New Cookbook from Dr. Fuhrman

Dr. Fuhrman’s fantastic new book, Eat to Live Quick and Easy Cookbook, is set to hit stores on May 2, 2017. This collection of 131 delicious, fast and simple recipes, which covers everything from delightful breakfasts to on-the-go lunches, hearty dinners, satisfying salads, tasty dips and salad dressings, desserts and much more, is sure to become your go-to kitchen manual. Your family and friends will enjoy these tasty and healthful dishes, which require minimal preparation without sacrificing flavor. And you’ll love the way you feel when eating these healthful foods! But you won’t need to wait until May 2nd to start enjoying Dr. Fuhrman’s quick and easy recipes! FREE when you preorder Dr. Fuhrman’s Eat to Live Quick and Easy Cookbook TODAY: an exclusive downloadable booklet that contains a 7-day meal plan with 30 bonus recipes that are not found in the main cookbook. You’ll be able to start creating and enjoying delicious Nutritarian meals right away – even before you receive the Quick and Easy Cookbook! This special bonus booklet is only available for a limited time, as a gift with preorders of the Eat to Live Quick and Easy Cookbook – so don’t delay; order yours today!

Super Slaw

Although I own every book Dr. Fuhrman has out there, I don't follow his nutritarian food plan, mostly because I have an immense hatred of raw vegetables, especially leafy greens and cruciferous ones. Even cooked, many cruciferous veggies hurt my gums so the only way they get eaten is well-done. I rarely use his recipes because they either contain nuts or dried fruit, 2 items we have to avoid because of my husband's CVD and my high triglycerides.

But while I was reading the Fuhrman forums this morning my husband told me had a yearning for cole slaw for his Labor Day weekend meals, and since I refuse to buy those very-fatty mayo based ones at the deli, I either had to make my own or disappoint the guy. He was looking over my shoulder as I started looking at various cole slaw recipes on Dr. Fuhrman's Member Center recipe section, and this one caught his eye:

Super Slaw
Serves: 3
Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
SLAW
2 cups shredded apples
1 cup shredded raw cabbage
1 cup shredded raw beets
1 cup shredded raw carrots
1/2 cup raisins
DRESSING
1/2 cup soft tofu
1/4 cup soy, almond or hemp milk
1 tablespoon Dr. Fuhrman's Riesling Raisin Vinegar
1 tablespoon Dr. Fuhrman's Spicy Pecan Vinegar
3 dates, pitted
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped pecans, lightly toasted *
Instructions:
Combine slaw ingredients. 

Blend dressing ingredients and toss with slaw. Top with toasted pecans.

*Lightly toast pecans in a 200 degree oven for 3 minutes.

Per Serving:
CALORIES 289; PROTEIN 9g; CARBOHYDRATES 50g; TOTAL FAT 9.4g; SATURATED FAT 1g; SODIUM 85mg; FIBER 7.5g; BETA-CAROTENE 3153ug; VITAMIN C 19mg; CALCIUM 210mg; IRON 4mg; FOLATE 83ug; MAGNESIUM 62mg; ZINC 1.2mg; SELENIUM 5.8ug

I sighed and acquiesced to his demands, even though I preferred to look at McDougall recipes, too, before choosing, but he was in a rush to get out so I added a few items needed for this one to my shopping list for our weekly grocery store trip and off we went.

My changes to the recipe:

I used a bag of cole slaw mix, which, when fluffed up, measures around 4-5 cups. I added some shredded carrots to the mix, as some of those commenting on the recipe recommended doing. Because of the excess volume I doubled the dressing ingredients.

I don't own any of Dr. Fuhrman's flavored vinegars, but did manage to grab a fig flavored one at the store. I used that and balsamic, again, as others recommended.

I hate when the type of date isn't specified in a recipe. There's a big difference in size between deglet noor and medjool. I split the difference and used 4 medjool ones, only because they're the oldest in my refrigerator.

Because my husband is a cardiac patient and Dr. Esselstyn advises against them for those people, I skipped the nuts.

Now to put it all together. 

The dry ingredients was easy - pop the slaw into my giant mixing bowl, add the currants, carrots, peel and shred the apples (Hmm, getting a little messy now) and toss them all so everything is well mixed, that the wet apples aren't clumping together (This is getting to be a bit annoying now. They just won't separate!). My husband volunteered to take care of tossing it all so I can work on the dressing.

