(no subject)

[aprilstarchild]

I made some food, and it's the awesome. It should be, I sliced open one of my fingers while preparing it. My parents' knives suck. When I get an apartment, that's what I want for a housewarming gift--halfway decent knifes. A nice big knife (big enough to use on its side to crush garlic), a smaller knife, a paring knife. That's all I'd need.

Anyway, food.

Semi-greek stew stuff
Inspired by a note in Laurel's Kitchen about beans

one or two cups smallish pasta, macaroni or bow tie size, uncooked, and whole wheat if possible
one can white beans (white kidney aka cannelleni, but navy or northern would work), drained and rinsed
one bunch spinach, rinsed and trimmed, torn into smaller bits
two carrots, sliced
two sticks celery, sliced
one onion, diced
two tbsp olive oil (be generous, it's good for you)
two tsp. dried or a few tbsps of fresh oregano
sprinkle paprika
some form of veggie broth (I used Better Than Bouillion, which is a paste, about a tsp. worth)
freshly ground pepper

Put oil and onions in a medium-sized pot and saute until onions are translucent. Add a couple of cups of veggie broth--I made the bouillion stuff half-strength. Also add the celery, carrots, and oregano. Simmer until the carrots are soft but not mushy. About halfway through, start the pasta. Different brands take different times to cook, of course.

When the carrots are done, add the spinach in a bit at a time, stirring between handfuls. It'll look like a lot of spinach, but that stuff cooks down to next to nothing. Trust me on this. When the spinach is all wilty, carefully stir in the beans. Add a bit of paprika (a pinch or two?) and stir. Take it off the heat and add the cooked and drained pasta. Just before serving, grind some pepper on it.

Here's the order of doing things if you want to save a lot of time:
Chop onions
Slice carrots and celery while onions are cooking
While all that's cooking, wash and tear the spinach, start the pasta, and rinse the beans.

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What I love about this, is that it's dang easy, it's cheap, it's tasty, and it's healthy beyond belief! Wheat and beans together make a complete protein, if you worry about that kind of thing. The beans and spinach give iron and, I think, calcium. Carrots add vitamin A. But it tastes so good you wouldn't know how healthy it is. I'm serious.

Well, I'm dang proud of myself. Except for the part where I sliced my finger.

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I recently re-found my naturopath's instructions. Increase consumption of beans and leafy greens, check. Taking acidophilus on empty stomach, requires a little planning. I'll take some of the capsules and keep them in the fridge at work to take at my last break. No sugar or fruit juice for a month? Oy.

I'm starting that one tomorrow. I keep putting it off, or I'll be good for a few days and then fuck up. But, yah, here I go. I bought unsweetened vanilla soymilk. I tried it once at sagacat's place and it wasn't hideous, although I think they had the chocolate one. It'll be okay on cereal.

I hate it when I tell people, Oh I need to stop eating sugar because my ND told me to avoid it, and they'll suggest fructose or date sugar or rice syrup. Um, no. I have to avoid all forms of added sweetener. If it's separated from its original source, used to make things sweeter, and affects blood sugar, it's out. I can use stevia and xylitol, though. Damn near everything has added sugar, even non-sugary organic cereal. Curses!! It's even hiding in bread, which is irritating.

Apparently once that month is up, I can start eating stuff that contains incidental amounts like the aforementioned cereal, but supposedly not candy-type things. The idea is just to get me off the sugar roller coaster: I'm tired. I eat sugar. I'm awake. I crash. I'm tired. I eat sugar....etc etc.

I haven't figured out the alcohol thing. I think even hard alcohol has sugars in it, that's what ferments, right? *is confused*

Here goes nothing.

Comments

[sagcat.livejournal.com]

Dood! I so hear you on trying to avoid added sugars. Why do so many bakeries add High Fructose Corn Syrup to their breads? Gabriel's Bakery is one that doesn't. Their bread is expensive, but it's the best bread readily available in Portland. Just toast with margerine tastes like a desert. mmmm. The oat-wheat is delicious. Throw on some Maranantha peanut butter, and I'm in heaven. (Maranantha = made by hippies in Ashland; Adams = made by Smuckers)

And the west soy unsweetened vanilla is by far my favorite soy milk. After a couple of boxes, the sugar added stuff will start to taste weird cause it's soooo sweetened. Vitasoy tastes like a fast-food milkshake to me now. The west soy unsweetened is 1. a good brand (Hain = not one of the big food corps, though they're trying. =-) ), 2. one of the healthiest on the market, and 3. the best tasting, IMO. It kinda has a maple overtone to it. The chocolate is also good. And yes, the vanilla totally goes on cereal well.

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

Most of the breads I eat will have rice syrup or honey. I tend to buy the Ezekiel breads, where it's all sprouted grains. They're so nutritious it's scary. I was eating two slices of their raisin bread with brekkie every morning, but alas, five grams of sugars (between the raisins and the added sweetener) per slice. When you think about the fact that most cereals are sweetened (another four grams per serving, and I eat way more than that) and the soy milk (four more!) I was consuming a lot of sugar in the morning.

This morning: twice what Bob's Red Mill considers a serving of scottish oatmeal, a teaspoon of omega-3 oil, a cup of unsweetened soy milk. I was starving by my break, and I had a slice of non-sweetened bread with almond butter. Lunch was leftover greek stew stuff, some salad. Snacked on salty things, some veggies, and a wee bit of hummus at Boo's party. Hmmm. Need to eat an actual "dinner" occasionally--I suck at that. I"m so freaking tired when I get home from work, whether I go anywhere after that or not.

BTW: I never buy hydrogenated/sweetened nut butters anyway, but I've never really liked peanut butter. Bleh. Almond is okay, and I like tahini, but...*shrug* I don't understand people being obsessed with peanut butter.

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

another note: None of the unsweetened soy milks have all the added nutrition. It's really annoying, because fortified soy milk was one of my main sources of b vitamins and calcium and stuff. Grrr!