Sushi Salad

I crave this salad and have made several different versions, adding or subtracting veggies, depending on what I have on hand. Be creative. Make your taste buds happy while eating healthy!

2 cups cooked brown rice*

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1/2 cup cucumber, diced
1 avocado, peeled and diced
1 carrot, shaved with a peeler
2 small scallions, minced

1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger root, minced or grated

1–2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1 cup cubed tofu

1 tablespoon olive oil

Wasabi to taste

Place rice in a bowl and drizzle with rice vinegar. Once it has cooled, add the veggies, ginger, sesame seeds, tofu, and olive oil. Serve with wasabi on the side.

*To make rice exceptional, coat with coconut oil before cooking. This way it doesn't clump and has a smoother texture. 

Tofu Scramble

As of two weeks ago I no longer eat soy—my stomach just can't digest it like it should—but I snapped some pictures of a few of my favorite recipes prior to making this diet change. I didn't want to keep these yummy dishes from you, so even though I won't be eating them exactly as the recipes call for, I still wanted to share them with you.

If you aren't into tofu, replace with garbanzo beans—my taste buds actually prefer it this way. I always double this recipe so that I have plenty of leftovers. Enjoy!

1–2 tablespoons coconut oil, or olive oil
1/2 cup onion, minced
1/2 cup carrots, diced
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 tub firm tofu, or 2 cups garbanzo beans, soaked and cooked
 Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Heat oil in a frying pan and add onions, carrots, and celery. Cook until veggies are soft. Then add parsley and turmeric, and stir. Crumble tofu (or garbanzo beans) and add to pan. Stir some more. Continue to heat for about 5 minutes more, or until heated through. Salt and pepper to taste.

Experiment Update: Irritable Bowel Syndrome

When I started this blog, my intention was to experiment with a new, healthier way of eating to see if it would cure me of a number of ailments. (Click here for the entry that started it all and a complete list of the illnesses I decided to declare war on.) The biggest change I have yet to see has to do with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). I've had serious intestinal problems since I was fourteen years old, so for about fifteen years now, and went to doctor after doctor. Finally when I was twenty-two they labeled me with IBS, since they didn't know what else to call it. But as many of you know, that doesn't solve the problem. They just tell you to eat a lot of fiber and to get on antidepressants because you have a nervous stomach. Nope. Not buying it.

So on March 8th I paid my last visit to my gastroenterologist up at Huntsman Cancer Institute and stopped eating dairy—what I thought was "the impossible"—and I can say 100 percent that that was the best decision I could've ever made for my body. No more visits to the gastroenterologist, no more pain, and no more thought about my colon—he's a happy little guy now.

Over the past 7 years I've had 5 colonoscopies to remove precancerous polyps (adenoma) and regular-old polyps (hyperplastic). My next colonoscopy is scheduled for a year from now, so the next part of my experiment is to see if my colon will stop producing polyps because of my healthy eating. That's my plan. It'd be a miracle, but I believe in miracles, and I've already seen miracles happen since I've been reaching for green.

Here are the main changes I've made to my eating habits during the past 6 months:

-No dairy. (I now drink almond milk, eat coconut oil instead of butter, and use hummus instead of mayo.)
-No table sugar. (I've replaced this with raw honey, stevia, and agave.)
-No white flour. (In July this evolved into using gluten-free flour, which as of last week evolved into no flour at all. More to come on this.)
-No processed foods or preservatives.
-No meat, except fish and eggs. (I now load up on beans and lentils. Until last week I ate a lot of quinoa and soy, but not anymore. More to come on this.)
-Leafy greens.
-Plant-based protein.
-Fresh fruits and veggies.
-Whole grains.

To be completely honest, making these food changes has been the hardest thing I've ever done. It's not for the weak at heart. But I want to move without pain and regain my life back more than I want a plate of Oreos and a glass of milk. It all comes down to what we really want out of life and what we're willing to do to get it. (I can see my cute mom doing a cheer right now, literally. Cheerleaders never die.) If you're on the fence, maybe start by making one small change in your eating habits and then making another. I promise that if you're consistent, you will see a difference and it will be worth it. My experiment is working!

Tip #1: How not to smell like throw up.

This morning I woke up to find mush. Moosh. Garbanzo bean mush. Yuck. I was planning to soak the beans for 48 hours (changing the water every 12 hours), but somehow I lost track of the days and let them soak double that. Whoops. So I picked through the mush and pulled the skin off most of the beans, and now have them in the pressure cooker. Almost time to make hummus. Except I smell disgusting now. I've washed my hands over and over again, but I smell like throw up. Garbanzo beans don't have the most pleasant smell, so to avoid smelling like throw up, don't over soak your garbanzo beans.

