nijiya market

I've been to quite a few Japanese markets from Boston to New York to L.A. Today I found my favorite. Macrobiotics began as a definitive philosophy by George Ohsawa in Japan, and so miso, shoyu, umeboshi plums, burdock root, daikon and other Japanese foods, known for their health supporting properties are often found in macrobiotic cookbooks. I usually get the few identifiable things I know, fresh produce, cute hello kitty band aids, sea vegetables avoiding anything in packaging. As good as it looks, I try to avoid msg and any other ingredient I can't pronounce.

Then came my Japanese friend Mai. Today she gave me a tour of a store minutes from me that I knew nothing about-Nijiya Market purveyor of healthy and gourmet Japanese foods http://www.nijiya.com. Mai can read the labels. I left with products that I thought I could only order online. Nijiya sells organic produce, that comes from their own farm! There is a hot deli, where Sylvie and I shared a $1.50 mouthwatering vegetable croquette covered in crispy breadcrumbs that you dip in a fruity sauce.
We left more than content, bags filled with dried tofu, shitake mushrooms, quality miso, and adorable snacks for Sylvie featuring dancing broccoli and squash characters on the packaging. Thank you sweet Mai for sharing with me!

what the heck is macrobiotics?? -intro

Sometimes I tell people that I went to macrobiotic cooking school and they say, "OH, you're a microbiologist?" No, not quite. Macrobiotics was popular in the 60's and 70's, and was the catalyst for the natural, organic foods movement and alternative and complementary medicine in the United States. Recently it has had a resurgence. Restaurants and cafes are popping up, books are being written, and ex-devotees to the Atkins diet are realizing the value in whole grains once more. Macrobiotics is more of a philosophy than a diet. Instead of guiding us on what not to eat, it opens us up to the abundance of foods we can eat. It provides us with balanced guidelines, and warns us of extremes, without actually forbidding anything. "Macro" means large and "bio" means life. It is the art of creating a big life-a rich, full, exciting, healthy life. As Jessica Porter puts it in, "The Hip Chick's guide to Macrobiotics", it is about tuning into the universe and being in harmony with it. It begins by understanding the grand forces that govern us-the pulse of the universe. The universe expands and contracts. Whatever you call this force, we are all products of this active, pulsing creation. Our hearts beat, our lungs fill and empty, and our pupils dilate and contract. As we live in harmony with the pulse around us, we become more graceful, happy, and free...

creamy tofu sauce...from The Spot restaurant cookbook

I have slightly modified this recipe and indicated where I have...If you have never been to the spot you are in for a treat. The Spot restaurant is in Hermosa Beach and I believe is the oldest vegetarian restaurant in L.A. county http://www.worldfamousspot.com/. This little cottage is minutes away from the beautiful Pacific Ocean. I love going there for breakfast on a weekend morning and then taking a walk down the Strand. Their creamy tofu sauce is what they are famous for. It has a cheesy-rich comfort food kind of quality but is entirely vegan. When I bought the cookbook..."Recipes from the Heart", I rifled through it hurriedly searching for the tofu sauce recipe. I was dismayed to find that quite a few of the ingredients were not in my kitchen cupboards. I set out to get them, and found the remaining things I needed at Whole Foods. Then I made a double batch of the sauce. I always find that when I don't have the things I need in my pantry, a new recipe seems so much more daunting. But, when you have the ingredients on hand, it is so easy to whip something up, especially if you lay out all your ingredients first, correctly measured and especially if you've made it before. It took me 10 minutes to make this the second time, and there is virtually no cooking time. It is truly DELICIOUS!

Ways I've served it so far...

1. organic short grain brown rice, sauteed veggies in olive oil with garlic, topped with tofu sauce
2. over alphabet pasta for sylvie
3. over alphabet pasta for ryan, with pepper, and parmesan cheese. A low fat alfredo!
4. cold over a spinach walnut salad
5. over steamed kale
6. a cold dip with celery and carrot sticks.

Here's the recipe...

Savory Sauce-From Recipes from the Heart Cookbook

BLEND till smooth and creamy:

3/4 c safflower oil
3/4 c water
1/4 c bragg liquid aminos
1/8 c brewers yeast flakes
1/4 tsp kelp powder. (I used dulse powder as that's what I had on hand)
1/4 tsp basil. ( I used fresh basil from the garden)
1/8 tsp granulated garlic. (I used 1/2 a clove of fresh garlic)
11/2 tsp fresh lemon juice. ( I just squeeze a quarter of a lemon in minus the seeds)
11/2 tsp. tamari sauce
1p pkg. firm tofu. ( I have used silken and firm and they both work fine)

Serve warm on rice or cold on salad. Makes about 2 cups. Can be frozen for later use.

soup for breakfast: Good Morning!-summer morning miso

This is a miso that I've made many mornings. I like soup for breakfast. Eating a bowl of miso, in the early morning, before the day warms up really gets me going. It is a great substitute for caffeine, and I find I have a productive day after eating this-minus the jitters. This one looks like a bowl of sunshine with all the white and yellow in it. Add last nights brown rice or quinoa for a little more substance if you like.


you will need:

sweet white miso ( whole foods)
wakame sea vegetable (whole foods)
organic sweet corn (i get this frozen)
medium yellow onion
firm tofu (buy 1 package and cut into little cubes)
scallion or green onion

I don't measure my ingredients. I'm sorry-that may be a pain for some of you!
I usually make enough for about 3-4 servings...

