Days 43-47, recipes, and SALMON!!

Since my Dr. wants me to add some fish and eggs, I made some wild salmon which I picked up at Sprouts. It was AWESOME!! Best piece of fish I've had in a long time. Of course because I haven't had fish in a long time, haha. But oh how I love seafood. I sauteed it in vegetable broth and sprinkled lots of dried dill on top - love dill. Pepper, and a little salt. I covered it and let it steam a bit. You have to keep adding vegetable broth because it steams off pretty fast. Then in another pan I sauteed a whole onion and half and red and yellow pepper and garlic. Salt and pepper and there were my sauteed vegetables. Then I wanted something green on the plate so I made some frozen peas - I love peas!! Such a yummy meal!

This is Dr. Fuhrman's Anti-cancer Soup from his book Eat to Live. This was quite a project that my mom and I tackled last Friday. This picture shows that I added some canned black beans to the finished product. My mom and I loved it.... Jason not so much. It has a lot of onions in it, and he's not a huge onion fan. The broth is carrot juice, celery juice, and raw cashews that have been blended with the broth. YUMMMMM!!!! It makes a ton!! I would modify the recipe next time so I don't have to use 2 pots....ah! Here's the recipe right from the book:

1/2 cup dried split peas

1/2 cup dried beans (use any variety)

4 cups water

4 med onions chopped

6-8 medium zucchini, cut into 1-inch pieces (we used 8, next time less!)

3 leek stalks, coarsely chopped

2 bunches kale, collard greens, or other greens, tough stems and center ribs removed and leaves chopped

5 pounds carrots, juiced (5-6 cups juice)

2 bunches celery, juiced (2 cups juice)

2 TBSP Dr. Fuhrman's Vegizest or Mrs. Dash (We used Bragg's seasoning - get at Sprouts)

1 cup raw cashews

8 ounces fresh mushrooms (shiitake, cremini, and/or oyster), chopped

Place split peas, beans, and water in a very large pot over low heat. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the onions, zucchini, leeks, and kale to the pot. Add the carrot juice, celery juice, and Vegizest. Simmer until the onions, zucchini, and leeks are soft, about 40 minutes. Remove 2 cups of the soup liquid, being careful to leave the beans and at least half of the kale in the pot. Using a high-powered blander or food processor, blend the soup liquid with the cashews. Return the creamy mixture to the pot. Add the mushrooms and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the beans are soft.

**NOTE: Freshly juiced organic carrots and celery will maximize the flavor of this soup.

4 whole onions that go in the soup! My contacts saved me while chopping. If you don't wear contacts, you can wear goggles, or I heard you can bite on a piece of bread while chopping and the fumes won't be as bad. :)

Many thanks to my dear friend Tammy who let me borrow her juicer!! She is so gracious with ALL of her knowledge on all of this stuff and sharing things with me. She has let me borrow many books, and is the one that got me into green smoothies. Thanks Tammy! Juicing was SOO easy! I had never used one before. She got hers on Amazon.com and said it was about $70. It is the Breville brand. I want one now! My mom did a FABULOUS job of juicing the carrots and celery for me! Thanks mom :)

5 cups of freshly juiced carrots. Next time I would have done 6 - I love the broth that it makes. And so good for you!! Some other things I will do next time - I might just do canned beans - the ones we used were still a bit hard when everything was done. And there were so many vegetables in it, you could hardly tell there were split peas or beans in there. Definitely less zucchini next time, MORE mushrooms, and more broth. I did have to add some vegetable broth after we all ate because we were losing liquid. We ate from this ALL week and I now have to freeze the rest!

This is the homemade spaghetti sauce we made - thanks to Jason's friend Nicole from work.

Here's the recipe:

Vegetable broth

4 cloves garlic

Garlic powder - 3/4 tsp

black pepper - 3/4 tsp

oregano - 3/4 tsp

Basil - I sprinkle it on, I love basil!

crushed red pepper - 1-2 shakes, that's it!! Otherwise, too spicy :)

Any veggies you want - onions, peppers, squash, zucchini, olives...

One can of whole tomatoes

One can diced or crushed tomatoes ( we like tomatoes, so I did 2 cans diced)

Cut up vegetables into bite size pieces. Sautee garlic for a minute in veg. broth. Then add vegetables and sautee til soft. Add more broth as needed if things get dry. It will cook off. Once vegetables are done, add tomatoes. Squeeze whole tomatoes over pot with your hand - be careful, they squirt! Stir in dry seasoning to taste. Bring to a simmer and then lower heat and cook for 15-20 min.

Cook 1 package of whole wheat spaghetti to al dente. Drain water, and add sauce on top. Delish!!

You can also do spaghetti squash instead of noodles. We did this the first time, and I didn't cook the squash long enough so it was a bit crunchy. haha

We used onions, zucchini, red and yellow peppers, and mushrooms.

Finished product

This is Dr. Oz's recipe for Quinoa with Vegetables and Herbs. Very good! I made it as a meal, but it is more of a side dish, or a light lunch.

1 cup quinoa

1/2 tsp kosher salt

2 TBSP olive oil ( I used about a tsp)

1 small red onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 med zucchini, chopped

3 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 tsp fresh thyme or oregano ( I used thyme, the kitchen smelled awesome!)

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 TBSP chopped fresh chives

1. Rinse quinoa in a strainer. In a saucepan, bring quinoa, 2 cups water, and 1/4 tsp salt to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until quinoa absorbs the water, 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over med-low heat. Add onion; cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Raise heat to med-high and add garlic, zucchini, carrots, thyme or oregano and red pepper flakes. Saute, stirring frequently, until vegetables are tender and golden around the edges, 8 to 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. In a large bowl, mix together quinoa, vegetables, and fresh chives, and serve.

My favorite fruit this week - Honeycrisp Apple! I bought 3 at Fry's - They are the size of a LARGE grapefruit. So crispy, sweet, and juicy! I eat half at a time, they are so big.

We went out for a friend's birthday dinner party and had a WONDERFUL time! We went to Spinato's, an Italian place. Kind of a Vegan's nightmare because you can't eat cheese! Well, we improvised :) This is what I got - Gluten free crust, marinara, no chesse, and spinach and tomatoes. It was a delicious treat. I ate almost the whole thing except for one tiny square :) Jason got spaghetti with marinara, no cheese, and he did get an order of garlic bread. I decided to not have any. Everytime I'm at the gym doing squats, I think, this is too hard to go eat a bunch of junk and ruin it, hahah.

Mom and I grabbed YC's after a movie last weekend. For the first time I did curry flavors. I loved it and will do this again next time. I also did the rice noodles instead of the wheat noodles. A nice switch up. Loved it. Also I learned if you say you want it to go when you order, they will box it up for you and not charge you for the to go box! Worth it!

Here's another one of Jason's yummy Thursday night meals (the night he cooks). Veggie/black bean burger (Gardenburger brand this time), his yummy red potatoes chopped, and broccoli. I decided to go with no bun since I had potatoes too.

And I just had to put a picture up of my sweet angel. He's such a sweet little baby!!! haha He was sleeping and I kept interrupting him by trying to get a picture. I love this cat!

So there you go, another week almost down. I am making the famous white chili for the church chili cook off tomorrow. And I have had many people ask - NO I AM NOT MAKING IT VEGAN! I will be making it just like I always do, don't worry! haha It will be hard not to eat it though. So I'm going to try a new recipe from Dr. Fuhrman - Creamy Austrian Cauliflower soup. I will let you know how it goes.

Oh, and here's the count now for pounds.

Jason - minus 16 pounds

Drea - minus 14 pounds

Life is GOOD!!!