Food As Medicine

Probably one of the most amazing changes that we experienced when we switched from the SAD (standard American diet) to a nutritarian style of eating was the nearly immediate improvement in annoying on-going health issues such as allergies, colds, fatigue, aches and pains, high cholesterol and of course the obvious weight loss. My mom reported that her arthritis improved dramatically and she went off most her pain killers and cholesterol meds.

It really is amazing and you have to wonder why doctor's aren't recommending this to all their patients.

Here is a fascinating article about being obese in America and how one woman saved her own life. It really is worth reading.

Being Fat in America

Thanks to Sharon for sharing the link.

Vegan Bragging

We just spent 5 days with our 3 college kids (report here). They are darling and they are all taking good care of themselves. It was quite satisfying as they each complimented us on our healthy eating style and told us how they brag to their friends that we are vegans. We are not vegan. Vegetarian, yes. But not vegan. I would say vegan-ish. We mostly eat vegan but occasionally something will have egg in it or a bit of cheese and I will eat it.

We ate at lots of yummy healthy restaurants - college towns are famous for healthy trendy restaurants - and were treated to a few delicious healthy homemade meals. One thing that I am going to make is sweet potato hash browns: 

We ate quite a bit before I decided to snap a photo. Sweet potatoes, onion, and green pepper. Delicious. This was the same breakfast where I ordered the vegetable medley: 

It came with 2 vegan sausage patties and the sauce on this veggie dish was warm and comforting. I could taste a bit of cumin. It was a wonderful way to start the day and kept me full for a long time!

Here is a joke my son Gabe told me:

How can you tell if someone is vegan?

Don't worry, they will tell you.

Ha.

Normal Dinner

During dinner the other night Roland asked me what I thought about the way we eat now. I looked at our meal of steamed broccoli, green salad, and Garbonzo Delight and laughed.

"You mean, the fact that this is a normal meal now?" I asked.
"Yes." - Roland
"I think its great that this is normal. No cheese, no meat, no sugar, and we are happy and satisfied at the end of the meal. We don't even think about it anymore." - Me
"I think it is great too." - Roland
"We have changed our lives for the next 40+ years! Oh, the adventures we will have!" - Robin
Roland nodded his head because his mouth was full. :)

You can see why I haven't written a book. My dialogue is not very interesting.

Anyways - I realised this at the grocery store the other day when I had to leave the produce department for bag of brown sugar. How long had it been since I was in the baking isle? A long time. I realised that this lifestyle is normal now. We no longer think about it - well, okay, we do think about it and talk about it (and I even blog about it!) but only because we are so happy and pleased with ourselves for having tried it and we like to pat each other on the back and tell each other how great we are.

Its very satisfying.

Garbonzo Delight

How does one name a recipe? I am tempted to put my name on every single recipe: Robin's Soup, Robin's Salad, Robin's Dessert. But it seems a little obnoxious and not very informative.

Here is our latest invention. I got the idea from watching Good Eats when he had a special on chickpeas (garbonzo beans). Ike thought it looked like a good treat and begged me to make it. It can be served warm as a main dish or cold as a salad (I had a bunch for lunch yesterday with an orange on the side). It's a little salty because of the olives and artichokes and peppers. And it is not low fat - feel free to eat it with balsamic vinegar instead. We named it Garbonzo Delight. (Tempted to call it Delightful Robin's Garbonzos!  but that sounds like I am describing something else...)

Garbonzo Delight

• 3 cups chickpeas - cooked or from a can (Here are directions on how to cook them)
• 1 medium zucchini - thinly sliced
• 1 red pepper chopped
• 1 leaf kale finely chopped
• 5 artichoke hearts (packed in water) - roughly chopped
• 4 pepperochinis - thinly sliced
• 10 olives (your choice) sliced
• 2 green onions thinly sliced

Dressing:

• 3 T Veganaise
• 1 T vinegar
• 2 t dijon mustard
• dash garlic powder
• dash oregano

Mix the dressing and pour over ingredients. Mix and serve!

I made this with freshly cooked chick peas and served it hot. Oh! It was good. Because I doubled the recipe I have had it for lunch for 2 days.  I think it would be good with feta if you eat cheese. Also - perhaps a few pine nuts sprinkled on top!

Planter Fasciitis

Didn't the title of this post get you all excited!? Were you asking yourself, "Oh my! What could this be about? Looks super interesting!" 


Over on my other blog I posted about falling down due to my planter fasciitis. I have been complaining about here too and many of you have told me that you suffer the same pain.

