Vegan food posts for Starchivores who follow Dr. McDougall, Dr. Esselstyn, Rip Esselstyn, Chef AJ, and others - recipes or links to them and photos when available.
Showing posts with label Engine 2 Seven Day Diet Rescue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Engine 2 Seven Day Diet Rescue. Show all posts
This weekend the Esselstyn crew did another series of videos, the topic of these being Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue. Because it was a typical busy weekend around here, I missed almost all of them when they aired live.
But I did catch a few minutes here and there, and a few times I saw mention of something Rip had talked about called Sandburg Stretches. Hmm, wonder what that was all about?
Well, a quick search turned up this blog post that not only explained that they came from Rip's great grandfather, poet Carl Sandburg, who did them into his 90's, but multiple videos of Rip back in 2015 demonstrating them all!
Plant Stock 2020 was last weekend. A wonderful time was had by all who attended the virtual seminars. The link to the replay videos was mailed out the other day, and there was mass confusion! Instead of a link to the videos, the link went to a whole new on-line community called The Plant Strong Community. It was then a matter of click, click, click, return and click something else, nope - that wasn't it, click something else . . . Such a frustrating time! Eventually the replays were found, then it took a few dozen more clicks to find how to sort them so they appeared in order.
It seems the videos were "sent" as posts to the new private social community and not in a separate section of just the videos. Clicking to sort the "messages" in order of when they were first posted only holds for as long as you remain on that page - click away to watch a video and return and you have to change the settings all over again to find the next video. So much wasted time! Most of the messages posted so far have been "Where are the videos? I can't find them!" It doesn't help that the Plant Stock 2020 private community is a part of a main Plant Strong community that is/will be open to the public to join and all posts are appearing on both the private and main pages, and unless you change your settings, you're also getting all posts sent to your email AND in the Notifications section, and a little bell dings each time one appears.
I'm sure things will get better as time goes on. It's a brand new software (Mighty Networks), a brand new community, and, as I said, dumped on us without any warning.
For now, the Plant Strong Community is only open for those who attended Plant Stock, but some time this week it will open up to everyone. When that happens, if you use this link it totes up to my Ambassador page if you join. Ambassadors get points for every person who joins using their specific link. What do we get out of it? As far as I can tell, we get a little badge, the color depends on how many join from using our link. Why? Makes life interesting? Leads to competitiveness? Gives the Esselstyns more eyeballs on their page? Who knows? If the link doesn't work today, try again during the week. We members have no idea when things are happening (or why). All I wanted was to watch the replays of the Plant Stock 2020 talks.
My husband has been in a potato mood lately, and frankly, I'm getting a bit sick of plain old IPot steamed spuds with Golden Gravy and veggies on the side and wanted to make something different but still easy enough to make. Enter the Esselstyn family instead of the McDougall one. Here are the potatoes I'm making:
Texas Armadillo Tater Tots makes 18 tots 18 red baby potatoes (or any color) 1 cup (8 ounces) hummus 1/2 to 3/4 cup water 2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning Preheat oven to 425ºF and line a baking pan with parchment paper. Slice most of the way through each potato at 1/4 inch intervals (Hasselback). In a food processor, combine the hummus, water, and 1 tablespoon of the seasoning and blend well. Place this into a bowl. Put all the potatoes into the bowl and stir to coat each potato and get the seasoning mix to sneak down into the wedges of the potatoes. Place the potatoes on the lined pan and pour the remaining mix over them. Bake until the potatoes are thoroughly cooked, about 45 minutes or longer, depending on the size of the potato. They should be tender in the middle and crispy outside. Serve with ketchup or Rip's Ranch Dressing. Engine 2 Cookbook page 108
Of course, I used the Esselstyn's Our Hummus.
Our Hummus From the book by Ann Crile Esselstyn and Jane Esselstyn. "The Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook."
1 (15 oz) can no salt added chickpeas, drained and rinsed 2 large cloves garlic 2 T. fresh lemon juice 1 1/2 T spicy brown mustard freshly ground black pepper to taste. 1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
In food processor, combine the chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, mustard, and pepper to taste. Add salt if desired and 2 T water and process until smooth. Serve immediately.
