Since Thanksgiving and after making my Turkey Roll using seitan, I decided to try some other seitan recipes.  One of the recipes I came across was a recipe for BBQ ribs using seitan.  I tried the original recipe and it was pretty good but decided to make a second batch with some adjustments.  The second batch of ribs came out GREAT!! 

So for our meal tonight, we had a simple salad (pictured left), Seitan Ribs and then I modified a red potato recipe to come up with my own version of Rosemary Potatoes.  As always, the true test of my meals is how well the kids like it....and this one was a hit!  Nothing was left....ribs...gone....potatoes....gone....ok, they didn't have any salad but the rest of it was a hit!

So when I tell friends that I'm going to be cooking for Thanksgiving they will always ask "On your diet WHAT do you eat?"  So to answer that question, here's what I eat!  Many people think Thanksgiving isn't Thanksgiving unless you have turkey.  So, to start off with I made a Seitan Turkey.  Seitan is called the "wheat meat" and is made form vital wheat gluten.  Think of it as a dough than when boiled or baked takes on a very similar consistency as meat.  Then season like you would meat a woo-hoo a plant based meat for those of us on "my diet".  The recipe I used this time is found at the web site Everyday Dish Tv and it's called Vegan Turkey Roast.  Recipes links are at the end of this post for everything else!

No meat!  No cheese!  No dairy!  No added oil!  No eggs!  It's true I promise!

It's that time of the year when we plan for big holiday meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Ok, so we don't eat the turkey or ham but many of the other dishes can certainly be plant based and good.  For example, mashed potatoes, cranberry, pumpkin, stuffing, fruit salad, green beans and the list goes on.  Just in time, Dr. McDougall has published a list of recipes for the holidays.  Check them out and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

Recently, in another blog post, I made the statement about lettuce, "Iceberg is worthless, it is mostly water and has very little nutritional value." But a kind reader (Robert) sent me a nice email response that he too thought iceberg lettuce was low nutritional value until he read this article.  The article is written by Jeff Novick, a dietitian, and offers some wonderful insight to the benefits of iceberg lettuce......believe it or not, it competes with romaine!!  So, I now consider iceberg lettuce one of my plant based friends.

Finally, a few months after starting a plant based diet I ran into a friend of mine who had recently experienced a heart attack.  After some discussion, I shared my recent diet success and the affect on my cholesterol numbers.  He listened to my story and decided to do some research into the diet by reading Dr. Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease book and also the China Study.  Dennis is now a strong plant based advocate and has seen some amazing success in his own life.  Read his success story on his blog.

Today we drove to Lancaster so Cari could participate in a dog fair thingy.  On our way home, the standard question came up, "What's for dinner?"  Neither Cari or I had a clue so I told her I would "wing it" and make some kind of black bean soup.  So I looked through the fridge and cupboards and came up with the recipe below.  Because of the diced tomato with fire roasted peppers it has somewhat of a southwest flair.  For the corn, I used Trader Joe's Roasted Corn (frozen) but you can use any corn.  One kid said they didn't like the red bell pepper in is, so you may want to leave it out if red bell pepper is not your thing.  It turned out very yummy and I plan on making it again soon!!  I call it Southwest Black Bean Soup.


Southwest Black Bean Soup

Servings: 4-6

Ingredients:
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup vegetable broth, divided
1 cup water
1 can fire roasted dice tomatoes
1 cup frozen corn (roasted corn is even better!)
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan, saute the onion, red bell pepper and garlic in 1/4 cup of vegetable broth for about 5 minutes.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.  You may want to use a potato masher to mash some of the black beans (optional).
   

It was a dad and the kids weekend.  For my wife's birthday she gets to go off to a scrap booking retreat and spend the whole day scrap booking with all meals provided.  It's a cool treat and she totally deserves it!!

Of course, hanging out with kids means they become guinea pigs for my recipe experiments.  Tonight I decided potato soup sounded good.  I didn't have a specific recipe but decided to kind of throw my own recipe together and put a cheesy touch to it.  Here's what I came up with and, I have to say, it's pretty good!  The kids loved it and I will be making it again as we get closer to the cold weather!
Cheesy Potato Soup
Servings: 4-5
Prep and Cook Time: 30-35 minutes

Ingredients:
2 cups vegetable broth
4 large potatoes, peeled, cubed
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 tsp. dried parsley
1/2 tsp. salt
1 pinch black pepper
2 Tbsp. and 2 tsp. flour
1 1/2 cups soy milk
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. corn starch

Directions:
1) Put vegetable broth, potatoes, onion, parsley, salt and pepper into large pan.  Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook 18-20 min or until potatoes are soft.
2) In a separate bowl, mix flour, milk, nutritional yeast flakes, lemon juice, garlic powder and corn starch.
3) Once potatoes are soft, add in mixture from bowl and simmer for another 5 minutes.
4) Serve!

The other night I came home and my dear bride was running off to a meeting which meant I was in charge of dinner.  The process for me to make dinner means looking through the cupboards for something EASY!  So what's easy, when you are eating a plant based diet and you can't throw in a frozen burrito or frozen pizza in the oven or eat mac and cheese?  Well, after perusing my cupboards and seeing what I had on hand I came up with three choices for my kids.  All three choices were easy to make (less than 30 min) and I had the ingredients on hand.

