Wish me luck or a fast ambulance.

[TMR]

Second attempt at a replacement for Friday night pizza. First was ok to me but way too much spinach for Mrs. Pa. This one is a corn polenta crust with hummus from the food processor, stir-fried spinach & cilantro and broiled mushrooms (lots), onions and tomatoes for toppings. Not a prize winner yet, but tasted pretty good. Maybe next time I will try a couple pounds of shredded cheese and see if that helps

Kind of a carppy photo - tasted better than it looks...

Looks pretty good. I need a pizza sub also keep the ideas coming

Quick update...

1st I have had a few "departures" from the Engine 9 diet...mostly items that violate the extra oil such as mexican corn chips and a few of grandson's french fries at dinner. Also had some of the "excluded" vegetable...avacodo in dip...and some non-fat dairy items. Overall, our goal is to work follow the Ornish approach for the first 90 days...perhaps working toward the engine 9 approach during the 90 days. Example would be almond milk as opposed to non-fat dairy. BTW...tried vanilla first...think regular will be better

The departures from diet have slowed weight loss...at 15# down from 215 to 190 as we approach three weeks.

Results have been pretty significant...dropping metformin from 2000/day to 1000/day and am cutting my blood pressure pills in half. Waiting to get a lipids read before dropping Lipitor below the current 80 level...quite sure I will be able to drop to 40 after I get a new Lipids reading. The Lipitor @ 80 was keeping my LDL in mid 70s...want to see what the diet and weight loss have done to LDL so far. BTW...also noted in Lipitor studies that moving from 40 to 80 only has around a 5% incremental improvement (over 40)...I look forward to dropping to 40 soon as I do not like being on such a heavy dose.

Doc had asked me to set up an appointment in about another month but my blood pressure fell quite a bit and I was quite light headed whenever standing up...so I faxed BP readings from last 3 weeks and blood glucose readings and he changed the metformin and BP meds as above...forgot to ask about Lipitor but will do the Walgreen's test and check back with him if it is good.

We also added 30-45 minutes on treadmill and hope that helps all readings.

I realize that the "reversal" portion of the diet comes from pretty strict compliance but I also realize that this is a long-term change and moving toward our goals sb fine as long as we persist.

Off to Fitness 19 for today's workout TMR

 

[txdon]

Chef Pa, thats a good idea on the pizza crust, I would have never thought of that. The picture of the pizza looked like something I would want to eat also.

TMR, Yep, I strayed from the diet also before my heart attack, probably more than you. Being on no meds and feeling good there was no incentive. The only incentive was that heart scan from five years ago. The heart attack surprised me, I thought I was eating very good! Then I got Dr. Esselstyn's book and read chapter 5 - "Moderation Kills" and I knew he wrote that chapter just for me.

Sounds like the diet is doing you good. The tweaking of the diet will come naturally as you continue.

I did enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner last night with the family, they had the bird we had the loaf. I'll share my "Turkey" loaf recipe later, The main ingredients were wheat gluten and nutritional yeast. :thumbsup:

Time to clean out the workshop something crawled in there and died.

 

[TMR]

Thanks Don...I did pick up Dr E's most recent book over the weekend and read it yesterday. I also believe in Chapter 5 as I am not good at "moderation" in any of my undertakings. I think we need to improve our menu selection and learn the "ropes" of food substitution. I was impressed with the recipe's in Dr E's book and also saw a number of ingredients that I am not familiar with and seem to be common parts of many recipes. My wife did introduce me to Hummus yesterday and I found that q positive...even though our contained the ?????? (other ingredient that is to be avoided?).

My history is a limited food variety...my wife used to say I needed to order from the "children's" menu as I had a very basic choice of food "likes". I am opening up quickly to much of what I would not eat b4.

Like I told my doc...let's see where we are in a one year and two years

Thanks...TMR

Chef Pa, thats a good idea on the pizza crust, I would have never thought of that. The picture of the pizza looked like something I would want to eat also.