Please pass the green!

Last weekend I joined a fellow at his work party. The buffet wasn't as expansive as we expected, so when I got to the end of the line, all I had on my plate was a pile of lettuce and three slices of tomato . . . until I noticed the cheese platter garnish. Kale. KALE! I eat kale. So I carefully tugged at one of the leafs with the metals tongs, trying to be inconspicuous and searching for a way to not leave a bald spot in the decor. As I was taking my second piece of kale, I glanced up directly into the eyes of a little girl, probably 8 or 9 years old. I smiled at her over the buffet table. She froze, expressionless. I laughed, and she grinned and looked down. My guess is she was thinking, "People eat that stuff?" I hope she tried it, just to see for herself. So now you know not to overlook the garnish.

Spinach and Edamame Soup

When it comes to recipes and easy gourmet dishes, the Dinner at Your Door authors—Alex, Andy, and Diana—know what's up. One of my all-time faves is their Spinach and Edamame Soup. Since making it over the last couple months, I've altered it slightly to meet my new vegan diet (e.g., opting for vegetable broth instead of chicken broth and replacing butter with coconut oil), but I actually can't hardly tell a difference in flavor! To read more about these three amazing women and their book Dinner at Your Door: Tips and Recipes for Starting a Neighborhood Cooking Co-op, click here.

Spinach and Edamame Soup
(serves 6)

1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 organic carrots
6 cups vegetable broth
20 ounces fresh spinach, large stems removed
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup coconut oil, room temperature
1/2 cup flour
12 ounces shelled, frozen edamame, thawed
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Throw onion in turbo blender or food processor, and chop. Then saute onion until translucent. Add garlic and stir for 1 minute.

2. Throw carrots in turbo blender or food processor long enough to chop. (You'll end up pureeing the carrots later, so not worries about the carrots' chopped appearance are at this point.) Then add carrots and broth to pot. Bring to a boil and simmer until carrots are tender.

3. Add spinach to broth and cook until spinach is just wilted. Remove soup from heat to cool. Pour soup into turbo blender in several batches and blend. I usually have a pitcher on the side into which I can pour the pureed soup. Once the entire pot of soup is blended to your satisfaction, pour back into pot and set heat to medium.

4. Combine nutmeg, coconut oil, and flour in a small bowl to make a paste. If your coconut oil isn't quite room temperature, let the mixture sit in the sunlight for a few minutes to make it easier to stir. Then whisk this paste into the reheated soup and cook for 5 minutes.

5. Add edamame to the soup and simmer until barely tender and still bright green. Stir in lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste.

I promise you will love this soup! Thanks for dinner (and lunch . . . and sometimes breakfast) Dinner at Your Door!

Boy meets girl.

Boy meets girl. Girl meets boy. Boy and girl watch fireworks and then carry on interesting conversation, interesting enough that girl wouldn’t mind if boy wants her phone number. He does. Girl awaits his call with actual anticipation.

Boy calls girl. Girl answers. Boy and girl talk endlessly about everything (including girl's new health regimen and all that that entails), and girl believes they were meant to talk to each other forever. Boy calls again. And again. Girl answers every time. Girl even calls boy and he answers. Boy asks girl out. Girl accepts. Boy is going to look up all the vegetarian, vegan, and veggie-friendly restaurants in the area to take girl somewhere where she can comfortably eat the food.

Boy picks girl up. Girl . . . lets him pick her up? (Can't think of anything better.) Anyways, boy is thirty minutes late, but girl looks mighty fine in her new Plato’s Closet short-sleeve sweater dress and doesn't mind at all. Boy sees her and says, “Oh, you’re wearing sandals . . .” Girl says, “Uh-huh. What do you mean? What are we doing?” Boy says, “We’re going up in the canyon.” Girl says, “I don’t have a jacket.” Boy says, “Oh. Yeah." Then boy continues, "And we’re doing a BBQ and bonfire up there, so do you have any food at your place you can eat?” Girl says, “No, you idiot, but if you’d told me even half an hour ago I could’ve though.” Okay, girl really didn’t say that, but she did communicate that with her body language, tone, attitude, and eye contact. Just not her words. Instead she said, “Well, why don't you take me back home, and I’ll change my clothes. I don’t have anything at my house to grill because I’m vegan and you know that and we’ve talked hours about how hard it is to find food I can eat when it’s a date or social event, but I guess we can see what I can find at the grocery store.” Okay, she didn’t say all that either, but basically. Perfect beginning to a first (and last) date.

