Jicama- the easiest root vegetable to prepare

This winter while in Cancun, Mexico I came across a tasty root vegetable- Jicama. It takes kind of like an Asian pear except less sweet. If you've never had an Asian pear, it's basically a fruit that is highly juicy with a bit of crunch ;)

Source

Well, guess what I found at the Asian grocery store? You got it, Jicama! It's dirt cheap too! So I bought this 2 pound beast thinking, gee what do I do now? I was scared that it would hard to clean and that I wouldn't know how to cook it. Boy was I wrong!

Jicama is so easy to clean! Although it looks tough, it is very easy to cut. It's kind of like cutting a massive apple. That easy! Peeling it is very easy too, the skin just comes off. The other beautiful thing about it is that you can eat it raw and it's tasty!

There are a bunch of way to enjoy Jicama. You can grate it and add to a salad, you can bake it, or in my case make jicama "fries".

Literally, all I've done was cut the Jicama in fry shaped strips and season. For my seasoning I added a bit of extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and paprika. Easy peasy!

Now the sneaky bonus :P These fries are great for those watching their weight because they are high in water and low in calories. This snack is too good to be true ;)

PS: Totally ate half of that Jicama in one day :P

Which vegetable do you find to be the easiest to cook?

Spice it up!

Life is awesome when you apply for a masters program and they ask you to contact someone to enter as a PhD student.

Life is awesome when you realize that the way you used to feel about running at 8mph is the same as today at 10mph. <3 Speedwork <3

Life is awesome when your grandma finally feels better after being in the hospital.

Life is awesome when you have exciting things to look forward to this summer.

Life is awesome when you can spice up some wheatberries and create something delish ;)

Foodie Inspirations

Woaa... Last full of week of my undergraduate career has just passed. I have two small assignments to hand in for Wednesday, a thesis presentation of Thursday, my thesis report due next Tuesday, and a reflection for another course. Really can't believe that my undergraduate career is DONE! Wish I knew where I'm going after the summer but that won't be finalized till the end of May. 

Now don't want to bore yea with chatter. Let's check out some FOOD! Today, I present you with 3 delicious meal ideas which are healthy, tasty, quick, and super light :D There really are no formal recipes as these are more or the less things I've whipped together. My family is quite busy at the moment (including me) so there hasn't been grocery shopping going on and I've been working with what I've got.

Numero #1 Blue Cornmeal!

I have made this delicious beast a while back. This time I came back for more, but for a banana version. To make 4 servings all I've done was slowly stirred in 1.3 cups of blue cornmeal into a boiling pot of 3 cups of water and 2 cups of soya milk. Afterwards I stirred in 2 microwaved bananas, 2 tbsp of peanut butter, and a dash of cinnamon. That's all ;)

Numero #2 Baby Lima Bean Wrap

This babe was an extension of last week's "Elf Wrap". I had some collard greens left over so I decided to use them up. For the filling I cooked some baby lima beans and blended them in a food processor along with garlic, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, and oregano. Along side the lima bean spread, I added some chopped cucumbers and aged cheddar cheese. Roll up and eat :D

Numero #3 Mung Bean Sprouts and Raita Sauce Salad

First off sprout some mung beans. Then find that left over plain yogurt in the fridge and food process it with some onions, cucumber, and mint. Make a salad base out of tomatoes, cucumbers, and bell peppers. Top off with mung bean sprouts and pour the raita sauce all over. Dig in!

If you had $3 to spend a day on food...

If you had $3 to spend a day on food... what would you eat?

Well I saw the link to a new movie called "A Place at the Table" and apparently there're a lot of Americans who can only afford to spend $3 a day on food. Think about it, that's just 21$ a week. Reading a lot of healthy living blogs, you realize just how much some people spend on food. Think about it, can you even buy a can of protein powder for 21$? What about all of those organic veggies? Crazy ha? I see the grocery bills of those people who shop at Whole Foods, they're ridiculously high. Plus I've heard that the American Whole Foods is more expensive then the Canadian one.

