Discussion Board

blondie - boy is it ever the food and I have felt so good too! And it also feels good to be able to share something with Nathan and his family, he is right out of college and so knowledgeable about everything in sports medicine, health and training -- he just is making a huge impact on all of us in his classes. So it's wonderful to have something positive to give back!

I think I am going to be having a lay low day today, the weather is cold and wet here - the fibro just thrives in this kind of clime! I ache just everywhere and my hands are swollen to the point that most of my typing is typo's. So I don't know about going out- but I can stay in and make a bunch of recipes I think today is a good day for a home full of soup smells!

In a bit I am going to get tons of pretty beans from Phipps Ranch. Fall is the time we used to travel over there to go through the giant bean house full of all the pretty legumes. I know I need a new pressure cooker the one on the shelf is aluminum - not going there! And look what I found on the Two Cats post -TY Kittyadventures for this all about beans and pressure cookers- exactly what I needed

ALL ABOUT PRESSURE COOKERS AND COOKING BEANS

The size of your pressure cooker determines how much beans you can cook in that particular cooker.

I have two different size cookers. I have a giant "MIRRO" one (16 quarts) for pressure canning which can hold at least 4 lbs of dry beans to cook... probably more I have not reached it's capacity yet LOL If I use it for my beans it is for when we go camping and I am feeding 20 people. I make a huge batch and then save half for us to eat later. My only complaint about it is that it is aluminum... If I could do a do over i would get a stainless steel model.

I also have a small Manttra (6 quart) one which you can cook a 1# bag of beans in quite nicely. (1# = 2 cups of dry beans)

(For your gasket replacement check at your local ACE hardware in the household section, ours has replacement gaskets there. But I do live in a small town and we have limited options.. so our hardware store carries a lot of cool things)

you should also know that pressure canners come in 4 different gauge styles. There is the dial gauge style, the weighted gauge style, the rocker style and the newest kind like my manttra which has the gauge and pressure release built into the handle.
http://www.pressurecooker-canner.com/prestocanner.html
and for Mirro
http://www.pressurecooker-canner.com/mirroparts.html

IF you are looking to buy a new one consider what you are using it for in order to determine which style will work best for you.

Now that I have the little one with the pressure gauge built into the handle I would not recommend that style. I would just get it with the little rocker nob on top that you get rocking when the pressure builds up and then lower your heat till it is just rocking two or three times a minute. For my canning model I have the weighted gauge it has 5, 10 or 15 lbs pressure depending which side of the weighted disk is up. It cooks things faster because I can set it on the 15 pound side if I wish. I didn't get the larger one with the pressure gauge it was quite expensive. the weighted rocker works just fine for my purposes.

Now about beans....

times to cook depend on the type of beans you are cooking. I will assume you have the pressure in handle type but if you have the rocker type you may want to shorten your times.

NOTE:My times are for sea level if anyone reads this and is living in the mountains you need to ad probably 10 minutes to your cooking times or even 15 if you are higher up.

Okay here are the beans in your pressure cooker times and amounts...
I use 6 cups of water to 2 cups of beans because I like a softer bean with juice to make a stew type of thing and am adding other vegetables after it is cooked.
But these are the amounts they list with the instruction manual for my Manttra 6 quart cooker. And times are for when full pressure has been reached (pressure handles only go to 5 lbs pressure)

Al amounts are for 2 cups of Soaked dry beans / unsoaked

Black eyed beans 3 C water 6 minutes / 4 C water 15 Min
Garbanzo Beans 3 C Water 18 Minutes / 5 C water 48 Min
Great Northern 4 C Water 5 Minutes / 5 C water 35 Min
Kidney Beans 4 C Water 11 Minutes / 5 C water 40 Min
Pinto Beans 4 C Water 6 Minutes / 4 C water 30 Min
Red Beans 4 C Water 6 Minutes / 4 C water 30 Min
Small navy beans 4 C water 5 Minutes / 4 C water 30 Min
Soy beans 5 C Water 20 Minutes / 5 C water 45 Min
Lentils Unsoaked 4.5 cups water 6 minutes cooking time.


