The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet (38 page)

Warm Spicy Wine

There’s nothing like mulled wine when it’s cold outside. It’s a wonderful winter treat and especially good for holiday parties. I like this drink as much as I like saying its Nordic name: Glögg (the ö sounds like the oo in “book”). Come on . . . say it with an accent! I share my love of Glögg with my friend Mark Bridges, who designed the costumes for
There Will Be Blood
and
Boogie Nights
and is one of the most talented people I know. Mark, who is German, calls it Glühwein (“Gloo-Vine”), which is just as much fun to say. He always brings a big pot of it to my parties.

SERVES 6 TO 8

1 bottle sulfate-free organic red wine (Trader Joe makes a good one)

1 cup Madeira

1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (optional)

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–
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cup maple syrup

5 whole white cardamom pods, cracked (optional)

2 whole cloves

1 (4") cinnamon stick

2 slices fresh or dried orange with peel (optional)

Combine all the ingredients in a large stainless steel saucepan, and heat slowly over low heat without boiling. Strain, and serve immediately. For a stronger flavor, turn off the heat, cover, and let the spices steep for several hours or overnight. Strain, and reheat gently.

Fruit Smoothies à la Alicia

I love smoothies and am always playing with different flavors and combinations. I’m not generally a big fan of the taste of stevia, but I actually really like it in smoothies!

SERVES 1

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cup almond milk or other nut milk

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cup soy milk or rice milk

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/
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banana, preferably frozen

1 cup frozen strawberries

2 drops stevia or 1 teaspoon maple syrup or to taste

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teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

1 whole cinnamon stick (optional)

Combine everything in a blender and whiz until smooth!

• Toss in a whole cinnamon stick and blend it along with the fruits for a nice little crunch.
  
• Raisins, dates, and nuts make great additions to a smoothie.
  
• In the summer, make smoothies as a cooling dessert.
  
• Leftover smoothies can be poured into ice pop molds. Kids (and big kids like me and Christopher) go nuts for them.
  
• When your favorite fruit is in season, buy up a bunch and freeze it for smoothies and other desserts later in the year.
  

Hot Chocolate

This recipe has a sophisticated taste with deep, rich flavors. You’ll find it’s not too sweet.

SERVES 1

1 cup soy/rice milk blend

1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon grain-sweetened, nondairy chocolate or carob chips

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teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon maple syrup

Optional toppings: vegan marshmallows, nondairy whipped topping, or chocolate shavings

Whisk the milk, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, vanilla extract, and syrup together in a small saucepan. Place over medium heat, and cook until the chocolate chips are melted, whisking occasionally. Serve naked or with your choice of topping!

Peach and Mint Iced Tea

Smack dab in the middle of summer, when peaches are at their peak, this tea is elegant and refreshing.

SERVES 8

4–6 kukicha or green tea teabags

4 ripe peaches, pitted and cut in
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" pieces

1 small bunch fresh mint

Maple syrup to taste (optional)

Bring water to a boil in a kettle, and place the teabags in a heatproof pitcher. Add 8 cups of boiling water to the pitcher, and steep for 10 minutes. Remove and discard the teabags, and allow the tea to cool to room temperature.

When cooled, add the peaches and the mint to the tea. Sweeten with maple syrup to taste, if desired, and chill until ready to serve.

Pomegranate and Lime Iced Tea

Ooooh, make a nice big batch of this on a hot summer afternoon and keep it in the fridge for a couple of days! It’s beautiful, refreshing, and healthy.

SERVES 8

6–8 kukicha or green tea teabags

2 cups unsweetened pomegranate juice

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cup maple syrup

3 limes, thinly sliced

Bring water to a boil in a kettle, and place the teabags in a heatproof pitcher. Add 8 cups of boiling water to the pitcher, and steep for 10 minutes. Remove and discard the teabags, and allow the tea to cool to room temperature.

Stir in the pomegranate juice and maple syrup. Add the limes, and chill until ready to serve.

15

Superhero Recipes

With this group of recipes, you can experience the Kind Foods in all their glory. Most are quite simple, a few are more elaborate, but every one is designed to develop and nurture your Superhero powers. I think you’ll be amazed by how good you will feel on a diet of real, clean, wholesome food.

Here are some tips for Superhero cooking:

• In order to stick to the Superhero plan to the greatest degree possible, it’s important to plan ahead. You may need to soak beans or cook some grains the night before, so have a rough vision of what you’re going to eat in the coming day. Things go much more smoothly when you have a plan.
  
• Always cook more than you need. Leftover grains, beans, soups, and desserts keep well for a couple of days; and having the building blocks of a quick meal ready to roll in the fridge is vital to maintaining a Superhero lifestyle from one day to the next.
  
• Try to get the bulk of each day’s cooking done in one session so other meals can be put together really quickly from the leftovers.
  
• The Superhero plan will introduce you to quite a few new foods like daikon, burdock, millet. They were once all new to me, too, but now they’ve become a regular part of my diet and I love them. Don’t be intimidated by a recipe that calls for seemingly exotic ingredients; you’ll soon realize that Superhero cooking is actually very simple and easy.
  

GRAIN ENTRÉES

Just like in the Vegan diet, the cornerstone of the Superhero plan is whole grains, and the component you should start with when you are planning a meal. For me, more often than not that grain is rice, though I also love quinoa, millet, barley, and couscous. I always make enough rice for a few meals at a time because it makes life so much easier; I can turn the leftover rice into breakfast porridge, fried rice for lunch, or add it to salads and burritos at dinner. It’s also great to combine rice with other grains. Try rice with barley, whole wheat berries (3 parts rice to 1 part other), or sweet brown rice (1:1).

When you’re keeping it simple on the grain front, think about serving them embellished with one of these flavor-enhancing garnishes:

• Chop enough scallions, chives, arugula, parsley, or cilantro to last for 2 to 3 days and store in old jam jars in the fridge. Any of these will give grain extra flavor, color, and overall sparkle. I prefer to chop them fresh each time, but when life gets crazy, this shortcut really helps.
  
• Roast sunflower or pumpkin seeds and sprinkle with shoyu (below). Make enough for 2 weeks and keep them in a jar. Use them as a condiment at the table since you can put them on anything!
  

To make toasted seeds: Rinse the seeds and drain immediately in a fine sieve. Transfer to a hot pan over medium heat, and stir constantly as they dry and become golden brown and a little puffed up. They may begin to pop, and some popping is okay, but if the seeds begin to pop right out of the pan, reduce the heat. Remove from the pan when done and sprinkle with a few drops of shoyu, stirring to combine. Keep small batches (about 1 cup) of toasted seeds in a jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Toasted seeds make even the simplest meals delicious.

Clean, Mean Burritos

If my husband had to name his favorite thing to eat, it would definitely be burritos. I’m not as into burritos, but I love these because they’re so healthy and fresh. Use any cooked or raw vegetables you like in the filling; burritos are a great way to use up leftover roasted veggies or any kind of salad. You can also dice up a packaged, prebaked tofu and use in place of the beans. So good!

SERVES 1

1 whole grain tortilla (Ezekiel is my favorite)

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cup cooked rice

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cup cooked beans (such as kidney, black, or pinto)

Chopped onion, cucumber, avocado, sliced radishes, sprouts, pressed salad (pages
255
–
256
), and/or shredded lettuce (
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cup in all)