Blog ReVamp - Marcella

The day has finally come: it's time for a blog re-org. I'm gonna move this blog to WordPress, get the tags all sorted out, make it easier to navigate, put some new stuff up...are you as excited as I am? Good, because it'll be awesome.

The only hitch is there may be some downtime if I bungle something up, which is a distinct possibility since I'm still learning how to use WordPress...If so, please accept my apology in advance and know that it'll be worth it.

See y'all at our new home!

Creamy Butternut Squash Soup 2 - Marcella

Super easy!

It's amazing how little effort goes into this simple soup...it has such a rich flavor. Almost like dessert in soup form.

Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

• 6 cups cubed butternut squash (peeled first)
• 5 cups water
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup soymilk
• 1 Tbsp mirin ("Asian" section, sweet rice cooking wine)

Add squash, water, and salt to a large pot and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on medium-low for 20 minutes

Lift out squash pieces with a slotted spoon and add to a blender along with the soymilk and a couple of cups of the squash cooking liquid. Blend til smooth. Add more cooking liquid if you'd like a thinner consistency.

Add the mirin (rice wine). Return soup to pot to reheat if necessary. If you want to get all fancy, garnish with a bright green sprig of something like parsley.

Minestrone - Marcella

Very quick and easy; eliminates any need to buy the canned variety. I usually make it without any pasta, but in this case I had a mini-box of kamut ditalini, so I used that.

Minestrone Soup

• cooking spray or 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 cups vegetable broth (I used 1 Rapunzel cube dissolved in 4 cups water)
• 1 can low-sodium diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 can cannellini beans,WITH liquid
• 1 can red kidney beans, drained
• 1/2 lb fresh green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• pepper

 In a medium pot, heat oil or cooking spray. Add onions and garlic and saute about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn down to medium-low, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.

I use the canning liquid from the cannellini beans in this case because it imparts some nice viscosity to the soup broth. This is also why there's no salt added.

Recipes - Marcella

Broccoli Cream Soup

• 4 cups water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 - 2 lbs broccoli
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 cup soymilk
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

Separate broccoli tops from stems and peel stems. Cut into chunks. Boil the water and salt, add stems and simmer 10 minutes. Add tops and cook an extra 10 minutes. Save the water.

With a slotted spoon, scoop broccoli into a blender and add all remaining ingredients but the lemon juice, plus a half a cup or so of the broccoli water. Blend, adding more water if necessary.

Return to pot (after dumping out the remaining broccoli water, of course) and simmer on low for about 5 minutes. Stir in lemon juice. Done!

Tartar Sauce for Okara Crab Cakes

• 3 oz soft silken tofu, such as Mori-Nu brand
•  1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 Tbsp brown rice syrup or agave nectar
• 1 tsp umeboshi vinegar (in "Asian" section of grocery stores)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp minced dill pickles
• 1 Tbsp minced onions

 Add the first 5 ingredients to a blender and blend til smooth. Then, with the blender running, slowly add the olive oil and blend again til thick and creamy. Move to a bowl, add pickles and onions, and enjoy with your crab cakes or faux fish. Not something to eat in abundance, it's still a lot better than buying a jar of vegan mayonnaise, in my opinion.

A note on the crab cakes, I realized after posting that I neglected to mention why I have okara - something many have probably never heard of - lying around: I've been making my own soymilk. Okara is the byproduct. That's really the only reason anyone would happen to have it. I plan on posting on the process but I realize that it's not for everyone, being kind of labor intensive if you don't have an actual soymilk machine (I don't, I have a VitaMix). Investing in either of the two is definitely worth looking into, as the cost of whole soybeans is much less than soymilk, the additives are up to you, there's no packaging to throw away, and you get to use the leftover okara (which has a fair amount of protein and lots of minerals) for other things. So, overall it's less wasteful and expensive and I like maximum efficiency.

Workouts at Sea - Derek

Now that I've had a week on the ground to catch up, I'll go over my improvised workouts while on the ship. "Improvised" because the spacious fitness center on board had ample cardio equipment and floor space, but only about 8 weight machines and dumbbells up to 10 kilos (22 pounds).

Marcella and I tried to stick to our current training regimens as best we could, but with the limited equipment, lecture and seminar-filled schedule, exotic destinations, and lengthy meal schedule we were left doing whatever we could when we could. We actually wound up working out 2-3 times per day.

My 'easing back into training after injury' routine looked like this as we prepared for the cruise, but what I wound up doing was keeping the schedule while selecting completely different exercises, looking something like:

"Machine available for target muscle": 5-8 sets of 8-12 reps with increasing weight each set and varying grip position when applicable.
"Light dumbbell work for the target muscle group": 3-4 sets of 15-20 reps. I used super sets several times to keep it challenging even with the light weight.

I also finished off whichever muscle group I was on with some calisthenics in several workouts, using my bodyweight to burn out the muscle.

In addition to this basic layout, whenever Robert Cheeke was training with me we ended up doing posing pictures afterwards, which was certainly an added challenge!
You can see the full set of Robert and my training photos in his facebook album here.

