Masala Dosa with a Twist

I made dosas for brunch a few weeks ago and realized at the last minute that I had no potatoes on hand to make the potato masala. So I improvised and made the filling with the two vegetables I did have on hand- kale and butternut squash. It was such a successful variation that it is something I made again this weekend. I think this is our new favorite dosa stuffing.

The recipe I used was much the same as my usual potato masala recipe.

Kale and Butternut Squash Masala 

for Masala Dosas with a Twist

1. Cube and cook (microwave steam/roast) 2 cups butternut squash. Set aside.

2. Heat 1 tbsp. oil and temper it with
1 tsp. mustard seeds
1 tsp. chana dal
1 tsp. urad dal

1 tsp. cumin-coriander powder
pinch of asafoetida
1 sprig fresh curry leaves

3. Add 1 medium onion, cut in half and sliced thickly. Cook until translucent.

4. Add salt, turmeric and a small dab of ginger garlic paste.

5. Add 1 bunch washed and chopped kale and stir-fry it for 12 minutes or until the greens are tender.

6. Stir in the cooked butternut squash. Cook for a minute more and the masala is ready.

Fold in the masala into a dosa before serving. It is a versatile dish and can be used in other ways and other meals; I have some of this masala left over and tomorrow morning, it will accompany a fried egg at breakfast.

The kale-butternut squash masala has a wonderfully complex flavor- a bitter hint from the greens and the sweetness of onions and squash, plus the savory notes of the spices. It complements the dosa so well. And the colors are beautiful.

I love greens but don't seem to eat them as much as I like, so this recipe is a good one for me to make again and again. (And any greens would work in place of kale).

Dosas are a favorite of mine, and even as I'm cutting down on carbs on a daily basis, dosas continue to feature in weekend breakfasts every couple of weeks. Instead of eating 3-4 at a sitting, I'm eating 1 or 2 at the most, with a larger portion of eggplant sambar and coconut-cilantro chutney and a filling featuring green leafy vegetables.

*  *  *

A fun thing happened last week- I got a box of goodies in the mail. My blogger friend The Cooker has started a small business called The Roost Boost- creatively crafted care packages. 

She sent me her low-carb care package to try so I got to nibble on tasty snacks all week- olives, roasted peanuts, almonds and edamame, popcorn and hummus. Two items that were new to me and very tasty were nacho-flavored protein chips and oorja whey protein bars.

It is hard to come up with ideas for snacks that are lower in carbs and can be sent in the mail, so I was impressed with her selection. It is a thoughtful way to send treats to someone who may have a very limited range of goodies that they can safely eat. Good luck to The Cooker and her new venture!

Have a great week, friends. 

Lemon Tahini Dressing

This, right here, right now, is a pretty exciting time for anyone who's trying to eat better- whatever "better" means for them. And I say this for two reasons. First, we are seeing a revival of home cooking and an enthusiasm for "real" food, so that any kind of diet change is more likely to involve tasty, wholesome food and less likely to involve some kind of package with a manufactured low-calorie concoction. Second, there are hundreds of books, blogs and websites out there with recipes and ideas for almost every kind of diet one can think of. So if you're looking to make a change, there are resources out there to help you.

In my case, eating better means eating in a more carb-conscious way, because I have insulin resistance and my body struggles to metabolize carbohydrates. I'm making this change while eating the way I've chosen to for the last 20 years- a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet.

My desire to cut down sugar and limit carbs overlaps with many of the popular diets of our time- Paleo, Whole 30, South Beach and others. My desire to eat a more plant-based diet overlaps with those who eat a vegan or raw food diet.

I don't have to follow any of these diets. I don't have to embrace any of them (in fact, some of them irritate me with their pseudo-science) or agree with all of their features. But I can use ideas and recipes from people who are on these diets. The important thing is to keep meals interesting, tasty and varied within my new food rules, such as they are. Because that's what will help me stick to the plan.

So I've been busy bookmarking new recipes to try. I don't need to watch my fat intake- in fact, fat keeps me feeling full and satisfied, so creamy salad dressings are definitely on the menu. Apart from the Caesar salad dressing, I've been making an avocado yogurt dressing, a lemon caper olive oil dressing and a tahini lemon dressing. I've started stocking the fridge with a jar or two of dressing and a bowl of prepped salad. Add some cooked beans, lentil dal or pan-fried tofu and a good meal is just seconds away.

This tahini lemon dressing recipe came from a cookbook I found at the library, Oh She Glows by Angela Liddon, a book that came out of the blog of the same name. Angela has a knack for making vegan recipes that sound very hearty and tempting. I picked up several ideas from the book- the favorite being falafel bites- baked falafel served in lettuce cups with a cucumber-tomato chopped salad and a tahini dressing. Doesn't that sound good?

The lemon tahini dressing recipe is at the bottom of this post on Oh She Glows. You simply blend the ingredients in a food processor: tahini, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, minced garlic, salt and pepper, adding some water and olive oil to thin the dressing as needed. Pour the dressing into a jar and store it in the fridge. It is a bold, flavorful dressing, with a cheesy flavor although there's no dairy in it at all. Lila begs me to lick the spoon and will eat the dressing straight-up with a spoon if I let her.

So our supper last night was a bed of greens with cooked green lentils, olive tapenade and a good bit of lemon tahini dressing. It is amazing how much my tastes have changed in a few short weeks. I would have sworn up and down that a salad plate like this is a skimpy dinner that would never leave me satisfied. But it left me fully satiated when I ate at 6 PM yesterday, and kept me so full through the night and morning that my first meal today was at 10 AM. Color me shocked.

The dressing is also wonderful over roasted vegetables, by the way, especially roasted cauliflower and roasted eggplant.

So my three simple tips for today:

1. If you think salads are dull and boring, try a zippy dressing and you just might change your mind.

2. Keep raw veggies prepped and ready in the fridge and you'll start reaching for them when you need a snack.

2. Explore recipes from vegan, paleo, low carb (and other diet-based) blogs for fresh ideas to eat more of the things you want to be eating. And also to change your mind-set that leaving out the rice, tortillas, noodles and pasta means there's nothing good left to eat. Don't be deterred by labels. We can take different paths to get to the same goal. 

Stumbling Into an Exercise Habit

The first 6 weeks of 2015 were, on the face on it, very ordinary ones in my life. But underneath it all, it has been a time of profound transformation for me. Of small changes that led to big realizations. One of the biggies was the start of an exercise habit.

I hardly need to repeat the benefits of being active- there are too many to list and we are all aware of them- but it is one of those things that is definitely easier said than done. I've been trying to embrace an exercise habit for so many years, and I've failed repeatedly. By last year, I wasn't even really trying any more.

Then one thing led to another. It started last April, when our neighbors across the street came over for a meal. Neighbor lady said, hey, how about we start going for walks around the neighborhood after dinner? It sounded like a good idea- low key, low commitment. And it was. Since then, we've been walking a few times a week, sometimes more and sometimes less, depending on our schedules and the weather. Our neighborhood is hilly, so there is some exertion involved. But the important thing is that I felt like I was doing something active. Of course, going on long walks is also therapeutic as you get to have a heart to heart chat with a friend.

When May rolled around, this neighbor told me about an outdoor pool in town that is only open during the summer months. I loved to swim as a child, but hadn't been in a pool for almost 2 decades. She urged me to go check it out. I already owned a swimsuit that I'd bought years ago for a beach vacation. So I gathered up some courage and went to the pool. And saw men and women of all different ages and all different body types and body sizes swimming gracefully. I swam several times a week last summer. A cool dip in the pool in the hot Georgia summer, with blue skies overhead, surrounded by shady trees- my lunch-time swim was the highlight of my days. At the end of the swim, I often felt a wave of exhilaration- the exercise "high" that I've heard about. On swimming days, my sleep was deep and sound.

