Power Bowl.....aka "and the kitchen sink"

If you're new to the land of quinoa and shit like that-this dish will be wayyyyy daunting for you. This is typically something you have to work your way up to, unless of course you freakin' love veggies like I do.
What inspired this for me was produce needing to be eaten soon, and feeling a bit tired so wanting a punch of protein. I do allow myself an egg a week, either like this-or hard boiled. It's part of my 10%. I am not convinced that eggs are evil, on the contrary, they are a complete protein and do have some nutrients in them that are truly vital for health, and difficult to harvest from other places, like lutein and zeaxanthin. For this reason I believe in moderation here. Yes, the yolks contain cholesterol but studies have also indicated that it doesn't affect the cholesterol levels in our bodies. That is, you'd have to eat a hell of a lot of eggs in order for that to happen. Personally, eaten like this-not fried in butter, not in an omelet with cheese-well I'm going to take my chances that it's okay. (Even my cardiologist admits he is vegetarian, not vegan.)

For the purist-leave the egg out. I'm not hard core at all. The transition-which I'll write about in my next post-for me was a process. Some people suggest it should be an event, like ripping off a band-aid but I disagree. I think it should be whatever a person is comfortable with, can handle and will maximize their potential for life-style changing success. Remember, this isn't a 'diet.' It's a way of eating for life. That said, this here bowl can't get much more healthier. Maybe-but I doubt it. 

Garlic, minced
small yellow onion
one stalk celery
one carrot, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
chopped cabbage, green and purple (pre-made coleslaw mix great here)
handful of kale, chopped
few springs of parsley, minced
1 can mexi corn (rinsed to get rid of salt and sugar)
1 8oz can lima beans (rinsed)
1/2 cup brown lentils
1/2 cup quinoa
vegetable broth
tumeric, to taste
coriander, to taste
paprika, to taste
black pepper, to taste
4 heaping teaspoons of tomato sofrito
1 egg, cooked how you like it

 Start cooking the quinoa and the lentils....like rice, 1:2. So for 1/2 cup, use 1- 1/3 cups water or broth to cook.Once mostly done, set aside. Saute the garlic, onion, celery and carrots in some veggie broth until soft in a dutch oven (soup/stew pot.) Add the cabbage and the chopped kale. 

(quinoa and lentils are cooked just like rice. Once to a bowl, simmer, cover and when the water is absorbed, it's done. Typically around 15 to 25 minutes, depending on how big the batch.) 

Add the spices, and stir until well blended. Add the lentils and quinoa, and then enough vegetable broth to cover and make soupy/stewy, but not completely soupy. Add corn and lima beans. Stir.  Add the sofrito. Cook, simmer on the stove covered for at least 15 minutes. Spoon a bowl out, and then cook your egg. It is not necessary to use oil or butter if you have non-stick pans, but for additional taste you may want to use a vegan butter to fry the egg. Not necessary but sometimes its hard for people to reconcile not cooking an egg in SOME sort of 'fat.' 

Of course, you can always poach an egg in either water or more veggie broth, or use a hard-boiled one. I like the yolk running into the broth here, it adds a richer, creamier tastier dimension. On the egg itself I use pink salt and pepper. 

*tomato sofrito is a latino condiment in a jar, click here (can be found in all grocery stores in the latin foods section) Sofrito-scroll down a bit

F*ck Gwyneth Paltrow

Ok, I'll give her a break, I mean, at least she TRIED to see what it's like to be poor and eat healthy. Thing is, is that its really NOT that expensive to eat well. When you cut out meat, dairy, and oils-you are saving a SIGNIFICANT amount of money, as frankly those are the most expensive items. The cost of meat these days is outrageous. As discussed before, hamburger runs about 7.00 a package, and you are able to get two gianormous chicken breast for about 8.00 as well.

You have noticed that, right, just how huge chicken breasts are coming now? Yeah that ain't natural. Back in the day, they were half the size of that naturally. I've heard that they give the chickens some sort of hormone so by a certain age, they are already big enough to slaughter to eat.....so instead of waiting for them to mature, they throw them into chicken puberty and kill them much sooner than usual. If you think of just all the fast food chicken places and corporate restaurant chains alone-the demand is so great that yes, they had to think of some way to keep up with it. It's pretty gross.

