Ultimate Weight Loss Bonus Call

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

Thanks, AJ and JP!

Stovetop Pizza in 20 Minutes

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

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

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

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

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

Ultimate Weight Loss Program Digital Download

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

BUT

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

My Beef with Meat Spicy Italian Eat Balls

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bake 20 minutes. 

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

Remove from oven, serve warm over pasta with sauce.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Before and After cooking shots:

The verdict:

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

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

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

Or join her secret Facebook group?

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

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

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

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

Dr. Doug Lisle and Chef AJ (revised)

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

Hear for yourself:



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

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

Klunker's Mushrooms

(Edited on 5/18/2015 to reflect Mike's new domain url)

On the McDougall Friends Facebook group, a member named Michael Klunker posts recipes that he adds to his blog, Klunker's Kitchen. The past 2 weeks, many people have mentioned his Crockpot Mushrooms, and I finally tried them yesterday.

But first, I had to unbury my Crockpot. 

This is the exact same Crockpot I have, graphic from here.

My poor Crockpot had seen many years - over 3 decades - of use, but in recent years I decided things like canned beans were much more convenient and tasty than from-scratch beans, and it lay unused in one of the few kitchen cabinets. Over time I bought more spices and herbs and in larger containers than could fit in one of the smaller cabinets above and started tossing the bottles in this one, strategically arranging them on top of the Crockpot so they wouldn't fall out when I opened the door. 

I also have a new Crockpot that I bought on sale about 5 years ago, one of the larger sized ones. That's the same one Mary McDougall used in her refried beans recipe on the McDougall Made Easy DVD. That was in a storage area in our front hall and had less stuff on top of it. But I didn't think one pound of mushrooms needed a 9 quart crock, so left it still un-opened where it was. 

Cooked down, in the 3-quart Crockpot

So, changes I made to the recipe:

Mushrooms - Instead of the whole ones Mike used I got sliced cremini because they were on sale and looked good.

Red onions - I thought I had a 10 ounce container of them in the refrigerator but couldn't find them, so used a bag of frozen diced ones. A few hours after dinner I was grabbing the hummus for my husband for his snack and found them. Oh, well.

Garlic - I used cubes of frozen Dorot, my go-to for garlic lately.

And that's it. Tossed it all in the Crockpot on high for about an hour then turned it to low for another 4 or so. 

I made a big batch of mashed potatoes and steamed up the last of the multi-colored carrots from Trader Joe's to go with it all. 

We each had one big bowl (as shown) and my husband had another, somewhat smaller amount of potatoes and mushrooms. We have about a half cup left over that I'll have tomorrow for lunch with the leftover mashed potatoes.

Delicious!

Now that the Crockpot is unburied, I just finished making a batch of pinto beans in it, and tonight I'll soak some garbanzos and make them up tomorrow. Oh, and I joined the Rancho Gordo Heirloom Bean Club! I was on the waiting list for almost a year and a week ago got the email telling me I can register if still interested. Of course I was! After I completed the order form and got my receipt and welcome email I expected that to be it until the next shipment in July, but a half hour or so later got another email with a tracking number telling me the first shipment is on the way. Good think I uncovered that Crockpot, since that's the way they advise cooking the beans. I foresee a lot of tater or rice meals with beans and greens in our future. Can't go wrong with that, right? 

The Aveggies: Age of Bonbon (Sesame Street Avengers Parody)

A super villain was prepared to destroy all the healthy foods in the world, until one hero, actually, several heroes stuck together to save the world's vegetables! Together, Dr. Brownie, Onion Man, Captain Americauliflower, Black Bean Widow, Mighty Corn, and Zuchin-eye are...The Aveggies!

Chef AJ's Foody TV Videos Now on YouTube

For those of you who may have had difficulty getting the videos to play on the FoodyTV site, they're now all on YouTube.

Our Revised (Once Again) Monthly Menu

I mentioned a few posts ago that our monthly menu has recently included less Mary McDougall meals and more Chef AJ lately. I've also been trying to get more Jeff Novick SNAP recipes in, too. I just made up this new monthly menu that includes the best of all three. It's a work in progress and may change weekly, possibly daily, but it's a start. 

I do like the idea that most of these make up enough food for two days' worth of dinners so I don't have to cook as often, especially now that the warm weather is approaching again. And if it so happens there aren't enough leftovers, there's always rice and beans or pasta with a jar of Engine 2 spaghetti sauce. I bought a dozen of those last week when we went to our first ever Whole Foods store and that's enough to last for a long time.


Week 1 
Sunday - Red Lentil Chili
Monday - Susie's Autumn Chili *
Tuesday - Indian Potato Curry
Wednesday - Red Lentil Chili
Thursday - Chinese Rice **
Friday - Autumn Chili
Saturday - Indian Potato Curry

Week 2 
Sunday - Mushroom Chili
Monday - Sweet Potato Chili with Kale
Tuesday - New Orleans Jambalaya
Wednesday - Mushroom Chili
Thursday - Chinese Rice
Friday - Sweet Potato Chili
Saturday - Jambalaya 

Week 3
Sunday - Butternut Squash & Quinoa Chili
Monday - Split Pea Soup **
Tuesday - Curried Potato Stew
Wednesday - Orange is the New Black Sweet Potatoes
Thursday - Chinese Rice
Friday - Butternut Squash & Quinoa Chili
Saturday - Pea Soup


Week 4
Sunday - Saucy Glazed Mushrooms and Brussels Sprouts 
Monday - Indian Lentil Vegetable Soup
Tuesday - Kasha Varnishkes
Wednesday - Curried Cauliflower 
Thursday - Chinese Rice
Friday - Speedy International Stew
Saturday - Pasta with Jeff's Marinara

Week 5
Sunday - Nutrient Rich Black Bean Soup
Monday - Festive Dal Soup
Tuesday - Mexi Soup
Wednesday - Enchilada Strata
Thursday - Chinese Rice
Friday - Speedy International Stew
Saturday - Cuban Potatoes


* This recipe is an exclusive (so far) to the Ultimate Weight Loss 21 Day Recipe Guide, sent to people who purchased said program from Chef AJ's web site. Neither the DVD/CD program nor downloadable versions mentioned in this post by Wendy of Healthy Girl's Kitchen seem to be available any more on the web links on Wendy's page, but I'm sure if you wrote to either her or Chef AJ they can give you details on how to purchase the program. Last I read, it's going to be part of Chef AJ's new cookbook, whenever it ever gets published. The UWL recipe guide has a few other so-far unpublished recipes, too, but most are already out there on-line.

** Chinese Rice - I mentioned in the past this is basically a batch of rice with veggies and fried marinated tofu that we eat with sauces such as soy/coconut aminos, sweet and sour, terriyaki, or other Asian-type sauce.

*** Split Pea Soup - I go back and forth between the green split pea with russets/Yukon Gold potatoes and the yellow split pea with sweet potato version. Both are equally great.