Vegetating with Leslie: Let's Talk (No)Turkey

“Thanksgiving dinner's sad and thankless. 
Christmas dinner's dark and blue. 
When you stop and try to see it 
From the turkey's point of view." - Shel Silverstein

If you are vegetarian and the rest of your family and friends are not, you will likely come to that moment when you need to figure out how to serve an important . . . say, holiday . . . meal.

For many years, I prepared two meals.  Difficult.  I like to cook and take pride in good results.  Cooking without tasting is like, well, driving a car with your eyes closed.  Don't much want to go there.

One year I decided to bite the proverbial bullet.  I relented on my principle of no manufactured food and bought a soy "turkey", a brand which will remain unnamed.  Shaped like a ball with twine around it, it looked like a basketball.  It even had its own little package of (no)turkey gravy.

I made everything else my family loved: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, cranberries, breads, desserts.  Then there was the (no)turkey.

Back in the kitchen, I arranged my (no)turkey as nicely as one can arrange a basketball on a platter.  It still had the appearance of a basketball but a nicely arranged and decorated one.  Everyone was waiting.  I brought it out and placed it on the table.  Stunned silence.  Finally one of my sons spoke.  "Really, Mom?"

Another of my sons, old enough to know better, did what one usually does with a basketball.  He "passed" it to his brother, who unfortunately missed it.  It landed on the floor, and my beagles, who would eat anything without even sniffing, rushed toward it...stopped, SNIFFED, and walked away!

OK, so that didn't work.  After that year, though, I was determined to find a delicious, festive vegetarian Thanksgiving entree.  These Stuffed Pumpkins sell out every year in my cafe.  The perfect entree for a veggie crowd, they are also an impressive side dish for people who require a real turkey.

STUFFED PUMPKIN
Pumpkin and Stuffing
1 Sugar Pumpkin
2 Cups (Pre-cooked) Brown Basmati Rice
2 Cups (Cooked) Chickpeas
4 Cups Almonds/Raisins/Craisins/Apple
4 TB Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 TB + 2 TSP Sugar
2 TSP Cinnamon
Pinch Hot Paprika

Cut off top of pumpkin.  Cut stem to 2 inches.  Scrape out seeds. Season inside of pumpkin with olive oil and honey (unfiltered sugar for vegans). Rub outside of pumpkin with olive oil. Roast one hour at 350.

Cook two cups brown rice.  Set aside. Sauté almonds, raisins, craisins and apple slices with olive oil, sugar, cinnamon and a pinch hot paprika.  Add to rice with chickpeas. Stir together and re-season.

Apples and Cranberries
3 Baking Apples
6 Cloves
1 LB Bag Cranberries
Pinch Cinnamon
Juice of 1 Orange
2 TB Honey (Unfiltered Sugar for Vegans)
1/4 - 1/2 Cup White Sesame, Toasted

Halve and oil the apples. Bake with cinnamon and cloves.

For sauce, juice orange and add 2+ TB honey (or sugar). Reduce sauce.  Add cranberries and cook very briefly.  Remove cranberries.  Reduce sauce further. Recombine sauce and berries.

Assembling Pumpkin
Fill pumpkin loosely, replace pumpkin lid, wrap loosely in foil.  Roast one hour at 325.  Warm remaining stuffing and apples separately.

Plate pumpkin and surround with extra stuffing.  Place roasted apples on stuffing around pumpkin.  Top apples with cranberry sauce.  Garnish with white sesame.

Healthy, happy eating!

Vegetating with Leslie: Now That's Just Peachy Keen(wah)...

"I did not become a vegetarian for my health.  I did it for the health of the chickens... " Isaac Bashevis Singer

I am vegetarian for spiritual reasons, not for my health.  Coincidentally it turns out there are health benefits to eating a more plant based diet.

I will concede that meat eating is not a detriment to health if the meat is from animals raised in a healthy, natural environment on species-appropriate organic food; however, the requirement that meat come from healthy, organically raised animals introduces additional arguments for vegetarianism: cost and availability.

