The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Throw Down the Gauntlet => Topic started by: Malaysia41 on January 02, 2019, 12:55:26 AM
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Many of us rose to the challenge of going WFPB in 2018, let's do it again in 2019. Who is with me?
Why go WFPB? Well, for this thread - I propose our discussion mainly be about health. But there are two side benefits that are really HUGE benefits and thus hard to ignore completely:
- lower carbon footprint and environmental impact of a WFPB diet vs a std western diet
- fewer animals are killed and exploited
Resources I recommend for the HEALTH aspect:
https://nutritionfacts.org/
How Not to Die (book) (https://nutritionfacts.org/book/)
Dr. McDougall on Starch in your diet (https://youtu.be/aUaNDDuqmCs)
Proteinaholic book by Dr. Garth Davis (https://www.amazon.com/Proteinaholic-Obsession-Meat-Killing-About-ebook/dp/B00KVI4HLO)
Forks Over Knives (Amazon Video) (https://www.amazon.com/Forks-Over-Knives-Colin-Campbell/dp/B005K23RS0)
Plant Pure Nation (YouTube) (https://youtu.be/yBKnG9Y0owQ)
For ENVIRONMENT:
Livestock and Climate Change (WorldWatch.org) (http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Livestock%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf)
Livestock's Long Shadow PDF (FAO)
(http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e.pdf) Cowspiracy ( on netflix ) - documentary based on FAO & Worldwatch reports (above).
Lastly, to dip a toe into the ETHICS of eating animals:
Melanie Joy's 20 min Ted talk in Munich (https://youtu.be/o0VrZPBskpg)
Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows (https://www.amazon.com/Love-Dogs-Pigs-Wear-Cows/dp/1573245054) - also Melanie Joy.
Earthlings (2005) (http://www.nationearth.com) <- content warning: brutal.
Dominion Movie (2018) (https://www.dominionmovement.com) <- content warning: brutal.
So, who is with me?
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Still planning to work on this for 2019 too. I still won't be in 100%, but I figure baby steps and if everyone were to do it just 1 day per week it would still make a vast improvement to our environment and health. @Malaysia41 I love how you always have such great resource links!
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I'll be following along. The compromise I've been able to reach with my husband is that I cook vegan meals at home, but at restaurants, parties, etc, he eats whatever he wants. So I'm always looking for new recipes to add to our dinner rotation!
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I'm in. We have been heading that way ever since we hit the road in our van. Not sure I will ever be 100% vegan but suspect I can get close enough that most people wouldn't see a difference. I recently purchased a bunch of vegan cookbooks on Kindle to help break my addiction to cheese and eggs as milk and meat are easy to get rid of (most were $3 or less).
Our 2 main complications is 1) we live in a van so space and refrigeration is at a premium and 2) my rosacea will not tolerate a high or fast sugar diet so all meals need to be balanced accordingly (my vegan family members usually eat way too much fruit for me, veggies are more my friend, especially raw). My go to recipes tend to take both of these into consideration.
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Last year SO went WHPB based on How Not to Die, Blue Zones, and The China Study.
I am not planning on going WFPB, so this is a bit of a PTF. My meat consumption has been reduced as a byproduct of SO being on WFPB. I have a similar take as @aetherie 's spouse.
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I am following along as I would like to add more WFPB meals to my diet. I made wild rice stuffed acorn squash this week FTW! The recipe needs some tweaking as I thought it was rather bland but I'll keep working on it. I got the recipe from the Forks over Knives book. We have several dozen cookbooks in our kitchen and I want to put them to better use. I wont be going 100% in as I still enjoy fish and dairy but I would like to make the majority of my meals WFPB and I do hope to cut back a little on the dairy and use Dairy alternatives. We have made our own Almond milk which is far better than the store bought stuff and very easy.
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One nice thing with heading towards veganism is that I looked up some of the nutrition issues to keep track of. Which made me realize that given our already low meat intake we were already low on B12 intake prior to eating less meat (meatless meals were our default at home). So now we are supplementing. Fortunately the more often we add nutritional yeast to our meals, the less other supplementing we will need.
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I am in as a reducer.
We dramatically reduced our animal-based food intake last year,now am experiencing a slight kickback from my partner who wants more meat in his diet after a year of mostly veggie. So, we have to meet in the middle somewhere. I will be keeping my intake low but it won't be zero..and my SO will still have a reduction but with flexibility.
However he made a fabulous veggie & bean chili last night!
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So happy to see so many of you taking the challenge and/or reducing!
Tonight we made one of my favorites: beefless stew from Dr. McDougall. It's the second recipe on this page:https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2016nl/nov/recipes.htm
Here's a picture of the stew, along with a bunch of veggies we roasted in the oven at about 400 degrees F . Oops I just realized I forgot to add the rosemary to the stew. Oh well, it was still yummy.
(https://i.imgur.com/JqpZEKMm.jpg)
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Three vegan meals for me today:
oatmeal with flax, blueberries, and coconut
farro salad with tomatoes, pea pods, and cannellini beans (leftovers)
potato & assorted veggie hash
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That beefless stew looks really good!
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My two projects for this week is to work on is eating more greens and creating a tasty substitute for my hidden valley ranch (which is my main raw veggie dipping sauce). I have a cashew based ranch dressing to try so really I need to find a good green that travels well. So far Romaine lettuce has held up well so we keep that on hand and spinach and mixed greens are completely out since they don't travel well. Next up I need to see how well Kale travels since I remember that doing well in the fridge. I could easily see a Kale, onion, mushroom and potato skillet making a good breakfast. Anyone else working on specific food groups for nutrition or substitutions for old favorites?
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Guess I'm automatically in since I switched to a vegetarian diet last August. Still going strong.
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PTF. And, to continue my journey towards healthier eating.
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My two projects for this week is to work on is eating more greens and creating a tasty substitute for my hidden valley ranch (which is my main raw veggie dipping sauce). I have a cashew based ranch dressing to try so really I need to find a good green that travels well. So far Romaine lettuce has held up well so we keep that on hand and spinach and mixed greens are completely out since they don't travel well. Next up I need to see how well Kale travels since I remember that doing well in the fridge. I could easily see a Kale, onion, mushroom and potato skillet making a good breakfast. Anyone else working on specific food groups for nutrition or substitutions for old favorites?
This might be the same recipe you found, but this is the best copycat one I’ve found:
https://www.veggie-quest.com/2016/05/copycat-hidden-valley-ranch-dressing-vegan/
I usually do both garlic clove and some garlic powder to suit my tastes, but otherwise follow as written.
Have you tried regular spinach over baby spinach? It keeps better in my experience and I prefer the taste to kale. Or adding a paper towel wrapped around baby spinach also helps. I can generally keep one of those plastic clamshells fresh enough for a salad a whole week that way. Once it gets sad I use it in veggie hash or freeze for smoothies. Just some ideas, good luck with your goals!
I’m working on eating more fruit this year (aiming for 1-2 servings/day). It sounds strange, but I prefer veggies over fruit, and don’t really miss it when I don’t eat it. But fruits have lots of good nutrition too.
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So happy to see so many of you taking the challenge and/or reducing!
Tonight we made one of my favorites: beefless stew from Dr. McDougall. It's the second recipe on this page:https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2016nl/nov/recipes.htm
Here's a picture of the stew, along with a bunch of veggies we roasted in the oven at about 400 degrees F . Oops I just realized I forgot to add the rosemary to the stew. Oh well, it was still yummy.
(https://i.imgur.com/JqpZEKMm.jpg)
My wife found McDougall a while ago to try to help with some autoimmune issues. I had a hard time with many of the recipes, but this was one I really like. We are also now getting ready to start following Dr. Gundry which will be even harder, but health is important so hear we go. Also we had a really nice potato, cauliflower, leek soup for dinner. Off to find more things I like for the rotation.
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I am moving back in the direction of wfpb, after a holiday filled with vegan junk food. Have been vegan for about a year and a half (and my husband is on board, too), just trying to eat less refined oils and more veggies.
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In preparation of starting the new Gundry diet we have been trying to clear out the fridge and pantry. Last night it was throw together stir fry with some random ingredients. We have to use up the rice since it's not on the new diet. It came out great. Carrots, onion, cabbage, brussell sprouts, mushrooms, and green beans. Then some raw cashews on top. YUM...
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In preparation of starting the new Gundry diet we have been trying to clear out the fridge and pantry. Last night it was throw together stir fry with some random ingredients. We have to use up the rice since it's not on the new diet. It came out great. Carrots, onion, cabbage, brussell sprouts, mushrooms, and green beans. Then some raw cashews on top. YUM...
Just looked at the Gundry diet. What is leading to you adopt it?
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Thanks Nola, that is very similar to the one I am doing. I am very glad someone else likes it. The issue with spinach is that we have a cooler with ice and spinach doesn't like ice. So we can only do spinach when we can store it at room temperature (so within a few days). But, we like Kale and the Kale held up very well. My mushroom, Kale, onion and potato breakfast scramble was delicious, especially when Chipotle "mayo" is added. I did a blackened cabbage recipe from budget bytes (though I made my own Chipotle dressing) and turned that into black bean and blackened cabbage tacos. They were very yummy.
Still need to make the ranch though. Our last grocery store didn't have raw cashews so when we go to Sprouts on Monday, we will pick them up then.
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In preparation of starting the new Gundry diet we have been trying to clear out the fridge and pantry. Last night it was throw together stir fry with some random ingredients. We have to use up the rice since it's not on the new diet. It came out great. Carrots, onion, cabbage, brussell sprouts, mushrooms, and green beans. Then some raw cashews on top. YUM...
Just looked at the Gundry diet. What is leading to you adopt it?
@Malaysia41 For me I'm trying to clear up some psoriasis and I have a sluggish liver with elevated enzymes as well as a few gut issues. We are mostly doing it for my wife. She has RA and thyroid problems most likely Hashimoto's caused. So removing the lectins is supposed to be very beneficial. We are also both hoping to drop a bit of excess weight.
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One of my 2019 goals is to eat vegetarian (still having dairy) and I'm really enjoying it.
Every weekend I make a big batch of something which I then make into freezer meals for convenience. Have made a vegan chili and yesterday made an oven roasted butternut squash soup which was so, so good.
I'm thinking this chowder might be next: https://www.delishknowledge.com/slow-cooker-vegetable-chowder/print/21551/ (https://www.delishknowledge.com/slow-cooker-vegetable-chowder/print/21551/)
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Joining in here. I'm gluten-free plant based and my husband eats the same cooked dinner but will 'treat' himself to an occasional latte or steak pie if we're eating out. We do have fish for dinner one night a week so I don't refer to myself as vegan.
