ABCD Moon Medallions and Anchorage Snow

Happy Friday, everyone! We've been in Anchorage since Wednesday, so I'm a little out of the loop. Had a couple serious appointments--some intense processing to do as a result. But I've been enjoying the face of Anchorage at this stage of the winter (yes, it is still winter, bright sun this afternoon notwithstanding). This moose cow and calf pair were right downtown, enjoying a tree that wouldn't normally be their first choice...

 And here's our friend Lynn's deck--the table and chairs have been the site of many a gorgeous late summer dinner, and now they are a little snow-toadstool! We hiked on trails where the level of snow was as high as the benches, which you could see buried every here and there along the way. I'll post some more pics when I get home.

For now, though, a new recipe that seemed too good not to share. With all the complex breakfasts I've been posting lately, low on calories and long on mineral-rich fillers, I wondered how to make a similar breakfast on the road as we are. The answer has been to eat a granny smith apple and one of these "ABCD Moon Medallions," which are about 35 calories apiece. Holds me all the way to lunchtime!

 

A-is for apricots--AND Amazing Grass
B-is for brazil nuts
C-is for chia AND carrot pulp
D-is for dates AND delicious

And what about the Moon? Well, the reason I included brazil nuts in these medallions is that they're so incredibly high in selenium, and with my thyroid condition especially, it's a good idea to get plenty of selenium in. Oh, and "selene" is the moon. You know I'm terrified of omega-6, and brazil nuts have lots of those, so they're balanced out by ground chia seeds, which have more omega 3 than omega 6. I'm more comfortable eating one of these medallions than eating a straight brazil nut. I dehydrated the rest of my carrot pulp so that it could feature in these "instant" recipes and cut the denseness of nuts/seeds and dried fruit.

Like my fig bars, these also feature dried nettles for extra mineral richness, and in addition these have some chocolate Amazing Grass powder for the same, and for a subtle chocolate flavor.

ABCD Moon Medallions (raw, vegan, soy/gluten/dairy free) (Makes 20 medallions)
1/3 cup apricots, chopped
1/3 cup dates, chopped
1/4 cup brazil nuts
1/4 cup ground chia seeds
3/4 cup dehydrated carrot pulp
2 tablespoons powdered dried nettles
2 tablespoons Amazing Grass chocolate flavored green powder

Whiz the brazil nuts alone in a food processor until chopped. Add the nettles, then the dried fruit, and gradually add the ground chia, carrot pulp, nettles, and Amazing Grass. Process until everything comes together into a ball.

Roll the "dough" into two thin logs and refrigerate for an hour or two.

Slice them into medallions--I got 20 out of this recipe.
That little sweet, nutty, mineral rich boost combines perfectly with the juicy apple for a lasting breakfast.
They're a little lighter than the typical lara bar, with the addition of the greens and the pulp. Also, because they use chia seeds and pulp in greater proportion than smooth, creamy nuts, and because of the nettles, they have a slightly grittier texture--but in a good way! It's kind of an earthy, good for you but delicious kind of taste, and they're more satisfying for less calories.

Sound good to you?

Since I seem to be transgressing my chocolate interdict at the moment anyway, I might as well confess to another treat I've enjoyed in the past week--chocolate coconut water, who knew?

There's real cocoa and coconut cream in there with the coconut water, as well as some cane sugar and ??natural flavors (a bit of a red flag). I enjoyed this over two days--smooth and yummy. I was surprised by it--all the coconut waters flooding the market at the moment tend to run to mango or pineapple flavors if they're not plain. I wasn't sure it would be good, and was pleasantly surprised.

I'm going to sign off so I can get back to preparing my classes for next week and also maybe do some of the processing I need to do. I hope you enjoy the medallions--and have a great weekend!

Harbingers of Spring from Full Circle--Two Wonderful Strawberry Recipes!

As snowy as the ground remains here, look what a treat was in our Full Circle box this week!

I almost couldn't believe it--strawberries in March in Alaska, fresh and organic, in our own little box!

They arrived when Phil was away at the end of last week, and I was careful to save plenty for him (it was only an 8oz box). However, I made myself one delicious breakfast and one delicious lunch using three strawberries each time, with plenty left to welcome him home.

