And we're back...with a quick and easy dinner

We got back from Denver yesterday and were not in the mood to cook after the flight and everything that comes with getting home after a week away. So Amir came up with a great and quick dinner for us. It was delicious!

Ingredients:

Corn tortillas

Salsa (we tried it homemade but you can use store bought)

Refried beans (we use Trader Joe's refried black beans with jalapeño)

Can of diced tomatoes

Simply toast the corn tortillas in the oven until they are crispy like a tostada. Put the potatoes on a baking sheet at 440 degrees until they get crispy on top. Make sure to spray the bottom of the baking sheet or the foil because they do stick!

Spread the beans and salsa on top of the tortillas and sprinkle the potatoes on top. Easy as that!

Mushroom marinade and restaurant in Boulder, CO

Amir and I are in Colorado this weekend visiting his sister and her husband. We are having a great time and have eaten some amazing food. Luckily, my sister-in-law is a great cook and has taken up the challenge of cooking plant strong meals while we are here! Last night she made portobello mushroom tacos--she marinated the mushrooms for a full 24 hours. They were awesome, and so was her homemade salsa. Spicy!

Marinade for the mushrooms: lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, minced garlic, minced jalepeno, chili powder (a lot), salt, and agave nectar. All fresh fruits and veggies--all to taste!

We also went to a great restaurant in Boulder that serves possibly the best fettucini alfredo ever. It's called Leaf, and the lasagna and wrap sandwich were also really good. If you're up this way, check it out!

When you're craving mac n' cheese

If you are anything like me, giving up meat will not prove to be terribly difficult. But giving up cheese...now that's another story! I sometimes dream about a good hunk of feta.

Growing up, my sister was the one who was big on mac n' cheese, but now that I don't eat it I do tend to crave it sometimes. Luckily for me, there is Road's End Organic dairy free mac n' cheese mixes!

Let me start off by saying that this is NOT the same as Kraft. It has an entirely different taste. However, if you are not comparing the two, this is a fine substitute to satisfy a craving. I usually eat this when Amir is out and I'm on my own for dinner. They're really easy to make, and I usually mix in some broccoli or something to spice it up a bit.

They carry these at WalMart and they also sell them at Green, a good vegetarian restaurant in Scottsdale. Oh, and of course you can buy on Amazon.

Review of China Lite, Scottsdale

China Lite is a small but delightful restaurant near where we live, on Hayden and Indian Bend. In fact, that intersection is built for foodies. It doesn't look like much, but within one strip mall you have: Crust (a pizza and wine bar that makes a great vegan pizza--more about that later), Sakana (good sushi for you fish eaters), Goldman's Deli (fantastic Jewish deli), and China Lite!

China Lite bills itself as a Healthy Food Bistro, and I have to say that is right on the mark. Most Chinese food is just so greasy, so it's amazing to have a Chinese restaurant that has so many menu items with no oil. Most of the menu items have no oil, and a few have light oil.

Now, this is not the place to go for ambiance. It's clean and there are plenty of tables, but you'll rarely see someone eating at the actual restaurant. Most people come for take-out, like us.

When we eat here, we get brown rice and some combination of these three menu items:

1. Szechuan green beans. This is one of the menu items that says light oil but they will make it without oil if you ask. There is a bit of sugar in the sauce, but I believe the owner told us last time that she could take it out if we wanted. These green beans are phenomenal.

2. Szechuan eggplant. Again, the menu says light oil but they'll make it with no oil. If you thought the green beans were good, wait until you try the eggplant. For a short time recently, eggplant was really expensive (remember? It was like $3 each at Sprouts, ugh.) and China Lite took the eggplant off the menu during that time. Well, there was this woman who would bring her own eggplant and China Lite would make it for her! It's that good, it's worth a BYOE (Bring Your Own Eggplant, for the acronym impaired).

3. Pad Thai. We ask for this with tofu, no egg, and no fish sauce. This is Amir's favorite--I can take it or leave it.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Pita Pocket Sandwiches

This sandwich was inspired by Amir's trip to Tel Aviv a few years ago. They had sandwiches like this where they took a piece off the pita pocket and filled it to the max!

First things first--grill some veggies. No oil or anything needed, just slice and put on the grill. We used eggplant (from our front yard! Our first homegrown vegetable!), zucchini, serrano pepper, and threw on some veggie burgers from CostCo.

