New plant based books coming out

I am excited this week Spring is in the air and there's a feeling of fresh and new life. I feel like there are so many wonderful plant based books just released or going to be released.

Plantpower Way

I was listening to a podcast by Rich Roll earlier this week. I hear about a new book coming out called The Plantpower Way. You can preorder the book before April 28th and get a bunch of bonuses (up to $3000). The new book by Rich Roll and his wife Julie Piatt sounds really interesting. They describe it as a lifestyle guide on the power of plant based eating. The book also includes 120 recipes. Today's its on pre-order at Amazon for $26.46. I think the Amazon prices change hourly or daily. I've just added this to my Amazon wish list.

Plant-Powered Families: Over 100 Kid-Tested, Whole-Foods Vegan Recipes

Another book on my wish list and on pre-order( to be released in May) is a book by Dreena Burton. The title of this cookbook is Plant-Powered Families: Over 100 Kid-Tested, Whole-Foods Vegan Recipes. She shows how your whole family can eat easy, delicious, and healthy on a plant-based diet. This sounds wonderful to me since I'm struggling to get my kids to join me on this journey. Today the pre-order price for a paperback book is $15.45.

Video by Plant-Based Christian.

Plant-based Christian has a new English version youtube channel. The video I watched was titled What I ate today on the Starch Solution. He makes two recipes that look good Easy Breakfast waffles and Rustic Leftover Chili. Both recipes look great. I think he might have a ceramic waffle iron, which is an item on my wish list.

Take a look at his new video.  I really like the look of his food and look forward to future videos.

New PD Recipes this week!

If you follow a Protective Diet, you'll be happy to hear the new Premium recipes this week. I love to see a new oil free salad dressing especially if it pours on and dresses veggies just like an olive oil. I'm excited to see that the dressing will last for 10 days. Great recipes this week. Check them out if they sound go to you also!

• Balsamic Roasted Veggie Salad
• Classic Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Fire Roasted Corn

If you are new to Protective Diet, you have to create a login to see her yummy recipes. She has two types of recipes on the site: free and premium. I invite you to create a free login on the Protective Diet site to try her free healthy recipes. I'm confident that you will love them like me plus save money buy eating at home. Click on the Getting Started Video. Protective Diet Education may qualify as a Health Savings Account expense.You may need a pre-existing diagnosis by a physician such as: obesity, hypertension, diabetes etc.

Lentils, lentils, lentils

This week I listened to a podcast in ITunes: Food for thought: Favorite Food: For the Love of Lentils Released Mar 31, 2010.

I went 40 years of my life without either eating lentils or knowing that lentils existed. In the last few months, I've started adding lentils to my pantry and I started searching for recipes using lentils. So far, I tried just two recipes: Chef AJ's red lentil chili & Protective Diet Sloppy Jerrys. I've heard lots of people raving about Chef AJ red lentil chili, but I discovered quickly that I am NOT a fan. Second, I tried the P.D. Slow Cooker Sloppy Jerrys. This recipe is fabulous, so I know I do like lentils.

  

Types of Lentils

 In Colleen's podcast, I heard that lentils are popular (staple food) all over the world. People in the USA are less familiar with them. (so true!) They are used a lot in Indian Cuisine. They are lens shaped and they come in lots of different varieties. She mentioned just a couple types:

• French Green Lentils (really holds it shape after cooking, wonderful flavor)
• Brown Lentils (very common, can hold their shape, wonderful flavor, earthy flavor)
• Red Lentils (yellowish red, sometimes called yellow lentils, mostly used in dishes where they are soft)
• Black beluga lentils

I can easily find brown and red lentils at my local grocery stores and Walmart. I found French Green Lentils at a natural food grocery store (4 hrs round trip) in bulk so I picked up a tiny bit to try. The Green lentils are more expensive per pound, so I'll have to decide if they are worth it. Vita-Cost carries lentils, so I can get them shipped to my house also.

Lentils don't need to be soaked overnight like dried beans. Before cooking, you have to rinse them and pick thru (remove stones etc.). Most lentils cook in about 30 minutes and you don't want to cook in too much water/broth (you would be dumping the nutrients down the drain). She doesn't cover the pot completely when cooking.

Lentils are full of nutrition

1 cup of cooked lentils has the following:

• have 230 calories (less calorie dense than pasta)
• 90% of daily value of folate (in one cup)
•  36% of daily percent of iron
• 35% of daily percent of protein

Ways to use lentils

Recipes/ways to use lentils per Colleen Patrick-Goudreau (I haven't tried any of these). It's amazing to see how versatile lentils are. They are used in recipes from salads, burgers, lentil loafs, to stews.

1. Sprinkle lentils on a green salad
2. Brown lentils seasoned with balsamic vinegar and salt
3. Warm lentil salad (The Vegan Table) can be served over greens or eaten in a pita pocket
4. Lentil loaf
5. Dahl
6. Red lentil and artichoke stew
7. Cashew and red lentil burgers

Frugal Tip #3 - Travel with your lunch from home!