I recently heard Chef AJ say in a video to pay attention to the texture of the items you need to blend, and blend up hard things with some liquid before adding the softer ingredients, so I took the pits out of my dates and tossed them and the milk in my Ninja together and turned it on. 

What is that ungodly noise?? 

I admit I rarely use dates, and when I do, I just toss the deglet nooor ones in with the other ingredients. This is the first time I'm doing the dates, larger ones at that, first. It sounded like a bunch of marbles were tossed in the blender container! It took a good 2 minutes before they were broken down to itty bitty pieces and small enough for me to add the other ingredients.

It came out really thick, but it all mixed together with the dry ingredients pretty easily, or so said my husband, who was stuck with the task as I cleaned everything up.

I took a taste of a sliver of carrot or two and it was okay, but certainly not anything like deli-bought cole slaw. I'm not a vinegar fan, either, and I'm not too happy with the way this came out. Since we hadn't had any deli salads in many years now, I'm hoping my husband enjoys this healthier way to eat them. He, on the other hand, loves vinegars of all sorts. I realize that today it may not taste all that great and that tomorrow it should taste better. I guess I'll find out in about 23 1/2 hours.

Hope everyone is having a happy Labor Day, and remember that tomorrow starts VeganMoFo, so be sure to check in often in September.

End Dieting Forever Coming Soon to PBS

Dr. Fuhrman's new infomercial for PBS, End Dieting Forever, based on his book, The End of Dieting, starts airing in the NYC area on August 9, 2014 on Channel 13.

I can't figure out how to nab the clip, but you can see a 30 second promo for it here at the PBS web site.

Maybe I better finish reading the book before it airs. 

The End of Dieting - Dr. Fuhrman Speaks

But doesn't really say anything he hasn't said in the past.

His new book, The End of Dieting, is releasing this coming Tuesday (March 25, 2014).

The End of Dieting Sneak Peek

The End of Dieting by Joel Fuhrman, MD (excerpt)

One thing I noticed while reading this preview - he has no new success stories. Both women he shows here in the beginning have been in at least one, possibly 2, other books already.

And I wonder what changes, if any, he has made to make this version of the Eat to Live plan work especially well for weight loss. He seems to be doing an Ornish Spectrum and has the beginning recipes geared towards transitioning from SAD. I guess we'll find out in another few weeks.

The End of Dieting Book Official Page Now Up

My inbox showed a message from Dr. Fuhrman announcing that his new book, The End of Dieting, is now available for pre-ordering, and he has a whole page set up for it now. The official release date is March 25, 2014.

Hopefully this snow will be gone by then and I can actually get out to a good grocery store to buy all the fresh produce I'll need if I want to follow the program instead of living on canned & some frozen  veggies, freeze-dried fruit and tons of rice and boxed mashed potatoes that we're doing now, while our cars lay buried under layers of snow, slush and ice, thanks to the storms, a neighbor who aimed his snowblower anywhere he wanted, including on top of all the parked cars, and the deep freeze we've got going on outside again.

And more snow Sunday! I want to cry!!

Thank goodness for portable washing machines!

Without this little baby we wouldn't even have clean underwear, since our landlord bans full sized washers and dries in these apartments and there's no laundromat within walking distance.

End of Holiday Health Fest and New Book Coming

Today's post is dedicated to the food program and other offerings of Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

Instead of his usual winter challenge this year he did a Holiday Health Fest from his Facebook page. There were various articles written, videos made, and a few minor contests with prizes ranging from an autographed copy of the cookbook to $2014.

Recently he posted the final video with the closing remarks about the Health Fest:



Eventually that led me to look on Amazon, where I was looking for something else but instead found the pre-order page for his newest book coming in March 2014, The End of Dieting: How to Live for Life. 

In The End of Dieting, Joel Fuhrman M.D., a board–certified family physician who specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional and natural methods, and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat to Live, Super Immunity and The End of Diabetes, delivers a powerful paradigm-shifting book that shows us how and why we never need to diet again.
Fuhrman writes, "By reading this book, you will understand the key principles of the science of health, nutrition and weight loss. It will give you a simple and effective strategy to achieve—and maintain—an optimal weight without dieting for the rest of your life. This new approach will free you forever from a merry-go-round of diets and endless, tedious discussions about dieting strategies. This is the end of dieting."

