Author: Carl Kalbfleisch

Here is a simply frozen dessert. Frozen pineapple, cherries and peach put it in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Very refreshing!

The other night I was sitting in my recliner when I heard the food processor running and running and running. Five minutes later this bowl arrived delivered by my wife.

It’s a simple frozen dessert made with five cups of frozen pineapple and a tablespoon of maple syrup. Delicious.

The extra was put in a bento box and put back in the frrezer. The next night I put the frozen mix back in the food processor and added a half cup of frozen blueberries. Blend another five minutes and serve. Anice treat.

It’s amazing how the pineapple whips up and creates a smooth consistency. Adding blueberries enhanced the flavor. We plan to experiment with adding other fruit. We probably will avoid things like strawberries where the seeds might ruin the smooth consistency.

As I transitioned to a Whole Food Plant Based lifestyle eliminating oil was the last and probably hardest step. I’ve found that going 100% oil free is almost impossible unless you prepare all your own food.

But when you are cooking for yourself oil can easily be replaced with water or brooth and when baking things like unswetened apple sauce or banana are great substitute. This article provides some details.

I like chips with salsa and guacamole. I have yet to find a bag of chips in the store that doesn’t contain oil. So the solution is that we’ve started making our own chips using street taco tortillas. We buy these mission tortillas at the grocery store.

Mande has perfected cooking them in the oven. And then we enjoy with homemade salsa or guacamole. These pictures were used to make tostados. Cutting them in half before baking makes great chips.

So until we try mixing up our own tortillas this is a good option for oil free chips.

I’ve been asked what I eat on a daily basis. While I’ll delve more into that specifically throughout this site, I can summarize by saying “I try to follow Dr. Greger’s daily dozen“.

In part two of his book “How Not to Die” Dr Greger suggests a daily diet structured around a “daily dozen” items, servings and servings per day. If you don’t have the book, you can watch a video which explains what he recommends.

There is a free easy to use app for iOS and Android which you can use to track your daily progress towards following the daily dozen. The app is very helpful to understand if on average I’m eating a good blend of these dozen items. Like my experience with my FitBit it’s not about hitting every check box every day. Rather it’s about building a lifestyle of healthy habits. The app can certainly help with that.

It’s so important to stay Hydrated that Dr Greger includes drinking water in his “daily dozen”. I typically have a water bottle with me wherever I go. Yes, sometimes I might leave it in the car rather than carrying it into a store. But bringing it along assures I am able to stay hydrated.

We prefer the stainless steel double walled reusable bottles. These are good for the environment because there is no waste if plastic going into a landfill. The double walled design keeps the water cold longer. This is espe important in the hot Texas summers where you wouldn’t want to drink water that is hot in a plastic bottle.

You can buy these double walled reusable water bottles at many places. We have 40oz bottles that we like that we got “two for $20” at Costco. Of course you could also go for a Yeti, or go to Walmart and get aomeojust as good for a fraction of the price.

We also invested in a water filter for our kitchen. The one we for mounts under the sink and has a faucet to dispense the water. It cost roughly $149 on Amazon.

As I’ve gotten into the Whole Food

Plant Based lifestyle I’ve started using a lot more fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices. I started making smoothies for breakfast. One suggested ingredient is mint. I found that buying mint at the story seemed a little pricey. So my wife went to the nursery and found that we could get a plant amfor the price of one pack of mint at the store. We planted it in a small pot. And eventually added “chocolate mint” and another variety (which I don’t know the name of). There are now four mint plants growing in the pot. Each morning I use siscors to cut 4-5 inches of fresh mint right off the plant and put it directly into the blender (after rinsing) with the ingredients for my smoothie.

The result is delicious fresh tasting smoothie.

There are many uses for mint. For example I started putting a few springs of mint into the water bottle I use daily. The mint flavor of the water is very refreshing.

There are a number of herbs you can easily grow yourself at home. It’s fun to grow them and is something you could do with your family.

Currently we have mint, basil and a bay leaf tree that needs to grow for about a year before it will produce leaves we can use to cook with!

I have switched to a Whole Food Plant Based lifestyle. In a brief summary this means I have eliminated animal products including all meat and dairy. I have also eliminated processed food including oil. The plan focuses on vegetables, beans, nuts and whole grains. There are a number of summaries online. A good one is https://www.forksoverknives.com/what-to-eat/

I have found that Dr. Greger’s “daily dozen” and “green, yellow, red” light approaches have really helped provide a guide of what to eat.

So what do I eat on a typical day?

Breakfast

I have several basic “go to” breakfasts,

Smoothie – make it with three or four fruits like any of apple, orange, strawberry, cherry, mango, pineapple, bananna. Plus two greens like kale, spinich, chard, mustard greens, etc. Then add carrot, beet if you like. Add two tablespoons of flax seed. Almond milk. Blend in high speed blender. You can add other things like half an avacado, etc. I play around with different ingredients to get different tastes.

Oat Meal – I am not talking quaker or instant from a packet. I buy raw oats in bulk from the store. So there is nothing added to them. Boil water. While the water is coming to a boil mix up half a cup of oats with two tablespoons of flax see, some matcha green tea and cinamon. I also like to add blueberries to this mix. Pour boiling water over, stir, then put a small plat over the top and let sit five ish minutes. While it sits cut up whatever other fruits you want to put on it. Like a half dozen strawberries, blueberries, banana. Add the fruit on top. Serve with almond milk

Cold cereal – Ezekiel 4:9 and Engine 2 have some that are no sugar added

Lunch

Salad – I prep salad on the weekends by chopping up peppers, carrots, zuchinni, squash, etc whatever you want and putting it in containers in the fridge. Then you can quickly make a salad by putting a bed of greens and whatever combination of items you want.

Rice and Beans – I prep batches of rice and beans. Beans are soaked and then cooked. Rice is bought in bulk and cooked. Do not even consider white rice. Only brown, or other dark rices like black or red. Brown rice is very cheap in organic bag at CostCo. I buy big bags of uncooked black beans at costco as well. I prep the rice and beans and add kernel corn. Then you can freeze these in the freezer. Take it out and microwave to eat. Top with spinish and / or kale and avacado and salsa if you want.

Left overs – I eat a lot of dinner left overs

Dinner

This is where we have learned the most about creative cooking. Pretty much we can make anything that we’ve eaten before. We just make it using Whole Food Plant Based approach. We are starting a list of recipies we have tried which includes

Quinoa Tacos

Home made spaghetti sauce over Edamame pasta

Veggie Lasagna – https://vegetariangastronomy.com/vegan-lasagna-recipe-roasted-veggies/

Tostados

Vegan Chilli – http://eathealthyeathappy.com/killer-vegan-chili/

Navy Bean Soup

Snacks

Nuts and seeds (I probably over due it a little, but the goal is up to ¼ cup per day)

Smoothies with bananna, strawberry, etc

Veggies: carrot sticks, celery

Fruit: any fruit. But you can do things like cut up an apple and then dip it in almond butter!

Some of our favorite recipe sites are highlighted throughout this site.