Saturday, December 28, 2019
Thursday, December 26, 2019
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Dr. John McDougall and Gustavo Tolosa, Together Again!
On Monday December 30, 2019, Dr. Gustavo Tolosa will once again host a webinar with Dr. John McDougall!! Register here.
Sunday, December 22, 2019
Saturday, December 21, 2019
Winter Is Really Here
I know because enough leaves have fallen off the trees and I can see the Freedom Tower/World Trade Center from my bedroom window again. At least we don't get 24 hours of darkness like the good citizens of the fictional Cicely, Alaska.
Northern Exposure End Scene: More Light from Markus Avrelius on Vimeo.
Northern Exposure End Scene: More Light from Markus Avrelius on Vimeo.
Friday, December 13, 2019
More Dressing Up with Ann & Jane Esselstyn
Ann's Plant Perfect dressing:
"In the Pink" Dressing
1 medium to large Chiogga beet (or any beet, but the Chiogga makes it pink)
2-3 cloves garlic
zest of 1 orange
1 orange - peeled and cut - or slightly under 1 cup orange juice
zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons lemon balsamic vinegar (or any white vinegar)
Blend together in food processor.
You'll notice mine is yellowish-orange, not pink like Ann's. It would have been maroon except the Acme store near my son's job happened to have Golden Beets the other day and I grabbed a bunch. 3 tiny golf-ball sized beets, organic, for $5, plus the orange (another buck) and a 59 cent lemon, all for about a cup of dressing.
But how does it taste? Well, mine wasn't as sour as Ann's, that's for sure! I only had a teeny bit over my lunchtime red beets yesterday, and my husband won't be having it until tonight's rice and veggie meal. He's the one who asked me to make this after watching the video, so it's not going to be a surprise for him. I'm sure he's going to love it.
Now for the other recipe . . .
TRIGGER WARNING!!
This sauce contains stuff that tastes delicious and is addicting to certain people!
It contains an ingredient NOT allowed on McDougall's MWLP, Engine 2 Seven Day Recipe Rescue, the Esselstyn Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease food plan, nor on any of Chef AJ's plans! It's just fine for the regular McDougall Starch Solution and Engine 2 programs.
You have been warned!
Jane's Plant Strong sauce:
Dragon Sauce
Makes about 1 cup
In a food processor or blender:
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons low sodium tamari
1-2 tablespoons 100% maple syrup
1 tablespoon hot sauce (Sriracha, etc.)
2 cloves peeled garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons minced ginger
1/3 cup of water (or more, depending on consistency preferred)
The Engine 2 Cookbook
page 94
I made this one in the jar that came with my Ninja blender instead of the food processor. It just seemed like overkill to use an 11-cup appliance for a 1 cup amount of ingredients. I only used 1 tablespoon maple syrup because I'm running low, and used just a few drops of sriracha because I'm not a fan of spicy things, and even one drop of this stuff on some rice or veggies makes my tongue sweat.
OMG!!! This stuff is amazing! A nice fatty mouth feel, the sweetness of the syrup, the spiciness of the ginger and garlic, the little Hey! of the sriracha! That's a 1 1/2 cup squirt bottle, so you can see it made maybe a pinch over 1 cup of sauce. I'm in trouble - it's taking all of my willpower and strength NOT to just drink this stuff up! As much as I love it based on a bit on my finger wiped off the blender container, I just can NOT make this ever again! You know how Dr. McDougall says he could live on just potatoes? I would attempt to live on just this sauce! Lucky for me, though, my son loves peanut butter, even takes 2 sandwiches into work each day (He's finally off cheese! Yay!), so I'm sure he'll take this off my hands.
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Monday, December 9, 2019
Heather's Lentil Soup
Finally, after a few weeks of vacation, birthdays, anniversary, Thanksgiving, and a few doctors' appointments, it's back to trying new (to me) soup recipes. This one is Heather's Lentil Soup:
Lentil Soup
Prep: 20 minutes Cook: 2 hours
Serves: 6
By Heather McDougall
This soup is a favorite of my boys and so easy to make. I think one of the reasons
they like it, is because I chop all of the vegetables really small. And, like most of the
soups I make, if you don't have an ingredient, such as carrot or kale, leave it out or
substitute another favorite ingredient.
Ingredients
2 small onions, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
6 small white potatoes, finely chopped
16 ounce bag brown lentils
16 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes, diced
8 cups vegetable broth or water
1-2 cups finely chopped spinach
salt to taste
Directions
Combine all ingredients, except the spinach, and cook on low for 2 hours. Add the spinach about 10 minutes before the soup is done
I was so tired that day - I was up most of the night with severe foot and leg cramps, and then my knee was acting up - so I did this one the easy way, using frozen diced onions, cubed frozen hash brown potatoes, and frozen spinach. I did take a minute to dice up the carrots. I didn't adding any salt because the only fire roasted tomatoes I could find are the salted kind.
Even after adding another 2 cups of water as it cooked on the stove, and forgetting to add the spinach, it was so thick it shouldn't really be called a soup. But it was really delicious!
Next time - and there WILL be one - I'll add a lot more water so we have some liquid to dunk bread into.