I can swim laps easily and stay afloat indefinitely but my swimming technique is not great. Basically, I keep my head above water- and if you've seen good swimmers doing the freestyle stroke, you know how they submerge their faces and come up for air every few seconds. My poor technique was straining my neck and slowing me down. By the end of summer, I made a promise to myself to take some swimming lessons so that by the time summer 2015 rolled around, I would know how to swim "properly" once and for all.

After summer came our trip to India and there was very little time or opportunity while we were there to get any real exercise. Back home, I knew I wanted to get moving again. The pool was closed and it was getting too cold and dark for regular post-dinner walks (although we still go a couple of times a week). I found this post with some free home workout ideas and tried some of them. I was doing one of the routines (a YouTube video) every other day for a couple of months and it was OK but I wasn't too excited about it.

Meanwhile, a friend gave me the phone number of her occasional babysitter, a young nursing student who also works as a swim instructor. In Jan, I texted the instructor and set up a 30 minute swim lesson at a community gym with an indoor pool. She turned out to be a wonderful instructor- she knew how to teach the right technique of breathing during freestyle swimming plus she was very sweet and reassuring. The first time I dipped my face in the water, I started spluttering and choking. It feels very unnatural for a land-dwelling mammal to put their head underwater. But I was told that the whole inhale-outside-exhale-underwater cycle comes with practice.

I might not love to exercise but I LOVE to learn. I feel alive and happiest when I am learning something new. And as an "obliger", I want to please my teacher so I work hard for the praise. Granted, most times, I'm learning something that requires mental skills (knitting a lace pattern, using a new computer program), but still, I embraced this physical challenge of learning to breathe correctly while swimming. I needed access to the pool to practice, so I got a 30 day membership (it was super cheap, since it happened to be January, the month of enticing gym discounts). I went to the pool 2-3 times a week and did my best to practice what the instructor taught. It was hard but in a matter of weeks, I'm about 75% of the way there. It turned out that wearing swim goggles made a huge difference in being comfortable with putting my face underwater. And it is exciting to feel like I will soon be a "real proper swimmer" zipping through the water quite effortlessly.

When I got the gym membership for the pool access, the person at the front desk told me that all classes come free with the membership. Well, if I'd sort of already paid for the classes, why not drop in and see what they are like? The first couple of classes weren't ideal- the first one was too crowded with about 25 people jammed into the room, and in the second class, the teacher kept chatting about sports and politics during the class, which I did not enjoy. Then I found a twice-weekly class that is quite perfect- at a good time (in the morning after I drop off Lila), with a half hour of stretching and a half hour of strength training. It has all the ingredients of being perfect for a beginner- an enthusiastic and welcoming instructor, 5-7 people in the class, upbeat music, workouts that are not too easy and too not hard for my out-of-shape self. Again, this taps into my true nature. I am not inclined to exercise on my own at home, but I am very good at showing up on time for a class and obediently doing whatever the instructor says to do.

For the last month, I've been swimming twice a week, and doing these classes twice a week. And to my utter disbelief, this is all a lot of fun and I look forward to it. It is a small and basic community gym, with friendly and mostly older patrons, so I don't feel out of place and intimidated like I might in a swanky gym surrounded by picture perfect bodies. I've paid for another 3 months of gym membership.

And then a couple of weeks ago I went down two floors to see a colleague about something, and she was standing at her desk. She gave me a spiel about how sitting long hours is terrible for our health. For a lark, I found some boxes and thick books to put under my monitors and keyboard and rigged up a standing desk for myself. And then I loved it/got too lazy to remove the boxes and so I've been standing (more like fidgeting around on my feet) the whole time during my working hours. I only work 3 days a week, but still, it feels great to not be trapped in a chair. The office manager did order an anti-fatigue mat for me to stand on which makes it much more comfortable.

Walking, swimming, exercise classes, standing at my desk. That's a whole lot of changes in a short time. None were planned but I am so grateful that things started to fall in place. Only time will tell if I continue to stay this excited about exercising, but I definitely have a good feeling that this time it is different and maybe the habit is clicking for real. There's a sense of relief that maybe I'm not the hopeless couch potato that I thought I was. "The best exercise is the one you do", it is said, and I am glad that friends have encouraged me to start doing something and not keep waiting for the perfect moment and the perfect workout.

If you have any tips for an exercise newbie, send them my way! I'd love to hear about how you're fitting exercise into your life, or if you're struggling to fit it in.

Book Synopsis: Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution

This 500 page volume is subtitled The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars. The gist of the book is this: The damaging effects of diabetes are due to high (and fluctuating) levels of sugar in the blood. By keeping blood levels normal and steady, the complications of diabetes can be prevented and reversed.

The author, Richard Bernstein, provides a highly detailed and comprehensive picture of all the ways in which blood sugars can be kept at normal levels in both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics, including the use of diet, exercise and medications. As well as being a physician whose practice is solely devoted to diabetes treatment, Dr. Bernstein has Type I diabetes himself.

Here is my chapter by chapter synopsis of Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution. Chapter titles are in bold. Quotes from the book are in italics.

My Life with Diabetes
This is a pretty incredible story of how a patient refused to let his disease dictate his fate and took matters into his own hands. Bernstein was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 12 in 1946. He writes an eye-opening essay about what it was like to be a diabetic in those days, using a test tube and alcohol lamp to test his urine, injecting himself with large doses of insulin slowly and painfully using a large syringe. For him, diabetic complications started in his twenties and thirties. At the time, he was an engineer working for a biomedical company. Reading a trade journal, Bernstein came across an ad for a blood sugar meter. It was only sold to doctors and hospitals, not to patients, so he got his physician wife to order it for him in her name. He started testing his blood sugar and saw that it fluctuated wildly. This led him to read the scientific literature on diabetes and he saw that diabetic complications can be reversed in animal models by normalizing blood sugars. He started experimenting on himself, measuring his blood sugar and making small changes in his diet and insulin, retaining whatever changes improved his blood sugar. "I had the new sensation of being the boss of my own metabolic state, and began to feel the same sense of accomplishment and reward I had in engineering when I solved a difficult problem. I had taught myself how to make my blood sugars whatever I wanted them to be and was no longer on the roller coaster. Things were finally under my control".

Bernstein's findings went against conventional wisdom. In his mid-40s, he quit his engineering career, entered medical school and became a physician.

Before and After: Fourteen patients share their experiences
"You're the only person who can be responsible for normalizing your blood sugars. Although your physician may guide you, the ultimate responsibility is in your hands. This task will require significant changes in lifestyle that may involve some sacrifice. "

This chapter has patient stories and I found them very interesting and inspiring. They provide different perspectives on coping with life with diabetes. People write with complete honesty that the changes are not always easy but they become easy to stick to once you see and feel the results.

Diabetes: The Basics
Although diabetes is still an incurable, chronic disease, it is very treatable, and the long-term "complications" are fully preventable.

Certainly everyone has to die of something, but you needn't die the slow, torturous death of diabetic complications, which often include blindness and amputations. If one aggressively monitors and normalizes blood sugar levels, there are dramatic reductions in diabetic complications.

This chapter has a good, easy to understand overview of  diabetes, both Type 1 (thought to be an auto-immune disorder in which immune cells attack and destroy the beta cells of the pancreas that produce insulin) and Type 2 (insulin-resistant diabetes, though some Type 2 diabetics have an auto-immune component also). There is a good explanation of the vicious circle of insulin resistance and its relationship to body fat, especially belly fat. Type 2 diabetics are resistant to the blood-sugar lowering effects of insulin but not to its fat-building effects.

Tests: Baseline measures of your disease and risk profile
This is another important chapter. It details tests that can help a person in understanding the extent of their disease, to provide a picture of their health status and to give a baseline against which to measure improvement once changes in diet, lifestyle and medication are made.

The next three chapters in the book are geared towards those already diagnosed with diabetes: Your diabetic tool kit, How and when to measure blood sugar (this chapter explains the importance of blood sugar self-monitoring and also how to do it painlessly), Recording blood sugar data.

