Red Cabbage Soup

22 grams is 0.776027 ounces [1 oz.] or 0.0970034 cups 

but let us not get technical here

22 grams of red cabbage is only 6 calories. SIX. S-I-X

One cup of chopped red cabbage has 28 calories

And 2 large heads of red [purple] cabbage makes enough to feed 1-3 people for days 

Average Cost of Meal:

2 large heads: $2.00-$4.00
**Seasonings: approx. $6.00-$10.00

Total for meal without seasonings: maximum - $8.00 [tax included]

AVERAGE: $2.00 per day [the soup should last you 4 or more days, and thus would be a $2.00 meal or cheaper the longer the soup lasts you]

**only have to buy once until you run out

ALSO!!!! You can buy one purple head of cabbage and one green because green is cheaper [but without all the benefits], it does not affect the overall end taste of the soup.

NUTRITION (benefits):

The author of all the information in italics is Sandi Busch 

"The red pigment comes from plant-based chemicals called flavonoids, while the sharp flavor is the result of sulfur-based compounds. In addition to these important phytochemicals, cabbage contributes to your overall health with fiber and a range of vitamins and minerals.

Insoluble fiber from red cabbage prevents constipation, lowers the risk of developing diverticular disease and helps relieve the symptoms of some gastrointestinal conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome. 

I've yet to meet or talk to a person with an eating disorder that doesn't have trouble with pooping. Don't lie, you know you struggle with it sometimes.

 1 cup of chopped red cabbage has 56 percent of the recommended daily intake of this important vitamin. As an antioxidant, vitamin C fights inflammation and protects cells from damage that leads to chronic health conditions, such as heart disease. Your body needs vitamin C to make collagen, which is the connective tissue that gives structure, strength and support to muscles, skin, bones and other tissues throughout the body. Collagen is also essential for the process of healing wounds. Vitamin C also strengthens the immune system by stimulating the production of white blood cells that fight invading bacteria and infections.

So essentially, this is the miracle food for bulimics and anorectics due to the protection from heart disease, and the fact the Vitamin C helps with the production of collagen which helps all the things that eating disorders destroy [skin, muscles, bones and immune system]

 It takes a series of chemical reactions to make blood clot. Seven proteins that participate in blood clotting depend on the presence of vitamin K to complete their part of process. Other vitamin-K-dependent proteins regulate bone mineralization. Long-term deficiency in vitamin K increases the risk of developing osteoporosis, atherosclerosis and cancer, according to research published in the April 2012 issue of “Food and Nutrition Research.” You’ll gain 28 percent of the recommended daily intake of vitamin K from 1 cup of chopped red cabbage.

Another long-term side effect from eating disorders is osteoporosis.

Red cabbage belongs to the cruciferous, or Brassica, family that includes broccoli, turnips and Brussels sprouts. Cruciferous vegetables are the only source of sulfur-containing compounds called glucosinolates that are responsible for their bitter flavor. Glucosinolates are digested into isothiocyanates that reduce inflammation and fight bacteria. The red pigment comes from a flavonoid, cyanidin, that functions as an antioxidant. Both cyanidin and the isothiocyanates prevent some types of cancer by stopping the growth of cancer cells, inhibiting enzymes that activate carcinogens and helping cells repair damage caused by carcinogens. In April 2012, Vanderbilt University Medical Center released research results showing that breast cancer survivors who ate more cruciferous vegetables reduced their risk of dying by 62 percent. 

Sources:
Healthy Eating


My Father's Recipe
[please click pictures if you cannot see them very well]

What you'll need:

• a BIG pot
• 2 *large* heads of purple [red] cabbage; these should be the size of your head.
• Caldo con Sabor de Pollo [chicken seasoning] 

• Tony Chachere's 

• Cavenders 

• Garlic Powder

PREPERATION

• measure out 12 cups of water and pour them it into the pot
• 1 teaspoon of "chicken seasoning" per cup of water [in this case: 12 teaspoons]
• 1 teaspoon [tsp.] of Cavenders, garlic powder, Tony Chachere's

1. Turn the stove on LOW heat 
2. cut cabbage while the liquid heats up [get the core out if you don't want it]
3. slowly turn up heat once you have all the cabbage in the pot

DO NOT worry about the cabbage filling up the entire pot it WILL go down

• cook until cabbage is soft [personal preference, I usually eat it rather soft]

This does take a little bit of time to cook and prepare but with time it becomes easier, and the soup is so delicious it probably won't even matter!

DO NOT DRAIN THE LIQUID

THIS IS WHERE **ALL** THE NUTRIENTS AND FLAVOUR WILL BE !!!

BEST EATEN WITH:

BOILED EGGS

My sister and I love biting the boiled egg [gently] in half, putting the yolk into the soup to soak up some of the flavor and using the "bowl" shaped egg white to scoop soup into and eating it like that; sounds weird but oh my gosh it is SO good!

No More Bull

I realize that this blog is all over the place with helpful information and then depressing breakdowns, and I cannot express how grateful I am to all my followers and readers who've stuck with it [whether you continue to read each of my posts or not, thank you for continuously visiting and not giving up on me].

 I don't really vent to my family, they vent to me and I don't vent on my other blogs, so this one, with all my disorder laid out for the world to see it should  not only be expected but accepted as well that I will occasionally have a rant or two and a minor breakdown. Not all the time am I seriously angry but sometimes angry, which is why sometimes my posts will disappear.

This is a short post, I am making a meal one next <3

anyway

THANK YOU for putting up with my constant crap!

Family Portrait

I have not desired to self-harm or starve in quite some time but I feel the overwhelming since of suffocating within my own skin coming about like a crashing wave; I'm about to drown. In the same sense, I feel the undeniable numbness of a looming depression, it threatens me like lurking black clouds. 

My parents don't have the happiest marriage; they let things build up and when it bubbles up to its peak, it explodes from their mouths with an unstoppable force like they are spitting spears into each other's hearts.  There are screams of betrayal and hate from both goliaths, and both forget I'm even there, shaking and teary-eyed as I am forced to listen. If only I could have run away from it all. 

I don't much feel like talking anymore, or even existing, my skin itches, begging me to scratch it off and I just want to disappear into the wind, find some place to be happy and find enough love within myself that I can live off of. I don't need other people or this family of mine that's taught me nothing but self-loathing and insecurity.

If I could, I would break every mirror in the house so they could see the truth of their warped faces beneath the facade of happiness. It hurts to know your mother steals from you and your father, and to know that your father is at the point of leaving. 

I think the giving of thanks on Thursday has been reduced to a big feast and forced get together that I, now, refuse to attend. I don't want to eat, and while I promised myself and tried to make it official through the space I put between myself and this blog.. It is inescapable. I will never escape my eating disorder it never goes away, it is a demon with claws so long and deeply gouged into my back that my bones will be the only proof of the scars 

I hurt. And I was an idiot to think I would ever recover.