For both meals, I put my agar gel to use, armed with the better knowledge that it needed to be blended down! The breakfast was a white pudding type thing, and the lunch was a thick green smoothie that turned out not green at all!
Strawberry Breakfast Pudding
1/4 cup agar gel (per the linked recipe)
1/4 cup flax milk or other nut milk
1/4 teaspoon stevia
splash vanilla, or pinch vanilla powder
optional: 1 tb vanilla protein powder, or lucuma, 1 tsp slippery elm powder
3 strawberries, chopped

Blend everything except the strawberries together. Even a handheld blender works fine for this.
Stir in the chopped strawberries, and garnish with a few mulberries if you wish.

I do love mulberries, and they're a garnish on the lunch too. Can you believe there's a cup of spinach in the below smoothie? This smoothie also features maca--I mentioned recently that maca and coconut have a wonderful affinity; well, I happen to think maca and strawberries complement one another just beautifully also.

Pink Green Maca Lunch Smoothie (which of course would be fine for any meal!)
1/4 cup agar gel (per the linked recipe)
1/4 cup flax milk
1/4 cup water or cooled herbal tea of choice (e.g. gynostemma-rhodiola)
1 tsp slippery elm powder
1 tsp maca powder
1/4 teaspoon stevia
1 teaspoon erythritol (substitute any preferred sweetener)
1 cup fresh spinach
1/4 cup frozen peas (love these in my smoothies!)
3 strawberries (if you wish, freeze these for an hour or two before blending)
1 small piece of beet (this is what gives it that wonderful color
vanilla
Blend in a high powered blender until creamy smooth; garnish with mulberries.

Such a pleasant lunch on a sunny snowy day!
Have you had fresh strawberries yet this year? What's your favorite flavor combination with strawberries?

What Does it Mean to Succeed as a Poet, and a Little Recipe ("50 First Weeks")

Bright sunshine here again, 20 degrees...

In retrospect, last week's "50 First Weeks" post feels a bit like a metrical filler--somewhat unnecessary words added to a poem to make it rhyme or scan. With the clocks having gone forward yesterday for the new beginning of a premature spring, I want to make today's post an earnest "50 First Weeks" effort, in keeping with the spirit of the original idea that every week could represent a renewal.

So, I'm going to share some thoughts about success as a poet, and one tiny little recipe inspired by this glaresomely bright day.

Success as a Poet
In our "resolve to write" event in January, I said that I wanted to be recognizable as a poet, to myself and to everyone, and that I would do everything I could to put my work out there. Now, I've had a poem win second place in the Statewide contest. On Saturday night, I had the odd experience of performing that poem over speakerphone as part of the reading by the winners up in Fairbanks!

But is this small and sweet success more significant than the fact that that same poem may have inspired a friend in one of my writers' groups to write about a difficult but important topic she hadn't previously been able to find her way into? Is it more significant than the fact that another friend has been finding solace from another of my poems during some difficult times in her life? And what about the poem I wrote for my friends whose son just died, and the consolation it offered them?

Superficially, winning contests and chalking up publications are the markers of progress, recognition, success, "making it." But I confess that lately, especially with my own tendency to doubt my worth or even my deserving of air and space, these personal responses, these graces that have come about through those poems, have filled me with gratitude and--yes--validation, deeply and touchingly.

Of course, I want both! I've been way too busy to submit more poems, and I'm highly motivated to work that process back into my schedule. But with these personal and profound responses, I'm finding that this motivation is as much about hoping to reach more people and create more personal connections than it is about my own recognition.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to renew this commitment to putting my work out there, and to have the feeling that it is, at least in part, an act of service.

A tiny little recipe
This tiny little recipe has no calories and won't make you a meal, but it will refresh. It's a tribute to the juxtaposition of bright sunshine coloring the photo and all the snow in the glass.

Refreshing rose cooler
1 cup mineral water (e.g. San Pellegrino)
1 cup of snow (use crushed ice if you're not in AK!)
1/8 tsp stevia powder (or a few drops of stevia liquid)
1 tsp rosewater
Simply mix all together.

I scooped the snow out of a tall snowbank, digging down carefully to avoid flung grit from the path. But there was still a residue of sand at the bottom of the glass! Thankfully, it didn't affect the taste at all.

What does success as a writer mean to you?

Sun, Salvaging Breakfast with Lunch, First Nasty Comment--Advice?

