Ultimate Weight Loss Bonus Call

Usually the Ultimate Weight Loss bonus calls are only for those who have paid a fee, but for some reason Chef AJ and John Pierre have made this one open to the general public. Eventually I think it's going to appear on the Healthy Taste page, but for now it's just the mp3 audio file on Dropbox. No need to have a Dropbox account to listen/download.

Thanks, AJ and JP!

Stovetop Pizza in 20 Minutes

Someone on the McDougall Friends Facebook group found this video on how to make a pizza on your stove in 20 minutes from the Chef's Toolbox Facebook site:

The best way to get a Pizza in 20 minutes! Faster than the delivery driver and absolutely delicious!
Posted by The Chefs Toolbox on Friday, May 15, 2015

And if you're like me and don't happen to have self-rising flour around, add 3/4 teaspoon baking powder to the flour.

I can see making this for a quick lunch, substituting any of the many nooch-based cheeses for the shredded dairy one.

I'll report back when I try this for myself.

Ultimate Weight Loss Program Digital Download

Chef AJ has announced the url for the DVD/CD version of the Ultimate Weight Loss program at her web site's storefront. That page doesn't say if you get the recipe guide or entry to the secret Facebook group that were early-bird pre-order bonuses back in January. When she announced the set was now available, she said it included entry, though. You may have to email her via her web site to find out for sure.

BUT

She did say in her announcement that the hard copy version was now available, but the link she gave (above) was to the on-line/downloadable version, not the hard copy. You may have to write to find out which one it is, too. There is a price difference between the sets.

My Beef with Meat Spicy Italian Eat Balls

Taking a little break from UWL today to join my husband in his favorite dinner - pasta and sauce. Well, For me, I'll be having my sauce over stir-fried zucchini and yellow squash.

He's hasn't been too happy with all the very veggie-heavy meals lately, even though I make him cornbread to go with Chef AJ's chili recipes and the other meals have plenty of rice or taters, so as a treat I'm making him self seitan-based meatballs to plop in his spaghetti today. Now if one happens to fall onto my plate when serving, well, I can't help but eat it now, right? ;^)

The recipe is by Jane Esselstyn and she developed it for her brother Rip's book My Beef With Meat.

Spicy Italian Eat Balls
Prep time: 10 minutes
cook time: 30 minutes
Makes 20 to 40, epending on sixe of balls

Add these to pasta night and have an absolute ball! You can also serve them with toothpicks as hors d'oerves and watch them disappear. If you like things less spicy, use less Italian seasoning.

¾ cup vegetable broth 
1 tablespoon low-sodium tamari sauce 
1 fresh garlic clove, minced 
1 cup wheat gluten 
1 to 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning 
1 teaspoon dried oregano 
¼ teaspoon garlic salt (optional) 
1 teaspoon onion powder 
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast 
1 cup Fast and Fresh Marinara Sauce

Pre-heat the oven to 375º. Line a roasting pan with a layer of foil or parchment paper.

In a small bowl, whisk together the tamari, broth and garlic. In a separate bowl, whisk together the gluten, Italian seasoning, oregano, garlic salt, onion powder and nutritional yeast.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients.  Hand mix and/or knead ingredients until there is an elastic texture to the dough. Using your hands, roll dough into balls the size of grapes, walnuts or golf balls. Place the balls onto the lined pan and baste with the sauce.

Bake 20 minutes. 

Remove from oven, rotate & roll balls around, baste with marinara in the pan. Bake 10 minutes more. 

Remove from oven, serve warm over pasta with sauce.

VWG - I always have vital wheat gluten on hand because I've been using it since the 1970's as a meat substitute. When the shipping price started to exceed the item's price at the store I has used since the beginning, The Mail Order Catalog, I started buying the packages from Bob's Red Mill by the case from Amazon with free Prime shipping. It came out cheaper, and since each pound or so was individually wrapped, it was easier to store and less chance of bugs getting into it.

