Hot and Healthy – November from Katie Dalebout on Vimeo.

Welcome to the November Hot & Healthy! This month I wanted to use my current favorite local seasonal vegetable: the spaghetti squash. The spaghetti squash may be the most versatile vegetable at the farmer’s market right now-the possibilities for it are endless. Once halved, seeded and baked for about forty minutes, the spaghetti squash is great plain or with any seasoning from salt and pepper to sweet cinnamon-sugar.  And the seeds make a great snack for later — just rinse them, let them dry overnight and bake them for 15 minutes.

The spaghetti-like strands of the squash give it its name and make it the perfect substitution for pasta. It’s a low-carb, gluten-free and raw alternative for pasta in any dish and to me it’s just better tasting!

So when deciding what recipe I wanted to share this month, I thought why not pair my favorite versatile vegetable with my favorite versatile sauce.  Therefore, I’m sharing my favorite version of mac and cheese with spaghetti squash starring in my video as the mac and an interesting combination of savory ingredients that come together to become a vegan cheese.

While I admit this ingredient list is extensive, it’s worth it. The vegan cheese sauce is so tasty and healthy that herbivores and carnivores alike can enjoy it. The best part of the sauce is that it does not have to be purely used for this recipe.  It would work over any type of pasta noodle, as a sauce for a pizza, or as the cheese for nachos.

Everybody loves mac and cheese right? While this recipe lacks the ease Kraft provides, it makes up for it in both taste and health benefits. It’s a great recipe to make over the weekend and stick in the fridge and eat during the busy week. It also is perfect as a side dish and would accent any meal.  (I plan to bring mine as a dish to pass at my family’s Thanksgiving later this month.) Give it a try and tell me what you think! How does my version measure up to Kraft?

Equipment needed: 

blender
sauce pan
wooded spoon
cookie sheet
large bowl

Ingredients:

1 spaghetti squash 

Olive oil (to cover squash before baking)

1/2 cup cashews
1 1/2 cups water (this makes your cashew milk, could be substituted for other 1 1/2 cups of non-dairy milk)
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 1/2 Tbs Arrowroot starch (just for thickening any starch will do)
1/2 lemon, juiced
pinch of dry mustard (I used lots)
pinch of turmeric
1/4 tsp paprika
1 Tbs sesame seeds or tahini
1 Tbs miso paste
1 large clove of garlic (minced) 
sea salt and pepper to taste

Cayenne pepper for topping 

Add ons: I added Broccoli and mushrooms, but you could add any vegetables you like.  Or even meat. (of course that would make the recipe no longer vegan)

Follow the instructions in my video, you can do it!

recipe adapted from: http://meghantelpnerblog.com

Leah Kelley smiles as she eats her vegetarian meal in Snyder-Phillips dining hall

TBG sat down with Environmental Studies and Agriscience freshman Leah Kelley to talk about the challenges and benefits of being a vegetarian.

Q: Why did you decide to become a vegetarian?
A: The initial reason was to lower my carbon footprint. Eating lower on the trophic level means that it takes less energy to produce the food that you’re making. If we were going to feed 1,000 people, you could feed them with grain or you could feed them with cow meat. It would take way more environmental detriment to feed them with beef because of the land that it takes and because of the greenhouse gases.

I do believe that the way we fill the animals that we serve as meals…chocking them full of different drugs to keep them from being sick. That can’t be beneficial to us and the hormones to make them grow faster…just the fact that cows are supposed to be grain-fed and they’re not.

Q: How long have you been a vegetarian?
A: For two years.

Q: Has being a vegetarian made any difference in the way you feel?
A: I think I generally feel healthier. I don’t know if that’s necessarily because I’m a vegetarian or because I eat a lot of vegetables.

Q: How hard is it to find something to eat at a restaurant?
A: It definitely depends on where I go. I feel like it tends to be that if I go to a restaurant that is ethnic, I can find something. But I think that in the American culture, meat is very prominent and so if I go to an American restaurant it’s usually pretty hard to find something to eat, which is unfortunate.

But it’s a good thing that I like ethnic food. I love Chipotle because I can just get the vegetarian burrito. And I also like the sandwiches at Potbelly’s. They have a vegetarian sandwich that’s got a lot of mushrooms on it and I’m a big mushroom fan.

I also am allergic to sesame seeds, which sometimes comes into factor from this because a lot of people [say], “Oh you’re vegetarian. You can have hummus and pita,” but tahini is sesame and that’s what’s in hummus. I would go to Woody’s because it usually is a good place for vegetarians, but I can’t have hummus and they put sesame on a lot of things.

Q: What challenges do you face when you eat in the cafeteria?
A: In Snyder- Phillips, in the Gallery, I can always find something. I try to make sure that I’m getting a complete protein. They always have black bean burgers, garden burgers and soy chicken at the grille. And there’s always salad, so I’m constantly able to get something if they don’t have another meal for it.