This description makes it look like another rehash of Eat to Live. He announced months ago that his next book was going to be an updated/replacement of Cholesterol Protection for Life. This doesn't look like that. Oh, well. Hopefully it'll have some new recipes in it, and not just more taken from the Member Center or the current recipe contest that he's running for members of his web site only. But since I'm currently veering a little away from all the starchiness of the McDougall program and more towards the vegginess of the nutritarian food plan (minus all those nuts and dried fruits) thanks to ever increasing triglyceride levels, I'll be buying this book, anyway. 

Winter is Coming - That Means the Holidays Are Also Coming!

It's the holiday season again. In our family, it started back in October with my birthday and extends to January First. In-between are birthdays for the rest of our family, as well as Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve.

All the vegan stars are sharing their holiday recipes again. Mary McDougall and her posting from 2005; Susan Voisin is working on some new recipes on Fat Free Vegan, Chef AJ reminded us of her Chef and the Dietician holiday video from last year:


and the Engine 2 people did a post on the Daily Beet blog about getting along with people who don't approve of your food choices.

And now Dr. Fuhrman is in on the act. Instead of the holiday challenge he had the past few years on his web site, this year he has a contest that anyone who uses Facebook can enter. Paying members of his site are understandably annoyed, especially those without a Facebook account or they do but don't wish to share their Friends list. Not only do you have to "Like" Dr. Fuhrman's Facebook site but to enter the contest you ALSO have to enroll in it at the official entry form on the Facebook site, the far right link at the top of the page. You can enter with a name and email address or via Facebook, and again there you'll be told you're giving Dr. Fuhrman access to your Friends list. People from his office say that further down the line on the entry form links you'll be asked which of your Friends you want to share and you have the option to choose none of them, but others are saying that option never appears. You can still see all the information Dr. Fuhrman posts on Facebook without being a Facebook member or entering the contest, you just can't win any prize if not registered.

As for holiday recipes, Dr. Fuhrman shared his Thanksgiving Non-Meat Loaf from his Eat to Live Cookbook with a YouTube video:




Well, after a testimonial from a woman named Susan.

The recipe itself, shared on-line a few years ago:

Thanksgiving Non-Meat Loaf

Serves: 6

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
4 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons Bragg Liquid Aminos
1 box soft tofu, drained and patted dry with paper towel
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/4 cups chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 cups chopped portobello mushrooms
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon Dr. Fuhrman's VegiZest or other n-salt-seasoning blend, adjusted to taste
2 teaspoons Spike (no salt)
1 1/2 teaspoons oregano or Dr. Fuhrman's MatoZest
1 1/2 teaspoons basil
1/2 teaspoon sage
3/4 cup whole grain bread crumbs
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix arrowroot powder, water, aminos, and tofu together in a high-powered blender. Add walnuts & blend until smooth.

Saute onions, celery, and mushrooms in water with seasonings and herbs until vegetables are soft, stirring occasionally.

In a bowl, mix together tofu mixture, vegetables, bread crumbs and cooked rice.

With a paper towel, spread a small amount of olive oil in a loaf pan. Add mixture to pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let cool for 30 minutes. Turn loaf out and slice.

Note: May be served with low sodium ketchup and thinly sliced raw onion.  


I haven't attempted to make this particular one yet. I usually don't have good luck with loaf recipes and they always fall apart, either when I attempt to remove them from the loaf pan or when I cut them. And my husband has a sensitivity to walnuts. With three gout flares in less than 3 months, I'm hesitant to tempt fate and feed him those nuts right now. But the loaf does look good and I may attempt it in the future, but with a different nut.

So, with Hanukkah starting Wednesday as the official holiday season kick off, I wish everyone and their families a happy and healthy time!

Wendy's Notes from Dr. Fuhrman's Lecture

Plant-Based Nutritarian Weight Loss Recipe Blog

I really have to get moving reading the rest of his books and the Immersion Excursion series that are piled up on my dresser!

Cruciferous Soup and Smoky Apple Baked Beans

Did a lot of cooking yesterday. First we had a Fuhrman lunch and later was a McDougall dinner. OK, the dinner was good for those who follow Fuhrman, too, but I tend to think of recipes like that one to be more in line with McDougall, especially since I first learned of it on the McDougall forums.


Lunch was another recipe from the Fuhrman forums, this one from a member known as "horsecrazy."

