(BTW, This makes me a David Kessler fan!)

Apparently the restaurant would not hand over the secret ingredients, and Dr. Kessler, author of The End of Overeating, knew that he would find the ingredient list on the outside of the box.

What did he find?

The ingredient list for Southwestern Eggrolls mentioned salt eight different times; sugars showed up five times. The “egg rolls,” which are deep-fried in fat, contain chicken that has been chopped up like meatloaf to give it a “melt in the mouth” quality that also makes it faster to eat. By the time a diner has finished this appetizer, she has consumed 910 calories, 57 grams of fat and 1,960 milligrams of sodium.  Thanks Lindsay Layton, Washington Post. Click for entire article
(For comparison, a little less than a half a cup of peanut butter has 50 grams of fat. )

Instead of satisfying hunger, the salt-fat-sugar combination will stimulate that diner’s brain to crave more, Kessler said.

If sugar has hijacked your brain, get some help

This short video takes a moment to load, but it is worth it. Listen to what he says about sugar!!

Can you remember a fall in love with food moment?

I fell in love with Minestrone soup in Italy.

I was pregnant, DRAMATICALLY exhausted, and starving. Even now, I can feel the love steaming from the bowl. With the first bite, I felt so much better.

Lisa Crunick loves Marcel Hazan’s Classics of Italian Cooking.

Years later, Marcel Hazan took me into her kitchen, via her book, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, one of my favorite cookbooks.

Now I want you to fall head over heels with how easy this is to make, how delicious it tastes, and how amazing you are to make something teeming with flavor, nutrition, and love.

The vegetables are ones we take for granted. Cooked together they are Mama Mia.

Minestrone Soup

1/4 to 1/2 olive oil
1 yellow onion
You are going to into a nice little relaxing trance as you chop or dice, to please yourself, the following vegetables:
3-4 carrots, 2-3 potatoes, 1 c. inner part of the celery, 2 med zucchini, 2 c.green beans
about a half of a medium size head of cabbage to equal about four cups shredded
1  28 oz can of quality pureed tomatoes
1  15 oz can of rinsed cannellini beans
Beef stock if you happen to have some, and are not vegetarian…. otherwise, water is perfect.
If you have an old and dry end piece of Parmesan or Romano cheese, you could put it to good use here, but it is not necessary

However, you will want freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese at serving time. I also recommend you have some crusty white bread on hand and more olive oil. The more olive oil you eat, the happier you will be. yayaya!

You need a place to chop the vegetables, close to the pot, at least a four quart one and a big spoon.

Dice the onion and saute it in 1/4 cup olive oil until soft and slightly golden.

I like to begin with the carrots. I find the short stubby ones to be the sweetest, and no not the pre-cut ones in the bag, but go ahead if that is all you have. Ahem..Think of the vegetables in regard to your spoon. Do you want a big slice of carrot or do you want itsy-bitsy pieces?

Add the cut carrots to the onions and stir. While this cooks on low heat, chop the celery. The sweetest part of the celery is the inner stalks which are almost white. Use the leaves if you have them. If you are using outer, greener stalks, I would dice them into very small pieces because they can be tough.

Toss in the celery and stir. Let everything continue to cook as you dice the potatoes. Add the potatoes and stir again.

While that is cooking, dice the zucchini, and then add and stir.

Look at all the colors of the vegetables, glistening with olive oil. Your soup is going to be so delicious! I like to add a little salt now.

I also love David Kessler’s book, The End of Overeating

In David Kessler’s excellent book, The End of Overeating, he talks about how restaurants strive to get the fat, salt, and sweet to bliss points. Here, you are in control of your own bliss point!

I confess I rarely use fresh green beans. Frozen work fine. Add the green beans.

Add the can of tomatoes. Add the shredded cabbage. Cabbage is very sweet and like celery, the closer you get to the center, the sweeter it is.
I even grate the core for this reason. Some of will us take sweet however we can get it!!

Add the cannelloni beans and the cheese rind if you have it.

Add water or beef broth. How much? Leave a couple inches from the top of your pot. You want to cook this until the vegetables are soft.
The liquid is going to cook down and you can always add more water if you need it.

You are going to let this simmer until everything is soft and lovely. You won’t eat it until tomorrow because you want all of the flavors to relax into one big happy mouth party!

Add some pepper. Refrigerate overnight.