Boy grills steak. Girl grills salmon. (Good thing girl's a seafood-eating vegan.) The food is delicious enough to at least cloud girl’s memory of how the first hour of the date went down. Then girl's chair topples down the hill with her still in it, and she remembers. Half way through the night girl's RA starts to flare up hard core in her left shoulder, and boy comes to the rescue with a shoulder massage, although unfortunately pointing out that girl's deltoid is almost nonexistent. 

Boy hasn’t called girl since. Girl hasn’t called boy since, although she needs to because boy still has her camping chair and salt shaker. And they lived happily ever after. The End.

How do you get enough protein if you're not eating meat or dairy?

One of the main questions I get from people is, "How do you get enough protein if you're not eating meat or dairy?" Maybe some of you have been thinking the same thing and didn't dare ask. Well, first of all, the typical American diet actually provides us with an overabundance of protein. So the amount of protein I was used to eating was actually more than I needed.

So how do you know how much protein your body needs? I found a health calculator created by the University of Maryland Medical System that asks your age, height, gender, and frame size, and how active you are. It looks like this:

My results show that I need 67 grams of protein a day. If you're body isn't as healthy as it should be, it's good to get a little bit more protein than average, so I aim for about 75 grams of protein a day. Click here to calculate your protein.

So are you wondering what I could possibly eat to get that much protein without eating one bit of animal protein? Well here are some of the protein-rich foods I incorporate into my diet and how many grams of protein they contain per serving:

almonds (raw), 30g

black beans, 15g

brown rice, 5g

garbonzo beans (aka: chickpeas), 16g

kidney beans, 13g

lentils, 18g

lima beans (raw), 11g

millet (raw), 22g

peanut butter, 8g

peas (raw), 8g

quinoa (raw), 24g

soy beans (aka: edamame), 29g

spinach, 5g

sunflower seeds, 6g

sweet potatoes, 4g

tempeh, 41g
tofu, 9g

The numbers I gave you above greatly depend on the amount of food and how you prepare your food. For example, one ounce raw ground almonds is 6g protein, but one cup raw whole almonds is 30g protein. It all depends what you set the amount to be. Because of this I say, click here and do your own calculating. This site allows you to plug in foods from Arby's to Coldstone to dear old Mother Earth, and asks for details about the way you prepare your food. The nutrients (including protein) depend greatly on the food's preparation—is it raw or cooked? It's amazing how much nutrients food lose when they're cooked. Check out the comparisons and decide how you should be eating your food for optimum nutrients.

And these other fruits and veggies also contain protein but in smaller amounts. Feel free to look up the exact amounts yourself (because I gotta get back to work!), but now you know how easy it is to get enough protein just from eating stuff that grows out of the ground.

avocado
bananas

Brussels sprouts

cabbage
cantaloupe
grapes
grapefruit
honeydew

kale

mushrooms
onions
parsley

pineapple

raisins

strawberries

tangerines

zucchini

Experimenting with Green Smoothies

I tried something a little different yesterday for my green smoothie, I purchased dino kale, green chard, and papaya for the first time. I like to mix it up now and then and add some variety. I usually put in frozen fruit but this time everything was fresh and made for a very yummy smoothie!

Greens:
Dino Kale
Purple Kale
Green Chard

Fruits:
Papaya (seeds and skin included)
Raspberries
Peaches
Strawberries
Banana

*I also threw in some sunflower seeds I sprouted.

Fake it till you make it.

Just now on my way home from visiting my cousin Laney (who, by the way, grows the sweetest strawberries I've ever tasted), I decided to remove my hanging handicap pass from my rearview mirror. If I'm to get better, I need to act like I'm healthy and think like I'm healthy. So now I'll most likely be setting up a silent auction for my two handicap passes. They've still got two good months before they expire and they look quite attractive when the sunlight hits them through your windshield. They slide easily into a purse or briefcase, and they get you rock star parking no matter where you go.

Can foods increase or decrease your pain?

Sometimes process of elimination is the best way to figure out what makes your body happy and what doesn't. Months ago when I was first diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), I read about nightshade vegetables. Tomatoes are one of them. So are eggplant, potatoes, and peppers. Some people say these are the culprits for increased arthritis pain, while others say there is no connection. Only you can decide what's best for your body.

