In this first part of the series, we’re giving you in the inside look into one of our new favorite lunch places, All Shook Up!, on the corner of Raymond and Davis Avenues.

After talking about trying lunch at All Shook Up! forever, Charlie and I headed down on Friday to try it out. Upon walking in, this place looks nothing like a healthy alternative lunchette; it more closely resembles a really unhealthy 50′s diner.  The countertops, seating, and appliances are all retro; Elvis and other 50s rocker paraphenalia cover the walls.  “Jailhouse Rock,” one of the King’s greatest hits, was blaring from the speakers. Last time I was in a place like this, the menu had burgers, fries, and milkshakes…I wondered, “Do they actually serve health food here?”

Turns out, the offerings were healthy indeed.  I knew I was going to like it as soon as I saw the day’s specials: a locally raised, grass fed burger with homemade tomato sauce and local mozzarella, and a variety of organic and local soups (the offerings change every day), including black bean and fennel, free-range turkey chili, old fashion chicken noodle, and french onion.  The everyday menu is full of really health choices, including salads, sandwiches (named after retro rock songs), burgers, smoothies, and health shakes.

Starving, Charlie and I each ordered a soup and a sandwich.  He got the vegan black bean and fennel soup with a “Silhouette” panini, which had marinated and roasted carrot, eggplant & yellow squash with agave caramelized onions and a black olive tapenade;  I got the curried chick pea and spinach soup with an “Earth Angel” panini, which had roasted portabella mushrooms, zucchini, roasted red peppers, fennel & arugula topped with a spicy sun dried tomato spread.

The "Earth Angel" panini and bean salad at All Shook Up!

We absolutely loved the soups.  Restaurants soups often have too much broth, but ours were full of veggies and flavor.  The paninis were great, too.  My veggies were perfectly well cooked and seasoned, and the whole-grain ciabatta roll they came on was perfectly crunchy and fresh.  As a complement, the sandwiches were served with a three bean salad; it was nice to have a side dish with them that wasn’t high calorie, like coleslaw or potato chips.

While we loved our meal, Charlie and I were dying to know where the inspiration for a health food diner came from.  Co-owner Michelle Morrill explained the idea for the healthy menu came first.  Michelle struggled with balancing diets all her life, and in her adulthood, found a healthy solution in eating organic, local food, free of antibiotics preservatives.  “There’s a lot of crap in our food,” she reminds us, which is why everything on the menu at All Shook Up! is as organic, locally produced, antibiotic-free, free range, and preservative-free as possible.  In her own experiences, Michelle has seen the power of a healthy diet change the course of someone’s life.  A few years ago, her mother was very sick; by getting her to eat an organic and antibiotic-free diet, Michelle says she got her mother off of seven of her nine medications and helped her get rid of all of her diseases.

Another inspiration for the restaurant was Michelle’s interest in glyconutrients, certain monosaccharides or carbohydrates that she says are key to maintaining health.  These products “help the cells communicate” with each other, leading to better whole body health.  Her products come from Mannatech, a company that has pioneered research on and production of glyconutrients.  Michelle says she wanted to open a store so she could educated people about these kinds of vitamin compounds.

As for the theme, she and partner Frank Fasano decided 50s rock and roll was the only music they could tolerate listening to all day long: voila, 50s diner.

Whether or not you believe the hype about glyconutrients, the menu at All Shook Up! is still amazing in terms of its local and organic offerings.  Michelle says that everything is as local and organic as possible, given New York’s seasons and her access to products.  The restaurant serves Applegate Farm’s organic, antibiotic-free meets, local grass fed beef, Sprouted Creek Farms grass-fed cheeses, and produce as its in season.

All Shook Up! is a little far away from campus, but there are plenty of easy ways to get at the food.  The restaurant will be appearing at the College Center’s Tasty Tuesdays on various dates throughout the semester, and offers discounts and delivery for Vassar students who pay with their VCard on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

With an outrageously healthy menu, reasonable prices, and fantastic flavors, VC Fit gives this eatery two big thumbs “Up!”

For more information, check out the All Shook Up! website.

