From "Meh" to "Yeh"

Once Chris was on board with veganism he enthusiastically explored other types of foods. On his weekly excursion to Costco, he came upon a grain that he had never tasted before, farro. Farro is grown in Italy and has a nutty, brown rice-like  texture. He came upon "Farro Pilaf"recipe at the following website: http://tastefoodblog.com/2012/07/25/farro-pilaf-recipe/ (Note: Chris excludes all oils, dairy products, and meats from the original recipe). The dish was tasty with a hint of lemon and I would have been happy if he added it to his recipe "quiver". But due to the lemon zest, our teenage daughter, Mikae, gave it a resounding, "Meh", which translates to, "I will eat it but if you serve it on one of my bad days I will be most displeased."

Undaunted, Chris modified the recipe to exclude the lemon zest but include acorn squash and kale. The day after he served his "Farro with Acorn Squash and Kale" dish, Mikae was looking for the leftovers. That recipe became a keeper.

Ingredients
1/2  acorn squash
1/2 chopped onion
3 T chopped garlic
1 c farro
2 1/4 c vegetable broth
2 oz tomato paste
2 T honey
1 1/2 T  cumin
1/4 t paprika
salt and pepper to taste
 1 chopped bunch of kale

Instructions
1) Bake the acorn squash half without oil for 35 minutes at 350 degrees. Chris put the cut side up.
2) In the mean time, in a large frying pan, saute onion and garlic without oil until onions are translucent. Use a little water to prevent onions from sticking to pan.
3) Add farro to the onion and garlic. Toss around at medium heat for a minute or two.
4) Add broth, paste, honey, cumin, paprika, and salt and pepper
5) Cover and let simmer for 25 minutes.
6) Cut up cooked squash into 1/2 to 3/4 inch cubes.
7) Toss in squash and kale with farro mixture. Mix well.
Ready to serve

How we got here...

It's slightly strange to think of me as one of ʺthoseʺ people. In the past, I viewed vegetarians as weird or slightly unothodox. But here I am very much ʺone of them tharʺ vegans. What made me decide to take the plunge you ask? Six months ago, I flew up to Oakland to see my brother, Julian, for the last time. He had been fighting thyroid cancer for the last 3.5 years and it had metastasized to his lungs and pancreas. When I saw him, he was a shadow of his 170 lbs, constantly burping and in pain It was heartbreaking to see him.

 At the time, I was staying with my brother, Dennis, who is a medical doctor. Dennis had me watch a movie called ʺForks Over Knivesʺ. The movie made sense. Julian loved to eat sausage, bacon, barbecue beef, and pork belly. Our mom used to tell of how Julian wouldn't eat his pancake unless a bacon was cooked into the middle of it. During one of my last visits to his house, Julian cooked his special mac and cheese dish: 5 cheeses with bacon drippings to make the cheese sauce. I truly believe that Julian's love of meat contributed to his early demise at the age of 59. I miss him and get mad at his stubbornness. But that was Julian and you had to love him inspite of all his stubborn ways .

So here I am, ready to change my life. Ready to go against the Chinese way of eating. Ready to cook food for my family that might be thrown back at me. But I know that this is the right way to eat. If I don't want to die of cancer or of heart disease, I need to go against the grain and be that weird, slightly unorthodox Chinese girl.

Luckily, my husband Chris is on board, hence, "Vegan X 2".  Chris is a surfboard shaper by trade and has the soul of John Muir. More importantly, he likes to eat good food. So when I came home from my stay with Dennis, Chris was none to excited about my conversion to veganism. But, slowly, as he read more and more of Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and their studies, Chris became commited to the vegan way of life.

We just want to share some of our recipes and hope that you will try them too.