Variations.: Top with Caramelized onions, blend in cooked sweet potato, or add green onion.
Special sauce post by Alvah » Tue Oct 06, 2015 5:14 pm
I'd like to share my version of a ranch dressing I use all the time, in salads, on baked potatoes, over vegetables, in panini. I modified the recipe by omitting the dill and jalapeño and adding a few other things.
Process in food processor:
2 green onions 1 package low fat silken tofu 1 t seasoned rice vinegar 1 t onion powder 1 t garlic powder 1 t salt 1 t sugar 2 t mild curry powder 1/3 c nutritional yeast 1/2 c low calorie plant milk
Yummy!
Yes, I had tofu! Last week I noticed our grocery store changed the endcap in the "healthy" section from chips and cookies to assorted other foods, from organic pickle relish to organic Kosher jelly, assorted fizzy waters (organic, of course), and there, behind some organic chocolate bars, I noticed the familiar lilac of the MoriNu Lite silken tofu box peeking out! There were 2 of these beauties hiding back there! Just when I had given up hope that this tofu would ever reappear in the United States again (It's been sold out everywhere since March), I was blessed with these! Just in time (OK, maybe a little late) for summer salad season! I had no idea exactly what I was going to do with them, but I grabbed them. The expiration date is next month, but I'm sure I can use the other one next week in one of Mary McDougall's recipes, like a potato salad.
As for Alvah's recipe, since I haven't had ranch dressing in a long, long time, I can't really say how close this came to it, but I do know I'll be making this sauce again. Next time, though, I'll either reduce or skip the salt entirely and use half the curry powder. It is a great tasting sauce, though. The execution . . . Well, some mistakes were made. I made the hummus a bit too thick. By the time I was ready to use it, it was as thick as clay and just as difficult to use. Because of that, I wound up using too much water in the armadillo sauce. Since I had a bag of 40 of those tiny potatoes, I planned on making double the sauce. Two cups of the hummus went into the food processor. I reached for the Cajun seasoning and saw I needed to open a new jar. There were 2 jars in my spice box, 2 different brands, neither the one I just finished. I opened the first and tasted it. It had a weird chemical taste. Opened the other, and it was different, but not at all like the older one. Oh, well, it’s going to have to do. In that goes into the food processor. My husband walks into the room and offers to help. I hand him the 2 cup measuring cup, tell him to double the amount of water on the paper and pour it into the machine. He does that and the water starts pouring out around the spindle! Instead of at most 1 1/2 cups of water he used 2 cups. He misunderstood what I told him to do. You would think an 11 cup food processor could hold more than 4 cups, but you’d be wrong. I learned that last year when I tried to make that corn soup. So, after I blended up the “batter” he cleaned the mess. It looked like hummus soup. While he cleaned, I started in on cutting all those tiny slits in those 40 tiny potatoes. My hands were so sore afterwards. The batter got poured into the bowl with the potatoes and I let them soak in it while the oven preheated and I got the parchment paper on the pans. Using a slotted spoon, 20 potatoes went on each tray, and a bit of the liquified hummus got poured over each. The pans went into the oven, a timer was set for 20 minutes so I could rotate them, hubby helped clean everything up, and away we went into the air conditioned bedroom to watch TV for a few minutes. When the timer dinged I moved the trays around, reset the timer for 25 more minutes. 45 minutes came and went and the potatoes were still hard. How? These were those tiny things! Checked again in 5, then 10, and just took them out after an hour in the oven. Here’s how they looked:
Good enough. If they’re still too hard to eat I’ll nuke them, but as it turned out, most were okay enough. The few we have leftover will be eaten during tomorrow’s lunch and they'll soften up as they get nuked. The 2 pounds of cauliflower were devoured, though, as well as over half the ranch dip/dressing. The saltiness seemed to have died down a bit since I made it in the morning. The verdict: My husband loved every morsel of it, including some of the baked on batter that he peeled off the parchment paper. It tasted a bit like cheese crackers our son ate when younger. He liked the tiny slices that made these baby potatoes disguise themselves as Hasselback potatoes. The ranch dip, now as firm as I wish my hummus was, he declared “good” but not “great”. Even so, he already asked when I plan on making this meal again. As for *my* opinion, if I had my druthers I wouldn’t bother with the slits and I wouldn’t bother with making these in an oven. I wouldn’t even be opposed to skipping the “batter” part, either, but the next time I will make the batter, but all by myself, so I can keep track of how much liquid it needs. Hopefully it comes out right, and the batter adds a lot of flavor, and roasting it in the oven transforms them into something magical. To me, that ranch dressing/dip made the whole meal.