Strange Biology: Phenomena peculiar to diabetes that can affect blood sugar
Sometimes, even when you think you're doing everything right, your blood sugars may not respond as you expect. The purpose of this chapter is to acquaint you with some real phenomena that can confound your plans, but which you can frequently circumvent if you are aware of them.

The Laws of Small Numbers
Big inputs make big mistakes, small inputs make small mistakes. This chapter emphasizes how it is easier to keep blood sugar stable with small "inputs", whether the inputs are the carbs one eats or the insulin doses being injected.

Establishing a Treatment Plan
This chapter provides different levels of treatment plans that increase in complexity depending on how severe the person's disease is. For instance, level 1 can be treated with diet, while level 2 has diet plus exercise, and levels 3 and 4 add oral medications and insulin respectively. He also discusses how to set a blood sugar target and goals for treatment.

The Basic Food Groups
This chapter talks about how specific kinds of foods affect blood sugar. The calories we consume fall into three groups: proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Carbohydrates affect blood sugar most profoundly. Proteins can also be converted to blood sugar, but rather slowly and inefficiently. Fats cannot be converted to blood sugar at all.

The sub-chapter on fat attempts to make a distinction between dietary fat and body fat. It used to be thought that dietary fat led to body fat, which was the rationale for low-fat diets that are popular even today. However, body fat primarily comes not from dietary fat but from carbohydrates, which get converted to blood sugar. And then via insulin, the fat-storing hormone, whatever blood sugar is not burned off gets converted to body fat. Diabetics do not need to fear or unnecessarily restrict dietary fat.

The sub-chapter on carbohydrates explains the obvious thing- which is that this is the food group with the most relevance for diabetics, since diabetes is a disorder of glucose control, and carbohydrates are broken down to glucose. Bernstein further explains the relationship between carbohydrates and obesity. Much of this obesity is due to "pigging out" on carbohydrate-rich snack foods or junk foods, or even on supposed healthy foods like whole-grain bread and pasta. It's my belief that this pigging out has little to do with hunger and nothing at all to do with being a pig....certain people have a natural, overwhelming desire for carbohydrate that doesn't correlate to hunger. These people in all likelihood have a genetic predisposition toward insulin resistance and diabetes. 

Diet Guidelines Essential to the Treatment of all Diabetics
No matter how mild or severe your diabetes, the key aspect to all our treatment plans for normalizing blood sugars and preventing or reversing complications of diabetes is diet...the single largest "input" you can control is what you eat. 

Bernstein advocates a severely carbohydrate-restricted diet. On his "strict no-no" list are all fast-acting carbs, including sugars (desserts, candy), grains (bread, rice, pasta, breakfast cereals), milk, vegetables like beets, corn, carrots, potatoes and tomatoes.

So What's Left to Eat is the next sub-heading, a very apt one. This list includes non-starchy vegetables, meat, poultry, eggs, seafood, tofu and meat substitutes, cheese, butter, cream, yogurt, nuts, and assorted other things like tea, coffee, spices, herbs, sugar-free jello and what not.

Bernstein is nothing but fanatically single-minded about foods and blood sugar levels. I mean, for good reason and all that. He goes so far as to say: Onions are high in carbohydrate and should only in small amounts for flavoring. He's not so concerned about processed/non-processed food. Whatever doesn't raise blood sugars is in the diet. Whatever does is out. End of story.

To be sure, Bernstein's been following this diet for decades himself; he even mentions that he hasn't eaten fruit since the 1970s. Here's the ending of the chapter: How do people react to the new diet? Most of my patients initially feel somewhat deprived, but also grateful because they feel more alert and healthier. I fall in this category myself. My mouth waters whenever I pass a bakery shop and sniff the aroma of fresh bread, but I am also grateful simply to be alive and sniffing. 

Creating a Customized Meal Plan
This chapter starts with a caution to diabetics that when they switch to a low (or lower) carb eating plan, they should monitor their blood sugars and adjust their medications to avoid their blood sugar from dropping too low, since the diet usually causes a dramatic and immediate drop in blood glucose following meals. Then some specific meal ideas are discussed.

Weight Loss- If You're Overweight
Obesity, especially abdominal obesity (the familiar belly fat) is a important contributor to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Weight reduction can make one more insulin sensitive and can even reverse glucose intolerance in some cases. Bernstein emphasizes that it is difficult to lose weight if you don't understand why or how you are overweight or obese.

When I see a very overweight person, I don't think, "He ought to control his eating". I think, "He has the thrifty genotype". This is the phenomenon where those with "thrifty genes" can store fat and have a survival advantage during famines. But in modern societies that don't see famines but instead see endless feasts in the form of overflowing supermarkets and buffets and spacious fridges, these people now find that their genes make them chronically obese. What was once an asset is now a serious liability.

Many of the people who follow our low-carbohydrate diet find that their carbohydrate craving ceases almost immediately, possibly because of a reduction in their serum insulin levels. 

Bernstein recommends very gradual weight loss in which you follow a weight-reduction diet that matches as closely as possible what you'll be eating for the rest of your life.

How to Curb Carbohydrate Craving or Overeating
Bernstein reports that 25% of his Type 2 diabetes patients find it very difficult to stay on a low-carb diet. For them, he recommends self-hypnosis (!) or some newly developed medications.

Using Exercise to Enhance Insulin Sensitivity
This chapter lists the wide-ranging benefits of exercise- physical, mental and social. A lot of details are given about the effects of exercise on blood glucose (it is more complicated than I had thought it was). Bernstein recommends daily activity, with progressive exercise, meaning it gets more intense with time (be it weeks or years).

Insulin resistance, which is the hallmark of type 2 diabetes, is enhanced in proportion to the ratio of abdominal fat to lean body mass. One of the best ways to improve this ratio in order to lower your insulin resistance is to increase your lean body mass. Therefore, for most type 2 diabetics, the most valuable type of exercise is muscle-building exercise. 

The next few chapters are all about medications and medical care for diabetics: Oral insulin-sensitizing agents, Insulin-mimetic agents and other options, Insulin: the basics of self-injection, Information about various insulins, Simple and intensive insulin regimens, How to prevent and correct low blood sugars, How to cope with dehydration and infection, Delayed stomach emptying (gastroparesis), Routine follow-up visits to your physician.

What You can Expect from Virtually Normal Blood Sugars
This is a chapter full of hope for those who are starting to make changes, often very difficult ones, to bring their blood sugar levels to the normal range. Bernstein reports that his patients feel more alert and are no longer chronically tired, those with numbness in their toes feel their sensation return, there are vision improvements and improvements in cardiac risk factors. They are not doomed to die prematurely or suffer from disabilities and complications.

I have long maintained that diabetics are entitled to the same blood sugars as nondiabetics. But it is up to us to see that we achieve this goal. 

The final chapter has recipes, followed by informative appendices on foot care for diabetics and polycystic ovarian syndrome.

After I wrote this post, I realized that portions of this book are available here on the author's website.

The diet prescribed in this book is very strict and wouldn't work for me, as it excludes beans and legumes and severely restricts vegetables. However, I get the principle of the diet and realize that cutting down carbs is helping me cope with insulin resistance.

What I loved about this book:
It is packed with incredibly detailed practical tips for diabetics- such as how to test blood sugar as painlessly as possible.
It treats diabetes as the very serious disease that it is, but emphasizes the options that the patient has to control it.
It has a good perspective on medication, especially insulin- that it can be used judiciously to supplement diet and exercise. Medications are not to be feared but to be used wisely as needed. 

Jan 2015: Reading, Watching, Listening to...

This week marks the 10 year anniversary of One Hot Stove. A whole decade, you guys! I can't believe I'm still here. I certainly can't believe you're still here. I wouldn't be out here talking if you weren't here listening, so thank you, thank you for being part of my life.

Today, this blog is more important to me than ever, because I'm using it as my ally in establishing some crucial new habits. My personality tendency is that I'm an obliger, and the external accountability of posting my experiences on the blog is just the push I need to stay committed to my new Nupur 2.0 habits.

