Practical Stuff: Kitchen Appliances That I LOVE!! (Gift Ideas?!)

Ok!  so as promised here are the kitchen appliances that I just can't live without now that I've started down this Esselstyn/ Vegan Road! 

Three Kitchen Appliances I Love:

I've never cooked so much in my life so these little machines really make a HUGE difference time-wise for me AND my husband (The Happy Nurse).  The Happy Nurse is actually the one who advocated for us getting the rice cooker AND the 3-in-1 Slow Cooker awesomeness!  Of COURSE the appliances he recommended turn out to be the most helpful items of all! And he says he isn't a good cook--HA!  Sure he isn't....Mr. Expert on Kitchen Equiment!:-)

First we have the "Aroma" Rice Cooker.  It was $35 on Amazon and pretty much the best tool for us in the kitchen until the 3-in-1 Slow Cooker came along and nudged it out of the top spot!  The reason why this rice cooker is amazing is because basically it enables us to cook without being in the kitchen.  You fill it up with a grain and water.  Then you push the butten: "Cook" and leave it alone!  The cooker determines the cook time & off it goes--then it "dings" when its done! I love this thing AND love that it was cheap!  It cooks quinoa and all sorts of grains (including rice of course) perfectly!   I have to admit that I was a rice burner prior to using this (mostly because I would get distracted and forget to pull the pot off the stove at a certain point!) No longer!

Next we have the 3-in-1 Slow Cooker!  This was an incredible find of my husbands at Walmart one day.  Only $36 and is AMAZING!  We can cook three different soups/stews AT THE SAME TIME! (in this picture we have Barley Soup, 12 Bean Soup and Aztec Corn Soup!) You can set each pot to low/high/off.  This is our favorite kitchen appliance.  Love love love! 

My Cuisinart Food Processor! I have one because my Mom has had one since before I was born (she used it to make us homemade baby food!) and I have this particular model because my wonderful stepsister (a total foodie & kitchen expert & blogger for that matter) helped me figure out what to buy!  I love this thing--nothing like a food processor to make things easier!  Its the most expensive of my kitchen tools (it was painful to shell out the $135 it cost even though it was on sale at Amazon) but it really has been worth the investment.  I have the Cuisinart DLC-2009CHB Prep 9-Cup Food Processor in Brushed Stainless. It was top-rated in Consumer Reports & I can see why!  

Coming Up:

• BOOK REVIEW:  "29 Gifts!"
• Best of the Blogsphere for THIS week!
• What the Happy Nurse & I are Making for Christmas Dinner (x 2 houses!)

NEXT WEEK from December 19-December 25th: 

• ITS THE HOLIDAY HAPPINESS MARATHON!!!  Doctors, Nurses & Patients Share Special Medical Moments That Will Warm Your Heart During the Holiday Chaos!

Coming Up After the Holidays:

• SuperImmunity for Kids ~Part 2~!
• Medical System Tuesday: Tip #10 For The Best Hospital Care:  Try Not to Be Alone! ~ Insider Tips on How to Get the BEST Medical Care in the Hospital ~
• Treating Pain with Food--more thoughts

The medical information on this site is provided as an information resource only, and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. This information is not intended to be patient education, does not create any patient-physician relationship, and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis and treatment.  Please consult your health care provider before making any healthcare decisions or for guidance about a specific medical condition. The Happy Rehab Doc expressly disclaims responsibility, and shall have no liability, for any damages, loss, injury, or liability whatsoever suffered as a result of your reliance on the information contained in this site.  By visiting this site you agree to the foregoing terms and conditions.

COOKING IN BULK TIPS: How to Create a "Cooking Strategy!"

Ok, so in my last post I talked about how you can save time, money and insanity by bulk cooking your food, i.e. cooking on one day to prepare your food for an entire week! 


Anyways, here is the awesome cooking strategy that my husband and I honed after much trial and error in the last year.  It is extremely helpful now we are working the plant-strong Esselstyn diet which relies a lot on homemade foods!


I hope that this helps all of you!  Let me know in the comments if you have any ideas to streamline my process, or please share your own strategies!!  Calling all my busy people out there!!  Let's rock this thing!


