Thank you for your comments in yesterday’s post! It really cheered me up when I read them this morning after another rough night of little sleep.
Lately, my eats have looked like this…
Blah. Those two pictures look about as exciting as I feel right now.
I think Eric got sick of watching me eat oatmeal, Coconut Bliss, and chia seed pudding all weekend, so he took matters into his own hands and made a kick-butt stew for dinner.
He grabbed every veggie he could find and he announced that a HEALING stew would be made for our unconventional Easter dinner.
With a little guidance from a recipe on Whole Foods, healing magic happened.
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
Husband's Healing Stew
Yield
Over 10 cups
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Adapted from Whole Foods.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 small sweet onions, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 green onions, chopped
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground corriander
- 2 bay leaves (optional)
- 2 small zucchini, chopped
- 1 yellow pepper + 1 red pepper, chopped
- 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 4 cups organic vegetable broth (not low sodium), or more as needed
- 1, 28-oz can diced organic tomatoes (no added salt)
- 1/2 cup uncooked raw buckwheat groats, rinsed (or grain of choice)
- 1/2 cup uncooked pearled barley, rinsed (or grain of choice)
- 1/2 cup frozen Edamame (or bean of choice)
- 1.5 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 2 tbsp minced fresh parsley
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder (optional)
- 5-10 shakes red pepper flakes, to taste
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt + Black pepper, to taste
Directions
- In a large pot over low heat, add 1 tbsp olive oil and the chopped sweet onion, green onion, and minced garlic. Heat over low until translucent, about 5-8 minutes.
- Stir in coriander, cinnamon, and two bay leaves and heat an additional minute or two. Now, add in the chopped vegetables (zucchini, peppers, carrots) and cook for about 5 more minutes. Add a bit more oil if necessary.
- Stir in the diced tomatoes, vegetable broth, rinsed buckwheat and pearled barley (or grains of choice). Simmer on low-medium heat (dial 3-4) for 20 minutes, checking often to make sure it doesn’t burn or thin out too much. Add a bit more broth or water if necessary and reduce heat when needed.
- After 20 minutes, add in the lemon juice and additional seasonings- all to taste (minced parsley, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and salt & pepper). Cook for another few minutes, remove bay leaves, and serve with fresh bread. Freeze leftovers or store in the fridge.
Tip:
- You can have success using a wide range of vegetables, seasonings, and grains of your choice.
- Always adjust the seasonings to taste and add them gradually. My taste buds are quite muted right now, so we made it spicy. :)
Every good healing stew begins with garlic!
We used pearled barley and raw buckwheat, but you could use any kind of grains you want.
Oh and some frozen Edamame was thrown in at the last minute for extra protein.
Like most soups, there is a lot of chopping to do, but other than that, it is fool-proof.
After simmering for 20 minutes the grains cooked up and the stew got nice and thick.
Eric asked me to add more seasonings, and I think I went a bit crazy with the red pepper flakes! He said it was quite spicy, but I didn’t really taste it. ;) Oops.
Served with fresh bread and Earth Balance….it was the perfect, healing meal.
Even though I can’t taste or smell that well right now, I know this was a good stew! There was a lot of love in it.
The best part about this stew was that my sinuses were clear after eating it. ;)
For dessert, we had a piece of Carrot Cake Loaf with Lemon Glaze– which defrosted wonderfully by the way- and was SUPER fresh! We are in love with it. I will be making this loaf again and again.
There are a lot of healing leftovers for me this week! Take that flu. I’ll squash you like an ant.
Before you go, I have a little assignment for you…
Quite a few of you expressed interest that you would love a follow-up after my Lessons in Self-Love post. Intuitive and mindful eating seemed to be a topic that you wanted to explore more.
I thought it would be cool to see if you have any questions pertaining to the following areas:
- Intuitive & mindful eating
- Binge eating
- Calorie counting
- Weight maintenance
- Happy weight
- Disordered eating
- Body image/Self-confidence
- Hunger signals
I will be happy to provide my own experiences if you have anything on your mind that you would like explored more. Just leave your question (or questions) below and I will pick some of them to answer in a follow-up post, Q & A format.
Yummy! That stew looks fantastic! I’m glad to hear your sinuses cleared up a bit after eating it.
As for the question: I’d love to hear your take on calorie counting. Out of all the progress I’ve made in my own recovery, I still find calorie counting hard NOT to do. I’ve gotten much better at avoiding it, but sometimes I find myself counting up my day before I even realize it.
