Food School: a 31 Day Course (day 19 Vegan Soup)

Accidentally Vegan Soup

I love Rick Bayless, of Frontera Grill.  When we lived near Chicago 18 years ago we went to his restaurant and I fell in love with the food.  Then Mexico:  One Plate at a time was aired on PBS, again . . . I just could not watch enough and try enough recipes . . . bought the books!  You get the idea.

Frontera has a White Bean Chili Starter that I buy by the case (to get the discount ;-) and we have soup at least once a week during the winter.  I’ve written about these meals here and here.  I wondered, was it vegan?  I read the label but as we know from other posts (here) that labels are not exactly honest information.  So I called the customer service number.  

Rick answered the phone–well, his voice was on the other end and I just about had a heart attack!  I was going to ask Rick Bayless about his jar of soup starter.  Then I realized it was an answering machine directing where my call should go!  I laughed long, loud and hard.  

So–for my friends–do not call me pretending to be Rick Bayless–and Rick if you call, I probably won’t believe it is you!  But you are more than welcome to drive north and cook with the kids and I!  

This is my second video of this dinner.  The first video was cut in half and you didn’t hear my story of me thinking I was talking to Rick Bayless!  This video includes the story and I was able to (pretty much) control my laughing at myself.  I’ll be honest–I crack myself up.  So many funny things happen in life–we all need to laugh at ourselves.

 And yes I am holding my phone while I’m cooking with one hand!  I made this video in just over 7 minutes–cooking one-handed–with all the veggies prepped.  So I would say that if you make this recipe, using two hands you could have it done in 10 minutes.  This is a great crockpot dinner!

For my meat-eating friends–I have used chicken thighs–they hold up to the crock pot cooking and offer a wonderful flavor contrast to the soup.  Even when I ate chicken–I didn’t like white meat in my soups.

Any questions?  Do you eat soup more in the winter?  or do you not eat soup at all?  

Be Blessed.

 To receive a free copy of my Blessed by Breakfast cookbook, please go to http://blessedbybreakfast.com and sign up! I send updates that include; family tested and approved recipes, video tutorials, tips and tricks on how to begin your day with the blessing of food.

cookbook coming soon

Books I suggest: The Omnivore’s Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat,

Young Readers Edition The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet

Some of my friends have also joined the 31 day challenge:  

Anastacia Maness  http://rocksolidfamily.com/31-days-building-commitment/

Racquel Narciso http://howtomakeitinsanfrancisco.com/…/

Pamela Hodges http://ipaintiwrite.com

I’m linking up to these blogs

 

Food School: a 31 day course (day 17) What is Vegan?

What is Vegan?

This was a question that I had via Facebook!  Thanks for your question Anastacia.

I’m not exactly a vegan.  I’m an Accidental Vegan by way of being compassionate and I have kids with food sensitivities and one kid who refuses to eat a “dead animal”, so I have her chose different words while showing respect for her choice.

This is my back story.  One morning I woke up and the world looked different.  My husband was more handsome than ever, my kids were funnier than ever, the grass had shades of green that I had never noticed before!  Was I crazy?  Menopausal?  or did I merely wake up to my calling in life?  To really see life for what it is, an amazing journey,  while standing in my own truth.  Whatever you call it . . . her I am!  An Accidental Vegan.

After that morning, I began listening to how my body felt when I ate certain foods.  I realized that coffee with half and half was not serving me well!  I noticed that when I ate salads with homemade dressings–I felt lighter and more open.  It was difficult to not drink coffee.  After all, that IS what I do in the morning.  I needed to get past the grip of habit.

I have been a bigger woman for longer than I would like . . . for 13 years now.  One day, I woke up so happy to finally be pregnant!  It was so incredible to know that months and months of trying everything–finally, I was at the perfect season of my life–motherhood!  But my first go around with motherhood only lasted 14 weeks.  I was . . . devastated.  Now, years after we started trying . . . we were starting over.  

Good news, bad news:  My second pregnancy was successful.  I decided at that moment, if I had to lose a baby to get one I would.  But I NEVER thought that I would actually lose another baby!  My third pregnancy ended at 16 weeks.  Food was now my friend, counselor, therapist, ob-gyn, and mom!  You see–I found out that I was pregnant for #3 the morning of my mom’s funeral.  I lost two babies and my Mom in less than two years–that’s a lot of emotion, heartache, joy, sorrow, self-doubt the list goes on and on.  

