New Kid on the Block - Glen's

There's a new kid on the block - Glen.   Glen just happens to be a grocery store (full name: Glen's Garden Market)- something my area of Dupont circle has been missing since the "Secret Safeway" shut down a few years back.  As the name entails, Glen's is no ordinary grocery store, but rather a boutique market offering local produce, meats, cheeses, and other kitchen staples. Glen's also has a full bar (beer, wine, and coffee) and deli with prepared foods and sandwiches made to order.

I first heard about Glen's only a few weeks before the store was scheduled to open, and was immediately excited.   Not only would this place offer local produce all day every day, it would also have a selection of items one usually cannot find at the weekly farmer's marker.  Almost all items sold would be local, supporting the small farms and businesses that sometimes struggle for lack of distribution channels.  In addition, the construction of the market itself was environmentally focused, showing the store's commitment to sustainability.  This place sounded like a dream market to me!

On opening day I waited patiently with my neighbors for the doors to open.  Once inside, I made a beeline for the bar to get some coffee, however, I was discouraged to hear that the coffee bar did not offer any non-dairy milk.  I guess I can understand this, since I have never heard of a Virginia soy milk producer, but I do think this will be a blow to the coffee side of the market, since there are a ton of different other coffee shops in the area that do have non-dairy options.

I proceeded to make my rounds through the store.  The produce section was much smaller than I anticipated, but I figured this may have been a result of the season (still early spring).  There was a decent selection of prepared dishes (both sides and mains) and sandwiches, although I noticed only one vegetarian sandwich on the menu.  While not a meat-eater myself, I will note that Glen's makes all their deli meats, sausages, and hot dogs in-house, which is awesome for all you carnivores out there.  Some veg-friendly items that I was happy to see:  vegan and vegetarian pastas, soups from Souper Girl, drinks from Capital Kombucha, and tofu from Twin Oaks.

While the prepared foods are a draw for many, what really impressed me about Glen's Garden Market were the "grocery" items.  There were shelves filled with baking products, coffee, chocolate, snacks, spices, sauces, etc.  And all from local producers! This is great for those of us who try our best to eat local, because a lot of these types of items are harder (or impossible) to find in farmer's markets alone.  Overall, I think Glen's has some room for improvement (as with any new store) but I am certain I will be making frequent stops there in the future.

Memphis Travels and Vegan Fig Bars

Two weeks ago I got to travel to Memphis for work with my team  (we visit Memphis and the smaller town of Millington a few times a year).  While Memphis may be known for BBQ and southern cooking, I have found a few veg-friendly spots that we frequent whenever we are in town: 

"Regenerator" juice from Cosmic Coconut

The Cosmic Coconut -  All-vegan juice and smoothie bar located off of Poplar Avenue between Midtown and Germantown.  In addition to the array of juices and smoothies, the Cosmic Coconut also offers food - soups, a few sandwiches, kale salad, and raw treats.  I have tried quite a few of the juices and smoothies and all have been delicious.  My favorite juice has to be the "Regenerator" -  a blend of beet, carrot, apple, kale and WHEAT GRASS (such an awesome addition to a juice).  The kale salad, which is massaged with their house dressing, is another menu item I have liked.  They also offer grain bowls which change daily.

Veggie Tempura sushi from Kobe

Kobe - Who would ever think you could find a decent sushi joint in the tiny town of Millington, Tennessee?  Definitely not I, but Kobe is a true gem in the rough.    Even the non-veg folks agree that the best roll offered is their Vegetable Tempura roll with sweet potato and asparagus.

Olympic - Another favorite spot in Millington. My co-workers like that they can get plain grilled chicken here, and we all love their baked sweet potatoes.  I bring along some nut butter and order the sweet potato (extra large, please) for my meal.



There is also a Whole Foods one mile from our hotel so my co-workers and I always make a stop to stock up on healthy snacks such as fruits and veggies, trail mix, and energy bars. 

I love to bake for my co-workers, and I don't let travel stop me from doing so.  I contemplated what to make for this trip - granola? healthy Chex mix? oatmeal cookies?  I wanted something that would serve as both a breakfast and an afternoon snack.  In my search, I stumbled across a recipe for vegan fig bars that sounded both nutritious and delicious.   Best of all, I had all the ingredients on hand.  Score!