So let's say you're mindful of all that so you want to get chicken that is 'free range' or you want to get beef that is 'grass fed.' You can even go so far as to get beef where the cows have been massaged and shit and basically given a room at the Hilton. Allegedly the 'relaxed' and pampered cow dies peacefully in slaughter and due to all that bovine bliss, the meat is 'tenderized' by some sort of happiness enzyme, netting you a much better piece of meat. For half of your paycheck.

In other words-if you want QUALITY meat you will really pay out the behind for it and if you are willing to buy the cheaper cuts- and tenderize them by stewing or slow cooking or marinating-you're still paying a lot and now compromising your health integrity.

Never mind the conditions for the animals that are disgusting. I like animals but I'm not driven to fight for them like some of my friends are. I'm glad there are people like that because someone has to do it, but I'm a human rights person first and foremost. That said, it really is terrible what we do to animals in order to eat them and since we don't NEED to eat them, regardless of what them Paleo diet people say-it's just better to go meatless for ethical as well as health reasons. I get it however, that we are a culture indoctrinated with meat eating and in certain states, like Kansas, Texas-I think it's blasphemy to suggest meat-less eating unless it Lent and it's Friday.

That said, oil is also expensive, a medium bottle of Olive Oil runs folks about 10.00. You can find some on sale for about 8 usually, but brand quality and the type of OO matters so of course, it can be a gamble finding a decent cheap one (sorta like wine.) When you get into more 'exotic' oils, even the now ubiquitous coconut oil, you are still looking at 10 bucks a jar or bottle. If the theory is that you replace all other fats with the oils to cook with, drizzle with, roast with, dressing with, saute with-then a jar isn't going to last very long.

Then the cost of milk seems to fluctuate like gasoline, and cheese is not cheap by any means. You might find a '10 for 10' yogurt deal, but 1.00 for a tiny container of yogurt still seems steep to me. All told, even butter runs about 5.00 for 4 quarters so when you add up the cost of just these 3 'staples'-you're running up a pretty high grocery bill. This is why Hamburger Helper being a cheap dinner choice is a misnomer, sure, the HH is cheap, but the hamburger, butter and milk as mentioned before is not.

These are just staples, not including side dishes or snacky foods, another American addiction. Last time I was at Aldi's, it should just be called "house of chips and crackers." The largest selection of snack items I've seen in ages, but that's pretty universal at most grocery stores it seems. Snacks are not cheap either, that is if you want to eat snacks that are even remotely healthy. 

So, what do we have pictured above? Almost an entire week's worth of fruit, for starters. It's suggested for optimal health that people eat 3 to 4 pieces of fruit a day. Here there are strawberries, blueberries, a mango, a bunch of bananas, cherries, a bag of honey crisp apples and a cantaloupe. Munch a few strawberries while Facebooking, add blueberries to oatmeal, eat an apple, have some cantaloupe pieces....some mango thrown in with some spicy black beans and rice makes for an exotic Caribbean kind of dish that is really yummy....with all of this, you're pretty good on fruit for at least 5 days.

Meanwhile, there's a tub of roasted red pepper hummus, some queso fresco and some corn tortillas (made with no oil.) I have the cheese as only a garnish for some mushroom tacos I was making (yes, will post recipe) but for those who are vegetarian and eating dairy, you can melt some right in the tortillas. Also smear some hummus on the tortilla and add some of this cucumber.

I was running low on chick peas (incidentally, you can make your own hummus with those) so I stocked up but any 3 cans of beans cost the same. Add a bag of rice and you have a couple meals out of that.

Now, I'm not suggesting this is a week's worth of food. But, this food cost $20.18 at Aldi's. Usually, blueberries and cherries are one of the most expensive fruits. Sure, look for stuff on sale and freeze-I do it with strawberries and blueberries all the time, just lay on a cookie sheet, stick in freezer then throw in a freezer safe baggie-but the point is, you have a lot of fruit and for 20.00 you can have enough veggies and stuff to have a week's worth of meals. Basically, you can eat and feed a family of 4 for 50.00 a week and not starve and not feel deprived.

