Vegan Tortilla Soup…Yum!

A long, long, time ago in a land far, far away, I was a cook and baker.  I would have people ask me for recipes and we would share about food. And then I got all weird on them.  And those requests for recipes got fewer and fewer and fewer.

Back in those days, I would say that the one recipe that probably got requested the most was my chicken tortilla soup.  So heart warming and yummy.  Ahhhh, I miss it.

Until NOW!  Jennifer told me a few weeks ago about a wonderful recipe by Rick Bayless.  He is by FAR my favorite Mexican food chef.  I love his food, love his PBS show, love his cookbook (I only have 1), and ALMOST loved his restaurant (but due to American Airlines grounding all of their planes a few years ago, our trip to his restaurants, er, Chicago, got canceled).  Anyway, I heard “Rick Bayless” and “tortilla soup” and knew I had to try this!

This is random, but I ran in to him outside of the Majestic Theater last year.  My big brush with fame.  It took everything in me to not stop him and ask him where he ate that night for dinner and what he had!

I took his recipe and per his suggestion, made it vegetarian.  Then I added zucchini because the zucchini in my old recipe was so yummy and I adjusted the amounts of different things.  I also took out the oil.  All in all, it is his soup. Just my vegan spin!  I love how it isn’t a TexMex version of tortilla soup.

This soup has a deep, rich flavor.   It is the way this soup is served in Mexico.  It is all broth. Then you add the stuff that fills it in.

Dana, this is for you!

Mine is on the left with cilantro and brown rice tortilla “chips”, Luck’s is on the right with cheese and corn chips.

• 1-2 dried pasilla chiles, cut off the stem and cut out the seeds (These are dried chiles that you can find with the spices or in the produce section if you live somewhere like San Antonio.  If not, you can substitute 1 T of ancho chile powder or another chile powder of your liking.  But DO attempt to get the dried chiles.  I promise it is worth it!)
• 2 cans of fire roasted tomatoes
• 1 yellow onion, cut into 1/4 in pieces
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed a bit
• 2 boxes of vegetable broth (total of 8 cups)
• 1 -2 zucchini, chopped
• kosher salt
• 1-2 avocados, cut into chunks
• tortillas for making chips or tortilla chips
• cilantro
• cilantro lime brown rice or plain brown rice
• cheese, if you want

Take your seeded chiles and press them into a preheated pan on medium heat.  Hold down each side for 15-20 seconds, or until they are warm and starting to soften and blister.

Place the chiles into your blender with the canned tomatoes (with juice) and puree.

On the stove, heat the onions and garlic over medium heat in a large soup pot.  Season with kosher salt to start the process of the veggies releasing their moisture.  (You do NOT NEED OIL to saute!  If you learn nothing more from this blog, learn this!  Keep a cup of water next to whatever it is your are sauteing and add some it is starting to stick.  So many things you think “need” oil don’t!)  Cook this until the onion and garlic are starting to brown.

Don’t you just love recipes that don’t call for dicing onions?  This pic is obviously from before they were browned.

Add the onions and garlic to the blender (with the tomatoes and chiles) and blend until everything is pureed.

Pour your puree into your big soup pot and stir to cook for a minute.  Add the vegetable broth.  Bring this mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer.  Add the zucchini and allow it to fully cook.

Here is where your culinary skills come in to play.  Taste the broth and add kosher salt until you feel the flavors are balanced.

Serve!  Add avocado, toasted tortillas (or tortilla chips), cilantro, and anything else you want. We really love it over cilantro lime brown rice.  You carnivores can add chicken.  If I could eat corn, I would ABSOLUTELY add some frozen or fresh corn kernels.  I also think that black beans would be good in there, if the soup is too brothy for you. For me, I like it brothy and say just add more avocado or tortilla!

Since I can’t have corn chips, I took a brown rice tortilla, cut it into wedges, and baked at 350 until they looked like this. They were delicious and just the right texture!

