My MM: Kate’s Meatless Monday Menu
We love this menu for many reasons, not least of all becauze Kate just sounds like a lot of fun. Help answer her questions in the comments, and don’t forget to send in your meatless adventures.
Name: Kate
Hometown: Los Angeles
My dietary leanings: I eat lots of veggies and fish. Occasionally I’ll eat red meat and goat or sheep dairy.
My favorite vegetable: Sauerkraut! That counts right?
Breakfast: Lately I’ve been having giant breakfasts and I’m loving it. My formula is a green, a protein, and sauerkraut. Today it was kale, brown lentils, and sauerkraut. Picked the kale from my generous neighbor’s garden, lentils are the pre-cooked Trader Joe’s kind (is that bad?), and sauerkraut from a local market. Garnished with lemon and a little olive oil.
Mid morning: After breakfast I’ll normally have tea. Today was raspberry leaf tea because I’m premenstrual and Yogi’s Skin Detox because my face is a mess. Not sure if that works but it tastes wonderful.
Lunch: A large salad with red lettuce, kale, garbanzo beans, a mound of sauerkraut, and a fresh peach. Topped with a homemade apple vinaigrette. Sometimes I put smoked trout (from the same place as the sauerkraut) on this and it takes it from amazing to spectacular. Like- “no sorry coworkers I brought a salad for lunch so go get takeout with me”- good.
Snack: If I’m still hungry I’ll have almond butter on a rice cake. Although I recently realized rice cakes have a really high glycemic index- which I try to avoid to keep myself and my skin balanced. So today I just had a tablespoon of almond butter. Any advice for almond butter receptacles?
Dinner: Normally pretty small since I eat a giant breakfast & lunch. Although when I get stressed I tend to crave large dinners. Today I had sliced persian cucumbers dipped in saffron hummus. 2 slices of sourdough bread with olive oil and sea salt. And more sauerkraut…I need to start making my own I go through the stuff so quickly. Advice? Please help I’m addicted!
After: Wine. The red kind. I’m in the market for a boxed organic red if you have any favorites :)
Hi Kate! What a great Monday menu. I like to put almond (or any nut) butter between two slices of apple or pear to make a sandwich, or wrap any sort of nut butter in collard greens. (The latter is my fave these days, the former is my toddler’s fave.) I also put nut butter on dried prunes or figs and sprinkle with a little something like cinnamon.
Gena over at Choosing Raw has wonderful tutorials on making sturdy wraps from collards and other sorts of greens. Those tutorials have changed my world for the better!
I like to put almond butter on apples, but not sure what the glycemic index is.
I should eat more sauerkraut… thanks for the inspiration!
I’m sorry to say but I think that sauerkraut takes a while to make. I looked into it recently because I kept getting cabbage in my CSA basket and didn’t know what to do with it anymore (I was already going around my acquaintances offering coleslaw). Basically you need to let it hang out in liquid at room temperature for a long-time (about a month from what I remember). The same way I wouldn’t age my own cheese, I’m not eager to have cabbage fermenting in my small apartment.
For almond-butter receptacle, you could use home-made root vegetable chips (like taro). Slice thin, brush with oil, and pop in the oven.
@Steph thanks for the advice! I forgot how good greens and nut butters are. I went through a brussel sprouts and almond butter phase a few months ago and totally forgot about it. Also- thanks for mentioning Choosing Raw– I’ll check it out!
@Kate nice name :)! Apples have a low glycemic index so that should work perfectly! Thanks!
Now here’s a true sauerkraut lover! Great menu. Agree with the others so far – almond butter on fruit, especially apples. Also, put it on chocolate : )
Also, re: glycemic index, I was reading some stuff by Dr. Weil about how glycemic index is less important than eating whole foods. If what you eat is acellular (like things made from flour) that’s associated with negative effects.
Love this! I’m also a huge sauerkraut/fermented foods fan, and I go through almond butter like you wouldn’t believe. I pretty much put it on…everything? Fruit, homemade banana bread, ak-mak crackers, I make raw almond butter fudge that I keep in the freezer…etc.
@Rebecca would love to know more about the Dr. Weil stuff…. Do you have a link?
I’m giving the low glycemic thing a go to help my skin– and I am suspicious that I am slightly hypoglycemic. Hasn’t been long enough to know if it is making any difference.
Love this sharing, thanks for adding to the community here Kate. Bubbies sauerkraut is my absolute favorite, have forgotten to buy some lately and your article has me craving it now! Here is a link to Mother Earth News (the fab. magazine) where they talk about making your own sauerkraut. It sounds really easy, it does however take 2 weeks it looks like http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2006-08-01/Got-Cabbage-Make-Sauerkraut.aspx#LSR
On another note, my face used to be an absolute wreck before my period and made me ashamed of leaving the house because of the massive bumpy breakouts I experienced that no makeup could hide. I finally figured out that taking the supplements DIM and Calcium D-Glucarate helped to prevent this along with many other horrible PMS symptoms I used to suffer the entire week before I actually got my period. They both help to get rid of excess hormones in your body and help your liver to detoxify them to keep them from recirculating in your system and creating havoc. I also need to watch my consumption of products that contain both dairy and sugar combined, I can have dairy, and I can have some sugar…. but give me dairy ice cream or cookies that have butter and I’m guaranteed to break out, though way less so now that I’ve been taking the two aforementioned supplements. I’ve been using these since February with the best of luck and dramatic changes. I always felt hopeless in the past and resigned to the huge PMS breakout, but these two things have totally changed my skin and outlook on life. Hurray for the confidence of clear skin!