Farmer's markets are weird. Some are really expensive because they are pretentious and it's more social thing, believe it or not. If you are lucky like me, you can drive on a country road and stop at a real farm with a real farm stand. I live not too far from the Wisconsin border and so that's what I do and there I am able to get organic, fresh garden produce significantly cheaper than either the grocery store or in-town farmer's markets. 

One has to conquer the psychology of food in our culture which is "ALOT." The typical restaurant meal is really the size for 3 meals, which is why many people need to-go boxes or they want to split an entree. We have learned to 'super size' and we equate 'bigger is better' with our foods the same way we do our homes and vehicles.  Add to that the subconscious remembering our parents pushing us to finish everything on our plates ("there's starving kids in China") that we feel the need to continue to eat, even when our hunger has been satisfied.

We need to lose that mentality. You do NOT need to have a jillion choices of snacks each week, or have a dozen frozen entrees and pizzas and quick 'nukeable' meals and soups and such. And once you get really good at all this natural eating, you learn to freeze from the big bowls and pots of stews and soups and rice thingys, so then you now have your own stock-pile of convenient frozen meals to take to work or after a hard day at work. We will get there. For now, just be relieved to know you don't have to shop at "whole paycheck" in order to eat healthy and you don't have to take a second mortgage out on your house, either.

If fast food restaurants were honest in advertising




Click above to see true an honest fast food commerical

I'm a writer. Period.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy taking pictures. But every single picture of food I post here, has been taken with a cellphone. And they have changed throughout the years, from Iphones to lost Android phones that needed replacing with cheaper ones.

That said, I've noticed that many food bloggers also have a photography passion/hobby and their pics look very nice and professional. Hell, that's how food sells on menus, right? (And never looks like it on the menu, right.) So-what you see is legit, raw and real, like what I upload to Facebook raw and real. I am NOT a photographer. I have an artistic eye-I sketch, I paint and stuff...BUT....I dont have the means to really make this 'glossy'. I'm just putting this out here before I get trolled about the quality of pics.

You wanna know what the damn food looks like, MAKE IT and see for yourself. Its really that easy lol.

That said, SOME pics are decent while others are not. However like life and people, its the CONTENT and not the appearance that truly matters the most. (Yeah I know tho that you have to attract to learn content in the first place, blah blah.) Anyway, lets talk about some product replacement.

(Photo bombing Roommate sold separately.) Anyway, when going off of cow's milk, some people think that their only option is some soy or rice milk but that is no longer the case. As you can see pictured here, there is flax milk, cashew milk, almond milk-this here is actually a hybrid of almond/coconut milk, and there is coconut milk as well. And of course, there is soy and almond milk. Personally, the chocolate almond milk is simply to swoon for, as it is rich and creamy yet without the fats and crap in dairy cow milk.

I read one blogger call cow milk 'cow pus' and that's pretty gross but yeah. When you figure what all they are eating, the hormones they are given, the antibiotics-but to get the milk supposedly without all of that stuff, you are paying a ridiculous amount. I eyeballed at Wal-Mart and a gallon of organic milk THERE is over 6.00.

These milks pictured here run about 3 to 4 dollars. But it really is worth it. Of course if you are watching your sugars, then you want to get the unsweetened flavor. I personally stopped drinking dairy milk years ago because I'm lactose intolerant, but I still used cream in my coffee. CREAM, either 18% or 1/2 and 1/2. I would get SO pissed off if I had to resort to regular milk or God forbid-skim-in my cafe but I digress.

I use the milk for mixing into my oatmeal and I use it for recipes that call for milk or cream, say, in a soup. That's when the unsweetened flax really comes in handy, I personally like it the best and think it has the most health benefits. I don't really care for the taste of soy milk but the nut milks taste just fine to me, so for pouring on cereal or making a healthy pancake or waffle I'm thinking this is totally the way to go.

I have put into coffee and blech. Not for me. But since I've quit smoking and changed my diet, I don't much have a taste for coffee like I used to. I drink about 1/2 a cup in the mornings and I do put the nut milk in it, but I drink it because coffee does have some antioxidant properties and studies have shown that is beneficial now for heart patients. (Go figure. For years they said caffeine will mess with your heart causing arrhythmia's. To be fair, in some people it does, they are sensitive and the energy drinks WILL kill you and your heart, just sayin') BUT the hospitals and cardiac units will serve you up as much coffee as you want-I laid up in ICU drinking it all day long when I had my heart attack. (It helped metabolize the nicotine out of my system faster. That's why people smoke more when they drink coffee and vice-versa-nicotine makes caffeine metabolize faster. When you quit either, you need less of both.)