Now that I'm making bread in our bread machine again (Thanks to Dave's Killer Bread now having oil and our grocery store's irregular deliveries of Ezekial breads), hubby wants an excuse to eat it more often aside from his lunchtime sandwiches. Next thing you know he'll be asking for pizza again.
Friday, December 6, 2019
I Blame Target!
I've mentioned here before that our son is working at the local Target store. He was even there early on Thanksgiving for 7 hours - in and out before the store's 5pm opening time. Because the light rail train he takes was on holiday schedule and didn't start until 2 hours after he was scheduled to be in, we woke up at 4am to drive him in. Because the trains only run one an hour on holidays we also drove in later on to pick him up and bring him home. Anyone who saw the Macy's parade that morning knows how cold and windy the weather was - we were so close to NYC you can see the Holland Tunnel exit from the Target parking lot. While we waited for him to get out we watched some buses pull into the lot and discharge a few bands and all their instruments - it seems Target gave them permission to park their cars in the lot while they were appearing in the parade and the buses took them back and forth to the city. At least the sight of all those happy faces kept us warm while the car shook in the cold wind!
So when Friday came and we volunteered to pick him up at work again, we made the decision to NOT wait in the cold car but to go inside and see how crazy the place was for Black Friday. Our son warned us months ago that if we ever go into the store and see him we're to totally ignore him, because he was going to ignore us. He was just as bad in kindergarten all those years ago! I think all kids are like that, no matter what their age. Anyway, we're roaming around the Home section, and turned to walk the other way when we saw our son approaching the area, as we'd been instructed to do. Imagine my surprise when he walked right up to us to tell us the Power XL Air Fryer, 7.5 quart, is on sale for half price as a 1 hour Doorbuster special, to go over and grab one before they're all gone (He put out over 100 and the pile was already down to under 20). He said not to worry about getting the employee discount - they were already told they can't use it on Doorbusters. He said he heard great things about this, to get it, NOW, he'll explain why later.
Alright already! So we did. Good thing he insisted we grab it immediately - by the time we got to the display there were only 5 left. We paid for the fryer and headed out to the car, because now he had only 5 minutes until punch out.
When he came out we asked what that was all about, and he said he wants to start eating less pasta and more potatoes, and the gals at work were saying how great air fryers are for doing that. He knew I wasn't crazy about getting one, but at that price he couldn't pass it up.
Later that afternoon I moved my Instant Pot and my husband helped me unpack the air fryer. As soon as we opened the box it hit us - that weird chemical plastic smell! Oh, it's vile! It got worse after we unpacked it and took the plastic bags off! The instruction booklet seemed to know all about the odor and said the first thing to be done was washing all the pieces inside and out in hot soapy water, then do a few minutes of pre-heat to burn off the oils used as protection on the cooking surfaces.
So now we had a hot vile smell permeating the kitchen.
When the pieces cooled I washed the pan again in hot soapy water and did the pre-heat again. No change. (sigh) I turned on the kitchen ceiling fan, hoping it would at least dissipate the smell. Now the whole apartment smelled vile. When it turned off I pulled the plug, hoping the smell would go away by the time we woke up on Saturday.
Saturday morning we did our usual shopping trip, came home and put groceries away, and the kid went into his room and hubby went out for a walk. Now it's Potato Time! During one of the pre-heats on Friday I emptied out the junk, er, kitchen utensil, drawer and found what I was searching for - the French fry crinkle cutter! This is one of the few things I rescued from my parents kitchen after my mom died and my dad was packing up to move down the Jersey Shore area. He and my younger brother were never going to use it, and my dad was tossing out more than he packed, especially kitchen things. It's over 50 years old and as sharp as the day my mom bought it.
I already had a few white potatoes already cooked up in the refrigerator, leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner, so off I went, slicing them all into crinkle cut fry shape.
I wanted to keep the inside of the air fryer as clean as I could so grabbed a hunk of parchment paper and cut it to size. I know the ones on Amazon made for this purpose all have holes, so I cut a few of them in the paper. OK, this will do until I order some. Since nobody sells them in oval shapes to fit this pan I'm stuck with 10 inch circles. That'll have to do. Before dumping the potatoes into the fryer pan I first seasoned them up with onion powder and garlic powder and shake, shake, shake. All set! Into the air fryer with the pan! I know Chef AJ starts all her air fryer recipes with 400º and 20 minutes, but to be safe I set my air fryer time for only 15 minutes and set a kitchen timer for 7 so I can shake them up mid-cooking. The final result:
Beautiful! But a little too dry, drier than after 90 minutes in the oven. Next time I'll do 15 minutes.
Sunday I cooked up a load of russet potatoes in the Instant pot and have a bunch in the refrigerator to make more fries later for lunch. I'll probably cut them into slices, like fat Ruffles, this time. That is, if there are any left after my son makes his pile of spuds for his lunch. Good thing I bought an extra bag of potatoes at the store Saturday.
Now let's see how long it takes for my joints to start aching from all these potatoes. I know I can do 2 potatoes twice a week and be okay. If I do make some up for lunch for myself it'll be the first time in a year or so I had potatoes 2 days in a row. Keep your fingers crossed!
