My Dad and my Uncles had heart trouble and type 2 diabetes, so I bought the book "How to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease", by Dr. Essylstyn and the book "How to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes", by Dr. Barnard, and both books said the same thing. The way to prevent and reverse both diabetes, and heart disease was to Eat No Meat or Dairy and No Oil!
Even something as simple as a bowl of spaghetti can be laden with tons of oil, so I make 100% whole wheat pasta(Trader Joes makes a really good one), pour a no-oil(you can make your own or look for very low to no fat) red sauce on top, then top that with vegan parmesan! Delicious and oil-free.
I used to work at Texas Instruments and my boss was Sicilian and he had the most
incredible spaghetti sauce recipe but of course it had Italian hot sausage in the recipe. Well I kept the recipe and replaced the sausage with mushrooms!!!!
Sicilian Spaghetti sauce
3 28 oz cans of tomatoes
3 cans of tomato paste
3 cans of water
one large onion
2 lbs of mushrooms
10 cloves of garlic, minced
3 Tbsp of oregano
5 bay leaves
3 Tbsp of basil
half a head of parsley, chopped
1 Tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt(or leave out if tomatoes are salted
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
Saute the onions and mushrooms and garlic in a big pan because we are going to put all the ingredients into this sauce pan, until the there is no water in the pan(when you cook the onions and mushrooms and garlic without oil or veggie broth and just use the heat of the pan to cook them, in the beginning you will see a ton of water that bleeds from the onions and mushrooms-cook them until there is no water left and the garlic becomes fragrant). A good half hour I cook mine on low heat. (start the pan out hot then turn the pan really low to cook them).
Once the mushrooms/onion/garlic mixture is done, add the 3 cans of tomatoes(I use some whole some crushed, it doesn't matter just 3 28 oz cans of tomatoes), the tomato paste, the cans of water, the bay leaves, the basil, oregano and parsley, the pepper and salt if you need it(I used salted tomatoes so I didn't need to add more salt). Stir the mixture well to incorporate all spices Get the mixture hot, and then turn down to simmer and allow all the seasonings to meld with the tomatoes. After the sauce has cooked down some, add the nutritional yeast and stir it into the sauce well until well incorporated. Cook for another hour and allow the sauce to continue to cook down and thicken. When the sauce is as thick as you like, taste and season accordingly.
We eat this spaghetti a couple times a week and we love it! It takes a little bit longer to cook but other than that you can't tell that you are eating a whole grain spaghetti! There is a very good oil-free spaghetti sauce that I really like called "Lucini" "Tuscan Marinara". Sprouts sells it. It has very few ingredients and tastes great. We often top our spaghetti and many other foods, with vegan parmesan.
Vegan Parmesan Cheese
3/4 cup raw cashews
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
3/4 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp garlic powder
Just throw the 4 ingredients into the blender and blend gently until grainy. If you blend too long, the parmesan will get gummy and will be hard to serve.
As you can see, although I eat no-oil in my food, I get my fats from avocados, nuts and seeds. My favorite nuts are walnuts, pistachios and pecans and favorite seeds are sunflower and sesame. I put walnuts in my oatmeal or cereal, and add them to salads or in sandwiches. I put pistachios in sandwiches and eat them by the small handful, and I eat pecans with french toast or butternut squash or on my raisin bran. I always put sunflower seeds on my salads and on my sandwiches and I love sesame seeds toasted in a dry pan on the stove. Cashews these days are the rage and in so incredibly many vegan recipes.
If you enjoy scalloped potatoes, try these;
Potatoes Au Gratin
4 scrubbed medium potatoes
1 medium or large red bell pepper
1 medium onion, sliced thinly to make rings
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1Tbsp light vegan butter
1 1/2 cups rice milk
2 Tbsp whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp parsley
Slice potatoes about 1/8 inch thick and do the same with the onion. Mince garlic. Chop bell pepper into 1/8 inch slices. Throw all of this into a oven safe dish that has a cover. Next blend together rice milk, butter, flour, corn starch, paprika, garlic powder, sea salt, pepper and nutritional yeast. Once smooth, fold in parsley. Pour on top of potato/onion/bell pepper mixture. Cover. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes.
Another delicious potato meal/snack is Smashed Potatoes!!!
Smashed Potatoes
These are super easy to make and come out crispy and delicious! Just get bags of small potatoes and cook them in water on the stove until you can pierce them easily with a fork. Drain the water and place them on a cookie sheet. Take a flat bottomed heavy glass:
Take the flat bottomed glass and smash the potatoes one at a time leaving room in between so you are not smashing them on top of each other:)!
Once all the potatoes are smashed, spray lightly with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle iodized salt over the potatoes. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Check to see that they have gotten crispy underneath. if they have not, put them back in for another 5 minutes and check again. These potatoes make great snacks and are so crispy you can dip them in ketchup and barbecue sauce and hummus and any dip you have:) I eat them plain sometimes because they are crispy and and a whole food and delicious.
For another great food to have with your potatoes au gratin, try these great quinoa mushroom burgers.
Quinoa mushroom burgers
1 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed
2 cups vegetable or mushroom stock
1/2 cup tomato sauce
2 leaves kale, chopped fine
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup shitake mushrooms, chopped fine
1/2 cup crimini mshrooms, chopped fine
salt and pepper to taste.
