THEY ATE IT

Last summer I began reading about a plant based diet. In particular, I am interested in incorporating more vegetarian meals into my family's regular diet. Let me explain what led me down this path.

I don't believe in animal cruelty and there is plenty of evidence that slaughterhouses are indeed cruel to the animals we eat (and I'm referring to how they're treated long before they're actually slaughtered.)

That being said, my quest was born out of concern for my family's health. Carl's mother died of colon cancer at age 52. Her sister died of throat cancer in her 50's as well. And her brother had a form of bone cancer in his 40's, though he is cancer-free today, praise God.

In my own family, heart disease is a serious threat. My grandmother had congestive heart failure. Both my grandfathers had heart disease. One died of a massive heart attack at age 64. The other died in his early 70's, but after years of surviving smaller heart attacks and living with chest pain related to heart disease. And my father suffered a very serious heart attack at age 64, requiring quintuple bypass several years ago. I'm blessed to report that immediate medical treatment, excellent cardiac care, an unbelievably skilled surgeon from the Cleveland Clinic and ultimately God's will prevailed. My dad is alive and well, working and traveling and enjoying each day that God gives him.

And then there are my children. Without going into great detail, I will only share that one set of birth parents is now deceased (at a young age and with heart disease and poor health part of the equation). And then there are the long term effects of drug exposure in utero to consider for some of our other children.

All these things prayerfully considered, I have decided to embarck on some diet changes for the sake of my family. And after educating myself some (and continuing to do so at this time), what I've learned is what I'm sure most folks already know, whether or not they put it into practice. That is, a diet rich in whole foods (foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible before being consumed) is much more healthy than the typical American diet of processed foods, fast food, fatty foods, sugar rich foods, etc. Whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, and fresh fruits and vegetables are my new goal.



No, we don't only eat whole foods. No, not even "mostly" whole foods (yet). No, we haven't eliminated meat from our diet. And no, there is not a guarentee of unfailed health even if we did only eat a plant based diet. But knowing that whole foods are definitely better in light of my family's risk factors, I am moving in that direction as I try out new recipes, discovering what will and won't work for us. Before I go on now, let me say that this is not a debate, nor a judgement about our diet vs. yours. For one, we're just getting started and far from the healthy diet I would like to see us practicing. Rather, it's my blog and my life and this is partially what's happening in it at the moment and so I'm sharing. That's all.

So as diet changes go, today it worked. I made "burgers" that my entire family ate well. The thing is, if I would have called them burgers, my kids would have expected just that. Red meat burgers. So they became "patties." And crabby patties at that (Spongebob fans will know what I'm referring to there). And that was all it took. My oldest had a much larger patty than her siblings and did lose steam on the last fourth of her patty, but otherwise ate it without complaint. My 3 youngest ate the patties without any complaints at all after initially inquiring, "What is this?" As for dh, he took a few bites, then said, "This is actually pretty good." YAY! A keeper.

And so I give you........"Crabby Patties" (a.k.a. meatless burgers)

-1 can black beans drained (reserve liquid)
-1/4 red bell pepper (or any other color you have on hand), finely chopped
-1/4 onion, minced
-2 tbsp fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
-1 egg
-1 cup plain bread crumbs
-cayenne pepper (2 shakes, more if you prefer spicy hot)

Sautee pepper and onion in a small amount of olive oil until soft, adding cilantro at very end. Transfer to bowl.
Add beans, egg, and bread crumbs to same bowl, then cayenne. Mash all ingredients together by hand. If too dry, add some of the reserved liquid.
Shape into patties and fry in small amount of olive oil, approximately 3-5 minutes on each side, over medium heat. Will be lightly browned during frying.

Serve on whole wheat buns with salsa, quacamole or other condiments of your choice. My family used mustard, catsup or barbeque sauce (that last one was delicious on them, though I used salsa for mine). I got 3 large burgers and 3 smaller burgers out of this.
No folks, it aint no Big Buford and it's not about to have the taste or texture of one. But it IS pretty dang healthy. And that's good enough for me.

Toni