#whygooil-free

Re-aligning with Dr. Esselstyn's diet...

We have been revisiting documentaries and the research just to refresh our memories and to make sure we understand why we are doing what we do...really focusing on the importance of staying oil-free.  When home, I focus on preparing meals without oil, even though many vegan recipes contain oil.

Why is it, then, that John needs to avoid oil?



I found this video, Making heart attacks history: Caldwell Esselstyn at TEDxCambridge 2011:

So..... plant-based diet...and no oil...

I love to bake, and we enjoy stir fry, but no oil? Certainly a little oil would be OK, wouldn't it?

Well, this IS the same source, so, maybe it's just him......Here is Michael Klaper, MD on olive oil:

The more I look into this, the more I see split findings: some findings show oils create heart disease, other research says the health benefits outweigh any negatives. I wonder who funds the studies saying oils are good for us...........

We were at WalMart looking at shampoo and decided to do our own investigation  by looking at labels.  

To the right is the label from 100% Organic, Extra Virgin, Unrefined, First Cold-Pressed Olive Oil:  Notice...1 tablespoon = 120 calories  with every single calorie coming from fat.

Wow! Talk about empty calories. 

No more than seven percent of our total daily calories should come from saturated fats, according to the American Heart Association. If we consume approximately 2,000 calories per day, that means our saturated fat limit is 16 grams or 140 calories from saturated fat.

Or, in this case...1 tablespoon of olive oil per day. ..if we follow  AHA instead of a heart-disease reversal diet. I would bet that most Americans consume far more than 1 Tablespoon of oil a day.

What about coconut oil?   We hear a lot about the benefits of coconut oil.   I'm sure that has to be better for us, right? Check out this one from Trader Joe's..... 

1 tablespoon = 120 calories  with every single calories coming from fat.



Hmmm... Safflower or Sunflower oil?  It;s all the same! All calories in oil are derived from fat. Pouring oil on a salad or a veggie is like adding liquid fat. Neither of us need that! John has lost 20 pounds since going plant-based, and I have lost 15.  Neither of us need to pour fat on our foods.... We are happy to have shed some poundage!

Oil-free it is!

Now, I do have olive oil and safflower oil and will continue to buy them.   But we don't ingest them. I use them on my dry skin.  I also use them to remove makeup.   I even use them as a hot oil treatment for my scalp. but, I will not use them in cooking ever again!

I am even feeling a little guilty that I was using them in cooking before when I would brush oil on a chicken breast before roasting, toss veggies with oil before cooking...even using it in baking... I used to take a teaspoon of coconut oil every morning..... 

Never again.

Now, how does that impact my cooking?

Recipes

I love to bake......and baking to me used to mean eggs, milk, and butter.  Vegan baking meant flaxseed-and-water "eggs," almond milk, and some kind of oil.  Don't get me wrong, This is still vegan...it's just not as heart healthy as I want us to be.


We have some very good friends, Joe and Ellie, with whom we like to go out to dinner, then enjoy dessert back at their place after dinner. I used to bring cookies or cake or pie, but since John's heart attack, I have felt limited in my dessert offerings.   I have made pumpkin spice bread, but I wanted to try something different and found Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies from Isa Does it by Isa Moskowitz.  These cookies are good alone or even dipped in coffee....  I tweaked this recipe to use applesauce instead of oil. Instead of rolling the dough into a ball and flattening it as the recipe suggests, I found I had to make these a drop cookie and bake them on parchment paper...but they are delish!  We shop at Aldi's when possible, and I prefer their unsweetened applesauce as the container is easier for me to pour.  I use a 1:1 ratio of Aldi's unsweetened applesauce to oil.   No sticking, just wonderfully moist heart-healthy cookies.

Here is her recipe as originally written:

Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

1/2 cup canola oil                                                1/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 cup granulated sugar                                    1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup light molasses                                         1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup non-dairy milk                                          1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp pure vanilla extract                                      1 Tablespoon ground ginger

1 tsp chocolate extract                                         1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour                                   3/4 cup white chocolate pieces

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium owl, use a fork to vigorously mix together oil, sugar, molasses, and milk. Mix for 1 minute until it resembles dark caramel. Then mix in vanilla and chocolate extracts.

