A Plant-Based Diet: Slow and Easy!

There is a tremendous body of research about the benefits of eating a plant-based diet.  The numerous benefits sound almost unbelievable! A list of the diseases that eating well can prevented and/or treated include :

• allergies and autoimmune disorders (sinusitis, fibro-myalgia)
• arthritis (osteo, Rheumatoid and Gout)
• diabetes (type II)
• heart disease (high blood pressure, coronary artery disease)
• cancers (breast, prostate and colon)
• high cholesterol
• intestinal tract problems; specifically IBS and Gastro*esophageal Reflux
• obesity

And that is just for starters.

I got my Mojo Back! Made Veggies au Pistou ( a fancy French name for a basic Veggie Stew with Pasta and Pesto)

I am GREATLY relieved to be able to report that I have my cooking mojo back!  This week everything I cooked turned out well.  In fact better than well. . . it was all downright good!

Monday morning I went out a picked a great assortment of fresh veggies. Spinach, yellow squash and tomatoes shown here.  I also trimmed a big basket full of basil and a bunch of onions. 

In the fridge there were navy beans from last week, a head of lettuce and a big cucumber that we had gotten at Farmer’s Market.  It was obviously a Greek salad day.

We are now officially in summer and menus are guided by what I pick on any given more.  This morning I had LOTS of basil that was either going to get harvested or bolt.  I harvested.

Plant-Based Diet Myth: It’s Expensive

One of the most baffling  things people say to me is “I would love to eat a plant based diet, but that is just too expensive!” I am always a little blown away but this assertion. I go to the grocery store and I watch food prices closely. . .

It was nice to find a discussion about this in The Starch Solution. Here, John McDougall states that a plant-based diet averages $4,000 savings per person per year. Or savings of  $333 per month.  You can read his discussion on pages 203-206 or search for “Food Costs” on your digital device.

For our household (just the two of us) that means saving about $650 per month. That, by the way is about what we currently spend each month.  In other words if we started eating animal based products we would double our monthly food costs.  Just in case I need another reason to stay on a plant-based diet that would work!

Bad Week at Black Rock

Just so you know, Not everything I try is a success. I know that there are friends that think I am making it up.  After all I am a proficient cook with lots of experience and knowledge.

Now, it is true that I am a proficient cook with lots of experience and knowledge.  And yet, trust me, I have very bad cooking experiences!  Last week was an great example. . .  I was on a roll!

Summertime and the Livin’ is Easy

My favorite part of gardening is watching the seeds sprout and poke up through the ground.  My second favorite part is harvesting the food. Third, is eating it.

It is immensely gratifying to actually see the results of all your hard work. Watering, weeding, keeping after pests and fungi is hard work. Never mind the transplanting and soil prep.  It’s definitely work!  But there are so few things in life where you can actually see, taste and experience such tangible and direct results.
 
Harvesting means menu planning.  Now, in the winter menus are usually about the finished product – casseroles, soups, stews and meatless meatloaves.  In the summer it is about making sure I have cooked rice and beans in the fridge, nuts in the pantry and a few things in the freezer.

When A Plan Starts to Come Together!

Planting a garden is a small act in creating a long term plan.  You plant seeds, water, watch and wait.  And then one day you see a little shoot of green poking up the dirt. This is my very favorite part or gardening!

The miracle of life and growth always makes me happy!  I walk around with a big grin on my face all day. There is nothing like a little miracle to remind me how wonderful life is and how grateful I am just to be alive.

Cookbooks as Suggestions (or a few words about my recipes)

First of all, lets be clear that I consider cooking more art than science. The important disclaimer as that we are talking cooking not baking. Baking is kinda fiddly and requires much more science. But that said, I think of recipes as crude hand drawn maps. They give you a rough idea about the general direction you are planning to go.