Looking forward to finding some new recipes here. We're having chickpea curry tonight! yum
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One of my 2019 goals is to eat vegetarian (still having dairy) and I'm really enjoying it.
Every weekend I make a big batch of something which I then make into freezer meals for convenience. Have made a vegan chili and yesterday made an oven roasted butternut squash soup which was so, so good.
I'm thinking this chowder might be next: https://www.delishknowledge.com/slow-cooker-vegetable-chowder/print/21551/ (https://www.delishknowledge.com/slow-cooker-vegetable-chowder/print/21551/)
I just made this. YUM.
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It's interesting how many of you have push back from your spouse. My spouse is the main reason I want to get as close to vegan as possible. He has the family history of heart disease and also personally has the early warning signs of it (his blood pressure has always been borderline, etc). While we never ate a lot of meat, we still had animal sources in our diet. I was especially concerned with our egg consumption being too high.
Course the good news is that since supplementing with the B12, we have only been averaging eggs once per week. One thing I am trying to figure out is if my height induced vertigo was actually a symptom of low B12. So far I seem less sensitive to heights but can't be sure till I go somewhere I have been before that triggered it. I figure in a month or two I will know for sure given our travel plans.
And interesting thing I have found is that most cheeses are not vegetarian. Not something I realized before.
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While I'll never not eat animals, I do what I can do acquire ethically treated ones. However, I do eat more plant based food than before, the real trick was making it worth eating. This soup is one of the things that brought me around
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/01/spicy-carrot-and-ginger-soup-with-harissa.html
My bigger push (just for me an my family, not trying to get anyone else on board) is buying local things. The distance food travels is horrific, the emissions, the loss of food with poor handling and refrigeration. The destruction of habitat clearing for farms and ranches. As soon as I can, I'll be setting up my own "farm" on my own land to reduce what we buy that travels even further.
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It's interesting how many of you have push back from your spouse. My spouse is the main reason I want to get as close to vegan as possible. He has the family history of heart disease and also personally has the early warning signs of it (his blood pressure has always been borderline, etc). While we never ate a lot of meat, we still had animal sources in our diet. I was especially concerned with our egg consumption being too high.
Course the good news is that since supplementing with the B12, we have only been averaging eggs once per week. One thing I am trying to figure out is if my height induced vertigo was actually a symptom of low B12. So far I seem less sensitive to heights but can't be sure till I go somewhere I have been before that triggered it. I figure in a month or two I will know for sure given our travel plans.
And interesting thing I have found is that most cheeses are not vegetarian. Not something I realized before.
Speaking of spouses - funny thing happened a few weeks ago... My husband went for the Christmas 10k with a few local Italian men. At the finish were buffets of food. Our friend, Frederico kept telling my husband that he could eat various foods - even if they weren't vegan - because his wife (aka me) wasn't around. The funniest part is that my husband is arguably WAY more vegan than I am. For example, he looks up every E numbered ingredient on labels at the grocery store (sometimes I get lazy and don't), and he gives me shit for still wearing my leather shoes, and wool coat. That's my mustachianism coming into conflict with my veganism. (actually lots of vegans give used/old clothing a pass - but not my husband!) I just figure it's not like I'm buying new leather shoes or wool coats, and I may as well get full use out of those clothes that were bought years ago! Why waste my little green soldiers replacing something that works?
That's an interesting observation about b12. Yeah it's my understanding that a lot of carnists are b12 deficient too. Since b12 comes from bacteria that lives in the soil and some guts, super sanitized modern life can make anyone deficient. Often, livestock is injected with the stuff. So if the livestock is taking b12 supplements, why not just skip the middle animal and take them directly? B12 or no - that's cool you seem to be over your vertigo.
On cheeses - are you referring to rennet?
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While I'll never not eat animals, I do what I can do acquire ethically treated ones. However, I do eat more plant based food than before, the real trick was making it worth eating. This soup is one of the things that brought me around
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/01/spicy-carrot-and-ginger-soup-with-harissa.html
My bigger push (just for me an my family, not trying to get anyone else on board) is buying local things. The distance food travels is horrific, the emissions, the loss of food with poor handling and refrigeration. The destruction of habitat clearing for farms and ranches. As soon as I can, I'll be setting up my own "farm" on my own land to reduce what we buy that travels even further.
What motivates you to make the statement "I'll never not eat animals" ?
Is it your understanding that eating animals is necessary?
Thank you for the recipe. Yeah, having delicious food is critical to embracing a WFPB diet. I don't mind a refined unhealthy chocolate cake every now and then, but when you can make the healthy food taste incredible? it's hard to want to eat any other way.
And I'm loving making soups this winter. It's soooo cold out. Soup is soooo good. So again, thanks for the recipe. The corn chowder suggested by @Livingthedream55 was a hit with the family tonight. Everyone spooned out second and third helpings.
We'll see how your carrot ginger soup compares, brute. - maybe we'll try it out on Saturday.
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Yes, Malaysia I was talking about rennet being sourced from calves. Funny how some of the lower end cheeses are vegetarian simply because the plant based enzymes are cheaper. I grew up with a lot of lacto-ovo vegetarians so it is weird thinking that many of them were eating non-vegetarian cheeses.
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I try to be vegan but I enjoy drinking milk.
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I try to be vegan but I enjoy drinking milk.
Following the kinda recent nutty trend, I started drinking oat milk. Have you tried it yet? It's surprisingly milk-like. And if you're into milk for coffee reasons, it's great there too—it blends well, froths up, and all that good stuff. I've really been diggin' it!
I cooked up a bunch of these plantain enchiladas last weekend, and they were amazing. https://minimalistbaker.com/black-bean-plantain-enchilada-bake/ It was my first time trying out this cashew/nutritional yeast "cheese"—I regret my skepticism about it. It's crazy good.
(https://i.imgur.com/jzwRRrg.jpg)
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@the_gastropod - that plantain enchilada looks amazing. I've only had success with minimalistbaker. Thanks for posting.
@ATMD - I second gastropod's recommendation for oat milk. You can even make it yourself. It's easy. If you're using it for cereal or drinking, you needn't bother with the fine filtering either. Just use a mesh strainer and you're set.
Here's a recipe similar to what I do. Definitely throw in a pitted medjool date or two.
Otherwise, there are like 20+ varieties of plant based milks. They range from yuck to yum. It's a matter of trying various options til you find one you like. My parents love Ripple, for example. After my mom switched, her cholesterol dropped 30 pts. Good luck.
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I'll third the oat milk. It's pretty good, though I don't drink milk on its own anyway. The kids really like both cashew and macadamia nut milks. You can also experiment with blending them to get the right flavor and mouthfeel profile. A thinner nut/oat milk with a little coconut added works nicely. Not too coconutty, but it adds that creaminess that dairy milk has. Also, most sweetened non dairy milks are too sweet, but dairy milk is sweeter than unsweetened non dairy milk. I'll buy unsweetened, then add just a tiny amount of sugar to get the right balance.
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While I'll never not eat animals, I do what I can do acquire ethically treated ones. However, I do eat more plant based food than before, the real trick was making it worth eating. This soup is one of the things that brought me around
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/01/spicy-carrot-and-ginger-soup-with-harissa.html
My bigger push (just for me an my family, not trying to get anyone else on board) is buying local things. The distance food travels is horrific, the emissions, the loss of food with poor handling and refrigeration. The destruction of habitat clearing for farms and ranches. As soon as I can, I'll be setting up my own "farm" on my own land to reduce what we buy that travels even further.
What motivates you to make the statement "I'll never not eat animals" ?
Is it your understanding that eating animals is necessary?
Thank you for the recipe. Yeah, having delicious food is critical to embracing a WFPB diet. I don't mind a refined unhealthy chocolate cake every now and then, but when you can make the healthy food taste incredible? it's hard to want to eat any other way.
And I'm loving making soups this winter. It's soooo cold out. Soup is soooo good. So again, thanks for the recipe. The corn chowder suggested by @Livingthedream55 was a hit with the family tonight. Everyone spooned out second and third helpings.
We'll see how your carrot ginger soup compares, brute. - maybe we'll try it out on Saturday.
My native american heritage blessed me with the ability to become type II diabetic at age 23. Only through reducing carbohydrate consumption below 100g a day was I able to get it under control and not die from complications. I have to eat meat, starve, or die from heart disease. Not ideal, but so it goes.
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In preparation of starting the new Gundry diet we have been trying to clear out the fridge and pantry. Last night it was throw together stir fry with some random ingredients. We have to use up the rice since it's not on the new diet. It came out great. Carrots, onion, cabbage, brussell sprouts, mushrooms, and green beans. Then some raw cashews on top. YUM...
Just looked at the Gundry diet. What is leading to you adopt it?
@Malaysia41 For me I'm trying to clear up some psoriasis and I have a sluggish liver with elevated enzymes as well as a few gut issues. We are mostly doing it for my wife. She has RA and thyroid problems most likely Hashimoto's caused. So removing the lectins is supposed to be very beneficial. We are also both hoping to drop a bit of excess weight.
One of my friends started the Gundry diet about 2 months ago. She RAVES about it. It has really cleared up many of her digestive, breakout, headache issues that she's been struggling YEARS with.
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I made the carrot ginger soup you recommended @brute - and made the harissa from scratch using water rather than oil. Pretty yummy stuff.
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/01/spicy-carrot-and-ginger-soup-with-harissa.html
roasted, peeled and seeded the hot chili peppers - starting to cook them with their onion colleages here:
(https://i.imgur.com/Kq0rQP3m.jpg)
the soup: including roasted pine nuts and shredded kale and cabbage:
(https://i.imgur.com/OE95xJTm.jpg)
- and now i've got a jar of harissa to work through over the next few weeks. I love spice so I'm totally down with that.
(https://i.imgur.com/gHgJdhrm.jpg)
Thanks again!
Sorry for your medical conditions. Good luck with your diet. I hope you find success, and it's awesome you are cutting down on high carbon animal foods at the same time. I always like Dr. Neil Barnhard too. Have you checked him out? Some diabetics I know have had good luck with his recommendations - but it may have been that they were pre-diabetic. I'm not 100% on that.
