Italian-ish Stew by Nicole

Since I have been following ETL I have found some different blogs to check out and this is where I got this recipe from, a very hardworking ETL young woman named Nicole. Thank you Nicole this was so good. My new fave soup. Everyone who reads this must make this soup.
The recipe is:

2 cans of non salt cannelini beans
2 cups diced carrots
2 cups diced celery
3 medium onions diced
3-4 cloves of garlic
2 15oz cans of diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
2 cups of pearl barley
1 pkg of Boca Italian Sausage
1 tbsp basil
1 tbsp fennel seed
2 tsp rosemary
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
water (a lot)
a little veggie stock 1 cup or so

water saute onions, carrots, celery and garlic until soft. Add tomatoes and paste and heat through. Add barley and fill pot with water bring to a boil and let simmer until barley is tender, but still chewy. Add sausage and seasonings. Add veggie stock and let simmer lightly for a good hour. Serve hot with black pepper.

Again this was extremely good and I am so happy I had a lot of leftovers to freeze. We did eat it three nights in a row and I did not even get sick of it.

Tonight I made a smoothie and it was so good, it has to be one of my favorites since starting on the ETL bandwagon. The recipe is:

1/2 cup frozen strawberries
3/4 cup frozen cherries
1 tbsp ground flax seed
handful of raw cashews
1 cup almond milk
handful of goji berries
handful of baby arugula
three kale leaves water
2 medjool dates
1 tbsp good quality cocoa powder

blend and enjoy. This is my new fave smoothie.

Also tonight I made a sauce to top steamed Kale(which I used to hate and I have trained my self to love). According to Dr Fuhrman over at ETL, kale is the most nutritious foods on the planet(literally), so this means I have to love kale. Anyway, he must know how gross kale tastes because he has all of these healthy, creative recipes for sauces to pour over steamed kale in order to help people get it down their throats. SO the sauce I made tonight was called Sweet Potato Almond Sauce, here is the recipe:

2 cups steamed sweet potato
1/4 cup raw almond butter
juice of 1/2 a lime
1 cup water
plain soy milk as needed to find desired consistency

blend all ingredients in blender and pour over steamed kale (super food!) enjoy.
So Dr. Fuhrman is brilliant. Not only did he come up with sauces that we can drown our steamed kale in but these sauces are extremely healthful, so there is not need to worry about overdoing it. I was so excited about this. Needless to say ETL is great, though it is harder then any diet I have ever done. But this is not a diet it is a new way of life. I want to develop into a person that craves salads instead of Pizza Hut cheese bread sticks. Let's see if I can do it.

Enchiladas

Here are the enchiladas I made last night that were ETL friendly meaning, no processed anything, flour, sugar, oil, or salt. The recipe is:

Tofu Chorizo "sausage"

1 pound firm tofu
3 large dried ancho chiles
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp dried oregano
2 tsp mild paprika
1 1/2 cumin seeds
1/8 tsp dried chili flake
4 whole cloves
1/4-inch piece cinnamon stick
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp smooth peanut butter
1 1/4 cup vegetable stock

cut and press tofu. Meanwhile cut dried ancho chiles and get rid of seeds and stems, blister on a pan. Then crumble into a food processor with garlic, oregano, paprika, cumin seeds, chili flake, cloves, cinnamon stick, apple cider vinegar, PB, veggie stock. Food process until smooth and thick. Now marinate tofu and black beans in some of the sauce for one hour.

After marinating tofu and beans saute the tofu, beans and sauce in pan until most of the sauce is soaked up. Add the rest of the sauce to a glass pan and layer tofu/beans and corn tortillas with sauce. Bake in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes. Serve hot. "Not bad" was the verdict from the meat eater.

Okay Let's do Eat To Live

Hi I am back. My creativity has been crushed due to my new interest in Eat To Live. I have been really going back and forth with it becuase it is quite a big step. I can't have meat(which is easy anway), no dairy(I have been doing this anyway), no oil, no added salt, no processed white flour or sugar. The white flour thing is killing me, I never realized how addicted I was to it until now.
Anyway I am going to attempt to follow the Eat To Live way of life though it is hard and I have to realize I am not perfect. I will stay as close to it as I can, I will use salted products from time to time, though I will not add salt and I will not add processed oil. I will use sweeteners such as dates or date sugar to sweeten different foods. I will cut out white flour and basically never eat it.

So I have been following this diet for a few days now and I feel great though my cravings are insane. I made an enchilada last night with tofu and black beans with some guacamole on the side. I will post the pics tonight.