Recipe: Black bean Mexican "Sloup"

Have you ever set out to make dinner with a grand master plan?  Alright.  Tonight, I am going to make a black bean and corn soup with some potato and spinach balls.  Fast forward several hours later, post visit to the park on this beautiful spring-like winter day, when I realized, "oh crap!  It's 5pm!"

Don't you just love it?  There is nothing you can do, you can't turn the clock back, you just have to suck it up and throw dinner together.

I promised L last night, that I would make soup for dinner.  He really is a soup nut.  Instead, I opted for a quicker spaghetti frittata.  It was super quick, boil pasta, mix in canned pumpkin puree, basil, oregano, garlic powder and Parmesan cheese (okay, its not vegan, but it needed the cheese), then throw it under the broiler after the bottom browns on the stove.  Quick and easy.  Everyone loved it.  But, L was bummed it wasn't soup.

Tonight, the plan was a Mexican inspired black bean and corn soup.  In my rush though, I forgot to cook my sprouted black beans, so after quite the length of time, boiling them with the veggies, I realized I had made a mistake.  What to do now?  I considered picking out all of the beans, so I could microwave them, thinking that might do the trick.  I considered letting everyone eat them raw, sucking it up.

I decided to finally use my immersion blender to puree the beans, carrots, celery, tomatoes, onions, bell pepper, tomatoes and green chilies to make the beans smaller.  That helped them cook a whole lot quicker.  Now, though, I had this mush, instead of soup.  I added some cumin, about 1/3 a bag of frozen spinach (just because I had it), and 1/3 of a bag of frozen corn.  Now, it really looked like mush.

Oh, and a great benefit to blending the soup?  The kids didn't complain that there were red peppers or tomatoes in there soup.  We always get those complaints/cries.  Today, it was just the mushy appearance of it.

L was destroyed because I said it was going to be soup and it didn't look like it at all.  We topped it with cilantro, avocado and lime juice.  And, when the kids finally agreed to try it, they loved it!  Score!  P even thought it was good.

In the end, it was a successful last minute meal.  I'm calling it Black Bean Mexican Sloup because instead of looking like soup, it looked like slop.  Good thing it tasted better.  And, L decided that he is no longer going to look at his food before he tries it, instead, he's going to close his eyes and take a bite to determine if its worthy of his belly.  Goodness!  Love that boy!

Recipe for Black Bean Mexican Sloup  (you may want to serve this over rice)
Ingredients: 
2 cups of sprouted black beans, cooked
2 carrots, sliced thin
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 boxes of stock
1 Tbsp. cumin
1 can diced tomatoes, the regular size
1 small can of diced green chilies
1 1/2 cups chopped spinach
1 1/2 cups organic corn (do me a favor and use organic when it comes to corn and eat it as God intended.  It really is so much better!)
Garnish with: fresh cilantro, avocado, lime wedges, sour cream and cheese (if not vegan)

Directions:
1. Throw all items into a pot, up to the green chilies.  Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer until veggies are soft.
2. Use immersion blender to puree.
3. Add frozen spinach and corn.  Bring back to boil and cook until warm.
4. Serve with several garnish options.

Making our food more Digestible

Ever heard that eating healthy is expensive?  IT IS!  Holy hannah!  In an effort to save money, I started looking into beans.  Not only are they inexpensive dry, but they are a great substitute for meat.

PROBLEM!  Sorry, but I have to say it.  Beans make our home one stinky place.  Oh. My. Goodness.  I'm sure I don't need to elaborate any further.

Briefly, our bodies have a hard time breaking beans down.  They get stuck in our intestines where they begin to ferment, causing a build up of gas which we release.  Not good.

One way to combat this is to sprout your beans.  Essentially, you allow the bean to sprout, to grow another bean before you eat it.  For more information, click here.  Basically, you soak the item over night, then you rinse and keep damp for the next 1-3 days, rinsing once every 12 hours, until the little sprouts form.  Its pretty easy.  To date, I've sprouted brown rice, chickpeas, black beans, oats and lentils (I think).

