John McDougall: My Personal Tribute - Jeff Nelson of VegSource

Vintage Dr. McDougall Talk

Recorded during the 2001 VegSource Get Healthy Now seminar. This was before they started to professionally record them and sell them to the public.

Great talk by Dr. McDougall, and he's still saying the same things to this day!

Fast Food - The Basics

Thanks to both Jeff Novick and Jeff Nelson for making this video available. I love these SNAP meals from Jeff Novick and have reported on many of them right here in this blog.

Dr. McDougall Lecture - Dr. McDougall’s Color Picture Book on Food Poisoning (And How to Cure It with Beans, Corn, Potatoes, and Rice)

This was Dr. McDougall's talk at the 2014 VegSource Get Healthy Now conference. You can buy the DVD set or digital downloads of all the talks on VegSource. The set this one came from was the Black set.

Lima Bean Comfort Soup

Long time readers of this blog may remember I have no love for lima beans, and even quit the Rancho Gordo Bean Club (three times now) because of all the lima beans they would send. I buy the Birdseye brand mixed frozen vegetables because, unlike store brands, they do not contain lima beans. When a recipe calls for lima beans I leave them out or substitute something like cannelini beans, instead.

Recently, I got a bug up my butt to rip some of the many WFPB nutrition DVDs that I have using a freeware software called Handbrake. My son fiddled around with various settings and we now have 2 custom settings, one for him and his stuff, and one for mine. His is higher quality to watch on his computer monitor, mine set for a lower quality for mobile viewing because I've been transferring them to my iPad Mini. For weeks I ripped most of my McDougall videos, all of Jeff's lectures and his Fast Food series, the Essesltyn and Fuhrman seminars. OK, I did a few movies, too.

What I did these last few weeks were the VegSource Get Healthy Now DVD sets that I bought a few years ago when they had the bundle sale. Of the 9 years' worth of DVDs, 3 discs to a set, 3 to 5 lectures on each disc, I may have watched 4 talks before this, I'm embarrassed to say. Why? Well, someone else would be using the tv when I had time when I first got them, or life happened and there was no time to watch. Eventually, I just plain old forgot I owned them when they got buried under stuff on the shelf where I had them.

But I recently dug them out and started copying them. Today, I'm working on the last one, 2014's Black case. As I did them all, one lecture at a time, I was amazed at how many great presenters they had at these VegSource Healthy Lifestyle Expos over the years. Dr. McDougall did a number of lectures, as did Jeff Novick and the Esselstyns. Dr. Fuhrman appeared at least twice, and many more.

The one thing each year that attracted my attention, the only ones I've been watching the past few days, are the cooking demonstrations. Each year, Sabrina Nelson would apron up and join 2-4 other people to demonstrate their favorite recipes. Jeff cooked a few times, as his Fast Food series discs were released; Ann and Rip Esselstyn each appeared a few times each, as did Chef Tanya of Native Foods restaurant. But the one whose recipes really caught my eye this time were the ones Sabrina Nelson herself did. She was demonstrating recipes using the pressure cooker years before the Instant Pot came out, back when I had my own stovetop PC. As far as I know, these recipes were never printed anywhere or included in any cookbook. She shared some of her family's recipes on their website, and I plan on making the Semi-Cajun Black Bean Soup (minus the sausages) from that page soon, and Randa's Corn Chowder from that page is already one of our favorites. Some of Sabrina's others made their way into the Twins' Clear Skin Diet book.

But this one, Lima Bean Comfort Soup, as far as I know, has only been shared on the Get Healthy Now Orange set from 2007.

In the demo, Sabrina talks about how lima beans have always meant "comfort" to her, as her mom would make lima beans when she was small and in need of comfort, and now that she's a mom, it's her turn to make them, hence this soup.


Lima Bean Comfort Soup 

Pre-soak 1 pound Lima beans a few hours. 
She said there was no need to soak them overnight. I did a quick soak this morning by bringing the rinsed bag of Rancho Gordo Classic Cassoulet beans I've had since 2015. They're no longer on their web site so I can't link them. These beans look exactly like limas - and when I made them in the past, they tasted exactly like limas, too, so to me, cassoulet beans are lima beans.

