Green Roots Pizza! 

Highlights: Vegan, veggie-filled, whole-wheat, delicate flavors, mix of fresh and baked goodness

Kai and I finally made a vegan pizza together! We’ve been wanting to make one for a couple months now and got to it once his oven was fixed and I had a free-ish weekend. We just thought of vegetables that sounded delicious and a base that  could work to hold the ingredients together. This is what we used: 

Ingredients

• Whole wheat pizza dough 
• 2-3 beets 
• 1-2 parsnips 
• 1-2 avocados
• 3 vine-ripened tomatoes (pretty small ones) 
• yellow onion
• balsamic vinegar
• olive oil
• arugula
• salt & pepper 

Directions

1. Wash all vegetables. Cut the stems off of beets and parsnips. Slice half a yellow onion. 
2. Place parsnips in a microwave safe bowl. Add 1/4 cup of water. Microwave for 5 minutes.
3. Place beets in a microwave safe bowl. Add 1/4 cup of water. Microwave for 15 minutes. 
4. Meanwhile…stretch the pizza dough to cover a large baking pan.
5. Rub olive oil over the pizza dough. 
6. Sautee onions in olive oil and balsamic vinegar for 5-6 minutes.
7. Peel the skin off of parsnips and beets. Slice parsnips, beets, and tomatoes into thin pieces. 
8. Layer parsnips, beets, tomatoes, onions onto the pizza. Make sure to layer ingredients on top of each other. 
9. Season with salt and pepper. 
10. Bake pizza at your oven’s highest temperature (400+ F) for 20 minutes. 
11. Add arugula and avocados on top! 

Overall, I loved this pizza. It had such a good array of vegetables with flavors that did not overwhelm the subtle tastes of the beets, parsnips, avocado, and arugula. The onions added savory flavor. Also, the parsnips and olive oil made a good base to hold the ingredients to the dough. It kept the dough soft in the middle as well. This pizza is easy and fun to do with someone else! I was stretching the pizza dough (first time ever!) and Kai was working on the vegetables. Although he did question whether I make the process more efficient or if I should help out more…Anyhow! We’re think of ways to add plant-based protein to our pizza. Any ideas? Would garbanzo beans go well? We made a little date out of cooking dinner. We went to Whole Foods and I tried not to get too distracted by all the new food trends (like Kombucha and chia drinks!). Then, we worked on making the pizza. While waiting, he watched Star Trek while I was sketching his profile on my iPad. We ate together and I was just so satisfied with the healthy meal we made! Just wished we had more protein…

Try making a vegan pizza this weekend and tell me how it goes! 

Best,

Geraldine 

P.S. Vegan pizza sold at hipster bakeries like Arizmendi Bakery near my school, is so actually really unhealthy. They use refined white flour on the dough, bake the pizza until all the vegetables are wilted, and use a TON of oil. The slice literally drips of olive oil which is how they get it to taste good. You also won’t find a rich and colorful array of vegetables by eating out! 

Butternut Squash Zosui Soup! 

-vegan, veggie-filled, healthy comfort food 

My weekly routine includes searching up recipes for butternut squash because diced and cubed organic butternut squash is too tempting to pass while grocery shopping. I admit, sometimes I buy a bunch and don’t end up cooking it. Also, after having Japanese hot pot the other weekend, I fell in love with Zosui soup! It’s the rice soup broth soup served at the end of your meal. 

Honestly, I should be studying, preparing for small group tomorrow, and reading papers for my summer research project…but this was SO GOOD I had to take a break to share =) Okay…so I’ve taken a 2 hour break so far to cook, clean, photograph, and blog (and listen to Les Miserables soundtrack which I’m not liking so far…). So when I’m studying at home, I’m sitting most of the time. I find that getting up and cooking for an hour is a great break which allows you to stand, move, get creative, and be productive! 

So what you have all been waiting for…the recipe! It’s adapted from http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/butternut-squash-edamame-zosui-with-ginger-150-green-onion-relish/ but I changed some ingredients and used a deep pan instead of a pressure cooker! 

Ingredients (4-6 servings):

Zosui (soup part)  

• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 2 leeks (light green and white stem, thinly sliced) 
• 16 oz pkg. diced  butternut squash 
• 2 cups cooked brown rice 
• 1 1/2 cup frozen shelled edamame
• 2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
• 3 Tbs. Nori (seaweed & sesame topping) 
• 3 Tbs. white miso 

Relish (topping) 

• 1 Tbs. grapeseed oil
• 3 Tbs. minced fresh ginger
• 6 green onions chopped
• pepper to taste 

Directions

1. Heat sesame oil in deep pan or large pot over medium heat. 
2. Add the chopped leaks and cook until they are wilted (few minutes). 
3. Stir in the squash, rice, edamame, vegetable broth, Nori, and 2 1/4 cups of water. 
4. Cook soup over medium heat until the butternut squash is soft and easily pierced with a fork (~25 minutes).
5. Remember to stir every now and then so the rice doesn’t stick! 
6. When the squash is almost done, stir in the 3 Tbs. of white miso.
7. The relish: Heat grapeseed oil in a pan, add green onions, add minced ginger, and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes. The green onions should be bright green still and not too wilted.
8. Serve each bowl of Zosui with 1 Tbs of relish! 

