Calorie Counter By
FatSecret
With a 4.5-out-of-5-star rating in the Google Play app store
(out of nearly 50,000 ratings) Calorie Counter by FatSecret is a favorite among
Android users. The app does everything a calorie counter should. Calorie
Counter works in tandem with FatSecret.com, and users have to first set up a
profile on the website before using the mobile version. Profile setup is easy;
just answer a few questions about your age, gender, height, weight, lifestyle,
and goal weight, and then you'll receive a calorie budget. Calorie Counter's
features include a food and exercise diary, a barcode scanner and manual
barcode input, and recipe and meal ideas. The app and website are both free to
use, and Calorie Counter is available for both Android and iPhone.
Restaurant Nutrition
In some cities, chain restaurants must display calorie
counts on menus—a helpful requirement for dieters on a road trip. Restaurant
Nutrition lists nutrition information from more than 250 restaurant chains
across the United States. With more than 60,000 food items filed, you can sort
through to see what the best option might be. Once you've found it, you can add
the item to your food journal to track your eating habits, including the
calories and nutritional information. If you happen to have a food allergy,
Restaurant Nutrition lets you hide menu items that contain that ingredient. There's
also a gluten-free menu indicator, and a map feature that helps find nearby
restaurants. The app is free and available for both iPhone and Android. Note:
the Android version isn't as feature-rich as the iPhone version. For example,
it lists only 100 restaurants and 15,000 food items.
Fooducate
This is the only APP on both my food label list and fitness
list. Food companies often market a
product as being healthful when, in reality, it's far from it. For example,
orange juice may seem nutritious, but one single serving cup has the same
amount of sugar as five oranges—without their fiber. So, yes, you're getting
your vitamin C, but you're also getting a ton of sugar without reaping the
benefits of just eating the orange whole. Fooducate is here to help users see
the true value of the foods they're buying at the grocery store.
Using the phone's camera, users scan a product's barcode and
Fooducate quickly brings up a letter grade. Along with the grade, Fooducate
gives the product's highlights (both good and bad), shows healthier
alternatives, and lets users compare products. Fooducate unearths the
nutritional facts that manufacturers don't want consumers to see, including
excessive sugar, sneaky trans fats, additives and preservatives, high fructose
corn syrup, unnatural food colorings, and more. The app has more than 200,000
unique UPCs in its database, and if the product isn't in the database, users
can take a series of photos and submit it to Fooducate to be added. Fooducate
is free and available for iPhone and Android.
Mealboard
MealBoard combines
recipe management, meal planning, groceries and pantry management into a single
app. It is fully customizable. You can manage your recipes, ingredients, food
categories, meal types, stores, store aisles, grocery items and many more with
its clean, uncluttered interface.
Cut your time spent planning your meals and groceries. With
MealBoard, a few taps is all it takes!
MealGuru
MealGuru transforms your iPad into a mobile meal planning
solution capable of whipping up deliciously healthy dinner ideas for everyday
of the week, including your own favorite recipes. With MealGuru you’ll feel
more satisfied from a healthier, balanced eating regimen by starting to improve
your and your family’s eating habits today.
Bon’App
Bon’App has been created to help you on your quest to live a
healthier life! It will change the way you think about the food you eat. Join
us today. Bon’App helps you:
·
Know what's in your food by using a simple
language of Calories, Sugar, Salt, and Bad Fat
·
Understand the impact foods will have on YOU
based on USDA daily recommended allowances for your age and gender
·
Track your healthy-living progress by logging
the food you eat
Websites
For Kids
Zizboombah
The Pick Chow app promises to help children create five-star
meals without the help of their parents. Children can drag their food choices
to a virtual plate, adding up the amount of protein, carbs, sugar, fat, and
sodium as they go. Meters on the side of the screen alert your children when
healthy levels of these nutrients are surpassed. Once your child has created a
balanced meal, they can email you their meal plan and you can add the
ingredients to your shopping list.
Smash Your Food
The Smash Your Food app has won several awards and
endorsements, and is a great way to teach your children about nutrition.
Children smash “bad” foods and learn why they are considered unhealthy. If you
are looking for a fun way to teach your young children about proper nutrition,
this is the app you’ve been waiting for.
Food Label Tools for 2015
Reading and understanding the labels on packaged foods can be a challenge. It almost requires a whole new language.
Here are tools to help you understand and use Food Labels!
My favorite is the Walmart website because it allows me to read the labels of specific foods before I add it to my shopping list, saving me time and money!
Here are tools to help you understand and use Food Labels!
My favorite is the Walmart website because it allows me to read the labels of specific foods before I add it to my shopping list, saving me time and money!
Food Label
Tools!
FDA articles
Proposed Changes to Food Labels
2015
Ingredients, Packaging &
Labeling
This section includes information on allergens, ingredients, food and
color additives, food contact substances, and labeling requirements.
Food Labeling Guide
Guidance for Industry: A Food Labeling Guide
The Food Label and You - Video
Are you smarter than a food label? Find out on our quiz show spoof with
host, "Labelman". Plus-CSI ("Calorie Scene Investigator"),
a play-by-play sports show battle between two dinner parties, nutrition at the
drive-through and more.
Consumer Research on Labeling,
Nutrition, Diet, and Health
Research abstracts of consumer research studies conducted or supported
by the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
A Glimpse at 'Gluten-Free' Food
Labeling
Have Food Allergies? Read the
Label
Label Claims - Types of Claims:
Definitions, Guidance, Regulatory Information, and Permitted Claims
Mobile
Nutrition APPS
Great Nutritional Websites for the New Year!
Nutrition
Websites – note while some of the websites
listed below are for commercial use, they also have great resources, such as
articles on current nutritional research.
Use wisely!
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