Holy Flying Fuck-Monkeys!

So I just listened to one of the latest Thug Kitchen podcasts – A.K.A. Forked Up – and it was the podcast where they interview Laila Ali about her new cookbook ‘Food For Life.’ It sorta head-fucked me a bit because in it Laila Ali talks about how her eating has changed since discovering she’s got Hashimoto’s. The reason this blew my mind is because a good friend of mine has recently been diagnosed with Thyroid issues that may be Hashimoto’s and he has ENTIRELY changed his diet. He no longer eats dairy, gluten, or refined sugar, which means there’s a lot of cooking from scratch going on. He phoned me up practically yelling at me with joy and exuberance at how POSITIVELY amazing he felt since changing his diet. ‘YOU GOTTA TRY IT’, he said. ‘JUST ONE WEEK!’, he shrieked excitedly. I think my exact words to him were; ‘fuck off, that sounds like too much hard work.’ (I was in bed with flu when he called.) I’ll give him this, he is a persistent fucker, and he eventually talked me into trying it for 3 days. Which later became a week. Here we are 2 months later, and I’m still eating this way.

I feel amazing, I sleep better, have more energy – turns out my persistent friend really was onto something. * The only thing was, yesterday I was leafing through my Thug Kitchen recipe books looking at what to cook next and it suddenly occurred to me that there are quite a few recipes with flour or sugar in them. So I felt a bit stuck…What would happen to the blog? I didn’t wanna bail on the blog or this new way of eating. Then today I listened the Thug Kitchen podcast and the whole thing was about this way of eating and Laila Ali! I was like ‘Whaaaaaaat?!?!’ Such a weird synchronistic marrying together of these two worlds, which got me thinking – it can be done. I’ll just figure it out. I’ll make the recipes the normal way for my family and adapt them for me.

But for now I’m making recipes that are not just safe for me to have, but fucking awesome.

So, White Bean and Cabbage Soup it is.

‘Don’t let the beige-on-beige ingredients fool you into thinking this is some flavorless gruel. This basic-bitch of a soup packs a flavorful punch you won’t see coming.’

– Thug Kitchen. 101: Fast as Fuck. (page 66)

Sorta like Laila Ali, you know what I’m sayin’?

This was easy to make, especially when you’re not in a hurry and you’ve got good tunes playing in the background, like Herbaliser.  I looked up and realised it had started snowing outside. Could it get any cosier? Hot soup on a snowy day? Life is good.

I had a surprise when I opened the beans, because they were way bigger than I’d imagined. Don’t know if I got the wrong type? I also realised I needed more beans than I had so I threw in an extra tin of black beans that I had in the pantry.

While the black and white beans were harmoniously hanging out in my soup pot, I stirred in the lemon juice. #Ebony&Ivory #AllBeansMatter

This soup is filling, delicious, quick and easy to make. Super healthy. Full of anti-inflammatory ingredients (Did you know that about cabbage?! Did ya? I bet you didn’t) This soup will soothe your body like a bottle of whiskey and dark chocolate will soothe your soul on a long, lonely night.

And if you make enough for 4-6 people, but there are only 3 of you eating, then you’ll have plenty of delicious leftovers for after you’ve been out playing in the snow. And isn’t that what life is all about? Happy memories and yummy left overs.

* Apparently a lot of auto-immune related stuff can be connected to a condition called ‘Leaky Gut.’ (No that’s not code for excessive farting) If you heal the gut, you can improve auto-immune issues. But what do I know? I’m not a doctor. I’m just a normal girl, in a normal kitchen, wielding a razor sharp knife.