Noon, same day.
I thought I uploaded this earlier. Oops. At least now I can add this. My son said he was ready to learn how to use the fryer. I sat at the table and just said - "Plug it in." He looked at it and realized there was nothing to learn - just the time and temp for whatever he was going to cook. I told him how I did yesterday's spuds and he was satisfied. He then dismissed me, grabbed the baggie of pre-cooked russets from the fridge, sliced up 4 of them, sprinkled a bit of onion and garlic powders and a decent amount of salt, saw I already had a fresh parchment paper in the basket and dumped the spuds in, and within 20 minutes was already in his room eating his lunch. He already asked me to make sure I always have cooked potatoes in the refrigerator, that he may even make these (minus the onions and garlic) in the mornings before work as breakfast and toss any leftovers in a container to bring to work for lunch.
Yep, he's been bitten by the potato bug. Wait until I make the first batch of BBQ chickpeas or onion rings!
And as long as the cutting board was still out and the fryer hot, I cut up a batch for my own lunch. As long as I don't over-cook them like yesterday, I think I'm going to enjoy this appliance. I'm glad I held out so long and didn't grab a small one 2 years ago when everyone else jumped on the air fryer band wagon. This made better fries than I could have in the oven or my old convection toaster oven. This one is a good size. Even if I did buy a Breville I would have had to buy the second tray to make enough potatoes for a meal for 2 or more.
Oops, again. I thought I uploaded this the other day. I guess between all the appointments we had earlier this week I just forgot.
Since I wrote the above, I've made air fried potatoes every day for lunch except yesterday, both Russets and Yukon Golds. I had some leftover soup from the night before to eat, and also thought I might be eating too many potatoes and felt I should take the day off. The expected increase in joint pain never happened, to my surprise. My son has also been making himself fries every evening. And this morning I woke up and noticed some potatoes missing from the refrigerator - I guess he made another batch of fries for his breakfast while we were sleeping. The guy wakes up close to 2am and leaves the house before 5 every day so he had plenty of time. Beats grabbing a snack from the vending machines at work when he gets there.
Right now I have some peeled Russets in the Instant Pot and plan to make the potato patties shown in this video. I took 4 cooked Russets and mashed them with a generous sprinkling of Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb spice mix and made a total of 9 potato patties. They're in the air fryer right now @ 400º and my timer is set for 15 minutes.
I don't like things as crunchy as she does, so after I flip I'll only cook them another 3 minutes or so. The final result:
Oh, and I hopped on the scale this morning, just for shits and giggles, as Austin Powers says. I'm down 2 pounds since Monday! This is the first time I've lost weight eating as much as I want without being in the throes of bronchitis or the flu. Holy f-ing s***! Now I really hope I'm over my sensitivity to spuds and can continue eating as many as I want!
Even if I do start getting all those joint pains again from eating so many potatoes, I still say this was a great purchase based solely on the fact that my son is now eating less junk food and more healthy ones. He'll probably fry up some of those potato patties when he gets in as a snack before dinner today. Maybe I can interest him in bringing potato patty sandwiches for lunch instead of the peanut butter ones he's bringing in now. A mom can dream, right?
So when Friday came and we volunteered to pick him up at work again, we made the decision to NOT wait in the cold car but to go inside and see how crazy the place was for Black Friday. Our son warned us months ago that if we ever go into the store and see him we're to totally ignore him, because he was going to ignore us. He was just as bad in kindergarten all those years ago! I think all kids are like that, no matter what their age. Anyway, we're roaming around the Home section, and turned to walk the other way when we saw our son approaching the area, as we'd been instructed to do. Imagine my surprise when he walked right up to us to tell us the Power XL Air Fryer, 7.5 quart, is on sale for half price as a 1 hour Doorbuster special, to go over and grab one before they're all gone (He put out over 100 and the pile was already down to under 20). He said not to worry about getting the employee discount - they were already told they can't use it on Doorbusters. He said he heard great things about this, to get it, NOW, he'll explain why later.
Alright already! So we did. Good thing he insisted we grab it immediately - by the time we got to the display there were only 5 left. We paid for the fryer and headed out to the car, because now he had only 5 minutes until punch out.
When he came out we asked what that was all about, and he said he wants to start eating less pasta and more potatoes, and the gals at work were saying how great air fryers are for doing that. He knew I wasn't crazy about getting one, but at that price he couldn't pass it up.
Later that afternoon I moved my Instant Pot and my husband helped me unpack the air fryer. As soon as we opened the box it hit us - that weird chemical plastic smell! Oh, it's vile! It got worse after we unpacked it and took the plastic bags off! The instruction booklet seemed to know all about the odor and said the first thing to be done was washing all the pieces inside and out in hot soapy water, then do a few minutes of pre-heat to burn off the oils used as protection on the cooking surfaces.
So now we had a hot vile smell permeating the kitchen.
When the pieces cooled I washed the pan again in hot soapy water and did the pre-heat again. No change. (sigh) I turned on the kitchen ceiling fan, hoping it would at least dissipate the smell. Now the whole apartment smelled vile. When it turned off I pulled the plug, hoping the smell would go away by the time we woke up on Saturday.