All I know is, my RA symptoms mysteriously doubled this past week and old pains came back, so I decided to cut tomatoes from my diet. Now, you have to understand that I love tomatoes more than I love(d) Oreo cookies. Tomatoes are my number one food staple for salsa, marinara sauce, spaghetti sauce, salads, and in pitas and tacos, etc. But since I've eliminated tomatoes this week, my hands have felt the best they've ever felt (since March), and my feet, which had become so painful to walk on, have felt 99 percent better the past three days. Whatever works, right? We're all about feeling better naturally. Do your own experimenting and see what you could eliminate from your diet to get feeling healthier.

For more information on the alkaloids in nightshade vegetables and how they may cause inflammation and affect people with joint pain, click here.

Something Sweet

Here is a recipe for 'Chocolate Balls'. I have to admit, I wasn't sure if I liked this at first, but I have come to really like it. Although I can't seem to get my kids to eat them. I store mine in ziploc bags in the freezer and have a cool treat now and then.

Chocolate Balls

1 cup Raw Almond Butter
1 cup Raw Tahini
1/2 cup Flax Seeds, freshly ground (optional)
1/2 cup Agave
1/2 cup Raw Chocolate Powder
1/8 tsp Sea Salt

Mix all together in a bowl, roll into balls, and chill. Optionally roll in chopped nuts or shredded coconut.

(I was not able to roll mine into nice looking balls, if any of you have a trick to do that let me know. I placed mine on a cookie sheet with saran wrap and froze them. Then took them out, placed them in a ziploc bag and stored them in the freezer.)

Not for Long

In two weeks my Salt Lake self is being put to rest in the city cemetery next to that hauntingly creepy ghost story woman. Long past dusk we crept over the chain link in search of her. Never found her (even though friendly Mr. Officer found us), but I've still got time. Two weeks. Two weeks to eat my oat groats with the morning cool and the box elder bug babies and my little parsley plant on the balcony. Two weeks to smile at the sycamore trees on Michigan Avenue and dream of the day I'll have my own mini window in my front door and listen to Josh Ritter tell me how hard I am to love.

Fourteen days to hike up Emigration Canyon and be able to call it my own and visit my neighbors the three rowdy tiger cubs and run across the street to catch the shuttle to campus. I've got fourteen whole days to visit my little ducky friends at Garden Park and listen to the trees in the gully and talk to the rushing water. Sometimes it's all I need. Fourteen days to not feel so far away. I still need to partake of the Patagonia Outlet, pay Park City a visit, eat at Omar's, tour the Masonic temple, meander through my favorite corners of the Avenues, discover more secret gardens, reek of camp fire, and just be one hundred percent in the moment. Walks and talks and friends I love. I'm pretty sure this is exactly what it feels like to know you're dying.

But the downtown farmers markets will bring me back at least once a week and so will the refugees and so will you. Please promise to put flowers on my grave, and I just may come back for a day. Or three. My new home feels too far away.

It's Possible to Live on Hummus

Hummus is my new mayo, miracle whip, veggie dip, and dressing, and boy do I wish I'd discovered it years ago. Sure I'd buy it ready-made from the store every once in a while or order it as an appetizer at Mazza. I indulged in plenty of hummus last year when I was visiting the Middle East, but I never knew it was so versatile. Or maybe I've just become more creative now that my food options are more limited.

The biggest problem I first found with making hummus is that the recipes were too lemony. And one even burned my mouth, there was so much garlic! So I gave up for a while. Then I tried again and the texture was too thick and lumpy. Well, I finally found the perfect combo. If this still isn't your perfect combo, keep at it and make it work for you.

1 can chickpeas (or 2 cups soaked and cooked chickpeas)
1/4 cup tahini
1 tablespoon lemon juice (or add more if you so desire)
small handful parsley
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (or substitute with coconut oil)
Approximately 1/4 cup water, depending on the texture you prefer
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cumin

Blend all ingredients in your Blendtech. It's so much smoother and creamier with the extra water, but maybe you'll want to add it gradually to the blender until it's the consistency you like. I usually double this recipe, but make it in two separate batches since the blender can only handle one batch at a time. Then I put half the hummus in the fridge and half in the freezer, and then I'm set for about two weeks if it's just me eating it.

Lately I've been eating my hummus on sprouted tortillas with lettuce, cucumber, and tomato. I can attest that it is possible to live on hummus.

How do you eat your hummus?

