Jeff Novick's First Newsletter

Jeff recently posted copies of his very first "Focus on Health" nutrition newsletter that he wrote way back in 1988 onto his FaceBook page. No picture of him in short-shorts in it, but it's funny to note that he mis-spelled Dr. McDougall's name on page 2.

Son of McDougall - Now Playing on YouTube

Dr. John McDougall's son Craig is an MD in his own right, and is currently practicing out of Kaiser Permanente in the Oregon and Washington State area. And yes, he teaches his father's food philosophy, too. Those who have attended the McDougall Advance Studies Weekends have probably met him and his wife, but the rest of us have to be satisfied with his Internet presence.

Here's a video by him giving a lecture on plant based eating to a small local group. Some on the boards are saying he's not as charismatic as his father, but I think he does just fine, given the circumstances. I'm glad to see he's following in his father's footsteps and hope when Dr. John McDougall decides to retire that Dr. Craig McDougall and his siblings continue the works their father laid out for us all.

What's Wrong With THAT??

Dilbert

Some of my best conversations revolve around potatoes! I'm sure many who read this blog can say the same, too. LOL

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).

Jeff Novick in Short Shorts?? And Fast Food 4 Now Available for Pre-Order

Over on Jeff's Facebook page he has a post with a photo about a Kosher meal he developed for his graduating class back in 1996.  I'm not sure of the legalities of FaceBook sharing, so just go to the link and see for yourself. Those shorts are way too short for a grown man to be wearing, no matter how toned his legs may be! LOL  For those looking for the recipes for the dishes, he said he'll try find them.

And as mentioned above, his fourth DVD in the Fast Food series, Beyond the Basics, 

is finally available for pre-order over on VegSource. The page says it'll start shipping in April. I can't wait!!This was first announced in 2012 and I've been anticipating it ever since! My family's been getting tired of the original SNAP recipes from his FaceBook My Simple Recipes page and first Fast Food video. Still no preview on either VegSource or any of Jeff's on-line sites. At least you'll all know it's arrived at my place when you see some of his new recipes appearing on this blog.

Quinoa and Kale by Dr. Couscous Video

With special guest appearances by Dr. & Mrs. Esselstyn and Chef AJ.

Another Jan Tz Gem - Chickpea Gravy

For many years I used only canned gravy. My mom was a bad gravy maker when she made it from scratch, using the grease at the bottom of a roasting pan as the base and adding flour and salt and whisking with a fork until it sort of resembled a liquid. I hated her gravy and never used it and my 2 brothers didn't like it but took a bit of it, but she and my dad would drink it up like a beverage. Gravy like that contributed to her death at age 44 of a massive heart attack and my dad's 20 years battle with a variety of cancers.

I tried a few Mary McDougall gravy recipes, as well as some from Julie Hasson, but the first home-made gravy we ever truly loved came from Isa Chandra Moskowitz from her book Vegan With A Vengeance called Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy. I McDougalled it, of course, by omitting the oil. It was delicious, and our go-to recipe for years.

But I wanted something quicker and with less ingredients. 

Lately I've been looking over a lot of my MWLP recipes cardfile and the 3-ingredient recipes gathered from the McDougall forums over the years, and came across this gem from Jan Tz that she posted to the original McDougall recipe forum on VegSource almost 10 years ago.

CHICKPEA GRAVY

Put into blender jar:
1 can chickpeas, with liquid
dashes (to taste): salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, poultry seasoning
1/2 cup water, more or less, depending on how thick you want it.

Whiz it all up until the chickpeas are pureed, and the whole thing is smooth and thick. Heat it up in a saucepan (you could nuke it), then pour over toasted bread, rice, or spudz.

Man, you can't get much simpler than that! And my husband and I agree that it tastes better than Isa's recipe, too, maybe because of its simplicity.

I think this is now our new go-to gravy recipe. It'll jazz up those instant/frozen potatoes, even make a simple rice and veggie meal into something, well, more!