Saturday morning we did our usual shopping trip, came home and put groceries away, and the kid went into his room and hubby went out for a walk. Now it's Potato Time! During one of the pre-heats on Friday I emptied out the junk, er, kitchen utensil, drawer and found what I was searching for - the French fry crinkle cutter! This is one of the few things I rescued from my parents kitchen after my mom died and my dad was packing up to move down the Jersey Shore area. He and my younger brother were never going to use it, and my dad was tossing out more than he packed, especially kitchen things. It's over 50 years old and as sharp as the day my mom bought it.
I wanted to keep the inside of the air fryer as clean as I could so grabbed a hunk of parchment paper and cut it to size. I know the ones on Amazon made for this purpose all have holes, so I cut a few of them in the paper. OK, this will do until I order some. Since nobody sells them in oval shapes to fit this pan I'm stuck with 10 inch circles. That'll have to do. Before dumping the potatoes into the fryer pan I first seasoned them up with onion powder and garlic powder and shake, shake, shake. All set! Into the air fryer with the pan! I know Chef AJ starts all her air fryer recipes with 400º and 20 minutes, but to be safe I set my air fryer time for only 15 minutes and set a kitchen timer for 7 so I can shake them up mid-cooking. The final result:
My son and husband declared them "Perfect!" but I thought they were too crunchy. I'm the one who prefers my fries thin cut and limp. We all had some dunked in ketchup and my son said he'll probably make some later in the weekend for lunch or even dinner. He said he may wait until that smell was gone. It was as bad Saturday as it was Friday.
Since I needed to use the Instant Pot for dinner, the fryer got moved until the next morning, when I switched it with the Instant Pot so I could make up a batch of air fried Brussels sprouts. Again I grabed the parchment paper but don't bother with the holes. Instead of dumping the bag of sprouts and getting all those tiny leftover leaves, I grabbed the whole sprouts by the handful and put them, still frozen, into the pan. When I oven roast them, I do them at 400º. Sometimes I stop at 60, but prefer them cooked for 90 minutes. To air fry, once again I set it at 400º but for 10 minutes, then did a shake, then set it for another 10 minutes.
Sunday I cooked up a load of russet potatoes in the Instant pot and have a bunch in the refrigerator to make more fries later for lunch. I'll probably cut them into slices, like fat Ruffles, this time. That is, if there are any left after my son makes his pile of spuds for his lunch. Good thing I bought an extra bag of potatoes at the store Saturday.
Now let's see how long it takes for my joints to start aching from all these potatoes. I know I can do 2 potatoes twice a week and be okay. If I do make some up for lunch for myself it'll be the first time in a year or so I had potatoes 2 days in a row. Keep your fingers crossed!
Noon, same day.
I thought I uploaded this earlier. Oops. At least now I can add this. My son said he was ready to learn how to use the fryer. I sat at the table and just said - "Plug it in." He looked at it and realized there was nothing to learn - just the time and temp for whatever he was going to cook. I told him how I did yesterday's spuds and he was satisfied. He then dismissed me, grabbed the baggie of pre-cooked russets from the fridge, sliced up 4 of them, sprinkled a bit of onion and garlic powders and a decent amount of salt, saw I already had a fresh parchment paper in the basket and dumped the spuds in, and within 20 minutes was already in his room eating his lunch. He already asked me to make sure I always have cooked potatoes in the refrigerator, that he may even make these (minus the onions and garlic) in the mornings before work as breakfast and toss any leftovers in a container to bring to work for lunch.
Yep, he's been bitten by the potato bug. Wait until I make the first batch of BBQ chickpeas or onion rings!
And as long as the cutting board was still out and the fryer hot, I cut up a batch for my own lunch. As long as I don't over-cook them like yesterday, I think I'm going to enjoy this appliance. I'm glad I held out so long and didn't grab a small one 2 years ago when everyone else jumped on the air fryer band wagon. This made better fries than I could have in the oven or my old convection toaster oven. This one is a good size. Even if I did buy a Breville I would have had to buy the second tray to make enough potatoes for a meal for 2 or more.
Oops, again. I thought I uploaded this the other day. I guess between all the appointments we had earlier this week I just forgot.
Since I wrote the above, I've made air fried potatoes every day for lunch except yesterday, both Russets and Yukon Golds. I had some leftover soup from the night before to eat, and also thought I might be eating too many potatoes and felt I should take the day off. The expected increase in joint pain never happened, to my surprise. My son has also been making himself fries every evening. And this morning I woke up and noticed some potatoes missing from the refrigerator - I guess he made another batch of fries for his breakfast while we were sleeping. The guy wakes up close to 2am and leaves the house before 5 every day so he had plenty of time. Beats grabbing a snack from the vending machines at work when he gets there.
Right now I have some peeled Russets in the Instant Pot and plan to make the potato patties shown in this video. I took 4 cooked Russets and mashed them with a generous sprinkling of Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb spice mix and made a total of 9 potato patties. They're in the air fryer right now @ 400º and my timer is set for 15 minutes.
