Fiber Fool

On a side note from today’s subject, I added a couple better photos of the finished Spicy Honey Sesame Ginger Tempeh recipe to yesterday’s blog post if you are curious.

Now, onto the topic at hand – books! Thanks in part to the three-day weekend I got a fair bit of reading done this week. I read a chick lit book and a cozy and finally finished up the non-fiction diet book I’ve been reading snippets of here and there all month. None of the reading was exceptional, but none of it a waste of time either. The fiction books were great escapist reading.

I’m still zeroing in on how I want to present the titles and such. Where possible I’m including links to the titles at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iTunes. None of these are affiliate links as many place block those in Colorado due to the state’s requirement of paying use tax on items purchased online so I get no credit for click throughs. I’m just putting them in for your convenience.

Casting About (Cedar Keys Series, Book 2) by Terri DuLong – 3.5 stars – Amazon | B&N | iTunes. Newlywed and new yarn shop owner, Monica Brooks, soon finds her role as step-mother kicked up from a month every summer role to full time. It turns her Cedar Key, FL world upside down at the same time developers have their eye on the quaint island town. Despite Monica’s doubts about her mothering instincts and many other snags during her first year as a mother, Adam and her other family and friends help her to grow and succeed.

It had been a long while since I had read the first book in the series. It took me a bit to get back up to speed with the characters and their relationship to each other. Once I did, I found the story pretty enjoyable. The author was perhaps a tad heavy handed with Monica’s doubts about being a mother, but that growth in her was ultimately the plot for the story. I do really enjoy the characters of Cedar Key and will continue to read the series. See this review on Goodreads.

A Dilly of a Death (China Bayles Series, Book 12) by Susan Wittig Albert – 3.5 stars – Amazon | B&N | iTunes. By book 12 of a series I have certain expectations - about the characters, the plot, the writing, the editing. A Dilly of a Death did not disappoint. Once again I was transported to Pecan Springs, Texas to visit China Bayles’ herb shop and co-owned tea shop as well as all her friends. I also learned some interesting facts about herbs - especially dill and about pickling foods. While there was nothing terribly unique about the book, I enjoy the characters of Pecan Springs and how Albert brings them to life on the page. The extra trivia about herbs and related topics is always intriguing to me. As long as the books are of this caliber or better I will continue to read the series. See the full review on Goodreads.

The MILF Diet: Let the Power of Whole Foods Transform Your Body, Mind, and Spirit … Deliciously! by Jessica Porter – 3 stars – Amazon | B&N | iTunes. My experience in reading the MILF diet is conflicting. In recent years my eating and fitness have slowly undergone what is now a drastic change. I’ve nearly removed processed foods, focusing instead on whole foods – whole grains, more vegetables, more fruits, a wider variety and everything eaten in moderation. Most recently I started paying more attention to what is in season and how far it has traveled to reach my plate. All these things are at the heart of Porter’s MILF diet. So in that regard, I am very much on board with her eating philosophy. Sadly, much more of the book was dedicated to energy discussions than on truly helping one adapt to her MILF diet. The recipes sound good, though many require ingredients that might be hard to source if you aren’t in a major metropolitan area. More recipes would have been welcomed.

If you are new to the idea of eating more whole foods and want to learn more about why you should from an energy point of view this book is a good place to start. If you are turned off by discussions of yin and yang energy in your body and in your food or if you are already eating a mostly whole foods diet you may find this book a bit tedious. As one already practiced in eating whole foods I don’t think this book will be pulled from the shelf very frequently when meal planning. See the full review on Goodreads.

Disclaimer: I received an advance copy of this book through NetGalley.com. My thoughts on this title are my own and I was not paid or persuaded in my review.

I have two other books actively in progress right now that should be read by next week’s update. I’m not certain what will be up next after that. I am making good progress on the outlined plan though!

The holiday has thrown me off schedule a tad. Though I have not as yet come down with any of the illnesses running rampant right noe (knock on wood) I am feeling a wee bit tired and lethargic. So, I’m falling back on a recipe that we kep returning too in our kitchen and that we will actually be dining on tonight. Though sadly the above is the only photo I was able to located of it (although I swear I took pics with the dSLR at some point, perhaps I never processed and uploaded them to Flickr? If I find them I’ll update this post with the good photos).