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Still going strong with the plant based diet, and even getting better at incorporating the 'whole foods' part of whole foods plant based eating into my regular routine. My hormones have always been whacky, but when I got off birth control last spring and was also using a topical retinoid, skin became increasingly terrible. Don't want to go into it all of it unless someone wants me to, but periods were very irregular still, so I ended up seeing a naturopath (got really tired of doctors trying to give me pills/topicals and never figuring out what was wrong with me internally to explain why I have hormone problems/acne) who recommended doing an elimination diet and also made some recommendations based off a blood panel and saliva test (for hormones). I was already vegan, but I could definitely stand to make some slight tweaks to what I was eating. The elimination diet required not eating night shades and gluten (also dairy and meat, but I already haven't consumed those in a while). That plus a few recommended supplements (holy basil and vitex/chasteberry for adrenal/hormonal support) my skin is finally looking so much better. So while I wasn't eating that junky before, I feel like reducing nightshades and gluten and generally eating more truly whole-foods-plant-based as helped so much. Hormones are still a work in progress but it is MUCH better than it was, and my periods are starting to become regular again, too!
Also, found that chickpea pasta (banza) is very, very good! Give it a shot if you haven't yet. I also recently tried out a recipe from Chloe's Vegan Kitchen cookbook and it was very, very good. Essentially its a white sauce, except no dairy so you don't get that disgusted bloaty feeling during or afterward. Someone has copied the recipe here:
https://www.tipsonlifeandlove.com/recipes-2/chloes-kitchen-recipe-fettucine-alfredo
The sauce is a bit thinner, I've found, because you're supposed to coat/toss the pasta in it, but if you use less water you can thicken it up to your liking.
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Update on our greens consumption. We went from maybe a serving per week to 8 servings per week thanks to our Kale breakfast recipe and our cabbage recipe. So while still not at the outstanding level, at least we are now above minimum recommendation levels. Hurray!
I finally made the ranch which is an acceptable substitute but I am debating making it with tofu instead since that would be both cheaper and easier. That is what we use as a base for our Chipotle sauce (1/2 can Chipotle peppers, half a lime and one block tofu for a mild/medium sauce, whole can and lime for spicy). Tofu based sauces also help with our calcium intake.
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Still going strong with the plant based diet, and even getting better at incorporating the 'whole foods' part of whole foods plant based eating into my regular routine. My hormones have always been whacky, but when I got off birth control last spring and was also using a topical retinoid, skin became increasingly terrible. Don't want to go into it all of it unless someone wants me to, but periods were very irregular still, so I ended up seeing a naturopath (got really tired of doctors trying to give me pills/topicals and never figuring out what was wrong with me internally to explain why I have hormone problems/acne) who recommended doing an elimination diet and also made some recommendations based off a blood panel and saliva test (for hormones). I was already vegan, but I could definitely stand to make some slight tweaks to what I was eating. The elimination diet required not eating night shades and gluten (also dairy and meat, but I already haven't consumed those in a while). That plus a few recommended supplements (holy basil and vitex/chasteberry for adrenal/hormonal support) my skin is finally looking so much better. So while I wasn't eating that junky before, I feel like reducing nightshades and gluten and generally eating more truly whole-foods-plant-based as helped so much. Hormones are still a work in progress but it is MUCH better than it was, and my periods are starting to become regular again, too!
Also, found that chickpea pasta (banza) is very, very good! Give it a shot if you haven't yet. I also recently tried out a recipe from Chloe's Vegan Kitchen cookbook and it was very, very good. Essentially its a white sauce, except no dairy so you don't get that disgusted bloaty feeling during or afterward. Someone has copied the recipe here:
https://www.tipsonlifeandlove.com/recipes-2/chloes-kitchen-recipe-fettucine-alfredo
The sauce is a bit thinner, I've found, because you're supposed to coat/toss the pasta in it, but if you use less water you can thicken it up to your liking.
@imadandylion - congrats on going strong and figuring out your food related medical issues. Allergy / food related stuff can be so hard to diagnose.
regarding nightshades - I eat a ton of them, but my friend Gina is hyper sensitive. Early on when I started making videos I interviewed her. Please forgive me the shitty novice video skills here. In any case, you might be interested in her story ...
The interview is 9min 25 seconds long.
https://youtu.be/xBSSydJ8My8
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I made the carrot ginger soup you recommended @brute - and made the harissa from scratch using water rather than oil. Pretty yummy stuff.
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/01/spicy-carrot-and-ginger-soup-with-harissa.html
roasted, peeled and seeded the hot chili peppers - starting to cook them with their onion colleages here:
(https://i.imgur.com/Kq0rQP3m.jpg)
the soup: including roasted pine nuts and shredded kale and cabbage:
(https://i.imgur.com/OE95xJTm.jpg)
- and now i've got a jar of harissa to work through over the next few weeks. I love spice so I'm totally down with that.
(https://i.imgur.com/gHgJdhrm.jpg)
Thanks again!
Sorry for your medical conditions. Good luck with your diet. I hope you find success, and it's awesome you are cutting down on high carbon animal foods at the same time. I always like Dr. Neil Barnhard too. Have you checked him out? Some diabetics I know have had good luck with his recommendations - but it may have been that they were pre-diabetic. I'm not 100% on that.
Great info and glad you liked the soup. I've got some reading to do this weekend!
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So happy to see so many of you taking the challenge and/or reducing!
Tonight we made one of my favorites: beefless stew from Dr. McDougall. It's the second recipe on this page:https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2016nl/nov/recipes.htm
You inspired me. I gave this a try this week, and it was pretty damn good! I feel like it was missing juuuuust a little something, but I'm not sure what it was. Next time, I think I'm going to use vegetable broth instead of just water.
(https://i.imgur.com/xhmS7mQ.jpg)
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In preparation of starting the new Gundry diet we have been trying to clear out the fridge and pantry. Last night it was throw together stir fry with some random ingredients. We have to use up the rice since it's not on the new diet. It came out great. Carrots, onion, cabbage, brussell sprouts, mushrooms, and green beans. Then some raw cashews on top. YUM...
Just looked at the Gundry diet. What is leading to you adopt it?
@Malaysia41 For me I'm trying to clear up some psoriasis and I have a sluggish liver with elevated enzymes as well as a few gut issues. We are mostly doing it for my wife. She has RA and thyroid problems most likely Hashimoto's caused. So removing the lectins is supposed to be very beneficial. We are also both hoping to drop a bit of excess weight.
One of my friends started the Gundry diet about 2 months ago. She RAVES about it. It has really cleared up many of her digestive, breakout, headache issues that she's been struggling YEARS with.
@mm1970 Somehow I missed this update. My mom has lupus and a couple of other autoimmune disorders and even though she hasn't read the book yet I gave her the list of what to eat and what not to eat. She has started incorporating it and already seeing results. The science behind it seems quite solid. I'm just now getting into some of the recipe parts. We've been gluten free for over 6 years now so I'm confident we can find a way to implement Gundry, it will just be really hard to eat out. Thankfully we don't do that much at all. I'm really looking forward to the results, I will be starting it in just over a week.
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Still going strong with the plant based diet, and even getting better at incorporating the 'whole foods' part of whole foods plant based eating into my regular routine. My hormones have always been whacky, but when I got off birth control last spring and was also using a topical retinoid, skin became increasingly terrible. Don't want to go into it all of it unless someone wants me to, but periods were very irregular still, so I ended up seeing a naturopath (got really tired of doctors trying to give me pills/topicals and never figuring out what was wrong with me internally to explain why I have hormone problems/acne) who recommended doing an elimination diet and also made some recommendations based off a blood panel and saliva test (for hormones). I was already vegan, but I could definitely stand to make some slight tweaks to what I was eating. The elimination diet required not eating night shades and gluten (also dairy and meat, but I already haven't consumed those in a while). That plus a few recommended supplements (holy basil and vitex/chasteberry for adrenal/hormonal support) my skin is finally looking so much better. So while I wasn't eating that junky before, I feel like reducing nightshades and gluten and generally eating more truly whole-foods-plant-based as helped so much. Hormones are still a work in progress but it is MUCH better than it was, and my periods are starting to become regular again, too!
Also, found that chickpea pasta (banza) is very, very good! Give it a shot if you haven't yet. I also recently tried out a recipe from Chloe's Vegan Kitchen cookbook and it was very, very good. Essentially its a white sauce, except no dairy so you don't get that disgusted bloaty feeling during or afterward. Someone has copied the recipe here:
https://www.tipsonlifeandlove.com/recipes-2/chloes-kitchen-recipe-fettucine-alfredo
The sauce is a bit thinner, I've found, because you're supposed to coat/toss the pasta in it, but if you use less water you can thicken it up to your liking.
@imadandylion - congrats on going strong and figuring out your food related medical issues. Allergy / food related stuff can be so hard to diagnose.
regarding nightshades - I eat a ton of them, but my friend Gina is hyper sensitive. Early on when I started making videos I interviewed her. Please forgive me the shitty novice video skills here. In any case, you might be interested in her story ...
The interview is 9min 25 seconds long.
https://youtu.be/xBSSydJ8My8
@imadandylion I have similar issues and see a naturopathic doctor. You should definitely check out Dr. Gundry's book. The Plant Paradox. It will explain why the elimination diet works and then why it quits working. I did that elimination over 6 years ago and healed my gut, but things came back. He explains why that is and it's very eye opening.
@Malaysia41 The nightshades have lectin in them. That's the big thing Gundry says we need to remove. Apparently GMO is making that worse, but also some cultures didn't have many of the lectin containing fruits and vegetables until Columbus opened up trading. All of a sudden things that weren't native were being consumed. Our bodies did not have time for our DNA to change to deal with them. Fun fact: Columbus brought tomatoes to Italy and Italians actually refused to eat them for 2 years. They also got smart in consumption by creating the roma strain. It contained way fewer seeds which cause the most problems and they remove the skins which also cause problems.
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Still going strong with the plant based diet, and even getting better at incorporating the 'whole foods' part of whole foods plant based eating into my regular routine. My hormones have always been whacky, but when I got off birth control last spring and was also using a topical retinoid, skin became increasingly terrible. Don't want to go into it all of it unless someone wants me to, but periods were very irregular still, so I ended up seeing a naturopath (got really tired of doctors trying to give me pills/topicals and never figuring out what was wrong with me internally to explain why I have hormone problems/acne) who recommended doing an elimination diet and also made some recommendations based off a blood panel and saliva test (for hormones). I was already vegan, but I could definitely stand to make some slight tweaks to what I was eating. The elimination diet required not eating night shades and gluten (also dairy and meat, but I already haven't consumed those in a while). That plus a few recommended supplements (holy basil and vitex/chasteberry for adrenal/hormonal support) my skin is finally looking so much better. So while I wasn't eating that junky before, I feel like reducing nightshades and gluten and generally eating more truly whole-foods-plant-based as helped so much. Hormones are still a work in progress but it is MUCH better than it was, and my periods are starting to become regular again, too!
I assume your doctors have checked you for PCOS, right? I have it but wasn't diagnosed until I was almost 30 b/c I didn't fit the stereotype of being overweight (though a good bunch of women who have it are actually normal weight). It's quite common.