Why do I mention these tragedies as part of “what is vegan?”  I think that our life stories create the person we are going to become.  I know that if I did not have those experiences that I would NOT be mindful and intentional.  So I urge you to look upon your life with compassion and see if it leads you in a direction . . . invite your own transformation.  I’m living a compassionate life, for me that means not eating meat–will it always be like this?  I don’t know.  I know that I will chose compassion but I don’t know what that will look like on my plate.

Back to the top:  What is a Vegan?

Vegan:  a person who does not eat animals or use animal products.  A vegan diet is different from a vegan lifestyle, that does not use any animal derived products or products that harm animals.

Pescatarian:  does not eat meat but does eat fish.

Semi-vegetarian:  eats mostly vegetarian diet but will eat meat on occasion.

Lacto-ovo vegetarian:  do not eat the flesh of animals but will eat eggs and dairy.

Ovo-vegetarian:  do not eat the flesh of animals but do eat eggs.

Raw vegan or a Raw foods diet:  consist of unprocessed vegan foods that have not beeen heated above 115 degrees.

If all of that isn’t confusing enough we have the Atkins diet, Paleo Diet, Mediterranean  Diet . . . 

I eat a mostly an organic plant-based diet because it makes me feel good.  This is what I DON’T EAT:

  • dairy–milk just makes me feel really ill–I’ll spare you the details!
  • eggs–they just don’t taste good to me any more.  
  • HFCS–high fructose corn syrup–because it is made with genetically modified corn
  • GMO containing foods.  I just don’t want to eat genetically modified food.
  • meat–I don’t “knowingly” eat the flesh of any animal.  I just don’t want to harm any living thing.  
  • food that is harvested by exploiting humans. 
  • food that is harvested by exploiting the earth.

That morning when I woke up and life looked different.  I had no idea the direction that I would be moving into.  I had no idea what it was like to finally stand in my truth.  I had no idea how much I would love my life.

 

Be Blessed.

 To receive a free copy of my Blessed by Breakfast cookbook, please go to http://blessedbybreakfast.com and sign up! I send updates that include; family tested and approved recipes, video tutorials, tips and tricks on how to begin your day with the blessing of food.

cookbook coming soon

Books I suggest: The Omnivore’s Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat,

Young Readers Edition The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet

Some of my friends have also joined the 31 day challenge:  

Anastacia Maness  http://rocksolidfamily.com/31-days-building-commitment/

Racquel Narciso http://howtomakeitinsanfrancisco.com/…/

Pamela Hodges http://ipaintiwrite.com

I’m linking up to these blogs

 

Food School: a 31 day course (day 18–Food, Inc.)

Last night was the night!

I submitted my video for the Food, Inc Lifestyle Awards.  Which was super hard because the video can only be 2 minutes!  Two minutes!  I can’t say my name in less than 2 minutes.  This is what I came up with:

 [youtuber error=’Not a YouTube, Vimeo or Google Video URL: http://youtu.be/q8h_9_fkWeQ’]

In the past few months, several events have occurred bringing me to this point:

  • I don’t want to be part of the problem any more–the problem being the exploitation of people, animals, and the environment.  I believe that everything should be treated with dignity, respect and love. 
  • I DO want to be part of the solution
  • I DO want to empower others to make healthy choices
  • I DO want to continue eating a plant based diet–with changing my diet, I am extending compassion to workers, animals and Mother Earth
  • I DO want to increase awareness about food and WRITE about it.  Being aware is your first step to being part of the solution.  Be intentional with every bite!
  • I DO want people to meet me and say–“Whoa, Renee is standing tall in her own truth!” 

With that I leave you a picture of the Sunflowers that I harvested the seeds and thought of Moe from the movie Food, Inc.  

IMG_3763

Be Blessed.

 To receive a free copy of my Blessed by Breakfast cookbook, please go to http://blessedbybreakfast.com and sign up! I send updates that include; family tested and approved recipes, video tutorials, tips and tricks on how to begin your day with the blessing of food.

cookbook coming soon

Books I suggest: The Omnivore’s Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat,

Young Readers Edition The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet

Some of my friends have also joined the 31 day challenge:  

Anastacia Maness  http://rocksolidfamily.com/31-days-building-commitment/

Racquel Narciso http://howtomakeitinsanfrancisco.com/…/

Pamela Hodges http://ipaintiwrite.com

I’m linking up to these blogs