I put nut butters on bananas! Sooo heavenly!
@tranquil –I am with you on the dairy & sugar bit. I can’t do them either in combination. I’ve been curious about DIM for sometime but have never heard of Calcium D-Glucarate. Any advice on dosage/brands you trust?
I thought I might suffer from estrogen dominance & progesterone deficiency. But since I started charting my cycles it’s pretty clear my progesterone levels are doing okay– might be time to look into things that flush out excess bad estrogen. I tend to breakout around ovulation(when estrogen peaks) & before menstruation. Which is pretty much half of my cycle.
Raspberry leaf tea and the low glycemic thing really did wonders for my non breakout related PMS problems. Little cramps and my period was shorter and easier than normal.
@Kate, try this, and it has additional links
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-weil-md/carbohydrates-weight-loss_b_1937312.html
It’s largely about weight control, but I think the concept applies more broadly. I plan to look at it more deeply at some point.
I like almond butter on the whole grain European rye bread. You know the stuff that’s like a dense brick of whole grains? No flour in it. Interestingly also good with saurerkraut. Also love dates stuffed with raw almond butter.
Kate, I am currently using Nature’s Way DIM-plus at 2 caps/day and Source Naturals Calcium D-glucarate 500 mg usually just one tablet a day for maintainence and two around the times I know I have been prone to skin issues, like you during ovulation and premenstrually. My naturopath told me to do 1,500mg of the Cal. d-glucarate a day, but because they are pricey for me and I get results with what I’m doing, I do less. The Nature’s Way DIM has soy in it, which I’m not crazy about, but it is $10 cheaper than the alternative where I shop so I go with it, and it seems to work. I did originally start by just taking the DIM and didn’t see too huge a difference, added in the cal. d-glucarate and was wowed. Have to say I’ve never tried the c. d-g. with out the DIM… I usually feel it’s important to support your local shops, but in this case where I feel I am spending a little extravagantly for me, VitaCost has some amazing deals. I can’t stress enough for people how much this has helped me. I’m all for clean eating, but I’ll be the first to admit I was getting a little too over zealous before with my food restrictions to help my acne and it was getting to the point where I was very hard on myself about it and it was hard socially around friends and family to be so stringent with my diet. Also, the results were good like you said, for only half my cycle until ovulation and menstruation blew things up. Taking these supplements now has greatly reduced any breakouts in a big way and has finally allowed me to relax about sharing a meal with friends and not worrying that it will show all over my face.
On the topic of almond butter, I love all the great ideas mentioned, but I can’t believe no one has mentioned the classic, Ants on a Log! You’ve got your celery stick, you’ve got your almond butter, stick those ants on in the form of raisins or dried cranberries.
Sauerkraut is actually fairly easy to make, you just need a big ceramic crock pot to throw all the ingredients in (salt, cabbage, carrots etc) and to let it sit. I will warn you its best to leave the pot in a basement or area of the house that is out of the way – it will smell! My grandparents basement constantly smelled of sauerkraut even if they weren’t making any at the time.
@tranquil I feel you about food restrictions. I go through my phases of diet overhauls and without the results I want at the cost of enjoying food with friends and family. I’m happy for you that you’ve found something that works for you! thanks for the recommendations!
Not sure for glycemic index followers, but almond butter with apple slices / banana = SO SO SOSOOSOOOO GOOD<3
I just came across the below info about almonds over the weekend while shopping for almond butter. In a nutshell, (sorry couldn’t resist), in the USA ,almonds are required to be pasteurized but can still be labeled as raw depending on the method of pasteurization.
As of September 1, 2007 the Almond Board of California (ABC) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) made it mandatory for all raw almonds sold to consumers in North America to be pasteurized. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the agency responsible for approving treatment processes.
Currently FDA has approved the following treatments for almond pasteurization:
Oil roasting, dry roasting, and blanching: These processes have been around far longer than the recent almond pasteurization requirements and through the historical techniques they reduce harmful bacteria.
Steam Processing (H2O): There are many different techniques being used throughout the industry that are acceptable forms of pasteurization that even meet the USDA Organic Program standards. Short bursts of steam are shot onto the outer skin of the almond and do not effect the nutritional integrity of the almond. This process does NOT “cook” proteins or destroy vitamins and minerals. The steam does not change the nutritional characteristics of the almonds.
Propylene Oxide (PPO): This too is a surface treatment and does not affect the nutritional characteristics of the almonds. PPO has been used on foods since 1958 and is proven to be very effective at reducing harmful bacteria on the almonds and poses no risk to consumers. PPO residue dissipates after treatment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirmed that PPO poses no health risk.
LABELED “RAW ALMONDS” – The FDA, the agency that regulates packaging labeling, has determined that raw almonds treated via Steam or PPO methods may be labeled RAW under FDA guidelines.
almond butter on celery and carrots!!!!!