In some locales, it is hard to find organic grass fed meat.  If it is available, it may be cost-prohibitive.  Vegetarianism is cost-effective.  A family of four can enjoy a healthy dinner based on $1.00 worth of dried beans or quinoa. Dried beans are widely available and store without using excess energy.  Quinoa is increasingly available in supermarkets and, like beans, is stable on the shelf.

That plant based protein sources are healthy, inexpensive, widely available, and don't require expensive refrigeration makes them an ideal choice not just for vegetarians or people concerned about health or the environment -- but for the budget-conscious.  

Frances Moore Lappe, in her best-selling Diet for a Small Planet (1971), makes the point that vegetarianism is not only good for the physical environment but is the ethical choice for society.  Requiring far less of the earth's resources, vegetarianism ensures all can have food to eat.

What if "Beans on Every Burner" were our national goal...Chickpea Chuckles replaced Hostess Ho-Hos on snack shelves, and "Peachy Keen(wah)" were the entree of choice?

Peachy *Quinoa (pronounce: Keen-wah)
2 TB Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 Large Spanish Onion
1-2 Peaches, cut up (2 Cups)
1/2 Cup Dried Cherries
1/4 Cup Slivered or Sliced Almonds
1 Cup Quinoa
1/2 TSP Salt
1.5 TSP Cinnamon
1/4 TSP Hot Paprika

Directions
Saute minced onions in olive oil until onions are caramelized.  Add almonds and saute a few moments more.  Cut up peaches and dried cherries, and add to saute.  Add Quinoa and water with salt, cinnamon and hot paprika.  Bring mixture to a boil, lower heat to simmer, and cover.  Cook for 15 minutes or until water is absorbed.

Variation: For Savory Quinoa, replace cinnamon and fruits with 1 TSP minced fresh garlic and  TSP cumin.  Chop 1-2 cups spinach or kale and add to top of pot just before end of cooking time.  When Quinoa is finished, stir in spinach/kale.

Either version of Quinoa can be served with roasted veggies.  In my Cafe, I like to use Brussels sprouts and butternut squash.

Healthy, happy eating!

*Quinoa was originally grown in the Andes.  A gluten-free seed, it has a delicious, nutty flavor, is a complete protein and is a good source of B-vitamins, iron and dietary fiber. 

MSNBC Double Whammy

Today MSNBC aired a segment with Dr. Robert Lustig, whom I have mentioned before in this blog.  Dr. Lustig is a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California San Francisco, where he is Professor of Clinical Pediatrics.  He is known for his statements about sugar and toxicity.  The interview is a must-hear: Fighting Sugar Addiction.  When you arrive at the link, you will need to scroll down in the left column to select the segment with Dr. Lustig -- Fighting Sugar Addiction.

It has been well over one year since I began my own experiment with sugar.  I had the opportunity to see in a very direct and dramatic way the effect of eliminating sugar from my diet -- not just added sugar and sweets but the much more insidious sugars that unfortunately permeate commercial foods.

I have always been health oriented and have paid attention to my diet, but I had gotten a little lazy.  One week after eliminating all sugar from my diet, all aching which I had attributed to arthritis was gone.  You might say this experience was coincidental or even wishful, but my blood work suggested there might be more to the story  My blood glucose went from high to well within the normal range.  At the time, my overall cholesterol dropped significantly.  HDL, which had been consistently lower than the desired 50, shot up.  My LDL dropped, and my triglycerides dropped.  Over a period of a very few short weeks, I lost 15 pounds.  I was convinced.  Now in my second winter, I have continued to avoid my yearly winter weight increase.  My results from this single change in my diet were quick and dramatic.

Well into my experiment, I happened to come across a reference to Dr. Lustig.  I did a little internet research and read his articles and viewed videos of him teaching a class of medical students.  I believe we will hear more about Dr. Lustig and his ideas with regard to sugar -- and I believe we will hear from more and more medical professionals and researchers on this topic as research continues to find direct links between sugar, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer's/dementia and some forms of cancer.

