The Hungry Microbiome - Resistant Starch Explained Easily

A fairly new member named Alfred on the McDougall forums posted these two links that help explain what resistant starch IS and why it's so important to intestinal health. Nice CGI in the video that goes down to the molecular level to explain it all. Nice!

The Hungry Microbiome

Engine 2 28-Day Challenge Sign-Ups

Go to the official Challenge site for details by December 31st on how to sign up and to get a coupon for $5 off any 2 Engine 2 products from Whole Foods. 

You can also download the guidebook PDF file from Dropbox. If you don't have a Dropbox account, just ignore the window that pops up and the file is open right beneath it. It's very basic and geared towards beginners to a WFPB diet, but if you keep scrolling down you'll find an exercise guide and a few Engine 2/Essesltyn recipes and (my favorite) the Engine 2 Easy Meal guide. This handy dandy grid shows 42 different 3-5 ingredient no-recipe meal suggestions, like butternut squash and lentils with smoky chipotle seasoning served over rice and kale. 

When you get to the bottom of the file where the links to resources are, be aware that the "new" book by Rip Esselstyn called Plant Strong is just a re-release of My Beef With Meat but with a few new and updated recipes added, and I'll assume a mention of the Engine 2 products in Whole Foods, something that wasn't around when the first 2 books were written.

OK, One More - All I Want for Christmas is Kale

Adeste Fidelis at Westminster Abbey

Star Trek Cast - Jingle Bells

Engine 2 - New (Free) Social Media Site

After a few years of having a paid community, Engine 2 is now hosting a free one again. It's on the site called Social Engine, and you have to request an invitation before you can register to post. Well, AFAIK it's free. Nobody actually mentioned a fee nor addressed the question outright when asked on E2E.

If you like communities such as Pinterest and Instagram, then you'll have no problem using this site, for it's basically a clone of those.

The Engine 2 Extra site had coaches, a file and video archive, and (long ignored) message boards. Most people posted on their blog that was provided. I'm not the most tech savy person around but don't see anything like that on the new site. AFAIK, the remaining 2 "coaches" and "Fire Marshalls" will also be posting to the new site.

Let's see if this community grows or falters, like Engine 2 Extra has done since Natala left.

Timmy - Jingle Bells

For those of you in love with Adman Studios' Shaun the Sheep and his friends, here's the littlest sheep, Timmy, and his friends doing Jingle Bells:

Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)

Elvis - Blue Christmas

Holiday Treats with Nina and Randa Nelson

While the candy canes and Oreo cookies may not be 100% McDougall-approved, if you have kids or need to bring sweet treats to a party, these should do quite nicely.

Bing Crosby & Dave Bowie - Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy

Weird Al - The Night Santa Went Crazy

Willie Nelson - Away In A Manger

Webinar - Food, Sex, Attractiveness Part 1

Guns and Roses - White Christmas

Ramones - Merry Christmas (I Don't Wanna Fight Tonight)

Lani Muelrath at Healthy Taste of LA 2014

Her 2 books: 
Fit Quickies: 5-Minute, Targeted Body-Shaping Workouts 
and 
The Plant-Based Journey: A Step-by-Step Guide for Transitioning to a Healthy Lifestyle and Achieving Your Ideal Weight .

Otis Redding - White Christmas

New Jeff Novick Interview

It's been a while since we heard anything new about/from Jeff Novick. Here's an interview done with him for the Jewish Food blog.

Everything he says here he has already said on his own website, but it's nice to see him getting some publicity again.

Disney's Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Jackson 5 - I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

Frank Sinatra - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Christmas Is Coming! Disney's White Christmas

Webinar - Vitamins and Supplements

Nothing new - same old, same old. Only take Vitamin B12, nothing else no matter what your count is, even if Vitamin D is low.

New Episodes of Healthy Living On-Line

The newest episodes of Foody TV's Healthy Living Series are on-line. For some reason there is no #7, not on Foody itself or their YouTube channel. Maybe it'll appear in the future?

The recipes for the original 6 episodes can be found at the Foody web site, and hopefully the recipes for these 4 new ones will join them soon.


