Low Calorie Density High Volume Dinner

   There's this thing about food. Some people, meaning me, continue eating past the point where their stomach is full. It's as if the pressure sensors in the stomach have lost their ability to communicate with the brain. I have my own first hand experience with over eating and in my case it's not about a failure to sense my fullness. It's about my brain having the power to override my stomach, full or empty. I'm a stress over eater. When the stress levels increase, my ability to control myself decreases.

It helps to keep an accurate food journal. That way both your stomach and your eyes will team up on your brain to force some accountability into the feedback loop.
In light of this fact, I started blogging 6 years ago to keep a record of my thoughts, my recipes and to share my journey to improving health with approaches you can  use to overcome the challenges. There are a lot of challenges. One big one is finding foods that are not conventional salads yet fit the bill of being very low calorie density, high enough in volume to satisfy my bottomless pit of a stomach and still have the high nutrient density that qualifies it as a WFPBNO component of a healthy meal.
A quest on par with finding a unicorn eyelash in a field of 4 leaf clovers.
     Enter a food called "Healthy Noodles".  I stumbled across them one day at COSTCO in the refrigerated section near where they keep the guacamole. The main ingredient is soybean flour. A 4 oz serving is 25 calories. Compare that to a 2 oz serving of whole wheat spaghetti at 180 calories. That means I can eat a whole pound of these noodles and it's only 100 calories!!! The packs are each 8 oz which is supposed to be 2 servings, but I ate the whole pack, pictured above with a lot of veggies. So the noodles were 50 calories, 2 carrots (50 calories), 1 onion (28 calories), 3 stalks of celery (26 calories),  1 ear of corn (110 calories), 2 cloves of garlic (< 4 calories), 2 leafs of purple cabbage (22 calories), 1 T  date syrup (59 calories), 1 yellow bell pepper (44 calories), 1 cup of chopped kale (33 calories), 1 medium naval orange (69 calories). 

That makes 495 calories for 2 servings or 248 calories for 1 normal person serving. Its low calorie with high nutritional density and virtually no flavor of its own.  You make it just as delicious as you want with your favorite spices to make it savory with soy sauce, onion, peppers and garlic or with some vinegar, citrus fruit and date syrup to balance it out against every taste bud in your mouth. This is a serious amount of filling food for one meal, but its so low in calories you could add dessert with no guilt!

WFPBNO Simple Sweet Potato Chocolate Brownies!!! #VEGANBROWNIES #WFPBNOsweetpotatoBrownies

Sweet potato brownies are delicious and so easy to make. I didn't even need a food processor or a pan! I don't have a reason not to use those things, but this way, other than a mixing bowl and a fork, there was nothing to clean! There is 1 tablespoon of maple syrup for added sweetness but you can use more or none. It's still going to be good!
I baked it in our toaster oven.

1 large sweet potato
1 ripe banana
4 rounded TBS cocoa powder
4 TBS unsweetened quick oats
4 TBS unsweetened coconut flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 TBS maple syrup
1 TBS vanilla almond milk

Makes 4 servings

Wash the sweet potato and wrap it in a moist paper towel. Microwave for 6 minutes.  Let it cool for 10 minutes. While its cooling, mash the other ingredients together in a mixing bowl. When cool enough to handle, peel and add the sweet potato. Mash everything together until it's thoroughly blended. Let it sit for 15 minutes to thicken.
Place it on parchment paper and shape it into a square about 1 inch thick. Bake it at 400F for 35 to 40 minutes. Let it cool enough to handle and wrap it in plastic wrap to hold in the moisture, giving it a glossy finish. Refrigerate for an hour.
Cut it into 4 squares and serve.

Soba Buckwheat Noodles and Steamed Veggies. WFPBNO!!! #vegan #oilfree

I found these Buckwheat soba noodles at Kroger and thought of my childhood, growing up with my Mom cooking Kasha; one of my favorite things to eat ever!  Kasha is also made from buckwheat and is not a wheat product at all. It's not a grain, but rather a seed from a plant closely related to rhubarb. It is a gluten free food. However, when buying any new food like these Soba noodles, its important to read the label. This product contains both buckwheat and regular wheat. I don't have any sort of gluten sensitivity, so its no problem for me, but if you have Celiac disease or a true gluten sensitivity, these noodles are not for you. 

