They're Here!

Company. I promised an account of what to make when company comes over. We recently had some friends over who are not vegetarian, vegan or Whole Foods, Plant-Based (WFPB). What could I serve that would please everyone? 

I went with pizza. To make our guests feel comfortable, I bought mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. I also had ingredients to make a Greek pizza, which included kalamata olives, pesto, artichoke hearts, and peppers (recipe from "The Engine 2 Diet" book). This gave people the choice of a traditional pizza (with cheese and meat), a vegetable version (without cheese), or to get creative and mix it up. I was satisfied with the options I was giving, but admittedly nervous at how this would all be received. Maybe people wouldn't want to eat at our house anymore, knowing we're WFPB, and you might have already thought that after reading the "Rutabaga and Parsnips" posting.

To please me and my family, I made a whole grain pizza dough and fresh sauce from a recent harvest of garden tomatoes. Ah, the smell was incredible!

 

Upon arrival of the guests, I introduced the pizza-making process (everyone would make their own) and the ingredients. Later, my friend, Kathy, remarked that she had thought the pizza wasn't going to be enough. This is something that we “super-size” Americans have to adjust to in our minds and bodies when eating WFPB. We don’t need to eat nearly the serving sizes we are used to consuming. Period. This is especially true with whole grains. They are so filling. I made the whole grain pizza dough into squares about 5 in. by 5 in. Everyone had one pizza, and the men had two. I also provided whole wheat tortillas, which a couple of us chose instead of the pizza dough. To the American eye, the pizza dough squares didn’t look like a lot, and this thought crossed even my mind as I was preparing them, but, with toppings piled on it, you really do experience satiety.

I truly hope our guests did not leave our house hungry. I mean, everyone (two women, two men, three kids and a teenager) finished their pizza and the men had seconds, but maybe they were just being polite. I also served a special dessert called “Banana N-ice cream” (from the Whole Foods website. They have GREAT recipes). It’s a dessert made with frozen bananas, soymilk and natural peanut butter or vanilla. It’s pretty yummy, healthy, and nonfat, and the consistency is more like custard.

I think evidence that our guests were impacted was my friend’s later comment; the next day she made an entire meal from scratch: bread and soup. We are paying it forward and, hopefully, friends, family and some of you are making healthy changes. I think it’s safe to say that most everyone desires to eat healthier. For each person that may mean something different. Any change is good, don’t you think?

Maybe my friend Kathy (hint, hint) will comment on the experience or she'll write a future guest post about her family's experience. 

What have you changed, and have any of your friends or family been impacted -- in a WFPB way?

Kamut: A New Grain

A few weeks ago, I came across a package of Kamut and bought it on impulse. I had read about the grain but hadn’t experienced it.

Kamut is an ancient grain, but it has seen little use in America. It is a relative of durum wheat, but has “two to three times the size of common wheat with 20–40% more protein, higher in lipids, amino acids, vitamins and minerals, and a "sweet" alternative for all products that now use common wheat” (Purdue University). It can basically be substituted for whole wheat in recipes.

For local people, I bought a puffed variety at Buehler’s (I haven’t found this yet in flour form anywhere) and made trail mix with the recipe on the back of the package. There is ½ cup of maple syrup called for, but I always put just a smidge less than the recipe calls for to wean my family off the sugary taste. It was a big hit.

Recipe: Cran-Kamut Trail Mix

3 cups Arrowhead Mills Puffed Kamut Cereal 

1/3 cup chopped pecans, or other nuts

½ cup dried cranberries

1/3 cups sunflower seeds

½ tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp Safflower Margarine (I used olive oil interchangeably here)

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350. Mix first four ingredients together in large bowl. In small saucepan, melt margarine and add remaining ingredients. Simmer for 3-5 minutes, and pour over cereal mixture, stirring immediately to coat well. Spread on lightly oiled cookie sheet and bake for 7-10 minutes. Let cool before eating.

My girls love anything with cinnamon in it, so I increased this to 1 ½ tsp. Having kids help with recipes always increases interest in our house, so Lourdes helped with this one. It was actually fun. They loved the trail mix and I have made it since. It’s great for lunch with a fruit or a snack.

Consider trying a new grain, like Kamut, or whatever you can find in your grocery store. Trader Joe’s has a lot of interesting grains, and the Food Dock or Flour Barrel (in Ashland, Ohio) has a few different ones also. Share your stories!

Learning to Like Beans

Okay, I’ll be honest. This is the post you will least want to read. I’m going to talk about, yes, beans! Let’s face it. These nutritional powerhouses just aren’t a favorite in our American diet. I can’t recall a single bean dish growing up that my mother made, except for baked beans served on the fourth of July. Although many of us begin to salivate for baked beans around this time of year, it just doesn’t do justice to what can really be done with beans. And who wants to eat baked beans on a daily basis? Not me.

Continuing with the theme of honesty, I can’t say that I loved beans at any point in my life. I had always thought of them as a necessary evil. However, I agreed wholeheartedly to try WFPB and Campbell’s guidelines (in “The China Study”) promised me that my taste buds would change. So, I started by burying beans in things that I liked.