The recipe, as written:

10-10-2011, 01:48 PM  #69
Horsecrazy
 A cruciferous soup
A cruciferous soup that I made last night.
1 - qt bottle Lakewood Carrot Juice
2 - medium to large onions, chopped
3 - cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 head of medium sized cabbage, chopped
3/4 head of cauliflower (chopped in smallish pieces)
2 - 8 oz packages portobello mushrooms, lightly chopped in food processor
1 - 15 oz can Delmonte, no salt added diced tomatoes with garlic, basil and oregano
2 to 3 TBL cashew butter
Spinach
Start onions and garlic cooking in carrot juice at a simmer, when starting to soften add cabbage and cauliflower. When those start to get tender, add mushrooms and continue to simmer. Put tomatoes and cashew butter in either food processor or Vita Mix and blend and add to the soup. When soup is finished, then add however much spinach you like and once it wilts, serve.
If you wanted to add kale or collards rather than spinach, add toward the beginning, along with the cabbage and cauliflower.
If you want to use cashews instead of cashew butter, better to use vita mix. I opted for the cashew butter since the food processor was already out for the mushrooms. Decided not to dirty anything else!
https://forums.drfuhrman.com/showpost.php?p=325946&postcount=69

Remember that this link will only work if you're already a member of Dr. Fuhrman's pay message board.

My changes:
I used about 3/4 of a very small head of cabbage, one about the size of a softball. I'll roast up the last sliver later today as a snack.

Frozen, not fresh, cauliflower.

Store brand no-salt added tomatoes.

Only a tablespoon of the cashew butter.

Next time, instead of hand-slicing the cabbage I'll toss it into the food processor, as long as it's out for the mushrooms, anyway.

Another hit with the hubby! He ate 2 large bowls of it and told me to save the leftovers for him to eat during the week as a snack after dinner. I thought it was just okay, with the carrot juice as the predominate flavor. The brown of the portobellos mixed with the orange of the juice gave it an unappetizing color. Will I make it again? Maybe, if my husband were sick or depressed and needed a pick-me-up. It's a bit too labor-intensive for a lunch meal.

On to dinner. As mentioned above, this was talked about on the McD forums but the recipe is from our favorite fat-free vegan cook, Susan Voisin. You can find the recipe on her web site here.

My changes:
Instead of standing there dicing for a half hour I used a small bag of frozen diced onions and peppers. Jeff Novick taught me to love frozen vegetables.

I left out the chipotle pepper, only because I would have sworn I had a jar of it but couldn't find it when getting the ingredients together.

What will I change in the future? I might leave out the Liquid Smoke. I was never a fan of this product and it was the predominant smell and taste in these beans. Maybe it's a Southern thing and takes some getting used to. 

One big change I'll make in the future is to NOT uncover the beans after the first half hour. Maybe that's how traditional baked beans are made, but I found them too dry and crusty. 

As with just about every dish I make, my husband loved it and went back for seconds, then thirds. I made a pig of myself with one large bowl of it, way more than Dr. McDougall's recommended 1-cup of beans per day rule, but I won't have any beans today to make up for it.

Will I make it again? Probably. I hadn't made real baked beans in a while and my husband really liked this. He commented on the fruitiness of it and I reminded him it had apples and he started gushing about how wonderfully the apples go with the beans, that he would never have thought of doing that. Um, dearie? Remember 2 weeks ago I made the Pioneer Baked Beans that also weds apples and beans together? Oops, he forgot. He did say that the taste was totally different between the two bean dishes, which is why he didn't remember. As I said, these beans had a heavy Liquid Smoke taste, but the Pioneer Baked Beans is more sugary because of the canned Bush baked beans. He said he likes Susan's beans better. Good thing this was easy and quick to put together.

I was brought up in the 1950's and '60's on canned baked beans. Actually, they were the canned "pork & beans" with tiny pieces of ham fat floating around that my brothers and I used to fight over, not homemade beans. My husband didn't even get that, because his mother hated beans and never served them. The closest my husband ever got to a legume as a kid was canned peas. The first time I ever made a dish with beans in it he thought they were the greatest thing on earth. You know what? They may be! 

So, thanks, Susan, for another wonderful recipe.

Looks Disgusting but Oh! So Delicious! Creamy Broccoli Lentil Soup

Dr. Fuhrman's Creamy Broccoli Lentil Soup, McDougallized

One of the perks of being a paying member to Dr. Fuhrman's web site is the access to all those delicious recipes. 

This is one of them.  

I read on the forums once that they can be shared with non-members, as long as credit is given to the Dr. Fuhrman web site and/or the originator of the recipe. No name was associated with this one so I can't give proper credit. It may have been Dr. Fuhrman or his wife Lisa, or it may have been a forum member - I have no idea.

