Vegan Macaroni and "Cheese", Version 4.0. #CrazyGood #VeganMacCheeseDream #LactoseFree #KosherPareve

     I've been told that when you are trying to come up with an new recipe it generally takes 6 tries to get it right. I've come up with my 4th version and while they are all pretty darn good this one is just plain wonderful!  It has the flavor, the color, the texture and the stretchiness of nacho cheese sauce but with no animal products, no oil, no nuts, no gluten and no regrets. When mixed with elbow or rotini macaroni of your choice (whole wheat, regular or gluten free) you get macaroni and cheese that is out of this world! Pay attention all you lactose intolerant readers who miss macaroni and cheese comfort food. This is for you too! 

     I gave out some samples and submitted the recipe to my friends at Plant Based Nutrition Support Group.  I'm so proud that they published it! Not just as a side dish but as a main dish as well! 

Vegan Macaroni and Cheese with chopped salad and cooked Italian pearled farro

    The recipe is pretty simple. You probably already have most of the ingredients. If you don't they are easy to find and inexpensive. It even keeps well in the fridge. I stored the sauce in a glass bowl with a lid and warmed it up in the microwave on power setting 8 for 1 minute. It went right back to being its delicious, gooey self. I haven't had a chance to store it for more than 3 days because none is ever left to worry about!

     Questions? Comments? I'm looking forward to them!
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Was that so hard?

Enjoy!

My Good Vegan Math

     I had my resting blood pressure taken today at my office.  Two years ago, if I wasn't taking my prescription, it was 144/90.  Today, after 2 years on a completely whole foods plant based diet, it is 94/62.  My total cholesterol went from 234 to 137. No prescriptions for blood pressure problems or cholesterol any more!

     In 2 years my weight went from 274 lbs to a current, post holiday weight of 184 lbs. That's 90 lbs gone in 2 years with no prescriptions, no bariatric surgery and no strenuous regular exercise. It really was gone after 16 months and has stayed steady. 

     Two years ago, my waist was 44 inches and my neck was 18.5 inches. I'm now wearing jeans with a 32 inch waist (my high school size) and shirts that are fitted instead of regular with a 17 inch collar (my junior high school size).  My winter coat was an XXL 2 years ago. Now it's a medium. I shrunk.

Cauliflower with Veggie Nacho Sauce

Let's go over a comparison of  two choices for dinner: 

Vegetables of your choice with Vegan Nacho Sauce - 228 calories. 1.6g fat, 20g protein, 18g fiber

One boiled chicken breast, no sauce, nothing added - 256 calories. 6g fat, 31g protein, Zero fiber

Focus on the fat and fiber.

Animal fat contributes to plaque formation in your arteries and development of heart disease. Each gram of fat contains 9 calories. There are over 3 times fewer calories from fat in the veggies WITH nacho sauce than in just the boiled chicken breast, no skin.  The ratio gets much worse with the skin, or with fried, baked or even broiled chicken. With no fiber. None.

     Fiber is the stuff that helps keep you regular, makes you feel full and LOWERS cholesterol. Plants are full of fiber. Animal products contain no fiber. Choose health! Eat plants!

Mac and Cheeze, salad and cooked farro

So the big secret:  EAT YOUR VEGETABLES, FRUITS, GRAINS, BEANS AND LEGUMES.

Don't eat any animal products at all, stay away from anything with the word "oil" in it's name, read the label on any processed food to make sure you know what it contains and eat a handful of nuts once or twice a week. Drop soda pop and drink water. Don't sweeten things with processed sugar. Stop putting saturated fat in your coffee.

Medications are for helping you through your illness. Good food promotes good health. I was killing myself with my own fork. When I started to eat right and dropped my food addictions my health status changed from heart attack time bomb on medications to healthy adult with no need for medications.  If you have questions or need some help, join me for free at PBNSG.org. We have lots of happy volunteers eager to help you with a getting started guide, recipes, testimonials, large lectures, nationally known speakers, podcasts, small group meetings and meal preparation dinner meetings, how to guides for restaurants, healthy grocery shopping tours, etc.
    It's a New Year. Make it a healthier one while you still get to choose!

