Friday, January 19, 2018

Jill McKeever's Soy Curls Noodle Soup


Soy Curls - those lovely little chunks of dried and stretched soybeans that, like tofu, are basically tasteless on their own but taste great when cooked with other things. But because soybeans are one of the fattiest beans I don't use them as often as I would like to.

As many people know, here on the East coast we've been having really cold temperatures, as low as single digits with wind chills in the negative teens at times. You know - SOUP WEATHER!! Since many of my favorite soups I now have penciled in for future dinners, I wanted to try something different for lunch, and this recipe cried out - "Choose me!!"

I wrote about this soup in the past, when Jill's Winter Soups video first appeared on YouTube, but for some reason never made it again, I guess because the only Soy Curls I had at the time were outdated and it took a long time to buy more. In fact, the ones I used when I made it this time were dated November 2017 but I figured what the heck, they've been refrigerated all this time and still smell okay, so why waste them, right?

This time around:
Soy Curls - What a difference they made! Better than the Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup I used to eat as a kid! I loved that stuff and would sometimes just open a can and eat it cold for a really quick lunch. Those days are long gone.

Veggies - Once again, I used one of the pint containers of mirepoix I had in the freezer and a can of no-salt added mushroom stems & pieces. Why mess with the classics? But this time I did have fresh baby spinach that I chopped up and tossed in.

Noodles - Instead of using the baked rice ramen, because I forgot I had some, I used half a package of Tinkyada rice fettucini noodles broken into small pieces. This makes it more of a traditional noodle soup than ramen, but either would fit this dish.

Vegetable Broth - The written directions in the PDF file say to use 8 cups of vegetable broth, so I used 2 boxes of Pacific no-salt added broth. 

Picture - Yes, this time I remembered, but not until I ladled out a second bowl.


Now I have the recipe all printed out and sitting in a file folder right in the kitchen with my weekly menu recipes, so I should remember to make it more often. It really is a great tasting noodle soup.

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Everything Old Is New Again - Pioneer Baked Beans


While the UWL FB community is doing a challenge to make the recipes in the 21 DAy Recipe Guide, I decided to do a challenge of my own - to make some of the older recipes that got me started on the McDougall program in the first place. The first one of these is Jan Tz's Pioneer Baked Beans.

I've written about long-time McDougaller Jan Tz before. Her recipes go way back to the VegSource McDougall boards days, before Dr. McDougall even had his own web presence. They were always so easy to make, cooked up fast, and were as tasty as heck. These Pioneer Baked Beans was one of her first recipes I ever made:


PIONEER BAKED BEANS
Peeled and cored apple, cut into big chunks
Onion, sliced thinly and separated into rings
Vegetarian Baked Beans
Combine all ingredients in whatever quantities you need, put into a baking dish, and bake uncovered for 30 minutes at 350F.
Fresh out of the oven (See below)



First off, the original Bush Vegetarian Beans that Jan always recommended in her recipes is way too high in sodium for me at this stage of life, so I got the lower sodium ones. Since my husband is a big eater, I got 3 of those 16-ounce cans, the only size the lower sodium ones come in. I should have gotten 4, or used 2 cans of the Bush beans and 2 cans of no-salt added pinto or cannelini beans and added an 8-ounce can of no-salt added tomato sauce. That would have really cut the sodium down without sacrificing taste.

The Vidalia onion I used was gigantic, bigger than one of those bean cans. Like Jan suggested, I sliced it thin and separated the rings. Bad move. When it (finally) cooked down, some of those onion rings were as thin as threads and not too appetizing. Next time I make this I'll take the easier way out and just dump an entire 1-pound bag of frozen diced onions in the bowl.

I used 2 Fuji apples. Apples around here have really been tasteless for years now. Next time I'll add some no-sugar added applesauce along with 2 or 3 apples.

Cooking time. My oven is good - I use an oven thermometer and when I set the oven for 350ºF, by the time the 10 minute pre-heat is done it IS 350ºF. It was 350ºF when I put that bowl into it that night. I either should have used a regular flat casserole dish or lasagna pan or set the heat to 400ºF, because at the end of the 30 minute cooking time the bowl was red hot but the food, even the surface, was barely warm. The photo above was taken at this time. 

