Lockdown Tuesday Twenty Minute Vegan Lunch

Hello everyone! Are you all hanging in there? I have to admit, I am struggling to keep up the morale. It's bad enough being jailed, but it has to happen at my in-laws'. This is the only home we could go to after four months in Asia. We should feel lucky that we had a home to go to.

The folks are die hard meat eaters. They only eat ham, bacon, pork chops, dairy, sugar,white flour, and fried eggs. In fact they fry everything in large amounts of oil. The other day she fried mushrooms to go with the pork chops that they had for dinner. There was about an inch of oil in the pan. One time she cooked something and put the remaining oil in a gravy dish to pour on the potatoes. She didn't understand why we wouldn't want it.
Could it be that we sat beside her hospital bed four years ago, everyday for three months, while she recovered from open heart surgery also resulting in a stroke?
We have been vegan for years now and try to influence them to eat healthier. They won't eat any vegetables unless they are canned or frozen and cooked to death. This is a rare thing anyway.

Today we started the day with a green smoothie from baby kale, blueberries, banana and soy milk.

If you are afraid of greens then this is a good way to get them in. The fruit cancels out any green taste. I personally love greens.

I offered the folks a glass and Marc's father said it looked like poison, while his mother made a gesture that it would make her sick.

Afterwards we thought of a quick lunch to make. Marc's mother bought a large bag of green lentils from Costco at our request. I wasn't expecting a bag this big.

We needed to make lunch fast so his mother would not get nervous as she tends to when there is too much going on in her kitchen. We started without a plan, throwing some lentils into the water. We decided on soup, adding carrot, onion, garlic. We didn't saute the onions and garlic to prevent a strong smell. We thought we would turn it to a curry and added ginger and curry powder. She started smelling it so we put the fan on high.

When the carrots were done we blended it which is kind of weird with green lentils but it was good. I added a bit of lemon juice and salt and a veggie soup cube. I would have liked basmati rice but I guess I can't ask for much. We used brown rice which was healthier anyway. And of course we added more green stuff. Kale and parsley.

We didn't use any oil at all. I started cutting down on oils in the last three weeks in Bangkok. With the exception of the restaurant meals that we indulged in.

We have noticed how much better we feel since we haven't been consuming so much oil, and adding more fruits and veggies to the diet. Also we have tried to keep a good amount of it raw.

Today was exciting to have a spicy hot soup when we have been eating mostly big salads.

Okay that was our twenty minute lunch for today. Take care everyone.