Facing Ourselves

I'm not sure what we ate last week, but it wasn't what was on our list! I know we had some beautiful salads a couple of days, and I think I've eaten a whole case of cantaloupe myself this week. Man, I can't believe how good it is right now. I wouldn't normally think it would be this time of year. I will usually eat melon as a mono-meal (only one food on the plate) anyway, but this week it has been my staple for many of my meals.

My brother asked me to make him some cashew cream cheese, so I did that on Monday. I make it a lot, but I usually mix it with raisins for queso dulce. I made it by itself as per his request, and I thought, hey, this would taste good on cucumber slices, so I've eaten that at least twice this week. (Make that three times; writing about it here made me hungry for a batch. Plus I needed a picture. Yeah, that's the ticket. I needed a picture!) One day Darius joined me, and we sliced up mini-plum tomatoes and olives to go with it. It was extremely satisfying and filling. Now when I think about it, cucumbers are related to melons, so there must be something in the melon family I'm really needing.

I think that is the extent of my meals last week, so it's not all that exciting, but my body is loving the simplicity of it. (Of course, I had my morning juice too as per Roger's tender loving care.) Oh, yeah, one night when I was eating melon, the fam had a green spaghetti with shredded zucchini and collards mixed with queso verde. They sliced some tomatoes into it, and it looked like a real feast. Who says eating veggies can't be satisfying?

I guess that means I'll have to move last week's menu items over to this week! Sorry about that. We'll be enjoying some Mexican meals with Elote con crema (corn in a spicy cashew cheese based mayo) and unfried no beans (sprouted sunflower seeds creamed with tomatoes and seasonings). Of course we'll make up tomato salsa and guacamole and crema to go with them. We like the elote stuffed in avocado atop ensalada. We'll probably roll the no beans up in some Mexi-Cali wrappers and make some arroz Mexicano to go with that.

Marinara is definitely on the menu this week. We never got to the Leaning Towers last week; maybe it's too complicated when we're into the work week. Maybe we'll just go with some shredded zucchini topped with marinara and some marinated mushrooms. Hmm. Those mushrooms are pretty good mixed with the zucchini and just about anything else. Think we'll have it with some cashew cheddar too.

Since we've got the cheddar, and we've got some marinated broccoli, we'd be crazy not to make Alicia's favorite meal: broccoli cheddar soup. If there's any salsa left, we can make some taco soup too. That's Darius' favorite.

That's about the whole week except for the desserts. This week we're gonna make some apple crisp because I've been craving it. That is my favorite dessert of all time even from before we were vegan. We also will have some pumpkin pie, and we ran out of key lime pies last week, so we'll make that again. We've started making them in that nice snack size (thanks again, Elizabeth for suggesting that), and they're just the right touch when we want a treat. Yolanda has already asked for cheesecake for next week, so we'll have that to look forward to.

For snacks we'll have some queso dulce around to dip apples and celery into. There's the ever-present honey almond butter for dipping as well. Queso verde and cashew cream cheese will both be great for cucumber dips. We actually use these dips with veggies and/or fruit for our evening light meal. We've got some great fruit which makes great breakfast fodder, but we love it throughout the day and for our evening mono-meal many days, so we're always glad to see the seasons when more fruits are available. We'll probably be having more smoothies for dinner this week too.

How about you? What's your favorite meal this week? I'd love to know what vegan meals you're eating this week. Many of our customers aren't 100% vegan, but they love the feeling they get from eating a couple of vegetable meals during the week, and that's a great thing. I've thought about this alot since I've been working at the market and exposed to so many different ways of looking at this. I know what works for me, and I love the unprecedented level of health that I enjoy now. While there are times when it is difficult, I cannot deny how much better I feel and how much energy I have.

Having struggled with bad health much of my childhood, it is a real treat NOT to be sick all the time. My health was better after I moved away from home, and we discovered I was sick so much because I was allergic to the cats we always had while living there. While not ill as much once I was an adult, I still suffered from obesity all of my teen years and especially after I started having children. Losing these 100 pounds + since being a raw vegan has been one of the most wonderful things I have ever done for myself - it gave me my life back. Eating the SAD (standard American diet) is NOT an option for me ever again. It destroys me in many different ways (just as all addictions do their victims). While I will always be an addict, I know I need to live my 12 steps and stay out of that pool of disaster.

