Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Welcome to Healthy, Plant-Based Cooking!


The reason I'm creating this blog is to not necessarily have recipes, (sorry to disappoint), but to help you find recipes of ordinary dishes you're already making and transforming them into healthy dishes with little to no oil, no meat, and no cheese. Save all that for a Sunday.

By subscribing to his blog, you’ll never be stumped again with what’s for dinner. Your cravings, your giving in to temptation and this entire yo-yo effect of going from losing weight to gaining more will be over.  What you need is not out there.  It’s not in a diet program, a recipe book or food delivered to your door.  It’s what is in your head that I’m going to help you transform the more you read and watch what I’m doing on a daily basis. 


 

I've learned that ANYONE can create great dishes that don't look or sound weird and will help you feed your family, your spouse or roommates.  If you were to recreate a dish and it was more delicious than what you’ve been cooking all along, who's to argue? 

Every day I'm cooking.  I promised everyone recipes on Twitter and boy did I get people liking that tweet but honestly, I'd almost rather be cooking than writing which is weird because I love to write.  However, I've been gathering photos, (driving my husband crazy while doing it) and logging all the dishes I've learned to recreate.  They have little to no oil, very little cheese amounts, and no meat.  




This Sunday my husband wanted meat and almost pleaded for a roasted chicken but if we were going to have meat and I was going to give in, I suggested lamb. We love lamb and being it was Sunday, lamb it was! 

We shared 1 pound of ground lamb grilled with pesto and crumbled feta on top, over a bed of lettuce. No other side dishes and no bread and we were as contempt as can be.  (More on that here.)




This blog is not to get you to go plant-based overnight and have you defending yourself in every conversation when you don't eat meat.  I’m going to share with you some simple tips to help you transform not only your diet but the way you think about food. When you can train your mind, you WILL win this war.  

Don't be surprised if you find that you love plants more someday over meat.  There are a TON of people who prefer skipping the meat and who say cheese is "overrated."  




Yesterday my husband moaned about wanting meat and I asked him if he didn’t like the dishes I was preparing.  He said he loved my plant-based dishes.  I asked him what it was and he said he didn’t know.  Think about that.  

Share with me what you think below. Add stuff I don't know. There's a lot that we don't know but we can at least share what helps and what doesn't.  Stuff like that.  Let’s begin.

Sunday, September 4, 2016

Pesto Lamb over Salad




One of my favorite dishes is lamb with pesto.  I would normally add eggs and bread crumbs to the ground beef but I've substituted those items.  I'm just not used to adding egg and bread crumbs anymore to my dishes. However, we're still cheating on our normal daily diet with ground beef and my husband couldn't be more thrilled.

For example, before being on a plant-based diet, I would take the ground lamb and add egg and bread crumbs before mixing it and forming it into a burger.

Now, I do the following.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground lamb
1 avocado
egg replacer
salt and pepper
Moroccan Seasoning
Pesto sauce in a jar (fresh of course, is always better)

Mix all the ingredients together with a masher.  Form burger patties and grill. The avocado replaces the egg as a binder to a lot of foods. You'll get the hang of it.

Turn over and spoon a little pesto on top.

Mix a spring salad with a light dressing of your choice and put the salad mix onto a plate. Put patties on top and instead of eating this for lunch, it has now become your Sunday dinner.  Wine option: Pair with a nice light wine like zinfandel or pinot noir.

Optional:
Sprinkle Feta, Cotija cheese on top if desired

Another option:
Add olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, and carrot slices if you're really hungry for a Mediterranean dish. Wine option: Pair with a full-bodied wine if you added the egg, the bread crumbs, and Mediterranean dish additions. You'll have more going on in tastes so a fuller wine would round it out.

Does anyone else have any other ideas to this favorite Mediterranean dish? Are there any other substitutions?