Breakfast!!! #WFPBNO #foodismedicine #eattolose

Breakfast time! I'm a creature of habit and have the same breakfast almost every day. The first meal of the day is just as important as any other so I make it count. Usually the morning is rushed and I don't always have my steelcut oats already to go. Instead I use quick oats loaded up with seeds, fruits and berries with a few spices to kick it up a notch. I buy the quick oats at the local bulk food store for about a dollar per pound. It's plenty of food to keep me happy until lunch and beyond.  Nutritionally, it's a sound foundation covering a daily dose of Omega 3's, fiber and phytonutrients with grains, fruits, berries, seeds and even nuts if you like. I'm less inclined to over do it with the nuts and seeds when I'm not using them as a snack food but rather as an ingredient in a meal. It's easy to make, takes just 5 minutes and totally delicious!!

Quick Oats Plus!

1 Cup Quick Oats

2 Cups hot water

2 T Milled Flaxseed

1/2 t Cinnamon

1/4 t Turmeric

1 Banana

1/2 Cup Blueberries

1/2 Cup Raspberries or other fruit

Optional - a palm full of crushed nuts

Mix together the top 5 ingredients and microwave for 30 sec. Top it with sliced banana, berries and crushed nuts. 

If it's too hot add some vanilla almond milk or non-dairy milk of your choice.

Guilt Free Spaghetti Squash Alfredo #wfpbno #glutenfree #nutfree #dairyfree #oilfree

WFPBNO Spaghetti Squash Alfredo 

Gluten Free and Nut Free

 Last night I came home hungry and found a spaghetti squash in the fridge. I hadn't had one in a long time. I also hadn't made any Alfredo sauce in quite a while and decided to try and make Spaghetti Squash Alfredo. Cooking the squash was easy enough. I just cut it in half, removed the seeds, put it on a pan with parchment paper and sprinkled it was dried onion flakes, oregano, garlic powder and a light dusting of salt. It went into the oven at 400F for 40 minutes uncovered.

• Previously I made the Alfredo sauce out of tofu but thought I'd experiment to come up with something new. There was a package of dried Great Northern White beans in the cabinet that looked like it needed to be cooked. I rinsed them and put them in the pressure cooker with water, onion powder, garlic powder and about a teaspoon of salt. They needed to be well cooked to make the sauce creamy so I set the timer for 75 minutes then let it vent naturally.

When I was done there were plenty of beans and sauce left over.
If you are reheating the sauce stir in some extra water because it will get very thick after you put it in the fridge for the night.
Speaking of tonight, I have some whole wheat fettuccine noodles waiting for me at home that are very excited to joint in the fun! Can't wait!!!

Guilt-free Spaghetti Squash Alfredo

CREAMY VEGAN ALFREDO SAUCE.
Serves 4

2 Cups Great Northern White Beans
1.25 cups unsweetened non dairy milk
6 T nutritional yeast
5 T tapioca flour
6 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 T lemon juice
1.5 T salt
1 t garlic powder
1 T basil
2 T dried parsley
1/8th t ground pepper


Add everything to your blender and puree thoroughly. Pour it into a sauce pan and stir over medium heat until it gets thick and creamy (about 10 min.) Mix it up with your spaghetti squash or fettuccine noodles of your choice and enjoy!

5 Full years a vegan and WFPBNO! Lentil tortillas. Gluten free, oil free, guilt free. #vegan #eattolose #foodismedicine

Lentil Tortillas

Its been 5 full years since I changed from the standard American diet to a vegan lifestyle. A few months later as I learned from my mistakes, giving up oil and processed foods, I went all in joining www.PBNSG.org (free!") and fully transformed to Whole Foods Plant Based No Oil. I wish I had been open to all this when I was younger.  I wasn't ready. It's the best thing I ever did for myself!  Starting at age 58, I weighed 284 lbs. At age 60 I was down to 184 lbs and had so much energy that I became a runner for the 1st time in my life which helped me lose an additional 10 lbs.  Now, at age 63, with no meds and the blessings of my doctor I'm  keeping my weight steady around 175 lbs,  I run 5K's at 10 minutes per mile, eat until I'm full, feel great and look younger!
  I ran 2 miles on the treadmill then did free weights and circuit training at Planet Fitness today. I came home and made these.

