Our Thanksgiving Menu

Our first Thanksgiving 3 years ago was an adventure in experimentation.  Bob and I were quite happy with the results of my mad scientist efforts in creating a healthy and festive meal for this special occasion.   Traditionally we always have another (carnivorous) couple over the next day for leftovers.  I was worried how it was going to go over with them but they loved it!  So here is my menu for the big day to help anyone over the hump of thinking that holidays might be a bit of a drag going without the usual turkey, marshmellowed yams, heavy oily stuffing and mountains of buttery desserts.   You will not feel cheated and if you are going to someone else's home for Thanksgiving, everything can be made in advance and go with you to rewarm elsewhere..self-defense cooking is a must and everyone else will want to taste what you have!

Do realize that this is a "feast" menu, meant to be enjoyed just a few times a year.  The sesame glaze is a high density calorie food and the dessert is high in sugar.

Thanksgiving Menu

Mushroom Lentil Loaf

Green Beans with Sesame Seed Glaze

Baked Japanese Sweet Potatoes

Spinach Greens with Garlic Mustard Dressing

Baked Apple-Berry Crumble

MUSHROOM LENTIL LOAF

1½ cups red lentils cooked in advance in 2½ cups water until tender, then partially mash in cooking water (doing this the day before is very helpful)

2 medium onions, chopped

2 large portobello mushrooms, diced

red wine, vegetable broth or water for sauteing

2 cups packed fresh spinach, chopped

1 15 oz can diced no-salt tomatoes and juice

2 cups brown rice, cooked (another do-ahead)

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dried sage

1 tsp Mrs. Dash's garlic and herb seasoning blend

½ tsp dried marjoram

¼ - ½ cup ketchup or barbecue sauce

[best sauces are “Bone Suckin' Sauce” BBQ sauce (my favorite) or Muir Glen ketchup]

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Stir-fry onions and mushrooms in wine, broth or water in a nonstick pan. Add spinach and cook, covered, until spinach wilts.
3. Add onions and mushrooms, tomatoes, rice, garlic, sage, Mrs. Dash, and marjoram to lentils in a large bowl and mix thoroughly.
4. Press into a 9x5 inch loaf pan and spread ketchup or BBQ sauce on top.
5. Bake for 45 – 60 minutes. Serve with more sauce drizzled over slices.

If you have any leftovers this makes great sandwich material.

GREEN BEANS WITH SESAME SEED GLAZE

The Beans:

2-3 lbs of fresh green and yellow wax beans rinsed and looked over.

Steam beans for approximately 25 minutes then turn into an oven proof baking dish.

The Glaze:

4 TBS sesame seeds

2 tsps honey

2 tsps low-sodium tamari sauce

1. Toast sesame seeds in the oven or in a pan, watching carefully so they don't burn. Place in a small grinder or food processor and process just until ground.
2. Put sesame seeds in a small bowl and add honey and tamari. Stir until mixed and just crumbly. Add to hot green beans. Gently toss and keep warm in low oven until time to serve.

Both beans and glaze may be made in advance, then mixed together and warmed about 15 – 20 minutes before serving.

JAPANESE SWEET POTATOES

4 – 6 small sized Japanese sweet potatoes (sometimes also called oriental yams) depending on number of people. At least one potato per person. But these are delicious and you will want some extras for possible seconds.

Any type of sweet potato or yam will do. We like the  jewel or garnet yams.

I simply scrub and place in a convection or regular oven and bake at 350 – 360 degrees for about 1 ½ hours. Leave in oven to keep warm. Serve as is...they just don't need anything else.

FRESH SPINACH GREENS WITH GARLIC MUSTARD DRESSING

Fresh spinach, well washed and coarsely chopped...set aside in salad bowl.

Dressing:

In a jar with tight lid combine

2 cloves fresh garlic finely minced or pressed

2 TBS of Dijon Mustard or your favorite spicy mustard

½ cup balsamic vinegar

juice of 1 lime

Shake well, adjust for your own taste

Serve greens and dressing separately for guests to add dressing as they choose.

BAKED APPLE-BERRY CRUMBLE

5 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced

1 cup blackberries, chopped

1 cup raspberries, halved

1 cup blueberries

½ cup packed brown sugar

1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

1/3 cup buckwheat flour

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1/3 cup rolled oats

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine apples, berries, ¼ cup brown sugar and ½ tsp cinnamon; toss to blend. Place apple-berry mixture in a 1 ½ to 2 quart baking dish.  (I cheat and use a disposable aluminum baking pan - no gooey washing)
2. In medium bowl combine flour, remaining ¼ cup brown sugar, and 1 tsp cinnamon. With pastry blender or two knives, cut in mashed bananas and then add in the oats. Spoon on the banana/oat topping over the apple-berry in baking dish covering apples as much as possible. Bake 40 – 45 minutes until apples are tender and topping is getting crispy.

Note: frozen berries are fine if fresh are not available.

ENJOY!

