Rosie, the Lion Pug

Picture by Cameron

Rosie posing under the Christmas Tree (Again)

Gigantic Inflatable Christmas Decorations

I kept seeing this giant Rudolph while driving down Shepherd but since Shepherd is one way I didn't see the other huge inflatable Christmas decorations until I turned onto the street. Cameron took this picture.

Blueberry pancakes and coffee from our Christmas Eve breakfast at Tiny Boxwoods.
Pictures by Cameron.

Christmas Lights in River Oaks

Cameron took this picture as we were driving around River Oaks.

Christmas in River Oaks

Here are some more pictures from River Oaks. We stopped so Cameron could have his picture taken with Santa. We also met and talked to the homeowners who were very nice.

My cubicle all dressed up for Christmas

I took this picture with my new iPad and then tried to create a post and add the picture. This doesn't seem to be possible with the iPad. Instead, I had to send the picture to my email and then work on this post from my computer at work. With all the things the iPad can do it seems strange that it can't do this basic thing. I'm going to investigate further.

Rosie In Her New Red Sweater

Rosie With Her Reindeer

Waiting For Santa

Cookie Day!

Here are our cookies from "The Decider" this year

Cranberries and Cancer

I started adding cranberries to my smoothie a month or so ago when I started seeing them fresh at Whole Foods. After reading this article, I've decided to put them in my smoothie everyday. Frozen cranberries are available year round and there doesn't appear to be any difference in the nutritional value of fresh and frozen. They are rather tart but I've found that if I add an apple the smoothie tastes sweet enough. I also add kale, spinach and a carrot. Rosie knows when I'm making my smoothies and has gotten used to having a piece of carrot and apple.

Which Common Fruits Fight Cancer Better?
by Michael Gregor, MD

Recently, researchers compared the ability of eleven common fruits to suppress cancer cell growth in vitro. Which do you think was most effective—apples, bananas, cranberries, grapefruits, grapes, lemons, oranges, peaches, pears, pineapples, or strawberries?

There are many ways to compare the healthfulness of different foods. For example, if you were interested in antioxidants you might compare vitamin C content. If you compared vitamin C content between our two most popular fruits, apples and bananas, then bananas would appear twice as healthy (10 mg in a banana compared to only 5mg in an apple). But vitamin C is just one of thousands of different phytonutrients in fruits and vegetables. It turns out the vitamin C in apples accounts for less than 1 percent of an apple’s total antioxidant activity.

In my 5-min video Which Fruit Fights Cancer Better? I show a graph of the total antioxidant content of a red delicious apple. The amount contributed to the vitamin C is so tiny you can hardly see it. Even though there are only about 5mg of vitamin C in a small apple, it has the antioxidant equivalent of 1500 mg of vitamin C! I’ve reviewed before how taking that much vitamin C straight in a supplement may actually have a pro-oxidant effect and cause DNA damage (in my video Preventing Exercise-Induced Oxidative Stress With Watercress), but you can get three times that antioxidant power eating an apple, without the adverse effects.

Of course there’s more than just vitamin C in bananas too. I was surprised to see a study out of Harvard suggesting that bananas were a significant source of anthocyanins, the red/blue/violet phytonutrients found in berries. Maybe I underestimated bananas? They are, after all, technically berries.

Anthocyanins have been found in blue, purple, orange-red, red-purple, and pink-purple wild bananas, but none in domesticated yellow. In the Harvard researchers’ defense, they just took values from the USDA, and it turns out USDA apparently made a mistake. There are no anthocyanins in store-bought bananas, and despite twice the vitamin C, bananas are beat out by apples in terms of overall antioxidant power. But that’s just measuring the ability of these fruits to quench an oxidation reaction in a test tube. It would be nice to measure actual biological activity.

In the red delicious apple study, researchers also measured the ability of apple extracts, from both peeled and unpeeled apples, to suppress the growth of human cancer cells growing in a petri dish compared to control. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to compare that kind of superpower between different fruits? Well, now we can!