This soup is so easy to prepare.  And it freezes beautifully.  I always make a lot extra and stick a big ziploc bag of it in the freezer.  Healthy, delicious, and soul warming!

Enjoy!  Please let me know what you think of it!

Meal plan and update.

Well, I had one good week and then have had some pretty terrible days.  But I am SO grateful for the week!  I am praying that my bad days were spawned because of a meal that I ate on Thursday.  I am pretty sure it must have had MSG and that it took it’s toll on my body for a few days.  Sick as a dog!  The fever and fatigue returned full force, as well as stomach aches.  This week will be better.  I just know it!  Here is our meal plan:

• Sunday: Greek style quinoa salad (with grape tomatoes, kalamatas for some, and feta for some) and fruit.
• Monday: Homemade refried beans with Spanish rice (which I will  make with no oil and with veg broth) and a green salad.
• Tuesday:  National Night Out!  Our street corner is having a block party cook out.  So fun!  I will be having these because 1) they are good and 2) they are one of the few veggie burgers that are not only vegan, but also gluten free.  We will bring watermelon to share.
• Wednesday: Vietnamese Summer Rolls, with mango and sweet chili dipping sauce for us and Hokensons.  I really like the mango in these and sometimes add avocado.  They are usually a big hit with the whole family.  Served with fruit salad.

• Thursday: I have a night out with a few friends, so the family will have egg in the holes.  So cute that this is what they have when I am out.
• Friday: pizza night!

YOUR TURN!  What is your meal plan for the week?

Facebook…how do we ever get off?

I am tired of Facebook.  I am tired of people painting what they want you to see of their lives.

I am very well aware of how IMperfect my life is.  And I’m not bothered by it.  I yell at our kids. Our house gets really messy.  I get really mad at Luck.  I am in bed an embarrassing amount.  I have to watch every bite I put in my mouth or I gain weight.  I cry all of the time because people hurt my feelings.  I get really annoyed with stupid drivers.  And I watch reality TV.

I don’t feel threatened by people who paint whatever picture they want you to see.  I just wish it was tempered by reality.  And quite honestly, I think other people do feel inadequate by what they see.  They see other people living “perfect” lives.  And they feel inferior.

I love Facebook because I get to keep in touch with friends from long, long ago that I normally wouldn’t.  Or friends who  move away.  And I love being in touch with my members.  I love hearing what they want to work in class or what they have been up to or how they liked a particular workout. I also wouldn’t want to miss pictures of friends’ lives.  And I love knowing how to pray for people.  When someone’s parent dies, I want to know.  I don’t want to find out months later.  Oh, and I LOVE when people have babies and I get to see pics!  I also love watching friend’s kids grow up.  Facebook has also connected me with other Lupus patients/chronic illness endurers.  What a life line!

But there is a flip side.  There is unnecessary complaining.  There are many FB lurkers who never, ever comment, but follow closely.  PLEASE comment if you follow!  It is a bit odd when lurkers tell me something about myself or kids and I don’t even remember we are FB friends!  Like I said earlier, I am so over people trying to tell the world how important they are by posting how busy their lives are.  WE ARE ALL BUSY!  And bragging on FB makes me wanna gag.

I am SURE I am guilty of the above things.  I am proud of the kiddos and love my hubs terribly. But never, never do I want to paint a picture that is not an accurate reflection of what is happening.

So this leads me to wanting off!  I want off!  But how? This is how I find out info about the kids’ school.  Facebook is a great way to know when someone is hurting. It is a wealth of information when I need/want to know something.  Just post and voila!  I find out about deals and specials and events and so much more!  And it is where most people request I post when I blog.  People would rather just click there than actually “follow” my blog from the site.

So my question is this:  Is this just a way of life now?  Is it something we all just take the good with the bad and move on?

I am going to cut back some.  Don’t have your feelings hurt if I don’t know what’s up.  I love you.  I really, really do.  But ugh.

Is this how everyone feels?  I have a sneaking suspicion it is.  How do you feel about FB?

