Colors Everywhere!

As the rain continues to fall and the skies range from chalk to slate gray, flits of red and yellow began to appear around the bird feeders. Inspired by these little gems of spring, I decided to prepare a culinary bouquet of vegan goodness - bright colors, fresh flavors and healthy ingredients.

OK, actually, our colorful dinner was the result of a threat from LG. "If you make another brown meal like last night, you're FIRED!" [I have taken a bit of literary license here, but only with the words and implied tone. These have been added to create drama and mild suspense - she did, however, indicate she'd like a little more eye appeal, if possible.] Regardless of the specifics, suffice it to say I did prepare a pretty cool looking dinner and we were both satisfied with the effort.

Yes, we ate the little sweet peppers too!

Only a few months ago, LG was preparing a soup - not totally dissimilar to this one - and I recall saying, "Soup is a course, not a meal!" This attitude has allowed me to experience many delightful real meals without wasting stomach space with liquids and vegetables. It also increased the likelihood I'd have room for dessert. Need I mention the 25 (or so) additional pounds of fat that attitude got me?!

Now, here I am admitting that I ate soup last night...AS DINNER...and was perfectly satisfied with my meal. As you can see, we also had some raw veggies and a Doctor Kracker, Classic 3 Seed Flatbread - better known as "a cracker." These are great little crackers. They're totally organic, low in fat (4 grams, mostly from the seeds) and carry a nice dose of plant protein (5 grams.) By the time we finished our dinner, I admit to achieving a state of complete food satisfaction...and it was from soup!

Here's a quick summary of the soup prep - a can of tomatoes, a can of water, a can of rinsed red beans, a can of white beans - also rinsed, half a red onion, some fresh green beans and fresh peas, a variety of no-salt seasonings and some left-over frozen spinach. In keeping with the theme of "Color and Freshness (and cleaning out the fridge)" we also pitched some of our leftover Moroccan lentil/brown rice stuff into our bowls. There's enough left over for LG's lunch bag and I may even get another bowlful. Total prep and cooking time was about 15 minutes...easy-peasy.

We're feeling like winners. I'm kind of looking forward to a blood serum check at the end of the 4th week to see if my total cholesterol is under 240 for the first time in decades...most recently about 280. Whether it is or isn't, I know I'm healthier and it seems I'm making inroads on that 25 pounds I mentioned above. LG tells me she hasn't felt this good in a long time and certainly will be looking at some form of this new way of eating as a long-term venture. We're both pretty happy about all this!

As with all things, there must be a balance. Our gain with this healthy venture must become someone's loss. I doubt the local, very successful butcher has noticed our absence, and I never got to the point where the bakery people all knew me by name (except maybe "that fat bald guy who comes in for apple fritters and maple bars.") But lose someone must, as Yoda might say. the loser - Daisy. As you can tell by her photo, she was not pleased when our daily trips to town no longer involved the periodic burger and fries stop. I keep a bag of dog treats under the seat for her. Every time I pull it out, she tilts her head and looks at me as if to say, "No...really?! It's gonna be like that again, huh?" Yes, she eats the treats, but she also whimpers when we cruise past Dairy Queen and Burger King (Burgerville USA is just too far away and too infrequent a stop for her to have developed an attachment to that best-of-all-burger-chains.) Maybe one of these days I'll just buy her her very own burger to get her off my back for a while.

There are lots and lots of recipes out there for anyone who wants to try this kind of eating experiment. I suffer from a weakness I call reciphobia, the unnatural aversion to cooking like some tells me to (apologies for the preposition at the end.) You might have noticed that my descriptions of meal preparations use unusual measurements like "some", "a little", "other things." This is not shorthand...it's how I cook. It drives LG crazy sometimes when I tell her I don't know how I made something she likes. But, that's another story for a different day. Happy culinary trails!