This is an Asian-inspired vegetarian one bowl meal that is packed with good for you whole foods like quinoa and tempeh that I first came across from Eating Well. We spiced up the honey-sweetened sauce with some pepper and ginger to give it a bit of kick and increase the healthful properties. We also decided the quick sesame carrot slaw wasn’t quite enough vegetable so we add a red bell pepper and a small yellow onion with the tempeh and doubled the sauce to acccount for the extra bulk. You could add pretty much any vegetable that is available - eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, bok choy etc.

Spicy Honey Sesame Ginger Tempeh Over Quinoa

Serves 2, but easily doubled
adapted from Eating Well

Ingredients For Carrot Slaw

• 1 cup grated carrots (1-2 large)
• 1 tablespoon seasame seeds, toasted
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1-1/2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1-1/2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce or tamari

Ingredients for Quinoa and Tempeh

• 3/4 cup water
• 6 tablespoons quinoa, well rinsed and lightly toasted in a dry skillet
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 8-oz package of tempeh, crumbled
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon serrano pepper, seeds removed to taste, minced
• 3 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce or tamari
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon corn starch
• 2-1/2 tablespoons water
• 2 scallions, chopped

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients for carrot slaw and set aside.
2. Rinse quinoa well, then toast lightly in a dry sauce pan. Add water, bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until water is absorbed. Remove from heat and let sit uncovered.
3. Make sauce by combining garlic, serrano, ginger, soy sauce and honey. In another small bowl whisk corn starch into water. Add water and cornstarch mixture to the garlic mixture and stir to combine. Set aside.
4. Heat a skillet with the 1 tablespoon sesame oil over medium heat. Add onions and cook until they just begin to soften slightly, 1-2 minutes. Add red pepper and continue to sautee another 1-2 minutes. Add crumbled tempeh and cook until heated through and starting to brown 7-9 minutes.
5. Add sauce to skillet and cook until sauce thickens and coats the tempeh and vegetables.
6. Divide quinoa and carrot slaw between two bowls. Top each with 1/2 of the tempeh mixture to serve and sprinkle with scallions.

Nutritional values will vary depending upon your tempeh so if you are tracking it is probably best if you calculate your own nutrition numbers. It is a high fiber and high protein meal regardless that helps keep your blood sugar levels from spiking and keeps you feeling full longer. It really comes together quite quickly - especially if you work in a team, making it a great weeknight choice. I’d be willing to bet that with both DH and I working on it we have it ready to go in less time than it takes for delivery to ring our doorbell.

Reading this week was a tad slower. In reality, it probably was not really that much slower since I didn’t have any short reads this week (I had 2 last week, plus a few extra days). I finished two fiction titles, both from series, one mystery and one small-town romance. I gave both 4 stars.

Whispering Rock (Virgin River Series, Book 3) by Robyn Carr - 4 stars. I have to admit I am a tad surprised I am enjoying these books as much as I am. I had picked up a short from the series for free on Kindle and read it last year or maybe even the year before and hadn’t been impressed. It felt forced and too contrived. I did discover it was written with a purpose of highlighting a charity so I wondered if the forced feeling was a side-effect of that so finally decided to give the series a try. After reading the first three books I am thinking that is the case. I’ve really enjoyed all three. I especially love how much you get to see the characters from previous books and how their story is progressing. If you enjoy small-town romances with some drama and a sprinkling of action you might want to give this series a try. See the full review on Goodreads.

A Superior Death (Anna Pigeon Series, Book 2) by Nevada Barr - 4 stars. If you haven’t heard of this series before, Anna Pigeon is a ranger with the National Parks System. In this second season she is stationed at Isle Royale, a remote island off the coast of Michigan which is a popular destination for those wishing to do some deep fresh water diving and to explore some sunken ships. The book is full of nature and action in addition to the mystery and suspense. What I enjoyed most from this book was the crazy, colorful cast of characters. Despite all of the action, mystery and wacky people it almost all came across as believable and not too contrived. There was only one small spot where I thought, “come on.” I did find the characters in A Superior Death to be more peculiar than in the first book, but I enjoy how real Anna is with her sometimes conflicting traits and thoughts. If you enjoy nature, quirky characters and some action with your mysteries, this book is for you! See the full review on Goodreads.