Lesson 8 with Wendy - Look and Feel Your Best
Butternut Squash and Quinoa Chili, Oven Ratatouille



Lesson 9 with Hans Diehl and Shayda - Medical Institute
Millet Pudding, Fennel Salad




Lesson 10 with Lindsey (Happy Herbivore) - Bar Food Twist
Cauliflower Buffalo Wings, Peanutless Peanut Sauce




Lesson 11 with  Dr. Joel Kahn - Heart Health
Broccoli Bisque, Zucchini Pasta with Quick Sun-Dried Marinara Sauce

Happy Hanukkah!

Jeff Novick's Fast Food DVD Set On Sale @ True North Store

For those of you who haven't bought Jeff Novick's Fast Food DVD sets yet, The True North web site (owned by Dr. Goldhamer and Dr. Lisle) have the set of all 4 DVDs on sale for $59!

Fantastic price, considering they're still selling for $20 each on Dr. McDougall's web site.

If you've been hesitating because of the price, now's the time to jump up and grab them. I don't know if this is their regular price or a special sale, but I wouldn't wait, anyway.

Webinar December 3, 2015 - Immunizations and Vaccinations

About Those Sets from VegSource . . .

Be aware that these discs will be delivered in 3 separate packages, although the tracking number you're sent only lists ONE package! I was surprised today to find 2 boxes between our front doors when we got home - one from UPS, another from USPS; one contained 3 sets of DVD's, the other 4. Neither box had the tracking number I was sent via email, and tracking for that one says delivery due tomorrow. (sigh)

They do look nice on my shelf! 

My husband is home on vacation this week so I won't have time to dig into them until next week, but it's so nice to finally have them (Well, by this time tomorrow I will) at such a nice price. Hopefully next year for the holidays they'll sell the 2015 set at a low price, too.

Thanks, Jeff and Sabrina!

Next 2 McDougall Webinars Announced

Go to the Webinar page to register:

Thursday, December 3, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific Time

Title: Ask Dr. McDougall: Vaccinations. What Should I do?

Description: In this live webinar, Dr. McDougall, MD, talks about the topic of this month’s newsletter. What vaccinations should children and adults receive?

Questions: Send questions ahead of time to webinar@drmcdougall.com. Please keep questions related to the topic of the webinar and please keep questions as concise as possible!

References:

• Newsletter: November 30, 2014, Flu Shots, Vaccines

Thursday, December 10, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific Time

Title: Ask Dr. McDougall: Should I Take Supplements & Vitamins?

Description: Is the soil really depleted? Can we get all the nutrition we need from the food itself? What are the dangers of supplements?

Questions: Send questions ahead of time to webinar@drmcdougall.com. Please keep questions related to the topic of the webinar and please keep questions as concise as possible!

VegSource DVD Sets on Sale This Week Only

Have some money to spend? Need some motivation to stick to the program? Just want to hear Dr. McDougall and friends giving their talks over the past 9 out of 10 years?

If the answer is Yes, run over to VegSource and grab hold of their special CyberWeek offer! 9 sets from their Get Healthy Now yearly seminars now on sale for only $251.82. 27 DVDs, 127 hours of talks! These used to sell for $89 a set but for this week only they're bundled at this low price.

Here's their Facebook page with the announcement listing the details and the link to the offer. Santa told me to go ahead and grab them and they've already been shipped! I am so looking forward to seeing 9 years of Dr. McDougall, Jeff Novick, Dr. Esselstyn, Dr. Klaper (not all in every set), et al! Hot diggity!

A BEARD??

Here's the 2015 Thanksgiving photo from Dr. McDougall's Facebook page of him, Mary, and the grandkids:

So. Dr. Greger shaves his facial hair off and Dr. McDougall starts to grow his? The whole world is topsy turvy!

Congrats to the Nelson Sisters

Nina and Randa Nelson, daughters of the VegSource founders, have the story of how they cured their cystic acne with the McDougall diet in the British newspaper Daily Mail.

I'm glad Dr. McDougall's name is getting spread across the globe!

Dr. McDougall's Webinars on Diabetes

He does say in the beginning that he's talking about Type 2 or Type 1 1/2 diabetes most of the time, not Type 1 - Juvenile Diabetes.

November 12, 2015 - Part 1



November 19, 2015 - Part 2

Summaries of the September McDougall ASW Speakers' Talks

The owner of Renegade Health blog has made a nice summary of all the speakers' talks from this past September's McDougall's Advanced Study Weekend.

