Eat for Health recipe review Pt.2

7 February 2010 — Aannsha

I’m certainly enjoying the variety of recipes found in Dr Fuhrman’s Eat for Health book.  Here are a few more reviews after trying them myself and offering them to my ‘boys’ (husband and son).

As I’ve mentioned in another post, while I am very happy following a predominantly veggie and fruit based diet (having spent seven years as a vegetarian at one point in my life), my husband is a confirmed meat lover.  Actually, he apparently tried to become a vegetarian before we got together, but said he ended up feeling very weak and needing meat.  Its quite possible that he didn’t source enough protein during that time, but it may also be that his body needs animal proteins as per the Eat for your Blood Type way of thinking.  We don’t know what blood type my husband is, but with his predilection to meats for instance, he may well be Blood type O.  Anyway, the important thing is that I honour his personal eating needs and don’t try and convert him to my way of eating.  If it happens fine, if not, I have found that giving him meat as his staple (only a smaller cut than before) and then whatever I have as my mains – he has as his vegetables, then he’s getting a good balanced diet.

My son who’s only eleven as I write this has a typical child’s sweet tooth and aversion to anything green or fibrous (unless its the small green round variety i.e. peas) LOL.   He does however know that veggies are good for his body and eats what I give him.  I don’t overwhelm him with a massive portion, but am encouraging him to eat them and reminding him that his taste buds will eventually become used to the flavours and he may actually enjoy them one day!  Despite his look of skepticism, he eats them.  He’s much better with the fruits and loves the desserts an a lot of the smoothies.

Chocolate smoothie

I made the first version as per the recipe but I’m not a blueberry lover myself so the next time I substituted frozen strawberries.  This presented two problems, 1. the strawberries were really hard and took an age to process (next time I process frozen fruit bigger than raspberries, I’ll par-defrost them first). And 2. they actually didn’t complement the flavour of the recipe as well as the blueberries (surprisingly to me)!

Next time I will try raspberries, but if they aren’t that tasty in the recipe, I’ll go back to the original one with the blueberries.  After all, like I said to my son, my taste buds will readjust!

Despite this containing chocolate, my son really didn’t like the taste.  He’s definitely better with the simple fruit based, or milk/soy and fruit smoothies.

Creole Chicken with Spinach

This recipe contains chilli, which my son hasn’t quite got the hang of yet.  So I made the recipe up with a bit of sweet chilli sauce, dished out my son’s portion and then added Sambel Olek to the rest for my husband and me.

It was still a bit too spicy for my son (oh well), but my husband liked it and actually asked for leftovers the next day.  I froze what was left, as it made up quite a large amount.  I enjoyed it too and will definitely add that to the family dinner recipes, although I’ll cut back on the initial sweet chilli sauce even more for my son – but adding the chilli afterwards for hubbie and me.

I was also surprised that my husband didn’t ask for more salt as I didn’t add any to the cooking which is a part of the Eat for Health guidelines.  However, for any occasions my husband does want more salty flavour, I’ve got that lovely pink Himalayan crystal salt that he can grind on just before he eats.

The thing I like about the Himalayan pink salt is that it contains heaps of trace minerals, which is an added bonus.  We live in a sub tropical locality and for a large part of the year lose a lot of water and minerals through sweating.  I know that the eating plan I’m following sources many micronutrients directly from the foods, but I personally don’t see a problem – and think it may be quite sensible – to have a sprinkle of the Himalayan salt every now and then, especially during our summer.

This is where it’s important to pay attention to one’s body, and become familiar with what it is telling us.  We’re all individual and any ‘diet’ we follow needs to be ‘tweaked’ according to our body’s unique needs.  That’s not an open door to sneak in high fat, stodgy, salty, processed, sugary foods by the way!  I’m simply saying to become more aware of your body’s true needs for optimum health and trust your instincts about meeting those needs – obviously within ‘safe’ and sensible guidelines.

This may be easier said than done, because during the first days/weeks/months of changing an eating plan from unhealthy to healthy, the body will likely exhibit withdrawal symptoms and may even crave things that you know are bad for you long-term.  So if you are looking to eat in a more healthy way for the short and particularly long term, it will pay to listen to wise advice, such as Dr Fuhrman’s – and also become aware of your body’s healthful nutritional needs, while at the same time learning to be patient and kind to yourself as you go through the tranformation to excellent health.

High Cruciferous Vegetable Stew

I liked this but not as much as Fuhrman’s Anti Cancer Soup.  I think next time I will add more lentils, as it lacked ‘body’ taste for me.  To be fair to the recipe however, I did find it improved with keeping, and quite enjoyed it on the second day.  I’ve frozen the rest in portions for a stand by.  My son and husband haven’t tried it, as we’ve had some really hot weather and they’ve been favouring salad.  But my son’s not really a soup or stew lover.

