What I Eat

Last updated: 2/2/2011

Cancer Killers!

Welcome to my WHAT I EAT page. As discussed in the introductory post, this page profiles the cancer prevention and fighting meals that I eat, as well as other meals prepared by my wife that may not necessarily be the best cancer killers, but are still healthy and yummy, nonetheless.

My reason for this page is simple: folks seem to be interested in what a guy who survived leukemia eats so I figured I would just show everyone. Plus, my wife is a fabulous cook and this gives me an opportunity to show everyone how lucky I am. For more information on the background and process of this page, please visit the What I Eat post.

Let me know what you think by leaving your feedback in the comments section below. And if you have a tasty cancer killing recipe you would like to share, leave that with us in the comments section, too. Maybe my wife will prepare it for me. If she does, I’ll take a picture, post it here, and write a brief commentary about it. Enjoy!

Fruit and Yogurt

9/23/10 – There is much discussion about the negative relationship sugar and cancer have. Some books and websites even says one should eliminate all sweets, including foods highest in sugar like fruits, from one’s diet. I can accommodate thinning out the sweets from my diet, but not the fruit, not at this point in my journey anyway. So, for breakfast, I still often enjoy a simple fruit and yogurt dish. In this picture, the dish includes bananas, kiwi, blueberries, and organic yogurt. The drink is mango juice. For the general cancer patient, yogurt is important for those who have undergone chemotherapy treatments because chemotherapy kills all the healthy bacteria and cells in the stomach and intestines and yogurt is filled with probiotics that help to restore them. And for the patient who has undergone a bone marrow transplant, yogurt is supposed to be very helpful in preventing graft versus host disease. Yes, I eat a lot of yogurt. Mangos have enzymes that help prevent stress and other unwanted ailments.

Fried Eggs and Natto with Rice

9/23/10 – This picture shows a typical, healthy Japanese breakfast. What we have are fried eggs, miso soup (which includes tofu, seaweed and a miso paste broth), pickles, natto, brown rice and seaweed. You’re going to be seeing a lot of pictures with natto in them so let me explain a little about it. Natto are spoiled, sticky soybeans and usually are an acquired taste, at least for the Westerner anyway. But it is supposed to be very healthy for the body, especially in preventing strokes. One of the most common ways to eat it is to pour a little soy sauce over a little pile of it, I also like to add a splash of mustard, and mix it up until it becomes frothy and paste-like. You then pour the natto over a bowl of rice, lay a rectangle of dried seaweed over the top, and then, with your chopsticks, make a little bit-sized roll and eat away.

Rice with Tumeric Seasoning

9/23/10 – Curry stew is one of my favorite dishes (see below) so it’s a good thing for me that tumeric, one of the primary seasonings for curry, is also a primary cancer killer. In this picture, we have a simple dish of brown rice fried with tumeric seasoning and topped with sesame seeds. We also have tofu topped with fish shavings and a dash of soy sauce, spicy pickles, green tea, my wife’s homegrown tomatoes and tuna fish, and carrots, onion, and spinach in a soup with a lightly seasoned broth.

Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup

9/23/10 – Broccoli is another one of those heavy hitting cancer killers. Yes, I eat a lot of broccoli whether I want to or not. In this picture we have a delicious potato-based soup with broccoli and cauliflower. We also have a vegetable juice for a drink, my daily vitamins, and my staple dish of natto and brown rice, or natto gohan as it’s called in Japanese, with dried seaweed.

Chicken Adobo

9/23/10 – I don’t know what it’s health benefits are, other than making me feel happy, but the Filipino dish Adobo is one of my favorite ways to have my chicken prepared. Delicious! I just want to say thank you to our friend Imelda for teaching my wife how to prepare it a long time ago. Steve, you are a lucky man. In this picture we have natto gohan with seawead, mugicha—a barley tea, chicken adobo with carrots, spicy pickles, miso soup with tofu and seaweed, and my daily vitamins.