I lived in Hubbard Hall last semester and it was a little tougher there to get something that I wanted and that was vegetarian. I think you can always get something vegetarian but it’s just making sure you get the complete protein and that it’s something that you want to be eating.

I think I have more trouble with the combo exchange. I’m really busy a lot so I need to get combo exchange for a meal sometimes and the options that they have there for vegetarians are not very good. They have a vegetarian Mediterranean [wrap] that’s much less than delicious and the egg sandwiches are the same—really not good.

Q: Have you ever considered going vegan?
A: It was not my end goal when I started but I’m not opposed to the idea. We’ll see later in life if I’m in a position where I would be able to do that because it takes a lot of time and a lot of money to be vegan.

Q: How have you influenced others by going vegetarian?
A: My sister barely eats meat now. That could’ve been a choice she made on her own but she read a book about how humans weren’t designed to eat meat. She doesn’t eat red meat and she doesn’t make it. You eat meat and it stays in your system for about three days. Meat at that temperature for three days…that just doesn’t seem like a good thing.

Q: What’s your favorite vegetarian recipe?
A: My mom makes really great fajitas and we do home-make the salsa and it’s really delicious. I think my favorite part is the grilled vegetables. Grilled vegetables are amazing. The salsa is so full of flavor and the rice and black beans make a complete protein.

Q: Do you find it difficult to buy vegetarian items at the grocery store, like Boca Burgers, because they’re more expensive?
A: That is something that I would like to see change: the cost of vegetarian substitutes because I absolutely love Morning Star burgers. They’re delicious. It’s really frustrating how expensive they are. It’s nice that I can get them in the cafeteria because they are more expensive than some of the other things.

Mainly, I just go for the sale items and once you do get the food that you need for getting the substitute of protein, just ration. There is a Foods For Living [store] in East Lansing. It’s a lot like Whole Foods…it is more expensive but it’s a good place to go. They’ve got a lot of vegetarian items. I go in there and it’s like [an] overload of excitement for food.

Q: How do you fulfill your daily food requirements?
A: I’ve started taking B-12 vitamins as a supplement because that’s the one vitamin that vegetarians can’t get it [in] any of their substitutes, at least not in a viable form. I know that sometimes supplements aren’t the viable form also, but I feel like it’s better to take that than to not.

Q: What keeps you motivated on a daily basis to continue being a vegetarian?
A: This isn’t the only thing that keeps me motivated, but one of things is that I do have a lot of vegetarian friends. My roommate is vegetarian. I’m really involved in Greenpeace and whenever we have events…where we’re going to need food, I know that there’s going to be vegetarians there. It seems to be that lots of environmental activists are vegetarians, probably because of the same reasoning of the lowering your carbon imprint.

Q: Do you miss or crave any food that you can’t have now that you’re a vegetarian?
A: Sometimes I babysit the kids next door when I visit home. They would have…chicken nuggets in the shape of dinosaurs and I tried so hard to find…them and they don’t make them. I think that’s the one thing I miss.

Q: Did becoming a vegetarian require you to learn much more about nutrition?
A: I was figuring I’d just make sure I ate beans and rice because that makes a complete protein. My mom was really encouraging me to find more things, so I would buy tofu. She would not make anything with it because she doesn’t like tofu, so I would have to make something with the tofu. I generally eat healthy, so other than the protein factor, a lot of vegetarians just end up eating carbohydrates all of the time. I’ve tried to stay away from that and just eat vegetables. ..that’s what I eat most of the time.

Q: What advice would you offer people who want to become vegetarians but haven’t made the transition yet?
A: Do your research. Make sure that you’re reasons are correct and that you’re not just going off what someone told you in passing one day. Also, you can just try it out for a week and just see how you like it.

Click here to see how to make Leah’s favorite vegetarian recipe.

See the video below for Leah’s three things everyone should know before becoming a vegetarian.

Hey TBG readers!

This month is our “green issue”, so what better way to celebrate it than to interview someone with a very “green” diet?

TBG’s Mandilyn Kerr sat down with Leah Kelley, a MSU freshman, to talk about her diet as a vegetarian. Kelley tells us why she became a vegetarian, the challenges she faces and what people should consider if they want to become a vegetarian.

Also, be sure to look at the end of the article for a healthy recipe that Kelley shares with us and try it sometime!

Don’t forget: this Sunday is TBG’s annual print issue launch party! Stop by Schuler Books in Okemos between 4-6 p.m. to enjoy free food and entertainment, along with a free copy of our 2010-2011 print issue.

Sex & Health stories in the print issue include an article about the implementation of the tanning and a collection of my Hot & Healthy recipes.

See you next month for our final issue of the year!

The holiday season is known as a time for giving and gaining – weight that is.   With food at the center of many family holiday traditions, eating turns into indulging and leads many people to deviate from their normal diets.

Tweaking the holiday menu to be both healthy and appetizing is challenging and adding a vegetarian or a gluten-free relative to the mix complicates the menu even more.