This is the next step: buy less meat and eat more beans (legumes). Visit the first step here.

My family mostly ate chicken and luncheon meats. So, for a few weeks, I bought those already cooked chicken strips and nitrate-nitrite free luncheon meats. (We live in Amish/Mennonite land, so we had access to an affordable Mennonite grocer who sold these healthier meats for LESS than the local grocers’ regular prices.) By keeping these meat options around, my family didn’t even notice the change.

Every other day or so, I would put a few beans on my daughters’ plates, in addition to chicken, and require consumption. Early on, complaints ensued. I put on my best smile and said, “You have to eat them. Dip them in whatever you would like.” Out came the ketchup and barbeque sauce. Ranch dressing became a staple at the table. I encouraged the girls to use anything that would help them go down. Cheese was a popular option. Now, some might think, isn’t adding high sodium condiments and a dairy product counter to the whole foods diet? Well, yes it is, but I had to use every weapon I could to make beans look like a good option. And, my hunch was right; soon, the condiment portion of the meal decreased and they ate the beans plain. Chang Ching! I can now put beans on their plates with little or no complaints.

For parents (more specifically, the cook in the house), I highly recommend getting a vegetarian or vegan cookbook. Rip Esselstyn has a great book and website “The Engine 2 Diet” that has invaluable WFPB recipes. Consider trying one out.

I also borrowed various cookbooks from the library to find one that I liked and then purchased it. For your own sake (and your children’s), it’s important to begin eating beans in recipes that highlight their flavor and texture. Now, I throw beans on whatever I am eating and hardly notice them. Another option is to take a beloved recipe and replace the ingredients with beans, instead of meat.

Another tip: I buy hard beans in a bag and cook the whole bag at once. Once they are done, I portion them out into snack-sized Ziplocs in 1-cup portions and freeze them. I keep one bag in the fridge at a time. I can throw beans onto anything I am eating and they are always handy. I even enjoy the crunch that red kidney beans give to a dish. I know this is not enviro-friendly, using all these Ziplocs, but it is mom friendly. I’m also not consuming cans, it reduces sodium, and I promised myself I would come up with a better option in the future. For now, it helps us transition to eating WFPB. My daughter, Nelia, is our family’s recycling watchdog. She hasn’t noticed the plastic bag consumption, but, when she does, I know she’ll help me think of a better way. I’ll keep you posted!

I can’t honestly say that my girls’ faces now light up at the sight of beans, but they have accepted them as part of life now. To me, that is a goal accomplished and WFPB success! Share your stories of transitioning to WFPB and beans dishes you try. What was your family’s reaction?

Eating Out

Last night, we celebrated my husband, Paul’s, birthday. With gift certificate in arm, off we went to Outback restaurant. This would not have been our first choice for Whole Foods, Plant-Based (WFPB) eating, but my husband still enjoys the occasional steak. To him it is a treat. Our youngest daughter will also still eat meat. Lourdes and I figured we’d do our best.

Eating out is hot topic in the WFPB world: What do you do when you need or want to eat out? What about when you’re invited to dinner at a friend’s house? The short answer: adjust. Relationships are more important than food. I have been known to take my own dish over to my sister’s or mom’s house; I don’t expect them to cater to us. I think this would be rude and unnecessary to do with a friend. I can always eat at home before and after the meal; asking to bring a dish is another option. Right now, I prefer to place priority on the relationships.

Outback. Steakhouse. Wow. I’m perusing the menu and my choices are steak, burgers, chicken or pasta (with chicken or fish). The best things would be to get a salad with lots of veggies. Or a baked potato with vegetables on the side. I have to confess, I chose neither. We got heady over the Bloomin’ Onion. I began to salivate for the French Onion Soup. I chose both, with an appetizer Ahi Tuna: my only saving grace.

The girls didn’t like the Bloomin’ Onion at all. Too spicey. Paul and I had to finish it off. At the time, the grease and breading was doing a dance in my mouth. I ate half the soup and shared the cheese part with Lourdes.

Lourdes got macaroni and cheese, her standby favorite at any and all restaurants. A plate of white noodles completely smothered in cheese arrived. About half way through the meal, she and I were feeling the effects; as a result, I didn’t really enjoy the tuna. Paul and Nelia have iron stomachs. They sat happily playing games on the paper menu provided for kids, oblivious to our suffering. I could just feel the grease trying to work its way into my system. Yuck.

We live and learn. This is a good consequence of eating healthier. Our bodies react to junk. We made the best of it and focused on celebrating Paul. It was a good opportunity to talk to Lourdes about food choices…again. I also had a talk with myself…again.

About 4 months ago, I weaned myself off Blizzards, my go-to treat, but not by choice or with intent. With dairy completely removed from my diet, I still consumed the occasional Blizzard. I happily treated myself to one on a Sunday night. Once finished, I could immediately feel my sinuses clog up; I couldn’t really hear out of both ears. I didn’t make the connection to the milk right away, but I had plenty of opportunity the next day to think about it as I lay in bed. I was down for the count, all day, with frequent trips to the bathroom. It was not pretty. I haven’t had a Blizzard since – or any ice cream for that matter. I think yesterday’s experience will adequately  prevent any further engagements with fried foods.

