Macrobiotics Week Menu Postings – September 20-26, 2013

Just a few important reminders:

1. Always consult a health-care provider for your particular needs.
2. There is no one-size-fits-all diet. This site does not promote any one particular diet. It is here to facilitate and support the diet of your personal choosing.
3. If you choose to share in the entire week, you do not have to start cooking on the 20th. Take a day to familiarize yourself with the menu and prepare. You may choose to begin any day you like! The postings will be here. Don’t forget to share your feedback, comments, and questions. Participate at ANY level you like.

How exciting is it to get to know new flavors and ideas!

Many of the ingredients utilized are those we should – at a minimum – know exist. If you tend toward a vegetarian diet, it will definable benefit you to know many of these items and what they can do for you. If you are not vegetarian, you may still get more nutritional bang for your buck by making simple switches.

The menu we will be using is taken directly from The Macrobiotic Way by Michio Kushi and Stephen Blauer. This is a very basic menu, providing a great place to start! There will be modifications so that everyone can participate. Macrobiotics cooking methods, at their best, involve the use of gas ranges, pressure cookers, and pickle presses. Not everyone has these. If you do, then by all means, use them! If not, its okay… join us anyway.

Our macrobiotics week is about getting to experience, in depth, healing macrobiotic principles. In the future, I will post recipes which fit a more modern lifestyle, while still respecting macrobiotic principles. Menu items will vary from region to region. Please use ingredient substitutes which are local to you.

A couple of suggestions:

• Do your shopping for non-perishables early! This will give you time to discover which items are stocked at your local grocery store, and which items will need to be purchased at an Asian Market or Health Foods Store. Also, you will have time to price-compare and decide if substitutions are needed. Obtaining ingredients may be the hardest part! So, make it fun, don’t stress, do what works for you.
• Decide which items you will make and which ones you will purchase and schedule cook days. Make ahead items will make our week of cooking easy. These include pickles, sourdough bread, seitan, grains and cookies.
• Scallops on Day 3 – This is clearly an item which should be purchased just before consuming. If you get them the day before, keep them on a bag of ice in the fridge so they stay fresh.  Ginger-broiled scallops in the middle of the week – yum! This will keep me going!
• Amounts – The amounts provided in the book vary. There are no yields given. So when purchasing your items, please just consider how many people you are feeding and how much you can eat. We are going for a ratios of about 50% grains, 30% veggies (this is hard for me to type, I usually eat a higher percentage of veggies), and everything else in smaller amounts. Items which are used for many meals will be noted on the ingredients list. You will want a substantial amount of these.

Grocery Store List

General Dry Goods
Can be purchased in advance. Most of these foods can be found at your local grocery store. Others can be found at a healthy foods market or Asian Foods grocery store. To the extent possible, purchase non-processed foods without additives.

• Adzuki beans
• Almonds
• Barley malt
• Barley miso
• Brown rice vinegar
• Chickpeas – recipe for dried; use what you can find
• Corn oil
• Green lentils
• Kuzu – health foods store, for sure; used as a thickener
• Raisins
• Rice milk
• Sesame seeds
• Shitake mushrooms, dried
• Sunflower seeds – raw
• Whole wheat udon noodles
• Walnuts
• Whole wheat sourdough bread – or make your own
• Whole wheat elbow noodles or shells

Purchase Ahead Flavorings

• Sea salt
• Sesame oil, dark and light (the flavors probably make a difference, I will probably just use what I have on hand)
• Tamari
• Umeboshi Plum Vinegar  (Asian foods isle at a health foods store) see image here
• Umeboshi Plums (I keep ume plum paste in the fridge as a salt replacement, and will just use that)

Whole Grains
The whole idea is to get away from refined grains. Please get the good stuff here. Bobs Red Mill carries most of these, and they are often available at your local grocery store. If not, a health foods store will carry them.

• Barley
• Brown rice
• Buckwheat flour
• Crisp brown rice cereal (in the cereal isle – boxed, or in a bin)
• Couscous
• Pearled barley
• Millet
• Oats, rolled
• Oats, whole
• Wheatberries
• Whole Wheat Flour (optional)
• Whole Wheat pastry Flour

Sea Vegetables
Can be purchased at Asian grocery or health food store. Asian grocery store prices will likely be much lower. Sea vegetables are rich in vitamins and minerals

• Agar agar – used as a thickener – click here for more information
• Arame – my personal favorite, mild flavor
• Hijiki – will be used to make a salad on Day 4
• Kombu – can be used like a bay leaf; adds nutrition; makes vitamins from other foods more bio-available!
• Nori – sushi… ‘enough said
• Wakame – commonly used in soups and salads

Soy protein products

• Tofu, firm
• Tempeh
• Seitan or Vital Wheat gluten and tamari to make Seitan

Suggested Beverages
Purchase at Health Foods Store

• Bancha twigs (tea) – You may have to ask a store rep for this. If it is not available, use a good quality green tea.
• Grain coffee – click here

Fresh Produce and Refrigerated Items
Most of these foods can be found at your local grocery store. Others can be found at a healthy foods market or Asian Foods grocery store. When possible, purchase locally grown and organic foods. Feel free to choose a similar substitution where any items or not available.

• Apples
• Apple juice
• Blueberries
• Broccoli florets – for several meals
• Burdock root – Not recommended for pregnant women or patients taking insulin or medication for hypoglycemia, as it may lower blood glucose levels
• Buttercup squash
• Carrots – for several meals
• Celery – for several meals
• Chinese cabbage – for several meals
• Collard greens
• Cucumbers
• Daikon radish – pictured here
• Ginger
• Kale
• Lemon
• Lettuce, Iceberg or romaine
• Mushrooms, general (opt)
• Mustard greens
• Onions – for several meals
• Parsley – for several meals
• Pears
• Red onion
• Red radishes
• Scallions – for several meals
• Shiso leaves
• Snow peas
• Turnip greens
• Watercress – for several meals

Also

• Scallops – for day three
• Sake or rice wine (NOT rice wine vinegar)
• Pickles – either made ahead (see here), or a very good quality (nonprocessed) sauerkraut and/or kimchi, or another prepared pickled vegetable
• Mochi is a breakfast item on one day as well. This is interesting, but takes much time to prepare, including 1 hour of pounding rice by hand! Maybe I will tackle this process later. However, you can purchase a very good ready-made easy-to-bake mochi at a health foods store.

That is everything for the entire week of meals!

If you choose to just make foods for a day or two,or a meal or two, please watch for blog postings with recipes beginning September 20.

Enjoy!