But what will I eat? How this blog came to be.

Its not that the world really needed one more food blogger, even a vegan or plant based one.  Whats more, I'm not even a plant based guru.   I'm not a nutritionist or a medical professional, I don't even have culinary training.  What I am is a foody who hates to follow recipes and wants to keep her husband alive as long as possible.  I am often asked to share my recipes but since I concoct vs. follow recipes, this is often a difficult task.   This blog is my journal and a way I can share my ideas.   But the real story of how this blog came to be really began when my medical doctor husband, Mike, decided to experiment with a 6 week plant based diet to see what it would do for his high cholesterol (237).   The results of this 6 week trial were shocking!  And with those results came two realizations.  The first was a rather amazed, "wow, we do really have control over our cardiac health!"  The second was a more sobering; "ugh, now we have to continue eating this way." 

Before our experiment,  I had dabbled some with vegan cooking and cooked mostly lacto-ovo vegetarian.   I was raised semi-vegitarian and dairy and meat were seen as nutritional, but not the best for health.   None the less, cheese and butter were two things I could not see myself living without.  And even with a majority of our meals being vegetarian,  my husband's cholesterol remained high (mine has always been low and FYI i didn't test my numbers because they would be skewed with pregnancy and breast feeding).    Unlike me, my husband grew up on meat and milk.  As a Dutch preacher's family in a Dutch dairy subculture,  they had a meat locker with their name on it.  Parishioners donated a half- cow to their family annually.  When I  ask about his beef eating habits growing up, he could pretty much do a Forest Gump on all the ways they ate beef; "beef stroganoff,  beef tongue, zucchini stuffed with ground beef, beef heart"……Our wedding present from his parents was a rather elaborate BBQ grill.   Mike is great at so many things, but let me put this delicately.  He'd rather boogie board than surf.  He'd rather garden than build a deck.  There was one thing that made him feel really manly and that was grilling meat.   So you can well imagine I was blindsided when my husband wanted to do a strict 6 week plant based diet. What I wanted to say was, "no way!" I was in my third trimester of pregnancy with our third baby and getting ready to homeschool our kindergartner. I had no room in my life for the leaning curve to go plant based.  But, after some thought, I agreed to do what I could, and he would need to make up the difference.  I  know my husband and I knew it was act now or the moment may never present itself again.  So we jumped in with both feet.  When we were at a loss for what to eat, we often just vacillated between the only plant based meals we could think of: whole wheat spaghetti with marinara, and vegan taco salad.   

What we are most interested in is helping people navigate the initial learning curve of going plant based  and to answer the question, "but what will I eat?" I'm not here to sell you on the benefits of plant based eating.  I'll leave that to others (and FYI, the book that really changed our thinking was, How to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by

Esselstyn (http://www.amazon.com/Prevent-Reverse-Heart-Disease-Nutrition-Based/dp/1583333002/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403034944&sr=8-1&keywords=how+to+prevent+and+reverse+heart+disease.)   I'm starting from the place many peole find themselves in;  they have read about it,  they believe it, but they don't know how to go about practicing plant based eating.    

As for our 6 week trial, it in no way reflected a long term commitment for a lifestyle change for us.  But when my husband's blood test results came back with a 65 point drop in his cholesterol, we had a choice to make; maintain control over our cardiac health, or face western diseases.  Some people joke that dairy and meat are worth dying early for.  But my husband's specialty is in elder care and end of life.  He sees preventable disease all day long, and when faced with the degree to which the suffering he saw was preventable, well, that was sorbing.  So not only was the conversion for us clear, but his desire to convert his patients and colleagues has become a powerful desire as well. 

As Mike shared what he was reading with our family, many of them joined us in this endeavor and some had been doing it before we were.  So we were blessed to share family meals with everyone on board. Initially, with the 6 week trial, we wanted to know what it really took to eat this way.  We wanted to know if we could really do it, if it would really effect our cholesterol, if we could enjoy our food and therefore our lives (we are foodies after all).  But in this time, many unexpected changes occurred.  Our palettes changed.  I began to really taste my food and appreciate nuance and mineral tastes in my vegetables, while at the same time,  some of the processed snacks that are universally loved became just gross and salty to me.  My cravings (addictions), to sugar, salt, and fat all but went away.  Our attitudes changed, our sluggishness changed, that heavy feeling we had come to accept after most meals ceased to exist at all.  Many of us lost weight while stuffing ourselves silly and not exercising one bit.  But two of the most unexpected changes during this time were that our kids' attitudes changed about certain foods as they watched us embrace them and that after the 6 week mark, none of us, not one of us, was really missing meat, cheese, or milk.  

As for Weight loss? Mike lost 10 lbs, which I was really excited about since at one point in my pregnancy I think we were only 5 lbs apart and nothing makes a girl feel better than sharing a number on the scale with her husband.   I'd love to tell you how my baby weight just melted away, but alas, I still have to watch my quantity, even on this diet.  But I am finding it easier than with my first two babies because I'm not craving sugar and cheese, as well,  I only gained 25 lbs this pregnancy because of the diet.   So I don't have nearly as much to lose as I did with my first baby.   Now, my MIL lost all her baby weight, and its been 42 years since Mike was born.  So much for the myth that weight gain with age is inevitable.  Not on this diet!  