Dr. Lustig just completed a book, Fat Chance, which I am going to pick up.  People in my weight loss groups will have the opportunity to purchase the book at Read Between the Lynes with a 20% discount.

Since I began my own sugar project, I lost a brother-in-law to pancreatic cancer.  Another close relationship, who happens to be significantly overweight, has developed breast cancer.  A third was just informed he has stomach cancer.  As I mentioned, my passion for health, and in particular health as influenced by what we eat, was generated 45 years ago when my grandmother died of colon cancer.

I believe all of these preventable diseases are "foodborne illnesses," and my passion for eliminating sugar and, in particular, the sugar in commercial foods from my diet has deepened.  According to Dr. Lustig, the sugar in commercial foods is responsible for fully 50% of the weight gain represented in the obesity epidemic.  More importantly, it is associated with metabolic syndrome, the precursor of many of the diseases that plague us today.  Yes, I think we will hear more about this.

Studies show what we know...

MSNBC had a report this morning about HFCS (high fructose corn syrup).   Prior studies of HFCS demonstrated that the practice of adding it to so many of our manufactured foods and to soft drinks corresponds to the dramatic rise in obesity in this country.  A new study provides the direct link between HFCS and obesity in that it explores the biology, that is, how HFCS works in the body, and found that it stimulates the hormone that causes hunger and cravings.  Yup, that demonstrates what we all suspected -- the rise in obesity is related to manufactured foods and is not a function of decreasing will power in our population.

Vegetating with Leslie: Food Products or . . . Food?

“You have a choice. You can continue eating the foods manufacturers want you to buy that are making you unhealthy. Or you can return to eating the foods God provided for you, already magnificently packaged in their own skins, rinds, pods and shells . . . Rabbi Celso Cukiercorn

Picture this: a five-year old watching TV happily munching a fluffer-nutter sandwich on something manufacturers alleged was white bread.  That was me, 60 years ago (OMG!).

I enjoyed fluffer-nutters and many other American favorites for the next 15 years.  Then in 1968, my Fort Smith, Arkansas, grandmother died of colon cancer at 65 years of age, just one year older than I am now. I had a vague sense her disease was what some of us call "a foodborne illness."

I began a lifelong research project with a consistent theme: "real food." I campaigned to bring real food back to the center of my table.  I raised a family on real food, much of which got its start in my organic garden.  Today I own and operate a five-star vegetarian cafe featuring real food.  I never ate another fluffer-nutter.

What is real food?  In Food Rules, Michael Pollan says: “If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.”  Food choices I make for myself, my family and my cafe are guided by the real food principle.  I cook my own food and choose the least processed ingredients -- plant food, organic when possible.  I stick to the produce section of the supermarket.

Healthy vegetarian foods can be a tough sell, easier in recent years as research supports what was anecdotal 40 years ago.  Finally, though, healthy eating has to taste good and satisfy.  You be the judge:

Veggie Chili

1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 TB Garlic
2 Bell Peppers
1 Large Yellow/Spanish Onion
1 Poblano Pepper
1/2 LB Dried Small Red Beans
1 LB Dried Dark Red Kidney Beans
10 Large Plum Tomatoes
6-12 OZ Tomato Paste
1TB + 1 TSP Salt
1TB + 1 TSP Cumin
1 TB Hot Chili Powder
2 TSP Hot Paprika
1 LG Bunch Fresh Cilantro

Prepare Beans. Rinse and soak beans overnight.  Place drained beans in a 4 quart pot, add water to 1/2" over top of beans, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook until done.  Check water level periodically.  When done, the beans should have absorbed most but not all water.

Prepare Veggies. Cut bell peppers and onions into 1" dice.  Mince poblano pepper.  Cut tomatoes into 1/2" dice. Mince cilantro.

Make Chili.  Add olive oil to bottom of a 1-2 gallon pot.  Saute garlic, peppers and onions until slightly soft.  Add diced tomatoes, and heat until entire mixture is simmering.  Add remaining seasonings, and simmer a few minutes.  Add cooked beans and remaining juices (unless too much liquid remains, then drain some).  Bring to a simmer.  Add tomato paste until it reaches the thickness you prefer.  Add cilantro. Adjust seasoning.

