WOW Your Cooking

Healthy eating is something that I have worked to get better at over the years. And it's something I really enjoy learning about and improving on! I recently attended a seminar called WOW Your Cooking. (WOW for Word of Wisdom, which in the Latter Day Saint faith, is a commandment to take care of your body, eat healthy, and abstain from harmful substances). The seminar was given by a woman who suffered from severe multiple sclerosis and found herself wondering why the promises given in the Word of Wisdom were not being realized in her life. She had frequent episodes of paralysis and struggled to raise her family. At one point she was paralyzed from the neck down and doctors found over 70 legions on her brain.

Upon more careful study of the Word of Wisdom she thought maybe she could do a better job of living this principle of the gospel. After a commitment to do her best and working towards that goal for 7 years, doctors informed her that she no longer had MS. She was cured! I know this kind of miracle doesn't happen for everyone but I do know that God blesses us when we sincerely do our best to follow His commandments. 

During the seminar she taught us about incorporating a large variety of healthy grains and vegetables. She gave us information on chia, amaranth, barley, quinoa, and teff and brought samples of meals she had prepared with these grains. She also taught us about a unique way to incorporate a large variety of vegetables, especially those that we don't eat very often (which for me is a lot of them). She calls it veggie blending. I tried it and love it! First you buy a large variety of fresh vegetables, wash and cut them. Then you put a little of each in a large food processor and chop of them up fine. Put the chopped veggie blend in freezer bags, freeze what you won't use soon, and put the rest of the fridge to use in your meals for the week. This veggie blend can be added to anything, casseroles, stir fry, spaghetti sauce, any thing and everything. Add the blend right before you serve it so the veggies are as close to raw as possible. It is amazing! 

This is my first attempt at veggie blending. I spent about $12 on vegetables and bought spinach, kale, carrots, beets, asparagus, butternut squash, and broccoli. 

A little bit of each in the processor.

It made 10 bags which will last me awhile because I only use half a bag for each meal. 

Yum! 

Here is one of the meals I used the veggie blend in. Lettuce wraps with brown rice, quinoa, ground turkey, veggie blend, and home made teriyaki sauce. An amazing recipe that I got at this seminar! Love it! 

I used quinoa and the veggie blend in my recipe for southwest egg rolls. We had it with refried beans and rotel tomato dip and salad. 

My favorite way to eat chia is in green smoothies. So far the best one I've made is with spinach, kale, pineapple, and frozen mango. 

Some of the other meals I've used/want to use these different grains and the veggie blend in are:

taco salad

lasagna

home made chili

spaghetti 

enchiladas

taco rice

hawiian haystacks

chicken tamale casserole

fried rice

thai noodles

I'm excited to try them in all my meals! 

I'm always up for more meals ideas so if anyone else feels like posting their ideas too, please do!!!!! One of my old roommates has a great recipe blog I use all the time if you want to check that out: http://peterspickins.blogspot.com

PS: If you want more information on this let me know! I am going to try to attend another one of her seminars soon and I'd love to take people with me if you live close.