My Pantry

Of course I have a stash of the must have foods.  As long as I have the things shown here plus a few basic veggies and herbs I can always figure out how to cook a meal.  Here’s my pantry

• On shelves 1,2 and 4 are glass jars full of
• beans – black, white, red, garbanzos, lentils and fava
• rice – black and brown
• grains – cornmeal, quinoa, buckwheat
• nuts – almonds. cashews, pecans
• seeds – sesame, chia, sunflower
• On Shelf 3 are jarred items:
• Oils
• prepared mustard
• salsa
• raisins
• honey
• minced garlic
• dried chopped onions
• On Shelf 5 are canned items:
• white kidney beans (most red ones are canned with sugar)
• diced tomatoes
• black beans
• garbanzo beans
• green chilies
• brown rice pasta – fusilli, penne and shells

In the fridge, freezer or stored in a cool dry place you will find:

• onions
• celery
• carrots
• spinach
• potatoes (either red, white or sweet)
• jar of lemon juice
• nut butter (almond is our favorite)
• ak-mak crackers or corn chips (preferably baked)

Finally, salt and pepper and a few dried herbs:

• basil
• thyme
• oregano and/or marjoram
• dried chipotle chilies
• bay leaf
• cinnamon
• nutmeg

Because we buy most of these items in bulk at either Costco or from various online sources the packages shown are very large. The good part is that a lot of this stuff only needs to be replaced every month or two (sometimes three). Just to be clear, we did not stock this pantry all a once!  We, like most people, have a food budget. What we did was to just started adding a couple of things each time we shopped and before long we had a surprisingly full pantry with no damage to our budget!

During the summer our garden supplies all the fresh food except the potatoes.  During the winter we buy either at Costco or by watching the paper for weekly specials and stocking up.

I could feed anyone tasty vegetarian or vegan food for a week just using these few items.  And trust me, so could you!

What to Eat -- Sample weekly menu

Since we are constantly asked what we eat, I have decided to post our dinner menu plan for this coming week.  Over the next few days I will add the cooking tips and the recipes we use.
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There are several things to note – we almost always have certain basics in our fridge.  These include cooked brown rice and prepared beans of some type; this week it is navy beans.  In our cupboards we keep a supply of things like olive oil, nuts, herbs, spices, canned and frozen veggies and salsa. As a practical matter we buy bulk and stock items like rice, beans, nuts, flours, oils, herbs and spices once a month on a “big shop” day.

Every weekend David and I spend part of a day procuring and preparing the food for the week. We have a lot of fun and use it as quality time together spent shopping, cooking, talking and singing to the tunes on Pandora.

Yesterday was the day.

First to the market for seasonal veggies.  One of the big things I hear all the time about healthy eating is that it is expensive.  It really isn’t! Because we eat a primarily plant based diet, we are spared the expense of meat, eggs, milk and other dairy products. But I digress. . .

Back to shopping, sure we prefer local, but it is not cheating to shop at Costco or Sam’s Club or even WalMart for things like containers of organic spinach, onions, carrots and celery.  It also pays to look for your local supermarket specials!

For the regular weekly fresh things we try to shop local.  It can get pricey so that idea is to buy only what you will used.  A handy trick for keeping the cost down is to decide exactly what you can afford to spend and then get that amount of cash from the ATM and go shopping (cash in hand). The game is to find fresh foods that are reasonably priced,look good and are fresh and still stay on budget. 

This week there were lots of great spring choices at good prices.  We spent under $40 which included a huge splurge on fresh organic tomatoes at $3.50 a pound. Here is what we came home with:

• yellow onions
• celery
• carrots
• corn on the cob
• a bunch of red leaf lettuce
• cucumbers
• tomatoes
• green onions
• baby spinach
• asparagus

Back home we spent spent some time in the kitchen cooking:

• mirepoix
• cups of brown rice in the rice cooker. 
• a couple of bags of navy beans in the pressure cooker
• Made 1/2 the beans into  Southwestern Baked Beans in my crock pot
• Roasted the asparagus in the oven (more about roasting later)

Here’s the menu plan based on what is in the fridge and cupboards and what we got at the store:

Monday	Greek Salad (uses lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions) and Quick White Bean Soup
Tuesday	Southwestern Baked Beans (uses mirepoix), Corn on the Cob and cucumber salad
Wednesday	Pasta and veggies (uses asparagus and spinach) with tossed salad of lettuce, radishes and green onion (all fresh from our garden)
Thursday	Bean Patties (another recipe to look for), rice with sauteed spinach and chopped carrot/celery salad
Friday	Rice and Veggies (uses left over veggies, mirepoix and cashews)

I just made myself hungry!