Snacks and breakfast, tofu

Diet begins with breakfast. The first meal of the day should give a proper calorie intake and a balanced quantity of proteins, vitamines, and minerals. A healthy breakfast is a good start for the day and to integrate those elements that in the next meals will be used to combine and balance the nutritious elements. 

This is a good principle for any diet and especially for the vegetarian diet. The most difficult thing, but then everything the main thing is getting used to eat healthy, is to combine food and meals. 

Especially at the beginning, you tend to eat a lot of cheese or to avoid them completely, to step into the wonderful veggie shops and try all the types of seitan, soy and legumes based food, or you behave as nothing happened and fill with eggs.

Clearly, when starting a vegetarian diet, also the ovo-lacto vegetarian, you start to look at the nutritious in foods and try to understand the best way to get the best diet.

I personally always avoided diets with non-chalance, convinced that in the very end the perfect diet is the one that in that particular moment we feel like eating, I always trusted my body and my instict, and I tried to swing around the idea of controlling all the ingredients, the nutritives and RDAs etc.

Flipping over the pages I read that it is advisable to combine the elements. Actually my ancestors were well aware of that, seen that they followed and invented the so called Mediterranean diet during  the centuries. To avoid lacks of proteins, heme and nonheme iron, B12 viitamin and most B group vitamines, calcium, magnesium, potassium and a lot of other things that I'm not going to list. If for the B12 there's not much to do if not looking for fortified foods or some supplement There is also a way to get a good intake of omega-3 and omega-6 without eating fish, the secret being in fitting food and meal in a proper  way, beginning with breakfast and snacks. 

A freshly pressed orange juice, or a lemonade in the morning would be the ideal also to help absorbing proteins and iron with vegetable origin; yogurt is a good habit for those who like it, and cereals would be desirable. 

Eating fruit and dark leaf vegetables is important as well as avoiding as much as possible industrial food. Reading the label, also to see if there is some element derived from dead animals. The home made ciambellone dipped in milk is a good breakfast, especially if sided with a freshly pressed 0miles orange juice, even if  we do not always remember to bake the ciambellone the evening before breakfast. A nourishing, sweet, light and quick recipe is a treat of tofu, tasteless very nutritious food that should be eaten at least once a day, and honey.

Fresh tofu

Acacia honey

Cinnamon

Slice the tofu, lay it on a slice of warm bread, cover with walnuts and abundant acacia honey, sprinkle with cinnamon and serve with fresh ginger flakes, candied rinds of lemon and orange and cinnamon sticks.

©2010.2011

Recipe * Aubergines Parmigiana

Italian cuisine, much to the benefit of contemporary vegetarians, relies on a hard core of veggie delicious dishes, and there are many examples in the rural cuisine, such as high-protein soups with cereals and legumes, but also the so called holiday dishes, one being the Aubergines parmigiana, real veggie deli. Any DOCG Italian family enshrines at least a couple of versions of the recipe, that usually strongly differ. The following is the one I've seen putting in the oven since I was a kid:

Just picked sun ripened tomatoes from the kitchen garden

Oregano

Home made extra virgin olive oil

Basil

Chili

Rosemary flavoured salt

Salt

Onion (very little)

Aubergines

Mozzarella cheese

Grana Padano

Slice the aubergines and arrange these on a large plate. Sprinkle with a generous amount of salt. Place another plate on top, and then place something heavy on top of that (such as a big pot filled with water), let them drain the bitter water for at least one hour, dry with dishcloths, deep fry (possibly in extra virgin olive oil) and strain the oil with paper. On a side chop the tomatoes in small cubes and cook a fresh sauce, warming the oil with, browning slightly one or two fine chopped slices of onion, add tomatoes, oregano and at the end basil, you can eventually mash the sauce in the masher. In a oiled baking pan add in sequence: sauce, aubergines, mozzarella, grated Grana Padano, and again to create 3 or four layers, the last one being aubergines and some spoons of sauce. Bake in hot oven for at least 30' (medium-high temperature).

Variations: in bianco grilled aubergines and mozzarella (three layers, two of aubergines and one of mozzarella) with basil, as side dish.

©2010

Special thanks to the WR community

Recipe * Basmati high-protein insalata di riso

Also in full summer or mid autumn, while one can smell BBQs at every corner, there might be the need for a high-protein and fresh dish...

Eggs for omelette

Zucchini

Onion

Oregano

Graped fresh lemon or citron rind

Homemade extra virgin olive oil

Maize

Red kidneys beans (boiled or canned)

Azuki beans (boiled or canned)

Freshly picked basil (or fresh peppermint)

Quick o or other cottage cheese

Freshly picked sun ripened tomatoes from the kitchen garden 

Capers in wine or winegar

Salt

Kombu algae

Small champignon mushrooms sauteed

Boil the basmati rice, strain al dente. On a side, chop and cook aubergines in warm extra virgin olive oil with a slice of onion, sparkle with salt and oregano. Chop tomatoes and season with salt, extra virgin olive oil, capers and basil (or fresh mint) and let it stand for some minutes to create the natural sauce. Sauté the squashes (possibly roman costata) and sauté the mushrooms in a small pot (covered with lid) with extra virgin olive oil and herbs provinciali. Fry a thin omelette and cut it into rhombs.  Mix all the ingredient in the bowl and add  a sparkle of kombu algae, sprinkle with freshly picked lemon or citron graped rind and serve.