Huge news about a small spot! (and a meal plan!)

So, about 3 years ago I noticed that I had a spot on my scalp where my part is.  It was right at the hairline.  I won’t go in to details…but it bothered me and wouldn’t go away.  I finally went in to a dermatologist. He looked at it, determined it was precancerous, and froze it off.

Within a few months, it was back.  And it wasn’t happy.  But there was not much I could do about it.  I did my best to ignore it.  But it was annoying and would bleed.  Like I said, it wasn’t happy.

Once I got the Lupus diagnosis, we realized it was just a Lupus spot.  If that first doctor had only biopsied it, he would have know that it was NOT, in fact, precancerous.  And he could have given me a head start on my Lupus diagnosis.

Being on the Lupus meds made zero difference with my spot.  Once I got off of the meds, I didn’t know if it would get worse. The fact of the matter was, it didn’t change.

Until this week.  When Lucky and I noticed that for the first time in literally years, IT IS COMPLETELY GONE!!!!!!

After this flare that has lasted a good 6 weeks or so, I needed some encouragement that my diet is actually working. And boy did I get it!  My body is HEALING!  From the inside out.  Healing!  Enough to take that spot/scab away.  I may still have flares and get viruses more often, but something good is going on in there!

So, on to what we are eating this week.  Since it is Gretchen’s cooking week and I have my bean burgers frozen, I am getting an easier week.  One more week ’til our kids are on fall break!  Woohoo!

• Monday: Gretchen is making these vegan sloppy joes
• Tuesday: Black bean burgers with broccoli slaw (yay for meals that I have made ahead and frozen!)
• Wednesday: Big ‘ole pot of crockpot pinto beans with cilantro lime rice and guacamole.
• Thursday: Leftovers or quesadillas
• Friday: Eating out!  Yay for a night off of cooking!

What is on your menu?  Link to recipes so we can all get ideas!

 

Psalm 103:1-5

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;
 Who pardons all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases;
Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;
Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

Same song, second verse. And meal planning!

I almost didn’t blog today because I don’t want to sound like I am complaining.  But this flare continues, as does the residual arthritis from 5th disease (a virus).  I of course get out and do things, but the moment I walk in the door I crash.  I am hardly out of bed.  YUCK.  My body just aches and aches.  I took prednisone again this past week and it took the arthritis away completely.  Now that Luck is back in town, I went off of it again.

I REFUSE to depend on that drug.  It is toxic to the body.

I go back to discuss all of this with my rheumy on Wednesday to figure out where to go from here and to have labs drawn.  Lets all just pray that by the time I go, this will all be cleared up.  That sounds quite nice, doesn’t it?

Meal planning is kinda puny still.  Last week, Lucky was traveling.  That is why it was so sad!  But I have to admit this is only a notch better.  Physically I am no better than I was last week.  But at least I have my hubs to help with the kids.

Either way, we gotta eat!

• Monday: This is kind of a random meal, but I am looking forward to it. Nutritious Eat’s Tomato soup (made gluten free and with veg broth to make it vegan), Pioneer Woman’s Chipotle and Lime Roasted Potatoes, and some cucumbers that I am marinating in lime juice and chili powder.  Cooking for us and the Hokensons.
• Tuesday: Leftover vegan Romanian sarmale (cabbage stuffed with rice in a tomato bouillon) made by a sweet friend.  HERE is her  non vegan version. Here is what she wrote about adapting it for us:  I cooked the rice in water (no stock) with EVOO, garlic, green onion, S&P, parsley and tomato bouillon. I stuffed each cabbage leaf with the rice and rolled it like an egg roll, poured a little more bouillon over the rolls and baked it in a pan at 300 until the cabbage was tender.
• Wednesday: Man this is a tough night of the week for us!  All 4 of us have somewhere to be!  I teach my 2 classes, Dani has ballet, and the Luck and Reid have karate.  Dinner will probably be bean and cheese tostadas with the fixins.
• Thursday: Spaghetti and marina (from a jar)  and roasted broccoli.  This was on the menu last week, but we didn’t eat it.
• Friday: Homemade pizza.  All week long we all look forward to our pizza night where we watch America’s Funniest Videos and the kids get to drink their one carbonated drink of the week (root beer with cane sugar…I’m so mean, they have to share a can!) and wine for us.  Such a relaxing and wonderful way to wind down our week.

