Warning: if you are a BTD purist, you may not like this blog. However, if you are still struggling between following the BTD and enjoying old favorite foods, this might work for you.

My Honorable Husband is one of those who wants to be healthy, and wants to follow the BTD, but isn’t quite ready to make the break with foods he’s enjoyed all his life. Sometimes I try to make beneficial foods more enticing. Sometimes I try to make avoids more beneficial. I’m always nudging him toward greater compliance.

He tends to be a starch-a-tarian, and he loves Alfredo sauce. In a restaurant, if HH finds noodles with vegetables and chicken tossed in Alfredo sauce on the menu, he considers that to be an ideal BTD meal. DD, much more the purist, rolls her eyes.

When I began to prepare dinner tonight, I was facing a container of tofu that was about to go bad. HH denies liking tofu. But if I make a salad and put an equal number of chunks of tofu and soy cheese, he happily gobbles them both up. But tonight I had more tofu than I could hide in a salad, and I hate to let something good go to waste.

Then I had an idea. I had already started cooking ground turkey. I opened a jar of Alfredo sauce and put the tofu and an equal amount of Alfredo sauce in the food processor. I mixed them together and they were delightfully creamy.

He ate a large salad with a lot of beneficial vegetables and a bowl of noodles topped with ground turkey and 50/50 Alfredo/tofu sauce. He enjoyed his dinner, and complimented me on the sauce.

You decide. Is 50/50 sauce a compromise of principal? Or is it a clever way to get someone to enjoy an extra beneficial that they might otherwise have turned down? Not everyone will answer the same way. And that’s ok, because, after all, the Blood Type Diet is the one diet that recognizes the biochemical uniqueness of each individual.

The kids and I went shopping this afternoon. SS got a pair of khakis for his January internship, but DD and I escaped the stores with all of our money still in hand. As we drove home I realized it was late, and I had no plan at all for dinner. It had been a cold day, so chili sounded like a good idea. But as we talked, I realized it wasn’t going to be easy to please everyone.

DD didn’t want beef. She didn’t want chili powder or salt. She said that she would eat any kind of beans, but HH doesn’t like black beans. Pinto beans are avoid for me. SS said turkey chili would be acceptable, but he definitely wanted chili powder. I decided that in a two Blood Type family, you need two pots of chili.

I cooked one onion just until it was transparent and put half in one pan and half in another. In one pan I browned a pound of beef; in the other a pound of turkey. In the beef pan I put a can of black beans, two teaspoons of chili powder, and a Mexican seasoned salt that has cumin and red pepper. In the turkey pan I put a can of pinto beans, 1 ½ teaspoons of cumin, and a generous shake of garlic.

Both pans simmered while I made corn bread and salad.

I’ll admit that the chili I cook all day in the crock pot is more traditional. But for a fast meal on a cold day, this worked out fine. The As were happy. The Os were happy. Both pots of chili turned out good.

HH saw some beans soaking on the kitchen counter and asked what they were. “I’m fixing fava beans for myself tomorrow,” I told him. “You don’t like them.”
“How do you know I don’t like them?” he asked. “I don’t ever remember having them.”

So I retold the story (I’m sure I blogged about it way back when) of how the first time I cooked fava beans he loved them. I had over cooked them in the pressure cooker and they reminded him of mashed potatoes. He requested that we have them once a week. The third time I cooked fava beans he said he didn’t like them, wouldn’t eat them, and not to fix them any more. OK I’ll admit it, I teased him quite a bit about his inconsistency. He said, “Maybe I’ll give them another try tomorrow.”

The next day I was listening to talk radio in the car, and one of the shows had a guest who was reviewing some recent research about how great the spice turmeric is. I thought to myself that if he followed the BTD he would have known long before his “recent research” that turmeric is beneficial or super beneficial for every Type.

Then I chided myself for not using it more often. I like the flavor, but somehow it gets pushed to the back of the pantry. With all of this in mind I arrived home to fix the fava beans. The package says to pressure cook the favas for 20 minutes. If I do that, they become so soft that goop starts to ooze out of the top of the pressure cooker. So I cook them for about 12 minutes. They are soft enough to mash, but they are not gooey or burned.