I don't like things as crunchy as she does, so after I flip I'll only cook them another 3 minutes or so. The final result:
 |
| 2 front, one flip side (after 3 minutes) |
Oh, and I hopped on the scale this morning, just for shits and giggles, as Austin Powers says. I'm down 2 pounds since Monday! This is the first time I've lost weight eating as much as I want without being in the throes of bronchitis or the flu. Holy f-ing s***! Now I really hope I'm over my sensitivity to spuds and can continue eating as many as I want!
Even if I do start getting all those joint pains again from eating so many potatoes, I still say this was a great purchase based solely on the fact that my son is now eating less junk food and more healthy ones. He'll probably fry up some of those potato patties when he gets in as a snack before dinner today. Maybe I can interest him in bringing potato patty sandwiches for lunch instead of the peanut butter ones he's bringing in now. A mom can dream, right?
Sunday, December 1, 2019
Chuck Underwood Interviews Dr. McDougall
Long-time McDougaller Chuck Underwood (a.k.a. Brand New Vegan) recently saw Dr. McDougall speaking live, and soon afterwards they set up an interview. He's worked hard doing the editing and other behind-the-scenes stuff to get this to us ASAP and released it today.
Thanks, Chuck!
Thanks, Chuck!
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
It's Holiday Season!
By now, I'm sure everyone got their annual email from the McDougall Program with the holiday recipes.
How about the PDF from Forks Over Knives?
Remember this article from 2015 about recipes for Thanksgiving suggested by the folks at the Engine 2 (Now known as Plant Strong) website?
By the way, they're having a sale on the Engine 2/Plant Strong Meal Planner.
If you prefer videos of Esselstyn Thanksgiving suggestions, these are the recipes Ann said they're serving to 42 people this Thanksgiving:
As for us, our son is working Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday at Target, and he's very picky about what he eats the night before work, so we have nothing special planned to eat as a family on Thanksgiving. My husband and I will have Chef AJ's Sweet Potato Chili for ourselves - it'll be cooking in the Instant Pot while we drive out to pick him up (Trains will be on holiday schedule both days and only run one an hour and be super crowded, so as long as my husband is off work we'll go pick the poor guy up), and Friday evening when we get home we'll all sit down for our Thanksgiving dinner, a big old pot of garlicky mashed potatoes as shown in the above video, a few pounds of carrots, and the McDougall Golden Gravy.
Gee, that sounds exactly like a meal we had just a week ago. Maybe I'll splurge and make the PCRM Sweet Potato Pudding. A perfect McDougall Thanksgiving dinner!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
How about the PDF from Forks Over Knives?
Remember this article from 2015 about recipes for Thanksgiving suggested by the folks at the Engine 2 (Now known as Plant Strong) website?
By the way, they're having a sale on the Engine 2/Plant Strong Meal Planner.
Save $30 on the Plant-Strong Meal Planner annual plan with code: GIVETHANKS30
If you prefer videos of Esselstyn Thanksgiving suggestions, these are the recipes Ann said they're serving to 42 people this Thanksgiving:
As for us, our son is working Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday at Target, and he's very picky about what he eats the night before work, so we have nothing special planned to eat as a family on Thanksgiving. My husband and I will have Chef AJ's Sweet Potato Chili for ourselves - it'll be cooking in the Instant Pot while we drive out to pick him up (Trains will be on holiday schedule both days and only run one an hour and be super crowded, so as long as my husband is off work we'll go pick the poor guy up), and Friday evening when we get home we'll all sit down for our Thanksgiving dinner, a big old pot of garlicky mashed potatoes as shown in the above video, a few pounds of carrots, and the McDougall Golden Gravy.
Gee, that sounds exactly like a meal we had just a week ago. Maybe I'll splurge and make the PCRM Sweet Potato Pudding. A perfect McDougall Thanksgiving dinner!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Saturday, November 23, 2019
Another Batch From Dr. Esselstyn
Once again, via Mary Pope, owner of the Dr. Esselstyn Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease- Recipes & Discussion Facebook Community:
I see he reversed what the last question asked about - normal systolic and high diastolic. I hope that one gets re-submitted.
A few more responses from Dr. Esselstyn:
I have low blood pressure (as low as 76/50) naturally and have been encouraged by my doctor to up the sodium level, much more than the 1,500mg/day. One side effect of low BP is passing out, which it does seem to help with. If I don’t have any heart disease, is this level okay for my heart? ***The blood pressure level is too low and requires a cardiologist’s evaluation to correct.
I have heart disease, but must take proton pump inhibitors as I had a Hellers Myotomy without fundiplication. It is my understanding that nitric oxide is made in the stomach and mouth, but ppis interfere with nitric oxcide production in the stomach. So my question is, is it necessary to eat more greens than a fist size, six times a day to get sufficient nitric oxide? ***No
Explain in detail why some few individuals have been recommended to eliminate grains temporarily. What is the cause and effect? ****It seems to identify whether the liver production of cholesterol may be stimulated by consuming an excess of grain.
My husband has lost muscle mass since doing the reversal diet. Is there a way to rebuild this? He’s 56 yrs old and has a shoulder that bothers him, so lifting weights isn’t really possible right now. ****Resistance exercise will help to maintain muscle mass.
