Vegetarian living

Merilee-

I don't know anything new on apricot pits. I have read a book (can't think of the name of it) that talks about laetrile and I think they call it vitamin B17. It made sense to me at the time and I even bought an apricot, cracked open the pit and ate the nut. It tasted like an almond. Because there is a little bit of cyanide in apricot pits, maybe the cyanide kills cancer cells. Why couldn't that be a possibility? I saw there was a cookbook called "the little cyanide cookbook" I think. I saw it somewhere on the web but don't remember where. Interesting theory.

Hello ladies...first I have to say I am not a vegetarian ALTHOUGH I do tend to eat more vegetarian than meat meals.  Can I stay??  I am always looking for new ideas...for example, what the heck are chia seeds?

Merilee - I'm going to try the party dip, it sounds awesome!

As for quinoa...I ADORE it and I'm always looking for new recipes.  I haven't tried kamut yet but plan to this winter.

Edited to add:  I love hemp seed and use it all the time!

Baywatcher is right, we only need about 10% of our daily intake as protein. It is very easy to reach this on a plant-based diet. One thing I do for a snack is make a trail mix. I take several different kinds of raw nuts and seeds, raisins and other dried fruit and mix it all together. I snack on this throughout the day. Yummy and plenty of good protein.

As for apricot pits, I use laetrile as a cancer fighter along with vitamin c drips. There has been success with laetrile and vitamin as a chemotherapeutic agent. As for apricot pits - they are supposed to taste extremely bitter. If they don't have that bitter taste or taste like almonds, they have been processed which kills their cancer fighting B17 properties.

WLL-

This is what I ate today and it will give you an idea.

Breakfast: steel cut oats with blueberries, walnuts, agave syrup (sweetener) and almond milk.

Lunch: Blackbean soup and salad

Snack: Pear, 1 square dark chocolate

Dinner: Vegatable Fajitas, chips and salsa, mexican rice.

There are lots of veggie recipes on the web. It is really not so hard. If you can, see the new movie called "Food, Inc." and it will open your eyes.

Good Luck

Yummy Merilee, thanks for the recipes. I am always looking for new ones. I will definitely try these out!

Here is one for Veggie Chili that is really simple and really tasty. I make it with some brown rice on the side:

1 tbs olive oil

1 cup chopped onions

3/4 cup chopped carrots

3 cloves minced garlic

1 cup chopped green bell pepper

1 cup chopped red bell pepper

3/4 cup chopped celery

1 tbs chili powder

1 1/2 cups chopped fresh mushrooms

2 lbs campari or roma tomatoes - diced (or 1 28 ounce can whole peeled tomatoes with liquid - chopped)

1 can (or 1 cup soaked) kidney beans

1/4 cup vegetable broth

11 oz corn (frozen OK)

1 tbs ground cumin

1 1/2 teas. each of dried oregano and dried basil

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onions, carrots, and garlic until tender. Stir in green pepper, red pepper, celery and chili powder. Cook until all vegetables are tender (about 6 min). Stir in mushrooms and cook 4 min. Stir in tomatoes, broth, kidney beans and corn. Season with cumin, oregano and basil. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes stirring occassionally.

Spirulina has been mentioned on a few threads here lately, and it definitely is a good vegan protein source so I wanted to bring it up on this thread too. I can't find offhand how many g of protein per serving or anything, but I did find this:

Unlike other forms of protein, the protein in Spirulina is 85-95% digestible, one of the highest available. In fact, Spirulina is second only to a dried egg supplment with regards to usable protein, and higher than any of the common foods in the form in which they are usually purchased.

I throw a couple of tablespoons into my green smoothie every day... too much and it affects the taste (makes the smoothie taste like algae -- makes sense since that's what it is!) but a couple of tablespoons in a large smoothie is just fine!

Great recipes, you all - thank you for sharing!!

I am snacking happily on my favorite recipe of all. Vegetble sushi. If you were a sushi lover before you will love this:

Nori sheets- you can get them raw or toasted( both are great)

Miso paste I get the light sweet ... it does have soy but I was not eating soy at all when I was diagnosed with breast cancer except for a twice yearly trek to get sushi

Alfalfa sprouts

 advocato

Red belle pepper

cucumber

Spread nori sheet shiny side down with miso paste , just a strip down about 3 " above the bottom

spred alfalfa sprouts about 1 " thick

sliver cucumber and add a strip of that

 slice red belle add that

slice advacato in strips fairly large and add that

roll using a sushi rolling mat.. takes practice

 slice with a serratted knife

serve with soy sauce for dipping!! Yum

deni63, it sounds like we make our green smoothies very much the same way! I just posted about mine on the natural girls thread but forgot to mention that I recently bought something that is a whole bunch of various sprouted seeds, greens, and other fruits and veggies, all dehydrated and crushed into a powder. It's called Garden of Life Super Seed and I bought it from vitacost.com.

It doesn't seem to change the flavor, although it adds a certain graininess to the smoothie that I still have to get used to. But hey, I can live with graininess, for the sake of consuming more fruit/veggie goodness!!

Rabbit Fan - I use a powder called "Green Vibrance" here is a link to it on Vitacost so you can see the ingredients if you are interested:

http://www.vitacost.com/Vibrant-Health-Green-Vibrance-240-Vegetarian-Capsules?csrc=PPCADWLT-green_vibrance_-_240_vegetarian_capsules&mtp=sbcoz1pew|pcrid|4470557951#IngredientFacts

I also add separate Barley Green Powder. Even though the Green Vibrance has Barley Greens in it, I had read somewhere that barley greens help to raise pH in your body. Although I'm sure any green would do that.

As for the coconut water, I use Zico and I find it at Whole Foods. It is pure coconut water. It adds a nice flavor. You only add enough to blend everything together.

http://www.zico.com/

How much celery for the Veggie Chili recipe?...Is it 1 cup chopped also??...........Love the recipes.......i don't do the juicing or smoothies because i can't afford a juicer or smoothie machine and smoothies are too sweet for this diabetic but I DO enjoy the great recipes I find on these threads........