I added turmeric, garlic, and olive oil to the favas as I mashed them. I tasted them and I liked them. HH tasted them and said, “These are ok; you can fix them again.

Melissa left a comment that she thought my husband would like the Lemon Turkey she posted in BTD recipes. I fixed it tonight, and both of us thought it was delicious. HH suggested we have it again soon. That’s two victories this week!! I’m all smiles.

Though we have our differences about food right now, HH and I agree that this is the best cole slaw we’ve ever had. Last summer I wrote that Lynn, one of my best friends, had been diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer. She had a year to reminisce with her husband, comfort her children, and enjoy her grand children. Her funeral was a joyful tribute to her life. For the dinner after the service, someone brought Chinese Cole Slaw. It was so good that I went back for seconds. Then I asked for the recipe. The original has too many avoids, but I have come up with my own version which is good for Type Os, and only has one avoid for Type As.

Here is the original recipe, which, though it is delicious, I do not recommend:
2 packages of Angel hair cabbage
2 packages of Ramen noodles
2 packages slivered almonds
2 Tbsp sesame seed
2 Tbsp butter
4 - 6 Tbsp rice vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup oil
salt & pepper

Crunch up the noodles. Brown the almonds and sesame seed in the butter. Mix the vinegar, sugar oil, salt and pepper together in a jar. Shake together. At the last minute toss all of the ingredients together in a large bowl.

I think part of the secret to this cole slaw is the angel hair cabbage. You can buy it pre-washed and pre-cut in the produce section of your grocery store. It is light and crisp. The other secret to this cole slaw is adding nuts. The recipe may be great for a big gathering like a funeral. I had to make it practical for two of us eating dinner alone.

Here is my BTD version:
In a jar shake together 2/3 cup light olive oil, ¼ cup honey, and 4 Tbsp rice vinegar.
Put a serving of Angel hair cabbage in a bowl for each person. For each serving, break 2 Tbsp pecans or walnuts into small pieces and mix them with the cabbage. Pour a little of the dressing into each bowl and toss quickly.

It is crunchy, tangy, and not too sweet. I like it and HH likes it.

Our son is home for a break between summer and fall semesters. I wanted to fix a grain dish to go with cod for last night’s dinner.

I cooked the cod with Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb Seasoning Blend. It is loaded with Type O beneficials. The next to the last ingredient is orange peel, but I can accept that tiny diviation. There is probably more pepper that in good for Type As, but the Type Os outnumbered the Type As for this meal, and my husband liked it.

I sauteed spinach in butter, and added a handful of currants. I’m still not totally confident about the currant rules. The GTD website described the beneficial currants as looking like tiny raisins. The BTD website says all currants are neutral, but that there are two varieties – the tiny raisin-like ones, and the gooseberry-like ones. It’s really a moot point because I can’t get the gooseberry-like ones in South Texas.

After I got the cod in the oven and the spinach wilting, I turned my attention to the grain dish. I had quinoa in mind, but there wasn’t a box in the pantry. However, I did have buckwheat groats. Usually I follow the directions for kasha, which has has a texture similar to rice. But other things were cooking and I didn’t want to take time to precook the kasha in egg. Instead I put the buckwheat in boiling water and turned to another pan where I was grilling an onion and some portabella mushrooms. I turned back to the buckwheat and it had already cooked to mush. So fast! I added the onions and mushrooms and tossed stirred them together. What else could I do? This close to dinner I wasn’t going to start over.

When the family came in I told them that I had taken a short cut and goofed on the pilaf. The texture was all wrong. But after we tasted it, we all agreed that buckwheat with onion and portabellas was a good idea. Next time if I prepare the kasha correctly, I will have a tasty side dish that I can be proud of.

I made one other goof. I didn’t prepare enough. At the end of the meal the buckwheat dish was empty. There was none left over for today’s lunches.

We have tried a new food, and our reaction had interesting BTD implications.