On to today's post...
I typically discover things 4.5 years after everyone else discovers them and so it is with podcasts. They are old news for everyone else but I only just got into listening to them. My friends Bala and Shankar (and their sweet puppy Kalki) drove through our town on their way to and from a beach vacation and it was a pleasure to spend two evenings with them. They're dog people through and through. Shankar taught Duncan to give a high five in a matter of minutes! And they taught me to like podcasts.

When V and Lila and I took a road trip to St. Louis over New Year's Eve, podcasts made the journey go by quickly. In town, I don't have much of a commute but I like listening to them while I'm cooking and doing chores around the house. The NPR podcasts are definitely my favorite ones- Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me and Ask Me Another. I found this list of food podcasts and enjoyed a couple, including America's Test Kitchen radio. I also listened to Serial, a 12-episode podcast about a real life murder mystery- a very puzzling and unfortunate story involving high school students.

Over on the Netflix side of things, I've been watching a few reality TV shows, Chopped, Restaurant Impossible, Flea Market Flip, Income Property. All total time-pass while knitting. 20 years after everyone else, I watched the British rom com Four Weddings and a Funeral. Underwhelmed. V and I like to watch Midsomer Murders together, and now the new Barnaby is on and I like him (and his wife) better than the old one! I stumbled on a vintage mystery series Columbo, named for the clever but bumbling detective who is the lead character. It is interesting to watch something from the 70s- the decor and the clothes. And the mysteries are a little different too- they start with the murder and show who the murderer is so there's no whodunit element, and the story is all about how the murderer is finally caught.

And some favorite books from recent weeks...

Roz Chast's graphic memoir, Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? The back cover of the book says "it is a story of an only child watching her parents age well into their nineties and die". Sounds grim, doesn't it? It is much more than that, though. It is honest, relatable, funny and a case study of family dynamics and aging. Chast says of her parents, They were a tight little unit. Her mother's response- "Codependent"? "Of course, we're codependent. Thank God!!!"

Then, I read the latest installment of the Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, The Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe. It is a cozy and heart-warming novel as ever, my literary comfort food. This time, Mma Ramotswe investigates the baffling case of an Indian lady who can't remember who she is or where she came from. Mma Makutsi gets into the restaurant business. Mr. Maketoni has staff troubles, but all is well in the end.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg. Written in 1967, this is an adorable story about a 12 year old girl and her 9 year old brother who run away from their home in the suburbs and hide out in the Metropolitan museum in New York City.

I started reading Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple but couldn't get past the first dozen pages. Right now, I'm finding it it too irritating to read about whiny, over-privileged people, even if the novel is written in a witty tone.

There were two good non-fiction reads last month, both narratives that piece together history and modern events. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson is a fascinating account of Victorian London and the beginnings of modern public health. Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff is a gripping account of plane crashes and human endurance in the 1940s. I don't typically read books about military planes and such, but this was interesting for many different reasons.

What are you reading, watching and listening to these days?

Caesar Salad

The recent edible highlights in my life can be summarized as follows: Caesar Salad and Chocolate.

The chocolate came about because of a couple of small celebrations. And both times, Alice Medrich's beautiful cookbook Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts delivered with great recipes. I'm glad I thought to leaf through the book on my own shelf rather than hitting up the Internet looking for a recipe as I tend to do. 

The first was a birthday celebration at work, and I made a dozen vanilla cupcakes with mocha fudge frosting. This frosting is an excellent option for the buttercream-averse (me!) and it calls for cooking together butter, sugar, cocoa, espresso and cream, then letting the mixture cool into a thick glossy fudge to be spooned onto cupcakes. So easy and oh so good. And given the magical inbuilt portion control of cupcakes, I enjoyed one and the rest were devoured by co-workers. 

Then yesterday we had V's colleagues over for Indian food. Well, everything but the dessert was Indian food. We had the standard oldies but goodies of green bean patties and faux sev puris (faux because of the tortilla chip base and the cranberry chutney instead of the usual tamarind-date one- using what I had in the freezer), egg curry, chana masala, roasted cauliflower, raita and rice.

For the dessert, I broke out the springform pan and tried something new- Medrich's Queen of Sheba Torte version 5.0. It is a dense, creamy, RICH, nearly flourless dark chocolate cake. Easy to make and elegant, at least by my modest standards. V whipped up some raspberry cream to serve with it. I think this will be my go-to company dessert for this year. A tiny sliver is so decadent and satisfying, which is exactly what I'm looking for in a dessert these days.

Sweets apart, I've been gorging on fresh greens. A good salad dressing can make raw greens irresistible. This is my interpretation of a classic Caesar salad dressing. The dressing can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge but I usually make it as needed in under 60 seconds. This amount of dressing serves 1 or 2.

In a bowl, stir together

• 2 tbsp. mayonnaise (I like Hellman's)
• 1 tsp. dijon mustard
• 2 tsp. capers (drained from a jar)
• 1/2 clove raw garlic, grated (I use a microplane zester)
• 2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
• Salt and pepper to taste

Toss with fresh greens and shredded Parmesan cheese (Sartori from Wisconsin is my favorite and I can find it in the local supermarket). Serve right away.

Have a great week and I'll see you next Monday with a round up of books and TV from this month. 

White Bean Chili

Chilly days call for big pots of chili to warm you from the inside out- and that's just what I cooked this weekend. I was in the mood for something a little different from the usual tomato-based red chili, so I tried a white chili instead, inspired by this recipe from The Kitchn.

White chilis generally have green chiles, white beans like Great Northern or cannellini or navy beans and chicken or turkey- which for a vegetarian version can be simply omitted or subbed with some mock meat. This time I used quorn (mycoprotein) mock chicken tenders- stocked up on sale at the grocery store. Here's my version of the recipe, in brief. It is an easy peasy recipe and it was an instant hit. I'll be making this hearty chili again and again. Canned green chiles and white beans (both the dry and canned versions) are easy to find in any US supermarket. For the corn, I used frozen roasted corn from Trader Joe's- I thawed it before using it in the recipe. But any fresh, canned or frozen corn would work.

White Bean Chili

(Adapted from The Kitchn)

1. Soak 3/4 cup of dried white beans overnight. Rinse and pressure cook them. Set aside.
2. Heat 2 tbsp. olive oil in a large pot. 
3. Saute 1 diced onion, 1 diced green pepper, 1 diced carrot, 1 diced yellow squash and 3 cloves of garlic, minced. 
4. Add a can of diced green chiles, cumin, oregano, Mexican chili powder, salt and pepper to taste. Saute for a couple of minutes.
5. Add 1 cup corn, 1 packed mock chicken (I used quorn "chicken" tenders), white beans and 6 cups vegetable stock or water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. 
6. Meanwhile, in a separate saucepan, melt 3 tbsp. butter. Add 3 tbsp. flour and whisk to make a roux. Add 3/4 cup whole milk and whisk well to make a thick lump-free sauce. 
7. Add the white sauce into the soup and mix well. Simmer for 10 more minutes. 
8. Turn off the heat and garnish with juice of 1/2 lemon and a handful of minced cilantro. Taste and adjust salt and seasonings. 
9. Serve with hot sauce on the side, plus a topping of crushed tortilla chips and shredded cheese, if desired. 

As the original recipe says, the flavor and texture of the soup gets better a few hours after it is made. If you're looking for a hearty stew this winter, I highly recommend this recipe.

* * *

Half-way through January, I'm pretty excited about how this month is coming along. The goal for this month was to start cutting down on excess carbohydrates to make my diet more compatible with my body's challenges with managing blood sugars.

The way I am eating now does not feel all that different from the way I ate before. There are only a few tweaks in place to reduce or replace the big carb heavy components. So I have been eating dal and subzi, just with a big pile of koshimbir (shredded raw vegetables) instead of rice. I enjoy Mexican flavors, but in a bowl instead of rolled up in a tortilla. I've been trying out spaghetti squash casseroles and loving them. I've been making a dressing for Caesar salad that is so irresistible that it has me craving big bowls of greens.