Just skip the "avocado on toast" and kale with breakfast and it's McDougall MWLP.
This guy's videos were included as part of the activities this past weekend on Engine 2's Plant Strong Primer Weekend. Sorry I didn't post about the weekend sooner, but I found out about it late and missed just about all the talks, anyway, and have to wait for the replays. From what little I did see, it was the usual Esselstyn shenanigans - Dr. Esselstyn did his Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease talks, Ann talked about what to eat on the Plant Perfect Esselstyn diet, Rip did his usual talks and meal demos for his 7 Day Diet Rescue version of the Engine 2 diet (Tossing together a bunch of fruit and cereal and call it Rip's Big Bowl, toss together a sweet potato, a bunch of veggies and fruit, and call it Rip's Big Dinner Bowl), Ann and Jane did a few of their fast and sloppy and unintentionally comical food demos (Oatmeal and sandwiches and ??), Adam Sud did his story of pulling himself out of addiction. There was also a talk by Jane's husband Brian Hart (IDK on what) and a talk by Dr. William Bulsiewicz on gut health. There were going to be dance breaks, music breaks, and even yoga. I guess I'll see them all when the replays are available. The page advertising the weekend is still up on the Plant Strong website. Maybe they're going to sell the replays? I have no idea, but if interested, keep checking that website.
It’s important now more than ever to do all we can to eliminate our risks for chronic disease. As the country emerges from quarantine, let’s strengthen ourselves from the inside out by harnessing the power of whole, plant-based nutrition.
Shelter in Place with the Esselstyns—The First Family of the Plant-Strong Movement.
Along with the Esselstyn family, Adam Sud will be giving his From Pills to Plants talk, Jack Quigley will be playing guitar for the "Dance Breaks" between lectures or cooking demonstrations, and just today I saw someone named Dr. Will Bulsiewicz will be a special guest.
Yes, I know that I, and probably most of you people, have already heard the standard Esselstyn talks; you heard the Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease speech by Dr. Esselstyn a number of times, saw Ann & Jane do numerous cooing demonstrations, heard Rip's talk about the Engine 2 Seven Day Diet program a time or 2, but each time these talks are given some new tidbit of info is usually mentioned. Besides, we've all heard Dr. McDougall say the same things multiple times and we still tune in to hear each time, right? :)
If you can't watch "live" be sure to choose one of the 2 packages that give you the recorded streams. The cheapest price is ONLY the live videos - you don't watch as it airs you're out of luck.
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:
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.
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:
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?
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.
Or, "We're gonna need a bigger boat." In my case, a bigger food processor, but I'll get to that later in this post. A few weeks ago Ann and Jane Esselstyn demonstrated this recipe for Oberlin Corn and Shallot Chowder from the Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook (page 89), except they called it Summer Corn Chowder in the video.