These bars surpassed my every expectation.  I am not normally a cookie/cake/bar person - I'd much rather indulge in some undercooked (vegan) brownies and raw cookie dough, or a big bowl of vanilla (banana) soft serve.  I made these bars on Friday night and by the time I left for Memphis on Sunday, half the batch was gone.  While I can't quite put my finger on what makes these bars so amazing, I think it has something to do with the fact is that they remind me, in the simplest way, of the Fig Newtons of my childhood.  Don't let that comparison fool you - these bars are much more complex, way more wholesome, and one hundred times more tasty.

As I mentioned, the ingredients are fairly basic: dried figs, dates, maple syrup,  oats, applesauce, almond milk, coconut oil, and spices.   The only not-basic part of the recipe is making the fig filling for the bars.  I'm sure if you wanted you could use any store bought fruit butter or jam, but let me tell you the effort is worth it if you have the time and resources to make the homemade version.

This is another recipe from Gena over at Choosing Raw.  Go check it out and do yourself (and maybe your co-workers or your family) a favor and make these today!

Spring Cleaning - Part 2

This post continues my juice cleanse journey through the last two days of my Urban Remedy cleanse.

Day two:  I woke up a little groggy but my head cleared as soon as I had my first juice. Energy was decent throughout the morning and early afternoon - I went to a yoga class and did some cleaning around my apartment.  During yoga I was slightly tired, but I also felt very light.  I made the mistake of going to the farmer's market (I needed to get some produce for the rest of the week).  After that, all I wanted to do was toss my greens in some olive oil and dig in with a fork!

 "Young Love" chia juice with a spoon!

Later in the afternoon I had a light headache, but it did not last long.  I met up with some friends early in the evening.  I think I was pretty out of it.  By the time I got home at 8PM I was ready for bed.  I had my last juice and read for a bit, but passed out very early.

Day three:  Slept for 11 hours but woke up feeling energized.  I had to go to work so I packed all my juices and set off into the rainy weather.  I had some coconut water along with my first (all green) juice.  Felt good all day, but was a little anxious to be done with the cleanse and eat already!  No headaches today - does this mean I have kicked my coffee addiction?

Post cleanse:  As it is recommended to ease into a cleanse, it is also suggested to gradually make your way back to eating again.  Although I wanted to devour all the foods I had been missing immediately, I knew I should take things slowly so that my body would be able to adjust and continue to detox.   On the few days following the cleanse, I had smoothies with banana and homemade almond milk for breakfast.  I made a huge salad with raw veggies and hemp seeds for lunch and dinner, and snacked on green juices and raw nuts.  I did have a cup of coffee on the second day following the cleanse, and did not feel any ill effects.

Post cleanse salad

I definitely felt lighter after the cleanse, and my digestion seems to be improved as well.  I also feel like my mind is clearer and more focused.  My energy levels have been pretty high post-cleanse, despite the lack of caffeine.  As I mentioned above, I did drink coffee a few days after the cleanse (and I probably will continue to), so I will be interested to see if this has any effect on my energy, focus, etc.  While the cleanse itself was both a physical and mental challenge, I'm glad I took the time to do this and will for sure do another in the future.


Would I do this cleanse again?  While I liked most of the Urban Remedy juice blends, there were a few that were not so palatable to me.  The "After Party," which contained beet, carrot, apple, and ginger, was good but I could not drink the whole juice at once.  Same thing with the "Beam," which was carrots, jewel yams, burdock root, and dandelion greens and I ended up throwing out most of one of these.   But overall I really appreciated the complexity and unique-ness of the juices.  For example, the juices with chia seeds were more like smoothies and made the cleanse a lot easier.  I am working on re-creating these recipes because I enjoyed these so much.  Finally, I loved that the juices were based off of Traditional Chinese Medicine principals.  Each juice had a "factoid" on the juice bottle telling you something about the healing properties of the ingredients.  Although the price of a purchased juice cleanse is pretty high, the ease and convenience of it is awesome.  All things considered, I can confidently say that I would choose Urban Remedy again in the future.

Have you ever done a juice cleanse or other detox?  What was your experience like? 

Spring Cleaning - Part 1

The next few months are going to be a whirlwind of activity and travel.  This weekend being my last "calm" weekend at home, I decided to take the time to do some spring cleaning.  While I do also plan to clean out my apartment, my main effort is to detox my mind and body, so I am doing a three day juice cleanse.