Buckwheat Soba Noodles and Mixed Steamed Veggies

This was an easy dish to make. All I did was steam broccoli, snap peas, kale, red cabbage,  yellow sweet pepper and corn kernels seasoned with a little tamari and onion flakes for about 10 minutes. 

The soba noodles were boiled in veggie soup stock for 5 minutes. 

I saved the water for steaming the veggies and the water for boiling the noodles as more soup stock. 

The box of noodles was $1.99 and contains 8 servings. Such a deal!

Prepping the veggies took 5 minutes. So the total time was 20 minutes. 

The choice of veggies was purely arbitrary. That's what I had on hand. I could have easily added a jalapeno, onions, celery, carrot, mushrooms, etc. but I was just looking at these noodles for the first time and wanted something I could make with as little thought as possible.  It turned out delicious!  I even have leftovers for tomorrow!

Get out there and try something new!  You might enjoy it!

Oil-Free High Protein Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Tofu plus Brown Gravy!!! #vegan #WFPBNO

I made up a truly delicious mashed potato recipe that has no processed oil. It's high in protein and fiber, plus YOU control the sodium.
I know there is a stigma regarding tofu. The worry is about estrogen and how it may affect breast and/or prostate cancer. The thing is, this is not mammalian estrogen. It's phytoestrogen (Plant Estrogen) which has a long term protective effect against those particular cancers. For women with a history of breast cancer there is a higher long term survival rate in those who eat minimally processed soybean products. The same is true for prostate cancer.
On the other hand, dairy products and meat from cows do contain mammalian estrogen and the estrogen molecule in eggs is identical to that of human. So don't fear the soybean. It won't hurt you and may protect you. It's the animal products we should worry about!

Here are 2 recipes that go perfectly together. I do the potatoes, my friend Chuck Underwood does the gravy.



Tofu-Garlic Mashed Potatoes Author: Allan Kalmus

Ingredients

• 6 medium or 3 large cloves garlic, peeled
• ½ cup low sodium veggie broth
• ¾ cup unsweetened plant milk of your choice
• ½ cup low-fat silken tofu
• 1½ lbs. potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
• 1 tsp. Onion powder
• 1 tsp. Garlic salt
• ¼ tsp. White pepper

Instructions

1. In small saucepan, combine garlic and broth and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until garlic is very tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
2. Transfer broth to blender or food processor. Add tofu and process until mixture is smooth and creamy. Set aside, and cover to keep warm.
3. Meanwhile, in large saucepan, combine potatoes with enough cold water to cover. Add 1 tsp. salt and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium, cover and cook until potatoes are tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Reserving ½ cup of starchy potato cooking water, drain potatoes well.
5. In large bowl, mash potatoes; gently stir in warm tofu mixture and enough reserved potato water to make smooth puree. Season with remaining ½ tsp. Salt (or to taste), pepper and serve.

Tap this link to go to Chuck's page.
He's unbelievable!

Best Ever Fat Free Vegan Gravy

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Author: Chuck Underwood, published with permission www.brandnewvegan.com)

Ingredients

• 
  
• ¼ cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 2 Tbs Nutritional Yeast
• 1 tsp Onion Powder
• ½ tsp Garlic Powder
• ⅛ tsp Black Pepper
• 2 cups Vegetable Broth low sodium
• 2 Tbs Soy Sauce low sodium
• ½ tsp Yellow Mustard
• ½ tsp Kitchen Bouquet optional

Instructions

1. Toast dry ingredients over low heat until aromatic
2. Slowly add veggie broth, whisking to remove any clumps
3. Add soy sauce, mustard, and kitchen bouquet and stir to combine
4. Simmer 

Put them together for the healthiest mashed potatoes and gravy you'll ever have!!!
Enjoy.

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Dairy Free Creamy Tomato Basil Soup #vegan #WFPBNO #nutfree

It's another cold, windy day here in Michigan. Our 4 seasons were once Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter and Bad Sledding. We used to get a lot of snow when I was growing up. Sadly, that's all changed with the milder climate. But today it's cold out and I still like soup!