Sift in 1 cup of the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ginger, and cloves. Stir until well-combined. Add the white chocolate chips and the remaining 2/3 cup flour and stir  briefly.  Finish mixing with your hands.

XLLS​​

 Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls and flatten into roughly 2 inc disks. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes until the bottoms appear a few shades darker.

Let cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cool rack.

 

I also have played around with a chai-spice snickerdoodles recipe,  making it oil-free. These cookies are wonderful dunking cookies for coffee or tea and are addictive eaten from the plate. Again, I substituted unsweetened applesauce and turned them into drop rather than "roll and flatten cookies," but they baked beautifully!

These are not my only experiments in oil-free cooking over the last few weeks.  A few days ago we made buckwheat pancakes - again adding applesauce in lieu of oil. We cook on a seasoned cast iron skillet and had no trouble turning these beauties.  We did have trouble, however, in stopping eating them, as they were just so good.  We will make them again next week, and I will share the recipe and pix then.

I am also experimenting with vegan brownies. I tweaked one recipe and while the outcome tasted great, the brownie was more like a one-layer cake rather than a fudge brownie. Not at all bad, but just not a brownie.   I am sill playing with recipes there and will share once I have a good fit.

Meanwhile, we are re-invested in this new way of life  and have been vegan for 73 days! Still not missing the meat.....and now, we are working toward being even healthier for this new year......

We can do this!

Adjusting

Medical update

John's FBS is still below 100 unless we have baked sweet potatoes at dinner, or if he eats dates before bed.  He is now on a 3 week break from testing for the blood thinner, so that is good.

Yes!

Eating out while plant-based

I am used to navigating around allergies when eating out, and I thought that was difficult to do.   I really thought that eating plant-based in Asheville, NC - a real foodie place - would be a snap.  Perhaps it is, but we are still tying to chart our course through the menus.

We have twice tried a local burger place that also has veggie burgers.  They were OK, but they bothered our stomachs later. I suppose we need to remember that we were, after all, at a burger place. FAIL.

One evening I worked late, so John joined me, and we decided to go out to eat on the way home. Mistake!  We now know we need to plan where to go in advance, that we can no longer just stop anywhere.  One restaurant that we knew had a vegetable bar was closed, so we stopped at a Greek and Italian restaurant thinking we could find something there. John told the server we were vegan and asked for suggestions.  Her response: "Vegan...that means no meat, no sugar, no nothing, right?"  She was serious.  I then asked her what they had on draft.  Asheville has 20+ craft breweries, and all restaurants serve local beer. Her response: "Do you mean beer that doesn't come in a bottle?   I can bring you a glass with any beer."  And it went downhill from there... FAIL.

Next we had an office Christmas party.  Several attendees were vegetarian and some were vegan, so I knew we would be all right food-wise, particularly as it was catered.  We had a wonderful salad, a vegan bean soup with kale....and then the desserts....No vegan dessert, but that was fine....we had apple pumpkin spice bread waiting for us at home. WIN.

Just the other night we were invited out to dinner with friends and tied the local restaurant Soba.  I am in love! I had the Glass noodle Soup and Mei Fan with bean sprouts, carrots, onions, and cabbage stir fried with rice noodles.   Yum!   I even brought some home.   John had stir-fried mixed veggies. Now I just need to learn how to eat with chopsticks. WIN!

Mei Fan *gf Beansprouts, carrots, onions & napa cabbage stir-fried with vermicelli rice noodles - See more at: http://www.sobaweaverville.com/menu.php#sthash.9WhjjHKB.dpuf

 

Me enjoying shakeology on the way to the office

Cooking at Home

We are still struggling with eating all of the necessary veggies, but we are doing better.  We now have a VitaMix, and, while we have not really made vegetable juice in it, we have used it for our shakes, adding extra spinach to the vegan chocolate shakeology, along with frozen fruit and flax seeds.  Flax seeds give shakes a nice nutty flavor!

I am still struggling with figuring out the Beachbody containers for portion control.  It was much easier when protein fit into one container, veggies into another. Now I often mix proteins and veggies and grains together...and since most plants have protein, the containers elude me....But I keep trying.