The other day I decided to give it a shot, and even bought the twice-as-expensive Pacific lower sodium vegetable broth as suggested. I also mistakenly bought leeks instead of shallots, not realizing my mistake until I was half-way checked out at the register, when the clerk asked me what those things were and I replied: "It was supposed to be shallots but grabbed leeks by mistake. Aw, crap!" I knew I had a container of freeze-dried shallots at home and decided to just use those instead of finishing my order, putting all the bags in the car and going back into the grocery store to grab 2 shallots. I'll find some other use for those leeks, even if it's just cleaning and chopping them and sticking them in a bag in the freezer. Time came to start the soup, and I took the rehydrated shallots, celery, and broth on to cook as directed. While that was bubbling along I dragged out my food processor and got ready. Here's where things started to go off the rails. Instead of putting the veggies and broth into the food processor container first I put the defrosted corn and then started to pour the broth in. I get it only half poured when I notice puddles forming under my food processor! ACK!! I quickly grab some paper towels and start sopping the area of the puddle that wants to pour over the edge of the cabinet. Then I quickly get the top of the food processor off and start pouring what's left in it into the pot and toss that in the sink, then continue grabbing paper towels to clean the still growing mess up.
Yes, those are pencils in my sink. They were on the counter near the pad where I write my shopping lists. The pad went right into the garbage. Those were just a handful of towels I used before getting the food processor opened and food dumped into the pot. There was a heck of a lot more paper towels on the counter, sopping, while I ran to grab the iPad so I could snap this shot. Right after this I poured everything into the pot and put it back on the stove while I washed out the food processor container, the food processor itself, the counter, and everything the broth touched on the counter, like the electric tea kettle, a bunch of spice bottles, and those poor pencils. Hey, they had erasers that worked - I wasn't going to toss them our just because they got a bit of broth on them!
After all the clean-up was done, I tried again, this time only putting a few scoops of soup into the food processor, whirring that up, pouring it into a different pot, then repeating until it was all done. Now I finished up the recipe by heating it all up again before dishing it out.
By now, the lacinato kale that I also bought was finished in the Instant Pot. It was the first time in a few years our store had this and not the curly kale. It tasted so delicious even plain! I did what the Engine 2 Seven Day Rescue book says to do and made half my bowl full of greens, then ladled the soup into it.
A bunch of black pepper got added on top of this.
Now for the taste test.
Well, the kale is delicious. The soup? As Ann says at the end of the video, needs more pepper. It needed something - otherwise it tasted not all that different than a can of no-salt added creamed corn.
Will I ever make this again? No. Not that it's bad - it's just blah. My husband took a taste and grabbed his ever-present bottle of sriracha and added so much his soup was almost pink. Not a good sign. He also told me I can have all the leftovers for myself. Gee, thanks. I had a bit yesterday, and will probably finish it up at lunch today. If I go a bit heavy-handed with the salt shaker it's not too bland.
When my son heard this story (He was at work when it all happened. Hubby wasn't home at the time I did the above, either), he turned to look at me, put his hands on my shoulders, and said the title of this blog post: "Mom, make meals that are less complicated." Will do.
Either that, or buy a bigger food processor. Mine is the 11 cup model, and in all the years I've had this, I never made a mess as big as this one was. I looked up the one I think Jane has and discovered it's most likely the 16 cup capacity. So word of warning - if you try this soup yourself, either use a larger food processor, a fairly large capacity blender, or an immersion blender. Consider yourself warned!
As for those "less complicated" meals, since 3 days a week I make rice and frozen veggies, 2 days a week some kind of pasta with a very simple sauce, and either a McDougall soup, a SNAP meal, or potatoes and frozen veggies the other 2 days, what I usually make isn't complicated at all. I just wanted something different! That'll teach me!
Register at the Engine 2 Plant Strong Academy page, just like last year. And it's also the same price as then, $149. There are many returning speakers, like the Esselstyn family (Duh!), Adam Sud, the Drs. Sherzai, and John Mackey, but others include the McDougall Program's own Dr. Anthony Lim, the diabetes experts Dr. Cyrus Khambata and Robby Barabro, Melissa Pampanin (She plays an integral role running MUSE School, the first school in the country that is 100% solar powered, zero waste, and serves a 100% organic, plant-based lunch program.), and a few others I never heard of before, but their topics sound interesting. I can't wait to dive into them! I still keep a few that I downloaded last year on my iPad to watch when away from home and away from an Internet connection. I can never get too much of Dr. Esselstyn or his wife Ann!