Last night I was putzing around in the kitchen and came up with another soup idea. There were 6 ripe Roma tomatoes in the fridge right next to a head of cauliflower and a bright red sweet pepper. That was my "what if..." moment.
All I needed to do was roast and peel the red pepper, boil and skin the tomatoes removing the seeds and blend them into my Cream of Cauliflower Soup recipe with some dried basil and smoked paprika. Simple!
I have a Ninja 1100 Watt blender, but any blender will work since its all cooked.

CREAMY TOMATO BASIL SOUP

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 30 min

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower
6 Roma tomatoes seeded and peeled
1 sweet red pepper seeded and peeled
2T dried basil
1 tsp SMOKED paprika
1 level tablespoon of curry powder

1 cup of water

1/2 cup of aquafaba from a can of chickpeas

Roast the red pepper, remove the skin and seeds. Boil the tomatoes, remove the skins and seeds.
Place a vegetable steamer separator into a pot. Add 1 cup of water and the head of cauliflower florets. Bring it to a boil and put the lip on the pot. Cook until the cauliflower is very, very tender. Put the cauliflower with the water (which is now veggie stock) into your blender with the aquafaba, tomatoes, seasonings and red pepper. Blend it for about 5 minutes or until it is completely smooth. Aquafaba is already salty so you don't have to add salt, but season to taste.

Pour it into a pot, bring it to a boil, turn down the heat to simmer, stirring occasionally until it thickens.
Serve hot. 

A Thank You Note. Butternut Squash Casserole With Cheezy Topping #canwait

Passover Casserole

Happy Passover!  Here we are, stuck at home, avoiding a plague of biblical scale as best we can.
I thought of being cleaver on my blog; publishing the recipe for a rather time consuming casserole.
Instead I'd like to say thank you.

To all the nurses, maintenance workers, lab Technicians, food service staff, housekeeping staff, ward clerks, first responders and doctors, we can't thank you enough!  We are all aware of the dedication it takes to do your job in the presence of this life threatening virus and salute you for your bravery. Because of your heroic actions, an untold number of lives are being saved every day.  The news is keeping the growing number of lives lost squarely in our faces with little attention being given to the lives that are being saved and the people who work 24/7 to save them.
The Talmud says: "He that saves one life saves the world entire." You are unselfishly saving worlds every minute of every day and comforting those who's world's are ending as proxy for families who would give anything to be there instead. 

The rest of us need to stay home as much as possible to be part of the solution rather than a statistic prolonging the problem.
The better those of us tasked with staying home do our job, the sooner all of those who are doing everything to save or comfort all those worlds we love will be home to breathe again, without a mask, and accept our gratitude.
Thank you.
👏👏👏

WFPBNO Tofu Scramble!! #Vegan #NOprocessedOil #ProteinWithFiber

In the pan:  Roasted Red Pepper, Mushrooms, Sweet Orange Bell Pepper
Left to Right:  Extra Firm Tofu, 2 TBS Capers, Cooked Carrots with Celery,
 Caramelized Onion and Seasoning

Everything in the pan to simmer

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the decision has been made to close my office to everything but caring for injuries, Post Op care and infections. We do not want to be responsible for spreading this disease between our patients and certainly don't want to be responsible for bringing it home to our families. We all have to do our part to avoid the virus and decrease the spread. This decision has left me nervous with time on my hands. Personally, sitting around and doing nothing is not an option.

So I look around in the fridge and cupboards and think up things to cook! 

There was a package of extra firm tofu in the fridge that also had nothing to do, so we teamed up and made a protein packed, high fiber dinner with no processed oil that turned out spectacular! I never made a tofu scramble before and didn't feel like looking up a recipe so here we go with ingredients that were on hand:

WFPBNO Tofu Scramble

Ingredients:

14 oz Extra Firm Tofu

1 large sweet onion chopped

1 sweet orange bell pepper chopped

1 roasted red pepper chopped

1 large carrot chopped

3 stalks of celery chopped

6 medium size white mushrooms chopped

2 T capers

2 T of seasoning of your choice  (I mixed up my own using cumin, onion powder, cayenne pepper,  curry powder (sabji masala) and 2 pinches of black salt)

In a non stick pan caramelize the onion in water with lime juice 3:1 and set aside.

Cook the mushrooms and other veggies in the same way. 

Mix everything together including the tofu, capers and seasoning in your non stick pan. Stir it every 30 seconds to a minute to cook off any liquid. Serve hot!

Ready to serve

Plated Cucumber, Kiwi and Tofu Scramble

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