JULY 2020 Maintenance Thread

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Re: JULY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Ejeff » Sun Jul 26, 2020 6:55 am

Sue, this is the gravy recipe:
https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/educ ... room-Gravy

I’m not sure it had enough spice, so you can also find divinely rooted on YouTube. I don’t think she is making videos anymore, but she has a gravy recipe and a herb mix for the gravy that I think is quite good. I make her gravy quite often also. When I make the creamy gravy I don’t usually have portobellos on hand so I just use whatever mushrooms such as cremini or white. I should try it with the portobello, if you do let us know how it is. So what I’m trying to say is I made this bean gravy, but with the spices from divinely rooted :-D

I did make the lentil baloney. It’s not bad, tastes more tomatoey than I think store bought would have. I will try again as I want to use a spice recommendation that was in the comments section. The problem is I rinsed the lentils and then dried in the oven. Not sure they were 100% dry so when I ground them to make the flour I didn’t get some of it quite fine enough which affected the texture some. In any event I never throw away food, so if it isn’t used in a sandwich it will get used in pasta lol. I did have a nice toasted sandwich with it with lots of mustard. Was tasty. This baloney makes a nice fat free alternative to putting tofu in a sandwich. That’s too bad about your tomatoe plants, but at least you have all the other veggies.

I made a zucchini loaf from straight up foods. It was good, I did add chocolate chips which weren’t called for I would like to make it again without the chocolate. It was when we had guests over so I always figure everyone likes chocolate. I will try that almond cake recipe thanks for the link. The zucchini bread also uses Millet. I couldn’t find any so I used cornmeal which I ground up. Sure adds nice texture to baked goods using these grains. I made a new veggie burger pattie, super simple with quinoa, almond flour, black beans and Cajun spice. I baked instead of pan fried and they were nice and crispy. I also made the Korma recipe from straight up foods. It’s so good. But next time I would use far less potatoes so I get more sauce and use it over rice. The spice blend is very good, I might even double it for the next batch. So seems I did a lot of cooking this past week. This week I will be eating leftovers so yay to that.

Exercise is still consistent. Been getting in lots of walks and pickleball. Had some potato chips, need to get them out of the house today far too tempting. Dropped a pound this week, but I know at times I’m overeating. We bought such nice fruit this week so we’ve been enjoying that.

Boy this was a rambling post...maybe mine are all like that. And Sue, yes the backpack was a bit lighter on the last day.
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Re: JULY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Plumerias » Sun Jul 26, 2020 10:24 am

Good morning all! It's still morning cool, but the forecast is for three digits for a few days. Uh, at least it's the drier heat?! Which means fire weather watch time. In fact, there was one locally, on an island in the Columbia River, yesterday that cancelled our afternoon walk. Well, the heat will do that today.

The leg is better, but there's still that bruised feeling that comes later and the weakness that lets me know how long it's been since I used it normally. But at least I'm not moving like a weeble any more! That of course, makes me wonder how people can stand moving like that all the time. It hurts, it messes up all sorts of other spots in the body as one compensates for the discomfort. So how on earth can they accept that as normal, especially as dropping that excess weight would remove the stress on the joints. Sigh, I know, rhetorical question, that's how it is, it's a normal part of aging. :eek: I will walk myself strong again.

I got a clean bill of health from the cataract surgeon's office, glasses appointment is scheduled for this week, yay!

Sue, potato blight, as in the fungus that was responsible for the Irish Potato Famine, that one? Total bummer! Were you able to salvage any of the crop at all? Most of our flower pots have what I think is a type of powdery mildew. I've only ever dealt with that on a lilac bush, and it was cosmetic. This seems to be compromising the plants. I've cut them back severely to see if that can help. Sadly, the tomato plants are also infected. So I fear that will be a race between the fungus and the crop. Poop.

In this heat one gravitates toward meals that put the most minimum of heat in the kitchen. For us that means "picnic" foods, lots of cold salad dishes. I tend to think of them in three parts, top, middle, and bottom. Top is beans and lentils, like three bean salds for example. Sometimes that's as simple as a can of Bush's vegetarian baked beans. Middle is the veggie salads, slaws, tabbouli, fattoush, etc. Bottoms is the starch, potato salad, rice salad, etc. Today I'm going to try a new middle dish that has been floating around in my head, red slaw. I have a lovely red cabbage, red beets, red radishes, honeycrisp apples, and raspberries. So I'll have to see how this experiment works out. The potatoes are in the Instant Pot, oh, what a wonderful thing to have discovered when wanting to make potato salads!

We had a hummingbird party in our back yard the other day. In Ohio there was a female ruby throated hummer that annually came to the hanging fuschia pots. But you'd only hear her when she flew past your head, never any vocalizations. Here though, there is abundant chittering, delightful! We had the sliding glass door open and wow, a chitterfest! We counted four of them, all in the cherry tree. On a side note, I have to look up how to reconfigure my binoculars for no glasses. Anyways, I saw one very clearly, it was quite fluffy, so I wondered if what we saw and heard was the little ones fledging. Haven't seen or heard that since, although we still see one come to the hanging fuschia pot.