While I was at my parent’s house, my Darling Daughter bought groceries and cooked BTD meals for herself and her father. The day before I got home, she cleaned the house from top to bottom, and when I arrived, she had a delicious dinner waiting. See why I call her DD?

She and I talked on the phone every day about lots of things, including food. She was really interested in trying stir fried snow peas. As she was looking for them at the store, she discovered a bag of edamame in the freezer section. Knowing that soy was one of her superbeneficial foods, she bought it.

The instructions on the bag were pretty clear – boil them or microwave them. They look a whole lot like snow peas. So yesterday she and I cooked edamame with carrots and celery. DD took some in her lunch to work, and I took some in my lunch to school. I took one bite and spit them out. It was like eating hay. The pods were disgusting.

I left a message on her cell phone, apologizing for the inedible lunch. I told her to pick the beans out of the pods and just eat those with the other veggies.

When she got home, she said, “What were you talking about? The edamame was good.” She had eaten it pods and all. She liked it so much, she wanted more today.

I looked at the bag. There was nothing in the directions about eating or not eating the pods. I went on the Internet. Of all the sites I checked, the vast majority say don’t eat the pods. They recommend eating edamame as finger food, squeezing the little green beans out of the pods and throwing the pods away. But there are a few sites that say eating pods is fine, as long as they are cooked. A few people write that they actually like to eat pods and all.

All I can say is that those people have to be Type As! Unless you had some internal sense that you were eating something very beneficial, you wouldn’t eat soybean pods and like them! I’ll give edamame another try, but I’ll be eating it like they do in Japan, with a bowl nearby for discarding the pods.

When I first started eating pumpkin as a vegetable, I seasoned it like pumpkin pie, just without any sweetening. I'd add ghee, cinnamon, ginger, and occasionally a little all spice or cloves. It was delicious. I ate it happily just like that for 4 1/2 years.

Then DD started eating pumpkin with me. She liked the pumpkin pie version, but one day she suggested adding nuts. Another day she said how about a little dried fruit. We now have a variety of pumpkin recipes that are all delicious.

We always start with a can of 100% pure pumpkin. We always add ghee, 1 tsp ginger juice and 1 tsp cinnamon. Then the fun begins. Here are three of our favorite combinations:

chopped pecans and dried cranberry
chopped walnuts and dried pineapple
chopped walnuts and dried cherries

Warm together until the flavors have a chance to blend.

While I may think of pumpkin as a vegetable, grocers disagree. Canned pumpkin seems to always be placed on the isle near the cake mixes. It would be easy to miss if you were looking for a tasty beneficial vegetable.

With yesterday’s blog about why I eat a nut, seed, and fruit mix for breakfast as background, let me tell you my all time favorite combination. It’s the seed and nut mix as usual, plus one banana and a tablespoon of unsweetened carob powder. The flax seeds and carob plump up to a pudding like consistency. The banana offers sweetness. The combination is heavenly. It’s better than dessert.

Perhaps you’re skeptical about my last statement. Is it really better than dessert? If you have absorbed Dr. D’s theory or turning certain genes louder and softer, you may agree that indeed it is.

In my teenage years, I ate a lot of sugar. My Mom had a snack ready for my sister and me every afternoon when we came in from school. One snack that I remember was an orange cake that had Jello in the batter. I remember bowls of ice cream and brown edge cookies.

Of course there was a dessert in my school lunch, and dessert after dinner. I was eating a lot of sugar. I remember eating dinner at a boyfriend’s house. His mother served fruit for dessert. How odd, I thought.

I read my first nutrition book at 23 (Dr. D. was still just a kid). The focus was to get all refined food out of your diet. I got rid of lunchmeat, white flour, and white sugar on the spot. It was hard! You might say I was addicted to sugar. You might say that my genes had adapted to the point that they expected that much sugar. At any rate, I persevered, and in 6-8 months (about the same amount of time Dr. D. recommends giving up black dot toxins) my tastes had changed. Today I can appreciate a bite of dessert as much as anyone, but if I tried to eat three desserts in one day, I would get sick. Even the thought of it is not appealing. If I understand the vernacular of the GenoType Diet, I drastically turned down the volume on my sugar loving genes, and thereby made a change in my health.

