As many of you know, my husband adopted a plant-based diet a year ago.  He was the biggest carnivore, cheese and ice cream eater who I never thought in a MILLION years would give up animal products.  He happened to watch a documentary about people going plant-based and weaning off their medications, reducing inflammation, and reversing certain chronic diseases and decided he had nothing to lose (except weight, inflammation, and cholesterol) by going plant-based for a month.  To be clear, vegan and the new term, whole food-plant-based (sometimes referred to as WFPB), are different.  Vegan just means the food or product (shoes or clothing) contains no animal products – no beef, pork, poultry, fish, etc.; no dairy; no eggs; no honey.  A vegan diet could be potato chips, processed soy hot dogs, Oreos, Coca-Cola, you get the idea.  Whole food-plant-based means minimizing or eliminating animal-based products, including meat, dairy, and eggs. But unlike the vegan diet, processed foods, including refined oil, white flour, and refined sugar are minimized or avoided. The diet focuses on unprocessed or minimally processed fruit and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

I have updated my students and social media followers on his progress and I am happy to say he is still committed to this way of eating.  He has significantly reduced his inflammation, aches and pains, lowered his cholesterol by 150 points, and lost 20 pounds.  Plus, he seems lighter on his feet and generally happier.  I am personally not vegan since I do eat a little fish, and the occasional egg or dairy.  And I am not trying to convert anyone to this way of eating.  BUT, I do not think factory-farmed animals are healthful for us or worth eating, and I can make an argument that speaks to factory-farmed animals having a negative impact on the environment as well.  I also do not think non-organic dairy is good for our bodies.  I am going to do an Instagram Live on Monday, October 15th at 5:00 pm PST/8:00 pm EST to discuss the pros and cons of a plant-based diet and how to change recipes which include animal products to be plant-based. You should absolutely join the discussion and bring your questions or just listen while I chat and answer what other people bring up.  

This week I am proposing a plant-based dinner planner if you’re interested in trying a few non-animal protein meals on your family.  Hit me with any questions below and I will happily answer as soon as I can!Continue reading

My younger daughter just came home for the weekend.  It’s fall break and I am so excited to have her with us for a few days.  She’s been cooking in her apartment at school but has already announced that she is so happy that I will be cooking all her meals for the next few days!  LOL.  It’s nice to be needed, I guess!  This is a great time of year for produce with the tail end of the summer veggies (summer fruit is pretty much over) and the beginning of the cruciferous veg and winter squash.  There’s a lot of choose from!

In other news, I had the pleasure and privilege of talking to Ann Romney about family, food, and the simple steps we can take towards more healthful eating. Mrs. Romney posted our conversation on her blog here on Thrive Global where she has a regular column on brain health.  I hope you enjoy it!

Here’s your dinner planner for the week:

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Meatless Monday: Vegan Mac and Cheese to which I am going to add steamed cauliflower and bake it all together.  I’m also going to double the sauce and use it tomorrow.

Tuesday: Baked potato night with steamed broccoli, sautéed mushrooms and onions, recipe here + mac and cheese sauce

Wednesday: Baked Chicken with Tomatoes, Olives, and Capers served with a simple fresh green salad

Thursday: Lemongrass Tofu Bowl from Sprouted Kitchen 

Friday: Sweet Potato Coconut Soup, Spice Rubbed Wild Salmon, sautéed greens (use this method)

Saturday Brunch/Lunch: Chickpea “Tuna” Salad in lettuce cups, optional to sip with an energizing Pumpkin Spice Yerba Mate Latte

Sunday: Slow Cooker Italian Pot Roast from my cookbook, serve with a fresh green salad (example here)

 

Here’s what you can do ahead if you need to:

Sunday

Make Vegan Mac and Cheese sauce

Wash and prep all veggies

Make all dressings, marinades, sauces

 

Wednesday:

Make Sweet Potato Coconut Soup

Cook brown rice for Lemongrass Tofu Bowl

Make salmon spice rub

 

Here’s a link to my previous dinner planners.

I have LOVED seeing all your creations of my recipes on Instagram.  If you make any of my recipes, please tag me @pamelasalzman #pamelasalzman so I can check them out!

Click here to learn more about my online cooking classes!

If you like my recipes, you’ll LOVE my cookbook!