Okay, time to get moving. Have a good week all.
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Re: JULY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Suey51 » Sun Jul 26, 2020 11:41 am

Thanks Erin, I'll give that gravy recipe a go! By coincidence, I cooked a batch of dried white beans today, as part of my mission to use up out of date items....so now just need to get some mushrooms. I'll have a look at the video, experiment with spicing and let you know ho it goes!

I must confess I had to Google baloney! Please would you share your recipe? Searching from the UK takes me to lentil bolognese instead.... Sounds like a good idea for a sandwich filling. One sandwich filling I quite like at this time of year is thinly sliced courgette/zucchini cooked in one those frying pans with raised stripes, with garlic, chili flakes, black pepper etc and left to get cold. Yummy with some crispy lettuce and/or tomatoes and even some hummus if you have it.

We generally grow too many courgette/zucchini so thanks for the reminder about zucchini loaf! I will add that to the list when we run out of savoury ideas and when our family and neighbours can't face any more. The korma recipe is a good one. Another coincidence, I made something similar last night as we had some home-grown cauliflower to use up. I was trying to merge two recipes (one without quantities!) so be good to give this one a try next time... I also made a red lentil dal with this recipe, without the oil, and it got my husband's seal of approval. The veggie burgers sound good. :)

Plumerias - yikes, your weather forecast sounds hot! Glad to hear the leg is better and that you got a clean bill of health from the cataract surgeon. Yes, it surprises me that some people accept that kind of discomfort when there is a solution available. My husband has almost eradicated some serious knee pain, lack of movement and postponed a threatened knee replacement by losing weight and building muscle in his leg. Are you changing glasses or will you be able to go without now?

Your salads sound delicious and I like the three part approach! Let us know how the red slaw goes. We have been making one recently with red beetroot, red cabbage and apple, (so pretty!) and I'm curious to hear what it would be like with raspberries and radishes. How lovely to have a hummingbirds in your garden! They seem like an exotic species to me.

Yes, potato blight was responsible for the Irish Potato Famine. I'm shocked at how quickly it has ravaged the tomato plants :( It was very sad to have to pull up all 8 plants from our front garden. Luckily we have lots of others in pots in the back garden and some at our allotment about half a mile away. I was worried that the spores would travel over the roof to land on the other plants so decided to act quickly after noticing it. The ones in pots look fine but I haven't checked the ones at the allotment yet. Sorry to hear about the powdery mildew, hope the plants survive. I think our cucumber plants in the greenhouse have got that so I've given them a little spray with a fungicide. We mostly try to avoid using chemicals but didn't want to lose the plants.
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Re: JULY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Ejeff » Mon Jul 27, 2020 6:31 am

Sue, recipe for lentilogna:

https://youtu.be/PBO7AQrRqt0

Oh and great idea to use zucchini in a sandwich I will try that this week. Will make the dal too!
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Re: JULY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Suey51 » Tue Jul 28, 2020 12:36 pm

Thanks Erin. Love the word 'lentilogna'! Made that gravy tonight and had with some boiled potatoes, peas and curly kale, all from the garden. The gravy was soooooooo tasty! I used half the amount of poultry seasoning as the one I have in the cupboard has a lot of salt. I'll definitely make it again :-D Oh, and I forgot to say that I added a a little leftover cashew cream to the lentil dal towards the end of cooking and it added an extra richness. Would do that again if I was making it for non McDougallers.
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Re: JULY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Plumerias » Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:41 pm

Afternoon all,

Sue, a greenhouse, ooooooo, do tell! In trying to learn about the growing season here, I have been thinking that a greenhouse (when we have our own home) would be a good way to extend the season. Most especially with respect to longer season crops, like tomatoes. I had a couple of modestly sized cold frames in the house garden, but used them mostly for hardening off transplants that I grew in the basement. Then the frames, which were light and portable, just got tucked up into the storage space in the garage until autumn and a late lettuce crop. You said you have cucumbers in there. Do you get cucumber beetles? Grrr, the scourge of my past cucumber crops, the little buggers vector a bacteria wilt from which there is no recovery. Naturally, it occurs just as the crop is getting going in earnest, and before you really notice the beetles.

With respect to needing glasses, I now have excellent distant vision, which is utterly foreign to me. That is courtesy of the lenses that replace the ones removed. I will need glasses, as near vision no longer exists. What form they will take I don't know yet. I do long to be able to read comfortably, to my heart's content.

And we did hit 100 degrees, two days in a row, setting new record highs. Sigh.

We're going to try something new tomorrow, and go out to a farm on Sauvie Island. It's in the Columbia River, and even when we were here in the past, we never went there. Their website details all their virus precautions, which is a good sign. First of the season sweet corn, bi-color, which is my favorite! Yum. I do however, long for abundant local tomatoes as well. Soon maybe?

Peach season has started here, oh, more yum. I want to make the carrot, peach, date salad posted by Funcrunch some years ago. It will be a nice change from cabbage salads on picnic meal days.

