recipes for a new cookbook

Hi All,

I am hoping all you foodies (and just food-tolerating types) can provide some help for an exciting new community project.

I am the executive director at I'm Taking Charge (imtakingcharge.com), which is an educational website on breast reconstruction. At the moment, however, we're branching out into a non-reconstruction project. Based on the needs of women who visit our website, we're looking to create a cookbook for women (and their families), at all stages of their diagnosis.

Obviously, nutrition can be a challenge, even without cancer, but add in surgeries, chemotherapy, or just pure exhaustion, and it can feel truly overwhelming.

This is where you can help. We'd love to know what recipes have worked for you? What are your nutrition super-charger recipes? What are your survive-the-kitchen recipes? What are your I-hate-food-but-I-have-to-eat recipes? Or, even more importantly, what are your happy recipes, the ones that you smile about, because you love them?

We're also looking for any food and kitchen tips that you've learned along this journey. We will, of course, be giving you credit for any recipes/tips we use. We'll also be making, testing, editing, and photographing all these recipes to compile them into what we hope is a beautiful and very useful resource for women as they face this diagnosis.

You may respond here, private message me, or write me at k.skarda@imtakingcharge.com.

Sincerely,

Kara Skarda

Executive Director of I'm Taking Charge

"It's better than dirt ... I guess."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-Lpv1OyBUg

Hi All,

I just wanted to update and let you all know that we've also created a form for submitted recipes here: goo.gl/forms/tNEnkwYLT0AWuNix1

I really look forward to receiving more of your recipes.

Kara

Thanks for sharing this recipe and particularly your version of it, Iclietla! I love it. I'll send you a private message to ask you a couple more questions.

....And kind of offensive. thanks, I hope that in review, you can see what I mean.

This Vegetable Soup required a 10-quart pan. Amount/s can be scaled up or down, of course.

Extra virgin Olive Oil -- just enough to cover the bottom of the pan

1 lb. White Button Mushrooms, chopped

1/2 lb. Portabella Mushroom Caps, chopped

1 Celery Stalk, chopped (about 5 cups)*

2 lbs. Carrots, chopped

3 Bay Leaves

About 60 strands Spanish Saffron

1 Tablespoon Black Pepper

1 Tablespoon Hungarian Paprika

2Tablespoons dried Basil Leaves

2 Tablespoons Minced Garlic (packed in water, not in soybean oil)

1 small head of Cauliflower*, chopped

2 Zucchini, chopped

3 large Yellow Squash, chopped

2 quarts unsweetened, unsalted Vegetable Stock

2 quarts purified Water

2 Green Bell Peppers, chopped

3 large Red Bell Peppers, chopped

2 large Yellow Onions, chopped

6-oz. can Tomato Paste**

----------------------------------------------------

* Be sure to use the celery and cauliflower leaves in the soup. Our bones need the Vitamin K. We want them to have what they need to make it through AI treatment. Most herbs, too, should help us about that,

** Muir Glen Organic Tomato Paste is packed in BPA-free cans.

https://www.muirglen.com/product/organic-tomato-paste-6oz/

-----------------------------------------------------

http://foodforbreastcancer.com/foods/olives-and-olive-oil

http://foodforbreastcancer.com/foods/mushrooms

http://foodforbreastcancer.com/foods/celery

http://foodforbreastcancer.com/foods/carrots

http://foodforbreastcancer.com/foods/saffron

http://foodforbreastcancer.com/foods/black-pepper

http://foodforbreastcancer.com/foods/paprika

http://foodforbreastcancer.com/foods/basil

http://foodforbreastcancer.com/foods/onions-and-garlic

http://foodforbreastcancer.com/foods/cauliflower

http://foodforbreastcancer.com/foods/zucchini

http://foodforbreastcancer.com/foods/bell-peppers

http://foodforbreastcancer.com/foods/tomatoes

You are welcome.

Thank you. It did turn out colorful and pretty. But soups make for a rather dull diet. Sometimes I eat some other stuff. There is not so much else I am comfortable with eating.

I do not know how long it takes, sorry. If one starts with cooking the mushrooms, then adding fluid and then the bay leaves for a time, next the carrots, and finishing with the cauliflower, it is done pretty soon after the cauliflower is added.

I will try to get some more recipes on here over the next few weeks. I try (aim) to cook about once a week, but I am often too tired even to do that.

Having three freezers helps a lot. I freeze leftovers in one- and two-portion amounts in fairly thick-walled food storage grade polypropylene jars. As far as I know, this type plastic (recycling code 5) is unlikely to have the hormone disruptor BPA.

Southwestern Fried Rice and Beans

-------------------------------------

This was inspired by a Healthy Choice brand product that was way too spicy for me; contained added sugar; and was rather expensive.

---------------------------------------

3 oz. extra virgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon Ancho Chile powder (If you want this dish to be spicy, use more.)

1/2 teaspoon Chili powder (If you want this dish to be spicy, use more.)

2 tablespoons minced garlic

3 1/2 cups dry brown rice

2 lbs. dry black beans

2 green bell peppers, chopped

4 red bell peppers, chopped

5 carrots, finely diced

5 onions, chopped

12-oz. bag of frozen corn kernels, thawed and drained

Cook the brown rice with a little less water than recommended, to make it on the firm side. Chill it.

Cook the black beans until they are just soft enough to eat, but firm enough to keep their forms. [Tip: Cooking (without stirring) the beans in a pasta insert, by which they can be lifted from the water, will help the beans keep their shapes.] Drain and chill them.

In a very large deep frying pan, cook the spices and garlic in the olive oil, then add and cook the onions, then add the other vegetables and cook them until they are done and much reduced with no more vegetable fluid (other than oil) showing on the floor of the pan. Crumble and mix in the chilled cooked brown rice, tumbling it until it is fairly well colored by the seasoned oil, mixed with the vegetables, and heated throughout. Pour out the frying pan contents to spread loosely on shallow/flat baking pans to cool. Use a utensil to tumble the mixture often to help it cool. When it has cooled, put all unto a large mixing bowl and tumble into it the chilled cooked black beans.

Pack portions into food storage grade polypropylene (type 5 plastic) freezer containers for freezing. Do not tamp down the rice mixture in the containers – instead, drop the food in, then rap the container bottoms to settle the rice mixture into them.

After thawing, the portions can be microwaved in ordinary microwave-suitable dishes.

Serve with cilantro and unsweetened salsa verde (tomatillo sauce) without soybean oil.

--------------

I cannot guess how long it would take others to prepare this. I need frequent naps, and I have other serious physical limitations. It took me three determined days to get this recipe done.