Middle Eastern Red Lentil Soup

Okay, the key to making great soups is not to throw everything in the pot, but rather to saute garlic, onions, leeks, celery, Savoy cabbage and carrots in olive oil until translucent. Allow the flavours to come out! Once you have done this, you can add purified water and voila you have a great vegan stock.

Middle Eastern Red Lentil Soup
Serves: 8 - 10

3 onions, roughly chopped
2 shallots, roughly chopped
5 cloves garlic, peeled
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 leeks, whites only roughly chopped
2 cups chopped Savoy cabbage
2 carrots, roughly chopped
8 cups water
5 cups red lentils
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground corriander
1 teaspoon turmeric
Sea salt
Cracked black pepper

In a large enamel or stainless steel pot, pour olive oil and turn heat to medium. Add onions, shallots, garlic, celery, leeks and cabbage. Stir and allow to cook over medium heat for approximately 10 - 15 minutes or until translucent. Add water and lentils. Stir. Cover the pot and cook over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Remove lid. Stir and cook for a further 15 minutes. Season with cumin, corriander, turmeric, sea salt and pepper. At this point, you can use a hand-held mixer to puree a portion of the soup. Adjust seasoning before serving and remember, there is enough salt in vegetables without having to add too much.

Healthy tip: Lentils are a good source of minerals for nearly every organ in the body. Neutralize aicds produced in muscles.

Even if you are not a vegan or vegetarian, the richness of this soup easily replaces meat. A hearty rustic whole wheat bread would be a wonderful accompaniment to this outstanding soup, just to sop up any left in your bowl. Sprinking some great sprouts on top is another suggestion to give added crunch!

I made this soup today to eat for dinner and must say, it is outstanding in flavour.

Blue Hubbard Squash Soup

Squash is in season in southern Virginia and absolutely one of my favourite vegetables in the whole world. Like Bubba in "Forest Gump", this is one of those veggies, I could eat any way and be happy. Yesterday, wanting to make delicious soup using veggies I had at home, this is what I made. Some people may balk at the idea of peeling/cutting a whole squash, but it is rather relaxing and makes one focus while doing so. Blue hubbard squash is an heirloom variety and rather odd looking. It has a bluish tint, bumpy exterior and brilliant orange flesh, which is superb for making soups, bread, pies or mashed with dabs of butter, sea salt and pepper!

Blue Hubbard Squash Soup

1/8 cup unsalted organinc butter or 4 tablespoons olive oil
4 medium white onions, roughly diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
8 cups blue hubbard squash flesh cut into large chunks
2 medium sweet potatoes cut into large chunks
1 litre organic chicken stock or vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup heavy cream (optional)

First, peel or remove skin from squash. Cut into large squares, removing seeds (but do keep the seeds to bake in the oven!). Wash and cut sweet potato into large chunks (skin on).

Wash and dry squash seeds. Place on baking sheet and cook at 300F/150C heat for appoximately 20-25 minutes until crunchy. Remove from oven and add sea salt, if desired. Cool and reserve for soup.

In the meantime, melt butter over medium high heat in large enamel or stainless steel pot. Add onions and garlic and sweat for 3 minutes. Add squash, sweet potato, stock, cinnamon and ginger. Stir. Place lid on pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and cook until squash is tender (about 25 minutes). Adjust seasoning to taste with sea salt and cracked black pepper.

Puree soup with hand-held mixer. Add cream and mix well.

Serve with roasted squash seeds for added benefits.

This soup is great served as lunch or dinner, accompanied with a completely raw salad of greens and assorted seasonal vegetables with a house dressing of your choice.


Healthy Tips:

Squash is highly alkaline and contains calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, beta carotene and vitamin C. Squash seeds expels roundworms and tapeworms.
Sweet potatoes contain the same minerals and vitamins as squash and help dissolve excess mucus; clear sinuses and sore throats.
Garlic is antibacterial and helps lower cholesterol.

It is noon time and I am going to eat the Cayce way and have a completely raw salad of mixed greens, grated cabbage and carrots, diced tomato and chopped celery accompanied by a cup of my blue hubbard squash soup!

One thing about making a large batch of soup that is wonderful - you can freeze leftovers to pull out of the freezer for days you are too busy to cook! That is what I will do today.

My first radio interview on CBS Psychiconair

http://www.psychiconair.com/episode_download.php?contentType=36&contentId=4205545

Spirit running at the beach.

Italian Nights Dinner Recipe

Well, that was supposed to go along with my dog, Spirit's photo running on the beach, but I will try again!

Here is the recipe for the dinner I cooked this evening:

Roast Organic Chicken
1 small organic/free-range roasting chicken
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 lemon, cut into wedges
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
Sea salt
Cracked black pepper

Preheat oven to 375F. Thoroughly wash and pat dry chicken. Rub olive oil all over chicken. Place lemon wedges and fresh rosemary in the cavity of the chicken. Rub sea salt and cracked black pepper over chicken. Place chicken in roasting pan and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce heat and bake until internal temperature is 165F. Remove from oven and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Carve.