A few months ago, Rip Esselstyn started his own podcast series called The Plant Strong Podcast. I listened to a few episodes, then forgot about it, because, well, I don't usually do podcasts and rarely open the podcast app on my iPad Mini, and unless someone gives me a poke and says "Listen to this!" I just don't do it. It's also available on-line, so no app necessary, only a browser that can play audio files, but I have the same problem. With my hearing disorder, listening to things is sometimes hard, so I always miss out on so much. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Rip (or someone in his organization) has put these podcasts up on YouTube! And they enabled the closed caption feature, too! OK, YouTube captions are voice capture, not a human looking at a transcript and typing the captions in like the best TV shows and movies do, but it's better than nothing. So far I only got through the first 2 episodes - one with his dad and one with his mom as special guests - but I've enjoyed them. With this heat wave we're having, we're spending a lot of time indoors. While my husband watches things like The Cape Canaveral Monster and The Unknown Terror on the TV, I can pop my earbuds in and listen to a few more of these gems. Here's the page with the Plant Strong Podcast Playlist, and here's the first episode, where Rip introduces Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn as well as Firefighter Joe Inga, whose story Rip will be following in these episodes.
Back in August 2017 I mention a dish called Cheezy Chickpeas that was making the rounds over on the Engine 2 Seven Day Rescue Facebook group. It's been a regular in this family for both lunch and dinner ever since. A week or so ago someone did a What I Eat In A Day post and showed a potful of mixed beans made into Cheezy Chickpeas. Wow! Now why didn't *I* think of that? So today I needed a little comfort food, thanks to minor surgery for an ingrown toenail yesterday that still stings like the Dickens today, so decided I would whip up a batch of 3-Bean Cheezy Chickpeas using a can each of garbanzos, dark red kidney, and pinto beans. I started the bowl off with some peeled and sliced baked potato, added a pound of steamed broccoli, and topped it off with a ladle full of the cheezy beans.
To answer your question, Yes, it does taste as good as it looks! LOL Besides what's in the bowl I put away 3 1-cup containers of it for the next few days' lunches. Now who would want to wander away from eating the McDougall way when food like this is available?
Well, I said the other day that I bought a cauliflower to make those Cauliflower Steaks. Here's the proof:
I finally made them up yesterday, using the Pizza Hummus. They took 40 minutes in the oven to get them to where I liked the texture. Is it so bad that I ate the entire thing by myself for lunch? I guess not, because I was still hungry after eating it all (it made this full tray and half of another) so I had a sweet potato afterwards.
And since it's been such gloomy, rainy, and sometimes chili weather here in NJ the past week, I decided instead of my usual old-fashioned oats with a banana and spinach for breakfast I would make Ann Esselstyn's version of steel cut oats, as she made them in this video. I've made steel cut oats before, but usually with fruit. I've made savory old fashioned oats before, too. But somehow this particular combo - the steel cut savory, made with kale and nutritional yeast (I forgot the mushrooms. Oops!) - is so tasty and hearty, it just warmed me up and gave me hope that we'll eventually see the sun again.
Another good thing about this meal - I followed the directions on the package of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Steel Cut Oats and used 3 cups of water to 1 cup of oats, so besides this bowl, I also have Mason jars of breakfast for the next 2 days in the refrigerator now.
More recipe photos as I make them. As mentioned a few times already, I haven't really been cooking anything new, but with the weather changing, I hope to switch some of my current weekly meals to hearty soups. I have a few hundred soup recipes I haven't tried yet and hope to do at least one new one per week. Keep your fingers crossed I don't back out and just stick with the super simple tried-and-true meals I've been doing all summer.