The first blog post covers Dr. Kim Williams, Dr. Garth Davis, Dr. Joel Kahn, Dr. Michael Greger, and Dr. Luigi Fontana. 

The second post he comments on the talks of Dan Beuttner, Dr. Michael Klaper, Dr. Michael Wilkes, and our very own Dr. John McDougall. For some reason he didn't review Dr. Doug Lisle's talk. I always consider his the highlights of each ASW.

If you still wish to see these talks for yourself, they'll be available streaming until the next ASW in March at the McDougall Media web site. The cost is $150 for the videos.

March 2015 ASW - Dr. McDougall's Introduction

At the beginning of every Advanced Study Weekend Dr. McDougall gives his welcome speech. In it he discusses the major article of every newsletter since the last ASW, as well as a brief biography of the speakers that will be appearing.

Here's his talk from March 2015, where he discusses flu shots, arsenic in rice, and his magazine article about the study he did of 1615 patients who attended his live-in program and lost weight:

Another Day of Simple McDougall Program Eating

This time it's Jeff Nelson, of VegSource.Com. He mentioned in another video recently that he lost some more weight his past summer. I'm going to assume that eating as simply as this that helped him get there. Well his strenuous bike rides had a big part too, I guess.



If you watch this on YouTube itself you'll see the burger recipe posted in the comments section.

Farmer Fred Does Fresh Broccoli in the Instant Pot

I'm one of those people who constantly over-cooks vegetables. Just this morning I put one of those giant bags of Bird's Eye California Mix into the IP at 3 minutes and it still came out like mush. The first time I tried I did it for 10 minutes - not a pretty sight!

Farmer Fred mentions how he also had problems getting the timing right for his produce. In this video, he lops off a head of broccoli right from his garden and shows how to make perfect steamed broccoli. Maybe I'll try this next time instead of liquefying yet another bag of frozen.

A Little Shocker, or You Can't Out-Exercise a Bad Diet

This past Monday, my husband and I had to see our primary care doc for labwork that his cardiologist wanted done and some med renewals.

Our first shock came when I found out the doc we'd been seeing for about 25 years has left the family practice, preferring to concentrate on his faculty duties and overseeing an intern program at a hospital local to him. He had been threatening to leave for a few years now and was only at the office about 3 hours a week as it was. At least he can now walk to work, a fact that comes in very handy if we have another winter like the last 2.

Shock number 2 came when the doc we switched to, formerly all gruff and down-to-business, was all mellow yellow, seeming genuinely interested in what we've been up to both personally and medically, since he last treated any of us. This was the doc we first had when we switched to that practice when our old doc died in a car crash, and he was the doc at my bedside examining our son when he was just a few minutes old almost 32 years ago. When he decided to concentrate on sports medicine we switched over to his brother, who preferred the more general family medicine. He was heavily into a few sports himself, winning medals for his running and biking, and while he didn't run any major marathons, he was present at every NYC Marathon since its inception and at least 15 years at the Boston Marathon. He was there for the bombing and even got an award for his work treating victims at the scene. The walls of his room at the office are decorated with medals, certificates, and photos from all the races he's participated in, as well as autographed photos from different pro athletes he's treated.

Anyway, he was glad to hear about our diet, and said because of it, he'll most likely take my husband off all his gout meds after seeing the labwork. He would prefer to take him off the statin, too, but knows that his cardiologist insists all his patients take one, and since it's about the lowest dose possible already, said it won't do him any harm. As for me, he renewed my asthma meds, discussed reducing the omega 3/DHA/EPA med I was put on for my triglycerides, and said with the cholesterol levels I had, that as long as I keep on this food plan probably don't need the red yeast rice, but again, realized the cardiologist would probably put me on a statin if I wasn't on it and said to just cut it down to half the amount I was taking. No new labwork for me because it was so good in January insurance won't pay for it again until after a year has passed. He also told me to cut my Vitamin D was down from the dose his brother had me on. He said with winter coming it's best not to stop it completely, especially with my history (first lab test showed below 4, normal is over 20). We got our "atta boy" and "atta girl" and sent on our merry way.