 

Good gracious, it’s already October on Monday!  If you’ve struggled getting back into a cooking routine, start small.  Commit to cooking one or two days a week.   I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – we have to cook from scratch as much as possible with unrefined foods if we want to reduce inflammation and support good health.  You don’t have to follow my dinner planner.  This is just to give you ideas.  I personally cannot follow this dinner planner because I use dinner to test recipes for future classes and for my upcoming cookbook.  My actual dinner planners would be quite boring to you since they are often repeating dishes over and over again and I wouldn’t have the recipes to share yet with you.  But I still always have a plan.  This past week, I wasn’t home for a few dinners, so I took the opportunity to order a OnePotatoBox.  One Potato is a meal kit company which provides family-friendly, organic, prepped meal kits that you cook.  They’re easy and delicious and a great option for those weeks when you just can’t get into the kitchen or it would make a nice gift for a new mom who is just coming home from the hospital.  I am not sponsored at all by One Potato, but I like supporting small businesses run by moms!  I asked them for a discount code for my followers and if you want to try One Potato, you can use the code PAMELA30 for 30% off your first box.

Here’s your dinner planner for the week:

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What a week! It was all good stuff, as they say, but I am sure happy it’s the weekend.  Between the Jewish holiday I hosted for 26 very hungry people + 2 local tv segments that will air next week + my segment on Hallmark’s Home & Family (which you can catch here) + 2 cooking classes, I am toast! I am putting my pajamas on at 6:00 pm and watching Ozark until I fall asleep (probably around 8:00 pm LOL.)

Here’s your dinner planner for the week:

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I have another busy week this week.  I am taping a couple segments with KABC Los Angeles on Monday and then on Tuesday I am taping Hallmark’s Home & Family Show.  I believe that airs the next day, Wednesday, September 19th.  Yom Kippur is Wednesday and that’s one of the holidays I always host.  I love feeding people that have been fasting all day.  Anything and everything tastes good to them!  Ha!

For those of you that ask about the recipes that I teach in my classes that you often see me showing on my Instagram stories, I keep those recipes exclusive to my in-person and online cooking classes for at least a year or I will save them for my next book.  Do check out my online cooking classes – they’re the exact same lessons I teach in person.  The September class was just uploaded today and I am doing a Facebook Live with my private online class group on Monday at 5:00 pm PST!

Here’s your dinner planner for the week:

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I have done this before where I forget about the first night of Rosh Hashana when posting my dinner planner because it’s not a holiday I host. Ooops!  I do host a luncheon after services on the first day of the holiday which is this Monday.  I always do a 3-4 basic roast chickens with some room temperature salads, fruit and simple sweets.  Like all holidays, I’ll do flowers, grocery shop, and set my tables two days before.  Anything that can be prepped the day before will be because I enjoy the process and the meal much more if I’m not stressed!  Follow me along on Instagram stories to hear some of my do-ahead tips.  If you are celebrating the holiday, happy new year to you and your family!

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Labor Day Weekend is the last hurrah.  My son starts school on Tuesday so we’re all sneaking away to Park City, Utah for a quick family getaway.  I think he’s actually ready to get back to school and a routine.  And so am I.  My teaching schedule is already full for Septmeber and I’m back at it next week.  If you take my classes, I am so excited to see you!  If you don’t, check out my online classes – they’re the next best thing to being in the kitchen with me!

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Last week of summer for me and I have jury duty!  What??  I got called in for Monday and although I know it’s one’s civic duty to participate in the judicial system, I wouldn’t mind if I didn’t get picked for a jury LOL.  It is what it is.  Lots of activity this week between everyone’s outrage over the levels of glyphosate present in our food and the reactions to the inflammatory remark from the Harvard professor about coconut oil. Well, of course coconut oil is not a superfood or a health food.  No fat is.  BUT, I would disagree that it’s “pure poison.”  Instead of clogging this post with my opinion about coconut oil, Dr. Mark Hyman has written about it here and I agree with this statement. Educate yourselves, be your own nutritionists, and make the best decisions that you can.  Remember you have power in your pocketbook and also remember that nobody cares about you and your family as much as you do. The responsibility falls on us to make the best choices for our health.  Eat real food, minimally processed, mostly plants.  You know what to do.

Here’s your dinner planner for the week:

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