Bring some water to boil with some pieces of wakame (it expands quite a bit so cut the wakame in small pieces).
add yellow onion, tofu, and sweet corn, and cooked rice if you like
bring water to medium low boil, until onion is cooked but NOT mushy
Use some of your water to mix with miso paste in a mug. Don't be shy with the miso, but don't over use either or your soup will be too salty. I usually use a heaping tablespoon, and then add more if needed from their.
Turn off stove, and when water has stopped boiling, add miso paste to flavor soup. Do not add miso to boiling water! It destroys the miso!
Add green onion sliced on the diagonal to garnish.

Good Morning!

*food fact: Wakame is very high in calcium, thiamine, niacin and B12. It is traditionally used in Oriental Medicine to purify the blood, strengthen the intestines, skin, and hair. It is beneficial to the reproductive organs, and to help regulate women's cycles.

baked bananas

Okay so I know there are fancier ways of making these...but i'm into simple recipes. This is how it happened. Sylvie likes bananas, but she usually only eats half and then grinds the rest into a creamy banana puree that she likes to use as a sort of hair conditioner. Well, considering she was bathed and eucalyptus scented yesterday; when she got to the half way point in the banana eating game...I put the rest of it in the fridge. Well this happened twice, without me realizing that I had put two half eaten bananas in the fridge.
This morning, upon seated in her high chair, there she was again pointing and grunting, at the bananas, and then to herself. I smugly pulled not one but two half eaten bananas out of the fridge setting them proudly in front of her like the good mama I am. She replied by shivering, frowning, and pointing, at the bananas and then to me. She wanted to eat and imminently and she was telling me with baby sign language that they were cold. The microwave has become a sort of relic in our kitchen at this point. So, with vague memories of my Louisianian girlfriend and her debutantes attempting to force feed me fried bananas and whipped cream back in my vegan days , I popped those bananas into the oven on 350 for about 20 minutes. It smelled like an ice cream parlor in the house. Oddly enough, Ryan and Sylvie left to get bagels just when the timer was about to go off. So, I sat down to a warm bowl of bananas topped with a little earthbalance (healthy margarine), cinnamon, and a smattering of brown sugar and a quiet house. Yum. and I don't even like dessert.
According to macrobiotic philosophy, bananas are considered too yin for people in our temperate climate to be eating. They are best suited for a tropical climate. I don't really follow a strict macrobiotic diet, and so will eat the occasional banana, even though I do my best to eat seasonally and locally. Baking the banana is a cooking method that yangizes it, and so makes it a more balanced food to eat...Coming soon-the basics of Yin and Yang as it applies to macrobiotic food philosophy!

* I just found a recipe for baked bananas in my organic baby cookbook that has the bananas topped with yogurt, a little honey, and sliced almonds. YUM!

delicious noodles for a summer evening

I was so satisfied with this dish. I tore this recipe out of Vegetarian Times magazine in 05...and finally adapted it and made it the other evening... note: I buy all my vegetables when I can organic and at the farmers market. Food tastes 1000 times better that way... as it should be.

you will need:

braggs aminos (whole foods) 1/4 cup
brown rice vinegar 2 tbs
toasted sesame oil 2 tbs
udon noodles (organic-whole foods) 1pkg
frozen shelled edamame 1 1/2 c
carrots thinly cut into half moons 2 c
watercress coarsely with stems removed 1 bunch
green onions chopped 1/2 c
black sesame seeds to garnish
avocado 1

1. dressing- stir together braggs, vinegar, sesame oil, and 2tbs water in a bowl-set aside.
2. boil noodles together with edamame and carrots. Don't overcook the noodles, and make sure carrots are cooked but still a little crunchy to retain the freshness of the dish. drain and return to pot.
3. stir in watercress, green onions, and dressing. Garnish with sliced avocado and black sesame seeds. Serve warm.

solar tea

I bolted into one of my favorite thrift stores before closing the other day to take a quick peek. Only ever so often do I find something in 2 minutes flat that I really really like. I don't have the patience, time, or energy to meander down the aisles like I used to anymore, especially with a writhing Sylvie on my hip with her hand up my shirt. My find was a glass globe with an orange sleeping sun on the front, and in vintage font the words, "solar tea". Now i've made sun tea before, but these $1.99 doo-dad really inspired me. Sylvie sat in the sink while I scrubbed thirty years of invisible potential residue off of the thing. It looked sparkling clean to me, but in order to instantly placate Ryan with, "Yes, honey of course I scrubbed the bejeeezes out of that thing", I did the job. Adding fresh mint from the garden to dandelion tea, cranberry tea, and of course good ole English PG TIPS gave the drink just the hint of al fresco that it needed. An hour later, the sun had warmed the tea to an ambery red perfection. Ryan came home to a glass of cool herbal ice tea sweetened with a hint of agave nectar and garnished with a wedge of lime. He was so blissed he didn't even ask, "How well did you clean that thing?!".