Anyhoo.....experiment with the non-dairy milks. Now there are some very adventurous hard core souls out in the world who even make their own nut milks, I have seen this on a number of blogs. I assume it's much more economical and you control the ingredients but meh. For me I think there are some things I will always just buy. Never say never and all that but I'll consider this a 'pre-packaged fast' food. :)

Close, but no cigar......

Speaking of cigars, it's been 3 months since I've had any nicotine. Quit cold turkey. I smoked 30+ years, often 2 packs a day and times of extreme stress, burning through almost 3 was not unheard of.  No one ever imagined that-least of all me, who had been trying to quit for YEARS. It really wasn't hard at all, once I had the shit scared out of me and you know, almost died. Funny how that makes smoking not very important.

I did use xanax the first week and the insomnia was off the chain crazy for about 3 days straight, but over-all, its been fine. I didn't change a thing in my life. I eat, drink, drank coffee, do all the same things I did before. It truly is in your head.

My cardiologist did say that it would be okay for me to smoke water vapor (with no nicotine in it)-though he looked at me like I was nuts-and I did that for a little while because I really found the act of inhaling something and holding something hand to mouth, THAT was the addiction. That's what I craved.

Most the time however, I will hold a cinnamon stick roughly the same size of a smoke and that is all I need to do. Evidently cinnamon is healthy as well, so if I do chew on it, its all good. Lowers blood glucose.

My last posts on this blog were 3 years ago, in 2012. And I really was attempting to eat healthy. I didn't do too bad. Unfortunately I just didn't know any different, just how bad the cheese, dairy and oils were for me, for all of us. Like I said, I will be keeping the old posts up because it does help to have those recipes as 'transitional' from 'truly shitty diet' to 'relatively healthy'-I guarantee if you are on a shit diet that even my old posts will have you losing weight and feeling better, but I'm going to go back in an edit them now to make them either vegetarian or vegan. Look for the *.

Eat right, exercise and die anyway

One argument I hear a lot from people is that we are gonna die anyway, so we might as well enjoy life. This is a rational to continue to eat foods and do activities that are not in our best health interest.

To a degree, I agree. Life is meant to be enjoyed. And there's not a question that fatty foods, creamy foods, cheesy foods, sugary foods seem to enhance the joy of life-and they do very much act as drugs in our brains. You can find all kinds of information on just how some foods truly are considered addicting.

But such as with drugs-our bodies don't need the certain ingredients-like sucrose, which is aka 'table sugar', white cane sugar.

But I tend to agree that the idea of never tasting certain foods again, seems like a huge bummer considering that yeah, something is gonna get us anyway. But here's where that argument ends.

Depending on who you ask, a 10% leeway in the diet is permissible. I suppose you pick you poison then. Do you eat some chicken? Do you have some fish (both a couple or few times a month.) Do you have an egg? Do you put a slice of cheese on something, or dip your bread in oil?

It is said to reverse disease, such as heart disease-you must go on an SOS diet. No Salt, No Oils, No Sugars. Seems daunting in a culture where those 3 ingredients are abundant and put into EVERYTHING.

How do you avoid it? Reading labels of course, and knowing the code words for hidden oils, fats and sugars. Things like 'corn syrup, high fructose' hide sugar. Oils -those are pretty specific but there is no 'healthy' oil. Olive oil is not good for the heart. The Mediterranean diet is good for the heart and the meddie lifestyle is good for the heart. Those people have less heart disease as a byproduct of lower stress, more rigorous physical activity, naps during the day, and a diet filled with fresh fruits, veggies and grains. Here in the states, its assumed if you just sub butter with olive oil, you're 'heart healthy' but that's bullshit, because butter has LESS calories per serving than oo. Now, the oo may not be 'saturated' fat, but obesity counts as risk factor on the heart. The fatter you are, the harder your heart has to work to pump the blood and oxygenate you. That added stress and strain causes problems as we are well aware of.