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On topic, my sister reported on a delicious vegan 'comfort dish' that she threw together yesterday. She sauteed garlic, ginger, smoked paprika, and a small amount of onion, then dumped in a can of pumpkin and can of coconut milk. She served it over some sort of mushroom (?) noodles (I've never had these). It sounds great, though I would have to find a way to drastically cut the fat level...maybe half lite coconut milk and half almond or cashew milk.
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It was definitely easier for me to eat primarily vegetables when I lived in the PNW.
I still have access to veggies year-round, but I really did feel different eating salad greens and root veggies that were bought at the city farm and picked myself, as opposed to grocery store produce. Or when I've grown my own in the summer :)
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Have you all seen the new Canada Food Guide from our Fed Govt? It is a VAST improvement on the previous ones and leans very heavily towards WFPB. Thought I would share! https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/ (https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/)
Another Canadian here. This is a home run in my opinion! I am seriously impressed with what they have done including things like "be mindful of how you eat". "Cook at home". Drink water.
Agreed, @FIRE_at_45 :) (fellow Vancouverite, I see! Hi!) What a huge difference, now that Big Ag lobby groups were not influencing the guide. Science FTW! Especially impressed by the new "protein foods" section which is heavily plant-based and has absorbed the previous separate meat and dairy categories.
Relatedly, I have been noticing that more and more people I know are adopting plant-based eating, or at least a "plant-slant." Now this could be that Vancouver / the PNW are a bit of a veggie bubble, but I do feel it is spreading more and more. It is just so much easier now than it was when I first started (1997!). So many options, a wide range of compelling arguments, and much more mainstream awareness/acceptance. It gives me hope!
I'd like to borrow some of that hope. The most recent video I made, about methane emissions from animal ag (https://youtu.be/ya6mRxUB1IE), got me feeling less hopeful. But hey, you wake up everyday and keep trying. I head to DC in two weeks to lobby congress to end animal ag subsidies, so there's that. I'm feeling terribly outmatched, though. But science is on our side. And Americans tend to hate the idea of market-distorting subsidies, so we've got that going for us. Which is nice.
We need to take a cue from Canada and put up a fire-wall between our USDA scientists and industry. We also need to end the conflicting goals of the USDA to both recommend nutrition and market animal foods to us. And do campaign finance reform, public financing of election campaigns, etc. Oh wait, sorry, what thread am I in?
Oh yeah. my husband made this the other night - yum: https://elavegan.com/vegan-mushroom-stroganoff-gluten-free-recipe/
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That mushroom Stroganoff looks yummy. It reminds me that I need to make my country gravy meatless as well. I had planned to substitute mushrooms for the meat and keep the sausage spices (I always did my own seasoning mix so that makes the substitution easy)so it still has that flavor.
Strangely I find that mushrooms are my go to meat replacement not legumes, probably because they stop the other things I am eating from messing with my blood sugar. Legumes just aren't as effective for me.
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Thanks for posting that mushroom stroganoff recipe. I made it tonight and it was delicious. I just got this new mushroom umami spice mix from Trader Joe’s, and I used it as the flavor base instead of the spice mix in the recipe. The only other spice I added was paprika. It tasted amazing. The sauce didn’t quite get thick enough, but that was because I used up some extra coconut beverage from a carton instead of real coconut milk from a can. I’ll switch it up next time.
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Did Korean vegetable pancakes recently and they were delicious. We got our recipe from Maangchi's website. Her pancake just used flour and water and we had no problem with them holding together. Not sure why so many other recipes try to add egg. It's completely unnecessary for holding it together.
We seem to have decided that for us non fish meat can easily be limited to once per month and fish we don't limit because we tend to only get that once per month on average anyways. We are about 2 1/2 months into this jourmey. Whether we will cut back even more will depend on who we are eating with since both sets of parents seem to think that meat should be at least twice a day. On the other hand, most of my extended family on one side is mostly vegan or vegetarian in their dietary habits so that will be much easier.
I figure for us it will be a journey over time to see just how little animal products we can get away with consuming, especially since I won't do vegan frankenfoods anymore than I will do regular frankenfoods (food chemicals and I do not get along) so some items will simply have to go out of our diet completely once given up (ie butter sigh). We even decided that one of the restaurants we used to visit as a treat will probably be a never again since they are so meat centric that there are maybe 2 items on their massive menu that we could eat and there are other restaurants that do better with having non meat options.
Since there seems to be only one milk replacement that doesn't add gums and occasionally it's hard to find while traveling, we are going to try making our own oat milk. If that works, it will be cheaper and easier than what we are currently buying so that will help (especially since we have a hard time finishing off 16 oz prior to it going bad so we could make smaller batches).
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Hopping on to note that the oat milk is a success! Quick too since you just add the oats and the water to the food processor, whirl till milky enough and then strain. We plan on using the ground oatmeal in our pan fry bread and oatmeal. The flavor of the milk is definitely milder than what we had been using.
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Love this! PTF.
I'm coming up on my 1 year vegan anniversary in the next few weeks. It's definitely cheaper and healthier to eat WFPB but I'm guilty of vegan snacks/treats/specialty items. Monthly spend is still cheaper than if I ate animal/animal products.
Since there seems to be only one milk replacement that doesn't add gums and occasionally it's hard to find while traveling, we are going to try making our own oat milk. If that works, it will be cheaper and easier than what we are currently buying so that will help (especially since we have a hard time finishing off 16 oz prior to it going bad so we could make smaller batches).
Are you buying Oatly? I was never a big milk drink and I'm still not but a carton of that stuff last absolutely forever in my refrigerator. Granted, I've found things halfway frozen in my fridge so maybe its how cold I've got it set on, but my Oatly milk has never gone bad on me (and I take forever to finish).
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...
Since there seems to be only one milk replacement that doesn't add gums and occasionally it's hard to find while traveling, we are going to try making our own oat milk. If that works, it will be cheaper and easier than what we are currently buying so that will help (especially since we have a hard time finishing off 16 oz prior to it going bad so we could make smaller batches).
Are you buying Oatly? I was never a big milk drink and I'm still not but a carton of that stuff last absolutely forever in my refrigerator. Granted, I've found things halfway frozen in my fridge so maybe its how cold I've got it set on, but my Oatly milk has never gone bad on me (and I take forever to finish).
Nope westsoy unsweetened soy milk. Only ingredients are soybeans and water. But because there are no preservatives you have 7-10 days to finish it once you open it. We don't actually drink milk but do use it for cream or gravy sauces and baking when needed. I have seen Oatly before but that's definitely not one common to most grocery stores and since we travel in a lot of rural areas, available options tend to be limited.
That said, it's surprising how many vegan/vegetarian items have made it to America's rural grocery stores. Tofu can be found everywhere, I have found vegan kimchi at rural grocery stores and they all have non dairy milk even if it's the type of milk I won't drink. I am pretty sure even 10 years back that wouldn't have been as common.
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@imadandylion I have similar issues and see a naturopathic doctor. You should definitely check out Dr. Gundry's book. The Plant Paradox. It will explain why the elimination diet works and then why it quits working. I did that elimination over 6 years ago and healed my gut, but things came back. He explains why that is and it's very eye opening.
@Malaysia41 The nightshades have lectin in them. That's the big thing Gundry says we need to remove. Apparently GMO is making that worse, but also some cultures didn't have many of the lectin containing fruits and vegetables until Columbus opened up trading. All of a sudden things that weren't native were being consumed. Our bodies did not have time for our DNA to change to deal with them. Fun fact: Columbus brought tomatoes to Italy and Italians actually refused to eat them for 2 years. They also got smart in consumption by creating the roma strain. It contained way fewer seeds which cause the most problems and they remove the skins which also cause problems.
@Malaysia41 Thank you!! I'm just super glad to have found something that helps me.
@sisto That's interesting, I never knew that about nightshades. I will definitely check out the Plant Paradox book.
@wenchsenior Yes, several years back I was diagnosed that by a dermatologist and became a patient of their PCOS clinic. The naturopath and others have suggested this as well, but it's hard to say for sure. I never went on spironolactone, and when I did want to try it, a PCP at the time strongly recommended I didn't. With hormone-focused tests, my naturopath determined that both DHEA, testosterone, estradiol, progesterone, and estrogen levels were all really low for some reason. I need to get retested to determine if this situation has now been improved in a month or two, but so far I'm really happy. Skin is looking fantastic, and the hormonal acne I tend to get along the chin and jawline are really minimal.
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@imadandylion I have similar issues and see a naturopathic doctor. You should definitely check out Dr. Gundry's book. The Plant Paradox. It will explain why the elimination diet works and then why it quits working. I did that elimination over 6 years ago and healed my gut, but things came back. He explains why that is and it's very eye opening.
@Malaysia41 The nightshades have lectin in them. That's the big thing Gundry says we need to remove. Apparently GMO is making that worse, but also some cultures didn't have many of the lectin containing fruits and vegetables until Columbus opened up trading. All of a sudden things that weren't native were being consumed. Our bodies did not have time for our DNA to change to deal with them. Fun fact: Columbus brought tomatoes to Italy and Italians actually refused to eat them for 2 years. They also got smart in consumption by creating the roma strain. It contained way fewer seeds which cause the most problems and they remove the skins which also cause problems.
@Malaysia41 Thank you!! I'm just super glad to have found something that helps me.
@sisto That's interesting, I never knew that about nightshades. I will definitely check out the Plant Paradox book.
@wenchsenior Yes, several years back I was diagnosed that by a dermatologist and became a patient of their PCOS clinic. The naturopath and others have suggested this as well, but it's hard to say for sure. I never went on spironolactone, and when I did want to try it, a PCP at the time strongly recommended I didn't. With hormone-focused tests, my naturopath determined that both DHEA, testosterone, estradiol, progesterone, and estrogen levels were all really low for some reason. I need to get retested to determine if this situation has now been improved in a month or two, but so far I'm really happy. Skin is looking fantastic, and the hormonal acne I tend to get along the chin and jawline are really minimal.
The Pill tends to mask the symptoms of PCOS, so it's not surprising that it resurged when you went off it. I wasn't on the Pill for big chunks of time, so it was more obvious that things weren't right (though apparently not obvious enough that I wasn't diagnosed by any ob/gyn I saw for ~15 years :sigh:) By that time I was severely symptomatic with everything except weight gain. I ended up just adopting a diabetic style/low-glycemic-index diet (no meds) and the symptoms nearly all resolved. Ovaries went back to normal, regular ovulation and periods (after a decade of 3 or 4 periods/year), fewer cosmetic symptoms. If you have any symptoms of insulin-resistance (I was severely reactively hypoglycemic), you might try that and see how your body does. Honestly, I love sugar, but it just wreaks havoc on the body, esp if you have these types of endocrine disorders.