Do they taste different?  I'd be lying if I said no, but not too noticeable.  Does it help with the fermentation?  Yes.  Yes, it does.  I defiantly have noticed when I've eaten canned beans, as opposed to sprouted beans.

When I was reading about sprouting, I also read that you should soak your nuts, too.  Okay, are you done giggling? hee hee.  Get your mind out of the gutter.  The other day, I decided to do just that and soaked our raw almonds over night.  After soaking, I dehydrated them in our oven.  Yum!  These tasted so much better than unsoaked almonds.  The flavor was more developed and they weren't as mushy, if you could describe a nut that way.  Okay, I think I should just call this topic done.  Eek! hahaha


I'm interested in whether or not anyone else sprouts/soaks their foods to improve digestibility.  Does it work for your family?

Vegan Experimentation ~ Fighting Fatty McFatFat

Obesity is a problem in our country.  We hear it all the time.  The solution?  Get moving.  Yep.  That's it.  Congress, the schools and the 1st Lady all tell us that we need to exercise each day.  I've done it.  I've done it and felt great.  I've loved it.  But, I've learned a lot.  The most important thing:  It doesn't really help you lose weight if you are still eating crap. 

That's right!  Weight loss is more what and how much you eat than your workout ethic. I exercised for 5 months and dropped 2 pounds.  That's it.  

This time around, I've decided to focus on our food first, partly because I know it works and mostly because I'm a little bit lazy right now.  In the last 3-4 weeks, I have lost 6 1/2 pounds.  That's not tons, but I'm trying to lose weight responsibly, since I am still breastfeeding.  Also, I've been kind of lazy and had a few fat girl days where I've enjoyed way too many of the sweets.  

Here are a couple of great recipes that P, the kids and I have tried and really enjoyed.  These are all easy things that you would probably have in your house any given week.

Vegan French Toast (adapted from the Engine 2 Diet)

Ingredients: Banana (mashed), Cinnamon, Vanilla, Almond Milk, Whole Wheat Bread

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a pie plan, dip bread in the mixture, cook on griddle pan.

Vegan Lemon Blueberry French Toast

add the zest and juice of a lemon and a handful of mashed blueberries to the above recipe

Veggie Latkes

Ingredients: 1/2 head of small cabbage, 2 carrots, 2 scallions, 2 potatoes, ground flax seed, water, flour, garlic powder, ground hot red pepper, salt, pepper

Directions: Mix 3 Tbsp. ground flax seed and 9 Tbsp water.  Set aside until it gels.  In the food processor, shred the cabbage, potatoes and carrots.  Drain as much water from them as possible.   Season with spices and add diced scallions, flax goop and approx. 5 Tbsp of flour.  The flour is kind of there to suck up the water and the flax seed acts as an egg to help keep them together.  Put mounds in a hot skillet, cover and cook on both sides for about 8 minutes total.

Variation: I added some left over mashed sweet potato and it was delicious!  

Serve with an Asian flavored sauce (soy, rice vinegar and ginger) or even just ketchup.

P's Stir Fry

Ingredients: 2 packages of Shirataki Tofu noodles, cabbage (bok choy is a yummy choice), mushrooms, carrots, red bell peppers, edamame, scallions, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, rice vinegar

Directions: Cook all veggies until desired softness, add rinsed noodles, 1 part soy sauce, 2 parts vinegar, and freshly grated ginger (to taste). 

Sprouted Hummus

Ingredients: 2 cups of cooked sprouted chickpeas, 1/4 cup tahini, juice of 1 lemon, 1 roasted red pepper, 1 big bulb roasted garlic, 1 small onion (caramelized), salt to taste

Directions: Throw all ingredients in a food processor and process until desired texture

Veggie Panini

Ingredients: whole wheat bread, spinach, tomatoes, spicy mustard, salad blend (I like the herb blend from Olivia's Organics), hummus, marinated artichokes

Directions: Spread generous amount of hummus on both slices of bread, pile the veggies high in between the 2 slices, put on a griddle pan and put something really heavy on top of the sandwich and cook for 3 minutes on each side.  Dip in mustard, if desired.

Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients: Frozen bananas, dark chocolate chips (if you are having a craving)

Directions: Place ingredient(s) in blender and blend until smooth.  Enjoy!