“We eat for a lot of different reasons, and many of those reasons are strongly linked to health. It’s the main reason why all animals eat. But we are also social beings so it is important that we enjoy the wonderful foods and tastes and smells that are around during the holidays,” MSU food science and human nutrition professor Patricia Thurston said.

For supply chain management junior Julia Parks, gluten-free meal items are as common as Christmas cookies at her holiday family gatherings.

“It’s actually easier eating gluten-free during the holidays than it is when I’m at school,” Parks said.  “Whenever I’m at home it’s easy because for my entire life my mom has cooked this way with everything gluten free.  And even if we go to other family members they usually know, too.”

Parks has Celiac Sprue disease, an intolerance to gluten where ingesting gluten deteriorates her intestines so nutrients cannot be absorbed.

“My grandma had the same disease, so I was tested for it in kindergarten because I couldn’t build muscle. I was really skinny with a stomach that stuck out really far and I was getting sick all the time,” she said.

The genetic disease leads to muscle wasting and forces Parks and others with the disease to follow a strict diet completely abstaining from gluten, an ingredient in everything, from soy sauce to Starbursts.

“More people are being diagnosed with Celiac in recent years and even more people are being found to have a sensitivity to gluten,” Thurston said.

Fortunately many of Parks’ holiday traditions do not involve gluten.

“The main dishes are usually gluten-free, but the desserts are not, but my mom or other family members who are cooking will usually make one special dessert for me,” she said.

While her family makes their holiday food as accommodating as possible for Parks, the holidays also become a showcase of some of the unhealthy foods Parks avoids because they contain gluten.

“It is really hard for certain things like basic sugar cookies with frosting and white cupcakes that I see around a lot during the holidays,” Parks said.

While Parks does miss out on certain menu items there are many that can be substituted to replace what she misses in the ones that contain gluten.  Most of the main dishes at Park’s holiday gatherings are gluten-free salads, potatoes, meat and vegetables.  Parks says it is easy to eat those things at home because she is assured gluten is not an ingredient while elsewhere it could be incorporated as a binding agent.

“My mom is a great cook she makes elaborate things.  At Christmas time she makes tons of batches of cookies—she would make like five or six and two of them would be gluten-free macaroons, but when I was little I would always want to eat the other ones, but I understand how sick it would make me,” Parks said.

According to Thurston, even when a person with Celiac Spur disease feels like they are doing well, splurging could potentially ruin their progress and cause greater health problems.  With more people being diagnosed with disease in recent years people have been responding better.

“There is now a gluten-free bakery my family orders from during the holidays, and it’s not just holidays restaurants are developing gluten menus or additions to menus.  I was surprised when I went to PF Chang’s they had a gluten-free dessert I could eat and Chili’s had a gluten-free menu,” Parks said.

Maintaining usual eating habits throughout the holiday season is as difficult as it is important.  While turning down homemade treats from persistent family members can be difficult, declining the foods they offer is essential when maintaining usual non-holiday season diets.

James Madison junior Kristy Sparks, a vegetarian, similarly struggles remaining healthy and meat free throughout the holidays.

“I personally don’t like meat; I’ve never been a fan. I feel better physically and emotionally when I don’t eat it, but every year the holidays are really hard,” Sparks said.

Sparks’ family is accommodating to her vegetarian lifestyle.  With two family members also being vegetarians, she is not the only one around the table avoiding the turkey.

“The vegetarians in my family just mostly eat the sides because one year we had a tofu turkey but we didn’t like it,” Sparks said.

Sparks and her vegetarian relatives have no problem participating fully in the holiday feast, with the exception of specific unforeseen challenges.

“The stuffing is my favorite part of Thanksgiving and this year my cousin Jackie put bacon in it, so I was so bummed I couldn’t eat it.  She just married into the family so she didn’t know about us vegetarians,” Sparks said.

With numerous meat-oriented holidays, including Thanksgiving, vegetarians like Sparks learn to improvise while being careful to not make up for their lack of meat in sweets. Although plant based diets do offer multiple health benefits including a reduction in saturated fat intake, vegetarians have to be careful to not overeat other unhealthy foods instead, Thurston said.

Whether gluten-free or vegetarian, the holidays make sticking to pre-season diets a difficult task. However, taking the focus off of food allows you to enjoy the season regardless of what is on your plate.

“Instead of sitting down on the couch after a large meal we will go for a family walk, especially if it’s a sunny day, and remember the holidays are really all about family and friends, not just food,” Thurston said.

Check out one of Julie’s favorite gluten-free dishes:

Julia Parks’ Favorite Gluten-Free Macaroons

Ingredients:

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

4 egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

Directions:

1) Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Beat egg whites and salt until stiff.

3) Add sugar, a tablespoon at a time, until sugar is dissolved into egg whites.

4) Combine the coconut and vanilla extracts with the egg whites and sugar, but do not beat.

5) Cover cookie sheet with parchment paper and drop by teaspoonful onto paper.

6) Bake for approximately 20 minutes.

7) Allow cookies to cool before removing from sheet and enjoying.