Burgers in Paradise

Awesome Almost All Orange Vegetable Soup

We're currently going through a little medical crisis at our house. About 10 days ago my husband had 2 episodes of chest heaviness. But it was 96 degrees out both times that day, and he was race walking home from the train when it first happened (I call it race walking because @ 6' 2" his legs are much longer than mine, and he always walks with a purpose and after work he wants to get home as fast as possible, so it's practically a trot), the the second time was later that same day carrying 2 heavy packages up the three (un-airconditioned) flights of stairs to our apartment. He also mentioned that for the past few days at work he would feel his back, upper chest and shoulders tightening, but blamed it on stress, since work has been crazy, the bosses cut benefits, increased production quotas by 50%,  so although they're already each doing the work of 2 people each thanks to layoffs, they now have to add in the amount of work expected of three people doing the same job. Oh, and did I mention the mandatory over-time recently? That's now up to 5 hours a week, so if you dare take a day off for any reason you have to stay an extra 2 hours after your usual shift to make up for the hour over-time missed.

Is it any wonder he was having all this muscle tightness and chest pressure??

And he didn't tell me about all this until 5 days after it all started, when he came home from work after another 10 hour day, 90 minute mass-transit commute in 95 degree heat while standing all the way then a quarter mile walk home from the train. And at first all he said was he feels he needs to see the doctor because he's totally drained, exhausted. By the time the whole story came out there was just 5 minutes before the doctor's office was closing for the day and since he refused to go to the emergency room they said they can squeeze him in the next day but not until 2:30 pm.

Since I'm way overdue to see the doc to get prescriptions renewed and lab work done, I asked if they can squeeze me in at the same time. We've been going to this practice for over 30 years and had no problem getting my appointment, too.

Next day comes, the intern and doc both examine him, find nothing wrong except a little higher than usual blood pressure, so the doc orders a slew of routine lab work for him and a nuclear stress test. He's having that done this Wednesday.

My exam is a quickie, with the longest activity waiting for the doc to write the orders for my labwork.

We left the office and headed straight to the local hospital's out-patient department to get blood drawn. We usually hit a chain lab, but they closed a half hour before. The out-patient lab was open for another hour, and even though we usually don't like that lab, my husband didn't want to wait to get his blood work done, especially since it was already 3:30 pm and neither of us had anything to eat all day, just in case the doc did order blood work.

When we got home and while dinner was cooking I gave hubby the same advice I was given after my bout with Takotsubo Syndrome that was brought on totally by stress back in 2009. Deep breathing, meditation, exercise, etc. He said the next day at work, when things started hitting the proverbial fan again, he just closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths, got up and went into the bathroom for a few minutes, and by the time he got back to his desk the manager's "crisis" had passed and my husband was able to continue with his work as if nothing happened.

My husband has been fine since. No chest heaviness, no muscle twinges. No soul-crushing stress at work that he couldn't handle.

Now that he had his first health scare in a long, long, time, and the first one to involve a major bodily system, he decided that at age 62 he's too old to fart around with his diet any more. Although he eats a healthy McDougall-legal meal for dinner every night, at work he would guzzle down some coffee, has recently started grabbing donuts a few times a week, would drink a few cans of cola with dinner most nights, and every day after dinner he would inhale a half bag of sour cream and onion potato chips and a sleeve (about a dozen cookies) of fig bars, sometmies using peanut butter as a dip or spread on them.

Let's see what his cholesterol levels when he sees the doc for all his test results next week! They were elevated back in 2008, the last time he had them drawn. But like many men, he felt indestructible, as if he was still a teenaged boy. He now realizes he's not. So no more potato chips, and he's limiting the fig bars to 4 cookies a night, and NO nut butters. Gone also now are the cheese sandwiches on potato rolls he would bring in for lunch every day. He still insists on those rolls, but now he has a sandwich made from Lachesis's Seitan O'Greatness (minus the oil) or homemade oil/tahini-free hummus.

And I had to play around with the menus to make sure I was sticking 100% to the McDougall/Esselstyn heart-healthy guidelines. I have to admit, especially when running around caring for the late aunt, when I had a flu, or now, in this heat, I got sloppy. We've had white flour pasta, jarred pasta sauce and white flour tortillas instead of grabbing whole grain, oil free versions. White flour bread and rolls. The occasional take-out meal from the Chinese food place, but even though we can get food meat, oil and salt free, they always send white rice. Heck, I would pinch a few of my son's french fries from the golden arches when he brought them home!

But it all stops now.