By now we were all getting hungry (Our son made his own dinner and was waiting for us so we could eat together) so instead of putting it back in the oven I stuck it in the microwave and popped it on the highest power and turned it on. It took 15 more minutes in the microwave before the onions cooked and the apples softened a bit. Next time it goes right into the microwave for 30 minutes, not the gas oven.

Sorry there's no photo of the final cooked product - we didn't want to wait any more to eat.

Even with all the mis-steps, it tasted delicious! With all that salt in it, how could it not? My husband is looking forward to having this again, but I warned him that if our blood pressure or weight go up form all the extra sodium in our diets, out it goes. He wasn't too happy hearing that, especially because he knows my weight rises just looking at a can of salty stuff. We'll see what the future brings.

Monday, January 15, 2018

Watch What Your Read - Post from Jeff Novick re: the McDougall on Social Media

The McDougall Message and Social Media

Unread postby JeffN » Mon Jan 15, 2018 10:09 am
Due to the increasing amount of complaints we get about the information provided in and by the many McDougall related social media groups, we are reposting this message.

Besides this forum, the following social media pages are the only ones that are officially endorsed by The McDougall Program. They are monitored, managed and facilitated by Dr McDougall and his staff.

Twitter
John McDougall, MD
https://twitter.com/johnmcdougallmd

Facebook
John McDougall, MD,
https://www.facebook.com/DrJohnMcDougall

The McDougall 10-Day Program Alumni**
https://www.facebook.com/groups/332055200265040/

The McDougall 3-Day ASW Alumni**
https://www.facebook.com/groups/230013840455156/

The McDougall Travel Adventure Alumni**
https://www.facebook.com/groups/343993155693254/

**These groups require approval

We also maintain a closed FB Page for each of the private companies we work with and one for the graduates of The Starch Solution Course. These also require approval.

While we understand that there are many groups out there trying to share our message, we can not ensure that the message you will get there is accurate and inline with our program.

In Health
Jeff

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Dr. McDougall Is BACK - Webinar Monday January 15th


Just got this email telling us that Dr. McDougall is holding a webinar this coming Monday, January 15th, at 9am Pacific time.

Register Now for this Monday's (January 15th) Free Welcome Back McDougall Webinar - 9:00AM (Pacific Time).

Title: Welcome Back Webinar with John McDougall, MD and Gustavo Tolosa, PhD, Moderator.

Details: Learn about some of our plans for the year, including weekly webinars, periodic breaking news publications, live-weekends, and more 10-day lifesaving programs with our medical team in Santa Rosa, CA.

Learn which guest speakers Dr. McDougall will be inviting as a routine part of the webinar schedule.

Find out how to join us on future webinars as a “guest patient.”

Please remember, there are over 200 free one-hour webinars for you to start watching now,  plus over 300 scientific practical newsletter articles to read, over 700 McDougall-style recipes, and over 200 videos. All to be enjoyed free on the website.

Serious Questions or Serious Help Needed? You can find us almost anytime at office@drmcdougall.com or call (800) 941-7111.

Saturday, January 6, 2018

Dr. Esselstyn Explains why Greens are Important, and Ann Essesltyn Strips Again


Jane Esselstyn posted this to the followers of the Engine 2 Seven Day Recipe Rescue Facebook community yesterday for day 3 of the current challenge, then later it appeared on Facebook so all the world can see it.

As the title of this blog post says, once again Dr. Esselstyn explains why he recommends greens 6 times a day for his heart patients - and everyone - for endothelial health and is proud that he can still recite the "Greens Mantra" in rapid fire. After his talk, Ann takes over and shows how she strips and cooks the kale, how quickly it all goes, and how easy it is to add greens to all your meals.




Even if you're not participating in any of the challenges or even follow the Seven Day Rescue version of the Engine 2 or Dr. Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease food plan, this is a good FB community to belong to. A number of quick and easy recipes that are all within Dr. McDougall's parameters, and many of the recipes and meal suggestions (They're big on "bowl" meals and batch cooking) can even be made MWLP compatible. Oh, and these appearances by the Esselstyn family are certainly a great bonus! There are a number of files in the Video section featuring one or more of them.