And so the emphasis is on satisfying vegetable-heavy meals. This is important because what I'm trying to establish here is not a "diet" in the sense of that short-term unpleasant thing you do to get to some goal. This is the way I will eat for the rest of my life.

As for ingredients like rice, it is not an all or nothing deal. Every now and then, I will eat a small amount. For instance, I made my favorite quick winter meal- khichdi- with 1 cup moong dal and 1/4 cup rice. Usually there's at least as much rice as dal, if not more rice than dal. And I enjoyed my dal-heavy khichdi with a large helping of two different stir-fried vegetables- subzis, making vegetables the star of the meal while also enjoying the warm khichdi.

What about snacks?  Crispy salty snacks are my kryptonite. This month, I've completely stopped buying potato chips, tortilla chips and fried Indian snacks like chaklis. If I am served any of these things somewhere, say at a party or a friend's home, I'll eat a few- no problem. But I just can't have the whole package in my house because I know I simply cannot eat these in moderation- the family size bag will vanish in hours. When V picked up a packet of chaklis at the store, I requested that he keep it in his office for snacking instead of at home. Because I don't need a packet of chaklis in my pantry and also, once I get my hands on it, he has no chance of tasting even half a chakli. I'll polish them off in record time. So you do need family buy-in to help you avoid the foods you're trying to steer clear of.

Instead, this month I'm keeping three snacks on hand, all three are foods that I love: (a) nuts,  (b) hummus and veggie sticks and (c) homemade granola with unsweetened almond milk. If cravings strike between meals, I turn to one of these. Many people use high-protein granola bars and smoothies as snacks, but I really don't like the taste of either granola bars or smoothies, so I'm going with what I personally like to eat.

But here's the funny thing: I rarely feel like snacking any more. All my life, I've been on a roller coaster of high and low blood sugars. I get hunger pangs every couple of hours, and need regular snacks between meals to keep from feeling jittery and moody. Once I removed the thing that my body can't handle- excess carbs- the problem of being constantly hungry is going away too. For the first time in my life, I'm not craving snacks all the time and it is a nice feeling to be satisfied from one meal to the next. Let's see what the rest of this month brings. 

Book Synopsis: The End of Diabetes

Image: Goodreads

Every bookstore and library is filled with aisles upon aisles of books on health, diet and self-help. I confess to having very mixed feeling about these books. My approach is to read some of these books to see if they contain anything useful, while being deeply skeptical of embracing any one book or author as the ultimate truth.

Most authors have a central thesis or pet theory. They are often guilty of cherry picking research studies with conclusions that support their pet theory. Don't get me started on how flawed and biased many of the research studies are in the first place. Most books are full of exaggerated claims and promises of a miracle. Authors go to great lengths to explain why everyone who believes anything different is flat out wrong.

But now and then I read these books anyway, because despite everything I just said, I've also come across valuable information, different viewpoints, messages of hope, ideas for changing habits and useful tips and recipes. There is a grain of truth in the hype. I will post a book review every now and then if I come across a book which says something interesting. This is one I read last month.

The End of Diabetes: The Eat To Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes by Joel Fuhrman, MD.

The crux of the book is this: Type II diabetes can be prevented and reversed with a nutrient dense diet of plant based foods. Here's what I took away from each of the chapters in this book. Quotes from the book are in italics.

Chapter 1: Understanding diabetes
The actual discussion of the causes of type I and type II diabetes in this chapter was quite garbled, in my opinion. But there is one bit of discussion at the end of the chapter that I really liked. Fuhrman criticizes the system of food exchanges used by the American Diabetic Association (ADA), which is the basis of how most nutritionists teach new diabetics to eat (for example, me when I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes). The ADA tries very hard to work with the standard American diet, recommending small portions of low-nutrient, low-fiber foods. "Cereal is OK, just eat only 1/2 cup of it"- that sort of thing. This leaves patients hungry and struggling to comply with the nutrition plan. Instead of just reducing portions of rice and tortillas when I had GD, I wish I had the sense to add in substantial portions of non-starchy vegetables which would have left me sated. Anyway, I agree with Fuhrman that the standard nutritional advice given to diabetics is very poor and it misses the boat.

Chapter 2: Don't medicate, eradicate
"Clearly our present dependency on drugs to control diabetes without an emphasis on dietary and exercise interventions is promoting diabetic complications and premature death in millions of people all over the world". Fuhrman explains how medications-including oral pills and insulin- give type II diabetics a false sense of security that their diabetes is under control which leads patients to continue living the very same lifestyle that led to the disease in the first place. "The best medicine for diabetics is a high-nutrient, lower-calorie diet and exercise, not drugs. This is the only approach that lowers cholesterol, lowers triglycerides, and lowers blood pressure as it drops weight and blood glucose". 

Chapter 3: Standard American diet versus a nutritarian diet
Fuhrman recommends what he calls a "nutritarian" diet- a diet rich in micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals). The foods it emphasizes are familiar ones- vegetables, especially green leafy vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds and fruits. Animal foods are strongly discouraged. So, he is essentially recommending a vegan diet but minus high-starch foods like white rice, refined grains and bread products. I found this chapter interesting because I eat a vegetarian, predominantly South Asian diet and the recommended foods like vegetables, beans, lentils, nuts and seeds are the very pillars of Indian home cooking.

Chapter 4: Reversing diabetes is all about understanding hunger
"Toxic hunger appears at the lower plateau of the blood sugar curve, drives overeating behavior, and strongly increases the desire to consume more calories than the body requires, leading to weight gain and diabetes. True hunger, however, appears when the body has used up most of the calories from the previous meal...and is ready to be refueled. With a change of diet, toxic hunger gradually lessens and resolves, allowing individuals to be satisfied eating less".

"Wrong food choices lead to withdrawal symptoms that are mistaken for hunger...Initially, these symptoms are relieved after eating, but the cycle simply starts over again with the symptoms returning in a matter of hours. Eating when you experience toxic hunger in not the answer. Changing what you eat to stop toxic hunger is."

"...trying to eat fewer calories is ineffective and almost futile. The secret is to desire fewer calories. The high consumption of low-calorie, high-nutrient foods such as raw vegetables, cooked greens, beans and seeds prepared in delicious combinations makes you feel physically full from all the fiber and satisfied from all the chewing. You lost the addictive cravings and then you simply and naturally desire less food."

Chapter 5: High protein, low carb counterattack
Here Fuhrman spends a great deal of time talking about the dangers of low-carb diets that are based on animal protein. I understand advocacy of vegetarian and vegan diets or meat-heavy diets for that matter but I get uneasy when authors cherry pick scientific studies to support their statements. So this is the part where I just moved on. People have all sorts of reasons for eating what they want to eat. I've made my choices so I just want to know how to maximize them.

This chapter also emphasizes that many plant based foods such as beans, lentils and vegetables have a high protein content.

Chapter 6: The phenomenal fiber in beans
Legumes such as beans, lentils, peas and chickpeas have protein, soluble and insoluble fiber and another type of fiber called resistant starch which has health benefits. "Considering their favorable effects on blood sugar and weight loss, they (legumes) are the preferred carbohydrate source for people who have diabetes or are at risk for diabetes". 

Chapter 7: The truth about fat
Fuhrman emphasizes that whole plant-based high fat foods such as nuts, seeds and avocados are an important part of the diet. "I have encountered many individuals who have not thrived on vegan or flexitarian diets...Often they do not realize their real problem. They go back to eating large amounts of animal products, not knowing that they were fat deficient on their low-fat vegan diet. For most of these individuals, eating more healthy fats from nuts and seeds, taking a DHA supplement, and eating fewer starchy carbohydrates clears up the problem". 

