Forks Over Knives and granola and soup.

I watch documentaries with my husband almost every night on Netflix. I have a particular interest in anything from shows on Food, Farming, Animals, and Adventures. This one is about eating habits, food, and health.  Forks over Knives is one of my favorite. It has completely changed the way we eat. My husband has lost 13 lbs in the last month and I have lost 5 lbs. It has a great website with amazing recipes. I grabbed a synopsis of this from their website.   http://www.forksoverknives.com/ Check it out!
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Ok.... so I just got totally called out by my dad about how boring my blog was this morning. He couldn't believe I would just copy and paste something from a website. Have you been reading people... I'm lazy. This is what I'm about. I'm trying to be a Martha Stewart but like... a lazy Martha Stewart that doesn't get put in jail for insider trading.

Anyway, the reason why I was a little quick to post this morning was because I was very busy trying to get my kids to take a nap. My two year old has just discovered that if he crawls out of bed at 1 am my husband will come running to his every beck and call and pamper his little two year old butt. He does this every hour until I show up... and then he goes "uh oh" and scampers back to his bed not to be heard from again.

That's cause I'm da president of this house. So being the president and all takes a lot of work. That is why I was able to get both boys to sleep, AND make "Casssoulet" which is fancy for white been soup AND make a batch of granola AND also get some bread going. AND I got pictures to prove it.

Once your done looking at my food porn feel free to look at my copy and paste job that my dad said was boring. I would like to note that it is because of Forks over Knives that I have the energy and will power to do all this crap. AND I don't have a bunch of intern slaves doing all my prep work like Martha Stewart. So sit back and enjoy my work of the morning. Feel free to comment about how I am amazing. AND if you dont think I'm amazing. Shut it. No-one wants to hear about it.
-Da President.

Jbone say's "You aint doing crap today mom , cause I'm going to party all day" I replied, "you just wait my young one... you wait and see what this girl got up her sleeve" and then we danced. 

Meanwhile Ron did not help.

he said "how do I eat these fish mom?" and then he took a nap on my open lap top

meanwhile I was setting out the ingredients for the Cassoulet.  8 ounce veg broth, 1 onion diced, 4 garlic cloves, 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, 2 Tbsp thyme, 2 Tbsp. parsly, 1 tomato, 2 tbsp tomato paste, and 1 can white beans. I didnt quite have all those ingredients, so I made due with what you see. 

and then I cut it all up. I'm missing the carrots and garlic, cut that stuff too.  Oh and heres a great tip. To get the paper skin off the garlic put the whole clove in the microwave for 5-10 seconds. The paper skin stuff slides right off. TRy it I aint lying. Your welcome for that one. It's my favorite tip. 

then I washed the beans.

then I put it all in a pot

but first I cooked the onion and garlic till it was translucent in a little bit of the broth. No oil... just broth. Remember Oil is not good for you. I try really hard not to ever use it. 

and then a half hour later, I ate it. 

I was suprised at how good it tasted with no salt or pepper but I still added a tiny bit to add more flavor. I wish I hadn't put the parsly in. I picked that out.  It tasted very much like minestrone soup from the Olive Garden, only it didn't suck. I knew that it didn't suck because my two year old ate half of it, and he doesn't like any of the ingredients in this soup. So explain that one. 

So then the monsters were asleep, and was like, I'm bored. I'm going to make granola.  So I set out all the ingredients.
3 cups old fashioned oats, a hand full of chopped pecans, chopped walnuts, cashews, mixed nuts, muesli, almonds, and then I sprinkled the whole top with cinnamon, and drizzled honey till everything was covered. (Put enough honey so that the oats get very lightly coated.) 

I mixed it till everything was lightly coated. 

I then took parchment paper and laid it out and put it in the oven at 425 for ten minutes, I took it out stirred it up and put it back in for another ten minutes. BOOM. 

and then I added cranberries and raisons and I was DONE, so then I made some bread but you already saw how I do that.

I then put it in fancy jars. Ha ha fooled ya.... This is a classico spaghetti jar. I love them. 

But I didn't have enough so I used other jars I had recycled, cause I'm a tree hugger.

AND that was my day so far, and it it's only 2:33. I'm impressed. Are you? No? Well then go watch Martha.

Now read this boring part below. I didnt write it, but I certainly believe in it.
Hope this makes ya happy Dad. xo

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What has happened to us? Despite the most advanced medical technology in the world, we are sicker than ever by nearly every measure.

Two out of every three of us are overweight. Cases of diabetes are exploding, especially amongst our younger population. About half of us are taking at least one prescription drug. Major medical operations have become routine, helping to drive health care costs to astronomical levels. Heart disease, cancer and stroke are the country’s three leading causes of death, even though billions are spent each year to “battle” these very conditions. Millions suffer from a host of other degenerative diseases.

Could it be there’s a single solution to all of these problems? A solution so comprehensive, but so straightforward, that it’s mind-boggling that more of us haven’t taken it seriously?

FORKS OVER KNIVES examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods. The major storyline in the film traces the personal journeys of a pair of pioneering yet under-appreciated researchers, Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn.

Dr. Campbell, a nutritional scientist at Cornell University, was concerned in the late 1960’s with producing “high quality” animal protein to bring to the poor and malnourished areas of the third world. While in the Philippines, he made a life-changing discovery: the country’s wealthier children, who were consuming relatively high amounts of animal-based foods, were much more likely to get liver cancer. Dr. Esselstyn, a top surgeon and head of the Breast Cancer Task Force at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, found that many of the diseases he routinely treated were virtually unknown in parts of the world where animal-based foods were rarely consumed.

These discoveries inspired Campbell and Esselstyn, who didn’t know each other yet, to conduct several groundbreaking studies. One of them took place in China and is still among the most comprehensive health-related investigations ever undertaken. Their research led them to a startling conclusion: degenerative diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even several forms of cancer, could almost always be prevented—and in many cases reversed—by adopting a whole-foods, plant-based diet. Despite the profound implications of their findings, their work has remained relatively unknown to the public.

The filmmakers travel with Drs. Campbell and Esselstyn on their separate but similar paths, from their childhood farms where they both produced “nature’s perfect food”; to China and Cleveland, where they explored ideas that challenged the established thinking and shook their own core beliefs.

The idea of food as medicine is put to the test. Throughout the film, cameras follow “reality patients” who have chronic conditions from heart disease to diabetes. Doctors teach these patients how to adopt a whole-foods plant-based diet as the primary approach to treat their ailments—while the challenges and triumphs of their journeys are revealed.

FORKS OVER KNIVES utilizes state of the art 3-D graphics and rare archival footage. The film features leading experts on health, examines the question “why we don’t know”, and tackles the issue of diet and disease in a way that will have people talking for years.

FORKS OVER KNIVES was filmed all over the United States, and in Canada and China.