Theme for VeganMoFo 2010

Get the drum roll ready, for I'm about to announce the theme this blog will follow for the PPK's VeganMoFo 2010!

Are you EXCITED?

Are you READY?

Here it is . . .

The theme for 2010 will be . . .
.
.
.

The McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook: Over 300 Delicious Low-Fat Recipes You Can Prepare in Fifteen Minutes or Less



Here is the official page for the book on the McDougall web site.

Here is the Amazon page, where you can "look inside" the book.

And here is the Half.com page where you can sometimes find the book as low as a buck plus shipping.


I've owned this book since it was first published, buying it the day it was released. I like it, but really haven't used it as much as I would like, thanks to a family that loves repetition and prefers to eat the same meals week after week without deviation.

Well, next month I'm going to shake them up a little! I'm still going to follow our basic menu plan:
Sunday - burgers
Monday - anything goes (Chili, stew, baked tofu, etc. My choice)
Tuesday - rice and veggies
Wednesday - potatoes
Thursday - pasta
Friday - pizza
Saturday - pasta

but mix it up a little. On Sundays, instead of a veggie burger or leftovers for me and turkey burgers for them, I'll be making various other sandwiches.

Tuesday's veggies and rice will no longer be accompanied with just soy sauce and the occasional fried tofu or TVP.

Wednesday's hash brown meal for the guys was a spin on Clara Cannuciari's Poorman's Meal.


It's either plain hash browns with nooch or a leftover McDougall meals day for me of. Now I'll do other, healthier, things to the hash browns.

Thursday and Saturday have been pasta days for decades. My picky son always insisted on plain old Ragu sauce on his, so after the pasta cooked I would put his in another pot and add the sauce and to ours I would add McDougall friendly additives. These meals are sometimes accompanied by crusty Italian bread, sometimes made with white or semolina flour from the bakery, sometimes home made with white whole wheat flour and oodles of garlic. Now this tradition will continue!

And every Friday will continue to be pizza day. If you look back to last year's VeganMoFo posts you'll see I always had pizza on Fridays, and it was always the same old whole wheat crust, tomato sauce, and some kind of cheezy topping (real mozzarella on my son's). Luckily Mary McDougall has 4 pizza recipes in this cookbook and my husband says he'll eat anything I put in front of him when it comes to pizza. Let's see if he still feels this way when the pizza contains pineapple! LOL

So, I already have my list of recipes I'll be using and still have to type them all up in MasterCook, because except for one or 2 I haven't tried any of these recipes yet. That's the purpose of this challenge, to try new recipes, right? Besides posting them here in this blog I'll also try get them on my Recipes Used in VeggieSue's Veggie Adventures Blog page, plus on the two McDougall groups on , McDougall 12 Day and McDougall Weight Loss Plans, where we discuss how well (or not) our quest for thinness is going. Why not join us in either of those 2 lists for more McDougall talk when VeganMoFo is over? Or now. We're always looking for fresh blood. :)

Post Punk Kitchen Forums

The PPK has finally moved to their new home! It's been more than a year since the move was first announced, and finally last week they made the official move. It's a so much nicer format than the old forums, so stop by, re-register, if you belonged to the old forums, and jump right in.

Jeff Novick's DVDs

I can't believe it's been 10 months since I last posted here! Sorry about that, but I'll be posting more frequently in the near future - promise!

Today I want to remind all the McDougallers out there about Jeff Novick and his DVD collections. He has lectures ranging from nutritional density of foods to his latest, Fast Food, which is all recipes using his SNAP format - Simple, Nutritious, and Affordable Plan. All these meals come together in just a few minutes and are ready to serve in 10 to 15.



I've been making the large batches of these meals for a number of months now and my husband and I love them. It helps that we both love tomato-based dishes, though, because canned (Or boxed, as in Pomi brand) are the base of every recipe. I kind of stopped making them so often but since the new DVD arrived Friday I've made 3 of the meals already and plan on the Mexican Fiesta for tonight's dinner.

As Jeff promises, these meals are quite tasty, make a lot of food, and are very economical!

Now stay tuned for posts regarding VeganMoFo 2010.