Homemade Pizza

Ingredients: Homemade pizza dough, tomato sauce (seasoned with basil, oregano, garlic, onion) or coconut curry sauce, spinach, artichokes, black olives, garlic, any other veggies of choice, cheese (if desired)

Directions: Top the pizza dough with a generous helping of sauce, especially if you aren't using cheese, add veggies and bake according to the pizza dough instructions.

We've had a lot of trials with this whole vegetarian/vegan/plant strong diet that we've been working on. Some foods have been harder to give up than others, like hot dogs for P and the kids, and cheese.  Cheese and milk. I've been more successful than the rest of the family, but probably because my true struggle is sweets...chocolate and sugar, in general.  I've never been huge on meat, and the cheese/milk urge has pretty much been decreased immensely by the documentary, Forks Over Knives.  

P has been doing really well, but admits that he doesn't think he'll ever be able to give up milk.  That's understandable, he's been drinking milk in his tea since he was a wee lad in jolly ol' England.  hee hee

I'm looking forward to trying some more veggie dishes, continued weight loss and some increased success and motivation on the exercise front.  Stay tuned!

Playing Catch Up

Its been quite a few days since I last tracked both my and my kids' progress with our new little life changes, so I thought why not just do one quick entry and catch everyone up, as well as keep myself honest.


Q: On Friday night, the 5th night after starting the cry it out method, Q slept through the night for the 1st time in a long, long time.  I didn't sleep through the night, but she did, and well, that's all that matters.  Saturday, we all slept through the night.  Ah-mazing!  I felt so refreshed on Sunday morning.  Let's just say that I am so happy that I finally decided to do this.  Its something this mama (and daddy) really needed.

L: The eye patch has no longer become a fight.  Instead, L seems to be doing really well, reminding me that its time for him to get his patch.  I normally don't hear the can I take this off question until at least 3 hours into it.  The only problem lately is that his eyelashes seem to start to bother his patched eye.  I'm hoping that we can figure out a way to avoid this in the future, but our efforts so far have been for naught.

Fighting Fatty McFat Fat: Friday through Sunday were not too good for me with the diet and exercise.  Not good.  P left tons of junk food (potato chips and crackers) and I had leftover baking goods (marshmallows, cake mix, chocolate chips) that for some reason were just calling my name.  I swear, they were literally calling my name as I walked by the pantry.  Eat me!  Eat me! Come on, you know you want to have just a little bit.  Look, I'm not bullet proof.  I'm just human, and I gave in! I gave in hard.  Tsk! Tsk!

Regardless, I did lose 1 1/2 pounds. Okay.  That's not great, but its not bad either.  I mean, really, its healthy to lose 2 pounds a week, and with nursing, I don't want to be too ridiculous.  Okay, I'm not thrilled by the number, but every little pound counts.

What went wrong the last few days?  P was out of town, so I didn't have to make dinner.  The kids are perfectly happy with sandwiches and cereal. I also had a dinner party to attend.  The problem was that I was then really tired towards the end of the day, each day, getting more and more exhausted and therefore, more and more lazy.

This week, I'm going to be more focused.  Even though P will be out of town 2 nights, I will make sure that I make dinner.  I have 3 dinners in the freezer that will be easy enough to pull out and defrost.  I also have some great dinner ideas tagged on my pinterest boards and I've learned a lot this weekend about how to more easily eat a whole food, plant based diet, including a great resource on the Engine 2 Diet website.  P and I are hoping to really make this a lifestyle change that will stick.

Progress Crying

Q has cried it out 3 nights in a row at this point. The 2nd night went so much better than the first, with crying during only 2 one hour stints. All of the other kids slept right through it, me, on the other hand, not so much.  When she woke up in the 6 o'clock hour, I got up and fed her. She was such a smiley girl, but very hoarse, sadly.

The third night,  I had even more resolve because I could see that it was working. The problem was that I had to go out, so my mom fed her formula and then put her down. I wasn't sure how to proceed when I got home at 10, but ultimately decided to wake and feed her.  She got up once, but this time,  she woke up her big siblings. J was crying , so I told her to come to bed with me.  Then, l woke up, "Mom, Q is crying and woke me up. I can't sleep with her crying!" After sending him back to bed, she cried a little longer and then fell to sleep.  She didn't get up until 6:30. Yay!

