Butternut Coconut Curry Soup : : Yum

Yesterday, being the day before Halloween, I felt the full crisp warmth of Fall hit me.  Pumpkin carving, baking, costume fittings and leaves crunching under my feet when I walked the dog.  I had an overwhelming urge to make soup...and not just any soup, but one using the butternut squash that has been sitting in my fruit/veg platter since last weekend.  So, before we headed out to the store to stock up on last minute Halloween supplies, I poked a few holes in the skin of my squash and threw it in the oven to roast while we were gone.  When we arrived home about an hour and a half later the house had that warm, nutty sweet smell that only a butternut will produce.

After a quick peeling session and throwing a little of this and a little of that in the blender I had a delicious, creamy, spicy warming soup.  I had mine with a salad and some toasted bread.

Chris and the boys, on the other hand, were looking pretty suspicious of the creamy orange concoction.
I asked everyone to at least have one taste and then if they didn't like it the could make something else. One by one they took their spoons and dipped them into the soup, and one by one they wrinkled their noses and said they would make their own dinners.  They decided on black bean burgers, which I am sure were good...but no way were they even close to this soup!

Sounds good to me...Now I can freeze half of the soup to have on a rainy day when I don't feel like cooking.


Here's the recipe...
Inspired by the Happy Herbivore cookbook's Sweet and spicy Butternut Soup, which I have made and love!

Butternut Coconut Curry Soup

4-6 servings depending on the size of your squash

• 1 med to large butternut squash, roasted.
• 1 can of green chilies, drained
• 1 can of light coconut milk
• 1/2ish cup of veg broth or non dairy milk (for thinning)
• 2 Tbs coconut oil
• 2 Tbs green curry paste
• Salt to taste
• Hot sauce to taste 

1. Roast your squash for an hour or so...depending on size.  Then peel the skin and remove the seeds.
2. Transfer squash to a blender with chilies, coconut oil, curry paste, and salt.
3. Add broth or other non dairy milk as needed to achieve the consistency you like, I like mine pour-able but not watery.
4. If your soup is still hot at this point you can serve straight from the blender, otherwise pour it into a saucepan to heat up before serving.
5. Drizzle some hot sauce on top after you dish up.  

Till soon

A

Healing : : How This all started

I have been thinking about how I started this journey toward healing myself.  About how people may not really know what brought me to this point.  I was trying to put a finger on the moment when I made the choice to do something about my circumstances rather than count on Doctors, medications and good old luck to provide me with the quality of life I hoped I would have for years to come.

I guess the seed was planted way back when I was first married to Chris, around 23 years old (11.5 magical years ago!), and we went to see a Rheumatologist together so Chris could get a better idea of what he had just signed up for.  Among many other completely cold and detached things the Doc told me that day he said, "you know, your life expectancy is about 10 years less than for the average healthy person and you should expect to be in a wheelchair at some point possibly in your 30's. But right now there isn't much I can do for you...just keep taking your meds."  Just like that he put limits on me...dropped them in my lap like a cold bologna sandwich.  Bam.

I am pretty sure I cried before we got to the parking lot...

I knew then that if I was going to be one of the people who had a better than "average" life with RA it would be because of something I did...otherwise I was on the average path to average-ville and those were the type of results I would get.   Or worse.

I didn't know anything at the time about diet affecting disease...other than the obvious diabetes, and maybe heart disease.  So I think all that happened that day was that my mind opened up to the idea of responsibility.  My responsibility in the course of my life.

I have, since that day, tried to eat a pretty healthy diet.  Mostly organic, lowish fat, not much sugar, whole grains.  But still I ate meat, LOVED cheese, drank milk and didn't think much about it.

Then about a year ago Chris and I watched a documentary called 'FOOD MATTERS' and it completely changed how I saw health and disease.  It opened my eyes to the idea that I was much more responsible for how I felt than I was aware of.  The way I viewed food completely shifted.  I now saw eating as nothing more that what it is...fuel.  If I put better fuel in this amazing body machine I will get better results.  It's that simple.

But what was the right fuel?!  Heck if I knew!

Here's where I enrolled myself in the 'Amanda's School of Healing with Food'.