While you are reheating the soup, pour some olive oil into a frying pan. Add thick pieces of bread. Day old is better, but whatever you have is going to work. Slightly brown the bread on both sides. You can put this in the bottom of the bowls or cut up like croutons and add to the top.
Yes, this is good fat. It adds to your bliss. Enjoy!

Live in Seattle, WA?  Interested in becoming one of Lisa Crunick’s Hypnotherapy clients?

I have two weight loss slots left for the year.  If you are thinking it is your time to mind your magnificence, now is a good time.

Do you eat organic, play soccer, and smoke on your back deck? or something like that?  I am offering a very small group session for people are ready to ditch their habit. Click here.

Image courtesy of  flickr.pointykitty.org

This is not really a recipe. This is intuitive. You toss it together to please your taste buds and give your tummy that happy, satisfied feeling. And we love that to be easy, right?

This salad was inspired by “Oh my gosh, Robert is here and I want to feed him something delicious and he is totally vegan.”  And it turns out that everyone loves this salad.

Ingredients

1 cup of cooked quinoa (red or black)  *Easy recipe

10 oz of cooked and cooled lima beans

Chopped cooked beets. I used fresh, however you could use canned. Be sure to drain them really well.

2 T Sesame Seed Oil.

Rice vinegar to taste

a  pinch of sugar

This salad is beautiful.

Mix Sesame seed oil and rice vinegar in the bottom of the bowl.

Add lima beans and quinoa.

Garnish top with beets.

Day 2. Mix leftover bean salad with fresh greens. You may want to add more sesame seed oil and rice vinegar.  Yummy!
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The easiest way to cook quinoa:

Rinse one cup of red or black quinoa.

Put in a saucepan and add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil.

Put on a lid and turn the stove off.

The quinoa will be perfect in about twenty minutes.

Quinoa is really handy to have in your refrigerator. It is a complete protein which you can easily add it to many things. I enjoy it beneath a fried egg, with a little cottage cheese in the morning.

Private Hypnosis and EFT Sessions

More on Quinoa

Quinoa is delicious, easier to make than rice, and a complete protein! Gluten free, quinoa is not really a grain, but a seed. The Inca Indians fed it to their warriors in the spring to increase endurance and spiritual awareness.

I know you want that so here is how easy it is: Rinse 1 cup of quinoa  (red is my favorite)

Throw into a sauce pan and add two cups of water.

Bring to a boil. Let it boil for a minute. Put on a lid.

Turn of the stove and in about 15 minutes it will be perfect.

Have some peas left over from last night’s dinner? Scoop out some quinoa, add the peas and douse with a little olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon and a little salt and pepper and toss!

Olive oil, lemon and quinoa are a happy trio.

Create your own lunch heaven: add avocado and tomatoes or lima beans, or black beans and cumin.

Would you like to feel more playful in your body?

Download my free hypnosis for Love the Skin You Are In. You may get up from listening and find yourself feeling full of fun!

Do you eat too much sugar? Check out my 7 tips to reduce cravings.

The truth is that many vegetarians  will sit down to the traditional table with no intention of eating the turkey, but with a deep hope that the green beans will be free of bacon. And please pass the mashed potatoes.

I have found Channa, and Indian bean dish made with garbanzo beans, to be a perfect side dish for Thanksgiving. The vegetarians sigh in relief and I always get asked for the recipe.

No need for the vegetarian’s mashed potatoes to be lonely, these slightly spicy beans are perfect. If you can open a few cans, and know how to saute an onion, you can do this!

You need whole cumin seeds, turmeric, olive oil, a yellow onion, at least one jalapeno pepper, a small can of tomato paste, a chunk of fresh ginger, four cans of rinsed garbanzo beans (organic if possible) salt and pepper and that’s it! Oh, and a pot with a lid, big enough for all of the above, plus a can of water. You also need a blender or a food processor.

Throw into the warmed pot a Tablespoon of whole cumin seeds.

As you get excited by the smell, add the chopped onion and enough olive oil to saute this little aromatic delight.

Cook until the onions are soft.

Pour this into a blender.

Add the can of tomato paste, a cut and seeded jalapeño pepper (2 if you like your food hot), chopped ginger (A piece of ginger equivalent to two index fingers: more or less?? You can’t mess this up!), at least 1T turmeric, and water. Blend this really well.

Add to original pot the four cans of rinsed garbanzo beans.