Next shock concerns the lab work & med renewals. In the past, this practice insisted on coming in to be examined and then they'll renew meds or order labs, or order labs and renew meds after getting the results. We always had to then make another appointment to get those lab results. They didn't believe in giving them out over the phone and would insist on seeing you face to face to explain the results. But not now. The doc said to just call the office to get the results. Wow! This is going to be a big time and money saver!

Shock #4 involves coming into the 21st century. The company that now runs the practice had been dragging its feet in giving them the necessary hardware, but by federal law says it has to be up and running before the end of the year. That also means they'll finally be able to put things in the already established on-line patient portals, like lab and test results, prescription renewal and appointment and referral requests, so all that can be done without an office visit in the future.

But the biggest shock of all came the next day while my husband was gabbing with the office manager while waiting to get his labs drawn. She apologized for the confusion around the office, how harried and rushed she is, because things haven't been the same since (our old doc) left in June and (our new doc) came back after his heart surgery in September, that they're having a hard time catching up and getting caught up with everything.

WHAT?

It seems our doc, Doctor Tall, Thin and Athletic, had a triple bypass back in July. One artery 99% blocked, the other 2 not far behind. After discussing my husband's CABG and follow up stress tests with him the day before we're very surprised he didn't mention anything about his own. No wonder he had a completely different attitude this time! Nothing like a near-death experience to make a person slow down and enjoy life a little. And no wonder he had heard of and approved of the Esselstyn diet.

So, the point of this rambling post? You can't out exercise a bad diet! This man has been very active and lean for the 35 or so years I know him. OK, his whole family, including brother, sister, parents, grandparents, cousins, are all tall and lean, so genetics. But he's also always been active. I did mention his running and biking above, right? This was such a shock! As Doctor McDougall always says:

IT'S THE FOOD!

Parody Video - Dr. McDougall Skypes Dr. Fuhrman

I really have no words to describe this video.

But I could probably use some of that "potato water" he's drinking! LOL


 

Dr. McDougall Explains His Color Picture Book to VSH

Dr. and Mary McDougall were recently back in Hawaii setting up their next McDougall Adventure trip there this coming winter. While there, he did a speech to the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii explaining "food poisoning" and his Color Picture Book.

Another McDougall Podcast with Chris Beats Cancer

Webinar - The Challenges of Eating Out

This week's webinar is with both Dr. and Mary McDougall. There is some talk of eating out in restaurants, but mostly they say they no longer do it, and when they can't avoid it, like when invited to eat at someone's house, they eat at home first. As for eating at a restaurant? Well, the main message there is not to believe anything a server or cook tells you, because rarely will you be told the whole truth about the food you get. Yes, you can get brown rice, but it may be cooked in chicken broth. Yes, many Mexican restaurants serve whole beans, even let you have it without cheese, but it may have been cooked with pork. Tidbits like these are mentioned.

This was also the advertised talk with Mary about holiday meals. If you've seen the annual newsletter holiday recipe article, you already know what they eat on the major holidays. Dr. McDougall again mentions how he eats a small serving of turkey every other year, just so he can say he's not vegan, but he also says he's not telling which year he does it, and mentions how there's no way to prove whether he did or didn't eat it, either.

Gustavo mentioned there will be another webinar next week, but so far no mention of it nor registration info on the webinar page on the McDougall web site.

Brain Fog Strikes Again!

It's been 32 years since I felt well. Many tests, and a handful of doctors, over the decades finally came up with diagnoses of not only hypothyroid (untreated at least 10 years after the first abnormal TSH) and Degenerative Disc Disease, but a fairly rare auto-immune disorder called Mixed Connective Tissue Disease. That alone explained all my overwhelming fatigue, the polymyalgia, the debilitating joint and bone pains, maybe even my stress cardiomyopathy/Takotsubo Syndrome from 2009. Heck, even my lack of weight loss during those years I was on near starvation level calorie diets!

But most important to this particular blog post, it explained the brain fog. It all started 32 when I was pregnant, and was self-diagnosed as CFS a few years later, "self" because my primary care doctors "didn't believe in it" as a real disease. They were of the generation that referred to it as "Yuppie Flu" and dismissed my symptoms because 1) I had a baby at home and 2) I was fat. I was glad to get the diagnosis of MCTD because it took over 30 years, but I showed them I really *was* sick!