We have actually experimented quite a bit in the last few weeks.  We now have a Crispy Belgian Waffle recipe that freezes well and is yummy!  We also experimented with pumpkin pancakes and a few dinners, too!

CRISPY Vegan Chocolate Chip Belgian Waffles

Notice the title ...CRISPY..   If you want light and fluffy waffles, this is not the recipe for you. these are nicely crisp!

3/4 cup all-purpose flour                                       1/3 cup vegan chocolate chips
3/4 cup whole wheat flour                                     2 T ground flax seed
1 T. baking powder                                                5 T water
1/2 tsp salt                                                              2 tsp vanilla extract
3 T white granulated sugar                                    1 1/2 cups almond milk
5 T safflower oil                                                    1 T apple cider vinegar

1. Preheat the waffle iron.
2. Combine the flax seed and water in a small bowl and set aside.  Approximately 5 minutes is best...
3. Combine the almond milk and the apple cider vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside.
4. Add the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and vegan chocolate chips to a medium bowl and whisk to combine. .
5. Add the safflower oil to the almond milk and vinegar, and whisk. Next add the flax seed mixture and vanilla.....and whisk some more.... I actually keep all of my we ingredients in a 4 cup measure....
6. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well until few lumps remain.
7. Pour into your waffle maker,following manufacturer's instructions.  In our case we get 9 waffles, and they cook for 15 minutes.

One of our neighbors gave us an early Christmas gift, Robin Robertson's Vegan Planet.  This is a wonderful resource for those new to plant-base eating and contains a variety of protein basics, including a recipe for making seitan from scratch, next on my "must try" list. For those of you who do not know this, seitan is a wheat protein that can be fried, made into a loaf, cubed....a very versatile protein source.

Of course we had to try a few recipes from this new resource...  One morning we made pumpkin pancakes.   That same evening we tried the black bean  and sweet potato enchiladas........

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

1 1/2 cups unbleached whole purpose flour            1/2 teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons raw sugar                                         1 1/4 cups nondairy milk

1 Tablespoon baking powder                                  1/3 cup solid packed pumpkin

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice                                 1 tablespoon oil (applesauce for us)

XLLM​​

In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder,pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Set aside.

In a food processor or blender, combine the nondairy milk, pumpkin puree, and oil/applesauce and process until well-blended. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.

Cook as you would any pancake - be it on a griddle or in a cast-iron pan.

And, yes, non-vegans love these....and if you add a few handfuls of vegan chocolate chips...oh my.....

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced          3 Tablespoons chili powder

1/4 cup water                                                  salt and pepper

3 garlic cloves, minced                                     2 cups tomato salsa

1 small, fresh, hot chili                                     8 large flour tortillas

1 1/2 cooked lack beans or 1 15 oz can            1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

     of beans rinsed and drained

1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, drained

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Lightly oil a baking sheet (or line a baking sheet with parchment paper and omit oil). Arrange the sweet potatoes in a single layer on the baking sheet and roast until tender, turning once, about 20 minutes.Remove from oven and set aside.  Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Heat the water in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and chili and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the beans, tomatoes, chili powder, and salt and pepper to taste Stir in the sweet potatoes and simmer for 5 minutes. Set aside.

Lightly oil a 9 x 13 baking dish.  Spread a thin layer of salsa  over the bottom of the dish and set aside.

​​

Place a tortilla on a flat work surface. spoon a portion of the sweet potato mixture down the center of the tortilla and roll it up.  Place the filled tortilla in the baking dish, seam side down, and repeat with the remaining tortillas and the filling mixture.  spoon any remaining mixture over the top of the enchiladas, top with remaining salsa, and sprinkle with the copped onion. cover and bake until hot and bubbly, about 20 minutes. Serve hot.

I bet you noticed the acorn squash...that recipe came from elsewhere and was a quinoa cranberry - stuffed acorn squash.  I had to improvise though, and used leftover wild rice and dried cherries.  Still yummy....

My next food experiments will include soups and desserts...

The more comfortable we become with this life choice, the easier it becomes...

We can do this!