I saw the doc this morning and got my lab results, and they're not pretty. Trigs and cholesterol are both up. My liver enzymes are slightly elevated, too, but that may have more to do with the red yeast rice than anything else. Inflammation markers are up, but he said that was to be expected with my arthritis flare-ups and chronic sinusitis. But not all the labwork came back yet. In fact, the office manager had to call the hospital and beg to get these faxed over. My Vitamin D, Vitamin B-12 and HgbA1C and ANA weren't included, and the woman the office manager spoke with on the phone says she can't find any record of them being done, so now they have to scurry around to find it and when we go back to see the doc next Monday for my husband's test results the doc and I will further discuss mine.

All the meals I've made since that doctor's visit early last week have been made according to Dr. Esselstyn's guidelines, and many came right from his book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. Today's dinner is one of them.

Awesome Almost All Orange Vegetable Soup is its name, and today is the first time I'm making it. Why haven't I made it before? Well, I was lazy. It has a lot of ingredients, a lot of chopping, a little pre-cooking of ingredients, and since fresh produce is pretty crappy around here, I didn't feel like going from store-to-store finding acorn squash that wasn't squishy or celery and carrots that weren't brown and limp. But we did this weekend, and it took 3 different stores to get all the necessary ingredients for this soup.

Yes, it's 97 degrees outside and I made soup. I made it soon after I got home form the doc, let it simmer for a while, then turned it off to let cool down. By the time my husband gets home it'll be perfect.

What changes did I make? Well, parsley instead of cilantro. I'm in the "cilantro is a vile, evil weed" category. And I only had one sweet potato. I never heard of Dr. Bronner's before so used my salt-free version of Bryanna's broth powder. I have a loaf of Ezekial bread on hand for the dunking.

I really can't smell it cooking because of the fans and air-conditioners on, but I did take a sip earlier and it tastes pretty good. It's certainly worth the trouble I went through to make it.

At least tomorrow is a much simpler meal planned, Mary McDougall's Cuban Potatoes, but minus the olives.

What a week! What a month! What a year! Heck, what a decade!!

Post Punk Kitchen Theme Song

While searching for a recipe on my computer I came across this little ditty from a number of years ago:

Damn! I can't figure out how to upload an audio file to Blogger! Oh, well, at least I can find it with the title card of the old TV show on YouTube:




There's something about this song that never fails to cheer me up.

Too bad Isa can't find her copies of the shows to post them to the PPK web site or YouTube or something.

Coach Ami's Pantry Tour

Engine 2 Extra Coach Ami Mackey and her husband travel by RV a lot, and in this video she's giving a tour of the pantry/kitchen storage area. She remarks that the refrigerator is so tiny, but it looks to be the exact same size as the refrigerator and freezer in my apartment! She also has more pantry shelves than we have in our kitchen. That's what I get for living in an old urban area with pre-WWI apartment houses. 

Natala's Quick Mexican Bake

This is Engine 2 Coach Natala's version of Rip's Quick Mexican Bake:

Find more videos like this on Engine 2 Extra

I do see some problems with it - that sucker is gonna spill ALL OVER the bottom of her oven! The mushrooms are going to release water and that pie plate, already over-flowing, won't be able to contain it all!

You can see the recipe I usually use in this post from a few months ago.

Dr. McDougall Video on Obesity

Who agrees? Who thinks that by eating as much starchy foods as we want with no regard to calories will magically lead to weight loss as long as we eliminate the fat intake? That is, as long as we ingest zero fat other than that naturally contained in the grains, fruits and veggies that we eat and keep total fat intake to 10% or less of our calories that we WILL lose weight, even if we're 60 year old post-menopausal women who have been obese since infancy?

Many Star McDougallers have to watch their portion size and calorie counts. Most have to eat strict MWLP or they immediately start to regain.

A number of Star McDougallers have already regained their weight, many while still following the food plan, even the MWLP version of it. Some regained all 100+ pounds they previously lost, some just a few, some both at various times in their lives.

I'm one of those people who MUST watch my portions and calorie intake. I have ZERO foods with added oil, I don't have any oil or fat products in my house aside from the cream cheese my son eats. I read the label of everything that goes into my shopping cart following Jeff Novick's guidelines. If I eat the way Dr. McDougall tells us to in his books and this video, I *gain* weight, and I HAVE gained over 30 pounds since I first started the McDougall program back in the early 1990's and ONLY lose if I eat 1000 calories a day when I can't exercise (either because of pain or illness), 1200 calories if I do aerobic exercise (in my target heart rate zone) a half hour 5 days a week, 1400 on those rare occasions I can actually get in an hour of aerobics, but it's been over a year since I've been able to do that, thanks to my degenerative disc disease and sciatica. I know of MANY others both on and off the official forums, including a number who left because they were accused of "sneaking" fats in, not disclosing everything they were eating, and everything else doctors and family have been accusing us of our entire lives.