I'll post the recipe as written, then mention my changes after it:

Creamy Broccoli Lentil Soup
www.DrFuhrman.com

Serves: 8
Preparation Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:
8 cups water
2 cups carrot juice, fresh or bottled
1 pound dried lentils
2 pounds plum tomatoes, chopped
4 cups broccoli, chopped
2 onions, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
3 small zucchini, chopped
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 yam, peeled and chopped
3 tablespoons Dr. Fuhrman's Riesling Raisin Vinegar or balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup raw cashews or 1/4 cup raw cashew butter

Instructions:
Place all ingredients except yam, vinegar and cashews in a large soup pot. Bring to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes. Add yam and simmer for an additional 15 minutes or until lentils and vegetables are tender.
Remove from heat. Add vinegar.
Remove 2 cups or more of soup and puree with the cashews in a food processor or high powered blender. Stir back into soup.

I used a can of whole plum tomatoes instead of fresh. Jeff Novick taught me to always have some on hand.

Ditto frozen broccoli. I used a full one-pound bag of frozen chopped broccoli instead of fresh.

But I didn't have any zucchini on hand so skipped it. Maybe next time, but you can be sure I'll use frozen instead of fresh.

Again, a Jeff Novick hint with the sweet potatoes. I have a few already baked in the refrigerator so used one of those instead of peeling and cutting a raw one.

My balsamic vinegar was outdated by a year - Yikes! - but I do have a bottle of fig vinegar and used that instead.

I skipped the cashews entirely.

Instead of taking just 2 or so cups of soup to blend, I just took an immersion blender to the whole pot. If I tossed it in the Ninja for a few minutes it probably would have been smoother, but it was worth it not to have to clean that thing and accept the few little grit-sized pieces of vegetables and lentils in the soup.

It says it makes 8 servings. These are nice hearty serving sizes, not tiny one-cup ones. This is definitely a family-sized recipe, or one of those "make Sunday and eat every day for a week" recipes.

And why do I say it's disgusting in the blog post title? Well, when my husband first saw it in the bowls he said it looks like it'll look the same going in as it will coming out. So it's not an especially good looking soup, but it does taste delicious! Another keeper for this family, for sure.

Dr. Fuhrman Lecture from Plant-based Foods: Diet as a Tool for Change at the National Conference to End Factory Farming

 Interesting lecture, although I don't agree with 100% of what he believes. You can tell Dr. Fuhrman never suffered from hypoglycemia - bouts of blood sugar drops into the 40's (Yes, that low) only 4-5 hours after the last meal, whether it was high in starches, sugar, meat or a wheelbarrow full of greens. Actually, ESPECIALLY if it were a very low calorie one full of greens.

And I do find it possible that the Skipper could live on Gilligan's Island, eating everything the other castaways ate, and not lose weight. I know MANY fat people who eat the same or less than others and remain fat, especially women of the Skipper's age bracket.

E2L/Nutritarians - Super Immunity Index Project

A few months ago, Fuhrman forum member Phil Weinstein, a.k.a. "Alluvial Phil", called for volunteers to put together an index for Dr. Fuhrman's book Super Immunity, because the first edition hard cover doesn't have one. Dr. Fuhrman has assured people the paperback version coming out in April 2013 will have one, but for Phil and others taking Dr. Fuhrman's Nutritional Education Trainer program that was too late, since they need the book is one of the textbooks needed for the course, and textbooks really need an index.

Well, fret no more! Phil and his volunteer staff have the first complete draft copy of the index ready AT THIS LINK.

Thanks, Phil, Tania, and others who have worked hard on this project.

VeganMoFo Day 11 - Grandpa's Soup

Another winner from the Fuhrman forums. This one was posted by member "casinera" back in 2010. My husband loves lima beans and loves soup and put the 2 of them together (and make sure the fan is on and bedroom window is open) and he's in beany heaven. To add to the odiferousness of it all, I bought him a loaf of garlic/onion Italian bread to dunk.

Grandpa's soup

Chop and simmer in water:
2 onions
2 heads of garlic
Add:
1- 2 cans tomato paste
2 cans tomatoes (no-salt)
the spices (basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, bay leaf and black pepper)
Then add:
1 whole thinly sliced cabbage
2 bags Fordhook lima beans (no-salt!)
1 bag frozen corn (no salt!)
a pile of fresh green beans, trimmed and cut to bite-size pieces
At the end, add, then turn burner off:
diced carrots (about 3)
~ ~ ~
I used the same amount of onions, a small bag of garlic cloves, 12-ounce can of tomato paste (no salt added), a box of Pomi chopped tomatoes, and about 2 cups of frozen green beans instead of the fresh.

