Webinar - Fired from Obesity Conference for Fat Shaming

Need to Re-Register for Today's Webinar!!

An email went out telling us there was a problem with the link sent to today's webinar, and when I tried clicking on the link I got after registering it told me the webinar had ended. (sigh)

So, if you want to see today's webinar live, you'll have to re-register from Dr. McDougall's Webinar Page.

Another Chef AJ Interview

She said on her FB group that this was done last October.

I'm sorry, but I couldn't understand a word she says here. The sound is muddled, and she speaks so fast and high pitched that my husband hollered out from his office in the next room asking why I was watching this on fast-forward. Um, I wasn't!

Hopefully the rest of you can make out what she's saying and get something from it.

Pinto Bean Soup

Back in January, Jeff Novick posted a recipe that his cousin Sheila's grand daughter developed using dehydrated dried pinto beans. It looked interesting so I nabbed the recipe but did nothing about it for a while because I had my basic monthly menu that I already used.

I was roaming through my soup recipe folder to rotate out some soups we were getting bored with and replacing them with not-so-familiar ones and rediscovered this a few weeks ago. I had a choice of buying the beans from a vendor through Amazon or buying direct from Harmony House. When I saw HH allows payment through your Amazon account, that's what I did. The shipping was the same no matter where I bought it from, but buying direct from Harmony House was a buck cheaper than from a vendor, I knew I would get the freshest stock, and I certainly trust Amazon for payment. The beans came, I put the jar in the pantry closet, and again forgot about it until last week, when planning this week's menu. Finally, I was going to try this recipe!

Pinto Bean Soup with Brown Rice and Veggies

3 cups Harmony House dried pinto beans (blend until all are broken up).
3 Bay leaves
Teeeeeny pinch of thyme.
1 - 3 tsp crushed garlic
2 tsp Mrs Dash Fiesta Lime
6 cups of water.

Bring water to a boil.
Add everything.
Cook on low stirring 20 minutes. Add water or cook longer for desired thickness.
Before serving add Cooked Birdseye Steamfresh Brown and Wild Rice with Broccoli and Carrots.

First step was to toss those beans in the food processor and break them down into tiny pieces. I pulsed them for almost 5 minutes and still had about a third of unbroken beans, a third of smaller bean pieces, and a third of bean powder. Good enough.

I never use bay leaves, so skipped that.

I used 3 Dorot garlic cubes, equal to 3 large cloves. I know I should stop using these, since they contain a bit of oil, but I stocked up before winter with a dozen packages and I'm still working my way through them all. Only 4 trays left, then they're gone.

The "teeeeeny" pinch of thyme grew to about 2 tablespoons as cooking and tasting went on on, the last whole tablespoon going in the pot immediately prior to serving. It could have used more. Same as the Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime. I wound up with around 2 tablespoons of that, too.

I tried 3 stores and neither had the broccoli rice blend called for so grabbed another wild rice and veggie blend.

Here's where the directions get confusing. She wrote to add everything to the boiling water and cook, then add the frozen rice and veg mixture in before serving, yet in the photo on Jeff's page it shows a ladle of soup served over the separately cooked rice in a shallow bowl. I had bought 2 bags of the rice, assuming I was going to do as Sheila's grand daughter did in the photo (one bowl/bag for me, one for hubby), but even after letting the soup cook down for over an hour it was still very watery, so I just microwaved them and added both bags directly to the soup. 

As you see, the soup was still so watery the heavier vegetables and rice sunk to the bottom, and I only filled this bowl about a third full.

My husband and I had a debate over this soup. He liked it just fine, after the addition of all the extra spices, whereas I still found it quite bland. He told me my tastebuds must be messed up. He could be right - my sinuses had been acting up this allergy season. The leftovers did taste better the next day, but still on the bland side to me.

So, would I make this again? Well, since I only have 1 cup of the dried beans left I would have to buy more of them first. And decide if I want to buy another quart or go for the gallon size this time. Would I make this soup enough to make the larger purchase worthwhile? I'm not sure. I can always just use canned pinto beans and pulse them in the food processor for a while and greatly reduce the water. It would make a thicker soup, for sure. And I can always cook up a Lundburg wild rice blend and add my own vegetables, too. Of course, doing it that was would negate the "fast food" quality of the recipes Jeff usually shares with us. I'll have to think a bit before adding this one to our usual recipe rotation.