Healthy, happy eating!

Vegetating with Leslie: When Life Gives You Lemons...

"We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons."  - Alfred E. Newman

I squeeze a lot of lemons every day.  After five years of daily lemon squeezing, I finally purchased a professional lemon squeezer, the kind they use in fairs.  It's an incredible technological advance in my life.  I love it!

Still, my lemon squeezer is a single function tool. It squeezes lemons for salads I make every day in my vegetarian cafe.  It needed a larger purpose in life.

One day I put a little unfiltered sugar in a cup, squeezed a half lemon over it, tossed in the rind, swished it around, filled the cup with ice, added water, clapped a lid over the cup and shook.  I handed the result to my employee.  She drank, looked stunned and said, "Amazing."  She shared her drink with friends, who performed similarly.

This employee is 40 years younger than I as are her friends.  Noting her ecstasy over the drink, I wondered if it was possible she had never had real lemonade before?  Sure enough, prior to this moment lemonade for her was something made with water and canned powder.  She had no idea you could just make lemonade from . . . well, real lemons.

Have you ever compared the ingredient list on a lemon with the ingredient list on one of those cans of lemonade mix?  Here is a typical powdered lemonade mix ingredient list: Sugar, Fructose, Citric Acid, Less Than 2% Of Natural Flavor, Ascorbic Acid, Maltodextrin, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Citrate, Magnesium Oxide, Calcium Fumarate, Artificial Color, Yellow 5 Lake, Tocopherol.

Compare that list to: Lemon.  A lemon, with its nutrients, micronutrients and phytonutrients, with its fiber and its ability to lower the glycemic index of accompanying foods. Most of all a lemon with all of its taste.  A plain lemon, packaged in its own beautiful (integrated) yellow self.

It turns out real lemonade is not only more nutritious and about as easy to make as lemonade from a powdered mix -- but tastier.  According to the 20+ set, it is "Amazing!"

Forty years ago, I began a campaign to bring back real food.  I raised my kids on it.  Today I feed it to my customers.  Everybody loves it!  Why did we ever give it up?  What did real food ever do to us but keep us healthy and happy?

Real Lemonade
0 - 2 TB Unfiltered Sugar
Juice of 1/2 LG Juicy Lemon
1/2 Lemon Rind
Ice
Water

Wash one lemon.  Add sugar to taste to the bottom of a drink mixer or cup with a cover.  Squeeze over it the juice of 1/2 lemon, reserving the rind.  Swish sugar and lemon juice until mixed.   Add ice to the top of the shaker or cup.  Fill shaker or cup with water.  Secure the lid, and shake.  Enjoy your lemonade!

Healthy, happy eating!

Finding Your Natural Weight...A Beginning: II

One of the people in our first weight loss group shared a link to an article that I really appreciated: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/10/sugar-industry-lies-campaign?page=2

In response to a request for quick and easy (and appropriate) main dishes, we enjoyed kidney beans and brown rice 5 different ways.  My son, Jeremy, made a video presentation that we hope will be helpful as you learn to eat the Expressly Leslie way: http://www.youtube.com/expresslyleslie (select 7 Easy Vegetarian Recipes from Expressly Leslie)

Here's a brief summary of what we talked about while we enjoyed dinners together:

Once we looked beyond the mere cosmetic rationale for weight loss and removed some of the obstacles to a successful outcome, our group, which I am thinking of naming "Lifers," began to look at all the wonderful possibilities of what we can eat for optimum health. 

In Sessions 3 and 4, we considered not only what to eat but how to eat it.  We looked at several alternatives to calorie counting and why other ways of monitoring what we eat are likely to work better for us and be easier to maintain over a lifetime.

Our first stop was basic body chemistry and old-school diet wisdom.   Food contains 3 sources of energy:

• Carbohydrates, the quickest source of energy  - 4 calories per gram
• Proteins, needed for repairing damaged tissue and building new cells - 4 calories per gram
• Fats, the most efficient energy but the slowest to break down - 9 calories per gram

These simple facts suggest right away why the focus for weight loss and disease prevention has been so heavily on decreasing fat content in the diet and decreasing the fat content in foods that contain fats.  Fats are higher in calories and so should be highly restricted.  Or should they?