What could be the cause of a normal Systolic blood pressure but high Diastolic ? ****High systolic blood pressure accompanied by normal diastolic pressure is called isolated systolic hypertension, which is possibly caused by artery stiffness, heart valve problems or hyperthyroidism.
I see he reversed what the last question asked about - normal systolic and high diastolic. I hope that one gets re-submitted.
Friday, November 22, 2019
More from the Esselstyns
This time it was a member of the community who had approached the Esselstyns to ask questions. Here's what he posted about the encounters:
Martin Kilroy
100% Esselstyn Nutrition Forum
11/19/2019
In an earlier thread, I suggested that it was not "required" to include ground flaxseed or chia seeds in the Esselstyn reversal diet. I would think that our diet has sufficient omega 3 fats.
I posed this question to Ann and Dr. Ess via email:
Could you please clarify whether the flax or chia is "required" on the heart disease reversal plan?
Ann:
Put ground flax in your oat cereal…one tablespoon and when it is mixed in you will not know it’s there. Be sure to use ground. The whole flax goes right through you.
Dr. Ess:
Flax or chia and green leafy vegetables are valuable for obtaining omega-3.
When I saw Dr. Esselstyn last night, I again asked:
Do you require flax or chia seeds to get your omega 3 fats or do you get enough from all the greens that we're eating?
Dr. Ess: I like it if you can put either a tablespoon of flaxseed meal or a tablespoon of chia seeds on your cereal in addition to eating plenty of green leafy vegetables. (emphasis on like and plenty)
I'm now adding the tablespoon of flaxseed meal to my morning steel cut oats and I'm not going to quibble about whether it's "required."
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
A New Book Coming?
Not from Dr. McDougall but from one of the Esselstyns. Jane posted this recently to Instagram:
I like eggplant, and can usually find decent looking ones in any grocery store around here, and this food looks pretty darn good. The speculation for the topping in the comments run from hummus, an Esselstyn favorite, to a cheezy sauce. I may try this soon using plain hummus. Maybe cauliflower steaks on one tray and this on another. Hmmmm.
I like eggplant, and can usually find decent looking ones in any grocery store around here, and this food looks pretty darn good. The speculation for the topping in the comments run from hummus, an Esselstyn favorite, to a cheezy sauce. I may try this soon using plain hummus. Maybe cauliflower steaks on one tray and this on another. Hmmmm.
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Dr. Esselstyn Guidelines Clarification: Part 2
Again, this comes form Mary Pope of the Dr. Esselstyn Preventing And Reversing Heart Disease- Recipes & Discussion FaceBook community.
A few more responses from Dr. Esselstyn. I know they stay busy, so I appreciate him taking time to answer some!
What is your position on roasting and air frying starchy vegetables? There has been some debate on Acrylamide s (possible carcinogens) that form as a chemical reaction when starches are fried, baked or roasted. Is this something that we should be concerned with or ? Thank you. - As long as you don't char the food it is fine to use an air fryer.
I have heard there's different types- Best B12 vitamin? Bonus points for brand. Thank you! - Natures Made Brand
I'd like to know if he knows of a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic that supports his work. - Check out this website https://www.plantbaseddoctors.org/?fbclid=IwAR1qvB5tFb8GZBw1gWmIYZgdP2s-0NrPJETNZaohx45g3VM0O0hbd1ho9nE
Have you seen an improvement in aortic and mitral valve function with this nutrition program ? - No, those are both mechanical problems.
What about iodine supplements? - They are unnecessary.
Can high cholesterol numbers , if someone is Vegan, be attributed to diet ? Or is it more of an abnormal function of the liver ? Can any of this be corrected ? - Yes, they can be corrected with whole foods plant based diet. Keep in mind that some people do require the aid of a statin in order to get the numbers down.
There is a commercial bread from Aldi, that is compliant, except for 1 gram of sugar per slice. ( from honey) Would this be ok to eat, or should it be avoided? - Keep it at a minimum. Most bread except for Ezekiel has some type sweetener.
Is it ok to have yonana dessert (only fruit) a few times a week? - Yes, but it would count as a serving of fruit.
How much fruit is allowed? Who has to limit it? - Fruit should be limited to 2-3 pieces per day. If you are eating too much fruit it will raise your triglycerides.
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Q&A with Dr. Lisle, Dr. Lim, and a Hairier Jeff Novick
This was posted to Dr. McDougall's FaceBook page. The sound is a little echo-y because it appears they're using the laptop's mic, and because it's FaceBook Live and not YouTube/Webinar Jam there's no option for captions, but it's still clear enough for those of us who are HOH to catch most of it.
Sunday, November 10, 2019
What A Great Son I Have
Hubby and I came home from our weekly grocery shopping trip and I found this on the kitchen table:
I bought that ketchup during that trip and added it for the photo. It's from a company called True Made Foods, and I see Amazon also sells it in jars:
The ingredients are:
and it tastes pretty darn good!
Amazon also has one with no added sugar, so I may order some of that when this bottle is done.
While we were gone our son made himself some oven fries, and he said he knew I would love the batch he made so did this for me just before he came down to carry the bags upstairs. He made them a bit salty for my taste, but it's the thought that counts. He knows I love my spuds as much as I love him!