#plant-based diet for Thanksgiving

Medical update

Wonderful!  We finally saw a cardiologist, and a new cardiologist at that.  While John really liked his original cardiologist, he was never available.  We would call to schedule an appointment and were always told the first available appointment was 3 months away. Three months????

We asked for a new cardiologist and were given one who follows a plant-based diet and recommends that for his cardiac patients.   He also directs the Ornish wellness clinic in our area and has been studying the link between plant-based diet and reversing heart disease for 16 years...and he and his family follow the same diet.

Excellent!

He is interested in helping John eventually remove medications and in have test results - DATA - to back up decisions.   We felt so much better after meeting with him.  He understands the diet, the health benefits, and is willing to work with us.  John sees him again in 5 months and, pending positive test results, they will begin looking at removing medications.

YES!

Plant-based, not Vegan

One of the facets of our discussion with the cardiologist was terminology.  His preference - and the current word choice - is that of plant-based eating rather than vegan. this reference point here has to do with health.  Someone eating potato chips and drinking soft drinks all day is technically vegan, but not healthy.

So...the current phraseology is hat we follow a plant-based diet.

This really does make sense, and it helps define our food choices...everything we eat comes from plants.

Juicing or Smoothies?

We mentioned to the cardiologist that we were juicing to help john get the vegetables hat he needed.  the cardiologist said hat was fine but that we were wasting a lot of the nutrients because our juicer removed the pulp rather than integrating it into the drink.  Years ago before we live n our boat, we had a Vitamix and loved it...made smoothies everyday - and the children enjoyed them as well. The Vitamix made bread dough, ground flour, made but butters, hot soups, and was very useful.  It was huge, though, and took up quite a bit of counter space. when we moved on the boat, we measured everywhere, trying to find a place it would fit. Nothing. It was too tall to fit in or under a cabinet. It could live in the shower or in a sink.....or up on the fly bridge.....but there would be no way to lug it an and use it because of its height.  Reluctantly we gave it away to good friends and later bought a juicer which we have been using. Now, though, we have ordered a refurbished Vitamix and cannot wait for its arrival!

Misconceptions

The more time we spend with people who do not eat a plant-based diet, the more questions we receive. Evidently there are quite a few misconceptions out there.

10 minute whole grains & rice blends from Aldi

Folks seem to assume I spend a lot of time preparing a meal....I really don't spend any more time preparing a plant-based meal than I do a meal with meat. Most meals are ready within an hour...and most of that time is spent with food cooking wen I'm doing something else. Crockpot stews and chilis take about 15 minutes to prep then cook all day. Rice takes anywhere from 10 minutes to 45 minutes.  Aldis has the wonderful blends of whole grains and rice that only take 10 minutes to cook, so we use them a few times a week. Probably the most time-intensive recipe I have tried was beet burgers with grilled pineapples. They were awesome! I had to cook the beets and the whole grain brown rice and let that cool before assembling. Then I realized the mixture needed to chill 2-36 hours before making the patties and cooking them.  I put everything in a gallon ziplock and chilled it overnight...and we had brown rice and black beans for dinner that night while the other was chilling. We also have a lot of leftovers, which I freeze, so those make fast dinners or lunches.  I have enjoyed spending time creating beautiful salads, but that is fun!

Anther misconception is that we can eat eggs and butter. Nope. John reminds folks that if it had a face or a mother we cannot eat it, and some people seem to miss that connection with regards to eggs. I see why the term plant-based diet fits so well.  Neither of these foods come from a plant, so..nope, we don't eat it.

Our first plant-based Thanksgiving

Our first thanksgiving went well.  We had dinner with family, and I brought a bean chili, a cold bean and artichoke salad, and my apple spice cherry bread. We ate grilled asparagus, Brussel sprouts, corn, and what we brought and were fine.  the rest of he family sampled our food ad asked for recipes, so I think we were not too big of an issue for them.

We survived!

This week's recipe experiments

I tried two new recipes this week - one for the crockpot and one for breakfast.

Slow cooker lentil and pumpkin chili 

I needed a bean dish for Thanksgiving and wanted something in a slow cooker to make it easier to transport and keep warm, so, I googled.  what a wonderful invention.  Whatever did we do before google? anyway, found this recipe that included pumpkin and a secret ingredient - a tablespoon of chocolate - and this was a great find...and a recipe that family members have requested. Although we have not tried his, spooning this chili over a baked potato sounds delicious. 

