Vegan, Here We Are!

As soon as we learned that it was a possibility that Clayton had lymphoma, I changed our diet immediately. There is no room for processed foods, sugar, animal products, or caffeine in the fight against cancer. I want to know that he has only the best in him so his body can reclaim itself. But that doesn't mean that eating has to be drudgery. I am determined to make his three meals and snacks a day delicious and exciting. And, I don't want this to be a damper on comments, either. Keep telling me what you are cooking--I promise, I won't be sad at all the yummies I'm missing out on.

So this is the new deal around my kitchen: only organic, no sugar in any form, no dairy or meat, no caffeine, no white flours...no fun? It sounds just awful, but I was really encouraged after spending time (and $, gulp) at Whole Foods. My goal is to provide Clayton with whole, raw fruits and veggies at every meal in addition to an item with a satisfying texture and warmth. Lunches may be all cold, but I will promise a warm meal at dinner. And, once I get my juicer, he will drink fresh veggie juices several times throughout the day. There is real power in the foods God designed for us. I am also going to start making my own bread since it is hard to find good, fresh bread without all the preservatives, etc. A breadmaker sounds like it will make easier work of it--Lord knows that I am spending all my time in the kitchen now. Rinse, chop, chop!

Breakfast
Oatmeal sweetened with honey, cinnamon and apples, soy milk
Smoothie with apple, banana, blueberry and vanilla rice milk


Lunch
Asian salad with spinach, red leaf lettuce, kiwi, clementines, green onion, green pepper, celery, broccoli sprouts,carrots, red cabbage, chopped peanuts and ginger-wasabi dressing
Warm hummus with pita chips

Dinner
Spinach, red leaf lettuce, red cabbage topped with corn salad (corn, red & green peppers, red onion, cilantro, lime juice, cumin) and homemade cilantro-chipotle-avocado dressing
Pinto beans and brown rice
Vegan "meat" tamales from frozen
Mango and clementines

Oh, the salads are SO GOOD! For the cilantro dressing I just processed in the chopper a bunch of cilantro, juice from two limes, two chipotle peppers, and one avocado. Next time I won't use a whole avocado--I had to thin it with water, but YUM! And, the tamales were delicious--I was so surprised. A man at Whole Foods was doing a demo on them in the frozen section and had noticed that I had spent at least 30 minutes on that aisle. "I noticed you are picking up a lot of vegan products," he told me. "Yes, we are going vegan," I replied as I burst into tears. But I regained my composure quickly and tried a tamale and then threw some boxes in my basket (after diligently reading the ingredient label--I'm hardcore). I made the pita chips by tearing up whole wheat pita breads and toasting in the oven.

You?