Its so much easier to eat healthy when you can exercise and PF stops me dead in my tracks. But I have found a website full of PF exercises and have been doing them for 2 days now and I am starting to feel a little bit better!

For your PF pain here is the link: Heel That Pain!

Oatmeal and stuff

Some of you are experiencing spring right now. Here in the frozen tundra of Colorado we won't warm up until sometime in August and then a week later we'll have a blizzard. Not kidding.

So a warm breakfast is a must have for most of the year. My current favorite is oatmeal. Oatmeal lasts for hours - eat a bowl of oatmeal with a green smoothie and you won't even think about food for at least 4 hours. I use Coach's Oats (at Costco) with a dash of cinnamon topped off with a few crushed pecans (you can crush them right in your hand). Ike likes brown sugar on his but I am trying to transition him to honey. He is being a little stubborn about it. It isn't as easy as switching him to almond milk or whole wheat pasta. Roland is just happy to have a warm meal in his own kitchen. He travels too much.

He just got back from a trip to India and Singapore for 10 days - by the time he got home he had no idea what day or time it was. But thanks to his healthy eating ways he recovered quickly and reports that he didn't gain a pound. Yay!

Last night for dinner I whipped up an easy meal of spaghetti and salad.

Super Quick Easy Spaghetti Dinner :

Saute up 1 lb sliced mushrooms until they begin to brown. Toss in 3 leaves of kale (stemmed and finely chopped), add 2 patties of vegan sausage (morningstar is my fav) - crumbled, pour 1 small jar of Classico spaghetti sauce over all and heat until bubbly. Serve over whole spaghetti with a large dark green salad. 

Serve fresh pineapple for dessert! 

Smoothie Virgin

I've been distracted from the blog by work and by my master bedroom. I am redecorating and want it over quickly so all my spare time goes to the bedroom.

Ike has a friend staying with us this week (his parents are on a cruise) and all week long we have been gently teasing him about drinking a smoothie. Hey, he has been eating tons of vegetables, including brussel spouts, and vegan tacos and spaghetti and enjoying it all, so a smoothie is no big deal, right?

So, this morning I made a very mild smoothie with a banana, pear, apple 1 1/2 cup almond milk, 3 T flax seed, 1 cup frozen blue berries, and only 2 handfuls of spinach - it was one of the sweetest smoothies I have made.  I poured him a very small cup and he announced he would drink it. We were silent as he bravely took his first sip, made a face, and said it smelled like pumpkin and not in a good way. A bad pumpkin way. He tried to gag down the rest and I told him to not worry about it and eat his mango and vegan sausage instead. I was proud of him for trying.

I think Ike was proud of himself. He drinks a big, thick, dark green smoothie every morning. Its not his favorite thing to do, but he does it, and now I think he is proud of himself for being so tough every morning.

If green smoothies were pink everyone would like them.

I love them.

Junky Vegan

Oh! It feels so good to eat clean!

I have been a bit of a junky vegan lately. I've been vegan - but in a corn chip, Dr. Pepper, licorice kind of way. I blame it on the funeral and think it is a good blame. But I'm over that now and right back to Nutritarian Woman ( Ta Da!)!!!

What I ate yesterday:

• Big old green smoothie
• orange
• Huge salad
• leftover French Lentil Soup (I heart leftovers)
• Banana
• Hummus (lots) and cucumber
• Apple
• Quinoa Coconut Curry! (my own invention)
• Pero

I was really hungry last night and not sure what I wanted. This is what I did (so yummy):

You can find this at the supermarket. My son, Gabe, told me about it. Good Stuff.

Robin's Super Simple Easy Quinoa Coconut Curry!

Spray pan with Pam. Saute 1 cup chopped onion and one chopped red pepper until tender. Add 1 cup light coconut milk (from a can), 1 1/2 teaspoon green curry paste, 1 cup peas, and 1 1/2 cup cooked quinoa and stir until peas are tender/sweet. Try not to eat it all at once.

Ike even liked it.

I am the Unicorn

I feel like the unicorn after I exercise. And it is so much easier to eat well when you are moving your body! On Monday we joined Lifetime Fitness (tell them I recommended you so I can get more bonus bucks for training!). It doesn't open until May - but I am walk/running now. Still fighting with my feet about feeling good and trying to decide if I should just exercise through the pain or take it easy.

It's nice that the granny orthodics that go in my shoes make me look an inch taller. 

Yay for looking tall!

Dinner last night was French Lentil Soup. Recipe here.  I added avocado, of course. 

Champagne Mangoes are in at Costco - not organic at all - but oh so wonderful!