Veggie Minestrone Recipe

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 
3/4 cup chopped onion 
3 cups water 
2 cups diced zucchini 
1 cup diced carrot, peeled
 1 cup canned cannellini beans 
3/4 cup diced celery
 1 teaspoon dried basil or 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil 
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1/8 teaspoon fresh coarse ground black pepper 
28 fluid ounces canned plum tomatoes, dice and include liquid
 2 garlic cloves, minced 
1/4 cup uncooked ditalini or 1/4 cup elbow macaroni




 Directions: 1 Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. 2 Add chopped onion and sauté for 4 minutes or until just lightly browned. 3 Add water, zucchini, carrots, canellini beans, celery, basil, oregano salt, pepper, canned tomatoes and garlic. 4 Bring to boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer on medium-low heat for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. 5 Add macaroni, cover and cook an additional 10 minutes. 6 Adjust spices to suit your taste. 7 Serve hot.


***This was excellent!  We actually ate it all before I remembered to take pics! LOL  Served with warm french bread from the bakery!

Meal Plan: July 10th-14th (short week!)

Tuesday:  Snobby Joes, Corn, Tater Tots, Pickles, Tomatoes
Wednesday:  Mushroom Pasta Bake, Salad, Corn
Thursday:  Minestrone Soup, Wheat Rolls, Salad
Friday:  Grilled Salmon, Steamed Veggies(broc,cauliflower,carrots,red potatoes)Mac n  
              cheeze (salmon is VERY small, wild-caught portion...trying out my new cajun
              seasoning.  Kyle will be skipping the fish)
Saturday:  Red beans and Rice (no sausage), Cornbread

Lunches will be leftovers...it is too hot to cook, and i'm still easing into the "not sick anymore" phase :)

Engine 2 Recipe Video

This has probably been one of the most helpful books in our switch to a plant based diet.  This video is a good "intro" to some of the amazing foods that can be prepared!  It was also inspiring to watch as I meal plan for the week!

No Oil: Not Even Olive Oil!

My New Favorite Cookbook!

I got this on my iPad for $4.99 at Amazon, and was so excited to see SO MANY recipes that looked good and easy to make.  Some of the major downfalls that I have found with buying vegan cookbooks is A-they are vegan, but not always healthy (ie-lots of oils, meat substitutes, etc).  B-they call for crazy ingredients that I have never heard of..i'm new to this game! LOL and C-they take for-e-ver to prep/fix/cook.

This cookbook avoids all of those!  The recipes are all "low fat, whole food, plant based" ingredients, and the cover claims that the recipes can be "on the table in 30 minutes or less".  It also covers all aspects of cooking (breakfast, lunch, dinner, smoothies, dressings, salads, soups, etc)  I am so excited to meal plan for next week!  Stay tuned for recipes and pictures :)

Engine 2 Diet!

LOVE this book!!!  This clip from the Today Show is very helpful for anyone just starting out :)

What I'm Reading Now: Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease

I love seeing all the medical facts, rates, and percentages!  If you have seen Forks Over Knives, you are familiar with Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn (his son is Rip, who heads the Engine 2 Diet plan books and dvds) This is definitely a good book for those interested in stopping and reversing any heart damage.  While we DEFINITELY want to eat and prevents cancer/disease, heart health is kind of at the top of our list at the moment after our episode last summer!

What I'm Reading Now: Engine 2 Diet

Kyle and I are both reading this now...I am loving it!  It has a wealth of information, not just on the plant based diet, but fitness and overall health.  The first half of the book is the background information.  The rest is made up of (awesome) recipes!  If you are familiar with the documentary Forks Over Knives, you are familiar with Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and his approach to a cancer free, disease free way of living that is based on eating plants.  No meat, no dairy, little to no oil.  Rip Esselstyn is the son of the famous doctor, and shows you that real people can live a normal life and still eat "plant strong".

My sister in law, Pam, is also reading the book and embarking on this veggie filled journey with us.  Her blog, Honez Fam, has an EXCELLENT review of the book and some info to go along with it.  Feel free to check it out!  She wrote out everything I wanted to say, but didn't have time to think about! LOL

If you are vegan leaning and concerned about health, I would suggest this book.  I like how they don't claim to be "vegan" or "vegetarian".  Yes-they do avoid meat, dairy, and seafood, but don't replace it with many soy meat substitutes that are out there today.  It is a great read!  I am glad I added it to my collection.

A Little Science Lesson for You! :)

There is a reason I chose to teach Social Studies and not science.  I am clueless about it! LOL  But, over the last year, i've learned quite a bit about our bodies and what they need to run correctly.  Especially in terms of heart health.

Nitric Oxide is what the body uses to dilate the vessels of the body.  Dilated=open=blood can freely and quickly move around the body, doing all the things that blood is supposed to do.  Nitric oxide is created by the body naturally, using something called endothelial cells.

If your body cannot open it's vessels, blood flow isn't there, and that is where we experience the heart attacks and episodes.  No blood flow to the heart=death of heart tissue.  Studies suggest that meat/dairy play a huge part in the destruction and death of these cells.  A plant-based diet, on the other hand,  can help restore these cells!  I find this amazing...talk about foods that heal!

For Kyle, he spent about about 4 days in the hospital last summer with something called a "nitro-patch" on his chest.  Because his body doesn't create enough nitric oxide, his heart has the tendency to try to clamp shut and not dilate.  This is what caused the chest pain/angina last year. The patch contains a medicine version of nitric oxide.  You can also take it in pill form, as well as an "under the tongue" spray.  All 3 did the same thing=give him HORRIBLE headaches from the dilation of the vessels.  (As someone who has had to start/stop blood pressure medicine, it can be miserable to take any med that affects your blood vessels)

After being released from the hospital, we went to Walgreen's where we turned in the RX for two nitro meds (pill and spray).  Went home, where Kyle took the first one and was immediately hit with a headache from hell.  After one pill, he decided that this was not going to work.  There was no way he could function like that!  So-many hours of research and reading began, and we decided to try a "natural" method to increase his nitric oxide intake.  It turns out that grean, leafy vegetables are nature's own source of nitric oxide!  The fresh vegetables that we rarely ate could be the very thing that would keep his vessel's open, and blood flowing smoothly!

Now-we know how hard it is to get veggies in, much less fresh, raw veggies that are full of the nutrients that could help him.  That is where juicing came in for us.  Juicing is an easy way to get LOTS of veggies in, without having to eat pound after pound of produce.  And-because it is processed (kind of like your food being chewed up for you LOL), it can immediately get into your blood stream and go to work.  Of course, we are learning to eat and cook differently, and actually enjoy many of the foods we used to turn our noses up at.  (Kale, anyone?)  For us, it truly came to the point where we needed to "Eat to Live, not Live to Eat".

Part of our reading was finding foods that packed more punch in terms of heart health.  We had to read bits and pieces of different websites to find  out which foods were good, great, and best for us.  Today I began reading a website, and found this nice little chart!  Where was this thing one year ago?! LOL  I definitely will be referring back to it while we meal plan, so that I can make sure we are getting in foods high in the nitric oxide.

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