I own a juicer and have done juice cleanses before, but this time I chose to do a delivered cleanse.  There are tons of options out there!  After some research, I decided on the Urban Remedy cleanse for the main reason that their juices are very low in sugar.  An added bonus that all the blends looked absolutely delicious.

Urban Remedy offers three different levels of cleanses: Signature, Purify, and Super Green.  I will be doing one day of the Signature cleanse and two days of the Purify cleanse.  The Urban Remedy site offers guidance on choosing a cleanse length and level, but in the end you can pick any combination and duration you like.

Prepping for the cleanse:  The Urban Remedy website provides a detailed list of foods you should limit in preparing for your cleanse. I normally eat a pretty clean diet (no meat, dairy, eggs, or other animal products, and limited processed foods), but in the days before the cleanse I made an effort to drink less coffee and more green juices and smoothies.   The one item I did eat from the "limit" list was bananas.  As this was the only fruit on the list, I would be interested to know why it was included.

I should also note that in deciding when to start the cleanse, I considered when I would be able to make the time to really relax and reflect, and enjoy the full benefits of the cleanse.  As I mentioned, the next few months of my schedule are jam-packed so this weekend seemed like the perfect time to take a break.

Day one:  The down side of selecting the Urban Remedy cleanse is that it is based in California, and therefore the juices had a long way to travel before arriving on my doorstep in DC.  I wake up very early naturally, so I had some blueberries and tea to tide me over until my juices arrived at around 10:45AM.  I also did some gentle yoga.  My energy was very low until I got the first two juices in me, and then I felt fine.  I went for a walk outside and did notice that my senses seemed a bit more heightened than normal.  I also will admit that I went for an easy jog - most cleanses do not recommend vigorous exercise while cleansing, but I the runner in me could not let such a beautiful day pass without at least a short jog.  I definitely felt heavier in my legs and slower than usual, which is probably due to the complete lack of coffee and caffeine in my system.   Later in the afternoon and evening I had a bit of headache, which is to be expected and some say is a sign of detox.  I enjoyed the last two juices of the day while relaxing at home.

Overall, the juices were very tasty.  The first juice was the greenest (the "Brainiac") as it contained no fruit)and I preferred this over the other green juice ("Flush") which contained apple.  For some reason, my taste buds dislike the combination of apple and ginger in green juices, although Urban Remedy's blend also contained mint which made this juice more palatable to me.  The "Time Machine" with acai, lemon, and cayenne was very refreshing, although it was not very substantial.  Since I received my juices late and was behind the suggested schedule, I decided to skip the fourth juice (the "After Party").  Okay, reality check, I skipped the fourth juice because my body was craving something sweet and the next juice ("Warrior" with raspberries and chia seeds) sounded amazing.  This juice was fantastic and was more like a smoothie due to the chia seeds.  My only criticism is that it contained stevia, which I did not think was completely necessary.  The final juice of the day ("Relax") was a cashew nut milk with cinnamon.  Again, this juice was more like a smoothie and was a great end to the day.  I was surprised to see that this juice did not contain any sugar or stevia (the "nut milk" juice of most juice cleanses is usually sweetened).

After my final juice I had some hot tea and was ready for bed.  Sleep was glorious.  I woke up a bunch of times to go to the bathroom (all that juice and tea!) but I slept for almost 12 hours which is crazy abnormal for me!  Guess my body needed it.  Well this was a longer post than I intended, but I hope it will be helpful for anyone interested in doing a cleanse.  I will post more thoughts and feedback after days 2 and 3.

Snack Attack - Veg Style

Those who know me can tell you that while I am not one to eat very big meals, I am a constant snacker.  I'm a firm believer that eating frequent, small meals is one of the best ways to keep energy levels up through long work days and hard work outs.  That being said, I am always on the lookout for new, healthy snack ideas.

Enter: The Vegan Cuts Snack Box.  Vegan Cuts is a website I discovered when searching for a Kombucha brewing kit (see earlier post).  The site was started by a couple and features a range of vegan products - food, fashion, beauty, and other miscellaneous items.  The Snack Box is a package of vegan goodies that is sent out monthly to subscribers.  While I'm not usually a fan a packaged stuff, I think that Vegan Cuts supports nutritious and compassionate products so I decided to give the snack box a try.

The snack box arrived this week and I was pleased with the contents.  While a few of the products were familiar, the majority were new for me and I am excited to try them.  Check out my live "un-boxing" video below for details on what was included!