Click HERE to see this recipe on spryliving.

Chocolate waffles, vegan style

We decided to be decadent and try a waffle recipe.  Actually, we were in WalMart looking for another 3 quart saucepan for cooking rice and found a waffle maker for less than $20, so we bought it and then I started looking for recipes. We took a recipe and tweaked it - our first healthy yet decadent breakfast.

These are absolutely wonderful!

Dry ingredients                                     Wet ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour                  1 3/4 cup almond milk
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa                  1/4 cup safflower oil
2 teaspoons baking powder                  2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat the waffle iron according to manufacturer's instructions.
2. Sift together dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients individually.  Mix together until well combined.
4. Spray the waffle iron with cooking spray and cook waffles as instructed in your waffle iron manual. With our waffle iron, we cooked them for 6 minutes.
5. Serve with your choice of topping: powdered sugar, maple syrup, sliced fruit.....

Makes 8 waffles in our waffle iron.

Can you imagine anything better than chocolate for breakfast? AND we had enough to freeze! We will definitely fix these again and even share some with house guests.

This plant-based  whole foods diet is becoming easier every week, and we survived a food-based holiday! We ate in a restaurant with family on Thanksgiving Friday, with john eating a salad while I had a taco salad.  My plan is to find enough recipes that when family and friends come to visit, we can feed them without their missing the meat.

We can do this!

#eatingvegan

Medical update

Whoo hoo!   John saw our primary are physician today:  fasting BS was great.  Pulse was great!   Blood pressure was awesome!  And when he returns in January for a checkup, the doctor will rerun bloodwork to check cholesterol, PSA levels, and blood sugar so we will see how the impact of the diet....and hopefully begin removing a med or two. 

We see the cardiologist the day before Thanksgiving....and..John has lost 10 pounds since his heart attack, aka, since becoming vegan.

Odd Questions

Someone asked us if we were "still vegan."  This question just leaves me nonplussed. If a cardiologist refers you to cardio rehab to pursue a vegan diet, then the response is, "Heck yes, we're vegan!" I mean, come on - what other choice is there for us?  If we continue to eat the way we had been eating, then John would invariably have another heart attack, and another, until eventually one would take him away.

We are now vegan - if others do not agree with this approach, then fine, but do not imply that this is a fad for us. This is our new lifestyle. I want many decades of time with him, and if this is what we have to do to be together, then there is no question.

Another odd question: "Are you angry vegans?"  I have to admit that I had no idea as to how to respond......and had to ask a vegan work colleague if she knew what that meant. She thought about it and finally came up with the idea that perhaps this person was referring to the ones who become vegan as part of animal rights - angry vegans - the ones who throw red paint on those wearing fur, who picket McDonalds..... Nope, not us. I don't feel animals should be tortured or mistreated, but we are not animal rights activists.  Now, I might be willing to protest a lack of GMO labeling or the lack of farmers' markets or the inclusion of soy in so many products.....

Our Continuing Education

Finally, after a month of waiting, our two Dean Ornish books arrived, and John is reading the chapters regarding causes of cardio vascular disease....it is not genetic, we do not inherit it from our parents, we develop it from our food choices.  Well, that certainly places the responsibility squarely in our hands: we are responsible for what we put in our mouths, and what we put in our mouths impacts our bodies.

Finding nothing to watch on the regular television channels...and even less to watch on the cable channels... we flipped back to Netflix and found the documentary Food Choices. Here is the trailer for this production:

This documentary promotes a plant-based diet, utilizing research and nutrition experts. Three topics really intrigued me.  One of the topics addressed was vegan athletes who reported the same results I have found - more energy, better workouts, greater speed and endurance. (I am now running 8-minute miles, down from 10-minute miles). The second topic of interest was the "fat vegan" (not my term - THEIR term). Most vegans are somewhat lean, but some are not. I had not really considered that before. These vegans eat a plant-based diet yet remain overweight and with some of the same health issues as those who eat meat. when these vegans drop foods such as avocado, nuts, nut milks/butters, and oils, they lose weight and their health improves.  the final item that caught my attention was vegetarianism. While I have known that a vegetarian eats  no meats, it never occurred to me that eating eggs, milk and butter really made them no different from those who consume beef, poultry, or fish. They still consume animal products...and those animal products still negatively impact their health.