Lentil Tortilla with Tuna-ish Salad

Gluten free, oil free, sugar free, guilt free!
My very 1st try at lentil tortillas.
They came out great!!
Easy too....
3/4 cup of lentils soaked in 1 1/4 cups of water for 4 hours.
Throw it with the water and all into a blender with 1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning and 1/4 tsp of salt.
Blend the shit out of it until it looks like pancake batter.
Use a non stick pan on medium heat.
Spread out 1/3 cup of batter into a disk on the pan.  When the steam stops (about 90 sec) flip it for another minute. I used a spatula to loosen and flip them.
Add fixings like a taco or burrito.  Go crazy!!!

59 Months A Vegan! Holiday Weight Gain and Loss #vegansolution #wholefoodsplantbasednooil #Ican'tbelieveIatethatmuch

Quinoa, Wild Rice, Mushrooms, Spinach, Chickpeas and too much Salt

    Holiday time is perpetually problematic when it comes to keeping weight off. Temptations are impossible to avoid. Everywhere you look there is some childhood favorite food, sweet treat, buttery delight or massive pile of salty goodness cooked up by your loving relatives who want nothing more than to see you chow down until you become a participant in the family food coma.

Brown Rice,Flowering Broccoli, Tomato, Nutritional Yeast and
Too Much Salt

Even though I stayed completely plant based, I did dip my hand into the potato chip bowl more than a little. Compounding the problem, we had 3 separate Thanksgiving feasts in 3 days. Wednesday was Friendsgiving where everyone my nephew ever met gathered at his house to celebrate before the big family gathering on Thursday. Thursday was Thanksgiving with the traditional family gathering including 35 close relatives and an additional sprinkling of 5 extra friends who are invited every year along with their delicious goodies. Friday was Family Gathering Revisited with the other side who all wanted to meet for dinner at a restaurant. We had 3 great times with lots of love to pass around. Only thing is I managed to gain 6 lbs in 3 days. Really....6 lbs!

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Lentils and
too much Salt

    You can't out exercise a bad diet, but you certainly can overdo it on a good one! Having lived through previous holidays, I put into place my counter measures ahead of time to keep me on track. For example: 

1)  I cooked up a storm at home of salad, rice, quinoa and roasted sweet potatoes to share and to make sure I would have plenty of food for myself at the same time. 

2)  I pre-ate before each event to satiate my appetite ahead of time.

3)  I filled my plate two thirds full of salad and one third full of roasted veggies.
4)  I drank a great deal of water
.....and it didn't work.  I still gained 6 lbs.


Here's where I think I went wrong:
Everything I ate was salted more than I'm used to.  Even though I did my own cooking, I seasoned everything to satisfy the palates of my salt loving friends and relatives.
Compounding that with the shear volume of food available and all the water I consumed resulted in a perfect storm for weight gain. My bloated,  swollen fingers were an excellent indicator of all the water I was retaining as I was OD'd on Sodium.

Black Beans, Sweet Corn, Tomatoes, Parsley and Brown Rice
With No Salt

Now....here's what I did to lose the water weight:
After the leftovers were gone, I made a bunch of food with little or no Sodium.
I increased my water intake to flush out the salt.
I upped my fiber intake above and beyond the usual 40 to 50 grams a day and got up to 75 grams a day mostly with whole grains and beans. Fiber binds water and sucks it right out of you.
I ate a lot of fresh fruit. Berries are 92% water and 8% berries. So whole grains, beans, fresh veggies, fresh fruit, fresh veggies, more fresh veggies and lots of water with little or no salt and the water weight was gone in 3 days all without me going hungry even a little bit.


Bring on the next Holiday.

1 Cup of Oatmeal, 2 cups Water, Blueberries, Strawberries, Raspberries,
Banana, Cinnamon and Turmeric with Zero Salt

Chanukah starts next week. OMG!!! Potato Latkes!!!!
Nobody's perfect, but when you screw up its good to know you can find your way back without any pain.

