Thankful Thanksgivings

Abundant Life and More Recipes

The past couple of months have been quite busy. With the fall harvest and everything that comes with that, the birth of a new grandbaby, my parents recent visit to meet the new grandbaby, puppy sitting for our son while he is at work and catching up on things set aside during my most recent round of C word (Covid) there has been no shortage of things to do. I am thankful for it all, and especially thankful for the energy to keep up with the things needing to be done, THANKS to the acupuncture treatments I mentioned in my last newsletter. I hope to post an update about my acupuncture treatments in the Long Covid Corner subsection soon.

It was about this time last year when dad received his cancer diagnosis. I thought about that a lot as I watched him hold his first great-grandchild in his arms and felt incredibly thankful for the time that has been tacked back on to his life knowing that putting that child in his arms, almost didn’t happen.

Dad’s oncologist has called him a walking miracle and at his last appointment Dr. Oncologist jokingly asked him what he was doing there because he did not look like a sick person. Dad is doing so incredibly well that the oncologist pushed his regularly scheduled scan off for a bit longer and told him to keep doing what he’s been doing to stay cancer free.

If you are new here, I would like to encourage you to check out our welcome page and some of our earlier newsletters. Reading back over my thoughts from the
Cancer Survivor newsletter seemed fitting for this VERY Thankful time of the year-

Seeing the scans showing no bladder tumors in dad’s kidneys and lungs is a pretty big deal. I’m not sure how often this is accomplished in just 4 months, but for this result, we are thankful.

The day dad called me to tell me he had stage 4 cancer felt devastating. I had already been very sick due to Covid for over a year, and I was just beginning to recover. This unexpected news felt like a sucker punch, but dad said that we were going to stay positive which is not the superpower of some of the hope filled pessimists in our family, me included, and I decided to follow his lead. Oddly enough, what I had just been through had actually prepared me for this cancer thing……….

We’ve danced with death and wrestled with mortality, but in the mix is new life……….

Mom and dad’s recent visit came with the sharing of more recipes which mom sent to help me provide familiar nourishment to dad while he was here with us. We loved the recipes so much that I have decided to share them with you and hope that you enjoy them as much as we did. All of our shared recipes have been tucked away in the Nourishment subsection of Leaving Death in the Dust for your future recipe finding needs.

Here are mom’s notes for adjusting recipes as needed-

Omit refined white sugar and use other sugars sparingly (honey, coconut sugar, monk fruit, unsweetened applesauce or other lower glycemic index sugar of your choice) because cancer feeds on sugar p.s. honey has anti-cancer properties.

• Eliminate cheese or use it sparingly.

• Buy organic when possible.

• Use organic frozen corn, sparingly.

• Substitute cornstarch with arrowroot powder.

• Use Extra Virgin Olive Oil, or Avocado Oil, or Coconut Oil.

• Use freshly ground grains that have been soaked or sprouted. Limit wheat.

• Use pasta made from chickpeas, red lentils, or other veggies.

• Limit red meat. Eat good quality chicken like one from Springer Mountain Farms or find something else local to you.

  Mom’s RECIPE LIST, shared with Love:

Greek Style Grilled Chicken Salad - Closet Cooking

Mediterranean Bean Salad • The View from Great Island

Greek Pasta Salad - Creme De La Crumb (lecremedelacrumb.com)

Chickpea Salad Recipe - NatashasKitchen.com

Spinach and Ricotta Egg Bake - Three Hungry Boys

Spinach and Feta Egg Bake | Tangled Up In Food

Spinach Mushroom Breakfast Casserole - Two Peas & Their Pod (twopeasandtheirpod.com)

Healthy Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins - Marisa Moore Nutrition

Best Applesauce Muffin Recipe Ever - Beat Bake Eat

Mom uses this recipe to make sausage for dad, but she uses ground chicken:

Coleen's Recipes: EASY ITALIAN SAUSAGE (coleensrecipes.blogspot.com)

My recipe contributions:

I love this Arugula and Brown Rice salad, but I used a lettuce spring mix and added some fresh arugula and a bit of beautiful Japanese red mustard from my fall garden instead of using just arugula or spinach as called for in the recipe and since we had a hard freeze which ended basil season in my garden, I added some dried basil to the dressing instead of adding fresh basil to the salad greens. I also added some crumbled pecans. I think I may try substituting orange for the lemon in the dressing some time because I think it would be tasty, but the lemon was very good!

Arugula & Brown Rice Salad Recipe: How to Make It (tasteofhome.com)

I will also be sharing my other recipe contribution here, but it will only be made available to my paid subscribers. I have come up with my own recipe for baked oatmeal and there are several variations, so if you are interested in that one, be sure to look for it at the end of this newsletter and please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Doing so helps us encourage and share Hope (through this newsletter) with others wrestling with cancer and long-covid.

Happy and Thankful side note-

When I was at my Covid, mast cell, aggravated worst, I thought for sure I would never be able to be around dogs or cats again because they, along with horses, are some of my biggest allergen triggers. However, I have been able to help care for my son’s new puppy AND I have had no problem with my asthma or allergies so far. YAY!

Wishing you all peace, blessings, and a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,
Stephanie

Hope is the beginning of healing and Leaving Death in the Dust was created to help beautiful human beings, who are sick, tired, and metabolically bankrupt, become more actively involved in their own health care.

*Leaving Death in the Dust is a newsletter and is not a replacement for professional, regulated, medical, healthcare. It is informational and educational. Some of us in this community may have worked in the healthcare system, but we are not your medical provider and whatever you find here is not the establishment of a professional medical relationship or medical advice.