Problem is, subbing with fake sugars, 'no fat' or 'low fat' creates a whole host of other problems as well. Our bodies are not built to consume white sugar but it really doesn't know what the fuck to do with aspartame and the like, so yes your pancreas gets all out of whack with insulin/glucose and stuff like that and boom, you've given birth to diabetes.

I'm going to go over some labels to show just how deceptive marketing is,in terms of leading people to believe that food is not only healthy but even safe.

Yes, you ARE going to die anyway. And we've all heard the stories of the clean living jogger who drops dead on the jogging trail of a heart attack, and the grandfather who lived to be 98 despite a pack a day, 6 pack a night eggs every morning and beef every evening lifestyle. But times ARE different, including those cigarettes that have also been adulterated and added shit to. So here's the options:

Die, but die 10-15 years younger than you have to, and until you die, be plagued with illnesses like diabetes, cancer, crippling arthritis, dementia, chronic aches and pains, headaches, insomnia, impotence, no sex drive, exhaustion, depression, hair loss, anxiety, obesity, constipation/diarrhea, no energy, sadness, mood swings, skin problems and end up in a nursing home where you are completely dependent on people you may not even like, OR-die with minimal illness, active and autonomous and taking care of yourself until you peacefully die in your sleep from old age?

I'd rather give a few 'pleasures' food wise up, to avoid the fate I have seen as a health care worker time and time again. It ain't pretty. And, I'm also not ready to go anytime soon. So, I'm willing to try and do what I have to prevent as much bullshit as I can.

7 Good Reasons to go Plant Based

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/health-wellness/slideshows/reasons-to-choose-a-plant-based-diet/9

SAD (Standard American Diet)

Here’s a sad reality. Not only is this a typical pantry on the SAD (Standard American Diet)-but its also par for the course from what you get from a food pantry. I know because I've used em'.

Now bless the churches and counties hearts for providing food pantries in the first place. Its a god send to many families and they are much needed. And a can of tuna, or a can of re- fried beans with lard is better than starvation, there is no doubt. But these products shown…..not ‘real’ food. filled with preservatives, sulfates, sodium, dyes. Filled with sugar, and lards, and oils that are palm, cottonseed, canola-not only saturated but GMO as well. Filled with corn syrup or corn syrup solids, lots of gluten for those who care, bleached flour, and devoid of nutrients so the FDA says they gotta re-add vitamins, so you have synthetic vitamins thrown in which lately studies have shown to exacerbate heart disease.

Ironically, all of the ‘easy fixing’ foods can easily be replicated ‘homemade’ for the same amount if not cheaper and the same amount of time preparation. Sadly-we’ve stopped teaching Home Economics and teaching our kin to cook-so they don’t know this.

Mac and cheese is easy homemade, and Hamburger Helper is just the addition of hamburger to mac and cheese. A bag of potatoes yields about 5 boxes of the Betty Crocker potatoes so a bag is actually cheaper. If you get a block of cheddar, between the mac and cheese and the potatoes Au gratin boxed-you can make both homemade FOR CHEAPER.

I don’t advocate eating this stuff, but I’d rather see people eating these foods from scratch, which is infinitely healthier than the boxed version. So I'll show some recipes how to make the above, on the cheap, homemade, tastes much better. Then I’ll give you the vegetarian versions. 

I'll be easy for your first time.........

Chili. Who doesn't love it? And often, many kinds of meats are used to make it. Ground beef of course, the classic choice. But I've had it made with stew meat, sirlion meat, buffalo meat, turkey, chicken and venison. Some chili I've eaten at contests in bars-simply God awful. I mean they had to have been drunk as hell to think it was good, the weirdest freakin' chili ever can be found at chili cook-offs in some neighborhood bar. So I figure, how bad could substituting the meat with 'smart crumbles', a soy bean based 'meat substitute' really be?? So I tried it.(Pictured: Soy meat chili, IKR? Looks like 'real' chili)

