Fruit Pizza

Thursday night is pizza night here at Positive Eating! I always make two pizzas...one standard Mozzarella and tomato with homemade everything and one off the wall one. This week I ventured to make a fruit pizza.

I made the sauce similar to how I make the tomato sauce. I juiced pineapple, a mango and some cilantro. I seasoned this with Lime Pepper and a little salt. I squeezed in some lime juice to give it that extra citrus taste. Then I blended a 3/4 a cup of the juice with the remaining pulp.
After spreading the fruit sauce over the homemade dough....I sprinkled mozzarella and goat cheese on top, crossed my fingers and put it in the oven.

This was the finished product. The positive eaters of this pizza said the taste hit you in three stages. First the sweet fruit taste....then a weird taste they could not pinpoint....this was followed by the cilantro taste. Whether this was good or not is open to debate. It certainly was an adventure. Feel free to offer any suggestions.

Stay positive,

matthew

The wonderful land of Oz....Dr. Oz that is

Who is the man behind the curtain! (or next to the gross picture)

It is Dr. Mehmet Oz. The most famous physician in America! He is found that there is no place like home - "home" meaning the Oprah show. Dr. Oz is the author of several books You On A Diet, You the Owner's Manual, You the Patient. I had the great pleasure of seeing Dr. Oz speak in November an IIN class weekend. He reminded me of Oprah. He came out on stage and just presented fascinating information until they literally had to pull him off stage. His energy and enthusiasm were unmatched and he came from a place of sincerity and passion.

He told us about how there are more "seratonin receptors" in your gut then in your brain. This means that the nerves in your digestive areas respond to pleasure signals stronger than anywhere else in your body! Trying to "think" yourself into feeling better is not nearly as effective as eating yourself into feeling better. This is why we reach for that Ben and Jerry's when our positivity meter is barely getting off the ground. Eating in a positive manner and nourishing yourself with food that makes you feel good is what I am all about! Here was the nation's most famous doctor telling 1200 people that what we eat has a greater potential to make us feel good about ourselves than anything we can think about! I was in ecstasy!

Mehmet, when you read this, please grant me the liberty to tell all the readers of this blog you fully endorse all the above statements. It will be good for them to hear since you are a M.D. and I am just a guy who just likes to be positive. (and if I got any of the scientific stuff slightly askew please post a reply and set me straight....you can post under "anonymous".....oh, and let Oprah know that I will give her a call I've just been so busy working, blogging and making positive meals that January just slipped away)

stay positive,

matthew

more on Dr. Oz

http://www.oprah.com/health/oz/health_oz_main.jhtml

Sweet Potato Pizza Pie

I am starting to look like a crazed fan of the sweet potato. Tonight, this maniacal obsession was solidified when I made a sweet potato pizza pie. I guess pizza in Italian means pie so I am saying pie twice. Sorry to my Italian readers for the redundancy.

I also made a traditional pizza as I do every Thursday. This was the best dough Caitlyn's made. It really tasted like a cookie! She worked very hard at kneading it and got frustrated several times (oat bran is not the easiest to work with). I kept her positive though....

The sweet potato pizza was made by steaming sweet potatoes and blending them with leftover tomato juice from the other pizza's sauce. I used only goat cheese on this pizza and sprinkled black currants to give it a tart sensation in your mouth. This was quite possibly one of the greatest culinary adventures I ever went on. We remained truly positive and we have nice satisfied stomachs because of it.

Thanks for reading my blog.....have the most positive day possible!

matthew

Cashew and Coconut Hummus

The requests are filing in! Yesterday one of my loyal readers emailed me about doing a blog post on homemade hummus. I decided to take a revolutionary approach to this well known spread. Mainly because I still had an extra can of Coconut milk at work and I had some leftover cashews from another recipe I whipped up just the other day.


I soaked the cashews over night in this bowl and brought them into work today. Soaking makes the cashews extra soft and it is actually easier to digest when you do this.


I put about 1/3 cup of water in the blender then dumped in the cashews. After that came the can of coconut milk. After the coconut milk settled into the blender I hit "Puree" and the picture below that is probably too dark to make out is the result. This made for a sweet and light textured spread. It kind of reminded me of a whipped butter. This might be a great way for vegans to make a "butter like" spread. If you are vegan and you try it let me know.


I probably should add some spices but wasn't quite sure what to add? Please feel free to send me your suggestions.

