Bok Choy and my Sunday

I started off Sunday morning with a nice bowl of oatmeal and a cup of coffee with soy milk & agave nectar. I then got myself ready to go to the bead store. I have beaded once before but it had been some time. A good friend of mine had given me a very pretty beaded bracelet which had broken. I wanted to see if there was someway I could put it back together and another friend I met makes jewelry and offered to show me how to re-string the bracelet. I really enjoyed putting the bracelet back together.. So much I made another one!!! As I was walking around the bead store there were so many pretty beads and one in particular caught my eye... So there I was stringing another bracelet.. It is a nice feeling when you are wearing something that you made.. It would be a nice idea to make gifts as well. Two hours seemed to go by very quickly because you are enjoying the beading and really become focused on it.. I started to get a little hungry as I was stringing and munched on my handy snack bag I put together and carry with me often... Here is what I mix together:
Dry roasted edamame seeds, soy nuts, golden raisins, and sometimes vegan chocolate chips. The chocolate chips I use are by Sunspire, Tropical source, semi-sweet rich dark chocolate chips. They say on the bag 100% dairy and gluten free. I buy them at the natural food store.
You can mix and match as you like.. It is like those snack bags you see in the store but sometimes I notice in the multi pack bags they may have chocolate in it which is dairy . This way if I want some chocolate I have my own variety... The edamame seeds and soy nuts have soy protein in them. The back of the edamame seeds bag says that there are 14 grams of soy protein in 1/4 cup seeds. From what I read you do have to eat nuts in moderation because of fat content but that soy and edamame nuts are a good source of protein. When I came home with my accomplishment’s I had some bok choy for my lunch. I served it over some brown rice. I had never had bok choy before but remember reading it was good for you. I had looked for it a few times before but did not find it. When I was in the whole foods store the other day they had organic baby bok choy. So I bought it and found a recipe for skillet sauteed bok choy in an Asian cook book. I saved an excerpt in a magazine about bok choy and it states that “bok choy is low calorie and is high in vitamins A and C and calcium.. “ It suggests ways of cooking which are ,” boiling: 3 to 4 minutes for stalks; 1 to 1 ½ minutes for leaves. Steaming: about 6 minutes for stalks; 2 to 3 minutes for leaves. Stir frying: about 5 minutes for stalks and 2 minutes for leaves. The magazine states that bok choy is available year round and one should look for firm, plump white stalks and fresh deep green leaves. Here is a website showing you a picture of bok choy and also giving information on how to prepare it. http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/health/1673002/ In the recipe I used today it did not tell me to cook the leaves separate from the stalk when I sauteed it and It tasted fine..It may be because the recipe called for the bok choy to be a tender- crisp when cooked.
In the book “Becoming vegan” by Davis and Melina it states that ½ cup, 85g, of bok choy has 79 mg of calcium with an estimated absorbable calcium being 42 mg. That seems pretty good because when they compare it to cows milk for a ½ cup of the latter, 120 grams, there is 150 mg of calcium with an estimated absorbable calcium being 48 mg.. Again I always stress you should always review the values you need with your doctor or nutritionist. I thought these values were good information to write here to show how calcium and vitamins can come from other sources besides non vegan foods. I will now add bok choy to my list of foods and come up with some recipes.. The flavors of the sauteed bok choy went well over the brown rice. I decided to serve it that way to make a nice lunch. For a snack in between my lunch and dinner I had a nice basic salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, broccoli sprouts and soy Italian cream dressing. Sundays are usually pasta day as I am use to growing up in an Italian family. I finished the day with a nice pasta dish for dinner and as I write this one of my precious kitties, Jasper is purring next to me..




If you decide to try the bok choy I hope you enjoy it.. And may you enjoy my snack combo or your own...

Thank you for coming to my blog. I hope you come back again soon.

Gnewvegan