Thanksgiving 2011

I have been making some trial run stuffing recipes based on my mom's potato/carrot/onion/cornflake stuffing. Of course I'm trying to make it vegan. (She used a cube of butter and 6 eggs). Well, I burned the first batch and the second didn't have much resemblance to mom's yummy stuff. 

I gave up. Keep it simple. I'm making a wild rice pilaf. It's tried, true. Everyone loves it. Why muck aroud?

The other thing I was thinking about is that hardly anyone eats the way we did 20-30 years ago. We want lighter healthier stuff. So I'm keeping my cooked veggies steamed and offering a big bowl of organic strawberries for a sweet alternative. I think people will be grateful.

I decided to buy a cooked Turkey for our meat eating guests and I am making a hearty lentil soup for the vegans.

Happy holidays!

Fall/Winter Fat Cravings

So here we are again. It's Fall. And sure enough I wanna tank up on fat and hibernate. Happens every year.  Even if I'm doing well and not exhibiting eating disordered behavior, I still put on a few pounds every winter. I keep telling myself there's no shame here. It's physiological. But it's hard. The body image thoughts stay strong even though I'm in a fairly mature part of my recovery. Luckily, I'm not craving animal fat. In the past it was always an intense Fall/Winter craving for cheese. Now it's tortilla chips. It's just corn, right :)?

what- cha got?

That's what we say around here when one of us is hungry. Of course this means we have to go through what's already cooked and available and what can be whipped up in a hurry.

This is what we "got" today: Plants and more plants......
Butternut Squash soup
Barley, mung bean, pear salaad
Cabbage with tomatoes, onion, corn and peas
Fresh apples, red bartlett pears, green grapes
Ok we cheated with a brownie left over from our family party last Sunday.

What is restriction?

I have found some missing pieces to my eating disorder this past year. I have been attending a weekly ED therapy group at the hospital. One of the group facilitators submitted to me that restriction is just as eating disordered as bingeing and purging. 

Many of us will view restriction as virtuous and are not nearly bothered by it as we are by overeating and bingeing. The faciltator told me that we aren't bothered by undereating so much because it is congruent with the desire to be thin, whereas overeating equals "fat". It was hard to accept that restriction is really bad as I'm not underweight at all, in fact I could use to lose about 5 or 10 more pounds.

The three main restrictive behaviors I  practice:

1.) Make a huge salad and call it dinner even though it is calorically deficient= hiding behind low cal bulk eating.

2.) Bargaining with myself: If I eat this now then I'll just cut back the rest of the day. 

3.)  Villify foods: Obsessed about fat grams..... Carbs are bad.....

I recently met someone who practices restriction in a low volume way. Weighed and measured low bulk fatty foods. Never getting really full for fear of bulemia. This version isn't me.

There you go. There are probably more ways to restrict.

Tell me about that.

Chana Dal-great basic for a plant based diet

I discovered Chana Dal (baby garbazo beans) several years ago when I was researching foods that keep the blood sugar stable.  Read about that here:  http://www.mendosa.com/chanadal.html

I used to buy this at Whole Foods, but they stopped carrying it in my local store. I now order it from Bob's Red Mill.

These beans look like yellow split peas but they are garbanzo beans and keep their shape when cooked.

Tonight I made a yummy soup with the dal with what I had on hand.

9oz dal (1.5cups) (soaked 8hours)
5 cups water
1 large garden or heirloom tomato chopped
2/3 med red onion chopped
1 pepper (serrano I think) minced
2 stalks celery chopped
1 large carrot shredded
2 cloves garlic minced
Juice of 1/2 large meyer lemon
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
pinch cardamon
1/2 tsp coriander
fresh ground pepper to taste
1/2 tbsp salt
8oz sweet potato cubed: add last 10-15 min of cooking.

Add all ingredients except sweet potato, Boil and simmer for 40min then add sweet potato and cook til tender about 10-15 min.

Still catching up after returning from our trip. Sleep, laundry, food prep.....
Tomorrow I have my eating disorder's group at the hospital. Gotta get to my homework which is to write my life's story from the perspective of Ed (my Eating Disorder) and then my story from Johannah's perspective. Will let ya know how that goes.

Night!

Sharing with omnivores

Just got back from a 5 day vacation on Lake Crescent WA. Me, hubby, darling daughter and her boyfriend. They made the meaty main course and I shared my vegan "side dishes" with them. They loved them. I admit I tasted their fish and egg scramble, but didn't touch the bbq chicken.  I was quite happy and not deprived eating quinioa/black bean salad, split pea soup with yam,  cabbage bean salad and for simpler fare, hummus, pumpernickle, low carb veggies, salad, and lots of fruit. Daughter and her BF liked everything. Just not sure how to convince someone they don't need all that heavy animal protein. Well, in 12 step we say it's a program of attraction rather than promotion. Somehow with the unsustainability of feeding people animals, it makes me think promotion may be a good idea.

I just read on J Morris Hick's blog where he is recruiting President Clinton to promote a plant based diet. Who better to do it? I highly recommend JMH's blog:

http://hpjmh.com/2011/09/20/matt-lauer-to-bill-clinton-does-being-a-vegan-suck/

What's for Breakfast and Lunch?

Just thought I'd post a few meals.

Bfast: (This was a little lighter than usual)

Green Smoothie: Spinach, Romaine, cuke, cel, tom, carr, lemon juice

1/4 c avocado hummus

1 cup quinoa

1 brazil nut for a daily dose of selenium

Lunch:

2 heaping cups quinoa, lentil, corn salad (bunch of stuff in it: tomatoes, pears, pumpkin seeds)

Vinegrette dressing (low oil)

1 heaping cup cabbage/black bean/tomato concoction spiced with chili powder, garlic, coriander

fruit: strawberries and grapes

It was a bit down hill for dinner: Got into some SAD (blue) tortilla chips (aka salt and fat)  after eating more of the cabbage black bean dish. Followed by more fruit.

So dinner was a slip. A chance to make better choices tomorrow.