I also continued to slog forward a teeny bit in a non-fiction diet book I got through NetGalley, but it is truly a struggle. My thoughts on how food fuels the body do not mesh with the author’s. Oddly though, I think ultimately our philosophy on eating and nutrition will. I suspect once I get to the recipes all will be good. The getting there is bogging me down. I am seriously contemplating skipping to the recipe section. I’m dragging my feet though, not certain if I can write a real review of the title if I skipped sections of it. What would you do?

Next up fiction-wise will be Casting About by Terri DuLong. Yet another departure from the January plan, but when a book you’d like to borrow comes up for loan you take it :-) I may also start Dilly of a Death by Susan Wittig Albert as I recently was able to procure a copy of that in print. I’m kind of finicky in that if I’m buying a series I want them all in the same format. Oh, and on the non-fiction front a book on fermenting food came in at the library that I need to pick up too.

What have you been reading this week or looking forward to diving into soon?

In recent years I’ve trended more and more towards natural foods. I rely less and less on processed and packaged foods. The same philosophy applies to my nutritional needs. I’d much rather get what I need via natural food sources than supplements. So for probiotics I eat yogurt regularly, but a diversity of probiotics seems like a good idea. So I’m interested in exploring other sources of probiotic cultures - kefir, kefir water, fermented pickled foods, miso, tempeh (something I eat semi-regularly as a local restaurant makes wonder patties) and of course kombucha.

Over the summer I experimented with drinking apple cider vinegar (with mother, like Bragg’s) laced water first thing in the morning to help with some skin issues I’ve been having from the weight loss as well as some digestive issues that have plagued me most of my adult life. It seemed to be helpful for both issues, but I wasn’t keen for the flavor. Some coworkers turned me onto kombucha a few months ago and I became hooked and the results seem similar to ACV water. But, the $3+ per 12-16 ounce bottle price tag was not something I was enamored with.

We’ve definitely done our share of culturing around these parts between DH and myself. Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz has been on our cookbook shelves for some time and we recently added his Art of Fermentation as well (a more encyclopedic book). We’ve done yogurt, cultured butter, homemade ginger ale, cheese etc. So brewing my own kombucha seemed pretty doable. I did some further research on the Internet and bought a Kindle ebook that is a collection of the articles from the Cultures for Health web site.

I needed a starter scoby (simbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) and did not know anyone currently brewing kombucha who might have a baby scoby to part with. After some reading I decided to grow my own. It sounded as though it wouldn’t take much longer than rehydrating a dehydrated bought scoby. To grow the scoby you use a bottle of plain, raw kombucha mixed with some sweetened black tea and let it sit for 4 weeks or so until the scoby has become about 1/4″ thick or so. I grew mine over the month of December. The resulting brew is much too acidic to drink due to the long fermentation period so you pull out what you need as starter tea for the new batch of kombucha and dump out the rest or find other ways to use it other than drink it straight.

On New Year’s Day I started my first official batch of kombucha - a 2 liter size. I let it ferment for one week. Last Tuesday evening I pulled out what I needed for a gallon batch and split the remainder between 2 different pint jars to flavor. In one I put about 1/3 cup of frozen mixed berries (mostly strawberries) and in another I put about 1″ of slivered ginger root. I let the jars sit on top of the fridge, covered for about 3 days. Then I strained out the flavoring agents and bottled them in repurposed bale top 750mL bottles. These I let sit out at room temp for about 2.5 days or so to carbonate, then moved them to fridge.

I had my first 8 oz serving on Tuesday morning - 2 weeks after starting the first official batch. I opted for the berry first even though my favorite commercial brews all contain ginger. When I opened the bottle there was a satisfactory fizz, though little seemed to be retained in the actual kombucha. It smelled strongly like vinegar at first whiff, but tasted quite good and not overly acidic. I think at current indoor temps I could have let it go an extra day or two at any of the three stages and still found it quite good. I was a little concerned the ginger might be a tad too strong based on the scent when I bottled it, but I tried it this morning and it could have held up to even more ginger.

