Food and other thoughts....

Last night, I got a message about a family we are acquainted with. The mother of the family, who was right around 40 years old, died of ALS early Tuesday morning. ALS is such a terrible disease, trapping someone inside of a body that quits working. Her children are 16 and 7. The 16 year old rides with us to school every day and she went to school today. She got in the car and was talking about her mom. We all cried while she talked about her mom and how empty she feels right now. I asked if we could bring some food and she told us about how much food they have at their house, which is what got me thinking about how food symbolizes so much. I think that prayers are important for this family and for this woman whose soul is free of the confines of her body. I was also so filled with love watching my children react with compassion and understanding to someone who was obviously in so much pain.

Food is often synonymous with comfort. We make food for people who are sick, we feed a cold, we feed those we love, we go out to eat to celebrate, we have food when we are sad, we have food when we are happy.

Last night I had the occasion to make food for a very special person and friend who has been sick and had surgery. I put chicken and veggies in the crockpot and let it cook all night. My container was just a bit too small, so we had chicken soup for breakfast! I think that's a pretty healthy breakfast, actually. My point though, is that we took food to someone who needs our help and our love. It makes me feel good to be able to bring something to someone who needs the help and who I think so highly of.

Before leaving for work this morning, I put the fixings for Chicken Posole in the crock-pot. Actually, I had prepared it last night, so all I had to do was to dump it out of the bag and put it in the crock-pot this morning. It was wonderful to come home to good smells and the posole was warm and filling. We had it with some avocado, lime juice squeezed on top of the soup and some tortilla chips. Delicious.

Crock Pot Posole: 3 points per 1 cup serving (this is somewhat of an estimate - was 27 points for the entire crock pot. I estimated at 10 cups, it might have more room than that)

2 pounds chicken breast, diced into small pieces
1 cup dried posole (hominy)
2 cans diced tomatoes
4 cups fat free chicken stock
1 large onion, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
2 frozen, roasted green chili's with seeds (especially if you like it hot)
oregano to taste
minced garlic to taste
green chili powder to taste

Put all items in the crockpot in the morning and cook on low all day long. Before eating, garnish with some diced avocado, squeeze some lime juice over it and enjoy it with tortilla chips. I added salt to my bowl, but don't cook with much salt.