Blood and Food...in That Order

Il pasta trecolore...molto bene!

Italian dishes with red, green and white (or yellow/beige in this case) are invariably referred to as "trecolore" or tri-colors and are a reference to similarly colored Italian flag.

The colors are represented in this shot of last night's dinner by a dense, rich marinara sauce, our home made no oil pesto and the "white" could be either the brown rice spaghetti or the vegan "parmesan cheese" made from cashews, nutritional yeast  , etc.

My intention in staging this plate was to create a yin-yang of sauces. Alas, between my general artistic incompetence and my lack of patience to dig in, I opted for the trecolore bologna. I confess to having a healthy (as in "large" and "good for me") second plateful once this one was [quickly] consumed.


LG reminded me (as I was already piling my plate high) to have a second helping because I wouldn't be able to eat any breakfast. You see, I'm going to see the phlebotomist this morning at 9:00 to have some blood drawn for a cholesterol check. Let me give you a quick rundown of my cholesterolic history...doesn't that sound like fun?!

I used to do a lot of running - 11 marathons and an untold number of half marathons, 10 K's, relays and the like. I was never a great runner, but I had fun and stayed fairly fit. I began to have my blood lipids checked  about 35 years ago. I was distressed to find that - in spite of my fairly intense physical regimine my numbers were high. Over the past 10 years I've had a couple doctors insist I take prescription drugs to lower my cholesterol numbers. They would hand me a prescription, I would thank them, walk outside the office and deposit the Rx in the nearest waste receptacle. You know how you just have a sense of what you should and shouldn't put in your body? You see, I'm what doctors call...an idiot.


The last blood analysis I had was about 2 years ago and my total cholesterol was 280 with a so-so ratio of HDL to LDL. It started at 220 about 35 years ago and continued to slowly climb. Following the most recent test, my primary care person handed me a piece of script - which I conscientiously recycled - and I haven't had it checked since.

All this background is to let you know that, this morning, I am going to have some blood drawn to see what - if any - impact this 4 week Engine 2 Diet has had on my blood lipids. I don't know how long it will take the lab to get the numbers back, but I'll be pressing them for a quick turnaround. I promise to share the numbers, whether good or bad. One bit of positive reinforcement associated with having blood taken is the fact I'm almost always told I "have nice fat veins!" That's good...right? So...I got that goin' for me.

A significant number of my reading public (thank you Melissa) has suggested that LG and I put together some kind of recipe book of our favorites. In all fairness, most of the recipes are some variation of things we've found on the web. There are a lots of vegan cooking sites. Some are my own concoctions and are - therefore - subject to significant variability. That's a fancy way of saying I just throw a bunch of stuff together without measuring. For those of you who would like a specific recipe - or a referral to the original online version - just send me a message here, on Facebook or to my e-mail.

Now, I'm getting seriously hungry and don't want to write about food any more. Do you know they told me not to eat for 15 HOURS?! I mean, WTH...I'm dying here. See you tomorrow.