Recipe Review: Cashew Ranch Dressing and Fudgy Black Bean Brownies

I am not a talented cook--but by golly, my reading skills are above average so hopefully I can follow a recipe accurately! I had a great grandmother who never needed a recipe book--she cooked from her heart. Me, I'm a technical writer by trade and need to read the manual! I enjoy getting recipes from all over the Internet and various cook books. However, my favorite two sources are: 

Website: Susan Voisin's FatFree Vegan Kitchen, http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/ Susan blogs from the Deep South and develops yummy vegan recipes. Much of her work falls within Dr. Fuhrman's Eat-to-Live nutritarian diet. Susan gives practical tips for the preparation of each recipe. For example, if you're making the Cashew Ranch Dressing, she advises you soak the cashews for a few hours if you don't have a powerful blender like the Vitamix. Because I am not a divinely talented cook, I appreciate instructions like this!

Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live Cookbook. This cookbook contains about 200 recipes from smoothies to salads to main entrees such as stews, soups, and more. I have this fantasy of making a recipe from his book each day and blogging about it--as did that young woman in the movie who blogged about cooking Julia Child's recipes. I'd really like to take a shot at it as it will give me a reason to really stick to the Eat-to-Live regime and get some writing practice in. I don't think there is a movie deal in it for me, but becoming healthier and getting off my pre-diabetes medicine is a good possibility.  

Today's recipe review includes: 

* Cashew Ranch Dressing, from Susan Voisin's FatFree Vegan Kitchen. The main ingredients are cashews and non-dairy milk with seasonings. The surprise ingredient for those unfamiliar with it is chia seeds. These little babies are packed with protein and fiber. The seeds are small and grind up well. You won't taste them. I diverted from Susan's recipe by adding a bit of Mrs. Dash instead of chives. This dressing was cool and creamy on my salad. I don't miss the bottled ranch dressing from the store--fresh, home-made is so much better. Aside from soaking the cashews for four hours, this recipe took less than five minutes to whip up in the blender. Don't worry--you don't need a Vitamix to do this. (I don't have one either.) My good old Osterizer blender worked. 

* Fudgy Black Bean Brownies, from Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live Cookbook. I made this in my food processor. I used the S blade and processed the ingredients until they were smooth and were starting to form a heavy ball of dough. The batter had the texture of fudge, heavy fudge, more than it did that of traditional brownie batter. I was skeptical at first because there is no liquid ingredient or oil in the recipe except that of the small amount of almond butter. There's no sugar--dates take the place of that.
      My teenagers refused to try the brownies. My son held up a small pot of dirt next to the brownies. "Hm, there's no difference," he said. I had to laugh. My daughter smiled politely and said she didn't want to try them. My husband took one bite and said with great feeling, "YUCK." I am not sure I will make these again
--I think they'd be nice with walnuts. 

Looks like I'll have those brownies all to myself. Have you made this recipe? And did your family like it?

Climbing Off the Plateau--Stepping up Exercise and Retooling Nutrition

Ah no! I reached 32 pounds of weight loss and am now on that dreaded plateau! I've been sitting here for about two or three weeks. I lose some, go back up some. I've sloughed off a bit with the walking and yoga--I'm sure that has contributed to this plateau. I keep reminding myself that my cholesterol has dropped 22 points--it is one point away from being the "normal range"; I am now taking half of my metaformin dose I have been taking for pre-diabetes; in addition, I have gone down one dress size and no longer have to shop in "women's plus-sizes".

So what am I going to do about this plateau? I really don't want to stay here! The health goals I want to reach are just to important to my quality of life in the long-term.

So here's what I know I need to do:

* Step up the cardio. Walking every other day isn't enough anymore. It is helpful, but I need to go farther. Treadmill, here I come. When the weather warms up, I'll be walking/jogging outside. I don't know how far I can  go into jogging because of my knees. I won't know until I try!

*  Start strength training. Lifting weights--which I've done in the past and enjoyed immensely. Building up muscle tissue will help me burn calories more efficiently. I've got a DVD from the South Beach Diet Recharged that has a weight-lifting routine for those who haven't been physically active for a while. I hope that starting off on yoga first--stretching and loosening my muscles--will prove beneficial as a precursor to weight-lifting.

* Re-examine some of my eating habits. Yup, soda. I don't drink the enormous amounts I used to, but I still have too much of it. I feel better drinking water, teas, and vegetable juices.

* Retool my nutrition. I've been listening to lectures and reading up on nutrition the past two months. Increasingly,  I have come to believe that for me and my particular health issues that eating a primarily plant-based diet with a high portion of raw foods would be best. (I am not saying that everyone should eat this way; this is a highly personal decision.) My best friend told me about a book, Eat to Live, by Dr. Fuhrman. This book makes sense to me and tied up many loose ends in my research.

Dr. Furhman advocates a basically vegan diet--free of  not just meat, but dairy as well. His food pyramid has  meat and sweets at the top, to eaten "rarely." At the base are vegetables, half of which should  be raw. The next layer up is fruits and beans and legumes. Above that are fat sources--seeds, nuts, and avocados, and starches such as potatoes and whole-grains. The top two layers are dairy, meet, poultry, fish, and sweets. Dr. Furhman recommends getting your protein primarily from legumes, beans, nuts, and seeds.

When I follow this nutritional pyramid, I feel better, have more energy, and lose weight. My daily menu will look like this:

Breakfast:  Oatmeal cooked in almond or soy milk, topped with fruit, some nuts, ground flaxseed, a dash of maple syrup and cinnamon. Or, it might be a green smoothie or a bowl of fresh fruit and nuts with a dollop of plain yogurt.

Lunch: A big salad with a homemade vegan dressing made from nuts or a plate of vegetables with homemade dip made with beans.

Dinner: Vegetarian or regular dinner with some meat.

 In his book, Dr. Fuhrman claims that patients who follow his eating plan not only lose weight, but are able to come off medications for diabetes, cholesterol, high blood pressure, and heart disease. I hope to see how I will do following this eating plan. I'd really like to get off my expensive medications and reach a point at which food and exercise is the only medicine I need to keep me safe from diseases. I also found extremely helpful books and YouTube lectures by Dr. John McDougall and Neil D. Barnard. The Vegetarian Society of Hawaii has an excellent YouTube channel of its monthly lectures that I found extremely helpful.

There is a spiritual and environmental benefit to eating primarily plant-based diets as well--but that is a subject for another blog post of by those much better educated in these matters than I am.