TMR, Yep, I strayed from the diet also before my heart attack, probably more than you. Being on no meds and feeling good there was no incentive. The only incentive was that heart scan from five years ago. The heart attack surprised me, I thought I was eating very good! Then I got Dr. Esselstyn's book and read chapter 5 - "Moderation Kills" and I knew he wrote that chapter just for me.

Sounds like the diet is doing you good. The tweaking of the diet will come naturally as you continue.

I did enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner last night with the family, they had the bird we had the loaf. I'll share my "Turkey" loaf recipe later, The main ingredients were wheat gluten and nutritional yeast. :thumbsup:

Time to clean out the workshop something crawled in there and died.

 

[txdon]

Chef pa, were you able to pick up a slice of pizza with that type of crust?

I found the snake in the workshop, Eddie would have had a fit.

TMR, I have the same problem trying to find a hummus without added oils. Only one store, Whole Foods, had Cedar's Fat free roasted red pepper hummus.

Roasted Red Pepper Fat Free Hummus Calories and Nutrition Facts - DailyBurn Tracker

Here are the pictures of the cranberry/apricot sauce, cornbread stuffing and our new recipe - seitan turkey loaf with onion gravy (which taste even better as left overs).

I had my meat eating brother try the turkey loaf while he was eating turkey and ask him if it tasted more like turkey or chicken and he could not tell. At Mom's turkey dinner I did not feel at all deprived!

Turkey Loaf:
1 cup Wheat Gluten (Seitan)
3 Tbs nutritional yeast
1/2 cup Vegtable stock (or homemade vegan chicken stock)
1/4 cup yellow mustard
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Salt

kneed and cut into 3 and Kneed again, shape into a shape like a chicken breast, bring another 2-3 cups of veg stock (or veg chicken stock) to a boil in pot, put seitan in and simmer for 45 minutes. (About half way through it will start to float.)

Onion Gravy:
1 medium onion, chopped and saut馥d in water until translucent.
In a jar with a lid put in:
1Tbsp ketchup
1/2 Tbsp Soy sauce
2 Tbs Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 tsp onion powder
salt and pepper to taste
shake until all lumps are gone and pour into onion pan and boil till thick, pour over turkey loaf.

Homemade VEG chicken broth:

1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp celery seed
2 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

 

[txdon]

Continued.....

Cranberry/Apricot sauce:

1 can (15.25 oz) apricot halves
1 bag (12 oz) fresh cranberries
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp minced or grated fresh ginger (or substitute 1 tsp cinnamon if you don't like the ginger taste)

1. Drain apricots, reserving syrup. Add water to syrup to make 1 cup. Coarsely chop apricots; set aside.

2. Place syrup, cranberries, sugar and ginger in medium saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.

3. Remove from heat; stir in apricots. Cool slightly, then refrigerate, covered.

Cornbread stuffing:

slices of bread
3 cups coarse corn bread crumbs

1 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup raisins

1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 teaspoon salt
broth - 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning in 1 cup of water - (see VEG chicken broth in previous post)


additional broth (1 tablespoon poultry seasoning in 1 cup water) - as needed to make stuffing a soggy consistency.
additional salt as needed for taste.
Make cornbread ahead of time - can be made day before.

Place celery, onion, & water in sauce pan and cook until tender (approx 10 minutes). Add raisins last minute of cooking to soften.

Meanwhile, cut bread into cubes and toast in oven (or toast six slices of bread and cut into cubes). Crumble cornbread into course crumbs if not already done (3 cups crumbs).

Combine vegetables, breads, salt, sage, and broth. Add additional cup of broth as needed to make stuffing a "soggy" consistency.

Taste stuffing and add additional salt as needed. Place in 1 1/2 quart casserole dish and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

 

[Chef Pa]

Hey Don - have done the pizza twice now. First time was fork only, second time was about half & half - some with fork, some by hand. The crust is simple, from the Esselstyn's (sp) recipe section - 3.5 cups water, 1 cup corn meal. The trick is cooking crust for a short time before adding the toppings. I think adding a little more time will make it easier to pick up by hand, but haven't tried it yet.