I then watched a whole string of documentaries and read quite a few books, along with seeing a Naturopath and consulting my good old intuition.

Here's what I watched:
(by the way these are all available to stream or by mail on Netflix)

Food Matters

Forks over Knives

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

Crazy, Sexy, Cancer

Fed Up

Supersize Me

Food Inc.

Ingredients


Here's what I read (or Chris read and told me all about):

Crazy Sexy Diet

The China Study

Thrive

Animal, Vegetable Miracle

The Omnivore's Dilemma

In Defense of Food


I threw in some meditation and a therapist too...to heal this mind and soul.  Since it's all connected, right?


And slowly I learned what it was that my body needed.  The common theme in many of these films and books is not that these people all have the same illness as me, or ate the same types of food, or even have an illness...It's that they were struggling with the ideas of what is health, what is food, and wanting to know how to care for these bodies. And rather than just saying "Oh well, this is just life.  My body is sick now and that is just the way it will be"  or "Oh well, there are pesticides in my food. Guess that's the way food is now.  It'll probably be OK" they said, "Hey, Wait! I am not going to just accept this, I am going to DO something"

Well, I decided the same thing.  I am not going to just chug along in the Western Med Model of treating symptoms. I'm not just going to eat this Standard American Diet (S.A.D.)  I am going to treat my whole body with Love and Nutrition and heal my Whole Self.  Not just treat Symptoms, but Treat ME...all of me.

And..here I am Today.  Still definitely on this journey of healing and learning.

me : : now

Veg sushi we had for dinner last Saturday

So, I have come to the end of my elimination diet.  Really exciting side effect of the 'anti inflammatory' diet : : I have been able to completely eliminate all of the medications I was taking. 

Methotrexate (chemo drug) : : Gone. 

Humira (self injected biological drug) : : Gone. 

Don't need them.  I am essentially in remission.

Pretty amazing...and I'll admit, I wasn't really sure it was possible.

I have reintegrated all of the plant foods on my list, no animal foods ever again : : and I've learned a few things.  

Which is good, because that's the point of this whole rodeo, right?!  

What I've learned : : 

Gluten (all wheat, rye, barley, some oats) and nightshades (tomato, potato, peppers, eggplant) seem to be possible inflammation causing foods for me.  

After I reintroduced gluten I felt a bit off for a few days, but not in any acute pain.  After that I decided it was time to go all the way and eat some tomatoes!  

The day I had been waiting for.  

Salsa, tomato sauce, roasted peppers.  Um, yes please. 

After a few days I was not so good.  I felt 'slow'.  Which is how I will feel at the beginning of a flare.  This slow feeling usually is the beginning of a cycle of pain.  This time it was just the beginning of my left elbow hurting and all of my joints feeling a bit creaky. 

Sadly, I knew this meant either the gluten thing was escalating or the nightshades were not playing nice.  Either way I had to make a shift before I felt worse. 

I have re-eliminated them both in hopes of isolating the problem...ans secretly wishing that it is just one or the other.  

Not both : : please.  Okay thanx.

I have also gotten over the "what the heck do I cook" hump.  After I was able to reintroduce corn and soy I felt like the recipe possibilities were endless!  Having my food choices SO restricted for an entire month sure did change my perspective on a vegan diet.  What once seemed limiting, no animal products at all including eggs and milk, now seemed like an amazing bounty to work from. 

I'll be posting some pics of our meals in coming posts to give an idea of what we are or have been eating.  Some will likely have gluten or tomato's because they are just sitting in my camera from the last few weeks.

Till soon,

A

Vegan Pizza : : Garlicky White Sauce

Made a veggie pizza on the grill recently using cashew cream in lieu of cheese, it was pretty good but next time I would grill the veggies before putting them on the pizza.  Otherwise yum! 

Ingredients for a whole wheat pizza crust : : There are tons of recipes online .

Cashews soaking : : getting ready to be creamed

Pizza dough ball rising.

Cashew cream : : cashews, garlic, salt, pepper, basil, water.  Blend : : add water to get the right creaminess.

Put some sauce on.
Put the veggies on.
Put on the BBQ

We used : : zucchini, yellow squash, mushroom, onion

All cooked up.

Chris had his with tomato's and extra sauce on top.