Lets start with the obvious ‘when you’re poor’ meat staple. Which is really kind of a joke now, considering that even the cheapest of hamburger (chuck, not sirloin) is about 6-7.00 a small package-still, its a ‘go to’ for many people. I joke about how white trash Hamburger Helper is-and it is-but its a big part of the typical American diet. The average box of HH is about 1.50, 2.50 for the ‘ultimate.’ However, you have to add your own milk and butter and meat, so really, this meal is not as ‘cheap’ as one might think.
 The brand of fake meat (sounds so gross, right? FU, because if you eat McNuggets, you have turned the fake meat corner a long time ago) is “Lightlife” Smart Ground, and its made from Soy. The Verdict: AWESOME. Even my carnivore for life roommate said “Yeah, this is totally edible, I’ll eat this.” He threw some Sriracha sauce on there and did just that.
RECIPE:
1 small-med yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 pkg Lightlife Smart Ground ‘beef’
1 cans italian stewed tomatoes
1 can Rotell original diced tomatos with chilis (mild if you’re not a fan of any heat)
2 cans dark kidney beans, one can drained but not rinsed, one can drained and rinsed
1 8oz can low sodium tomato sauce (if you can find w/no sugar added, you are a boss)

You can also use tomato paste, chili sauce (beware the sugar)-its your chili, do what you want. In fact, take your own damn chili recipe and just sub the meat with the smart crumbles. Dig?

Sautee green pepper, diced yellow onion and garlic (2 cloves). No need for oil, just add a pinch of water. Once softened, add the ‘meat’. Add tomatos, beans, tomato sauce or whatever the hell you want or however the hell YOU make chili, because everyone has a chili recipe…..and ENJOY. Garnish with jalapeno, scallions. If you aren’t full vegan, use plain greek yogurt in place of sour cream for vegetarian and use a vegetarian cheddar cheese, and of course raw onion too if you like.

FACTS

Every 34 seconds, someone is having a heart attack. Every hour, someone dies from heart-related illnesses. Heart disease kills more people than all forms of cancer combined.

 Diabetes is an epidemic now. Cancers are increasing. More and more people suffer from digestive upsets and migraines, not to mention mood disorders, depressions and anxieties.

We are dosing our kids with drugs because there is an over-abundance of diagnoses of ‘Attention Deficit Disorder.’ Sexual dysfunction, obesity, fatigue-leads more people to self-medicating, i.e. prescription drugs, illicit drugs and alcohol.

Why? Look at our foods. Those who argue “Well my grandparents lived a long time”-they didn’t deal with the shit we do now. We have fake sugars, and 1000′s products made with them. We have fake fats. We have bleaches and dyes and fortifications and additives and preservatives. We replace gluten and fats with chemicals and questionable fillers. Our grandparents didn't have 'bars' of 'nutrition' to take with them on the go. They had nothing to 'nuke' for dinner.
 You used to go to a local butcher for local cuts of meat, and you'd go to a fish market for fish. Milk was delivered to their doors-from the dairy itself-and breads were purchased at the bakery. There was no 'one stop' shop, you'd buy fruits and veggies at a farm stand. You went to the grocery store back in the day, for your lards, flours, sugars and dried goods such as beans and rice.

We now house animals in unbelievably crowded and filthy arenas, we feed them antibiotics and hormones in order to expedite mass meat production. The meat is not the same, even when I was a kid-I can tell a difference. We have more food poisoning bacterias (E Coli), our soil has been adulterated due to pesticides, and we have hybrid-GMO foods made for some reason-mere lazy. I mean seriously, you can’t spit out the fucking black watermelon seeds?

Don’t even get me started on “gluten-free.” Few people have true Celiac Disease. The rest of us are suffering digestive not so much because of gluten-but all the other bullshit. They stick wheat in everything now, allegedly healthier than white flour, and with the fake fats, sugars, fillers, chemicals, colorants, fortified enriched-that’s what’s killing our gut. When people eliminate gluten they usually eliminate a lot of other bs by default. However, when you buy a ‘gluten free’ product that naturally WOULD have gluten in it, now you are buying a substitution which will probably also make you feel like crap.

Our grandparents ate organic all the time-because it used to ALL be organic. They had no ‘better eating through chemistry’. They didn’t have a microwave which gave birth to the ‘convienience food’ world. Nothing was stored in plastic, really. Higher quality ingredients were used, and there were less choices. Today, just going down a bread aisle can confuse you for an hour. They didn’t add massive amounts of salt to foods-and people cooked at home. The seeds were not genetically altered.