In my video Which Fruit Fights Cancer Better? I show a graph of cancer cell proliferation versus increasing concentrations of the 11 most common fruits eaten in the United States. If you drip water on these cancer cells as a control, nothing happens. They start out powering away at 100 percent growth and they keep powering away at 100 percent growth. And pineapples, pears, and oranges don’t do much better.

Peaches start pulling away from the pack. At high peach concentrations, cancer cell proliferation drops about 10 percent, but bananas and grapefruits appear to work four times better, dropping cancer growth rates by about 40 percent. Red grapes, strawberries and apples do even better, cutting cancer cell growth up to half at only half the dose, but the two fruits that won, causing a dramatic drop in cancer proliferation at just tiny doses, were lemons and cranberries. So if you look at the effective dose required to suppress liver cancer cell proliferation, apples are more powerful than bananas, but cranberries win the day. And there was no effective dose listed for orange, pear, and pineapple since they didn’t appear to affect the cancer cell growth at all.

Dr. Gregor's website is http://nutritionfacts.org/

My New iPad

This post isn't about anything. I'm just testing out my new iPad.

Vegetarian and Vegan Diet Pyramid

This pyramid is pretty close to the diet I'm following. The only non-vegan thing I have is an occasional cookie or muffin. I usually have 7-9 servings of fruit and vegetables a day thanks to my Vitamix.

Cauliflower and Chickpea Curry

Ingredients:
1 c. uncooked brown rice
4 c. cauliflower florets
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large carrot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp vegetable oil
2 tsp ginger, minced
1 ½ tsp curry powder
½ tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 c. fresh peas

Directions:
1. In small saucepan cook rice according to package directions, set aside to keep warm.
2. In large saucepan cover cauliflower florets with water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes or until tender. Drain, and set aside.
3. In large skillet heat oil over medium-high heat. Saute onion and garlic until just tender, apr. 2 minutes. Add carrots, and saute until tender.
4. Add ginger, curry, salt and cloves to pan, and stir to combine. Add chickpeas, tomatoes, peas, and cauliflower, and stir. Cover and cook 5-10 minutes. Serve over rice.

I made this last night and it was delicious. The only change I made to the recipe is that I served it over quinoa instead of rice. It made enough for 2 meals plus all my lunches this week. The recipe is from Chickpea Recipes: www.chickpearecipes.com

Happy Birthday Rosie!

Rosie celebrated her 14th birthday yesterday with a cake from Whole Foods.

Baba Yega

Some pictures from our dinner last night.  We shared the Green Pizza with Salad, the vegan Hippie Meatloaf with vegan mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach, and then for dessert,  the 3 layer chocolate mousse cake. Cameron took these wonderful pictures.
 

Happy Halloween

Brad's Raw Foods

I found these at Whole Foods and they are delicious.
The kale is coated with red bell pepper, cashews, sunflower seeds, lemon juice, chickpea miso, and Himalayan sea salt, and is dehydrated below 115 degrees.

Orange and Mushroom Noodles with Kale

I made this Saturday night.  Cameron and I both enjoyed it.  I had never heard of Shiritake noodles before this but found them at Whole foods and will definitely use them again. My Chinese friend found the vegetarian oyster sauce for me at a Chinese grocery store. Of course you can always use regular oyster sauce if you aren't vegetarian. The bitterness of the kale was a nice compliment to the sweetness of the sauce. This was an easy and delicious dish.



Ingredients:

1 bunch lacinato kale
2 cups sliced shitake mushrooms
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic sliced
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, plus the zest of one orange
1/4 cup vegetarian oyster sauce (aka mushroom sauce)
1 8 oz package Tofu Shirataki noodles

Directions:

Add a couple of teaspoons of neutral oil (I used sesame) to a large saute pan.  Add mushrooms and onions.  Saute until softened.  Remove the stems from the kale and tear into bite size pieces.  Add the kale and garlic to the onions and mushrooms and cook until the kale has wilted. (about 10 minutes)

In another small pan combine the orange juice, zest, and oyster sauce and bring to a slow simmer.  Allow to simmer and reduce slightly while the vegetables cook.