Have a FABULOUS holiday season....
without too much seasoning.

Celebrate yourself!!!!

WFPBNO Mac and Cheese #vegancomfortfood #eattolose

Mac and cheese, Tuna-ish, Oil Free Salad

     Gotta eat, right? For my dinner, I gotta eat right! So here is a picture of my whole foods plant based no oil dinner. It was a lot of food and I totally stuffed myself, but guilt free. Sometimes you just have to power through the plate to hit that comfort zone. 

WFPBNO MAC and Cheese

Cheezy Macaroni

Plant Perfect

Prep Time:  20 min

Cook Time:  30 min

Total time:  50 min

Recipe
3 Yukon gold potatoes
6 T Nutritional yeast
6 T Tapioca flour
1 T lemon juice
⅓ cup white vinegar
1/2 t Tabasco
1 level T salt
1/4 t Turmeric
1/4 t paprika (or smoked paprika)
1 3/4 cups of water from the potatoes

Peel, slice and boil the potatoes in salt water until cooked. (about 30 minutes). Save at least 2 cups of the water for later.

Boil a box of whole grain rotini per package directions for 9 minutes. Don't overcook it. Strain it and set aside.

Put everything along with the 1 1/4 cups of the water from the potatoes into your blender or food processor and puree it until smooth.
Pour the mixture into a saucepan and cook it on medium low heat stirring constantly with a whisk or wooden spoon until it thickens (about 12 to 15 minutes) .

In the pot you used to cook the pasta, mix the sauce and pasta together, stirring it over low heat until it reaches the desired thickness. Add a little more water if it's too thick. Let it cool allowing it to thicken a little more and serve warm.
Season with salt, pepper etc. to taste.

The sauce is also great for nachos or over veggies!

Dr. Allan Kalmus

Leftovers for Dinner. #WFPBNO #BEYONDvegan #eattolose

     Opening the fridge tonight, I was faced with an abundance of leftovers of various ages all of which passed the rigors of a carefully, meticulously executed sniff test. The vintage vegetables were put out of there misery on my chopping block and joined their relatives in the soup pot; destiny realized and fulfilled. The younger, brighter, fully hydrated bearers of all my nutritional needs blended their family colors in the harmony of my salad bowl. Finally, on this cold night of the season's first snow, my plate was rounded out by hot ghost pepper chili over whole grain noodles and under a gold crown of nutritional yeast. Every essential amino acid, vitamin and mineral present and deliciously represented most palatably on my table of leftovers. Poetry on a plate!

     Ramen brown rice and millet noodles mixed with ghost pepper quinoa chili topped with nutritional yeast, my vegetable dal and a salad of romaine lettuce, purple cabbage, roasted beets, chopped green olives, bicolored bell peppers, chopped cashews, dried onion flakes, basil, lemon juice and apple cider vinegar.

58 Months A Vegan. Red Lentil Dal. #foodismedicine #eattolose #WFPBNO

We're expecting our 1st snow of the season tonight. As good as that sounds, homemade hot soup makes it that much better! I NEVER MADE THIS BEFORE BUT I'M GOING TO MAKE IT AGAIN!!! Whole Foods Plant Based No Oil.

RED LENTIL DAL
2 cups red lentils
4 cups water
1 tsp Sabji masala
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
Set your pressure cooker for 25 minutes then let it cook until it completely vents. Stir to make it the texture of pea soup.
While that's cooking chop a medium onion, 2 carrots and 2 stalks of celery. Put all the veggies in a saucepan with 1 cup of water, 1 TBS of Tamara, 1/2 tsp of herbes de provence sea salt, 1/4 tsp smoked paprika and 1/4 tsp ground turmeric.
Bring it to a boil then turn the heat down and let it simmer for 40 minutes covered or until the carrots are fully cooked and soft.
Mix the cooked veggies including the liquid and lentils together. Stir over low heat until it looks right, adding a little water as needed then serve hot.
I like to let it sit in the fridge overnight to get really thick. Then I put it in a pot, add water to thin it a little, stir over medium heat until it starts to simmer and then serve hot.  Enjoy!!


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