I bought that ketchup during that trip and added it for the photo. It's from a company called True Made Foods, and I see Amazon also sells it in jars:
and it tastes pretty darn good!
Amazon also has one with no added sugar, so I may order some of that when this bottle is done.
Monday, November 4, 2019
Dr. Esselstyn Guidelines Clarifications
These come "straight from the horse's mouth," so to speak.
Mary Pope, owner of the Dr. Esselstyn Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease - Recipes and Discussion FaceBook community, spoke with Dr. Esselstyn's office last week and arrangements were made for members of her group to send questions in to Dr. Esselstyn's secretary, Jackie Frey, and she would submit them to Dr. Esselstyn herself, and send back the answers from the good doctor. The first 10 questions (from a very long list) were sent late last week. Mary posted this today:
Mary Pope, owner of the Dr. Esselstyn Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease - Recipes and Discussion FaceBook community, spoke with Dr. Esselstyn's office last week and arrangements were made for members of her group to send questions in to Dr. Esselstyn's secretary, Jackie Frey, and she would submit them to Dr. Esselstyn herself, and send back the answers from the good doctor. The first 10 questions (from a very long list) were sent late last week. Mary posted this today:
Here are the answers to the first 10 questions I sent. I’ll figure out a way to compile them by subject so they can be a reference.
Is it ok to just eat beets everyday for the six servings of greens? - No, Important to mix it up - arugula and kale are powerful
How have you lowered homocysteine? Is methyl folate needed? - Not when you eat plant based
Which Engine 2 foods are ok for someone with heart disease? - Almost all of them. Read ingredients. Rip's big bowl has a very few walnuts which probably don't matter for most.
Since the recommendations for reversal are stricter than those for prevention, it seems intuitive that ideally (to do the best one possibly can), everyone should follow the reversal recommendations. Is it so, or is there some reason why there is little or no advantage for some people (no diagnosis or high risk) to follow the reversal recommendations? - It makes sense, though for healthy, athletic people, nuts and avocado are fine...just no oil, no meat, no dairy for everyone and lots of vegetables and leafy greens
Does the doctor feel that the recommendation for flax seeds is sufficient to meet one's DHA/ALA needs? If not, what else might one need to do? - Flax seed meal and chia seed are excellent for DHA/ALA and the leafy greens as well.
1) Raw verses cooked and if portion sizes should increase with raw. - Some raw is good but some cooked is excellent and for leafy greens you get way more cooked.
2) If spinach/beets/chard should be limited because of the high oxalates/kidney stress? - Use reasonably and not exclusively - variety is good.
3) Does fresh raw cold pressed vegetable or fruit juice damage the endothelial? - NO juicing - do not juice. The fructose, the sugar in fruit is separated from the fiber in juicing. It is then rapidly absorbed and injurious. You lose the benefits of fiber best obtained by eating the whole fruit. Chew your food, especially your greens.
Realizing that the main component in the process of preventing/reversing comes from dietary changes, not supplements, I would like to have your input on any benefits of NATTO-K. Thank you! - It is not something we suggest using.
Clarification on water fasting up to two non-consecutive days per week since I can’t find that ‘update’ on the website. Apparently, he mentioned it recently at a conference in regards to reaching a plateau and/or lowering cholesterol? - Effective for losing weight when at a plateau. Consider doing Monday and Thursday.
Why is caffeinated coffee not allowed but caffeinated tea is ok? - The caffeinating process in tea is different from that of coffee.
Is decaf coffee ok? - Yes
Garden Gravy
We recently had one of our favorite meals - potatoes and carrots. Hubby and I had our Russets fresh out of the Instant Pot whole, while our son, ever the rebel and picky eater, insisted on the Bob's Red Mill Instant Potato Flakes mashed potatoes.
I usually make the McDougall Golden Gravy (minus the tahini) when I make my spuds, but because this was going to be Sunday dinner I wanted something a wee bit fancier, and decided to try Tim Kaufman's (Fat Man Rants) Garden Gravy. He used to have a load of recipes easily available on his website, but they're now hidden behind blank icons. If you click on every grey square you might find the one you're looking for. A search only takes you to his new blog page, not what you're searching for.
He does demo his recipes on his FaceBook page in his weekly live videos, and here is where he did the mashed potatoes and Garden Gravy, from the book Fat Man's Essential 40 Plant-Based Recipes: Quick and Easy Plant-Based Food (Fat Man's Recipes Book 1). It now looks like he combined his 2 books into one paperback called FatMan's Favorite Recipes instead of the 2 separate Kindle books.
The FaceBook version is slightly different than the book version that I show, but in the video he also says he rarely uses recipes or measures ingredients and prefers to make up recipes as he goes along,
Garden Gravy
3 bell peppers (any color)
2 medium onions
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup water
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
3 cups unsweetened plant milk
2 tablespoons liquid aminos
1 tablespoon onion powder
3 tablespoons cornstarch
In a non-stick pan, saute onions, peppers and mushrooms with water and the garlic powder on high/medium heat until the veggies are soft and wet, about 10 minutes.