I began this post months ago back when I actually thought I had time to be a blogger (snicker snicker).     I don't know, maybe homeschooling with three kids, a baby, blogging, and cooking mostly from scratch was a little more than I could do.   In any case, it has been one year since we started this journey.  We've had plenty of time to stray from and  abandon this lifestyle, but we have not.  We are not as strict as we were  in our 6 week trial, but we still follow plant based eating.   Don't ask me how much cheese and cake I ate over our recent weekend trip to Big Bear Lake, its true, we make exceptions, especially in social settings.   You will need to decide how strict you want to be.   Though I highly encourage you to be strict for a trial period for the sake of getting over cravings and changing your pallet.  Not everyone can be or wants to be that dedicated to a plant based diet.  Follow the good, better, best rule.  Some people will choose to eat the best they can whenever they can.  You may just want to make some improvements and incorporate a few plant based meals a week into your life.    Some people find that cheating begets more cheating.  Others are trying to reverse disease and strictness is important to their health.   You will need to figure all of that out for yourself.   I hope this blog can help inspire you as you ponder, what will we eat? 

Winter Fruit Shake with Pomegranate and Pear (plant based)

Fruit shakes make the perfect plant based meal.  We all know what a great antioxidant food pomegranates are, but not everyone actually likes to eat them because of the seeds. However, in a fruit shake, you can pulverize them and never know they are there.

Ingredients: 1 seeded pomegranate, 1 peeled orange, 2 whole pears,   1 1/2 cups frozen berries

I have pushed the limit of what can be snuck into a fruit shake and still get my family to drink it (kale, spinach, chia...).   This is not that kind of fruit shake.  I just wanted a simple, seasonal, all-fruit, fruit shake that would taste really good (and use up the pomegranates from my tree). 

You may not have the will to de-seed a pomegranate even if you have discovered the 30 second de-seeding technique .   For you, there are lots of frozen berry options that incorporate pomegranates these days.  The real star of this fruit shake is the pear.   I find I don't need any sweetener or even a banana to make this fruit shake smooth and sweet.  You won't even need to add liquid to this if your fruits are juicy and in season.  This makes about 7 cups, or enough for 3 or 4 servings.

Why am I almost 40 and just now discovering how to do this!
Words don't do this de-seeding technique justice.  See link.   But you get the idea, score and pull the fruit in half and whack the back of it with a wooden spoon until all the seeds fall into the palm of your hand and the bowl below.  No need to discard all the white stuff since you will be grinning it up anyways.

Use the whole fruit if you have a high powered blender (remove the stem)

Grind the pomegranate seeds, whole pear,  and pealed orange until smooth.  Add a few tablespoons of water if necessary.  

Then add frozen berries and blend until all the lumps are gone (add some water if you need to)

Cream of Thanksgiving soup with a cranberry Tofurky sandwich (vegan)

How this meal came to be:

This will be the first plant based Thanksgiving since my husband and nearly his whole family converted to a plant based diet a few months ago.  While experimenting with how we were going to modify our upcoming Thanksgiving meal, a holistic chef friend of ours suggested a simple green bean, mushroom, and coconut milk version of the green bean casserole.   She made if for us one evening and it was wonderful.  Then, I had an epiphany; coconut milk is not just for Thai cooking! If you used to make something with butter, cream, or cream of mushroom soup, chances are you can make it with coconut milk! Then it dawned on me: I can deconstruct the entire Thanksgiving meal into a soup and a sandwich and eat it every day from now until December.

soup ingredients (serves 4)
2-3 med potatoes (skin on)
1 med yam (skin on)
10-15 mushrooms
1 white onion
4 cloves garlic (pealed)
1 stalk celery
1 carrot (skin on)
1/2 tsp rosemarry
1/2 tsp thyme
2-3 bay leaves
 a few handfuls of chopped fresh green beans
1 can coconut milk
salt to taste

Chop onion and potato into equal size pieces (about 1"), put in pot, cover with water and begin to simmer.  Clean mushrooms with damp paper towel, clean carrot and yam with vegetable brush.  Slice thinly.

going plant based takes more time; more time shopping, more time chopping……so a few investments are quite necessary to make up for this time investment and a food processor is my number one recommendation and after that a high powered blender.   caption

Chop green beans into 1" pieces
Once potato and onion are soft, and you can easily stab the potato with a fork,  add the skinned garlic and coconut milk and puree with a soup wand ( or transfer to blender and puree).  In pot, add all remaining ingredients along with puree.

 Simmer covered until green beans are tender (about 15 min)

Now for the sandwich

sandwich ingredients
bread of your choice
Tofurky slices
butter lettuce
tomato
red onion
cranberry sauce
veganaise (optional)

If you pass on the cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving (I know I do), don't discount it in a sandwich.  Its better than you think.   I'm also going to confess that I garnished my soup with fried onion pieces from TJ's (Trader Joes).  But that was just naughty of me.