STRATEGY FOR COOKING IN BULK!


1) Figure out what you have in your kitchen pantry already (this is the save a lot of money step)


2) Find recipes that list those pantry items as a main ingredient (once again, saving money)
    -Pick SIMPLE recipes (when you are cooking several things at once, don't complicate things any further getting too "gourmet" on you!)
    -Find recipes that you are actually excited to try to eat!  (don't just pick recipes that fit your on-hand ingredients--if you aren't looking forward to eating it, don't cook it!)
    -Double check to make sure that your family will like the recipes you want to make (if my husband doesn't want to eat them, then the whole purpose of the mass cook is lost).
   -Pick enough recipes for variety--we found if we pick only 4 we lose interest at leftovers x2--our magic number is about 7-8 dishes now


3) Make a grocery list


4) Make a Plan of Attack :-): Take a sheet of paper and break down the tasks listed in all the recipes as follows:
    -Long pre-cook items that can slow cook the night before (i.e. beans, grains, etc)
    -Chopping & juicing (veggies, fruits)
   - Mixing (spices, sauces, etc)
   -Assemble
   -Cook (and in what--a pan, the oven, etc)


5) Divide up the tasks between the chefs {try to get your family involved--my friend uses my strategy and has her two young kids do things like mix the sauces and carefully chop veggies (thats the older kid!)}


6) Grocery Shop (quickly only by list)


7)  Cook


8) Pack & Tupperware


Ok--so this sounds a little complicated (mostly because of step #4!)  It does feel that way at first, but the more you do it, the quicker you will get!  And the best reward is to have 7+ new meals ready after 2-4 hours of work! 


See my next scheduled Post for the specific cooking strategy for this week using The Happy Herbivore's recipes!  Feel free to use it yourself because the recipes are YUMMMMMM!!!:-)

Next time:   Cooking in Bulk Example:  A Week of Recipes from The Happy Herbivore

Coming Soon:

• PAIN: How to Heal with Food (Part 2)
• How To Get The BEST Medical Care: Tips to Patients from a Doc
• SuperImmunity Foods for KIDS (Calling All PARENTS!)
• RECIPES & Ideas: Snacks!  YUMMY & Portable Plant-Based Snack Food--all sugar-free, gluten-free & without adding oil or fat!!

The medical information on this site is provided as an information resource only, and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. This information is not intended to be patient education, does not create any patient-physician relationship, and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis and treatment.  Please consult your health care provider before making any healthcare decisions or for guidance about a specific medical condition. The Happy Rehab Doc expressly disclaims responsibility, and shall have no liability, for any damages, loss, injury, or liability whatsoever suffered as a result of your reliance on the information contained in this site.  By visiting this site you agree to the foregoing terms and conditions.

The Power of Planning Ahead: Why We Cook Once A Week :-)

One of the key things that I've found to maintaining and continuing my weight loss (aside from my 12 step compulsive eating recovery program work) is planning.  


Planning the food I'm going to eat tomorrow.  
Planning extra food to take "just in case" I get tied up at work past 6pm (um, wait one sec... that's pretty much every day!).  
Planning our grocery list each week.
Planning our cooking strategy. 


Yes, thats right folks, I said "cooking strategy!"  


In our house, we usually cook once a week.  Yes, that is what I said.  We usually cook only once a week--and sometimes that food lasts into the next week (a two-week bonus!).  And that miracle only happens with a cooking strategy.


Before you roll your eyes and think I'm nuts (oh wait, that may have happened already :-)) let me tell you that spending 2-4 hours on one day each week researching recipes, making a grocery list based on the recipes, writing up a plan for how to do our "bulk cook" and then executing that plan by cooking & tupperwaring to our hearts content saves us from:

• HOURS and HOURS of obsessing about what food we are going to eat (letting my disease of compulsive overeating have a field day scanning my mind for goodies) or
• frantically throwing something together at the end of a long day or
• feeling hunger pangs start about 1/2 way through the afternoon because we didn't it a solid lunch or
• spending tons of money on take-out!  