Citrus Salad with Orang Peanut Dressing

I took this to a bring-a-plate party and everyone loved it!  I really like the blend of ingredients for the dressing and will definitely use this again with other salads.

Crazy about Carrot Salad

I’m not a cinnamon lover and may try a different spice next time, such as cumin and maybe a squeeze of lemon juice.  My son pukes at the sight of carrots, so I gave him a wide berth with this one and my husband just raised an eyebrow at the mix of fruit with vegetables.  Crikey! Do you see what I’ve got to work with here!  Its a good thing I don’t take it personally if my food preparation’s rejected lol.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

I really like this one.  My husband didn’t and said it was too bitter.  I think that might be the high proportion of oregano, so next time I will use sweet marjoram with a dash of oregano instead. This vinaigrette keeps well in the fridge.

My son didn’t try it as he doesn’t like the acidic taste of vinegar, and favours mayonnaise.  I usually get a proper egg mayo for him, this time I’m using an organic soy-based mayo, which he also likes.

What’s next?

This afternoon, I’m making the Turkey-Vegetable Meatloaf and the West African Lentil Okra Stew and will post my review next time.

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Eating catalyzes emotional release

1 February 2010 — Aannsha

Photographer: Salvatore VuonoIt had to happen sooner or later.  Since I’ve changed my eating habits to include mainly fruits and vegetables and cut out stodgy, starchy and fatty foods the inevitable happened today.  Well, its been building for a few days, if I’m honest.  Some of those emotions that I’ve avoided dealing with in the past and instead ‘stuffed down’ by overeating comfort foods, has started to bubble up and make themselves known, in no uncertain terms!

That’s the thing with suppressed emotions; if you take the lid off, eventually they’re going to make their way to the surface and scream to be let out!  And if you’re into Conscious Inner Transformation, you’ll welcome them.  Well, maybe not welcome them exactly because if you’ve avoided them, you’re probably scared stiff of them, or in judgment of them in some way.  So welcome may not be the right term – perhaps grudgingly acknowledge their presence as an ongoing aspect of your finding true inner freedom.  If you look at them in that way, you can at least allow them to come up, knowing that you’re on the way to releasing more emotional baggage that you don’t want weighing you down.

When I say ‘release’, I really don’t mean you have to fly off the handle in rage, or literally pull your hair out with grief or whatever – although sometimes, if you’re feeling particularly overwhelmed, there’s nothing wrong with some time out to shed a few tears or stamp your feet, if that’s what you need to do.

Release in terms of consciously transforming is more a grace-ful letting go of what has been long held within and giving it up to one’s higher/greater/divine self, or whatever term you use to describe your higher conscious awareness.  What is happening at this time (and forgive me if I’m telling you something you already know – this is for anyone who is new to this process) – is that what you have chosen to avoid in the past – an emotion that you may have judged as being ‘wrong’, or one that was simply too overwhelming to deal with – is that you are now feeling it returning after its release from your subconscious.   ‘Sub’ – in that its below your consciousness, and at the time you experienced the emotion or judgment about yourself, the way to preserve your equilibrium was to nicely suppress it where you weren’t aware of it.  Hence it ended up in your sub- (or un-) conscious.

As this section deals with eating – and experiencing transformation through changing your eating habits to healthful ones – then the most likely way these unwanted emotions were stuffed down were by the use of food.  Some people overeat to do it, some eat ice cream (although I can’t see the draw in that one myself lol), other like myself as I said above, go for starchy, fatty foods.  Whatever you may grab out of the kitchen in times of emotional crisis though isn’t really that important, its that when you decide to eat healthfully, you will find yourself facing whatever you chose to ignore the first time around.

The good news is that this time you know that rather than being in the actual situation you were in at the time, this is now an old emotion, an old memory, and in the past – although the emotions themselves will feel absolutely real as they come up.  One thing that can also happen is that your subconscious does not know the difference between the past, present and imagined and you might think these emotions are as a result of what’s going on now – or project onto the present situation, making Out There the bad guy.  If you do that, you will find yourself stuck in a loop and will keep coming back to this place again and again, a bit like Ground Hog Day.

I’ve found the best way to deal with strong emotions – and really, it doesn’t matter if they are old emotions being released or from something you’re experiencing in the present – is to simply let them go.

Easier said than done maybe, but a process that in itself is simple, and yet deeply healing and ultimately, profoundly liberating.

In the next post, I’ll describe the process.

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