Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Barbecue Cabbage Sandwiches


There was a good sale on cabbage this week so I grabbed 2 heads. These cabbage looked better and fresher than they did in March for Saint Patrick's Day sales!

My husband, who usually works from home, had to go into the office this week for a few days and I could stink up the apartment as much as I liked, so this was a good time to cook them up. 

First, Jill McKeever's Barbecue Cabbage Sandwich recipe from her YouTube channel:



The recipe she demonstrates is slightly different than what is in her new book O M Gee Good! Instant Pot Meals Plant Based and Oil Free.



In the video she uses part of a head of cabbage, in the book it's a whole medium sized head. She does thin slices in the video but says "slice into chunks" in the book. She says she adds some maple syrup in the video, but it's not in the book version.

Oh, and in the book she cooks all this up in the Instant Pot on saute mode. Well, it is an Instant Pot book, after all (Woot! Woot!).

I cut my cabbage in thin strips, as she did in the video, tossed them into the Instant Pot with a bit of water as she does in the book, and even when I turned the heat up to High it still took almost a half hour before my cabbage was soft enough so it still had some bite but wasn't all limp and over-cooked, and I still ran across some really hard pieces.

I had to go through my pantry to find the BBQ sauce. I still had an opened jar of Annie's in the refrigerator, but that brand contains oil, so I don't dare use it on any foods my husband may eat. I really should throw it away - it's probably way past the "use by" date by now. Over the weekend I bought a fresh jar of Weber BBQ sauce, Sweet and Thick flavor. This is a wee bit too spicy for me, but my husband loves it. Next time I'll probably use the Bone Sucking Sauce.

Here's the sandwich I made from the cabbage:



I had to miss the annual Irish Festival that was held nearby this past weekend because the light rail trains were off-line for some maintenance and they had buses running in their place. We tried those in the past and it took hours to make the 15 minute trip, because each bus hold about 30, each train (double cars) around 100. That, plus they were only running them once every half hour instead of the usual weekend train schedule of every 10 minutes. Anyway, we no longer eat the corned beef and cabbage sandwiches they have at the festival, so eating my cabbage sandwich this way instead brought a big smile. Next time I'll serve them on rye bread instead of the Ezekial bread.

Now that my husband is more closely following Dr. Esselstyn's protocol of eating greens 6 times a day I need to keep coming up with new ways to cook 'em so he's not bored with them. When he's bored with a food, it doesn't matter if I have a fridge full of it, he just won't eat it. I don't think he'll get bored with this stuff any time soon.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Chef and the Dietitian #62 LIVE! Cookies

A "long lost" video done 2 years ago that just surfaced. AJ admits this is *not* the kind of recipe you should use if following a "True North" kind of diet (AKA Ultimate Weight Loss or McDougall's MWLP), but it IS a healthy plant based, no SOS recipe that's great for the kids in your life, even for those who just act like kids. :)

Peanut butter, dried fruits, chocolate chips - not longer foods *I* can eat, but the recipe looks great for those who can.

Chef AJ and Julieanna Hever, the Plant-Based Dietitian, make a recipe before a live audience at the Healthy Taste of LA event. The recipe is from Will and Shauna Putnam from R&R Bakery in Marshall, Texas.

The written recipe is at the end of the video.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Confessions of a Low Class Vegan: 3 Years Later


A few years ago, Karl Seff, PhD, did a video for the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii called "Confessions of a Low Class Vegan" that I wrote about in this blog post (along with a bunch of other off-topic stuff).

Now he's done it again. The reason for the re-do was that the brightness was off on his original recording so he was invited back to give the talk again. Much of the information is repeated, sometimes word-for-word, in the new one, but this man is such a joy to listen to, it's worth hearing it all twice.



I really should make more of these super-simple, low-class meals. I did it a number of times during those hot summer days, and they're so much easier to do in the Instant Pot. With winter rapidly approaching, I guess it's time to get serious about streamlining and simplifying meals. I already started the Great Winter Stock-Up and have been buying extra rice and dried beans whenever I can. I do have to check the dates on the canned vegetables - I know some of them must be outdated by now - and get fresh ones for this coming winter. After watching this new video this afternoon I even tossed a bag of wheatberries into the Amazon cart - he says they go great with home made into beans, especially with added beets, zucchini, and beet greens. I even ordered freeze-dried soup vegetables to make bean soups with handfuls of dried veggies when snowed in so I don't have to make those treks to the local mom and pop grocery store as often as I did the past 2 winters. That's something Dr. Seff never has to worry about in Hawaii, and if/when we ever move back to Florida, neither will I.

Speaking of simple, I better go check on my lentils and soon-to-be mashed potatoes. Unlike Dr. Seff, my lentils, Sloppy Lentil Joes, do have more than 1 or 2 ingredients. Still, it's all tossed into one pot and simmered an hour. My spuds are in the Instant Pot cooking up with the milk and spices - you can't get much simpler than that, right?

Sunday, September 13, 2015

When Lori Met Farmer Fred


Avid McDougaller and member of the McDougall Friends Facebook community Lori Fryd recently moved from NJ to the wilds of Pennsylvania. The move has put her within driving distance of Farmer Fred, a man who loves his veggies, and has a nice YouTube Channel called Plant Smart Living With Farmer Fred. 

She recently was invited to visit the farm and have a nice talk with Farmer Fred himself.



Be sure to subscribe to Farmer Fred's YouTube after watching.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Random MoFo Link


Random MoFo  is working again. 

Just CLICK HERE to be taken to a random site - blog, Instagram, FB, whatever - of someone who is participating in VeganMoFo (Vegan Month of Food) this year. Be sure to bookmark this link so you can click away to your heart's content for the entire month of September.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Another McDougall Webinar Tomorrow



Don't forget to register for the next McDougall webinar with Dr. Tolosa, Obesity: Part 2 - Low Carb Diets are Dangerous. It's scheduled to start at 7 am Pacific Time/10 am Eastern on Friday September 11, 2015.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

2016 - Year of the Pulses!


I just found out that the United Nations has declared 2016 as 

The International Year of the Pulses!



Here is the official Global Pulse Confederation page where you can find the history of pulses and loads of other beany information goodness.

Now to decide what I'm gonna do about this. Do I start cooking and posting all sorts of bean and lentil recipes? Do I find YouTube videos about beans? Do I ignore it completely? 

I'm sure I'll figure something out.

Friday, September 4, 2015

Dr. McDougall's Webinar Sept 4, 2015 - Obesity: Part 1



And someone else just shared this link, but you have to had registered for the original broadcast and log in see it.