This topic is quite personal for me because once upon a time I actually did spend 20$ a week on groceries. I'm not sure how did I develop this fear of spending money. I guess it was all the study loans I had and always worrying that I will need to pay those back. Thank goodness I've realized that food is not something to be cheap about. You really can't provide proper nourishment for your body at 3$ a day. Who cares if I'll be another $1000 per year in debt, it's better then ruining my health.

Elf Wrap

First off, thank you those few of the total readers who were brave enough to comment on my last post. The last few months have really left me feeling like I'm not good enough with all the acceptances, rejections, and interviews. I should say this whole school year was like that.

Anyways on with my foodie post!

I've got two friends. One is vegetarian and another is paleo. When the two of them get together it's a little difficult to accommodate their eating styles. Well, the one thing that they can both eat is raw vegan food. We're talking substituting the tortilla for greens for the paleo girl, and swapping meat for walnuts for the vegetarian. Whatever, it's still delish.

A What I Ate Monday?

I'm just going to come out and say it. Reading a lot of blogs I've found people claiming this diet to be healthy or this food to be healthy. Yet, when you do a quick pubmed (NOT GOOGLE) search there's absolutely no literature about it. Honestly, why are you claiming something to be healthy when there's no research done on it??? Now there is research done on the vegetarian and vegan diets that show positive results. There's pretty much nil with regards to the paleolithic diet and the studies that do exist ask questions like "Are diets from paleolithic times relevant today?" If you follow it and it makes feel good, then whatever do your thing. However, don't go around bashing vegans or trying to convert other people because there's no concrete proof that says that it's healthy or will prevent chronic diseases. Hello, most cavemen didn't live past their 30-40s so NO SHIT they had no chronic diseases. I will not start on the raw vegan diet...

Now I'm not trying to convert anyone, I've just had previous requests to write about this. The thing is I've never actually "went on" this diet. It's more like once I started reading more about diets for a naturopathy course I took last year and I realized that I was already kind of following it. Maybe it's because I grew up in South Europe by the Black Sea... Anyways, the Mediterranean diet is highly researched. So if you're curious watch the video bellow and I've provided a link to a few studies that were published in the last few months. Just last few months! One of them in from New England Journal of Medicine. Big Reputable Journal. When I searched "Mediterranean Diet" in PubMed there were over 2000 articles that came up!!!

Raw, Vegan, Paleo... So lost!

My confusion continued on in terms of what constitutes a "healthy diet" ever since watching this video:

I'm sure many of you have heard of the famous Matt Monarch, the raw foodist. Well he made a video that talks about why eating 100% raw might not be the healthiest diet. Really? Of course this video had many video replies to this that said the opposite. To me a raw vegan diet sounds way to extreme and difficult to adhere to. As Matt says, you will lose your present social life. There is very little research done on raw veganism, so is it really worth it when you'd have to lose touch with a lot of your friends/ some family.

Curried Fava Beans

While wondering the jungle that is Whole Foods I noticed some fava beans (broadbeans) in the bulk isle. Of course I bought them! Did I know what to do with them? Well that's a different question!

For some reason the idea of fava bean paste came into my mind. Yet, plain paste is boring! It needed some spice. Well thank goodness I've got a pantry filled with that. Blending Mediterranean and Indian cuisines to make something surprisingly delicious- life doesn't get better then that.

Curried Fava Bean Paste

Trying new things

Feb. 8: University closed due to snow. SCORE! Yes... I did just run around the living room in my underwear screaming "I've got no school today" and yes my dad looked at me like I'm crazy!

I think like most food/ fitness bloggers out there I'm a bit crazy when it comes to trying new things. Might be a bit of an addiction that leads me to having very strange food items all over the house. My grandparents were cleaning out one of the cabinets and I remembered that I hid some goodies in there :P There were some Mayacoba Beans left, some of my Himalayan Red Rice, rice noodles, egg noodles, sweet potato noodles, and Mung Bean Noodles. Yup... mung bean noodles... I bought them with my mom at a Chinese Food Store about a year ago and completely forgot about it...

