The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet (21 page)

Dinner

Sweet rice/short grain rice (see Basic Rice variation, page
233
)

Carrot and Burdock Kinpira (page
272
)

Tuna Salad Sandwich (Kinda) (page
246
)

Leftover Cabbage, Radish, and Cucumber Pressed Salad

Crispy Peanut Butter Treats (see Superhero variation) (page
184
)

DAY 4

Breakfast

Miso Soup (page
248
)

Pan-Fried Mochi (page
237
) with rice syrup Collard greens

Lunch

Leftover sweet rice/short grain rice made into a burrito or nori burrito

Leftover Tuna Salad Sandwich

Leftover Carrot and Burdock Kinpira

Fresh salad

Leftover Crispy Peanut Butter Treats

Dinner

Nabeyaki Udon (page
231
)

DAY 5

Breakfast

Miso Soup (page
248
)

Barley with Sweet Rice and Corn (page
289
)

Cabbage and leeks drizzled with Ume Vinaigrette (page
265
)

Lunch

Be as great a Superhero as you can be at the Whole Foods deli or a Mexican restaurant. Get a grain, a veg, a bean, and a soup.

Dinner

Creamy Sweet Kabocha Squash Soup (page
253
)

Polenta Casserole with Seitan (page
223
)

Fresh salad

Strawberry Kanten (page
281
)

DAY 6: SUPER HEALTHY & QUICK

Breakfast

At a restaurant:

Oatmeal with fresh fruit and raisins or Tofu scramble

Lunch

Leftover Creamy Sweet Kabocha Squash Soup

Leftover Polenta Casserole with Seitan

Fresh steamed greens

Leftover Strawberry Kanten

Dinner

Ginger Pasta with Zucchini (page
238
)

Arame with Carrots and Onions (page
263
)

Steamed greens

DAY 7: SUNDAY

Brunch

Mochi Waffles Drizzled with Lemon-Walnut-Rice Syrup and tempeh bacon (page
286
)

Scrambled Tofu (page
283
)

Steamed collard greens

Dinner

Rice with barley (large amount to have as leftovers)

Azuki Beans with Kabocha Squash (large amount to have as leftovers, see soup variation) (page
241
)

Steamed greens

Candied Ginger Pears (page
279
)

Make pickles (page
276
; this is enough for a week)

Roasted seeds (page
215
; make enough for a week)

10

The Kind Kitchen

Whether you’re leaving the office to go to the local salad bar, driving to the grocery store and picking through the frozen foods section, or earning the big bucks to eat at the best restaurants, you are definitely putting energy toward feeding yourself.

Perhaps you’ve never cooked and don’t plan to. You live your life at restaurants or cafeterias, and you’re pretty sure that you and cooking just don’t get along. That does not preclude you from practicing the Kind Diet. Go straight to Chapter
11
to start figuring out how to do it. There are also great transitional foods (see Flirting, pages
84
–
85
) that require little or no cooking, and they can become your new freezer goodies. You may find, over time, that you become a little more interested in putting energy into what you eat. If that happens, start with cooking breakfast, or cook one meal a week . . . take it one step at a time.

Maybe you’re already an experienced cook. If so, this is just about opening your mind to new things. You are going to make delicious, life-sustaining, magical foods that will please and satisfy everyone around you.

For those of you who have some—but not tons—of experience in the kitchen, fear not. Remember, anyone can cook. There is no cooking gene that you did or didn’t inherit from your grandma. If you can read, you can cook. Even the most artistic chefs in the world (and there are some truly great artists in the kitchen) had to learn the basics and practice their skills. So crack open the recipe section of this book and get started. Practice makes delicious!

Cooking can also be a family affair. When my husband and I cook together, my heart feels so full. It’s a very pure joy. If you have kids, get them involved. Maybe they can shuck corn or pick some fresh cilantro from the garden. Working together to create something that nourishes your family inside and out can be a deeply powerful experience for everyone. And it’s a lot of fun!

EVERYBODY HAS A SUNDAY

We all have a day in our week that is slower and more leisurely than the others. This magical day can change the energy of your whole house and your whole family.

For me and my husband, this day is Sunday and it begins at the local farmers’ market.

I love the great sense of community there, and over time I’ve become friendly with a lot of the farmers and the other people we see each week. We don’t really know one another, but every week we share our discoveries: “Hey, try this fig; you’re gonna
love
it! . . . They’re down there. . . . Where did you find those cosmos?” We exchange recipes and ideas. Farmers’ markets are made up of family-run businesses—people who work really hard—so by shopping locally, we are supporting them and the local economy. I love knowing the person who’s growing my food. There’s Vicky the orange lady, Jimmy the heirloom guy . . . the mushroom dudes . . .