Makes one generous size portion:

One of the cooking pans that is a little more rounded around the edges (like a saucepan rather than just a frying or sauté pan)

Enough water to cover about 2-3 inches of your saucepan

5-7 broccoli florets

6-8 green beans

Enough cooking oil to coat bottom of pan (preferably olive oil)

1 rounded spoonful of red onions (if they are not at the stir fry station, the salad station almost always has red onions; if there aren’t any, white onions are a perfectly good substitute)

1 rounded spoonful of peppers

1 rounded spoonful of mushrooms

1 rounded spoonful of shredded carrots (if carrots are cut into thicker pieces like a carrot stick for dipping, I would recommend boiling them with broccoli and green beans)

Half a spoonful of chopped garlic

Small pinches of the following spices: red pepper flakes, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, anise (if they don’t have the anise, it’s okay to leave it out)

10-12 pieces of tofu

Splash of teriyaki sauce

2 scoops of brown rice

Start by filling your saucepan with the water and place on the highest heat of the hotplate. Cover the pan with another frying pan and let the water boil (luckily these hotplates get very hot very quickly so the water boils within about 3-4 minutes). While the water is boiling, get the rest of your ingredients ready.

When the water is boiling, add the broccoli florets and green beans to the water, recover the pan with another to return the water to a boil, and cook for 2-3 minutes (you just want the vegetables to start getting tender). When the vegetables are done cooking, take them out of the water and then drain the water from the pan (I either pour it into 1 or 2 DC cups or into the sink where they wash all of the dishes).

Return the dry pan to the hotplate and heat the oil, then add red onions, peppers, mushrooms, and carrots. Turn the heat down to medium, medium-low (I think that’s 20-40 percent on the hot plates) and cook for approximately 5 minutes or until the vegetables soften and give up their water. Then add the garlic and sauté for approximately 2 minutes.

Then, add back the broccoli and the green beans, as well as the red pepper flakes, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, anise, tofu, and teriyaki sauce to the pan. Let those ingredients cook for a minute or two and then add the brown rice. Let the brown rice get up to temperature, 2-3 minutes, and that’s it.

I hope you like this recipe as much as the first one, and once again, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or feedback, please let me know so I can make changes. Thanks so much and I hope you enjoy!

For so long, coffee has gotten a bad rap as a bad-for-you beverage, an indulgence of the weak who don’t get enough sleep. Not so, as it turns out!  Coffee is chock full of…nuts?…no!  Antioxidants!  Antioxidants so powerful, in fact, that recent research has linked coffee consumption to preventing the cell damage associated with Parkinson’s disease.  Similar compounds can reduce your risk for type 2 diabetes up to 30%, a study of people who drank 3 to 4 cups a day found.

Coffee also releases phytoestrogens and flavonoids, which are powerful anti-cancer agents.  Research has found that coffee drinkers half their risk for oral cancer, while pre-menopausal women who drink four cups a day have almost 40% less risk of developing breast cancer says The Journal of Nutrition. Coffee may even prevent skin cancer, as people who drink coffee have a 17% less chance of developing melanoma.

Now, you’re probably wondering…what about all that caffeine? That can’t be good for you!  Wrong!  The caffeine does have particular benefits.  Caffeine is an anti-inflammatory because of the way it constricts blood vessels; that means drinking a cup of coffee can help relieve some aches and pains (that’s also why Excedrin works so well for headaches….it contains caffeine).  Many researchers have linked caffeine, especially coffee consumption, to relief from migraines; as a migraine pain is caused by stretching, or dilated blood vessels, constricting them helps relieve some discomfort. I personally suffer from migraines, and I find this works!  The anti-inflammatory qualities of coffee have also been linked to blocking inflammation to the brain, which helps prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s.

Despite its health benefits, too much of a good thing can be bad…and too much coffee may be really bad.  When our body processes caffeine, it reabsorbs some calcium, which can come from our bones. Though the early research isn’t conclusive, there has been a link between excessive coffee drinkers and bone loss.  That said, as long as you replace some of that calcium with sources like yogurt, milk, and leafy green veggies, you should be fine.

