It's a Miracle

I saw this recipe on Zonya's Health Bites on my local PBS station. And I totally loved the idea behind eating a food that is considered a negative calorie food. Zonya's Miracle Soup is just that food. Then I made it and loved it even more. Although I have to say I didn't quite follow her recipe, but there ya have it.

Here's my version.
 
Vegetables:
2 onions, chopped
1 green pepper, 1 orange pepper and 1 red pepper, chopped
5-10 mushrooms, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
5 carrots, chopped
5 celery stalks, chopped
Any vegetables found in the refrigerator can be cut up and added to the pot.
Shred 1 head of cabbage.  

Liquids:
6 C Water or stock (vegetable or chicken)
4 C V-8 or Tomato Juice  

Prepared Food:
2 Cans of diced tomatoes or 1 can diced tomatoes and 1 jar of salsa
1 T coconut oil (or Olive oil)

 Seasonings:
couple of Bay Leaves
¼ c fresh parsley chopped
cracked pepper

First we want to gather our vegetables and cut them into pieces no bigger than 1 inch. Next we’ll want to heat 1 Tbs of olive oil, or coconut oil into a large pot. Then simply start adding your cut vegetables to the pot and stir so they don’t burn.. As the onions become translucent we will want to add the liquids and bring the heat up to medium high. Now you can add the cabbage, and canned tomatoes. Continue to stir and bring just to a boil. Add the herbs, and cover reducing heat to med-low, allowing the soup to simmer until vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes.

The final step is to salt to taste, but not too much, just before serving. I like to ladle soup into a mug and heat in the microwave for lunch and/or as a first course for dinner.

Additional: I also am inclined to add black beans to the soup for added protein.

10 Things We Can Do To Reduce Oil Consumption

This is a copy of a blog post at greenpeace.org expanded upon with my personal touches. Seemed a good topic to add since I've been away from my "daily" exercise so long. My editorial on this will be in red.

This entry comes by popular request. A lot of people have been asking what they can do to use less oil, and reduce demand for the sticky stuff ruining beaches everywhere. Here's my top ten, feel free to add to it in comments:

1. Carpool, cycle or use public transport to go to work.
If this is not possible for your situation, then you can always leave home a little earlier and park further away from your job. If you work 30 miles, then drive 29 miles and park, and walk the last mile to work. (Or whatever would suit your situation, some could walk 5 miles, some maybe only a few blocks because of safety issues, but even a little bit adds up)

2. Choose, when possible, products packaged without plastic and recycle or re-use containers.

Always keep a reusable bag(s) handy for shopping or if you are only getting 1 or 2 items, just say no to a bag. If you find you bought more than your reusable bag can hold, than donate it to your local thrift store.
If it has holes in it, or you needed to cut the handle off because the bagger tied it in a knot (I hate when they do that), then you can cut the bag into a sheet and iron 3 together to make a plastic fabric. I made my daughters Halloween bag using this method decorated with the individual candy bags she got from the school Halloween party. Not beautiful, I know, but it was made an hour before trick or treat time. You could make your own REUSABLE plastic bags to take to the store with you, that is more durable than the one's they hand out. One could make shower curtain liners, or bathroom window curtains, coasters, there are some wonderful creative "re-use" ideas out on the net. Here's a link to get your creative juices started: Plastic bag crafts. Just keep those things out of the landfill, please.

3. Buy organic fruits and vegetables (fertilisers and pesticides are based on oil more often than not). And always look local first. Produce that is imported from across the country and other parts of the world require a far greater amount of oil than those products grown in your community. Better yet, start your own backyard or patio or even a windowsill garden.

4. Buy beauty products (shampoo, soap, make-up) based on natural ingredients, not oil. Another tip from a reader on that blog recommends buying bar soaps instead of the plastic pump bottles. If you already have the plastic pump bottle, reuse it. Add soap ends and water to make your own, albeit, a bit chunky, liquid soap. There are a myriad of natural products that you can use to replace the chemical products on the market.

5. Choose when possible locally produced products (less transport involved).
Also instead of driving to find what you are looking for, consider using the internet first, then the telephone second to see if you can find it before you leave the house.

6. Buy clothes made out of organic cotton or hemp - not from oil derivatives.
Synthetic fibers are made from oil derivatives. That said, I buy most of our clothes from second hand stores and don't worry as much about the label, as the item already went through the market place, therefore you aren't creating a demand for the oil derivatives.

7. Use non-disposable items in picnics and summer festivals.

8. Quit bottled water. I know this is controversial, but you couldn't pay me to drink our local tap water. When I first moved here I was a tap drinker, even though it didn't taste very good. Within a month I started getting kidney cramps. I switched to bottled water and no more kidney pain. If you are like me and your local water is unbearable, then at least buy from the largest carton available and use your own individual, reusable container, instead of buying the 1 time only drink bottles. Some stores will allow you to refill containers which is another means of saving.

This can be said of anything you buy that comes in plastic. Buy the largest laundry detergent, dish soap, syrup, etc, etc. If you prefer to have your smaller bottle save it, and refill it from the larger bottles. Or look for glass containers to hold your supplies.