Thanks again, Jan, for your kitchen wizardry. And stop disappearing from the McDougall forums for such long stretches. :)

My Love-Hate Affair with Potatoes

I love potatoes. That's one of the things that attracted me to the McDoguall program many decades ago. I was the only kid I know who loved potatoes as much as I did, even if they were served boiled with nothing on them except salt and pepper. In fact, I liked them plain better than fancied up or even deep fried and served as french fries, like other kids did. All of my grandparents and my friends' parents said that I was the only kid they knew who ate them like that. My grandfather said it was the Irish in me that made me that way. (He was 100%, my grandmother 50%)

When I hit my adult years and my widowed grandmother moved 50 miles away, she knew that every time we were invited to dinner she didn't have to make much food, just make sure there were plenty of veggies and plain old mashed potatoes. She could get away with one pork chop each for her and my husband, but as long as there were taters, I was fine, and that was even before I started McDougalling officially.

Years went by and I never had a problem purchasing my beloved spuds. Then about 2 years ago, a lot of potatoes I bought were green and inedible. When it first happened I tried to return them to the grocery store but was told once the package is opened they can't accept fresh produce back. I'm sure that was BS and I was probably the only person that ever tried to return potatoes, but how could I argue? I tried buying them from another store, then another, and another, and the same thing kept happening. I thought my quest for the perfect potatoes ended in 2012 when I got the most perfect, tasty Yukon Gold potatoes at one of the big discount department stores, who shall remain nameless. Then I made a meal with the fourth bag I purchased and ate 2 of the tiny baked Yukons with my lunch and got nauseous after about the fifth bite. Within 5 minutes I was running into the bathroom with the worst vomiting and diarrhea I ever had in my life. It went on like that for about 5 hours, and at the end I looked like I was severely attacked by a madman who tried to strangle me, because my entire face and the whites of my eye had those pettichial hemorrhages all over like they talk about on police procedural shows to prove a person was strangled. 

August 2012

I never bought potatoes - or any fresh produce - from that store ever again and went back to my first store. I also bought potatoes from a mom and pop grocery store that's within walking distance to our apartment. 

Since I started going back to these 2 stores, I've run into another problem. Besides many potatoes from each bag being green, many of those that weren't green were rotten in the centers:

Russets - March 2014

These particular ones came from the bag of russets I bought last week. Out of the 10 pound bag I bought on that Sunday, I managed to salvage 4 potatoes on Tuesday, 2 days later. I promised my son mashed potatoes for dinner and luckily I found a few Yukon Golds in the crisper drawer of the fridge that I was saving for the next day's dinner. Unfortunately, out of the 4 potatoes in the drawer, 2 turned out to be green. I wound up making a batch of instant mashed potatoes to go with the freshly made ones. Everyone agreed that the instant tasted better than the fresh, less like dirt.

This isn't new. I've been getting potatoes that were rotten inside like this for a few years now, but it used to be a rare occurrence, maybe just once a month. Now it seems every bag has a few, and a greater percentage of them with each new bag I buy. If there was some hint of what the insides looked like, I could blame myself for buying the bad ones, but on the outside these potatoes look perfect! I've even bought them loose, thoroughly inspecting each one before popping it into the plastic produce bag. I'm tired of wasting time and money on bad food, especially since the organics have been worse than regular ones!

I know some people on the McDougall forums, especially a few of the Stars, look down their noses at all packaged foods, even those on Dr. McDougall's allowable packaged foods list, but if this is the future of potatoes, it looks like frozen and freeze-dried is where I'll be looking for all my spuds from now on.

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.

Vegan Dad's Corned Beef

Saint Patrick's Day is coming, and with that comes Vegan Dad's Corned Beef sandwiches. Here's the video and link to the recipe for those who missed it when I last posted about it. 


Now all I have to do is find where I put that cheesecloth and that rye bread recipe since the last time I made this.