Tamari - I always use low-sodium soy sauce or coconut aminos since I once had a bad allergic reaction to low sodium tamari.

Garlic - My usual cube of Dorot frozen minced garlic to the rescue. It defrosted nicely in the few minutes sitting in the broth as I got the dry ingredients whisked together.

Italian Seasoning - I used my usual Penzey's blend.

Garlic salt - Never. I used plain old granulated garlic.

Marinara Sauce - I used some leftover Hunts no-salt added tomato sauce for this because it was in the fridge. For dinner I'll be using a jar of Engine 2 sauce from Whole Foods that we bought when on vacation. I'm not sure what flavor yet - my husband will pick when the time comes.

Amount - 20 to 40?? Maybe if these were the size of an aspirin tablet! Mine are about walnut size and I barely eked 12 out of the dough. They didn't change size in cooking.

Before and After cooking shots:

The verdict:

I've been making non-meat balls for almost 40 years using many different recipes as new recipes appeared and my dietary needs changed. I've had them fried in a bit of oil, fried in broth or water, fried in a tomato based sauce, roasted, broiled, steamed, and I remember one recipe from decades ago that was boiled. The texture of these was very close to those long-ago boiled ones. Tasty, but gummy. We have lots of leftovers so we'll see if they firm up more after being in the refrigerator a while. If I ever do make these again, I'll keep them in the oven a lot longer, maybe 45 or more minutes. 

Summer is coming rapidly (Didn't we just wear our winter coats last week? Oh yeah, WE DID!!) and I won't be using the oven all that much until late September now. But if I do decide to surprise my husband with non-meatballs again, I'll go back to these by Sarah Matheny. 

Anyone Interested in Purchasing Chef AJ's Ultimate Weight Loss Program?

Or join her secret Facebook group?

If so, you'll have to contact Wendy at her Healthy Girl's Kitchen blog. At the end of this post, where one of Chef AJ's stars, Shayda, is introduced and tells her story, Wendy says to contact her for info on purchasing the above.

I know the Ultimate Weight Loss Program DVD/CD set keeps disappearing from Chef AJ's store, and found out the other day it's because they keep running out of them and have to get more printed up. While I may not agree 100% with everything Chef AJ and John Pierre teach, if you have had problems losing weight for most of your life, like Shayda and myself, they give a lot of good information. 

I also suggest once again their original program highlights DVD set, The 30 Day Unprocessed Challenge. The daily exercise and recipe demonstrations are certainly worth the price of the set, and some of the things referred to in the UWL program are explained in the 30 Day set, and vice versa. 

The support you'll find on the private super ultra-secret Facebook page (as my husband calls it) (included in the price of the UWL package) is priceless. Well worth the investment.

Dr. Doug Lisle and Chef AJ (revised)

Remember this blog post, where Dr. McDougall and Jeff Novick both chime in on why eating a mostly-vegetable diet isn't such a good idea? Well, last week Chef AJ had a teleconference with Dr. Doug Lisle, and besides repeating things he mentioned in his other videos, such as The Willpower Paradox, Losing Weight Without Losing Your Mind, The Continuum of Evil, and even Forks Over Knives: The Extended Interviews, he mentioned how important it is to your brain function to get some carbs/starches in early in the day, preferably first thing in the morning. 

Hear for yourself:



I do have to agree with Dr Doug, and have even argued with others who are following UWL program who were eating only veggies until dinner time. Even Chef AJ has mentioned that you can eat starches at breakfast , just make sure to get your veggies in first. She says, that yeah, if you're not satisfied with those 100+ calories (or 200+, if you get all the required 2 pounds in at this time) of green veggies then go ahead and eat some starch, unlike what Dr Lisle (And Dr McDougall) say, which is that the starch is more important and you should make sure to have that before anything else, like veggies.

Let's all don our Starchivore t-shirts and hats and proudly eat those spuds! LOL