Anyway, brain fog, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of experiencing it, makes you lose time, makes it hard to string a coherent sentence together, can cause you to space out during conversations, and at times, makes you look like a dog who suddenly sees a squirrel. I can be driving around with my husband carrying on a real conversation and in the middle of a sentence, sometimes in the middle of a word, break away with another thought on a completely different subject. I'm sure some of you noticed that in my writings, too.

Anyway (See what I mean?), the other day I decided to go off-menu and instead of making what I had planned, I wanted to treat my husband to one of his favorite meals, Chef AJ's Red Lentil Chili, because he was having a rough day at the home office. I always have the ingredients for it on hand so it would be a snap to make up. I was extremely tired that day, so figured getting all this in the Instant Pot and setting the timer would give me time to take a little nap before dinner.

Potatoes got washed, poked, and popped into the microwave, timer set to start cooking them a half hour before dinner time so they would have a chance to cool a little before we sat down to eat them.

Gathered the chili ingredients and started blending all the wet ones. Got the lentils rinsed and into the pot. Turned off the blender. Added all the spices. Put the lid on, set the IP.

Headed into the bedroom to grab a book. Hubby joined me after he finished up his work and we watched another episode of our favorite Brit-Com, Waiting for God. My husband tells me so often I'm just like Diana, one of the main characters. It's not a compliment! LOL




Dinner time. I open the IP and immediately notice something is "off." The chili takes up only half the amount of room it normally does, and it's brownish, not the usual pinkish-red. It also smells different than usual. Not bad, just different.

We decide to try it, so serve and break up the baked potatoes and ladle the chili over it. Tastes great. Hubby has seconds. 

Dinner is over. I start putting leftovers away - potatoes into a zipbag for waffle potatoes in the future and the chili into a glass Pyrex. I walk over to the refrigerator to put them in and then I see it.

I spy the Ninja blender with the blended tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic.

Darn!! OK, not the exact word I used, but this is a PG rated blog.

I told my husband I'll just put it away and make a new batch of chili for the weekend. I turn to get a container to put it in and when I turned back, saw him pouring about 2 cups of it into his bowl and then grab some bread to dunk!

Now the expletives really start flying, because now I don't have enough of the sauce for another batch of chili! All I get out of him was "Oops." 

"I JUST SAID I was going to use the sauce, WHY the **** did you DO that?!?!!"

His reply was: "Well, it just tastes so good I didn't want it to go to waste."

I repeated the above line, adding a few more WHY's and possibly a few more ****'s, too.

At least I can salvage what's left and use it over the weekend on our weekly pasta meal.

At least my fatigue and brain fog went away for a while. Now I was WIDE awake and mentally alert.

Next Webinar with Mary McDougall

Found this info this morning on the McDougall Webinar page. I guess the holiday webinar won't be until next week. No mention of it yet, although the latest newsletter had the annual holiday recipes post, it's 10 year anniversary.

Thursday, November 5, 2015 at 11:00 AM Pacific Time

Register Now

Title: Mary McDougall: The Challenges of Eating Out.

Description: Join Mary McDougall in a Live Webinar this week! She will discuss how to navigate the world of eating out and going to eat at other people’s homes. She will share the SECRETS of a lifetime!

Questions: Send questions ahead of time to webinar@drmcdougall.com. Please keep questions related to the topic of the webinar and please keep questions as concise as possible!

Dr. McDougall Interview | Problems With Oils, Protein Powders, Eating Disorders + More!

I had recently mentioned on the McDougall forums that I've been trying to get an updated response form Dr. McDougall about his bean recommendation. For decades he had said to restrict beans and legumes to no more than an average of a cup a day, then suddenly he never talked about restricting them. His latest book, the Starch Solution, he doesn't mention restricting them, and in the Color Picture Book they're on the slide with other starchy foods that can be eaten freely.

I was directed to this video interview he did back in April of this year and was told he does mention beans near the beginning of the talk. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet.

McDougall Webinar - Breast Cancer #3

Before I post the webinar link, let me just say Get Well Soon, Debbie!



Once again Mary joins Dr. McD in the beginning to push the Hawaiian trip. This time there's a video of trip highlights, complete with music.