Before heading out, we take inventory of what we have left in the kitchen so we don’t overshop and we don’t waste food. Armed with our reusable shopping bags and grandma cart, we stroll around, discovering what’s in season that week, finding foods at their peak. I feel naturally attracted to different foods at different times, and I love sensing that.

Once we’re home, we unload all the goodies and begin to cook. We make a delicious lunch from all our newly bought foods and sit down to really enjoy it together. Because it’s Sunday, we have the time later in the afternoon to thumb through cookbooks, getting some ideas for the coming week. We prepare some essentials to last us a while: a big pot of grain that will last a couple of days, maybe a hearty bean soup or stew, a sauce that can be used on grains or vegetable dishes throughout the week, and, of course, toasted sunflower seeds—my favorite! Although we don’t freeze things, a leisurely day is a great time to make soups or stews to freeze (grains don’t freeze well, but beans do). By letting our Sunday be slow and nourishing, Christopher and I start the new week feeling connected to ourselves and ready to face the world.

If it feels impossible to cook well during the week, find that one afternoon you can relax into and explore the sacred, sensual act of cooking. Don’t get overwhelmed—just do the best you can! Be patient. Sometimes it will take a little longer than expected to make a meal because you’re new to these foods or cooking in general. Know that once you’ve mastered a recipe, everything will become quicker and looser and more fun. If you’re diving right in to the Superhero plan, you may need to make some extra time in the kitchen. If you really want to get into cooking, go to
www.thekindlife.com
for information on awesome cooking schools and online classes.

It’s time to reconnect with the single most important thing you do in your day: eating! We eat three times a day
every single day of our lives
! It has a greater impact on our bodies and our health than anything else we do. Let’s remember we have a very real and important choice: We can make ourselves sick with food or we can heal ourselves with it.

So find
your
Sunday and start cooking!

Planning Your Day

It takes about 5 minutes to figure out your food day. Before you go to bed, just ask yourself: Where am I going to be for breakfast? What are my options? How much time do I have? Maybe you’ll have a full half hour at home, or maybe you need to eat in the car, but either way, if you give it some thought before you’re in the thick of things, you can make decent choices. Every day is different; sometimes I’m at home for lunch, sometimes I’m having a meeting at a restaurant. Either way, by thinking ahead, I can make plans that ensure I make the best choices possible.

When I don’t plan (and sometimes I don’t), I find that my choices are made in haste, out of stress or hunger, and they tend to be less than stellar. Often, eating healthy food is not so much about desire—or virtue—but simply having access to good food! The question is: Have I arranged things so that I can get what I need? If delicious healthy food is available, I’ll eat it. If it’s not, I can’t.

P.S.: Sometimes I plan to be naughty, and that’s fine, too, because I know how to bring myself back to balance. If I’m going out to a nice restaurant that evening, and I might have some bread, some red wine, and a bite of someone’s sugary dessert, I eat pretty Superhero during the day so that I can indulge happily. After the night out, I make myself a special drink to bring myself back to balance. (See page
290
for my favorite healing drink.)

TOOLS AND KITCHEN EQUIPMENT

A few very basic tools make cooking easy and pleasurable, but if you don’t have them right now, don’t let that stop you from doing what you can. You will slowly figure out what you need and want in your kitchen. Let your kitchen grow as your skills grow. Ideally, choose stainless steel, cast iron, and ceramic cookware. Aluminum and Teflon, although considered safe when new, become not-so-safe after the pans have become pitted or scratched. Check out craigslist to find used or nearly new cookware and add pieces as your budget permits. These are my must-haves:

• A good Japanese-style vegetable knife is worth every penny. Its thin, straight blades make cutting a total pleasure. My favorite knife is made by a company called NHS.
  
• Keep a serrated knife for bread and tomatoes, but be careful not to use it on seaweed—I did that once and took a nice chunk out of my finger!
  
• Any kind of cutting board will do, but we love our bamboo cutting board. It also makes an elegant, practical gift for a food-minded friend.
  
• Stainless steel saucepans and sauté pans.
  
• Stainless steel mixing bowls are awesome . . . cheap and easy to store.
  
• A colander and strainer.
  
• If you cook on gas, a flame tamer (aka deflector) is really useful for spreading heat evenly under pots and pans.
  
• A good enameled cast-iron pot or Dutch oven is wonderful for cooking grains, beans, and vegetables.
  
• A blender or food processor is a great speeder-upper of things.