 ©2010

Special thanks to the WR community

Recipe * Basmati rice salad with acacia honey

One of vegetarian's best friends is rice, rich in proteins, highly versatile, perfect if combined with legumes and... well whoever can use a pan has a vague idea of the countless recipes of risottos, sweets, savory, spicy and the infinite variations of rice based dishes. This is a simple and fresh recipe.

 

Really young costata romanesco zucchini just harvested from the kitchen garden (freshness is crucial)

Oregano

Graped fresh lemon or citron rind

Homemade extra virgin olive oil

Maize

Red kidneys beans (boiled or canned)

Tofumini

Acacia honey

Freshly picked rosemary and sage (or fresh peppermint and thyme)

Quick o or other cottage cheese

Freshly picked sun ripened tomatoes from the kitchen garden 

Rosemary flavoury salt

Salt

Boil the basmati rice with rosemary flavoured salt, strain al dente. On a side, chop and season with salt, extra virgin olive oil, and a mince of fresh rosemary and sage leafs. Let it stand for some minutes to create the natural sauce; chop the young costata romanesco zucchini (they have to be small and fresh, to maintain a flavour similar to fresh almonds) and add to the tomatoes, no cooking needed. In a bowl add red kidneys beans, tofumini (tofu seasoned some days before with extra virgin olive oil and herbs), maize, cottage cheese, acacia honey, sage, after the tomatoes have drained their fresh juice, add rice, sprinkle with freshly picked lemon or citron graped rind, mix and serve.

 

 ©2010

Special thanks to the WR community

Bases * Raw tomato sauce

Sure, it is advisable to eat the most fresh vegetables and fruits possible to benefit the most out of the the nutrients from food, so, seen that Autumn is a warm season and it is still possible to enjoy simple, quick, high-vitamines recipes. One being the raw tomato sauce, that can be served as a dressing, a starter, a refreshing soup. 
Fresh and red sun ripened home grown tomatoes

Basil

Parsley

Home made extra virgin olive oil

Home made extra virgine olive oil with chilly

Rosemary flavoured salt

Salt

Garlic (just rub on the chopping board)

Wash, chop with a knife and mince in the kitchen robot and later with the masher (or straight in the masher) the tomatoes. On a side prepare a basil and parsley chop on the (possibly wooden) chopping board where the garlic has been slightly rubbed, spice the tomato juice with salt, extra virgin olive oill, and mince. Leave it on a pan for an hour or so, then add some drops of chily extra virgin olive oil. Perfect for a cold pasta, or a warm pasta especially adding some cubes of mozzarella, adding capers and olives, as a refreshing soup, and as a starter with toasted bread.

Variations: in case of intolerance to garlic, instead of basil and parsley, use for the mince other herbs, such as fresh mint, tyme, savory, etc. or a cream of rosemary. Another variation is adding pepper, or chopped avocado, tabasco sauce, and pennyroyal leafs, or freshly picked raw minced zucchini with oregano.

 

Vegan

©2010
Special thanks to the WR community

Bases * Tomato sauce

Let's go on with conserves and preserves... unfortunately tomatoes get a bit sour during the pasteurization, so the best way to keep unaltered the summer fragrance and taste is to cook and can the sauce or to add additives that would alter the quality and the genuineness of the preserves.

 

Homegrown tomatoes

Oregano

Home made extra virgin olive oil

Basil

Chilly

Rosemary flavoured salt

Salt

Onion (very little)

Warm slightly the extra virgin olive oil in a big pot to cover the bottom, add the finely chopped onion, that doesn't have to become light brown, and chilly, add the whashed and tomatoes chopped in big shot, add rosemary flavoured salt and some oregano. Boil, stirring from time to time. Press with the masher and boil again with some basil leafes. Bottle, boil the jars in a big pot with a lid covered with water for at least 12 minutes, leave it covered wait that they chill naturally and turn upside down before storing in a dry, dark and cool place.

Variations: after pressing the sauce in the masher add pan fried aubergines*, or pan fried zucchini, or peppers and zucchini, or mushrooms; capers, olives.

*Suggestion. Aubergines need a 2/3 hours process to eliminate the bitter water before pan frying: wash and dry, slice, put them on a flat surface, add salt and weights to press them in order to squeeze the water out of aubergines in the sink. After 2 or 3 hours dry them with a dishcloth and pan fry.   

Vegan.

©2010
Special thanks to the WR community

Bases * Small Hillock and Cherry Tomatoes Bottled

The small hillock tomatoes and the cherry tomatoes are at the hearth of Italian cuisine and are quite easy to find fresh in groceries, but the taste of the ones bought at the market all year round and those ripened under the Mediterranean sun is slighly different. With all the good faith in the warm strenght of the Israeli sun it is quite difficult to believe that they might be naturally ripened in open field, warmed up by sun rays. They grow ripe between September and October and prefer mild climate, but how can we preserve unspoiled the sweet freshness? The freezer burns themm and the sauce alter slightly the taste, so bottled!

Small home grown tomatoes

Fresh rosemary sticks

Wash accurately and dry with flawless clean dishcloths the tomatoes, bottle them in jars wholesome with a freshly picked rosemary stick, boil the jars in a big pot with a lid covered with water for at least 12 minutes, leave it covered wait that they chill naturally and turn upside down before storing in a dry, dark and cool place.

Perfects for bruschette, seasoning of pizza and pasta, and for all the recipes with hillock and cherry tomatoes.

Variations: Slice the tomatoes; add capers and olives.

Vegan.

©2010

Special thanks to the WR community