Thanks for the new recipes above, will be nice to add some variety and experiment during colder weather.

All - Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Greg

 

[TMR]

All - Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Greg

Same from Minnesota :thumbsup:

We had our first 3" of snow a few days ago...but tomorrow may threaten record high for day...59F...it is supposed to be in mid-upper 50's. Nice "extension" of Fall as winter is VERY close

Have a Great Thanksgiving...Tom

 

[beppington]

We have a winning recipe for a desert/snack.

Cinnamon buns - plant-based-fat free.

Whole Wheat, Fat Free Vegan Cinnamon Buns Recipe | HappyHerbivore.com

The changes I made were:

I made smaller buns, mini-buns, I rolled out 2 small rolls instead of one large one and cut them 3/4" thick.
I doubled the filling. Don't put the raisins in the filling, It's very hard to spread, so after you spread the filling on the dough sprinkle the raisin before you roll them.
I eliminated the greasing of the pan and instead sprinkled wheat germ on the bottom of the pan so they would not stick.
I let the rolls rise for 30 minutes before cooking them.

(The 6g of fat in the entire batch is from the whole wheat flour.)

Make sure you make enough because even the ones not on the diet will gobble them up.

Below is a picture of a double recipe. One to share and one to not share.
They also freeze well.:thumbsup:

Don, we made our 1st batch of these tonight! They were very tasty :thumbsup:, however we missed 2 of your very important modifications:

- Doubling the filling is a must! They're a little dry with just the originally called for amount. We might even try tripling the filling at some point! :licking:

- Sprinkling the raisins onto the filling after it's been spread would also be very helpful, rather than mixing the raisins into the filling beforehand. Too hard to try to spread the filling when there's raisins in it.

One more issue I think may actually be a correction: The recipe calls for a "tsp" of milk to make the icing, but that amount gets completely lost in the confectioners sugar. We bumped it up to 1 "tbsp", that worked pretty good; prob coulda used one more tsp actually.

We're prob also gonna double the raisins. The amount called for turned out to pretty sparse.

We have enough "materials" for a 2nd batch & are gonna make it ASAP, with the mods!!

 

[txdon]

I agree with you. The confectioners sugar is tricky, too little milk makes it too dry and just a little bit too much milk and you will be adding more sugar. I also sprinkle more raisins than it calls for.

I made a delicious lasagna yesterday. The three layers were refried black beans, spinach and sweet potatoes. I added nutritional yeast in each layer to give it that cheesy taste. I also added Italian seasoning, and basil to the crushed tomatoes that were on the noodles on each layer. The leftovers today should be even better. The only thing that would improve it would be whole grain lasagna, but I haven't found it in the local stores.

 

[TBDonnelly]

We've made a couple batches of the cinnamon rolls and we also encountered the dryness factor. The amendments we did were:

Added extra apple. I used fresh apples and used a blender to make apple sauce. I also left the apple sauce a little 'chunky'.

Used 'baking raisins', more moist for baking. Also 'golden' raisins add to the moisture. (The moister raisins made a BIG improvement in the dryness factor.) I used some of each in the most recent batch.

Let the dough 'rest' in a ball for 4 hours. Half way through, beat it down and formed the ball again. After 4 hours flattened and spread the filling/raisins, rolled up and cut in 3/4" slices, then let the 'ready to bake' rolls sit for another 2 hours. The dough plumped up more and the finished rolls increased in size by a third to a half. The recipe calls for whole wheat 'pastry' flour. Had to shop a few stores to find the 'pastry' version of whole wheat flour. Found it at 'Whole Foods'.

My 'panel of tasters' liked 'em. The last batch with the baking and golden raisins, the tasters loved 'em :thumbsup:. Much more moist. :licking:

The picture is part of our first batch.

Don