Going out to eat was for special occasions, and fast food was a ‘treat’-not a lifestyle. Even the fast food ingredients and products were of much higher quality. With population and demand increases, poor economies and growing conditions-price vs supply and demand means substituting costlier things, such as sugar into a cheaper alternative-high fructose corn syrup. Killing us all, as it wrecks havoc with the pancreas/glucose/insulin routine in our bodies.

Just like you could argue that Latino cuisines have a palate that is geared towards hot and spicy foods-the American palate likes sweet. This is why there is sugar in EVERY FUCKING THING., From salad dressing to ketchup to any bottled sauce, to tomato and spaghetti sauces, even spices-sugar is in everything., And the bitch of it is-we don’t need it. At all. Our bodies DO need SOME sodium. We simply don’t NEED sugar so the over abundance that we get when not even trying-then the sugar we DO choose in the forms of ice cream, pies, cakes, etc…..its no wonder that every other person seems to develop diabetes or reactive hypoglycemia. Yet to avoid those products and buy them without the additives-that’s where the cost factors in. So what’s the solution?

GIVE THE SHIT UP. LEARN TO LIVE WITHOUT SUGARS. More on that to come, and I know what I'm talking about because I was also a sugar addict.

Trailer....watch the whole movie and live, yo!

Dr Joel Fuhrman

Author of "Eat to Live" and other good stuff you should Google. He advocates a plant-based diet and writes all about why. He is one great source of information. Of course one should not rely on just one source as a guru-critically think and do your research. There are other sources as well and I will mention those, too.

"“
In the future, it’s going to become more and more impossible for the economy to support how expensive medical care is and the number of sick people we have. Why don’t we just get our population healthier so we don’t need medical care?
Joel Fuhrman
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/joel_fuhrman.html#eRt3QgCBCRSsGfCs.99

'MERIKA!!!!!

"Yaerp, I dunno why we got a high rate of heart disease in the U.S. of A......do you?" *shrug*

Why I say "Low Class" Vegan

I’m really not trying to throw myself under a bus or anything. I actually think I’m a pretty classy chick, over-all. But I swear like a truck driver, have lived ghetto fucking fabulous (including in my car once)- have lived on food stamps while still having to change my diet to healthy.

I hear arguments all the time that you gotta have money to eat healthy and this stereotype is sorta true-hence “Whole Paycheck” as the nick-name for Whole Foods. And it would appear that a microcosm of people are the ‘type’ to be vegan, exparte ‘hippies’ if you will-many of them HARD CORE.

As in, you can’t cheat on this ‘diet’ worth a damn, its all about animal love, liberal tree hugging  kumbaya singing law of attraction practicing moveon,org petition writing yoga pant wearing hemp oil rubbing weed smoking hooka blowing hybrid Honda driving mountain visiting bike riding photography arty dancer writer popping xanax on zoloft popping motherfuckers who have cornered the market on this. They typically live pretty urban-either in the major cities or some progressive suburb of one, and yes, tend to have education higher than high school.

I think the ethical treatment of animals is very important, but its my health first that drives me to this. The fact that it spares animals lives and cruelty is just bonus-as many would say the fact that it makes my body healthier, loving the animals is bonus.

Yes, I can fit that "liberal" stereotype. I can also fit the stereotype of which I have already outlined-poor, small town living, blue collar working surrounded by conservative Christian types who live on a diet of Busch beer, hamburger and dreams of Obama out of office. I have also lived in neighborhoods of color and variety, where the cultures just don’t know from ‘quinoa’ and don’t want to know. Where ‘lard’ is Lord. Be it black or Hispanic-lard is a big part of the cuisine.

Even ethnic groups who come here, when they Americanize their foods-i.e. Chinese or Thai-they put a shit ton of salt and sugar in it to make it palatable to the masses…..
Anyway-my rambling point here is that you don’t have to be wealthy, collegiate, urban white sheltered pretentious roasting your own coffee brewing in a Keurig type while wearing your Polo's and Birkenstock going to the Fish concert because Jerry is dead type-stereotypes are meant to be broken.
I wanted to call this ‘ghetto vegan’ but that name was taken already. But the inference is the same. You can be a confederate flag loving coal rolling Obama hating gay marriage protagonist refusing to call Bruce Catilyn God fearing Nascar loving individual and still let go of that Hamburger Helper mentality and life a better physical life. Hey-no worries about Obamacare then, right? So let’s get started!