See how this little cabin floor is bathed in light and shadow? And those are my down booties, cast off for the first time in months, my feet anomalously toasty, and there are my sweaters too! Yes, I was down to a tank top--still below freezing and snow-bound outside, but with all our south-facing windows, it gets brightly warm in here when old Sol blazes.

I even made it out for a beach hike yesterday, and even better, with a writer friend. So beautiful, the beach, and different each time, constantly rearranging and being rearranged..

Speaking of in-person contact, thank you so much for the wonderful comments on my last post and my musings about the ease of communicating 'from behind the screen.' I don't know why, but that post also garnered the first "nasty" comment I've ever received. I'm not going to reproduce it: it's still up there if you want to see, and is basically a bunch of hateful obscenity that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Since it refers to my "wife" and "kids," it's hard for me to take personally--I have neither of those. On the other hand, some person came over to my blog and typed all that in there for me (and all my readers) to see--that seems somewhat personal.

So, should I delete that comment? I don't want to be the enforcer blogger who doesn't allow people to express themselves. On the other hand, that comment is so offensive and so...random that I'm not sure what's to be gained by leaving it up. I'd be so grateful for your experience and advice. Edit: thank you, everyone, for your fine and unanimous advice. I'm taking the comment down right now. Much love.

Time to Talk Breakfast again--or Ela Discovers that Texture Matters Too
Since I posted my carrot 'slaw recipe, I've been pretty obsessed with it, and with different permutations of dried fruit and protein powders, I've often eaten it for lunch and dinner too. However, as that post relates, I seem to need to vary my breakfasts. It's definitely an important meal--even more so with my tendency of late to skimp or skip dinner--but it's also the meal from which I'm most likely to feel uncomfortable even from normally "safe" foods. So, the 'slaw has undergone various avatars, featuring shredded parsnip or zucchini in place of carrot, and even shredded apple, thawed green beans, and spirulina, as here!

Ordinarily, I don't ever try a 'new' recipe at breakfast. I always feel like I'm in a rush, and I need something that'll work guaranteed. But for some reason, yesterday I got the idea that I wanted "pudding" instead of 'slaw, and that I wanted to make it with agar. I was a little tired of irish moss, and wanted to broaden the variety of sea veggies I consume, for their beneficial minerals and soothing polysaccharides.

So, I took

1.5 cups water

1 cup flax milk

2 tablespoons agar powder,

and a little vanilla extract, and simmered the whole thing together on the stove, stirring sporadically as I rushed around fixing Phil's breakfast and preparing food for him to take on his trip. 

The resulting slurry was a little runnier than I thought ideal, but I was ok with that. I put half a cup of it in my usual bowl, stirred in some slippery elm, spirulina, and mint extract, sprinkled a few goji berries on top.

And then, it set!

It really set, with white lumps of agar where I hadn't stirred well enough. It was so set, the part I didn't take for my breakfast popped out of the measuring cup in one piece, with the parts that were stuck to the side peeling off like latex.

I couldn't eat it. Just couldn't! And I'm the person who always claims I don't care too much about texture so long as something tastes good. Well, this was beyond gross, especially the isolated agar lumps staring white from the green. And between prepping goodies for Phil's trip and making this new food, it was already so late, I couldn't justify going and whizzing the whole thing in the blender with a little extra liquid, which is all it would have taken to fix it. I just picked, and ate fruit on the side.

But come lunchtime, it got a second turn, and became a very nice pudding.

I took the picked-at contents of the original bowl, goji berries and all, and put them in the blender.
I added 1/4 cup more flax milk, 1/3 cup frozen peas, a little slice of avocado, some stevia, and a couple drops of medicine flower chocolate extract. Sprinkled with mulberries and cacao nibs, with a carrot on the side as always, it was really a pleasant lunch.

I think the "set" agar mix is great as a base, but it needs blending and smoothing out before I can enjoy it. I've enjoyed it for two meals today too, in different forms that I'll share soon.
There's all kinds of metaphors for my writing for me to ponder in this. So you think you like all textures? Try this one for size!...

Have you snatched success out of what seemed like a failure many times?
I'd love your thoughts on the mean comment too.

Finding a Rhythm at the Wobbly Point, Comfort Zone Communication

As the week gallops by, the days are lengthening, and we have a big full moon hanging up there, casting shadows even at night.