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How is everyone doing? I am happy to report that the gundry diet has been going great. I have dropped 8 lbs already. Feel full all the time with no cravings, can't believe that I don't miss the sugar. I have cut way back on meat consumption and have been very happy about that and really haven't missed it at all. We had a vegan curry the other night, just a simple curry with onion and made noodles out of sweet potatoes and then served over cauliflower rice. It was so good and filling. Last night was a mushroom soup with all sorts of mushrooms. Just had some left over for lunch, delicious. The only noticeable side effect has been facial flushing and it seems that it could be caused by the lack of sugar in my diet right now as well as the fact that I have been eating lots of avocados which are full of niacin. Anyone else notice that with ketosis? Note I'm not on a keto diet, but this diet does put you into ketosis.
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Can I join in? I'm trying to reduce my reliance on animal products greatly, although I'm not sure I'll manage a complete removal anytime soon. I recently read the book "One Part Plant" where the author encourages you to have at least one WFPB meal a day and see where it goes from there. I thought "I can do that!"
This morning I had a green smoothie (banana, spinach, almond milk, peanut butter) and a vegan "breakfast cookie" made from this recipe: https://www.shelikesfood.com/healthy-make-ahead-breakfast-cookies-6-ways-2/ I know the "breakfast cookie" has refined grains (whole wheat flour) and some sugar, but I figure it's a start.
Lunch was vegetarian but dairy heavy. We have a vegetarian lunch delivery service at my work building and I use it on days I don't pack a lunch (MMM shame, although it's $6 for a nice balanced meal). Today was a paneer dish with a vegetable side dish.
Dinner is TBD - DW is cooking and I suspect we'll end up having fish and I'll accompany it with a salad. I also resisted the ridiculously decadent donuts in the office today.
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I have been obsessed with simple recipes lately, and I adapted one tonight:
Can coconut milk, 2 T each curry paste and peanut butter, mix as sauce. Sautéed onion and added chickpeas. Ate over rice. Bam!
I did steam half a sweet potato in the rice cooker while the rice cooked and ate that with.
So good!
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I have been obsessed with simple recipes lately, and I adapted one tonight:
Can coconut milk, 2 T each curry paste and peanut butter, mix as sauce. Sautéed onion and added chickpeas. Ate over rice. Bam!
I did steam half a sweet potato in the rice cooker while the rice cooked and ate that with.
So good!
yum. Salt . Sweet. Exotic flavor. It's got it all.
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Another simple recipe:
Sauce: 3/4 c veg broth, 1 T ea soy sauce and maple syrup, 1/2 t ea paprika and liquid smoke.
Place sliced tempeh (whole pack sliced) in heated nonstick pan, pour sauce over, boil, turning, until sauce has concentrated and coated and been absorbed into tempeh slices.
Let get brown and fry in the pan.
Served a portion over a carrot salad - giant carrot grated, sprinkled with rice vinegar and sesame seeds.
Really good
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Well to be honest I'm okey with eating only vegetables, but where do you take all needed vitamins that plants don't have?
It sounds like you have a couple misconceptions:
1. It’s not about eating only vegetables. It’s about eating plant-based foods. So, for example, bread is fine (assuming it’s whole grain).
2. Aside from Vitamin B12, you can get all the nutrition you need on this diet. B12 is actually a byproduct of bacteria that’s often found in lakes and streams. But in our antibacterial sterile world, it’s a bit harder to come by. So definitely supplement it if you’re going all in.
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I'm in - in a reduced capacity as well.
My dad went WFPB two years ago, so I'm well familiar with the books and the websites and the research. (He got a little new vegan preachy for a year, but has since mellowed.)
I grew up primarily vegetarian and don't like meat, but the challenge for me is eggs and dairy (yogurt & cheese). My husband is also an AMAZING chef and does 99% of our cooking at home, and although he still doesn't cook a look of meat (maybe 1-3 times a week) he also doesn't like any of the 'fake' stuff - fake eggs, fake cheese, etc. I have much better luck with a truly vegetable based meal from an Indian or Asian cookbook than anything Minimalist Baker.
So, my goal for this challenge...
WFPB when I'm not with him. I'm vegetarian at work, so it shouldn't be too hard, but I will need to amend my orders to exclude cheese.
Cook one WFPB dinner a week, so I get more confident in the kitchen, and he starts to believe WFPB doesn't mean a lack of flavour! (My Dad also quit all oil and salt at the same time, so things were bleak for a while.)
I'll scour our cookbooks, as he also doesn't (fairly rightfully) doesn't trust recipes from the internet. Says they lack the vetting process of a cookbook recipe, and bloggers have to keep up the steady flow of content so they put up B and C recipes instead of just A. ;)
My new big challenge will be to give up my homemade yogurt addiction. I make it in the InstantPot with organic 3.5% milk and it is SO GOOD and SO TART. I'm also pregnant and it's all I want. It might take a while to break that.
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I'm in - in a reduced capacity as well.
My dad went WFPB two years ago, so I'm well familiar with the books and the websites and the research. (He got a little new vegan preachy for a year, but has since mellowed.)
I grew up primarily vegetarian and don't like meat, but the challenge for me is eggs and dairy (yogurt & cheese). My husband is also an AMAZING chef and does 99% of our cooking at home, and although he still doesn't cook a look of meat (maybe 1-3 times a week) he also doesn't like any of the 'fake' stuff - fake eggs, fake cheese, etc. I have much better luck with a truly vegetable based meal from an Indian or Asian cookbook than anything Minimalist Baker.
So, my goal for this challenge...
WFPB when I'm not with him. I'm vegetarian at work, so it shouldn't be too hard, but I will need to amend my orders to exclude cheese.
Cook one WFPB dinner a week, so I get more confident in the kitchen, and he starts to believe WFPB doesn't mean a lack of flavour! (My Dad also quit all oil and salt at the same time, so things were bleak for a while.)
I'll scour our cookbooks, as he also doesn't (fairly rightfully) doesn't trust recipes from the internet. Says they lack the vetting process of a cookbook recipe, and bloggers have to keep up the steady flow of content so they put up B and C recipes instead of just A. ;)
My new big challenge will be to give up my homemade yogurt addiction. I make it in the InstantPot with organic 3.5% milk and it is SO GOOD and SO TART. I'm also pregnant and it's all I want. It might take a while to break that.
Hey Off the Wheel,
what plant based yogurts have you tried? We found one here in Italy called Sojasun and it's better than any cow milk yogurt I've ever tried. I've also tried some awful variations from Valsoia. My sister says she's practically addicted to a coconut based yogurt. The main thing that I've found is that you have to try a lot of different products before you find one you like. And then that becomes the new normal. I've asked my sister what the name of her coconut yogurt is. I'll post it here when she responds.
As for cheese - yeah - I like a few kind of, but then I think, eh, nah. I'll just go without. They can be so oily. Follow your Heart pepper jack on a beyond burger is pretty damned good though. My favorite plant based cheeses now are all homemade cashew + nutritional yeast based.
You are the first person I've come across who doesn't care for the recipes from minimalist baker. Huh.
Anyway good luck!
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Well to be honest I'm okey with eating only vegetables, but where do you take all needed vitamins that plants don't have?
What helped me for the first week of going fully plant-based was tracking what I ate in an app called cronometer. I could tell really quickly how much of each nutrient I was getting, and developed a sense of what kind of foods to eat.
Then I moved on to the Dr. Greger app 'The Daily Dozen'.
If you are thinking about giving the WFPB thing a go - I would at least follow the daily dozen. And eat more than you think you need to. You get to eat quite a lot when you are eating whole food plant based.
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Well to be honest I'm okey with eating only vegetables, but where do you take all needed vitamins that plants don't have?
What helped me for the first week of going fully plant-based was tracking what I ate in an app called cronometer. I could tell really quickly how much of each nutrient I was getting, and developed a sense of what kind of foods to eat.
Then I moved on to the Dr. Greger app 'The Daily Dozen'.
If you are thinking about giving the WFPB thing a go - I would at least follow the daily dozen. And eat more than you think you need to. You get to eat quite a lot when you are eating whole food plant based.
This is one of the issues I already have with a whole-foods, 3/4ers plant diet. I literally can't eat enough calories to keep weight on. It's very challenging, particularly now that I have health issue that have forced me to cut back on the nut/plant fats I was using before. Ugh, it's so frustrating. I find myself slipping into relying on simple sugary carbs sometimes to make up the difference, which is also really not good for me.
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@Off the Wheel:
Daiya. That's the coconut yogurt my sister loves. I'm surprised as I've not loved much daiya stuff. However, I'm sure they're improving. It's a pretty lucrative and growing market.
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My issue on the yogurt is that I've recently started making my own in the InstantPot and it is SO GOOD. The only ingredient is milk and a bit of the previous batch. I am trying to avoid processed foods, so comparing my delicious, homemade, two-ingredient yogurt with all the storebought stuff is offputting (no matter if it's dairy or mylk-based), and I never find it tastes as good.
BUT, there is a recipe for homemade coconut yogurt, so maybe I will try that.
And my point re: Minimalist Baker isn't so much about the recipes, as I do like a few of hers, but the volume of hers that require on fakeries/substitutions (at least in her cookbooks). We try to eat plant based, but fake cheeses and eggs will not fly. :)
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Checking in. Our non fish meat this month was when a stranger fed us a chicken drumstick while we waited for our food at a restaurant. Apparently we looked hungry. It was a sweet gesture and we feel no need to seek out any additional non seafood meat this month. I think that at this point, being fed by others will be the only exposure we will get. We aren't looking for meat options on our own and don't miss it at all.
I used cronometer to help figure out our nutrition gaps and at this point we are doing pretty good. We will probably just spend a couple months at this level and see if we are wanting to make more changes or if this is the level we will remain at. I don't think we will ever be able to wear a label because there is nothing 100% cut from our diet but our current level works for us. There is no one food item we are overly reliant on and we have very little ultra processed foods in our diet.
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I bought some store-bought coconut yogurt and it's okay, but I'm going to try homemade in the Instant Pot using this recipe:
https://detoxinista.com/how-to-make-vegan-coconut-milk-yogurt/
I calculated that if I can source coconut milk for $1.29 a can, I can make it for $.80 a serving, as opposed to $1.99 for store-bought coconut yogurt. I can get the coconut milk for that much, it just requires a special trip to the Asian market. I think I'll have time for that next weekend, which is fine since I have some store-bought in the fridge.
