Day 3 of the Quest

The funny thing about having a food blog is that you can get caught up in the whole photo aspect of it. I am a writer, not a photographer, and I think it shows! I'll get better as I go along - I hope!

Nevertheless, I had a very fine and successful day with The Food Plan today. For breakfast I made a batch of these very carbo-licious scones. They are made of Oatmeal and Rye Flour. The oatmeal form the recipe called for was Oat Flour. Of course I didn't have any, so I had to MAKE SOME. Of course the instructions said that the oatmeal could be pulsed in a blender. I found the blender lid, and base, but not the pitcher.

So, dear readers, I opted for the next best thing, a coffee grinder. A small coffee grinder that is used to grind our Baguio coffee beans. I wiped it out with a paper towel and proceeded to mill the oats.

I topped them with the coco sugar/ginger tea mix I brought back from the Philippines. Just a little bit of sweetness.

They were very good, and very good for me too. I felt virtuous, creative, and healthy. Plus the carbs made me feel like all was well in the world.

I made these black beans:

They cooked for a VERY LONG time in the crock pot. Because I am a lazy person, or I love shortcuts and easy things - I didn't want to put the black beans in the fridge. Dear readers, I have six children. The fridge is always overflowing! I cook too much. I love to FILL the crock pot, which is the biggest one on the market. So when I was done being abundant, I had no room to put the crock pot. No problem. Cooked it all night long on the lowest setting.

As you can see, the beans didn't turn to mush and this is a very, very good recipe. I will post it tomorrow.

Last of all, I made these terrific onion rings. They were cooked with the tiniest bit of oil in a very hot oven.

I got the recipe from this book:

Which, by the way, I ordered just yesterday morning from Amazon. It arrived today, so of course I had to cook from it.

Unfortunately, I am not a very organized cook. I am good at buying ingredients. There is always a moment when you make the transition from the intellectual world to the real world that the Fallen World creeps in. Things get stuck, things get messy, things are LOST. Believe me, dear reader, when I say these onion rings are a triumph. Those of you who are my close friends and family and who know how my universe runs..be proud of me.

These were excellent with ketchup.

And my blood sugar was normal this morning.

I found the lost bananas. I bought two large bunches of green bananas about ten days ago. Then I promptly forgot about them and bought more bananas yesterday. But a faint glimmer of memory worked its way out from the back of my mind and I found them in the quaint wooden cabinet that we use to store Japanese noodles and things like that.

They were, as the song goes, "Flecked with brown and had a golden hue".

Tomorrow we will make Banana Bread Extraordinaire

Sunny days and sweet dreams to all.

Short backstory

Back in 2005, after years of unplanned eating and cavalier coping with stress, I had a stroke. It was a small cerebral hemorrhage above above my right eyebrow. I was airlifted to a major hospital and into the testing fray I went! Sedated and on a ventilator, the next bad obvious thing happened, I got a lung infection. I almost died. After the hospital, rather overwhelmed, I sought my own answers to my official diagnoses, diabetes and hypertension.

The stroke took away scads of foolish knowledge and people I wasn't attached to. I was lucky. A bleed in another part of the brain could have left me deprived of speech or motion.

Back at home after two and a half weeks of ICU and sedation, I felt as though I had been in a truck accident. Depression and fear where knocking at the door, and I leaned against it and took action, which is my usual method for coping with impossible situations. Soon after, I embraced low fat vegan eating according to the work of Dr. Neal Barnard, Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Dean Ornish, and Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Look up any of these doctors and jump in, if you have similar concerns.

My blood sugar responded well. They were normal. I was exercising every day.

Then, gradually, I fell off the food plan.

The weight I lost came back. The blood sugars went up. It is now 2012. A few short weeks ago, I returned to the Philippines, the land of my mother and my childhood for three glorious weeks. Diabetes is more common amongst my friends and family than I thought. Back at home, the message that reverberates is that diabetes is a ravaging disease that harms in silence.

Yesterday I returned to the low fat vegan eating model. My main motivation is life itself. It is so much fun to be alive. I have so many things to do. So many places I want to see. I enjoy my family so much.

What better motivation could there be?

Yesterday I made a batch of split pea soup and a pot of brown rice.

Had it for lunch and dinner.

I didn't miss the ham, sherry or cream.

Recipe for Split Pea Soup

2 cups dried split peas
1 chopped onion
2 chopped carrots
10 grape tomatoes (optional)
1 tsp. of vegetarian boullion
salt and pepper to taste
Water

Put everything in a heavy pot. Cover with water, about three inches over the ingredients. Bring to a boil, turn down to simmer. Simmer until the peas are soft. (About 30 minutes). I added the grape tomatoes because they were in the fridge.