So in spite of our hectic yet fabulous vacation

schedule, Marcella and I managed to find the time to work hard in the gym, so the next time you are on a trip, remember that "they didn't have the right equipment" is no excuse!

I'll go over some of the lectures we attended in my next post, so while you wait anxiously don't forget to munch on some produce!

Experimental Eating- Marcella

I'm trying an experiment. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I ate far more and far less strictly on our cruise and somehow dropped a bunch of fat and looked pretty ripped by the end of the week. While eating desserts and carbs and everything (whole grains and minimal refined sugars of course). In the interest of science, then, I'm attempting to mimic what and how we ate over the week. For example, yesterday's breakfast and dinner:

For breakfast we had our usual protein smoothies, then miso soup and 

Sweet Rice with Tamari Almonds and Steamed Kale

Dinner was a salad with:

Sprouted Corn Tortilla Chips and  Fresh Salsa

Broccoli Cream Soup

Okara "Crab" Cakes and Vegan Tartar Sauce

We ate in courses instead of the usual piling everything on one plate and wolfing it down. Eating slowly and mindfully is never a bad idea. The crab cake recipe can be found here and as for the rest I'll post it later today. I promise.

Food and Menu Pics - Marcella

Here's some food and menu pics from the cruise. I was fortunate enough to grab a cookbook with some of the recipes (Greens and Grains on the Deep Blue Sea: Fabulous Vegetarian Cuisine from the Holistic Holiday at Sea Cruises) and you'll probably be seeing some of my takes on them posted here in the upcoming days!

Holistic Holiday at Sea - Marcella

I am completely flummoxed. As Derek posted, we've returned from our life-transforming, awesome vacation the Holistic Holiday at Sea (and pre-signed up for next year, I might add).

Seven days of three 5-course gourmet vegan meals a day, PLUS buffets at two meals a day, INCLUDING two desserts, PLUS a late-night vegan ice cream social almost every night...and I've lost about 2 pounds of fat. Really, this is astonishing. I mean one night I actually ate 10 courses, from changing tables and starting over...and more than once I got seconds...Take a look at some of the freaking fabulous food we ate and also be shocked and amazed:

Breakfast March 1st
Miso Soup with Asian Vegetables and Tofu
Whole Oats with Tamari Almonds
Steamed Collard Greens
Apple and Dried Cherry Compote
French Toast with Maple Syrup and Fresh Berries

PLUS Fresh Cut Fruits and Breakfast Buffet


Lunch March 1st
Corn Bread with Scallion Butter
Pinto Bean Chili
Umeboshi Seasoned Potato Salad
Vegan Shiitake Burger with Toppings and Trimmings
Grilled Corn and Kosher Pickle
Citrus Scented Rice Pudding

PLUS Brown Rice and Salad Bar Buffet


Dinner March 1st
Lentil Walnut Pate
Cream of Fennel Soup
Orange Arame Watercress Salad
Carrot Lemon Saffron Risotto, Red Pepper Pesto, and Fried Sage
Strawberry Mousse Cake

PLUS Coconut Bliss Vegan Ice Cream Social!!

More on the cruise and what we learned to come...

New and Improved Food Diary - Marcella

As promised to our friend Tony from the cruise, here's my new and improved diet tracking sheet! Save it to your computer by selecting File (top left), then Download as, then Excel.

I've included a daily calorie needs calculation (Katch-McArdle formula) at the top right, based on your weight, body fat %, activity level and goals and you can either use that as your guide, use your own calorie target, or ignore calories entirely and focus on your percentage of total calories from protein, fat, and carbs as that's really what we're interested in. We certainly don't count calories or restrict them, the real concern is where the calories are coming from...a diet of 3,000 calories/day from Fruit Loops and potato chips and a diet of 3,000 calories/day from steamed vegetables and lentils are not created equal and that quickly becomes apparent when you look at the percentages. I've even added a % of carbs from fiber to give you an idea of how much whole versus refined grains you're eating. And sodium and sugar tracking by popular demand.

This is really an evolving project of mine - eventually I'd like to build it into a full-on free nutrition program in Excel more like a software program. In the meantime, if you have questions or need help getting this sheet to work, you can e-mail me at marcellam.torres@gmail.com

Back From the World's Best Cruise! - Derek

Hello everyone! I just wanted to make a quick post that we are home from our Holistic Holiday at Sea and it was fantastic! It really was a combination of healthy gourmet dining (3, 5-course meals per day!), educational lectures from the best in the business, and a tropical vacation! It doesn't get any better and we will definitely be going next year. I encourage anyone and everyone to try it if you are looking for a trip above and beyond an amazing vacation!

We will both post in more detail on what we did and what we learned, so expect to see menus and food pictures, lectures and information and pictures, workout pictures, and of course even more pictures!

My favorite part of all was having the chance to train every day with vegan bodybuilder and creator of www.veganbodybuilding.com Robert Cheeke! We took tons of posing and training pictures, and we even discussed doing a contest together this summer so stay tuned for that!

Until we get that info up, keep up your hard work and don't forget the Greens & Beans!