The first dish I tried making I would call spicy quinoa with a tofu peanut sauce; if you’re a fan of spicy pad thai I think you’ll like this dish very much. Kara introduced me to quinoa a few weeks ago and it’s becoming one of my favorite foods. It’s a grain that is similar in look and texture to couscous but it has a slightly nutty flavor so it is closer in flavor to brown rice. It’s incredibly nutritious as it is high in protein and fiber and low in fat; it’s also a great source of essential amino acids. I’ve noticed that it’s been available at the stir fry station this semester so if you see it, I would definitely recommend cooking with it. If you can’t find it or you’re not a fan of it, brown rice is always a good alternative. So here is the first of many healthy and delicious recipes you’ll see on VCfit this semester:

Enough cooking oil to coat bottom of pan (preferably olive oil)

Spoonful of mushrooms

Spoonful of zucchini or squash

A few pieces of shredded carrots

Half a spoonful of chopped garlic

1 Shake of ground ginger

1 Shake of ground cumin

Pinch of red pepper flakes

6-8 pieces of big tofu mashed up into crumbles, plus 10 more whole ones

Splash of soy sauce

1 heaping spoonful of peanut butter (the natural peanut butter provides a nice grainy texture and its consistency helps to thicken the sauce better than the regular creamy kind)

Splash of red wine vinegar

Enough water to cover a ¼ inch of the pan, probably about a cup of water or 8 oz.

2 rounded scoops of quinoa

Handful of chopped green onions

Put your pan on high heat and add the cooking oil. When the oil is hot, add the mushrooms, zucchini, squash carrots, and garlic to the pan. Turn the heat down to medium, medium-low (I think that’s 30-40 percent on the hot plates) and cook for approximately 5 minutes. You just want the vegetables to soften and give up their water.

Once the veggies are soft, add the ginger, cumin, and red pepper flakes, mashed up tofu, soy sauce, peanut butter, vinegar, and water. Let the sauce cook for approximately 6-8 minutes or until its thickened to the consistency of chili. Then add the quinoa and remaining whole pieces of tofu and let them cook until they are up to temperature, approximately 2-3 minutes. Garnish with the green onions and then it’s time to eat.

So in less than 20 minutes you can have a delicious and nutritious dinner. Apart from the peanut butter, every ingredient in this recipe you can get at the stir fry station; and the peanut butter is just over by the butter, jelly, and frozen yogurt machine.

I hope you like this recipe and if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or feedback on how it turns out, please don’t be afraid to comment on this post. Just remember to be creative in the DC. You can take ingredients from the salad bar or even from the pasta station if you want to doctor up one of their sauces. Thanks so much for reading and I can’t wait to hear your feedback!

The fruit and veggie selection at Vassar is a little questionable…what should we do about that?

As those of us who still eat at the DC know, our fresh fruit and veggie selection is limited. Fruit usually is limited to apples, oranges, bananas, and sometimes melon and pears, and while fresh veggies are better, they’re often stuck at the salad bar, raw and not always palatable. The nutritionist recommend that we do our best to incorporate all of these into our diet as much as possible, and to get creative with what we have; maybe instead of celery in the salad (AGAIN) we can put it with some peanut butter and raisins from the oatmeal area. She also said that, in order to supplement, its fine to take a multivitamin; ideally, we get our best nutrients from food, but there’s nothing wrong with it when all of the nutrients aren’t always accessible.

What’s the deal with coffee? We hear that the antioxidants are good, but the caffeine is bad?

The nutritionist said that coffee is definitely full of antioxidants, and for that reason, we should drink up. At the same time, caffeine depletes our body of micronutrients, especially calcium and phospherous, and is a diuretic, which means it forces liquid through our system and dehydrates us. The key to this paradox? Everything in moderation. Its fine to have a coffee in the morning, but not lots of it; 8-12 ounces is sufficient. Indulging more cups throughout the day can be damaging, but as long as we keep up hydration, calcium and phosphorous intake throughout the day, we shouldn’t have any worries. Still: don’t be a caffeine junkie! Sleep is a much more effective way to feel energized!

A lot of students are on a “minimum” or “standard” meal plan, which means they, on average, can only eat at the ACDC 1-2 times a day. What do you say to students who want to stay full throughout the day, but don’t want to overspend their DC points or overeat at meals?

