Embrace Your Destiny: What's For Lunch

 

Hot Honey, Heart Beet and Boost

“What’s for lunch?” I get this question everyday, sometimes twice a day. My answer is usually the same, “We’ll do bone broth, juice and something light. How about avocado and tomato salad?” Sometimes, we switch up the routine if we eat lunch out while we are doing errands. Then, we have this for our evening meal.

 

 

Sounds boring, right? It is and it isn’t. The juice is usually a different Green Heart, Katie Flannagan juice everyday. The flavor often surprises me. Sometimes it’s just tastes better. Once recently, I was so delighted with the green juice that I texted Katie to find out what she did different. To my surprise, she said, “Nothing at all. It happens just seems to happen that way.” I suspect that the soil the organic vegetables are grown in and perhaps, the weather being either rainy or dry can cause the flavors to be richer, brighter and more intense. Wine certainly picks up flavors from the surrounding environment so why not vegetables?

 

The bone broth will vary in taste too. I make a new batch about every ten days. The difference in flavor could be the bones themselves. I use organic, grass fed beef bones from Brasstown Beef in Brasstown which is close to Franklin, NC. The last bones we bought were fantastic marrow bones with lots of flavor. I roast them in the oven for a couple hours before making the broth with the vegetables. I cook them in the crockpot for several days. Other than the bones, my recipe doesn’t change much except for the herbs I have available and the length of time I leave the crockpot cooking. Lately, the broth has been really tasty. A half cup of the broth with some cheese and crackers is often all we want on Sunday night. 

Bone Broth ready to store for freezing

The side I serve varies from day to day. I like to use whatever needs to be finished in the vegetable crisper, usually in a salad. When I’m short on time, the side salad will be something like lettuce and cherry tomatoes with feta cheese. When I have more time, I’ll do something more involved with avocados, tomatoes and jalapeños peppers. Sometimes when I plan ahead, I’ll have left overs from the previous night mixed into a salad. I love taking something like roasted cauliflower and doing something different with it for a salad. I bought a small iron skillet that’s just perfect for heating and browning a small batch of roasted vegetable to use as a topping on salad.  

Tending our Sprint garden

You are probably thinking, do you ever cook a meal? Good question. When I was working and both Donnie and I had a good lunch, I would not cook. I could do a baked potato and salad or fruit with cheese and crackers in a hurry and with little effort. One night, daughter Liz said, “Mom! This is not a proper meal. This is a snack. I want a real meal for dinner.” That’s when I got crafty with quick meals in the crockpot or quick fix meats with frozen vegetables. My goal has always been to keep the family happy as well as work with my schedule.

I do cook. In fact, I enjoy cooking. I love making seasonal soups and freezing leftovers. Recently, I have enjoyed making vintage pot roast. I love using the leftover meat for salads, soups or sandwiches. Luckily, Donnie is a good about eating what I prepare. 

I could go on and on about cooking and good food. I keep up with research on how food and diet effects MS symptoms. What I am finding is that there are no large studies to validate any one diet being good for MS. I read Dr. Wahl’s Diet Protocol because she has MS and is a medical doctor. She advocates her dietary protocol for improving her MS symptoms. She credits this diet for helping her get out of a wheelchair and back onto her bike. That’s impressive but not validated with a broader population. I incorporate some practices from her protocol that work for me. Her emphasis on eating as many as fifteen servings of fruits and vegetables everyday is supported in other literature on MS.  Hence, the daily juice. I also believe there is merit to include a daily serving of bone broth into the diet. Both these practices increase energy, reduce inflammation, and sustain a healthy gut with good digestion and elimination. 

When I hear, “What’s for lunch?” I happily suggest we will do bone broth, juice and salad. Even if I'm starved when we get home at lunch, I can have this lunch on the table in thirty minutes. It's quick, easy and nutritious. My biggest challenge is to keeping my juice and bone broth supply at the ready in the freezer. While I can't prove what this diet does for my MS symptoms, I can definitely say what I don't typically have to deal with anymore. I don't have digestive issues like bloating and constipation anymore. Headaches are few and never severe and my energy overall level  is high.