Jeff, if you see this, please tell Sheila to thank her grand daughter, and tell her to keep experimenting and sharing these recipes that fit into your Simple, Nutritional, and Affordable Plan. :) 

Registration Up for Next 3 McDougall Webinars

Thursday, March 31, 2016 at 11:00 AM PST

Title: Dr. McDougall Gets Fired from the Obesity Medical Conference

Materials:

• Carbohydrate and Human Evolution
• McDougall Cohort Study, 1,615 Patients
• Pritikin: High Carbohydrate Diets: Maligned and Misunderstood

Register Now

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Thursday, April 7, 2016 at 11 a.m. PST

Title: Meet Dr. John McDougall’s son, Dr. Craig McDougall, MD.

Register Now

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Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 11 a.m. PST

Title: Dare to be Lousy (Dr. Doug Lisle, Guest Speaker)

Register Now

Mary's Mini Webinar

Starts out with a commercial for the 3-Day Intensive in May. I wish they would have one of these in the NYC area - I would make it a point to attend it, for sure!

Down to the nitty gritty:

ONE starch for all three meals (and snacks, if necessary) for 10 days. No switching around from one day to the next, one meal to the next. Potatoes OR sweet potatoes OR brown rice OR quinoa OR any other grain, like corn. Dr. McD and Mary did seem to prefer potatoes over all the other starches, though.

Beans are not to be eaten during a Mary's Mini. Since they're restricted because of their high protein content it won't be possible to be satiated or get enough calories on beans for a Mini. Since they're a starch, they're not to be eaten with any other starch on the Mini, as per the one-starch only rule.

Condiments, spices, herbs, and dressings are okay, no gravy or sauces. Nutritional yeast is okay to use as a condiment.

Eat your starches and don't worry too much about the vegetables. Keep it simple. Maybe grab a salad with your lunch, or green beans, or green peas, or broccoli or kale (or any other non-starchy vegetable) with dinner. Don't get hung up on details.

You DO NOT have to eat the same starch/veg combination each day. For example, if you have hash browns with onions and mushrooms for breakfast one day you do not have to eat hash browns with mushrooms and onions every day, as some Star McDougallers were telling people. 

Eat as much as you need to keep you satisfied until your next meal. Eat as many potatoes as you want. Eat as much rice as you want. Eat as much of any starch (so don't load up on veggies) as you need to be satiated. There's no limit as to the amount of food to eat on the Mini, just the variety. Starch is king!

No fruit on the Mary's Mini. Why? Dr. McDougall says it's because it tastes too good, with a big grin on his face. But a bit of sugar on your food is okay, such as brown sugar on rice for a rice Mini's breakfast.

The Mini is supposed to be boring and monotonous, he says over and over and over again. Don't make the food too tasty.

While the Mary's Mini was designed as a simple restricted diet to jumpstart weight loss when you hit a plateau, it's okay to stick to it long-term.

Non-Mini tip - Use the Search on the McDougall web site. That will answer just about ANY question anyone has, find any recipe you're looking for. It's your best friend when it comes to eating the McDougall food plan.

March is Auto-Immune Disease Awareness Month

What is autoimmune disease? What is connective tissue disease?
March is autoimmune disease awareness month. So what does that mean? Watch my video to find out!
Posted by For Prevention's Sake, Barbara Grubbs, NP on Thursday, March 24, 2016

Chef AJ's Q&A Webinar

Just realized I never uploaded the last free Chef AJ/Gustavo webinar from March 7th.

Sorry about that.

Another Jeff Novick Interview

Great interview with Jeff Novick, MS, RD.

I just discovered this site the other day when I followed a link to an interview with Dr. Goldhamer and liked it so much I became a member. I can't wait to get the next magazine issue in my mailbox - there are so few (none besides this one, really) magazines out there that have articles by and about our healthy plant-based heroes.

Many issues of the magazine have articles by them - Dr. McDougall, Dr. Ornish, and my personal fave, Jeff Novick. This one in particular is my favorite interview with him to date. When I posted about this to Facebook, Jeff wrote back to remind everyone that besides the articles in this magazine he has many more on his website. Long time readers of this blog already know about that, as I've mentioned it a number of times before. :)smile emoticon

A Farmer Fred Video

My husband said he didn't know what he found more disturbing - the fact that someone made a video of getting a dump truck full of manure or that I was watching the video.