Some people find it odd to think one can be an addict to food. It was Victoria Boutenko's 12 Steps to Raw Foods that really helped me understand why. I bought it originally because I thought it would be a 12 step program companion, but instead it really helped me understand why I couldn't stop eating foods I knew to be harmful to me. It was very easy to relate to them as having the same effect on me that alcohol would have on an alcoholic and drugs to a user. If there was a chemical effect taking place when these foods were eaten that solicited an emotional response, then of course I'd be hooked. Well, opiates tend to have that effect, so I no longer was surprised that I felt addicted to the foods that contain them. Then the struggle came to "beat" the addiction.

For me, the AA 12 steps help me do that. I have to ask God, my higher power of choice, to help me each day. I have to recognize that this addiction is bigger than me (no small thing when one weighs almost 300 pounds). Well, here's the 12 steps. I hope they can help someone else as they have me. I could write a whole book about each one of these steps and how it changed my life to implement them.

1. I admitted I was powerless over unhealthy foods — that my life had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than myself (God) could restore me to
sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God (as I
understood Him).
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself.
5. Admitted to God, to myself, and to another human being the exact nature
of my wrongs.
6. Was entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove my shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons I had harmed, and became willing to make
amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do
so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when I was wrong promptly
admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with
God, as I understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for me and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, I tried to
carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all my
affairs.

Note the motto: "To thine own self be true." That's really the crux of it for me. I spent so much time lying to myself about what I'm doing that I can't see the truth. That scripture in Jonah really hit me: “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy” (Jonah 2:8). I could not be the recipient of all the wonderful things the Lord had in store for me if I could not fact the truth about what I was doing. It is a very humbling experience...

What's Swallowing You?

Well, I was thinking I would have a little more time this week, but I think with graduation coming up soon, I'm not going to have much free time until that is done. That is true every year, but it still kicks me in the butt every year.

At the market last week, one of our friends that we haven't seen for a while came by our booth. When I asked her how she was doing, she admitted that her health challenges were getting the best of her. When I asked her how her diet was doing, she said it was not going well, and she was sure that if she could eat better, her health problems would improve. As we talked about why she doesn't eat better, she recognized that addiction to the SAD (standard American diet) was seriously holding her back.

I am constantly amazed at how great a part addiction plays in holding us back from fulfilling our potential here on earth. We see in every area of life. There is more to this than we like to admit.

I had been thinking a lot about addiction as I wrote last week, and Sunday at Church, one of the speakers was talking about people in the Bible who had trials they successfully got through including Abraham with Isaac, Moses in leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, etc. Then he mentioned Jonah, and he asked, "How many of us have whales in our life that are holding onto us until we are ready to fulfill our life's mission?" I had thought about Jonah before and how many corollaries there were to my own life, but that question had me thinking about it again. I cut and pasted the chapters out of the Old Testament, and then I made a chart showing the comparisons. I couldn't believe how much these chapters related to addiction.

I assume everyone has access to an Old Testament, so I won't reprint those scriptures here, but I'll be glad to send them to anyone who does need them if you e-mail me and ask for them. It would definately help you to have them close at hand as you think of these comparisons so that you know where I came up with this.

Here are the points I extracted from Jonah:

1. Jonah was asked to serve a mission.
2. He ignores the request (tries to hide).
3. The Lord allows the tempest to upset his journey.
4. Others suffer also when Jonah is being chastened.
5. The Lord lets others know the source of their problems was Jonah.
6. Jonah offers to be the martyr; it is easier to be a martyr than to do what he’s supposed to do.
7. Jonah helped others turn to the Lord as they recognize the Lord's power through the seriousness of Jonah’s consequence.
8. The Lord prepared a fish to hold Jonah until he repented. Note that time was a factor; if Jonah waited too long, would the fish's digestive juices kick in?
9. He recognizes that he would not be in this situation if he had listened and obeyed in the first place; recognizes that his relationship with the Lord is threatened.
10. He remembered covenants he has made.
11. “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.”
12. He recognized that he had forfeited a portion that he would never get back, but he was willing to turn to God to get what he could.
13. Commits to turn to God no matter how painful the envisioned consequences are.
14. The Lord delivers Jonah from the belly of the fish.
15. The Lord repeats His request to have Jonah serve his mission.
16. His journey to Ninevah was not an easy one even though he was doing what he was supposed to do.
17. Jonah gives the Lord’s message; people listen and are preserved.
18. Jonah is angry because the people received this blessing.
19. The Lord shows Jonah that the people of Ninevah were at least as deserving as the gourd plant.

I know that we each have a great work to do on this earth. There are many others depending on us as well. We can allow our addictions to keep us from being productive, or we can overcome them. I believe that the Lord is an important part in overcoming addiction as He would never leave us without the tools we need to do the things He wants us to do.