Holiday Seitan Loaf

This is what I made for Christmas this past December. I've seen this recipe's video at Everyday Dish TV for a while now and always wanted to make it but thought it was too much trouble. Know what? It's really not!



It's from chef Brian McCarthy from his book The Vegan Family Cookbook, and although it does take a few more steps than just simmering some seitan, it's totally worth it. I'll be making it again for Easter in a few weeks, too.

Curried Indian Potato Stew

Another SNAP recipe from Jeff Novick




Curried Indian Potato Stew

1) 2 cans whole tomatoes
2) 1-2 cans Garbanzo Beans
3) Frozen Cauliflower (1- 1 1/2 lb) , peas (1/2 lb), onions (1/4-1/2 pound)
4) 2 large potatoes
5) Salt Free Curry spice mix

Microwave the potatoes. While they are zapping, put all other ingredients in the pot and heat. When potatoes are done, cut into 1 inch pieces and add to pot. Simmer 5 minutes. Top with fresh cilantro Enjoy.

(can be served with brown rice which you can cook in 10 minutes while potatoes are cooking by using Success Brand Quick Cooking Brown Rice)

McDougall Tamale Pie

I think I doubled the recipe, which is why it's in my big Corningware casserole dish instead of the 8 x8 square pan in the recipe. The single batch really would have been enough for us but we like lots of leftovers for lunches. Don't believe that "eight servings" out of an 8x8 pan - for 8 picky toddlers, maybe! LOL

From The McDougall Plan book:

Tamale Pie

Eight servings. Prep time: 45 min. Cooking time: 45 min.

3 cups cooked pinto beans, mashed. (or 2 cans fat-free refried beans)

1 onion, chopped.

1-1/2 teaspoons chili powder.

1/4 cup tomato sauce.

1 cup corn kernels.

1 green bell pepper, chopped.

1-2 chopped green chilies (or 4-oz can)

1-1/2 cups cornmeal.

2-1/2 cups water.

1/2 teaspoon chili powder.

Place onion in a large pot with 1/4 cup water. Sauté about 10 minutes, add green pepper, corn, green chilies, tomato sauce, and 1-1/2 tsp. chili powder. Cook 5 minutes. Add mashed beans and cook about 10 minutes over low heat. Remove from heat.

Combine cornmeal, water, and 1/2 tsp. chili powder in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until mixture thickens, stirring constantly with a wire whisk or the cornmeal will lump.

Using a non-stick 8" x 8" pan, spread half of the cornmeal mixture over the bottom. Pour the bean mixture over this and spread it out. Then spread the remaining cornmeal mixture over the top.

Bake at 350°F for 45 minutes, or until it bubbles.

Longevity Soup

A SNAP recipe (Simple Nutritious Affordable and (Darn, I can't remember what the "P" stood for!) from Jeff Novick, Dr. McDougall's nutritionist.

Dish 4 - Longevity Soup

1) 1 can whole tomatoes, 1 can pureed

2) Your favorite beans (I use kidney or garbanzo)

3) 1.5- 2 lbs of Your favorite frozen veggies plus 1 lb of frozen collards

4) Your favorite starch (potato, sweet potato rice, barley) cooked separate then added

5) your favorite seasoning (I use fresh ginger, garlic)

