Eating to Live

If you come to our house you may see beans soaking in the kitchen. I consider myself a pioneer of sorts because we are mostly eating vegan style. I say pioneer because my family did not eat this way growing up. If you ask me, there are reasons certain people are not with us anymore and the reasons have to do with eating junky. Certain habits die hard but I don't want to die before my habits do. I'm turning a new leaf and eating more of them. Beans and tofu are our friends here. I've always been turned off by eating meat but I still would. It's good and I like sometimes, but it feels gross when I eat too much. Things took a turn a few months ago when I read Dr. Fuhrman's book, Eat to Live. He basically brings out facts about food and what it does to your health that makes you disgusted with yourself. I can't put down a donut anymore without feeling like I'm ingesting cyanide. Trans fats are evil. Dr. Furhman doesn't say stop eating meat, he just says we eat too much. Red meat is the worst for arteries and too much chicken causes cancer. These are his claims and I am buying it. His plan is basically the Word of Wisdom with recipes included. The hardest part and also funnest part is preparing tasty, protein rich foods. If I don't prepare, I fail and I eat peanut butter sandwiches. I didn't know leaks existed but I've found them and they are tasty in Dr. Furhman's Anti-Cancer soup. My eyes burn when I put them in the food processor so I'm thinking they are related to the onion family.

Here's a bowl of soup after it's done. I feel super human after I eat this stuff and it tastes good too. It takes an hour to make but there is so much that you can freeze a lot of it and bring it out later when you are hurting for healthy ideas and you're hungry. The best part about this plan is you can eat as much as you want of the right foods and still lose weight.

I'm not perfect yet, but this is something I'm working hard on. I have terrible addictions to junky food.

Here's the recipe for Dr. Fuhrman's Anti-Cancer Soup if anyone is interested.

1 cup dried split peas and/or beans
4 medium onions
6-10 zucchini
3 stalks leek
5 lbs. carrots
2 bunches celery
1 cup raw cashews
2 tbsp. VegiZest
1 package mushrooms, any type (optional)
6 oz. textured vegetable protein (optional)

Place the beans and 4 cups of water in a very large pot and start cooking them, covered, on the lowest flame possible. Take the outer skins off the onions and place them in the covered pot. Do not cut them up, put them in whole. Add the zucchini, uncut. Cut the bottom roots off the leeks and slice them up the side so each leaf can be thoroughly washed, because leeks have lots of dirt hidden inside. Throw away the last inch at the green top. Then place the entire leek (leaves uncut) into the pot. Juice the carrots and celery in a juice extractor. Add the juice to the pot. While the soup is simmering, chop up the mushrooms (if desired). By the time you get to this stage, the zucchini, leeks, onions should be soft.

This next step only works if you have a Vita-Mix, a powerful blender, or a food processor. Ladle some of the liquid from the pot into the machine. Use tongs to remove the soft onions, zucchini, and leeks. Be careful to leave the beans in the bottom of the pot. In a few separate batches, completely blend together the onions, zucchini, and leeks. Add more soup liquid and cashews to the mixture, and blend in. Return the blended, creamy mix back to the pot. Add the textured vegetable protein and the mushrooms, if desired. Simmer another 20 minutes

Note: I used carrot juice from the store today because I don't have a juicer. It worked great.