The impact of food on our health just continues to amazes me....

I still spend quite a bit of time researching and looking for oil-free recipes..  I love to bake and really miss baking as I currently have only one really good moist bread (see previous blog post for recipe), but oil-free, egg-free, nut milk-free recipes are difficult to find...but I will keep looking...or figure out how to make some substitutions.

The Veggie Issue

I have finally resolved the issue of how to get enough veggies in our diet:   JUICING!   I don't know how I forgot about this.  We used to juice and own both a Jack LaLanne Juicer and Nutribullet...and 4 different recipe books on juicing. We were watching  another documentary - this one entitled Hungry for Change - and were reminded about the power of juicing in an interview with Joe Cross.  


The following trailer  is for Hungry for Change:

If you have never heard of Joe Cross, he is the force behind, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead (trailer below) who took on a 60 day juice fast to address weight loss and a variety of weight-related medical problems:

Any way...we started juicing again, and I feel much more confident about us both getting the vegetable servings we need. We are still doing Shakeology with spinach added, but the juicing gives us carrots, cucumbers, beets, tomatoes - all sorts of options!  We will definitely keep a close  eye on John's blood sugar to make sure we do not overdo on the fruit, but I feel as though a weight has lifted!  We can have the servings we need without having to cram in food all day long!  Yay!

This Week's Recipe of Interest

Pre-cooking

8 hours later

Since the weather is trying to turn cold, I wanted to have some slow cooker recipes where dinner could cook all day, and we could just add a side salad. There is just nothing better than loading up a slow cooker at the beginning of the day and knowing that dinner is basically taken care of. I found a wonderful recipe for Black Bean Pumpkin Chili. 

There is one problem with this recipe:  the pumpkin and spices smell so good cooking that it tempts you to open the cover to inhale.  Do not be tempted!   Leave the house if need be because this meal smells fantastic as it cooks.  Add a side salad with a few blueberries, seeds, and oil-free dressing, and you have a complete and easy meal.

Being a vegan is becoming easier....

We can do this!

#notofuforus

Medical update

John is doing much better!   He has more energy and stamina, he walks up a flight of stairs without needing to use the handrail, and his cognition has improved. Fasting blood sugar is still in the 70s each morning, and his blood pressure is normal. P2O2 is now up from 97% to 98%.  He is down to one bloodwork visit each week.....and he has lost a total of  seven pounds since his heart attack no October 14, 2016.

YES!

My view

While energy has seldom been an issue for me, I have also noticed an increase in energy and stamina and can put more into my workouts than I had been able to in the past. I have lost 6 pounds since John's heart attack, and I attribute all of the improvement for both of us to going vegan.

Exercise update

John has been doing Tai Cheng pretty steadily and says he feels more flexible than he did when he started. As for me, I have been 21Day Fix Exreme while waiting to begin Core de Force on Monday.   I have really missed my martial arts workouts so I look forward to this workout. I'm hoping we can do these together.

Eating vegan

We have now been eating vegan for 24 days.  According to some soures, we have broken the meat-eating habit.  People ask us if we miss meat, and we don't.  Others suggest a variety of "veggie" hotdogs and such to eae us through the transition, but we have not really had a transition. We jokingly refer to our diet as having quit meat "cold turkey," and we simply have not looked back.

Motivation is everything!



Channel-surfing through Netflix one night we found a great movie to further encourage our new vegan lifestyle.  The trailer is below:

Plant Pure Nation is based on The China Study, research that supports vegan eating to reverse heart disease and cancer. This was an excellent movie, particularly as it it  referred to a diet study that took lace in a rural town in North Carolina.   This is great viewing for anyone who wants to learn more about using diet to reverse a variety of illnesses.

We are still struggling with balance and trying to eat enough veggies..Funny to think about being a vegan and not eating enough servings of veggies.... grains and beans are no problem, but these meals get large!

