Day Two of the Rest of My Life!

After this morning's heart burn induced early rising, I decided to alkalize my body right off the bat. For breakfast I had a stirfry of olive oil, broccoli, chopped rapini, baby spinach and almonds. Interestingly, the heartburn has been completely gone ever since!

For lunch I had two bowls of my All-Vegetable Soup (recipe below) (makes about 6 servings):

1tbsp olive oil
1 chopped onion
2 cups tomato juice
2 cups water (or more as needed)
1 sliced carrot
1 cup each of frozen green beans, frozen peas and frozen corn
1 can sliced beets
2 garlic cloves
1 cup canned beans (any kind)
1 cup left over cooked quinoa or other grain
1 tbsp McCormick cajun seasoning
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp celery salt
lots of fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

This soup turned out wonderfully - I love cinnamon in savory foods - it really helps
to add richness to the broth.

For a snack I had a couple of handfuls of hemp granola (I bought it at the bulk food store
and it tastes great and thankfully is not high in calories and fat like most granola - only 140
calories in 1/2 cup.

For dinner I made gluten free vegan pad thai (for two):

2 cups cooked brown rice fetuccini or other long brown rice pasta
(if you want to avoid the gluten) The timing on cooking this type of pasta is tricky
if it is not cooked it is really tough, but over cooking it makes it slimy fast.

2tbsp olive oil
6 oz (150 grams) firm tofu, cut into thin strips and pre stir fryed in olive oil, then set aside

Stir fry these ingredients together in the remaining olive oil in the order set out below:
1 sliced carrot
1 cup frozen green beans
1 cup snow peas with the ends removed
2 green onions washed and sliced
2 garlic cloves chopped
1 can baby carrots, drained

Toss vegetables, tofu and noodles together with:
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/8 tsp of red chili paste
few dashes of fish sauce
1 stevia packet

Garnish with lots of finely chopped peanuts


I also gave a try to a tofu pumpkin pie (see recipe for filling
and crust at http://www.phmiracleliving.com/)

The pie was pretty good - the spice measurements that they give are not quite right,
next time I would either cut the nutmeg and cloves in half or use pumpkin pie spice -
as one of these spices was giving a bitterness to the pie. The crust is great! (Although
we don't have access to coconut butter, as listed in the recipe - so I used canola oil). I actually
was able to find all of the necessary ingredients at the Bulk Food Store - so I was really
happy about that.

I also made an ad hoc topping of coconut milk, banana, vanilla extract and 2 stevia packets in the blender mixed with 3tbsp of psyllium - the topping was very runny and ran right over - so I stuck the whole thing in the freezer and we had it as a frozen dessert. Next time I should look up the actual topping recipe that they recommend.

It is really not too bad and I can think of some fun things to do with the elements of this recipe (ie. coconut cream pie, banana cream pie, strawberry pie, add a little cocoa powder or raisins to the crust recipe and make little cookies, etc.)

Other than that I had to bring the car in for an oil change and it turned out to be a whole day work-over, so I walked to and from home (about a 40 minute walk in the very cold wind.)

I also had a real discussion with my husband about whether or not he would like to join me in this adventure - and he wasn't too happy about it (for the most part I have been cooking 2 meals every night ). What I asked him to do was to give me 5 days to change his diet and see
how he likes it (really how his body feels). He said he was willing to have whatever suppers I make, but he will not under any circumstance give up his coffee in the morning (he has a super cup that holds about 6 cups of coffee that he takes with lots of cream and sugar - I just recently got him down to using 2 percent milk in his coffee), but the main thing is that I really have an all-or nothing approach to this diet (you can either take all necessary steps to fix your cells, or you don't) . SOOOOOO his cells will be forever floating in acid and die young. What else can I do? Actually, interestingly, when we were at home last when dad gave me the cds - we did a PH strip test - mine was about 7 -7.5 (and that was on my old diet). My husband's was more white than the lightest yellow indicator (indicating his body is just full of acid at unhealthy levels)!
I think this is why he has very acidic breath all the time, even if he just brushed his teeth, why he has only about 1/4 of his teeth left in his mouth, and also why he is prone to be irritable/angry for no reason. I think it is very interesting and I would love to see what would happen if he were to get off all the junk entirely.

Now I am going to do some surfing around to see if I can't find any more good recipe ideas.
The one thing that I really love about this way of eating is that it feels like Eden - you really
feel like you are feasting on the best the earth has to offer. It is also great to know that with all the feasting you are still not taking in the kinds of calories you would in any other way of eating.
I also do not crave any bad foods at night time like I always used to.

One final thing that I have to mention is that in becoming a vegan - I have this sense that I am finally LIVING what I believe. I have always been an animal lover and a nature lover - loved the garden and vegetables. In particular, I have always admired our female ancestors for their
ability to use herbs to improve health, and I generally have a Mother Earth approach to spirituality - so this way of eating really has brought my physical self into harmony with my spiritual self.