thoughts Archives - Lauren Kretzer

About
- About Lauren
- My Cancer Story
Blog
Work With Me
Contact

Search for:

About
- About Lauren
- My Cancer Story
Blog
Work With Me
Contact

Menu

thoughts

Meditations on Cooking

Meditations on Cooking

Basics

Meditations on Cooking

Eat those greens! Most of us aren’t eating enou

Eat those greens!

Most of us aren’t eating enough greens (a minimum of 2 cups a day for raw greens, 1 cup cooked) - we need to change this because they’re one of the best foods on the planet for our overall health, with the most nutrition per calorie of any food. No matter what diet you subscribe to, we can all agree that green leafies are a big check in the plus column for our nutrition.
Some of the (many) benefits of eating lots of greens:
💚Fiber to keep us full and our microbiome thriving
💚Calcium - the kind found in dark leafies is more effectively absorbed by the body than the kind in cow’s milk
💚Potassium, which is anti inflammatory and may prevent strokes and heart disease (up to a 20% reduction in risk per additional serving of greens).
💚Iron, zinc, antioxidants and magnesium, which can help lower our risk for many health concerns, including diabetes, heart disease and cardiac death.
💚Folate, an essential B vitamin that is especially important during periods of rapid growth, including pregnancy, childhood and adolescence.
💚Carotenoids, which are essential for human health and growth and have protective effects against cancer through their antioxidant capacity.
The bottom line - eat more greens 🥬 and your body will thank you!

Perfection is the enemy of good. My doctor said t

Perfection is the enemy of good.

My doctor said this to me a few months ago, when I was beating myself up over a dietary change that I was struggling to make. I‘ve struggled with perfection my entire adult life, and it has hurt me more than it’s helped me.

I mention perfectionism because it almost prevented me from posting this photo, because a) it’s not perfectly styled/edited etc b) I used a frozen buffalo cauliflower product, which sort of goes against my “minimal processed food” ethos. 🙄

I posted anyway because this is what real food and real eating looks like. Not always perfect. It’s more important for me to engage with my audience here than it is for me to stay quiet because my picture isn’t as pretty as someone else’s, or because the ingredients aren’t perfectly “clean”. That won’t help me help anyone, or get my message across.
Plus, this meal was delicious and fast and mostly really nutritious, and far better than so many other dinner options out there. I want to share because good food doesn’t have to take long or be 100% from scratch. Here’s the gist:
-Corn tortillas
-Canned organic refried beans
-Sautéed frozen organic corn
-Fresh cilantro
-Homemade red cabbage & scallion slaw (literally just tossed with minced garlic, salt and apple cider vinegar and let sit for 10 min)
- @whollyveggie air fried buffalo cauli (not sponsored - SO good)
-Smashed avocado w/salt

They came together in 20 min after a long day of fun with my kids. More than good enough, I’d say 😉. Let me know if you make these! 🌮

Sticky Sesame Baked Cauliflower Recipe #2 for Jan

Sticky Sesame Baked Cauliflower

Recipe #2 for January’s cookbook club selection, One: Pot, Pan, Planet by Anna Jones.

This one was really tasty and my husband and I enjoyed it for lunch. It came together pretty easily and quickly, so this would be a good weeknight dinner atop rice (as suggested in the recipe) or soba noodles. It’s also fairly healthy, with only 1 Tbsp oil in the whole recipe and no refined sugar or white flour.

A few notes: I used substantially more water than what the recipe called for when making the cauliflower batter (atleast 1 c, maybe more)… so keep adding liquid until it’s the consistency of pancake batter!
I cooked mine at 425 (not 400, as written in recipe) and used the cook times as written. It still wasn’t crispy enough for me, so I think next time I’ll try cooking the cauliflower in the air fryer before I toss with the sauce.
I used plain leftover rice in my fridge, so did not cook rice as written in recipe.
Have you made this recipe? What do you think? It’s online for anyone who is curious but doesn’t own the book:

https://annajones.co.uk/recipe/my-new-book-one-is-out-sticky-sesame-baked-cauliflower

#plantmagiccookbookclub #stickysesamecauliflower #onepotpanplanet #annajones #cookbookclub

Eggplant Curry with Basil & Tamarind This is the

Happy New Year, friends! If one of your intentions

Happy New Year, friends! If one of your intentions for 2023 is to cook more, yay! You’re in the right place 😉 I’m starting up a super informal, relatively loosey goosey cookbook club, if you’re interested. It’s free, there’s no sign up process, and basically the only guideline is to try and cook new recipes from a new book each month.
I’m starting this club because a) I have an ever expanding cookbook collection that I want to make better use of and b) I, too, get in cooking ruts and end up making the same 6-7 meals over. And over. And over. I’m ready to try new things, experience another person’s spin on familiar recipes, expand my repertoire.
I can’t reprint the exact recipes I’ll be making from each book due to copyright stuff, but if you already own the book, or want to purchase it/borrow it from your local library, I’ll share what I’m making that month and you can cook along with me! It’ll be a fun little challenge, I hope.
These cookbooks are not all exclusively vegan (though most of them are), but they all contain plenty of vegan or easily veganizable recipes.
If you decide to join me, make sure you tag me in your cookbook club posts and use the hashtag #plantmagiccookbookclub 👩🏻‍🍳

Having the best weekend in the best city with the

Having the best weekend in the best city with the best guy (and eating an obscene amount of good food in the process - @spicymoonnyc being the highlight).

It’s here! I’m excited to share this year’s

It’s here! I’m excited to share this year’s gift guide with you all, live now at laurenkretzer.com 🎁 🎅🏻
#giftguide #holidaygiftguide #christmasgifts

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on my feed

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on my feed! If you’re looking for me, I’m usually on stories, but even more so, you can find me on Substack publishing my newsletter, Plant Magic (subscribe via the link in my bio). I just posted this must-try recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Banana Bread - it tastes decadent but is full of wholesome ingredients and packs in so much nutrition and fiber 🤤 🎃 🍫 🍌- get the recipe for free by subscribing! I’m also running a sale until October 10 for 25% off annual subscriptions (it comes out to about $3/month and I am regularly putting out quality exclusive content, including recipes you can’t find anywhere else).
Hope your fall is off to a great start 🍂

Plant Based Wellness & Recipes,
Delivered Directly to Your Inbox

Subscribe

© 2023 Lauren Kretzer. All Rights Reserved. Design & Development by Ansley Fones. Logo & Branding by Joanna Todaro. Portraits by John Duarte. Privacy Policy.