Udon

9/23/10 – Although you can’t really tell from the picture because of the egg and layer of seaweed, what we have is a delicious bowl of udon. I’m not sure of all the health benefits, but I do know that when I lived in Okinawa, the Okinawans, a group of the longest living people on earth, would tell me that they credit their long life to udon. Actually, they said they lived so long, not just because of the udon, but also because of the big chunks of fatty pork that they put in with it. Whatever the reason, I would make a special trip to Okinawa just so I could have one more bowl of their udon, it’s that good.

Fried Chicken Cutlet

9/24/10 – Some of my stomach’s fondest memories are of when I was stationed at the Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan and how I would often meet my wife for lunch at a nearby restaurant that served the best tonkatsu, or fried pork cutlet. What was so great about the meal, other than it was simply delicious, and, of course, I was with my wife (obligatory husband statement), was that it would be served with all you can eat shredded cabbage and miso soup. I love cabbage and I would eat up mound after mound of the stuff. I’m pretty sure that each time I would ask for another helping, the Japanese server would be asking herself: “Is this big ol’ crazy American trying to eat up all of our cabbage, or what?” Now, I don’t need to remind anyone about the hazards of eating too much cabbage, which I often did at that restaurant, but it was well worth it. Well, it might not have been worth it to anyone who visited my office after I had lunch at that restaurant.

Anyway, what we have in this picture is not tonkatsu, but something equally yummy, torikatsu, or fried chicken cutlet. The chicken is organic, lightly breaded, and lightly fried in canola oil. On the side are brown rice shaped as hearts and stars and topped with sesame seeds, two squeezes of lemon, and my wife’s homegrown tomato. And while the meal was not served with my beloved cabbage or miso soup, it was enjoyed with dishes of organic spinach with a splash of soy sauce, green tea, my daily vitamins, a dish of steamed broccoli and cauliflower with mayonnaise, and a bowl of a sweet, Japanese vegetable sauce. I like to pour the sauce over the katsu and rice, and if I had a mound of cabbage, I would pour it over that, too.

Baked Chicken

2/2/11 – This is a simple, delicious, and very healthy baked chicken meal served with squash soup and a boiled spinach salad.

Squash is another one of those foods that are said to help prevent cancer.  It’s not my favorite as far as taste is concerned but if it helps then…down the hatch it goes.

Chicken Curry Stew with Rice

2/2/11 – Okay, as I alluded to above, Japanese Curry just might be my all time favorite food.  I think it is safe to say that as a family, if we all had to pick as a group what our all-time favorite Mama Meal is, I’m pretty sure Japanese Curry, or Kuri Raisu as we say in Japanese, would win most votes.

The red pickles pictured, called Fukujinzuke, are a must as a side dish with kuri raisu.  I usually will dollop several spoon fulls of it into the stew by the time I have finished the meal.

The only way I could think of that could improve this meal would be to have it served with ice cold Japanese beer.

Sweet Beef and Potato Stew

2/2/11 – While I am quite sure Japanese Curry would win the family vote as the our all-time favorite meal, this sweet, scrumptious dish called Nikujaga would probably make the top five.

Grilled Salmon

2/2/11 – I feel healthier just looking at a picture of grilled salmon.  One of my favorite ways to eat salmon is over rice with a splash of soy sauce or when it is tucked inside a tasty onigiri.

Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwich

2/2/11 – It might not be the healthiest, but a buttery grilled ham and cheese sandwich is worth all the risks.  Besides, siding it with a fresh spinach and salmon salad has got to count for something, right?

Chicken Pot Pie

2/2/11 -  Just look at that pot pie!  Is that a thing of beauty or what?  It’s deliciousness is spilling out of the page.  I just finished eating and seeing this picture makes me want to eat even more.

There is something about pot pies that make me think of eighteenth century Europe, open-flamed stoves, and cottages tucked away in a snowy wood.

When was the last time you got to eat homemade chicken pot pie?

Burger and Beans

2/2/11 – Nothing says liberty and freedom like a greasy delicious hamburger, especially when it’s topped with a slice of American cheese, crispy lettuce, coleslaw, mustard, ketchup, and served with a side of baked beans.

Nothing say high cholesterol and blocked arteries quite like it either, but what the heck, we only live once, right?

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That’s all for now. Check back regularly because I’ll be adding more pictures often every once in a blue moon.