I just made this for lunches this week: https://www.saltandlavender.com/fresh-and-easy-green-lentil-salad-recipe/ Lots of veggies plus lentils.
I also made this, which is one of my all time favorite recipes: http://amysnutritariankitchen.blogspot.com/2014/01/spicy-buffalo-wing-hummus-for-superbowl.html
Thanks for posting about The Daily Dozen app @Malaysia41, I think that will be something to work towards.
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Made this tonight: https://www.budgetbytes.com/sun-dried-tomato-kale-and-white-bean-skillet/. It was good and the family enjoyed it.
I’m still easing into plant based eating with more produce and less dairy and meat. I’m not sure what my family would think of full time plant based for meals at home. Right now we eat 2-3 meat dinners a week, 2-3 vegetarian dinners, and the rest are “flex” meals like buddha bowls or make your own pizza. So we’re not crazy carnivores, but I think it’d be hard to give up those few meat based dinners.
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Made this tonight: https://www.budgetbytes.com/sun-dried-tomato-kale-and-white-bean-skillet/. It was good and the family enjoyed it.
I’m still easing into plant based eating with more produce and less dairy and meat. I’m not sure what my family would think of full time plant based for meals at home. Right now we eat 2-3 meat dinners a week, 2-3 vegetarian dinners, and the rest are “flex” meals like buddha bowls or make your own pizza. So we’re not crazy carnivores, but I think it’d be hard to give up those few meat based dinners.
Yesterday I realized I haven't made chili in a while - so a large batch shall emerge from the kitchen today.
I'm excited about your attempts to make plant-based yogurts. Getting off dairy is voting against an incredibly destructive industry. Ain't nothing wholesome about the methane emissions, nor water pollution from dairy cattle.
If you want to see what 100% plant-based would be like, I've heard good things about PCRM's 21 day kickstart. https://kickstart.pcrm.org/en - there's also challenge22.com which is well, a 22 day challenge.
If you try the PCRM program - will you check back and tell us about it? I'm only familiar with challenge22 as I was a mentor there for a few months. I stopped because I started lobbying Congress, and started making videos about how perverse our subsidies are, and researching the outsized methane emissions from cows. But when it came down to it - challenge 22 wasn't for me - too encouraging and cheerleadery. I prefer to wallow in DOOM! /s (kind of /s).
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Hey guys, I lobbied Congress last month to help animal farmers transition to plant farming. Vice News captured some of the story.
https://youtu.be/MfZB3BrjI74
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@Malaysia41, how cool! I like the lobbying strategy, although I’m sure incrementalism feels frustrating at times.
I made a vegan pizza today and learned a little vegan mozzarella goes a long way. But overall I’d call it a success since we do pizza every other week and I want to participate.
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Thought this group might be interested in a report on 50 plant-based foods with high nutrition and sustainability. The co-branding with Knorr is kind of troubling, but the food recommendations seem solidly researched.
https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-02/Knorr_Future_50_Report_FINAL_Online.pdf (https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-02/Knorr_Future_50_Report_FINAL_Online.pdf)
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@Malaysia41, how cool! I like the lobbying strategy, although I’m sure incrementalism feels frustrating at times.
I made a vegan pizza today and learned a little vegan mozzarella goes a long way. But overall I’d call it a success since we do pizza every other week and I want to participate.
We make a vegetarian pizza with portabella mushrooms as the crust. Then top with pesto, spinach, onion and bufalo mozzarella. I'm sure you could make it vegan with the vegan cheese. It's really good. Usually just saute the mushrooms in some coconut oil first then dry them and build pizza then put it in the oven. Super simple if you get the pre-made pesto from Costco or make your own and freeze, then just pull out to thaw before use.
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Thought this group might be interested in a report on 50 plant-based foods with high nutrition and sustainability. The co-branding with Knorr is kind of troubling, but the food recommendations seem solidly researched.
https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-02/Knorr_Future_50_Report_FINAL_Online.pdf (https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-02/Knorr_Future_50_Report_FINAL_Online.pdf)
Cactus? That was surprising. Looking through that made me hungry.
What's problematic with Knorr? I'm OOL on that one.
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Thought this group might be interested in a report on 50 plant-based foods with high nutrition and sustainability. The co-branding with Knorr is kind of troubling, but the food recommendations seem solidly researched.
https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-02/Knorr_Future_50_Report_FINAL_Online.pdf (https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-02/Knorr_Future_50_Report_FINAL_Online.pdf)
Cactus? That was surprising. Looking through that made me hungry.
What's problematic with Knorr? I'm OOL on that one.
I see cactus... leaves(?) in the Latino markets here and I've had prickly pear jelly before. It's a pretty bland food, so heavy seasoning is needed.
My reservations about Knorr is that they're a giant food conglomerate. Those types of companies don't usually have the best records when dealing with indigenous people and food sources. From what I understand, the popularization of quinoa has been fraught with difficulties for traditional farmers and their communities, so I do worry about how some of the less common food sources might be brought to scale.
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I'm in. I have a lot of autoimmune illnesses and have been trying to eat mostly WFPB for a while. I can't eat any grains at all. I'm not someone who enjoys cooking so I try and cook extra and freeze single serves. Some good recipes here, I think I'll make that carrot ginger soup later today.
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Finally made my sausage gravy with mushrooms instead of pork. Just as I thought, the seasoning made it take just like the real thing (though the mushrooms still added a mushroom flavor, not a problem for us however). It just takes one large can of mushrooms to replace one pound of ground pork. I did canned instead of fresh so that the seasoning would stick to the mushrooms and I diced the mushrooms finely to mimic the texture.
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I've recently starting eating sorghum. Last night we made it into a mushroom and asparagus risotto, it was pretty delicious. I have seen several recipes for breakfast with it, exploring those next.
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I try to be vegan but I enjoy drinking milk.
Following the kinda recent nutty trend, I started drinking oat milk. Have you tried it yet? It's surprisingly milk-like. And if you're into milk for coffee reasons, it's great there too—it blends well, froths up, and all that good stuff. I've really been diggin' it!
I cooked up a bunch of these plantain enchiladas last weekend, and they were amazing. https://minimalistbaker.com/black-bean-plantain-enchilada-bake/ It was my first time trying out this cashew/nutritional yeast "cheese"—I regret my skepticism about it. It's crazy good.
(https://i.imgur.com/jzwRRrg.jpg)
I totally thought this was a desert!
With cooked bananas, chocolate chips, and a creme-bruleeish thing....
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@the_gastropod That looks so good!! I'm going to try it.
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I've been vegan for the past year and eat mostly whole foods at that. People are shocked at how little I spend on groceries (a whopping $81 for the entire month of August. We'll see what happens for September). My breakfast is usually oats, and lunch and dinner usually consist of: sushi, rice and beans (and other things like pico, guac, etc.), mashed potatoes with veggies as a side or sometimes nuggets if I'm feeling adventurous, tamales, pasta with marinara sauce or homemade sauces (pesto, cashew alfredo, etc.).
This week I'm working through curried noodles with tofu, and I also have all the ingredients to make tamales with refried beans and guacamole so I'll probably be prepping that tonight for later this week.
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@cari8285 $81/month is fantastic!! Sometimes my husband and I spend a bit more because we like to have kombucha and wine. Guess we could make our own kombucha, but I'm so nervous to try that.
Just wanted to share some meal ideas I have been liking recently:
- Quinoa flakes for breakfast. The texture of quinoa flakes are similar to what instant oats are to steel cut oats, so it comes out more porridge-like. I like it simmered with a fortified plant milk, like Oatly. Add a pinch of salt, while cooking, then top liberally with slivered almonds, dried cranberries, hemp hearts, and a bit of maple syrup. This works out to about 20 grams of protein, more or less depending on the portions of any of those things. Hemp hearts are great for getting in omega-3's and iron. I usually do the same thing with steel cut oats, but it's nice that quinoa is a complete protein. Also really love red quinoa with a bit of plant milk so it's like a cereal (but not too much liquid), then add some coconut flakes, maple syrup, slivered almonds, cinnamon, and fresh fruit.
- Crispy, baked cauliflower florets in sauce. Sometimes if we go to restaurants and they offer this, we always get it. Tried this a year or two back using the Hot for Food recipe and they came out mushy. Decided to try it again, this time with a recipe by Rachel Ama and actually comes out crispy and the sauce is good. I used panko instead of bread crumbs. I've also tried something similar with chickpea crumbs, which is fantastic and kind of preferable to panko because they're much crunchier and more nutritious.
Recipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiZ9FK0HSNs
*I'd recommend doubling the sauce if you have a big head of cauliflower, though, because it just wasn't enough... I thought my cauliflower was maybe average-to-big and the sauce only covered half. We chose to add tempeh and jasmine rice. In the future, I'd also want more sauce to cover the tempeh, too.
- Pasta/spaghetti 'bolognese' with lentils. We have a lot of beluga lentils that I originally purchased because I wanted to sprout them, but never did. So we've been taking advantage of lentils more because oddly enough it's something we haven't eaten much of. Add mirepoix or other combo of vegetables, herbs, and mushrooms. Recommend soaking dried porcini mushrooms to create a broth, add the broth to the sauce, and chop up the porcinis and add to the dish. Wine is extra. And vegan parmesan, too. We've tried a hard vegan parmesan that you have to grate, and it's freakishly similar tasting and smelling (eh) to the real deal. However, I prefer the good ol' nutritional yeast flakes. Also like to sprinkle hemp hearts on top of my pasta. Also like just wilting some spinach into the sauce, too.
- I'm still loving my plain quinoa and cubed, baked sweet potato meal. So easy, cheap, and nutritious.
- Miso soup with cubed tofu. Pretty basic, but sometimes I forget about this. I find that chickpea miso paste can be just as rich as normal miso. Add wakame or even mushrooms, like enoki or oyster mushrooms. Yum.
Other meals are not really noteworthy, but I'm trying to be less boring. So if anyone else has something they've been enjoying, please do share. :)
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@FIRE_at_45 You're awesome! Frank's is a good idea, I'll have to pick that up next time!
I don't think I've had a meatloaf before, but this sounds like a good recipe for Christmas to bring to the MIl since she usually likes meatloaf!
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Did Korean vegetable pancakes recently and they were delicious. We got our recipe from Maangchi's website. Her pancake just used flour and water and we had no problem with them holding together. Not sure why so many other recipes try to add egg. It's completely unnecessary for holding it together.
We seem to have decided that for us non fish meat can easily be limited to once per month and fish we don't limit because we tend to only get that once per month on average anyways. We are about 2 1/2 months into this jourmey. Whether we will cut back even more will depend on who we are eating with since both sets of parents seem to think that meat should be at least twice a day. On the other hand, most of my extended family on one side is mostly vegan or vegetarian in their dietary habits so that will be much easier.
