Our Story: Part 1

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead? No. Not quite.

Fat? Yes.

Sick? Yes

Nearly Dead? Well, I guess we are all one breath away right?

In 2008, Jennifer and I were definitely fat and sick. According to America's least favorite calculator I was definitely "moderately obese" and had been since 1991.  Jennifer was definitely sick. And as her husband, I can safely say Jennifer was at least overweight, er, chubby, uh, wait, plump? I'm getting a stare and an elbow to my side. I'll stop.

Our third child was 6 months old. We also had a 21 month old and a three year old.

We were enthusiastically moving at "Ludicrous Speed" to start what many would call a "big family."

Well, one day we were visiting a fellow, picking oranges from the small grove he and his wife had in their back yard.  Suddenly we had a book in front of us that became one of the top 5 books that changed our life.

You see, Jennifer was suffering from a few ailments besides being plump…uh…curvaceous. She had been on anti-depressants since late high school. Her thyroid was dead, killed by some guy named Hashimoto. She had terrible allergies and weekly subjected herself to allergy shots, which caused her arms to swell like pustules. She was tired, needing at least 10 hrs of sleep a night to keep up with the fatigue that had set in. Finally, she had been to a doctor and offered "Prednisone" a steroid for her up and coming "rheumatoid arthritis." In other words, her hands hurt.

This 20-something young mother of three was already feeling broken.

"Breaking the Food Seduction" spoke to her. It challenged our thinking about diet, nutrition, and our overall health. Summed up, the overabundance of animal products in the typical American diet was the source of many of the ailments we face: diabetes, obesity, heart problems and auto immune diseases.

Suddenly we were in the middle of a 21-day Vegan Kickstart. At least, Jenny was.  I was a supportive husband, maintaining a flask of chocolate milk hidden in the toilet tank for a rainy day. We found our vocabulary expanding to include words like quinoa, millet, tempeh, seitan, tofu, spelt, amaranth, and texturized vegetable protein.

A month later our fridge got a makeover. No more home made bacon egg-mcmuffins for breakfast. Cheesy Chicken? Haven't had that in years. We were "veganizing" favorite meals and creating a brand new "make again" list. I continued to cheat and when Jennifer did, the pain in her hands came back and lasted for 2-3 weeks. Every time she "cheated" her resolve to completely abstain from dairy products and her beloved cheese increased.

The result? Jennifer began dropping a lot of pounds. Apparently I enjoyed the whole grains and legumes a little too much and fattened up some more. But at least for our family's "Early Adopter" Jennifer was already on the road to feeling Less fat, less sick, and much more alive.

BABY POOPS..or Not

As a mother of five you'd think I've experienced it all right? Well, almost. It was #5 that introduced me to infant constipation, and I finally understood the stress other mothers feel. Lucky for me, I've got a fix to that problem.

I sell doTERRA essential oils because I couldn't stop my enthusiasm for how wonderful they are for families, pregnancy to death they are wonderful! I pulled out my handy-dandy resident expert, the Modern Essentials reference book and looked up Children/Infants. Under sluggish digestive it listed "Wild Orange" and under constipation it listed "Ginger". Well, I know that babies can taste anything you rub onto their feet so I tested the ginger a few times. Just a drop diluted a bit in fractionated coconut water made baby cry. Nope, doesn't like the taste so I stuck with Wild Orange. It wasn't an immediate magic fix. In fact it took about two weeks before I saw an improvement, but I did see one eventually!

Baby was only having one poopy diaper every five days or so. Not often enough if you ask me. With our diet, I spend a lot of time cleaning toilets because they get used a lot with all seven of us eating so much fiber! You know? So at first I guessed he was using a lot of the yummy mommy milk and having little left over as waste, but I wanted to help the problem along. I started with just a drop of wild orange once a day on his feet. Nope, not enough. Increasing the dose to a drop at every diaper change was much better. MUCH BETTER. That's typical with oils, a little bit frequently is better than a whole bunch one time. So the messy diapers started shortening, every four days, then every three. I was so happy to see two in one day! Yeah baby! Keep that intestine working!

If you are interested, or know someone who is, I'm very happy to share and help another mother feel the relief I get when I can heal my family without medications!

The Mormon Vegan

My husband and I have come to the conclusion that its time to pen the name "Mormon Vegan."

We love being whole-food plant based. It started due to my failing health and has transformed how we view eating animals. Often we think, why eat an animal when there is so many other good foods in the world? It has also changed our hearts, feeling much more compassionate about the animals that share our world. In fact, on a recent camping trip I had a thoughtful talk with my son who so badly wanted to hit a squirrel. He confessed he only wanted to knock out the squirrel, not kill it. I shared with him my feelings and added that their is a fine line between knocking out and death. He would be crushed if he actually killed a squirrel. He understood. And now he knows how mommy feels about animals.