Sauté 1 diced onion, some garlic, and a stalk of chopped celery in water.
I diced up a large Vidalia onion, tossed some minced garlic, and about 2-3 tablespoons of the dried celery I bought from Harmony House. While that was cooking up the kitchen smelled so amazing my son actually poked his head out of his room asking what I was cooking. He's been eating a lot more of the WFPB meals I've been making lately, especially Jeff's Fast Food meals. He might even surprise me and ask for a bowl of this for his lunch today.

Add herbs to taste, maybe half teaspoon each of Rosemary, sage, about a teaspoon Muchi curry, garlic pepper. 
Sabrina mentioned during the demonstration that she really doesn't do exact measurements, and used her hand and the spice caps to dole out the spices. The amounts written here are her estimates of what she used. As for the curry, she explained how there are many different types of curry out there, and she prefers the Muchi curry for much of her recipes. I looked on Amazon and see it in one pound bags. The smaller jars can be had if you belong to Amazon Pantry or Amazon Fresh. I'll look around elsewhere, like Penzey's or our local health food store (They carry Frontier, the brand Amazon has in bags), and see what I can get. Today, I used the Madras Curry that I used for one of the chili recipes I have. I added some plain old black pepper and plan on grabbing some garlic pepper when I go grocery shopping this weekend.

Add water by tablespoon as needed to prevent sticking.

Add a quart of broth and a cup of water.
In the video she used Pacific no-chicken broth, a product I've never seen. I used the usual Kitchen Basics Unsalted Vegetable Stock that I use for everything.

Add a quarter cup red lentils, a cut up red potato.
No red potatoes so used a Yukon Gold.

Add the lima beans. Cover the pressure cooker and cook at pressure for 9 minutes.
That's the easy part, now that I have an Instant Pot that I can set and forget. After it cooked then cooled for a half hour I released the remaining pressure.

After it's cooked, add some balsamic vinegar.
This part she just said, not showed, so I estimated about a tablespoon of vinegar. It's so little it doesn't add to the flavor.

The final result:

Well, I have to say, it does taste pretty good. The lima beans are nice and soft and taste like beans, not something dry and wood-like. But this is mostly a pot of beans, not really a pot of soup. Most of the broth got absorbed by the beans and lentils (which vanished - I couldn't find a red lentil to save my life!). I wish I could eat bread - what little broth there is in this dish is very tasty.

I still have a few more bags of lima beans, from big limas, baby limas, Christmas limas, as well as more of these big cassoulette beans. With winter rapidly approaching, this will make a nice cold weather lunch.

I wonder how many of the recipes in the Clear Skin Diet book are also Sabrina's and not concoctions tossed together by the girls. I copied a few using the "Look Inside" feature on Amazon or their YouTube channel, but not too many looked all that interesting. I was hoping Jeff Nelson himself would post a few of his wife's creations to his channel. Maybe I'll make that suggestion on his VegSource Facebook page. :)

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.

Thanksgiving Holiday Recipes from The Nelson Twins

Like then or loathe them, one thing you can always say about Nina and Randa Nelson is that the recipes they post are always 100% McDougall-safe and usually (not always) MWLP/Jeff Novick safe.

These, being holiday recipes, do contain flour - rice, oat and/or whole wheat - and in a few recipes they add salt, something Jeff would never do.

From the September ASW - Jeff Nelson and the VegSource Story

Sometimes I wonder why I bother paying money to view these Advance Study Weekend videos - Dr. McD has so many of them available for free in the months afterwards. I used to buy them mainly for Doug Lisle and Jeff Novick's talks - always fantastic. But now Dr. Lisle is repeating old talks and Jeff hasn't appeared at an ASW for a few years now. This past one featured the next generation of doctors and I was interested in their stories, but I'll probably skip the next one in February 2017. I forget exactly who Dr. McD said was going to be there, but do remember I either never heard of the person or didn't care what they had to say.

This talk went more into the history of Jeff Nelson's family and how they made their fortune. It's only near the end you find out about Sabrina's illness and their introduction to the McDougall program - and the McDougall family.

Snack Hacks from the Nelson Twins

Just ignore #5 Smoothies, and you've got a bunch of great McDougall-safe snack ideas. Nothing complex or difficult to make, only a handful of ingredients each. Some are even MWLP safe!

If you just have to have a snack, try one of these!

Jeff Nelson Video - Do Nutrients Matter?