June

JUNE is the smell of vine-ripened tomatoes that triggers memory after memory of watering my dad's garden to the setting California sun. And picking zucchini the size of baseball bats. It's morning sunlight and carefree wildflowers and fuzzy baby quail waddling along the back fence. It's cut grass and baseball and endless weekends. Summer storms and evening hikes and a renewed hope for romance, of course. And farmers markets and new yummy recipes and late nights with the windows open and the fire pit ablaze. And lots and lots of beautiful words on paper that come together only at dusk. (Maybe I should've waited till dusk to write this post.)

Fatigue in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease where the body thinks the joints are foreign and attacks them. Part of the disease includes fatigue. Now, I've been experiencing this fatigue since the end of March, and some days I know I was on my feet too long or danced when I should've sat still, so not being able to move the next day makes sense. I just blame it on my forgetfulness—I still haven't had RA long enough to remember that my body needs more rest now. But I actually just came across a very informative Web site by the RA Warrior that not only shares pertinent info about RA but also explains where the fatigue comes from.

Naturally when your body is sick (or thinks it's sick, as it does with autoimmune diseases) it releases chemicals called cytokines. Some scientists blame these cytokines for the fatigue symptoms associations with the common cold or the flu. So since with RA your immune system is working overtime to fight a nonexistent foreign entity (your joints), your body is being overloaded with these fatigue-causing chemicals. It all makes sense now! No wonder some mornings I feel like I've been hit by a truck when all I did the day before was take a shower and sit at a desk. If you're interested in learning more about fatigue in RA click here.

Make Your Own Almond Milk

Soak raw almonds in purified water for 8-12 hours. Drain water.

For every 1 cup of almonds, add 3 cups purified water. Blend for about 2 minutes. (You can also add a few majule dates, or 1 tbsp vanilla, or 3 tbsp raw honey to make it sweeter.)

You will want to strain the liquid in a nutmilk mesh bag. If you don't have one you can use cheesecloth or any kind of strainer. Before I purchased this I used a dishtowel, not ideal but it works.

Pour almond milk into the mesh bag.

Squeeze the almond mush until all the milk comes out, or you can let it sit for a while until most of the milk strains out and then squeeze it. When finished add a few pinches of sea salt.

This is what the almonds look like after you have squeezed out all the milk. Some people use it in raw cookies, nut pates, or as a nut butter treat.

The finished product, a yummy glass of cold almond milk! I also put it on my cereal.

(FYI: The best price I have seen for Raw Almonds is $3.28/lb at Winco in Boise Idaho, if you have seen a better price feel free to comment)

There's Always More on Coconut Oil

A good friend just let me borrow her two pH books, which are all about the benefits of alkaline foods (vs. acidic foods) with lots of easy recipes I can't wait to try out—I hadn't a clue what to do with the enormous artichoke I bought last week, but now it looks like I'll be making Artichoke Pesto Dip. For now I'm flipping through the pages and jumping around to get a feel of the books, but since I just came upon some more great info about the benefits of coconut oil, I thought I'd share. I know a lot of you are leery about coconut oil because of the word "oil." I know it's hard to retrain those synapses. I know we've had it drilled into our heads that fats are bad, but that's not completely true. Our bodies need good fats to be our healthiest. Here's what The pH Miracle for Weight Loss has to say on page 88:

"Coconut is the second incredible fat-rich food you should never do without when you're working toward a healthy weight [the first was avocados]. Technically a saturated fat, coconut oil—as long as it is cold pressed and not converted into trans fat by heating processing—has been shown to reduce the symptoms of digestive disorders, support the work of the white blood cells, and help prevent bacterial, yeast, and fungal infections. Coconut oil is high in lauric fats (which comprise 50 to 55 percent of its makeup), a medium-chain fat that the body converts into monolaurin. Monolaurin helps reduce acidity and, thus, weight. By controlling yeast, coconut oil reduces yeast's appetite—and your cravings for sugar. It also curbs hypoglycemia and helps eliminate hunger pangs. The final bit about coconut oil: it speeds up your metabolism. A study conducted in Yucatan, where coconut is a staple of the diet, showed that people living there had metabolic rates 25 percent higher than people with a similar profile living in the United States. (Bonus: The women in Yucatan had none of the symptoms commonly associated with meopause.)"

If you've tried everything else without success, maybe it's time to try coconut oil. I buy mine online at Mountain Rose Herbs. Click here to go to the site. And remember that you want "Coconut Oil (Virgin Unrefined)."