But then again, things changed in my recent pregnancy with my newest son. As the pregnancy came closer to a close, I craved protein, so I ate every plant source available. Still it wasn't enough. Not only was I craving protein I was craving beef! The thought disgusted me (you get that way the longer you go without meat) and up until pregnancy the only meat I even remotely liked was poultry. Yet I couldn't deny that this child had a dietary need so I indulged in the "cleanest" meat I could find. Oh how my body loved it! Now my sweet baby boy is here and every so often I have the same craving and I indulge. I still diligently put all sorts of legumes, nuts and whole grains on our dinner table but there are those instances I have learned my men need meat!

Hence we reached our conclusion, just as my kids can recite, we are the Mormon vegans, only eating meat in times of cold, winter, or famine and loving all things whole-food, plant. Dairy and eggs are a big no-no in our home, as is sugar. But what do we love? Honey! Yes, we need a new name for ourselves and look forward to meeting other Mormon Vegans, or other vegan eating members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Biscuits...what a kick!

It feels so good in the tummy on a cold winter day. I've been on a biscuit kick for the last week and I have two creations for you.
First, if you haven't gotten "Vegan with a Vengence" for your cooking library, it is a must. I checked out a lot of cookbooks from the library until I found a book that had more than 3 recipes worth using. I love all her recipes! Some have to be altered slightly for the younger tastebuds in our home, but here's why I fell in love with biscuits all over again -

Biscuits with sausage and mushroom sauce

First, the garlic cheese biscuit recipe I posted yesterday works great with this. Second, place the tempeh sausage crumbles from Vegan with a Vengence (also on theppk.com) on the biscuit and lastly, top with Isa's mushroom gravy (again, both book and website)

Tempeh Sausage Crumbles

by IsaChandra
Makes about 2 cups
This is delicious over pasta with marinara sace or as a pizza topping. It’s also good as a burrito filling or served for breakfast alongside scrambled tofu.
Ingredients
8 oz package tempeh
1 tablespoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried margoram or oregano
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
juice of 1/2 a lemon
Directions
In a saute pan, crumble the tempeh and add enough water to almost cover it. Over high heat, steam the tempeh until most of the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Drain the remaining water and add the rest of the ingredients and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

ISA's Mushroom Gravy
The nutritional yeast is optional here, but it does make the gravy a little more creamier, plus adds an extra depth of savory flavor.
4 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 medium yellow onion, diced small
2 Tablespoons olive oil
16 oz cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced and chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried sage
1/2 teaspoons salt
Several dashes fresh black pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine (chardonnay is great)
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
In a small bowl, mix the flour with about 2 cups of vegetable broth until well dissolved. Once dissolved, add the remaining broth and mix. Set aside.
Preheat a 2 quart pot over medium heat. Saute the onion in oil for about 5 minutes, until translucent. Add mushrooms, garlic, thyme, sage, salt and pepper and saute for about 5 more minutes.
Add wine and turn heat up to bring to a boil. Let wine reduce for about 3 minutes. Add the broth/flour mix and the nutritional yeast, if using. Lower heat to medium and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring often.
Taste for salt and pepper and serve.

And that's how I re-heat it all, without a microwave

Better than Bis*quick

This is my recent favorite side at dinner.
Biscuits
Super yummy and I daresay relatively healthy with only 5 ingredients.
This recipe is based on one I found in Babycakes, but with my own twist of my favorite biscuits in my college years -

Garlic and Cheese
2 c. whole wheat flour - for lighter cakes, do 1/2 and 1/2 white and wheat flour
1 T. baking powder
1 t. garlic salt
1/4 heaping cup of coconut oil (solid form)
3/4 c. hot water
vegan cheese, to taste (I used Daiya Pepperjack)

Combine flour, powder, and salt. Add oil and use pastry blender to combine until the oil is mixed to very small pieces - like combining cold butter to a mixture for pie dough. Add water and mix to soft dough. Add in a handful or more of "cheese" and mix in. Turn out on floured surface and cut into biscuits with whatever circular thing on hand - upturned child's cup is my favorite! Bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Slightly cool and enjoy!

(The green is zucchini - helps improve the moisture so it takes great a day old!)

Disowning mommy

My daughter wants to switch mothers. She likes a family friend better than me. Why? The other lady feeds her quesadillas.

I laughed, poor thing. We never have quesadillas, first off, because it doesn't match my "whole foods, plant-based diet" and second, I hadn't found a cheese alternative I liked, but then I found...







But now my 3 yr old is willing to keep me around as her mother.
I guess a little fake and processed cheese won't hurt!