Um, not a contest, by any means. Jane makes a cucumber sandwich from the cookbook, Ann makes a cucumber sandwich with ingredients her son Ted had on a sandwich recently. Both ladies use hummus, cucumber, and greens but Jane's also uses mustard, scallions, and lemon pepper seasoning, and Ann's has radishes and an apple slice. To be honest, I wouldn't - couldn't - eat either of them. I can't find an oil-free, whole grain gluten free bread, even if I wanted to eat any flour products. And I have no idea how people can eat Mestemacher bread even without double toasting it. Jane laughs because her daughter calls it a shingle, it's so hard. How is that enjoyable to eat?? And I, personally, do not like cucumbers or radishes. I'm sure there are many of you out there who, like Ann and Jane, do, so go ahead and enjoy these sandwiches with no fear I'm going to be jealous or try to steal it from you. LOL
Hello, all you lovers of all things Esselstyn! Couldn't get to Plant-Stock last weekend? Wish you had been able to see 2 1/2 days' worth of whole food plant based speakers? Missed Ann and Jane's antics? Fret no more! For the first time ever, all the Plant-Stock lectures were professionally recorded and are available for streaming!Yes, you have to pay for it (unlike last year when someone used their cell phone then put them all up on FaceBook), but it costs a bit less than one of the McDougall Advanced Study Weekend series and contains many more hours than those! From their intro page, where a promo video is available:
Preserve your Plant-Stock Memories (or see what you missed!)This series includes professional video and sound recordings of each speaker that took the stage at the 2018 Camp Plant-Stock event in Black Mountain, North Carolina. We've published this video series like an online course, with lectures and supporting documents. Watch the series at your leisure and refer to it as often as needed, strengthening your arsenal of plant-strong information.
So, why not invest in your health and sign up today?
I have admitted a few times in the past that I read the daily comics on-line. Remember the one about The Starch Solution? I wrote about that before Dr. McDougall did.
For the past few days, a strip called "Betty" on GoComicshas been doing a thread about a visiting relative, the male lead's brother. He had been a "bad boy" most of his life, even spent time in jail, but has recently cleaned up his act, and that includes (most of) his eating habits. The past few days were strips about his love of kale and its health benefits. Unfortunately, GoComics won't allow me to show the actual strips, so just follow the link. Here's the first kale strip. After this, just click the forward arrow on each day's strip to get to the next.
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.
If you love potatoes - and what McDougaller doesn't? - the you NEED to buy Jeanine Elder's newly release ebook, The Potato Reset.
Sure, she has a load of potato recipes on her YouTube channel, like: or or even
but the book has all those AND MORE!! French Toast potatoes? Yum! Over a dozen different sauces and dips? Salt-free spice mixtures to make? Almost everything here is even MWLP safe, too! Really, everyone needs to get this e-book! And you may as well grab it this holiday weekend while she's having a half-price Launch Weekend sale!! You can't beat it for the price of $12.50 if you want easy, low-cost, healthy potato recipes! Whether you love white, red, Gold, russets, or any of the varieties of sweet potatoes, this book is for you! Oh, and she outlines her Potato Reset weight loss plan, too, an added bonus. :) You could already get the free 3-day version of that on her website, but the book goes into a little more detail. I'm sure a lot of you probably already spent over $60 to get Jill McKeever's Soy Curls books, so why not shell out just a little bit more money to get even healthier potato recipes.
TOP ENGINE 2 RECIPES: CHEEZY CHICKPEAS Ingredients
1 15-ounce can no salt added or low sodium chickpeas (do not drain and rinse!)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoons Bragg liquid aminos
1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
InstructionsDrain the liquid from the canned chickpeas into a small saucepan. Add the Bragg liquid aminos, then whisk in the nutritional yeast and whole wheat flour until well combined. Simmer on medium heat until mixture thickens, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, add chickpeas and stir to cover. Serve over cooked brown rice, baked potatoes, whole wheat pasta or your favorite grain – and load it up with some fresh or steamed greens!Servings: 2
Well, on the FB version, Ami doesn't mention this is 2 servings, and AFAIK, all of us there who were making this eat the whole shebang ourselves in one sitting, many saying they double it. Using homemade beans won't work with this, because you need the bean liquid - a.k.a. aquafaba - to make it work. Water or broth just isn't thick enough. Although the recipe calls for wheat flour, I use Mary McDougall's preferred flour for gravy, rice flour. Never a lump in her gravy recipes or in this one. One can of beans makes enough sauce for an entire pound of broccoli, as seen here:
