Chris Pedersen's Blog, page 18

What is Quinoa?

Quinoa (pronounced Keen – wah) is a Superfood—one of the only plant foods that provides a complete protein—offering all the essential amino acids in a healthy balance.

Quinoa has an unusually high ratio of protein to carbohydrate since the germ makes up about 60% of the grain. For comparison, wheat germ comprises less than 3% of a wheat kernel. Additional features of quinoa include:
Highest in potassium of all the whole grains, which helps control blood pressure. Gluten-free, making it extremely useful to the celiac community and others who may be gluten sensitive. Although technically not a grain, botanically quinoa is related to beets, chard and spinach.  Bolivian Farmer with Quinoa crop in the Andes, South America
Photo: Michael Hermann—http://www.cropsforthefuture.org/It’s a very cost effective base grain that can be used to create different recipes. Use it for dinner in place of rice, in salads and for breakfast.

Quinoa is a 5,000-year-old ancient grain grown in the Peruvian and BolivianAndes. Buying it helps support farmers in underdeveloped communities. It is the original non-GMO seed.

How to Prepare Quinoa for Breakfast
If you can boil water you can make quinoa for your family—and it’s inexpensive at about 50 cents per serving. These directions are for cooking quinoa for any recipe.

• Use 1 cup of quinoa to 1½ -­ 2 cups of water to equal 4 servings
• Use saucepan with lid, measuring cup and small wire-mesh strainer

1. Rinse the Quinoa in cold water and pour through the mesh strainer to remove the bitter husks and grit (Important).
2. Boil the water (optional: add a little olive oil or salt).
3. Add the quinoa, letting it boil for a moment as you stir.
4. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook for about 15 minutes.
5. For breakfast serve with fresh fruit or trail mix. Add maple syrup and a splash of almond or coconut milk.
6. Store any leftovers in a container with lid to re-­heat later.

Hint: Use vegetable or chicken broth instead of water for dinner recipes

While no single food can supply all the essential life sustaining nutrients, quinoa comes closer than most. Try it and I think you will find yourself eating it on a regular basis like me.

Have you ever eaten quinoa and if so, what's your favorite way to prepare it? I love it for breakfast.

13 Bean Vegetable Soup

For the chills and cold weather, here's a soup I've made twice now. Bought a bean mix from the bulk bins at my favorite grocery store (Nuggett Market—sorry it only has locations around the greater Sacramento, California area). They have a huge produce section right up front that extends most of the width of the store. Behind the produce are the bulk bins with an assortment of items like flours, grains, nuts and trail mix.

You can also pick up Bob's Red Mill 13 Bean Soup Mix off the grocery shelf and you'll be ready to go.

Remember you need to soak the beans overnight. So plan ahead.
13 Bean Vegetable Soup

from Chris Pedersen
yield 6-8 servings
category Soupcuisine Vegan
ingredients2 C 13 bean mix4 C vegetable broth2 C filtered water1 Tbsp olive oil1 C chopped onion4 cloves garlic, minced1 red bell pepper, chopped1 zucchini, chopped2 broccoli stalks, chopped1 28 oz can diced tomatoes2 tsp smoked paprikasalt and pepper to taste
directions1. Wash the 13 bean mix and soak overnight. Drain and rinse the next morning.2. In a large pot, add beans, water and broth. Bring to boil then reduce heat to simmer for 3 hours or until beans are soft.3. When beans are almost done, add olive oil to pan over medium heat. Saute onion until cooked.4. Add garlic, red pepper, zucchini and broccoli to onions. Cook until veggies begin to soften (about 5 minutes).5. Add cooked veggies, diced tomatoes and paprika to pot of beans. Add more water if desired. Simmer 30 minutes to heat. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Simple and easy to make. If you don't have the vegetables listed in the recipe, no worries. Use what you have. No magic to this. Just wholesome, healthy and alkalizing in the body.

What's your favorite bean soup recipe?

Wisdom Wednesday

Tip:
Top seven alkalizing vegetables: Spinach, Kale, Cucumber, Celery, Bell Peppers, Avocado and Broccoli. You should eat one or more every day.

Cancer Checkup Results—Part 2

I just got an email from my GI with the results of the biopsy for the 13 polyps they found and removed at my colonoscopy on Wednesday (January 8, 2014).

The polyps were all BENIGN! Meaning not cancerous, not pre-cancerous. Benign! Not harmful in effect the dictionary says.

Hopefully I can rest and relax in knowing that what I am doing with diet, exercise, sleep and attitude is working despite the stress in the past (which I will leave there).

Thank you to all who supported me in prayer and thought. You mean so much to me. I love you like you will never know.

Wahoo! I'm going out for a run now.

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.      ~ Numbers 6:24-26

Cucumber & Wakame Salad with Clementines

This recipe comes from Summer Tomato's Elyse Kopecky. I love seaweed and need the iodine so thought I'd try it. Searching through our local grocery stores yielded no wakame. So I put the idea in the back of my mind and went about life. Then it happened. While on my way to a seminar on platform (you know… having one means you have thousands of followers, thus publishers and consumers pay attention), I saw a sign that read International Market. "Oooo!" I thought. "I must check that out afterwards."
I hit the motherlode! The market was huuuuuuuge—bigger than a football field. Giant produce section, live and fresh seafood and aisles dedicated to every culture you can think of. If you don't see what you're looking for, tell the owner and he'll bring it in.I walked in the door to the food court, turned left, cruised past the assorted cooking and serving ware then spotted what I thought might be the seaweed section. Bingo! Now to find the wakame amongst the many kinds of seaweed offered... found it!
The Summer Tomato version of this salad called for navel orange segments, but the salad warranted smaller segments (IMHO). Winter is citrus season and I always have my favorite variety, the clementine orange, in the fridge. Voilà! Small, sweet and seedless, it gives the perfect sweetness to any salad.  Scored & Sliced Cucmbers Chopped WakameCucumber Wakame Salad with Cuties
from Elyse Kopeckyyield 5 servings
category Saladcuisine Vegan
ingredients1 pound cucumbers (persian variety best)sea salt
1/2 oz wakame (~1/2 Cup)4 Clementine oranges (Cuties)3 Tbsp olive oil1 Tbsp rice or apple cidar vinegar1 clove garlic, minced1 tsp Dijon mustardtoasted sesame seeds or Gomasio (optional)
directions1. Wash and score cucumbers along length with a fork and slice thinly. Sprinkle with sea salt and set aside for 30 minutes.2. Soak wakame for 15 minutes in cold water, drain and chop.3. Drain excess liquid from cucumbers. Check for saltiness. Rinse lightly if too salty then pat dry. Add wakame to cucumbers.4. Peel and segment the oranges.5. Whisk together remaining ingredients (except sesame seeds) and pour over vegetables. Toss with oranges segments.6. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Sprinkle with sesame seeds or Gomasio and enjoy.
I elected to sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on the salad since I had some Gomasio in my pantry. What is Gomasio? It's dry roasted, sesame seed ground with sea salt and garlic powder. Eastern cultures do not put straight salt on food. They use condiments like gomasio to balance and enhance. Sesame seed oil, released by roasting, coats the salt and amplifies it for more taste with less salt.

Maybe you've never tried seaweed—except perhaps when you ate a California roll. How about a New Year's challenge to try some different foods in 2014. This is an easy and delicious recipe to check that off.

Have you ever tried seaweed? What kind, what was the dish and where did you eat it?