I'm already harkening ahead to the dizzy solstice days when there's almost never any darkness to hide behind, no excuse of darkness not to be busy and out there--and it's not even the equinox yet, although the clocks going forward so soon brings it closer (grumble). (On the other hand, Phil also points out that during those summer days, light riots in such luxurious abundance that it's easy to postpone projects because it'll still be light all the way to midnight.)

On a happier note, I've spent significant time the past two days writing poetry, reading poetry, and writing a critical essay. In this awkward, cuspy time of year, as snow lingers and light lengthens and shadows shift and everything feels a bit off, I cannot quantify how much better I'm feeling in myself as a result of this. The cow's being milked and oh, it feels good.

I'm going to keep this brief tonight, as there's still some work to do, but speaking of work, I wanted to share some thoughts about an odd kind of "comfort zone communication" I've been experiencing recently. I don't know whether to call this a "problem" or just a "phenomenon." What I'm noticing is that for many people, myself included, it's more comfortable to open up, be chatty and conversational, remotely, than it is to interact face to face with actual people, body language, and all the rest of it.

Last week, with all the haywire technology around my course's midterm, I spent an inordinate amount of time on the phone with the technological folks and with the distance education services co-ordinators. And some of the tech guys in particular, not otherwise noted for being socially outgoing, were positively chatty! While we tried to chase down the bugs in my course shell, their conversations ranged over a variety of topics, they were inquisitive about my course and the languages referred to therein, etc, etc. I'm grateful for this in a way, as it's the closest thing I get to collegiality much of the time, as a distance-education faculty. On the other hand, with my writing time so precious and so threatened, I worry about the ease with which I can end up, essentially, chit-chatting while we try to fix broken software. Then, I see myself chatting on facebook, or writing lengthy and socially appropriate emails, at times when I'm not together enough to talk "in real life" to anybody in a remotely civil or socially appropriate way.

How is it that we can adapt to conversation without any of the cues and immediacy that make it meaningful and relevant? Isn't it backwards that I find interacting with someone I can't see less stressful than I find interacting with someone naturally, with their sight, smell, sound, affect and their presence right there with me?

Interesting that I'm posing the question on my blog, another asynchronous and not-in-person communication medium. I just hope that hiding behind a screen isn't eroding my ability to communicate in person.

Any thoughts?

"50 First Weeks:" The Unmilked Cow and Simple Soup

It continues to snow here....

I was reflecting, as I hiked home from our writers' group tonight, that this is our fifth month of snowfall. It's the biggest snow year since the early '90s, apparently. I greatly appreciate the beauty of the snow-pack--so much more pristinely beautiful than periods of thaw when the snow-bleached stalks of last year's annuals tumble and languish under the grit from plow trucks...However, with the mercilessly returning light, lighter every morning, daylight savings already springing forward earlier than spring next weekend, I'm feeling some disturbance in the force.

Part of this off-kilter feeling comes from within my own mercurial self. I've been too busy, not writing enough poetry, and to pull out my own cliche, I'm feeling like an unmilked cow. If I was alone, I'd be staying up nights, which would take care of the need to write but escalate some other aspects of the craziness. So I'm grudgingly grateful to Phil for insisting I come to bed.

Before I sign off here and go do some writing already, I want to share a super-simple and super-light recipe.
I've mentioned before that I've been eating lighter and lighter dinners and feeling better for it; also that my tummy's been somewhat fussy lately. So I've been putting slippery elm powder in practically everything. It's a wonderful demulcent--relaxes the intestinal lining and coats it--lots of soluble fiber and mucilaginous polysaccharides. And to me, it tastes really good--subtle, almost a little sweet. I was raised with slippery elm as a tummy soother, so perhaps it's that lifelong association that makes it taste good to me. It has very little caloric value but is somehow nutritious nonetheless: people in starvation situations have lived off of slippery elm "porridge" at times.

So, I've been saving the ends of carrots and onions and all that kind of stuff, and making veggie broth. Half a cup of warm veggie broth,
with a teaspoon of slippery elm stirred in,
with maybe a quarter cup of thawed peas,
and a few chopped pieces of thawed okra,
maybe a splash of nut milk of some kind
and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast over the top...

...with a carrot on the side, there's dinner--and tummy soothing too. If you want it thicker, you could add some psyllium as well, or flax meal. If you want it creamier, a little extra virgin coconut oil, or coconut cream powder, or nut cream, would be delicious I'm sure.

Have you tried slippery elm?
Off to write...