Rinse the noodles and boil for about 3 minutes in another pot.

Drain the noodles and combine with the vegetable and sauce.

Pictures by Cameron

I've made this dish several times and have started adding 2 packages of noodles. I also use a cheaper more common mushroom and I can't really tell the difference.

And For Dessert...

After eating our healthy kale and noodle dish we decided something a lot less healthy was in order so we went to Petite Sweets.

Picture by Cameron

Mathematical Masters

Congratulations to my daughter who successfully defended her thesis/project for her Master's degree in math yesterday. 

The James Turrell Skyspace

Cameron and went to see this a few weeks ago and it was absolutely amazing. I would like to go to the sunrise show sometime. Here is a description from the website:
"Constructed of grass, concrete, stone and composite steel, the structure is equipped with an LED light sequence that projects onto the ceiling and through an aperture in the 72-foot square knife-edge roof just before sunrise and at sunset. Turrell's composition of light compliments the natural light present at twilight, and transforms the skyspace into a locale for experiencing beauty and reflective interactions with the surrounding campus and the natural world"

Radical Eats

Here are a few pictures from my new favorite restaurant, Radical Eats. It started as a vegan restaurant in EaDo but moved to Montrose a few months ago and added non vegan items to the menu. Cameron photographs all of his food and took these beautiful pictures of the meal we shared.

Rosie

Cameron took this picture of Rosie. She looks sad but was really very happy her two favorite people were home.

Tiger Lily

Tiger Lily is sitting on this little box next to my patio waiting for dinner to be served.

My Parent's Wedding

Here is a picture of my parents on their wedding day September 1, 1940 and a story my mother wrote about their journey to their new home in Boothville La..

My Grandkitties

Here are my daughter's 2 adorable cats Sammy and Tigerlily.

Quinoa with Black Beans

1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups vegetable or "un-chicken" broth
1 cup black beans (15 oz can) drained, rinsed
1/2 cup frozen whole kernel corn
1 small tomato
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
4 medium green onions chopped (1/4 cup)
1 T. fresh lime juice
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 t. salt

Rinse quinoa and cook in broth 15-20 min.
Fluff quinoa and add remaining ingredients.

Makes 8 servings (1/2 cup each)
260 calories
3g fat
12g protein
5g sugars
45g total carbhoydrate
740mg sodium


I'm trying to find quinoa recipes that are easy and don't have a long list of ingredients. This one qualifies and was pretty good. Not as good as the one I made last week but still pretty satisfying. When I make it again I will use regular water for the quinoa. I don't think the broth added all that much to the flavor but it did add a lot of sodium. I would also add more tomato, maybe a cup or so of cherry tomatoes halved and some chopped red bell pepper.

Sleeping Pug

Rosie

Can you find the fake pug?

(pictures by Cameron)

Quinoa Veggie Salad

I found this recipe in a book I was cataloging on Thursday and decided to make it this weekend. It was wonderful. I shared it with my roomate who also loved it and took the picture. It makes 3 servings (for Cameron it would have been 1 serving) and has only 180 calories per serving, 3.5 grams of fat, and 7 grams of protein.

Quinoa Veggie Salad

3/4 c. uncooked quinoa
1 1/2 water
1 c. torn arugula
1/4 c. chopped roasted red bell peppers (from a jar)
1/4 c. halved red cherry tomatoes
1/4 c. chopped marinated artichokes
1 T. marinade from artichoke jar
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper

Cook Quinoa in water according to directions (be sure to rinse first). When the quinoa is cooked and cooled, mix with the remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate.