Lasagna

OMG!!!!!! How come it took me so long before I actually got around to making this special treat!! Chad has been having a VERY hard time not eating his old comfort foods, so I decided it would be better to sway slightly from the restrictive healing diet and throw in a few goodies now and again to keep him afloat and not eating pizza!! Some suggestions I got on the CyberMacro discussion group was to make him pizza or lasagna with the macro tomatoless tomato sauce. This is simply made with carrots, onions and a beet to mimic the color of real tomato sauce. It was DIVINE!!!!! Then we used tofu with ume vinegar instead of ricotta cheese and grated mochi in place of mozzerella cheese. The only stuff in this that is not on the "healing" macro diet is tofu, the beet (as a beet is a nightshade vegetable...more on that some other time) and the whole wheat lasagna noodles. All of these things are ok in a normal macro diet. Nightshade vegetables are on the once in a while list. If you have any interest in watching a video of the late and great Luchi Baranda cooking this recipe, here it is:

http://www.kushipublishing.com/luchi/

Hopefully I am not breaking any laws by publishing that!! This video was filmed in the very place that Chad and I first learned the macro diet and Luchi was our teacher. Enjoy!!!!!!!

Some things that are helpful when cooking macrobiotically :)

This is my very sexy Le Creuset pot!! It is heavy so stuff doesn't burn to the bottom. I like to make squash and adzuki beans in it and carrot butter!! It is great for making stews and soups! I am glad I FINALLY investing in one of these :)








And the Ohsawa pot makes grains fluffier and tastier! I never burn my grains when using this pot and they always come out perfect. You can see my good vegetable knife somewhat in this photo...as very, very nice thing to have!

How it all got started

Way back in November of 2006, my fiancee was diagnosed with astrocytoma, a malignant brain tumor. In August 2007 he received an email from a friend who had completely cured his brain tumor with macrobiotics...NO CHEMO!! After reading it, Chad asked me what I thought. I said it sounded interesting and I was open minded. He said he was interested in giving it a go. So we signed up for the "Way to Life" program at the Kushi Institute in Becket, Mass. :

www.kushiinstitute.org

We went to the program the last week of September 2007. When we came home we started to focus in this new lifestyle and diet. Some people can go cold turkey in their previous eating habits, but we took a little time to warm up to some of the new things we were eating. Also, getting coffee and sugar out of the system was not an easy task. Within 2 months, Chad's tumor was gone. He went back to work as a Wildland Firefighter for the summer season of 2008 and starting eating the typical firefighter fare...lots of coffee, microwavable meals and messhall slop. By August of 2008 there were signs that his tumor was returning. In November 2008, it was confirmed. Back to chemo, but not back to macro yet. We still focused on some basics, but we were eating meat and sugar. We thought maybe we could live our old life and beat this. We were wrong. In February 2009, things were looking good even without Macrobiotics, but in April the cells that had mutated and the tumor was growing...and faster this time!! All of a sudden, macrobiotics seemed to make perfect sense. We started taking classes again and focused on his plan that was made by a macrobiotic counselor. Lots of short grained brown rice, kale, collard greens, miso soup, shittake mushrooms, lotus root and sea vegetables.

I have since reorganized my kitchen and purchase many essential items to make this journey easier. The big hint is to buy alot of these expensive items on EBAY and Craigslsit. I got a $200 Le Creuset Dutch Oven on EBAY for $34 and a pressure cooker on Craigslist for $20. I saved about about $250 by purchasing these items used.

We are 2 solid months into our practice and Chad's last MRI was looking good. We have another MRI coming up that should hopefully surprise even his doctors...who are always weary of this alternative treatment. Our doctor is pretty supportive luckily :) Some yummy healing meals to follow....please feel free to ask any questions about the preperation of these meals! It can be overwhelming at first, but it is well worth it :)