Farley

Dr. McDougall's Address to the ACLM

A few people appreciated Dr. McDougall's lecture on MS, RA, and autoimmune diseases.  I would like to promote another of his lectures that is also available for free download and is excellent.

Dr. McDougall was asked to be the keynote speaker to the first meeting of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, now an accepted specialty board within the medical profession.  In this address, Dr. McDougall summarizes some of the main problems facing those who specialize in this area, and some of the main problems faced by all of us as patients and candidates for the western diseases that seem to plague most of us as we age.  It is SAD because it is so unnecessary that we age so poorly in this country. 

Enjoying my "golden years" is one of the wonderful benefits of this lifestyle.  I was not enjoying my entry to these years before I was lucky enough to contract heart disease, and learn about this important knowledge that reversed my heart disease, diabetes, kidney stones, high blood pressure, obesity, etc.  I was suffering every day while trying to remember how many of each of my basket full of pills to take.  Now I feel great and take no medications at all.

Here is the link:
You have to scroll to the bottom of the page and download the lecture of almost an hour and a half (a fairly large file)
http://drmcdougall.com/store_electures.html

Restaurants

I was asked my opinion on how to handle restaurant meals.  I think that much of the answer depends on who is dining.

For somebody new to healthy eating, restaurants are almost always a bad idea IMO.  They are minefields that take a lot of experience to negotiate, and there are many traps for the inexperienced.

In general, I treat restaurants as feast days unless I am absolutely certain how they prepare the food.  It is very common for waiters or managers to tell you that there are no animal products or dairy in the food when there are, or all whole grains when they aren't.  These people usually don't know, and they are probably correct in assuming that most people want only to hear that the food is healthy rather than wanting to insure that it is.  It is also very common to incorrectly assume that something is healthy because it is represented as vegan- take a look at what goes into the typical veggie burger.

I have had rice that was steamed in animal broth, and lots of food that clearly had tons of oil and salt despite what I was told.  You just have to assume that anything you order at a restaurant is dangerous to your health unless proven otherwise.

My theory is to try to avoid restaurants if you can.  The one thing that can be said for sure is that you have no direct control over the preparation of your food.  Here are some ways to avoid restaurant food -
- If you can, eat beforehand so that you are not hungry.
- Buy a Bento Box like this http://www.amazon.com/Zojirushi-SL-JAE14-Bento-Stainless-Steel/dp/B000246GSE/ref=sr_1_6?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1289794929&sr=1-6
That way, you can always pack something to eat.
- Bring snacks like apples, bananas, etc.
- If you have to travel, use the web to find stores where you can purchase healthy food.  If you are driving, take your rice cooker etc. with you and find a motel with a microwave.  You could also take a steamer with you as discussed earlier in this blog.

Avoiding restaurants, you will save money and increase the control you have over your food.  But sometimes the realities of life demand that you eat at a restaurant.  Suck it up and order something healthy even if you have to pay what seems way too much to get something not on the menu.  Call ahead to make sure that the restaurant can give you what you need.  If they can't, find someplace that can.

A baked potato is safe if not coated with grease.  Steamed vegetables and rice are usually safe if not cooked in meat broth or with unknown sauces.  Make sure to order it plain.  Remember that any bread almost certainly contains added fat and/or salt and is not whole grain.  If you have a weight problem, you don't want bread anyhow.  Remember that marinara and other sauces almost always have added oil.  A skipped meal is better than eating unhealthy - especially if you have a health problem that you are trying to reverse.

For a person who is in good health, I see nothing wrong with the occasional restaurant meal at all if you know that the place cooks what you need.  When I find a place that does understand what I need, I make sure to patronize that place and be generous with the staff.

What you will find, I am afraid, is that the only foods that a restaurant can prepare for you that are good are going to be very bland, and not nearly as tasty as what you can do for yourself at home.  It isn't their fault.  They are used to making food tasty the American way, by adding fat, sugar, and salt to the food.  That is what the overwhelming majority of their customers want, unless it is a specialty restaurant.

And finally, don't think that just because a place is vegan that it is healthy.  The vegan restaurants I have seen are often worse than a McDonald's or Burger King with respect to finding something healthy that you can eat.

This lifestyle will give you tremendous, even unbelievable benefits.  But it does require change, and part of that change is giving up some things that have done you harm.  For the most part, that includes tasty restaurant food.  So use the money you save eating this way to indulge yourself in other ways.

Baby Bok Choy "Stir Fry"

A little change of pace for tonight's meal.  We've been eating so many steamed veggies I decided to give the steamer the night off and "stir-fry" a more Asian style dinner.  Bob and I really lapped this up.  I took the picture before I added the tomatoes...which was actually an afterthought.  So picture this looking even more colorful with diced up red tomatoes in it too.