Salmon and Brussels Sprouts

For about a month straight now I've been getting my healthy share of salmon, maybe even to the point of overdosing. It just sort of happened. My friend Hayley is not only kind and generous, but she's a talented chef, and she's has been bringing me weekly salmon dishes. Then here and there I've eaten salmon at restaurants and at my family's homes and I've made it myself twice. Not until the joints of my hands started to feel amazing this past week did I really sit down and think about what was making a difference.

Fish oil is known to help with the inflammation of RA. I've also been taking plenty of herbs/drops from my holistic doctor that are fighting the Strep G and helping tame the RA. I've also taken my diet up a notch in eliminating all processed foods. So I believe it's a combination of everything. It's working!

So this past Sunday I had a friend over and decided to make her some salmon. Big surprise. My friend Mandy has, hands down, the most amazing salmon recipe, so don't be alarmed if you start overdosing on salmon too. It's called Soy Ginger Salmon, so see below for details.

And blech, Brussels sprouts, right? Wrong! This recipe is from my friend Jenn, and I could not stop eating this stuff. I made it as a side to the Soy Ginger Salmon, and together they make up my new favorite meal. I halfed the recipe since there were just two of us eating, but bad idea. Next time there will be no halfing going on. Let me know what you think of the recipes.

Mandy's Soy Ginger Salmon

(serves 8)

2 pounds salmon fillet

1/2 cup agave (2/3 cup agave = 1 cup sugar)

1 tablespoon lemon zest or lemon juice

2/3 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons coconut oil (cold pressed, unrefined)

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons fresh ginger root, minced

2/3 cup orange juice
a pinch black pepper
a couple shakes sea salt

1. Place all ingredients in a large ziplock bag. Seal bag and marinade in refrigerator overnight or for at least 3 hours.

2. Preheat broiler. Place fish in a foil-lined baking pan. Reserve marinade.

3. Broil fish skin-side up for 2 minutes. Remove from oven, pull skin off, and baste with marinade. Return to oven and broil for 2 more minutes. Flip fish over and broil until fish flakes (about 4 min.). If your salmon is skinless, broil for 4 minutes on one side and 4 minutes on the other.

Jenn’s Brussels Sprouts with Warm Lemon Vinaigrette
(serves 6)


2 tablespoons coconut oil
20 ounces Brussels sprouts, trimmed, outside leaves removed if needed, and quartered (about 5 cups)

1 teaspoon salt

a pinch pepper

1 onion, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, or to taste

a little agave natural sweetener, to taste

zest of half a lemon for garnish

Heat coconut oil in a large non-stick skillet over high heat. Add Brussels sprouts to skillet. Cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown in places. Add salt, pepper, and onion, and cook for 30 seconds more. Add water and cover. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Remove lid. Add lemon juice. Stir to combine well. Drizzle a little agave over top and stir to evenly distribute. Transfer to a serving platter and garnish with lemon zest. 

Miracle Waiting in the Wings

Barbara didn't exactly tell me what I wanted to hear, prayed to hear. As of late my prayers have definitely been taken up five notches and are more like pleadings now. It's humbling. I can almost touch God.

I've been praying that the joint pain in my right pointer finger, which has all the RA symptoms, would really just be the infection and parasites and Strep G that are in all my other joints. But when I asked Barbara to look at that finger specifically, the computer clearly said RA. My faith is often like our eyes when we're starving and pile our plates high with more food than we could ever swallow. My faith likes to accept every challenge fearlessly, but it doesn't know what patience means. So when Barbara told me it was RA, it was almost like a slap in the face. I've been so, so healthy the past couple months. Shouldn't I be better by now?

But now that I've had time to reflect, I feel like God is telling me, "I know you think you know what you're capable of, but Katie, I'm about to show you that you are capable of so much more." And even more powerfully He's saying, "Watch what I can do. If you'll let me, I'll work an even mightier miracle for you. You haven't seen nothin' yet." I trust Him, I do. He's healed me so many times before that I can never doubt His power, but this is to a new height. I'm wondering if He wants me to prove Him to the point that he lets me see the physical affects of RA so that He can heal me, change me visibly. It makes me heart ache because of the love He has for me and ache because I feel like a little child afraid to jump off the diving board. I guess we'll just have to see what He has in store.

PS: The most beautiful sun is making my backyard radiate and shimmer. It wants me to come out and swing for a minute and pick the pretty purple wildflowers growing through the grass. It doesn't even care that I'm still in my pajamas.