Currently I'm up around 7 am, grab some slow cooker oatmeal then go work out. Mid morning I eat a small salad and have a chocolate vegan shakeology with spinach and cherries for lunch. Sometime mid afternoon I gab a serving of beans and rice, then later we have dinner with a salad, grain, and beans, sometimes a veggie.... I just need to get better at making sure I fix a veggie. For me, if I eat lunch then have my shakeology later, I am just too full throughout the day.  John gets up later on, does his various tests and takes his meds, then has oatmeal. Next he does Tai Cheng, followed by his vegan chocolate shake with banana or cherries and spinach...followed by an afternoon snack then dinner.

Food Successes

I have greatly enjoyed perusing the internet searching for oil fee tofu free vegan dishes, and we have ordered quite a few new cookbooks to assist me in this endeavor.  What we look for are dishes we could serve our meat-eating friends and family when they visit, those that are tasty, easy to prepare, and "comfortable."  I thought I would share a few of them here for those of you who might be interested in experimenting.

Overnight Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oatmeal

before adding water

9 hours later

This breakfast is so easy and so good! The idea of waking up and walking into the kitchen to find breakfast ready to dish up is amazing.  Where was this recipe when  I was raising children? I have been playing with this one for a few weeks, starting with the recipe on the steel cut oatmeal container and tweaking it:

      1 cup steel cut oats

      2 cups dried apple 

      1 cup chopped dates

 1 cinnamon stick

  4 1/2 cups water

    
In a slow cooker, combine all ingredients, stir and set on low heat.  You may have to play with this, however.  I have a cheap slow cooker (less than $10), and this burns on my low setting, so I use the WARM setting and have great results. Cover and let cook overnight for 8-9 hours.  Remove the cinnamon stick when ready to serve. Leftover oatmeal can be refrigerated - beter yet - FROZEN - and reheated easily.

Apple Spice Bread

This recipe started out as a muffin recipe, but I soon figured out we could make it more versatile by cooking it in a loaf pan  for 45 minutes rather than as muffins. I use a silicon loaf pan to avoid having to grease a regular pan, and the recipe calls for using flax seed/flax meal with water as an egg substitute. Made with unsweetened applesauce, apricot jelly, and grated apple, this recipe is delightfully moist.  We tend to substitute  black cherry jelly (all fruit, no corn syrup!) for the apricot jelly, and the sweet cherry explodes in each bite.  Just plain yummy! This makes a great breakfast and would be great with almond butter or apple butter....or toasted.....

* 2 Tablespoons Flaxmeal
* 1/4 cup of water
Mix the flax meal and the water in a small bowl and set aside for 10-15 minutes. The flax meal will absorb the water and make a thick gel - a Flax egg!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk the following ingredients together in a medium bowl:
* 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
* 1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
* 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
* 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
* 6 Tablespoons sugar
* 1/2 cup raisins

In a large bowl, stir the following ingredients together:
* 1 1/4 cups unsweetened applesauce
* 1/2 apricot spread or cherry jelly
* 1 cup grated apple
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Stir  the flax mixture into the liquids bowl. Stir in half of the dry ingredients, then add the remaining half, stirring gently to combine.

Pour into a silicon loaf pan. Bake about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the loaf. Avoid over baking.

Let the pan cool on a wire rack for a few minutes. Then remove the loaf and cool completely - if you can - on the wire rack. This loaf will keep in a sealed container for a few days ..assuming any remains...... We tend to eat this so quickly that I have no idea how long it will last.

Beet and Bean Burgers

Although I really loved these veggie burgers, John is not a fan of beets, and these have a definite beet flavor.  But we tried them, and they freeze well, so I can take them for work lunches. Pictured here with a salad and ginger orange carrots, these burgers were moist with good texture (not as oat-y as some veggie burgers) and held together enough to cut them and dip them in Dijon mustard, BBQ sauce, or high fructose corn syrup-free ketchup. 

Plan ahead, though, if you decide to make these as I spent two hours making them, and they then needed to sit in the refrigerator for anywhere from 2-36 hours. Expect to turn your hands red as you work with the beets, but that does wash off.

This recipe is from Kitchn.com.

