Plant Based Food and Such

At some point back in the late summer, early fall of 2020 we watched a couple of documentaries like 'What The Health ?', 'Forks Over Knives' and 'Food Inc.' about meat and other processed foods. I am a type 2 diabetic and have already had a stent placed in my circumflex several years ago after having a heart event while sitting in my doctors office literally across the street from the hospital.

Sue and I then decided to switch to a plant based diet without meat, dairy, and eggs to see if we could feel a little better and maybe lose some weight while doing so.

Well color us surprised when we discovered that eating 'plant based' is not all about just eating salads and tofu ! It's actually quite tasty and there are a million combinations of spices, flavors, and tricks to make most meals comparable to what we used to eat.

I have always been a fan of whole milk with my cereal ... I tried a couple of different milk alternatives but eventually switched to Oat Milk by Califia (they also make a great cold brew coffee w/the same oat milk). Sue prefers the Silk Rice or Almond milk, which is a bit too watery to me. Also, there is a milk alternative made from peas called 'Ripple'.
I remember Ripple being something completely different that you had to purchase at a liquor store LOL !

One of the many things we discovered is that you can flavor the crap out of tofu with pretty much anything you want ... as long as you press the water out of it before you season it. It will absorb whtever flavor you decide to spice, marinade, or add to your tofu. You can crumble it, slice it, cube it, fry it, add it to soups or stews, bake it. It's just versatile as hell !

There are things like nutritional yeast that lets you make things taste like cheese !
Cashews are also a source of flavors that can be manipulated to taskte like something else.

There are only two things that we have not enjoyed while eating plant based foods ...
1. Plant based cheeses (we tried some on pizza and ended up with massive stomach cramps). 2. Plant based 'lunch meat alternatives' ... they may LOOK like slices of ham or balogna ... but they are not. Maybe we need to try more brands, but it can be an expensive experiment.

We ended up adding dairy and eggs back into our diet around March of 2021 ... we missed greek yogurt, extra sharp cheddar, and brie. But we still are not eating meat.

We also discovered that our local Chicago Style pizza place makes vegetarian deep dish pizzas both with and without cheese ... omg they are yummy !

Friday night we experimented with some Tempeh and BBQ sauce to made some plant based Sloppy Joes ... well THAT was a surprise and very definite keeper recipe, we both would eat those again in a heartbeat !

Maybe we will add some recipes to the blog in the future.