Italian Escarole and Cannelini Beans
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small head of escarole, washed and roughly chopped
1 8 oz. can cannelini beans, liquid reserved
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Sea salt
Cracked black pepper
Put olive oil in saute pan over medium heat. Add minced garlic and sweat for one minute. Add escarole and cook for several minutes until just wilted. Add cannelini beans and stir. Add lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

Mixed Salad
2 cups chopped mixed lettuce
1/2 avocado, sliced
1 tomato, cut into wedges

Lemon Vinaigrette
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
cracked black pepper
Pour ingredients into a non-reactive bowl and whisk until emulsified. Pour over composed salad and toss just before eating.

The more I know about food and its source, the more I want to eat the Cayce way!

The more I research about food and where it originates from, the more I am determined to only eat locally-grown, in-season foods bought directly from farms around here. Ditto for dairy products. I traveled to the Virginia Beach Farm Market yesterday to buy dairy products from a creamery there. I asked many questions about how the cows are raised, if the chickens are allowed outside, etc. Indeed only farms that treat animals with respect and are allowed to roam freely and not treated with hormones, etc. are the ones they deal with.

I saw videos of the farm and was pleased to find out that yes, you can actually visit the farm. That means they are being treated humanely and are not afraid of "being caught" on mistreatment. So many factory farms are treated as though top secret dealings are going on there! So, when you buy your food, ask lots of questions!!!! More often than not, if you are dealing with good vendours, they will be more than thrilled and delighted to tell you how proud they are of the origins of the food they sell!!!!!

The more I read about Edgar Cayce's philosophy on food, the more I realise that he was "right on" in his readings! If we fail to support our local farms and farm markets, we will starve because don't think the price of gasoline is not going to go up to exhorbant rates, so shipped in food will not be an option for the majority of society. Also, if possible, as Cayce suggested, start growing your own food to feed yourselves and those in need! I feel so fortunate to have a great back yard to have my own veggie garden.

And, speaking of which.......my Italian flat-leaf parsley is growing like mad right now! Hooray! I love cooking with it!

Tonight's dinner will be yummy! Oven roasted organic and free-range chicken (it is small, as real chickens should be!) basted with olive oil, sea salt, fresh rosemary from the garden and stuffed with lemons; Italian escarole and cannelini beans made with fresh garlic/lemon juice and olive oil with steamed organic carrots and a nice field of greens salad with lemon vinaigrette! Okay, so now I am really hungry after writing all of this down and the odours coming from the kitchen are making me ravenous!

It is so easy to cook healthy dinners! We just returned from our hair dresser's Curtis and April
- Amici Style at the beach! They are both totally into great food and I gave them a copy of my cookbook, as they will also be selling my book there! They are thrilled because they are trying to get back into eating healthy food and no packages! They will try each recipe in the book! I took them a container of the black bean humus found in my book and they all loved it! I was giving them a pep talk on how easy it is to cook, but to remember to buy from the source and only buy "real" food - i.e. vegetables, fish or whatever poultry, etc. they want and lots of fruit. They cannot wait to get back into a healthy regime, so that made my day to talk with them!

So, enjoy your meals and sit down together as a family or with friends - relax while you converse and chew your food!!!!!

Bon ap!

While relaxing in the Outer Banks, N.C. yesterday, I had the time to thoroughly read the newspaper for once! I came across an article which was highly disturbing regarding prepackaged cookie dough and e-coli. A Las Vegas woman is mute, her kidney and liver have shut down as well as many other life threatening symptoms, after eating several spoonfuls of Nestle's cookie dough. She is one of 80 people in 30 states to be sickened by the very deadly bacteria, E.coli 0157.H7.

I have never bought cookie dough, as I make my own with all organic ingredients, but this is just another example of how the food industry is unable to protect consumers. It is also another reason why people should be extremely careful when they buy food, especially processed foods. They should be avoided at all costs.

Food borne illnesses affect millions of Americans each year. It is enough to make one want to grown their own vegetables and fruits, and at the very least ensure you know where your food is coming from. Spend the extra cents and dollars to buy only the freshest, locally-grown and if possible, organic foods. You just might be saving your life!

I have become wary to eating out anymore, and when I do, am extremely careful of where I eat and what I eat. It is just not worth the risk of becoming ill. Of course, eating at home is my favourite option because I know the food I buy is fresh and I am extremely cautious in how I wash vegetables, fruits and meats. Also, the flavour I can achieve with fresh garden herbs is far superior than what I am normally served while dining out, with a couple of exceptions!

I did eat a local bistro last week, Croc's 19th Street Bistro. I know the owner and I asked where the chicken comes from. I did receive a very lovely Middle Eastern wrap with lots of fresh lettuce and free-range chicken and I could taste the goodness of it. However, with more frequency, I choose not to go out because I cannot trust what I am eating will not make me become ill. I think diners should take the time to ask where their food comes from when dining out! If more people adopted this prinipal, trust me restaurant owners will start adapting new standards!

Just be careful about what you eat and take the time to chew your food over and over. Cayce advised that this is a great way to alkaline your body! And, when your body is alkaline and not acid, your body will not become ill.