Balsamic Tomatoes Recipe and Seeing Red

6.3.2020

If you’re looking for a healthy, cheap, super-easy, delicious option to throw into your forward-moving plant-based whole-food lineup, continue for: our balsamic tomato recipe… plus continued current-events & racial discussions with a Pre-K Cub, and a family leading-by-example and thriving via Lifestyle Medicine pillars & Plant-Based Whole-Foods (earth-kind, body-kind, and cheapest of all the diets.)

Live Kindly, Feast Kindly, Grow Forward.

This is is the base quantity (those 2 tomatoes equal one large tomato). If you have a whole bunch of tomatoes, just increase per this framework.

Items needed: balsamic vinegar, tomatoes, fresh garlic, and salt.

Dice the tomatoes, add it all to a jar, and let it rest for 30+ minutes so the salt and acid can start pulling juices from the tomatoes.

Voila.

Tastes great next to delicious (and also super-cheap) lentils, easy avocados (remember Aldi often has these for as low as 59 cents!), and kale & quinoa salad.

Also tastes great with PBWF pesto, polenta, and fresh greens. (Recipe for the first two coming soon.)

Yesterday was a sea of black squares which felt baffling in a time when it seemed we needed more voices than ever, and a simple Google search proved this had been started by music executives and Black Lives Matter was broadcasting the need to keep amplifying forward-movement and information: not silence.

“There's concern that while what amounts to a virtual moment of silence may be a powerful reminder to some, it comes at a time when the voices of black activists and advocates are needed the most.

Rapper Lil Nas X was critical of the movement on Twitter. "I just really think this is the time to push as hard as ever," he wrote. "I don't think the movement has ever been this powerful. we don't need to slow it down by posting nothing. we need to spread info and be as loud as ever."

Q and I started his day getting an update current events ( like a disgraceful racist president fueling the flames of discord and threatening military force), watched the Alex Landau video again, discussed why people will continue to rage in fury while imbalance remains status quo, and discussed how best to use the power of our absurd privilege.

Morning Chalkboard

Plant-Based Kiddo Breakfast: watermelon, apple, cashew cream, and Cappello Cereal (oats, chia, flax, oatmilk, and fruit.)

Q approaches every homeschool sheet with his own artistic flare. <3

“It’s a giant plant out walking his dog and delivering the mail at the same time, and the mailman is able to take a break and watch a movie.”

Oh man did I laugh out loud and squeeze my chest. Also loving how often people are getting “magnificent” capes these days. <3

Plant-Based Whole-Food Lunch: loaded potato soup (recipe very soon, possibly tomorrow), steam-sauteed kale, steam-sauteed broccoli, steam-sauteed brussel sprouts, and buffalo hempeh.

One of our favorite inexpensive and nutritionally dense foods: peanuts. Buy them in bulk and you can make peanut butter for yourself for significantly less money than the sort full of fillers.

Another inexpensive and nutritionally dense wonder-food: berry bread. Recipe for this is coming up soon [either this or potato soup first :-) ]
My father dropped us off some fresh fruit, but also handed off two old bananas which came in handy for this tasty, healthy treat.

A kiddo who likes to help in the kitchen, and is learning first-hand how to prepare foods that are as healthy as they are kind.

Berry Bread <3 Like banana bread, but a thousand times better. :-)

Afternoon cardio: running into every corner of the yard to the tune of “Balrog”. :-D

Outdoor Family Workout while adhering to Lifestyle Medicine guidelines

If you sit on a couch all day, your kids will think that’s the way to be. If you show them that moving your body is best for physical health and longevity, they’ll join in and hopefully live a robust life.

I used to love a good couch-surf, but with Q watching my every move I have needed to up my game of lead-by-example.

Plant-Based Whole-Food Family Feasting: red lentils, kale, easy avocado, sorrel (fresh from the yard), broccoli, mushrooms, topped with enchilada sauce.

Nightly Reading: Izzy Gizmo, I Need My Monster, more read-aloud Dune, and Fiber Fueled.

Previously pointed out how much we love the message of Izzy Gizmo. If you’re looking for a little diversity in your lineup, and also want a book that focuses on the importance of trying-failing-persevering I could not herald this book more. Live locally? You could order it from the river’s end bookstore.

If you’re not frightened awake by Trump’s threat of using the Insurrection Act, the racial discord he’s been flaming since the day he announced his interest in the presidency, or cops shooting at folks on their own porches, my respect has withered to ash.

Tangentially, if you find yourself wondering how it is that I can hold the duality of stating that we amplify kindness, yet have also moved forward to cut vitriolic souls from our sphere, I’ll happily explain because it ties in well to current times.

Imagine a friend or loved one somehow doesn’t understand that all humans are equal and they ignorantly state racist comments or even spew hate toward other souls. Hopefully you speak up in an attempt to wake them to the reality of harm in their actions. If they continue —despite your wakeful warning— do you stay close to them, or do you start to step away?