The webinar covers the same information as the others. I paid more attention to the people typing in the comments section of the webinar page than to Dr. McDougall, because he was saying the same old stuff. None of the questions posted on the right were answered, and once again Gustavo asked questions that Dr. McD has answered many times in the past.

At least we have the next webinar to look forward to. It's supposed to be Mary McDougall talking about (and demonstrating??) holiday cooking. There's no registration info yet on the webinar page on the McDougall site. Hopefully it'll appear soon.

Jill McKeever Webinar

Woot! Woot!

A nice talk with Jill about cooking healthy food fast and easy, including her love of the Instant Pot.

Simple Yellow Split Pea Soup

Here's another from Mary McDougall and the McDougall newsletter article Cheap Recipes. It's the Simple Split Pea Soup recipe that I changed ingredients around to make Yellow Split Pea Soup.



Simple Split Pea Soup

Preparation Time:  15 minutes
Cooking Time:  1 hour
Resting Time:  15 minutes (optional for thickening)
Servings:  10

2 cups green split peas
8 cups water
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2-3 potatoes, chunked
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons parsley flakes
1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Place the peas and water in a large soup pot.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.  Add the remaining ingredients, mix well and bring to a boil again.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 40 minutes, until vegetables are tender.  Remove from heat and let rest for 15 minutes to thicken before serving, if desired.  Season with a bit of sea salt before serving (optional).

Hints:  This will thicken even more as it cools, and will be very thick if refrigerated until the next day.  This is wonderful in a bowl with some fresh baked bread, or ladle it over baked potatoes or brown rice.

Variation:  For a delicious Curried Split Pea Soup, leave out all of the seasonings in the above recipe and add 2-3 tablespoons curry powder and ¼ cup nutritional yeast.

You will likely have the ingredients for this tasty soup already in your cupboards and pantry, so no need for an extra trip to the market for supplies.

I got the idea from Chef AJ and her own yellow split pea recipe. Just substitute yellow split peas for the green and sweet potatoes for the russets. How simple! And it's a nice change of taste than green split pea soup all the time.

Even quicker than the above directions  - just toss the ingredients into a pressure cooker and cook it up on Manual 10 minutes. It's your choice if you want to let it sit for natural release or release it as soon as it's finished. I usually press the power button when it's done then come back to it about a half hour later.At that point it's cool enough to blend without burning myself if it splashes a bit.

We don't like chunky pea soups around here so I always take an immersion blender to them as soon as they've cooled down a bit. It's also because I'm too lazy/tired/in pain to stand at the counter chopping my veggies into tiny pieces. If it's a toss up between tossing the raw veggies into a food processor to cut or blending the whole soup with an immersion blender so even the peas are blended, the immersion blender wins every time.

Corrections on Pot Pie Soup

Just 2 minor corrections/verifications on the Pot Pie Soup post from the other day.

My husband loved the soup so much he asked me to make it again today, so I paid closer attention to amounts.

Nutritional yeast: It was only a quarter cup, not half cup, that I used for mine. I was about to put in half but it just looked like way too much.

The Pot: My large soup pot is the same size as the Instant Pot "liner" - 6 quarts. I still say it'll be quicker made on the stove, but for those who want to toss it into the pot, set a timer, and leave for work or whatever then come home later to nice hot soup, go right ahead and use the IP - it'll fit just fine.

Conversation with Wendy and AJ

Wendy and AJ talking the basics of Ultimate Weight Loss program and Wendy confessing all.

After the main talk, they demonstrate the sun-dried tomato marinara sauce that I use the most. I still use real pasta in this house, but Wendy demonstrates making zucchini "pasta" with a spiralizer from Inspiralized food blog.

A UWL-safe Parmesan substitute is also demonstrated, but between the bad audio and those blue people icons popping up constantly I never caught what the ingredient was she's using instead of nuts nor the amounts. I *think* it's dry oats, but not sure. Also I didn't catch what was also added besides nutritional yeast. :(

Pasta with Garbanzo Broccoli Sauce

I get tired of making tomato based pasta sauce week after week and made this one for a change. It comes from The McDougall Program for A Healthy Heart book.

