Comfort Food When Sick

It's all well and good to be a pioneer.  Heading out into the great unknown can be an adventure, but when when I'm feeling under the weather all I really want is comfort food.

Since we changed to a plant-based diet we are not sick as often or as long, but when I have a sore throat and feel cruddy I still want something to make me feel better.  So what could ever replace my beloved homemade chicken noodle soup?  Or good ole Sprite?  It turns out hot tea and/or smoothies really soothes my throat.  That's easy.  I don't miss the soda pop at all.  But what about my wonderful homemade chicken and noodles?  It was one of my favorite dishes to make, especially when I felt unwell.  It turns out the answer involves miso - something I never even heard up before our diet change.  Here's my new favorite comfort food for when I'm healing:

Miso Soup

Miso soup is a wonderful replacement for Chicken Noodle Soup when you are feeling unwell.  Miso has a long history and is known for it’s healing properties.  Miso paste is found in the refrigerated section at Whole Foods, and Koyo brand Udon noodles and the kelp/dulse seasoning are found in the asian aisle.

Our favorite noodles are Udon, but feel free to try any noodles you want.   Fetticini nest balls from WalMart are egg free wide noodles that are nice to use, too.  Whole wheat noodles tend to be too strong a taste for this soup.  

Add a bag of mixed veggies to up the nutrients, and color.  Or tofu cubes if you like tofu in your miso soup.  Real onion, seaweed, and garlic can be used for a chunkier soup.

2 packages noodles

1 T sea salt

2 T  onion powder

1 t Kelp and/or Dolse granules sea seasonings (can skip or use parsley flakes instead)

2 T soy sauce (optional)

2-4 T Miso paste (yellow, white, brown rice, or barley)  

Fill dutch oven 3/4 full with water and put on to boil.  Once it is boiling add the noodles stirring to keep separate, using the cooking time on the package.  While the noodles are cooking, add salt, onion powder, kelp seasoning, and soy sauce.  

Once noodles are cooked, remove from heat.  Ladle 1/2 cup of the broth into a 1 c glass measuring cup or a mug and whisk miso until dissolved in broth, then add mixture to the soup pot.  Adjust any seasonings as desired.  

Having weathered a few storms now on a plant-based diet I can say with joy that I don't miss chicken noodle soup or Sprite at all, I've found new comfort foods.

Cancer, Healing, and Nutrition

Considering the connection between between cancer, healing, and nutrition can be like heading into a vast unknown territory.  It can be be scary.  When my husband was diagnosed with Stage 3 Breast Cancer, the American Cancer Society was informative when it comes to things such as chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery.  It was remarkably silent about any complementary therapies.  In fact, it was so silent with such a marked void that alarm bells went off in my head.

Sample of whole food in a Kanza lodge.

Our family didn't plan to enter new territory in our eating or in healing.  We firmly planned to go the traditional route.  Several doctors spent quite a bit of time "selling" us chemo, and I remember thinking they were preaching to the choir.  My husband was young, 42, and we have three boys.  It was a no-brainer we would do whatever we had to beat this cancer.  And we have...just in our own way.

So what changed?  Shawn went through with the mastectomy and lymph node removal despite his grandmother's concerns.  She sent us a number of resources on alternative therapies, but there was so many it was really overwhelming.  We didn't know which supplements to choose, what order, or how they could interact with the chemo he was scheduled to begin.  So we made an appointment with a Naturopathic Doctor.  She asked an important question: where was Shawn getting exposed to estrogen?  The American Cancer Society mentions estrogen exposure from steroids as being a possible cause of breast cancer in men, but this didn't apply to Shawn.  Then ND informed us there is estrogen in most dairy products today.  This opened up a whole new world to research.  Was this true?  In short, yes, they give the cows estrogen to keep them lactating.

Today, eating fruits, veggies, beans, seeds, nuts and whole grains is pretty much considered an extreme form of eating.  Trust me, you get some strange reactions when you tell someone.  Yet, our ancestors called this whole food eating normal.  

We don't hand grind our own whole grains like they used to,
but I do occasionally grind them in my Vitamix.

For us, researching the connection between healing, cancer, and nutrition opened up a whole new world for us.  We discovered the works of Dr. John Mc Dougall, Dr Neal Barnard, Dr Caldwell Esselstyn, and especially the Cancer Study by Dr. Colin Campbell.

The Pioneering Spirit

Two years ago we started on a journey we didn't expect.  Right after our family vacation to the Ozarks,  my husband was diagnosed with cancer.  It felt like the end of the world, and the next few months are still a blur.

But I can tell you when our new life began: August 2, 2011.   That's the day my husband announced he was going to a Whole Foods Plant Based Diet to heal from cancer.  He had the surgery in July and was scheduled to start chemo, radiation, and hormone therapy in August; all of which he declined.   On that day we became pioneers in a whole new lifestyle.  Our switch to Whole Food eating was abrupt, overnight, and it was overwhelming.  But we needed to do it, not just for my husband's healing but for all of us.

It REALLY was called the Pioneer cabin, down by itself in a 'holler

Our "Pioneer Cabin" vacation, a few weeks before our diet change.

Notice the extra large marshmallows and Dr Pepper (pre-Whole Food eating)

When I was a little girl I wanted to travel across the plains in a covered wagon.  I had a cute sun bonnet just like Laura Ingalls that I treasured.   Today, I often feel like a pioneer - but now my hair is in a scrunchy, and I'm more likely to be wearing yoga pants than a long skirt.  Do I even own a long skirt any more?  So here's my American Pioneering story.  It's how we eat and live.  For a girl who thought she was helping her mom cook when she peeled back the foil on the tv dinner, making bread from scratch has been an eye opener.  I'm constantly learning new things.

On this blog I will share recipes that have worked for our family, tips that helped us transition, share the resources I've found, and be honest about all our experiences in this new life.  Most of all - it's not a story about cancer, or giving up foods.  Much as pioneer stories weren't about the home they left behind.  For us, it's about the new world of whole foods we are discovering for us and our family.  It's about life, health, energy, healing, and joy of living life to the fullest.