The REALLY Important Foods: GBOMBS

You might be asking yourself, "Am I eating enough of all the right foods?"  I will share what several  experts suggest that we include in our daily food consumption.  The easiest to remember is GBOMBS.  Dr. Joel Fuhrman, author of Eat To Live,  suggests we eat our GBOMBS everyday.  G-Greens, B-Beans, O-Onions, M- Mushrooms, B-Berries, S-Seeds/Nuts.  This is an easy acronym to remember.

And Dr. Michael Greger has his Daily Dozen:

Water/Coffee/Green Tea/Hibiscus Tea- 5 servings (12 oz each)

Whole grains, fruits, beans- 3 servings each

Greens, other veggies- 2 servings each

Berries, cruciferous veggies, flax seed, nuts, spices, exercise- 1 serving each

A few extra tips: When you have a meal, soup, salad, wrap or sandwich, think to yourself, "How can I make this meal healthier?"  I add flax meal to just about anything, and if I have a savory dish, I always add turmeric as well.  If I am having a salad, I'll add beans, nuts and seeds to get those added nutrients and protein.  If I am making a soup, I'll add whole or pureed beans/lentils or pureed cashews.  And when serving any soup, I'll chop up a handful of fresh greens, and ladle the hot soup right on top of it!  I also put onions and garlic in most every savory dish I make.  I'll add some of my homemade sweet spice blend (cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, allspice) to my coffee, oatmeal, bread or cookie recipe.  Always be looking for ways to add the power cancer fighting foods to your meals.

Substitution Tips

I agree that it can be kind of intimidating switching from the Standard American Diet (SAD) over to a Whole Foods Plant Based (WFPB) way of eating.  But after eating, cooking, and living like this now for several years, I can tell you that it does become easier!  You will learn how to take any of your old favorite recipes, and adapt them to become compliant.  So today is devoted to suggestions for substitutions!  There are so many alternatives to choose from, and it depends on what you are cooking.  Say it is a sweet baked item and you need 1 egg; choose the flax meal egg, not the tomato paste.  Say you need a cream for a savory dish, use pureed potato, cashews or beans, not coconut milk.  So here are just a few.  Enjoy experimenting!

1 egg-      1 T flax Meal + 3 T water   or     1 T chia seed + 3 T water, 1/4 c silken tofu blended, 1/2 mashed banana, 1/4 c cooked oats, 1/4 c applesauce or pureed fruit, 3 T breadcrumbs, 2 T arrowroot, 3 T tomato paste, 1/4 c mashed potato, 1/2 c soy or rice yogurt

1/3 c oil-  1 banana, 1/3 c applesauce, 1 c flax meal, 1 avocado, 1/3 c plant milk

white flour- any whole grain flour (spelt, soft wheat, oat, barley...), bean/lentil flour

dairy milk- any nut or seed milk (almond, soy, flax, hemp, cashew..)

white sugar- date sugar, erythritol, coconut sugar, banana, molasses, pure maple syrup

creams- nut milks, coconut milk, pureed garbanzo beans, pureed tofu, pureed cashews, soy creamer, mashed potatoes

parmesan cheese-mixture of nutritional yeast, garlic powder, chopped nuts, chopped sunflower seeds (lots of recipes online)

queso-pureed soaked cashews blended with cooked onions, carrots, potatoes, nutritional yeast, spices (lots of recipes out there)

ricotta cheese- firm tofu, drained, pressed and then gently crumbled

Build A Meal Swap Big Success

Well last night we had our first ever, Build A Meal Swap.  For those of you curious about how we did it, go to my resources page, and see the flyer instructions I used.  Some of the jar contents were raw, some blanched, some fully cooked.  I'll be posting videos soon on how to cook grains/beans in the Instant Pot.  Attendees ranged from 20 something working kids, all the way to Empty Nesters wanting to eat healthy! 

The actual swap was a bit hectic, and more like a three ring circus, but everyone ended up excited to take home 12 jars of freshly prepared veggies, grains and legumes.  This weeks' meal preps for the 16 attendees will be quick and easy.  Instant bowls or meals at our fingertips: Southwestern (add salsa), Thai (add coconut milk, red curry paste), Chinese (add soy sauce, fresh ginger), Italian (add canned compliant pizza sauce)...And most were asking "When will we do this again?".  A great idea, thanks to Sharon Keeler, that we will most certainly continue!

Interested in hosting your own jar swap? Watch the two videos below for a quick look at one of our jar swap meetings live!

Oodles of Noodles: What is a spiralizer?

A fun way to eat your veggies is by using a Spiralizer!  We all know that fresh zucchini noodles are a healthier option than a processed pasta noodle we buy in a box.  I have a Paderno tabletop spiralizer that works great.  It has several large suction cups that anchor it to your counter top, which make it very easy to use!

I have spiralized zucchini, potato, and sweet potato so far!  But that is just the tip of the iceberg!  What about eggplant, turnip, beets, carrots, butternut squash?  All good ideas! 

Once the veggie is spiralized, stir fry just a bit to heat up, and then add your favorite sauce (balsamic or flavored vinegar, hummus, creamy nut sauce, salsa, marinara...)!

Check out my video using my Paderno Spiralizer!