If you still have a lot of sugar in your diet, you may not care for my “Best Breakfast Ever.” However, if you have been eating right for your type for a while, I think you will agree that it is delicious.

As I read my old breakfast blog, I realized I’ve changed a few things since 2004. I wrote that I used 1 Tablespoon of ground pumpkin seed and 1 Tablespoon of ground flax seed every day. Now I change things up a little for variety. Sometimes I substitute a tablespoon of ground almonds walnuts or pecans. I currently use 1-2 Tablespoons of lecithin and 1 Tablespoon of nutritional yeast.

I planned to write about my absolute all time favorite breakfast. I was going to start with a link to a blog I wrote several years about the basic breakfast I eat nearly every morning. When I say almost every morning, I literally mean 29 days out of a month. But it’s not at all boring! There is infinite variety. Today’s blog was going to be about the best combination I've tried. It is so good I feel like I’m eating dessert for breakfast.

However, the link to the old blog is missing. The new blog won’t make any sense without the old one, so I’m going to repost today, and tomorrow I’ll tell you about the best Type O breakfast. Don’t let the title fool you; the blog really is about breakfast.

Type O and Constipation
Originally written May 14, 2004
While I was swimming this morning, I wrote a blog in my head about last night’s spaghetti dinner. However when I went on the website and saw today’s D’Adamo Clinic Column on Type O and Constipation, all plans changed.

First let me be clear that I don’t dispute the advice from the Clinic. I’m not an expert and this is just a blog with my experiences!

During my health nut years, I read a lot about wheat germ and wheat bran. “Eat these foods,” I read, “and your bowel movements will be fluffy.” Fluffy was an intriguing word since it was quite different from what I had experienced all my life. I tried it, and fluffy was an accurate description. I was never constipated in my health nut years, even when I was pregnant.

However that wheat germ and wheat bran every morning for breakfast was doing other bad things to my Type O digestive system. Those two were the first foods to go when I started the Type O diet. I was thrilled that indigestion was disappearing, but constipation was arriving. This was a problem that had to be solved!

I tried magnesium and it brought the indigestion back. I still have to watch how much magnesium I take, too much makes my stomach hurt. I tried psyllium, and while it did get things moving, I would not use fluffy to describe the outcome. Squeezing toothpaste comes to mind as a description of my psyllium results (hope I’m not getting too personal here).

I read good things about ground flax seed. It helped. I tried apples, carrots and dried fruit. They helped also. Rice was neutral for Type O, so I bought a bag of rice bran. Now I was getting somewhere!!!

Every morning I put 1 Tablespoon of rice bran, 1 Tablespoon of ground flax seed, 1 Tablespoon of ground pumpkin seed, 2 Tablespoons for lecithin, and ½ - 1 Tablespoon of nutritional yeast in a bowl. I moisten it with water or fruit juice. I add 2-3 different fruits (banana, blueberries, pineapple, frozen cherries, and grapes are all favorites).

I’m not going to lie to you. This does not taste like a Krispy Kreme donut. But it tastes a lot better than my old wheat germ and wheat bran! And I’m back to fluffy again.

I have blogged several times that beets are not my favorite vegetable. I love beet greens, but could easily pass on beets. Sometimes I've eaten the beet greens and juiced the beets. Sometimes I've cooked the beets for HH, who likes beets.

Because beets are super beneficial for teachers, DD wanted to try them. Beets are neutral for Hunters and Type Os, however, they are beneficial on the Type O Aging diet in the D'Adamo Health Library. I agreed to try them again with an open mind.

While I was cooking the beets, I asked DD to look in the BTD Recipes and see what she could find about seasoning beets. DD said that she had been thinking about them, and that she thought we could season them with ghee and honey.

I took one bite and said, "These are great beets!" Both DD and I liked the honey flavor. HH, I confess, prefers regular beets with more of a vinaigrette dressing. I do not think it would work to combine the flavors. However, it would be easy enough to cook beets and serve them with two separate toppings.