So, then imagine you have a soul in your care who means to the world to you, and you know that humans are recklessly ruining the environment of his future. Not just for him, but for every other soul, species, and ecosystem on this planet. You start illuminating loved ones about the environmental harms tied to animal agriculture (<—biggest contributor to our environmental impact/destruction), the evidence-based health RISKS associated with consuming animal products, and the health/environmental BENEFITS of plant-based whole-foods (<—rejecting animal products creates a silver-bullet that could heal our environmental impact, and makes you healthier at the same time. WIN WIN.)

Your howl eventually wakens 100+ souls (and counting), but the the folks you considered the closest/most-loved, continue on with nary a change of heart or mind. Some of them outright mock you, snap at your son when he speaks healthful truths, or shrug their shoulders and say, “I don’t care. I like the taste of XYZ too much to change.”

Do you continue to break bread with them (after 2 years of leading-by-example and then 6 months of direct, informational howling) given that your choice to sit there shows your son that complacency is a-okay as long as it’s delicious/makes folks more “comfortable”.

I could no longer stomach the hypocrisy and indifference.

This life is too short, I’m tired of explaining away hurtful/harmful choices to my son (who gets equally wounded at the sight/thought), and we can always meet up in ways that aren’t around food. I have no hate in my heart for those tables we’ve stepped back from, but I also don’t have the heart/energy left to keep explaining to my heartbroken son, “Yes, they know they are hurting the earth, themselves, and the soul they are are consuming. They just don’t care and have decided taste is more important.”

If that sounds harsh, imagine the destruction (to the animal, to the planet, to our bodies) that lies beyond our personal feelings/offenses, and how much more weight it holds than those wounded feelings.

I did, Ian did, Quillan did, and we were snapped awake and are never stepping backward again.

It’s all about amplification and moving forward.

———

What’s the most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help your kin, community, millions of species, and planet? Transition as plant-based as possible.🌎♥️

Why? Plant-Based foods are environmentally imperative 🌎. They also promote ideal health💪 (which takes stress off our overburdened health care system), are inexpensive🙌, delicious🤤, & compassionate. 💕  

Why imperative, though? 🤔We’re approaching (& have crossed) climate tipping points that will doom our kin & millions of other species. 😱📣Reducing/eliminating animal products is the *most impactful thing an individual can do* to prevent worse. 🌎🔥

Why? Animal Agriculture creates more emissions than the entire transportation sector combined, it’s tied to water waste/loss/pollution (<-- freshwater is our most precious resource💧), land loss/deforestation (<-- exacerbates climate change by reducing our ability to sequester carbon🔥🌎), ocean acidification (<-- FYI 50-85% of earth’s oxygen originates from oceanic plankton🌊) & vast species loss/extinction/suffering💔📣🌎

Plus, consuming animal products is tied to increased risk of cardiovascular disease❤️‍🩹, diabetes👎, cancer👎, and chronic disease👎; whereas Plant-Based feasting is linked to preventing/reversing some of our most common diseases (<— like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer); plus it promotes ideal health & robust strength (ie Olympians, Weightlifters, Endurance Athletes are thriving via PBWFs too). 🎉🙌♥️

What organizations are promoting plant-based diets for best health and environmental stability? National Institutes of Health,  Mayo Clinic, Yale, the United Nations, Harvard School of Health,  American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Kidney Foundation, even the Parkinson’s Foundation.

We’re all overwhelmed in one way or another, but for the sake of our kin (and the millions of species we share this planet with) we need to start pivoting forward. As someone who once rarely ate green things & used to eat animal products at every meal, I can assure you that is possible, affordable, enjoyable, & purposeful to pivot Plant-Based. In fact, our whole family is now healthier/stronger than ever. 🙌♥️

Anecdotally, our son had failure-to-thrive, was also plagued with perpetual ear-infections/sinus-infections, and had an omnipresent runny nose. What was he eating? Grass-fed milk, organic/antibiotic-free/grass-fed/local meats, eggs from organic-fed/well-loved chickens from a neighbor, every meal came with vegetables, and we limited junkfood. He was healed via a plant-based diet: he’s launched out of that diagnosis and the last time he had a sinus-infection (or was sick at all) was in 2019 when he had some cheese at a school Christmas party. Before shifting to PBWF’s he was sick every month, and how he’s a robust, vital, thriving kiddo. 🙌🎉♥️

If you think any of the above sounds over-reached/absurd/impossible, please go read the links above. I understand the inclination to hackle-raise (<—because I was once totally there) but the science is clear: any step we make forward is imperative (<—and again “STEPS” is the focus. Don’t leap, just start making steps!). It’s as simple as starting with one meal a week and growing from there.💕

We have the ability (deliciously, healthfully, kindly, inexpensively) to *preserve/protect* the planet we share with millions of species & our kin. How are we going to use that power today?✌️🤟🖖