It's not about the calories...

I am going to apologize before hand. I usually have my Sciency Saturday inspiration occur to me in the beginning of the week and I write the actual post around Wednesday. However, this week I've been swarmed with this new opportunity I got to write articles for Nutritas Health and I signed up to write 10 of those :S Anyways, the articles I wrote about were about the health benefits of certain foods, spices, and supplements. 

It was an AMAZING learning experience and I learned some much! Nutritional labels are pretty messed up nowadays that they focus a little too much around calories, fat, protein, and some key vitamins and minerals. However, food is filled with amazing small molecules that have various activities within the body. Some are anti-cancer, some regulate our hormone levels, the list goes on and on and on.

Fluffy Millet

Last week I came across the Creamy Quinoa with Kale recipe from Hungry Hungry Hippie and wanted  to give it a try. Since I rarely ever have quinoa at my house I decided to substitutie it with millet and go from there. So it's still nutritious, proteinlicous, and creamy! Alright so millet doesn't have as much lysine as quinoa but it's still one of those non-meat meals that is still high in protein. What more can a girl ask for? Oh and there is a bit of kale hidden in there :P

Fluffy Millet with Kale

Match made in heaven

The recipe book that I found last year was actually a traditional Russian Cookbook. I thought why not try out some recipes over the Christmas break, I`m sure my grandma would be jumping form glee. One cool recipe that stuck with me was carp with buckwheat and mushroom stuffing. Yummm! Not having any carp on me I decided to just make the stuffing. Boy, buckwheat and mushrooms are a match made in heaven!

The recipe is so simple yet so delicious and slightly sweet. Consume it cold as the flavour intensifies and that`s amazing because it means TASTY LEFTOVERS! Enjoy :D

Goat and Cabbage

My grandparents brought something funky from an Eastern European grocery store. I have no clue why they thought it was Feta Cheese? It clearly said Yogurt on it and had pictures of goats on it. That's how I stumble upon Goat Yogurt! It is actually really tasty apart from its smell. I'd say very similar to modern Green Yogurt in terms of consistency and it was 11g of protein per 110 calorie serving (liberte 2.7%mf) ;) The cool think about goat milk and I guess yogurt is that it is more similar to human milk and has less lactose. This is a good non-milk alternative for kids and can be ok with some people with lactose intolerance. Give it a try one day ;) I surely enjoyed it with some muesli for breakfast ^^

Nutrigenomics say what!

An internal debate has been going on within me. There’re people on one side claiming the health benefits of being vegan and people on the other side saying the same thing about following a paleo diet. What gives? They are very different yet both seem to claim health benefits.

Well I came across a concept while applying for the Masters in Nutritional Sciences program at University of Toronto. It’s called nutrigenomics. Yup Nutrigenomics! This is the study of how food and its constituents interact on a molecular level with the human genome. Kind of crazy…

Christmas x2

As you might have heard Monday was Orthodox Christmas. It's very much the same idea as regular Christmas but there are some discrepancies with the calendar so we celebrate it 2 weeks later. What I love about Orthodox Christmas is Kutia (Kutya), basically a wheat and poppy seed pudding. It is one of those special dishes that you make once a year because it takes ridiculously long to prepare. Nevertheless, I look forward to this homemade goodness every year and because you always make it in massive batches I had it for breakfast for 3 days after Christmas. It's one of those foods that is amazing for leftovers and actually tastes better the next day ;)

What it would look like if done very traditionally...

Colourful Rice

Rice... It's really quite a beautiful grain because there are so many varieties other than the typical brown rice. Something that I came across at Whole Foods was Himalayan Red Rice. Yes, I had to try it!

Mexican Food

First off Congratz on surviving December 21, 2012! YaY! I like my life so I'm happy to still be here!

Now Mexican Food!