The onions, garlic, cabbage and carrots I shredded in the food processor. It was much easier than standing for an hour chopping all those veggies into tiny bits.

I added everything but the spices into the pot at once. I used my 8-quart Fagor pressure cooker pot with the glass lid (NOT the pressure cooker top), because in this small apartment everything has to do double duty and I have absolutely no room for a big soup pot. All those veggies filled this pot almost of the top. I added around 2 cups of water and set it off to start cooking. The recipe didn't say to add any water except at the beginning to sauté the onions & garlic so I winged it. It's possible the 2 cups weren't needed at all and the juice from the tomatoes and what was released from the cooked veggies was all that was needed, but I doubt it. In the end there was very little soup and a heck of a lot of cooked vegetables.

After about 30 minutes everything was nice and tender, including the chunks of carrots and cabbage stems that didn't get shredded. It was at this point I added the spices and stirred it all up, put the lid back on, and let it cool enough to eat. While waiting I sliced up the bread.

My husband took one look at the pot and asked if I was planning on feeding an army, because this made a LOT of food! The veggies all softened as they cooked but the level in the pot didn't really go down all that much. In the end, we each had 2 bowls and I put away way more than what we had eaten, so this is going to make another full dinner and a lunch or 2, even for big eaters like us. We use bowls that hold about 4 cups for dinner, not those tiny soup/salad bowls that we use when eating soup for lunch or as a side dish. 

And he didn't touch the bread, either. The whole sliced loaf is going into the freezer for another time.

It tasted great, with no one flavor dominating the dish. Will I make this again? Possibly, but I'm going to cut the amounts of everything in half. While some people love making one big pot of something to eat multiple days during the week, we don't. Once a week is plenty for any one dish. Even cut in half there would probably be enough for a few lunches, that's how much this made.

VeganMoFo Day 10 - Chinese Apricot Stir Fry

As mentioned previously, this is the day of the week we traditionally have what our son calls Chinese Rice, and luckily I found a recipe that fits the bill on the Fuhrman web site that's very similar.

This recipe comes from the book Cholesterol Protection for Life, a book that must have had a limited run because the only place to obtain a copy at a decent price now is to get it as an e-book directly from Dr. Fuhrman's web site. I've seen copies going for over a hundred dollars on Half.com and Amazon book vendors. Wow!






Here's the recipe:


Chinese Apricot Stir Fry

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
2 blocks of extra firm tofu, cubed into bite sized pieces
4 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons Dr. Fuhrman's VegiZest
4 teaspoons apricot preserve (100% fruit, no sugar added)
4 tablespoons cooking wine
1 teaspoon Bragg Liquid Aminos
2-3 packages of frozen mixed oriental vegetables
1/2 teaspoon salt free Chinese seasoning

Instructions:
Place 2 tablespoons of water in a pan and add the tofu. Put on medium heat and once the pan is hot, lower the heat. Sprinkle garlic powder over tofu. Turn the tofu frequently at first to prevent sticking. Eventually, the water from the tofu will be released and it won’t have to be turned so frequently. In a cup, mix the VegiZest, apricot preserves, cooking wine, 2 tbsp. water and the Braggs aminos. Sprinkle half of this mixture over the tofu and continue to simmer. Defrost the frozen vegetables in a microwave or steam on stovetop. Once defrosted, add vegetables to the tofu. Sprinkle the remaining sauce over tofu-vegetable mix and add the Chinese seasoning. Continue to simmer until the liquid is largely cooked off.
~ ~ ~
As I mentioned in a previous post, the VegiZest is a powdered vegetable product used as a seasoning/soup mix and you can substitute any no-salt-added broth powder or seasoning, like plain Mrs. Dash if you don't have any.

I'm using only one 1-pound block of Nasoya Extra Firm tofu, pressed, because I've found this amount is more than enough for the two of us. 

I don't keep any wine in the house so I use broth.


I'm using 2 different bags of stir-fry mix - one has broccoli, green beans, sugar snap peas, carrots, celery, red pepper, onion and water chestnuts, and the other has broccoli, green beans, carrots, mushrooms, onions and red pepper. Between the 2 I get some G-Bombs and cruciferous veggies.