Two Years A Vegan! Before, During and Current Pictures. #FoodIsMedicine #Eat2Lose #GoVegan #LoseWeight

January 6, 2014

January 1, 2015

     New Year's Eve, it will be 2 years since I made the change from a typical American Style diet to a Whole Foods Plant Based or Vegan Style diet. I love to eat and meat was a major part of my diet. Food is comfort. Food is satisfying. Food is fun! But at the age of 58, I decided I'd had enough fun and needed to take better care of myself.

     Changing was entirely a proactive decision. No health scare needed.  I had been following Joel Kahn, M.D. on his blog for a number of months. He discussed study after study comparing variations of the American diet with a diet that is low in oil and  eliminates all animal products. The only diet that consistently resulted in across the board maximum health benefits was and is the Whole Foods Plant Based diet. 

     

     Historically, in my family, people tend to die from heart disease and cancer. Sprinkled in among my relatives are problems like obesity, peripheral vascular disease, senile dementia and Diabetes. I already had the first one and wasn't looking forward to developing the other three. So I changed my attitude from "There's no way I could ever do that!" to "This is something I have to do!" 

     Thanks to Dr. Kahn, who happened to be an old friend and to the local Plant Based Nutrition Support Group, I find myself much healthier and more fit at the age of 60 than I've been in the last 30 years. I feel younger than I did when I turned 50. My lab work and physical exam results are better than they were when I was 40.  As a bonus, I also lost over 100 lbs. That's a lot of positives without a single negative, other than having to buy all new clothes.

     As you can see from the pictures the change in my appearance has been dramatic. The feeling of well being is remarkable. Changing this one little thing has made all the difference in the world to me. My only regret is that I didn't change my ways even sooner.
New Year's Eve is almost here.  Resolve to get your health in order. Check out pbnsg.org for recipes and lots more information.

September 7, 2015

"Notcho" Dip! #Vegan #OilFree #GlutenFree #NutFree #Delicious #Kosher #Pareve

"Notcho" Dip

It's time for another holiday table. I was reading through a bunch of recipes for Vegan Nacho and Cheddar cheese substitutes. They all contained oil. So I played around a little and came up with my own version making it completely plant based, oil free and nut free. As you can see from the photo, half the bowl was gone before I even had a chance to take a picture.

Recipe

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed

1 large carrot, peeled and cut up

5 TBSP Nutritional yeast

5 TBSP Tapioca flour

1 TBS lemon juice
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 TBSP Tabasco 

2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp Turmeric

1/2 of a sweet yellow bell pepper chopped
1 Roasted Red Pepper
1 tsp regular mustard
1 tsp smoked paprika (Optional for a smoky taste)

Boil the potato and carrot together in about 3 cups of water until both are soft. It takes about 30 minutes. Save the water.
Put 2 cups of the saved water and everything else in a food processor or blender and puree it completely. It should still be a little runny.
Pour the mixture into a medium saucepan and cook it on medium heat, stirring constantly. After about 2 minutes it will start to thicken forming lumps. After about 5 minutes it will thicken into the desired texture. If it's too thick, add a little water. If it's too thin, cook and stir a little longer.
Put it in your bowl, let it cool for about 5 to 10 minutes and serve warm.
It goes great with bread, chips and cut up veggies for dipping.

Enjoy!

23 Months a Vegan! Before and After Pictures.

Rhona Snow Fidler and me 12-31-2013

     That's me the day before I changed over to a whole foods plant based lifestyle with my forever friend, Rhona. We met in Kindergarten in 1960 and met again in a local restaurant 55 years later. If you or your children are interested in dance, Rhona owns two wonderful dance studios in our area. My wife and I took some ballroom dance classes at her Birmingham location last year and had a lot of fun! Its great exercise too. Try it, you'll like it.

Dance City

685 S. Adams Rd.

Birmingham, Michigan 48009

(248)901-4454

 Look at the great shape she's in!!! On her left is me when I was the opposite of in shape.

      I've passed the 23 month mark and am creeping up on 2 years of healthy living. Do I miss anything?  Maybe pizza.  But I don't miss having to wear XXL clothes, taking blood pressure and cholesterol pills, feeling tired, being easily winded, perspiring even from activity like eating, having joint pain all the time making it painful just to stand up in the morning, needing help to get off the couch when laying down, wearing a C-PAP machine to make sure I didn't stop breathing at night or the embarrassment I felt just from being so fat.  I can do without the pizza, but thanks for asking.

