Pineapple Aloha Rice

A luau in a bowl...have a happy, healthy Hawaiian dish that satisfies the pickiest of eaters and nourishes your body from within. In less than 15 minutes, you can have this delicious, nutrient-packed meal that makes you feel like you are on vacation in Hawaii!

Recipe:


1/2 cup light coconut milk

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 cup carrots, chopped

3/4 bunch celery, chopped

1 medium red pepper, chopped



Saute for about 5 minutes (until vegetables have softened)



add:

4 cups brown rice, cooked (I used microwaved frozen brown rice)

1.5 cups pineapple, chopped

3/4 cups macadamia nuts, chopped

few cranks of black pepper

pinch of sea salt

1/2 cup teriyaki sauce



Mix, blend, and let simmer for a few minutes. Enjoy! Serves 2-4 people!

Alooooooha!

Grilled Veggie Wrap and Oil! Jon and Julieanna In the Kitchen

Time to delineate the controversy that surrounds the consumption of oil. Oil is a processed food and consists of 100% pure fat, with no nutrients that we need. It is grossly overused in cooking today, particularly at restaurants. The good news is that it is just as easy to cook without using oil and you lose absolutely none of the flavor.

Much research suggests that people with diagnosed heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and obesity fare better when they eliminate the consumption of oil and other high fat food products (including nuts, seeds, olives and avocados for those following a whole food, plant-based diet, which is the optimal diet for disease prevention and reversal). Proponents of a low-fat, plant-based diet including Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Neal Barnard, and Dr. Dean Ornish have had great success treating their patients and ameliorating their life-threatening chronic diseases.

Jon and I discuss in this video the fact that for the healthy and physically active population, using tiny amounts of oil once in a while is safe. Hence, as we create Jon's Grilled Veggie Wrap recipe, he uses about a teaspoon of oil to grill the vegetables. This minute quantity spread through all 4 servings is approved by me for people not at risk for or already diagnosed with any of the aforementioned chronic diseases. However, with these conditions, grilling the vegetables without the oil will taste just as great but will pose absolutely no health risk whatsoever nor will it alter the cooking process adversely. Another aternative is use raw veggies in this wrap in order to preserve more of the nutrients n the vegetables, add more crunch, and eliminate the need for oil or even a grill! In fact, I do recommend the use of raw vegetables as the majority of a healthy diet.

Jon's Grilled Veggie Wrap is truly delicious and is simple to make. Just add hummus, sliced carrot peels, sliced avocado, grilled vegetables (yellow squash, red pepper, and zucchini, and Jon's dipping sauce (tamari, rice vinegar, spicy mustard, chili paste) to a tortilla. We used brown rice tortillas. Here you have a rainbow of colors and nutrients in a quick and delicious meal! Enjoy!

Nori Edamame Salad with Miso Sauce

I wanted to call this salad a "Sushi Salad", but Jon insisted that sushi implied fish and he didn't want to mislead our viewers to think we were veganizing a recipe. Our goal together is to bring healthy meal ideas to everyone and to not discriminate against omnivores. I completely concur...my goal as a Plant-Based Dietitian is to help everyone get healthy, no matter where they are on the omnivore to vegan spectrum. Thus, after playing with ideas for names including "Un-Sushi Salad", "Sumo Salad" and "Sayonara Salad, we decided to go with the obvious and to just name the unique ingredients...hence the title. Regardless, this is my new favorite salad and I cannot wait to eat it again.

It was a crazy experiement that ended up successful. I simply combined nori (seaweed sheets used to wrap sushi in that is FILLED with hard-to-find minerals like calcium, iron and iodine), salad mix (bagged for convenience with lettuce, carrots and red cabbage), shelled edamame, matchstick cucumbers, avocado and pickled ginger. I topped it off my tossing the mix in a store-bought miso dressing. YUM! I cannot recommend this salad enough. I guarantee you will love it and so will your body!

Domo arigato and sayonara!!!

Yams

Yams are not only filled with flavor but they are also nutrient-dense sources of energy.They are very low in fat but yield lots of energy and fiber with vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, calcium, phosphorus, and choline.

Jon succeeded in developing the simplest and sweetest way to make yams and they were a huge hit in the kitchen! We washed and sliced the yams into discs. Then we shook some cinnamon (excellent for controlling optimal blood glucose levels) on them, coated them with orange juice (vitamin C, folate and B vitamins) and topped it off with slices of fresh pineapple (vitamin C, folate, bromelin).

Simple, delicious and full of nutrition! Cheers!