Kombucha

Friend:  What are you drinking?
Emily: Kombucha, it's fermented tea
Friend: Kombu-what?
Emily: Kombucha!
Friend: Looks weird.

I can't count the number of times I have had this conversation.  While people have been drinking kombucha for hundreds of years, it is just now becoming more mainstream (i.e. sold in more than just health food stores). Since my friends and family had questions on what this strange beverage was, I am certain many others do too.  I will try to answer the basic questions in this post.

What is kombucha?

Not to be confused with kombu (the seaweed) or kabocha (a type of squash), kombucha is a fermented tea.  It usually has an acidic taste and can vary on sweetness and flavor.  Most are also slightly carbonated.

Where did kombucha come from?

It is thought that Kombucha tea originated in Asia, but where exactly is a mystery.  With the extension of trade routes it spread to India and Russia, and eventually further.  Kombucha was very popular in Russia and Europe until World War II, when sugar and tea were rationed, making the key ingredients of this drink too hard to come by for the average family.

Over the last few decades, Kombucha has experienced a revival in Europe and has become popular in both Australia and the United States.

Why drink it?

The health claims of drinking Kombucha are endless - some even say it cured them of cancer.  While there is not much conclusive evidence on the benefits of this drink, it is generally accepted as a health product which aids in detoxification and is beneficial for the digestive system.

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There are many different types of Kombucha on the market today; however, most will cost your $3-6 per bottle.  Since I love the drink and do feel the positive effects when I drink it, I have decided to brew my own!  To do this, I purchased a 1 gallon glass container and a brew kit online.  There are a few different kits out there, but I decided on the one from Oregon Kombucha as it was simple and affordable.   The kit comes with tea and a 'SCOBY' (which is the culture/bacteria/mushroom that will get your tea to start fermenting).

Last week I started the brew process: I made one gallon of tea and added one cup of sugar.  I let the sweetened tea cool and then added in my SCOBY.  I covered the container with a clean cloth (to keep out dust and bugs) and then let it be.  It can take anywhere from 7 to 28 days for your Kombucha to ferment to your liking.  The length of time depends on your taste (the tea will be sweeter at 7 days, and more acidic the longer it ferments) but also on the environment.   Kombucha ferments best around 80 F.  Since it is a bit cooler in my apartment, and since I like my tea more acidic, I expect it will take a bit longer than 7 days for mine to be ready.  That being said, I plan to at least taste it tomorrow and will write back with the results!


**UPDATE** I tested the Kombucha after 7 days of fermentation. It is still too sweet for my liking, but I expected as much since my apartment has been a bit cooler than is optimal for brewing.  I will keep checking on it every few days until I am satisfied.

Back Again

Good morning!

Yes, it has been awhile.  Almost a year to be exact.  Perhaps I'm not cut out to be a serial blogger, but I'm going to keep trying.  No chit chat today- I want to get straight to the point and share a recipe that I have been loving on hard for the past few weeks:  Brazil Nut Milk.

 
Most of you have probably heard of Almond Milk, maybe you have even tried it a few times.  Some of you may be familiar with Cashew Milk, made popular by the Blue Print Cleanse.  But Brazil Nut Milk - anyone??  Probably not.  But let me tell you, this stuff is fantastic.  Like knock your taste buds off good.  It is incredible creamy, like cashew milk, but also fabulously nutty.  It's great in coffee and absolutely delicious in smoothies or atop some fresh granola.

Since Brazil nuts are soft, you do not have to soak so you can decide to make the milk and be done in a little over 10 minutes.  I have found I can get Brazil nuts for cheap compared to some other nuts - just $6.99 per pound at Trader Joe's (which will last you for at least 4 batches of nut milk).

To make the milk you will need a high powered blender and either a nut milk bag (which you can find on Amazon for as little as $5.99) or a cheesecloth.  A nut milk bag is a fine mesh bag that can be used again and again, and is a great investment if you like to make your own nut milks. 

Besides Brazil nuts, you will also need filtered water and whatever flavorings you want to add.  I like to add 2-3 Medjool dates, vanilla extract, a touch of salt and some cinnamon, but feel free to play with ingredients based on your personal preferences.   Other flavors I have been wanting to try include maple syrup and nutmeg.

Go check out the basic recipe at Choosing Raw and make some today!