Tips: When buying diced butternut squash, look for a package with bright orange pieces. Oftentimes the pre-cut squash are not that ripe and lack flavor. Grapeseed oil is used because it can withstand high heat. If you don’t have it, use canola oil.

I can’t decide if I want this for dinner or breakfast this week…

Okay everyone, please enjoy this recipe and I hope you make it soon! 

xoxo- Geri 

Lately, I’ve been keeping a food log on Paper, an iPad app. It’s fun because I can doodle, and I can just write out what I ate instead of type/search/find the closest substitute on an online tracker. Doodling is fun too because sometimes I draw out how I feel or make light of eating not-so-stellar that day. My calorie counts are guess-estimates from general knowledge of how many calories…and eyeballing how big my servings are. (If you’re looking to change your weight, I’d be more meticulous/scientific than this!) 

Made With Paper

Update your Nike Training App! There’s new bonus workouts and rewards!

FINALLY, it’s about time they released some new workouts. This one features USA’s women’s soccer celebrity, Alex Morgan  (fyeahalexmorgan tumblr). It’s only 15 minutes, but it’s fast and intense! You’ll need a kettlebell (or dumbell), step, and medicine ball (optional). It’s a circuit of 3 sets. Each set is 5 minutes with 5 moves. No resting breaks, but pause the workout if you need a breather (we did!).  My roommate, Jo, and I did this workout + 15 minutes on the elliptical after class. 

The moves:

1. Kettlebell single leg clean and press: works you arms, legs, and balance
2. Quick feet on step: gets your heart rate up like your are sprinting 
3. 2 shuffles into 10 split jumps: awesome combination that works your inner thighs and butt 
4. Burpee with 2 feet lateral hops over step: If you go at a pace that’s challenging, you’ll feel the burn in your quads when you jump onto the step. At this point, my muscles are fatigued.
5. Crunch with alternating kickdowns: always need an abdominal exercise to round out the workout! You’re fully extending your arms and legs so your core really needs to work. 
6. Repeat 2 more times! 

Take at look at what’s new on NTC and let me know what you think! I’d love to hear from you…miss my tumblr readers!

~Geraldine 

Hi Everyone! 

Med School starts tomorrow and I’ve been planning how to eat healthy and efficiently. Here are some tips from me and Dr. Barbara Rolls’s The Ultimate Volumetrics Diet book (Facebook & Amazon). For lunch salads, I buy mostly pre-cut and washed items to quickly throw together. For dinners, I use whole vegetables and prepare them quickly, mostly by boiling. I’m not a fan of frozen vegetables because mine always end up soggy…I also prepare big batches of grains and refrigerate them for the week. However, I did see some frozen cubed butternut squash and frozen cooked lentils that looked promising. I absolutely hate frozen zucchini…bleghhh soggy tasteless mess. 

What’s more important for you? Saving time or saving money? 

Hope everything is going well! I miss everyone =)

~Geraldine 

Hi Everyone, 

These are my favorite sources of plant protein! As you can see, you can get a lot of protein from plants. Not only that, vegetable sources also provide fiber which animal protein sources do not.

This past month, I’ve been breaking out worse than usual, in different areas, and during different times of the month. Therefore, I’ve decided to cut out dairy, which has been shown in many reliable studies to positively correlate to acne. That means, no Greek yogurt and its powerful punch of 20g of protein per cup. I’ve relied more on vegetable protein, especially from these sources! For dinner today, I had brown rice, lentils, and spinach.

For some light reading on the relationship between acne and dairy see: 

Acne: Are Milk and Sugar the Causes?

For a more rigorous review: Diet and Acne

Hope this helps!

-Geraldine 

P.S. My skin’s clearing after 2 weeks. 

Friday Morning Grocery Haul! (Taken with Instagram)

Breakfast Staples:

• Greek Yogurt 
• Kashi Cereal (low sugar varieties) 
• Almond milk 
• Chopped Plums- I use these to make a healthier version of “Raisin Bran.” I mix it with plain, unsweetened wheat bran flakes. 

Fruits 

• Bananas
• Red and green grapes 

Greens 

• Spinach
• Mustard greens
• Green beans