Jackie Vetter’s Kitchen

I’ve decided that I’m going to choose to live without a liver transplant. Last week at my doctor’s checkup on my liver, she told me that she has nothing to offer me at this time. She said my liver biopsy confirmed Stage 2 Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis. There are 4 stages. The only treatment that they know of is a liver transplant.

I definitely do not want to do that. She also told me that you can’t stop the progression of the disease, but you can slow it down. I plan to die of old age, instead of a liver condition, because I slowed it down so much.

So, in the Hallelujah Acres book, Recipes for Life: From God’s Garden, by Rhonda Malkmus, there is a 14-day plan in the back of the book. We are tweaking it a little bit and instead of drinking their green drink in the morning, we are doing smoothies for breakfast. The Hallelujah Acres plan recommends juices midmorning and mid afternoon, and then we will eat what their recommendations are for lunch and dinner. Breakfast is going to be Eat To Live, however. I love those smoothies. We are also working in 3-day increments. Thought this might help me stick to it a little better. 14 days might overwhelm me. You know we all know our own body, I usually end up quitting before I reach the goal. Wanted to make it this time.

So, throughout the next few days, I am going to share our food from this plan with you . I have also gained my weight back, since I haven’t been able to work out after my eye surgery, so I’ll also let you know if there is any weight loss involved.

My breakfast smoothie consisted of: This actually made 2 smoothies, 1 for me and 1 for Ken

1 cup rice milk, original
2 cups fresh, frozen spinach
2 Tablespoons ground flax seeds
2 frozen bananas
1 cup frozen pineapple
1 cup frozen peaches
1/2 cup frozen blueberries

Place in blender as listed and blend after each addition. I didn’t put the blueberries in my smoothie, they were for Ken’s smoothie. This made each of us about 28 ounces of smoothie.

Midmorning I drank 8 ounces of carrot juice (We have a Champion juicer. It makes wonderful juice)

Lunch was apples, eat until you felt full. I ate two apples and was full. I also ate about 1 ounce of raw pecans and raw cashews.

Midafternoon I drank 8 ounces of carrot and celery juice

Dinner was a huge Hallelujah Acres Salad. I used romaine lettuce hearts and then I shredded zucchini and carrots. I chopped snow peas, red peppers, green peppers, sunburst squash, asparagus, cucumbers, everything raw. I topped the romaine hearts with all these beautiful vegetables and then I put on 2 teaspoons raw, hulled sunflower seeds and 1 Tablespoon organic raisins. I squeezed the juice from 1/2 lemon over each bowl and 2 teaspoons raw, unfiltered, unpressed, wonderfully, flavorful olive oil over the top with just the tiniest sprinkling of Celtic sea salt. How wonderful!

To go with our salad we had gazpacho soup. I’ve never had it before, so I’ve never made it before either and it was absolutely delicious. I made it last night and let it set in the fridge all night and all day for the flavors to meld and boy did they ever. It was so good.

My process for this soup was this:

1- quart of home-canned tomatoes, no salt (this was a gift from our friend, Patty H. Patty, thank you so much, these made this soup so good.)
16 ounces pure distilled water
1 medium to large cucumber, peeled and diced
3 stalks of celery, diced
1/2 green pepper, seeded and diced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
3 green onions, sliced
2 Tablespoons really good extra virgin olive oil
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon Celtic Sea Salt (optional)
All Purpose Seasoning (as you like it)

Place the tomatoes in a glass container. Add water and stir. Begin dicing and chopping vegetables and add one at a time, stirring after each addition. Cover and place in refrigerator for flavors to come together. Serve cold, garnished with some fresh parsley or fresh cilantro.

Have a glass of herbal iced tea or pure water for dinner. Make sure you drink plenty of fluids throughout the day. Preferably water and maybe some herbal tea.

Day one done, feeling pretty good. I just decided to confront my food issues head on, here I am, I’ve made it through one day. I can smile, I’m not biting Ken’s head off. I reminded myself of how it felt when I quit smoking and I made it through that. And, the funny thing, I’m not hungry, I’m not going nuts for something else to eat. Maybe my body recognizes this as real food and nutrients and is putting it to work! Imagine that! Maybe I’ve taken my brain out of the equation!

Happy, Healthy Eating

Jackie V.