I’d love to know how you’ve stopped yourself from counting calories and if you have any tricks on how to cut the counting for good!
Ange,
Would you tell me how you started on your journey towards a better and real health? I have found myself on a path of self destruction for a long time. My mind knows better but old habits die hard. Where did you find the strength to overcome your negative thoughts and destructive patterns? How did you begin?
Thank you!
Naomi
What a lovely stew your husband made! I would feel better looking at all of those bold colors.
My question:
Did you ever have foods that were “off-limits” – as healthy as they may be (for example oils, nut butters, nuts, etc .. high in fat and calories.. but in a good way). Was it a struggle to re-incorporate these foods into your diet? If so – how were you finally okay with eating them… guilt-free?
What a beautiful stew! I hope it brings you back to good health :)
I’m curious about hunger signals too, and what to do when they conflict with what you know you should be eating. Right now I wish I could honor my hunger signals but I find that I feel full after only eating a few bites, and so I have to push to finish my meals to make sure I’m eating proper amounts. Did you experience anything like this when dealing with weight restoration?
Eric’s healing stew looks fabulous!! Get better soon!! :)
That really does look like a feel-good stew!
What a sweet husband you have — looks like a wonderful Easter dinner.
Hi Angela,
I love you blog. I’m recovering from a past of restrictive eating and obsession with calorie counting. My question for you is that is how you would react if you gained back some of the weight you lost without changing your eating. Would you count calories or cutback on intake? My fear is that I will gain back the weight I lost and no longer be able to accept myself.
this stew looks amazing!!!!! I will definitely be making it this week I hope you feel much better real soon!
Hi Angela,
After overcoming a 6-year bout of anorexia (YAY!), I started to get a LOT of cues to binge. Unfortunately, it has been something I have been struggling with. Not often, but it is sometimes really difficult to switch off my brain. I live alone in a single dorm room, which can be very isolating, and sometimes, I just feel so out of my element. If you could share your top tips on handling binge-eating stress, I would love it.
Love,
Heather
hee – I read this as “husband stealing stew” and thought WHAT is she up to now!! :D
feel better soon!
HAHA!!
that stew is beautiful your husband knows what hes doing :) feel better!
That stew looks delicious! I have the Whole Foods app on my iPod and love it – I’ve made some of the best meals from it! Hope you start feeling better (or 100% better) soon!
If that doesn’t make you feel better, I don’t know what will. You two are blessed to have found one another.
By the way, I made your 15 minute avocado pasta the other night and we’re in love with it too!! Thanks for posting such wonderful recipes.
Aww what a sweet husband :) Feel better! I’m sure you will be better in no time because you live such a healthy lifestyle. The doctor who said he’d had it for four weeks probably eats a cheese burger a day!
That stew looks so delicious!! I’d be interested in hearing about how you cope now with times when you over-indulge a bit. I often beat myself up for eating “too much” and have trouble letting it go and being at peace with it.
I really love reading your daily glow posts! My questions would be: You seem to stay within the same weight range for the most part – How often do you weigh yourself? If not very often, how did you stop weighing yourself often and obsessing over the number? And how did you learn to not care about the number on the scale as much?
I find this to be the thing I struggle with the most. I eat healthy at least 80% of the time, but my boyfriend likes to go out to eat at a restaurant about once a week or go out for some drinks. I’ll agree, but beat myself up over it the next day because I feel “fat”. When I weigh myself and I’m not where I’d like to be, it ruins my entire day. I love food and trying out new restaurants and want to be able to enjoy those things in life (in moderation) instead of beating myself up about them.
I just have a question about VOO. Are they really sticky and “gluey” after sitting out all night? What is the texture like? That’s what scares me about them.
Love your blog. You’re so inspiring.
I think the best way to describe them is ‘doughy’ :) The texture is quite slimey from the chia seeds…but I got used to it and now I love it.
I’d like it if you’d talk about “happy weight” in the context of various life chanages. What might be your happy weight range at one point — training for a long race distance — may not be your happy weight at another — such as mid-way through pregnancy. However, both weights might be perfectly healthy for you, and you find you are pretty much OK with both. (I am using two personal examples of how the weight that I was comfortable with was pretty different, depending upon life circumstances.) It’s my observation that when people talk about their happy weight, they still have some sort of range/number in mind. . . even though our bodies are really just adaptive and can be “happy” and “healthy” at different points/weights/etc.