One of the reasons the 12 step program (A.A. for example) is successful is because it teaches the addict that he must recognize there is a power greater than himself who will help him if he will be humble enough to ask. Our pride is what keeps us from asking for that help.

I'm praying for that help on my journey, and I pray that we as a human race can recognize these addictions for what they are. Our lives are too short to waste them in this way.

A couple of weeks ago, there was someone on a talk show who said scientists have learned that high fat, high sugar foods are addictive because they elicit a positive emotional response (due to release of dopamine).

Here's the definition according to wikipedia.com: "An addiction is a persistent behavioral pattern marked by physical and/or psychological dependency that causes significant disruption and negatively impacts the quality of life of an organism."

Do foods in the SAD diet fit that criteria? In my opinion, absolutely, at least in my life they have. Unfortunately, just knowing this is not going to change anything. We will take the knowledge unused to our grave if we do not make the changes that must be made. We must have the courage as Jonah did to make the break, and do what we perceive to be incredibly difficult. It may even seem impossible, but of course, intellectually we know it is not.

This week we're excited to have so many wonderful organic fresh fruits and vegetables to eat each day. Spring is such a wonderful time of year!

Breakfast: cucumber juice, green drink (cucumber, celery, apple, lemon, greens), still some grapefruit/orange juice, green smoothies (rejuvelac, frozen bananas, greens).


2nd breakfast: fruit

We try to eat fruit each day until we feel the need for something more substantial. Sometimes we have a whole day of just eating fruit. Other days (and Hippocrates Health Institute recommends this be a once a week habit) we only drink juices and coconut water for the whole day. (Here's a fun thought: for the juice day, they recommend one also abstains from talking. It is amazing how that changes the dynamic in your day.)

Our main meal of the day is around 2:00. This is usually a large salad or some other vegetable based main dish. Here's what I'm thinking for this week:

Chili con crema (We mix marinara with some mushrooms, corn, chopped tomatoes, and sweet pepper along with organic chili powder. Then we top it with cashew cheese sour cream (We call it crema.))

Hopefully there will be some leftovers as we love it tossed with some shredded zucchini for another meal. We call it chili mac.

Save some of the marinara as a base for some Leaning Towers. We put a little marinara on the plate. We have some nice spinach or basil leaves as the base. Then we thinly slice some rounds of zucchini. Put a dab of nut-based cheese on top of the zucchini slices (queso verde, crema, etc.). Then put some nice slices of tomato on top of that. Olives are a nice addition, and then a little more marinara. It is really simple meal, but very satisfying. If you've got some dehydrated alfredo around, it makes a nice parmesan if you'd like to sprinkle that on top. yum yum

While broccoli is still in season, we're going to have a little broccoli cheese soup. We either use marinated broccoli or regular broccoli (depending on how spicy you like it) mixed with cashew cheese cheddar. Nice with some Alicia crackers.


Collard wraps are great as we still have a ton of collards. They are still tender and delicious and easy to roll into wraps or burritos. This week, I think we'll spread some queso dulce on them (this is a cashew cream cheese mixed with raisins). Then we'll top it with shredded carrot. Roll. Couldn't be easier. Some of us like to dip this in mock peanut sauce (honey almond butter diluted with water, mixed with some lemon juice, ginger, nama shoyu, and a dash of cayenne or jalopeno pepper), but some of us like them without any dipping sauce.

With all those collards, maybe some burritos would be nice too. We'll just spread some unfried no beans on the collard leaf and roll it with some avocado, chopped tomato, and some of those wonderful hotshotz sweet onions shreds. We'll probably have some tomato salsa for those who want to dip them in something.

Well, that's 6 meals, and I'm sure we'll want to have a huge i Viva La Verde salad ! at least once this week (greens, shredded carrot, minced celery, cilantro, sunnies, dulse, raisins; ranch dressing).


Desserts this week (all plant based, no dairy or animal protein): rawky road, key lime pies, chocolate macaroons, apple crisp.

Our night meal if we have one is usually something light: apple slices and/or celery sticks with honey almond butter; carrot sticks and/or celery sticks and/or cucumber spears with ranch dressing or hummus; cucumbers with olive tapenade or sprouted garbanzo bean hummus; bowl of Hawaiian granola with almond mylk, a nice mylk shake (non-dairy of course!), or just some nice fruit eaten out of hand.

We had a delicious strawberry mylk shake with the last of the organic Florida strawberries last week: almond mylk and coconut ice cream blended with strawberries and a little rejuvelac to get it moving along with a quart of frozen bananas. Life if good!