The closest I can figure the "Chinese seasoning" to be is the Chinese 5-Spice powder, which consists of Szechwan pepper, star anise, fennel seeds, cloves, cinnamon, salt and white pepper. I had a jar of this once and didn't like the taste and tossed it out when it got a few years outdated, and don't plan on buying any more just for this dish. People who commented on the recipe on Dr. Fuhrman's site said they just omitted it, and so will I. 

To make the sauce I put the ingredients in a jar and take my whisk to it to break up the preserves into tiny pieces and make sure everything is well mixed. That VegiZest does like to settle to the bottom if not kept in motion!

Served over brown rice, it's a delicious and filling meal for a cold, dreary day. The apricot sauce taste is similar to the packets of pinkish duck sauce (as opposed to the more yellowish ones that taste more like pears) you get when you order Chinese food delivery but without that cloyingly sweet taste. We used to use jarred duck sauce a lot years asgo when I made our weekly rice and veggie dish, but when it started to contain HFCS in larger and larger quantities we just gave it up and went more for the salty sauces, like soy and teriyaki (both low sodium versions). This is a nice home-made alternative that's quick and easy to make, and don't forget, much healthier.

VeganMoFo Day 9 - Extremely Easy Vegetable Soup

This one comes from Fuhrman forum member susan1007, owner of the Susan's Cooking blog. I searched on her blog for it but it looks like she never posted it there.

Here's how it was originally posted in the forums:

Extremely Easy Vegetable Soup


1 small onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 14.5 oz can chopped tomatoes, with juice (no salt)
8 oz Very Veggie Juice (or other low sodium vegetable juice)
1 15 oz can no salt Great Northern Beans, with liquid
1 15 oz can no salt Red Kidney Beans, with liquid
half a 6 oz can tomato paste (no salt)
3 15 oz cans water (or more if you like a thinner soup)
2 tsp dried Oregano
1 tsp dried Basil
1 tsp dried Thyme
1 cup green beans, cut up
1 cup green peas
1/2 left over medium sized baked potato (you can omit this or use fresh)
freshly ground black pepper to taste

I water sauteed the onion, garlic, celery, carrots, then added all the rest of the ingredients except the green beans and green peas. Cook until veggies are tender.

Add green beans and peas and cook for 10 minutes or so longer.

I sprinkled it with a nutritional yeast mixture I had around (that had dried parsley, almond meal, and a little garlic powder in it).

Very easy to make. If you eat pasta or you're trying to feed more conventional eaters, cook some whole grain pasta separately and add some to the bowl before serving.
~ ~ ~ ~
I used a few more carrots, because mine were kind of small and it was the end of the bag, and a bit more juice and water, and here's what it looks like, all bubbly in the pot before the green beans, peas & handful of chopped up baby spinach were added:

I didn't add any starch to this except the optional potato, since I already have one in the fridge. As expected, my husband wiped his bowl clean with some bread before the meal was over. His first impression as soon as he tasted it: "MMmmmmm, tomato-y" (Said in a Pee Wee Herman voice)! He does love this soup! I had to promise to save the leftovers for him to eat for lunch when he takes the day off Wednesday.

With temps not expected to rise out of the 50's today, and his flu winding down and in the annoying cough phase, it's definitely soup weather again. Stay tuned - another soup is coming later this week.

VeganMoFo Day 8 - Portobello Mushrooms and Beans

This week I'll wander into Dr. Fuhrman's nutritarian territory. Since getting a gift subscription to Dr. Fuhrman's web site by my husband back in early Spring when he saw me reading the updated version of Eat To Live, most of my time there consisted of gathering recipes that are not only Fuhrman-approved but would do great on the McDougall program, too.

Don't worry, my fellow McDougallers, I'm not abandoning the McDougall way of eating! Even Susan Voisin of the Fat Free Vegan web site and blog has plenty of recipes suitable for both plans on her site. I've been McDougalling off and on since the Health Supporting Cookbooks first appeared in my local health food store back in the 1980's. They had a 'book nook' where people could come and browse through the books on display, even had a table and chairs set up to encourage note-taking. I still use some of those recipes and wound up buying those used copies of the 2 volumes from them when they disbanded their book section in favor of (sigh) an Atkins product display area. At least the Atkins stuff is now gone, a fad that passed, but the books never returned.

Portobella Mushrooms and Beans is one of the first ones I ever copied from the Fuhrman web site. It's been a few weeks since I made it, but after seeing NutriDude and NutriWife's VeganMoFo post on it the other day I had a yen for it, so when doing the weekly grocery shopping bought the mushrooms & tomatoes for it. The rest of the ingredients I usually have plenty of on hand, anyway.