Garbanzo/Broccoli Sauce
SERVINGS: 4
PREPARATION TIME: 15 MINUTES
COOKING TIME: 10 MINUTES

1 medium onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup water
1 bunch fresh broccoli, cut into bite-size florets
2 cups Vegetable Broth
1 15 1/2-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed in 1/3 cup cold water

Place the onion and garlic in a pot with the water. Cook and stir until the onion is translucent, about 3 minutes.

Add the broccoli, broth, beans, and soy sauce. Cook over low heat about 7 minutes until the broccoli is crisp-tender.

Add the cornstarch mixture, and cook and stir until thickened.

Serve over pasta or potatoes.

From The McDougall Program for a Healthy Heart, page 325

As usual, I used the brown rice pasta. For the broccoli, I used a one-pound bag of frozen chopped broccoli.

Sorry about the picture. I was finishing up my bowl when I realized I didn't take a photo. My husband had already finished his first and seconds, emptying the pot. Good thing I had enough first time around and didn't want more myself! 

After all these years I'm still discovering recipes in the old books that are new to me. Makes me wish there were more days in the week to make them all.

Webinar of Oct 22, 2015

The topic of this webinar was once again on obesity but it was barely mentioned. Dr. McDougall took a lot of time talking about the new book to be published in about 8 months. He didn't mention the title, but did say he insisted to Harper One publisher that it contain his Color Picture Book, so that is going to be inserted into the center of the book in full color. The rest of the book, aside from Mary's portion, is going to be all newsletter articles, things already published on-line on his web site and available for free. He said he told the publisher that he will not take them down, either, that they will remain on-line for free.

As for Mary McDougall's part in the new book, she's going to have 24 full color recipe photos and I think Dr. McD said there will be another 24 recipes, I assume without photos. It was hard to understand at times, because first one or the other's computer would buffer, then when it came back the sound was out of synch with the video, then Dr. McDougall lost his internet connection completely for about 5-10 minutes and Gustavo kept going off-line trying to get him back. Eventually Dr. McD did get back, answered 2-3 more questions, spoke with a woman named Deb who was able to connect and become part of the webinar video from her hospital (?) bed (I couldn't understand most of what she said. At that point all the audio was echoing. I hope the replay things are cleaned up.), and then it was over.

Maybe next week he'll be on topic and get to answer more questions.

Pot Pie Soup

Nina and Randa Nelson, daughters of the VegSource owners, occasionally make up their own recipes. It's Jeff Novick's influence on them! You're not going to appear in his Fast Food videos and not enjoy making up your own recipes. :)

I had already written about Randa's Corn Chowder in the past. Well, today I discovered they recently worked together to make a soup I'll call Pot Pie Soup, since near the end they say it tastes like pot pie.




The ingredients, as my old, crumbling ears heard them:

1 quart low-sodium, no-fat vegetable broth
2 15 ounce cans black beans (3 cups) drained and rinsed (She held a double-sized can of beans)
1 15-ounce can (1 1/2 cups) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 pound bag frozen mixed vegetables (with lima beans is okay)
1 pound chopped frozen kale
2 pre-cooked russet potatoes, cut up
nutritional yeast
onion powder
garlic powder
no-salt seasoning

Like all of Jeff Novick's Fast Food recipes, you just dump everything into a pot, season to taste, heat for 10 minutes or so, then eat.

I like nutritional yeast so used about half a cup.

I prefer my mixed vegetables without lima beans because the beans in my local store's blend are always hard as rocks, but the girls, and usually Jeff, use a blend that has them. Makes no difference. No kale in my freezer at the present time so a bag of spinach was tossed in.

I had Yukon Gold and white potatoes already cooked up so used them instead of russets.

Onion and garlic powders I sprinkled in about a half teaspoon or more each. I didn't measure, just shook.

Mrs. Dash Table Blend is the seasoning I used, and I tossed about a teaspoon. The twins used a salt-free blend from Costco, and I'm sure the brand many McDougallers use, Benson's Table Tasty, would work fine, too, as would any Mrs. Dash or McCormick blend.

This practically filled my soup pot! When I first added the ingredients I thought I would need to add more broth or water, but as the veggies cooked they released some water of their own, so it was plenty.

As for the taste? Well, not exactly like pot pies I remember as a kid, but delicious on its own merits.

A keeper for sure.