Sorry, Dr, McD, but I do NOT agree that JUST dropping the fat will cause magic weight loss.

How about the rest of you?

Are You A Junk Food or Healthy Food Vegan?

I was directed to this article on the VegNews site by Colleen Holland. Everybody should go read it and then think about how you eat.

Colleen Holland: How I Became a Healthy Vegan

A Different Engine 2 Shepherd's Pie Recipe (edited from original post of 6/9/2013)

This one is from Natala, one of the Engine 2 coaches:

Shepherds Pie: The quick way.
   
about 5-6 white potatoes.
2 cups cooked lentils
1 package of frozen peas and carrots
1 package sliced mushrooms
1/2 package of frozen kale
Poultry seasoning
paprika
no sodium added tomato sauce or Pomi tomatoes (pureed)
nutritional yeast
unsweetened non-dairy milk

Pre-heat oven to 400

Peel (optional) and cut the potatoes; cook in boiling water for around 20 minutes, until soft.
While the potatoes are cooking:
Layer in a baking dish:
first layer: a thin layer of tomato sauce to cover the bottom
second layer: lentils
third layer: mushrooms
4th layer: kale
5th layer: peas and carrots

When your potatoes are finished, drain and mash them, adding a bit of milk and nutritional yeast, up to 1/2 cup, and some poultry seasoning.

Spread the mashed potatoes on top of the peas and carrots layer. Sprinkle paprika over the potatoes.

Cover the casserole and bake for about 30 minutes, until completely heated.

Before cooking

What I did differently:
Not much. I forgot the poultry seasoning in the potatoes so sprinkled it over the peas and carrots. It worked out better this way because otherwise they would have turned the potatoes green. I also forgot the paprika. It was in the list of ingredients then never mentioned again in the original directions.

It's too hot to light the oven so it was cooked in the microwave. Since it's to be covered, anyway, that shouldn't matter. I used 75% power for 15 minutes and it was very hot to touch. I should have used a thermometer, instead.

Tastes:
Well, not so good. The bag of kale had more stems than leaves and was very chewy, and it didn't taste as good as usual, either. I had to use a lot of salt on mine and my husband drowned his in sriracha sauce.

after cooking

I didn't cook it long enough and the mushrooms were still solid and crunchy, and some were still room temperature. Everything else was very hot, though, which is weird.

If I use this recipe again in the future, I'm frying up the mushrooms with onions first, and instead of kale I'll definitely use spinach, instead. And instead of, or along with, nutritional yeast, the potatoes will also get a hefty dose of garlic.

We both decided this wasn't a very good meal, and soon after eating my husband went foraging for something else to eat. There are plenty of leftovers that I now have to figure out how to doctor up to make more appetizing. Perhaps a batch of McDougall-approved gravy?

Many Similarities Between McDougall and Engine 2 Diets

I rejoined the Engine 2 Extra site again and have been spending time catching up on all the group posts. One in particular struck my eye. It's written by one of their "coaches," Ami, and is in response to someone new who was struggling with weight loss (and food allergies, but that's a moot point). It's behind a pay-wall so the general public can't see it.

Here's part of her post:

For best results - skip the avocados/nuts/seeds/smoothies.
Chew your food instead of drinking calories.
Here are my best tips for maximum benefit:

• No oil at all in any product, by itself, or in a cooking spray. Zero.

• If you are trying to lose weight or have heart disease, skip nuts and avocados.

• Keep products that have a barcode to an absolute minimum.

• Keep the sodium low - use no salt added or reduced sodium products.

• Keep sweeteners to 1 tablespoon or less per day.

• Snack on ONLY fruits and veggies

• Do not drink ANY calories. Only water or herbal tea.

• Become caffeine free.

• Make the bulk of your plate veggies, 1/4 grains, 1/4 protein

• Follow the calorie density scale when assembling meals and snacks.

• Become a label reading expert and adhere to the label reading rules always!

• Do not use ANY processed Vegan substitutes - no V. burgers, V.sour cream, V. cheese etc.

Sound familiar, fellow McDougallers? It should, since Jeff Novick is also one of *their* nutritionists. The only real difference I see between what Ami wrote and what Dr. McDougall says is in the proportions. Dr. McDougall stresses that our plate should be at minimum half starch, and as far as I know, I thought the Engine 2 diet books said the same thing, but I see Ami here saying the starches (grains) should be kept to a quarter of the plate. I wonder if this is her own bias, just as some of the Star McDougallers push MWLP and 3/4 of the plate as veggies on the McDougall forums.

Mark's Heart Healthy Pizza TV Premier