     Here's a picture of me taken last night out to dinner with my grandson and most of my immediate family at the table. I had the big salad with red wine vinegar and pepper. Hold the cheese.

Me and my grandson 12/13/2015

The kid needs hugs. It says so right on his shirt. Had I not changed my lifestyle, I think there would have been several years worth of hugs from me he would have missed.

     Now that I think of it, I don't really miss pizza at all.

Chocolate Brownies!!! #vegan #Kosher #GlutenFree #Delicious

CHOCOLATE BROWNIES!!!

 Anybody out there like chocolate? How about putting something relatively healthy on the dessert table? These do have nuts but no added oil, egg, milk, butter or processed sugar. There is no complicated preparation. I just pureed everything in our blender, baked it for 35 minutes, left it in the fridge over night then cut it into squares. It came out way, way better than I ever expected. They have a deeply satisfying flavor and texture but none of the guilt.

BROWNIE RECIPE

1.5 cups of water

2 cups of raw cashews

1/2 cup of hemp hearts

1 banana

1/4 cup milled flax seeds

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 cup cacao ($9.34/LBS AT THIS LINK!!)

6 TBS Agave nectar

1 1/4 cups raisins

Preheat your oven to 325. Add everything to your blender (20% off at this link!!) or food processor and puree it thoroughly. If it's getting too thick, add a little water. There's nothing in there that you can't eat raw, so you can add more Agave nectar, cocoa, cacao or raisins until its just the way you want it.

Line a 10 x 10 inch pan with parchment paper. Bake it for 30 to 35 minutes until its firm but you still want it chewy.

Cover it with plastic wrap while it's still warm to make the top look glossy and put it in the fridge over night. Cut away the edges to get rid of (or eat) the drier, outer margin and slice the rest into squares. 

Hint:

You can also get a little adventurous and add some fresh mint or chili pepper for extra flavor.

Enjoy!!!

THE BIG "V"

Sweet Potato Torte #vegan #kosher #nutfree #glutenfree

Sweet Potato Torte

I found this recipe in a New York Times article for a Sweet Potato Torte and modified it to make it as low in oil, nut free and gluten free as I could. It came out pretty good! My Cousin Rhonda loved it and called me to tell me the piece I gave her became her entire dinner. I'm going to work on it again because it was a little dry, but the taste is pretty great!

SWEET POTATO TORTE   

3 sweet potatoes

2 cups cooked red or green lentils

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup hemp seed hearts (or ground nuts)

1 cup cooked brown rice

1 15.5 oz can of chickpeas

2 teaspoons ground Mediterranean style sea salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

2 tablespoons lite soy sauce

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon tahini (peanut butter also works)

1 6 oz can of tomato paste

1/3 cup vegetable broth

     Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cook the lentils in salt water with a 2.5 to 1 ratio of water to lentils. Cover and let them cool. Add extra water if needed to make them soft enough to mold.

Cook the brown rice in the same way, cover and let it cool.  Use the tahini to lightly grease a 10 inch springform pan and line the pan with a circle of lightly greased parchment paper. Peel the sweet potatoes. Soften them by wrapping them in a moist paper towel and partially cooking them in the microwave on high for about 5 minutes. Let them cool enough to handle then cut them into slices, 1/4 inch or less in thickness and arrange them in an overlapping fan to cover the bottom of the pan.  Add the cooked lentils to form a layer over the sweet potatoes and pack them down.  

     Put the rolled oats and hemp hearts in a blender and pulse into a coarse textured meal. Put it in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Add the tahini and all the remaining ingredients to the blender and puree until smooth and spreadable. Add this to the bowl with the oats and hemp hearts. Mix it all together adding a little more vegetable broth as needed to keep it spreadable. Add it over the lentils to make an even layer.  Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes then uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes. Remove it from the oven and allow it to cool enough to handle. Flip it over on an oven proof dish and remove the springform pan. Put it under the broiler for 5 minutes to caramelize the sweet potatoes a little. Serve it hot.

Next time I want to cut the slices of sweet potato much thinner and make the lentils more moldable than I did this round. The above directions take this into account and have been adapted to improve on my first try. That has nothing to do with the flavor. It was delicious. Would Cousin Rhonda tell a fib? 

Enjoy!!!!