I'm not going to lie, sometimes its a painful exercise in organizational discipline (especially at first).  But cooking on one day of the week to prepare all your meals for the week is AMAZING and quick.  It is also very very smart if you are a busy person.  I wish I could say it was my idea, but its not.  It is actually my Mom's!  


When we were growing up, my Mom was a working single parent but she didn't want any of us kids to not get the nutritious meals we needed.  So ONCE A MONTH she took one of her weekends off and spent it doing a massive grocery shop, a massive cook and a massive tupperware freeze!!  And, bam!  We had delicious, nutritious meals for the whole month that she could heat up when she got home from work each day!  She got the plan out of a book called (very originally:-)) "Once-a-Month Cooking"


Of course, when I looked up "Once-A-Month Cooking" for my husband and I last year, it was filled with recipes from the 70's/80's that were sooooooo not vegan, sugar-free, gluten-free or anti-inflammatory :-)  But the strategy it presents is awesome!  


Next post I'll share with you our "Bulk Cook Plan" for this week (that we worked on over last weekend!)   My plan for the coming weeks is to devote a week to a set of recipes all from ONE of my favorite bloggers online!  That way you can all get the recipes online and see our strategy if you want to try it yourself!  Sound complicated?  Its not.


Check out my next post and I'll tell you all about it!  This week, all the recipes are from The Happy Herbivore (and let me tell you--I just finished one of her chickpea tacos from this week's plan and all I can say is YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!)

Next time:  Cooking in BULK Tip:  Week #1 

Coming Soon:

• PAIN: How to Heal with Food (Part 2)
• How To Get The BEST Medical Care: Tips to Patients from a Doc

The medical information on this site is provided as an information resource only, and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. This information is not intended to be patient education, does not create any patient-physician relationship, and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis and treatment.  Please consult your health care provider before making any healthcare decisions or for guidance about a specific medical condition. The Happy Rehab Doc expressly disclaims responsibility, and shall have no liability, for any damages, loss, injury, or liability whatsoever suffered as a result of your reliance on the information contained in this site.  By visiting this site you agree to the foregoing terms and conditions.

RECIPES: APPLESAUCE (Sugar-free!!)

Ok so I make applesauce pretty much every weekend.  Yes, it is a bit of an obsession but its just so yummy!!!  This recipe is something I adapted to be "sugar-free"--its a variation on this delicious cranberry-applesauce my stepmother used to make.  The trick to keeping it sweet but sugar-free is adding pears!  

It is very simple and produces a large amount for a low cost (my kind of cooking!). You can make this recipe with other fruits-- I made "pearsauce" two weeks ago and my husband, The Happy Nurse, was in heaven (he LOVES pears).  I usually serve it as a dessert for myself covered with oat milk and toasted oats (I toast them myself in the oven) .YUMMMMMM!

 As noted before--I'm not a chef!  So my variations on other folk's recipes won't happen too often--I prefer to showcase some favorite recipes from other blogs...but for now:

Applesauce (Sugar-free)

Makes 8-12 servings

8-10 apples (or more--I usually put in as much as I can fit in the pot!) {Golden Delicious apples are best, but I'm making today's batch with the Braeburn apples you see in the photo}

1 Tsp Cinnamon

2 Asian pears (if you want it even sweeter use a ripe Bartlett pear)

1. Roughly chop all the apples and the pears (removing the cores)--I usually quickly cut each apple into quarters and then halve the quarters.  Leave the skins on

2.  Put the apples and pears in a large pot

3.  Add water to the pot, filling it until approximately 3/4 of the apples & pears are covered with water.

4.  Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce heat to low and let it simmer slowly while covered. 

5.  Add 1 Tsp Cinnamon.  Add a little water as needed to prevent burning if that becomes an issue.

Apples (left) compared to Asian Pears (right)

6.  Let the applesauce simmer for 1-2 hours until all the apples have completely cooked down and the apple skins are soft.  Add more cinnamon per your own taste.  

7.  Make sure you stir every so often to prevent the apples on the bottom of the pot from burning.  Add a little water as needed to prevent burning if that becomes an issue.  You also may need to scoop a little of the water off depending on how "liquidy" you like your applesauce!