Jane Esselstyn's 3,2,1, Salad Dressing

I love salad, and this oil-free dressing is absolutely wonderful and easy to make. Jane Esselstyn is is the daughter of Dr. Caldwel Esselstyn and co-author of the Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook.  This dressing can be made in just a few minutes and is always fresh.  Although it calls for the juice of a lemon, I never have one around, so I substitute lemon juice using the instructions on the bottle.

That's all for now. Next week is John's 4-week check with out family doctor, so more updates then....   I have a few more slow cooker recipes to try out as well....AND I start Core de Force so expect an update on the martial arts workout!

 

We can do this!

#balance

Medical update

John's blood work is finally balancing (and I guess I have not fed him too much vitamin K :-), and is on a somewhat regular dose of blood thinner and does not have to return for new blood work for a whole week! His fasting blood sugar ranges between 79 and 99, and he is energetic and feels good!

Yay!

I seem to have lost another pound or two and am also full of energy.  Is this, perhaps, the vegan diet?

Balancing food

Balancing food is still proving to be difficult. I am just having a hard time making sure we get the required servings of veggies each day. Part of this is the Vitamin K issue, that, to be honest, has terrified me.

This  has to do with blood clotting.  Because of  John's stents, he has been put on the blood thinner Warfarin.  The liver uses Vitamin K to produce blood clotting agents. So Vitamin K's job is to help blood clot while Warfarin's job is stop blood from clotting.

This means the trick is to  try to keep the level of Vitamin K in John's diet pretty stable. This task would be easier if he liked vegetables.  I take that back:  he does like vegetables - potatoes...not really the healthiest vegetable.  To give him credit he has dutifully eaten green beans, broccoli, carrots, and peas....and salads. Sometimes, though, due to appointments and scheduling, we miss lunch...or do not eat lunch until around 3 pm...and I am uncomfortable with him skipping a meal because of the need to keep the Vitamin K intake steady. At least his weekly INR test helps us understand the levels.  I hope that by the time I am more comfortable with this that the cardiologist will take him off of Warfarin.


One interesting note:  John can eat rice.  We have avoided rice for years because of his diabetes, yet rice is not bothering his blood sugar, perhaps due to the other dietary changes made.

In the meantime, we have tried a variety of bean stews, a veggie burger recipe, and have even eaten out at a local vegetarian/vegan restaurant. We have both enjoyed the recipes we have tried, and I plan to try another veggie burger recipe this weekend.

When to eat?

I never thought when to eat would be an issue, but it is. I am often up at least an hour before John, and I grab breakfast (either oatmeal or a whole wheat waffle), then go downstairs to work out. By the time I finish and come back upstairs John is finishing his oatmeal and getting ready for Tai Cheng (more on exercise below). Shakeology for post exercise, followed by showers, and I am off to work. I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful job that allows me to work from home most of the time although I do try to go into the office at least two days a week. Now it's time for lunch so we can eat dinner during my office our break between 6-730 pm. Some days we really have to push to get those meals in.

#pushplay

John started Tai Cheng this week, a Beachbody program designed to improve balance and mobility by focusing on gentle non-impact movements while integrating them with martial arts application - perfect for John! We used to take Tai Jitsu classes several years and loved them.  We miss the dojo, the instructors, and the students, and this is a way to reconnect to some of that training. He has really enjoyed these exercises and has even added in some sit ups afterwards using our Total Gym.  I am very proud of him.  John has more energy and seems to be healing well.   His right writ and arm are still terribly bruised from the heart cath and he is still unable to put his weight on that wrist or to lift more than 10 pounds with that hand, but is better!

I am currently redoing a few different workouts while waiting for my new workout DVDs to arrive...hopefully within a week as I am anxious to move on.  We both seem to be revisiting our martial arts as i have chose the program Core-de-Force, a mixed martial arts workout.

Loose ends

We are settling in to this new lifestyle and look forward to new recipe, new workouts, and seeing what's ahead on this journey. I have discovered all sorts of new friends ready offering support, information, bibliotherapy, and recipes and am astounded at what energy people give so freely. We hope to be able to give back just as gracefully.

I will continue to blog about recipes, the task of balancing, food, and our journey as we delve more into a vegan lifestyle.

We can do this!

Next post: awesome vegan dishes....