Baby Bok Choy “Stir-Fry”

Ingredients:

2 large portobello mushrooms chopped

1 small yellow onion, quartered and sliced thin

4 bunches of baby bok choy, well rinsed and chopped

½ c shredded carrots

1 c broccoli in small flowerettes

½ c sliced snow peas

1 tomato diced

red wine for sauteeing

In a large pan heat enough red wine (or salt-free, no-oil vegetable broth) to cover the bottom. When bubbly add mushrooms and onions, sautee for about 10 minutes. Next add the rest except the tomato. Tossing occasionally, cook for about 15 minutes. Finally add the tomato and let it heat thoroughly.

Serve over fresh chopped spinach and brown rice.

Additions to add to your personal serving: my favorite is a squirt of fresh lime juice and several dashes of Tobasco

If you can't find fresh bok choy you can substitute it with fresh chopped spinach and celery to get the same effect.

This makes 3-4 servings

Dr. McDougall's Free Lecture on MS and autoimmune diseases

At the top of this blog is a link to Dr. McDougall's lecture on MS and autoimmune diseases (like RA, Lupus etc.).  I would highly recommend that anybody who has not already seen this lecture do so.  It will open your eyes not only to the power of lifestyle medicine, but to facts that the drug companies would just as soon keep out of public view.  To paraphrase Dr. McDougall in this lecture, what the drug companies are doing with respect to MS is virtually criminal.

I personally know a person who has had MS for many years while showing no interest in lifestyle medicine.  I have watched him deteriorate from a strong and healthy person into a wheelchair bound cripple.  It is sad to think that he had a greater then 95% chance of complete remission with the knowledge available to, but dismissed by, the medical profession and the media.  In my recent TV appearance with Dr. McDougall, I sat next to a lady who was diagnosed with obvious MS seventeen years ago, and has had no further problems.  Her MRIs showed that the brain lesions have actually shrunk (but not a lot) and not grown any further.  Dr. McDougall explains how bad foods affect the blood-brain barrier and how this process can be stopped almost immediately.

There is also a touching story of one woman in the current Oregon medical school study who was not treated with diet because she was in the (untreated) control group.  She broke down in tears when she learned how well the treated (with diet) group was doing and how much unnecessary damage had been done to her nervous system during the clinical trial.

This is one of Dr. McDougall's best lectures ever.  If you don't like this one, you probably won't like any.  The lecture is relevant to general health, and not of interest only to sufferers of any of the tragic diseases discussed.

If you want reason to resist meat and dairy, or convince a loved one, just click the tab at the top for his lecture.  Once you understand the common etiology of these diseases, you are going to understand just how destructive these "foods" can be.

No-Oil Hummus

I have always liked hummus and have made my own plus used prepared store bought versions.  But since we made our change 3 years ago I needed to make my own without the Tahini, which is ground sesame seeds, which is oil.  I donned my mad scientist apron and spent a number of hours in the kitchen over a period of time playing around with past recipes.  They weren't so hot.

That's when it occurred to me that trying to duplicate good healthy recipes to taste like old unhealthy dishes was not the way to go at all.  (Same goes for fake cheese and veggie burgers in my opinion)  So I started from scratch and thought the recipe through and this is my latest evolved version.  You will note the unusual addition of Dijon Mustard.  I can't take credit for that.  On a picnic this past summer with another  McDougaller couple, we both brought hummus.  Mine was good.  Her's was fabulous...it was the mustard!

No Tahini Hummus

Ingredients:

2 cans of no-salt added garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

½ cup of hot water

1 – 2 cloves of garlic, minced or crushed

1 4 oz can of mild diced green chiles, drained

1 lemon, juiced

¼ tsp of ground cumin

¼ tsp of ground chili powder

1 – 2 TBS of Dijon mustard or Horseradish mustard

3 - 4 dashes of Tobasco Sauce (optional)

In a food processor or blender, blend beans until completely mixed. Add about ¼ cup of the hot water and mix. Reserve remaining hot water.  (If needed at the end after all ingredients are added and the mixture is too dry, add more water until you like the blend. The hot water makes the hummus fluffier.) Now add the garlic and chilies and mix. Next is the lemon juice...add a little at a time until you get the consistency and flavor you prefer. Finally add the mustard, cumin and chili powder.  If you like spicy, add the Tobasco. 

Refrigerate for about an hour or more. The longer the better. Serve with your favorite vegetables for a dip. Can also be used for a nice spread for a veggie sandwich.

Depending on the consistency you prefer, you may need to add or cut back on the liquid ingredients or just add more garbanzos.

Enjoy!

CHIP program

Thanks to Janice for referring me to her CHIP (Coronary Health Improvement Project).  She gave me a link that is well worth viewing.  http://www.chiphealth.com/chipvideo/

It appears that these folks are doing great things for people.  And I do think that is much more important to work with other like minded people who have common visions and goals than to argue too much about what is optimal.

The video above emphasizes that the main issue is one of lifestyle modification, and they seem to be doing a great job with that.  Who cares if the program would be better without oil if nobody would do it, so I applaud what they are doing.  I would be proud to be associated with these folks and wonder what if anything they are doing in Sacramento.