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From:	Leslie (76.182.157.224)
Subject:	Re: How to?
Date:	November 30, 2007 at 8:15 am PST

In Reply to: How to? posted by vegan-bound on November 20, 2007 at 9:01 pm:

You should do some reading. Although no matter what you will read, the message will be the same -- the best foods for you are unprocessed plant foods. So here are some ideas:

Begin by getting rid of the obvious junk in your house. I have found this to be so true -- that if you don't have it in the house, you can't eat it! That applies especially to sugary foods, irregardless of the post below, sugar is only good when it is natural, as in fruit. Having sugary and fatty, salty junk food snacks in your house will only mean you will eat them. What I do is have healthy alternatives.

I always have lots of fruit in the house and we eat lots of it. I buy organic apples, which are expensive, but taste so much better, we buy fuji, gala, honeycrisp, any new brand we want to try. I always have bananas, kiwis, and anything else in season.

When you shop, avoid anything with the word "hydrogenated" in it. That's a really bad word and I have been avoiding it since 1993, when I read the books on nutrition by the Balch's. Also think unprocessed, you want your meals to consist of vegetables, grains, and beans. One thing you really should do is get some cookbooks, I tell this to everybody, if you can sit down and look through cookbooks you come up with more ideas than you can possibly use for meals. You can take meals you already enjoy and make them plant-based and low fat and delicious by finding alternative recipes.

There are dozens of ways to make chili, for example. You can make a chili that tastes just like the original, only without the fat and animal products, or you can make a chili filled with veggies and different kinds of beans -- black, kidney, pinto. You can make any Italian food much healthier by using plant-based ingredients, you can even make burgers and fries (oven-baked, that is) that your kids will love. But you have to get in the mode of using alternatives. For every food you currently eat, there is a healthy alternative and cookbooks are absolutely indispensable.

Bryanna has great books and wonderful recipes, she also has a website where you can get recipes. Isa Moskowitz is another wonderful cookbook writer, Robin Robertson has the great book "Vegan Planet".

And there's always vegsource, if you say to yourself, "I'd like to make Chicken-fried steak and mashed potatoes tonight but want to make a healthier version," you can post that on either New Veggies or Chef Deb and they'll give you a recipe.

As for your question about what to have for breakfast -- here are some great ideas, some quick, some more for lazy mornings.

Yogurt and granola, use Ezekial granola or a kind without lots of fat and sugar -- available at the natural foods store. Use soy yogurt, White Wave makes a good one, I use Plain so it's not so full of sugar.

Cereal, buy cereals that are whole grain and not overly processed-- the kind at the regular grocery store are horrible. They also have tons of sugar, just read the labels and you'll know what I mean, most have around 13-20 grams per serving. Try shredded wheat (pour hot water over first and drain to make it yummy), flax cereals, raisin bran without tons of sugar. Use soy, almond, rice or hemp milk, my favorite for cereal is Silk soy.

Scrambled tofu -- I love this plain or fancier when adding veggies. Sometimes I make it with chopped onions, mushrooms, peppers, kale or collard greens. Here's how you make it (don't use the mix, it's best this way)

Mash regular firm (not silken) into a cast iron pan, add sprinkle of garlic and onion granules, a very small amount (1/4 t.) of turmeric (for color and a strong antioxidant), 1 t. or so of nutritional yeast (yellow flakes, NOT brewer's yeast, it has a cheezy flavor and is loaded with B vitamins). Cook until dry to your liking, then add a spash of liquid Bragg aminos or soy sauce -- use a natural one such as Tamari. I prefer the Bragg aminos for flavor.

You can also make pancakes, I have a great flaxseed recipe I use all the time, or a pumpkin pancake one, you can make waffles ahead of time and freeze them (I use Bryanna's garbanzo bean waffle which sound awful but is really delicious and full of fiber and protein), putting them in a toaster in the morning. Add a topping made with frozen blueberries for best nutrition, blueberries are really high in anti-oxidants and way good for you, delicious too.

Cut up fruit, apples, bananas, oranges, you can make a fruit salad or just eat a cut up apple and piece of toast for a fast morning. Use whole wheat bread.

For really fancy mornings I make great frittatas, (eggless, of course) omelets and benedict. I also have a good biscuits and gravy recipe that the kids like, and waffle iron hash browns.

Potato hash is easy and delicious, use yukon golds or sweet potatoes, add cut up broccoli, peppers, onions, greens, whatever you have on hand, sprinkle a little nutritional yeast and bragg aminos into it and yummy!

There are many other things, including eggless french toast, too much to mention here. Just get some cookbooks!!

And get rid of the junk, especially really empty non-food such as soda, chips and donuts. Instead, use juices (but don't overdo fruit juices, they're high in sugar, the best thing is to wean yourself and your kids off sugary drinks altogether and drink water instead, or ice tea made with a very small amount of sugar such as 1/4 cup to a gallon of ice tea.) Make your own baked goods with whole wheat flour and nutritious ingredients instead of baked stuff from the grocery store, I do keep some chips on hand, but only the baked variety and we don't eat much, we use more popcorn (air-popped) and fruit and cut up veggies with Annie's goddess dressing instead. You can also make cheezy spreads (see Jo Stepaniak's books on cheese alternatives) to use on whole wheat crackers for good snacks.

Hope you get some ideas here, the main thing is just to start, to buy mostly unprocessed plant foods, to have fun checking out the products in natural foods stores and get some great cookbooks.

And have fun!

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