Unlike NutriDude/NutriWife, I never have wine around the house so used a half cup of broth made from Bryanna Clark Grogan's broth powder recipe (I always exclude the salt when making this stuff) to saute the veggies in. I'm also using double the onions and garlic and probably even the cherry tomatoes, because those are three ingredients we love in this family. Besides, the extra garlic will be good for hubby's cough. The portobellos are fairly large so the 2 are quite enough. If not, I have some button mushrooms I can slice up and add to it. A handful of baby spinach tossed in near the end of cooking will round this out nicely. I'll be serving this over a bed of brown rice, and knowing my husband, he'll grab some bread to soak up all the juices left on the plate and skillet.

Oops, ran into a problem. Even though I JUST bought these mushrooms, I unwrapped the package and got hit with a stronger than usual moldy mushroom smell. Then I touched the caps and found them slimy, and those gills on the underside left a black powder all over my fingers. Ugh! Out they go! I'm glad I also had those button mushrooms in the refrigerator because I already had the onions sliced and garlic chopped and in the skillet and the tomatoes halved and in a bowl waiting to go in.

You can see why this is one of our favorite recipes - just look at this! 

What you can't see is the juice it made, hiding under this. The onions started to burn on a bit while I was playing with those mushrooms and I added about another quarter cup of plain water to loosen it all up, and between that and the liquid the mushrooms and tomatoes gave off it made a nice flavorful gravy of its own. 

Between the 2 of us, we each had 2 servings and polished the whole thing off in one meal.

VeganMoFo - For Nutritarians

I just found two bloggers who follow Dr. Fuhrman's nutritarian way of eat are also participating in VeganMoFo this month:

Nutridude

Carrie on Vegan

If I find any other no-added fat plant-strong whole food bloggers, whether McDougall, Fuhrman, or even Engine 2 or Reboot, I'll let you know.

Cheezy Kale Soup

I found this recipe during my web roaming. It's tagged Eat to Live and low-fat, but with that cashew nut butter it's certainly *not* that!

I made this Saturday and ate some for lunch then and Sunday and will finish it off today. Here's the main recipe, as printed in this blog:

http://wholefoodforthewholefamily.blogspot.com/2011/01/cheesy-kale-soup.html

"Cheesy" Kale Soup

Serves: 4
Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup yellow split peas
1 onion, chopped
1 cup white button mushrooms
2 cups carrot juice
15 ounces no-salt tomato sauce
1 1/2 pounds kale, tough stems and center ribs removed and leaves coarsely chopped
1/4 cup cashew butter
1 teaspoon nutritonal yeast

Instructions:
In a pressure cooker
1. Cover yellow split peas with about 2 1/2 cups of water and cook on high pressure for 6-8 minutes.
2. Add remaining ingredients except cashew butter and cook on high pressure for 1 minute.
3. Release pressure and blend soup with cashew butter.
4. Sprinkle with nutritional yeast before serving.

To make without a pressure cooker:
1. Precook the split peas until soft.
2. Combine cooked split peas with all remaining ingredients except cashew butter.
3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until kale is tender (about 15 minutes).
4. Add water as needed to achieve desired consistency.
5. Stir in cashew butter.
6. Sprinkle with nutritional yeast before serving.

---

My changes:

I used a bit more mushrooms because that's what I had left in the box. It was almost 2 cups.

The tomato sauce came out to 16 ounces, as I used 2 small cans of no-salt added sauce.

Instead of fresh kale I used half a bag of frozen. It's a one pound bag, so half a pound of cooked/blanched kale.

Skipped the cashew butter but used about 1/4 cup nutritional yeast, as we like things cheesy here.

This is one delicious, creamy soup! So what if it was 90º outside, this soup was worth it! And because it was made in the pressure cooker it didn't really heat the kitchen up that much, either. I forgot to take a photo of it fresh and warm, so this pic of it cold in the Rubbermaid container will have to do:

DH didn't want any over the weekend, but I plan on making it again today to go with tonight's sandwich supper. just to use up the other half bottle of carrot juice, so he'll get a taste of it then. He'll see what he's been missing out on.

He did make one comment on it when he first saw it. If you ever saw the Kevin Bacon/Fred Ward creature movie Tremors,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100814/
you'll know the scenes he compared this soup to. For the rest of you, consider yourselves lucky you don't know.  

If you DO want to know, watch this video (you may want to mute it - the song is annoying) and the scene it at 1:16

But don't say you weren't warned!