IRONY IS..........

Irony is starting a blog to show healthier recipes and eating-and having a heart attack anyway.

Isn't that how it always goes though?

Once upon a time, I adored a lifestyle of stress, staying up mostly all night, smoking 2 packs of cigarettes, drinking whiskey and wine and otherwise getting into all sorts of debauchery and shennanigans……which I continued well into my 40′s. Besides have a shit ton of fun, good times, great memories and great blackouts where I remember nothing-I also ate whatever the hell I wanted. Also living in cities with some of the best food in the country-Chicago, New Orleans, the Gulf coast-made whatever I wanted typically oozing with cheese, butter, sour cream, cream sauces, and cheese (did I say cheese?)

I adored fish, chicken-and filet mignon. London broil. BBQ ribs. Corned beef-hash or St. Patricks style. Prime rib. Italian beef sandwhiches. Sausage on my deep dish Chicago oozing with mozzerella cheese delicacy. Butter and garlic all over my shrimp-I mean, you get it, right? I was a total foodie. And-no one understood where I put it. I stand at 5′4 and my weight averaged around 120-125 most of my life-often lower. Lower most likely due to my enormous caffeine addiction (in which I enjoyed a little coffee with my cream and sugar) and heavy smoking. It certainly wasn’t because I worked out or anything. My work outs mostly consisted of dancing at the club, walking around the city because I couldn’t afford a car there anymore, and-sex. Yep.

I got a good work out moving around the city and the country too, but where I call that a work out-others call it stress. And it mustve been, because shortly before my 48th birthday, I had a heart attack. Should’ve killed me, they said-blockage in my left descending artery of my heart. That’s the main motherfucker keeping it ticking and when that’s blocked, its known as a ‘widow maker’ because that’s usually what makes people drop dead from heart attacks.

Two stents later-I realized I needed to clean up my act. Now to be fair, I have always studied nutrition and had a very good background with it, as well as a background in health care-so I did in fact supplement my life with some pretty decent eating habits as well. But even when I was eating ‘healthy’-I still slathered on cheeses and oils and salts and sugars, many times-unbeknowst to me until I learned the code for sugar and how to read labels.
I intuitively avoided fake sugars, processed boxed and frozen foods and fake fats but it did leave me to eat the butters and real sugars and whole food dairy such as whole ricotta and sour cream and yogurt and it all played a role. While genetics, my smoking and stress were the big culprits in my heart disease-at 47 my coronary arteries were already blocked at 70% and 30% respectively. Hence the stents.

As you can see from the older posts-that's all true. But, as healthy as it seemed-wasn't healthy enough.

My cardiologist, being a rock star of a cardiologist, told me to watch the movie “Forks Over Knives.” He told me that if I became vegetarian and optimally vegan-I could in fact REVERSE my heart disease, heal my heart completely (luckily, I had no damage and my ejection fraction remained normal)-but not only reverse it but prevent this ever happening again.

My blood pressure was normal, my labs all perfect and my cholesterol normal. No diabetes, not overweight. On paper-this never should’ve happened to me. But I wasn’t going to risk it happening again, and then on top of my MI some atrial fibrillation kicked in. That is TOTALLY genetic, my 87 year old father has had it most his life. My mother may have as well-she died from a series of strokes starting in her 50′s and died at 73. A fib leads to a 500% chance of stroke. But-I was told I could fix it all. Merely through diet. I could go from the now 9 medications I must take daily for at least a year post MI-to perhaps one-if I just do this.

And.....if I didn't supplement my lifestyle with healthier foods-I probably wouldn't of survived the heart attack I'm told. So, I'm leaving the early posts, for those who are considering transitioning to plant-based or vegetarian, as its a stepping stone to getting used to those ingredients.

I figure its worth a try. So join me in the journey, as I learn how to remake all my favorite recipes to make them plant-based and healthy-I will show vegetarian and vegan versions-and live the frustrations and triumphs with me. Next post-why ‘low class’.