I figure for us it will be a journey over time to see just how little animal products we can get away with consuming, especially since I won't do vegan frankenfoods anymore than I will do regular frankenfoods (food chemicals and I do not get along) so some items will simply have to go out of our diet completely once given up (ie butter sigh). We even decided that one of the restaurants we used to visit as a treat will probably be a never again since they are so meat centric that there are maybe 2 items on their massive menu that we could eat and there are other restaurants that do better with having non meat options.
Since there seems to be only one milk replacement that doesn't add gums and occasionally it's hard to find while traveling, we are going to try making our own oat milk. If that works, it will be cheaper and easier than what we are currently buying so that will help (especially since we have a hard time finishing off 16 oz prior to it going bad so we could make smaller batches).
thank you so much for that website
i just made the korean pancake
https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/yachaejeon
it was amazing!! i am not really big on veggies
but i am trying to eat more...
i did not have sweet potatoe so i just used a butternut squash..
next i am trying the meatless stew someone on here posted
thank you guys
if you have more awesome recipes or
know of some really good websites like that
i would really appreciate any tips..
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So we're almost to the end of the year, how did everybody do?
2019 was 100% plant-based for our family. It's cheap and my health has never been better. Mostly I feel good about not taking part in the raising and killing of gentle animals, and not taking part in the environmental devastation animal ag inflicts upon the planet.
We're living in Verona at the moment and I started an Anonymous for the Voiceless chapter here about 18 months ago. Here's a short video of our latest cube of truth (reddit link) (https://www.reddit.com/r/CubeOfTruth/comments/e8fqkl/verona_italy_cube_of_truth_including_one_bonafide) if you are interested in seeing our town and a bit of vegan activism on the streets.
I just want to express my gratitude for everyone who is going plant-based and/or mostly plant-based. The environmental impact of animal agriculture is so incredibly dire, we really need to wean ourselves off of animal products, and stop developing nations from developing 1st world carnist diets. So Thank You all for being part of the solution.
I'll leave you with this white paper from Dr. Sailish Rao: https://www.climatehealers.org/animal-agriculture-white-paper
Cheers!
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Well, by my math we consumed 6 lbs of meat per person over the course of the year. For a comparison, in 2018 the average for an American was around 222 lbs ( which doesn't even seem possible to me but I was never a big meat eater).
After this year, there are certain items I will never bother with again so there is a potential to go lower. I personally was cutting both meat and deep fried foods (which for me were often the same thing or at least eaten together). We make oat milk as needed and while our egg consumption isn't as low as it's lowest point, it's still much lower than last year.
Unfortunately I have gained weight but I expected that because I do eat fewer calories when consuming meat (and I did a compound break in my big toe so lower exercise). However my dh's blood pressure is now almost normal and mine dropped from normal back down to the low level it's been most of my life. I can't say it's cheaper for us because it's not but our goal was dh's heart health so in that regard it's been a success. Though a huge victory for me was that because we planned on doing this, I started supplementing my B12 which had apparently been too low for awhile because supplementation cured symptoms I didn't realize were B12 related.
We will stick with our minimal meat consumption and probably continue to work on reducing egg, cheese and butter consumption.
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I was really ready to go all in on plant based eating, but I've come across some challenges in the last year.
-I found that being 100% plant based is not good for my mental health. While I have never struggled with disordered eating, I have a somewhat obsessive personality and I could feel myself going down a bad rabbit hole reading every label in too much detail and stressing out when I went to restaurants socially. Cooking from scratch helped that, and I do make most of my meals that way. But for my own sanity I needed to cut myself some slack when eating out or crunched for time and having a frozen meal. It's just been too restrictive for me.
-I have really struggled to get enough protein for my personal needs, even eating a lot of beans, lentils, nuts, etc. I have started eating meat again once or twice a week, and it has made a big difference in my energy levels and immune system. I basically haven't gotten sick since I made the change, and I got a cold/sinusitis/bronchitis almost every other month when I was fully vegetarian/vegan.
-My cholesterol has actually gone up over the last two years. When I was eating more meat, it tended to be leaner cuts. But when I am eating vegetarian/vegan, I tend to add in things like nut butter, avocados, olive oil, and coconut oil to stay full long enough, and it's having a negative effect. Has this happened to anyone else? Any tricks? I already make sure most of the carbs I eat are complex carbs high in fiber (e.g. oats, brown rice, whole wheat everything, etc.)
I'm kind of frustrated, because I really wanted to go fully plant based. But I gave it a serious try over the last two years and it just hasn't worked out despite a lot of effort and mental bandwidth. I'm glad I tried it, though. I definitely consume less meat and less animal product that I did a few years ago, and I plan to keep that up. If I can't cut it out entirely, I can still make an impact by reducing it and eating as much plant based food as I can. Plus, all the vegan food I have made is delicious.
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Just want to share - Here's a recipe I haven't tried yet but I think I will get started on marinating today:
https://wellvegan.com/dinner/al-pastor-tempeh-cilantro-lime-cauliflower-rice
Also want to try this:
https://www.getrecipebox.com/recipe/2aeffc30/cauliflower-adobo-recipe-nyt-cooking
Also DID try this beefless stew last night featuring oyster mushrooms and it was good. However, I created my own mushroom broth with dried porcinis, then chopped the porcinis and added them in as well, and didn't use wine or parsley, and I added a bit of farro and brown rice during the simmer phase:
https://www.rachelama.com/recipe-blog/2018/9/16/beef-less-vegan-stew
@Malaysia41 We were solidly vegan for 2 years but then when we went to Japan for two weeks for our honeymoon in October/November, we suspended that it since it's hard to find restaurants that serve vegan food. Plus it's always been my dream to try authentic Japanese food so kind of had a field day with that. When we came back home, we also relaxed it around Thanksgiving time and had a couple restaurant dishes that included meat (like pho), but we still don't buy meat, eggs, or dairy at the grocery store and stick to our plant-based shopping ways.
Part of that is a mixture of cost and the unhealthy factor of eating meat. For example, eating meat resulted me in eating less fiber, so I kept getting constipated (TMI?). Also, I got the WORST breakouts of my life from not strictly following a plant-based diet. The acne has thankfully cleared up without needing to attack my face with acne medication, from 2 weeks of eating solidly plant-based, whole foods, little to no added refined sugar, and absolutely no processed foods (well, I did eat a tiny bit of regular pasta, but not enough to keep my body in a constant state of inflammatory mess, I think). I always hated that seemingly everyone else in the world can eat crap and still have the clearest baby skin; meanwhile, I guess I can be considered "lucky" that my skin always manifests what's going on inside. It's easy for me to be plant-based when I'm at home and not anywhere near the temptations of amazing Japanese food. I'd also say it's easy for me to deny restaurant or even family foods back home now because the food just isn't ever up to expectation, so why bother. I think these days I'm more about "plant-based" eating as much as possible instead of vegan-minded.
@zygote My husband and I have tested for really low levels of 'bad' cholesterol; we didn't compensate with nut butters or oils/fats, just used them in normal cooking processes if needed. We've found we stay fuller eating plant-based vs the other way around. I actually hardly eat avocados because I don't really like them as much as most people seem to. Can you describe what would go into a day's worth of plant-based meals for you? Also, maybe your body just metabolizes differently. For instance, even though I'm much smaller, I eat more food and also more frequently than my husband and get hungry faster even if we just ate the same meal, plant-based or not. I usually aim to get around ~20 grams of protein per meal, which is usually from a combination of different sources. I don't personally try to add more fat to meals to stay more full - I just eat more. I am not sure how many calories that adds up to in a day.
Not everyone can be 100% plant-based all the time - but this is coming from someone who clearly cut themselves some slack in the last couple months. :P I understand it can be frustrating especially when going out. I think to solve the staying full problem your meals may need to be more varied, but hard to say since I don't know what you eat. I think it sounds like you've put in a fair amount of effort into trying plant-based though, I think people's bodies can just react differently but I'm also curious what a typical day of plant based eating looks like for you.
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@zygote My husband and I have tested for really low levels of 'bad' cholesterol; we didn't compensate with nut butters or oils/fats, just used them in normal cooking processes if needed. We've found we stay fuller eating plant-based vs the other way around. I actually hardly eat avocados because I don't really like them as much as most people seem to. Can you describe what would go into a day's worth of plant-based meals for you? Also, maybe your body just metabolizes differently. For instance, even though I'm much smaller, I eat more food and also more frequently than my husband and get hungry faster even if we just ate the same meal, plant-based or not. I usually aim to get around ~20 grams of protein per meal, which is usually from a combination of different sources. I don't personally try to add more fat to meals to stay more full - I just eat more. I am not sure how many calories that adds up to in a day.
Not everyone can be 100% plant-based all the time - but this is coming from someone who clearly cut themselves some slack in the last couple months. :P I understand it can be frustrating especially when going out. I think to solve the staying full problem your meals may need to be more varied, but hard to say since I don't know what you eat. I think it sounds like you've put in a fair amount of effort into trying plant-based though, I think people's bodies can just react differently but I'm also curious what a typical day of plant based eating looks like for you.
I definitely metabolize quickly. I'm pretty active and burn 2200-2500 calories a day according to my fitbit. I think I have a small stomach, though, so I find it hard to eat a lot of food in one sitting. If I eat until I'm comfortably full, I'm usually hungry 2-3 hours later unless I've had something particularly calorie dense.
Breakfast: 1/2 cup overnight oats with almond milk and 1/2 tbsp almond butter or tahini (summer); bagel with a thin layer of earth balance (winter); banana pancakes with oats, almond milk, fruit, and maple syrup (weekends)
Lunch: PB&J on whole wheat bread, mixed greens and veggies with olive oil and lemon, dates with almond butter, and sometimes dark chocolate
Snack: Apple and some kind of vegan baked good, e.g. spelt flour muffin with flax or chia egg and coconut or olive oil as the fat
Dinner: Stir fry with a bunch of veggies and tofu or beans, coconut milk curry with chick peas, or lentil stew with potatoes over 1/3-1/2 cup brown rice, sometimes pasta with veggies and/or lentils, stuff like that. Usually one pot meals I can prep ahead of time and eat over a few days.
On days when I work out I also add in a protein shake with vegan protein powder.
When I first got the high cholesterol reading, I tracked a few days of eating in the Cronometer app to see what was going on because I was surprised. The most recent sample day worked out to 2200 calories, with 87 g protein (15%), 259 g carbs (58%), and 69 g fat (27%), with 16 g of that fat being saturated fat.