8.  Let sauce cool.  

9.  I serve the sauce without pureeing it--I like the texture of the apple skin because it reminds me of apple pie!  But if you prefer you can also puree it and it will taste more like store-bought applesauce.

Next time:  PAIN: How to Treat Everything from Arthritis to Muscle Strain to Fibromyalgia With Food

Coming up:

• COOKING IN BULK TIPS #1!  This week with recipes from The Happy Herbivore 
• How To Get The BEST Medical Care: Tips to Patients from a Doc
• RECIPES & Ideas:  Snacks!  YUMMY & Portable Plant-based Snack Food--all Sugar-free, Gluten-Free, & Without Added Oils or Fat!!

The medical information on this site is provided as an information resource only, and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. This information is not intended to be patient education, does not create any patient-physician relationship, and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis and treatment.  Please consult your health care provider before making any healthcare decisions or for guidance about a specific medical condition. The Happy Rehab Doc expressly disclaims responsibility, and shall have no liability, for any damages, loss, injury, or liability whatsoever suffered as a result of your reliance on the information contained in this site.  By visiting this site you agree to the foregoing terms and conditions.

RECIPES: Soups Galore!!

I'm a big fan of soup--particularly when winter starts to creep ever closer!  Whether you are sitting in the sun out in the Southwest or cuddled by the fire in the Midwest & Northeast, November means that winter is here!  

Soup is a simple way to cook in bulk and have tons of yummy leftovers.  I'm VERY big on maximizing the number of meals we get out of everything we cook--cooking in bulk is the most efficient way for me to eat well and work the hours I work!  An extra bonus of soup is that it is an extraordinary money saver--it costs very little to make soup (particularly when you use inexpensive ingredients like squash, potatoes and dried beans) and it lasts forever! 

Delicious Homemade Split Pea Soup!!

Hilariously I had quite a grand scheme in mind to post a bunch of beautiful photos of all the soups we made last week but I experienced a small wrinkle:  when I went down to check our fridge, we were completely out of the fresh Butternut Squash Soup & Potato Leek Soup!  The only soup not completely consumed was the split pea soup--the largest batch of soup we made!!  So there you go--in our amazing disappearing kitchen I can treat you all to only a lovely photo of the split pea soup :-)

I'll post more recipe variations of my own in the coming weeks after I've tested them more thoroughly--of note, I'm not a chef!  I'm a doctor!  So when I say "recipes of my own" I really mean my own variations on other people's recipes! But for now, please enjoy some of my favorite blogger's soups:

1.  Dr. Esselstyn's son Rip (a triathlete & firefighter who has his own awesome cookbook:  The Engine 2 Diet) posted a fantastic directory of yummy soup recipes that are his favorites on the web: http://engine2diet.com/the-daily-beet/soup/

2.  Another awesome blogger:  The Fat-free Vegan Kitchen has a fantastic recipe for Pumpkin and Roasted Corn Soup!  If you are short on time you can skip a few steps and use canned pumpkin:   http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/11/pumpkin-and-roasted-corn-soup.html 

3.  The Happy Herbivore (beautiful recipes and great nutrition facts) has a wonderful recipe for Red Lentil Curry Soup! I'm never one to pass up a good curry! http://happyherbivore.com/recipe/red-lentil-curry-soup/

Enjoy!!

Next time:  PAIN: How to Treat Everything from Arthritis to Fibromyalgia With Food

Coming Soon: 

• RECIPES: Applesauce (sugar free!!)
• How To Get The BEST Medical Care: Tips to Patients from a Doc

The medical information on this site is provided as an information resource only, and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. This information is not intended to be patient education, does not create any patient-physician relationship, and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis and treatment.  Please consult your health care provider before making any healthcare decisions or for guidance about a specific medical condition. The Happy Rehab Doc expressly disclaims responsibility, and shall have no liability, for any damages, loss, injury, or liability whatsoever suffered as a result of your reliance on the information contained in this site.  By visiting this site you agree to the foregoing terms and conditions.