Chapter 8: The nutritarian diet in action
In this chapter, Fuhrman outlines his recommendations: The unlimited foods to be eaten liberally are all raw vegetables, all cooked green vegetables and other non starchy vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, mushrooms, onions and cauliflower. Some fruit can be eaten. 2 cups a day of beans are allowed along with some nuts and seeds. "The salad is the main dish". Fuhrman recommends starting every main meal with a big salad.

My take on his advice from this chapter: Fuhrman's diet does not endorse oil, not even for sauteing vegetables. His recommended diet is restrictive and unappetizing with almost no salt. I understand that Fuhrman's patients are often very sick and I don't know what their particular needs might be. For myself, I know that spices and seasonings and sauces are all wonderful things that will support me in eating better.

There is a whole spectrum between eating to live (food strictly as fuel, which is right there in the title of this book) and living to eat (food as entertainment and indulgence). But there is plenty of space to thrive in a middle zone where many of the pleasurable and emotional connections of food are retained while eating food that nourishes the body and is right for one's own metabolism.

Chapter 9: The six steps to achieving our health goals
These involve making the commitment, drawing up a plan, tracking progress, making it public, making your kitchen healthy and the exercise prescription. "In place of dependency-inducing drugs, the proper medical intervention for this disease is to focus on the aggressive use of diet and exercise".

Chapter 10: For doctors and patients
This chapter is a pep talk for physicians to recommend diet and exercise changes and not just prescribe medication.

Chapter 11: FAQ

Chapter 12: Menus and recipes
Breakfast recipes typically contain oats, fruits and nuts. Other recipes are a variety of dips and dressings, lentil and bean soups, bean burgers, vegetable curries and stir-fries.

In summary, this book has two interesting take-home messages. The first is that people diagnosed with diabetes or at high risk for becoming diabetic have very good reason to be optimistic that at any time and any stage, they can change their lifestyle and reverse the disease to a remarkable extent, even reducing or eliminating the need for medication.

The second message is that a plant based diet is compatible with preventing and reversing diabetes. This is reassuring to anyone who has chosen to eat a vegetarian or vegan diet (or mostly vegetarian or vegan) for whatever reason and who feels a bit defeated by the prevailing climate of meat-based low-carb diets. 

"Noodle" Stir Fry

Sowmya requested the recipe for the "noodle" stir fry I mentioned in my last post- so here it is as promised. I swapped out noodles for broccoli slaw to lower the carb content of this meal while making it vegetable-heavy.

This does not have to be an all or nothing swap, by the way. Even if some cooked wheat/rice/other noodles were added to this dish, it would still have a lot more vegetables than standard vegetables noodles which tend to be heavy on noodles with only a few bits of vegetables here and there. Do what works for you!

Broccoli Tofu Stir-Fry

Broccoli slaw is a shredded mixture of broccoli stalks, sometimes with some carrots and red cabbage included. It is sold in packages in the produce section of American supermarkets.

1. Heat 1 tbsp. oil in a wide pan on medium heat.
2. Drain and pat dry 1 package of extra-firm tofu. Cut into bite-sized cubes. Pan fry the tofu until lightly browned. When the tofu is almost ready, sprinkle it with 2 tbsp. nutritional yeast and a bit of soy sauce. Stir fry for a minute more, then remove tofu into a plate and set aside.
3. In the same pan, heat 1/2 tbsp. oil. Pour in a 10 oz package of broccoli slaw. Stir fry for a couple of minutes.
4. Add 2 tsp. ginger garlic paste, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sriracha sauce, a drizzle of maple syrup, all to taste.
5. Add a handful of crushed peanuts or a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter.
6. Stir fry for a couple more minutes.
7. Garnish with minced cilantro or green onions.
8. Toss with the tofu and serve. 

The Plan for Jan

Happy New Year! I'm glad 2015 is here with a blank slate, and I hope it will be sprinkled liberally with joyful and meaningful moments for you and for me.

I've read of people who, instead of making resolutions, adopt a word or an overarching theme for the new year. It is a great way to help steer one's life in the direction you want to go. I thought about it a little bit and chose the theme Nupur 2.0 for this year. One of my favorite quotes from Dr. Seuss goes like this: “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” So the goal is to listen to what my body needs and revise my habits to be more true to myself.

In more concrete terms, I'm going to be working on one major goal every month. Based on my family's medical history and my personal medical history that I've talked about before which points to insulin resistance, the most urgent change for me is to stop eating excess carbs. Other factors are important too- getting enough sleep, managing stress, exercising regularly- but this is the critical one. Without making this change, the rest won't matter much.

As far as cutting out excess carbs goes, I'm aiming for the low hanging fruit, so to speak. The stuff that is mostly empty carbs and that I tend to eat too much of- rice, bread, parathas, tortillas, noodles and pasta. These will be replaced by vegetables and more vegetables, both raw and cooked. I happen to love vegetables so this is no hardship. Beans and lentils, nuts and seeds are all in. Beans, legumes and some veggies like carrots and sweet potatoes have an abundance of nutrition even if they are carb-heavy, and if I'm cutting down on the other starches, then I have room in my "budget" for these. The idea is not to cut out carbs altogether but to bring them down to a level that my body can handle.

I'll continue to eat eggs and some dairy- mostly homemade yogurt and some butter, ghee and cheese which I use mostly as flavoring. And I occasionally eat tofu and meat substitutes as well.

Here are some examples of swaps I've been making in December, replacing carb-heavy staples with vegetables.

Our lunch consists of leftovers from the previous night's dinner. Often, my lunchbox would have rice, dal with pickle on the side. Here's version 2.0: garlickly moong dal with a large helping of roasted broccoli and squash and the requisite dollop of pickle. I was pleasantly surprised that I did not miss the rice at all.

Rajma (kidney bean curry) and tortillas are a popular dinner option at my home. On that day, a friend left on a long vacation and stopped by with a big bag of produce that he'd cleaned out from his fridge- could I please use it up so it would not be wasted? The bag contained lettuce, cucumbers and peppers among other things. So I skipped the tortillas and spooned the rajma on a giant salad, dressed simply with lemon juice, salt and pepper. This I expected would taste really weird. It was surprisingly tasty- the hot rajma wilted the lettuce a bit, and everything was juicy and delicious. I thought I would eat seconds but could barely finish this bowl.

Fried egg is one of my favorite breakfasts. Instead of eating it with a couple slices of toast or a whole grain tortilla, I took half an avocado, mashed it with a fork and stirred in a pinch of salt and some hot sauce. I had some salad left over (this was the morning after the rajma dinner) and ate that on the side. This was a great way to start the day.

Another favorite meal at my place is noodle stir fry with vegetables and tofu. For version 2.0, I skipped the noodles, and used broccoli slaw instead. Broccoli slaw is sold in packages in the produce section of US supermarkets- it is basically shredded broccoli stems, sometimes with carrots and red cabbage. I was pleased at how much the sautéed slaw resembled the texture of noodles. The whole meal was a snap to put together and very satisfying.

All this month, I will continue these swaps and pay attention to my mood and energy levels, my hunger and cravings, and to my weight and waist size. I've taken some "before" measurements so I have something to compare to. The idea is to make the changes, see if they work and adjust as necessary.

How did you ring in the new year? What are your hopes and dreams for 2015? 

What I'm Reading in the Winter Break

I want to thank everyone who wrote me messages of encouragement and shared their own stories on my last post. I am so touched and grateful that you joined in the conversation. In talking about my fears of diabetes openly, I feel like a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Clearly, a lot of us are in this together. I do believe that 2015 is going to be a big year of small changes for the better. 

It is cold and dreary here and I've spent most evenings this month reading or quilting. I took up a rather challenging (for me) quilt this year, making a couple of squares each month of 2014 and shocked myself by finishing it before year end!

As for reading, my three favorite books this month were all about questions and answers. 


What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe (of xkcd comics fame) is the most delightful book I've read all year. Munroe is a physicist. Readers of his website posed absurd questions to him and he answered them as thoroughly and seriously as he could, using principles of science, math and logic.