Jeff Nelson Talks Weight Loss Using MWLP

10 Hacks for Vegan Weight Loss

Nina and Randa Nelson have another great video out this week. This one is a bunch of "hacks" for losing weight by following a WFPB no S-O-S diet. Great for beginners and newbies to the food plan that feel overwhelmed at times - they make it so simple!

Dr. McDougall Forums on VegSource

I just found this in my Blogger drafts folder dated July 2014. I have no idea why I never posted it.
~*~*~*~*~
A few years before the Doctor McDougall.Com web site existed, the McDougall forums were part of VegSource.Com. There was both a chat page called McDougall Friends and a recipe forum. 

As time went on, both of those boards disappeared. The recipe page that started in 2000 was no longer linked to on the main VegSource page, and all the old links I had to recipes there were dead. While searching for a Jan Tz recipe that I know originated over there I was surprised when a Google search turned up a VegSource link. It worked! I searched for other recipes with dead links using their dedicated search function, they all appeared on a hidden forum archive. The 2 original McDougall forums are still on the VegSource servers! The graphics are missing on both the first and second recipe pages, but if you want to see an old photo of the Nelson children, it's still there on the McDougall Friends page. All the messages ever posted (and weren't deleted by the moderator, that is) are still there!

Go, visit now! Copy all those old recipes you loved but lost when the boards there closed. Who knows how long the VegSource IT guys will leave it all there. It's all text so probably takes up so little room those files just go unnoticed and will stay forever, but I'm not taking any chances.

About Those Sets from VegSource . . .

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

They do look nice on my shelf! 

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

Thanks, Jeff and Sabrina!

VegSource DVD Sets on Sale This Week Only

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

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

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

Another Day of Simple McDougall Program Eating

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



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

Pot Pie Soup

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

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




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

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

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

I like nutritional yeast so used about half a cup.

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

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

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

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

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

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

A keeper for sure.

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

Nina and Randa - Why We're Vegan Video

Their mom, for those who don't know, was Dr. McDougall's very first Star McDougaller, Sabrina Nelson, and she's still very much around today:

Excerpt - Jeff Novick Fast Food 4: Beyond the Basics

I got an email with a link to this video excerpt of Fast Food 4: Beyond the Basics today:




I finally get a good view of the cover and see it's not a savory oatmeal, as some have speculated, but Mushroom Barley Soup.

He mentions one of the new recipes is for a vegetable stock that can be used in place of the tomatoes in all the previous Fast Food/SNAP recipes.

Recipes with other grains will be included in this new DVD, and buckwheat (kasha) is mentioned, so I assume Kasha Varniskes will be one of those new recipes. In the Fast Food 2: Burgers and Fries video he talked about about his mom's cooking it for him every time he visited, that it's one of his favorite foods. It's a really good recipe on his Facebook site, too. He also mentions quinoa, so perhaps this recipe for Mediterranean Quinoa with Tahini Sauce will be another, or Quinoa, Brown Rice and Veggies, which uses the same tahini sauce, although he previously covered that sauce in the first DVD, so maybe not. Maybe the Split Pea, Potato and Kale soup. That one was a family favorite until all the stores around here stopped carrying the Tabachnick split pea soup, both regular and no-salt added versions. I've made it using McDougall Right Foods split pea soup, both the cups and ready-made, but those don't meet Jeff's guidelines for sodium so I don't make it any more unless I have leftovers of some pea soup I made from scratch.

I hope besides the soup on the cover some new recipes will be revealed. This two year wait for this DVD since it was first announced by Jeff better be worth it.

Who am I kidding! Even if there's nothing new, it'll be worth it! It's Jeff!! Just like Dr. McDougall in the McDougall Made Easy and McDougall Made Irresistable DVD's, what is said while cooking is as important as the meals being prepared.

At least we don't have to speculate for much longer - I also received an email from VegSource telling me my copy has been mailed, so hopefully I'll have it by the weekend.

The Nelson Twins

Not the platinum-haired gentlemen sons of Ricky Nelson of my youth but the brunette-haired young daughters of Jeff and Sabrina Nelson of VegSource fame.

At the People's Choice Awards - Look at the 2 girls at the far left in back.

At least now I know why Jeff Novick's Fast Food 4 and the Get Healthy Now 2013 DVDs haven't been released yet. The Nelson family has been busy.