At one point in every child's life, eating vegetables must have been a nightmare. I remember my tiny self preferring hunger to a plate of vegetables, I likely would have suffered malnourishment if my mum did not come up with creative ways of making her children eat the locally grown vegetables.
One vegetable she made quite appetizing to me as a kid was the Green Amaranth commonly known in my locality as "green". These leafy lime green vegetables, known to house vitamins and minerals essential for heart health and bone development always had a different thrill whenever my mum served it as sauce.
To make it part of our diet, my mum would get some fresh mackerels seasoned and cooked, then she would nicely chop the green amaranth leaves, squeeze them with onions and steam in the cooked fish for few minutes. I occasionally assumed we enjoyed the simplicity of this meal because of the fish bits and the many benefits she said the greens would do in our body.
I am now an adult and in a generation obsessed with diet plans, calorie counts and all manner of eating rules. It would be negligence on my part not to take seriously the concern of making healthy food choices without force or sweet talk like it was during my childhood. I have to delibrately make vegetables a part of my diet along side other classes of food if I truly desire a healthy eating lifestyle. With this in mind, I decided to prepare my mother's green amaranth sauce with a little upgrade to her simple recipe.
My green amaranth sauce was a chicken stir fry. To nail this, I gathered items like:
- Cuts of chicken breast
- Chicken spices
- Seasoning cubes
- Salt
- White and Black ground peppers
- A bit of curry powder and dried thyme
- Ginger and garlic powder
- Olive oil
- Diced scotch bonnet peppers
- Chopped onions
- Chopped green amaranth leaves.
With all my items set, I seasoned the chicken breast cuts with chicken spices, seasoning cubes, salt, white and black peppers, curry powder, dried thyme, ginger and garlic powder then allowed it to marinate for a few hours. In a hot skillet, greased with some olive oil, I stir fried the marinated chicken cuts adding the diced peppers and some of the chopped onions. Lastly, I squeezed the chopped green amaranth leaves with the remaining onions to reduce some moisture, sauteed it in a hot pot, then added it to the chicken stir fry mixing thoroughly to combine.
This method gave me a thirsty sauce to pair with steamed rice. Since I am not restrictive in my diet, I was convinced I had served myself something nourishing. To me, the meal before me served as a visible illustration of good health in a plate. I sat there eating, smiling, enjoying every bit and feeling accomplished for giving my body this green treat.
What I did not quite realize was, the desire to feed my body with something so nutrifying was fueled by my need for something truly satisfying. Vegetables, like the other foods we eat are good for the body but it doesn't provide everything we need to stay healthy. Despite the many researches in the food industry, no single food has been accredited as being perfectly sufficient to meet all our body function requirements.
Our diet has always been inadequate, and it would have continued to be had God not instructed us "that man shall not live by bread (food, diet plans) alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God". God saw a time when we will be overly concerned about what we eat, our diet regimens, diverse food restrictions and meal plans and went ahead to inform us that what we truly need to feed on is "every word that proceeds from His mouth" Deutronomy 8:3
That "every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" is Jesus Christ. He is God's word (John 1:1) and the embodiment of everything God has to say to man. There is an inevitability not to have eaten until you have eaten Christ. Anything we feed on excluding Jesus leaves us insufficient, impaired and void of satisfaction. John chapter 6 verse 55 speaks of Christ as one whose flesh is food indeed, and whose blood is drink indeed.
Physical food is good but it is not enough to save our body and it is bound to perish."Do not focus your consumption on the food which perishes, but on the food which endures to everlasting life, which is Jesus Christ. He is the perfectly sufficient food recommended by God the Father". John 6:27
Food can preserve your cells and nourish your organs but only Jesus gives life in abundance, only His spirit can quicken our mortal bodies and renew our strength daily like the eagles. Everything we eat has a role to play in our body either for good or bad but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God is a life-giving spirit. Jesus is the meal that ultimately increases our life's expectancy to infinity.
The question is, what are you feeding on? Unlike our excellent food researchers and expert dieticians, Jesus declares "He who comes to Me (feeds on me) shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me (as being satisfying and enough) shall never thirst (lack in divine health)" John 6:35.
Are you going to be the one? Does your menu and diet regimens include Jesus?As you reflect on this, may you realize that healthy eating is not entirely the function of what you feed on instead of "Who" you feed on.
Comments
Post a Comment