In a blender, combine the cornstarch, nutritional yeast, onion powder, liquid aminos, and milk, and blend on high until mixed thoroughly. Add the mixture to the pan and cook on high, stirring constantly, until a gravy-like consistency is obtained.
Remove from heat and serve over potatoes, noodles or rice.
In the video he uses a bag of frozen peppers. I used a one pound bag of frozen onions and a jar of pimientos, drained, because I had no other peppers around.
In the video he used 2 1/2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of oats to make oat milk because they didn't have any other plant milk in the house at that time. He said near the end that the gravy came out too thick for his liking, most likely from the oat milk acting like a thickener. I used Pacific Oat Milk because I have very little Pacific Almond Milk left and my son prefers to use that in his mac & cheese instead of oat milk. I should have just taken his almond milk.
Another big difference - in the video he puts the onions in a dry skillet, explaining that between the onions and peppers and the mushrooms they make enough liquid as they cook, they didn't need any additional liquid. In the written recipe he adds a cup of water to the pan, and so did I. Another mistake.
In his videos he uses Bragg's Liquid Aminos, so that's what I used.
First off, it took forever (over half an hour on medium-high) for the onions and mushrooms to cook down, and I chopped those mushrooms pretty small. There was hardly any flavor left when all the veggies were finally softened. Add the three cups of milk with its blended-in additions and it took another half hour before it thickened a little bit. It took another 15 minutes before it was thick enough to pass for watery gravy.
And it tasted horrible to me! The oat milk made the whole thing sweet. So here was a slightly thickened batch of sweetened liquid, made lumpy with limp, overcooked vegetables. My husband said it was okay, and he's going to finish the leftovers during the week with his lunches, probably pouring it over some toasted bread slices. He didn't think it was sweet at all. But I couldn't even eat more than a few bites of my potatoes and veggies before I gave up. I scraped off what I could from the potatoes, rinsed off my carrots, and just nibbled a bit before giving up the dish for good. My husband ate it for his "seconds" and I went to the kitchen and grabbed a clean bowl and the half a potato that was left in the pot and another few scoops of clean carrots and ate it all with just some Mrs. Dash Table Blend.
Will I try this recipe again? Only if I can find some Pacific Almond Milk next time we go to Whole Foods. Those stores seem to be the only places within a 50 mile radius that are currently selling it, according to the Pacific web site, and the last time to WF, the store we went to had none of that brand, and others they had of course had oil in them. Hubby is on vacation next week, so we'll give the store a call later this week and ask them to get a case of the milk and one of those baby Brussels sprouts. Hopefully they'll be able to get at least one of the items - last time they said they were unable to get an extra case of the sprouts but there was plenty on the shelf we can purchase, so we bought a case worth's but at regular price, not the 10% off they say you get if you order the case. Whole Foods now charges for their paper bags, too. Even though we have a new store that opened a bit closer to home (only 5 miles closer, not even a 15 minute driving difference) I'm finding less and less reasons to make the trip.
Oat milk may be good in sweet dishes, like oatmeal or baked goods, but not in savory things like gravy! Worse comes to worse and I can no longer get almond milk in stores without oil, I may be forced to make my own on an as-needed basis using almond butter. The problem with that, besides the obvious time and trouble it takes to make and clean up after, is having almond butter in the house. You know what AJ says about "if it's in your house, it's in your mouth," right? I can't keep a jar almond butter in this house! Sure, I could buy those tiny packets of Justin brand, but they add oil, so it's as bad as buying almond milk with oil.
Don't mind me - I'm just cranky because I didn't get my Golden Gravy on my potatoes last night.
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Christmas Is Coming - Christmas Limas, That Is!
Who'd a thunk it? A year ago I was hating lima beans with a passion. Now, I'm ordering them by the 10 pound bag from Amazon!
And you know what? I think I'll be ordering more of these even before the end of the year.
That big plastic bag is sealed at both ends so these beans will have to be transferred into something else when I open it up. For now, I just popped the entire bag into a 2 1/2 gallon zip bag and it only takes up about half a bag, a mere 20 cups. I can see me going through that many.
What has happened to me?? Bean soups, that's what happened! LOL
Thursday, October 24, 2019
Dr. McDougall Q&A Video
An organization called Fork Smart out of Calgary, Alberta Canada recently did a Skype interview with Dr. McDougall and posted the video to YouTube.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
More From Dr. Esselstyn
I just found this in my Drafts folder. No idea why I never posted it back when I wrote it up in September.
~~~
Dr. and Ann Esselstyn were recently in Australia for a plant-based conference, and a family who post as Plant Based Health Australia were there taking notes. Here's their summary post on FaceBook. Loads of comments, many with clarifying information, so be sure to click to read them.
If you don't "do" FaceBook, here's the post. I'm not going to post all the comments to it, though - sorry.
~~~
Dr. and Ann Esselstyn were recently in Australia for a plant-based conference, and a family who post as Plant Based Health Australia were there taking notes. Here's their summary post on FaceBook. Loads of comments, many with clarifying information, so be sure to click to read them.
If you don't "do" FaceBook, here's the post. I'm not going to post all the comments to it, though - sorry.