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.
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.
My question is, what helped you the most to become an intuitive eater? I have problems with deciding what to eat quite often. Usually it’s a debate between something I’m leaning towards, and something I feel like I SHOULD be leaning towards. I’ll want one thing, and then think, “I should make THIS instead because I haven’t had any veggies today.” Whenever I do this, and I land on the “healthier” choice over what I truly want, I regret it. I always end up wishing I listened to myself. Chances are, what I REALLY wanted was not even unhealthy to begin with, and I would have been a lot more satisfied. How did you teach yourself to be intuitive?
If that question is too difficult to answer, I have one about hunger signals. Do you ever go a while without eating, but don’t end up feeling hungry when you normally would? When this happens to me, I don’t know whether to eat or not eat. I feel like I SHOULD eat, because I don’t like to skip meals, but I also feel like my body would tell me to eat if it really needed to. What causes hunger signals to go away? Do you have any tricks to keeping your appetite on a steady schedule? (I suppose this partially relates to being intuitive.)
Oh and by the way, I just want to say that I’ve always loved your blog. I think you’re gorgeous, and such a healthy inspiration! I drool over how beautiful your meals are!
So sorry about the flu, feel better soon!
My question is: How do you not beat yourself up over weight gain. How do you avoid being depressed and upset about it?
Thanks!
Oh I’m really adoring the beautiful colors of that stew! Another item on my “to make” list.
I think my greatest struggle post ED is trusting myself to maintain my weight sans scale obsession. Recently, I’ve cut out ALL (okay MOST) processed foods and since last year, cut out ALL artificial sweeteners. I’ve also been incorporating MORE fruits and veggies and trying new grains and have never felt better! My immune system is awesome and I’m almost never groggy or tired. However, cutting out those diet foods and not weighing for almost 5 months, I’ve gained 5 lbs! Now, maybe this was just my body telling me I needed to gain weight (and granted, if gaining 5 pounds is all I need to gain vs continueing to eat crappy low-cal/low-fat junk, then I’m fine with it), but GAINING = anxiety for me. It’s hard to accept and now I feel like I need that scale back so I don’t wind up gaining 5 MORE pounds.
I’d love for you to address how you deal with this type of thing. Thanks!
I enjoyed reading everyones questions and honest personal struggles. You have a great group of readers! (and a great husband)
What a nice hubby! The stew looks delicious! Hope you’re feeling better!
I am morbidly obese and I’ve recently accepted that I’m a compulsive overeater, . I love the idea of intuitive/mindful eating and want to eat that way someday. I guess I’m looking for a way to get from one polar end (compulsively eating) to the opposite end (intuitively eating). I’ve very recently tried a 12-step program. I’m not sure that it’s the right fit for me, but I’ve committed to trying it for 6 weeks. They suggest picking a meal plan, and it usually looks like 3 meals a day with 0-1 snacks per day. Can I get from one end to the other without rigidity? I’ve tried diets and weight loss programs….nothing worked because I wasn’t truly ready before.
Wow, that stew looks incredible! So that does that carrot cake.
Hi Angela,
I hope you are feeling better! thanks for your willingness to share your experience regarding self-love with us, it is so inspirational and comforting to have such a positive and beautiful role model such as yourself. As i am in recovery from anorexia now, i would love to know more about your experiences in restoring a healthy weight and trusting and loving your body as you went through that experience.
any insight youhave on this would be amazing!
thank you and be well!
GOOD LORD!
That stew looks soooo amazingly delish! I think my husband and I may cook this sucker up for dinner tonight! Good job Eric :)
I really hope you feel better soon!! Eric is soo sweet! Best Husband Ever! :)
I’m currently recovering from anorexia and I am realizing that I have trouble experiencing my emotions and managing them. Whenever something is wrong, I turn to my eating disorder…it’s like my crutch. I was wondering how you learned to experience all the ups and downs of life, while creating positive coping mechanisms, so that whenever you felt down, you wouldn’t turn to pictures of models, or doing other things ED-related things. Any help would be much appreciated! And again, GET WELL!! :) Healing vibes your way :)
Mmmm….I’m not even sick and that stew looks delicious! Perfect for the rainy weather today! I would be interested in anything about weight maintenance…particularly how to handle special occasions without going overboard.
Hi, Angela,
I have a question for you. I’m recovering from various aspects of an ED, specifically overexercise, which have caused a potentially irreversible case of amenorrhea and bone loss. I’ve put on a bit of weight (to be normal), and am rather nervous of putting on too much weight. I do NOT want to lose any weight, in fear of preventing the hope of getting my periods again, but I’m finding it difficult to NOT GAIN weight. How do you find this balance? I’m trying to remind myself that it is better to gain weight at this point than to stay the same weight, so I should err on the side of caution and eat more than I should….but I feel like this constantly puts me a few hundred calories over everyday, which is adding up.
Just curious if you gained a significant amount of weight when you decided to stop restricting/binging, or if you ever had issues with amenorrhea. If you did gain weight, do you think it was a result of a metabolic shift or because you were erring on the side of caution, learning how to eat intuitively?
PS–thanks so much for doing this Q&A.
Hey Angela!
I love your blog and it’s been so helpful to find someone who has struggled with an eating disorder and also binge eating and has recovered, as I am struggling with it now. I know that you have talked about how you overcame your binge eating in your “road to health” section, but I was wondering if you could go into more detail as to how you beat bingeing? how long did it take to feel as though you had control of yourself around food, and how did you resist the urge to binge? Thanks so much!
Here’s my question:
Did you completely avoid specific “trigger” foods when you were overcoming binge eating issues? I have found if I eat certain things (eg salty snacks) I am more likely to drastically overindulge. Likewise if I keep those foods in the house and I begin feeling bored or stressed.
I’ve been having some kind of a weird relapse with my eating disorder. I haven’t been starving myself, but in fact doing the exact opposite. I got a job back in november in which I became extremely depressed and unhappy at. I have left that job and I am currently in this stuck rut of having gained about 15 pounds and can’t seem to get out of this rut and really truly get back into my former exercise habits.
I hate how I feel and look right now and want to know how to get back in tune with when I am really truly hungry and when my body is faking me out.
I don’t want to calorie count but rather get back in tune with my body.
You should try Alicia silverstone’s magical healing soup, it did wonders when i was getting sick a while back and kept me from getting sick!!!
What a sweet hubby!! So cute :) I would like to hear more about the processes or strategies you used to get over binge eating. Also, weight maintenance would be great to hear more about. Thanks Angela :)
Mmmm, lovely and tasty looking soup. I”m sure a bowl of that will help u feel better in no time! :) Sending you best thoughts to get better
What a colorful stew! It looks delicious ^_^
I would be interested in hearing more about calorie counting and hunger signals. I really appreciate you opening up and sharing the information you have with all of us :)
So I am a teenager in high school and I feel pretty good about my body most of the time. A lot of girls always talk about how fat they are, even how skinny they are! I exercise daily and am a pesketarian who is very health-food concious. I sometimes have those little breakdowns though when something doesn’t look good on me. Whenever those happen I just look here and it really helps. Thanks! You have inspired me to become a vegan. My dad is overweight. I try to help him by being a good influence by exercising and eating right but I don’t think he gets it. He still lays around for a good part of the time when he is home and uses work as an excuse when it really isn’t. Could you give me some tips on how to inspire him?
That stew looks PACKED with yummy, healing goodness. Feel better soon!