Substitute for olive oil in recipes in making cheese, pesto

[LornaM]

Hello,

Please help . I have just finished a 90 day juice fast and lost 41 lbs of weight. I learnt quite a lot about food, nutrition etc in that time and there is no way I want to put that weight on. I've given up dairy, 90% of meat (I only eat meat over the w/ends if I feel like it) and I'm really into my fruits and greens.

However, I used to love my olive oil and cheese. I do have a substitute book for vegan foods, but unfortunately they use olive oil in the making of mayonaise, cheese, pesto's etc. How do I substitute Olive oil when making dishes such as these.

Hope you can help

[healthyvegan]

You can buy fat free vegan mayo in the store. Nayosoy brand. Just sub water for oil for pesto. Cheese you just use nutritional yeast to impart a cheese like flavor to things. My suggestion to you is to get Dr. McDougall's Maximum Weightloss Book. you can find it on Amazon for a $1 used usually. I'd be worried about a quick rebound of weight gain since that juice fast could have retrained your body to be a calorie savor. The regular McDougall plan is here http://www.drmcdougall.com/free.html But again, I can't stress enough to learn the science behind healthy weightloss from Dr. McDougall's books/newsletters/this forum&website. Juice fasts are short cuts that could have side effects of retraining your metabolism to be really efficient (thus rapid weight regain).

[ch47gunnergirl1]

Rather than big picture, its much easier if you ask for a particular sub for a recipe you can't live without. Once you have MCD for awhile, you'll start to lose your cheese/oil addiction, and find you don't want it in a recipe. But there are a few that maybe you'll need as special event kinda meals. For me its vegan lowfat lasagna...But for most things I don't even use a cheese/oil sub. There are some tricks, like sauteing with veg broth that can add a nice hint of flavor similar to how an olive oil adds, some groceries have veg cheese that mostly fits the plan however it is really processed. Flax seed "goo" can be used in the place of eggs, so can ener-g egg replacer. Tofu (in very moderate use) can be used to mimic eggs and cheese. If you post some recipes that are your "can't live withouts" there are a lot of people here that are fantastic at coming up with ways to re-invent them to be on plan.

[stoumi]

I think I made this mistake when I first started. I only had The McDougall Program book and when I started I was excited to modify my current recipes to make them conform to this way of eating. Well, I got very frustrated trying to do this, looking for substitutes for ingredients that I know I shouldn't have been eating. After just a few dishes I stopped this practice and went back to the basics of what his menu plan called. This helped me stick to the plan since all the recipes were quick and simple.

Now that I have been following a bit longer I am looking at other recipes I have and I find, using some of them (minus the oil on nearly every vegan/vegetarian recipe I find). Still I have felt good making basic food and relearning how things should taste. CH47gunnergirl1 has it right, there are some basic substitutes. I now make my own "cheese sauce" using the nutritional yeast. Sure it's not really cheese, but it does add a bit of cheese flavor to what I use it on.

[planthead]

Steve, nice blog! I will have to try your recipes.

[StarchBeet]

LornaM-it was my love of cheese (so I used to think since we were brought up like cheese heads) that got me a bad case of diverticulitis a week before I made an absolute commitment to eating starch based way of life (July 2010 and now Im 65 pounds lighter).

I never imagined I'd be free from the desire to eat cheese, dairy or butter OR OIL, but its so much better than feeling sick. I also didn't ABSOLUTELY break free because I ended up having a pancreatic blockage from eating a couple tablespoons of dressing with oil one night (about a year after eating 99% no oil in my diet). I was 5 days in the hospital and ultimately I had my gallbladder removed.

I'm just sharing how its better to make the break and get past the habits that do not lead to health in your body. Cravings and habit can be very seductive but seeing through the myths we've come to love is an important part of learning how to stay healthy. If you can learn from my mistakes then you're better off than I have been learning the hard way.

And at home I have no problems eating fantastic foods, that taste great and make me healthy. Its always eating out that creates a challenge. No regrets here to giving up the things I thought I once couldn't live without. I use nutritional yeast for a nutty, cheesy flavor. You didn't say what you were using the cheese for-just as a slice or in what sort of dish?

Oil is not necessary..I use water, wine, sherry, vegetable broth, flour, pepper and salt, garlic, miso, ginger, spices, etc to add flavor to things.