So what are YOUR go-to meals for nights when everyone has somewhere to be?  Ours seem to be: Tostadas, vegan grilled cheese, egg in the holes, and quesadillas.  I would LOVE more ideas!!!  And please, share what you are eating for the week.  Look, I am only actually cooking from scratch once this week.  I promise you don’t need to be a chef to do this!

First, second, third, fourth…. (and a puny meal plan)

Fifth!

I know what I have!   The kids over the last week have both broken out in the slapped cheek rash that is characteristic of Fifth disease.  In adults, it presents as arthritis.  Which totally explains why my feet, hands, arms, and knees are causing so much terrible pain.  I take stairs like I am 80.  Teaching should be, well, interesting this week.  For some it only lasts up to a few weeks.  Others, well….lets not go there!

This virus is the reason I had that fever that wouldn’t stop last week and why I feel like I have the flu.  People who are on typical Lupus drugs are at a greater risk of the virus having complications.  So YAY for no drugs!

I did have to take Prednisone this week (for the first time in over a year!  YAY!) And probably need to be on more.  I am trying to decide what to do.  I am in a flare and have a virus on top of that flare.  This is not atypical to get a virus when my immune system is seemingly going nuts on itself.  Remember that Lupus is simply a disease in which my body can’t really distinguish good cells from back and so they attack them all, as if they were foreign and bad.  Hence the fever, fatigue, pain, etc…

So for now, I wait this out. Life is being toned down once again.  Having a chronic illness has taught me a lot of lessons I wouldn’t otherwise have learned.  I hate that I am sick all of the time.  HATE it.  But I have learned SO much. This particular spell has taught me about friendships.  Not an easy lesson.  Sometimes being sick teaches me about the importance of being home as a family.  Sometimes I learn about my worth and where it isn’t found.  I am always grateful for the things that being sick makes me learn.

So what does a girl feed her family during these times????  Great question!  Our menu is lacking in all of my regular veggies and good foods.  I am just too tired and sick to be in the kitchen much.  Here is our menu:

• Monday:  Bean and cheese tostadas with lettuce and tomatoes (I’ll have beans on a brown rice tortilla)
• Tuesday: Salad for me, kids will have (they are SO excited): gluten free fish sticks!  Had to  make a special trip to Whole Paycheck for these babies!
• Wednesday: Spaghetti with marinara (from a jar) and broccoli
• Thursday: Vegan grilled cheese
• Friday: Pizza night.  Last week I made a nasty crust. Here is hoping I make a better one this week.

Now don’t you feel like you are fancy after seeing mine?  Please do still share!  We all get ideas for the future! It helps everyone.  🙂

The never ending fever and house projects!

So, I have had fever now for about 2 weeks straight.  I always know when I get it….my eyes start burning, I get sluggish, my body aches, and all I can think of is crawling into bed.  Sure, I have moments where I appear normal and do normal life things, but I am truly struggling.  My bed has such a huge indention of my body in it!  I am glad I weigh less than my husband or else I would be totally paranoid about making our mattress even more lopsided than it is!

I am going to call the doc on Tuesday to see if I can just come in for blood work.  I want to make sure that I don’t have any organ involvement.  Especially kidneys.  Plus, I have body pain all over.  I feel 80 years old.  I am praying they will let me just do a blood test and not have to wait for them to squeeze me in, which can take a super long time.  I am also toying with the idea of a small amount of Predinsone.  Just to see if that will knock it out.  But my doc doesn’t want me on Prednisone (bc of my commitment to natural healing).  So we shall see.