Is there a chance it can be made in an Instant Pot pressure cooker? Maybe not. There are so many ingredients and makes a large volume of soup, it's probably too much. Besides, this will be ready on the stove in 10 or so minutes. It'll take longer than that to reach pressure and start cooking in the IP, so why bother?

Short Chef AJ Interview

A Quickie About Jeff Novick's Fast Food Meals

Last year, one of the Star McDougallers had a slight disagreement with me regarding something Jeff Novick said. I said that he mentioned in Fast Food 4: Beyond the Basics that he defrosted his vegetables before cooking them, that's why things are ready in 10 minutes. She insisted he said no such thing.

This afternoon I'm reviewing the DVD for the recipe for Quinoa, Greens and Lentils to try catch what brand those canned black lentils are that he used, and AHA! Right there at the 4 minute 42 second mark he says:

"I don't use my frozen vegetables straight out of the freezer. I usually thaw them, this way they're real quick to cook."

I'm vindicated!

Now to see if my local HFS sells those Westbrae Black Lentils. If not, I'll have to find a store that sells dry black lentils and make some up before Sunday, the day I planed on making this dish. If I can't find either, I guess it'll be made with either 2 cans of plain old Goya lentils (If I can even find those!) or one can Goya, then a cup and a half of cooked tiny mixed lentils from Whole Foods' bulk bin that I bought a few months back.

It's Soup and Stew Weather

The season is finally changing from summer to autumn around here, and this week some days are darn near winter-like! Time for making even more soups and stews than I have been.

The people over at Forks Over Knives must feel the same, because they now have a page with links to 54 soup and stew recipes. I wonder how many of these I've already made in the past and which I may make in the future. It's a guarantee anything by Mary or Heather McDougall I've made and probably wrote about here already. If not, I most likely will soon.

McDougall Webinar with Gustavo - October 15, 2015

I missed watching it live - busy getting a new graphics card installed on my PC. Yikes!

Mary joins them in the beginning of this one, talking about their recent trip to Hawaii setting up their McDougall Adventures trip there in January.




The rest I haven't had a chance to watch yet. I hope he answers the question about beans I sent in back in September.

More McDougall Webinars - Register Now

Details of the next 3 webinars have been posted on Dr. McDougall's webinar page.

Scheduled Webinars

October 15th at 11:00 AM Pacific Time

Register Now

Title: Ask Dr. McDougall, MD: Live Q&A Webinar, Session 2

Description: Spend 30 minutes in a live webinar with Dr. John McDougall, MD, as he answers those burning questions you have been wanting to ask!

Questions: Send questions ahead of time to webinar@drmcdougall.com. Please keep questions to one per person and please keep it as concise as possible!

October 22nd at 11:00 AM Pacific Time

Register Now

Title: Dr. McDougall, MD: Treating Obesity with a Low Fat, Starch Based Diet

Description: Dr. John McDougall discusses how to treat obesity with a low-fat, starch-based diet and then takes questions from the audience.

Questions: Send questions ahead of time to webinar@drmcdougall.com. Please keep questions related to the topic of the webinar and please keep questions as concise as possible!

October 29th at 11:00 AM Pacific Time

Register Now

Title: Dr. McDougall: Breast Cancer and The Secret that the Health Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know.

Description: What Dr. McDougall has been teaching for 40 years has been the topic of the cover of the new Time magazine (October 2015) : Overtreatment of cancer and what more and more physicians are shockingly prescribing.

Questions: Send questions ahead of time to webinar@drmcdougall.com. Please keep questions related to the topic of the webinar and please keep questions as concise as possible!

McDougall Maximum Weight Loss Program

Too many people, especially some Star McDougallers, tell newbies that to lose weight they have to eat less starch and eat more green and yellow vegetables, as much as 3/4 of your plate as vegetables. This is the opposite of what Dr. McDougall teaches. No more than half your plate should be these very low calorie foods, otherwise you're doing a "diet" instead of a lifestyle change, you'll be hungry, and hungry people on diets always fall off the wagon and go back to their bad habits.

Eat your starches!

Webinar - Dr. Gustavo Toloso and Chef AJ

A totally unplanned webinar, done spur-of-the-moment. I didn't even get an email about this one, just saw it mentioned on Facebook.

Webinar: Pregnancy, Sperm Count and Q&A