If you work out of the house, I would recommend packing your lunch to take with you instead of eating out, ordering in, or running to a fast food restaurant. I found that you can spend a lot of money on a simple sandwiches and drinks for your middle meal.

For example, There is a coffee shop downtown in the city where I work. Sandwiches are almost $7, Panini's are $8, salads are between $6.75-$8. Then add a $2 drink and you are almost close to $10 for lunch. I would take the $10 and buy some really good staples at the store for lunch. I estimate that I probably spend around $3-$4 for lunch each day by taking my own lunch and snacks. Another benefit of making my own food, is that I can control the oil (fat) I eat.

You can get an amazing amount of food at the grocery store for $10

When you shop at the grocery store for lunch, $10 will get you supplies for more than one day. I work 5 days a week, multiply $10 * 5 days and I could spend $50 a week on lunch. I can find creative ways to go grocery shopping and spend less than $50 for the week's lunch supplies.

• Spinach bag ($2-$3)
• baby carrots (less than $1.50)
• radishes ($1)
• cucumbers ($1)
• green onions ($1)
• 5 lbs of red potatoes ($2-$3)
• a bunch of bananas ($1-$2)
• whole wheat pasta (usually less then $2 a box)
• oats (I find these as low as $.70/# in bulk on sale)

Options

The options of what you take for lunch depends on if you have a thermos, cooler, office microwave, or office refrigerator.  I use a personal cooler to carry all my lunch items to work with me each day. I do have access to a microwave. So heating up the dinner from the night before (having a hot lunch), is always an option for me. All of the Protective Diet recipes make multiple servings, so you can make a soup recipe and have lunch for at least three days from one recipe. When I worked in a building without a microwave, I would use my thermos to take hot soup from home.

Cold lunch/snack ideas

• Nice green salad with fixings you have in your fridge (I usually use spinach, but pick up mixed greens when they look fresh in the store).
• Salads: Greek Salad, Chickpea Cucumber Salad, Caesar Salad, Confetti Kale Salad
• Cold cooked potatoes (I snack on these or add salsa, beans, green onions, etc. on top)
• Whole wheat pita bread stuffed with greens and veggies
• Open Face Kale and Hummus Sandwich :Whole grain bread, hummus, onions and greens (I saw this in the documentary PlanEat. You can switch it up also to add what you like. I usually add tomato slices also, since I love tomato.)
• Happy Hummus Wrap (Happy Herbivore): Line a tortilla or wrap with red pepper hummus. Add fresh veggies such as sprouts, cucumbers, carrots, bell peppers, celery and white mushrooms, all sliced thin. (take everything in separate containers and make the wrap when you eat)
• Sides: Three Bean Salad, Creamy Mustard and Herb Potato Salad, Black Bean and Corn Summer Salad, Garlic Bread Sticks
• Pasta Salad: cook pasta  then add beans and/or veggies you like such as tomato, onion, olives, cucumbers, celery. You can use a dressing like Garlic and Herb Balsamic for the dressing.
• Fresh Fruit Salad: Fruit Jar
• Oat and Yogurt parfait
• Oatmeal - if you have access to hot water from a coffee machine, you may be able to take oats and make oatmeal at your desk.

Mushrooms the good and the bad

Shiitake Mushroom

The good

I've read many times that mushrooms are very healthy for you and can even help fight cancer.

Per cancer.org:

"Promoters claim that shiitake mushrooms contain several compounds with health benefits. A compound called lentinan is believed to stop or slow tumor growth. Another component, activated hexose-containing compound (also known as 1,3-beta glucan), is also said to reduce tumor activity and lessen the side effects of cancer treatment. The mushrooms also contain the compound eritadenine, which is thought to lower cholesterol by blocking the way cholesterol is absorbed into the bloodstream. "

It seems that they are still doing studies/clinical trials to see if mushrooms are indeed helpful in the fight for cancer. But really, everything above sounds really, really great with mushrooms.

The problem

The bad news is that I can't stand (have a very strong aversion to) mushrooms. I usually just refer to them as fungus. It's a texture thing for me. My husband also has an allergy to mushrooms and we don't include mushrooms in any of our dishes. After reading about mushrooms, I really want to like them, but I just can't.

The problem is that lot's of plant based recipes include mushrooms. I'll find a really great looking marinara or stir-fry recipe and it calls for mushrooms. These are the recipes that I just currently ignore. I read that you can possibly replace mushrooms with eggplant in some recipes.

Here's my question--Can you just leave out the mushrooms or do you have to replace them with something else in a recipe? Are they essential to the dish? I'm going to have to research this in the next coming weeks.

 Do you like mushrooms?  If you do, good for you. I'm envious.

Ultimate summit for plant-based living (April 23-26th)

Check out the UCD Integrative Medicine blog. They are going to have a ultimate summit for plant based living April 23-26. Plant based baking will be one of their many topics (also they mention cooking gluten free). It's 100% complimentary so I signed up to reserve my spot. I can't wait to see who they have for speakers. I'm all about learning new things.