Mark’s response to me included a link to a 2020 post by wildgoose. There are so many good ideas here! Experimenting will be fun.
Re: July 2020 McDougall MWL Weigh-In Group
Postby wildgoose » Fri Jul 10, 2020 1:15 pm
Sauces/gravies/toppings are a very individual thing, but I can tell you what we do and see if anything resonates with you.
Salsa (homemade — a pull chopper like this is really helpful for making easy salsa)
Soup, stew, or especially chili. I make a lentil chili with kidney beans and pinto beans, loads of tomato, onion and garlic, in the Instant Pot. The Gander and I really like it, and we pour it over everything, especially as it gets thicker when it’s in the fridge for a day or two.
Chunky marinara — again, homemade. Took me a while to make this easy. The trick for me was lots of fresh basil. Now the jarred stuff tastes horrible to us.
Anything starting with my cauliflower base.
Steam some cauliflower, fresh or frozen (how much doesn’t matter; I just fill my 2-quart microwave steamer) until it’s very soft.
While it’s steaming, water sauté chopped onion and garlic, then add mushrooms and cook till they’re as done as you like them. If you don’t like mushrooms, leave them out (I have to do half a batch with mushrooms and half without, because the Gander is allergic).
Take the steamed cauliflower and put it in a blender (do this in small batches — hot food in a blender can build up steam pressure and blow the lid, which is unsafe and very messy), blend until smooth. You can add the onion/garlic/mushroom mix to the blender, or stir it in to the blended cauliflower if you like a chunkier sauce.
Add some of the leftover warm steaming water until you get the desired consistency.
Season with whatever you like — we use Benson's Table Tasty.
This can be a base for anything. Add vegetables, spices, herbs — the sky is the limit. The Gander and I like to add chopped broccoli.
Finely chopped veggie mix (for us, that’s usually something heavy on broccoli, celery, carrot, onions; asparagus if it’s in season), water-sautéed with a lot of garlic, with a drizzle (and I do mean a drizzle — don’t drown the stuff) of balsamic vinegar.
Anything based on Jeff's SNAP meals.
Mary McDougall's smashed pinto beans. We totally love this easy way of doing pinto beans. We make burrito bowls with a layer of brown rice, a layer of beans, chopped romaine, chopped tomato, and chopped onion. "Stuffed" baked potatoes are good this way too.
It got easier for me when I stopped chasing recipes and started working with techniques. I learned the technique for the cauliflower base, and that gave me any combination I wanted. I learned a couple of basic soup techniques, which I can change up if we get bored. I’ve been playing with marinara for years.
What is not MWL and/or didn’t work for us anyway:
Anything with cashews or other nuts. Way too high in fat, way too rich, just made me want to overeat.
Ditto anything with tahini or nut butter.
Fake "cheese" sauce or anything with nutritional yeast. Often calorie dense and not that tasty in my opinion. I know I’ll get disagreement here, but to me, nothing tastes like cheese, and anything that gets me thinking about cheese is not a good idea.
You’ll probably get good suggestions from others, or by searching this board, but I hope that at least gives you some ideas.
Goose
*edited spacing