Place quinoa, vegetable stock, tomato sauce, kale, thyme, oregano, into a pot on the stove. Boil, then turn down the fire and simmer for 20 minutes until the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and stir in tomato paste and mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Set aside until cool enough to handle. Form the quinoa mixture into patties. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet for about 25-30 minutes at 350, flipping the burgers halfway through. I've always had trouble finding vegan burgers that stick together from when you make them to when you bake them to when you eat them. Delicious and stick together well!
totally possible Burger
This is a vegan delicious teriyaki sauce that you can add to all your stir fries or sautees:
Homemade teriyaki sauce
3/4 cup of tamari or coconut aminos
1/4 cup water
3-4 Tbsp maple syrup
1-2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
1/4-1/2 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp brown rice flour or cornstarch
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp toasted sesame seeds
Combine the tamari, water, maple syrup, fresh ginger, black pepper, brown rice flour, minced garlic, and toasted sesame seeds in a small pan over high heat. Once it boils, turn down the heat to medium-low and continuously stir until the sauce thickens. Saute bell peppers and onions, add a few pieces of broccoli, throw in some sugar snap peas or any other vegetables you enjoy and once the vegetables are somewhat sauteed, add a good pour of teriyaki sauce. Saute a couple more minutes and serve a big bowl full of vegetables or put the vegetables over rice or pasta.
Smokey Baked Tofu
2 lbs of firm tofu
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp liquid smoke
Squeeze water out of your tofu, then cut the tofu in 1/2 slices. Take a container that has a sealable lid and put 1 1/2 cups of water, 1/4 cup of soy sauce and 1 tsp of liquid smoke into this container. Place the tofu in the container with the marinade and marinate overnight. To cook, lay slices in a single layer on lightly greased pans or glass 9 x 13. Bake at 400 until bottoms are golden. Flip and bake until the other side is golden. Tofu is a great protein source for vegans and because it is curdled soy beans, it's important to get Organic tofu always. I was non-GMO eating before I was whole grain plant based eating, just because those studies that did test the safety of GMO's and found that they weren't safe, have been discredited and hushed up. Also, only Vermont has been able to get a GMO-labeling law on the books because Monsanto dumps scads of money into elections and confuses the issues(like I remember when GMO-labeling was on our ballot, someone was running ads about how milk and meat weren't going to be labeled on the bill so we should wait until they write a better bill....) All said, the rest of America should be rejoicing, because food suppliers are labeling GMO's to comply with Vermont's law and the rest of America is benefiting from that!:)
This is the tofu after baking for around a 1/2 hour, then be flipped, then baking 10 minutes more at 400. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and delicious!
I'm giving you my pico-de gallo recipe because I find I fall back on this often times during any given week for a food to mix in.
Pico de Gallo
3 medium to large tomatoes chopped fine
1 medium red or white or yellow onion chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, seeded and ribbed then minced
3 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 cup cilantro chopped
The trick to good pico de gallo is getting a kitchen tool that can chop everything for you. My niece taught me that and I found such a chopper on Amazon "ALISKID". It wasn't very expensive and it's a powerhouse! You can make pico de gallo in minutes. It's crazy!
Once you have pico de gallo and vegan sour cream, you can make this:
Broccoli(Did you know you can cook broccoli in the microwave with a tiny bit of water and 2 1/2 minutes! Add broccoli to a microwave safe bowl and cover), pico de gallo, refried beans, black rice, and a generous amount of vegan sour cream and you have an incredibly delicious bowl of vegan food! Nutrient dense, full of antioxidants, and delicious! I know about the rice arsenic problem. I was under the impression that Lundberg Farms in California were growing rice where no arsenic was in the soil. Silly me. I just saw the Consumer Reports report on arsenic levels in rice and brown rice did much worse than white rice did, and it looked like the rice from India had the least amount or arsenic but sometimes greater amounts of other metals. If you look in my picture, I have rice, but I have more broccoli, more pico-de-gallo, and it looks like more sour cream than rice. Just don't eat it every day or play it by ear according to what you think. The data is out there on the web!
Incredible Lentil loaf
I used to make this incredible magazine recipe turkey meatloaf with sun dried tomatoes. It was so incredibly flavorful that I would take turkey meatloaf sandwiches to work and was the envy of everyone because you could smell the sage. I made a few lentil loaves and they were all good but not great! So, I took my turkey loaf recipe and converted it into a vegan lentil loaf! I swapped out the turkey for lentils and replaced the two eggs with flax seed meal eggs and the milk for plant milk and it was switched!
Lentil Meatloaf
1 large onion, chopped
5 celery stalks, chopped
3 cups of lentils, cooked
1 1/2 cups fresh or dried whole grain bread crumbs
2/3 cups of dried or drained sun-dried tomatoes(I use Trader Joes Dried)
1/2 cup plant milk
2 Flax seed meal eggs( 1 Tbsp flax seed meal + 3 Tbsp water = 1 vegan egg. If doing two eggs use 5 Tbsp of water + 2 Tbsp flax seed meal)
2 tsp dried rubbed sage
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Saute the onion and celery. While sauteeing, cook your lentils. 2 cups dry lentils make about 3 1/2 cups of cooked lentils. Also make the vegan eggs and let stand for at least 5 minutes. Chop your sun-dried tomatoes, the smaller you make them the more they will more evenly space out within your loaf. I made my bread crumbs. I stacked 6 slices of 5/1 carbs/fiber bread and cut into cubes. Then spread those cubes all over a dry cookie sheet and baked them for 30 minutes at 300. Then I processed them in a food processor, pulsing them to make bread crumbs. 6 slices made 2 cups of bread crumbs. When the onions and celery are soft, add the bread crumbs, the oregano, the sage, the salt, the pepper, the sun-dried tomatoes and the vegan eggs and mix well. Plop mixture into lightly greased pyrex or ungreased silicone loaf pan. Press down to make the loaf more solid. Top with tomato paste. Bake at 375 for 1 hour. Allow to cool completely before removing from the loaf pan.
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