Stay positive,

matthew

Positive Eating Disciples

I was out of the office the last couple days....visiting the Big City once again and found this incredible email in my inbox!. I've never been so proud in my entire life

Matt,

I've attached a photo of a lunch Matt L and I prepared today while you were out of the office. Using some of the techniques you have showed us for cooking in the office we managed to make a salad with steamed sweet potatos, avacodo and goat cheese. We also prepared a pasta dish featuring tomato sauce with cilantro. It was quick, easy and more importantly delicious and satisifying. Maybe on the blog you can have a hall of fame for the various things your clients prepare. Without your help I would have been clueless today at lunch and would have ended up going to one of the local eaterys here in town and been over fed with poor quality food. Not to mention the hit that it would cause to my bottom line. Instead I prepared a Matthew Germain Style Corpretic lunch and was the envy of the whole office! Thank You again and I look forward to our next counseling session.

Ryan

The Uncanny X-Animals

For those of you who don't know me. I can be a revolutionary of sorts. I am just not a fan of weapons, blood and people getting fire hoses aimed at them. I tend to make exaggerated statements in public and hope they provoke some change or get me a laugh or two.

This is my exaggerated claim for today! We are going to become a mutant species people! I received this email today. The USDA is approving the use of cloned animals for human consumption. This is not as scary as it is just don't right weird! It reminds me of that Star Wars movie Attack of the Clones!

Now I am not using this blog to call you to political action. Even though there is information below that calls you to take action...I am going to leave that decision totally up to you. As the foremost world wide authority on Positive Eating (that's two exaggerated claims on the day) I feel an obligation to spread this information.

Personally I am going to lay off the cloned animals. I hope for everyone's sake that they clone the most happy go lucky cow in the universe....that way it will it least be a positive clone.....but since I have no way of knowing that I am going to keep my distance. If you do try any of this cloned milk or meat let us know hot it goes!

Dear beth, Tell food companies you won't eat food from Clones! FDA Approves Food from Clones against the Will of Congress and the American Public Despite scant data, congressional action demanding further research and over 150,000 public comments in opposition, FDA approved the sale of meat and milk from cloned animals yesterday. In addition, the FDA will not require any special procedures for tracking or handling food products from clones. It will not require labeling of any kind on food products from clones or their offspring, depriving consumers of their right to know about the origins of their food. This action comes at a time when Congress has voted twice to delay FDA’s decision on cloned animals until additional safety and economic studies can be completed. The FDA’s bullheaded action disregards the will of the public and Congress. FDA based their decision on an incom plete and flawed review that relies on studies supplied by cloning companies that want to force cloning technology on American consumers. FDA’s action has placed the interests of a handful of biotech firms above those of the public they are charged with protecting. While FDA may deem these products safe to enter the market, companies like Ben & Jerry’s and Organic Valley have pledged not to use cloned animals or their offspring. Dean Foods, Hormel, Tyson and Smithfield Foods have also stated they do not plan to accept milk or meat from cloned animals, but have not addressed their plans regarding the offspring of clones. Sign the Clone-Free Pledge! Let food companies know you won’t buy food from clones. While animal cloning has been banned for use in or ganic production, we need to let other companies know that we will not buy their products if they are from animal clones or the offspring of clones. What else can you do? 1. Buy organic meats and dairy if you eat animal products. The National Organic Standards rightly prohibit clones and their offspring from use. 2. Tell Congress to Label Food from Cloned Animals! There are bills to label food from clones and their offspring in both the House and Senate. Contact your Congress members and urge them to support this important bill! **If the links in this email don't work visit http://ga3.org/campaign/clone_pledge

stay positive,

matthew

Coconut Sweet Potato Sauce

A cooking implement that is quite useful in the office but I failed to mention here thus far is the blender. That is right, I blend all sorts of stuff at work and love it! Today I blended together two of my favorite foods. I steamed a sweet potato and then pureed it with some coconut milk.

This created a rich and creamy base for a sauce. I thought it was genius! I then poured the pureed mixture into the rice cooker that was just used to steam the sweet potato. I let it simmer all morning with some peanut sauce spices. This was one delicious sauce. The potato cost me 50 cents and the coconut milke $1.39. The spices I had lying around so I don't k now how to quantify that. All in all this is a two dollar sauce my friends!
You pour it over $3 worth of brown rice noodles and you got yourself an incredible $5 meal that feeds three people! This sauce was absolutely delicious and I am tempted to make it tonight for dinner as well.
Please keep me posted on anything you'd like to see me try and cook! So far all of our fans tell us they want to see:

Desserts
Salads
Exotic Fruits
Pictures of Ry Chi and me doing shots of Gac Chi
Pictures of us chasing the Gac Chi with fresh juice
Me actually doing my job instead of posting about food on the internet! (that was from my boss)

