frozen sweet corn

Wow, is this ever good! This weekend, a friend of mine offered some of her frozen corn as a snack and it was good. Since we only have 1 week left of sweet corn at my local corn stand, I decided to freeze some of my own. I blanched the ears of corn (cooked in boiling water for a minute), then scraped off the kernels, and froze--super easy.

A knife would work, but I happen to have a corn scraper, shown at left in the picture (got it at Williams-Sonoma). At right is my bag of corn. This was about 6 cobs. It made about 2.5-3 lbs of corn. When you eat this straight from the bag out of the freezer, it is like candy! Wow. I hope the genetic engineering of this corn hasn't made it so sweet as to be unhealthy.

aug. 31

brekky: veggie juice. this time I tried the one with the cucumber in it (from Chef AJ). It was good but not quite as good as the other one. I also had a small pear.

lunch: a few carrots and celery, some of the weekend's beans, greens & veggie bowl, 2 corn on the cob + avocado butter. snacked on corn that I was prepping for freezing.

dinner: rest of the beans, greens & veggie bowl to which I added fresh-frozen corn. small musk melon, raw carrot, some sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. okay, I thought I was done with dinner at this point, but then someone I was corresponding to gave me the idea to have peas and corn, and I couldn't resist, so had a bowl of my fresh-frozen corn and frozen peas--heated in the microwave. It was yummy.

aug 30

I was afraid to eat at first.

I brought one of my frozen veggie juices with me as I was gone from 8 am - 5 pm. I started drinking it at about 1 pm. finished it about 4 pm. It was the perfect thing. And it tasted really good too. Now I'm not sure which one it was, as I made two different kinds yesterday. I don't think it had the cucumber in it. So I think it was the lettuce, kale, collards, orange, and apple one. I was surprised at how good it was. I thought I was going to have to force down anything with juiced kale and collards. of course, the apple and orange juice helped.

When I got home I was hungry and ate a normal meal. That was 2 corn on the cob (only 8 days left of fresh corn), avocado butter, a small bowl of yesterday's veggies, beans & greens dish, and half an orange. It was all delicious, a further reminder that there is no reason to stray from this. I am not deprived of anything with this diet!

yesterday's splurge

Well, I did get sick from yesterday's splurge. ugh. I really thought I wasn't overdoing it. I had 4 treats, which is a lot, but I didn't eat a lot of other food. Well, it was awful, and I hope I never touch that stuff again. Today's church service was pretty relevant to this. The title was "Positive Thinking. How to be the person your dog thinks you are." I love that title. Here are two useful points I remember: There are no mistakes, only lessons. and A lesson is repeated until it is learned. I do not want to repeat this lesson. Also when I was in the midst of my sickness, I was thinking, I've poisoned my body. I don't want to do this to my body anymore. Yesterday I said I didn't really regret my splurge. But that was before I got sick. Okay, onwards. I am so grateful to have found this healthy way of eating, and I hope I have finally gotten beyond the social influences even if they are ubiquitous. Our service ended with a quote from Muhammad Ali: "I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world." I love that quote too. It was a very fun day. and I'm moving on...

weekend cooking

I had fun in the kitchen this evening, spent about 3 hours picking greens, washing, chopping, juicing, and cooking. First I made some vegetable juices that I froze. I got these from the Fuhrman forums:

The first was from Chef AJ, modified slightly based on what I had and wanted: 4 oz kale, 4 oz collard greens, 2 cucumbers, 3 small apples, and juice of one lime and orange. Everything but the lime and orange came from my garden or a local farm.

Next was from another member of the forums (I don't recall but I'll try to look it up). This is called green lemonade, only I didn't have a lemon. So I used juice of an orange, 3 small apples, some salad greens (2-3 oz was all I had), some kale and collard greens.

Between these, I made 5 bottles filled to 10 oz with juice, that I froze.

Next I made a giant vegetables, beans, and greens dish. This dish was along the lines of this one. I must have had a couple of lbs of kale and collard greens still left after the juicing. I chopped these in the food processor. Then there was eggplant, 2 zucchini (green and yellow), mushroom, 2 onions, 2 cans of tomatoes (from the garden, yum). I cooked these up together in the pressure cooker for 3 minutes. I added lots of chopped parsley, basil and swiss chard and let that cook in the hot pan--plenty of heat to cook as it cooled. I cooked cauliflower separately for 2 minutes, and then blended that with 1/2 cup almonds and 1/3 cup hemp and some juice from the canned tomatoes. This made a creamy sauce which I added. Oh, yeah, and then there were the beans. Earlier today I cooked up red and white kidney beans (2 cups dry, so probably 5 cups after cooking). So this is your classic Fuhrman dish with tons of greens, beans, veggies, nuts and seeds. I offered housemate a bite even though she doesn't like zucchini. But you can hardly taste that with all the other flavors, and she had a couple of small bowls. Here's what it looks like. You do tend to get greens all over your teeth while eating it.

I poured 2 generous cups into each of 8 bowls. I left 2 out and froze the others. So there will be plenty to eat over the next week!

aug. 29

Well, I finally gave into my baked goods cravings. I'm not sure that I regret it because of the lessons learned. It wasn't so good and I don't feel so good either. I'm bound to learn my lesson sometime, if not this time. The last time I strayed from healthy foods was May 10, I think. So that's pretty good, 3.5 months. Hopefully I'll last longer next time. So I wanted a taste of the 4 things I usually give in to: a semi-healthy muffin and cookie (whole grains), a totally unhealthy chocolate cupcake and chocolate chip cookie. Here's my analysis:

healthy cookie: bland, stale

muffin: bland, but fresh

cupcake, cake part, bla, frosting, sickeningly sweet

chocolate chip cookie, overly greasy and kind of gross, and too sweet.

Here was a valuable lesson learned: I thought the desserts we had at the Health Getaway were better than these! So maybe next time I want to splurge, I should just plan to make a Fuhrman dessert to take to a potluck and have some for my own treat. Also, plain old fruit is better too.

Effect on my body: the sugar went straight to my brain. I was hyper most of the day after that. I see why kids get hyperactive. I still feel kind of yucky.

Anyway, besides that I ate 2 corns on the cob and sliced tomato at lunch. And I did a lot of cooking this evening. I snacked a bit while cooking, and sampled the final results, but didn't eat too much. I'm a little worried I'm going to get sick. I'm feeling bloated and gassy. My stomach is gurgling a lot. I haven't had any oil since the last time I splurged (May 10 I guess) so my stomach is probably going, what the heck is this stuff?

aug. 28

late brekky: veggie juice, ripe colorado peach (good).

lunch: 2 corn on the cob + avocado butter, cherry tomatoes from the garden (yum), some blueberries & bananas, some beans. oh, and then I had to have the watermelon. I overate but I can't resist delicious fruit.

dinner: I was a bit rushed and went for the fruit again. 1/2 musk melon. another peach. a delicious ripe local pear. more watermelon (local, too good to resist). a bowl of beans. and snacked on the goodies while preparing housemate's smoothies (bananas, spinach, nuts & seeds, frozen fruit). and a couple of carrots. overate to the point of feeling really bloated. I'm bad. the fresh local ripe fruit is just soooo gooood. I will have to just buy less.