(update: Fever is now at 101.3 and climbing.  really wish I had a manual on what to do and really wish my doc was open tomorrow)

Feeling this crappy and trying to homeschool is hard.  Mostly, it is because when my body goes, so does my brain.  Cloudy thinking.  Poor decision making skills.  Confusion. I have been crying a lot and just overall struggling.  To be honest, this has been a dark and lonely place.

HOWEVER, I have had encouragement from so many sweet friends.  Random offers and texts have really just held me up.  Even when someone tells my mom that they follow and pray for me makes me so humbled and want to give back to them.  So thank you, dear friends!  And to the ones struggling more than me, I think of and pray for you often.  I am grateful to know what it feels like to have a chronic illness because I can better understand what you all are going through.

On to house things!!!  When we moved in to this house, we painted three rooms ourselves, as well as having our kitchen professionally done (cabinets and all). Soon after moving in, all of my health issues came tumbling in to place.  So we truly have not touched our house in 2 1/2 years.  And it needs some touching!  We have wanted to make the house feel like ours.  The problem is, I am always too tired.  I spend my weekends in bed. And Luck is busy having fun with the kids.  So NOTHING gets done around here.  And I lay in bed looking at a bedroom that I long to have make me feel peaceful.

I had dinner with a friend this week who encouraged me to just start.  To tape off the room and buy the paint.  If it takes us 4 months, at least it will get done!  Well, we did it!  We bought the paint.  I put a sample of a color on the wall as a sign that we WERE going to do this!  We changed our minds on the color that is shown in this picture.and went with the same color family, only a shade lighter.  So it won’t be quite as intense as this one.  The name of the color is even called Daydream.  Doesn’t that sound perfect for someone in bed all of the time?  Now the, ahem, LOVELY wall paper in the bathroom, ahem, will have to stay for now.  That is going to take a lot more money and time to fix. So I will continue to pretend that the bathroom is tranquil.  🙂  I will keep you posted on how the room goes. We are hoping to start taping tonight and maybe, just maybe, start painting tomorrow!  

And then there is a coffee table that my family has had for years.  We have had in in our living room all scratched up and dented.  But no longer! I was waiting until I felt better.  But guess what?  I don’t feel better!  But my kids and Luck feel great.  And while I lay in bed today, guess what they are doing???

They are painting it a beautiful charcoal gray!  It is going to look so wonderful when it is done and the kids will always be proud of painting it.  I know first hand.  You know why?  When I was little, my mom had us sit down with her in the living room and paint this VERY coffee table!  Only it was the 80’s so guess what we did???  We splatter painted it!!!  Pretty sweet, right?  Who knows, maybe someday Daniella or Reid will be painting it with their kids?  And will be mocking the charcoal gray :).

Where has this been all of my life?

When I was little, I would come home from school and pop a bag of microwave popcorn.  A few of you can attest to that.  I’d pour iced tea, make popcorn, and play cards while watching silly after school shows like Saved By The Bell.  So simple.

I have pretty much avoided the stuff since then because, well, I am allergic to corn.  For the kids, however,  I haven’t allowed it because of all of those chemicals on the ingredients list.  That is, until I discovered organic microwave popcorn.  It isn’t genetically modified (if it is organic, you can rely on it not being GMO) and I recognized the ingredients.  I never actually felt GOOD about them eating it, but didn’t feel like I was allowing them to have a bunch of processed junk.

Until….PINTEREST!  The place went nuts with brown bagged microwave popcorn.  What?  You mean, you don’t need some specially sealed bag and some special kernels?  I had to try it.

Take popcorn kernels (organic if you don’t want genetically modified), a brown bag, and whatever seasonings you want.  We think that 1/2 cup of corn pops the exact right amount for the bag.  Plop in a tsp or 2 of Earth Balance or butter or olive oil.  Sprinkle in some salt.  Fold the bag down 2 or 3 times.  Microwave for 2 minutes (of COURSE your microwave will vary, but this is what works for us) and stand by for happiness in a bag!