Here are my two recipes from Mary's minis for amounts of seasoning and such.
http://drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic ... 6&start=15

http://drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic ... 6&start=30

IF you add your seasoning to the pressure cooker remember to cut amounts in half.. the pressure really infuses the beans and intensifies it so you need a lot less seasoning.

So this morning's weigh in didn't show much progress, just 1/2 pound in two days. I tend not to show loss when the weather is bad.

I am going to try for some walking today and I have the challenge of a restaurant dinner tonight with my relatives. The day with them is pretty fun: my Aunt's Sister shows antiques at a huge antique show north of where I live. So, I go to the shows 3 times a year for free and help her pack up her wares with my Aunt's, Uncle's and Cousin's. She then treats us to huge dinner at a very nice seafood restaurant nearby.

I am very near the San Francisco Bay and we are really into our fish here. As a matter of fact, when my Grandparents (other side of the family) sold their ranch and moved back down here, my Grandfather took up commercial salmon fishing.

I love fish, I love fish restaurants and I love fish markets, especially in the City itself. Of the vegetarians and vegans I know here - most will say they are strictly, but I will have fish on occasion. Whenever, I am close to either the ocean or bay here and can smell it in the air, I start getting hungry for fish, clams or crab immediately. I mean seriously ravenously hungry!

The other side of my family has a big fish fry once a year. Those of us that do the shopping for that day all pile in their ancient station wagon and go to the Coast to buy some kind of huge fishes to feed the masses of family. But first we stop at a particular highly rated restaurant and have their calm chowder and fresh sourdough bread. Giving this up is going to be insanely hard.

And it is insanely bizarre that I say this because I am lactose intolerant, gluten intolerant and vegan. So everything in that meal treats me poorly, but I love it!

My favorite clam chowder was my Mom's, fairly often in my childhood this was made right at the beach after a day of clamming, it's actually made with cream, butter and bacon! How's that for fat overkill. The only thing in that recipe I can have now are onions and pepper.

Anyway, I looked at the restaurant menu for tonight and just focused on the entree sides and the other side dishes. They do have steamed veggies so I am in luck. But I have to say that, if I don't look just in those sections of the menu tonight -- I am a goner --because there is not a thing at that restaurant I don't actually want to eat and have seconds of too!

If I get past this - in week 3 - I will claim myself a true McDougaller

Good luck with your dinner out tonight!

I always get;

"You can cheat once in a while can't you?"
"A little bit won't hurt you."
"You're crazy."
"That looks awful."
"That can't taste good."
"Come to the dark side, we have cookies."

The main thing that keeps me on plan is thinking of the smug looks on their faces, if I were to go off plan.

Thanks Dissolution - I love your list so true. I laughed so hard about the one "come to the dark side we have cookies!" So funny. I actually have a vegan baking book that has oddles of wonderful looking cookies and fat free vegan probably does too. But no flour for us so, I am sticking with the banana chocolate dessert Teehan recently posted and will find others when the urge hits.

Have really loved reading your story - completely awed that you came to this diet in such an amazing way -- I actually saw the FOK movie in a theater, which had to drive two hours to get to. SO COMPLETELY WORTH THAT.

Glad your here with us- your story is fantastic and is only going to get better and better. And here, we give each other tons of support, even if our families haven't begun to see the light!

Thanks so much for your kind words.

I did make cookies last weekend. I used the recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies from the "LighterBake" website, minus the chocolate chips and egg. They were very good. That or the fact that I had not had sweets of that kind in over a month made them taste that much better. I tried to get the family to eat some (only made a dozen), but the only taker was one of my son's girlfriends. So I wound up eating all the rest. I probably won't be making those again for a while.

A couple of weeks ago after eating my morning oatmeal, I realized I had forgotten to add my flaxseed meal to it. So I mashed up a banana with 2 tbsp of flaxseed meal and some cocoa powder. It looked pretty bad, but tasted very good.

Hey Dissolution and blondie.

I am pretty afraid of the sweets right now because I was a bit of a baker and my problem is it's just me, so I eat it all - just like you said Dissolution, if there are no takers to be had - well we just have to eat it all!