High cholesterol does run in my family, but my LDL has always been comfortably low until this past year, which is the first year I've eaten mostly vegan. I can't say for sure whether it's the diet or my age (I'm only 30 though) until I get tested again at my next checkup this spring.
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@zygote Thank you for sharing!
I have some suggestions - feel free to take it with a grain of salt.
Breakfast:
- I think the oats breakfast sounds good but maybe you can experiment with adding more variety to it? I typically do something similar using steel cut oats, but instead of nut butter I like to add in a a handful of different kinds of toppings such as: Dried fruits (such as cranberries) or fresh fruits (bananas and/or berries), slivered or crumbled nuts (usually slivered almonds for me), unsweetened coconut flakes, chopped dates, and at least a tablespoon of hemp hearts. These all add up to generally more nutrition and fiber as well as fat. You can also add a dollop of plant-based yogurt. By the way, I've only tried two plant-based yogurts so far. I think one of them was almond-based, and the second one is oat-based. Both are unsweetened/plain. I vastly prefer the oat-based one (Nancy's brand), it tastes the most like greek yogurt to me. Other breakfast ideas: Chickpea or tofu/bean/tempeh scramble sauteed with spinach/leafy greens and mushrooms and even potatoes, with cherry tomatoes and toast (with avocado or nut butter) or wrap the stuff in a tortilla or naan. Rice porridge with soft tofu, soy sauce/liquid aminos, and spring onions.
- You may consider reducing the amount of Earth Balance/other plant-based butters. I feel like stuff like that can be a crutch. It's definitely a quick and easy breakfast, but I still consider Earth Balance to be a junk food of some sorts. Maybe consume more in moderation and less as part of a standard breakfast. I haven't personally had plant-based butter much at all.
- Maybe cut back on the baked goods as a snack and consume them as more of an indulgence item since they're more processed and usually higher in sugar. I don't think they help contribute much to being satiated as part of the whole day. Maybe swap sometimes with nuts or trail mix, or do a plant-based yogurt with fruit and nuts on top. Chia seed pudding can also have similar toppings. You can also do a soup of some kind with beans/lentils/veggies, like minestrone. Or miso with some tofu, mushroom, and wakame or spring onions. Or roasted chickpeas, sweet potatoes, or other vegetables. Or a salad with nuts, pumpkin seeds, dried fruit, oil & vinegar or whatever dressing you like. Also try also adding in another snack before lunch to keep up with eating every 2-3 hours. Or salad wraps with chickpeas/beans/lentils/whatever. Or hummus/baba ganoush with vegetables.
Lunch
- I think half of this is good, the salads could contain more substance. And [hopefully] you probably don't eat PB&J every time, but I think for lunch, try emulating more of the meals you listed for dinner. Or do stuff like 'burrito bowls' which is basically like your salad but with the addition of rice, beans, and salsa.
Dinner
- Those all sound great. Can't really nitpick. You may consider having more side dishes to your meals, like how a lot of south east asian cultures do. Instead of having 1 main dish, the meal will also be accompanied by a soup, side of vegetables, some fermented vegetables, etc.
TLDR: Try to add in ways to 'layer' in more nutritional components and reduce the bread-y/processed breakfasts and lunch items.
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Thanks to @FIRE_at_45 for the encouragement and @imadandylion for the suggestions! You're right that I don't eat PB&J for lunch every day; it's my fallback if I haven't had time to prep something more like what I make for dinner. In general it's easy for me to fall into a rut like that, so I really appreciate the suggestions for alternative ways to round out my nutrition and boost up my calories in a healthy way. I'll give some of this a shot!
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@imadandylion, here is a fail proof method to make cauliflower hot wings. I have copied it over from my journal where I shared it. Sorry if the format isn't great. The recipe assumes some general knowledge and experimentation with how much spice for example you add to the batter.
@FIRE_at_45 I tried doing this with Frank's but it came out really vinegar-y tasting. is it just me? :/ I might try it again diluting the Frank's sauce with something so it's not as strong.
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I've cut down our meat meals a lot this year- (once or twice a week for me now) and really upped our veggie intake. DH actually said he wants to eat more plant based a few weeks ago so the message is getting through.
My main problem has been sugar and I have to cut it out as its not making me feel good so my goal for next year is to cut the meat down further, cut out the sugar and find some nice vegan cheeses so I can cut out the dairy. next year I'll try and post more on this thread, appreciate the links and recipes people have shared.
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I'd be interested in the liquid cheese recipe, @FIRE_at_45 ! Most of the ones I've seen have been based on butternut squash and/or cashew, and occasionally cauliflower, so I'm intrigued by potatoes and carrots.
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@FIRE_at_45 We had some leftover battered cauliflower that were doused in Frank's because it was just too cutting to bite through, so I reheated them until they got crispy again and it was sooo much better! I still felt like there's something missing in the taste but it wasn't as vinegary anymore, so maybe the secret is in rebaking it after putting sauce on. It's funny because I used to really like the stuff on chicken wings.
@lollylegs Great job! We made some homemade pizza the other day and really liked Violife's shredded mozzarella which was pretty tasty and melted. I couldn't be bothered to make my own cheese.
Now would probably not be a good time to share sugar-y recipes then. :P I have a lot of ideas I'd like to share.
Recently I tried Oh She Glows' vegan cinnamon rolls with vegan cream cheese frosting and it was so, so decadent! Will plan on making these for Christmas for the family. However, if you use the cream cheese frosting recipe, cut back the recipe to maybe 1/4 or even 1/5 of the total batch because it's a big batch, and I'm still trying to work through using it. :/ It's really good, though. We used Miyoko's cream cheese for the cream cheese part. I would like to experiment with adding tiny bits of sauteed tart apples to the cinnamon sugar filling, and doing a simple orange zest glaze instead of cream cheese frosting. Recipe here:
https://ohsheglows.com/2017/05/09/vegan-cinnamon-rolls-with-make-ahead-option/
I also had sweet potatoes lying around and wanted to make some version of pound cake. A quick google search revealed that this is totally a thing! I used this recipe yesterday, and while it is good, I wouldn't say it's as bread-y as most people imagine pound cake to be. It's more like a very moist but slightly crumbly cake. Not sure if it's because the author didn't use grams for the measurements, which is a major pet peeve. I put it in a big casserole dish instead of a loaf pan, also, and distributed my leftover cream cheese frosting over it. Either way, it turned out delicious, but I will differently be experimenting with other recipes or just modifying non-vegan versions to achieve a vegan version of a more classic pound cake texture.
http://theemotionalbaker.com/2015/11/16/sweet-potato-pound-cake-vegan/
If anyone is interested, here are some other recipes i was looking at:
https://thegreencreator.com/vegan-sweet-potato-chocolate-bundt-cake/
These are not vegan but can be modified:
https://www.finecooking.com/recipe/sweet-potato-pound-cake
https://marcussamuelsson.com/recipe/sweet-potato-pound-cake
Also looking forward to doing a version with carrots and chai spices and any other 'secretly [kind of] healthy' baked goods. I know people do things like zucchini bread, too, which I've never had, so that's on the list as well.
I made a green lentil curry last night inspired by this, but the original recipe looks pretty good, too:
https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/green-lentil-curry
I'm quickly realizing how sweet potatoes can be so versatile, and I had some leftover from creating the sweet potato pound cake, so my version included baked mashed sweet potatoes, which I mashed into a couple tablespoons of tomato paste and oat milk to create a thick sauce. Since I didn't have most of the spices on hand as separate spices I just used a tablespoon of garam masala, 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper, and 1/2 tsp of cumin. Oh, and salt of course. I sliced an acorn squash into crescents and baked, then added on top. And I did quinoa instead of rice since it was faster. But it turned out really well! I think next time I'll follow more of the recipe, although I did add in the kale and carrots, too. :P And I'd also do delicata squash next time because the skins are thinner and can be comfortably eaten, whereas the acorn squash skin was a bit thicker. Next time, I'd also do red lentils instead of green, which is just what I had on hand. But red lentils are nicer because they'll cook in a few minutes less time and they get a soft texture.
I also discovered a food blog that has a good range of options. It's not meant to be a plant-based blog but I'd say it mostly is. A lot of her recipes focus on reducing the amount of refined sugars per serving, which is really helpful. The recipes have
a unique mediterranean focus, which I appreciate from the slew of typical vegan fare that you see on every blog/youtube/instagram/whatever.
https://www.tastymediterraneo.com/tag/vegan/
Lastly, not sure if anyone likes jam, but in trying to come up with ways to consume chia seeds other than as a pudding, I found that chia seeds are an excellent shortcut to making jam! And it doesn't have to involve refined sugar. Genius!!! I will plan on using this for thumb print cookies in place of regular jam.
https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/10-minute-chia-seed-jam/
Thumbprint cookie dough if anyone is interested in doing some holiday baking: https://veganhuggs.com/jam-vegan-thumbprint-cookies/
^Typically I like to add a couple tablespoons of aquafaba since I am dislike cracks on cookies that aren't supposed to be cracked looking even if it doesn't ruin the taste.
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appreciate any links @FIRE_at_45 - thanks for the cheese info
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I'd be interested in the liquid cheese recipe, @FIRE_at_45 ! Most of the ones I've seen have been based on butternut squash and/or cashew, and occasionally cauliflower, so I'm intrigued by potatoes and carrots.
@zygote you asked I answered ;)
https://simpleveganblog.com/vegan-cheese/#tasty-recipes-18752
The nice thing about this cheese sauce is that it's very cost effective compared to the cashew ones. Basically potatoes and carrots are the bulk of it and they are super cheap. I know we are supposed to cut out some salt for the maximal health benefits but when you make cheese you realize just how much salt goes into it. I usually add more than the recipes say just to get the taste closer. You have to be careful though because you can't take it out.
Make this up and boil up some pasta with broccoli at the same time (I even use the same pot). Drain the water off and pour on the loads of cheese. If you want some more flavour then add some sundried tomatoes. My kids love this in their lunch hot or cold.
This looks really good. Thank you!! I will have to try it soon.
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Will there be a 2020 thread? I will have a flick through this one anyway, but we are doing Veganuary and are a little underprepared.
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I second the request for a 2020 thread. Hoping to make some big changes with how we eat this year, but that's been my intention for a long time now. I need some accountability!
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I'd like a 2020 thread too. Its helpful to hear others ideas and recipes and much to my shock DH (meat & 2 veg guy) told me he wants to eat more WFPB meals also.
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I just made a 2020 thread so we can keep going. Hope that's okay, @Malaysia41, and kudos for keeping us all inspired! :)
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I just made a 2020 thread so we can keep going. Hope that's okay, @Malaysia41, and kudos for keeping us all inspired! :)
yeah i'm down - see you over there!