Crock Pot Vegan Broccoli Cheddar soup - Gluten FREE

There aren't really any good Vegan Broccoli cheese soups online. So I decided to see about making my own.

4 cups broccoli divided (1 head should do the trick) cut up into bite size pieces
1 cup Raw Soaked Cashews
3 T Lemon Juice
1 1/2 tsp apple Cider Vinegar
Onion Powder to taste
Garlic Powder to taste
Fresh garlic to taste
Sea Salt to taste
any fresh or dried herbs you like
Fresh ground pepper
Paprkia or Nutmeg depending on your taste for garnish when serving

Lightly steam about 2 cups of broccoli (3-5 minutes over medium heat with a steam pot or double boiler).

While you're doing that:

Using a Vitamix or like blender:
Blend together 1 cup of RAW soaked Cashews and about the same amount of water (enough to cover). Blend until creamy.
If you don't have time to soak the cashews, heat up some water in a teapot to boiling. Put enough water on cashews to Cover, wait a few minutes and then blend until creamy.

put Vitamix on lowest setting and start adding the following (this will prevent lumps)

1/2 cup nutritional yeast (or more depending on how much you like the stuff)
1/4 cup of garbanzo flour or cashew meal or anything to thicken it up that doesn't have gluten
3 T Lemon Juice
1 1/2 tsp Apple Cider vinegar
LOTS of onion powder
LOTS and LOTS of garlic powder
I also added about 4 cloves of garlic
sea salt to taste
add fresh herbs to your liking - I had some fresh oregano that was growing on my window sill.
Added fresh ground black pepper while cooking.

Turn the blender on high and Blend everything above together until creamy - don't over blend - 1 minute should be fine.
Add the lightly steamed broccoli and continue to blend until the broccoli is blended.
Pour out half of the mixture into your crock pot and then add about 2 cups of water to the blender to blend the rest of the mixture together so that you have more soup - you can and should use the broccoli water from steaming. If you need to do this twice, do so, but use less water - use just enough water to make the soup to the desired thickness.

Stir everything up and taste. Add more of what you think is missing and stir.

Turn the Crock pot to LOW and cook for about 3 to 4 hours. (You can also use a stove pot, but you have to watch it and stir it. I'm never in the mood to watch my food).

After the 3-4 hours is up, Add the rest of the 2 cups of broccoli florets and cook for about another 1/2 hour more. Serve up hot!

Ways to make the soup more thick - add more "flour" and less water. All the ingredients are here to make a great soup. Tweak as you see fit.

10/16/2013 Wednesday before Sunday

Does this look delicious to anyone?  Cuz it is.

It's a green leafy thingy with other green thingies inside it.  it's called a RAW taco.  And I really like it.
I've been eating raw for a good 2 days now and it's interesting how hungry I'm not and how little I'm eating.  The nice thing about making raw food is that it never gets cold... that's not a joke, but it is funny since it's my biggest pet peeve to make a bunch of hot food for my family and no one is home to eat it.

The taco shell is a Collard Green wrapped around sprouts, sundried tomatoes, sweet little colored peppers, avocado, and there were supposed to be cucs in there but I don't know where to look in the garden (Husband is the green thumb).  I chose pea sprouts, cuz, well, they were the prettiest on the Whole Food's shelf?  The sauce is a combo of raw sunflower seeds, zucchini, lime, red pepper and I added to it a jalepeno for spice.  It's delicious.  It's a recipe by Diana Stobo. There are some left for the hubby.  Doubt the kids will try it, but it was offered.  They can make their own dinner.

I was given some alarming health news yesterday. Nothing like, I'm gonna die soon or anything.  But something enough to make me go - whoa.  I'm sure glad I decided to go on a cleanse.  After I got home from my appointment I made sure to tell my boss that I was taking the next 3 days off.  I desperately need to unplug from the world.  I kept my phone far today only using the bluetooth for music.  I got up early, and got SO much done before 12. It was a productive day.  My goal is to try to keep this momentum.  We'll see.  It's funny, as much as I love to sleep in, I also hate myself for doing it.  I'm tired all the time.  But getting up early was energizing in itself.  Who knew.

So, I think I'm ready to begin the cleanse.  I know what I can eat and there are snacks out there that I can bring places that are easy to eat on the go.  I almost quit my job because one of the things I was told yesterday was that my stress levels are through the roof.  There are a lot of outside issues adding to this, but I'm trying to lessen them asap. By taking these 3 days off I'm hoping to really prepare mentally, physically and emotionally for what's coming over the 10 days of the cleanse.  I'm already having some emotions, but so far I'm not missing junk food.  I still am not liking the 'cooking' or cutting and chopping, but it's not that much just yet.  right now I'm winging it with juicing and making things like the raw taco above.  But The Naked Challenge is supposed to be written out day for day meal for meal.  So I will have support, plus the support of Diana Stobo as a health coach over those days and a message board.

One last thought for the day - I don't think we were meant to sit down and eat 3 meals a day - big meals like we do.  I really don't.  I don't think we were meant to graze all day, but I think we were just meant to fuel our bodies when we need to with what we need.  More on this later.  But I just wanted to put that out there (mostly because I'll forget to talk more about it later).

Today was 100% raw.  That's an accomplishment!  Gold star for me.

10/12/2013 - 9 days before I start the Naked Challenge

At this time, I'm trying to get a head start on The Naked Challenge that I'm starting on Oct 21, 2013.  I was told not to eat processed wheat, processed sugar, caffeine, alcohol, meat, or dairy. Baby steps.  Doesn't help that my daughter had a few people over the other night and there are oreos on the house.  I have avoided them though and when I have been reaching for them I've been reaching for grapes and peaches instead.  1 point for me. I love coffee, espresso really.  But I've been avoiding it the last 2 days.  I don't eat a ton of meat and was a vegetarian for 7 years and a vegan for 3 of those.  Avoiding meat and dairy isn't too difficult, although I do love cheddar cheese. 

I found this today - it's a good mantra 

I will try to keep this in mind when reaching for food.

I have a weird relationship with food.  I'm sure I'm not the only one, but my issue seems to be a rebellious one. That's the best way to describe it.  I won't go into my mommy issues, but guilt about food has turned into a - so what if I eat it?  It's my body.  Maybe it's a control thing.  But I'm honestly not willing to pay a therapist to figure it out.  Bottom line, reading The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell,  Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Furhman convinced me 3 years ago that eating a plant based diet is the way to go. It's just a matter of that inner fight I have telling me that I Deserve a cupcake.  Honestly, I don't know what anyone could do in their life to "deserve" a cupcake, even a Vegan one.  There are no limits to the triggers that make my brain want stupid things like cake, candy bars.  I turned them off for a good 1.5 years when I went vegan.  Eating vegan completely took the emotional factor out of my eating choices, wants, needs.  The problem is that what drove me back was the all the processed junk food that has been made available to the vegan/vegetarian world.  I'm convinced that eating processed Soy made me sicker than any sugar, dairy or meat could ever.  To get away from soy, I started eating meat again.  And so we are back here.

The Naked Challenge seems to be a great way to not just go vegan (possibly raw) but to not do it on my own this time.  We shall see.  I'm glad I have over a week to prepare.  I have a lot to do and I really have to psych myself up to cook, cut, shop.  I hate my kitchen in the place we rent. It's awful.  But that's that.  It's only 10 days, but I'm hoping it will be 10 days that will kick off my wanting to eat like this all the time.