Putting Things in Perspective

I hear my stomach growl and rumble, and feel mild pain in my lower abdomen. Results of my colonoscopy yesterday. Feeling a bit melancholy after 10 hours sleep. Routine for being "banged" around yesterday…

Getting slapped across the face by an animated RN speaking to a fellow nurse as I was led to my curtained gurney in the pre/post op room, lined with waiting or recovering patients…

Three needle pricks before getting a good vein for the IV…
Waiting over an hour before being wheeled into the room for the procedures…

Feeling the sleep-inducing sedative wash over my body while I heard attendants and doctor chatter about Miley Cyrus' behavior…

Reacting to the pain of an instrument shoved into my colon before the drugs took full effect…

Waking in a drug-induced stupor wondering am I done?…

Loopy, curled up and back within the curtained area of the pre/post op room, my husband now by my side, the nurse reports... doctor removed 13 polyps…

Feeling numbed by the report…

Wanting to know more details…

Today I grapple with the wait. Hoping, praying that the pathology comes back small sizes (no bigger than 6mm) and benign (no pre-cancer or cancer).

A little trinket brought back from our trip to Haiti in 2005 caught my attention. Bob and I went to Haiti to visit our Compassion sponsored child, Whatline, and met 3-year-old Jorkaeff whom we now sponsor. This wooden carved bell bears an inscription that brings a valuable perspective. One I needed to hear.

No one listens to the cry of the poor or the sound of a wooden bell ~Inscription

Before that I read this from scripture: Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. ~Ecclesiastes 1:2

I got it! I hope you all can see.

Cancer Checkup Results—Part 1

I've been up from a nap and warming by the fire for about 45 minutes following my colonoscopy today. I know you're all anxious for the results. Thank you all who prayed and kept me in mind while you went through the day.

Bottom line, the outcome was good, but not the best. I had 13 small polyps—no size indicated.

My upper GI was all good. Yay!

My next screening will be in 2 years. Looks like that will be the schedule for the rest of my life.

The polyps are sent to pathology and I should have the results in a week. I'll let you know the outcome.

Yes, I am relieved. Love to you all!

My Cancer Checkup

Time to Check for Cancer
It's been two years and six months since my last colonoscopy. Time to check my progress at warding off cancer in my colon despite my genetic defect. I'm sitting at my laptop, sipping my warm veggie broth for lunch because today is Prep Day. Tomorrow is the scheduled "inspection."

Reality Check
I wanted you to know that despite my efforts with my diet, sleep, exercise and attitude over the past 2 1/2 years, I have concerns. I put up a good show, but I can't help feeling nervous about the whole thing. Not knowing. Of course after tomorrow, I'll know.

As this day approached, I got more antsy about the whole thing. It brings up how vulnerable I am as an imperfect human. Ultimately, I have to face that I'm are not getting out of this world alive. We all know this, but love to shove the thought aside.
Attitude Challenge
One of the important roots of good health I teach is attitude. Unfortunately there is plenty in life that can challenge a positive attitude. In my life, we have endured a very stressful 2 1/2 years. The economy has been unkind to us—as it has been to so many. Tomorrow's colonoscopy is made possible because my husband now has a good job following more than 2 years of unemployment or underemployment, which resulted in losing our home. The sad part? We are not alone… but that's a subject for another day.

At any rate, major stress surrounding my life has been something I've attempted to overcome. But I had plenty of periods of feeling hopeless. Yup! I did a lot of crying and yelling over these past years. Some directed at God—He's big enough to take it. But too often I felt that gnawing in my gut… you know… the little campfire that gets going. Most people call it an ulcer.

Okay! So there. I said it. I'm scared of what all the stress I've been under has done to my health.

Abundant Grace
Fortunately, we had lots of folks praying for us, which I'm certain kept us sane and oddly enough feeling at peace… despite the hopelessness. God's grace is abundant.

What I have realized, along with my husband, is that oftentimes God needs to break us to bring his grace to light.

“Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.” ~Abraham Lincoln

This website came about because I wanted to share with the world that you can heal yourself of cancer—or any other disease for that matter. However… and that's a big however… there are plenty of things we can't control that affect us badly. Like toxins in the environment, losing a job, death in the family, accidents… add your own.

