Maria's Chickpea Salad Sandwich

     So here's a little update. Since starting a whole food plant-based diet just 10 weeks ago, I have dropped three of my four medications, lost 18 pounds, and my average fasting blood sugar is 123. I can't tell you what my fasting average was before I started this lifestyle because I never tested consistently, but every time I did test it was above 200. Sometimes far above. 

     I also can't begin to tell you how helpful it is to have someone like Maria at my side. She coaches and encourages me. And she's a great cook. It's fun to watch her freewheeling ways in the kitchen. Her ingredients are measured only in approximations. It's more a matter of look and feel. And sometimes, as you'll see, there are happy mistakes along the way. The recipe below is going to be a new favorite of mine. 

     Maria is a big fan of Susan Voisin's excellent blog and website Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. The recipes are excellent. At the very least, they're a jumping off point for Maria to improvise. This chickpea salad recipe is inspired by Susan's Sea-sational Chickpea Salad. I say "inspired" because there are a few small differences and one Big One. Susan adds arame, a sea vegetable, so the chickpea mixture will be given a tuna taste and aroma.  Forgive me, seafood lovers, but this is like throwing a load of clean laundry into the dryer and adding a Wet Dog Dryer Sheet.  If I could extract the tuna smell from tuna I'd be a lot more fond of tuna. And I could add "Nobel Laureate" to my resume.

     And let's be honest here - "sea vegetable?" If it grows in the sea then it has much more in common with a slimy ocean thing that freaks me out when it sticks to my leg than it does a vegetable. An eggplant never snuck up on anyone and pretended to be a jellyfish. I'm not about to eat something I frantically swim away from.

     But why am I obsessing over a such a trifle? Fat Free Vegan Kitchen is an inspiration.

     I hope you enjoy Maria's Chickpea Salad Sandwich. This is the kind of recipe that makes you feel just fine about pigs (or tuna) being in your rearview mirror. Don't forget the red pepper. 

     And one more thing. Chickpeas are also called Garbanzo beans. How did such an unassuming little fella' end up with two such great names? Chickpea and Garbanzo. These are the names of my next two dogs. Well, maybe not, but it's better than Tuna and Ol' Socks.

Maria's Chickpea Salad Sandwich

• 1 15 oz. can of chickpeas or Garbanzo beans

• 1/2 cup of silken tofu

• 2 Tbsp Vegenaise (vegan mayo)

• 1 Tbsp lemon juice

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon smoke paprika

• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper

Maria says a recipe like this offers an opportunity to add a bunch of your favorite veggies. She added finely chopped baby carrot, green onion, cucumber, tomato, red onion, green pepper. 

Galileo, 2013 A.D.

      I was in high school when I first learned about Galileo's treatment at the hands of the Roman Inquistion. Put in his same situation, I think I might have channeled Woody Allen.

     "The earth revolves around the sun?! I said that? I don't, I mean, how would I even know that? Because I, I, you know, I never even look up at the stars. I get vertigo. Not to mention an overwhelming feeling of insignificance."

     Then I would have gone home and broken my telescope.

     But Galileo stuck by his science and spent the rest of his life in prison. It's an inspiring story. I remember wanting to go back in time just to tell him, "Dude, don't worry! In the future, everyone will know your name! Well, okay, part of that's because of this song called Bohemian Rhapsody, but don't let The Man get you down! Because someday...you'll be known as the Father of Modern Science!"

     Sometimes I still wish I could do that. I'd be sure to bring my iPhone so I could play Queen for him. He'd probably be interested in lot of the apps, too.

     I bring up Galileo because a few nights ago I think Maria and I met a just such a man.

     His name is Dr. T. Colin Campbell. He's the co-author of The China Study and is also prominently featured in the documentary Forks Over Knives. His latest book is called Whole.

     He was speaking at a restaurant in Scottsdale called Nourish 123. After a wonderful meal (you can see more of Maria's pictures below) he laid out the science of how the so-called Western diet is killing us, but also, how we can save ourselves in three simple ways: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

     He asserts that a lifetime of rigorous scientific study has irrefutably proven that if we'll eat a whole food plant-based diet, our bodies can prevent and even reverse the damage inflicted by a lifetime of consuming enormous amounts of animal fat, its carcinogenic protein, casein, and processed food. You can read an excerpt here.

     Dr. Campbell will never be imprisoned for his views but he has suffered condemnation from the High Priests of the Medical, Pharmaceutical and Food industries. He's not recanting. Whole is the sound of Dr. Campbell doubling down. A plant strong lifestyle will remain at the center of his nutritional universe. Heretical? Someday it may seem as obvious as the order of the planets.

     What's clear is that America's current healthcare system is not working. Just take a look at where we rank among the nations of the world. 37th. Right between Costa Rica and Slovenia. As Freddy put it -

Thunderbolts and lightning
Very, very frightening me!