Its working! Hoping tonight comes with even less crying.

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Cry it out...both of you

Q had her 6 month well appointment yesterday.  She's a healthy 16.2 pound baby, 25 3/4 inches long.  We thought she was a little chub, but apparently, she's in the 44th %tile for weight, 40th for height and 65th for brain growth (of course she's a genius, look who her mom is).  Everything was going swimmingly well until the dreaded question, "How's she sleeping?"

Uh...How does one answer that?  Um...she goes to bed around 8:30/9, and then she's up at midnight, 1, 2:30, 3:15, 4, 5:30, 6:30 and 8 am.  "Not good.  She used to sleep 9 hours at a time, but now she's up several times a night," I responded.

Now, her doctor is great.  Really. But, I knew it was coming.  "Well, you can keep getting up with her every night until she's a cranky 2 year old, or you can all start getting a good night's sleep now."

His recommendation?  Let her cry it out.  Nevermind that J and C are in the room with her because they'll figure it out.  In a week, they'll all be sleeping through the night.  Well, its now or never, right?  I mean, she just cut her first tooth 2 days ago, so that's done, and her ear infection is cleared up.  No more excuses.

Last night, P put her to bed around 9.  Around 12, C woke up with croup and joined us in our room so that she could have a nebulizer (I know that's spelled incorrectly, but I'm tired, so I'll deal with it) treatment.  12:15...cue Q.  There was no point bringing her into our bed to get sick from C, so we let her go.  And go she did.  She cried all night long.  Okay, perhaps she stopped for little cat naps and from about 4-6:30, but my little angel cried so long.

P got so frustrated that he went to bed in L's room and shut the door.  I laid in my bed, next to a noisy, sleeping C and cried.  I cried because I knew it was okay to let her cry.  She's in a safe place. I cried because I knew that I could comfort her, just by picking her up.  All of her sadness would disappear if I just went in and got my baby and fed her.  I cried because this is my last baby...ever.  Why can't I just savor the moments of complete baby-ness?!

But, the doctor is right.  I am miserable during the day because I am so beat.  I am having a hard time losing weight because I am so tired.  I lack patience.  I lack understanding.  I pretty much lack my niceness because I can't focus on not snapping.  I can't even carry on a real conversation with others because I can only focus on myself and what's going on with me.  I'm too tired to focus on anyone else.  This is how I feel.

Day 1 of cry it out is done.  When P got her from her crib this morning, I was in the shower.  When she saw me, no big smile, just sadness.  Broke my heart.  Regardless, I am definitely going to do it again tonight because, well, let's face it, if I don't then I just tortured my baby last night for no reason.  I'm hoping that this will all be resolved and I'll have my 9-hour-a-night girl back in no time.

Veggie and Chickpea Curry

Yes, yes, yes!  I used my sprouted chickpeas and they didn't taste any different from the others, except that they didn't taste a strong.  I made a veggie and chickpea curry with it.

If you want to give it a try, here's what I threw into the crockpot on high for 6 hours:

1 onion
1 cup of frozen french cut green beans
3 Tbsp curry powder
2 Tbsp cumin
4 chopped cloves of garlic
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
3 cups chickpeas
2 carrots, sliced
1 chopped red pepper
1 (14 oz) can of veggie broth
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp brown sugar

A couple of minutes before serving, I threw in 3 handfuls of spinach and 1 can of coconut milk.

This was so good!  The original recipe called for no cumin and only 1 Tbsp of curry powder, but believe me, it needed more.

I even threw a ladle of the curry into the food processor so that Q could have some.  And guess what, she liked it!  Yay! The other kids though, they whined and whined and whined about having to eat it.  Ugh!  C was going to eat hers until she noticed the other 2 refusing, then she joined in on it.  Eventually, L decided to try it and then ate the whole bowl.  I had to throw J and C's in the food processor like Q' s to get them to eat it.  It was frustrating, but they ate it, so I was thrilled.

Give it a try!