Lentil Soup

By Cat Wilson
Guest Columnist

The holidays threw me completely off track as Christmas and New Year was upon us. With all good intentions, I baked kieflies, dark chocolate chip cookies, and lots of date nut & banana bread. Giving them away was a pleasure, but then I started keeping ‘just a few’ for home. That was a slippery slope that led to date nut bread for breakfast each day and chocolate chip cookies at night. I tried, I failed, but I’m back, baby!

Paul Hilse, a YouTuber, grabbed my attention when he talked about needing three daily wins.

1. Physical win; walking, lifting, swimming, or stretching

2. Mental Win; reading, writing, creating, or learning

3. Spiritual Win; praying, meditating, studying or growing

Daily, not occasionally. I was talking to a recent retiree, who commented that — while it’s only been four days, I haven’t done anything on the list yet. Coupling these things together made me think that while everyone will agree that kids need structure in their lives, perhaps seniors do as well.

What if your first hour was filled with 15 minutes each of reading, stretching and meditating leaving only 15 minutes of scrolling endlessly through Facebook?

What if you extended this structure with a hard NO on some food items such as desserts, burgers, pizza and ultra-processed foods? And, what’s with the fancy macaroni & cheese offers now? It already has no nutritional value and now they’ve added pulled pork, or lobster to it and made it an entrée? Add that to the hard NO list.

What if your new structure was focusing on foods with no label? Fruit, vegetables, raw nuts & seeds, beans, greens and mushrooms?

Make soup and have it available every day. Make one meal a salad every day. I know that’s hard in the winter, but if it becomes your structure, it becomes natural in your day, and I swear, you crave what you normally eat and you may not believe it, but you will crave soup and salad instead of processed foods.

If you want to win in 2024 and live your best life, a bit of structure is needed. The real win is having control over your own life.

Cheers to your health.

Cat Wilson lives in South Bend and transitioned from a vegetarian diet to eating a plant-based diet over two years ago. She may be contacted at [email protected].

Best Lentil Soup

Ingredients

1 cup yellow onion chopped

1 cup celery stalks chopped

1 cup carrots chopped

2 cups kale chopped

1 tablespoon rosemary chopped fresh herbs: thyme, basil… (whatever you like)

1 Clove garlic

2 cups Red Lentils

6 cups Vegetable Broth (add more if you desire a thinner soup)

3 tablespoons water to water sauté

Instructions

1. Water sauté chopped veggies on medium high heat for 3-5 minutes

2. Add chopped garlic, herbs, and kale and simmer for 3-5 more minutes

3. pour in lentils and vegetable stock

4. simmer for 25 minutes or more until lentils are tender