The red slaw....... it was interesting. I didn't measure. For the dressing I mashed up some red raspberries with some sugar. The reason for the sugar is two-fold, it makes the berries runny, which is good for dressing, and then there's my husband's sweet tooth. Some rice wine vinegar, warmed in the microwave, to which four bruised cardamom pods were added and allowed to steep until the vinegar cooled off. Pods out, vinegar mixed with the now runny raspberries and set aside to marry a bit. Three red radishes, larger, this time of the year they're spicier, as they're a cool weather crop. Four red beets (beetroots), about an inch and a half in diameter. One honeycrisp apple. These went into the food processor with the grating blade. Red cabbage, about two to three times the volume of the grated stuff. That I prefer to cut by hand. All was mixed together and set in the fridge to chill for a while. It was good, but my husband said something was missing. When putting away the little that we didn't eat, I suggested to fresh mint, so we'll try that next time. It was a change from green, so vibrantly colored! However....... do watch your shirt, as it's an excellent food grade dye!
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Re: JULY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Suey51 » Sun Aug 02, 2020 2:16 am

Hi everyone,

Plumerias – we have an unheated greenhouse that we use for germinating some of the veggie seeds (others are done in the house if they need a constant temperature for example), protecting the young seedlings before they are ready to go outside. We also use it at this time of year for some of the full-size tomatoes and courgettes. I’ve put some plants outside in pots to see if we can see whether there’s any difference with the greenhouse plants. The only difference I’ve noticed so far is the greenhouse cucumbers have got powdery mildew and this has affected their growth/number of fruit :-( The greenhouse has given good protection in recent high winds which saw me constantly checking/tie-ing up the outside tomatoes! I also use the greenhouse to over-winter a couple of tender plants and for rearing cuttings. We haven’t had cucumber beetles, thank goodness, they sound horrid. How's your week been?

That’s great news about your vision! Yes, will be wonderful to be able to read comfortably. How did your visit to the farm go? Thanks for sharing how you made the red slaw. The dressing sounds interesting. I love the flavour of cardamom but would never have thought about including in coleslaw! You’ve inspired me to be a bit more adventurous!

Erin – I made the Straight Up courgette/zucchini loaf this week and thought it was excellent! After 3-4 days the taste went off slightly and I wondered if perhaps I hadn’t cooked it for long enough, or should keep it in the fridge? Next time I might freeze half and see how that keeps. How has your week been?

Welcome Busy-B! Many congrats on your impressive weight loss (and the recent 4 pound loss), running success and for helping your hubby transition to WFPB diet! Sorry to hear about his heart condition and its good that he is open to changing his eating; how is he finding the WFPB way of eating? What are your fav McD meals/recipes? Great to hear that Ruth Heidrich is one of your heroes! She’s so inspiring isn’t she? Its great to hear that you were able to take up running after your weight loss and to run those long distances :) Look forward to sharing the maintenance journey with you.

My weight has held steady this week, apart from a little upwards blip the past couple of days as it’s been a birthday weekend which led to some richer and off-program foods being eaten. Back to my normal eating from today so it should settle back down again. Have completed week 7 of the Couch to 5k running program (yay!) and am going to add in some weight sessions at a local gym while continuing with yoga and stretching.

Best wishes to everyone, Sue xx
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Re: JULY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Ejeff » Sun Aug 02, 2020 7:17 am

Hi Sue, glad you enjoyed the loaf. I also found the same I think I needed to bake it maybe another 10 minutes or so as the inside was a bit doughy. I would also cut back a bit on the nutmeg as my family finds it a strong spice.

Week has been good, but after the long hike and being stupid with not resting at all, my hip/leg issue has flared up. Will try to rest more and hopefully I can get the pain to disappear again. We’ve actually had some very nice summer weather this week, temperatures around 28 Celsius and clear blue skies with little wind. Had a couple higher fat meals eating out this week so I’m at the top of weight range again. I’ve been enjoying the garden lettuce. I always like to add some red cabbage to my salads as it gives a nice crunch so I sliced a bunch more with my mandolin. I really love my mandolin some days lol.

I still eat too much baking. Like twice a day. It’s really just a bad habit. I was reading Mark’s comments in the MWL thread and I liked what he said about stopping to really think about why I’m reaching for that kind of food. So I will use that this week to stop this unnecessary habit. Hubby cooked up a very nice batch of mashed potatoes, when he makes them he uses the immersion blender so they are super smooth and creamy. He also added lots of other veggies like cauliflower and green pepper. I have no big cooking plans this week so will likely defrost some Chili. I have gotten away from daily soups so I should make a pot.

I’m reading the book Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. It’s a nice light summer read.

Hope everyone is enjoying summer and has a good week.
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Re: JULY 2020 Maintenance Thread

Postby Lyndzie » Sun Aug 02, 2020 8:18 pm

Welcome, Busy B! My name is Lindsey, and I create the new threads every month, but I don’t always get back to the thread to check on it as often as I like, please forgive me.

Everyone else, thank you for keeping the conversation going in my absence!

And, the August thread is up!
Lindsey
My food journal: Adventures in Eating
My pregnancy journal: Maybe a Baby 2017
www.lindseyhead.coach
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