Tunist made a good point about using a water filter instead of buying bottled water. I suppose it's high time I check that out.

9. Fly less. (Sorry blog author, but I could have come up with something better than that as a #9, as have many of those who've posted in the comments section...yes flying less is good, but many of us don't fly at all so....) I think I would add drive less. Make sure when you need to go out, take care of several tasks at once. Do your grocery shopping weekly instead of daily. See if you can find a friend or two to come along, too. This will save 1 or 2 cars less on the road for a shopping trip. Here are a few from the comment section:
From Bongodog: “Don't use styrofoam, bubblegum, or ballpoint pens! 
Download MP3s instead of buying plastic-packed CDs 
REFILL your plastic dispensers instead of replacing them. 
Lose the hair gel. 
Use KY Jelly instead of Vaseline!
From tangent: As regards plastic dispensers - it would be better to buy bars of organic soap instead that only use paper packaging and don't contain oil derived substances.”

10. Demand that your government encourage renewable energy instead of subsidizing oil. No beating this idea. We must make ourselves heard that this is non negotiable .

US Energy Information Administration - Independent Statistics and Analysis
The United States is 3rd amongst the world producers of oil. And yet we import twice as much as is produced by the top oil producing country. No other country even makes a close second.

1. U.S. consumes 19.498K barrels of oil a day
2. China consumes 7,381K barrels of oil a day
3. Japan consumes 4,785K barrels of oil a day

1. U.S. imports 10,984K barrels a day.
2. Japan imports 4,652K barrels a day.
3. China imports 3,858K barrels a day.

Over 6,000 products are made with petroleum byproducts. Here's a list of just 144 of the kinds of  things that use them.
Partial list of Petroleum based products

Best Foods pt 2

The second food item listed in Best Foods we're not eating is: 

Cabbage: Loaded with nutrients like sulforaphane, a chemical said to boost cancer-fighting enzymes.
How to eat: Asian-style slaw or as a crunchy topping on burgers and sandwiches.

 Well this one is an easy one for me, as I have cabbage in the frig throughout most of the year. I use cabbage to make egg rolls, or Chinese salad, or boiled, or baked and microwaved. I'm not a big coleslaw fan, but cooked, I love cabbage. However, that said, I do like Chinese salad which is raw cabbage, so I guess I'm not the figurehead of consistency.

Chinese Salad
shredded cabbage
thinly sliced onion
shredded carrot
cooked chicken, cubed (or turkey, or tofu)
1 pkg of raman noodle soup
soy sauce
sesame oil (or olive oil)
rice wine vinegar
chopped garlic (opt)
toasted sesame seeds
green onion chopped

In a small bowl combine oil, vinegar, garlic and spice packet from raman soup. I like to soak the meat in soy sauce or you can also add part of oil/vinegar to marinade the meat. Mix all the veggies, and pour the oil/vinegar/spice over the salad and toss liberally. (If you have the time, allow these to marinade together for a couple hours in the frig) Add the meat, and crunched up dry raman noodles and toss again and sprinkle the top with sesame seeds and green onion.

I didn't add measurements because, frankly, I don't know them. I tend to cook without measuring. I made this last night to see what measurements I used and blast if I didn't forget to measure again. So I'm afraid in that regard you're on your own. Sorry about that.

I also like cabbage steamed (or cooked in the microwave) with onions and carrots with some butter melted on top. I tend to use onions and carrots with most things I make with cabbage. This same combination is what I use for egg rolls. I stir fry the cabbage, onions and carrots (sometimes I add other veggies or leftover meat) and when tender I put in a bowl with 1 beaten egg. Then I put a tablespoon or so in a wonton wrapper, roll up and fry for egg rolls. I use the leftover egg roll fixings to rice in a fry pan to make stir fried rice (add soy sauce and turmeric). For the stir fried rice I like the steam in bag rice with peas and carrots in it....makes for a quick meal.

Best Foods pt 1

Todays entry was inspired from the article 11 best foods you aren't eating

According to this article Beets are one of the best foods we aren't eating.

Beets: Think of beets as red spinach, Dr. Bowden said, because they are a rich source of folate as well as natural red pigments that may be cancer fighters.
How to eat: Fresh, raw and grated to make a salad. Heating decreases the antioxidant power.

So I figured today I'd post some things to do with beets to expand on the "how to eat" section.

My favorite way to use beets is to puree the beets and add to chocolate cake as a replacement for some of the oil, egg and water. You can cut 1 egg from the box ingredients and half the oil using pureed beet in it's place.

And this one from Living Foods sounds so good to me, but I've not yet tried it. I'll share it anyway.

Souper Beet Soup

by Paul Benhaim
1 beetroot
1 carrot
1 tomato
2 cups of water
3 strawberries (optional)
1 small spring onion (optional)
Blend all in your mixer. If required, add water to desired consistency.
Swirl in a generous helping of Macadamia crème.

Macadmia Crème

15 raw macadamia nuts
1 tsp hemp oil
1 orange, juiced
3 fresh pitted dates
Blend and serve.

More:
A few entries from Chowhound
Beet recipes for a hater
And
Beet recipes other than roasted or in a salad