I didn’t really believe my taste buds would change, as the experts claim, when I began eating a plant-based diet, but they did. When I experience these reactions in my body to the old foods I used to regularly eat, it makes me wonder what great things are happening to inside my body.

You might think this story is kind of gross. Why would anyone want to make these changes if you’re going to feel sick eating out? Because I feel great every day eating whole foods and the lasting health as I age will be grand.

I keep reminding myself of the journey. The point is not necessarily to arrive at the destination, but it’s what I learn along the way. Yeah, I’ve made mistakes. I shouldn’t have eaten the Bloomin’ Onion (oh, but it sounded so good). Lourdes will make a better choice next time. That makes two out of the four of us. That’s a Whole Foods, Plant-Based Living for Kids success! 

I promise a future post on how to eat out the WFPB way.

 

More Lunches….For Adults

I thought I would share one of my own lunch plates, since what I eat is often what gets passed down to my family. Today, I had some comfort food. For me, that’s a thick peanut butter and jelly. It reminds me of my childhood: my mom only gave me peanut butter and jelly (on luscious white bread) and an apple. She says that’s all I ever asked for. The flavors of strawberry jelly with creamy peanut butter bring me comfort, for sure, and my taste buds love it.  Now, however, my sandwich is made with homemade, whole grain bread, almond butter, and a strawberry jelly (from Mrs. Maison) that has only 4 ingredients. If you haven’t tried almond butter yet, do it! It’s pretty yummy, and tastes very nutty, which I suppose is the goal of nut butters.

I paired my sandwich with a few servings of veggies. I was going to opt for carrots, but I had already planned to grate carrots into spaghetti sauce for dinner. Then, I eyed a bag of spinach in the vegetable crisper. I didn’t much feel like chopping other veggies to accompany this. So, I went for the small bowl of mixed veggie soup. I almost always try to have a veggie soup in my fridge for this reason (see previous post). I can add it as a side dish to a meal for a quick veggie. I can add grains and beans to it and make a complete meal. It can be a snack alone. I’ve heard of people that eat veggie soup for breakfast, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to do that yet. It just doesn’t seem right. In the past, I couldn’t even stomach an omelet with veggies in it.

What do you eat for lunch? What have you tried recently that is WFPB? Have you started looking for a healthy alternative to peanut butter and a good jam? What did you find?

Creative Genuises

One thing I want to do with this blog is encourage readers to just start, even with baby steps. Here's my story of one baby step. I tried a new food on the girls the other night: bok choy. This is another great food that belongs to the cruciferous family and is loaded with antioxidants and cancer-fighting nutrients. It’s good for adults too! Before we were WFPB eaters, I cooked with bok choy; one favorite dish was strips of beef, bok choy, carrots, pasta and broth (very similar to the recipe this week). But I would place only the foods that the girls liked, by itself on a plate so nothing touched, and assembled the soup for Paul and myself.

This week, I made a soup with the bok choy, carrots, and mushrooms, and rice noodles (recipe below from The Engine 2 Diet). Lesson learned: I included foods that the girls like (carrots and rice noodles) to persuade and entice.

They loved the clear noodles, and so did Paul and I. The sauce that I made to go with the veggies included vinegar, which we love but they do not. It was a bit too sour for them.

Here, Nelia is getting creative. She didn't really like the bok choy, so she put strips of it on bread with Earth Balance. She said, "Mom. I can't even taste it!" Success in my book.

Lourdes adding low-sodium soy sauce to enhance (okay, mask) the taste of the sauce. Genius!

Lourdes is thoroughly enjoying the rice noodles. Highlight of her meal. 

The proof’s in the pics! So try something new this week, engage your creative genius, and definitely include fave foods. Then, share your stories with me. 

Check out the recipe from The Engine 2 Diet.

Gingered Mushrooms, Bok Choy, and Carrots with Soba Noodles

¼ cup mirin (I used Japanese vinegar)

2 tsp tamari

1 tbsp brown rice vinegar

2 tbsp cornstarch

16 oz mushrooms, sliced

2 carrots, sliced

2 tbsp fresh ginger, minced

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 large bunch bok choy (I thought this would be too much, but it wasn’t once it began to steam)

1 ½ cups vegetable broth

16 oz cooked soba noodles (I substituted rice noodles)

2 tbsp black sesame seeds (toasted white will work also)

 
Combine the mirin, tamari, brown rice vinegar, and cornstarch in a small bowl. Stir well and set aside. Stir-fry the mushrooms on medium heat in nonstick skillet or wok for 3-4 minutes. Add the carrots, ginger, garlic and bok choy, and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the vegetable broth and mirin-cornstarch mixture, and continue cooking until the bok choy softens and mixture thickens. Serve over noodles and garnish with sesame seeds.