Place tomatoes in large pot. Add in 2 28 oz cans of water. Then add in all other ingredients. Bring to a boil and then simmer 15 minutes. Enjoy!

~~~~~~

VeganMoFo Day 31 - Clara's Couscous

Clara Cannuciari is 94 years old now and s till doing Great Depression Cooking videos. Her newest one, Couscous Stew, was just uploaded this week and looks like it's already McDougall-friendly, as long as you use vegetable broth and omit the butter after steaming the couscous. I think when I try making this dish, though, I would cook the couscous the more traditional way, with boiling water. With my luck I would burn the cheesecloth just placing it on the colander!

And now she also has a book out:


I don't own it yet, but it is in my Amazon shopping cart.


So, this wraps up another year of VeganMoFo. Sorry I wasn't as "into" it as last year, but next year will be better, I promise.

VeganMoFo Day 27 - More Apologies

Sorry for being such a bad MoFo'er, but this has been one of our craziest weeks ever (again). The elderly relative with Alzheimer's we care for from afar got lost coming home from church on Sunday, so now we're hustling to make sure she's safe. She's still refusing live-in help, refusing to allow a homemaker for more than a few 3 times a week, and in fact wants us to stop her visits entirely, still crying she wants us to move in with her, something we told her years ago will never happen because there's no way my husband can commute via public transportation to work (Only 1 bus, runs hourly, takes twice as long as his commute now, and doesn't run well in inclement weather and is canceled altogether when it snows because the trip goes down dangerous steep hills). We're making appointments for interviews at various assisted living facilities and nursing homes with Alzheimer's units in the area because we weren't too thrilled with the place she was in earlier this year, and so far either the people we have to talk to aren't in this week or won't even bother talking to us because there are no openings and long waiting lists.

I've also been arguing with one of the nurses from rehab. Because I'm not losing scads of weight even though I'm doing 60 minutes of cardio in front of official witnesses three times a week and another 45 to 60 minutes 3 more times at home in front of only my son, this nurse feels I just must be eating too much or eating the wrong foods. When I described the McDougall program to her she did nothing but bad-mouth it for a half hour, telling me it's not healthy to eliminate entire food groups, that I'm eating too few calories, need those "healthy" fats in my diet. Remember folks, this is a cardiac care nurse with not just her BSN and state nursing license but has multiple certifications in advanced nursing care, including critical cardiac care! I told her that my doctor, the cardiologist that runs the entire cardio-vascular unit, the guy the hospital BUILT the unit FOR a few years back, not only had heard of the McDougall program (As well as Dr. Esselstyn, Ornish and Barnard and C. Collin Campbell) but was very happy and said he wished he could get ALL his cardiac patients to follow the program. She didn't care - she still claimed it wasn't healthy. She said I should be going to a place like her 400+ pound sister is going to, one that makes an individualized food plan for each patient (her sister eats 3000 calories a day, minimum, about 1/3 each in fat, protein and carbs). No thanks. I'll stick with McDougall. It was because of McDougall my coronary arteries were clear as can be, with no cholesterol plaques or deposits, no blockages, when the cardiac cath was done. I doubt they would still be clear if I ate 1000 calories of fat every day. Maybe she just wanted to make sure I would *stay* a customer of the cardiac unit?

Food - Yesterday was . . . I really have to think what the heck we ate! Oh, my husband and I had a chili I tossed together (just canned beans, canned no-salt-added petite diced tomatoes, frozen corn kernels, and 2 packets of lower salt fajita mix), a dump and heat meal. Today is brown rice and veggies; tomorrow is potatoes and veggies (That Poorman's Meal I mentioned in the past). Thursday will be spaghetti and whatever (sausages, not-meat balls, or just some veggies tossed into the sauce - who knows?). Friday will be our traditional whole wheat, cheeseless pizza.

Saturday, Halloween, we have no idea what we're doing. We may be bringing that relative into a nursing home, rehab or even a hospital, or just at her house clearing out & painting a room in preparation for a live-in companion. I usually make a stew on Halloween and call it Witches' Brew, but I have a feeling that this year we'll eat something even more horrendous - leftovers!

ACK! My husband just got home and I guess he'll want his dinner. Hopefully I'll be checking in again tomorrow with a slightly better MoFo post.

VeganMoFo Day 22 - Stew pic and McDougall Info

I finally got the photo of my own stew posted to this other blog post. Enjoy.

And there's lots of drama going on around this house again, thanks to hubby's 91 year old aunt with Alzheimer's Disease and now his cousin from out of state who thinks she can tell my husband what to do and how to do it when it comes to the aunt's care but really doesn't want the responsibility, herself. She is insisting on live-in help although the aunt is adamantly opposed to it and is going to hire the person herself, BUT is leaving it up to us to tell the aunt and get the room ready for her, and all that jazz. All I can say is: Oy vey!

So, leftovers again today because I've been running around all day. Instead of a recipe I'll leave you this video from Dr. McDougall about the McDougall Program.

McDougall 10-Day Program from John McDougall on Vimeo.