Old school nutrition recommends for a 2000 calorie "balanced" diet the following:

• Carbohydrates - 45-65% of calories, 900 - 1300 calories
• Proteins - 10-35% of calories, 200 - 700 calories
• Fats - 20-35% of calories, 400 - 700 calories 

It is not quite so simple, as it turns out.  Fat does not make one fat, nor is good fat the culprit in the battle against heart disease.  In fact, the right kind of fat helps burn fat faster by increasing the metabolic processes that burn fat.  What are the right kinds of fat? Butter, eggs, cocnut oil, nuts, and avocado are among them.  Surprised?  Seem like lot of foods that you thought you couldn't eat or that you needed to replace with more processed items like . . . mmm, margarine?  Isn't it nice to know that you can skip the foods marked "low fat," generally more processed, and go for the gold, full fat yogurt? Butter? Nut butters?  This isn't a free pass to eat all those high fat foods out there, but it does make us feel less deprived when we contemplate a lifetime plan for eating.

With old school nutrition, you might be able to enjoy 5 or 6 walnuts before you reached the outer limit of your fat content in a day.  I don't know about you, but that would leave me starving and obsessing about food all day long.  In addition to its other wonderful properties, fat provides a feeling of satisfaction. I try to make sure I get some fat content each time I eat, and 5 or 6 walnuts just won't take me far into my day. 

In addition, all calories are not created equal.  A 2000 calorie diet plan suggests that they are...yet we now know that foods work together in different ways.  How you put different kinds of foods together and when you eat them ... and what foods you exclude from your diet ... have at least as much impact as the number of calories.

So here's another way to look at how we eat:  blood glucose levels. 

• 120 is the weight gaining zone.  Insulin must be released at this point, which causes fat storage.
• 90 is the fat burning zone.
• 60 is the zone in which you will experience constant hunger, cravings and fatigue.

Our goal is to stay in the fat burning zone, 90.  One way to check that we are accomplishing this is with constant blood glucose level checks using a kit like those that diabetics use.  Since that requires an understanding of how food works in the body anyway, it's just as easy to simply eat correctly and feel confident that your blood sugar level will end up where it should be.  What does it mean, to  "eat correctly?"

• 50% (or as much as you would like) low starch, low glycemic carbs / high water content veggies like spinach
• 25% lean protein / fish, chicken, meat, eggs, beans
• 25% complex, slow burning carbs / whole grains, starchy veggies like sweet potato

I like this way of eating because it is visual.  Who wants to pull out a calculator to count calories every time you sit down to eat?  While a quick glance at the glycemic index is useful just to get a feeling for what kinds of foods fall into each category, this way of eating is basically maintained by looking at your plate almost like you would a work of art. 

I recommend three meals and at least two snacks in the course of a day so that you are never more than 3 hours from being able to eat.  If meals are on 8" or 9"plates and snacks on 5" plates, and each meal or snack is arranged on the plate with 50% low glycemic carbs (or as much at you would like), 25% protein and 25% complex carbs, you won't need to worry about counting calories. 

You also won't need to worry about how much fat you're getting in your diet.  If it is part of the portions on your plate or is used to season your meal along with acidity -- as well as to provide satisfaction -- it will naturally end up being a reasonable amount. You are not likely to put a full stick of butter on a plate already filled with good foods.  You are also not likely to pour an entire bottle of olive oil onto a full plate. 

In the course of our sessions together, I presented a number of tips and tricks based on my own experience and my reading.  I also learned a great deal from the group, whose questions stimulated me to research.  My research caused me to modify some of my thinking based on new information that has become available. 

My next group will begin soon and will once again be four sessions.  I will make some changes based on my experience with the first group.  Congratulations to those who completed the first Expressly Leslie Four Week Weight Loss Group...and I hope you will all on the road to becoming "Lifers."