My oven actually stopped working, I hope it's just the elements -- but I haven't called anyone to come fix it for fear of Holiday baking. Not that I wouldn't love to do a hundred recipes in MWL that are not desserts and sound great.

Thanks for both of you, encouraging me on this evening! That helps a lot! This is a place where it all sounds good, the last restaurant was more take it or leave it. But with a menu review and your good advice - I think I am good to go

Well, I was completely prepared, had previewed the menu, made my selections & had a salad before I left so I wasn't running on empty. In the end the only thing that can be said was I avoided all animal products, but the rest had no chance of going well.

First of all, the menu on the website and the restaurant menu bore no resemblance to each other what-so-ever. There were absolutely no sides on the real menu. So, I selected two small salads a beet one and an artichoke one. Just as the waitress got to me, the guy at the next table had a meltdown with his 1 year old. This outburst completely distracted the waitress. When I got to my rehearsed no oil or dressing on the side (which they understand better), she actually left our table to see if she could find the manager to deal with the melt down guy. When she came back she started on my Cousin, without picking up where we left off.

Next, my hard of hearing Aunt kept splitting appetizers with me, so calamari and crab cakes were scooped off her plates and on to mine ( but avoided by me completely) even though I was making a variety of polite protests. When the salads came everything was fried or drenched in oil and the beets were liberally covered with roasted almonds, that was never mentioned in the menu at all. I could liberate the beets from the nuts, but could do not a thing with the fried artichoke. In the sample menu it said they were steamed artichokes and in the actual menu it said not a thing about fried and served with mango. It was all quite peculiar.

And then melt down guy started up again and finally got to yelling at someone at our table, having exhausted all the people at his table already. Luckily, it was our deaf Aunt he picked on, so she had no idea, that he was furious at her for casting evil eyes at his table. He could have picked out anyone in the whole restaurant and made the same observation, we were all pretty disappointed that the manager had not asked him to leave when he spoke with them earlier.

I guess all that could be said was I stuck to vegetables, had no fish and opted out of dessert. I tried and it wasn't in the cards. I should also note that the crab cakes and calamari sat in front of me without being even looked at through two courses. That at least shows some restraint on my part - like my scale will give me credit for that, sigh....

Wow! That pretty much sounds like worst restaurant experience ever. Considering everything, it sounds like you did awesome!

blondie and Dissolution, thanks for posting today, it's so good to have your encouragement, especially from folks who have made such huge turn-arounds from this WOE!!

I felt pretty bad about not being able to stick with the plan, but I think my mood was really soured by that complete anger management flunkie. It's such a nice restaurant -- I could see by what he and his wife ordered, they went for the highest price items and actually had more than two main courses apiece! One of those being lobster swimming in butter. Now that I am learning about nutrition and how it effects our bodies, given what was on his plate I think the guy had a high blood pressure meltdown!

My weight gain wasn't huge just .5 pounds. Still I was up early and on the trail doing 2.5 miles this morning to combat that.

Dissolution this is my hugest victory, with the fibro - it's high pain/fatigue factor and bad osteoarthritis in an ankle I crushed years back, I thought walking would never be in the picture again. I started again just a couple weeks back and taa daa, today I did the 2.5 mile walk with a time of 14.37 min/mile - that's rated EXCELLENT for my age group!

Yay - but here's the big part that included elevations, and I wasn't trying for a good number I was just walking, enjoying myself and the beautiful weather here! Later, I happened to notice I was under 15 min/mi on my phone exercise ap. So I decided to look it up when I got home and what a surprise I got Now I wonder what I would do on a flat track!

So loose some with the scale this AM, but what a huge happy win with the walking. I am in the clouds over this one and so happy I can share this with you guys! Hope your days bring you both & all of us good surprises too

Looks like your doing great. HUGS!!!

Thanks for stopping by Rosey - I am loving your heart ticker

Wait, let me get this straight. You have a bum ankle and want to lose 60+ pounds and you can walk a 14:37 min/mile? Maybe I'm just super out of shape (well I am, but still), that sounds pretty impressive to me.

I wish I could do that. Best I have been able to manage is 18 min/mile with 60 seconds of jogging spaced out every 10 minutes.