I have read people doing cinnamon and sugar, Parmesan and olive oil, chili powder and lime…the possibilities are limitless.  Of course the kids (well, one of them) would love lots and lots of Earth Balance and salt, but we limit it to just a few tsps and a dash of salt.

Look!!!  It is microwave popcorn!  And we didn’t need a chemically laden bag!

And have I mentioned the cost difference?  One box of organic microwave popcorn would cost around $2.50 for 3 bags.  At HEB, the organic bag of popcorn we buy is $2.79.  And it contains enough kernels to pop over 12 bags of popcorn!

Pop away, friends!  Enjoy some for me.  The kids literally pop this every afternoon.  It makes the house smell so yummy!

Mini juice fast and a meal plan.

This week, I have dipped back into a flare.  Fevers are back and higher than normal.  Lots of abnormal fatigue that has caused me to stay in bed more than what I had been doing. And other symptoms.  Y’all don’t want or need to know the specifics…just documenting that I am in a flare.

Today, I am starting a juice fast.  Probably just today because tomorrow is Monday and I teach twice.  Can’t really juice fast during boot camp and Body Pump.  Nowadays, a lot of people are calling smoothie fasts juice fasts.  I am not doing smoothies today.  I am JUST juicing.  If you don’t know the difference, smoothies take the entire fruit/veg and blend it up.  You get all of that good fiber and everything.  With juice, you send it through a juicer and ONLY the liquid comes out.  I am doing this to give my digestive system a whole day off.  I will get all of those super fresh nutrients going straight into my blood stream.  Tomorrow, my plan is to juice/smoothie fast until dinner, giving me a full 48 hours of not eating real food.

I wish I had a few more days to do this.  I have toyed with the idea of juice fasting for a day or two on a regularly scheduled interval.  But life happens and it hasn’t really worked out.  If you want to join me, let me know!

Now, on to the meal plan for the week!

• Monday: Making Aarti Sequeira’s (Don’t you just LOVE her?  I want to be her friend!!) Chana Masala or Chickpea Curry.  Both names work, according to her. I am serving it with brown basmati rice and a green salad.  Cooking for us and Hokensons.  I love this dish and have made it before.  It required me going to an Indian market and stocking up on all of the correct spices.  But once I did that initially, now I can make this quickly and easily.
• Tuesday: Mashed new potatoes with roasted carrots and cauliflower.
• Wednesday: My dad’s 60th birthday!!!!!!  We will eat together as a family.
• Thursday: Vegan quesadillas.  Cheese on the kid’s and Luck’s.
• Friday: What else? Homemade pizza night.

What is on your menu for the week?  Share links and ideas so we can all be inspired!  Here’s to a healthy week!

 

 

Just a meal plan.

This will be quick since I just blogged the back to school ideas!

Here is our meal plan for the week:

Monday: Gretchen is making Baked Spinach Falafel with vegan tzaziki.  We know the tzaziki is good because she made it a few weeks ago.  I am obsessed with falafel and Greek food in general.  Hopefully this will be a keeper recipe!

Tuesday: Vegan broccoli rice casserole from my NEW COOKBOOK!!!  Forks Over Knives book/Documentary has been around for a while, but the cookbook is new. You know I will post good recipes, right?

Wednesday: Taco salad with cilantro lime dressing.  Yum?  I hope!  Again, from my new cookbook!

Thursday: Baked potatoes with no cheese sauce.  Sorry, again.  BUT!  At least you will know how good the cookbook is, right?  I will also serve with whatever veggie is still in my fridge needing to be cooked and served.

Friday: Can you believe we STILL haven’t been to Little Aussie Bakery for their Friday night pizza night?  Hopefully THIS will be the week!

Okay, now it is your turn! What are you making this week?  I love it that people have been posting their menus!  It helps all of us to get ideas!  Have a great week!