My Multiple Streams

Rice and beans Recipe

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E2 Beans and Rice

E2 Beans and Rice

Sounds kinda bland but trust me this is delicious. This recipe originally came from the E2 diet (you can get the book over there on the right) and I modified it a little as shown below. Did this mainly because of acid reflux, so removed the tomatoes and salsa but did keep the chili powder. Also added mushrooms to make up for the removal, and I just like mushrooms 🙂

I also removed the Bragg liquid aminos. I figured the recipe puts it in there for added protein as well as taste, but from some of the things I have read about it I’m not sure I want to try it. Besides it still adds a lot of sodium to the mixture.

Brown Rice – 16 ounces
black beans – 16 ounces
vegetable stock – 32 ounces
chili powder (red) – 1 teaspoon
green onions – 2 ounces
corn (fresh, frozen, or canned) – 16 ounces
bell pepper (red, yellow, or green) – 20 ounces
Mushrooms – 1-1/2 cups
avocado – 8 ounces

DIRECTIONS
Sauté rice in large skillet on high heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly until rice begins to brownand pop. Add vegetable stock. Reduce heat to medium, and cook uncovered for another 25 minutes or until the liquid has been absorbed and only a few bubbles of water show between the grains of rice. Turn off heat, cover, and let rice sit on warm stove for 10 minutes.

Heat the beans with water or stock, and chili powder.

Place the chopped vegetables in individual bowls. You can either mix them in with the rice and simmer for a bit or serve them fresh on top of the rice

Same with beans, either mix in or ladle on top of rice

Add avocado on top of the beans. ( I even added a little Feta Cheese to top as well)

E2 Beans and Rice

E2 Beans and Rice leftovers!

Whats great is that it makes quite a bit so the next day I had left overs for lunch, with out the avocado though. For lunch I took a piece of whole wheat tortilla, warmed up, and spread Roasted Red Pepper Hummus on it then scooped a generous amount of the beans and rice for a nice burrito

Recipe: Lemon-Feta Chicken Pasta

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Lemon-Feta Chicken PastaFound a great recipe today that sounded so good I had to try it! It called for crab meat and a couple things I didnt really want so of course made some modifications. Crab meat is very high in cholesterol and sodium (and cost alot)

8 ounces spaghetti or other pasta ( I used a rice based spaghetti for the gluten free peeps)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon Greek seasoning or dried oregano
4 strips of chicken chopped and diced
1 1/2 cups roughly chopped spinach leaves
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1 green pepper diced
2 cups sliced mushrooms
Juice of one lemon
Zest of one lemon
3 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

Cook the pasta according to the package directions so that it is al dente. Keep warm.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the shallot and the garlic and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the Greek seasoning.

Stir in the chicken meat and veggies. Cook for another 2-3 minutes or until chicken is heated through and spinach begins to wilt. Add the lemon juice and zest and toss to combine.

Add the chicken mixture to the warm pasta and toss. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and sprinkle with feta. Yield ~ 4 servings.  According to my calorie tracker this is about 610 calories, 23g fat, 81 carbohydrates, 19g protein per serving.

The original recipe can be found at Vintage Victuals

 

Wonderful Cholesterol

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Yep one of the other items found at last doctors appointment was High Cholesterol. I had this many years ago as well and back then was put on Lipitor for a while but then taken off I think because of some liver tests. This time around my total was 239, HDL 45, LDL 173. Didnt get the Triglycerides results (make sure I get those next time).

According to WebMD your levels should fall in these ranges

Total CholesterolCategory
Less than 200Desirable
200 – 239Borderline High
240 and aboveHigh
LDL CholesterolLDL-Cholesterol Category
Less than 100Optimal
100 – 129Near optimal/above optimal
130 – 159Borderline high
160 – 189High
190 and aboveVery high
HDL CholesterolHDL-Cholesterol Category
60 and aboveHigh; Optimal; helps to lower risk of heart disease
Less than 40 in men and less than 50 in womenLow; considered a risk factor for heart disease

Of course the doctor put me on Statins, Simvastatin. Otherwise known as Zocor. I went ahead and went along with it. As mentioned in previous posts earlier on I was getting the shortness of breath in the morning and muscle weakness and I was thinking it was residual anxiety (this was the second week on lexapro) and then last week in the evening’s I was have a big spike in this where it was hard to breath as well as bad headaches. Again I have been doing lots of reading on these conditions and the meds I was taking and saw that with this statin muscle weakness (and pain) as well as headaches was a side effect, with the shortness of breath sometimes. Also found out long term effects were not desirable either. Those headaches and breathless spikes were about an hour after takeing the statin as well (also toke the ppi at same time but its a process of elimination) So sunday night was my last one and Im going to try and lower the numbers naturally through diet, exercise and if needed some supplements. Only been a couple days but since have not had the evening spikes or headaches. Still have the morning shortness a little but have read that it can take 3-4 days for the statin to completely get out of your system, and it could be something else but still want to be off this.

I will go more into how Im doing it in other posts but the big change is going to be diet, going mainly plant based and quickening the pace to all whole foods. My biggest cure ball will be giving up (or at least severely decreasing) cheese. I love cheese 🙂

Doing alot of reading I’ve decided my goals are to get my total number below 150 and my LDL below 80, would also like to see my HDL above 60. I go into the doctors today but since I had the last test with them 4 weeks ago I may not get another, but I will find a place where I can go in myself and get tested once a month and will let you know my progress. With today’s diets I would get tested at least once a year, you are never to young for high cholesterol. When I had my first high results (higher then now) I was 35. There are now symptoms of high cholesterol and with out testing you’ll never know until your first heart attack, and that could be to late.