A year or so earlier when Abel had started eating solid foods, we were so excited. What a huge step for our little man (some doctors said he'd never be able to eat solid foods), but I was left with a question burning in mind. What is really safe for him to eat? With his condition (Zellweger's Syndrome) comes an inability to properly digest the very long chain fatty acids in his diet. So I started down a path of looking up each foods chemistry I was giving him and accessing it for the breakdown of the different types of fatty acids. This became a long, complicated and grueling process that was making me dizzy. Then one afternoon I was holding my Bo-Bay-bler, as we called him, and the answer was then planted into my head and it felt perfectly right. It was the voice of someone else, saying "Abel should be Vegan." I was repeating the words to Jim (my husband) as they were being spoken to me. I then couldn't believe what had come from my mouth. Did I really just say that? Wait is that really the right choice? As I'm thinking these thoughts I'm verbally rationalizing it all to Jim, it was certainly an AH HA, WOW, moment. Well from that day forward Abel was officially a Vegan. I went right to work expanding his food horizions with confidence that I was doing the right thing. Little by little we were introducing new foods with great success. I made all his food from scratch at home, I'd make big batches of things and then methodically puree it, freeze it in ice cube trays, then once frozen dump it out into freezer bags labeled with the date and name of the food on each bag. This sounds fairly simple, but when your boy can eat a tray of food a day, you sure can go through a lot of food quickly, and then for a while there Eloise was sharing Abel's food so I was making bigger batches more frequently yet. I have to admit I was getting tired after all I was running my dishwasher 2 times a day and hand washing additional things 2-3 times a day. I was giving my children all organic homemade food, but I wasn't letting go of my convictions to what I knew in my heart was best for my kids. I would think to myself seriously I'm a stay at home mom who rarely gets out other than appointments, has regular assistance in the home from other family members, I send others to the store for me and I still can't seem to get caught up. So hearing those words from Abel changed my life and whole thought process.
I have to admit I think I'm still grasping the magnitude of that statement. I made the food with the best and purest ingredients I could find, and yes I always did it with love. I was nourishing my children from the inside out with love. The food that we eat is very important to our beings. In our home we sacrafice many things in order to have high quality food to eat and nourish our bodies with. However, eating wholesome top notch foods is an investment in ourselves. Eating organic home cooked foods minimally processed has subtly, over time change us. I like to think I have more focus, energy, stamina, clarity, emotional balance and the list goes on.
Did you know organic foods tend to house 50% more nutrition over non-organic foods. So you say it's to expensive, well you can eat 50% less and still get what your body needs. Costs associated with organic foods can sometimes be astronomical so here's our rule for the foods, the rest of the family eats (Abel always ate all organic). If the organic food is more than double the price of non-organic foods then we go with the non-organic, except on certain items (e.g. eggs, dairy and produce when available). There are many more advantages to eating organic I could add here but for now, I'll leave it at this and include more in some future posts. I will say this though if you don't know what GMO foods are or the dangers of them, then please, do some research on it.
At Abel's service we prepared a vegan meal using some of the foods he would often enjoy (although we did not puree them). I choose to have the food for the service prepared in our kitchen. I felt like the food should be prepared in the same kitchen as Abel's always was. We had a small crew of family and friends who graciously offered their time, skills and assistance to prepare all the food, every single one of them did it with love in their hearts and it was a very warming and touching afternoon. The amount of love that was pouring into the food was so strong that it filled our home, and spilled out of our house. The energy was so intense that I had to leave the house and go for a walk to help me put it all into perspective.
Since the service I have had a number of requests for the recipes of the foods served at the service. I have to tell you all these recipes were not followed very closely we used them more as guidelines and never measured a thing, we just poured, dumped or chopped until it felt right. So, no promises that the recipes will taste the same or close to the same, but here are a few of them...
Recipes:
Simple Vegan Black Bean Soup
Ingredients (use vegan versions):
4 (15 ounce) cans organic black beans, divided
1 (15 ounce) can organic
diced tomatoes
2-3 cup organic cooked quinoa
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium red onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 cups vegetable stock
1/4-1/2 cup fresh herbs, chopped (I use parsley and cilantro)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
Add salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
Directions:
1. Place 1/2 the beans and the tomatoes in food processor, and process until
smooth. Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic, onion and carrots. Sauté until
tender, about 7 minutes.
2. Add broth, spices, herbs, bean puree and the rest of the beans to the mix. If
you like a more brothy soup, add 1/2-1 cup more stock. If you like a thicker soup,
reduce broth from 2 cups to 1 1/2 cups.
3. Reduce to very low heat. Cover and simmer slowly about 20 minutes, stirring
every once in a while to prevent the beans from burning at the bottom of the pan.
This soup tastes great with a small scoop of brown rice. Serve with warm whole
wheat tortillas and a salad for a completely satisfying meal.
Serves: 10-12, Preparation time: 20, Cooking time: 20
Broccoli Salad
Ingredients (use vegan versions):
1 head broccoli florets (larger pieces cut into bite size pieces)
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup red onions
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons cane sugar
1 cup vegan mayonnaise
1 cup sunflower seeds, toasted
Directions:
If using vegan bacon slices, prepare them now and then, drain and crumble.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the broccoli florets, onion and raisins.
In a medium size bowl combine the vegan mayonnaise, white wine vinegar
and the cane sugar.
Mix well and pour over the broccoli mixture, toss until well coated.
Refrigerate for 2
or more hours.
Before you serve, toss with the vegan bacon or Baco's and sunflower seeds.
Makes: 6 to 8 servings, Preparation time: 15 minutes
Asian Slaw
Ingredients (use vegan versions):
1 large cabbage, shredded
4 green onions, chopped
1 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1/4 cup sesame seeds, toasted
3 tablespoons dark sesame oil
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon grated ginger
Directions:
Combine all above in a bowl and stir
For a sweeter salad, add 1/8 cup sugar. I always end up adding garlic, too, because
I have addiction issues with garlic.
Serves: 5, Preparation time: 20 mins.