If you have a curious nature, if you've ever wondered, "How much physical space does the Internet take up?", or "What would happen if you made a periodic table out of cube-shaped bricks, where each brick was made of the corresponding element?" or "How many unique English tweets are possible?", you'll find this book hilarious, entertaining, illuminating and very very clever.

I disagreed with a couple of his answers to biological questions. I would have answered them a completely different way. But that is the point of absurd hypothetical questions- they make you think and there is rarely one right answer, just a range of plausible ones. If science was taught this way, more kids would find themselves in STEM fields.

Big Questions from Little People: And Simple Answers from Great Minds compiled by Gemma Elwin Harris. Kids ask the most baffling questions from morning to night, and this book collects some such questions posed by kids ages 4-12 and gets experts to actually answer them. The questions range from "Why is space so sparkly?" to "Why do wars happen?" to "What should you do when you can't think what to draw or paint?" to "Who is God?". The resulting collection is a delightful collection of quirky wisdom and some very profound thoughts. I think any grown-up would enjoy leafing through this book, and if you have a child ages 5-12 (or so), it would be really fun to read some of the questions and answers with them. 

Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed. This is an unusual sort of book. Strayed used to be an anonymous advice columnist on a website. Readers would submit questions on love and life and the answers are compiled in this book. Reading a bunch of advice to strangers seems like a weird thing but this book is a powerful compilation of authentic and raw human emotion. This book made me "feel all the feelings and think all the things"- my litmus test for a worthwhile book. I'm very glad I read this masterpiece of heartache and hope. 

On to some fiction...

Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym. I have to thank Arpita for introducing me to this author. Pym has a knack for commenting on the tiny details of everyday life with wit and humor. This is a book about two men and two women who share an office and who are all approaching retirement age. This is not a plot-driven novel but a character-driven one. It is a quiet book, sad and funny in its way, as it comments on human nature. 

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce is a gentle, sad yet ultimately uplifting story. This is a story both literal and metaphorical about the journey that we humans undertake. Harold Fry is recently retired, living with his wife in a tense and bitter marriage in their home at the Southern-most tip of England. He gets a good-bye letter from an old colleague who is dying in a hospice at the Northern tip of England. Harold sets out to the corner mailbox to post a reply, then somehow, without planning or preparation, keeps walking for weeks (!) to see her in the hospice. “The world was made up of people putting one foot in front of the other; and a life might appear ordinary simply because the person living it had been doing so for a long time.” 

The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni was on my to-read list for a long time. When I finally picked it up this month, I did not "get" the story at all. It was tedious, not fun and I returned it without finishing the book. Oh well.

Meanwhile, here's what we have been reading with Miss Lila...

Otis by Loren Long. Lila borrowed this book from her school library and she can't get enough of it. It is the sweet story about friendship between a calf and an old tractor. Lila loves to say "putt putt puddety chuff" and those sort of tractor noises from the book.

The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle is so hilarious and endearing. The ill-tempered ladybug doesn't want to share a breakfast of aphids with the friendly ladybug and looks to pick a fight. When the friendly ladybug agrees to the fight, the grouchy ladybug says "Oh you're not big enough" and goes off to find progressively bigger animals to fight with.

If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Joffe Numeroff and Felicia Bond. Boy, we've read this one so many times that Lila and I both know the words by heart. This is completely ridiculous story about a young boy who offers a muffin to a visiting moose. One thing leads to another as the easily distracted moose jumps from activity to activity making a complete mess in the process.

All by Myself by Aliki. Nothing exceptional about this book except that since the title is Lila's all-time favorite phrase, I could not resist picking it up at the library. The book goes through a busy day in a child's life, highlighting the everyday actions he learns to do by themselves, such as buttoning his shirt and brushing his teeth. 

What are you reading these days? 

Towards a Healthier 2015

In the blink of an eye, we're counting down to the end of 2014. At this time of year, I always find myself reflecting on the year that was. As with most years, Twenty Fourteen had highs and lows for our family. We had many wonderful and memorable moments with our loved ones. The lowest low was V's father passing away. Indeed, all the sad and bad moments this year had to do with serious illness and deteriorating health among some of our close friends and family. Health is wealth, the old cliche says, but how often we take it for granted.

And that's what this post is- a long and rambling contemplation on food and wellness and where my life is headed. There's no recipe in this post but there is some food for thought- for myself and perhaps for some of you reading it. I guess I've been writing this post in my head for over 3 years and this week, I finally decided to type it and hit the publish button.

In the summer of 2011 in St. Louis, I was about two thirds of the way through a fairly uneventful pregnancy. We were happy and excited to welcome our baby daughter. My OB ordered a routine glucose tolerance test- and I failed it. I had gestational diabetes. I was surprised and not surprised at the same time. Surprised because I had the hallmarks of being healthy and low-risk with a normal BMI. Not surprised because I have a woefully strong history of diabetes on one side of my family and I knew very well how the genetic dice was loaded.

Things happened rapidly after I was flagged as having gestational diabetes. The very next day I saw a diabetes counsellor who taught me to finger-prick and test my blood glucose 4 times a day- upon waking (the fasting number) and an hour after breakfast, lunch and dinner. This was torture enough for me- I hate hate hate needles. It was all too much- I burst into tears in the counsellor's office but she was as kind and reassuring as can be. I also met with a nutritionist who taught me the basics of carb counting. The strategy was this: make sure I restrict carbs to 200 grams a day (budgeted over meals and snacks), do some brisk walking for exercise, test blood glucose, record my numbers and make sure they stayed within the acceptable range. If I could manage to control my blood sugar with diet and exercise, fine. If not, they'd dose me with insulin.

My baby's health was at stake. There was nothing I would not do for her. I pulled my act together and I was meticulous. I did everything I was told- counted carbs and walked for 10 minutes after every single meal. Working full time and trying to get stuff done before I went on maternity leave, I set alarms and did finger pricks at my desk. The numbers were always within range. My OB remarked that if all her patients were so compliant, she would see many fewer complications.

I had nine(!) friends and acquaintances who were pregnant at the same time as me. Everyone else was indulging in their favorite foods, eating for two, giving in to cravings. My life looked quite different. But at the end of my pregnancy, at a time when most women are feeling distinctly heavy and encumbered, I was feeling lighter and fitter than I'd ever felt. This whole torture of finger pricks, carb counting and brisk walks in the St. Louis August heat- it was working. Lila's birth was uneventful- although she was a smaller-than-expected baby and my OB and I realized that in my zeal, I had probably been stricter with my diet than I should have been. Two weeks after giving birth, I was back at my pre-pregnancy weight.

Gestational diabetes is situational; it resolves when the baby is born. Or more precisely, when you deliver the placenta, which is what produces the hormones that lead to insulin resistance. But a graduate of gestational diabetes learns some important things about her body's ability (or the lack thereof) to process carbohydrates and sees a big red flag that there is type II diabetes in her future if she's not careful. So in getting that warning sign, I will say that gestational diabetes was the best bad thing that has happened to me.

You'd think this episode would have changed my life immediately and forever. It did not. Humans can be exceedingly resistant to change. There's always an excuse and usually a laundry list of excuses not to change our habits. There was a new baby to care for and the next year went by in a blur. There was no mental space or physical energy to make any lifestyle changes. The year after that we moved to a new state and life just went on as usual.

Earlier this year, we went to visit our families in India for a month. Seeing older relatives is a form of time travel because you can see your future self reflected in them. I was seeing my extended family after 5 long years. Almost everyone I know has diabetes and its painful complications. I'm not just talking about those who are affluent and have unlimited access to food. The nice lady who cleans my aunt's house and who struggles to make a living as a maid also has diabetes. Everyone is on medication and many take insulin shots. Almost no one seems to have received any rigorous counseling about nutrition and exercise. Many have had perilous cardiac surgeries. I saw people with vibrant minds who are trapped in a body that is too heavy, with joints that are literally unable to take the weight. One close relative is losing her eyesight because of diabetic complications. In a nutshell- I was scared straight.