The times can vary greatly depending on the temperatures where you are brewing the kombucha. I have chosen for the winter to take it down to the basement where there is less temperature variance and it is a bit warmer at night. I’m thinking I could go as long as 10 days in the initial brew process right now, but come summer it could be as short as 5 days or so. The longer you let the first fermentation go, the more acidic and vinegar-like it will be, but also the less sugar remains (and thus calories). You just have to experiment and find the balance that you enjoy. But the warmer the temps the faster the scoby uses the sugars and the flavor profile changes.

There is a decided lack of scientific study on the benefits of kombucha, just lots of anecdotal evidence. In the 1990’s there were even two deaths thought to be linked to kombucha consumption. Given this information I am moderate in my kombucha consumption. I generally drink only 8 ounces per day. Occasionally I’ve had as much as 16 ounces, but due to the acidity I wouldn’t recommend any more than that. I try to drink it right away in the morning on an empty stomach. If I end up waiting for some reason until later in the day I tend to drink it between meals, much like the instructions on many probiotic supplements.

I am excited to play around with other types of tea. So far I’ve just used an organic keemun we’ve had at the house. Each type imparts a different flavor profile to the final brew. Amanda brought me some freeze dried fruits from a recent trek to Omaha’s Trader Joe’s that can be added with the tea (as long as no oils have been added) to the initial brew period rather than as part of the secondary fermentation that should prove interesting. I also have tons of other ideas for flavoring in the secondary fermentation stage. This could prove to be a fun, long-term experiment!

This is a good kick in the pants topic for me as things of slid with the combination of the cold weather and lack of gym membership. Below 0 morning temps have me failing to be very active lately. I’m going to need to listen to #10 and use #8 heavily for the moment. My “workouts” of late have mostly consisted of DDR II - fun, but not super aerobic. Better than sitting on the couch watching TV though!

1. Choose activities you enjoy. If you don’t enjoy it, you’ll make excuses to not do it!
2. Schedule it! If it helps, think of it as a less expensive doctor’s appointment. If your work can be unpredictable pencil in 1 or 2 options in case an appointment falls through.
3. Plan ahead. If you exercise at home, set out everything you need ahead of time so it is ready to go and you have no excuses. If you go to the gym or exercise mid-day from work, pack the bag the night before- since I adopted that approach I’ve never forgotten a critical piece of clothing. I think it is the fact that I’m fully awake when packing.
4. Pace yourself! Don’t jump in with both feet and go from doing nothing to cardio for an hour three times and week and weights three times a week. Ease into it. Even one day a week of a brisk walk over your lunch hour is a great start and something to build upon. Make that a habit first, then find other places you can squeeze in some more physical activity. This also reduces the chances of injury or overtraining syndrome.
5. Mix it up! Not only will that keep you from getting bored, but your body will stay alert and the effort you put in will be more fully realized. You can mix it up doing something different several times each week, or every 4-6 weeks you can change your routine. Whichever suits your lifestyle and personality.
6. Reward yourself. At first one of the few things that got me on the treadmill at the gym was the fact that I was much too busy to read much, but I could read on my Kindle while walking (I don’t recommend trying it while running unless it is an audiobook, though your experience may differ from mine). That made going to the gym a bit of a treat because at the same time I got to enjoy something I did not otherwise have much time for.
7. Along similar lines to the above, multi-task to work it in when needed. Suggest a walking meeting with co-workers. Bike, walk or run to work (or the bus stop) to combine your commute with exercise. If needed, review documents while on the treadmill, elliptical or stationary bike. You get the idea.
8. Choose to be less sedantary. Stand when answering the phone at work or doing other small tasks away from the keyboard. Take 5 minutes several times throughout the day to do some stretches or even do some cheater pushups on the edge of your desk or some squats. Choose a distant parking spot. Choose stairs over an elevator or choose a bathroom on a different floor. It is truely amazing how much these things can keep your metabolism boosted!
9. Set realistic and attainable goals. If you have a large overarching goal, break it into smaller goals that are easily measured in shorter intervals. Set mini rewards for attaining those goals - prefereable rewards that aid your fitness further like new workout wear, a fun new water bottle, a massage etc.
10. No guilt! Do not get mired down in guilt if you miss a workout and don’t meet your goals. Acknowledge it and move on and perhaps figure out a way to prevent the stumble from happening again (BTW, this applies to dietary changes too).

How about you? What helps you stick to your fitness routine, or really any new routine?