To be honest, I've had limited experience with Mexican Food prior to actually going to Mexico. Sure I've had nachos and a burrito once but that doesn't really count :P 

Well there's a lot of beans, pork, corn, avocado, tomatoes, mushrooms, seafood, and exotic fruits! Most of all there's a lot of spice. I'm talking hot pepper that burns your mouth yet is incredibly delicious. Be careful with that stuff though because my mom tried a Habareno Chili Pepper and somehow got it on her skin. Well... she ended up with small blisters :S

How a green monster made its way into my mouth.

I have confession! I'm not quite sure how it all started but I had kale. I used up most of it to make some kale & ricotta stuffed cannelloni and I had some left over kale. So I was like hmm... I should try one of those green smoothies! That's when it all began.

Antibiotics and Tofu

It was an ordinary day, I opened my e-mail and checked a particular letter from my universities Institute of Infectious Disease Research. Apparently this week is the Antibiotics Awareness Week! Also, two years ago I used to work in Dr. Loeb's office and apparently they published a new study recently stating that "new cases of C. difficile associated diarrhea among hospitalized patients taking antibiotics can be reduced by two-thirds with the use of probiotics". Probiotics to the rescue! Personally I find all of this probiotic stuff fascinating, it could be one of the big links between nutrition and our health :)

This picture was too cute that I couldn't resist including it!

Over the last two weeks, I have been on a tofu roll. In fact I'm having some tofu for dinner today too. That's what happens when your daddy shows up home with 4lbs of tofu and your undying curiosity wants to experiment with a couple of different recipes.

The first recipe I made was the Szechuan Marinade Tofu. It had a nice gingery and slightly spicy taste. It paired nicely with rice (no duh Chinese food) and kale, so it makes a perfect light meal. Totally a keeper but it really depends if you're into ginger!

Next off, I prepared a very classic Lemon Herb Tofu. This is exactly what you would expect from Mediterranean food- lemon, olive oil, basil, oregano, and thyme. The only change I made was that I subbed honey for agave syrup. If you're have guests coming over and need to quickly whip something up, this is the perfect marinade. Who doesn't like the simplicity of a few herbs?

Then I got creative and made Honey Mustard Tofu. The recipe was funky, but in a good way. I wouldn't recommend making it for guests because it might be a little to much for their taste buds. It would also be pretty hard to pair with things unless it's quite plain like rice. To be honest I ate it just the way it was as a post-workout snack. Lots of Dijon Mustard Goodness!

Lastly, I tried Ellen's BBQ Tofu. It required a bit more ingredients but so worth it! The sauce is to die for and is filled with some many different flavours 0.0 I made a few changes in that I actually marinaded the tofu beforehand (I really liked that sauce... I drank some too) and I used red wine vinegar in place of cider vinegar. Definitely a keeper recipe ^^

That was a lot of Tofu, technically my parents helped me consume it... Whoever said that tofu is tasteless lied, don't believe them :P

Have you guys been experimenting with any new foods/ recipes?

What's up with the name?

Hope all you East-Siders are keeping save from the mighty storm! It has finally reached the Toronto area and it's nasty out. I'm so glad that one of my meetings got cancelled so I managed to get home by 8pm. It was crazy how quickly the weather deteriorating and it has gotten very windy. Yuck! So much for going for a nice long jog this weekend to check out nicely decorated houses. I just hope that kids get a chance to enjoy Trick-or-Treating this year because I really doubt that anyone will be doing much decorating in this weather. Well... enough of the depressing.

I wanted to talk about the reason why I named my blog Milk and Honey on the Run. After I made it, I realized that it has somewhat a religious connotation which was not intended. It has nothing to do with "the land of milk and honey" or anything else in the Bible. Instead, it is more about Greek Mythology. I remember reading that when Zeus was hidden from his crazy child-eating father, he was fed on milk and honey. That's what has raised him to be strong and healthy. That's what the "Milk and Honey" stands for- strength, health, and just well being in general. Kind of funny because I don't even drink milk... gives me tummy problems when I run (TMI?). I guess it was a powerfood in the past before we started to treat our cows like crap and inject them with hormones & antibiotics.