So if you're a praying person, I covet your prayers for a clear colon tomorrow. Thank you for listening. I'll let you know the outcome.

Happy New Year & Blackeyed Peas

Wishing you all a Happy New Year as we ring in 2014. I'm looking forward to a better year than 2013.  How about you?

Since so many of you have a tradition of eating blackened peas on New Years, I wanted to add the Healthy Journey Cafe favorite, Parsnip, Broccoli & Blackeyed Pea Soup.

This great soup recipe is a hearty veggie soup with
Families love this soup originally posted in January 2011 and again October 26, 2012.
Parsnip, Broccoli & Blackeyed Pea Soup
From Chris PedersenYield 4 Servings
Category SoupCuisine Healthy, Vegan
Ingredients1 Tbsp olive oil1/2 onion, chopped1 clove garlic, crushed11/2 C water or vegetable broth1/2 tsp basil (or 11/2 Tbsp fresh chopped)1 parsnip, chopped1 celery stalk, sliced1 carrot, chopped1 C chopped cabbage1 broccoli stalk, separated into small pieces1 15oz can blackeyed peas 1 15oz can cut tomatos
Directions1. Add oil to saucepan. Cook onions and garlic on medium-high heat.2. Add water or broth.3. Add remaining veggies and stir. Cook covered until heated through.4. Add blackeyed peas and tomatoes. Stir to mix.5. Cook for 5 minutes on medium heat. Veggies should be a bit crunchy.6. Serve
What's your favorite blackeyed pea recipe for New Years?

Vegan Minestrone Soup Recipe

I'm still enjoying this scrumptious, hearty soup because it makes enough to freeze for leftovers. This recipe comes from Summer Tomato by contributing blogger Eylse Kopecky of FresHabits. Elyse used meat sausages, but I made it vegan with Tofurky sausages.* I also used a gluten-free quinoa and corn rotelle (available in the bulk bins at Nugget Markets in the greater Sacramento area). The quinoa/corn pasta really made the flavor of the soup shine through.

This soup is easy to make and so good, its sure to be a staple in my menu rotation this winter.

Vegan Minestrone Soup

From Elyse Kopecky (modified to make it vegan)Yield 10 servings
Category SoupCuisine Italian (Healthy, Vegan)
Ingredients 3 Tbsp olive oil1 leek, top and bootom trimmed, sliced into half-moons1 yellow onion, diced2 carrots, 1/2 inch slices3 celery stalks, 1/2 inch slices3 cloves of garlic, minced1 tsp sea salt2 zuchinni, half length-wise and sliced1/2 cabbage, chiffonade (thin slices)1 tsp oregano1/2 tsp pepper2 vegan sausages, sliced thin (1 spicy, 1 mild Tofurky sausage)1 32 oz box of vegetable broth1 32 oz box of low-sodium vegetble broth1 14.5 oz can chopped tomatoes1 14.5 oz can cannelline beans, drained and rinsed1 C rigatonni, penne or rotelle pasta
Directions1. Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in large soup pot over medium heat. Saute leek, onion, carrots celery and garlic with salt for 10 minutes stirring frequently to prevent browning.2. Add zucchiini, cabbage, oregano and pepper,. Saute an additonal 10 minutes adding additional olve oil if needed.3. Brown the sausages in a pan over medium heat with a bit of olive oil. Stir while cooking about 5 minutes.4. Add broth, tomatoes, beans and cooked sausage to veggies. Bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes.5. Cook pasta in sauce pan of boiling water. Test for al dente. Drain and set aside.6. Place a serving of pasta in individual bowls and ladle soup on top. (Non-vegan option: sprinkle grated Monchego [goat] cheese on top)
*Tofurky sausages are not gluten-free. Leave out to make the soup gluten-free and choose a gluten-free pasta.

Do you have a favorite minestrone soup that shows up on your table in the winter?