This one can be tough, because we should be eating small meals over the course of a day, but let’s face it; I don’t like the DC enough to be on a big meal plan, and I only have one meal a day there. The nutritionist said that, when you can’t eat often, make sure your meals are healthy and full of good calories; too many fats and sugars will make us feel bad, which good food gives us energy. Also, the meals we do have should be high in protein and fiber, which keep us satiated much longer than carbs. She also mentioned that we must keep high-energy snacks on us; she said almonds, yogurt, and fruit were good, cheap things we can buy and keep in our dorm rooms for when we need a pick-me-up between meals. Also, don’t forget water; it, too, contributes to overall satiation.

She also offered some really great information about beverages, coffee, and snacking that we will be sure to share with in later posts!

Freezing Local Produce
Among the presenters was Jim Hyland of Winter Sun Farms, who described how to preserve fresh produce by freezing.  People freeze food all the time to preserve it, but improper freezing can diminish the nutrients and quality of the food.  To freeze fresh vegetables, Jim says to cook them in boiling water for a few minutes to stop their ripening, then remove and immediately “shock” the vegetables by submerging them in ice water to stop cooking, a technique known as “blanching.” Drain/dry the veggies the best you can (the drier the better), then put them in plastic containers/plastic bags, trying to keep air and moisture out. Immediately freeze. For blanching times for individual fruits and vegetables, visit this website. Winter Sun Farms also provides its members with locally grown, frozen produce during the winter months. If you’re interested in a membership, check out their website; you can even pick up your frozen produce in the College Center so there’s no need to go to the supermarket!

Lacto-fermentation
Poughkeepsie Farm Project intern Aliyah Brandt discussed lacto-fermentation, a way of using salt to preserve foods.  Lacto-fermentation is a process in which salt and whey interact with the natural vegetable properties to create lactic acid, a natural preservative.  Amounts of salt and whey vary by process, but visit the websites below for proper ratios.  Aliyah stresses using only non-iodine salt, because iodized salt prevents the proper breakdown to create lactic acid, and thus, won’t preserve the vegetable.  Special health benefits: besides allowing you to eat your local produce longer through the year, the product and brine liquid that is created in this process helps with digestion; eating the foods you produce this way aid in the digestive processes and speed up your metabolism!

Here’s a great online PDF file explaining the health benefits and process of lacto-fermentation, and an easy how-to guide on the methodology.

Wild Hive Farm
Another guest at the workshop was Don Lewis of Wild Hive Farm.  Don runs a successful café, bakery, and market that produces and sells products made entirely of local ingredients all year round, even when the harvests are over.  Don’s business exemplifies the ways in which people in the Northeast can continue to eat locally throughout the year without sacrificing quality or taste. If you’re looking for a gourmet, local treat, this is a great place to visit! In the future, VC Fit will check out Don’s operation, and tell you more about his mission and design!

In the meantime, check out Wild Hive Farm’s website.

Eating Locally in Winter

Wednesday, November 4, 6-8 p.m., Main, Faculty Parlor

Representatives from the Poughkeepsie Farm Project are visiting Vassar students tonight to answer a question those Californian health-nuts just don’t  understand: how do we keep eating local, fresh foods when its too cold to grow? Stop by and get the answer to this troubling question tonight!

“Food, Inc.”, sponsored by the ViCE Film League

Thursday and Friday, November 6 and 7,  7 pm, Blodgett Hall Aud-Nora Ann Wallace 73 Auditorium

“Food Inc.” takes viewers behind the scenes of America’s food production industry, with a focus on health and nutrition.  Complete with visuals of questionable food production, interviews with experts, and stories on the dangers of processed foods, “Food Inc.” shows us the ways in which the American food industry is endangering consumers. Totally fascinating, but I don’t recommend bringing a snack to this one. For more information, here’s the movie’s website.

Nutritionist Visit

Sunday, November 8th, 5-7 pm, ACDC

We don’t quite have the details on this one yet, but Lane Bower, a certified nutritionist will be at the DC to answer questions you have about staying healthy in college! If you have anything you’d like VCFit to ask, post them, and we’ll write about what the nutritionist had to say! Or, feel free to pay her a visit on Sunday yourself..its free and open to everyone!

In this first episode, Adam talks a little bit about how he came to weight lift, nutrition, and general fitness.

Buns of Steel with Adam Steel, Episode #1