No-Sugar Maca Mojo Bark (aka White Chocolate Take 2) and New Finds

I mentioned on Monday that a good friend had nudged me to share a recipe that turned out really well. I'm really grateful for the prod (thanks, Terry!) because I threw this together in a blur in the midst of grading, and if I don't post it, I'll forget what I did. It's already been almost two weeks, so let's see how I do.

That "blur" of work seems to be a fairly consistent state at the moment. It's midterm week, and there have been various technical bugs all along--I've spent hours on the phone with the technical support folks, which has eaten into lecture-writing time. Today was one of those gorgeous bright-sun-in-the-eyes days that's why Phil got me this billed cap for my birthday, together with the happy green top and some long underwear under my jeans. I feel so lucky--and not just because I can keep working with the sun right in my eyes!

Yes, the little computer nook in the background of the next picture isn't so much sun-in-the-eyes, but most of my work for this course is on the "window workstation" computer.

So, about this second go at white chocolate/bark. You might remember my "not quite white" chocolate for the holidays. That used quite a bit of coconut cream powder, which some people find undesirable for various reasons, including the 1% casinate (dairy derivative) in it. I wanted to make another version that didn't use that--and this resultant attempt uses quite a few "unusual" or not-right-there-in-the-supermarket ingredients. But it also features the embedded fig and goji pieces that I so enjoyed last time. If you omit those, it's sugar free and candida friendly. Given the recherche ingredient list, let me share this "easy to find" tip: this stuff--creamed coconut--is basically the same stuff as coconut butter! It's incredibly cheaply available in Europe, and you can even find it in Anchorage. Just make sure to get the organic kind: some of the conventional brands have sulphates or other preservatives added. This package is 7oz, which is just under a cup. I used a whole block for this recipe.

No-Sugar Maca Mojo Bark (no dairy either!)
1 cup coconut butter, melted (or use one package of "creamed coconut")
1/2 cup cacao butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla powder

1 teaspoon white stevia powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

7/8 cup lucuma powder 

1 tablespoon maca
3/4 cup inulin (oligosaccharide, feeds good bacteria, naturally sweet-tasting)
1/4 cup yacon powder

3 dried figs, chopped
1 tablespoon goji berries, chopped

Mix together the coconut and cacao butters. Stir in the stevia, vanilla and salt.
Gradually add in the rest of the dry ingredients--lucuma, maca, inulin and yacon powder, and stir gently until everything is fully incorporated and there are no powdery pockets! Once everything is smooth, add in the finely chopped figs and berries.
You can pour it onto a tray, or into bar molds.
Refrigerate to set.

 This is not very sweet, very rich, but in a tummy-comforting, not a stomach-turning, way, and I was taken by surprise by how maca-ish it is! It really has a predominating malty flavor--which goes well with the figs and gojis. And actually, maca and coconut is an incredible flavor combination--it's like they're made for each other--so having the chocolate base contain more coconut than cacao butter worked well for this combination.

What do you think? Do you think you'll make this, or is the list of unusual ingredients offputting? Lucuma is getting easier and easier to find, as are inulin and maca.

Recent Discovery--Flax Milk!


I'm probably not a pioneer with this, as Homer, Alaska, is often the last place on the planet to see new health foods, it seems, but I found this "Flax milk" at the store today, and had to try it out. I was puzzled and curious, because flax is not a creamy seed at all--you wouldn't get a "milk" if you blended flax seeds and water like you would with hemp seeds.  It turns out that it's blended with flax oil, not seeds, and contains a fair amount of tapioca starch and gums as well (as do most store-bought nut milks--I'm ok with it).

Only 25 calories in a cup! Lots of calcium, and obviously lots of omega-3's, with fewer omega-6's than hemp milk.

 It's also unsweetened, which I really like, but it has the consistency and color of regular milk.

It doesn't have a distinctive "flax" taste at all. It actually tastes very good to me. I go back and forth on the economics of buying something with so few calories per serving--if I buy something with 100 calories in a cup, I'll take a quarter or eighth of a cup and water it down, thus getting more bang for my buck. Sure, I can do that with this too, but it'll end up pretty watery real quick (which doesn't mean I don't do it anyway!) Nonetheless--definitely worth a try, and a great new addition to the growing array of non-dairy milks!

I hope you enjoy the maca bark/white choc! Have you tried flax milk? Would you?