Add mixture from blender. Cook this on high until it boils.

Turn it down to simmer and cover. Depending on the beans, this could take an hour or more.

You may have to add more water. You want the beans to feel soft and a sauce to have formed.

Add salt and pepper to taste. That's it!

Of course, this tastes even better once it has cooled and been reheated. This is a favorite at my house. We eat it cold with chips or crackers, and sometimes blended like hummus.

Channa is also great with great with potatoes, rice, or mixed with chunks of cooked squash or pumpkin.

www.LisaCrunick.com

Helping You Change Your Mind

You will need a heavy pot you can put in the oven. If it doesn’t have a lid, you can use tinfoil.

Check to see if you have most of these spices: cinnamon, turmeric, cayenne pepper, coriander, cardamon,and ginger.

Sweet potatoes, or yams, at least three good sized ones Carrots, four to six Something green, peas, green beans; frozen works (1 cup? 2? you decide?) Olive oil, 1 onion, a red pepper, fresh garlic 1 28 oz can of tomatoes 1 can of garbanzo beans.

When this is baked you will want to eat it with Couscous. You cannot mess this up.

All will be well, even if you do not have everything  listed.   If you need a measurement for the spices, try 1 teaspoon each, but really, playing with the spices is part of the fun.

Quick,what else can you think of that has both garbanzo beans and yams? Yams, sweet potatoes, and carrots are good for your brain food.

Do I need to say that changing your mind is easier when your brain is working?

Saute  chopped onion with a chopped red pepper, garlic and ginger root powder in olive oil. Add cinnamon (good for you), cumin, turmeric (good for you), cayenne, cardamon, coriander  (This is all good for you!) Now add 1 28 oz can of tomatoes (organic tastes way better here)

Add water. The tomato can half filled works! Now inhale as you stir your creation, and taste it. Do you want a little salt? more cinnamon? cumin?

When you are happy with it………sing ……. Add the garbanzo beans.

Look at you! Now add the sweet potatoes (big pieces with skins on), carrots and green vegetable. (I have even thrown in a quarter bag of frozen mixed veggies here and lived to tell you, you cannot mess this up!)

Do not be stingy with the sweet potatoes. Cover and bake 2-3 hours at 350.

The last hour bake uncovered. Your home will smell like heaven.

If you can wait, let this cool and then reheat the next day. But you can eat it immediately. Eat it with couscous. OH MY!

You can change your mind about anything?  vegetables? cooking? relationships?

Lisa Crunick

I want it right beside the mashed potatoes, for contrast.

Now in January, after record setting rains, high winds, cold weather and days of nothing that resembles a beach, I want fruit salad.

I encourage you to join me. You may, like me, get a reputation as being a healthy cook, when in reality, all you are doing, is exercising your ability to cut up fruit, while inhaling pleasantries.

The first ingredient: a pineapple. It needs to feel just slightly soft, yet be solid, and when you can easily pull out one of the leaves, it is ripe. If you pick up and smell it, you will really look like you know what you are doing.

Then choose some hard apples, granny smiths and braeburns are both good choices. You need two or three.

And then several large naval oranges. Produce people are amongst the friendliest in the world and they love it when you ask, "Which are _____are the best right now?"

You want the oranges to feel heavy for their size and the skins to not be too thick,'but don't be shy, ask a produce person.

You want this salad to last a few days, so choice your next fruits carefully. Pears are good, but they need to be a little firm, or they will become mushy.

Seedless grapes are good. Frozen rasperries work, but only if you are willing to have a red salad. Pomegranate seeds are fun. Make this salad to please yourself.

Choose a container that allows you to notice your fruit salad when you open the refrigerator.

Begin by cutting off the top of the pineapple and then cutting off the rough outsides. Then cut it in half from the top, and make the HUGE decision about how large or small you want your pineapple pieces to be. You will want to cut out some of the core, unless you enjoy a really LONG chew.

There is going to be pineapple juice all over the cutting board, and you will forget that it is winter. Then just keep cutting to your heart's content.

This is so relaxing. The orange smells like heaven and there is juice everywhere. You can stir your salad lightly as you make it; the color and textures are mesmerizing.

The best part is when you open the refrigerator the next day and there it is!!! Picking through the tastes, colors and textures is so satisfying. You can throw some plain yogurt on the top and a little bit of granola. Life is good.