Next, we cut up some tomatoes, green onions, pickles, parsley, and red onions and threw them all in a bowl.

Our next step was to make the hummus. Here's a link to the recipe.

Take the grilled veggies and veggie burgers off the grill, cut up, and add to the tomato mix from earlier. Add the hummus to everything, and mix all together--this makes the filling for the sandwich. You can add hot sauce here if you like it spicy!

Then stuff your pita! We toast the pita for a few minutes, then cut off the corner, open it up, and spoon everything in.

Amir is pretty sure this is the best sandwich he's ever made, and I have to agree. It's delicious and incredibly filling. It takes about 20 minutes to make, or even less if you have the hummus already done.

Cereal Killer

I am kind of a cereal killer. Sometimes I literally have to take a break from having cereal in the house or I will eat an entire box in like two days.

With that said, let me tell you that I have become a bit of a healthy cereal connoisseur...and the newest cereal I'm into is Barbara's Shredded Wheat. It's seriously good, and the only ingredient is 100% whole wheat. No joke.

They come in circular pieces like a stack of hay, and I take one of them, put it in a bowl with some milk and add some cinnamon. The milk breaks up the pieces and the cinnamon mixes with the milk and makes it delicious.

For milk, we use vanilla almond milk, unsweetened.

You can purchase Barbara's in pretty much any natural foods store, or you can get it on Amazon!

Review of True Food Kitchen

I have now eaten at True Food Kitchen three times, and I wish I were a bigger fan than I am. The atmosphere is great--the servers wear these cute yoga pants that gives an organic vibe to the place.

The menu item I like best are the lettuce wraps. Wow, are these good! It's officially called Shiitake Mushroom Lettuce Caps on the menu, and they have it listed as an appetizer. The last time I went I had it for my entrée and it was delicious. As always, I say as light as possible on the oil, and they did a good job with that.

The other times we've been there I've tasted the TLT (tempeh, lettuce, tomato sandwich), teriyaki brown rice bowl, and the pizza. Unfortunately, all I can say for those items is...eh. It's okay, not great. Amir really liked the pizza when he had it the first time, but was underwhelmed the second time.

They do have several options for those of us who eat plant strong, which is awesome, as well as options for vegetarians and gluten free folks.

Overall, we will probably go back, because it is one of the few restaurants that we can go with our meat eating friends and everyone can find something to eat.

New Hummus Recipe

We've got a new hummus recipe! We start with a base that we freeze and then add to every batch. The picture shows the completed hummus and the green stuff is a baggie filled with the base.

Base:

16 oz. tahini

2-3 jalapenos (remove the seeds if you like less spicy)

2 bunches of cilantro (keep the stems)

1 c lemon juice

8 cloves garlic

Put everything in the food processor and go to town. We separate into baggies and freeze into individual portions (about 1/2 cup).

Hummus:
2 cans garbonzo beans
fist-full of kalamata olives
garlic salt (or regular)

Thaw the base slightly. Add ingredients above and blend everything in the food processor.

We ate this hummus with some veggies in a whole wheat pita for dinner tonight. We ate it so fast we didn't get a chance to take a picture, but we will make again and post soon.

"How do you do it?"

This is the question we get asked the most when people find out that we eat plant strong. To be honest, I never really thought I could do it either! I am the type of person to give up a little too quickly on things, especially when they are "good" for me. So I really didn't think this would last. Here are some tips I have for people who are new to eating plant strong:

1. Phone a friend. Having Amir do this with me (especially since he's the one who cooks!) makes it sooo much easier. But there are plenty of other ways to have a partner in plant strong crime. My suggestions: talk a friend/partner into doing it with you, use meetup.com to join a vegan dinner party, or troll the internet for great blogs to follow (like livingplantstrong of course!) that will give you inspiration, motivation, and recipes.

2. Don't ease in. I know that in the Engine 2 book there is an ease-in phase for the diet, but let's be honest: Americans suck at moderation. It is typically all or nothing for us. So jump in! Box up the crap in your kitchen and re-stock with whole, plant based foods.

3. Try everything. After you've been eating plant strong for a few weeks, your taste buds will change. For example, I used to hate cabbage and now, the other day I told Amir his recipe would have been better with more cabbage! So even if there is something you don't like now, you may change your mind in a few weeks.

4. Get the numbers. If you've never had your blood work done to find out your cholesterol, resting heart rate, triglyceride count, etc., now is the time. Your primary doctor can get you a full workup and then you can compare after a month of eating plant strong. It is so encouraging to see the results--we really recommend tracking those numbers.