It is not like I haven't been trying to do better all along. I read books and try to nudge my eating habits in the right direction. I've been struggling for years to get into an exercise habit. Part of my resistance to real change has been the feeling that things are not so bad the way they are- after all, I'm not overweight, and I have tons of energy and no debilitating symptoms per se.

But the logical part of my brain knows the evidence is mounting. My energy is more mental than physical and frequently a mind-over-matter thing. Climbing a couple of flights of stairs leaves me panting- this is pitiful for my age. When my toddler wanted me to jump with her, my sister overheard and commented that she hasn't seen me jump since the 1980s. I've been labeled a bookworm and a couch potato since the days of primary school and I fully embraced that label. My BMI may fall within the normal range, but I have no muscle tone. I participated in a research study last year (it was to study the effect of walking on body composition) and the scan showed that I have a very high proportion of body fat. This is called being "skinny fat", where even a person of normal weight has fat deposits coating their organs- a very high-risk situation for a variety of diseases.

Disease is a complicated thing, a subtle interplay of genes, environment and lifestyle factors. But you have to do what's in your hands even if there are no guarantees of dodging major illness. A friend of mine was athletic and robust and healthy as the proverbial horse, that is, until she was diagnosed with lymphoma. She told me that her underlying strong health helped her survive the harrowing treatment and now she's thriving again.

All these things have been running in my head for the last few months, and I sat down and identified two goals. My experience with gestational diabetes was hard at the time, but in reality, it showed that a modest increase in exercise (just brisk walks!) and a modest decrease in carb intake gave me good results in a matter of weeks. So those are my two goals at this time.

Already, I've been exercising more this year than I did before- walking and swimming. I'm gingerly getting into the exercise habit and will talk more about this in a future post if anyone is interested.

As for eating, what constitutes a "healthy" diet is a very loaded question. I'm interested in answering the question for myself, for my own body and its challenges. I don't know or care what the universally best diet is. Humans being omnivores, I highly doubt there is one ideal diet. There are likely many different ways to get to the goal of having a favorable body composition with good blood sugar control.

I eat a mainly plant based diet along with eggs and dairy and that's what I intend to keep eating. What will change is the proportions of foods in my everyday meals. In my case, I've identified the problem as eating excess carbs and for the last couple of weeks, I've started to replace some of the carbs with lots of vegetables. My goal is not to eliminate carbs or even to drastically cut them but just not to eat more than my body capable of handling. Beans, sweet potatoes, lentils are very nutritious and will be a big part of my diet. But I will find ways on cutting down on rice, tortillas, pasta and noodles at least for my everyday meals, while replacing them with a lot more cooked and raw vegetables. There's reason for me to be optimistic because I have several things going for me- I already cook in a "veggie-centric" style and know how to prep vegetables- I just have to ramp it up. I don't have a sweet tooth and rarely eat desserts anyway.

To change my habits, I have to know myself and work with myself, and not fight against my basic nature. I don't like drastic changes. However, subtle nudges in the right direction quickly become habits and stick with me for life. I am a moderator rather than an abstainer.

Publicly stating nutrition goals often attracts criticism. There will be people who think I'm going too far ("Just eat less and you will be OK, why vilify carbs?") and others who will think I'm not going far enough ("You won't be in the fat burning zone unless you cut out all beans and starchy vegetables"). But the reason I'm putting it out there is because making a public commitment is a strong motivator for changing habits. Because I was so sad to see diabetes and other metabolic disorders eroding the people I care about, and would like to talk about it. Because this discussion might strike a chord with someone else who is thinking about these issues.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all, and I will see you in the new year! We'll continue to eat well on this blog, I promise you. 

Thanksgiving Eats

Thanksgiving is a food lover's holiday and around here it has certainly been a week of good eats. The festivities started with a potluck lunch at work on Tuesday. I contributed a main dish- harvest pilaf and a dessert- pumpkin flan.

Harvest pilaf was nothing but my standard biryani recipe. I reduced the amount of rice, and instead loaded up the dish with all the vegetables that to me are the real stars of Thanksgiving. So in went a tray of roasted sweet potatoes and carrots, and another tray of roasted cauliflower, beans and zucchini.

I've made pumpkin flan a few years ago and we had enjoyed it- pumpkin flan has all the flavor of pumpkin pie but in a cool and light custard. This time, I used this recipe from Lucinda Scala Quinn. It uses pantry ingredients (and at this time of year, I count canned pumpkin as a pantry ingredient) and makes a nice 9 inch flan. The minor changes I made to the recipe: (1) I used only 1/2 cup of sugar in the flan mixture instead of 3/4 cup, (2) I used regular granulated sugar and used a dollop of molasses to make it "brown" and (3) I made the caramel in a small saucepan instead of in the oven. For the bain marie (water bath that keeps the flan smooth and tender), I used a huge foil roasting pan from the supermarket. You only have to buy it once and then you can keep using it any time you need a bain marie.

We had a wonderful spread, including deviled eggs, spinach quiche with a puff pastry crust, a salad with kale, shredded brussels sprouts and dried cranberries, corn casserole, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, cranberry sauce with orange zest.




The salad was my favorite dish, a crunchy and fresh counterpoint to all the other heavy dishes. I loved it so much that I made something like it to take to our Thanksgiving dinner- which was another potluck at a friend's home. My starting point for the salad was this recipe from The Kitchn.





Here's how I made my version of Shredded Brussels Sprouts Salad.

• Lop the stem ends off 1 lb of fresh brussels sprouts. Using the slicing disk of the food processor, shred the sprouts. Also shred a cup or so of red cabbage. Core a crisp apple (like honeycrisp or gala or fuji) and make thin slices with a mandoline. 
• In a small saucepan, melt 4 tbsp. butter and cook it until browned and nutty. In a large bowl, whisk the brown butter with 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp. dijon mustard and salt and pepper to taste, until the dressing is emulsified. Stir in the chopped veggies and apple slices. (This salad can be made in advance). Top with roasted pecans and serve. 

For a main dish to take along to the potluck, I started out with the idea of making a butternut squash lasagna. Then I remembered that I had a box of jumbo pasta shells in the pantry and this seemed as good a time as any to finally cook those. Here's what I came up with, a mash up of various online recipes- and it was a resounding success.

Jumbo Shells stuffed with Butternut Squash and Spinach

Make the filling (I did this a few hours ahead of time):

• Peel and cube a butternut squash (there are videos online that teach how to do this safely). On a large baking sheet, toss the butternut squash cubes with 6 unpeeled garlic cloves, olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 425F until tender. 
• Cool and peel the garlic. Place roasted garlic and squash (I used 2/3 of the whole large squash here and saved the rest for another dish) in a large bowl. Mash it up coarsely with a fork.
• Thaw a box of frozen chopped spinach in the microwave, squeeze to remove excess liquid and add to the cooked squash.
• Add 1 cup ricotta, 1 cup diced mozzarella
• Add 1 tsp. poultry seasoning, 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste
• Mix everything together and refrigerate until you're ready to assemble the pasta.

Cook the jumbo pasta shells according to the directions on the box. Here's what the cooked shells looked like- adorable and surprisingly sturdy. Lila was delighted and munched on a couple.








Make the sauce
I made 2 cups of basic white sauce for this dish. You could use a tomato sauce or no sauce at all.

Assemble and bake
Scoop about 2 tbsp. filling into each shell. In a 9 x 13 baking dish, pour the white sauce. Arrange the shells on top. Scatter with 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil and bake at 350F for 30 minutes, then uncover and place under broiler for a minute or two to get the cheese browned. Ta da.

This pasta dish was full of flavor and had a pretty nice presentation (which is rare for me). Each person could conveniently serve themselves a shell or two.

I had enough cooked shells left over to make another (smaller) tray of shells the next day.

So, tell me, what's cooking in your world?