Stay Positive,

matthew

Squash and Mango Brown Rice

Monday I bought an Imagine Mango and Squash soup that seemed like it would be tasty to add to brown rice. I had some mangoes at the house that needed to be used up and instantly was struck with a brilliant office recipe. Why don't I cook the brown rice and then stir in the soup with some chopped up mangoes! MMMMM mmmmmm MMMMM! Tuesday I had a dentist appointment, so I was out of the office, but when I returned on Wednesday, my fellow positive eater, Matt L. asked me if I could use any squash he brought from home for today's meal. I ran over to check the box and was happy to see that this addition synchronized perfect with the Mango and Squash soup I had purchased! I soaked my rice all morning and then around 11am I began cooking it in the rice cooker. After about 40 minutes I went over to the kitchen and thinly chopped up the squash and mango (when it is chopped thinner it cooks faster I am discovering). This was perfect timing because as soon as I finished chopping the rice was done and at 11:55am I stirred in the soup and threw in the mango and squash. I set my timer for 15 minutes and went back to my desk to attend to a couple things..........

............Ding! At a 12:10pm I sat down with Ry Chi and Matt L. and enjoyed a wonderfully warm and nourishing meal. These box soups are a great way to liven up some rice. Add a few additional spices and you got some tasty grains my friends!

lots of positive feelings for you!

matthew

Created a double boiler!!

Today I stumbled upon how to create a double boiler at work to heat up various foods that were previously cooked earlier in the week. On Tuesday I made a ton of Adzuki Beans. I just made the entire package....which was good. I brought them to work and then was stuck on how I'd heat them up without using a microwave. I grabbed the scale/measuring thing and placed it on top of my hot pot!

What do you know? A perfect fit


Now my question is am I getting myself in trouble by heating up the pyrex?????

I'm off to enjoy steamed seasoned sweet potatoes and Adzuki beans!

Stay positive,

matthew

How I find the time

Okay, okay I know most of you are wondering: with all this cooking going on at work when do you actual get stuff done. Believe it or not I am actually a highly productive employee and I credit most of it to a consistent intake of positive food, daily Chi Running and other positive movement exercises.

There is a difference between preparation time and cooking time. During cooking time I go back to my desk and set this wonderful little timer my sister bought me!

This also prevents me from overcooking or undercooking food. It is fun when it goes off someone will always say "what the heck was that" and I just chuckle and keep on being my productive self.

stay positive!

matthew

What do I do with Vanilla Beans!

Just got back from another great weekend of school in New York. Hope you did not miss me too much.

My dancing partner, Norma, gave me some vanilla beans as a gift this weekend. This is what you make pure vanilla out of. These are not easy to come by. That is why we typically use "imitation vanilla". Now that I have this wonderful gift I have no clue what to do with them. They certainly smell nice. So if anyone out there knows what to do with these aromatic twiggy things please drop a comment or send me an email.

Stay Positive,

matthew

A New Cooking Area has emerged!

Today a new cooking area emerged at work! Several of my co-workers took time out of their schedule to make themselves warm sandwiches using a sandwich press. It was nice to see more people stepping out of the "unwrap and reheat" paradigm!

I may bring in a couple pieces of whole wheat bread and some fresh basil, tomatoes and mozzarella to make a nice warm sandwich for myself someday soon. Maybe we can change the world one office location at a time. Thanks guys!

stay positive,

matthew

The Accidental Avocado and Apple Sandwich

After a few fancy meals you must have forgot that this is a single, twenty five year old male posting.

So I decided to send a little reminder that I am still very much a "fly by the seat of my pants" meal maker. Nowadays however I believe that I "fly by the seat of my pants" with class and creativity. At Christmas a very special woman by the name of Karen wrapped up a huge Avocado...called a Slimcado (supposedly it has less fat) and gave it to me as proof that she was reading my blog. Well it was now ripe and ready to eat so I had to come up with something fast. I saw some apples on the table and grabbed some sandwich bread. Most young men can turn anything into a sandwich.



I chopped it nice and gingerly the way I learned from watching a DVD of former Top Chef Andrea Beaman. It needed something to "stick" it together... I perused through some other Christmas gifts and found some "Cinnamon Honey". You know those little jellies and jams that come in gift baskets and you find them sometime in July....I decided to use one now instead of trying to guess whether it had an expiration date in the future. Nutmeg always goes good with Cinnamon so I dashed some of that on. All of a sudden I had a delicous sanwich!

I am even impressed with the way I spread the honey on! If anyone has accidentally made a phenomenal sandwich...let us know!

Stay Positive,

matthew