5. Don't beat yourself up. Yes, the first couple of weeks are hard, and there will continue to be hard moment as you continue along the plant strong journey. Trust me, there are still times when I really crave cheese (my weakness)! But the more you discover for yourself the benefits of eating plant strong, the hard moments turn out not to be as hard as you think.

Best of luck to anyone starting out! Let us know when you are going to try living plant strong and if you have any recipe requests!

K&A

Review of Forks over Knives

I give the movie, Forks over Knives, 5 out of 5 Bok Choy's, the highest possible Living Plant Strong rating!

Amir and I went to see the movie tonight at the Camelview in Scottsdale, and it was fantastic. The movie producers did a great job of showing how regular people can change their lives, just by altering their nutrition.

One of the parts that was most interesting to me was the visual explanation of how animal products leach calcium from bones--which is the exact opposite of what we've been told by experts, "drink your milk to get strong bones." In the movie, they show graphically how animal products like milk create an acid environment in the body, and the body fights by releasing calcium from the bones to fight that acid environment. Releasing calcium from the bones means the bones are weaker. That's why countries that have high dairy consumption also have the highest incidences of osteoporosis. The U.S. is one of those countries.

It was fascinating to hear the stories of how Drs. Caldwell and Esselstyn grew up on dairy farms and separately came to the same conclusions that a plant strong diet is the healthiest, one from a research perspective and one with a clinical take.

We highly recommend this movie! Check it out!

Nutritional Yeast

It may sound weird, but this is actually a great product to have on hand. Nutritional yeast is usually found in flake form, and is typically in the bulk food bins at natural food stores. We get ours at Sprouts, but I know Whole Foods carries it as well. You can also order it on Amazon.com.

It has kind of a cheese flavor, which is why it's well known with people who don't eat dairy. We use it in pasta dishes, Mexican food dishes, and the best way of all: on top of popcorn. Yum! I'll blog about our favorite popcorn toppings later...

Anyway, if you are considering trying a plant strong diet, I would recommend having this in your kitchen. It's also good for you! It's a complete protein and a great source of B-complex vitamins.

Green chili

We discovered a new item at CostCo--green chili from New Mexico. It is amazing and Amir's been putting it on everything. Yesterday, we were having some work done on the insulation of our house and he made lunch for the guys who were working. He made tacos using the green chili. The picture to the left are the guys from IdealEnergy holding the green chili--they loved it!

To make the tacos:

Toast some corn tortillas in the oven. I use the broil setting to make it go quicker, but you might have more patience than me.

Also heat up some vegan Boca burgers, either in the oven, the toaster, or the microwave. Cut up the boca burgers and put them on the tortillas, along with the following: avocado, salsa, green chili, and nutritional yeast.

Fiesta de vegan!

Disappointed in Oprah

We are disappointed in Oprah. I know, I know, we should love the fact that she talked about a vegan diet on her show recently. But here's the part we didn't like: the show barely touched on the fundamental reason to avoid meat and dairy--health!!

It's been proven over and over again that consumption of meat and dairy products leads to various illnesses like heart disease and cancer. There's a video featuring Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study, that goes into detail on this subject. It's a long video, but worth it if you want to get into the nitty gritty.

We were upset that the show didn't really discuss the health reasons for not eating animal products. But it got worse--the show was basically promoting a junk food vegan diet! Yes, it's true. You can be a junk food vegan by eating potato chips and tons of processed meat substitutes. But that's not a healthy way to eat.

The real truth is that it's not just one change that makes a difference in your health. It's everything--avoiding animal products, sticking to true whole foods like grains, veggies, fruit, and legumes, getting rid of processed foods, and avoiding added oils. Your body will thank you for doing just one of these, but you will live a truly different life if you make the commitment to yourself to Live Plant Strong!

So Oprah...we challenge you to truly try to live plant strong, not just the first step of no animal products! You'll be glad you did.

New Movie--Must See

A new movie is out, Forks over Knives, that is a must see! All the greats are interviewed--Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Dr. Colin T. Campbell, Rip Esselstyn from Engine 2 Diet, Dr. John McDougall and Dr. Neal Barnard.

It's premiering in Phoenix on May 13 at the Camelview. We'll be there at various showings passing out cards to promote the blog. Tell your friends!

You can check out showtimes in all cities by clicking here.