Choice #1:  Amazing chili
Choice #2:  Pita Bread Pizza
Choice #3:  Mexican wraps

The kids chose Pita Bread pizza so I turned the oven on to 400 degrees.  Grabbed a bag of Trader Joe's Whole Wheat Pita bread.  Grabbed a jar of Trader Joe's Pizza sauce and spread it on the Pita Bread.  Grated some mozzarella cheese on the kids pizza's.   Added pepperoni to the kids pizza (yes, we let them have an occasional meat and cheese binge).  For my pizza, I skipped the cheese and put a layer of 50/50 salad mix (spinach and baby romaine), then some onions, jalapenos, tomatoes, broccoli slaw and bell pepper.  I threw them all in the oven for about 15-17 minutes and voila, we were eating!  Total prep time was less than 10 min, with cook time of 15-17 min, a few minutes for the pizza's to cool and we were eating in yummy dinner.  Who says dinner can't be fast!  Keep in mind, even if the kids would have chosen one of the other choices, total time until eating is less than 30 minutes.

The key to being ready for quick dinners in situations like this is to make sure you keep a stock of certain ingredients on hand.  For the Amazing Chili, it's ranch seasoning, taco seasoning, two cans of chopped tomatoes and 3 different cans of beans.  If you want some meat texture in the chili you can also add Smart Ground.  For the Pita Bread pizza, you just need a bag of pita bread, some pizza sauce and whatever vegetables you have handy to pile on top of your pizza.  Finally, for the mexican wraps, I use Trader Joe's Indian Flat Bread (Lavash), smash up some pinto or black beans with salsa as a spread and then whatever veggies sound good.  Wrap it all up and throw it in the oven.  All of these are quick, easy, delicious and each have tons of variations by changing the veggies you include!

I've been going through my blog to-do's and came across two things that are long overdue for sharing.  The first is a recipe from a plant based potluck we had earlier in the summer.  The dish is called Soy Bean Chili and was brought by a good friend of mine Raj.  He promised to get me the recipe, and he did, but I'm just getting around to posting it.  Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of his excellent chili but here's the recipe if you're interested!

The second to-do was to get a success story posted from a friend and fellow plant based advocate.  Last summer I worked as an Interim IT Director for our Ridgecrest (Cerro Coso Community College) college campus.  One of my good friends and employees was a man named Jeremy.  During the first few weeks of me working at the college he learned about my diet (mainly because he watched me bring in all my healthy food).  One night I got a call from Jeremy and he asked if I would come share my diet with his wife (Laura).  I was a little reluctant because I didn't know if she was truly interested or whether he was pushing this on her.  Well, when I showed up, she had a notepad and asked me to share my story.  I did and she took notes the whole time.  She started a plant based diet the very next day and here is her story.  If you need motivation to stick with the diet or if you need motivation to get on the diet, read this story.  Real results with a real person!!

If you have a success story from being on a plant based diet that you would like to share, please send it to me ande

When trying to get as many greens as possible, I'm also always trying to find or make new salad dressings.  Recently I've been quite interested in playing around with chipotle related sauces and dressings.  I love the chipotle flavor and when done just right, it gives a little kick but with surprisingly wonderful flavor.  A little note on chipotle peppers, do you know what a chipotle pepper is?  I didn't until recently when I looked it up and found out it is just a jalepeno pepper that has been smoke dried.

Usually when making a creamy dressing, I've used Mori-Nu silken tofu.  The silken tofu works in place of sour cream and I've used this method to make Ranch dressing in the past with reasonably good results.  The one problem with using tofu is it just seems to have a "taste" that I don't care for in a dressing.  The other day, I got the idea of trying soy yogurt instead.  It's a little easier to work with and maybe it wouldn't have the "taste" that bothered me even though it is still soy based.

My first recipe with plain soy yogurt is my stab at a Chipotle Dressing.  Yes, all the amounts are completely my own, completely from scratch and I was truly winging it.  I still think it could use a little work and each person may want to tweak the seasonings to their own liking.  TIP:  Save bottles from bought salad dressings to be used for your own creations. 


Todd's Chiptole Salad Dressing

Ingredients:
1 cup plain soy yogurt (I use WholeSoy & Company brand)
1/3 cup of soy milk (rice milk, almond milk or similar could be used)
1/2 tsp. chiptole powder (if you have dried chipotle peppers, try one of those first and then increase to your liking)
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. agave (or other sweetener)
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp.onion powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. Braggs Aminos
1 1/2 tsp. rice vinegar
1/4 tsp. salt

Mix all ingredients in a blender and enjoy!

Notes: I added the agave early and decided I didn't like the addition of a sweetener.  To ovset the sweetener, I had to add the rice vinegar.  You may be able to eliminate both those ingredients in this recipe to get a better result (the rice was kind of an "undo" of the agave).

For my readers, if you haven't seen this, it's worth the hour to check it out!  Dr. Sanjay Gupta did a 1-hour special on CNN investigating whether diet and the latest diagnostic tests are enough to prevent a heart attack.  He's objective and looks at both sides of the discussion and ultimately advocates for a plant-based diet.

Note:  Another way I stay excited about my diet is to constantly look at recent research, documentaries, fellow bloggers and by sharing my enthusiasm for the diet with others.  It works, give it a try!!