How To Make A Power Smoothie

In a good blender, put at least the following:

• 1 banana
• 1/3 blender full of dark greens (kale, spinach, collard, swiss chard, beet greens...)
• 1/3 blender full of berries (alternate often: blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries)
• 1 peeled lemon/lime/orange
• 1 T flax meal
• 1 chunk fresh ginger root, 1 " in length
• 1 chunk fresh turmeric root, 1" in length
• 1 frozen small beet chunk for red color and sweetness
• Fill blender with green tea or hibiscus tea up to 2 inches from top.  No more, or you'll have a blender blowout, trust us!
• Puree for at least 2 minutes or more to get a nice smooth texture

Split the blenderful with a loved one, and consume over 32 ounces of power nutrients.  Serve with a shake straw that has bigger diameter than regular straw(Bed, Bath & Beyond, Walmart occasionally)

         *For added protein, add handful of nuts or plain cooked beans.

You can really add almost any fruit or veggie to your smoothie, but we like to get the power foods in the morning before we start our day.  Obviously, avoid bitter and spicy veggies like eggplant, grapefruit, citrus peel, etc. 

On days where we do not have our Power Smoothie for breakfast, we can tell a big difference in the way we feel.   Also, be prepared to have a bathroom close by within 30 minutes of finishing your smoothie, and this is NO JOKE! The fiber will do wonders to keep your digestive system on the move, and you need to be prepared!

You can also find 2 smoothie demo videos on my youtube channel. See below!

for more helpful kitchen/cooking how-to videos, visit the "How-To Video" page on this site!

Mango Season!!!

Finally it is here, the season for the sweet. juicy, buttery taste of fresh mangos!  And now that they are in season, the prices are reasonable!  We can get them here in Dallas right now as cheap as 3 or 4 for $1.00!  At this price, I like to stock up and freeze some for later use for icecream, popsicles, smoothies/shakes, muffins, pancakes or just a taste of ice cold frozen mango chunk!  I'll add them to all my salads, and even throw them in my chickpea salad that I make! 

But how hard are they to cut and peel?!?!? Kudos to my son Paddy, who showed me the easiest way to peel a mango!  Check out my video below!

What's That Smell? It's the sulforophane!

As many of you already know, when you cook broccoli the smell can sometimes be overwhelming.  That smell is the sulforophane present in the broccoli, and it is present in all other cruciferous vegetables as well.  You will need to get used to it, because that sulphur smell is a potent anti-cancer fighting machine! Other cruciferous veggies: arugula, bok choy, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, horseradish, kale, mustard greens, radishes, turnip greens, and watercress.  

Dr. Greger, in his book How Not To Die, tells us that sulforophane is a promising anti-cancer agent that will help protect your brain and eyesight, reduce nasal allergy inflammation, manage type 2 diabetes, and might even help treat autism.  And broccoli is his FAVORITE cruciferous veggie.  In his book, he shows how cruciferous veggies like broccoli can potentially prevent DNA damage and metastatic cancer spread, activate defenses against pathogens and pollutants, help prevent lymphoma, boost your liver detox enzymes and target breast cancer stem cells.  So grab your broccoli, and start consuming it!

BUT, WAIT........HE TELLS US THAT cooking the cruciferous veggies will deactivate the production of sulforophane. BUT, if we take the following steps BEFORE we cook the cruciferous veggies, then sulforophane will be at it's maximum production.  Apparently, it is activated when we cut, chop or chew the raw veggies.  So, before you make your broccoli soup, chop it up, and leave it for 45 minutes while you gather all your other ingredients.  Before blanching your kale, cut it up into pieces, and let sit on the cutting board for a while.  When you get home from the grocery store, chop up your radishes, your heads of broccoli and cauliflower, and shred your cabbage.  Store everything in easy to access containers that will make meal prep OH SO EASY!  

We like to keep shredded red cabbage in the fridge to add to all our meals.  Red Cabbage is about $1.00 per pound and has more antioxidants per dollar than anything else you'll find in the produce section.  Now if you sprout your own broccoli seeds (found online or in a health food store), THAT would be the cheapest and healthiest source of sulforophane ever!      1 pound broccoli seeds= $20.00= 75 cups of broccoli sprouts= 300 cups of sulforophane content= $.05/day sulforophane.   WOW, that is cheap medicine!

So don't worry about that smell when you are cooking or preparing your cruciferous veggies!  It is just a big reminder of their healing power!

The video below shows you an easy way to prepare your veggies for the week.  

Getting Started on a Whole Foods Plant Based Way of Eating

Where do you start?  The key is to have your fridge filled with prepped foods ready to assemble into a meal.  Once every 5-10 days, I spend a morning prepping veggies.  I cut up any of the following: onions, cabbage, red/yellow/green bells, jalapenos, carrot shreds, beet shreds, cilantro, etc, and place them in mason jars (quart or pint), labeled with date on jar(masking tape/sharpee).  Having the date on the jar helps me to know what to use first, so that I don't end up throwing away anything.  Then I will steam or cook broccoli, mushrooms and potatoes (red or sweet) to have for the week.  Next I will cook one pot of beans to use for the week.  Canned is fine, but I like to save money and cook my own when I have the time. So my fridge has veggies, beans, and a whole grain ready for use.  Now all I am missing are the greens.  Keep a large supply of mixed greens on hand. 

Ready to make a Buda bowl?  In a large bowl put a handful of greens, add whatever fresh and cooked veggies you want, and don't be stingy.  You'll eat more than you think you could, and that is ok!  It takes more to fill up your stomach when you are not eating oils, animal products and processed foods!  Top with salsa, and heat up in toaster oven or microwave.  Top with avocado, pumpkin seeds, squeeze of lime/lemon.  Stir and enjoy!